Nickhil’s beautiful 1973 240z needed some love. He acquired it a few years ago and took it to another shop since ZCG was backlogged. They tried to fix the ignition system and the car came to us barely running. We performed a full inspection, compression/leakdown test, cleaned up the engine bay and handled some interior items at his request. He would return for full suspension and chassis upgrades!
The main culprit for poor running was the timing being set incorrectly and very retarded. We removed the existing ignition setup and installed the factory distributor with correct advance curve. The coil was replaced and we got it running really well:
New door window glass replaced scratched units. We also installed his newer center console:
Outside, the body was treated to our favorite side mirrors, the Nissan OEM #E4600:
Those groovy louvers were removed:
Nickhil visited us to drive his Z and he was so impressed that he signed on to do more work with us. We handed him the keys to “Mrs. Butters”, our 1970 Series 1 240z shop demo car and he was sold on our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) and Z Car Garage CV Axles! Butters has a way of doing this to our customers 🙂
ZCG Big-Brakes and CV Axles
As fellow S30 owner/racer Glenn C mentioned in his review, on top of braking performance, pedal feel is extremely important and our Big-Brakes deliver. This is a direct result of working with Stoptech to create a totally bolt-in solution requiring no M/C change or additional proportioning valve/adjustments. All fitting behind a 15″ Watanabe or Panasport wheel and retaining factory emergency brake lever! A few details below:
Calipers: Stoptech ST42 4-piston front & rear race calipers (Alum 6061 mil-spec Type III anodized)
Rotors: 280mm x 20.6 with Alum 7075 hats
Pads: Stoptech 309 sport street pads
Blog posts documenting all of our customers running the ZCG Big-Brakes can be found HERE.
A few closer detail shots of the calipers, rotors and hardware:
We removed Nickhil’s stock brakes and installed our ZCG Big-Brake kit. The Z also received entire full coil-over (Koni) suspension from Techno Toy Tuning. New parts included adjustable T/C rods, rear control arms, new bushings, rack bushings, steering coupler, ball joints and more. T3 finishes the suspension in our signature color and we really appreciate Gabriel and his staff. They make some of the best suspension parts out there for Z cars.
ZCG Big-brakes and T3 coil-overs replacing stock setup up front:
T3 T/C rods:
Suspension Techniques sway bars. Front installed:
At the rear, the factor drum brakes were replaced with our ZCG Big-Brakes. Factory handbrake functionality retained! T3 coil-covers also installed:
Our Z Car Garage CV Axles help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to your standard half shafts. Nickhil’s Z received set #285. We have over 60 CV axle kits on customer cars and we are stoked with all of the positive feedback.
Stock half shafts and control arms (L):
S/T rear sway bar and T3 control arms installed. Also visible is the ZCG exhaust system using 2.5″ piping to a stainless resonator and Magnaflow muffler with slash-cut tip:
Panasport Wheels
What is the perfect companion for Nichkil’s Z, now that it has full suspension and wicked brakes? Panasport wheels! We replaced the old-school Western wheels with 16×7 Panasports and Bridgestone’s killer new S-007a tire in 225/50/16:
We kept in touch with Nickhil and he has been out Enjoying The Ride. We even spotted him attending the successful Golden Week Kyusha Festival in May:
Thank you for entrusting us with your S30 Nickhil. We are so fortunate to work with owners that appreciate the Z and believe in our ability to make them better! LONG LIVE THE Z!
More pictures in the gallery below
