Today we gathered a small group of vintage Datsuns and visited Cars and Coffee hosted by Canepa Design. Our drive started from ZCG and took us through the beautiful winding highway 17 up to Scotts Valley.
We had 12 cars in our caravan including three S30 Z-cars, Matt’s Turbo 510, three roadsters, VW bug, Sprite, TR-6 and Gary’s Skyline.

Here is a short video of the ride capturing most of the cars from inside Rob’s  RB25DET-powered 240z:

When we arrived, Canepa’s parking lot was packed with exotics and plenty of eye candy. A few cars that caught my eye included a Gullwing Benz, Ariel Atom, Hertz Mustang, Peter’s Skyline, and a pretty Alfa Giulietta:

Canepa was kind of enough to open the entire shop and museum to the public. Jaws dropped and minds were blown as folks toured the facility…

This Ferrari-powered Gatto had a sexy body and one of the most exquisite interiors I have ever seen:

Back to the parking lot there were more hidden gems to be found. This Sprite had something different under its bonnet: a 20V Toyota 4AGE drivetrain!

We had a great time visiting Canepa and look forward to more Cars and Coffee events here. Thanks to all that made the drive up to Scotts Valley! Don’t forget to check the gallery for more pictures!

On the drive back I spotted a caged Miata with helmet-wearing drivers…any idea who these masked crusaders are?  🙂

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Here is Tom R’s report from his 24hrs of LeMons race experience last month, enjoy!

To do well at 24 Hours of Lemons racing you need a variety of things: Reliability, decent speed, decent drivers, no severe penalties, strategy, and some degree of luck. On September 15th and 16th, “The Tartan Brigade” took our 1980 280zx to Thunderhill Raceway for a third attempt at glory. To be clear, we recognize that we are all mid-level drivers, and a class win is likely not in the cards for us regardless of the car we are driving. However, our goals are always to finish in a respectable position, in one piece, and with a big smile on our faces. We achieved two of these goals, but failed pretty miserably in terms of position. The escapade went something like this.

The weather at Thunderhill in September is bound to be unforgiving, with daytime temperatures consistently in the mid 90’s, and the only flowing water visible being that leaking from some poor sap’s exploded radiator. So it was with no great surprise that from midday on Friday, during the practice session, we knew we were in for a battle as we had to be towed off the track for the first time (of four times throughout the weekend) as the car lost all power while driving down the back straight. Still plucky and filled with questionable optimism, we tentatively diagnosed the problem as being caused by a failing ignition module. We swapped it out for a spare we brought, but my confidence in it was immediately shaken by the unmistakable Sharpie lettering on it: “Good?” Low and behold, by the time Friday’s practice day was over, we had received our second tow of the weekend, and began to worry that we might be looking down the barrel of a black-flag solely for being on a first name basis with the tow truck driver. With the sobering thought that the race could be an abject failure for us soaking into our minds, I wandered through the pits, practically on my knees, begging any fellow racers to share with us any excess flexible ducting they may have such that we could get some more “cold” 97F air to the ignition module come race day. And, sure enough, the Lemons spirit of camaraderie prevailed as a team running a late 80s RX7 was kind enough to hand over 4’ feet of dryer ducting. As though it were as valuable as gold, we used all the key Lemons-specific tools to mount the ducting in place (tin snips, zip ties and duct tape, only JB Weld going un-used in this case.) Looking like we had somehow run over a silver elephant’s trunk, we now had what we hoped would prove to be our salvation…

At 9am on Saturday morning, the butterflies were working overtime in each of our stomachs, a mixture of boyish enthusiasm and utter dread that our “fixes” may not have done the trick to keep our baby cool and operational. We waited as long as possible to get our car on the starting grid to minimize the chance of overheating the ignition module before even seeing the green flag… …[read more]

The 2012 Japanese Classic Car Show (JCCS) was a J-tin fan’s dream come true with hundreds of vintage cars displayed near the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. We left San Jose Friday am and enjoyed the 400-mile roadtrip in our Datsuns. Rob drove the ‘67.5 Datsun 2000 Roadster, I drove my 67.5 roadster, and Lou drove his RHD Fairlady Z:

