On the 23rd of last month I put up a the most recent track video featuring our good friend Scott and his 350z.  The car had received the new MotorDyne Shockwave single exhaust the day before the track event so here are the dyno results, videos, and my impressions.

I normally shy away from favoring any sort of single exhaust on the 350z but this may be the system that has changes my mind.  From the moment it was unwrapped it was easy to notice that the quality was there, and then we came to the exhaust tip.   MEGAPHONE!!  Here at Z Car Garage we have a special place in our hearts for the megaphone tip, as they are currently installed on Rob’s 240z and 510 as well as Alvin’s Roadster.  The MotorDyne system comes with one from the factory, sweet.

The exhaust was installed without hassle thanks to the simplicity of the included V-band clamps.  As soon as the car fired up we were all impressed.  Rasp was virtually non-existent (this car still runs stock cats) and the sound was extremely crisp.  While it’s not overly-loud, and passed the decibel meter at Thunderhill, there may be a sound limit issue at some of the super-strict tracks like Laguna Seca.

On to the dyno!!

We made a few baseline runs just prior to the install and came out with a hair under 252 rear-wheel horsepower (rwhp.)  After the exhaust switch we made two more runs while carefully monitoring all critical temps as well as the air/fuel ration with an Innovate wide-band 02 sensor.  The number we came out with was sort of a let down: 251rwhp, a one hp loss.  Before simply marking it up as a loss we pulled out the laptop to check the timing in the U-tech piggyback computer.  After pulling a couple degrees of timing we were happy to see the number climb to 259rwhp, a very nice gain for a normally aspirated car.

Unfortunately this isn’t a true comparison because we can’t be sure of how the NISMO system would have performed with the reduced timing, on the sound alone I would recommend this exhaust.  Make sure you check out all the videos and photos after the ‘read more.’

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One of the best Nissan/Datsun/Infiniti in the Northern California area is the annual Blackhawk auto show put together by the ZONG organization.  This event consists of beautiful cars from all over the state and the winners are decided by the fellow entrants which always makes for an exciting trophy presentation.  We will be bringing quite a few choice cars from the shop as well as unveiling the production version of our ZCG Big Brake Kit for the 240z.

Another great reason to make the trip to Blackhawk is the amazing auto museum.  If have any sort of appreciation for the automobile, or art in general, this place is a must!!  There are cars of all generations from every marque, some of which you may have never heard of.  The rolling artwork here are some of the finest examples still in existence.  You will not be disappointed.

I have heard rumors that ZONC has been in contact with Nissan North America to possibly bring a surprise vehicle, can you guess what it might be?  I’ll fill you in when I get a confirmed yes or no.  Click on the flyer below for all the detail and make sure to check our the photos from last years event.  We hope to see you there!

Link:  ZONC

Link:  Blackhawk Automotive Museum

ZONC Blackhawk Flyer:

More photos from last year after the ‘read more.”

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With the Behemoth back in our hands, the time has come to focus on getting the Kurtzee RB build up to speed.  The freshly powder-coated coilovers have now been fitted to the car to make it a roller once again so that we can carry on with the chassis stiffening.  We were really excited to see this car back on the ground after sitting by the wayside for some time, now is the big push!!

The chassis will be modified along the same lines as the Behemoth build so that the nearly forty year old body doesn’t destroy itself the first time we step on the “fun” pedal.  It will also allow us to remove the bolt-in roll bar that was previously installed.  The new setup will help provide a more solid feel in the entire car on the street and on the track, oh man these cars are going to be a handful!!

To prep the car for the cage/stiffening we needed to remove every part of the interior.  This isn’t a difficult task but it can be time consuming because you really need to make sure everything is handled properly to prevent damage and labeled accurately to ensure that the re-installation goes smoothly.

I should have some photos in a week or so when it gets out of the fabrication phase.  The car will then be stripped down even further and sent off to William’s Auto Body to have the engine bay cleaned up and resprayed to perfection.  As with all the RB builds that we do, all the holes and parts that are no longer used with the new engine will be removed or smoothed to provide the cleanest engine bay possible.

As you read a week ago HERE, we recently received all the parts for the ZCG Big Brake Kit that has been a few years in the dreaming/engineering phase and I am happy to report that all of the custom CnC’d brackets have been given a beautiful black anodized finish.  We can’t thank Ken over at Roost Billet Products enough for donating so much of his time and hard work for this project, the quality is amazing and rest assured it doesn’t get any better than this for a 240z.

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

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This GT-R came into the shop back in January to get a lower stance by way of an Eibach Springs Pro-Kit.  That post can be found HERE.

Last week it came back to us to receive it’s first engine related upgrade, a new HKS mid-pipe that removes the secondary cats from the system.  This upgrade has been shown to pick up a few horsepower by way of less exhaust restriction but the best part about this change in my opinion is the few extra decibels that the VR38DETT makes now.  Sometimes the ear dyno can be more rewarding than the butt dyno.  A nice upgrade for a super-clean car.  I’m not sure what else the owner has in mind for his GT-R but if we do the work you better believe it will be up here on ZCarBlog.

