Vintage cars may remain with their loving owners for years, change ownership or even get spotlighted in the media at some point. Our “where are they now” series features past Z Car Garage vehicles with updates on their status. In this fourth installment we catch up with Joe’s 1973 Kenmeri Skyline, now residing in Los Angeles, Ca.

Let’s go back in time to 2017…our client Alex McDowell decided to part with his 2000 GT-X so we listed it on our FOR SALE page. Joe F from SoCal contacted us immediately and jumped on a plane to visit Z Car Garage. Rob picked Joe up from the airport in the Kenmeri, tossed him the keys to enjoy it for a day…and he was sold.

We had great times with this KGC110 Skyline driving to many local events in the Bay Area. JDM Legends did a great job.

 

Enjoy this video of the Kenmeri driving and on the dyno at ZCG:

Just 4 days after we listed this 1973 Nissan Kenmeri Skyline it found a new owner with Joe in Southern California:

“Just want to say thank to Rob and the guys at Z Car Garage.  Had a great experience purchasing my 73 Skyline Kenmeri from them. Class act all around and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a quality top notch classic JDM car!”

Here is the Kenmeri arriving:

Joe immediately started Enjoying The Ride in his Skyline and making appearances at local events!

JDM Makeover

Joe added his own touches to make the Kenmeri his own with 15×10/12 Work Spirit 33 wheels built by Love20Bee, custom suspension and a full repaint in BMW Alpine White:

All the factory chrome parts blacked out along with Mizuno Works rear wing and front spoiler. Joe’s build was showcased Super Street Magazine with photos by Marvin Recinos:

Inside, Joe added Recaro seats. He left the engine alone as it was properly strong making all the right noises when it left Z Car Garage! Ps…we love that Joe also kept the Z Car Garage license plate frame on!

We are happy for you Joe, thanks for visiting us and making the next chapter of the Kenmeri awesome. Always check our FOR SALE listings here on zcarblog.com, FB and IG. Stay tuned as we have a very cool group of cars coming up for sale from the collection of Randy Jaffe!

Our ZCG Big Brakes have been winning over Z-car enthusiasts locally and globally. Jeremy G recently purchased a set for his 1973 Datsun 240Z and performed the installation himself at his shop in San Jose, CA.

 

Big-Brake Kits Available For DIY Install!

Z Car Garage is proud to offer our Big-Brake Kit to Z-Car owners that want to perform the installation themselves. We can ship worldwide and each kit contains everything needed with a comprehensive (40-page) installation guide. Blog posts documenting all of our customers running the ZCG Big-Brakes can be found HERE. Enjoy these pictures of Jeremy’s beautiful S30 and his ZCG Big-Brake installation:

As mentioned, our ZCG Big-Brake kit ships with everything needed to install and retains the factory parking brake:

Jeremy successfully installed the BBK on his Z, complete with functioning parking brake:

 

The brakes fit behind his 15×9(F) and 15×10 (R) Longchamp XR-4 wheels:

 

Beyond ease of installation and quality components, our Big-Brakes perform by offering superb pedal feel…everyone that drives our demo Z confirms! 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. Jeremy was very happy as well with great feedback:

“Big thanks to Rob Fuller and the guys at Z Car Garage for working with Stoptech to make this awesome big brake kit for S30s. Installed yesterday and spent most of today running around and they feel great. Best feeling and balanced brakes I’ve ever had on any Z.”

Jeremy removed and sold his existing Wilwood setup, not uncommon once you experience just how good our Big-Brakes are!

 

A 3.5L Driver

 

The best part is that you can see Jeremy frequently Enjoying The Ride all over the Bay Area. This Z gets driven! Under the hood is a Rebello 3.5L soon to be fed by 50mm Mikuni carbs tuned by Kyushahousetaka. We dyno tuned the Z last year with 44s and this G-nosed beauty baselined at 238hp/229tq. With Rob’s tuning the Z produced 288hp/257tq to the wheels! We are really excited to unlock more power with a few upgrades, now that Jeremy has brakes up to the task!

 

More pictures in the gallery:

You can see even more pictures of the Z on Speedhunters HERE. Looking forward to more tuning sessions and thanks for your support Jeremy!

   

Stay tuned for more customer installations of our ZCG Big-Brakes! Check out our ZCG CV axles HERE.
Long Live The Z!

