Our good friend Anthony S is a hardcore Datsun enthusiast and owner of this sinister 510 wagon. We first met Anthony 20 years ago at the All-Datsun Meet at Mt. Shasta. He started visiting the shop frequently, driving this wagon all the way from Oregon to San Jose, CA and we attended many events together. Anthony built this 510 from the ground up himself, and it has been constantly evolving. He started with a rather unorthodox inline-6 cylinder engine, the Toyota 7M-GTE:

 

This single-turbo setup spun the ZCG dyno to almost 400rwhp. Anthony is a track nut and the 510 has seen many days running hard at Portland Int. Raceway. Suspension and brake modifications included Brembo calipers up front, a linked Ford rear end and massive 255/35 tires in front with 285/35 rears.

 

The car went through some serious development including a full 2JZ-GTE engine, rear-mounted radiator setup and larger fender flares–all fabricated by Anthony himself!

 

In his quest for more power Anthony visited Z Car Garage in 2016 for BC cams and Haltech tuning. We started with a baseline of 399hp/332tq to the wheels. After the cams/tuning it made 461hp/362tq at the wheels:

 

More pics of Anthony’s fabrication work:

 

Version 2

Let’s hear about Anthony’s latest modifications leading up to the dyno tuning session in 2022…

Anthony: During COVID I had a lot of extra time and money and had stupidly run my prior 2JZ out of oil after hitting the oil pan on a pavement cut. It appeared to be down on power despite not smoking or knocking, I decided to bite the bullet and go with a new engine. Toyota still sold the 2JZ GTE short block brand new, and they also sold new bare heads. Obtained both over a period of several months. I snatched up the last short block in the Portland area and got a new head through OCD Works who did the head work including a custom CNC port job, GSC S1 cams, shimless buckets, and Supertech valves.

 

In addition to the engine upgrades, the 510 received larger wheels and tires BBS RS sized 18×10 F 18×11 R with 295/30F 315/30R Toyo tires. The brakes were also changed to Stoptech ST-60 calipers with 14″ custom Coleman rotors and C5 hats:

 

Anthony: I went with a Borg Warner EFR 8474 for the turbo and a quick spool valve from Diesel Pump UK (more on that later). The quick spool valve can help with boost onset by as much as 500 RPM so I was pretty excited to see what would happen on the Dyno with this bigger turbo. The goal being to run pump gas and get 500 plus at the wheels without horrible lag. I tuned the car well enough on the Haltec 2500 ECU to get some testing in before I went to California and to make it drivable. A key to the drivability was the ability of the Haltech to control a drive by wire Bosch throttle body. The road trip down with my wife went well and we arrived in San Jose excited to get the car on the dyno and see what Rob could do. I really tried to do everything right on this build with no shortcuts so I was pretty confident things would go well… Famous last words.

 

Dyno Tuning at Z Car Garage

 

Before getting on the dyno, Anthony and Rob went for a test drive and they were not impressed with the power. The car was previously tuned at 460rwhp back in 2015 on the old engine so he was familiar with the car and the speeds it would go. In that trim the car hit 147 MPH in the half mile which is pretty much on par with a Porsche GT3RS from that time (2016). Once back at the shop the car was put on the dyno and the results confirmed their concerns…

 

Anthony: The car was definitely down on power. Rob asked if I had synced the timing with the Haltech. I was confident it was correct, but I had not actually done that. So we pulled the plugs to confirm that the crank pulley was lining up with the number one piston at top dead center and it was. So issue number one was ruled out. We also thought it might be something to do with the drive by wire throttle not opening all the way, but that wasn’t the case either. Several runs were made and it was hitting a little over 400 at the wheels but the boost was 18 PSI or so. I knew that was way down on power because with the old engine it was hitting 400 plus at 11 or 12 PSI. And I had a better turbo, a better head better cams, etc, so at this point things were pretty disappointing. It was also quite hot that day for San Jose reaching the upper 80’s. To add to the fun the plastic drive by wire pedal that I had modified with a plastic welder ended up breaking on Rob leaving him with no way to move the throttle other than by hand (he was not having that…)

 

Luckily superstar Josh was able to pull the pedal repair it. Coolant was found under the car and traced to the heater core failing. Anthony disconnected the heater hoses and looped them, but still no solution for being down on power.

