The Harder Rocking Pantera

Designed by an American, built in Italy, powered by good old USDM iron – the De Tomaso Pantera was always a bit of an anomaly of the sports car world. Only about 7200 were ever made, from its debut in 1972 till the final one rolled off the line in 1991.

Our customer contacted us with a unique request for his even more unique Pantera. His car has a host of very custom parts, including some carbon fiber components. To compliment this updated look, he wanted to update the aerodynamics as well. We spec’d out a custom made APR GTC-500 spoiler, with bespoke offset mounting brackets to allow it to custom blend with the rear hatch lines.

This isn’t some show queen though, as it has plenty of brute force under the Italian bodywork. A Roush Yates engine powers this redheaded stepchild. Future plans call for a custom carbon rear diffuser, which is already in the works, and a custom front carbon splitter as well.

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Anything but Neutral

We were contacted over the winter to get hold of one of the very rare and exclusive Prodrive steering wheels and Works Bell hub for a client in Switzerland. Recently got some installed pics and wanted to share them! This was installed into a European spec WRX

Improving the View in Paradise

Dmitri recently sent us pics of his gorgeous STi, all the way from New Caledonia!

He received a set of Ganador mirrors from us, which he had painted to match the car.

New Plug and Play Engine Management for 350Z and G35

AEM Infinity Series ECU

AEM’s Infinity series ECU is now available with a plug and play harness for all 2003-2006 350Z and G35’s with Manual Transmission only (will not support automatics).

This is one of the fastest, most powerful ecu’s on the market at any price point, with a feature list that reads like many higher priced units.

Full Drive by wire control, supports factory widebands on 04.5+ models, full CAN support (so your gauges, check engine light, traction control VDC all remain functional), programmable 3 step rev limiter, even the ability to store and cycle through multiple maps via the cruise control switch.

Click the picture above to read more about it, or to place your order.

Why Stressing Over Tire Size is Useless

One of the most frequent questions we get is “what size tire do you recommend?”.  The most correct, but least awaited answer we can give is “It depends”.  Because frankly, tire size doesn’t really mean a whole heckuva lot. 

We’ve been taught, through some sort of mythical passdown of inaccurate information, that the first number in a tires size (let’s say, 275) is it’s width, in mm.  If that were true, things would be simple.  When you go into a store to buy a new shirt, you see the same phenomenon.  Some firms clothing runs bigger (or smaller) than others.    You may wear a 34 jean from one company, and a 36 from another.  Modifying a car is similarly inconsistent, and rarely is simple.  While the first number in a tires size CAN be it’s width in mm, it’s more often than not, a general target of width.  Now, on an otherwise stock car, this doesn’t really matter.  When you start altering suspension, dropping the car an inch (or more), fitting super wide, super low offset wheels, your margin for error decreases exponentially.  As the Pauli Exclusion Principal generally states (and was reinforced by Einstein and many others), 2 objects cannot occupy the same physical space at the same time.  So in the interest of avoiding tire contact with the body of the car, with suspension components, with the inner fender liners, etc, things become more complicated. 

This pictue is one Kwame posted several years ago, and it illustrates the point perfectly.

 

If you saw the above picture, which tire would you say is bigger?  The one on the left clearly.  But on paper, the tire on the right is bigger.  Both are mounted on the same 11.5 inch wide wheels.  The tire on the left is a  Michelin PS2, 295/30/19. The tire on the right is a Pirelli PZero, 305/30/19.  If you’re trying to get more “stance”, or gain a bigger footprint, which would you rather have?  The one with the bigger number on the receipt, or the one with the bigger physical dimension? 

Here is another picture of the same above example: 295/30/19 PS2 on left, 305/30/19 PZero on the right

 

So what do you do?  Check the manufacturers site!  Everyone should have the physical dimensions of their tires, in inches, for every corresponding ‘size’ listed on their website. 

 

HKS Summer Sale: Begins Monday August 12

Starting Monday August 12 and continuing through Friday, August 16, all HKS items are on sale! HKS is Japan’s premier manufacturer of performance parts for performance vehicles. Their parts are second to none because they race what they make. There are tons of items on sale, many more than we can just list here. Drop us a line at z1sales@z1auto.com with your HKS needs.

Replace and Upgrade your Blown Cusco Zero2R’s

As many have found out, Cusco discontinued their Zero2R coilovers. As such, replacement parts can no longer be obtained.

