Happy New Year! Today we kicked off 2022 the right way with a New Year’s drive on a beautiful California day. Our friend Geoff assembled a group of cars and we were pleasantly surprised to see several Z Car Garage clients and friends in attendance! Thank you to everyone that braved the chilly morning temperatures and truly showed that Datsuns Are Driven! Enjoy photos and video from the cruise below.
I drove my 1967.5 Datsun Roadster and it was a cool 36F at 8:30am as I hit the freeway for the meeting point in San Jose. It was so good to see familiar faces and cool cars. Geoff briefed the group and we rolled out 16 cars strong heading up HWY 17 to Bear Creek Rd. Let’s take a look at the group:
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:
Jose M was happy to join us in his Z. After 8 years, Rob and Jose re-connected at our 2023 Nissan Z Viewing.
Felix’ 1996 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo
Felix joined is in his 1996 Z32TT. This 300 will also get an updated feature on zcarblog.com.
Pall’s Nissan Skyline GT-R
Pall’s R32 recently visited ZCG for Haltech ECU and dyno tuning.
Datsun 510s
We had three Datsun 510s in Wagon, 2-door and 4-door models!
Mark’s 1972 Datsun 510
We upgraded Mark’s 510 with our Z Car Garage CV Axles. These CV axles help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to standard half shafts, while eliminating the need for aluminum adapters. Mark got ZCG VV Axle set #320 and he loves them:
Nick’s Datsun 510 Wagon
Z Car Garage’s very own Nick F drove his L-Series powered 510 wagon with SSR mesh wheels.
Dustin’s Datsun 510 4-door
We’ve known Dustin and Courtney for many years. Dustin’s 510 4-door runs a KA24DE and sweet Longchamp XR-4 wheels. Hagerty produced a video featuring the local Bay Area Datsun couple you can see it HERE. Dustin also installed our Z Car Garage CV Axles himself on his 510!
Our fearless leader Geoff in his Lotus 7 and my Datsun Roadster. Also joing us was William in his (964) 911:
Enjoying The Ride
Bear Creek Rd. up to HWY 9 to the look out was surprisingly traffic-free. At the lookout we could see clear across the Santa Cruz mountains to the coast. A few late-model Porsche’s stopped by.
Enjoy this video of the drive and all cars particiapting:
From the lookout we drove up Skyline (35) and down Alpine Rd. Recent rains have made lush forests:
After a short re-group we took 84 up to Alice’s Restaurant and chatted for a bit. It is always busy here and the eye-candy endless. My J-Tin radar was treated to Mark 3 and 4 Supras, S14 240SX, R35 GT-R, MR2 and DC2 Integra:
This Model A had a hot-rodded 4-cylinder Flathead. It’s a small world and through Geoff we were introduced to the owner, John B. John races a Jaguar Special with CSRG!
Thanks to everyone that came out. We hope you get to the Enjoy The Ride this year, let’s make 2021 amazing. DO IT IN A DATSUN!
Pall K acquired this Pearl Red (AH3) R32 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. We love the gorgeous paint color and Volk TE37SLs:
Pall brought the R32 to ZCG for a full inspection in 2019 and we have serviced it since. On that visit we found one of the CV boots torn and he had some Nismo stainless lines for us to install. We checked the timing, changed the engine oil, transmission fluid, installed the new brake lines front/rear and performed a full alignment. He visited us again for a new clutch:
Pall has driven the Skyline frequently since we met in 2019, and he does most of the work on his cars himself. We spotted him last summer at the 6/13 Morning Motors Cars & Coffee event hosted by DrivingWhileAwesome (DWA) in Santa Cruz, CA:
I had fun chasing Pall in our shop Datsun 240Z (Mrs. Butters) on this earlier 2020 Drive:
Pall was experiencing some intermittent issues with car, so he purchased a Haltech Platinum Pro ECU from our client Kurt W since he’s going to an Haltech Elite box for his own R32 GT-R build.
