Z-Con is a big event where fans of Nissan Z-cars come together to celebrate their love for these cars. It's like a festival with car shows and races, and it's been happening for a long time.
The Nissan Z34 is the newest version of Nissan's Z sports car. It's designed to be fast and fun to drive, keeping the spirit of earlier Z-cars alive while adding new features.
Autocross is a fun driving event where you race against the clock on a small course. It's a great way to test your driving skills without racing against other cars directly.
High performance driving is when you drive your car fast on a racetrack to see how well it can perform. It's a safe way to enjoy your car's speed and handling.
Z-Cars are a line of sports cars made by Nissan, starting with the 240Z. They're popular among car lovers for their great looks and fun driving experience.
Ferrari is a famous car brand from Italy that makes very fast and expensive sports cars. They are known for their racing history and luxurious designs.
Maserati is another Italian car brand that makes luxury sports cars. They are known for their beautiful designs and powerful engines, often seen as a step up from regular cars.
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that people love for its unique shape and powerful performance. It's been around for a long time and is often seen as a benchmark for other sports cars.
The S30 body style is the design used for the first Datsun Z sports cars, like the 240Z. It was popular for its good looks and performance, and it lasted a long time in production.
The Nissan Z is a sports car that has been popular for many years. It's known for being fast and fun to drive, making it a favorite among car enthusiasts.
The Datsun Z car is a popular sports car known for being fun to drive and stylish. It includes models like the 240Z, which many people love for its performance and looks.
A road course car is built for racing on tracks that have curves and hills, not just straight lines. They are made to handle turns well and stop quickly.
McPherson struts are a part of a car's suspension that helps support the weight of the car and allows the wheels to move up and down. They make the car handle better while driving.
Independent suspension means that each wheel can move up and down on its own without affecting the other wheels. This helps the car handle better and makes for a smoother ride.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a fast and stylish sports car that many people think of when they imagine American muscle cars. It's famous for being powerful and fun to drive, making it a popular topic among car enthusiasts.
The R200 differential helps distribute power to the wheels in a car, improving traction and handling. It's a strong part that can handle a lot of stress, making it good for racing or aggressive driving.
The Nissan 300 ZX is a sporty car that was made for several years and is known for being fast and fun to drive. It's part of a long line of Nissan sports cars that people really enjoy.
A clutch type posi helps both wheels of a car turn together, which is useful for better grip when driving, especially in turns or on slippery surfaces.
FutoFab is a business that makes parts for cars, especially for people who want to make their cars faster or better for racing.
Car
Porsche 930 Turbo
The Porsche 930 Turbo is a famous sports car that has a turbocharged engine, which gives it extra power. It’s part of the 911 family and is known for its speed and unique look.
The Datsun 240Z is a vintage sports car that many people love for its cool design and great performance. It was one of the first affordable sports cars that appealed to a lot of drivers.
The Toyota 4Runner is a tough SUV that can handle rough roads and outdoor adventures. People like it because it's reliable and can be used for both everyday driving and exploring nature.
The Ford Mustang GTD is a special version of the Mustang that's built for speed and performance. It's designed for people who want a powerful car that can handle well on the track.
The Chevrolet Camaro is a sporty car that looks cool and goes fast. It's popular among car lovers who enjoy customizing their vehicles and racing.
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Hey, Stacey David here with the Tales of the Gearhead podcast.
Now, this is a podcast about everything automotive, everything mechanical.
You're going to get advice. You're going to get ideas. You're going to hear guests.
You're going to hear people that are just like you. Everything is going to be wrapped around the automotive lifestyle.
So we know you're going to love it.
Today's podcast is brought to you by I Did It and Kicker Audio.
All right, let's get rolling.
All right, we got a great treat for you guys here today. I've got John, Dave and Glenn.
Now, this is not a new rock band and it's not a bluegrass band.
These are all Z-Car guys that are here in town for Z-Con.
Now, if you don't know what Z-Con is, why don't you guys explain to the masses, what is Z-Con?
Boy, it's a national gathering of Z dots and Z enthusiasts and Nissan now enthusiasts that has been going on for many, many years.
It has grown tremendously.
And this is all types of Z-Cars, right?
Absolutely. Everything from the 69.5 to 40, like you have to.
