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American LeMans at Laguna Seca This Weekend

Filed under: Racing
by Forbes @ 1:06 pm on October 7, 2009

I know this is a little late notice but there will be a ZONC car corral at the event this weekend.   The corral tickets are no longer available as far as I know, but it is always worth a shot to send the powers that be over at ZONC.org an email just to make sure.  Anyways, I hope to see a few of you there.

I’ll have a few more things up soon.  ZCG





300ZX Twin Turbo Dyno Numbers as Promised

Filed under: Performance,z32
by Forbes @ 6:06 pm on October 1, 2009

Here is the dyno printout for the OLD engine in the 300ZX TT in the post below.  The new engine is supposed to make a healthy bit more.  We can’t wait for the break-in miles to be completed so we can make some power!!!

(I just realized that the graph is in MPH for the rollers and not RPM for the engine, sorry.  I’ll change it next time I’m at the shop)





Another Favorite Leaves Z Car Garage

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Forbes @ 10:14 am on September 30, 2009

It seems like we have been getting quite a few long-term project cars out of the door recently, and there are more on the way!!  This car has been in our family for a long time now and we have released it back into the wild to gain a few break-in miles before it comes back for its final tune.

This beautiful white 300ZX Twin Turbo is bound to make some huge power in the near future with it’s freshly rebuilt and upgraded engine.  I’m not going to spill any more details until I have a final post ready with dyno runs so you will just have to wait a little while longer, sorry.  If I recall correctly this car made a healthy amount over 600 wheel horsepower with the last engine, I’ll try to find a dyno print out in the next day or so.  Enjoy the new pictures and the suspense for the time being.

HERE is another post with some more photos of this car.




Four-Door GT-R Still a Possibility

Filed under: Events
by Forbes @ 9:59 am on September 29, 2009

Rumors of a GT-R saloon (Infiniti Q45 successor?) have been in existence even before the original R35 was released to the the public, and it appears that they are gaining momentum again.  The details seem to be the same as mentioned in the past: 4.5-5.0L V8 engine (probably out of the FX50), same GT-R twin-clutch gearbox, four-wheel drive, and a higher level of luxury in all areas.

Performance numbers are speculated at around 420hp, 0-60 in around five seconds, and a top speed somewhere around 170ish.  All are guesses of course because who actually knows if there is even a car in testing right now.  I just figured I would share this in case any of you will be in the market for a high-end Nissan/Infiniti sedan in the near future.

Source:  AutoBlog, AutoExpress

Photos:  AutoBlog, LeftLaneNews

Here is the Original ZCarBlog post about this car.




Little By Little: G35 Gets the Job Done

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Forbes @ 8:47 pm on September 25, 2009

The problem with hanging around all of us at ZCG is that you get the urge to modify your car whenever you see something else cool in the shop.  I’ve probably heard it a hundred times, “Yeah I think I’m just going to put a pop-charger on it for a few extra horsepower and then I’ll be happy.”  This sentence is usually followed by a chuckle from everyone within an ear shot.

Inevitably it begins to snowball.  “Hey Rob I bought some wheels (VOLK SF Challenge in gold), can you guys install them?”  Followed by, “Wow the wheels look great but what can we do about the stance now?” (Tein FLEX coil-overs with Hotchkis swaybars) Everyone continues to chuckle because we know where this is heading… FORCED INDUCTION.

That is exactly how this build went, well in a little different order but you get the gist of it.  This Rev-Up Equipped (2nd gen VQ35 engine with dual variable camshafts) G35 has come back to us one more time to receive the final phase of its build, maybe.

The owner of this beauty has chosen to do one HUGE final step, everyone gets a little impatient when they can see the end in sight.  Here is the rundown on what we have just completed:

Jim Wolf Technologies Camshafts

Stillen Headers

Bassani cat-back exhaust system

ZCG Custom Oil Cooler

ZCG Custom Cold Air Intake

Defi Gauges and custom mounting for the controller

Tein EDFC (Electronic Damping Force Controller) with custom mounting, the car already has full Tein Flex coil-overs and Hotchkis sway bars

Sillen Series Two Front Bumper with splitter

Oh yeah…

and a Vortech Engineering Polished Supercharger kit

Even after all these years of installing Vortech supercharger kits we can still be caught off guard by the power they produce and the high quality of their product.  The fit and finish of the product is top notch witch goes a long way in a highly involved build such as this one.

From the dyno graph here you can see the tremendous jump in both horsepower and torque thanks to the exhaust, camshafts, and supercharger upgrades.  417 horsepower at the wheels is nothing to joke about, in fact we ended up pulling a couple degrees of timing after the 417 run in the best interest of reliability.  The car was delivered to the customer making just over 400 when all was said and done.  High numbers are great, but making them last for years to come is better.

Oh one more thing, It made this power through the stock cats!!!  So there is more power to be had if we switch to high-flow cats or test pipes, if he decides it is necessary.

You may have also noticed our new mounting locations for both the Tein EDFC controller and the DEFI gauge controller.  This new install is super clean and has almost a factory feel to it.  Pretty sweet.  We also decided to change the mounting of our ZCG oil cooler on this build to maximize airflow from the new Stillen bumper and to improve the overall aesthetics of the front end, this too turned out really well.

Other than that there isn’t really much to report, that is if you think that tire shredding power isn’t news worthy.  My prediction for this customer’s next upgrade is a new set of rear tires in a month.  See you soon friend (chuckle).

ZCG

More photos after the ‘read more’.

…[read more]




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