Anthony: Somebody had the idea of looking to see if the quick spool valve was operating properly. It turned out it was not. It is supposed to open and allow exhaust gas into both sides of the turbo after a certain PSI and it was not opening. So all of the exhaust was going through one portion of the turbine instead of both. A brief discussion was had about how much this would matter, we all determined it probably mattered a bunch since we were only utilizing half the turbo. Despite all my efforts to hook everything up properly I had made an error in supplying boost to the quick spool valve.

 

Once this was corrected the horsepower significantly increased. We decided to replace the new boost controller with a Greddy Profec with Josh and Anthony wiring it in so Rob could focus on tuning. After a few runs it was determined that the quick spool valve was putting a weird bump in the torque curve and instead of tuning it more with that device we ended up safety wiring it wide open.

 

Anthony: So what had started as a day that I thought would go very smoothly had many, many hiccups. But once all were solved, the horsepower really started to skyrocket. There are a lot of numbers thrown around about these engines, but if you do your research anything over 500 at the wheels on pump gas is quite good. I’ve always wanted to run this engine on pump as I don’t have E85 near me and we use it on a lot of road trips and I’ve never wanted to be restricted on fuel. Yes I could use flex fuel… but given the lack of E85 it’s never seemed worth it. My dad had always joked that it would be cool to have 510 horsepower in a 510 and we did hit exactly 510 at one point, then 536, then up to 546 at the wheels on 91 pump. Rob had Josh also adjusted the cam timing a bit as I have Titan adjustable cam gears. Needless to say I was pretty ecstatic getting nearly 550 horsepower and over 440 ft lbs at the wheels on 91 pump gas. The boost was 21 PSI for those runs with a red line near 8000. Now the car really was as fast as I thought it should be…

Enjoy this video of Anthony’s 510 Wagon in action and on the dyno:

 

Enjoying The Ride

  

Anthony was stoked on the dyno tuning results:

Driving back to Rob’s that night on the freeway he had me down shift into third and nail it and it broke the tires loose on the freeway. Keep in mind these are 315/30/18 Toyo R888r’s. That’s plenty of power for me… Thanks to Rob, Josh, Nick and everybody else at Z Car Garage for their patience and help that day and for working through the issues on this home built POS! You’re the best!

 

The 2JZ-powered Wagon returned back to Oregon where it continues to live the daily-driver life. The list of activities includes many track days at PIR, work commutes, camping trips and even lumber runs for home projects:

 

We loved to see Anthony and his wife Jessica at the epic 2018 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion where Nissan was the featured marque. In true #doitinadatsun from, the couple made a roadtrip from Oregon in the 510:

 

Speaking of road trips, Anthony recently visited us again for the 2024 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion and made the 2000-mile journey from Portland. Check out his pre-flight checklist:

 

He made it home without incident, because Datsuns are Driven! Follow Anthony’s 510 adventures on his Instagram.

 

Thank you Anthony for letting us be a part of your 510 build! Interested in seeing more of Anthony’s 510? Check the links below and Enjoy The Ride!

Anthony Gets Published
Happy510Day
America’sCoolestWagon

 

The 2022 Japanese Classic Car Show was held on September 10, in Long Beach, CA. This is the original vintage Japanese-car event in SoCal and in its 17th year, JCCS has grown incredibly. Over 20k spectators enjoyed 300+ cars in displayed at Marina Green Park.

 

The vehicles themselves remained a fantastic blend of stock, modified and restored. This is the most important show for Japanese cars, and Z Car Garage keeps coming back every year to soak up the sun, see old friends and drool over some spectacular vintage builds. Here is Rob’s report from the show, enjoy!

 

Rob grabbed a last minute flight to SoCal and joined our good friend Jan Trondsen to check out JCCS. We have watched this show grow and change venues over the last 17 years and it never disappoints.

“It’s one of our favorite car shows. The people, the cars are always on point. I gotta give a huge shoutout to to Terry and Koji for the tremendous work they do throughout the year to make this event a success. I saw so many people from out of town and for good reason…it’s a must see.”

 

Rob was a guest of Nissan and enjoyed a “dawn patrol” viewing of the show before the general public . It was fun to see everyone setting up. We spotted two of Sung Kang’s Z car builds, FuguZ and DocZ. Last year Sung 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!

   

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. We love seeing our parts on client builds!