 

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We love to see our products being installed and enjoyed on customer cars. Dustin is running our Z Car Garage CV Axles in his 1972 Datsun 510 4-door. This Dime is powered by a Nissan KA24DE/5-speed and wears a sweet set of NOS 15×7 Longchamp XR-4 wheels:

Z Car Garage is proud to offer a CV axle conversion kit for your Datsun S30 and 510. We have sold over 100 sets of axles globally, with customers installing and enjoying them on everything from street cars to full-blown IMSA racers. These CV axles will help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to your standard half shafts.

 

For years we have used aftermarket CV axles that utilize an aluminum adapter prone to loosening up over time. Despite efforts to keep things tight (Loctite, hardware changes) we had to keep an eye on them.  We developed a better solution that eliminates the need for aluminum adapters and remains 100% bolt-in like a factory half-shaft.

 

Dustin is running a Cusco LSD (Subaru STi R180) with Toyo R888 tires and worried about excessive wear on the stock half shafts, having seen multiple sets of other CV shafts come apart. He heard about our CV Axles from fellow Datsun enthusiast/racer Glenn C and ordered a set from Rob. Dustin installed the CV Axles himself on his 1972 Datsun 510 and reports that it went smoothly:

“The installation was very simple and easy to understand. I really like that they came with Red Loctite.”

 

We were stoked to hear Dustin report the improvement over his standard half shafts:

“The Cusco LSD is very noisy but seems to have gotten smoother and a bit quieter with the new axles. I doubt I will ever run into any issues breaking one with a KA24. I would highly recommend them as the only CV option.”

Here is Dustin’s 510 in action, enjoying the new ZCG CV Axles:

 

We’ve known Dustin and Courtney for many years. Hagerty produced a video featuring the local Bay Area Datsun couple you can see it HERE.

 

The couple got married in 2018 and Z Car Garage prepared Courtney’s 240z in time for their special day. Learn more about ZCG’s work on Courtney’s 240z HERE. Keep Enjoying The Ride, you two!

They are also the founders of Fuel Supply Co in Fremont, CA. We had a great time at their inaugural gathering earlier this year. Thank you both Courtney and Dustin for your continued support and passion for Datsuns!

Andreas visited Z Car Garage to get his 1983 Nissan Skyline running correctly. We admire these 80’s gems, working on several DR30 Skylines and with a few tweaks plus dyno tuning Andreas was back on the road in proper form.

The Sixth Generation

Not familiar with this right-hand drive specimen? Most Americans are familiar with the classic 70’s Skylines and later GT-R series, but this 6th generation (R30) chassis is often overlooked, yet very special in its own right. Andreas’ model is a ’83 Nissan Skyline RS-X and it’s the first iteration of the distinctive “Iron Mask” front end. This generation also marked introduction of the FJ20 engine, though Andreas’ is an early, non-intercooled model:

In Japan the R30 sold well and had a great following with Nissan enlisting the famous actor/racer Paul Newman to appear in ad campaigns. The R30 also formed the basis for the insanely cool SuperSilhouette race car:

  

DR30 Ownership

With its angular styling, pillar-less windows, killer graphics and FJ20 power what’s not to like? Andreas had been wanting a DR30 for the past 10+ years and after driving Reid’s DR30, it motivated him to finally get one:

“With the help of The Import Guys, I purchased it from auction in June and picked it up in November in Washington and drove it straight home to Northern California. 2 days, almost 1000 miles and it did it perfectly. I have been fixing a few things here and there like a new front lip, interior trim, suspension, brakes and threw back on some OEM parts but my journey with the car is still young. I have auto-x’ed it already and do have my eyes on potential track days.” 

Andreas was having problems with the car not revving properly and recalled his discussion with Reid (thanks!) about his and getting work done at Z Car Garage:

“I reached out to Rob for help. Kind of funny, on the day of the appointment to get this issue checked out my car broke down a mile from the shop and he was nice enough to help me tow it there. I have pretty modest goals, I just want a good looking, fun to drive DR30. This one has its issues like most 35+ year old cars but the idea was to get myself a nice project (but a driver). No need for a beauty queen, and no real need for massive power. Give it a refresh, and then just drive the hell out of it.” 

Skyline Sorting at ZCG

Since purchasing, this R30 was not running correctly so we started troubleshooting the fuel system. We figured out some of the issues (bad fuel pump, running extremely lean, no fuel getting to motor) and we got Andreas running.

