Incredible. Amazing. Sensational. My limited vocabulary seems to be fading and my legs are trembling as I exit the driver’s seat after driving a 2012 Nissan GT-R. This car blows my mind, and that’s only from a brief stint driving on the street! No, it’s not my new car 🙁
This GT-R belongs to Walt P, a long time customer and friend of ZCG. He also worked at Nissan for a few years and owns a beastly 300zx Twin-Turbo with ~700hp that will be featured on the blog soon. Walt was in the market for a fast, do-it-all sportscar that could be driven on the track wet/dry and feel equally at home on the street. He drove several cars like the BMW M3(E92) and Audi R8, but the GT-R won his heart. We think he made the right choice 🙂

With only 6 miles on the clock Walt immediately set out to familiarize himself with his new acquaintance. Minding the break-in period he drove hard and fast through Bay Area back roads, racking up 150miles+ within hours of getting the keys!  Unlike most GT-Rs this one is and will be DRIVEN! 12hrs after purchase check the sidewall out! Look for it at the upcoming track day at Laguna Seca in April.

Walt chose an exterior/interior combo that exudes an understated classiness. The paint color is Aurora Flare Pearl and it’s gorgeous under varying light. It’s a color that looks just right on the GT-R and is less ubiquitous than Gun Metal or Silver.

The 2012 has a host of improvements to the interior and exterior.  The menacing front end is even more pronounced with LED lighting:

It’s in the details: New wheels, CF strut bar (I thought it was trim!), red accented intake and vents on the rear trim:

We took the GT-R to the weigh scale and it was 3900lbs with a full tank of gas. It is a large car that feels quite the opposite when behind the wheel. Walt was kind enough to let me take the GT-R for a spin and I was very impressed. First, the interior feels and looks much better than the previous models I’ve seen.

The dual-clutch transmission is phenomenal. Shifts that are so crisp and instant it could probably make the most diehard 3-pedal fans envious (and I’m all for saving the stick!). One’s perception of time and space gets seriously skewed behind the wheel of this car. The surge of torque and accompanying sounds of the exhaust and turbos make roll-on acceleration a  “prepare for hyperdrive” experience. I did not explore the limits of the GT-R or it’s adjustable suspension, diff, and throttle settings. Walt, however showed me how incredible the GT-R is accelerating out of corners. In “Race” mode he could drift the tail out, and sure enough the car would magically hook up the front wheels and rocket out of the turn. AWD traction and RWD handling. Brilliant.
Here are few videos we took just having fun. It is truly a sight to see when a supercar owner actually drives the car instead of putting in a garage to admire(which I’m sure he will do tonight):

Check out the current issue of Motor Trend magazine for a comparo between the GT-R, Z06 ‘Vette, and Shelby Mustang:
TrackRace
DragRace
Congratulations Walt and thanks for making my day!
Long Live the GT-R!

You can see more photos of the GT-R in the gallery:
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In 1974 Mazda introduced the RX-4 wagon with the 13B rotary engine, it’s first debut in the US. Rob found this RX-4 in fantastic shape, it was a real time-capsule! The interior is really impressive with stock panels, seats, and carpeting all intact. Check out the factory air cleaner, and the peace-statement bumper sticker. Rob definitely has a problem: he is addicted to vintage Japanese cars. Find out how he came upon this RX-4:

“While in my early 20s I owned a rotary-powered 510 race car… which made me wanting more so I played with a few 1st gen RX-7s and for a brief period I even owned a 1974 Rx-4 coupe. I am always on the hunt for clean, early Rotary-powered cars. My morning and evening ritual is to cruise Craigslist with my favorite searches. One day I came across an ad for a 1974 RX4 station wagon. I called and arranged a time to see it. It had been sitting in a barn for about 10 years. We hooked up a battery and all the lights worked. The car was really clean so I had to buy it. The following day I had the car towed to ZCG. Once it got to the shop we went to work right away to clean it up and see if it ran.”

