We love to see our parts installed and used on client’s cars. Race car driver and Datsun enthusiast Brad H is running our ZCG CV Axles in this IMSA GTU 240z race car!

 

Brad is preparing his Z for the next race season and a half shaft failure is not something he wanted to worry about while racing so he replaced them with ZCG CV Axles. He installed set #312 with ease, stock half shafts (left) and ZCG CV Axles (right):

 

“The rear end is a LSD R200 with a 3.70 gear. I’m not really sensitive to the rear gear ratio because of all of the variability I have in the gear box. It’s connected to the rear hubs by Z Car Garage CV axles. I had been looking for options on axles simply because the thought of going into Nascar 4 at Daytona with 50 year old U-Joint technology made me nervous. I heard about Z Car Garage from Randy Jaffe. We are both in Atlanta and I was at his shop one day because he was kind enough to let me borrow a rear diff to carry as a backup to Daytona. While there, he showed me the CV axles and I reached out to Rob to order a set the next day. We have kept a great relationship ever since.”

  

Check out Brad’s installation of the ZCG CV Axles and see the Z in action in the video below!

 

 

Brad’s IMSA 240Z Build

 

Let’s hear how Brad found and built his 240Z race car:

“The story of my car starts with a poster I had on my wall as a kid of the Bob Sharp Racing GTU Z that was campaigned in 1976. We raced ITS Z cars back in the late 80’s, but I had always said that if the situation presented itself, I would build a tribute to that car. The original was destroyed in ’76 at the Camel GT at Road Atlanta when Sharp blew a tire coming up to the bridge and hit the embankment hard on drivers left. That left a tribute as the only option.”

 

Brad found a solid chassis that was running as a track day car in Ontario Canada. Peter Skillins had built the car (www.datsunzcars.com) and had done a fantastic job. The cage was done by Blaise Csida (www.bcracecars.com) who is a well respected Trans Am driver/car builder. In addition to a very robust cage, several additional reinforcements were installed like additional shock tower structures and additional stiffening structures on the front frame rails.

 

“The car was then sent to Burtin Racing (www.burtinracing.com) here in Atlanta for final assembly and installation of the IMSA GTU body kit that John Washington at ZTrix puts together. It’s a great kit that requires minimal modification to the body panels themselves, but the fabricators at Burtin when a bit further by putting together some additional components to support the kit under my application. Specifically was a new nose frame and airbox set up as well as new customer rear fender inner liners. All body panels are removable with 1/4 turn fasteners and the car can be stripped in less than 3 minutes. The Burtin fabricators (Terry and Damon) work daily preparing/maintaining a top tier Trans Am team (Tomy Drissi and Simon Gregg), the work they do is top notch and highly recommended. All along the way the fabricators at Burtin Racing made small suggestions on performance and safety ideas.”

 

 

The motor was built by Steve Nelson at Top End Performance in CA (www.racetep.com). It’s an L28 with a 2MM stroke add that runs at 13.1:1 compression.

“It has a race cam and is fed by 3 Mikuni 44PHHs. Steve and team do a great job on the bottom end, but the reason I went with TEP was that they use Slover head porting. Slover has long been one of the best head preparers in the L series motors going back to the origins of L series racing engines. If you’ve ever seen the work they do you would quickly understand why. Steve also recommended running the Electromotive crankfire ignition system. I was hesitant at first, but was sold very quickly when you get to see ease of timing adjustments and the complete elimination of timing slop you get at over 6-7,000 RPM. That was a great call.”

 

“The gearbox is a Hewland STA wide the came out of one of Burtin Racing’s TA cars. They upgraded to sequential, so Claudio (the team owner and good friend) recommended we install the Hewland behind the L28 because of its reliability and optionality with gear sets. To do so required a custom adapter that the Burtin guys made on the CAD and removal of the existing tunnel. We went with a Quartermaster dual clutch set up that connected to the 28 spline shaft of the Hewland. With this box installed, I have access to no less than 50 gear sets which lets us gear the car for each track we go to. For Road Atlanta, which is my local track, we run a 2.20/1.88/1.44/1.23/1.09 configuration with a 1:1 spur gear.”

