On Sunday 6/13 we attended the Morning Motors Cars & Coffee event hosted by DrivingWhileAwesome (DWA) in Santa Cruz, CA. The event impressed us again with a fun vibe and superb variety of cars. One of the many perks of DWA Morning Motors is its location surrounded by the best driving roads. This morning however, I ran solo in my Datsun Roadster straight to the venue in front of the Old Wrigley Building.

It’s smart to arrive before 8:30am to grab a shaded parking spot and coffee/donuts (thanks DWA!) before they run out. The event is so close to downtown Santa Cruz and HWY 1 I invited my family to enjoy the cars and visit our favorite beach afterwards.

Mandatory Nissan/Datsun

I was happy to see so many Nissans and Datsuns at Morning Motors.

There were a three Datsun 510 wagons and one 510 2-door! This is Mark G’s 510, a client we’ve been lucky to work with, you can see more details about his Dime HERE

Our very own Nick F. in his 1972 510 wagon on SSR wheels:

Ray’s Hakosuka Skyline, now sporting  our Z Car Garage CV Axles! We look forward to seeing Ray for more upgrades on this already stunning Skyline that gets driven everywhere:

Pall’s R32 Skyline in (AH3) Pearl Red. Pall K acquired this Pearl Red (AH3) R32 from our friend Sean and his team at Toprank International Vehicle Importers. We love the gorgeous paint color and Volk TE37SLs. He is also a ZCG client!

Todd’s R32 Skyline GTS-T. I just saw him on the Breakfast Club Rally yesterday!

Another ZCG client, Eric’s Infiniti FX35 sporting upgraded suspension and R35 GT-R wheels.

350Z and G37 sedan on Z34 wheels:

I counted five (!) Nissan 240SX in both S13 and S14 trim. This S13 was my favorite:

S14 with “Silvia” badging:

Lone Z32 (NA), Q45 and a bagged Q60:

 

In Search of J-Tin

Morning Motors did not disappoint if you are Japanese Classic fans. Honda S800:

 

NA Miatas!

 

EG Civic, EM1 Civic Si and S2000 CR:

 

90’s icons…Supra and NSX and FD RX-7 (on FIKSE wheels)!

 

So much variety! Enjoy this short video:

Euro Classics

Yearning for Porsche’s? Or something a bit less “mainstream”? DWA CnC did not disappoint. Rosso Dino 246:

308, 4C and Chris’ “Rat Alfa” GTV:

Spotted my first, local Porsche 911 by Singer. It was impressive with so many details to enjoy:

Sweet 993 C2S with sexy multi-piece Turbo Twists:

Naveed’s new 964 911 GT3 RS (991)

 

A trio of cool BMW 2002s, one powered by an M20 6-cylinder!:

 

American Muscle

From 60’s to 80’s. Mike Garret’s familiar purple Mopar with late-model drivetrain and really wild Plymouth Fury race car tribute:

Eclectic

DWA CnC is definitely my kind of cars and coffee. It’s a great venue with amazing driving roads nearby and the cars were so diverse. We highly recommend checking it out! Thanks to the DWA crew for hosting. If you haven’t already, listen to their podcast and make sure you give them a follow on Instagram.
More pictures in the gallery below!

We have several exciting projects at the shop that will get full reports on zcarblog.com. This is only a brief sample, please tune into our Instagram story for more sights and sounds.

Return of the #46 BRE Datsun 240Z!

The BRE #46 Z is back from paint by our man William and it is finally getting the hand-painted livery applied at the shop as I write this. You may recall that the Z was flipped on to its roof with John Morton at the wheel racing at the 2019 Classic 24hr race at Daytona International Speedway

The Z will be re-assembled, dyno tuned and tested in a few weeks at Sonoma with our hero John Morton and Rob Fuller! Super amped to see #46 back in fighting form and very happy for owner Randy Jaffe. Check our IG story to see the livery being applied by hand, this is a lost art and incredible to watch.

1970 Salt Flat Racer Datsun 240z

This historically significant 1970 Datsun 240z was built by a team of Nissan employees to compete at Bonneville in the F/GT class. In 1976 their efforts resulted in a new land speed record of 166.037 mph, which stood unbroken until 1985. This Z resided in the Nissan Museum and is now in the care of Randy Jaffe. Lots of neat details the Z 432R seats and G-nose. More to come! Big thanks to Randy and Nissan for letting us bring this Z back to life. We just finished the exhaust and dyno tuning,

 

 

Jim’s 1971 Datsun 240z returned for a Rebello 3.2L with triple-Mikuni carbs on a Harada intake and CD009a 6-speed transmission:

   

 

Several S30 Z cars are getting our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) like these two 280zs:

Ed B’s 240z and a pretty 280Z

Khang’s Z getting a 3.2L with Jenvey ITB EFI and our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) plus our Z Car Garage CV Axles.

