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!

 

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:

 

“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.

 

 
Ready to experience your Nissan/Infiniti on the track? We can help!

***ATTENTION DATSUN FANS***
There are TWO exciting Datsun events this weekend!
Saturday, 4/30    
The Solvang Datsun Roadster Show is being held in beautiful downtown Solvang, CA.

Sunday, 5/1
A record number of Datsuns will be racing at Laguna Seca with HSR on Sunday, 5/1

If you are a Datsun fan and love vintage racing come out to Laguna Seca this weekend! On  5/1 the Historic Sportscar Racing group is bringing an exciting event with plenty of historic race cars and several notable Datsun racers! If you can’t make the Solvang Datsun Roadster Show (held on Saturday) this is another way to get your Datsun fix! We will do our best to attend on Sunday afternoon where the Datsuns are running in group 3. We also want to be there to cheer on our favorite Datsun Roadster racer, Ron Carter!

So just how strong will the Datsun showing be? At least TWENTY 510s, Zs, and Roadsters! Come on out to ‘Seca and watch these Datsun vintage racers mix it up with exotics and other wicked metal 🙂

Here are some killer shots of Matt’s 510 at Laguna Seca from our track day with NCRC 11/1/10. I love this little dime!

Monday the 1^st of February was an amazing day for a couple of reasons.  For one, Fred of the ZCG crew turned 40.  And secondly, Fred gave me the day off to play with the shop 370Z.  The day started off at ZCG in the early morning hours where I met the other two cars in the pack, Scott with his Z33 and Gia with his Nismo edition Z34.  We drove down to Laguna Seca to start our track adventures for the day.  Once we arrived at Laguna Seca we prepped our Z’s with numbers and a double check of our wheel torques.  After a brief driver’s meeting, we were off to drive our first session.  It’s been a while since I have been able to go to the track and hone my skill set.  Years ago, before ZCG, going to the track was a regular event in my life.  Driving on the track with Scott really made me appreciate the value of seat time.  Scott’s many track days and autocrosses have paid off and he and his Z33 looked great out there.  A few days prior to the event, we fitted Gia’s Nismo edition Z34 with a test ZCG oil cooler and some upgraded front brake pads.  The oil temps were in range for moving forward with our next round of testing.  The brakes, on the other hand, weren’t able to keep up with Gia’s driving style.  I have shared my data with Stoptech and they say help is on the way in the form of a pad that should help us on the street and allow us to push the limits at the track.  Once Gia’s Z34 brakes were unable to continue, we double teamed the ZCG Z34 with back to back sessions.  During these sessions, we were able to keep our oil temperature under control with the help of the ZCG oil cooler.  The highest oil temps were in the 250F range.  For those of you just tuning in, this is the 3^rd test version of our oil cooler.  We feel after the next set of tests that we will be able to serve the Z community with a product that will allow you to keep your Z’s oil temps within reason and out of the famous limp mode.  We will be returning to Laguna Seca on February 25^th to complete the shake-down on our latest mods.  The track organization we are running with is NCRC, nice guys with great organization which leads to lots of track time.

Turn in,

Rawb

I have quite a few posts in the works that should be done in the next day or two. Coming up will be a full track report from last Monday’s sessions at Laguna Seca, a nice write up on a G35 build and lots more.

Thanks to those of you who are patiently waiting.

Long live the Z

Rawb