Jay M purchased a set of Panasport Wheels from Z Car Garage and recently shared his Z story with us. We are an authorized Panasport dealer and have limited sets available for fitment on your S30 Z car. Before we show you how a set of these 16×7 wheels look on almost every Z color imaginable, let’s hear about Jay’s 240Z…

“The car was from California and made its way to Gainesville FL and was put in storage.I had been looking for a good 240 and this one was taken by the owner to a shop owned by a friend of a friend.The guy wanted to get it running and sell it.  That triggered a phone call to me while on a anniversary trip with my wife to Italy, we were living in St Augustine Florida at the time.  My buddy sent me some pics and a quick video and he grabbed the car for me.  It was all there and very little rust. I had not really considered a Blue one, much less one with white interior.”

The car was restored by Jay and 3 friends minus paint and the head work in his 2 car garage over 3 years. Jay has met so many people in the Z community and learned much about Z cars:

 

Beautiful engine bay with new engine:

Check out the before/after on the interior…great work Jay and friends!

  

Jay recalls how he found ZCG and eventually purchased a set of Panasports from us:

“I found the on Z Car Garage videos on YouTube very early on which led me to your website.  I went to Daytona to see Randy Jaffe’s #46 BRE 240z car run and left just before John rolled it. I met Rob at the Amelia Concours earlier this year and bought a set of Panasports from the shop. I also have become friends and an Insurance client of Jim Frederick in Lutz Florida who I believe has the finest collection of low VIN original Z’s in the World!  Jim has also helped me with parts and advice on this build.  I am hoping Larry Chen will make it down to film Jim’s collection.”

 

The Panasports do look fantastic on this #115 Metallic Blue 240Z. Thank you for your support Jay, glad you are Enjoying The Ride!

 

Panasport wheels for your Z car

    

Treat your Z to a brand new set of Panasport wheels! We special order this offset to enable fitment of a 225/50/16 tire on the 1970 to 1978 S30s.

Contact us: rob@zcargarage.com or call 408-452-0350 Limited availability (pallet pictured)

Wondering how a set of Panasports would look on your Z car? Please enjoy pictures below of ZCG customer cars in jus about every color imaginable with Panasport wheels:

 

The ZONC Annual Car Show will be held Sunday September 12 in Brisbane, CA. This a fun event in a great location so bring out your Z, G, Datsun or GT-R! Pictures from previous shows can be seen HERE with more details below. Z you at the show!

 

  

 

 

We had a blast at the 34th Annual Z Car Convention (ZCON) hosted by ZCCA in Colorado Springs. This is the largest Z-car event in the US and we were stoked to be a sponsor. Coming from the 8/17 New 2023 Z Reveal in New York, Rob and Meghan attended the the 8/21 People’s Choice Show at ZCON. Enjoy photos these from the event!

  

Congratulations to our client Bob Russell on his 1st place award for Stock 240Z! We will have a full report on Bill’s S30 on zcarblog.com soon

 

Both of our clients Jack and Linda made it to ZCON with their recently finished Z’s and had a great time:

 

Jack won 3rd place for Ultra-Modified Z32 with his LS3-swapped, Primadonna Z:

 

The largest Z show!

 

ZCON was a Z car lover’s fantasy… with every generation represented. There were even non-Z cars welcomed!

S30

 

S130

  

Mike Rogers 12-mile 1980 ZX. Here is a great video and walk through on this time capsule!

 

Z31

 

 

Z32

 

350z

 

370z

Nissan/Datsun Gems

ZCON welcomed all members of the family and there were some great cars on display:

 

Roadster, 620 and S13

 

Best of the 90’s!

 

Midnight Purple R33, Z32 and R32 all at gas station just outside of ZCON!

 

People

The legendary Pete Brock, Hiroshi Tamura and Larry Chen were just a few of the big names at ZCON:

 

Christopher Karl and Mark Lambert both received Lifetime Achievement Awards, congrats gentlemen!

Thank You!

ZCON was a success. Big thanks to Christopher Karl of ZCCA for an incredible week of friends and Z cars. Z you next year!

