ZCG would like to thank you for your support and business in 2010. We will be closed on the following days:

12/24 and 12/25

12/31 and 1/01/11

Happy Holidays and Z you in the new year!

With driver Scott Smith behind the wheel the SmittyRacing / Z Car Garage 350Z took 1st place in both the Lockheed Martin Sports Car Club autox series “A” class as well as the Norcal UFO series in “OSP” class for 2010! Great driving and congratulations Scott, you make us proud!

2010 was an exciting year for this Z as it ran double duty in open track days AND competitively in 2 autox series. The car had several mechanical upgrades and also changed color from silver to its current Go Green. Let’s recap 2010 with pictures and videos of Scott piloting the Z to victory!

December has been rather wet, so here is the Z sliding around at the UFO autocross in Marina followed by in-car video:

On May 16, Scott took 1st place in OSP at the 43rd annual Dual at DeAnza autox in Cupertino, CA. Here is the winning run:

This Z never sleeps! After running hard on the autox Scott regularly (fiendishly might be more accurate) took the Z to open-track days or HPDEs…here are videos and a few pics from tracks like Laguna Seca and Thunderhill Raceway.

In September the silver Z became the Green Machine with the help of Williams Auto body in San Mateo, Ca. So If you see a bright green 350z on the street or at the track, say hello to Scott!

Here is a list of blog posts documenting ZCG’s modifications to the Z from the Stoptech rebuild to the awesome Motordyne Shockwave exhaust system. You can also see what Scott is running chassis-wise:
Transplant
StoptechRebuild
MotorDyneExhaust
GoGreenPaint
Dyno/chassis

The crew at ZCG installed and tuned several carefully chosen parts on this Z to make it a killer platform for an excellent driver like Scott to dominate the track! Here’s to another successful and fun year in 2011 🙂

Here is another example of just how special the Z is…people may buy a new car every 7 to 8 years. This 280Z isn’t just a car, it has been in the family since day one in 1978. ZCG met this Z family in the summer of 2008 when it was time to get it back on the road after a few years of sitting. We went down the wants and needs list and brought this Z back from a fixture in the garage to a sporty Z ready for a drive to the store or down the coast. Since their last visit, owners Larry and Ruth had a whole new list for us and this time it was to work on the interior.

We met at the shop and talked about different options for seats and interior items. The dash was removed and sent out for restoration and when it came back we replaced all the gauge lights with updated LEDs. We polished all of the plastic covers, resealed all the heater ducts, and lubed all the heater cables. We also serviced the heater core, replaced all the heater hoses and anything easily accessible while the dash was out.

Now for the good part, choosing seats. This is another ZCG first: a set of RECARO LXFs in leather!!! Yes, you read correctly! Leather. There was a tag on the box explaining that RECARO has their own cattle ranch with no barb wire fences and that all RECARO leather is perfect. These seats are not vegan friendly. Comfortable and very sexy, YES!

To complement the seat choice we picked a custom carpet kit and leather for the new door panels and headliner. Another nice touch was the new door panel trim matched the other door panel parts perfectly. More highlights include a new factory center console fitted with an updated HD headunit, MOMO steering wheel, and custom shift boot (Ruth’s choice).

Finally a set of powder-coated louvers and a full detail really make this 280z standout. The interior work was performed by Vargas Auto in Sunnyvale where owner Ron has been around classic cars and Datsuns for a long time. His father used to install all the dealer add-on vinyl tops on PL510s for Downtown Datsun back in the day.

With the interior beautifully finished and attention to little details Larry and Ruth’s special 280z is ready for the road!

Long Live The Z!
Rob

Check out the gallery for more interior detail shots
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Here is another update from Rob on Z8MYMONEY:

When we last heard from Mark and Michelle the Z continued to eat their money and this resulted in major suspension and driveline upgrades, which you can see HERE. During the last few months Mark has been pushing the limits of his latest additions and felt it was time to upgrade the instruments to keep him from hearing the music of sirens from his friends in the local police department.

 

We made a plan for some Autometer gauges. Mark picked the tach and speedo setup and ZCG’s very own Vlad (aka “Frisco Street”) did a great installation. He used set of custom made brackets from behind so the gauges sit flush in their original stock location. Final touches were made to the steering column cover for the LED turn signal indicators. Once the gauges were completed we calibrated the speedometer to make sure Mark can stay ticket free for now 🙂

 

2011 should be an exciting time for Z8MyMoney as we start on the exterior!!!

The 24 Hours of LeMons race last weekend was an unforgettable experience. This was my first event and first time being part of a pit crew for Team Rice Rocket Racing. As a newbie I would like to share my thoughts/photos on the various race cars and our team’s performance and later we will hear comments from the drivers.
We arrived at Buttonwillow early Friday morning to choose/setup our pit area. They don’t call this the “Arse Freeze-a-Palooza LeMons” race for nothing. It was seriously cold. Friday was test/tune day. The goal was pretty simple: run through everything beforehand so the actual race can run smoothly with no(or minimal) surprises, but it rarely works that way!

