Richard M has been our customer since he moved to California years ago and together we built his 2009 370z into a balanced sports car with power and style. We are really proud to see him enjoy his Z and be an active member of the community. Let’s take a look at the journey with a few highlights along the way…

Humble Beginnings Lead to Boost

“Then 2 months later we reached out to Stillen to bless the Z with the full Stillen Supercharger kit and oil cooler. The kit was installed and dyno’d making 433whp and 340wtq. We transformed the Z into a new car. The new driving characteristics were improved drastically and the kit, compared to the naturally aspirated setup was day and night.”

We added a Stillen 25-row oil cooler and GTR plugs:

The installation was seamlessly, before/after:

With a CAN tune out of the box we saw 376hp/284tq to the wheels. This wasn’t terribly impressive considering baseline NA numbers were 305hp/251tq, netting gains of 69hp/33tq:

Richard was happier now with over 400whp 🙂

“The performance of my Amuse 370Z from the beginning has met both my expectations and Rob’s expectations. Rob and I always talk about how this car has been a stand out in regards to reliability with added power enhancers.”

“Working with Rob was the best decision I could’ve made in allowing someone to tune my car and keep me grounded as it’s easy to get sucked into the battle of “who has the most horsepower”? Although it can always be done,  I am proud to daily drive and make repeated trips between Norcal/Socal without any issues.”

We thank Rich for the kind words, and the Z certainly has been a workhorse.  Here are some of Rich’s memorable moments with his 370z.

Highlights

• Landing the front cover of DSPORT Magazine (Feb. 2018) which was also their SEMA issue and my first car cover and centerfold.

• Being featured on Matt Farrah’s youtube channel “The Smoking Tire” which has over 500k views. We love to see our customer’s cars spotlighted in the media!   Check out the video:

• Winning 1st place Best Import at The San Jose Auto Show inside the “Spider Section” for custom cars at the Convention Center

• Being invited & featured by Super Street Magazine to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Nissan GTR & Z Heritage in Monterey California for car week

• The final and most special to Rich is being invited to be featured in the “2020 Toyo Tires X SuperStreet” calendar which has also been declared the very last Calendar that Toyo Tires and Super Street Magazine will do. SuperStreet has been such a pillar for all of us import enthusiasts so to be recognized by them has been a childhood dream come true.

Style

Rich added his own touch to the Z, including a full Powerhouse Amuse kit and custom paint job with Silver with Gold flakes:

“The PowerHouse Amuse body kit is a kit that is also functional for cooling purposes but is also one of those kits that I actually fell in love with. The sharp body lines that I think enhances the Z. I imported the kit from Japan after becoming friends with Hitoshi Matsui and becoming more confident in Amuse now known as R1 Titan.”

 

We love the Work Emotion CR KAI wheels (F: 19×9.5 +15 R: 19×11 +18) with Muteki 12×1.25 Neo Chrome Extended open lug nuts and Toyo Proxes T1 Tires 285/35/19R -255/35/19F:

Rich would like to thank his sponsors:  Toyo Tires, Stillen, ISC Suspension, Socal Z, and ZCG.

LONG LIVE THE Z!

Rick B lives over the hill in Soquel, CA. He’s pined for a 350z and finally got a 2003 model waiting to be modified. Rick visited us to discuss taking the car to the next level and ZCG obliged. We set him up with the tried/true combo:  JWT pop charger, Motordyne 5/16 plenum spacer, Bassani cat-back exhaust and UPREV flash. He also opted for the ARC license, allowing Rick to have adjustable launch control, flat-foot shifting and left foot braking, if needed.

Motordyne plenum spacer:

We also installed our favorite Hotchkis sway bars front and rear:

 

Bassani exhaust:

OEM vs Bassaani:

 

Exhaust tip detail and JWT Pop Charger:

 

On the dyno the mods alone produced gains of 11hp/2tq to the wheels over baseline:

With UPREV tuning, further gains of 9hp/13tq were achieved:

From a baseline of 245hp/237tq to 267hp/252tq at the wheels there is a significant improvement in power throughout the entire rev range!

