Turn up the volume!

Hillclimbing - not done enough in the States.

1 Year Anniversary - Ground Control'ed!

Today marks the 1 Year Anniversary of my purchase of this beautiful 1972 Nissan Fairlady 240Z-L. I found the car tucked in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where she sat for 18 years. I saved her from rotting away in the mountains, and I am proud to say she is up and running beautifully again. It has been a long journey, with plenty of ups and downs. I cannot believe a year has passed!

Here is how I picked her up on the first official day of ownership, October 28th, 2010. Uncovered into the light for the first time in 18 years.




To celebrate, I purchased a small little birthday present for her :) Did I out do myself?

This beautiful set of coilovers was picked up from Jaime on HybridZ.org for $650! An absolute STEAL! A new set of Ground Control Coilover Sleeves range for $400+, and the Illumina 5-way Adjustable Shocks for $500+. This does not include the cutting/welding needed to mount the sleeves to the coilovers, which probably ranges from $200-300. IN ADDITION, these coilovers were professionally powdercoated as well! An absolute steal, if you ask me :)

Beautiful construction.

Prepping them on the car!



Stay tuned!

Speedhunted! Monterey Historics

During my trip to the Monterey Historic Races, I was lucky enough to have a Speedhunters Photographer snap a picture of our group! The Fairlady Z made it onto an article of their site!

Here: http://speedhunters.com/archive/2011/08/23/event-gt-gt-scenes-from-the-rolex-historics-pt-1.aspx

Alvin snapped this photo on the way to the event. The orange Z had an identical 3.0L stroker, except it was breathing through bored SU carbs. It sounded amazing! The morning was cloudy and sprinkled a bit, but that did not stop us!

Taken by Alvin of Z Car Garage's Blog (zcarblog.com)

Finally the Rebello Motor is running at optimal performance and at the same time not too shabby looking!!

Lovin' the Fujitsubo twin tip!!

We have POWER!

Now for some dyno sheets! Blue - Before, Red - After.


Two weeks ago I brought the Z for some fine tuning at Z Car Garage, only to find out that the car only dynoed at 155whp/190wtq. This was VERY disappointing, considering the engine was well over $5k and was initially dynoed at about 300hp to the flywheel.

I finally had the time to bring the Fairlady Z up to Antioch for Dave Rebello (Rebello Racing) to take a look at it. He spent the better part of two days fine tuning the car. Dave found that the accelerator pumps were not working correctly, a heatshield bolt bent the first carburetor's throttle plate, and the valves were adjusted to factory spec by a previous shop. This all made sense of why my Z car was not pulling the numbers it had initially done on the engine stand.

After the Z car was finished, I brought it back to Rob @ Z Car Garage today. HUWALA! Look at the comparison! The car pulls about 240whp/221wtq, very much mimicing what it had done a year ago on Rebello's engine stand. I am very happy with the results, and SO ready to bring it up for the Z Car Garage Z Corral at the Monterey Historics this weekend. There is a small exhaust leak between the header and mid-pipe, but should be remedied before this weekend.

Ready... set... go!

I purchased my Monterey Motorsports Reunion tickets today from Z Car Garage. $70 a ticket and $10 for the Corral pass, for a total of $500!!! Of course, my friends will be paying me back :)

On the way in and out, I saw this beauty once again :)

Monterey Motorsports Reunion!

The Monterey Motorsports Reunion Historic Races are coming up!! Do NOT miss out no this great weekend out to enjoy vintage racing. There will be a Z Corral thanks to Z Car Garage taking over for Z Owners of Northern California. There was original not going to be a Corral because the amount of cars, but ZCG came to the rescue by purchasing all the tickets! Please make it out to this event and show your Z support! Tickets and be purchased through Rob @ Z Car Garage.

Back to the track!

I have signed up for track days on August 8th and September 10th with NCRC and Trackmasters. The venues will be Thunderhill Raceway on August 8th, and Infineon Raceway on September 10th. Should be a great time out!! Sign up and join us at ncracing.org and trackmasters-racing.com.

Product Highlight: RLS Quarter-Turn Quick Release Kit

Anyone who owns a Lotus Elise or Exige knows it is a major PITA to remove the undertray and diffuser just to place your car on stands, change the oil, or do any other type of under-car maintanence. Over the course of the last month I have been searching for affordable solution to this, but unfortunately I was not able to find any product that I felt comfortable with reaching 120+ mph on the track.

Yesterday, I stumbled across a Lotus-catered company called Real Light Stuff. Aside from thinking their company logo looked strangley similar to that of Alienware Labtops, I had always thought they made products only for supercharged Lotus cars. For $125 + shipping, they offer this neat 1/4 turn kit for easy of removal of the diffuser and underpanels. I often see these products used on motorcycles. I can't wait to install this product and actually look forward to working on the Exige!!