With just 1 week to go before the 2018 Classic Motorsports Mitty April 27-29, ZCG has been preparing several Datsun race cars. We are very excited to participate in this event as it celebrates Nissan’s racing heritage. Make sure to view the race schedule to catch all of the Datsun/Nissan action and activities in the paddock! Here is the roll call for your West Coast vintage Datsun racers making the trip to Road Atlanta in Georgia.

Introducing SORABIRD

 

Alex McDowell is racing his Bluebird SSS Coupe for the first time since it arrived at Z Car Garage after winning from our friends at Bring A Trailer. Unfortunately, the Bluebird was never raced for several years under previous owner Adam Carolla’s ownership. This will change in 1 week!

 

While retaining the two-tone color scheme of the Bluebird we changed it from orange to our favorite color Sora (“Sky” in Japanese) Blue. This is a factory paint color from the beloved ZCG Datsun 2000 Roadster:

    

Jim Froula of Racecraft built and raced this Bluebird throughout the PNW with SOVREN so it is excellently prepared. We dyno tuned the Rebello L18 sporting twin 50mm Mikuni carbs and it is ready to rock! More information and pictures on the Bluebird can be found HERE.

 

The Hakosuka Skyline

 

Alex is also racing is 1971 Nissan Skyline. The L-series powered Hako received extensive dyno tuning and some chassis upgrades. Catch Alex piloting the Hako in group 5 Big Bore Production with  Boss 302s and 911 RSRs!

 

 

The VIPS Datsun 240z

 

Our friend Glenn Chiou will be racing his Loren St. Lawrence 240z.  Coming off a stellar performance at the
2017 RMMR Glenn will be back and faster than ever after some dyno tuning at ZCG.

 

All three cars can be seen on the dyno demonstrating their L-series power in this video, enjoy!

The Frellsen B-Sedan Datsun 510

  

Avid Datsun racer Dave Stone will be running his Frellsen 510 in the highly competitive B-sedan field. All of the car featured above will be joining  Jim Froula’s 73 Datsun 260Z  on board the RacecraftNW race-transporter for the journey to The Mitty!

 

ZCG will be ready to support all of our customer race cars:

 

 

The Rock Vest Datsun Roadster

 

Michael Anderson’s recently acquired Rock Vest 2000 is already on the way to The Mitty! We are stoked to see this historically significant roadster brought back to life winning at the race track!

 

The BRE Datsun 240z driven by John Morton at The Mitty

We are extremely thankful and stoked that owner Randy Jaffe invited us to The Mitty. John Morton is Grand Marshall of the event AND he is piloting the #46 BRE 240z once again! The entire ZCG crew will be running pit crew beginning 4/23 for testing through the race weekend ending 4/2. Following the 2017 Historics, we performed post-race maintenance to prepare #46 before sending it off to Atlanta:

 

For all Datsuns particiapting in the race you can view the entire Race Entry List.

We have more pictures in the gallery to enjoy. See you at the track!

Thank you to RacecraftNW and  Remy for the photos!
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Over the years Z Car Garage has worked on almost every chassis of Nissan Skyline from the early GC10, R33, R34, and current R35 platforms. We love the R32 model and recently had the chance of helping one get back on the road. David C is the lucky owner of this beautiful black R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R. He acquired it through the internet and had it towed to a shop where it unfortunately remained sitting. David had even purchased an entire RB26 front clip to get the R32 running again but there was no progress. After hunting for a shop that could handle the task of waking Godzilla from its slumber David contacted Skyline guru Sean Morris who then referred ZCG….challenge accepted!

 

David and Rob spoke over the phone and agreed to tow it to the shop. Within a few hours of getting the Skyline our very own Josh C figured out the culprit. The fuel delivery system had been modified by the PO and fuel pump bypassed. Thanks to Josh, Godzilla fired right up and David was able to drive his GTR for the first time in 3 years! Unfortunately the engine was not healthy as cylinders 5 and 6 had low compression. David decided it was time for a change and sold his front clip in favor of rebuilding the existing RB26.

Teardown: Godzilla’s heart is quite complex!

 

The bottom end was built with Rebello consisting of forged JE pistons, and Eagle Rods. Mild headwork and stock turbos make up the top end:

The freshened powerplant along with a new clutch/flywheel are reunited with the chassis.

 

A new, OEM coil plug cover adorns the mighty RB and we also installed a few ancillary parts like this remote oil filter/oil cooler:

 

With the drivetrain buttoned up the engine was carefully broke-in by Rob. The PowerFC that came with car shorted and caused running issues so we switched to a Haltech Pro Platinum. We were impressed with the ease of tuning and base map of this plug-in-play solution.  The GTR was  dyno tuned conservatively on 91 octane making a silky smooth 384hp/305tq to the wheels!

 

With the Skyline running strong David treated it to full suspension to make those open track days enjoyable. Front/Rear coil-overs, sway bars, T/C rods, camber/control arms and a host of goodies from Cusco and Powertrix:

 

 

When was the last time you saw an R32 with Stoptech brakes at all four corners?  R32s are relatively heavy cars and with 400hp it’s easy to overwhelm the stock the setup. Large, 332mm vented rotors F/R will ensure fade-free braking duties:

  

The uprated brakes are housed in beautiful Forgestar wheels, running a square 18×10 with 265 tire setup:

  Adjusting the coil-overs for ride height before/after, we think it sits just right:

We love that David immediately started Enjoying the Ride in his GTR not just on the street but on the track! Here he is attacking Thunderhill Raceway:

 

This Skyline is Driven! Thank you David for letting us be part of your project, your R32 is wicked!

Check out more detailed pictures in the gallery
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