The 2021 Japanese Classic Car Show was held on October 30, in Anaheim, CA. This is the original vintage Japanese-car event in SoCal and in its 16th year, JCCS has grown incredibly. Thousands of spectators enjoyed 400+ cars in the parking lot of Angel Stadium. 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.

 

Z Car Garage Parts on Sung Kang’s Datsun 240Zs!

FuguZ

Actor and star of the Fast and the Furious movies, Sung Kang also happens to be a car enthusiast as well. At the SEMA 2015 show he debuted his vision of the perfect Datsun 240Z, named FuguZ. The build was chronicled the through social media, enlisting parts from around the world with final assembly by Kenji at Greddy. Sporting the latest Rocket Bunny body kit, Volk TE37s and NA RB26 drivetrain this was a crowd favorite and sparked the Z car love in many people.

 

FuguZ became one of the most prominent S30s in the world. Fast forward to 2021 and Sung Kang 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!

 

Rob and Kenji came up with a plan and the Z was shipped up to us so we could install ZCG Big-brakes, CV axles and KW suspension before the JCCS. Kenji then revived the Z with twin-turbos that the RB26 is famous for. Now Sung can enjoy the boost, and reign it all in with our brakes and suspension. Full report soon!

 

Doc Z

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.

  

Erick was very pleased with the kit and ease of installation:

 

DocZ was built as a tribute to the Datsun 240Z that dominated the 1971 East-African Safari. Sung even had  his own multi-piece wheels made as an homage to that history-making Z. The ZCG Big-Brakes can be seen through those iconic slots:

 

DocZ also features interior parts (look at that dash!) and exterior carbon fiber pieces by Carbon Signal:

 

We are thrilled to be a part of Sung’s builds and the collaborate with his team of talented craftsman! Thank you for your support Sung! Stay tuned for a deep dive on DocZ when we see it at SEMA this week and more details on the FuguZ when it returns to ZCG for tuning.

Showtime!

 

We arrived early to the new venue at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.  This location is larger and more vendor-friendly than The Queen Mary and Marina Green of past shows. It was a a huge parking lot, and those that braved the lines to get in were treated to a J-Tin overload. Once inside we made our way to see client James and his 1972 Datsun 240Z.

 

James’s 1972 S30 was displayed in the Love20bee booth. At the heart of this beast is a turbocharged L-series managed by Haltech. Chassis upgrades include custom full-length subframe connectors, CD009a 6-speed transmission, KW Suspension, ZCG CV Axles and Big-Brake Kit (328mm) behind RS-8 wheels restored by Love20bee. Larry Chen featured  James’s Z on this episode of Hoonigan Autofocus. Inside, a stack instrument cluster was integrated into the gauge pod, viewed from leather Recaro Pole Position seats:

  

Recent upgrades to “Medusa” include a new tubular exhaust manifold, intake manifold and down-pipe from from ProtunerZ. We will have more installation photos and dyno results coming soon to zcarblog.com!

 

Highlights from JCCS

Enjoy this video I made highlighting the sights and sounds of JCCS 2021:

 

Why do we keep coming back to JCCS? Each year the bar is raised for the show cars, and this year was truly impressive. With over 400 cars and aisles of vendors it was almost impossible to see it all in the 9am-3pm show time. Here are our favorites, starting with Nissan/Datsun.

 

Skylines

Here are few of my favorite Nissans and Datsuns, starting with that not-so forbidden fruit commonly known as the hakosuka Skyline. Ralph Kenyon’s stunning build was the result of OCD-level attention to detail.

  

Ralph’s Hako received a true, rotisserie-style nut and bolt restoration but didn’t stop there. He strengthened the chassis, utilizing beefed-up suspension/driveline components to support the raging and exotic 3.5L Datsunworks twin-cam L-Series. This fuel-injected monster is backed by a Nissan CD009 6speed transmission. Take a look at that engine bay…you will find yourself discovering a treasure of details from the dry-sump tank to perfectly aligned wingnut bolts on the air filter housing. The S20-inspired valve cover, equal-length exhaust manifold, OEM hose clamps…”next level” is appropriately used here.

