More often than not, it’s our parents who are responsible for our unrelenting passion for cars. For Geoff G, his automotive love was gifted to him by his Dad as a child. We love sharing our passion with family and friends so when Geoff and his father visited us with their 1972 Datsun 240z we happily obliged to help. Our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes and Z Car Garage CV Axles along with tuning really made it come alive.
Z Car Beginnings
The Z was acquired from a family friend in 2015. Geoff worked on it with his Dad (Edgar) to make it a decent runner:
“When we took ownership of the car it had been sitting in a garage for several years, only being fired up occasionally. It’s originally painted 112 yellow, but a couple resale-red resprays along the way is where she sits. Drive train is all original. SU’s and 4 speed all there. And most importantly, no rust, or any signs of accidents. This is me and my dad’s first Z car. Always been a fan.”
Fast forward, the father-son duo felt confident enough to enter the Z on a couple of rallye events in 2019. These Targa events are familiar to us, having prepared the Bring a Trailer Datsun 240z for the Targa Baja California rallye in October ’18:
“In 2014 we successfully piloted his 1973 Opel GT on the Snowball Rally event. So when we picked up our Z, we knew we would get it out on the rally events. You can see our Z in the videos below”Targa California 2019 Z shows up at 7:00 min mark: YouTubeTarga Baja California 2019 – Z shows up at 0:52 mark sporting rally Z inspired decals: YouTube
Pictures from the two rallye events:
Regarding the livery, Edgar wanted to make the car stand out a bit more in the rallye events and typical BRE-inspired themes. They went in the direction of the Rallye Monte Carlo Z that came in 3rd place at the 1972 event:
“The livery is very loosely based on the Monte Carlo car: When we brought it home, it came fitted with the front brush bar style bumper. I really did not like the look at the time, so I sourced a set of nice original chrome bumpers to bring it back to original. So we had that clean look for a while. But after our first rallye in the Z, I thought, you know, some fog lights would be a great idea. Functional for the night stages in the events. So we threw the brush bar back on, and it really set the tone for a rally style/safari look Z. In the end, the bumper and the livery came together.”
It’Z a Small World
Geoff and Edgar visited Z Car Garage back in January to help with some braking system issues.
“In the beginning of the year, after running the 2 previous events, the brakes started to feel on their way out. So after coming across ZCG on social media several years ago, and at the backing of our dear family friend, Ricky Silverio, I reached out to Rob for some stopping help.”
It is a small world indeed, as we’ve known Ricky for many years and the crew at Japanese Nostalgic Car (JNC)! It gets even better as both Ricky and Geoff’s family’s go way back to their days in the Philippines. Recently, Ricky decided to let go of his 1993 Mazda Miata with only 31k miles and Geoff picked it up. It complements Geoff’s ’94 R-package Miata (he credits Ricky for his MX-5 addiction).
ZCG Big-Brakes and CV Axles
Back to the Z…Geoff had heard about our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes (for small wheels) so we let both him and his father take “Mrs. Butters”, our 1971 Series 1 240z shop demo car out for a test drive.
They were both super-impressed with how the brakes felt and they were sold on our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes and Z Car Garage CV Axles! Butters has a way of doing this to our customers 🙂 Read below for a brief description of these parts:
As fellow S30 owner/racer Glenn C mentioned in his review, on top of braking performance, pedal feel is extremely important and our Big-Brakes deliver. This is a direct result of working with engineers at Stoptech to create a totally bolt-in solution requiring no M/C change or additional proportioning valve/adjustments. All fitting behind a 15″ Watanabe or Panasport wheel (and some 14″ wheels) and retaining factory emergency brake lever! A few details below:
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
Blog posts documenting all of our customers running the ZCG Big-Brakes can be found HERE.
A few closer detail shots of the calipers, rotors and hardware:
We removed Geoff’s stock brakes and installed our ZCG Big-Brake kit. Up front:
A few more shots of the front brakes:
At the rear, the factory drum brakes were replaced with our ZCG Big-Brakes:
Factory handbrake functionality IS retained!
The new brakes fit nicely behind the 15×8 RS Watanabe wheels front and rear:
Our Z Car Garage CV Axles help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to your standard half shafts. We have over 90 CV axle kits on customer cars and we are stoked with all of the positive feedback.
Geoff received axle set #309. Stock half shafts (L) and ZCG units, more pictures in the gallery below:
Engine
Geoff’s engine needed some work. The carbs were off as was the timing. Rob performed on-the-fly tuning after setting the carbs and full timing. The distributor was also re-installed correctly. After these adjustments were made they took their Z out for a drive and came back to the shop. The look on Edgar’s face was priceless. They were impressed. Stage 1 of this build is complete and we are discussing plans for a built L-series, 5-speed transmission and fresh suspension. The new triple Mikuni’s are ready:
Part Two
We had a blast working with this father and son team and love that their passion is a family affair. Their affection for Datsuns also runs deep with Edgar enjoying 510s in the 80’s and Geoff picking up this cherry 2-door in 2016:
“We are very much looking forward to the next step. It’s a great car, and we’ve made so many good friends and stories in it. There will be a sequel, starring a 3.1L and triple Mikuni’s. Can’t wait for the next chapter!”
Tune in to zcarblog for updates and Long Live The Z!
More pictures in the gallery below: …[read more]
