I tend to check my mail every second or third day on average but in this case I wish I had done it sooner.  Why, you ask?  Because my Monterey Festival of Speed tickets at Laguna Seca have arrived from the great people at the Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC).

The packet came with a three-day ticket to the event, a three-day Z Owners Corral parking pass, as well as a track map and directions.  All for $65!!!  What a deal!  But wait there’s more… on Sunday the entire Z Owners Corral is scheduled to do a parade lap around the full circuit.

I’m unsure if there are still spots available but it is very worth checking into over at ZONC.org.  I will post up any new info as well as a time to meet up if there is a convoy down to the track (probably leaving from Z Car Garage.)

Long Live the Z

Official website:  Monterey Festival of Speed

This is a two part series because we attended two different shows on the same trip.  I simply have too many pictures for one huge post.  This first installment includes the drive from Z Car Garage in San Jose, CA to Solvang, CA where the annual Roadster show is held.

This year we decided to take our new 370z on it’s first road trip along with the recently completed 1982 Datsun 280zx 2+2 non-turbo restoration car.  Both cars were still receiving their finishing touches right before the trip so we were anxious to get them on the road to see how they would perform.  The ZCG 370z had taken on some massive changes in an effort to enter it in the Modified 370z class at MSA, all of the modifications can be found HERE.  The 280zx restoration is a completely different story.  This is a car that has been taken back to completely stock in almost every area and better than stock in all the others, and it was up to me to get it through the weekend in one piece and maybe even bring home a trophy for the owners.

We left the shop pretty much right on time, strange for us, and got on our way with a group of six cars: the ZCG 370z, the 280zx restoration, two nicely modified 350Zs, and two 240Zs that have been shown love in all the right places.  Three old and three new, good to go.  The weather was perfect on the ride down and all the cars performed flawlessly all the way to Solvang.

A restored 1982 280zx 2+2 non-turbo isn’t what you would expect to take on a road trip of this sort, especially if you know anything about Z Car Garage.  We love turbos, torque, horsepower, high revs, and the smell of an uncorked exhaust on 100 octane.  This car is about none of those things.  First, the car is totally stock. Stock engine, stock suspension, stock brakes, everything.  So it goes without saying that it won’t be setting any sort of records around Nürburgring.  Second: Included in the stock parts list is a 3-speed automatic transmission, great.  This puts the (rev limited) max speed  of this car somewhere in the range of 105-110 mph, not that I could really tell at that point because the speedo is limited to 80.  How in the world am I going to keep up with all of these other modified cars.

In reality I had nothing to fear.  Everyone in our caravan was quite responsible on the way down and it allowed me to relax a little and enjoy breaking in the 280zx.  This car is a roadtripper’s dream!  It drives so comfortably that you have no trouble seeing why these cars were so popular when they came out, they truly were one of the nicest cars on the road.  On to Solvang.

The Solvang show is one of the largest gatherings of Datsun Roadsters in the country and you can always expect a few crazy innovations every year.  2009 was the year of the turbo’d Roadster.  There were turbos bolted onto everything from the stock U series engine all the way to the newest SR20DET engines out of S15 Silvias that were never even brought to the case.

Many of you know that Z Car Garage had a hand in restoring and modifying one of our good friend’s Roadsters and placing a modern SR20 engine in it some years ago.  I am happy to report that he once again brought home a 1st place trophy in the “Modified 1600” class.  Congrats Alvin!!!

The best of show honors went to the Michael Spreadbury built SR20DET monster of a car.  As always he and the Spriso crew have brought new technology and innovative engineering solutions to the Roadster world.  Nice job gentlemen.

Back to the trip…
After walking around the show for awhile and talking to some of you loyal readers we headed into town to grab some local grub.  Eye spy with my little eye a Nissan R32 GT-R, the real deal.  I walk up to the car and instantly recognize it as a car that I have seen at a few events in years past at Laguna Seca.  We take pictures and move on with a smile after seeing a beautiful GT-R.  Next on our rare car sightings list is a late fifties Ford Fairlane with the RARE “Skyliner” retractable hardtop option.  The owner was even nice enough to put it trough its paces for us.  Very cool, and the engineering alone is worth the price of admission.

We then gather our group of now four cars, the 240Zs were going to stay awhile longer, and we get on the road towards LA and our hotel for the night.   MSA 2009 is waiting for us on the other side of dawn….

Part 2 is coming soon….  click on the ‘read more’ below to see all of the pictures.

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This car came to the shop a couple of weeks ago with the normal bolt-on mods and a shiny set of wheels to roll down the street with style.  This 2006 convertible with an automatic transmission entered our doorway with a Stillen cat-back exhaust system, Kinteix Velocity Manifold plenum, and a few other nice dress up pieces.  Then came the time to add some real power!!!

The basis of any real power addition with a VQ based drivetrain really needs to come by way of forced induction.  For this reason a Vortech supercharger kit was ordered as a starting point in this build.  Not wanting to stop there and be left wanting more, Rob and the the car’s owner went the full monte and also ordered a set of JWT camshafts, Stillen headers, and a set of high flow catalytic converters.  This isn’t going to be your everyday convertible after this transformation.

After the top half of the engine was taken apart and reassembled with the new bump sticks all of the new exterior power-adders were installed.  This car features the recently improved Kinetix Velocity Manifold and accompanying intake cover, and the new look with the supercharger left us wanting a bit more under hood bite, visually.  The decision was made to paint the engine cover to match the battery and brake master covers and off to paint it went!