  

Roy’s ’72 Skyline now with an old-school Cartech turbo kit:

 

Rick’s GTX on RS8 wheels:

 

Mike C’s 4-door:

 

Jun’s unflared Hako:

  

It was great to see our ZCG CV Axles under this 3.2L, fuel-injected Hako in the Hagerty booth!

 

 

I didn’t expect to see a large gathering of R32/33 Skylines, even a 4-door! DR30 and 240k!

  

JDM Legends had their C110 Kenmeri Skyline on display. Now with a 3.5L Jenvey fuel-injected L-Series and 6-speed transmission. It was great to see Eric he expressed how fun it is to drive!

 

Our friend Sean and his team at Toprank International Vehicle Importers brought the heat to JCCS with an impressive showing of rare Skylines. It goes without saying, if you are in the market for a vintage Skyline (or any JDM car) IVI is the place to go. The iconic “BF Goodrich poster” R34 and R33 Nismo 400R were a treat to see in person:

Z Car Extravaganza

 

 

S30 Z cars were everywhere.  I’m a big fan of subtle modified Z’s but I can also appreciate pristine, bone-stock examples and the occasional shakotan build.

Stock is good. Nissan returned to JCCS with a cool display including this pristine example:

 

What a pleasure it was seeing the 2023 Z again since it was at our shop 10/23 for the public to view:

 

 

Jay from JDM Car Parts always has a fun display with RHD/JDM cars surrounded by a working model train (See video):

 

There were an impressive amount of Z’s with bodykits from Rocketbunny and Libertywalk:

 Lowered on Hayashi Racing wheels:

  

Loved this Z on Watanabe wheels with an L28ET:

 

Beautiful 260Z and 280Zs and a 2+2!

  

Andrew’s RHD Fairlady Z sitting on Watanabe “Gotti” wheels was near the Techno Toy Tuning booth. He drove it down with his Father from the Bay Area:

 

So. Many. Z’s!

 

 

The show-winning Z!  Mark and his daughter Samantha built this Z as a family project it is SEMA-bound!

  

Larry Chen’s 1970 SR20DET-powered Z was on display in the Leen Customs booth. It was featured on Hoonigan Autofocus and we will take a closer look at the work ZCG performed this past year including our Z Car Garage Big-Brakes, Z Car Garage CV Axles on zcarblog.com:

    

You can find more S30s in our gallery!

S130!

 

Keeping Z31s on the map was the best display of the model I’ve ever seen at JCCS. Proudly shown right next to the Nissan display there were Kouki, Chuki and Zenki models to enjoy:

     300ZR and Shiro Special sitting on white Watanabe R-type wheels:

 

The lone Infiniti sitting on Autotradas:

 

The Nissan 300ZX (Z32) was also well-represented. My favorite was a white slicktop on Nismo wheels:

Sweet 240sx/Silvias and B13 Sentras!

 

People

At the JCCS  it is always great to see old friends and meet new enthusiasts! The best part was to meet younger folks that were passionate about their rides…we need the the next generation to carry the torch for us!

      

Datsun Fairlady Roadsters

The Datsun Roadsters came out in full force this year, running 12 cars strong!

 

Thanh Lam’s 1964 Datsun 1500 was the oldest car present, winning the JCCS Best of Show award!

  

Ed’s sharp 1970 SPL sporting Enkei Compe wheels:

  

Eric’s show-winning ’68 2000:

  

The Desirello’s also displayed their SR20-powered beauties:

  

More roadster pics in our gallery!

Datsun 510s

 

 

Datsun 510s dominated the field as the most represented model again this year.

 

Not one but 4 Bluebird Coupes!

 

Matt of Love20bee’s Rotary-powered, box-flared 510 sitting on Tomcat wheels. Hear it run in the video above…BRAP!