We also handled some maintenance items including: changing the transmission/diff fluids, and replacing A/C and fan belts. Rick was so stoked he sent us a wonderful e-mail.

—–Original Message—–
From: —– [mailto:——]
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 11:01 PM
To: rob@zcargarage.com
Subject: Thanks again!

Hey Rob, I just wanted to thank you and your team once again for all the work you did on my 350z over the last month or so. The experience I’ve had as a new customer of yours has been extremely fun!  I’m absolutely amazed at how much better the car feels and sounds. I feel exactly the same way I felt after I first bought the car, I’m in love all over again. As far as I’m concerned you’ve gained a new customer for life. I don’t ever plan on selling this car, if anything, I just plan on making it better and better and your the guy I’m gonna take it to you from now on. Anyway I know your a very busy dude so I’ll let you go but expect to see me again soon and thanks again!
-Rick 

It was a pleasure working  on your Z and we look forward to your next mods Rick!

Roman C came to Z Car Garage earlier this year to have his 2008 Nissan 350z inspected. After going over the car he expressed his goals and one was full suspension upgrades. We installed KW V3 coil-overs and replaced bushings throughout with Whiteline parts.  ZCG has performed many KW suspension installs and we really like how they work, using them exclusively on the 300zx(z32) and 350z models.

OEM vs KW coil-overs front and rear:

 

Whenever we do a coil-over installation and lower the ride height we always use the SPC front and rear camber arms. This ensures that a customer gets the desired ride height, handling and tire wear:

 

Stock vs SPC upper control arms, with a full alignment following installation:

 

 

OEM sway bars were replaced with our favorite units from sway bars from Hotchkis:

OEM vs Hotchkis front and rear:

   

A common upgrade/maintenance item we routinely perform is differential bushing replacement. Here, again we use Whiteline bushings:

Roman had a few bolt-ons like intake and exhaust so we UPREV tuned. Peak numbers of 304hp/260tq to the wheels was achieved but more importantly the power gains are seen throughout the rev range:

Roman was super stoked with the results. We took care of a few maintenance items like replacing a drive belt and peforming a coolant flush. Finally, he had he bought some new wheels/tires so we mounted and balanced them for him.

Enjoy The Ride Roman!

Since we had not installed these parts from Z1 before, we dyno tested them followed by UPREV tuning.

First, we installed the Z1 upper intake manifold:

Baseline before installation of the Power Package was 297hp/248tq at the wheels. The Z1 intake added ~5hp/6tq:

Next, the exhaust parts were installed. OEM vs Z1 exhaust headers:

 

OEM vs Z1 test pipes:

From the Z1 intake to headers/test pipes we saw gains of 20hp/13tq to the wheels. The dyno reveals significant mid to high rpm improvement:

Finally, Rob UPREV tuned for even more gains of 10hp making a total of 322hp/256tq to the wheels. An improvement over baseline of 30hp/14tq at the wheels:

We chatted with Max and with 27k miles on the odometer he will be visiting ZCG again to supercharge his Z! Stay tuned!

Jose B is from Antioch, CA and knows our customer Richard M (ZCG-modified 370z). After getting into an accident with his 370z, Jose went to several shops to identify a peculiar squeak coming from the front end.  Unfortunately the squeak was not resolved so Jose visited ZCG to sort it out. We spent time going over the suspension and other areas to identify the source of the squeak and found that one of the motor mounts was completely broken:

In addition to replacing the driver’s side motor mount, Jose wanted us to install some parts he had purchased online. Here is a full Motordyne exhaust system including their Long Tube XYZ stepped headers with Helmholtz module:

A few shots of the exhaust installation:

We also installed Stillen Gen 3 intakes:

 

With the motor mount sorted and new parts installed Jose wanted to have the Z UPREV tuned. This was a wise decision, especially with the new bolt-ons. Historically we have made good power with simple bolt-ons to the VQ37 and we were surprised by Jose’s Z34. The Z baselined at 295hp/245tq to the wheels and with UPREV tuning put down 344hp/266tq to the wheels!