 

Brad enlisted Andrew at Wheelflip (www.wheelflip.com) who was able to find him 2 matching sets of late 70’s BBS centers with the stock 4X114 bolt patter. After taking many measurements they ended up with 2 sets of gold 16X11 fronts (5.5 outers/5.5 inners) and 16X12 rears (6.5 outers/5.5 inners). Brad runs Goodyear Eagle slicks with the 430 compound:

 

“The car was fully wrapped in the Bob Sharp Racing livery from 1976 by the same folks that wrap the Burtin Racing TA cars, AAA SignCrafters (www.aaasigncrafters.com). Huge thanks to the folks at Harris Decal (www.harrisdecals.com) for putting together all the special decals that were required to get the look correct”

 

In mid 2021, Brad moved to his own shop in Buford, GA under the operation of BPH Motorcars, LLC. The car is currently maintained by Jason Howe of Howe Custom Fabrication. Jason was a former fabricator at Burtin Racing as well as for the Panoz racing operation and does fantastic custom work. You can follow Brad’s racing efforts on Instagram. More pictures in the gallery below!

 

Thanks for your support Brad! We look forward to seeing you on the track for the 2022 race season, LONG LIVE THE Z!

Z Car Garage CV Axles

 

Over 140 sets of our ZCG CV Axles are installed in client’s cars all over the world. For more information please visit our detailed post our HERE. Below are just a few examples of race cars running out CV Axles:

 

Race car driver, restorer and Datsun Historian Glenn Chiou is running our ZCG CV Axles in this IMSA GTU 260z race car!

 

Race car driver and restoration specialist Jim Froula of Racecraft is running ZCG axles in several of his cars:

Set #246 – installed May 2018 on the “Harry Stewart #52” Datsun 510:

  

Set #247 – installed April 2018 on the 260z

  

Set #248 – installed on Adam Carolla’s “Greg Sorrentino #90” Datsun 510.

  …[read more]

Dear Zcarblog readers, it’s been a busy year and we are catching up on blog posts, so please enjoy our belated race report from October.

WE LOVE RACING! On October 2-3, Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) hosted the Charity Challenge at Sonoma Raceway. Z Car Garage had a blast racing and supporting several client’s Datsun 510 race cars running in B-Sedan Group 9 (John Morton Cup). This vintage racing event was totally free for spectators, thanks to CSRG for putting on another great event!

Z Car Garage Supports Five Datsun 510s!

 

It is our pleasure to bring more enthusiasts into the world of vintage racing. Our services do include full race support and car-preparation to help make client’s race days seamless and worry-free so they can focus on driving. One of our specialties is dyno tuning. Before a race weekend we confirm that your car is running well and make necessary adjustments while on the chassis dyno. Here is Rob dyno tuning Larry Oka’s B-Sedan:

 

Video of two Datsun 510 B-Sedans (Rob and Tom) and Kelvin in the second video on the dyno. Enjoy the sweet L-series music!

 

 

We also provided testing support for Tom, Kelvin, Ed and Larry at Sonoma. A “test day” offers our clients piece-of-mind and a great way to kick off the actual race weekend. While testing we had an engine failure in Tom’s car and a transmission issue in Ed’s car. Thanks to the ZCG crew were able to resolve both with a spare engine and transmission.

 

Time to Race!

Z Car Garage clients racing for the weekend included:

#7 Kelvin Tse

 

#92 Larry Oka

Owned by Larry Oka and driven by Jesse B.

 

#72 Tom Dockery

Tom Dockery in his  Ex-Norm Balzer 510.

We are proud of Tom as he finished 10th in 21-car field and grabbed a personal best, clicking off a 1:58 at Sonoma! Here is in-car video of him putting in work for Sunday’s race:

 

#71 Ed M

 

#7 Rob Fuller

ZCG owner Rob Fuller, Bay Area Datsun Dealers tribute car

  

Rob shares his highlights from the race weekend:

“We had a great group and on the first qualifying run I was able to be quickest out there. Started the Sat afternoon races on pole and Tom/Kelvin were mid-pack with Ed in back. I had a beautiful start but by the 4th lap my throttle cable failed. I was about 1.5s ahead of the pack and got my personal best lap time at Sears. Even though I was bummed at the DNF, I got the best seat in the house and watched my boys Tom, Kelvin and Ed go through the field and have a fun race.”