 

 

Erick’s S2000-powered 510!

 

TSR-built 510s:

  

All kinds of engine swaps abound including Toyota 18RG, SR20, Mazda Rotary and even an LSx V8!

  

This 500hp, SR20-powered 510 was tune by our friend Seb at SpecialtyZ. It’s running our ZCG CV Axles and the owner is super stoked with their performance!

 

Our friend Troy’s customer won Best 510! We saw the happy new owner of Troy’s former race car!

 

Stock RHD 4-door!

Wagons!

Jun Imai’s “Kaidohouse” 510 in the GReddy booth with Work Equip 40 wheels, IRS and KA24DE-T powerplant:

 

Alex’s V8-powered wagon. He also brought a Sunny truck!

     

Toyota

Toyota always has a huge showing with AE86, Cressida, Celica’s and Corolla’s!

   

Great showing of RA29 (Liftback) Celicas!

 

3nd and 4th gen Celicas and Supras!

 

Wheels For Fantasy

I personally love going to JCCS because I get to see very rare Japanese/tuner wheels and parts. Preservation of authentic wheels and appreciation of the time and effort spent to find certain specimens that most folks have never heard of in this generation is what I admire most.

 

Variations on the mesh wheel from BBS, Epsilon, SSR, Volk, Bahn and more. Riverside, Autostrada, Racing Hart, Hoshino, Work, Mugen and Tomcat and Watanabe. Heaven!

  

Honda

EF, EA, EG Civics, CRX, DA and DC Integras, NSX and even motorcycles!

 

 

Super Sexy NSXs

 

Mazda

FC, FD RX-7s were out as well as RX-2, RX-3, REPU pickups and Miatas:

 

Many more pictures from JCCS in the gallery!

 

Farewell

 

Towards the end of the show we staged a quick photoshoot with Sung Kang and the DocZ next to James’ Medusa. It was crazy to see everyone swarm around me once they realized what was going on 🙂

 

Later, at the Greddy booth Kenji and Larry Chen indulged us for another quick photoshoot with James’s Z, FuguZ and Ole Orange Bang. You can see Rob driving FuguZ in the vide0. We are beyond happy to have our Z Car Garage chassis parts on these high-profile Z cars.

 

 

 

Thank You JCCS!

How does a show go by so fast? Just like that, the JCCS ended and we still did not explore the entire show or meet everyone. I personally think there needs to be signage or at least a map so spectators can make sure they see everything! Despite missing out on some displays there was such a great, positive energy. Love seeing families and younger generations of car enthusiasts, for all marques.

It is difficult to run a car show and keep up the quality and interest levels but the folks at JCCS have managed to do exactly that for 16 years! No other show gives you the chance to see obscure, pristine, modified Japanese classics…and we look forward to next year’s entrants. Koji and Terry, thank you for your efforts. We hope you have enjoyed our coverage and please visit our mega-gallery for more pictures.

 
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We had a blast at the 34th Annual Z Car Convention (ZCON) hosted by ZCCA in Colorado Springs. This is the largest Z-car event in the US and we were stoked to be a sponsor. Coming from the 8/17 New 2023 Z Reveal in New York, Rob and Meghan attended the the 8/21 People’s Choice Show at ZCON. Enjoy photos these from the event!

  

Congratulations to our client Bob Russell on his 1st place award for Stock 240Z! We will have a full report on Bill’s S30 on zcarblog.com soon

 

Both of our clients Jack and Linda made it to ZCON with their recently finished Z’s and had a great time:

 

Jack won 3rd place for Ultra-Modified Z32 with his LS3-swapped, Primadonna Z:

 

The largest Z show!

 

ZCON was a Z car lover’s fantasy… with every generation represented. There were even non-Z cars welcomed!

S30

 

S130

  

Mike Rogers 12-mile 1980 ZX. Here is a great video and walk through on this time capsule!