We've got representatives from Nissan Corp. who are here today with the new RZ34, several of them.
And we were racing those on the autocross course this morning.
Oh, my gosh.
So and it's like six days long.
Yes, that's correct.
So people can come out and so you guys, there's car shows, there's autocrosses.
What else is going on?
The high performance driving at Polcat Raceway.
Okay.
There's tech talks, obviously, which we will, I'm glad to have you there for that later on, social gatherings.
And a lot of it is just people getting together and enjoying their cars.
Yeah.
You know, that's one thing that I noticed about the Z-Car world.
You guys love these cars.
Absolutely.
Man, more so than almost any other brand other than Jeep people.
Yeah, right.
The second I see somebody put a duck on the dash, I'm going to eat it.
Do you have a duck on you?
No, I was like, all I can see is ducks on Jeeps.
And I'm like, that's like the question.
Why?
I know.
My wife asked me the other day, she goes, why are there ducks on the Jeeps?
And I'm like, I don't know.
All of a sudden it just happened and everybody's passing these ducks around.
But anyway, okay.
So you guys are all Z-Car owners.
A couple of you guys actually have businesses with selling parts and stuff.
So what is it about the Z in your opinion that makes it so popular?
All of these decades, all of these body styles.
I think for me, it's just the shape of the car.
Yeah.
It looks like a very much more expensive automobile.
Yeah.
But they were always priced that common people could buy one.
That's the reason I got into it.
Yeah.
Because I could never afford a Ferrari, which is really my preferred car.
Sure, sure.
But rather than not having a Ferrari, I found Zs.
Yeah.
And started working on them and building them.
And I used to do it as a business.
Yeah.
Much more affordable than the Ferrari.
Oh, and more importantly, they're more durable and they require a lot less upkeep.
So insurance rates are less.
So they just bring a world of sporting cars to people that just don't have the means to get into this,
the elite 911s and Ferrari's and Maserati's.
You know, the interesting thing, I'm glad you brought up the 911 because that's one of the things
that it seems like Nissan has been able to do like Porsche is that they never got too far away
from the original body style.
They've always stayed to this day.
Yeah, to this day.
And Porsche did that with a 911.
They still kind of look like a 911.
And do you think that that's kind of part of the deal?
I think so.
I think so.
Oh, absolutely.
And well, I mean, the first generation of them, the S30 body style lasted eight years.
Yeah.
Which is unheard of in modern sports cars.
Yeah.
It's like change them like you're going to.
Yeah, every year.
And the durability of my that's what my heart started.
Yeah, dots and five tens.
Okay.
So you're that guy.
I'm that guy.
I'm that guy.
So as you grow up with pictures of the BRE cars on the wall, I was there at the first race.
Oh, my gosh.
I was a 14 year old kid sitting on the roof of his, my dad's buddy's Jeep Cherokee watching
the BRE car on track for the first time.
In fact, I had a conversation several years later with John Morton at the runoffs.
He was, he was the 50th anniversary.
They invited all the past champions to come and he was driving another Z car.
And I told him, I says, I was there at that race.
And the other one, it's your fault.
I'm into these dots and he said to me confided in me says that was the most nervous that
he had ever been at a race.
Yeah.
That was his first time as a professional paid driver.
Wow.
Was that race?
It was Memorial Day weekend in Loudoun, New Hampshire, Brian Motorsports Park.
Yeah.
What was this about 72 71 71.
Yeah.
Nice.
That is so cool.
Of course.
And then the Z, you know, was just awesome.
I remember looking at that.
Wow.
The Z came out.
One of the guys that I am partnered with a little bit is in New York.
Tom Bork.
He has serial number six.
Yeah.
Z's.
Wow.
Yeah.
It was a race car.
It was always.
You don't put a V8 in that one.
No, no.
In fact, he doesn't even bring it out.
He says, I won't race it anymore.
Yeah.
He's got a 280 Z X that he races now and he's got a 510 in the works.
Yeah.
Another thing that was always unique about the Z and John, you can talk
about this because most of the stuff you sell is modification stuff.
That's correct.
Because there's there's two distinct worlds here.
A lot of guys restore these back original, especially the early 240s.
And then the Z was always a modifiers car.
Absolutely.
So you got all this fiberglass.
You do genoses.
You do all this stuff.