 

“Josh and Parker from the PNW duked it out, and on the last lap Josh took the win. I know my 510 wasn’t able to finish the race but at least a Datsun won! Saturday’s position determines your position for the next races so I started last in both sunday am and afternoon sessions. First race was 5 laps and I went from 21st to 3rd place. Second race was 7 laps and I went from 21st to 2nd. Thank you to Z Car Garage for the repair and prep to keep my Datsun 510 on the track the rest of weekend. Happy to get Podium, Hard Charger, and the fastest lap of the race. Was great way to end the weekend after the DNF on Saturday. Thanks to CSRG for another amazing event. Do it in a Datsun 510.”

 

Here is in-car video of Rob threading through the field, enjoy!

 

You can see more of Rob’s race videos from the CSRG event (and other race) on his YouTube Channel. Give the guy a thumbs up and subscribe while you are there!

 

A weekend of great racing and good times

 

This was our first race event with our new Intech aluminum trailer. It was a game changer, allowing ZCG to have a home base in the paddock for our clients to relax and for us to perform crew duties. Speaking of crew, we are grateful to our team including the Corwin’s (Josh, Keith and Bonnie thank you for keeping us safe all weekend), Meghan and Nick. Nick brought his beautiful Datsun 510 wagon that also put in work as a support vehicle:

 

There were cool cars everywhere in the paddock:

 

Big thanks to Meghan for taking photos and video around the paddock. Here is a highlight reel of what it’s like at a vintage race…you should join us next time!

 

Always happy to see friends and newcomers at these events. Greg H from SCCS was there running a Formula Ford…his first time out he placed 5th out of 4o cars! Now that he’s had a taste of Datsun racing Greg is now interested in a B-sedan of his own!

 

Datsun Car Corral!

 

CSRG is awesome. Participants were spoiled with FREE parking in the paddock area and full access to the race for the weekend. Our friend and client Linda Williams of ZONC drove her 1972 Datsun 240Z OMS Pace car! Full report on this historically-significant S30 coming to zcarblog shortly.

 

Our friends from the PNW were in attendance…great camaraderie and even better racing partners:

 

Rob with RacecraftNW owner and pal Jim Froula. Yes, the Bluebird Coupe we dubbed Sorabird is now back with Racecraft after being with our client Alex Mcdowell for many fun racing seasons.

 

We hope you enjoyed our race report from the October 2 CSRG Charity Challenge at Sonoma. Thanks agin to CSRG, the ZCG crew and our clients for a really fun event. The 2022 racing season looks amazing, please join us we will announce the event schedule soon. DO IT IN A DATSUN!
More pictures in the gallery below:

 

…[read more]

 

“Performance With Passion”. These are words that describe our work at Z Car Garage and we are passionate about making your Z perform as good as it looks. Photographer Larry Chen commissioned ZCG to transform his beloved SR20DET-powered 1970 Datsun 240Z from an “ok driver” to a no-excuses, multi-dimensional sports car with power, handling, braking, comfort, reliability and performance to match its eye-catching beauty.

 

Join Rob and Larry as they share the story of Larry’s Z, affectionately called “Ole Orange Bang”, featuring our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles, chassis preparation, dyno tuning and more. Enjoy the videos with behind the scenes footage and photo gallery below!

 

 

Car enthusiasts and motorsport fans recognize the name Larry Chen as the greatest automotive photographer. Larry has made a career out of his passion for capturing the right moments in racing. We are huge fans of his work since the days of covering Formula Drift, time at Speedhunters, and recent work with Hoonigan Autofocus. Our favorite Larry Chen moment is his photography of Ken Block’s 1400hp Hoonicorn at Pike’s Peak for the filming of Climbkhana.

 

Larry Chen is regularly exposed to some of the coolest builds across the globe, so you can imagine our joy hearing that Larry’s personal car is a Datsun 240Z. Larry’s Z is a Series 1 (VIN# 2868) that he purchased on his 21st birthday for $3000. He started autocrossing immediately with his buddies circa 2006, and it became an integral part of his life:

 

“It’s been such a big part of my adult life, and it will continue to be a part of it for the rest. The name actually came from a Mexican drink that we love in SoCal. My car is Orange and it backfired a lot when I got it especially when I was low on gas. So it was only appropriate to call it Orange Bang. On my wedding night instead of being ferried away in a fancy limousine, I drove my beautiful wife home in the Z, after some wedding burnouts.”

 

Following years of autocross and track use, in 2013 the tired L28 was replaced with an SR20DET straight out of a former Formula Drift car.