 

Rally Legend

 

We were happy to see Tom Knudsen’s 1970 Datsun 240Z WORKS Rally Z at JCCS. There was a crowd around it all day! We first saw this authentic time machine back in June at the ZONC 50th Anniversary Celebration.

   

This is chassis #2 of 4 that were built by Nissan for the 1971 Monte Carlo Rally.  It is the project of Tom K and noted Datsun expert Steve Pettersen and their restoration website is a must-visit for history and feature documentation (as shown above). The Z remains largely intact with original parts like the Nissan competition exhaust manifold and roll bar. Period-correct parts like the Ikeda Bussan rally seat and reclining navigator seat were sourced. Check out the heater-port to defrost the headlight covers, Nissan-branded acrylic windows and more.

280ZX-R

 

This 1979 280ZX-R is rare, with only 1009 units produced. The owner, Victor wanted a Datsun and went down to the dealership, had his mom co-sign and purchased it brand new!

 

Z32

 

300ZX (Z32) models were present in stock and modified examples

 

JDM Gems

 

This R32 Skyline GT-R impressed us with a stunning wheels fitment sporting BBS E88s. We love non-Nissan cars and JCCS showcases such a great variety that we don’t get to see everyday. Mazda RX-2s, RX-3s, Honda s600, the list goes on! More photos in the gallery below

 

People

We love hearing vintage owner’s stories. See more of the Erin’s father/daughter project 280Z on Instagram.

 

Always good to catch up with friends, local and from out of town! Positive vibes all around.

 

 

project_240Z with his survior 280Z

 

Special shoutout to our clients Ben and Vince.They drove down from the Bay Area together in Ben’s 1974 Datsun 260Z for an epic roadtrip:

 

Ben was happy with the Z’s performance and he’s sending us photos from the roadtrip soon:

“Hello Rob,

I hope all is well. I am sending you this stellar pic of you with Tom’s Works Z!!! Vince and I had a great time at the JCCS and it was great seeing you. My Z drove so well with not one hiccup! In the heat too. Thanks for building an awesome car. I am really enjoying it. Have a great day, Ben.”

 

Thank JCCS!

 

As with past JCCS events the day went by too quickly. Thank you to Terry and Koji for hosting another great show. Enjoy our photo gallery below.If you missed last year’s JCCS check out our report from 2021 HERE .

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The Golden Week Kyusha Festival was held yesterday in Richmond, CA. We were proud to be a sponsor of the inaugural show with an impressive attendance and fantastic venue at the Craneway Pavillion. This was the site of the Ford Motor Company assembly plant in the 1930s, now a historic landmark.

 

While Rob and the ZCG crew were vintage racing at Laguna Seca I attended the show in my Datsun Roadster. The weather was beautiful and I had a great time checking out rows of Japanese Classics.

ZCG Customers

I was happy to see several ZCG customers attending the show. James Stephens’ Turbocharged L-series S30 has a few more upgrades since being featured in Speedhunters, expect a full report soon!

 

Our friends from Bring a Trailer brought their 1973 240z. This Z has seen some serious rally duty and wears our ZCG Big-Brake kit . We love that it is driven!

  

Nickhil’s S30 recently came in for our ZCG Big-Brake kit too! We are excited to share his story on zcarblog as well.

  

Neal D proudly displayed his freshly-restored concours 240z.

  

Datsuns!

 

Datsuns made up almost half the show with Z’s, 510 wagons, sedans and coupes. There was even a wild 1200 with a 13B!

Daniel Wu’s “Tanto” 510 (built by our friend and talented racer Troy Ermish) is always nice to see:

 

Andrew S’ RHD tribute 510:

 

Really cool wagons, my favorite wearing Devil Shadows:

  

GC10 and C110 Skylines:

  

Here is a short video of the show, enjoy!

 

Friends

I had fun seeing familiar faces and friends. Some go back to the days of the Mt. Shasta Meet! Our friends from Techno Toy Tuning showing off their latest parts for Z cars:

 

Francis Jr.’s S30 looked great with Watanabe wheels and Euro tail lights. Congrats on your award Jr.!

The Jervis family showed their bone-stock Datsun 510. The trunk was filled with nostalgic photos of Shasta/auto-x events.

The roadster was well-received, people had fun with it!

 

Toyota’s

   

Rad Wheels!

So many cool JDM wheels from Watanabe’s to Techno Phantoms!

Thank You!