So why, why do you think the Z is so popular as a performance car?
As a modifiers car?
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, and, and you know, you made a point early on about how, you know, folks
were doing those modifications into Glenn's comment a moment ago.
The Z really was kind of inspirational.
Yeah.
People saw the car, but then they saw that, you know, a friend of mine used to
say, you got to leave something for the next guy to do.
Yeah.
And, you know, Dawson did that and he son did that.
They left, they built us a really good platform.
It didn't, it wasn't the best of everything, but it was a very good, very
economical car with a very inspirational shape.
Yeah.
And people saw that and they said, you know, we can modify this.
This is something we can work on.
Yeah.
And, you know, I don't, I'm not the guru of the mechanical modifications.
I do a lot of that on my own cars with, you know, help from friends and customers.
Yeah.
But I'm a shape guy.
And so I kind of did that as well.
And particularly when you get into collision repair stuff, it's very hard.
It's definitely something you're going to do on a Z.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I leaned against it.
That's right.
That's right.
So many times it's easier to buy something like I offer to do your replacement and then
make it an upgrade in the process.
Yeah.
Your subtle Z thing is very cool.
Thank you.
Yeah.
We were at the autocross earlier today and a couple of customers of mine were lined up
and I had my car there and I'm talking and a car pulls up behind this line of cars.
And I kind of said, you know, that car, that's not stock, but I couldn't really see why.
And I realized it was a customer of mine.
Yeah.
And I got your stuff.
That's right.
I never met the guy and it's like, hey, that's a subtle Z quarter panel.
So very fun.
And that's really been the best part of the business for me is meeting guys like this.
And my customers are, you know, I have Greg Ira, three time national E production champion
as a customer of mine in a Dotson Z car and meeting all the folks like that, meeting
Peter Brock, meeting Bill Coffey.
It's just been me being a younger guy kind of in that crowd has been wonderful for me.
I really enjoyed it.
Yeah.
As far as performance of the Z, obviously, I mean, they're a sports car.
They're not really a drag car.
Right.
They're a road course car.
So Dave Glenn, both of you guys do a lot of modifications mechanically, both motor and
suspension.
So what is it about the Z and its suspension layout that makes it such a great road course
car?
You know, it was it was kind of the first thing that had McPherson struts back in the
day and Chapman struts in the rear, which are a total departure.
I mean, that was a Lotus thing.
Yeah.
But that gave more stability to the rear and as far as independent suspension goes
because the old semi trailing arm suspension had camber and toe change and everything
going on.
And see, I think the only car at the time that had independent rear was a vet Jag Jag.
You know, that was exotic stuff.
You know, so for an average everyday car that was $3,000 new 3600 3600 bucks.
That's crazy.
But it was also very tough.
Yeah.
And so it would take a lot of abuse.
You could take it out and race it and row around, you know, road courses or public roads.
Yeah.
And it would just hold up.
It would maintain its alignment and it just took a lot of abuse.
The differential was literally the R 200 was the same strength as a Corvette.
Yeah.
You know, and it was a six-cylinder.
Yeah.
And Corvette was a V8 and so people don't realize that everything they built, they
just had, you know, really great fundamental workmanship.
Let's talk about that a little bit because putting a V8 in a Z car is like bread and butter.
I mean, they have such a huge engine bay, you can drop anything in there.
And then of course you twist everything up and break everything.
So for you guys, especially you suspension guys, what do you recommend?
Okay.
If a guy is going to put a little bit of power into his vehicle, what rear end do you
recommend?
Is it the Subaru WRX rear end?
Is it something that you recommend putting in the R 200?
The R 200 is really.
And that's out of a 280Z, correct?
And through the ZX up until what, 84?
84.
Well, actually carried on even longer.
It carried on in the Z31, the 300ZX.
Okay.
The generation 300ZX had an R 200 in it as well.
The guys would pop those out of the turbo cars because they were clutch type posi.
Yeah.
They were a 3.9 ratio with a clutch type posi.
So the guys would swap those into them.
So when you're doing that, you got a pretty solid rear end for it strength wise.
And the only thing you really need to do if you're really going V8 routes, particularly
newer V8s is to put CV joint rear axles because they use really small
universal joints in their half shafts.
Of course, there's nobody here at this table that makes those axles shafts.
