Let me start off by saying thank you to everyone who had a hand in this event, especially the entire ZONC crew.  Secondly I would like all of you individually to give a few claps of the hand to ZONC for getting a NISMO 370z to this event!!  Seriously, if you only new the kind of elbow grease it took to pull this one off!!

About the NISMO 370z.  It looks amazing in person.  This is the first one that I have seen with my own eyes and it did not let me down.  While the revised front fascia will still take some getting used to, the rear is spot-on from the factory.  I love the look of the new spoiler and the rear bumper has small vertical vents that are very reminiscent of a GT3 Porsche.  The car doesn’t appear to sit too high in stock form, as did the outgoing Z33 NISMO, and the subtle changes inside were not too flamboyant for my taste.

I would love to offer some sort of driving report on the car but I was only able to move it around for a few of the photos that were taken.  I’m sure one of our customers will pick one up as soon as they hit U.S. soil so I’ll be sure to take the keys then.  Haha.  Anyways, thanks to Dublin Nissan as well for bringing out the other while 370z base model as well as a GT-R for a small Nissan family get-together.

Back to the show!  We left the shop almost on time (7:45am) and arrived at the show around 8:20 or so.  The weather was absolutely perfect in the morning and I had the windows down in the Red 280zx Restoration all the way up there.  After moving all the cars into place and saying our “hellos” to faces we haven’t seen in a year I began to notice the lack of the Z32 300zx population at the show.  This group of cars has been fifteen strong in the past and I think the grand total this year was under five, crazy times in the Z world.  Maybe Z32 owners don’t like the heat, the projected forecast for the day was in the mid-nineties.

All of the other groups had pretty strong showings but I was blown away by how many early cars made the trip this year.  Most of these cars were in really good shape if not fully restored.  In this group are the three cars that now wear the ZCG Big Break Kit.  This was our first show with the full production version installed on customer cars and the response was outstanding.  I talked with both owners of the newly installed kits and they couldn’t be happier.  I will have a full post on the production version of the brake kit shortly.

After taking an early, and long, lunch to beat the heat we made our way into the museum.  We were not surprised to see that the cars had changed a little but most of the first floor held something new!  Right as we walked in we were greeted by a beautiful Porsche 959 prototype that was developed a full three years before the existence of the 959 was released, one of three ever made.  Off to a good start!  We proceeded to wander around the first floor in awe of the great cars in front of us until we checked our watches and realized that the trophy presentation was going to start in about fifteen minutes.

We picked up the pace and headed up stairs to the second show room and were greeted with some of the more economical cars of the past, the Honda N600 and the BMW Isetta.  Both cars achieved similar gas mileage to today’s hybrids, albeit today’s cars are much more functional that these micro gas sippers.

Heading into the main upstairs room we are greeted with quite a few cars that we have seen in previous trips, and they are still just as stunning as the first time I saw them.  This room is filled with the large saloon cars of the thirties, all cars of overwhelming opulence in a time when America was at it’s worst just following the great depression.  These cars have the strangest ornate features such as the snakes on the fenders of the car you see below.  It was also interesting to see that SU carburetors, as seen on early Z cars, were used even in these early days in high horsepower applications such as the supercharged Bentley also pictured below.

At this point we got the call wondering where we were and we made haste back to the show.  It turns out the awards presentation was just about over.  Quite a few of the cars we brought with us as a shop had taken home a prize, and we can’t thank ZONC and all the other participants for making it all happen.  Next year’s show promises to be just a good although I’m not sure what car Ann is going to try to get from Nissan next time.  You may just have to show up to find out!!

The full gallery of the show and museum is after the ‘read more.’

I have also have received links to galleries from friends’ photos of the event so expect to see another post pop up about this show.  Enjoy.

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It was really great to get over to LeMans Karting in Fremont to meet with all of you and see the cars that everyone brought out.  This was the 10th annual Freakmont show which says a ton about Team Driven who hosts this event.  I have only attended the last two years at the LeMans Karting venue but this is an event that I will continue to attend in the future.

Anyways… on to the days happenings!!

Devon and I left the shop at around 12:30 pm after washing the two cars we were taking (Rob’s 300zx TT and my 1971 Datsun 510.)  By the way Devon is a new mechanic for ZCG and he rocks.  He’s definitely helping us get the cars back into the owners hands sooner, win-win situation!!  So we leave the shop at I’m excited to see cars on the freeway that are obviously heading to the same show.  This usually means a good turn out was in order, and we were not let down!