 

Z31

 

 

Z32

 

350z

 

370z

Nissan/Datsun Gems

ZCON welcomed all members of the family and there were some great cars on display:

 

Roadster, 620 and S13

 

Best of the 90’s!

 

Midnight Purple R33, Z32 and R32 all at gas station just outside of ZCON!

 

People

The legendary Pete Brock, Hiroshi Tamura and Larry Chen were just a few of the big names at ZCON:

 

Christopher Karl and Mark Lambert both received Lifetime Achievement Awards, congrats gentlemen!

Thank You!

ZCON was a success. Big thanks to Christopher Karl of ZCCA for an incredible week of friends and Z cars. Z you next year!

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The next-generation Nissan Z sports car will be unveiled Tuesday, August 17 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. Nissan is making this a global reveal so Z car fans worldwide can watch via livestream. You can sign up for reminders at Nissan’s American website.

 

Z Car Garage was fortunate to check out the Z Proto at Nissan Headquarters back in May. We were impressed and can’t wait to see how close the production Z will be…with great styling, twin-turbos and a Six-speed manual transmission sign us up!

 

The global press event for unveiling the new Nissan Z will be at a private event in New York City. ZCG will be attending the event so stay tuned for live updates!

LONG LIVE THE Z!

 

 

 

Everything we know. Everything we love. Everything we live for. In one letter.

The New Z Car. By now many of you have seen Nissan’s Z Proto in the media or even in person as it tours the car show circuit. On May 2, Nissan invited us to their headquarters in Tennessee to get up close and personal with the Z Proto, still very much in pre-production form. After seeing, hearing and feeling this car in person we are thoroughly stoked for the new Nissan Z. Enjoy this report from our trip, complete with photos and video.

 

Nissan is Back

Z car enthusiasts worldwide have been awaiting a successor to the current Z and many were satisfied when Nissan officially unveiled the Z Proto on September 16, 2020. The live-streamed event featured Alfonso Albaisa (senior vice president of global design) and Hiroshi Tamura (chief product specialist of the Z Proto) both very enthusiastic and assuring that while the Z Proto is only a development model, we will get a new Nissan Z.

Fast forward almost six months after the unveiling…Nissan debuted this commercial that gave me chills. I immediately texted Rob that Nissan is back. This brilliantly-executed advertisement was exactly what we needed and shows a direction that we are totally on board with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kdVkUta8TI

 

With our New Z car anticipation growing stronger we just had to see it for ourselves, in the metal. You can imagine how happy we were when Nissan Corporate reached out to Z Car Garage and invited us to their headquarters in Franklin to spend some quality time with the Z Proto. Rob and I hopped on a plane to Tennessee…

  

Arriving at Nissan HQ, our hosts were Jonathan Buhler (Sr. Specialist Corporate Communications at Nissan) and industry veteran Dan Passe (Director, Corporate Communications). Both gentlemen are hardcore automotive enthusiasts (see Jonathan’s personal Datsun 240Z) that proudly wave the flag for Nissan. The kind of minds you want at a car company, and very gracious. Rob and I were in for a treat, and and we were blown away. First order of business: see the Z Proto inside Nissan HQ…

The Nissan Z Proto:

We were given the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Z Proto. To be concise, this car has a presence that simply isn’t captured in photos. A small disclaimer: the details we admired and discovered on this car may not transfer to the production car, but based on leaked photos, and as mentioned in the unveiling by Alfonso the Z Proto’s design is extremely close to what consumers will be offered. After sitting in the car and taking in its design, both Rob and I were enthralled and eager for the new Nissan Z. Let’s take a closer look…

Exterior

 

 

Our visit with Nissan only begun with the Z Proto. Before heading to our next destination we stopped by legendary Z shop Crawford Z Car Service in downtown Nashville. Owner Doug Stewart is an accomplished  Z-car racer and you night remember the creator of the Crawford intake plenum for Nissan’s 350z VQ engine.

