Love for the Z is strong in Northern California

The Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) is one of the oldest Z car clubs in the nation. In its prime they had over 600 members with close ties to Yutaka Katayama (“Mr. K”) and Nissan USA. Of the many events and fun runs they host throughout the year including the famous Blackhawk Museum Show, we had a wonderful time attending their ZONC Annual Car Show in Brisbane, CA held on July 22, 2017.

 

 

This was a relaxed, relatively small gathering of enthusiasts that we shared with a group of ZCG customers and friends. Our Saturday morning caravan to the show began at the shop with seven Z cars, one roadster and a C110 Kenmeri Skyline:

 

Here is a short video of the ride to Brisbane with all of our cars…just Enjoying The Ride on a Saturday!

 

Highlights from the show

Still to this day, 240Zs are the most represented model in the club. Expansion over time currently includes all recent Z models and the GT-R, but also reaches back in time to include the Datsun Roadsters and 510s.  41 cars were displayed this year, each one of them special and showing pride of ownership. The only model missing from the show was the Z31 300ZX and that’s because the only one registered somehow overheated on the way.

 

From showroom stock to wildly-modified the S30 selection was diverse. We are very proud of ZCG customer James S’ 1972 240z. This hot rod sports a Rebello 3.2 L-series engine with boost provided by a GTX3576R turbo and Haltech management.  The exterior is quite menacing with large carbon fiber flares containing 17″ VOLK TE37 wheels wrapped in sticky Kumho slicks. ZCG Big Brakes are at all four corners. Stay tuned for a full report on this beast as we dial in the E85 tuning!

 

   

Frank Burkeen’s stunning Series 1 240z is the result of a full rotisserie restoration. We will have a full report on this build soon, but if you take close look at that stock engine bay it’s impossible to tell that it makes about 50hp more than stock!

 

Frank is also a long-time ZCG customer and his wife drove his other Z car, a bright orange fuel-injected canyon carver. We love the Chevlon mesh wheels and they do a superb job of framing our ZCG Big Brakes!

 

Our friend and fellow vintage racer Glenn Chiou’s 1971 Nissan Fairlady 240Z-L is a RHD model with a Rebello heart and a host of period goodies. The original paint is impressive and this car just looks so “right” from all angles.

   

260z and 280z

ZCG customer Joe A showed his pretty 260z, fresh from the shop (full report on the blog soon)

   

Linda W’s 1978 280z

 

S130

Who could forget the S130 280zx! Black Gold too:

 

People

We like this show because of the laid-back atmosphere and good folks that organize it. You won’t find Drake or EDM blasting through loudspeakers here. No bikini contests.  Just Z-car and Nissan/Datsun enthusiasts simply sharing their love about cars.

Z32

 

11 Z32 300zx cars were displayed ranging from high-mileage survivors with original owners to show-spec pristine examples. Kevin N and Joe K’s Z32 Twin Turbos are both top-level examples of highly modified yet tasteful machines:

 

Jack and Yolanda’s famous widebody Z32s. Jack is the creator of the original “primadonnaZ” back in the 70’s.

 

This 1994 NA Z32 caught our eye because it had 332k miles from its original owner!

 

Z33

If you are a fan of Japanese classic cars there’s a good chance that you have visited Japanese Nostalgic Car. JNC’s senior minicar correspondent and all-around J-Tin guru is Ricky Silverio and he is also a Z-car owner! Here is his pristine, 10k-mile 2003 350z Track model that we will be performing services on soon. Like his other sports cars, Ricky shows impeccable taste in his “OEM+” mods. Check out more pics in the gallery as there are many “easter eggs” in his Z!

  

Z34

This is the first show since 2009 that Nissan USA helped support and ZONC was very happy to have a new NISMO 370Z  on display:

 

We spotted this pair of of white NISMO Z’s. Nissan’s final evolution of the Z34 is the best looking, in our opinion:

  

510s

 

Three Datsuns 510s showed up, two with KA24s and one sporting an L-series. Datsun die-hards may remember this familiar 510 that belonged to builder Gary Jervis:

 

Our favorite (and the crowd’s too) was Matt’s 510. This boosted KA24DE Dime ticks all the right boxes for our love of low-flying bricks, and he also won 1st place for Best 510!

The Kenmeri Skyline

Alex M lent us his C110 Skyline to participate in the show. It was well received and even won an award!

