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EVENTS: SpoCom Norcal 2015

Filed under: Events,Featured Cars and Projects
by Alvin G @ 2:16 am on August 10, 2015

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Last Saturday I attended the SpoCom Norcal Edition car show held at Club Auto Sport in San Jose, CA. If you do a quick Google search of the word “spocom” you’ll find more images of scantily clad women than actual cars–this may explain why legions of adolescent males paid the relatively high $25 spectator fee, but more on that later. Look harder though and you can find some sweet J-Tin at this show claiming to be aimed at “automotive & pop culture tastemakers alike.”

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The Venue

I don’t claim to be a tastemaster of any kind, but here is my review of the show from a Datsun owner’s point of view.  Let’s start with the venue: Club Auto Sport is a large, retail/commercial complex and home to exotic-car rental agency Club Sportiva and Borelli Motorsports:

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Inside the main building there were several aisles for show cars to be parked and a main stage for a DJ and wait for it…bikini contest! Club Auto sport offers private garages so naturally I peeked at various man caves…found a Porsche 959 in hiding!

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The Cars

Those tall orange “Swords” above are actually the coveted SpoCom Awards. I learned that this was a highly competitive show with “teams” vying for these 4-ft tall trophies. Here is a taste of the cars placed near the main stage area:

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There were about 25 cars lining the aisles inside the building…scattered about in random fashion with one aisle having only 3 cars vs 18 in another:

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The car scene inside the building was quite different from the cars placed outside, and this is where I found some pretty neat machinery. Let’s begin with my roadster which was staged near this S30 sporting an old-school body kit:

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…[read more]




Chris’ FX35

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 6:05 pm on July 27, 2015

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Chris C makes his SF Bay Area commute behind the wheel of this pretty FX35. He wanted to firm up the handling to make that commute more enjoyable so we installed a full set of BC coil-overs and a Stillen front strut tower brace:

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Coil-over and top hat detail:

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Suspension F/R stock vs BC:

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The ride height looks great! Before/after below:

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A few more before/after shots:

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We also added a Stillen strut tower brace and performed full 90k maintenance services. We know your commute will be much livelier now Chris!

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Jason’s 600hp Single Turbo G35

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,g35,Performance
by Alvin G @ 5:11 pm on May 29, 2015

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Jason D has been enjoying his G35 coupe since we finished installation of a Momentum single turbo in late 2011. With over 500whp and 315-width Michelins he started breaking the drive axles and came back for some traction upgrades.  We started by installing 900hp-rated axles to replace the 500hp-rated units:

 

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A common failure that is exacerbated with high horsepower is found in the rear crossmember and differential bushings. All were replaced with Whiteline units:

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On the power side we installed JWT C8 cams w/springs:

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The cams transformed the car and UPREV tuning yielded sweet results on the dyno:

Jason Dove G35 before and after

Jason’s G now makes 523whp/432tq…peak gains of 26hp and 54tq! Despite a slight trade-off of power below 3500rpm when boost hits both curves jump with as much as 50-70hp/tq until redline.

Enjoy The Ride, Jason!




Scott’s Vortech Supercharged G35

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,g35,Performance
by Alvin G @ 10:06 pm on December 28, 2014

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Scott C has been with Z Car Garage since our opening in 2004.  Over the years we have worked with Scott to build his G35 coupe into a formidable sportscar while maintaing its stock-ish looks. With 49k miles on his G35 he visited us in 2010 to discuss Forced Induction options.  We did a full Vortech supercharger installation with supporting mods including a Bassani cat-back exhaust system, JWT cams, headers, ZCG oil cooler and DEFI gauges.

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Scott throughly enjoyed his boosted G for a year and in 2011 came back to us for a KarumaZ front fascia to allow more airflow to the intercooler. In 2014 Scott wanted more power so we built a low-compression VQ with forged internals and a host of speed parts. Here is the engine coming out and a few shots of the new internals:

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We added 1000cc injectors, GT MAF, Aeromotive 340 fuel pump and a SI blower wheel upgrade:

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An even larger front mount intercooler:

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Berk Hi-Flow cats:

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With the built engine and supporting mods in place we UPREV tuned the G35 making 429hp/361tq to the wheels. Significant improvements over the stock-block based setup at 375hp/311tq for this automatic-equipped VQ:

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With the added power upgrading the stock braking system naturally was a prudent idea.   Scott’s G was treated to a full Stoptech Big-Brake Kit up front using their 332mm rotors and ST-40 calipers in red. Rear brakes were upgraded with a Stoptech Sport Kit and OEM calipers were color matched. We love the 309 pads as they are a sweet compound for aggressive driving. 

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OEM vs Stoptech up front:

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Thick, vented rotors and huge calipers help shed heat for repeated fade-free braking:

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Rear calipers were color-matched and grab Stoptech rotors:

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The new calipers look great behind the OEM wheels:

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Finally, GT-spec braces add some rigidity to the chassis:

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We are happy to see Scott’s G35 evolve into a well-rounded 400hp+ street sleeper, Enjoy The Ride!

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Taking it to The Track!

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Maintenance,Performance
by Alvin G @ 1:01 am on December 20, 2014

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Here at Z Car Garage we LOVE to drive our cars on the racetrack. Open “Track Day” or High Performance Driving Events (HPDEs) are excellent venues to familiarize yourself with a car and its limits while having fun in a safe, controlled environment.  Two of our customers recently shared their first track-day experiences with us and they had a blast!

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We supercharged Robert C’s G35 last year and he decided it was time to do his first track event at Laguna Seca Raceway. He’s added these gorgeous RAYS Gram Lights 57Xtreme wheels since his last visit:

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Rob!
Just want to tell you I had a incredible day at Laguna. David Ray is a great guy and awesome teacher. We spent the first three session working on line, smoothness and consistency with both until I had all 11 corners worked out. The 4th session we put it all together as he pushed me and it was phenomenal! When I IR’d the front rotors after the session I was over 500 degrees and they were smoking. Happy to report brakes are still great and no warpage on the rotors. Ironically David mentioned doing an ST40 upgrade which we already quoted earlier so know that is still on the radar for my next track day. Nice to have someone just back up a buying decision without asking. I did graduate to Solo and was told to register for Group B next time so pretty pleased about that. On the upside I have marked “Drive my car at Leguna and hit the corkscrew” off my bucket list. On the even bigger upside I’ve added “1) Go drive Laguna more. 2) Drive Infineon. 3) Drive Thunderhill and 4)Drive Buttonwillow.” to the list.

David had praise for the current work done on the car and I have to agree. The work you and team have done since October last year has made this car even more enjoyable and something to proudly run on a track. The car had zero issues and feels no worse from the day.

Robert C.

 

In October we added some bolt-ons and tuned Garth J’s 350z preparing him for a day at Thunderhill Raceway:

Hi Rob,

Thunderhill track day was awesome a few weeks back. Car felt great. The Bridgestone S04’s were a major upgrade. Thanks for preparing the car for a great experience. I’m thinking about auto-crossing next season.Will be needing some routine maintenance in the new year. Can we schedule something mid January? Happy Holidays.

Garth J.

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