Comments Off on Turn Z Sunday June 6th Come out and show off your Z!!!!!!!!
Shop Talk for
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The Z Car Garage Drag Racing Series continues for 2010. Z Car Garage (www.zcargarage.com) is hosting a drag competition for all-years Nissans and Datsuns at Sears Point (Infineon) Raceway. Come join us for a few nights of fun and Z-ing “in a straight line”. Walt (Fowlman) won the last series in his supercharged 350Z. The first one was April 7th, and we’ll be continuing through November 11th.
Generally, the Wednesday Night Drags events are held at Sears Point Raceway on most Wednesday nights during the year. The gates open at 3:30 and racing is from 5-10pm. One typically gets a few practice (non-competitive) runs in before the racing starts assuming you get there early. All the information you need about the track and racing itself is located here: http://www.infineonraceway.com/racew…y_night_drags/
Prizes!
1st Place: One Pair of New BF Goodrich Drag Radials courtesy of Z Car Garage
2nd Place: $100.00 Gift Certificate at Z Car Garage
Points:
Sears Point Wednesday events are bracket racing. If you show up early, each driver gets 4 or 5 practice runs before the sessions begin.
1 point: Once the sessions begin, each time you advance
(Sears Point staff puts a smiley face on your slip), you get one point. The goal is to NOT run against each other until absolutely necessary (i.e. everyone stages in the same lane until the final brackets)
(Sears Point staff puts a smiley face on your slip), you get one point. The goal is to NOT run against each other until absolutely necessary (i.e. everyone stages in the same lane until the final brackets)
3 points: Runner-up (loss in the finals) – trophy awarded
5 points: Winner of class – trophy awarded
Points are only valid on the dates ZCG goes to Infineon (4/7, 6/2, July, August, September, October, possibly November). I’ll update this post as we set the dates for future months.
All competitors must sign waiver @ Z Car Garage before entering competition (or sign at track and give to Rob).
So put your excuses to rest and join us on June 2nd for the 2nd event of the year.
Comments Off on “Rev on the Redline” ZCG Drags Session 2…. 06/02/10
The Smitty Racing / Z Car Garage 350Z took 1st in the OSP class and 8th overall out of 153 cars at the Northern California United 510 Owners Club www.norcalufo.org autocross held at The Marina Airfield on May 2nd, 2010. The 2003 Nissan 350Z was driven by Scott Smith to the top of the OSP class for the 7th event in a row, and currently sits 3rd in the adjusted PAX score, which normalizes the times based on the car’s classifications.
>There was a good turn out of Zs and Gs, but we’d love to have even more of a showing! Here are the overall results from this month’s event: http://norcalufo.org/main/attachments/117_Results-NorCal_UFO_AutoX_Series_Event6_May2-2010.pdf
Scott runs the Z in the OSP class (versus CSP) because the most of the interior panels of the car are gutted to make-up for the added weight of the current Kirk 4-pt roll bar, though the Z is getting a full cage later this month. It runs on 285/30 Kumho V710 tires at all four corners that are mounted on lightweight, 18″ SSR Competition wheels. Z Car Garage recently tuned the Z with the Osiris/Uprev software to an amazing and lively 271rwhp / 252rwtq with its current bolt-ons. The autocross transitions are dampened by a set of Koni-based TrueChoice dual-adjustable coilovers and the alignment specs are dialed-in by SPL suspension components. Upcoming events are the annual Duel at DeAnza on May 16th. There is still time and room, but you’d better hurry!
The next NorCal UFO event at The Marina Airfield will be held on June 6th.
Comments Off on Auto X Report…05/02/10
The skies were cloudy for the Z Car Garage 6th Anniversary Dyno Day and ZONC General Meeting, but that didn’t stop Z fans from gathering to help celebrate.
I live a couple of hours away and this was my first trip to the shop.
This is one cool place. The waiting room has hundreds of car magazines, Datsun and Nissan motorsport posters, plaques with magazine articles about many of Rob’s cars, and plenty of Z car memorabilia. My favorite is an original 240Z race car model kit in the original shrink wrapped box. I assembled one of these very kits over 35 years ago at the start of my love affair with Z cars (I still have the model). The waiting area is completely open to the main shop area. Customers get to see and hear the work taking place. Beyond the main area behind large windows is the dynamometer bay.
The place is CLEAN. It’s one of the cleanest, tidiest shops I’ve ever seen. Even the bathroom is nice.
The ZCG technicians – Fred, Joshua, Vlad and CJ – spent much of the day jockeying cars in and out of the dyno bay and lying on the floor to strap them down. Despite having to work, the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves. Dyno runs were only $40 in honor of the Z car’s 40th anniversary.
The car show in the parking lot was great and kept changing during the day.
Enjoy the pictures!
Comments Off on ZCG Dyno day report from Bill N.
Monday the 1st of February was an amazing day for a couple of reasons. For one, Fred of the ZCG crew turned 40. And secondly, Fred gave me the day off to play with the shop 370Z. The day started off at ZCG in the early morning hours where I met the other two cars in the pack, Scott with his Z33 and Gia with his Nismo edition Z34. We drove down to Laguna Seca to start our track adventures for the day. Once we arrived at Laguna Seca we prepped our Z’s with numbers and a double check of our wheel torques. After a brief driver’s meeting, we were off to drive our first session. It’s been a while since I have been able to go to the track and hone my skill set. Years ago, before ZCG, going to the track was a regular event in my life. Driving on the track with Scott really made me appreciate the value of seat time. Scott’s many track days and autocrosses have paid off and he and his Z33 looked great out there. A few days prior to the event, we fitted Gia’s Nismo edition Z34 with a test ZCG oil cooler and some upgraded front brake pads. The oil temps were in range for moving forward with our next round of testing. The brakes, on the other hand, weren’t able to keep up with Gia’s driving style. I have shared my data with Stoptech and they say help is on the way in the form of a pad that should help us on the street and allow us to push the limits at the track. Once Gia’s Z34 brakes were unable to continue, we double teamed the ZCG Z34 with back to back sessions. During these sessions, we were able to keep our oil temperature under control with the help of the ZCG oil cooler. The highest oil temps were in the 250F range. For those of you just tuning in, this is the 3rd test version of our oil cooler. We feel after the next set of tests that we will be able to serve the Z community with a product that will allow you to keep your Z’s oil temps within reason and out of the famous limp mode. We will be returning to Laguna Seca on February 25th to complete the shake-down on our latest mods. The track organization we are running with is NCRC, nice guys with great organization which leads to lots of track time.
Turn in,
Rawb
Comments Off on Long overdue Track report from 02/01/10 @ Laguna Seca