Our team consisted of 4 drivers(Josh C, Wade W(captain), Scott S, David O) and 3 pit crew members(Rob F, Scott A, myself) and even Josh’s folks were kind enough to lend a hand. Pit stops for driver changes and fuel are critical. They can cost several laps and positions so we practiced this several times. Wheel lugs were torqued, oil checked, tire pressures recorded/adjusted. It might seem trivial but getting a driver in/out with multiple seatbelts and communication wiring is tough to accomplish quickly! Scott A was an expert at this.  Communication was very important, not only with the driver but with everyone else on the team. When the Z was out on the course we had several spotters at different turns to radio in hazards and flag situations. Fueling was also a controlled event. Only 2 people(wearing approved safety gear) are allowed near the car while filling.

All drivers familiarized themselves with the course and the car, and each one was amazed with how well the Z accelerated and handled. We knew that we could make a top 10 or better finish. Friday was also the only day to get a Tech/BS inspection to officially run in the race. Each car goes through a normal technical inspection for safety, then a “BS” inspection to ensure that entrants truly have a $500 car. If not, the judges give BS penalties for anything over that magic number. It was fun to hear all of the stories and bribes! Can’t convince them by word? Try alcohol, sweets, more alcohol, or show some skin 🙂 Here’s the bribery table, and a judge spray painting the seal of bribery. Oh, and our Z passed both just fine:

This was also my opportunity to capture some of the craziest cars you have ever seen. Here are my highlights, there are about 100 more in the gallery. The Cowboy car was my favorite, seeing it on the track made me laugh with every lap as the horse and rider became more raked backwards from speed. The Most Interesting Car in the World was also one of the fastest BMWs. The Geo Metro done up as a ladybug actually had a mid-mounted motorcycle engine…it was nasty. Not one of my favorites but entertaining nonetheless was a pink limousine with a mannequin coming out of the sunroof…very slow on the track. Bob Klemme’s BMW 2002 came equipped with a functioning beer tap on the trunk. Our friend Ron Carter piloted the Killer MG Bee(Hey Ron I thought Lucas was the enemy!). The Maximum Overdrive pickup, the Nissan Sentra Mario Bros. car, the 240sx/’vette, and the total mish-mash car(can you figure it out?), and the Team America Miata. There were about six Z31s and another BRE-themed 240z!

 

Back to the racing! This will be an abbreviated report, I want the drivers to give you their view.

Saturday: Race Day.  We woke up to rain. I was worried but Rob was optimistic, even happy. His thought was that we could capitalize on the weather and turns out he was right! Scott S was the first driver of the day and we planned on doing 2hr stints.  We got him out on the track and there he was with 160 other cars waiting for the green flag to drop…it looked like chaos and the race had not started yet! Scott was brilliant out there.  The weather cleared by 11am and Josh and Wade did awesome but put a few wheels down and had to come in to the penalty box(pic top right).  We escaped trouble-free, but penalties for contact or putting 2-4 wheels off track range from “finding the key to life” to building a jigsaw puzzle. These cost precious time. Wade ran a team best lap of 2:16.459 on lap #52 which was only several seconds off the top5 cars!   Here is short video clip just after the green flag showing the number of cars out on the track:

David O was our last driver and was driving the Z’s heart out running very consistent laps.  Towards the end of his session he radio’d in some crunching sounds from the transmission especially on the 4-5 shift, but he finished.  The team did spectacular for first day and we were in 13th place!  We brought a spare ZX transmission, and Rob and Josh proceeded to do what ZCG does best: Fix Z’s!  It was almost bed time but the dynamic duo removed and replaced the transmission in just over 1hr. The culprit in the crunchy tranny? A common failure is 5th gear backing off the countershaft.  Note metal shavings on drain plug. It will be rebuilt.

Sunday: Final race day. With the new transmission in and 4 talented and excited drivers were ready to run. While Josh was warming the Z up/checking oil he heard a pinging/knocking sound. It sounded like it was coming from the valvetrain so he pulled the cover. A plug fell onto the ground, it was the oil gallery plug on the back of the cam! We were minutes away from the driver’s meeting and quickly tightened the plug back in place.  Josh went out first they announced that the race would be run counter-clockwise instead! Josh got into the groove and holding our position. He made minor contact with another car and had to come in but again we got lucky with no penalties.

Here is Josh coming through off the front straight into the esses…you rock!

Scott S was next and he made a heroic effort to move us up through that coveted top 10 finish. I watched as he battled a Mazda RX-7 and eventually passed him, then gained minutes on other cars around laps 200-205. It was epic. Our next target was car #84, a E30 BMW that was ahead by 1 lap. Scott was in pursuit but tried to go 4 cars wide into turn 16, hitting 2 cars and damaging the front suspension. Thankfully he was unharmed. It was very scary to hear it over the radio. The Z was towed back to our pit area. The T/C rod was bent and the strut separated from the spindle. We did have those spare parts on hand but there were other issues so we called it a day. We finished 72nd overall, not bad for a car that didn’t run the last half of the day.

 

With roughly 3 hrs of race time left we packed everything up, visited the results booth and took one last tour around the paddock. It was an incredible effort that we all learned from and look forward to applying our experience to the next race. If you have chance to help out at a motorsports event don’t pass it up it is truly fantastic.  Remember, it’s not always about winning, it’s about being consistent: just watch the little Fiat 500 below. See you at the next 24 hrs of Lemons!

Click for photo gallery below!
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