Roadsters and Best of Show

The lone Datsun Roadster, and winner of Best of Show award went to Dan M’s pretty ’69 Datsun 2000. Dan also brought his ’72 240z!

 

Vanity plates

It’s no secret Z car owners have the best vanity plates! Some notables:

   

Parking lot finds

The beautiful venue is also a public park so plenty of folks stopped by to check out the Z’s.

  

Award Winners

It is always great to see ZCG customers carrying home awards for their pride and joy.

James S won Best Modified and Super Modified! Joe A won best 260z and Frank M won Best Stock 240z!

 

See you next year!

Spending the day at the ZONC Annual Car Show was a welcome experience that reminded us to, in the words of the late Mr.K, ” Love cars. Love people. Love Life.”  We look forward to the next show keep an eye on our event updates and Z you soon! Don’t forget to check out our picture gallery below! Big thanks to the ZONC organizers and Ricky Silverio for sharing his photos with us.

 

 

 

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Dom brought his modified 370z to Z Car Garage for tuning and he was referred to us by our friend and fellow Z34 owner Richard M (thank you!). Dom’s Z is a 2014 Base model with full AimGain Widebody Kit, Work Meisters S1 3P wheels, gorgeous Yas Marina Blue paint and a host of bolt-ons.

 

 

 

We put it on the dyno and went to work on the UPREV tune. We saw gains of 21hp/11tq for a total of 337hp/278tq to the wheels:

 

 

This is one of the most powerful NA 370z cars to come through ZCG. It is also another example of how dyno tuning can unlock the full potential of bolt-ons for your Z.  Dom you’ve done a great job with the car it looks fantastic!

 

 

Jason S had his 2012 370z supercharged at a performance shop in the Sacramento area. He then tracked us down to install a smaller pulley and raise the boost level followed by UPREV tuning to replace the base CAN tune.

Once we got his car into the shop we realiZed there were several things to handle before increasing the power. First, it is important to put in a colder spark plug in a car with forced induction and we used our proven GT-R units. When going from 280whp to 400whp we wanted to make sure nothing was rubbing so the following items were addressed:

All vacuum and boost lines were secured to keep them from popping off:

   

We corrected wiring at the ART pipes where a wire was touching the exhaust:

  

We corrected orientation of MAF housing:

    

The oil cooler lines were secured to prevent from rubbing anything on the front end:

  

We rectified the flaky wiring to the intercooler pump that allows water to flow into the cooler. No more on/off issues with the pump. With all of the clean-up work sorted we installed the smaller supercharger pulley and UPREV tuned the Z:

  

ZCG has performed many Stillen s/c kits and it’s a wonderful way to pump up your Z with minimal hassle and great power gains. Thank you Jason for letting us sort out your Z!

 

Hello Zcarblog readers! In our next blog posts we aim to demonstrate the importance of a specialty shop for your Nissan/Infiniti/Datsun.

Let’s begin with Justin L’s 2013 370z. He had a Stillen supercharger installed at a local shop and while there are many competent shops that can get your car ready to go, the specialist exists for a reason: we have become proficient at specific installations because the are part of our daily routine.

 

The Stillen supercharger kit for the Z34 is an install we are intimately familiar with, and as a result we corrected several things on Justin’s car including engine codes and a fuse in the intercooler pump system that wasn’t allowing water to be pumped into the IC.  We also adjusted the clutch pedal and crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s as we do for many folks that bring their cars to ZCG.

Rob tuned the car using Ecutek software flashing with a MAP sensor instead of the MAF and Stillen-supplied CAN tunes.  Moving to speed density allows more control improved driveablity from idle to on boost. The results were impressive:

 

Justin’s Z came to us with 360hp/291tq and left with 396hp/321tq at the wheels. Gains of 36hp/30tq using slightly less boost as well with gains throughout the entire rev range. Justin is a happy camper and hopefully we’ve gained another customer for life. Long Live The Z!

 

 

 

Rasheed B has been testing his 2015 NISMO 370z at the track since the addition of a twin-turbo kit (full report soon) and sent us a few pics from Thunderhill Raceway. We’ve been battling high engine bay temps and the vented hood dramatically lowered them. A summer testing session is next.

 

 

Several Sacramento Z/GT-R guys also attended the track day and it is really awesome to see a bunch of cars we worked on (Eric T and Ruben G) with their owners enjoying them!

Thanks Rasheed, Z You At The Track!