“My car was pinging on 91 octane trying to run on the stock ECU at higher load / RPM. I purchased a Haltech Planimum Pro plug-in ECU to resolve the pinging issue and make the most of my modifications. Rob installed the Haltech with a wideband O2 controller and dyno tuned the whole setup. The pinging issue is gone and the car feels incredible. Smoother initial throttle tip-in and lower end, pulls hard all the way out redline. Extremely pleased!”
As Pall mentioned above, his R32 came in to Z Car Garage in Novemeber and Rob dyno tuned it using Haltech. It put down a very strong 381hp/320tq to the wheels on 91 octane:
This Skyline does have basic performance upgrades including: Apex’i intakes, boost restrictor removed (~14psi), Fujitsubo equal-length downpipe, HKS high-flow cat, Fujitsubo Legalis R-Type Evo exhaust, divided intake pipe, PRP R35 coil conversion kit. Despite the modifications, a subtle chop at idle and the dyno results may indicate aftermarket cams from Japan. Nevertheless it has great power, enjoy the dyno video!
Enjoying The Ride
Photo by Pall Kornmayer
We are happy to report that Pall is already back on the road in his R32, post ZCG-tuning. Just yesterday he attended the final Morning Motors in Santa Cruz:
Pall attended the 2021 Skyline Matsuri hosted by the Norcal Skyline Owners group, you can see Pall’s own photography from the event by clicking on the photos below:
Can’t get enough of this beautiful Skyline. It doesn’t get any better than driving a Skyline on Skyline!
Pall is a wonderful client and enthusiast with a pretty serious E30 M3 in addition to the R32. The 90’s were good for iconic sports cars!
Thanks to Norcal Skyline Owners group we get to work with many cool cars like Kurt W and Mike R (here for timing belt, tuning and clutch job, report soon). Thanks for your support Pall and for trusting us with your R32!
The 2021 Japanese Classic Car Show was held on October 30, in Anaheim, CA. This is the original vintage Japanese-car event in SoCal and in its 16th year, JCCS has grown incredibly. Thousands of spectators enjoyed 400+ cars in the parking lot of Angel Stadium. The vehicles themselves remained a fantastic blend of stock, modified and restored. This is the most important show for Japanese cars, and the Z Car Garage crew keeps coming back every year to soak up the sun, see old friends and drool over some spectacular vintage builds.
Z Car Garage Parts on Sung Kang’s Datsun 240Zs!
FuguZ
Actor and star of the Fast and the Furious movies, Sung Kang also happens to be a car enthusiast as well. At the SEMA 2015 show he debuted his vision of the perfect Datsun 240Z, named FuguZ. The build was chronicled the through social media, enlisting parts from around the world with final assembly by Kenji at Greddy. Sporting the latest Rocket Bunny body kit, Volk TE37s and NA RB26 drivetrain this was a crowd favorite and sparked the Z car love in many people.
FuguZ became one of the most prominent S30s in the world. Fast forward to 2021 and Sung Kang visited Z Car Garage, driving “Mrs. Butters”, our 1971 Series 1 240z shop demo car. After driving Butters, Sung wanted the exact same Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels), Z Car Garage CV Axles and KW suspension on his very own FuguZ!
Rob and Kenji came up with a plan and the Z was shipped up to us so we could install ZCG Big-brakes, CV axles and KW suspension before the JCCS. Kenji then revived the Z with twin-turbos that the RB26 is famous for. Now Sung can enjoy the boost, and reign it all in with our brakes and suspension. Full report soon!
Doc Z
Sung was so impressed with the Z Car Garage Big-Brakes that he also wanted a set on his latest 240Z build, the “DocZ”. We happily obliged, only this time we shipped the kit to the Erick of Erick’s Racing, the master builder behind DocZ.
Erick was very pleased with the kit and ease of installation:
DocZ was built as a tribute to the Datsun 240Z that dominated the 1971 East-African Safari. Sung even had his own multi-piece wheels made as an homage to that history-making Z. The ZCG Big-Brakes can be seen through those iconic slots:
DocZ also features interior parts (look at that dash!) and exterior carbon fiber pieces by Carbon Signal:
We are thrilled to be a part of Sung’s builds and the collaborate with his team of talented craftsman! Thank you for your support Sung! Stay tuned for a deep dive on DocZ when we see it at SEMA this week and more details on the FuguZ when it returns to ZCG for tuning.
