This is the moment we have all been waiting for as Nissan/Datsun enthusiasts! For the first time ever, Nissan will be the featured marque at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 23-26. Now in its 45th year and commonly known as the Monterey Historics, the Reunion is a highlight of the famous Pebble Beach “car week” in August. This event features the best of every decade of racing history, all condensed into four days of qualifying and competition at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway.

 

  

Even if you are a seasoned race car fan or hardcore Datsun nut this is the event you don’t want to miss. To make it even sweeter the good folks at ZONC are proudly sponsoring the Nissan Car Corral AND a Parade Lap around the world famous Laguna Seca Raceway!

 

Datsun & Nissan Exclusive Car Corral Parking

At past RMMR events our Nissan car corral has been mixed with the other marques. Not this year. We have the incredible spotlight and desirable PAVED parking between Turn 2 and 5. It will be our time to shine, let’s make a strong showing by bringing our beloved cars out! Have a Nissan Skyline GT-R from the 90’s? Bring it. Got a Datsun 510 Wagon? Bring it. Nismo R35 GT-R? We want that too. Remember, this is THE best place to park your car, enjoy the races AND proudly represent!

  

To participate in the Car Corral and Parade Lap you must buy tickets through ZONC, details can be found by clicking HERE. Take advantage of discounted general admission through ZONC and let’s make this a superb showing of our Nissans and Datsuns! Please spread the word to fellow owners 🙂

In case you missed it, here is our coverage of last year’s RMMR:
RMMR 2017

We plan on bringing the #49 Joel Anderson IMSA 240z to participate in the race! We are really excited for our fellow racers this is going to be an EPIC event. Enjoy a few photos from past RMMR events. LONG LIVE THE Z!

 

 

 

 

Happy 3/11 Day to our fellow Datsun Roadster owners! We hope you were able to Enjoy The Ride this weekend as the weather was fantastic. Our friend Kurt recently took delivery of his freshly restored 1967 Datsun 2000 (#520) and took it for nice ride around town.

 

The car is finished in my favorite color, Sora Blue and Steve Pettersen performed a stunning, frame-off restoration:

 

Expect a full feature on Kurt’s SRL and dyno tuning to make those twin Mikuni-Solexes sing! For now, please enjoy this video of us driving our roadsters around on 3/11:

ps…we may have driven a few other Z Car Garage project cars in this video as well 🙂

 

One of the best parts about ZCG is the opportunity to perform multiple builds for a customer. We met Mike J in 2008 when he brought his G35 Coupe in for some modifications:

 

Mike added some tasteful HRE wheels (one of his signatures) and we did a full build on this car including a Vortech supecharger with ZCG supporting mods. He enjoyed the G for a few years and sold it to a friend. The friend brought in the G for service, mentioning that Mike had acquired a 2013 R35! Sure enough, Mike called us up and said it’s time to spend another chapter together.

 

From past zcarblog posts we know the R35 GTR is a wonderful sportscar that blends in despite its impressive performance out of the box. Mike wanted a boost in power so we started with a host of Alpha bolt-ons from AMS including their downpipes and Y-pipe w/muffler:

    

Stock vs AMS 90mm catted mid-pipe:

 

Finishing the exhaust upgrades with an Akrapovic titanium slip-on exhaust system:

  

Our plan for more power included a complete flex-fuel setup for E85 tuning. Shown below are 1300cc Injector Dynamics injectors, DW300 drop-in fuel pumps,  SpecialtyZ 3″ Intakes and SpecialtyZ Flex-Fuel kit:

  

Flex fuel installation:

 
Rob utilized Ecutek for tuning on both 91 octane and E85.

91 octane: 554hp/509tq

E85: 629hp/616tq

 

On E85, the dyno reveals huge gains from low rpm to redline. Mike we know you are Enjoying The Ride, thanks for bringing your GT-R to ZCG!

 

We love to hear about Father-Son project cars! Liam O’s father has owned this ’72 S30 for many years and he wanted to restore it with him. They had the engine built by Rebello and a body shop perform final assembly of the the car. Liam was experiencing a heavy exhaust smell inside the cabin and it simply wasn’t enjoyable driving this beautiful Z. He contacted Z Car Garage and upon inspection we found several items needing attention.

First, we corrected some cooling issues and installed a Koyo race radiator:

  

Before we troubleshooted the exhaust/fuel smell in the cabin we fixed the exhaust system. This L-series cylinder head had square exhaust ports and the header that was installed on the engine had round ports:

 

We installed the correct, matching square port exhaust header (6 into 1) from MSA:

  

We replaced the exhaust system:

  

Next we tackled the cabin to seal out unwanted exhaust. The door seals were replaced:

 
The venting for gas tank and associated vapor hoses were all replaced. If they’re old and sweating fuel vapor you will smell fuel inside the cabin. If the car is not sealed up, you will smell exhaust. Sometimes it can be overbearing:

   

William painted hatch area to get a nice seal on the weatherstripping/seals:

  

We ended up going through the entire car, adding some nice ZCG touches along the way. The engine was treated to a major tuning session on our dyno:

 

The Rebello 2.8L street engine with SUs made 168hp/171tq to the wheels:

 

Engine bay all buttoned up:

  

More little things like painting the brake booster. We also went through the entire braking system:

 

  

It’s no mystery with the Z’s hatch design and aerodynamics that having no seal (or a compromised one) in that area will result in exhaust smell in the cabin. After we worked on Liam’s car we had reduced the smell, but it wasn’t totally gone. We have our own apparatus to run a smoke test inside the car to visualize leaks. We sealed it up and took it one step further by adding a high flow cat in the back of the exhaust system. Now Liam is driving this Z all over the Bay Area and he is tickled pink about it. So are we.

  

Long Live The Z!

More pictures in the gallery below:
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Love is in the air this week with three Datsun 510s at the shop💘 Each one has a unique history with different powerplants and wheels! Expect full stories on the blog soon.

Ben W’s SR20DET-powered 510:

 

Larry Oka’s Far Performance tribute B-Sedan 510 racecar:

 

Kurt’s iconic VG30ET-powered 510, “The Strutless Wonder”