As a side note, the owner of this car recently got rid of his highly modified Mitsubishi Evo VIII in favor of a new Nissan 370z!  Way to keep it in the family.  I’ll try to see if I can get a few pictures of both cars.  Happy Wednesday.

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

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Like I said earlier, this was a great event.  Let’s start from the beginning.

I had picked up the ZCG 370z from the shop on Friday night so that I could have it all packed and ready to go in the morning and maybe sneak in a few extra minutes of sleep.  Fail.  I had forgotten the camera and the spare battery at the shop.  I needed to be in Saratoga to pick up my friend Torey by 6:45am so I was at the shop by 6:15ish grabbing the required gear.  Off to a good start.

We are on the road to Sacramento by 7:00 and are making amazing time to the meeting point at a Panera bread location near the arena.  Even with stopping for gas, and breakfast at Jack-in-the-box, we arrived fifteen minutes early for the suggested 9:00 meeting time.  I was happy to see that there were already a few cars there including the two 370Zs of Curtis and Hal who had a major hand in setting up this drive.

Five or ten minutes after we arrived Zs were flowing in steadily and Roy even showed up in his GT-R.  Sweet.  I was also really excited to see Chris joining the group in his 1973 240z that we recently put new carburetors and an exhaust system on.  I love seeing the old cars being driven as much as the new ones.   After mingling for a short while were given the usual safety briefing and a rundown of the days schedule.  Then it was off to the cars for the fun part, driving.

Being able to drive the ZCG 370z on an event like this is just about as good as it gets.  This car has just about everything that you could want from a modern sports car.  Go buy one, seriously.

After driving for about an hour and a half we stopped at a small place called the Western Pacific Brewery in Oroville for lunch.  It is located directly on the tracks that run through town and it was pretty cool to see the train come through a few times during our meal.  We also met up with a few other Z Car owners here, two 240Zs and a Z32 twin turbo bringing our total to around twenty cars.

Once we were back on the in the cars we headed out of Oroville and onto the scenic and winding back roads of Highway 70.  We started out high in the hills and made our way down some very steep grades with HUGE drop-offs that lead to the canyons that were carved out by the Feather River.  There are all sort of neat bridges and tunnels along this stretch and we made the best of it by stopping for pictures fairly often.  By we I mean the two cars of Curtis and I, we would make sure to get ahead of the group on certain parts of the trip so that we could pull over and setup for photo opportunities.  I know that he took some amazing shots which I will have for you later this week.

After driving on these great canyon roads for a couple of hours we came out into a quaint little town that I think was Quincy, CA (please correct me if I’m wrong here) to fill up gas tanks and drain others.  We pretty much took over the Chevron station that we stopped at, I guess a group like this would make a scene anywhere we would go, haha.  Okay back on the road.

Driving through this town really reminded me of when I was younger and driving through the central parts of Wisconsin, it really had that sort of comfortable feel to it.  Leaving town we began to notice that the ground was growing increasingly damp but we were all prepared to slow the pace down so there weren’t any real concerns there.  After another half-hour of driving we started to enter the open plains between the individual mountain peaks.  There were neat little farm houses with cattle all around here and blasting the Zs through here may have given the locals quite the afternoon wake-up call.

Now we are coming up to our final stop before the final push to Truckee and dinner.  We made the stop near Blairsden right where HWY 70 and 89 meet.  We choose this place because Roy and his beautiful GT-R were going to break off from our group and continue on to Reno instead of heading to Truckee.  The place we pulled over there was a cool old barn with a scenic mountain backdrop which made for some great photos.

After we said our goodbyes we continued on to Truckee and when we arrived around 5:00 we were treated with some good local BBQ.  It was nice to know that we really didn’t have to do anymore driving, well for me anyways.  Some of us had made plans to stay the night it the Truckee/Tahoe area but a good majority of the group was going to drive back home, talk about committed.

I was stuffed full of food and needed to wind down from all the driving so we said our thank yous and good byes and made a break for the door.  I was able to convince Chris with the 240z to stay at my place up there because Torey and I had already made plans to go out in the Cal/Neva area of North Lake Tahoe.  Good times.

The trip back down the mountain on Sunday was basically uneventful but I did make it all the way back to San Jose on just a half tank of gas.  Downhill fuel economy rules.  All in all it was an amazing trip and I can’t thank Curtis, Hal, and the entire ZONC organization enough for setting this up for us.  I’m looking forward to attending the next event and I hope to see more of you there!  Happy Z-ing

If the photos here don’t blow your skirt up then I would suggest that you make this drive, I’ll even go again!  Just let me know.

There is a full gallery after the ‘read more.’  Check it!

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