Showtime!
We arrived early to the new venue at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. This location is larger and more vendor-friendly than The Queen Mary and Marina Green of past shows. It was a a huge parking lot, and those that braved the lines to get in were treated to a J-Tin overload. Once inside we made our way to see client James and his 1972 Datsun 240Z.
James’s 1972 S30 was displayed in the Love20bee booth. At the heart of this beast is a turbocharged L-series managed by Haltech. Chassis upgrades include custom full-length subframe connectors, CD009a 6-speed transmission, KW Suspension, ZCG CV Axles and Big-Brake Kit (328mm) behind RS-8 wheels restored by Love20bee. Larry Chen featured James’s Z on this episode of Hoonigan Autofocus. Inside, a stack instrument cluster was integrated into the gauge pod, viewed from leather Recaro Pole Position seats:
Recent upgrades to “Medusa” include a new tubular exhaust manifold, intake manifold and down-pipe from from ProtunerZ. We will have more installation photos and dyno results coming soon to zcarblog.com!
Highlights from JCCS
Enjoy this video I made highlighting the sights and sounds of JCCS 2021:
Why do we keep coming back to JCCS? Each year the bar is raised for the show cars, and this year was truly impressive. With over 400 cars and aisles of vendors it was almost impossible to see it all in the 9am-3pm show time. Here are our favorites, starting with Nissan/Datsun.
Skylines
Here are few of my favorite Nissans and Datsuns, starting with that not-so forbidden fruit commonly known as the hakosuka Skyline. Ralph Kenyon’s stunning build was the result of OCD-level attention to detail.
Ralph’s Hako received a true, rotisserie-style nut and bolt restoration but didn’t stop there. He strengthened the chassis, utilizing beefed-up suspension/driveline components to support the raging and exotic 3.5L Datsunworks twin-cam L-Series. This fuel-injected monster is backed by a Nissan CD009 6speed transmission. Take a look at that engine bay…you will find yourself discovering a treasure of details from the dry-sump tank to perfectly aligned wingnut bolts on the air filter housing. The S20-inspired valve cover, equal-length exhaust manifold, OEM hose clamps…”next level” is appropriately used here.
Roy’s ’72 Skyline now with an old-school Cartech turbo kit:
Rick’s GTX on RS8 wheels:
Mike C’s 4-door:
Jun’s unflared Hako:
It was great to see our ZCG CV Axles under this 3.2L, fuel-injected Hako in the Hagerty booth!
I didn’t expect to see a large gathering of R32/33 Skylines, even a 4-door! DR30 and 240k!
JDM Legends had their C110 Kenmeri Skyline on display. Now with a 3.5L Jenvey fuel-injected L-Series and 6-speed transmission. It was great to see Eric he expressed how fun it is to drive!
Our friend Sean and his team at Toprank International Vehicle Importers brought the heat to JCCS with an impressive showing of rare Skylines. It goes without saying, if you are in the market for a vintage Skyline (or any JDM car) IVI is the place to go. The iconic “BF Goodrich poster” R34 and R33 Nismo 400R were a treat to see in person:
Z Car Extravaganza
S30 Z cars were everywhere. I’m a big fan of subtle modified Z’s but I can also appreciate pristine, bone-stock examples and the occasional shakotan build.
Stock is good. Nissan returned to JCCS with a cool display including this pristine example:
Jay from JDM Car Parts always has a fun display with RHD/JDM cars surrounded by a working model train (See video):
There were an impressive amount of Z’s with bodykits from Rocketbunny and Libertywalk:
Lowered on Hayashi Racing wheels:
Loved this Z on Watanabe wheels with an L28ET:
Beautiful 260Z and 280Zs and a 2+2!
Andrew’s RHD Fairlady Z sitting on Watanabe “Gotti” wheels was near the Techno Toy Tuning booth. He drove it down with his Father from the Bay Area:
So. Many. Z’s!