While we were waiting its return, the final tune was performed and power numbers were recorded on our Dynojet dynamometer, but this isn’t where this story ends.  This car needed big brakes.  We knew it, the owner knew it, it had to be.  Rob made a call down to our good friends at StopTech Brakes to secure a four-wheel Big Brake Kit for the next day, and guess what… it was just what the doctor ordered.  The color-matched plenum cover went back on and the build was complete.  Wicked

From the dyno sheet you can see that the power gains are very impressive for a VQ35DE with an automatic transmission.  But wait you say, I said this was a 2006?  Yes, unfortunately Nissan did not put the improved “Rev-Up” engine in any of the convertibles for this year.  What’s even stranger is that this generation DE engine uses a few engine castings that are different from the first generation DE, strange.

Anyways, you can see the power is still climbing on the graph but the Nissan nannies step it to limit the fun at just under 6,500rpm.  There are software changes on the market that up the rev-limiter but they have shown to reduce the DE’s reliability down the line, and that is not an option.  We want this car to be enjoyed for as long as possible.

With the car now complete it was given a full detail before the owner came down one last time to take delivery.  This time he brought his son and a few of his friends to enjoy the occasion.  With all the test rides he gave that afternoon there is not a doubt in my mind that we will be seeing him for a set of rear tires very soon.  Enjoy the Z my friends, you have done well.

There are a few more photos after the ‘read more.’

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240Zs rule.  They are lightweight, handle amazingly well, and are easy to work on; but what do you do when the reliable L-series engine runs out of breath?   Simple, bring it to Z Car Garage and install a set of 44mm Mikuni carburetors, new header, and a slightly larger exhaust system…. and hold on!!

The amazing change in the dyno numbers only tell half the story.  The fun factor of this car is now light years ahead of where is was when the car first came to us.  The torque now stays strong through the entire rev-range and the increased breathing capacity now allows the engine to spin freely to six grand if you so desire.  There is an increase of FORTY horsepower and the same in torque through the last 1,500rpm.  This is a life changing difference.

One of the reasons this looks so drastic is the inefficiency of the semi-odd dual carb setup that this car came to us with, but the results prove that that this is one huge step in the right direction to making this car about as much fun that the owner can handle.  The car is now using three individual ITG filters to make sure that the newly found airflow is clean enough for government work so please don’t think that we sent this car on it’s way with no filtration.  Sorry that I don’t have any pictures.

On the horizon for this car is a possible camshaft change to get the last bit of power out of this engine so expect a post in the future if this comes to fruition.  The smile on the owner’s face hasn’t left since we gave the car back and it seems we have lit the fire under another early Z enthusiast, we are happy to help.  ZCG

There are a few more photos after the ‘read more.’

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Hot Import Nights (HIN) is amazing.  That is obviously my opinion but if you are into tuner cars or the ‘import’ lifestyle how could you disagree?  The cars featured at the HIN events are straight off the covers of today’s hottest magazines and the energy in the cars and surrounding crowd rival that of a Slayer concert.  To up the ante even more is the blaring music of all genres, gorgeous women dancing to said music, AND top drift stars from all over the world destroying tires and whatever else gets in their way!!

We have known the HIN crew for quite some time and even traveled with them on the “Follow the Nissan Z” tour from our shop in San Jose, CA all the way to Las Vegas, NV.  They never disappoint…. good times indeed.

At this event in San Mateo I was caught off guard from the moment that I walked in because there were Zs and Gs everywhere.  It seems that we (ZCG) cater to the most popular cars in the import scene for the time being, good for us!  Modifications ranged from wild to mild as the old saying goes, everything from simple lowering springs and an intake to full-on one-off wide body kits with turbos and nitrous equipped to every possible orifice!  Oh my.

The other half of the show cars included Supras, Audis, Evos (VIII-X), Scions, S2000s, and even the occasional Mustang(?).  Engine swaps abounded throughout the show with the all-conquering 2JZGTE engine (Supra) being swapped into everything under the sun (FD RX-7, 350z, IS300, etc).  There was also a really clean Mazda RX-7 with an LS-x engine swapped under the hood.  Many of you know that we have performed one of these swaps and they are simply a blast to drive.  Do yourself a favor and get a ride in one.

The drifting competition was great, but with it comes my only beef with the entire event, no grandstands of any sort.  I had a tough time seeing on my tip-toes and I’m 6’1″ without shoes.  The skill these drivers possess is something not of this Earth, car control to the Nth degree.

When it was time to head home the ZCG crew was more than impressed with the entire event.  So impressed in fact that we have been in contact with the event organizers and we will be making our presence known at the next bay area stop in Pleasanton.  We have a few crazy ideas that we hope to pull off between now and then so make sure to mark your calenders for the HIN event on July 18th.

Please support HIN and ZCG by visiting their website and events, and make sure to tell them that ZCarBlog.com sent you!

Now onto the photos!!!  There are almost a hundred pictures after the “read more” so make sure to click at the end of this post to continue!!  (you can also click on the main post title at the top to take you to the full post)  ENJOY!!!!!

Post script:  a few of the shots look dirty and hazy due to all the tire smoke and burning chunks of rubber in the air from the drifting, wicked.

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