Love for the Z is strong in Northern California

The Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) hosted their Annual Car Show in Brisbane, CA on July 28, 2018. Attendance was down from last year’s show, but didn’t stop Nissan/Datsun fans from bringing out their rides on a warm Saturday.

 

 

This was a relaxed, relatively small gathering of enthusiasts that I joined with my Datsun Roadster. I left San Jose and drove ~40minutes just past SFO to the Brisbane Marina. I stopped for a quick photo op near my office before rolling into the show after 10am:

 

    

Highlights from the show

Still to this day, 240Zs are the most represented model in the club. Expansion over time currently includes all recent Z models and the GT-R, but also reaches back in time to include the Datsun Roadsters and 510s.  37 cars were displayed this year, each one of them special and showing pride of ownership. The only models missing from the show was the S130 280zx and GT-R.

 

From showroom stock to wildly-modified the S30 selection was diverse. This was a wild one: an IMSA-bodied Z!

  

Two showrooom-stock examples:

  

Check out the period EMPI split-rim wheels on this Safari Gold S30:

 

Modified Z’s with trick suspensions, triple side-draft Mikuni’s/Weber’s and modern paint schemes. This Sunshine Yellow Z was the only car sporting fender flares:

 

A solo 1970 Series1 Z:

    

260z and 280z

ZCG customer Joe A showed his pretty 260z (full report on the blog soon):

  

Linda W’s 1978 280z

 

 

Winning Best 280z and Best of Show was this ultra-clean fully restored example:

 

People

  

We like this show because of the laid-back atmosphere and good folks that organize it. There was a great raffle, awards presentation and having banners for each model was a touch of genius. The banners will be displayed that will be carried on at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion next month!

Z32

  

4 Z32 300zx cars were displayed, all in different colors. Joe K and Kevin N’s Z32 Twin Turbos are both top-level examples of highly modified yet tasteful machines.

   

Old-school Racing Hart wheels house massive Brembo calipers on Kevin’s silver beauty:

  

Z31

 

 

The lone Z31 300zx was a 1984 Anniversary Turbo model!

Z33

 

Five 350z and 1 Z Roadster were in attendance. It was a pleasure seeing ZCG customer Dan Fulton and his track-prepped 350z:

  

Z34

6 370z cars including 1 wild NISMO Z:

 

510s

 

Three Datsuns 510s showed up, each sporting different powerplants and body styles. The crowd favorite (and winner) was Matt’s 510. This boosted KA24DE Dime also won Best Paint:

  

Jose’s SR-pwoered 4-door with an S13 SR20DET (note S13.5 valve cover!) 18″ SSR SP3 wheels and Brembo brakes from MArio of TSR:

 

The last time I saw Jose we both attended the Spocom Show in 2015. Since then he has added many titanium parts to the engine bay from ChasingJ’s and had the SR tuned by our friend Sebastian at SpecialtyZ. It’s now making 410whp!

 

The RL411 Bluebird

Our customer Kevin M brought his 1967 411 sedan, we will have a full story on this build soon!

Roadsters

 

This year we had three Datsun Roadsters. My 1967.5 SPL/SR20, Dave Premo’s 1967 2000 and John Baker’s 1969 2000. Dave’s SRL is car #406 finished in Turquoise sporting a full Mikuni-Solex “competition” package and 4:11 rear end. He is also Solex-tuning expert offering Mikuni parts and service:

  

John Baker’s 69 SRL is a concours-level example with rare parts like a day/night mirror.  The diminutive 5.60 bias-ply tires look just right! This roadster was featured in Automobile Magazine with John Morton behind the wheel!

   

A few more of the cool details. John won Best Roadster!

  

I had to get some rolling shots of this roadster, it looks so good on the road!

 

Vanity plates

It’s no secret Z car owners have the best vanity plates! Some notables:

 

Parking lot finds

The beautiful venue is also a public park so plenty of folks stopped by to check out the Z’s. I spotted two S-chassis rolling through:

   

See you next year!

Spending the day at the ZONC Annual Car Show was a welcome experience that reminded us to, in the words of the late Mr.K, ” Love cars. Love people. Love Life.”  We look forward to the next show keep an eye on our event updates and Z you soon! Don’t forget to check out our picture gallery below. Big thanks to the ZONC organizers!