No, nobody does that.
Dave's got a company named FutoFab and I tell you why.
If you need axles for your Zcar, you need to check his stuff out.
It's pretty awesome.
And it's an awesome way to go in terms of service, longevity, and they just handle
so much more power.
It just takes the power out of the equation.
I've had guys that have been running my axles and drag cars and I had one guy contact me.
He says, I got 300 passes on my drag car with an LS turbo motor in it.
Really?
And he said, they're as good as the day I put him in.
The only reason I'm pulling him out is the rear suspension geometry.
When it squats, he doesn't have full tire traction.
Yeah.
That's the limiting factor.
That's the limiting factor on the rear suspension for drag racing.
So he was going to back half of the car.
But he's not breaking anything else.
That's amazing.
He wasn't making anything else.
Wow.
That's a lot of power.
Based off of the same CV as the 930 Porsche Turbo.
930, yeah.
OK.
And other than that, like subframe connectors, basically putting 280ZX type stuff in the
subframe, underneath the floors, because that's causing the twist and maybe a simple
roll bar, like a base SCCA roll bar.
It doesn't really intrude on anything else, but it stiffens the car immensely.
Yeah.
And the connectors to connect the top of the shock towers.
It's all worthwhile, because otherwise they do this.
Oh, yeah.
They're flexious heck.
Yeah.
They're all spot welded together.
Yeah.
Well, my current project is a 73-240Z to be a track car, a dedicated track car.
It's got the full roll cage in it.
Shop in Utah built the roll cage for us.
I had a shop in New Hampshire welded in.
It's kind of a unique cage system.
Everything CNC machined, bent, they even engrave with the tubes intersect.
And my fabricator put it in and he says, I didn't touch a thing.
I didn't bend a tube.
I didn't grind a fish mouth.
Yeah.
He said it just bolted together like an erectus.
I mean, welded together like an erectus set.
And it has the full channel bracing under the floors.
Yeah.
Just put the floors.
I mean, I'm only going to run a 2-4 in and on the stock carburetors, but it will be stiff
and you'll be able to tune the chassis.
You know, one question that I get a lot is what are some of the most important upgrades
that a person can do to a project?
Whether it's a high-end project or just to get it running and driving kind of thing,
are there a few things that you recommend that pretty much everybody has to do?
And there are.
There's two for sure.
One is a wiring harness and one is a steering column.
Now, you might be thinking wiring harness, that's obvious, but what's a steering column thing?
Well, the problem with old steering columns is that they break.
They're not compatible with most of the aftermarket wiring and components that you're going to be using.
Putting in an aftermarket steering column is really a wise thing to do.
And the guys that I did it have been doing this forever.
Now, they started in the street rod world, but don't make the mistake of thinking that
their applications are just street rod, hot rod, that kind of thing.
They also have direct bolt-in columns for muscle cars.
They've got them for four-wheel drive vehicles.
They've got universal columns that you can shorten.
That's what I put in Sergeant Rock.
I've used their columns for years and they are one of the staples that I recommend that
somebody puts in pretty much any vehicle because it's what you're holding on to.
It's what controls a lot of your wiring, your turn signals, you know, whatever you've got it set up for.
And it's nice to be able to put a tilt column into an old vehicle.
If you're upgrading your vehicle, if you're getting ready to drive it on the road,
you may want to think about a steering column.
And if you do, check out I Did It.
You'll be happy with what you find.
You know, most people know that I was a professional musician for a number of years.
So when we get to talking, usually music comes up.
And of course, having a good sound system in a project car is always paramount.
I mean, the first thing you do is get in the car and crank up the stereo and listen to that song.
And for everybody, that song is a little different.
But one thing that's for sure, the sound system has got to kick.
And if you are looking to upgrade your sound system, I don't care if your vehicle is an old classic or if it's something new.
You need to check out kicker audio, man.
These guys, they kind of invented the killer car stereo back in the day.
And they continue to have innovations and stuff to take a stereo system where we want it to go.
It's all in their name, kicker.
I mean, I remember when I first got my first kicker parts back in the day, I was like, man, I got kicker stuff.
People are like, man, that's kicking stereo.
So if you want to take your stereo system to the next level, check out kicker.
You will not be disappointed.
Music
OK, so I want you guys to give me a little recommendation.