 

Like many enthusiasts, Larry continued to modify and upgrade the Z to fit his needs…adding A/C, coil-over suspension and creature comforts along the way. We spotted a freshly painted Ole Orange Bang at the 2019 Japanese Classic Car Show:

“In 2019 my friends at Bells and Vaughn in Pasadena, California did a full ground up restoration. It has all new paint and it was taken all the way down to the metal. Just this month I picked it up from Z Car Garage in San Jose California. ZCG pretty much went through the entire car and they fixed everything that was mechanically wrong with it.”

 

When Larry Met Rob: A ZCG Story

 

We first met Larry when he visited us at the 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show in Long Beach, CA. We talked about Z cars, and how he really wanted to get our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes and ZCG treatment on his personal Z. In 2020 he trailered his Z up from LA to ZCG in February, literally a few weeks before the pandemic.

“I actually found out about ZCG on Instagram and met Rob for the first time in SoCal at JCCS. I inquired about getting brakes for my car since it couldn’t stop even with a Toyota 4×4 conversion and Nissan Maxima rear disk brakes. They were absolutely horrible. There is a reason why people ship their Z cars across the country to ZCG. The passion is there and you can see it on everything they touch.”

While visiting Z Car Garage Larry featured a few of our client cars and did a shop tour for his YouTube channel Hoonigan AutoFocus. You can click on the thumbnails below to watch the videos:

 

Fast forward a year later and Larry returned to pick up his beloved Z. He shot a few more vehicles like my my 1967 Datsun Roadster and Randy’s 1970 Salt Flat Racer but most importantly Larry finally filmed a 1hr-long Hoonigan Autofocus episode of his own Z, Ole Orange Bang. Larry was so happy with his Z he recorded a separate lock-down video for our friends at Haltech.

 

We couldn’t leave our readers hanging without our own ZCG-style feature complete with dyno videos and behind the scenes footage, so if you can’t wait any longer here it is below. Turn those speakers up and enjoy, read on for an in-depth look at our work.

The ZCG Touch

 

Larry and Rob developed a plan for Ole Orange Bang. The Z had past work performed by many folks including Larry’s buddies. We simply wanted his Z to be a multi-dimensional sports car with power, brakes, handling and comfort. Cosmetics were already handled, it just needed some mechanical love with ZCG-products that you will find on many of our ZCG builds. Let’s begin with the chassis upgrades, then go into dyno tuning/engine bay work and final details like the interior and weatherstripping.

ZCG Big-Brakes and CV Axles

We handed Larry the keys to “Mrs. Butters”, our 1971 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 clients 🙂 Read below for a brief description of these parts:

    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 engineers at 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 some 14″ wheels) 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 Larry’s existing Toyota 4×4 front calipers and rear Maxima setup and installed our ZCG Big-Brake kit front and rear:

 

He got a new, OEM brake master cylinder as well:

 

At the rear, the Maxima setup was replaced with our ZCG Big-Brakes. Factory handbrake functionality IS retained!

 

Larry was impressed with the braking performance:

“The ZCG brakes and axles really give the 240z an update with modern top of the line performance where the Z badly needs it. These cars are lightweight and easy to make fast, but everything else that goes along with it is very lacking. While the 240z is a great car to drive in stock form, there is nothing like having a lightweight turbo rear wheel drive sports car.”

Wheels By Love20bee

Complementing the new Big-Brakes and suspension on Larry’s Z are a fresh set of Southern Ways Epsilon mesh wheels from Love20bee. It was an absolute pleasure working with owner, Matt K. to adjust the offset on the wheels just before Larry picked his Z up from ZCG.

 

At Z Car Garage we enjoy both modifying Z cars and restoring them back to factory spec. Mike’s 1970 Datsun 240Z came to us from North Carolina and we are just crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s on it. When complete, this ’69 production VIN#193 will be a beautiful driving example of how wonderful these cars were from the factory. Enjoy these pictures with a full report coming soon to zcarblog.com.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Greg S’ 1970 Datsun 240Z in Monte Carlo Red. We have known Greg for a long time, actually preceding the opening of Z Car Garage. It’s always been a pleasure to see Greg with his beloved Z plus he’s a Nissan enthusiast with a few Patrols and mint RL411 wagon. His Series 1 S30 received our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles and Panasport wheels.

 

Our relationship with Greg goes back well before social media and our photo documentation. Greg performs his own work on the Z, and we finish the small extra things that let him Enjoy The Ride. Let’s take a look at how Greg became a Z car enthusiast.

