Z Car Garage prepared and supported many race cars for last year’s Rolex Reunion and this year we are excited to attend once again August 15-18! The crew has been working diligently to prepare and tune three vintage race cars: Alex McDowell’s 1967 Datsun Bluebird and 1979 Jim Fitzgerald 280zx, and Doug Steven’s 1975 DeKon Monza. The team will be at the Pre-Historics this weekend so stop by and say hello! Read on to see and hear the three racers being dyno-tuned…

 

1975 DeKon Monza

This is a formidable vintage race car that we will be spotlighting in its own blog post. It is the second of its kind (Chassis #1002) with a unique history that is perfect for the IMSA feature at the upcoming Historics. For more information on DeKon, go here.

 

 

Listen to the Chevy-powered Monza on the dyno in the video below. Also shown is the Bluebird making L-Series music and the 280zx:

 

 

1967 Datsun Bluebird

Alex McDowell will be racing his 1967 Datsun Bluebird Coupe and 1979 Jim Fitzgerald Datsun 280zx at the RMMR.

 

Re-cap of these two in action from the 2018 event below:

 

Alex raced with notable 510 drivers Troy Ermish (#9), Jim Froula(#52), Dave Stone(#93), Glenn Chiou(#21), Taz Harvey (#51) and Datsun Roadsters Mike Anderson (#38) and Steve Link (#23). Watch this extended in-car video below of Alex piloting the Bluebird. Alex finished the race 12th/50 cars with a best lap of 1:48.1. Lots of action in this one!

 

 

 

Alex’s Datsun 280zx

 

Alex ran the Jim Fitzgerald 280zx in Group 7B: IMSA GTO, GTU with some wild rotary and Trans Am cars. He was having too much fun in the Bluebird so did run the car in the final race. The Z ran well throughout the Pre-Reunion and qualifying where Alex was running 1:44s. Here is a short video of the Z in action:

 

 

Get your tickets and parking!

You can get discounted tickets AND preferred parking through The Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC). They are hosting a Nissan-only parking corral at Weathertech Laguna Seca Raceway and it’s the best way to park and enjoy the event. For more details please see the ZONC press release below.

Datsun and Nissan Revisit IMSA at 2019 RMMR
By Ann Devor

Following on the heels of last year’s fantastic Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, twelve Datsuns and Nissans have been chosen to compete in three races in 2019’s RMMR at WeatherTech Laguna Seca Raceway. The 2019 RMMR is celebrating IMSA and will feature three classes of IMSA racecars over the four-day weekend from August 15 through August 18. David Martin’s 240Z, Alex McDowell’s 280ZX and Rob Morgan’s 280ZX will be racing on Saturday August 17 in Race 5A (1973-1981 IMSA, GT, GTX class). Almost equally exciting will be the IMSA prototype Race 7A on Saturday where you will see advanced racing performance and styling not seen in the production-based cars.

On Sunday in Race 6B (1981-1991 IMSA GTO/GTU racecars), Craig Bennett will drive a 1991 300ZX competing against John Murray in a 1989 Nissan 240SX, Philip Mendelovitz in a 1989 240SX and Michael Parsons in his 1990 300ZX. We’ll also see Datsun roadsters on Sunday in non-IMSA Race 5B featuring 1961-1966 GT cars under 2500cc including Alex McDowell’s 1967 Bluebird, Phillip Mendelovitz’ 1967 311 Roadster, Ross Merrill in his 1966 Fairlady Roadster and Steve Smargiasso in a 1966 Datsun 311 Roadster.

Here’s what we have planned so far exclusively for Datsun and Nissan fans:

• We have a private corral with 20 reserved paved parking spaces. Datsun-Nissan race fans who wish to park in our Datsun-Nissan special parking area must purchase their corral passes and admission tickets only from ZONC. If we sell out our 20 corral spaces we will try to get more, but there is no guarantee. Corral passes ($45) are good for the entire 4-day weekend.
• ZONC is again offering a discount on admission tickets.

Individual Ticket Pricing	Regular Price	ZONC Discounted Price
4-Day (Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun)	$170	$145
3-Day (Fri/Sat/Sun)	$150	$130
2-Day (Sat/Sun)	$120	$105
Thursday only	$ 40	$ 35
Friday only	$ 70	$ 60
Saturday only	$100	$ 85
Sunday only	$ 70	$ 60

 

For more information or to be added to our special mailing list for updated information, please contact me at anndevor@gmail.com. Don’t hesitate, don’t be late, and get ready to have a great time at the 2019 RMMR!

 

This is the moment we have all been waiting for as Nissan/Datsun enthusiasts! For the first time ever, Nissan will be the featured marque at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 23-26. Now in its 45th year and commonly known as the Monterey Historics, the Reunion is a highlight of the famous Pebble Beach “car week” in August. This event features the best of every decade of racing history, all condensed into four days of qualifying and competition at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway.

 

  

Even if you are a seasoned race car fan or hardcore Datsun nut this is the event you don’t want to miss. To make it even sweeter the good folks at ZONC are proudly sponsoring the Nissan Car Corral AND a Parade Lap around the world famous Laguna Seca Raceway!

 

Datsun & Nissan Exclusive Car Corral Parking

At past RMMR events our Nissan car corral has been mixed with the other marques. Not this year. We have the incredible spotlight and desirable PAVED parking between Turn 2 and 5. It will be our time to shine, let’s make a strong showing by bringing our beloved cars out! Have a Nissan Skyline GT-R from the 90’s? Bring it. Got a Datsun 510 Wagon? Bring it. Nismo R35 GT-R? We want that too. Remember, this is THE best place to park your car, enjoy the races AND proudly represent!

