Z Car Garage is expanding to support our vintage, late model and motorsport work. We are seeking an experienced and skilled automotive technician to join our team with two open positions available. This is not an average automotive job. We work 4-10hr days and offer competitive pay/benefits.
Requirements: Automotive experience, your own set of tools, willingness to learn, and be part of a team.
Nissan/Datsun experience is NOT a requirement, you just need to have passion.
Interested or know someone who might be a good fit? Share this, spread the word and please contact rob@zcargarage.com or call us at (408)452-0350.
On July 10-12, the Classic Sport Racing Group (CSRG) hosted the David Love Vintage Races. Our favorite feature race was the Group 8 class with 20 sedans battling at Sonoma Raceway. It was a great weekend filled with competition, camaraderie and plenty of Alfas, BMWs and Datsuns sharing the track. Enjoy our report with in-car footage and photos from contributors Kurt Boden, Trent Barr, Nick Dockery and ZCG Crew Nick F and Josh C.
Z Car Garage Supports Three Datsun 510s!
2020 has been a strange year and we were fortunate to be racing again at Sears Point in the David Love event. Z Car Garage both participated and provided support for several Datsun 510 race cars.
Here is a video with sights and sounds from the paddock, samples of in-car footage of Rob Fuller, Tom Dockery, Glenn Chiou and Mike Anderson:
#7 Rob Fuller
ZCG owner Rob Fuller, Bay Area Datsun Dealers tribute car
Rob Fuller has not been in the Bay Area Datsun Dealers 510 since last year’s John Morton Cup. This car was purchased from Larry Oka as an IT car, slowly transforming into a B-Sedan. We sorted out the front suspension and this time the rear was attacked. From Rob:
“We installed the weight jacker set to adjust springs for ride height and a DP Racing sway bar that has the same design as the BRE car. Since the shop was slammed and customers come first, we enlisted our friend and fellow racer Troy Ermish to dial in the rear setup. Josh did final prep on the car and we were ready to go. The car did awesome with the back end of he car making all the difference in the world: instead of hopping around uncontrollably I was able to feed it throttle and negotiate the car in/out of corners. We went from middle to front of pack with Troy and the fast friends from RacecraftNW. Good times.”
You can see footage of Rob in the second race here:
Here is a great video with multiple angles showing Rob battling with Steve Walker (BMW 2002):
#7 Kelvin
Let’s talk about our clients. Three weeks before the CSRG event we got a call from Kelvin and he was testing his 510 that he just got from a local shop. It was sputtering and running poorly and by chance Larry Oka was also testing and referred Kelvin to us. We got him on the dyno and the engine failed. With a quick call to Rebello the engine was sorted, installed back in the the 510 and we handled all the prep work to be ready for the race weekend.
Kelvin had a successful race experience, finally:
“Kelvin has dealt with some issues on the car and this was the first time he had a good time with it. We were really happy for him. That’s why do this: we want more people at the race track driving, not fixing. It doesn’t allow to you to build confidence as a driver. You need to have a car that is reliable and works well so you can focus on you as a driver. Kelvin was super pumped. On test day I drove both Kelvin and Tom’s cars and they are fantastic examples of what a B-sedan can be. All they need to do is knock those numbers down”
Stay tuned for a full report on Kelvin’s 510. His friend Ed M was so impressed with our work that he wants ZCG to prep his sedan as well. Look for full report soon!
#72 Tom Dockery
Tom Dockery drove his Ex-Norm Balzer 510. This car made its debut in May 2019 and we are excited to share its full story and profile Tom’s journey into racing soon.
Tom’s 510 has an FIA engine so it revs really high making it peaky and hard to drive. Per Tom’s suggestion, a shorter gearset would put him in the powerband and sure enough…always listen to your driver! Tom really got faster and it was great seeing him out there. Car has been flawless.
510 Friends!
Many notable Datsun 510 racers were in the group, all sharing the competitive spirit.
#33 Glenn Chiou
Glenn drove the Ex-Finn/Harris U2.5L Trans-Am ’68 510. This car made its debut in May at the SVRA event at Laguna Seca. Glenn did an admirable job (as always) getting this historically significant 510 back on the racetrack!