The OMS Pace Car

This is a 1972 Official OMS Pace Car Duplicate. It is at present one of only two known survivors. Fifty were originally produced by Nissan Motors to commemorate the DATSUN 240Z being selected by the Ontario Motor Speedway to Pace the 1972 “U.S.A.C. California 500 Championship”. This one belongs to our long time customer and friend Linda. More to come!

B-Sedan Datsun 510s!

Larry Oka’s B-sedan is getting built and prepped with our Z Car Garage CV Axles. The Corky Bell 510 is also scheduled for a full restoration:

R32 Skylines!

Mike’s R32 GT-R is back for turbo, fueling and exhaust upgrades, full report soon! #TETUESDAY

We just got this really clean R32 GTS-T in:

Dyno Tuning your 350z/370z/Q/G

We have been dyno tuning your late model Nissan/Infiniti sports car daily. Bolt-ons, UPREV tuning, “popcorn” maps. Our customers leave happy with more performance. Call us to schedule an appointment! Here are just a few cars:

LONG LIVE THE Z! Check out our Instagram story for more updates!

Mike R acquired this gunmetal (KH2) 1991 Skyline GTR last August from our friend Sean and his team at Toprank International Vehicle Importers. It goes without saying, if you are in the market for a vintage Skyline (or any JDM car) IVI is the place to go.

Z Car Garage is familiar with the Norcal Skylines group and fellow Skyline R32 owner Kurt W. referred Mike to us in addition to an endorsement from Top Rank:

“One of my main concerns in purchasing a 25+ year old vehicle that was never manufactured in the US, was support. Who can work on this thing to perform maintenance and upgrades? I spoke with Top rank about it quite a bit prior to purchase and they had recommended Z Car garage. The car was in great condition and mostly stock when I got it. With the goal of being an all around fast street car, I started acquiring parts and placed a call to ZCG to start the first round of upgrades.”

Chassis

We discussed installing a big-brake kit, suspension, Haltech and a few others issues we handled for Mike. Here is the Project Mu 4-wheel big-brake kit:

We also installed the Ohlins DFV coil-overs, shown below are the stock R32 calipers:

With a few modifications the Project Mu kit was installed:

Some close-ups of the Project Mu setup:

We adjusted his coil-over setup and set the ride height followed by corner-weighting the car according to his weight. Further suspension mods included Whiteline Sway bars, Cusco strut bracing and SPL titanium HICAS eliminator kit. All interior panels were trimmed for a clean finish with full alignment services.

Performance

Mike was also interested in replacing the factory ECU so we upgraded to a Haltech Elite 2000 with the R32-plugin adapter. The full installation also included a wideband controller and smoke-testing the car in preparation for dyno tuning:

Greddy FMIC:

The Haltech combined with Apexi intakes, Nismo downpipe, Tomei Titanium exhaust, Greddy FMIC and PRP R35 Coil kit, netted 340hp/284tq at the wheels with Rob’s tuning on 91 octane:

Enjoy the dyno video below:

Since his last visit, Mike has added R34 GT-R Seats, and a sweet set of Volk Racing TE37 SL custom gloss black wheels (18×10.5 +15), wrapped in Michelin PS4S tires measuring 265/35/18.

Mike also relocated the battery to the trunk to make space for a Leaskspec radiator overflow tank and Radium dual catch can setup:

In addition, a Haltech IC7 digital dash was added to monitor vital engine parameters. The IC7 dash ties into the CAN box of Elite system:

More Power

Mike has been happy with the upgrades we made but like many of us the desire for more power inevitably hits:

“The car has been running flawlessly and the goal with these mods is to support the addition of a single turbo kit that Zcar will be installing this August. The turbo kit consists of a Full Race Twin scroll T4 manifold that will be mated to an EFR 8474 turbocharger.  Twin Tial 44mm external wastegates will bleed off the excess exhaust gasses.”

“All of the work performed at Zcar had exceeded my expectations so far (and I’m very picky). Looking forward to the start the build and make some power of the next few months.”

