Our ZCG Big Brakes have been winning Z-car enthusiasts locally and across the US. In April we were stoked to hear from our friends at JDM Legends installing the brake kit on their customer’s 280z project:

   

Big-Brake Kits Available For DIY Install!

Z Car Garage is proud to offer the Big-Brake Kit to Z-Car owners that want to perform the installation themselves. We can ship worldwide and each kit contains everything needed with a comprehensive installation guide.  Blog posts documenting all of our customers running the ZCG Big-Brakes can be found HERE.  Our first customer to receive and install the BBK was Duffy M, owner of this 1971 Series 1 S30 in Safari Gold.

 

Duffy expressed interest in our BBK and helped us validate its installation for future customers. He was impressed with the kit from the beginning:

“I am blown away by the quality and engineering that went into this Z Car Garage BBK (big brake kit). The kit was designed by Stoptech engineers and ZCG from the ground up for the Z. I am sort of a guinea pig to see if consumers can install this kit. They have an amazing detailed 40 page instructions, which in the car world is rare. I’m stoked to get them installed. Kit comes with everything needed to install and retains stock parking brake and MC. Fits 15×8 wheels as well! So light!”

 

If you follow Duffy on his Instagram page or epic build-thread on Classic Z Car Forum its clear that his attention to detail is impressive. He got the BBK installed on his Z, complete with functioning parking brake:

 

Front and rear:

 

Easy fitment behind his 15×8 Watanabe wheels:

 

Beyond ease of installation and quality components, our Big-Brakes perform by offering superb pedal feel…everyone that drives our demo Z confirms! Duffy was very happy as well with great feedback:

“They work amazing.  Hands down the best mod I have done in a while.  Modern/race feel. So the BBK kit by Z Car Garage is literally amazing. Honestly it’s the best stopping power of any car I have ever driven. Pedal feel is great. Clears everything nicely. Wants to throw me through the window. I’m not an expert, but I think the bias feels amazing.”

 

Remember how we said Duffy has an impressive attention to detail? Check out his Z, from engine bay…

 

…to chassis/suspension:

   

Duffy is also running a V2 Fujitsubo exhaust system, OS Giken LSD and many other goodies!

 

We also hooked Duffy up with an OS Giken clutch that he installed with a breeze, backed by a KA24 transmission:

   

We enjoyed working with you Duffy and we are very proud to have our Big-Brakes on your Z!

 

Stay tuned for more customer installations of our ZCG Big-Brakes! Check out our ZCG CV axles HERE

Long Live The Z!

 

Z Car Garage prepared and supported many race cars for last year’s Rolex Reunion and this year we are excited to attend once again August 15-18! The crew has been working diligently to prepare and tune three vintage race cars: Alex McDowell’s 1967 Datsun Bluebird and 1979 Jim Fitzgerald 280zx, and Doug Steven’s 1975 DeKon Monza. The team will be at the Pre-Historics this weekend so stop by and say hello! Read on to see and hear the three racers being dyno-tuned…

 

1975 DeKon Monza

This is a formidable vintage race car that we will be spotlighting in its own blog post. It is the second of its kind (Chassis #1002) with a unique history that is perfect for the IMSA feature at the upcoming Historics. For more information on DeKon, go here.

 

 

Listen to the Chevy-powered Monza on the dyno in the video below. Also shown is the Bluebird making L-Series music and the 280zx:

 

 

1967 Datsun Bluebird

Alex McDowell will be racing his 1967 Datsun Bluebird Coupe and 1979 Jim Fitzgerald Datsun 280zx at the RMMR.

 

Re-cap of these two in action from the 2018 event below:

 

Alex raced with notable 510 drivers Troy Ermish (#9), Jim Froula(#52), Dave Stone(#93), Glenn Chiou(#21), Taz Harvey (#51) and Datsun Roadsters Mike Anderson (#38) and Steve Link (#23). Watch this extended in-car video below of Alex piloting the Bluebird. Alex finished the race 12th/50 cars with a best lap of 1:48.1. Lots of action in this one!

 

 

 

Alex’s Datsun 280zx

 

Alex ran the Jim Fitzgerald 280zx in Group 7B: IMSA GTO, GTU with some wild rotary and Trans Am cars. He was having too much fun in the Bluebird so did run the car in the final race. The Z ran well throughout the Pre-Reunion and qualifying where Alex was running 1:44s. Here is a short video of the Z in action:

 

 

Get your tickets and parking!

You can get discounted tickets AND preferred parking through The Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC). They are hosting a Nissan-only parking corral at Weathertech Laguna Seca Raceway and it’s the best way to park and enjoy the event. For more details please see the ZONC press release below.