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Glenn was fast. He charged all the way to the front of the pack, only seconds within Jim Froula and Rob. In-car from Glenn:
It is also worth noting that Glenn is one of the few “privateer” racers in the field. He sets up his own race car in his garage and his crew are friends Erich and Lloyd. We want to congratulate Glenn on the birth of his son! Kudos for racing and being a father!
#38 Troy Ermish
Troy is a phenomenal driver. He helped set up our 510 rear suspension too:) Watching Troy wheel his blue 510 his a thing of madness, finesse, skill and beauty. He took 1st place!
#52 Jim Froula
Race car driver and restoration specialist Jim Froula of Racecraft in the Ex- Harry Stewart Datsun 510. Jim was kind to let us pit with his gang. He’s also a fierce competitor.
David Love race results can be seen below:
A Memorable Racing Event
It was so wonderful to share this experience with our friends and CSRG family. We look forward to another B-sedan event and special shoutout to Troy Ermish, ZCG crew including Nick F, the Corwins Josh and Keith. Running all of the cars above would not be possible without them. Rob is excited for future events:
“Of all the vintage racing I’ve done and been around, the B-Sedan group is where it’s at. It’s competitive, fun and you always have someone to race with. We will attempt to do this again August 8-9 at Laguna Seca. Glenn and I are gathering ~25 cars!. Look for B-sedan to become one of the featured groups with CSRG, SVRA and even HMSA/RMMR!”
Z Car Garage is expanding to support our vintage, late model and motorsport work. We are seeking an experienced and skilled automotive technician to join our team. This is not an average automotive job. We work 4-10hr days and offer competitive pay/benefits.
Requirements: Automotive experience, your own set of tools, willingness to learn, and be part of a team.
Nissan/Datsun experience is NOT a requirement, you just need to have passion.
Interested or know someone who might be a good fit? Share this, spread the word and please contact rob@zcargarage.com or call us at (408)452-0350.
More often than not, it’s our parents who are responsible for our unrelenting passion for cars. For Geoff G, his automotive love was gifted to him by his Dad as a child. We love sharing our passion with family and friends so when Geoff and his father visited us with their 1972 Datsun 240z we happily obliged to help. Our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes and Z Car Garage CV Axles along with tuning really made it come alive.
Z Car Beginnings
The Z was acquired from a family friend in 2015. Geoff worked on it with his Dad (Edgar) to make it a decent runner:
“When we took ownership of the car it had been sitting in a garage for several years, only being fired up occasionally. It’s originally painted 112 yellow, but a couple resale-red resprays along the way is where she sits. Drive train is all original. SU’s and 4 speed all there. And most importantly, no rust, or any signs of accidents. This is me and my dad’s first Z car. Always been a fan.”
Fast forward, the father-son duo felt confident enough to enter the Z on a couple of rallye events in 2019. These Targa events are familiar to us, having prepared the Bring a Trailer Datsun 240z for the Targa Baja California rallye in October ’18:
“In 2014 we successfully piloted his 1973 Opel GT on the Snowball Rally event. So when we picked up our Z, we knew we would get it out on the rally events. You can see our Z in the videos below”
Targa California 2019 Z shows up at 7:00 min mark: YouTube
Targa Baja California 2019 – Z shows up at 0:52 mark sporting rally Z inspired decals: YouTube
Pictures from the two rallye events:
Regarding the livery, Edgar wanted to make the car stand out a bit more in the rallye events and typical BRE-inspired themes. They went in the direction of the Rallye Monte Carlo Z that came in 3rd place at the 1972 event:
“The livery is very loosely based on the Monte Carlo car: When we brought it home, it came fitted with the front brush bar style bumper. I really did not like the look at the time, so I sourced a set of nice original chrome bumpers to bring it back to original. So we had that clean look for a while. But after our first rallye in the Z, I thought, you know, some fog lights would be a great idea. Functional for the night stages in the events. So we threw the brush bar back on, and it really set the tone for a rally style/safari look Z. In the end, the bumper and the livery came together.”