We really enjoy taking care of many Norcal Skyline owners.  Welcome to ZCG family Mike and thanks for trusting us with your R32! Enjoy The Boost until you return!
More pictures in the gallery below:

 

ZCG Heat Shield

We are excited to offer the Z Car Garage Heat Shield for your triple-carb’d L-series Z car. This is a one-piece 304 stainless unit with laser-etched serial number. Proven on all of our L-series engine builds and dyno testing.

This heat shield will fit Mikuni, Weber, Dellorto and Jenvey induction with several intake manifolds like the Harada:

Contact the shop for pricing and ordering info!

ZCG CV Axles

Our Z Car Garage CV Axles help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to your standard half shafts. We have over 70 CV axle kits on customer cars and we are stoked with all of the positive feedback. We now have a new shipment in stock, order your set today!

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Panasport wheels for your Z car

 

Treat your Z to a brand new set of Panasport wheels! We special order this offset to enable fitment of a 225/50/16 tire on the 1970 to 1978 S30s.

To order, contact Rob at the shop:

rob@zcargarage.com or call 408-452-0350

Shop Update 2/4

I stopped by the shop today and grabbed some quick shots of a few projects, enjoy!
Felix’s 300zx Twin Turbo is back for power upgrades:

Dyno tuning a Stillen Supercharged 350z:

R32 Skyline in foer Project Mu Big-Brakes:

 

R35:

More updates coming soon!

Yesterday we attended the DrivingWhileAwesome (DWA) Cars & Coffee event in Santa Cruz, CA. The event impressed us again with a fun vibe and superb variety of cars. Before the 9am meeting our group of enthusiasts enjoyed a brisk driving session en route to Santa Cruz. I was lucky to drive the ZCG shop car, a 1970 Datsun 240z. We started at the junction of HWY 92 and Skyline with a nice gathering:

Leading the pack was Naveed in his Hot Rod Porsche 912. You can follow the build of this 911 6-cylinder powered rocket over on Speedhunters.

Pall’s R32 Skyline in (AH3) Pearl Red. Pall K acquired this Pearl Red (AH3) R32 from our friend Sean and his team at Toprank International Vehicle Importers.  We love the gorgeous paint color and Volk TE37SLs. He is also a ZCG customer!

Jeremy’s BMW 5-series Touring with a GM LS3 E-rod crate engine:

Matt’s G-body 911 with 17″ Fuchs and center exit exhaust…my newest P-car crush?

Andrei’s E36 M3

One of the many perks of DWA Morning Motors is its location surrounded by the best driving roads. Leaving the 92/35 junction we headed towards Alice’s Restaurant and HWY 84. Down to Stage through Cloverdale and finally Gazos Creek carrying us to HWY1 along the coastline to our destination. We arrived at 9am on the dot, thanks Naveed!

Mandatory Nissan/Datsun

I was happy to see a few more Nissans and Datsuns at MorningMotors. 260z!

There were a three Datsun 510s! Mark’s has been at the shop so stay tuned for a full report:

Dustin Frisk’s KA24-powered 510 on Longchamp XR-4 wheels:

A nearly-stock appearing 4-door 510:

Another ZCG customer, Eric’s FX sporting suspension and R35 GT-R wheels. Full report soon!

Two 300zx (Z32) NAs and G37 Sedan:

R32 Skyline 4-door, 350z, R35 and Infiniti Q45:

In Search of J-Tin

Morning Motors did not disappoint if you are Japanese Classic fans. Looking splendid were these white, boosted 80’s Hero’s: a DSM Conquest and Isuzu Impulse with snazzy interiors!

NA Miatas!

Turbo B-series DC2 Integra and a pair of EM1 Civic Si’s!

 

Honda S600 with a Motocompo!

RHD, turbo diesel Land Cruiser!

So much variety! Enjoy this short video:

Euro Classics

Gen’s 911 Turbo S2 (964)

Outlaw 356 and lots of BMW 2002s:

Retro Sporting’s Mk2 Escort with tons of fab work. They are hosting a vintage car-only track day April 10th, check it out HERE

British

American Muscle

From 60’s to 80’s

This G-body Monte Carlo SS was badass!

Vette’s:

Eclectic

DWA CnC is definitely my kind of cars and coffee. It’s a great venue with amazing driving roads nearby and the cars were so diverse. We highly recommend checking it out! Thanks to the DWA crew for hosting. If you haven’t already, listen to their podcast and make sure you give them a follow on Instagram.
More pictures in the gallery below!

LONG LIVE THE Z!