However, all hope is not lost! Cusco phased out the Zero2R and replaced them with the superior Zero3R. The 3R is 24 way adjustable vs 5 way adjustable from the old versions.

We have a kit that includes all the items you’ll need for the upgrade. The shocks are sold in pairs only, to ensure proper balance, and pricing is the same as the older Zero2R’s were!

To ensure compatibility, contact z1sales@z1auto.com with the following info:

1. Year, Make, Model of your car
2. Original part # – this can be found on the original Cusco damper, right on the upper portion of the casing.
3. Inner diameter of springs

Cost for the PAIR of replacement dampers is $1025.00 delivered anywhere in the 48 states, and where required, will include any ancillary hardware to make it a complete, direct, bolt on affair.

Rennsport

We show alot of Porsche content on here, primarily because they are one of the few sports cars in the world that have remained true to their roots. They are like the Halle Barre of cars – doesn’t look remotely close to her age, and still sultry as ever.

This is one of the rarest ever made – the 3.0RS. Nearly 2x the cost of the famous 2.7RS. The RS stands for Rennsport, and true to it’s namesake, recorded victories at the most famed tracks all over the world. 11 inch wheels up front, 14 inch wheels out back, massive flares, factory rollbar, brakes from the 917 LeMans car. And the wonderful 3 liter flat 6 that loved to be wrung out.

What Japanese cars carry this same sort of cache? What cars from the current era do you think will look every bit as attractive 40 years from now?

Enkei Raijin

Another new wheel for 2012 is the very elegant, very affordable Enkei Raijin. A bit like an OE BMW mesh wheel but in better sizes, offsets and colors. How’s under $1000 for a set of 18×9.5….not too shabby!

Contact us for colors, specs and availability

Stack Gauges Now Available

We are pleased to announce the availability of the full line of Stack Gauges to our lineup. Stack is one of the oldest, most widely used and respected names in motorsport gauges. They have a wide range of gauges available, whether you are looking for a single auxiliary gauge, or a full replacement cluster. We are adding all their products to the site over the next few days, so stay tuned for product details and deals!

Audi Victorious at LeMans

The 4 rings of Audi proved an unstoppable force in France this weekend, as the R15 TDI Diesel’s took a perfect 1-2-3 finish at LeMans. All the talk in the first half of the race was about how Peugot was going to run away with it all, how they were not even pushing 100%, given their qualifying performances. However, LeMans is a war of attrition, and by the time daylight had arrived, the 4 Peugot’s had all succumbed to failure.

In LMP2, the Strakka team won everyone’s hearts with a nearly flawless event. A Saleen won GT1, which will go away next year as a class. A Porsche took the GT2 class win.

Black Illusion

Since I’d bet Cheston doesn’t even remember how to login here anymore to post, I’ll do it for him 🙂

Black Illusion Aero +CE28’s+ Evo X MR = yum!

Modified Magazine Feature: Hey Joe, We Knew Ya When…..

It’s all great to see our customer cars get the recognitiion they deserve. In this months Modified Magazine you’ll find a feature on Joe’s clean 350Z from California. Just remember you saw it here first ….way back in August ’09! What can I say, we’ve got an eye for talent. I can appreciate when everything on a car flows, and Joe accomplished that in spades. Congrats my friend, you deserve it!

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Clean Zebra

This car belongs to member GTS-R over on 6speed

I am liking the overall result

As he wrote: “It has been a long process, but over the past 2.5 years I have been slowly modifying my RS. I most recently had the Cup wing with the carbon gurney lip sent to me by BR Racing. They also supplied the decals for the wing which I wanted made to mimic the presentation Cup car. The rear emblem was made in a black/red scheme similar to the RSR. BR Racing was great to work with and delivered a product as good as I could have expected.

My other mods include:
PMNA carbon front fenders with wickers installed by Kerrigan Smith at Synergy Racing. I cannot speak highly enough of both Kerrigan and Synergy Racing.
Cargraphic front grill screens
DAS bar
997 GT3 seats
Cup splitter
Europipe
RS98 wheels
Schroth harnesses
Cargraphic exhaust tips
PMNA wickers
WEVO mounts
PMNA rear brake ducts”

More 380RS-C Porn

Last stuff for the day to drool over