It’Z a Small World
Geoff and Edgar visited Z Car Garage back in January to help with some braking system issues.
“In the beginning of the year, after running the 2 previous events, the brakes started to feel on their way out. So after coming across ZCG on social media several years ago, and at the backing of our dear family friend, Ricky Silverio, I reached out to Rob for some stopping help.”
It is a small world indeed, as we’ve known Ricky for many years and the crew at Japanese Nostalgic Car (JNC)! It gets even better as both Ricky and Geoff’s family’s go way back to their days in the Philippines. Recently, Ricky decided to let go of his 1993 Mazda Miata with only 31k miles and Geoff picked it up. It complements Geoff’s ’94 R-package Miata (he credits Ricky for his MX-5 addiction).
ZCG Big-Brakes and CV Axles
Back to the Z…Geoff had heard about our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) so we let both him and his father take “Mrs. Butters”, our 1971 Series 1 240z shop demo car out for a test drive.
They were both super-impressed with how the brakes felt and they were sold on our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes and Z Car Garage CV Axles! Butters has a way of doing this to our customers 🙂 Read below for a brief description of these parts:
As fellow S30 owner/racer Glenn C mentioned in his review, on top of braking performance, pedal feel is extremely important and our Big-Brakes deliver. 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 details below:
Calipers: Stoptech ST42 4-piston front & rear race calipers (Alum 6061 mil-spec Type III anodized)
Rotors: 280mm x 20.6 with Alum 7075 hats
Pads: Stoptech 309 sport street pads
Blog posts documenting all of our customers running the ZCG Big-Brakes can be found HERE.
A few closer detail shots of the calipers, rotors and hardware:
We removed Geoff’s stock brakes and installed our ZCG Big-Brake kit. Up front:
A few more shots of the front brakes:
Our Big-Brakes utilize the OEM brake master cylinder and booster along with the factory hydraulic system. We installed NOS booster and master cylinder for Geoff:
At the rear, the factory drum brakes were replaced with our ZCG Big-Brakes:
Factory handbrake functionality IS retained!
The new brakes fit nicely behind the 15×8 RS Watanabe wheels front and rear:
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 90 CV axle kits on customer cars and we are stoked with all of the positive feedback.
Geoff received axle set #309. Stock half shafts (L) and ZCG units, more pictures in the gallery below:
Engine
Geoff’s engine needed some work. The carbs were off as was the timing. Rob performed on-the-fly tuning after setting the carbs and full timing. The distributor was also re-installed correctly. After these adjustments were made they took their Z out for a drive and came back to the shop. The look on Edgar’s face was priceless. They were impressed. Stage 1 of this build is complete and we are discussing plans for a built L-series, 5-speed transmission and fresh suspension. The new triple Mikuni’s are ready:
Part Two
We had a blast working with this father and son team and love that their passion is a family affair. Their affection for Datsuns also runs deep with Edgar enjoying 510s in the 80’s and Geoff picking up this cherry 2-door in 2016:
“We are very much looking forward to the next step. It’s a great car, and we’ve made so many good friends and stories in it. There will be a sequel, starring a 3.1L and triple Mikuni’s. Can’t wait for the next chapter!”
Tune in to zcarblog for updates and Long Live The Z!
Ever wonder about the history behind this famous IMSA-GTU Championship-winning 240z? Check out www.my240z.com. Our friend Glenn Chiou created this new website to document the racing provenance for current owner David Martin, who we have shared racing at Laguna Seca with at several events:
Glenn’s impressive knowledge of historic Nissan/Datsun racing is bolstered by hundreds of scanned photos, some never seen before along with stories from ex-drivers Brad Friselle, Jack Scoville and John Morton. We are even given new insight on the R&D effort that went into the Friselle car making it by far, “the best race engineered 240z in its period”.
So if you want to know “what’s it all mean?” check out www.my240z.com!
Enjoy a few videos we’ve captured over the years racing with David Martin piloting the Transcendental Racing 240z:
