Lou S is no stranger to Z Car Garage, having built several cars with us since we opened our doors in 2004. Although the red Z shown above is the focus of this blog post, let’s spend a moment recalling Lou’s 1973 Fairlady Z . You might recognize this RHD Z from local Bay Area fun runs and car shows over the years. What started out as a fairly stock car evolved into a canyon-carving street machine as we began modifications in 2011:

 

The Z featured a 250whp Rebello 3.2L engine, 240sx KA24 5-speed, Recaro seats, LSD, full-suspension, our ZCG Big-Brake Kit and Panasport C8 wheels.

   

Enjoy this short video showing the mellifluous sounds coming from the 3.2 engine:

 

The pretty triple Weber carb setup on the 3.2L was pictured on SpeedHunters and the Z was a feature car in JNC’s booth at the highly-successful Bayline show:

  

Enter The Monte Carlo

Lou enjoyed his Fairlady Z for many years and after ZCG’s 2nd SEMA build in 2016, Lou was inspired to take his car to the next level.  The 3.2L drivetrain was sold to our customer Tim Ng to be used in his ’72 S30 build. We are currently building an IMSA-flared body Fairlady Z featuring wider Panasport C8 wheels and a stroker RB engine backed by either a close-ratio 5-Speed or 6-speed.

 

While Lou’s Fairlady Z was being torn down, Rob had been daily-driving his Monte Carlo Red (#905) 1970 Series 1 S30. Rob had this car for a few years and every time Lou saw it he would hound Rob to sell it to him. Here is the low vin (6143) S30 back when Rob acquired it, before a cut and buff, stock hubcaps and refreshening:

   

Lou finally acquired Monte Carlo from Rob.  While the Fairlady Z sat in storage Lou was driving around in the bone-stock Monte Carlo. We thought, why not take the pieces in storage and upgrade Monte Carlo?  ZCG went to work and transferred all of the suspension, wheel/tires and Big-Brakes from the Fairlady Z to Monte Carlo:

 

Z Car Garage Big-Brakes

Lou has our ZCG Big-Brake kit. Not to be confused with our current Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels), this Big-Brake kit was our initial setup from over a decade ago. This 328mm sized kit requires 17″ diameter wheels and the massive ST-42 calipers are finished in bright red. We actually did all the R&D in-house for this setup…using a 280ZX master cylinder and our own mounting brackets. Full suspension (Coil-overs) and ZCG Big-Brakes F/R replace OEM parts:

   

Another look at those massive ZCG Big-Brakes!

 

The 280z 2.8L engine received a 5-speed transmission with new clutch/flywheel.

 

5-speed transmission fitment required trimming the shifter area as early cars came with 4-speeds:

 

While the Z was on the lift we also addressed a few engine bay items like a new brake booster:

 

The interior also got attention with nicer, complete seats from our parts supply. The original seats were badly torn:

  

The resulting transformation is impressive. From a stock, early series 1 Z to a hot rod with killer brakes, suspension and footwork that is familiar to Lou. We know these upgrades to Monte Carlo will keep him Enjoying The Ride while his Fairlady Z gets built.

  

We love Lou’s passion for Z’s and he is a Z car fanatic. Thanks for letting us work on Monte Carlo!

Long Live The Z!

More pictures in the gallery

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Sam C lives in San Francisco and heard of ZCG last summer while at a local bowling alley near our shop in San Jose.  His 1973 Datsun 240z had been sitting for several years and after reading zcarblog he wanted to bring it back to life.

  

We performed an inspection and found that the car needed attention in several areas. Starting with the cooling system, all hoses were replaced and a Koyo race radiator installed.

  

The problematic ’73 model SU carbs were replaced with earlier Z-Therapy units. All smog equipment was deleted. An MSA header was installed and the older igntion system was upgraded to Pertronix:

   

In short, we performed a mechanical resotorationthat this car could perform as it should after years of being idle, including a new battery and recharged the vintage air conditioning system. Here are a few pictures of engine bay completed and detailed:

 

With the engine bay sorted we turned to the chassis. The entire suspension was removed, dis-assembled and media blasted before sending off to be zinc’d and powdercoated.  New parts consisted of 5-way Tociko struts with Eibach springs, MacPherson strut bumpstops, T3 adjustable rear control arms, and adjustable T/C rods and new wheel bearings. ALL bushings were replaced including the rack bushings, ball joints and front control arm bushings.

 
A set of gorgeous 16×7 11mm offset Panasports with 225/50/16 Yokohama S-Drive tires was mounted rounds out the chassis upgrades:

 

The ZCG Big Brake Kit

The pièce de résistance of Sam’s restoration is the Z Car Garage Big-Brake Kit for small wheels.  With our pre-production testing finalized, we are happy to install the first batch on several customer cars like Sam’s, Glenn’s and others.

 

 

Following our successful, larger ZCG BBK, this smaller BBK was designed with Tyler from Stoptech as a direct bolt in solution for the 1970 to 1978 S30 Z cars. We’ve been with Stoptech since the beginning and love their products, we even came up with the slogan “Stoptech or don’t stop at all”!

  

Specifics

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

As installed on Sam’s S30, the brake kit is beautiful and functional. Track tested under hard racing conditions and rigorous street testing as well. Factory parking brake functionality is retained by operating a dedicated caliper:

   

This big brake kit will fit under 15″ wheels and some 14″ wheels. Once the BBK is available in our online store there will be a complete wheel fitment guide with printable caliper tool. Datsun 510 and Roadster brake kits coming soon!

 

 

Sam’s Z was detailed by our friend at JB Mobile and the paint looks great. Thank you Sam for letting us get your Z back on the road. Enjoy The Ride!

 

 

 

We have been working on Jared C’s 350z since he purchased it. He absolutely loves this Z car but does not get to drive it all the time. So when the occasion arrives and he gets behind the wheel, this Z is driven hard.

  

Last time when we checked in on Jared’s 350z it was making above average power/tq both NA and with the Vortech. Recently Jared let us know that he was at a point in his life where he wanted to make as much power as possible. We happily obliged. In June of this year after passing a smog check we began the power upgrades, starting with the Garett 900 hp FMIC assembly:

  

We installed our ZCG cold-air intake:

  

Jared’s Z had been tuned for 91 octane and for the power levels he wanted this would be a limiting factor due to conservative timing.

 

We proceeded with a 100 octane tune and made 443hp/360tq at the wheels:

 

With more power we also wanted to ensure that rest of the car was safe and in good shape. We changed the oil and replaced the Vortech fluid. The Stoptech BBK from his last visit was a very wise upgrade!

  

Enjoy The Boost Jared!

 

 

 

We worked on Alex M’s 2004 Z33 ‘vert about 5 years ago and it is a familiar Z sporting Central20 bumpers, 5Zigen wheels and a host of bolt-ons. Alex travels around the world on business frequently so his car sat idle for a long time. With just 56k miles on the clock he brought it to ZCG for a thorough once-over.

 

A full 60k-mile service was performed, new battery installed, new thermostat and we sorted out all of the issues. First, the car was lowered without adjustable camber arms so we installed SPC f/r control arms and Whiteline diff bushings. A full alignment followed:

  

A few other issues were corrected like a failed oil pressure sending unit, passenger seat problem and blown stereo fuse. The Stoptech brakes were old/weathered since their install in 2004.  We upgraded them to yellow ST40/ST45 calipers, turned rotors and our favorite 309 pads:

  

The 5Zigen SMB wheels were re-refinished and wrapped in new Bridgestone S-04 tires:

 

The Z had many bolt-ons but had never been tuned so we put it on the dyno. Baseline numbers of 234hp/230tq to the wheels indicated it was low on power. Rob UPREV tuned picking up power everywhere in the rev range for a total of 254hp/257tq to the wheels, gains+20hp/27tq. This is a great example of having a proper tune to maximize gains from your bolt-ons whether it is DE, Rev-up, HR or 370. Alex is happy with the final product:

Bob C came from Sacramento with his 2013 awd G37 coupe. He had performed several modifications himself like Stoptech big brakes and now he was ready for power upgrades.

We installed Stillen Gen 3 intakes for Bob and he was a bit nervous because this job requires a little surgery around the radiator support to fit. After the intakes were in we called up Bob and he hung out with us for the day so we could show him how to avoid hacking up the radiator support and make it look awesome.
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