The Kyusha Festival was a success. I loved the venue and look forward to next year’s event! Big thanks to Kia Shariloo and event staff for hosting. Enjoy the photo gallery below!

…[read more]

 

The 2018 Japanese Classic Car Show was held on September 15, in Long Beach, CA. This is the original vintage Japanese-car event in SoCal and in its 14th year, JCCS has grown incredibly–over 430 cars covered the lawn of Marina Green Park. 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.

   

ZCG Displays Two Z Cars!

 

Z Car Garage displayed two customer cars at the show: Randy Jaffe’s 1970 Datsun 240z and James Stevens’ 1972 Datsun 240z.  Randy’s Z was completed in time to be our booth car. This Series 1 S30 started as a project car 4-years ago with paint/bodywork performed by Bryson Richards of Classic Livery. The Z was shipped to us from Georgia for finishing Randy’s vision of a wild show/go race car:

 

Inspiration for the Jagermeister livery came from Randy’s obsession with Porsche, and the Max Moritz Racing Porsche 934.

  

We will take an in-depth look at this Z in separate post, but here are a few key details. Providing room for the 275/315-width tires is an authentic Pandem Rocketbunny aero kit. Randy channeled his passion for racing into this build and the chassis is virtually identical to his #46 BRE Datsun 240z, using zinc’d DP Racing suspension parts. The engine is a big displacement L-series running 13:5:1 compression, triple-Mikuni ph44s, a Fujitsubo header and glorious BRE-style exhaust. Running gear includes a close-ratio ZX transmission, OS Giken LSD for the 4.11 R180, our ZCG CV Axles and ZCG Big-Brake Kit (race version).

   

We are happy to report that Randy’s Z won 1st place, Best 240z in a class filled with incredible Z cars!

 

James’s 1972 S30 was displayed with fellow Z car owners in the show. At the heart of this beast is a turbocharged L-series managed by Haltech. Chassis upgrades include custom full-length subframe connectors, our ZCG CV Axles and Big-Brake Kit (328mm) behind Volk TE37V wheels.

 

A stack instrument cluster was integrated into the gauge pod, viewed from leather Recaro Pole Position seats. This Z has a very unique sound. We recently tuned it on E85, dyno results and videos coming soon!

   

We are very happy for James as he won the award for Best of JC Speed!

 

Stay tuned for in-depth reports on both of these Z cars coming to zcarblog.com.

Showtime!

Our friend and talented racer Troy Ermish transported both of our Z cars (and his 510) down to Long Beach Friday afternoon. Below is a video of the Z’s loading from the shop:

We unloaded early Saturday morning from the expansive parking lot near the new venue in Marina Green Park.  Immediately we could tell this location was larger and more vendor-friendly than The Queen Mary of past shows. Our booth was situated in a great spot, at the mid-point of the show with our neighbors from OS Giken.
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Our good friend Anthony S. is a hardcore Datsun enthusiast and owner of this sinister 510 wagon. We first met Anthony years ago at the All-Datsun Meet at Mt. Shasta. He started visiting the shop frequently, driving this wagon all the way from Oregon to San Jose, CA and we attended many events together. Anthony built this 510 from the ground up himself, and it has been constantly evolving. He started with a rather unorthodox inline-6 cylinder engine, the Toyota 7M-GTE:

 

This single-turbo setup spun the ZCG dyno to almost 400rwhp! Anthony is a track nut and the 510 has seen many days running hard at Portland Int. Raceway. Suspension and brake modifications include Brembo calipers up front, a linked Ford rear end and massive 255/35 tires in front with 285/35 rears.

 

The car has gone through some serious development including a full 2JZ-GTE engine, rear-mounted radiator setup and larger fender flares–all fabricated by Anthony himself!

 

In his quest for more power Anthony recently visited us again for BC cams and Haltech tuning.   We started with a baseline of 399hp/332tq to the wheels. After the cams it made 447hp/347tq:

 

 

With Haltech tuning final numbers were 461hp/362tq at the wheels:

 

More pics of Anthony’s fabrication work:

 

This Dime looks so sinister on the road with its gargantuan tires just barely contained by the fender flares, we love it!

 

Thank you Anthony for letting us be a part of your 510 build!

Interested in seeing more pictures of Anthony’s 510? Check the links below and Enjoy The Ride!

 

Anthony Gets Published
Happy510Day
America’sCoolestWagon