I'm going to go down to each one of you guys.
OK, so there's a young kid listening to this podcast or just a guy that wants to get into a project.
And he's like, you know, I'd like to get me a Z.
Which do you recommend he pick up?
What would be a good project for a guy wanting to get into a Z, wants to have some fun, doesn't want to spend a ton of money?
Body style and year that you recommend?
In terms of cost, I think a 260 would be the best way to go because you have the small bumpers in terms of styling.
But the car had a lot of reinforcements in the chassis that the 240 did not have.
It also had bigger beams in the doors.
The car was a little heavier, but if you're going to put additional horsepower in the car, a 280 is actually the optimal car.
Because of the crash standards and everything, they already built the car much, much stronger than the 240 or the 260.
And so it's a little heavier, but weight isn't everything.
Especially when you're talking about modern horsepower.
Dave, how about you?
I'd say the 280 and the reason why I say that, like the 260, you can convert to the thin 240 bumpers on them.
They fail easily.
We offer the bumpers through the vendors that we work with.
And the other end of that is, young guy getting in the 280 is probably going to be a better price point to start with.
And there's a lot of them still.
There's still a lot of them out there.
That's why I say the 280.
And they're not quite as rusty.
Because the chassis are basically so similar between all the years.
The finding parts to fix it is pretty reasonable.
So the 280, even though it has the big five mile an hour bumpers on it, if you really want to get rid of them, they can be gotten rid of really easily.
And you end up with a 240Z look.
But a much stiffer car.
And it has more protection in terms of accident, crash.
If you could hit in the door, the door beams are like three times heavier and stronger.
It's not just weight, it's strength.
That's important.
I would recommend the 280 as well.
Like you say, you can find them with less rust, hopefully.
Depending on the part of the country that you're in, they don't command the astronomical prices that the 240Z.
They're still affordable.
Absolutely.
You can still get a lot of the parts.
It's becoming more difficult to get the 240 parts for repair.
But one of the things that I like about the 280, my first Z car was a 280.
Mine as well.
Mine too.
Yeah, it's got a relatively simple fuel injection system.
And it's a good thing to learn.
It works great.
But I think once you get the car running, which sometimes takes some time if they've been sitting for a while, my recommended first upgrade would be brakes.
You can do everything from an early Toyota 4Runner caliper swap on the fronts to virtually everyone that makes brakes, makes brakes for the Z car.
Yeah.
So that's a really good, easy upgrade and adds a lot of safety to the car.
Nice.
Yeah, those are good recommendations.
Okay, another question.
I know a lot of guys are wondering, are you guys just Z car guys or do you like other stuff?
Everything.
Okay, so what do you like?
Oh, well I'm a member of this club that's called the Speedster Owner Association.
Okay.
It's all replica cars.
Yeah.
With primarily speedsters and spiders.
Yeah.
I'm an air-cooled guy back from the 60s.
Yeah, so do you have a back?
I don't personally have.
I've had probably 30 VWs.
Yeah.
But I maintain a bunch of these cars for my club members.
And I've developed a fairly radical cooling system for 2,300 cc motors now.
Because the motors have gotten bigger and bigger.
But the technical limitations, fin area, stuff like that.
Fan design is just like stopped in 1970.
But that's my other passion is air-cooled cars.
That's cool.
I like that.
The cars have shape.
They have an emotional connection.
Just like the Z-Cars people come up and ask me, what is that?
Or I had one.
Or I had two.
Everybody had one.
Those Porsche Speedsters the same way.
I went to college and I had one.
And I remember it finally.
How about you, Dave?
What else do you like?
Everything.
Everything.
That's a dangerous thing.
Ask my wife.
And you end up with a shop like this.
Everything's in here.
I have a shop.
There's one spot for her Miata.
She has a 90 Miata.
And I have the rest of it filled.
And it's a 32x48 with a loft.
And my workshop is actually added on to it.
I'm a 5'10 guy.
I've always had been a 5'10 guy.
My first car was a 66 Mustang Coupe.
And it was red with a red interior.
Yeah.
And I currently have, let's see.
Be careful now.
Five dots and 5'10s in different shapes of the pair
or disrepair.
Two of them are race cars.
I also have a 06 Mustang GT.
Because I love the Mustangs when I was a kid.
