We are happy to see more Z car owners enjoying innovative products from Z Car Garage. The Bring a Trailer Datsun 240z recently visited us for a ZCG Big-Brake kit installation after an eventful driving season. We found and prepped this car for BaT Co-Founder and CEO Randy Nonnenberg just in time for an epic road trip to The Mitty. If you missed the introduction to this Z please visit our initial blog post HERE.

 

Keeping up with the BaT 240z

Before we get into the Big-Brake kit details, let’s catch up with the BaT 240z since it left our shop heading to Road Atlanta in April. The Z’s first duty was to serve as photo/chase car participating in the Copperstate 1000 rallye in Tempe, AZ:

  

The journey to The Mitty was more than a destination where Datsun was the featured marque. Along the way, the Z would visit “BaT Alumni” and fans for interviews to share their automotive stories. We were stoked to see the Z made it all the way to Road Atlanta!

 

BaT’s entire Mitty road trip is wonderfully documented in several installments HERE, enjoy this video too:

 

Rallye Prep Services

After the 4000+ mile road trip the BaT Z came back to us for sorting and a refresh.  Despite losing 5th gear in Nashville, Randy was able to cross the finish line at Road Atlanta using 4th. At the shop we confirmed the mainshaft nut had backed off (very common on early 5-speeds) creating situation where all the gears become misaligned.  We removed it and installed a really nice 280z 5-speed transmission.

  

A few more items needing attention that we sorted:

-all fluids
-fixed headlight switch
-replaced/rebuilt hatch strut
-A/C wiring and power switch corrected + system re-charged (performed in-house)

Back in April, Randy and Rob both agreed on returning the Z back to its original aesthetics before the epic road trip. We swapped out the air dam for a factory valance and installed the stock steering wheel, but we didn’t have time to replace the dated black mirrors. On this visit we tackled the installation of factory Nissan mirrors:

  

Removal of the black plastic mirrors and installing OEM units required minor bodywork. Our man William took care of the 112 paint. Hard to beat these beautiful mirrors on the S30, more pics in the gallery!

 

With the Z sorted, Randy and his father drove it on yet another rallye in July, the Faultine 500.

 

ZCG Big Brakes

In September we met BaT at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion at Laguna Seca.  Randy and the crew discussed using ZCG products on their Z as it had an older Wilwood brake kit. The plan was to install and run our ZCG Big-Brake kit for the Targa Baja California rallye coming in October.

  

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 14″ Watanabe or Panasport wheel! 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.

Randy brought the Z to the shop and we removed the existing Wilwood setup:

  

Front setup:

  

The proportioning valve that was required for the old Wilwood kit was removed:  ZCG Brakes do NOT require a proportioning valve!

  

Big-Brakes at the rear as well. The Z had a weird hydraulic parking brake and this was removed so we could install the factory brake lever setup.

 

  Randy’s Z now has a fully functioning parking brake:

  

Before leaving the shop we replaced a failed u-joint in the driveshaft and balanced it. We were stoked to hear how well the Z and the Big-Brake kit performed on the Targa Baja California rallye in October:

“Big thanks to Rob Fuller and his team at Z Car Garage for preparing our 1972 Datsun 240Z which ran flawlessly the entire time at sustained high RPMs and in hot weather. Prior to the event he outfitted the car with his custom in-house developed Z brake kit which provided excellent stopping power and near-perfect pedal feel. After it was all over, we woke up early Sunday morning in Ensenada and drove 600 miles straight back to San Francisco!”

 

Thanks to Randy and the crew at Bring a Trailer for the support and sharing their Z car experience with the world. They are truly Enjoying the Ride, proving that Datsuns ARE DRIVEN!

More pictures in the gallery below
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More and more Z car owners are enjoying innovative products from Z Car Garage. Here is a quick update on two S30s getting our ZCG Big-Brakes for small wheels. Full report coming soon!

The Bring A Trailer Datsun 240z

The Bring A Trailer Datsun 240z is back at ZCG to replace the existing Wilwood brakes with our ZCG Big-Brake Kit.

 

   

Randy’s Z will also have a fully functioning parking brake now! We are excited to have have the car ready to rock on its next rallye at the Targa Baja California.

 

Bruce’s Series 1 Datsun 240z

We met Bruce L at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion . He has owned this Series 1 Z for a long time and he wanted it back on the road. Though he’s worked on his own Z for years, he was ready to hand it off to our crew at ZCG. We are restoring the fuel system and just finished up the suspension. Bruce’s Z got our ZCG Big-Brake kit and our ZCG CV Axles:

  

Both of these products are available now from Z Car Garage. Please email/call Rob!

 

The 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show was held on September 15, in Long Beach, CA. This is the original vintage Japanese-car event in SoCal and in its 14th year, JCCS has grown incredibly–over 430 cars covered the lawn of Marina Green Park. The vehicles themselves remained a fantastic blend of stock, modified and restored. This is the most important show for Japanese cars, and the Z Car Garage crew keeps coming back every year to soak up the sun, see old friends and drool over some spectacular vintage builds.