The show-winning Z! Mark and his daughter Samantha built this Z as a family project it is SEMA-bound!
Larry Chen’s 1970 SR20DET-powered Z was on display in the Leen Customs booth. It was featured on Hoonigan Autofocus and we will take a closer look at the work ZCG performed this past year including our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles on zcarblog.com:
You can find more S30s in our gallery!
S130!
Keeping Z31s on the map was the best display of the model I’ve ever seen at JCCS. Proudly shown right next to the Nissan display there were Kouki, Chuki and Zenki models to enjoy:
300ZR and Shiro Special sitting on white Watanabe R-type wheels:
The lone Infiniti sitting on Autotradas:
The Nissan 300ZX (Z32) was also well-represented. My favorite was a white slicktop on Nismo wheels:
Sweet 240sx/Silvias and B13 Sentras!
People
At the JCCS it is always great to see old friends and meet new enthusiasts! The best part was to meet younger folks that were passionate about their rides…we need the the next generation to carry the torch for us!
Datsun Fairlady Roadsters
The Datsun Roadsters came out in full force this year, running 12 cars strong!
Thanh Lam’s 1964 Datsun 1500 was the oldest car present, winning the JCCS Best of Show award!
Ed’s sharp 1970 SPL sporting Enkei Compe wheels:
Eric’s show-winning ’68 2000:
The Desirello’s also displayed their SR20-powered beauties:
More roadster pics in our gallery!
Datsun 510s
Datsun 510s dominated the field as the most represented model again this year.
Not one but 4 Bluebird Coupes!
Matt of Love20bee’s Rotary-powered, box-flared 510 sitting on Tomcat wheels. Hear it run in the video above…BRAP!
Erick’s S2000-powered 510!
TSR-built 510s:
All kinds of engine swaps abound including Toyota 18RG, SR20, Mazda Rotary and even an LSx V8!
This 500hp, SR20-powered 510 was tune by our friend Seb at SpecialtyZ. It’s running our ZCG CV Axles and the owner is super stoked with their performance!
Our friend Troy’s customer won Best 510! We saw the happy new owner of Troy’s former race car!
Stock RHD 4-door!
Wagons!
Jun Imai’s “Kaidohouse” 510 in the GReddy booth with Work Equip 40 wheels, IRS and KA24DE-T powerplant:
Alex’s V8-powered wagon. He also brought a Sunny truck!
Toyota
Toyota always has a huge showing with AE86, Cressida, Celica’s and Corolla’s!
Great showing of RA29 (Liftback) Celicas!
3nd and 4th gen Celicas and Supras!
Wheels For Fantasy
I personally love going to JCCS because I get to see very rare Japanese/tuner wheels and parts. Preservation of authentic wheels and appreciation of the time and effort spent to find certain specimens that most folks have never heard of in this generation is what I admire most.
Variations on the mesh wheel from BBS, Epsilon, SSR, Volk, Bahn and more. Riverside, Autostrada, Racing Hart, Hoshino, Work, Mugen and Tomcat and Watanabe. Heaven!
Honda
EF, EA, EG Civics, CRX, DA and DC Integras, NSX and even motorcycles!
Super Sexy NSXs
Mazda
FC, FD RX-7s were out as well as RX-2, RX-3, REPU pickups and Miatas:
Many more pictures from JCCS in the gallery!
Farewell
Towards the end of the show we staged a quick photoshoot with Sung Kang and the DocZ next to James’ Medusa. It was crazy to see everyone swarm around me once they realized what was going on 🙂
Later, at the Greddy booth Kenji and Larry Chen indulged us for another quick photoshoot with James’s Z, FuguZ and Ole Orange Bang. You can see Rob driving FuguZ in the vide0. We are beyond happy to have our Z Car Garage chassis parts on these high-profile Z cars.
Thank You JCCS!
