David T is a track hound and he loves to drive his 350z. The more track days he did, the more he wanted a race car that could be driven on the street. David even stripped the interior, put on some cool decals and continued to run at the track. Eventually the VQ35DE got tired so he decided it was time to turn it up.

 

He had a high compression, cammed Rebello engine built and installed at another shop. Z Car Garage handled the tuning an corrected a few things with the engine swap. We upgraded the injectors to EV14 650cc units, installed an Aeromotive 340 fuel pump and GT MAF. Rob worked his magic on the dyno with UPREV tuning and David’s Z now makes a stout 312hp/285tq to the wheels:

 

 

We can’t wait to see you out on the local race courses David, Enjoy The Ride!

Our friend Patrick Chio continues to race in the US Touring Car Championship (USTCC) with his Nissan 350z that we’ve helped prepare. The events are televised on Final Drive TV with some great commentary and white-knuckle action! Check out Patrick’s report from the last three events here:

2016 UTSCC Report

You can see more of Patrick’s racing history and ZCG car prep HERE. Good luck Patrick you make us proud!

 Ron B. Jr met Rob Fuller in the early 2000s. At the time Ron had a 300zx Twin-Turbo that ZCG serviced. Sadly, one day Ron decided he was done with the Z32 and sold it. One of our customers actually bought it and we think it is still out there being enjoyed. Ron wasn’t entirely done with Z’s as he picked up a 350z Track model (shown at Thunderhill in 2006):

 

Some 15 years later after meeting Rob, Ron had got another Z. Why? Once you have a Z it is in your blood and hard to get it out of your life! This latest Z obsession came in the form of a 2012 Nismo 370:

 

Ron loved this car but he was missing something. We all long for it: BOOST! So he gave ZCG call, reconnected with Rob and reminisced about the old days with the 300. It was decided, we would make Ron’s car one of the first jobs of 2016 using a Stillen supercharger kit.

    

The Stillen kit comes with a polished V-3 blower, 25-row oil cooler and we add GT-R plugs. Due to higher inlet temperatures observed on these builds we are starting to upgrade the stock water-to-air cooler. Frozen Boost makes a larger cooler shown below:

 

A few shots of the kit installation:

 

Before and after:

 

We love the PLX Devices DM100 gauge that neatly replaces the clock with…

 

… a multi-function display for vitals like boost, air intake temp and wideband:

  

Another addition to the interior was a new NISMO shift knob:

 

Got the Z on the dyno and out of the box the Stillen supercharger added 82hp/42tq to the wheels:

 

 

With UPREV tuning we saw significant gains of 120hp/85tq above stock for a grand total of 410hp/326tq to the wheels:

 

With 410hp to the wheels one would think Ron’s Z car obsession is satisfied…he is really feeling the need for another 300zx Twin Turbo in his life so we are on the hunt for a pearl white 90-92 Z32TT with black/tan interior. From Z32 to Z33 to Z34, if the Z is in your blood we can help you live with it!

 

Keep Boosting Ron and Long Live The Z!

 

Several years ago we met Scott L at a local autocross and eventually started working on his 2003 Brickyard 350z. He loved to road race so we performed incremental upgrades including Stoptech front brakes, a Quaife differential, Hotchkis sway bars, Koni Yellow shocks, and adjustable front A-arms with rear lower control arms. We also did a minor tune and numerous track day-prep/maintenance. Here he is at Laguna Seca:

 

With 200k miles on the Z he started looking for a new sportscar that met his requirements. Being a Nissan fan and quite attached to his Z the GT-R did make his list but the lack of a true manual transmission steered him away. A C7 Z51 and Cayman GTS were also in the running until he saw the new GT350 Mustang and it ticked all the right boxes:

   

Scott stopped by ZCG to dyno the Shelby and it put down an impressive 460hp/375tq to the wheels! Factory rated at 520hp/429tq, this flat-plane crank beast has been reported to put down even more power on 93 octane!

 

 

The dyno chart is displayed with a bone stock 2012 Mustang GT:

Here is a video of the ‘Stang on the dyno.  Congratulations Scott and thanks for bringing her by the shop!

Rob was completely impressed after driving it…Nissan are you listening?

 

Jared C has been a customer since Z Car Garage opened in 2004. Years ago before UPREV tuning existed, Rob tuned his car with a piggy back ecu.  Jared kept coming back to us for little things like cams when he was NA and last year made the jump to forced induction via the Vortech Tuner supercharger kit.

We added EV14 injectors, a GT MAF and 25-row Z1 oil cooler:

   

While it was in the shop Jared expressed interest in larger brakes and lucky for him we had some Stoptech ST-45 rear calipers in stock. We ordered matching silver ST60 calipers for the front:

Now the Z has big brakes to match its big power!

 

Jared’s Z has always been a really strong performer making above average power NA…it did the same with FI!

NA: 243hp/239tq

Vortech: 443hp/359tq

 

We turned it down a notch for final numbers of 429hp/353tq to the wheels:

 

Thank you Jared for your continued support and Enjoy The Ride under boost!