 

 

 

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“Great Drives” is a new Zcarblog series highlighting scenic routes and destinations we have enjoyed from the past and present. Whether it is a nice cruise or thrilling adventure, we hope to inspire Bay Area vintage car owners to Enjoy The Ride! Have a great drive of your own that you want to share? Feel free to contact us on Facebook, Instagram or by e-mail.

 

Pescadero Beach, 7/8/18

Starting from San Jose, there are several fun routes reaching Pescadero State Beach.  Sunday’s Fun Run was organized by fellow Datsun owners, beginning in Downtown Saratoga heading up to Skyline via HWY9.

 

We had 11 cars in the group and joining us as Guest of Honor was Josh Martin, star of the successful Utah-based JDM Legends TV show.

Three Datsun Roadsters: my 67.5, Aidan’s ’69 SRL and Stacey’s 1970 SRL:

 

Three S30s: Dirk’s silver ’73, Andrew’s ’77 280z and Brian’s ’72:

 

Brian’s S30 was freshly restored, sporting a Rebello 3L, our ZCG Big-Brakes for small wheels and
ZCG CV Axles. Full report on his Z including dyno results soon!

  

Representing the finest from Nissan in the 90’s was Josh in the ZCG 300zx Twin Turbo and Naveed in his splendid 1991 Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R:

 

Our friend Matt drove his F2oC-powered Datsun 510 and we also had this STi(Tim) and 911 (JR) come along:

   

The blast up HWy 9 to the 35 junction was fun. After a brief photo-op at Sempervirens lookout we headed to Alice’s Restaurant at the 84/35 junction.

  

Alice’s was quite busy and the car show there was impressive.

  

BMWCCA was holding an event/rallye so parking was a challenge. I spotted this clean, Kouki S14:

 

From Alice’s I led the group down 84 towards the coast. This was my favorite part of the drive. We were blessed with zero traffic and an opportunity to open up the throttle and enjoy the turns. Linking each apex one after another was addicting, like the esses at Buttonwillow. Brake dust was wafting in the air from running hard!

  

Instead of taking 1 South we turned left onto Stage Rd (a route I learned from Glenn Chiou). Stage was bumpy but the reward was a nice, eucalyptus-lined stretch in farmland. Another photo-op session and my first time seeing Naveeds’s R32 in person to study the details. It’s the perfect amount of JDM style with the re-barreled Nismo wheels and subtly aero from Top Secret:

 

Sensing the mass of cars from the BMWCCA rallye headed our way we promptly headed into town and reached our destination at Pescadero Beach:

  

Here’s a short video of the Fun Run, turn up those speakers!

Weather at the coast was perfect and we departed via 1 and back up 84 for lunch at Alice’s. Again, 84 was clear and we Enjoyed The Ride:

 

 

Thanks to the organizers everyone had a blast! It was also nice to give Josh a sample of our beautiful driving roads here in the Bay Area. Stay tuned for the next Great Drives feature and enjoy more pictures in the gallery below!
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On Sunday we Enjoyed The Ride with several Datsuns on a local Fun Run organized by fresh Z car owner, Naveed Y. I drove my 1967.5 Datsun Roadster:

 

Rob drove his Datsun 510:

 

Lou drove his 1970 Series 1 240z:

 

Ty and Christine also joined us in their 991 Porsche:

 

Naveed has a cool collection of sports cars including an Nissan R32 Skyline and recently acquired this Fairlady Z:

He has been driving this S30 religiously and organized the day’s fun run, starting in Cupertino and heading up HWY 9. It was a gorgeous day to be driving Datsuns!

  

We stopped at a vista point just after the 9/35 junction and headed to Alice’s:

 

From Alice’s we drove down 84 and to the coast via Pescadero Rd. Though foggy it was quite warm and we had fun staging the cars for photos.

Naveed captured some great shots!

   

Naveed’s RHD S30 sported a triple-Mikuni carb’d L20A with a full Fujitsubo exhaust. Stay tuned as we report on the dyno performance of the Fujitsubo exhaust system on our shop S30:

 

Naveed’s Z sounded wonderful echoing off the forest-lined roads. Listen to the exhaust and watch a short sample of the fun run in the video below.