Despite new injectors, fuel filter, fuel pump we kept hitting these limiters. The factory ECU wouldn’t allow it to rev over 5krpm so we called our friends from JWT.  Clark Steppler is the master of all vintage ECUs and he worked his magic on the delicate, vintage unit. As you can see from the dyno plot we have full rev range power/tq.

Dyno Tuning

 

Rob dyno tuned the FJ20ET, now with full power available to redline it put down 178hp/158tq to the wheels. Impressive power for the time, with a hot-pipe. Nissan really was special in the 80’s!

Enjoy this video of the dyno run and Andreas enjoying the DR30:

While the Skyline was here we replaced the front control arm bushings with new Superpro bushings:

Andreas was driving the car when he felt a loss in power. We discovered a boost leak in the hot pipe and resolved it. In Andreas’ words “No issues now and car runs like a dream.”

Enjoying The Ride

With the engine sorted Andreas has been driving his Skyline everywhere, happily boosting. Ps…did we mention how good it looks on the Longchamp wheels?

He even made it out to the recent Norcal Skylines Matsuri 2020, an event we were lucky to attend last year:

 

“I want a car I can have fun with and drive hard), not something that I just take to cars and coffee. So I appreciate all the help he gave me to get my car back up and running and back to its former glory!”

Thanks for letting us work on your DR30 Andreas. We love the direction you are taking it!

On Saturday I joined six other cars for a morning cruise through the Santa Cruz Mountains. The two S30 Z cars with us were running our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) and Z Car Garage CV Axles!

Glenn’s 1972 Nissan Fairlady 240z-L

Glenn Chiou drove his RHD Fairlady Z sporting our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels). He is an avid vintage race car driver/restorer and found our brake kit offers incredible brake feel and performance all fitting behind his favorite 15×8 zero offset Watanabe wheel:

“The most important aspect to me when it comes to braking on a street driven car is feel. Yes, stopping power is extremely important, but also is not that difficult to achieve on an early Z car that is naturally light to begin with. Feel, however, is something that has always managed to escape me and the ZCG brakes deliver. WOW, what a difference. The feel, modulation, power, sharpness was amazing. Hands down the best brakes I had ever driven on a Z car”

This is a direct result of working with engineers at Stoptech to create a totally bolt-in solution requiring no M/C change or additional proportioning valve/adjustments. All fitting behind a 15″ Watanabe or Panasport wheel (and some 14″ wheels) and retaining factory emergency brake lever! A few pictures of the Big-Brakes being installed on Glenn’s Z:

Glenn was having fun on the twistys on our cruise (see video below). Learn more about his Z in this Petrolicious video.

James’ 1972 Datsun 240z

James is running our ZCG BBK (1st gen, 328mm) and  Z Car Garage CV Axles in his turbocharged L-Series beast:

You can learn more about this 560whp Z on Speedhunters and see it in action on Hoonigan Autofocus. James also had a blast on our Saturday cruise:

Saturday Cruising

We started our drive in Downtown Saratoga and made it to the coast via Bear Creek and Bonny Doon Rd. Here is a short video:

We were happy to enjoy the company of cool cars and cool folks, also joining us:

Dustin’s 510

We’ve known Dustin and Courtney for many years. Dustin’s 510 4-door runs a KA24DE and sweet Longchamp XR-4 wheels. The side exit exhaust is loud!

Tony’s Mazda RX-2

Tony has had this RX-2 for many years. In addition to the full restoration it now has a full (S5) 13B drivetrain with a Ford 9″ rear end! It is mint. I haven’t seen Tony in many years so it was a joy to have him along:

Lloyd’s AE86

Lloyd has a very cool collection of cars and this AE86 is the latest. Although it sports an F20C drivetrain (Lloyd promised me it’s not the same car as this one), it has numerous upgrades for a better drive. Gotta love TE37s:

Geoff’s BMW 2002

Geoff’s no stranger to our Bay Area cruises and also owns a Lotus 7. He was the only German this time with his BMW 2002 on rare Campagnolo wheels:

I drove my SR-powered ‘67.5 Datsun Roadster and it was a great way to spend the morning.

Yes, that’s a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso flying by on HWY 1!

More pictures in the gallery below!
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