History

“My old man purchased the car for me in 1992. I was 19 and we had been looking for a decent 240z for about a year. We found this one in one of those auto traders printed on recycled paper. It was basically  ‘Original owner, runs great, 83K miles $3,500 OBO’. It was bone stock, totally straight, unrestored and completely unmolested. The original sales receipt for $3,300 was in with his service records. Seemed like the car had spent its whole life in northern California.”

“The photos with the basket style 14” rims were after a trip to the junkyard for said rims, new tires and some elbow grease polishing and waxing it. It cleaned up pretty nicely. I went to college in Santa Clara and first ran into Rob when he was a mechanic working at the shop I would take the car…I did most of the general maintenance work but had that shop put in a set of Suspension Techniques sway bars, springs and Tokico struts. At the time I didn’t know enough to appreciate what a good shop that was.”

   

The car was repainted in 2000 by Lakeville Auto Body in Petaluma, matching the original #905 Monte Carlo Red. At about 150,000 miles Greg decided to replace the motor, even though it would have happily ran for a bit longer:

“Nissan was selling remanufactured L28 280ZX long blocks for $1,400 which seemed like a smokin’ deal. It was about the same price as you could buy the parts to rebuild the L24. I had moved back to Sonoma county and my dad and I did the motor swap in his garage.
I took the opportunity to add the Redline triple Weber 40 DCOE kit, a sportier cam and a set of headers. I worked with a speed shop to sort out the jetting. It ran decent, but was pretty rich down low, would stumble at times and got poor gas mileage. I drove it like that for several years, replacing the intake manifold, fabricating the heat shield and air filter assembly.”  

 

The Z Car Garage Touch

About 12 years ago Greg was looking to resolve the jetting on the Z and seriously considered ditching the Weber carbs altogether.  He spent some time trying to find that original shop in Santa Clara but found Z Car Garage instead. It didn’t take long to figure out that he had already worked with Rob and that alleviated any reservations about dropping his Z off at a shop a few hours from home:

  

“As expected, Z Car Garage did an excellent job re-jetting carbs. The car idles perfectly, pulls cleanly, makes more power and gets a respectable 18-20 mpg. Now anytime I need help sorting out a problem with the Z, advice on an upgrade, part availability or just need someone to sing some ballad rock to me, I call Rob.”

 

Greg is really happy:

“Since then Rob has set me up with:

• The correct 16″ Panasports that saved me the hassle of getting wheel sets that rub or rims that just look OK.
• ZCG CV Axles axles that were a joy to install, run smoothly and don’t make the racket that the other (hateful) CV kit did.
• Recaro seat that is actually suitable for driving long distances and keeps you from sliding into the footwell.”

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:

  

Greg brought his Z down on May 20 and with a one-day turn around we installed our ZCG Big-Brake kit with parking brake assembly. We also replaced his brake M/C with a new OEM Nissan unit, bleeding the system and setting it all up. He’s super impressed and he also had fun visiting us:

“While I was down at ZCG, Rob took the time to show me around. The shop is clean and even the parts storage container is expertly organized. The quality of the cars and race cars in the shop were a joy to see.”

 “Most recently I dropped the car off to have ZCG install their excellent brake kit. Super clean installation, perfect pedal feel and stops great. They clearly put a lot of effort into this kit and did such a nice job installing it.”

 

Front brake installation:

  At the rear, the OEM drums brakes were replaced with our ZCG Big-Brakes. Factory handbrake functionality IS retained!

 

 

Z Car Garage CV Axles

Our Z Car Garage CV Axles help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to your standard half shafts. We have over 140+ CV axle kits on customer cars and we are stoked with all of the positive feedback.

 

Greg was experiencing significant vibrations in the back of his car. In February 2020 we sold him a set of ZCG CV Axles and installed it himself…he loves them. Standard half-shafts shown on left:

 

Greg is having a blast in the Z and sent us this video he made from a recent drive in Petaluma, enjoy!

 

Panasport Wheels

 

In 2014 we sold Greg a set of Panasport wheels which were finished in a slick, gumetal shade. Our ZCG Big-Brakes also look great behind Panasport wheels in our offset allowing 225/50/16 tires (Bridgestone S-007a). The Z was fully aligned afterwards.

 

Interior

 

The stock seat was replaced with a single Recaro Specialist, we love these seats for the S30. Time for another seat, right Greg?

   

Bluebird Wagon

 

“I have only called Rob to cry about the 411”