We had a blast, thanks for inviting us Naveed!

Enjoy more pictures from Naveed and us in the gallery below:

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It’s official! ZCG is going to the 2018 Classic Motorsports Mitty April 27-29 at Road Atlanta in Georgia. This year, Nissan is the featured marque!

 

  

Road Atlanta has been home to The Mitty event for over 30 years where Datsuns dominated the racing scene. Names like Bob Sharp, Walter Maas, Jim Fitzgerald, Kirk Allegro, Don Devandorf and of course our hero John Morton have all won at this historic race track. RA was also the location of this epic Datsun commercial with John:

 

 

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 will be 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 4/29. Somebody pinch us, we are running pit crew again for #46 with John Morton…our last race event with the legendary driver was the 2017 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca. Following the Historics, we performed post-race maintenance to prepare #46 for its trip back home to Randy in Georgia.

 

     

He showed the Z at several shows including ZCon 2017 and Atlanta Festival of Speed and now it’s time for it to be on the track again with Morton at the reigns!

 

Our tent will be in the paddock alongside Nissan and their fleet of historic race cars! Please stop by and say hello, we will have refreshments and love chatting about Datsuns.

  

 

Datsun Racers Making the Trip

Sweet historic Datsuns/Nissans will be racing at The Mitty. We will be transporting the Jim Fitzgerald “Designated Hitter” car (full story in a future post) and Bluebird Coupe with help from the good folks at RacecraftNW:

  

We are very happy for our friend and fellow racer Glenn Chiou. He is making the trek to Road Atlanta to race his VIP’s Z:

 

We also hear that a large contingent of West Coast Datsun Roadsters will be attending: Bob Studdard ’67 2000 (owned by Phil Mendelovitz), Ron Carter’s ’67 2000 and Michael Anderson’s recently acquired Rock Vest 2000:

Bring Out Your Nissan/Datsun!

This year the Classic Motorsports Mitty is showcasing Nissan as the featured marque. That means the track and infield will be bustling with historic examples. Bring yours out and enjoy the weekend at Road Atlanta. We were impressed with the showing of Datsuns back in 2010:

  

Speaking of history at Road Atlanta, when we spotted this blue KA24E-powered Datsun 510, Rob recalled an inspiring story about its creator, the late Tom Wyatt III (Turbo Tom).

 

Tom entered his turbocharged L-series Datsun 510 at The Mitty where he consistently outpaced much more powerful sports cars. By the end of the day he was racing with the Corvettes and Cobras. He beat a Porsche 930 on a lap by nine seconds, and a race prepped 427 Cobra by 3 seconds. The race staff didn’t know what to do, so they gave him a custom made trophy and told him not to come back next year!  That is how you DO IT IN A DATSUN!

See you at The MITTY!

 

 

Datsun Roadsters hold a special place in our heart and we had the opportunity to tune a very beautiful example. Brian K is the owner of this rare 1967 Datsun 2000 #427. Although he hails from the East Bay, we first saw his roadster when we visted Spriso Motorsports in Oregon. Brian had just completed a full, frame-off restoration on the roadster and embarked on a long roadtrip/shakedown: Datsuns Are Driven!

 

  

After breaking in the Hasselgren-built U20 engine, Brian wanted to have the roadster dyno-tuned and test different air filter setups.  Here is the U20 below, sporting dual Mikuni-Solex 44 carbs, C cam and .040 over pistons.

  

We supplied Brian with the correct main jets for the Mikiuni’s and tuning commenced! It was interesting to see (and hear) significant gains just from the open (early) vs closed (late) OEM filter housings. Brian’s roadster baselined at 121hp/122tq and left with 142hp/134tq to the wheels:

 

 

 

The dyno plot reveals nice gains throughout the entire rev range in addition to higher peak numbers. Well over 100tq is available from 3000rpm to 6600rpm! Keep in mind this is on 91 octane running 9:5:1 compression. A good tune is priceless. Brian was stoked on the tuning session.

 

When he’s not enjoying his many Datsuns, Brian owns/operates a machine shop called KaD Models and you can catch him on Instagram under “kadmodels”. Enjoy The Ride Brian!