She Want that Old Thing Back….

The glamorous world of IMSA racing, circa 1979

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Inner Animal

Awesome cutaway depiction of the Bob Sharp Datsun IMSA car

Knowing You Could is…..AWESOME

Following Speedhunters 80’s commercials, IMH), Datsun had some of the ultra cheesiest. This is a fine spectacle of 80’s AWESOME

Have you Heard This? True Story

Jay Leno Datsun Fairlady

Not big on blogging stuff other blogs do, but this is a great video, and Leno’s site always has cool stuff on it

Enjoy!

Scaled Down

Pretty cool when you can build a 1/10th scale radio controlled version of your actual car.

The model:

And the full size version:

Guess which one runs lol. One of these days I’ll get the real one back on the road. As with most projects, lack of time/money. Ran great, insanely fast, but ran out of injector at 16 psi on a T66. A series of “might as well” changes ensued, and well, I never it finished the changes, as this took over:

Happy Birthday Mr. K!!!

Happy birthday to Yutaka Katayama – the father of the Z

Love cars, love people, love life!

For the Nissan Faithful

OG Type R

I’ve only seen 1 of these bad boys in person…and it was in poor shape at best. They built 1009 of them to homologize the spoiler for use in racing around the world. Other than that, it was a standard 280ZX tarted up with some stickers. The damn thing came with hubcaps (the one shown here has the wrong wheels on it). Following in the tradition of Porsche, the spoiler was made of that funky mid to late 70’s rubber stuff. Porsche must have had ownership rights in the factory or something because they used it on everything. Had sort of a half Nerf, half dense foam feel to it. But it made 380 lbs of downforce – not too shabby.

Time Machine

Get into the wayback machine to 1980 – and all the cool kids had the Datsun 280ZX. Ever see the “Black Gold” commercial on youtube? Hilarity.

This car is #1 of #3000 10th Anniversary Models made – and has just 1000 miles. To the best of my knowledge they only came in black/gold or black/red. It just so happens we had one of these about 10 years ago that had very low miles, but was in a bad accident. I’ve still got parts from it waiting for the day where I can continue working on my ’79.

New Tommy Kaira 350Z/Z33 Rear Valence and Exhaust

It’s nice to know that manufacturers are still developing new products for the Nissan 350Z even though it is no longer in production. One of Japan’s top tuning firms, Tommy Kaira, has recently released this fiberglass rear valence for the Z33. The valence takes a few design cues from the 370z to give the 350z rear a slight update. This piece is available with and without the center 370z rear fog lamp.

Also pictured is the Tommy Kaira Premium 01S High Performance Exhaust System (Click Here to View the Press Release, I should warn you that it’s in Japanese). This exhaust is constructed of SUS304 stainless steel with 76mm diameter main piping and 90mm diameter quad slash-cut tips. An optional 60mm diameter Y-Pipe/Front Pipe is also available for purchase from Tommy Kaira to be used in conjunction with this exhaust. Gaskets and hardware are included and the exhaust with the y-pipe installed is rated at a sound level of 90-92 decibels.

All of these items are available for immediate purchase. If you are interested in pricing and availability please contact us.

Ahhhhh… ’72 240ZG

This might be the first time I’ve seen a legit 240ZG for sale and its very much a possibility that it will be the last time I see a real one for sale. The front end of this car is the envy of many of s30 and s130 chassis owners.

COCKPIT Wako CPV35 Skyline A.K.A. G35

Fairlady Z432

You’ll be very hard pressed to fine a better/cleaner example of this rare gem.

Classic Z1 – Part 1: Drag me to Hell

Over a series of posts, we’ll take a look back to where Z1 Performance began.  We’ll chronicle some of the projects, and events from back in the day and share some old photos and stories along the way.

Z1 Performance, the brainchild of a few die-hard Datsun fanatics, saw Adam’s 1979 280ZX as a veritable guinea pig in a project that would strive to blend old school and new in a timeless package.

Mike was the owner of Z1 at the time and an experienced mechanic.  Along with Billy (an equally knowledgeable tech) they had been restoring, repairing, modifying and racing Z-cars for years prior.  They had the experience, parts and knowledge required to get this project off the ground.  Together with Adam’s vision, they targeted the ultimate street car of the time; the 993 911 Turbo, capable of running mid 12-second 1/4 runs with a full interior, A/C, and stereo.

This ZX was not destined to be a trailer queen.  Rather, it would be a fully functioning daily driver as comfortable cruising to work as it was on the drag strip.  As the project grew legs, progress was made quickly.  It wasn’t long before we were all spending Friday nights at Long Island Dragway for test-and-tune.  The boys would have hours to make countless runs, note changes and results.

Phase 1 was simple: Turbocharge the higher compression N/A 280zx motor using OEM Datsun turbo parts along with a rising rate adjustable fuel pressure regulator.

Phase 2 required the stronger Turbo motor’s internals, a front mount intercooler (Starion core) high flow fuel pump, larger turbo and a programmable ECU (Electromotive TEC II).

Phase 3 would bring along a fully built motor, aggressive cam, massive injectors, larger turbo and intercooler plus loads more boost.

Once armed with the ECU, Adam scoped out the few dyno’s available in the area at the time and gain some experience tuning the L series for boost.  We’ll have to search for dyno sheets!

Success wasn’t always the name of the game, and driving the ZX to and from events and testing would often mean long nights prepping and repairing.  I recall one particular test session at LI dragway when the original N/A tranny finally let go…after perhaps one run.  After a tow back to the shop (and a large bill), Mike and Bill had another tranny bolted up in under and hour and we drowned our sorrows with pizza and beer.

Through it all, we built not only fast cars, but solid friendships that would stand the test of time.  While Mike and Bill have since moved on to other careers, they are still very much a part of the Z1 family and continue to offer their assistance, experience and knowledge in their free time.

Is it a prybar or a boost controller?

Likely waiting for an authentic LI Dragway hotdog in between runs

Sitting pretty!

There we go!

That's right, a brushed aluminum gas cap in '96. Z1, setting trends!

Compensating for something?

Now that's competition!

Would this be called "attack mode?"

Who won the holeshot?

Niiiiice!

On the dyno, after a quick stop at the airport for jet fuel! No joke.

Again...

All of it, impossible without this man (Mike). That hat was stlyin in '96!

Primadonna

I remember when I first learned about these cars, back in the early 90’s. I had acquired my first Z car, a ’79 ZX (which I still have!) and like most cars I have owned, I instantly became passionate about it. Learning the lineage of a car is part of the joy for me. I immersed myself in all things Z, and would spend countless hours at the library at college going through microfiche scans of old Road and Track, Car and Driver, etc

Anyway, I remember Mike, my Z mentor, telling me about the Primadonna Z cars, and sharing some info he knew. Now that I am older, and can really appreciate what goes into building the car of your dreams, I have even more respect for what these cars brought to the table. They were the vision of Jack Atkinson, a car nut who did all the work himself, outside his apartment, in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

This has been blogged about before, and you can read more about it here

What it makes me think of, is what cars will we remember 15 or 20 years from now? With the explosion of the online communities, we now learn about cars from all corners of the globe. I wonder what cars we’ll talk about over beers in 2020.