Yeah.
Who didn't?
Yeah, yeah.
I'm an 11-year-old kid.
My dad, I badgered him.
69 Mustangs coming out the Mach 1.
I want to go see one.
I want to go see one.
See, that body style is hard to find.
69 and 70, man.
They're hard to find.
I had one of those in my past, too.
So we went to the Ford deal.
And he took me down there in my 11-year-old son of his
to look at a brand new Mach 1.
Wow.
John, how about you?
Same.
I owned everything from turbocharged motorcycles
to I've got a 1954 pickup and a couple of airplanes,
both basket cases that need work and typical stuff.
But I own three Datsun race cars.
So I don't have a lot to complain about.
Yeah.
And do you guys all do some racing?
I mean, the road coursing and stuff like that?
Actually, I was going to put my car on the track this week.
Yeah.
But unfortunately, the motor had a problem and I couldn't.
Oh, yeah.
But yeah, I want to do hill climbs.
And I built the car, the SCC standards.
And it's been teched as an SCC car, SCCA car.
Yeah, awesome.
And so I'm 76 years old.
Now, explain exactly what that could, so people know what car that is.
That's the kit body, but you made it yourself.
Yes.
I had a totally rusted out car that I got in a motor swap deal 35 years ago.
A right-hand drive, fair lady.
And it was so rusty back then that I didn't, I wanted no part of it.
But my son was into the Fast and Furious thing.
And I thought, well, we could make a father and son project.
One of the things when I had my custom car business is I put Chevrolet motors in Z-cars
and restored them.
So I thought we could make a nice project.
I was the guy that everybody came to.
And he went in a different direction.
And I ended up having this carcass sitting outside of my garage for 35 years.
And on towards my retirement, I picked up a 96 Corvette, a basket case.
And I had the suspension and everything sitting in the garage,
because I parted the car out, because it was not a nice car.
But it was a car that we had worked on in the shop.
We knew the car.
We ran good.
And I just put the two things together.
And his body kit, his four fenders, was the inspiration for doing that.
When I found him online, I said, that's it.
I'm doing it.
I'm doing it.
I'm going to make the Z a lot wider, because the Corvette is 11 inches wider than the Z.
And tacky flares were not my style.
Now, what motor you have in it, did you say?
It's out of a 2000 Camaro.
It's the same motor they put in the C5.
The 5.7 LS1, and it has a Corvette automatic transmission,
fully beefed up Corvette suspension, complete.
It's a Z car with a modern suspension underneath.
And if I would have had a 350 or 370 Z, I would have used that car.
I just wanted a modern suspension, because once again, you talked about the old-type
of suspension that was really flexible and all that stuff.
Well, I wanted to just get rid of it, because I've had so many times that I wanted to have
a modern geometry.
Yeah.
And what color did you do it?
It's called shock.
It's a lime green, lime yellow, I call it, that they put on the Camaro, and they bolt
of all cars back in 1999 and 2000, just for those two years.
It's like a day glow construction worker, road worker best.
Yeah.
And how big a tire you run on that thing?
Because you've got the big flares.
Yes.
Well, they're not quite as big as the IMSA.
I make one bigger.
Yeah.
The IMSA package.
Yeah, the IMSA package is huge.
But I just couldn't get into that kind of width.
It makes the car too unmanageable for street driving.
I have 11-inch wide wheels in the back and 9.5 in the front.
On a Z.
On a Z.
But I mean, I want something that would look nice and look normal, look natural with a
width of tire.
Yeah.
Are you running like a 315 or a 335?
What do you got for a tire in the back?
A 315.
A 315.
A 317.
Yeah.
But I just took all that wonderful core of that technology and said, I'm just going
to apply that to my Z.
Yeah.
And being on Social Security, you know, I just had to work with what I had.
You did a good job with it though.
I built a frame to make the suspension to the body.
And it was just, it's worked out better than I anticipated.
And that's the cool thing about the Zcar world is that you can do that kind of project and
people love it.
Yeah.
You can keep it all original and people love it.
You know, and it's one thing, I can't stress this enough, it's very unique to see this
in a specialized world.
Because generally, for example, let's take this to the Mopar world or the Corvette world
or something like that.
People usually go to one camp or the other and they usually don't play nicely, which
is a shame because they're like either all original and why did you do that to that?