“By the end of the second day we got the Rotary Wagon to light off, but it was smoking enough to make Archer St. disappear! The rear rotor seals failed. I was bummed but I knew what this would lead too. The engine was removed and sent to Rebello racing. A few months later the engine was back and ready to go in the car. Using a Racing Beat header and stock carb the piston-less engine put down some nice numbers(188hp/165tq) on the Rebello dyno. A larger carb is on the way!”


The great thing about this wagon besides its functionality is that it’s a hoot to drive!  RWD and the 13B: A legendary motor with 30 years of years of tuning/aftermarket support. Leave it to Rob and the crew at ZCG to get any car running, and performing better than it did from the factory.  ZCG’s dyno shows a surprisingly torquey motor with over 100ft-lbs available from 2000 to 6000rpm!:

Rob drove the Rotary Wagon through the winding hills of Santa Cruz on our last fun run to Canepa Design in Scotts Valley. I was amazed how he hurtled this car around corners at 60-70mph, didn’t see that coming! The rotary sounds distinctive. I had a chance to commute in this wagon for about a week and it was a blast!
Here are few videos to give you an idea what the 13B sounds like:
2nd-gear roll-on from 4500rpm:

Cruising happily on the freeway:

Freeway merging is a breeze!

Rob and the vintage Mazda are featured in the upcoming April issue of the Japanese car magazine “NostalgicHero”!

Rob’s interest in vintage Japanese cars is contagious and word on the street is that there may be an old Subaru hanging out at ZCG, stay tuned!
More pictures below
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In 1990 Nissan changed the Japanese sportscar world by introducing the Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo. James L from San Francisco was ready to find out what all the excitement was about and purchased this gorgeous Red Zed. That’s right, he is the original owner!
Fast forward to fall of 2010…James kept this Z in amazing shape driving his machine only when the weather was right. No rain for this Z. It had been 20 years and there were 60k miles on the clock. He was reading about the new and improved Corvette and how this American sportscar was the end all be all. James even went to the extreme of renting one for a few days to see if he liked it. After 20 years could he really turn his back on the Red Zed?
No way!

After doing his homework on some Z32TT modifications, James found Z Car Garage. We met and he told me he had this Z since new and was finally ready to take it to the next level.
We performed a full inspection from top to bottom and found James’ Z suffering from common issues at his mileage. The clutch was slipping badly, as evidenced by the baseline dyno:

The transmission was removed and a JWT HD clutch with lightweight flywheel were installed:

The factory pre-catted downpipes are restrictive and large power gains can be found here so 3″ fully divorced downpipes from SpecialtyZ along with a full stainless exhaust system were installed.
Fully divorced downpipes:


The exhaust system consists of a 3″ mid-pipe with resonators ending with 2.5″ dual tip mufflers. Note the rusted factory resonators and restrictive piping:



The final before/after and how the Zed will look as it blows by those ‘Vettes 🙂

A common performance upgrade on the Z32TT is the air intake. Dual JWT POP chargers help in the breathing department, and look pretty cool too. Look how clean that factory airbox is!


The factory ECU was sent to JWT to get fuel/ignition re-mapping(Stage3) and boost raised from 7psi to 13.5psi. The revamped ECU, new exhaust/downpipes, and intake help put down an impressive 356hp/369tq to the wheels!
Whoa is just as important as go, so a full Stoptech sport/street brake package was installed. This inlcudes stainless steel braided lines, new rotors, pads and MOTUL brake fluid. The clutch hydraulics were also freshened:

Corvette Summer is on hold…its cold outside and as well all know turbos love the cold.

Enjoy the ride James!!!

A long time ago in a city close to the bay a guy named John loved this Z.
Back then John was a 16 year-old teenager and he had a dream of merging the sexiness of a Z body with the feeling of wind in his hair. After finishing high school and college the Z had become a constant in John’s life. Sometime in the late 80’s he met Darrell from Darrell’s Datsuns where the transformation from hardtop coupe to droptop convertible was made. Darrell Riley built Zs for a living until he was in his 70s! That’s die-hard Datsun.