  

To participate in the Car Corral and Parade Lap you must buy tickets through ZONC, details can be found by clicking HERE. Take advantage of discounted general admission through ZONC and let’s make this a superb showing of our Nissans and Datsuns! Please spread the word to fellow owners 🙂

In case you missed it, here is our coverage of last year’s RMMR:
RMMR 2017

We plan on bringing the #49 Joel Anderson IMSA 240z to participate in the race! We are really excited for our fellow racers this is going to be an EPIC event. Enjoy a few photos from past RMMR events. LONG LIVE THE Z!

 

 

 

We had a tremendous week racing at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion August 14-17.  More commonly known as the “historics” at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, this epic vintage race is part of several events occupying the week-long Monterey car festival leading up to the Pebble Beach Concours.  Our friends over at JNC were lucky to experience the Pebble Beach scene in all its opulence and excitement. From the multi-million dollar auctions and surprising Japanese classic entrants check out their coverage HERE.

If it’s the smell of 110 octane, straight-piped exhausts and wheel-to-wheel action you desire than look no further than the historics. Typically I would cover this event from a spectator’s point of view. This year, I was fortunate to be part of the Z Car Garage race crew and bring you, dear readers, a perspective from the pits as a first time participant.

 

Joel Anderson and Restoration of the #49 IMSA Z

Z Car Garage was thrilled to team up with original owner, builder and driver Joel Anderson to bring the IMSA Z back to life after being stored for 25 years.  Restored to late-70’s spec as it was raced, this IMSA GTU-prepped Z does not have new “trick” parts.  Parts from Joel’s collection were re-used and common wear items were refreshed. Below:  Original race seat and MOMO Prototipo steering wheel. Original suspension parts were plated.

 

Our man William applied Joel’s bespoke striping:

 

More detailed restoration photos and our full interview with Joel can be found HERE. We were very pleased with the engine bay…plenty of Joel’s engineering remains intact:

 

We applied the vinyl livery, took a step back and pinched ourselves…are we still dreaming?

 

With all of the vitals checked, #49 rests before heading to Laguna Seca on the original trailer Joel used decades ago at Road Atlanta:

 

Racing at Laguna Seca

For the Friday practice session we drove the ZCG Datsun 2000 to Laguna Seca and parked alongside some fellow roadsters owners in the paddock. Arriving at  ‘Seca early morning with the track enshrouded in fog is surreal.  Despite the moisture and most high-dollar machinery still under car covers, a few brave souls were on course for their practice sessions.
…[read more]

I want to start off by thanking everyone who showed up for the ZONC Z Car Corral on Saturday.  It was a pleasure to see all of you!!

The weather was perfect early on Saturday and I was pleased to see that we had 8 cars a the shop ready to join us on our caravan down to Laguna Seca to meat up with the rest of the group.   Unfortunately the most of the drive to the track takes place on Highway 101 so there isn’t much room for spirited driving, we still managed to get to the track in under an hour and a half.

Once arriving it seems like the rest of the car clubs enjoy getting up much earlier than ours did because all of the other corrals from Porsche, BMW, Ferrari, and others were already nearly at capacity.  Porsche had the most cars by far, easily understandable because they were the featured marque this year.  When will it be Nissan/Datsun’s time!?!?  Are you gonna show up when it happens?  I sure am.

While the practice sessions were underway in the morning hours we walked the paddock area in search for automotive gold.  There are amazing cars at every turn at this event, and you don’t even need your sense of sight to appreciate them.   I can’t even count the times that our group stopped by a running car just to listen to the engine note and to smell the burning race fuel.

After lunch we settled into our seats just outside of turn four to enjoy the racing.  While we appreciate the older racing cars that were up for the first few races, we were simply patiently waiting for the last two races of the day which were the 1964-1971 FIA Mfg. Championship cars (mainly Porsche 917s) and the 1981 -1990 FIA Mfg. Championship cars and the IMSA GTP cars.

You can imagine that when seriously priceless cars are raced that the track time is little more than glorified pace laps,  NOT TRUE!!!!  The cars were wheel to wheel in every sense and there was certainly rubbin and bumpin going on.  The drivers wanted to win, after all when would all of these cars ever be on track again together?  It was truly a sight to behold.

I have found a video of the winner of the IMSA GTP race and it can be viewed after the “read more”.  The video is taken from inside the pilot’s driver’s helmet.  I want one of these cars.  There is also a gallery of the photos that I took on Saturday (the only day I attended unfortuantely.)  I will try to find photos from Sunday from someone who attended.  Hopefully we can get our group numbers a little bit higher next year to show how much support is out there for Nissan/Datsun products.  See you there.

(the photo below was of a really clean 240z that was just sitting by itself in the vendor’s area, we had to check it out.  haha)

Complete gallery and video after the ‘read more’

…[read more]

The Z Owners of Northern California are hosting the Z Car Corral tomorrow at Laguna Seca for the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races.  That was a mouthful.  We will be meeting at Z Car Garage tomorrow morning at 8:00am sharp to form up the caravan and we will be leaving shortly afterwards.

We ask you all to show up as close to 8:00am as possible so that we can leave on time.

You can email me here at ZCarBlog@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Thanks!!  See you tomorrow!!

Link: ZONC Website

Link: Official Monterey Historics Website

And just to get you all a little more hyped up about tomorrow, here are a few more pictures from last year.  These are just a few of the vintage Trans-Am cars that attended last year, this race group was great to watch.  Enjoy the pictures.  (more after the ‘read more’)

…[read more]