There were cars already lining the entire front parking lot and even all the way up to the entrance.  My 510 was the second one there but there were already a host of really clean 300zx’s around.  After we parked I made my way to the event staff to hand out the four gift certificates that Z Car Garage was putting up for the raffle, two for 3 free dyno pulls and 2 for $100 off parts/labor.  Not bad huh?  Do you wish you had gone now?

We made our way to the back of the show and were instantly caught off guard by how many Nissan Sentra/Infiniti G20s were in attendance.  These cars featured all sorts of SR engine swaps and every form of preparation from track-only race to show-quality.  Nice turn out indeed.  The other few random cars included a few Altimas and Maximas with some tasteful changes as well a slammed mid-nineties Infiniti sedan that looked like the springs had just been cut.  I’m not knocking it, it was just random.  There were also a couple of clean 200SXs one which had a clean CA18T swapped into it.  I like.

On to the 240sx section.  There multiple cars from most generations and the drifting theme carried over here very heavily as one can imagine.  There were carbon doors, hoods, trunks, spoilers, everything.  If someone makes it in carbon it was probably bolted to one of these 240s.  There were a couple of clean stock looking cars and even a convertible that looked like it had been taken care of!!  The 240SXs usually get beaten on and sent to the crusher so it was nice to see at least a couple of originals.  The nicest car in my eyes though had to be an S13 Silvia, right-hand-drive and all.  I’m not sure if it was a conversion or an actual non-USDM car but it was clean, nice owner too.

Right next to the announcing booth was all the FREE food.  Plenty to go around with beverages to match any taste.  Well done Team Driven, Devon and I approve.

On the other side of the announcing booth were our friends at PhotoShootMyCar.com.  They were out promoting their site as well as showing off the new-to-them R33 GT-R.  This car rules.  We installed a set of upgraded turbos on this GT-R just over a year ago and it put down nearly 450whp without breaking a sweat.  (If you are wondering, on the early GT-Rs you can simply remove the front drive shaft to tune them on a 2wd dyno.)  Anyways the car looked great.  They also brought out their Toyota Matrix car that was featured at SEMA a couple of years ago.  Check these guys out if you want any sort of professional pictures taken of your car.

Heading back up to the front I find that two more Datsun 510s have joined the group as well as a 610 and an early four-door skyline with the appropriate “SKYRINE” license plate.  The front of LeMans Karting is now thoroughly packed with Zs and Gs of all sorts.  I spot our ZCG 370z in the corner parked next to a really cleanly modded G37.  Everything was blacked out on this car, see photos.  I’m in love.  Next I moved the 370z along side the R33 GT-R just to bring it into the front of the show to bring a little more attention to it, side note on the ZCG 370z: we have a track event coming up very soon!  Wicked!

Its now about 4pm and things are starting to wind down so we start to say our good byes and gather our things.  The show was a tremendous hit in my eyes and that people and atmosphere were amazing.  I really enjoyed talking with all of you so don’t be shy if you see us at a show!

Until the next event, Keep the Nissan faith!!

Most of the decent photos can be seen by clicking the “continue reading” below!

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The drive from Solvang to our hotel in the LA area was fairly uneventful except for the hour of inexplicable traffic that we sat in for no apparent reason on a Saturday afternoon.  After we checked into the hotel we went out for some dinner at a sports bar so that we could watch the San Jose Sharks game, they won in OT.  Most of us then decided to turn in so that we could be rested for the show on Sunday.

We checked out bright and early and made our way to one of the quaint little towns that speckle the LA area, if you know where to look, to get some breakfast.  With our tanks full we venture on.  When we finally arrive at the venue we are not surprised to see what seems like hundreds of cars in line waiting to get in.  Good thing we ate.  After a good forty-five minutes of inching forward (some of it just coasting down hill with the cars off) we arrived at the front gate.  Every car in sight was a Z.  All years, every possible combination of mods, mild to wild paint jobs, you name it and a Z had it.  This was like a pilgrimage that had reached its destination.

The entire event report and a ton of photos are after the “read more.”  So click and read more.

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