Filed under: Events
by Alvin G @ 12:55 pm on January 11, 2018
The Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) are hosting the annual Blackhawk Z Gathering Saturday, April 7. Special guest Pete Brock will be giving a talk at the Blackhawk Museum on the same day! Register your Nissan/Datsun and get admission to the museum to see Pete Brock on ZONC’s website below: Registration HERE
This is always a fun time and a beautiful venue, legendary Pete Brock is not to be missed. Z you at Blackhawk!
Comments Off on EVENTS: Blackhawk Z Gathering Featuring BRE/Pete Brock 4/7/18!
Filed under: Events,Performance
by Alvin G @ 5:17 pm on December 27, 2017
Our friend Glenn Chiou organized a local fun run yesterday. We had a blast tearing up the backroads with 7 Datsuns. The run started in Downtown Saratoga up HWY 9 to 35 and to Alice’s where we met with another roadster owner. At the vista point on 35 we were stoked to see another Z car had joined us by luck!
From Alice’s we drove down 84 and took a welcome detour via Stage Rd. This is a road I have not driven before and it was awesome.
We stopped for some pictures, here is the crew:
My 67.5 and Mike B’s Datsun Roadsters:
Lloyd’s S30 and Glenn’s RHD FairladyZ:
Rob’s 510 and Kevin’s RL411:
Stage Rd. took us into Pescadero where we stopped for beer at Duarte’s. Everyone checked out Kevin’s 411, full story on zcarblog.com soon!
The road home was Pescadero Rd/84 back down Skyline. A good time was had by all!
Happy New Year! Here’s to more fun runs in 2018. More pics in the gallery!
One of the real joys this holiday season is the opportunity to say thank you and wish you the very best for the new year. From all of us at Z Car Garage we thank our friends, family and customers again for another exciting and productive year! Please note our holiday closure below:
*ZCG will be closed from 12/22 to New Year’s Day. We will re-open for business on 1/2/18*
Before we take a look back at highlights from 2017, check out our exciting plans for 2018 including motorsports events and several customer projects.
Catch us at Road Atlanta in Georgia for the 2018 Classic Motorsports Mitty April 27-29. We will be running pit crew again for John Morton piloting the #46 BRE 240z owned by Randy Jaffe. Nissan is the featured marque!
Just a few of the many customer projects coming along at the shop including full restorations:
Scott W’s 260z is slated for completion in Spring. This Z has a complete color change, ZCG Big-Brakes and a sweet 3.2L with Jenvey ITB fuel injection:
Tim N’s 1973 240z will also be getting new paint, a 3.2L with Jenvey ITBs and our ZCG Big Brake Kit:
Richard Y’s series 1 240z is fresh from paint:
Tuning of the OS Giken TC24B1Z, turn up your speakers and enjoy!
Several Z32 projects will be completed as well, look for full reports next year!
We are excited about our new Big-Brake kit for small (14″) wheels. Debuting at JCCS earlier this year (report soon) we have performed a few local installations into Z cars and 510s. Look for an official offering early next year for S30s, 510s and other Datsuns.
Changes at Z Car Garage
Stay tuned for announcements in 2018 including a new website and business changes!
Highlights from 2017
Enjoy these highlights from 2017 and Z you in the New Year!
The Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) is one of the oldest Z car clubs in the nation. In its prime they had over 600 members with close ties to Yutaka Katayama (“Mr. K”) and Nissan USA. Of the many events and fun runs they host throughout the year including the famous Blackhawk Museum Show, we had a wonderful time attending their ZONC Annual Car Show in Brisbane, CA held on July 22, 2017.
This was a relaxed, relatively small gathering of enthusiasts that we shared with a group of ZCG customers and friends. Our Saturday morning caravan to the show began at the shop with seven Z cars, one roadster and a C110 Kenmeri Skyline:
Here is a short video of the ride to Brisbane with all of our cars…just Enjoying The Ride on a Saturday!
Highlights from the show
Still to this day, 240Zs are the most represented model in the club. Expansion over time currently includes all recent Z models and the GT-R, but also reaches back in time to include the Datsun Roadsters and 510s. 41 cars were displayed this year, each one of them special and showing pride of ownership. The only model missing from the show was the Z31 300ZX and that’s because the only one registered somehow overheated on the way.
From showroom stock to wildly-modified the S30 selection was diverse. We are very proud of ZCG customer James S’ 1972 240z. This hot rod sports a Rebello 3.2 L-series engine with boost provided by a GTX3576R turbo and Haltech management. The exterior is quite menacing with large carbon fiber flares containing 17″ VOLK TE37 wheels wrapped in sticky Kumho slicks. ZCG Big Brakes are at all four corners. Stay tuned for a full report on this beast as we dial in the E85 tuning!
Frank Burkeen’s stunning Series 1 240z is the result of a full rotisserie restoration. We will have a full report on this build soon, but if you take close look at that stock engine bay it’s impossible to tell that it makes about 50hp more than stock!
Frank is also a long-time ZCG customer and his wife drove his other Z car, a bright orange fuel-injected canyon carver. We love the Chevlon mesh wheels and they do a superb job of framing our ZCG Big Brakes!
Our friend and fellow vintage racer Glenn Chiou’s 1971 Nissan Fairlady 240Z-L is a RHD model with a Rebello heart and a host of period goodies. The original paint is impressive and this car just looks so “right” from all angles.