Datsun and Nissan Revisit IMSA at 2019 RMMR
By Ann Devor

Following on the heels of last year’s fantastic Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, twelve Datsuns and Nissans have been chosen to compete in three races in 2019’s RMMR at WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway. The 2019 RMMR is celebrating IMSA and will feature three classes of IMSA racecars over the four-day weekend from August 15 through August 18. David Martin’s 240Z, Alex McDowell’s 280ZX and Rob Morgan’s 280ZX will be racing on Saturday August 17 in Race 5A (1973-1981 IMSA, GT, GTX class). Almost equally exciting will be the IMSA prototype Race 7A on Saturday where you will see advanced racing performance and styling not seen in the production-based cars.

On Sunday in Race 6B (1981-1991 IMSA GTO/GTU racecars), Craig Bennett will drive a 1991 300ZX competing against John Murray in a 1989 Nissan 240SX, Philip Mendelovitz in a 1989 240SX and Michael Parsons in his 1990 300ZX. We’ll also see Datsun roadsters on Sunday in non-IMSA Race 5B featuring 1961-1966 GT cars under 2500cc including Alex McDowell’s 1967 Bluebird, Phillip Mendelovitz’ 1967 311 Roadster, Ross Merrill in his 1966 Fairlady Roadster and Steve Smargiasso in a 1966 Datsun 311 Roadster.

Here’s what we have planned so far exclusively for Datsun and Nissan fans:

• We have a private corral with 20 reserved paved parking spaces. Datsun-Nissan race fans who wish to park in our Datsun-Nissan special parking area must purchase their corral passes and admission tickets only from ZONC. If we sell out our 20 corral spaces we will try to get more, but there is no guarantee. Corral passes ($45) are good for the entire 4-day weekend.
• ZONC is again offering a discount on admission tickets.

Individual Ticket Pricing	Regular Price	ZONC Discounted Price
4-Day (Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun)	$170	$145
3-Day (Fri/Sat/Sun)	$150	$130
2-Day (Sat/Sun)	$120	$105
Thursday only	$ 40	$ 35
Friday only	$ 70	$ 60
Saturday only	$100	$ 85
Sunday only	$ 70	$ 60

 

For more information or to be added to our special mailing list for updated information, please contact me at anndevor@gmail.com. Don’t hesitate, don’t be late, and get ready to have a great time at the 2019 RMMR!

 

We have several exciting projects at the shop that will have full reports coming soon to zcarblog.com. Enjoy!

 

Three ZCG Big-Brake Installs

Three S30s are in to get our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) and Z Car Garage CV Axles!

 

Jim H has a great story behind this Series 1 S30. We know the previous owner through Datsun Roadsters from over a decade ago. Jim’s kids actually found this Z for him! Full story soon. The Z received an upgraded cooling system, ZCG Big-Brakes an CV axles and 16″ Panasport wheels with Bridgestone S007a tires. He will return in the fall for a new engine and much more restoration work. Tomorrow (Saturday) Jim will take this Z to visit friends and his kids!

 

Greg M brought his 240z from Reno, NV. He and his wife drove the Z here for carb work, Big-Brakes and  CV axle install. We handled a few other items before he takes it back home for Hot August Nights. He will return in the fall for another big project.

 

Triple Mikuni carbs and 16″ Panasports!

 

Watch the video below to hear this Z run!

 

Greg H’s 280z came in for engine bay restoration and it turned into a full-blown build with ZCG Big-Brakes/CV Axles, full suspension, Panasports and tuning:

 

ZCG Big-Brakes and CV Axles:

 

Robert C’s G35 Coupe. He purchased all of Erik M’s parts when he sold his G. It’s  getting the entire E85 setup, KW V3s and upgraded LSD.  This G will be mainly for tracking with a gutted interior and race seats.

 

Eric K has an Ethanol-powered Z32TT with a stock engine on stock turbos. Now he is getting a built engine identical to Rob and Gary’s, now using BB700 turbos making 650-700whp:

Race Car Tuning!

We are stoked to be preparing and supporting this DeKon Monza for the upcoming Monterey Rolex Motorsports Reunion. This is chassis #2 and it is an amazing car. You can hear it in the video below. More to come watch for updates on our Instagram and Facebook pages!

Panasports For Your Z!

We only have a few sets left before our next shipment. Contact the shop to order yours!

 

R35 in for brakes!

 

 

Enjoy the video of our shop update below and

LONG LIVE THE Z!

 

 

 

On this #ThrowbackThursday we were happy to see this discovery from our friends at Classic Motorsports Magazine. They found these archived photos from the NOPI Nationals in 1997 and pictured is Rob Fuller auto-crossing his 1971 Datsun 510!

 

Almost a decade later and to this day Rob has not changed much. He still races Datsuns and here he is in the very same 510 auto-crossing at the Mt. Shasta All-Datsun Meet.

GO GA 510!

 

 

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