Or they're like modify it, why did you keep it stock?
And there's room for everybody, you know, and the Zcar world seems to understand that.
There's young and the old, there's modified, there's stock.
And everybody's like, that's a great car, I like that.
What's next is ZCon.
We're right in the middle of it.
Tech Talks this evening.
Tech Talks is tonight.
We're looking forward to seeing you there.
I'll be there.
And then we're going to do the high-performance driving experience day down at Polecat Raceway
in the air, Bill.
That's tomorrow.
That's tomorrow.
Yeah.
And set.
Your car going to be ready?
No, it's, it's, I'm...
I had to bring that up because I got shot up.
I have to tow it home.
Oh, that's too bad.
It didn't work out.
Okay.
High-performance driving?
Yes.
And then Saturday is the Big People's Choice Car Show, which will be at Nissan headquarters
in Franklin.
And, you know, since we, we're talking Dotson, but we probably should mention that Dotson
was the brand that Nissan used to introduce themselves essentially.
Because it sounds more American, of course.
Exactly.
And it should be a fabulous show.
I understand this is one of the biggest e-cons.
Not the biggest.
It's the biggest one that they've ever had.
Over 400 people registered for this.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
How many cars do you think?
Oh, gosh.
I would say at least 300 and probably maybe 350.
Okay.
And there's the range from everything that's, you know, beautiful and original like what
you have and will have up to, you know, what Glenn is doing and, you know, everything in
between.
And there's something for everybody.
It's, it's, it's so exciting because even young people get into it.
It's, it's...
Oh, they're big time into it.
Yeah.
I mean, like you said, it's that fast and furious generation.
Yeah.
They grew up with Japanese performance cars.
They don't think that's weird at all.
No.
Whereas guys that grew up in the muscle car era, they're kind of like, wow.
Those are...
Yeah.
You know, it's like, we'll just drive one.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Anyway, guys, it's been great.
Thank you.
Anytime you're in town, let us know.
We'll do.
Thank you very much.
It's been a pleasure.
Yeah.
It really has.
All right, that's our show for today, which means you need to get out there and start
working on something.
Spend some time turning wrenches.
You might be surprised how much you like it.
Now, make sure that you check out our website, StaceyDavid.com, because we've got all kinds
of new products and some other great stuff that you're just going to love.
I've got a new children's book called Iggy and the Stick Man.
This is a story about a lowly stick that has dreams of greatness only to be ridiculed
by his friends, but then through a series of events, he learns that it is possible to
get up off the ground and change everything if you're willing to persevere.
You need to check it out.
Also, make sure you check out our social media.
That's Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, all at official Stacey David.
Our social media is where you're going to find all of our bonus content, the giveaways,
the contests, the trivia.
We even have extra viewer projects that focus on what you are working on.
Also, the new season of Gears will be on Racer Network, and YouTube will be the place where
you can view all of your favorite Gears episodes, as well as the full project builds that follow
a project from beginning to end, so that's really nice.
But remember, the most important thing is you need to get out there and turn some wrenches
yourself, so get a project and start working on it.
Also, be sure that you go to I Did It for all your steering column and related accessory needs,
and if you're looking to take your project's sound system to the next level, well,
there's kicker audio, man.
There's always been kicker audio.
All right, that's all the announcements.
We're all up to date.
We'll see you next time.
About this episode
A lively roundtable discussion featuring Z-Car enthusiasts John, Dave, and Glenn, who share their passion for Nissan's Z-Cars at the Z-Con event. They delve into the history and evolution of Z-Cars, highlighting their affordability, durability, and appeal as both stock and modified vehicles. The conversation touches on the unique community surrounding Z-Cars, the excitement of car shows and autocross events, and practical advice for newcomers looking to enter the Z-Car world. Listeners will appreciate the blend of personal stories, technical insights, and camaraderie among Z-Car fans.
What time is it? It's ZCON time! You might be asking, "What is ZCON?" Well, it's the premier annual international gathering for Nissan/Datsun Z-car enthusiasts featuring motorsports, car shows, group drives, and social events celebrating the iconic Z-car legacy. And this year it stopped in Nashville. So, naturally, Stacey went down to check it out and brought back a few friends to the shop to discuss what makes this convention so special.