 

Nissan Heritage Collection

 

A visit to the Nissan Heritage collection was next on our tour. Nissan’s production plants in Smyrna and Dechard and HQ in Franklin, TN are pretty well-known but the Heritage Collection is hidden inside the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. The museum itself is open to the general public and it’s a must see:

 

Undeground and beyond closed doors, we entered paradise. Both Jonathan and Dan have dedicated their time-on a volunteer basis to preserve, maintain and promote this vintage Nissan/Datsun collection. Without them it wouldn’t survive, and in part they rely on enthusiasts (like Randy Jaffe) to help carry the torch. These are cars that would have been scrapped by Nissan or left outside to rust. Rob and I were literally in heaven. So much history in one place with wicked metal at every turn. (Below) The actual Black Gold TV commercial 280ZX and 2021 TV commercial Z31 that actress Brie Larson was in:

 

Everywhere we looked there were”JOB #1″ vehicles, race cars, movie/commercial cars and even concept cars…we could have spent the night with the collection. What sets this collection apart from others is that all cars are accessible and drivable (or meant to be driven). No roped-off cars or locked doors. I even got to sit in the race car!

 

Forgotten concept cars. Some were old. Some were shockingly recent(See that Q50 Eau Rouge?!)

 

 

This 1200 truck needed some attention and this was recently shipped from the Heritage Collection to ZCG for some love!

 

There were way too many cool cars to mention so please check out the photo gallery and video below!

 

Here is a video of our visit to the Nissan Heritage Collection, enjoy!

 

Datsun Roadsters

 

The Datsun Sports (310/311) or affectionately known as “Datsun Roadsters” are some of our favorite models. We were both surprised and happy to find that Jonathan and Dan had recently rescued a few from a barn. All of the cars they recovered were interestingly “2000” models from 1968 to 1980. Thanks to their efforts these gems will be restored and driven!

 

 

Thank You

We thank Nissan, Dan Passe and Jonathan Buhler for the opportunity to visit. The Z Proto is a winner and we were throughly impressed with the Heritage Collection and your efforts to keep it alive. Looking forward to working with you in the future, LONG LIVE THE Z!

 

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This 1971 Nissan Skyline has been in the Z Car Garage family for several years and currently resides in Georgia with owner Randy Jaffe. Randy has built a few notable cars with ZCG including the Rocketbunny Series1 240Z and #46 BRE Datsun 240Z driven by John Morton:

How did he end up with this JDM beauty? Randy has always loved the stance and looks of these early, “Hakosuka” Skylines and wanted to experience right-hand drive (RHD). Timing was perfect as our customer Alex McDowell was willing to part with his 2000 GT-X:

 

Under Alex’s ownership ZCG maintained the car for many years. It did not need much to prepare for delivery to Randy. We performed a full tune-up, sync’d the triple carbs, changed the fluids, handled minor cosmetics (like straightening the bumper) and it was shipped off to Georgia:

 

Randy’s Way

 

If there is one thing about Randy we admire, it’s his attention to detail. Ok, we like his sense of style too 🙂 Upon arrival he mounted fresh set of chunky Toyo tires on those iconic Watanabe wheels. Inside, he removed the carpet and replaced it with original style GT-R vinyl covering. The tan seats were reupholstered to red.

 

The car was originally a white GT-X and when I asked Randy of any future mods he replied:

“I am thinking about dropping one of the Parkinson race motors in it to give the car more power – the original 2.0 is sluggish compared to what I enjoy driving. If I do that I will pull all of the A/C parts off of it and clean up the engine bay. To be continued!”

Randy applied the Hakosuka racecar-inspired livery:

 

Here is a walk-around of the Hako, with more pictures in the gallery below.

 

We are happy to report that Randy is Enjoying The Ride and even won an award at the local Caffeine and Octane show:

 

More to Come

 

You may have noticed some really cool cars in the background. Randy has several Nissans/Datsuns in his collection that we are excited to share with you in upcoming blog posts! For now, LONG LIVE THE HAKOSUKA!

 

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