When Darrell’s closed down in 2004 ZCG bought some of his equipment and with it lots of cool Datsun memories.
Meet John’s topless Z…After having the Z cherried out he put it away to preserve its condition. Now in his mid forties…It was time to relive memories and that feeling you get when you bring one of your favorite things back to life.

After some online searching…John was directed by Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) to ZCG. We looked over the Z and made a plan of attack including a full Rebello engine build using the existing L24. It was very important to John that the original block be used and not look over the top. Besides triple carbs and a few more performance items under the hood it will look like the trusty L24…with 2.8L of Nissan L-series power!

It is interesting to see how the body is modified to achieve drop-top status…all of the trim pieces and interior bits are removed in preparation for paint:

Off to Williams for sand blasting and then paint!

You can see more photos of the take down in the gallery:
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Gary S. is a guy on a quest…to own each example of Nissan perfection. Lets begin the next chapter in Gary’s 240sx as it gets closer to that vision of exellence!
With the G35TT being what it is, Gary’s back-up car must have the same 3-dimensional qualities of big power, big brakes, and suspension. The to-do list included cleaning up the work done by the previous owner, and improve on an already amazing ride.
When the 240SX arrived from the east coast it already had the SR20DET engine swap, stock MAF, stock turbo, and boost controller. We dyno’d the car in stock configuration: 205hp/193tq at the wheels indicated a clean bill of health. Let the modifying begin.

We made a plan to make nice power on 91 octane with big torque throughout the mid-range to help Gary forget his new ride only has 4 cylinders 🙂 We installed a more “adult” exhaust to replace the loud RS*R muffler. Made by BRM, this exhaust is fairly priced, has perfect fitment, and most of all the twin-tips look very close to the factory outlets!

A call was made to Clark @ JWT and we wired in the Z32 MAF, installed the NISMO 740CC injectors, and plugged in the new ECU upgrade from JWT. We knew the stock turbo would never meet the power and torque requirement…come on it’s Gary…So another call was made, this time to the folks at TOMEI USA:

We decided to run several TOMEI components so off came the valve cover to install the S14 Poncams, rocker stoppers, TOMEI Expreme stainless turbo manifold, and turbo outlet pipe. TOMEI had just released the M7960 turbo and we told them we would give it a try and report back on the performance level. Behold the turbo manifold in all it’s glory….before it gets wrapped with high temp tape:

The stock manifold + turbo vs new Tomei setup….Hey Gary that old T28 is going into Alvin’s roadster, right?

Once the parts were installed we ran the Wideband 02, plugged in our Consult II and went out for a test run. The MAF voltage was higher than I had ever seen on a turbo car at this boost level. Once the boost kicked in…it was enough to put you firmly back in the seat.
On to the dyno…power levels were very nice, but at the top of the rpm range we were having trouble holding steady boost. 338hp and 305tq to the wheels with a great powerband was nice indeed.

We checked all of the usual suspects to sort out the boost issue but no answer. TOMEI USA was contacted and they are willing to help us find a way to get the desired power with a steady boost pressure: To be continued…

…Back to the car…
Big power is a great thing but driving a car that can only go fast can get old very quickly. It is no secret that ZCG loves using Stoptech Big-Brake-Kits…we have tested them on the street and the track with impressive results. It’s about time serious hp power met serious brakes on these cars! When was the last time you saw a set of these on a 240sx 🙂 Larger rotors, stainless lines and appropriately sized master cylinder round out the upgrade. To match the front calipers the rear Z32 calipers were finished in red/white lettering:

The 240 already came with a sweet set of bronze 18″ Nismo LM-GT4 wheels, here is the before/after Stoptechs up front:

Of course the bronze looks great against the white body but Gary wanted a more low-key appearance so the wheels were re-finished in black:

The next steps in the 240SX project will be to sort out our boost issue,  install some suspension upgrades and gauges. Here are a few more pics of the car with the new look:

Long Live the Man With The Most Nissans!
Rob