   

ZCG Displays Two Z Cars!

 

Z Car Garage displayed two customer cars at the show: Randy Jaffe’s 1970 Datsun 240z and James Stevens’ 1972 Datsun 240z.  Randy’s Z was completed in time to be our booth car. This Series 1 S30 started as a project car 4-years ago with paint/bodywork performed by Bryson Richards of Classic Livery. The Z was shipped to us from Georgia for finishing Randy’s vision of a wild show/go race car:

 

Inspiration for the Jagermeister livery came from Randy’s obsession with Porsche, and the Max Moritz Racing Porsche 934.

  

We will take an in-depth look at this Z in separate post, but here are a few key details. Providing room for the 275/315-width tires is an authentic Pandem Rocketbunny aero kit. Randy channeled his passion for racing into this build and the chassis is virtually identical to his #46 BRE Datsun 240z, using zinc’d DP Racing suspension parts. The engine is a big displacement L-series running 13:5:1 compression, triple-Mikuni ph44s, a Fujitsubo header and glorious BRE-style exhaust. Running gear includes a close-ratio ZX transmission, OS Giken LSD for the 4.11 R180, our ZCG CV Axles and ZCG Big-Brake Kit (race version).

   

We are happy to report that Randy’s Z won 1st place, Best 240z in a class filled with incredible Z cars!

 

James’s 1972 S30 was displayed with fellow Z car owners in the show. At the heart of this beast is a turbocharged L-series managed by Haltech. Chassis upgrades include custom full-length subframe connectors, our ZCG CV Axles and Big-Brake Kit (328mm) behind Volk TE37V wheels.

 

A stack instrument cluster was integrated into the gauge pod, viewed from leather Recaro Pole Position seats. This Z has a very unique sound. We recently tuned it on E85, dyno results and videos coming soon!

   

We are very happy for James as he won the award for Best of JC Speed!

 

Stay tuned for in-depth reports on both of these Z cars coming to zcarblog.com.

Showtime!

Our friend and talented racer Troy Ermish transported both of our Z cars (and his 510) down to Long Beach Friday afternoon. Below is a video of the Z’s loading from the shop:

We unloaded early Saturday morning from the expansive parking lot near the new venue in Marina Green Park.  Immediately we could tell this location was larger and more vendor-friendly than The Queen Mary of past shows. Our booth was situated in a great spot, at the mid-point of the show with our neighbors from OS Giken.
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Yesterday we dyno tuned Glenn Chiou and Taz Harvey’s B-Sedan Datsun 510 race cars. Both will be running at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in just a few weeks!

 

Glenn is an avid Datsun enthusiast having owned and raced several cars. You might remember his VIPS 240z vintage race car from the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion last year where he ran it alongside our hero John Morton. We also dyno-tuned the Z in preparation for race week. Look for #39 at this year’s RMMR!

 

Taz is a veteran Datsun racer, having completed the Carrera Panamericana in both a 240z and 510, built by our friend Troy Ermish. You might find the #51 510 familiar as the previous owner was Wayne McAttee!

 

Like all race cars that get dyno’d at ZCG, these 510s left with more power and peace of mind! Enjoy the dyno video below and listen to the L-series sing!

 

 

Z Car Garage is excited to participate in the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 23-26 at Laguna Seca. We will be driving and supporting several vintage race cars, including this special 1979 Datsun 280zx raced by Jim Fitzgerald. “Fitzy” is the winningest driver in SCCA history with an astounding 350+ wins in his career.

  

He was never afraid to trade paint to get the win: in 1980 at the C Production Runoffs at Road Atlanta he was seen slamming doors with Freddie Baker in his E-Type on the front straight, on the pace lap! Video of the action can be seen in this HERE. Following this race, the ZX became known as the “Designated Hitter” car.  Fitzgerald died in 1987 after crashing his 300zx Turbo in the Trans Am series race.

 

  

Comedian/Paul Newman fan Adam Carolla purchased the ZX in 2009, and put it up for sale with our friends at Bring A Trailer last July. Our customer Alex McDowell won the auction and Rob and I visited Adam’s shop in Los Angeles to pick up the car. The Fitzy car was awesome to see in person, from the livery to wide Panasports it got my heart racing. We loaded it up onto a trailer courtesy of expert Datsun-restorer/historian Les Cannaday:

 

  

Before leaving, Adam’s crew was kind enough to let us peruse his car collection.

 

This place just might be Xanadu for Datsun nuts:

  

Adam is a big Paul Newman fan and it shows! Bonus points for a poster showing our #49 IMSA GTU 240z RMMR!

 

The ZX arrived safely at Z Car Garage (thanks Les) :

 

 

Fast forward to 2018, the Jim Fitzgerald 280ZX gained acceptance to race at the RMMR with Alex McDowell behind the wheel! ZCG began race preparation.

  

Rob dyno-tuned the L-series beast and it sounds fantastic. See the dyno and unloading in this video below:

 

We will have another feature for each of the race cars running at the Historics! Don’t forget to purchase your tickets for Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion 8/23! Enjoy more pictures in the gallery below:
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