100+ degree temps tested our physical and mental capacities but all three vintage Datsuns barely protested even in heavy Los Angeles traffic.  This year’s JCCS show featured Japanese cars from Toyota, Subaru, Datsun, Mitsubishi, Honda, and even some Dodge/Chrysler imports. The sweltering heat did not keep folks from enjoying both the grass and parking lot displays and there were so many vehicles it was easy to overlook some real gems. Check out the gallery for pictures, here are a few highlights from Datsun point-of-view… The Datsun Roadster community had a strong showing with 18+ cars, most from Socal with a few cars from the Bay Area as well. These owners love their cars and have all flavors from bone-stock to heavily-modified.

Gary W. has restored several roadsters and his current project is resurrecting this extremely rare, factory “lightweight” racer:

The Z-car showing was extensive with the S130 cars now being included. My favorite Z was Rob B’s turbocharged 280z. The deep, perfectly applied silver paint and crazy details in the engine bay made everyone drool and take a second look:

Z’s everywhere! From triple-carb’d L-series to, V8,  RB and even SR20 drivetrains:

A large gathering of Skylines from C10/110s to the 2013 GT-R was a real treat:

JCCS is also a wheel-lover’s candy store. Deep dish, negative offset, shiny, dull, new, vintage, repros, etc. it’s all there. Enkei display its newest reproduction wheel on Patrick N’s 1973 TE27 Corolla….ridges are good!

My “wildest-JDM” goes to this Toyota Hilux with a boosted JZ drivetrain, full tube-frame chassis, Project MU brakes and TE37V wheels. Ok, I will also award this Corolla with a crazy supercharged V8 and massive flares:

More engine swap madness…I heard both of these V8-powered cars while parking and I immediately assumed GM LSx drivetrains underhood but I was wrong…

Both AE86 and Starion had Toyota V8s!

Super sano S2000 swap in this AE86 goes over the top with a hair dryer and equal length exhaust manifold:

JCCS also invited special guests from the motorsports and celebrity world. Datsun Hero John Morton, Skyline ad celebrity Mary (Diane Krey), and Hot Wheels designer Jun Imai all braved the heat and crowds for fans.

Thanks to the JCCS organizers for putting on another great event! See you in 2013!

Don’t forget to see pictures from the rest of the show below!
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I just got back from an exhilarating fun run up to Mt. Diablo with a group of Datsun Roadsters. Fellow owner  Dave The Car Guy was kind enough to invite everyone to check out his car collection AND do some test drives! We had 9 roadsters meet in San Ramon this morning and it was great selection of colors with four 1600s and five 2000s: Neil from Davis(’66 SPL), Raul(‘67.5), Stacey from Santa Cruz(’70 SRL):

 

SPL/U20Leo(’69SRL), DaveTheCarGuy(’68 SRL),  Eddie(’66 SPL/SR20):

 

Ken(’68 SRL/KA), Mike(‘67.5 SPL) and  me(‘67.5 SRL):

 

Before we drove up to Mt. Diablo we drooled over Dave’s car collection…and then he put each of us behind the wheel of his special cars…

 

Fisker Latigo and Fisker Karma, ’86 911 Turbo, ’67 Sting-Ray ‘Vette, Cayman,  and  Aston Martin Vantage

 

It was incredible to see all of these exotic cars together on the backroads for some “exercise”. Dave led us on a test loop and every 5minutes or so we all puled over and switched cars. My favorites? The ’67 Vette (yes that’s me behind the wheel!) and the Fisker Latigo:

 

After the adrenalin rush of driving Dave’s cars we all jumped in our Datsuns and headed out to Mt. Diablo for some twisties and photo-ops. The weather was gorgeous and everyone had a blast. Thanks for putting this together Dave!

More pics in the gallery
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Join fellow Nissan/Datsun enthusiasts as we caravan down to Laguna Seca and park in the VIP Corral!

Meet us at the shop at 7:30am sharp Saturday(8/18) morning. It is going to be a fantastic race weekend!

ZCarGarage
140 Archer St.
San Jose, CA 95112