260z and 280z
ZCG customer Joe A showed his pretty 260z, fresh from the shop (full report on the blog soon)
Linda W’s 1978 280z
S130
Who could forget the S130 280zx! Black Gold too:
People
We like this show because of the laid-back atmosphere and good folks that organize it. You won’t find Drake or EDM blasting through loudspeakers here. No bikini contests. Just Z-car and Nissan/Datsun enthusiasts simply sharing their love about cars.
Z32
11 Z32 300zx cars were displayed ranging from high-mileage survivors with original owners to show-spec pristine examples. Kevin N and Joe K’s Z32 Twin Turbos are both top-level examples of highly modified yet tasteful machines:
Jack and Yolanda’s famous widebody Z32s. Jack is the creator of the original “primadonnaZ” back in the 70’s.
This 1994 NA Z32 caught our eye because it had 332k miles from its original owner!
Z33
If you are a fan of Japanese classic cars there’s a good chance that you have visited Japanese Nostalgic Car. JNC’s senior minicar correspondent and all-around J-Tin guru is Ricky Silverio and he is also a Z-car owner! Here is his pristine, 10k-mile 2003 350z Track model that we will be performing services on soon. Like his other sports cars, Ricky shows impeccable taste in his “OEM+” mods. Check out more pics in the gallery as there are many “easter eggs” in his Z!
Z34
This is the first show since 2009 that Nissan USA helped support and ZONC was very happy to have a new NISMO 370Z on display:
We spotted this pair of of white NISMO Z’s. Nissan’s final evolution of the Z34 is the best looking, in our opinion:
510s
Three Datsuns 510s showed up, two with KA24s and one sporting an L-series. Datsun die-hards may remember this familiar 510 that belonged to builder Gary Jervis:
Our favorite (and the crowd’s too) was Matt’s 510. This boosted KA24DE Dime ticks all the right boxes for our love of low-flying bricks, and he also won 1st place for Best 510!
The Kenmeri Skyline
Alex M lent us his C110 Skyline to participate in the show. It was well received and even won an award!
Roadsters and Best of Show
The lone Datsun Roadster, and winner of Best of Show award went to Dan M’s pretty ’69 Datsun 2000. Dan also brought his ’72 240z!
Vanity plates
It’s no secret Z car owners have the best vanity plates! Some notables:
Parking lot finds
The beautiful venue is also a public park so plenty of folks stopped by to check out the Z’s.
Award Winners
It is always great to see ZCG customers carrying home awards for their pride and joy.
James S won Best Modified and Super Modified! Joe A won best 260z and Frank M won Best Stock 240z!
See you next year!
Spending the day at the ZONC Annual Car Show was a welcome experience that reminded us to, in the words of the late Mr.K, ” Love cars. Love people. Love Life.” We look forward to the next show keep an eye on our event updates and Z you soon! Don’t forget to check out our picture gallery below! Big thanks to the ZONC organizers and Ricky Silverio for sharing his photos with us.
SEMA was a blur this year—but that’s really no different than any other year for the most intense sensory overload in car show form on the planet. This trade-only show features all of the latest and greatest builds, technology, and creativity in our industry. While the show has historically been populated by American marques and their aftermarket support, in recent years the influx of Japanese metal (Nissan included) is undeniable.
We only attended the show for one day and while the crowds were as appalling as ever in the Las Vegas Convention Center, the quality of cars made it all worth it. It wasn’t just “cars” that got us excited, it was the astonishing number of vintage Datsuns/Nissans! The variety was astounding. We counted 16 cars from a 1972 Datsun 510 to 1983 Skyline and everything in between.
Year of the Datsun!
Our Datsun-hunting at SEMA started with Datsun 510s. Pro-drifter Chris Forsberg built this hot-rod 510 wagon for his wife. The Mazworx-built SR20DET is backed by an automatic transmission and even sports air-conditioning. Deep-lipped SSR MKIII wheels fill out the box-flares that are part of the “Hakobird” kit from Carbonsignal. This might be the closest thing to Hakosuka Skyline wagon!
Our friend and fellow 510 racer Troy Ermish built this ultra-clean 510 2-door for actor Daniel Wu. We dig the bronze Watanabe wheels and subtle paint color. A built L-series breathing through dual-Mikuni’s and stock-ish interior also makes us happy. You can learn more about the build from our friends over at JNC.
Our final 510 sighting was the legendary Pete Brock’s personal car in Braille battery booth. Affectionately known as “Datzilla”, we remember first seeing this 450hp small-block V8 beast back in 2008 at the MotoringJ Style show.
Z Car Fever
A total of NINE S30 Z cars were at SEMA this year. That may not seem like many, but consider just 3 years ago only two Z cars were present. It was hard to pick a favorite but we were impressed with the Gas Monkey Garage 280z and the ChasingJs 240z built by Big Mike and Dominic Le, respectively.
The Gas Monkey Garage 280z
Big Mike was commissioned to design/build this 280Z 2+2 for the TV show Gas Monkey Garage. We loved how he took a often un-loved chassis and created a unique car that Datsun fans and American-iron alike can appreciate. Some quick details that caught our eye: the huge void found in front of the 4-cylinder SR20DET was filled with an OEM-like air filer box. The stock interior features vintage buckets with matching rears. The body color choice was perfect against bronze Volk TE37V wheels. Watch for two episodes covering the build airing on Fast n Loud TV on the Discovery channel! …[read more]
