Shop Talk for
Z-Car enthusiasts!

Click here to go to the Z Car Garage home page...Click here to go to the Z Car Blog home page...
Performance Parts for Nissan, Inifiniti and Datsun Cars
Search:

EVENTS: SpoCom Norcal 2015

Filed under: Events,Featured Cars and Projects
by Alvin G @ 2:16 am on August 10, 2015

IMG_3940
 

Last Saturday I attended the SpoCom Norcal Edition car show held at Club Auto Sport in San Jose, CA. If you do a quick Google search of the word “spocom” you’ll find more images of scantily clad women than actual cars–this may explain why legions of adolescent males paid the relatively high $25 spectator fee, but more on that later. Look harder though and you can find some sweet J-Tin at this show claiming to be aimed at “automotive & pop culture tastemakers alike.”

IMG_3903DSC01162
 

The Venue

I don’t claim to be a tastemaster of any kind, but here is my review of the show from a Datsun owner’s point of view.  Let’s start with the venue: Club Auto Sport is a large, retail/commercial complex and home to exotic-car rental agency Club Sportiva and Borelli Motorsports:

IMG_3958DSC01156
 

Inside the main building there were several aisles for show cars to be parked and a main stage for a DJ and wait for it…bikini contest! Club Auto sport offers private garages so naturally I peeked at various man caves…found a Porsche 959 in hiding!

DSC01208IMG_4059
 

The Cars

Those tall orange “Swords” above are actually the coveted SpoCom Awards. I learned that this was a highly competitive show with “teams” vying for these 4-ft tall trophies. Here is a taste of the cars placed near the main stage area:

DSC01113DSC01151DSC01114
 

There were about 25 cars lining the aisles inside the building…scattered about in random fashion with one aisle having only 3 cars vs 18 in another:

DSC_0247
 

The car scene inside the building was quite different from the cars placed outside, and this is where I found some pretty neat machinery. Let’s begin with my roadster which was staged near this S30 sporting an old-school body kit:

DSC01206IMG_3918
 
…[read more]




Ron’s Stillen Supercharged Nismo 370z

Filed under: 370z,Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 9:03 pm on July 21, 2015

ZCG 41315 173
 

Ron L came to Z Car Garage from a dealership referral and we installed a full Stillen supercharger kit on his 2013 Nismo 370z.

ZCG 41315 171

Stillen’s kit offers VQ37 owners 400whp and full CARB compliance—it’s extremely popular with ZCG customers and we have performed numerous installs over the years. Here is Ron’s polished setup:

ZCG 41315 111ZCG 41315 110
 

The install went smoothly and we added a Stillen 25-row oil cooler and GT-R spark plugs:

ZCG 41315 112ZCG 41315 113ZCG 41315 119ZCG 41315 116
 

Yes, we miss that OEM Nismo red intake cover but the Stillen intake is equally pretty and still fits under the NISMO strut tower brace!

ZCG 41315 109ZCG 41315 175
 

On the dyno a CAN tune with ZCG touches nets a satisfying +132hp/70tq gain for a total of 436hp/323tq at the wheels:

Ron L Z34 Nismo Stillen Supercharger
 

Icing on the cake is that next time Ron pulls beside a police officer he will be cool as a cucumber knowing his 500hp Nismo Z is 50-state emissions legal 🙂 Enjoy The Boosted Ride, Ron!

ZCG 41315 174




Stillen Intakes for the James’ Q60

Filed under: 370z,Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 9:37 pm on July 20, 2015

 

ZCG 41315 053
 

James L is from San Francisco and visited ZCG to get Stillen intakes and an UPREV tune. This is one of the first Q60’s we had our hands on:

ZCG 41315 056ZCG 41315 055
 

The Gen3 intake installation is straightforward:

ZCG 41315 046ZCG 41315 049
 

Before/after

ZCG 41315 044ZCG 41315 051
 

UPREV dyno tuning time! Baseline numbers for this 2013 Q60 were 295hp/253 to the wheels:

ZCG 41315 045
 

The intakes add +6hp peak hp:

James L Q60 Baseline and STL Gen 3
 

UPREV tuning however optimizes both power/torque curves with gains throughout the rev range.Total power is now 308hp/256tq to the wheels:

James L Q60 Mods to UPREV
 

 




Rich’s Stillen Supercharged 370z

Filed under: 370z,Performance
by Alvin G @ 2:42 am on July 18, 2015

ZCG 53015 066
 

Richard M visited ZCG earlier this year for an UPREV tune on his 2009 370z. We made great NA power with the tune but boost was beckoning so 3k miles later Richard came back for a full Stillen supercharger installation.