…[read more]

 

Race car driver, restorer and Datsun Historian Glenn Chiou visited Z Car Garage today for dyno tuning on his IMSA GTU 260z race car! You might remember our previous blog post highlighting the ZCG CV Axles Glenn installed himself:

    

Glenn is preparing for the upcoming Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca and we specialize in dyno tuning vintage race cars for the event. Listen to that triple-Mikuni fed L-Series roar on the dyno…Glenn is dialed-in and ready to race!

 

 

The Different Drummer Z

 

Glenn Chiou is our client, fellow racer and friend. He was one of the first to run our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes on his RHD 240Z and actively vintage races both 510 and Z cars. You may have seen Glenn’s FAR Performance 240Z in VIPS Restaurant livery as raced in the 70’s by Loren St. Lawrence. Glenn restored this race car himself and it is now going back to Bay Area Datsun Dealers livery as raced by FAR Performance privateer Walt Maas. Glenn’s got a passion for re-telling the stories of legendary privateer Z car racers and his current restoration project is the Different Drummer Racing Z raced by Greg Sorrentino. This is a really cool race car with great history and build details behind it.

 

Chassis # RLS30-000024 is a July 1973 pre-production Datsun 260Z chassis that was sold by the factory for one dollar in 1975 to Different Drummer Racing, owned by Greg Sorrentino of Troy, Michigan. It was one of the very first Datsun 260Z chassis and was built by the legendary American fabricator, Ron Fournier. This Z car has been consistently raced for the last 40+ years in IMSA GTU, SCCA Trans-Am, and C-Production/GT-2 classes. You can see more history and details of the build HERE.

 

Thanks for your support Glenn! We we will be rooting for you at the Monterey event!

 

 

 

 

 

We love to see our parts installed and used on client’s cars. Race car driver, restorer and Datsun Historian Glenn Chiou is running our ZCG CV Axles in this IMSA GTU 260z race car!

 

Glenn is preparing for the upcoming Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion event at Laguna Seca. A half shaft failure is not something he wanted to worry about while racing so he replaced them with ZCG CV Axles. Glenn installed set #367 himself with ease:

 

The Different Drummer Z

 

Glenn Chiou is our client, fellow racer and friend. He was one of the first to run our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes on his RHD 240Z and actively vintage races both 510 and Z cars. You may have seen Glenn’s FAR Performance 240Z in VIPS Restaurant livery as raced in the 70’s by Loren St. Lawrence. Glenn restored this race car himself and it is now going back to Bay Area Datsun Dealers livery as raced by FAR Performance privateer Walt Maas.

 

Glenn’s got a passion for re-telling the stories of legendary privateer Z car racers and his current restoration project is the Different Drummer Racing Z raced by Greg Sorrentino. This is a really cool race car with great history and build details behind it.

 

Chassis # RLS30-000024 is a July 1973 pre-production Datsun 260Z chassis that was sold by the factory for one dollar in 1975 to Different Drummer Racing, owned by Greg Sorrentino of Troy, Michigan. It was one of the very first Datsun 260Z chassis and was built by the legendary American fabricator, Ron Fournier. This Z car has been consistently raced for the last 40+ years in IMSA GTU, SCCA Trans-Am, and C-Production/GT-2 classes.

  

In 1975, the Datsun Competition Department agreed to support Greg Sorrentino’s IMSA GTU racing efforts by providing him a pre-production Datsun 260Z. Once in Sorrentino’s hands, it was left to his all-star lineup of builders to help him build a frighteningly fast IMSA GTU car:

• Chassis preparation was to the skilled hands of legendary metal fabricator, Ron Fournier
• Suspension duties were left to Mac Tilton
• John Knepp of Electramotive Engineering built the motors for Different Drummer Racing

 

 

The DDR Z in action at Portland International Raceway in 1979:

 

You can read more about the official history on this Z as documented by Glenn here:

1974 IMSA GTU 260Z – Official History

 

 

As usual, Glenn’s painstaking efforts and diligence result in a faithful restoration…where parts are not available he has gone to extraordinary lengths to re-create pieces from historical photos…all from his garage at home.

 

Thanks for your support Glenn! We we will be rooting for you at the Monterey event!

 

Z Car Garage CV Axles

Over 130 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 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.