How does a show go by so fast? Just like that, the JCCS ended and we still did not explore the entire show or meet everyone. I personally think there needs to be signage or at least a map so spectators can make sure they see everything! Despite missing out on some displays there was such a great, positive energy. Love seeing families and younger generations of car enthusiasts, for all marques.
It is difficult to run a car show and keep up the quality and interest levels but the folks at JCCS have managed to do exactly that for 16 years! No other show gives you the chance to see obscure, pristine, modified Japanese classics…and we look forward to next year’s entrants. Koji and Terry, thank you for your efforts. We hope you have enjoyed our coverage and please visit our mega-gallery for more pictures.
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,
One of many Z32s we are working on, Steve’s will get a full report soon as well as the Stillen SMZ:
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:
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!
We met Lehan in the summer of 2018 when he came to Z Car Garage with his newly acquired (KH2) 1991 Skyline GTR. After learning that these cars can be made smog compliant, he found this car locally (originally imported by our friend Sean and his team at Toprank International Vehicle Importers) and picked it up right away. We replaced the clutch and flywheel with an OS Giken TS2CD setup, replaced the rear main seal and fresh clutch hydraulics.
To fix an intermittent misfire we installed R35 coil packs ( a common RB26 upgrade) and replaced the front CV axle boots. Lehan’s goal for this R32 has been modest:
“I’ve changed the wheels and exhaust to more of my liking, replaced worn rubber parts and trim pieces, and added some Nismo bling. My goal with the car is to keep it looking mostly stock, but update the drivetrain to more modern tech, hence the Haltech ecu. In the future I may replace the 30 year old turbos but keep it to a modest hp gain, and replace the Attesa G-sensor with a digital unit. I will probably keep the HICAS system just because, and learn to drive with it on the track.”
Haltech ECU and Tuning
In March of 2019 we installed a Haltch Platium Pro Plug-in. It was set up to run MAP-based with the Haltech WB1 single channel wideband 02. We are huge fans of Haltech engine management. Rob performed street/dyno tuning tuned on 91 octane with baseline numbers of 260hp/253tq and with the Haltech making 337hp/280tq at the rear wheels:
Enjoy the dyno video!
Stoptech Big Brakes
All 90’s Nissan sports cars can benefit from larger brakes and Stoptech has got you covered. Another Norcal Skyline member Kurt W also had Stoptech brakes installed at ZCG, and he highly recommended them. Lehan’s R32 received ST40 calipers with 332mm rotors up front and ST22 caliper with 328mm rotors at the rear.
A few pictures of the brake installation:
The brakes look great behind the BBS wheels. During the brake upgrade we replaced all fluids: both diffs, tranny and transfer case.
Lehan took the R32 to a track day it performed admirably. He did experienced high oil temps, another common issue when tracking these cars. A new oil cooler will be installed next. Over all he’s please with the Skyline’s upgrades:
“Every visit to fix or update something just makes the car more awesome to drive. It feels much more lively and torquey after the tune. Best part is I can drive it as hard as I can knowing it’s been tuned safely and backed by modern engine management. It’s a similar feeling with the StopTech brakes on track – without it I would not have been able to push braking points. The steering feel and overall composure of the car is top notch, especially after the tune. I’m very happy with the car as is, but definitely looking forward to any future mods.”
Enjoying The Ride
Lehan has been driving the R32 everywhere including the track and autocross. We spotted him at the inaugural Fuel Supply Co. gathering earlier last year.
He even made it out to the Norcal Skylines Matsuri, an event we were lucky to attend 2019:
We love helping our local Norcal Skyline Owners repair, improve and enjoy their cars.
“It’s been awesome working with Rob and ZCG, and I’m really happy with all the work they’ve done. This is my first car with significant modifications, and I liked that Rob doesn’t push to have it done in a specific way. I also appreciate Rob’s effort to ensure the car is as best as it can be. I noticed some rubbing the week before a track day, and he was able to check that out on short notice, and offered to help if anything came up. True to that, I texted Rob about high oil temps the day of and he replied right away. I’m getting an oil cooler installed early Jan before the next track day.”
Thank you Lehan for your support and we look forward to working with you! More pictures in the gallery below:
