John T or “Taco” as we call him around the shop has been coming to Z Car Garage for several years. In 2008 we installed a built engine in his Z32TT along with some hardware that he had been saving. He visited us recently to have build the rest of the Z to have a more balanced sports car. The stock suspension was old and not up to the task of supporting significantly more power than stock.

 

We installed full suspension including Stance coil-overs and a host of Powertrix parts:

 

Here are the tired stock shocks and the new Stance coil-overs:

 

Powertrix rear control arms:

Powertrix T/C rods, end-links and camber arms:

 

With new suspension John can now enjoy a sports car that can keep up with the increased power!

The 300zx is a classic.  It possesses timeless lines that will probably never go out of style.  These cars are capable of awesome power numbers with a few of the right parts put on them.  Unfortunately the braking performance is becoming a classic also as this design nears twenty years old.  This is where our good friends at StopTech Brakes come in.

The 332mm front brake kit is the perfect system for any sort of high performance street driving and it even suits the occasional track day enthusiast.  The factory brakes wouldn’t stand a chance here.  We also paired the new brakes with a pair of braided brake lines up front just to ensure that we were getting every bit of brake performance that a 300zx deserves.  The downside of a big brake kit is that it won’t clear most stock wheels.  What ever should we do!?  Oh yeah, get new wheels!!  In this case we have a nice set of silver split five spokes in an 18″ size to clear the new stoppers.  The brakes really fill out the wheels now.

Another weak part of the 300zx is the front suspension.  The tension (T/C) rods can fail at anytime due to mileage or age (and possibly looking at them wrong), and when replacing the T/C rods why not add adjustable upper control arms to complete the equation.  In this case the high quality parts from Powertrix were called into duty and fit the bill quite nicely.  Now the front suspension is far more adjustable than it ever was in stock form as well as being more reliable.

Bring on the next project!!

See all the photos after the ‘read more’

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