ZCG 53015 039ZCG 53015 047
 

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

ZCG 53015 048ZCG 53015 046
ZCG 53015 043ZCG 53015 050
 

The kit comes together seamlessly, before/after:

ZCG 53015 034ZCG 53015 057
 

How does it perform? 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:

dyno

Richard M Z34 Canned Tuned and Custom Tune

After Rob’s custom tune we squeezed another 58hp/55tq for a total of 433hp/339tq to the wheels. The gains are significant all the way to the VQ’s sweet 7500rpm redline, even with slightly less boost!

Richard M Z34 Baseline and Final
 

Richard should be happier now with over 400whp 🙂

ZCG 1 21015 006

 




EVENTS: Cars & Coffee Blackhawk 6/7

Filed under: Events,Featured Cars and Projects
by Alvin G @ 12:02 am on June 9, 2015

DSC00971
 

On Sunday we attended Cars & Coffee at the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, CA. Hosted every first Sunday of the month since the New Year, turnout continues to be phenomenal with impressive cars. Our dear friend Ken P. has been a regular at this gathering with his supercharged Datsun Roadster but Sunday’s event would be his last one before moving out of state. As one last hurrah to Ken we assembled a bunch of Datsuns to park together.

DSC01045
 

We left the shop at 6am with a brisk pace headed to Danville. Enjoying the Ride in our eight-car caravan was Rob’s ’67 2000, Kurt’s ’70 Datsun SPL, my ‘67.5 SPL,  Matt’s Datsun 510 wagon, Andy’s 1971 240z, Tom’s APS G35, Kurt I’s C5 Z06, and Lou’s R32 Skyline GT-R:

DSC00807DSC00814DSC00819-e1433820332545
 

Arriving in Blackhawk just before 7am was indeed mandatory to secure parking as cars were already lining up at the entrance. Thankfully Ken and Dave P taped off a section just for Datsuns, and the showing was great with more roadsters, Z’s and 510s!

Francis ’67 SPL, Ken’s supercharged SRL, my ’67 SPL and Dave P’ ’67 2000:

DSC00894DSC00893 DSC00892DSC00882
 

Matt D’s 510 wagon and Matt G’s KA-T 510 two-door:

DSC00845DSC00850
 

S30’s were in strong attendance, both in our corral and scattered through the lot. From mild to wild flavors it was great to see everything from Z32 TT’s to S130’s.

DSC00847DSC00863DSC00868
 

I spotted even more Z-cars lurking in adjacent lots, but this one really stood out with a freshly restored vibe and pretty white/red color combo:

DSC00923DSC00924
DSC00947DSC00935DSC00852
 

Even more JDM gems hiding in the lots like this FD RX-7, first and third generation Toyota Celica’s:

DSC00942DSC00933 DSC00913DSC00968
 

Ultra-clean 2JZ powered Toyota SC300 and modded Genesis:

DSC01003DSC01004DSC01005
 

We were blown away at the variety of awesome machinery at Cars & Coffee. From exotics to muscle cars and literally everything in between we had a wonderful time perusing each aisle. Here were a few highlights for me, and don’t forget to cruise our extensive picture gallery below!

A Fiat 850 and 1200 Cabriolet, the latter shares some styling elements with a  Datsun Roadster!

DSC00999DSC00874
 

Craziest engine swap: A 1936 Ford Pickup with an insane supercharged 5.4 modular drivetrain:

DSC00910DSC00911
 

The Aston Martin club was the featured marque with stunning examples:

DSC01038DSC01031DSC01037
 

We love muscle cars! Simply mouth-watering cars from GM, Ford and Mopar:

DSC00921DSC00901DSC00906DSC00916

Movie cars like this “Bandit” Trans AM and two(!) Deloreans:

DSC00954DSC00937DSC00938
 

Oh, and lots of modern/supercars too, if you’re into that kind of stuff 🙂

DSC00915DSC00989
 

Big thanks to CNC Blackhawk and Dave P for arranging parking for our Datsuns.  We want to thank all of our friends who made the trip too, the ride back home was a blast!

DSC01041DSC01060

 

Ken, we wish you luck and great Roadster weather in Seattle, “DATSTER” will be missed!

IMG_1391DSC01008

…[read more]




« Newer ArticlesOlder Articles »