Z man! The Porsche Al Story.

Skip ahead if you must… Here’s the highlights from this episode you might be most interested in and their corresponding time stamps.

• 00:00 Introduction to Grand Touring Motorsports
• 00:44 Porsche Al’s Early Days in Baltimore
• 01:17 The Z Car Journey Begins
• 03:05 Racing Adventures and Modifications
• 08:48 Transition to Porsche
• 14:12 Challenges and Triumphs with the Porsche
• 20:16 The End of the Z Car
• 22:57 Comparing the Z Car and the Porsche
• 26:23 The Allure of the Porsche
• 26:54 Returning to the Nissan Z
• 27:22 The 350Z: A Track Car Journey
• 29:06 Building and Modding the Z
• 30:11 Challenges and Rewards of the Z
• 32:46 Future Plans and First Track Event
• 44:26 The Jaguar F-Type: A New Addition
• 50:01 Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts

and much, much more!

Crew Chief Brad: [00:00:00] Grand Touring Motorsports started as a social group of car enthusiasts, but we’ve expanded into all sorts of motorsports disciplines, and we want to share our stories with you. Years of racing, wrenching, and motorsports experience brings together a top notch collection of knowledge and information through our podcast, Brake Fix.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here. In this episode, we bring you an unconventional origin story, one that begins with a Z, ends with a Z, and has a whole mess of Porsche in the middle. And to explain how this sandwich was made is none other than one of GTM’s original cast, one of our first year members, Portia Al.

Welcome to Break Fix. Hey, Eric. Thank you for the invite. We know you have a really great story about how you got the nickname Portia Al, but there’s a story that leads up to that.

Al Alsina: Early on when I was a little bit younger, my uncle had a shop. That shop was downtown somewhere in Baltimore. I would go down to the shop from time to time, just hanging out.

And one [00:01:00] of my friends there, his name is Jason, we call him Big J. You know, I wasn’t a big race guy or big on, uh, race cars like that. And I didn’t even really know. Uh, I had a car, my first car that I paid for. I hated the damn thing. In the meantime, while I was coming down the shop. Got one of those times I was driving somewhere, going too fast, I got in an accident, so I bought a Z.

280, 1975. During that time, I’m going back and forth to the shop. So my uncle had to go to Kuwait, he had to go to, uh, down to Fort Hood. So my, my buddy Jason took over the shop and ran it for him for a while. So in that time, going down to the shop quite a bit, he was like, Oh, we should do some work. Okay, what do we need to do?

So I changed the cam. which was a nightmare for somebody who, who really looked at the cameras, the easy job. So I installed it, not correct the first time. And what does that really mean? I didn’t set the timing correctly. Prior to that, I had installed a headers, bigger throttle body, and I forgot to add, I did put on a [00:02:00] Centerforce clutch and a light flywheel.

And when I say I did everything, I was doing everything to the car. Every week I put on a new car. And so the car incrementally just got better and better and better. But back to that cam. So I installed the cam. And of course, like I said, I did not install it in the right. Set up the first time or the second time.

Uh, maybe the third time. And with, if you’re not familiar with that, that particular type of Z. It has a side tensioner. And every time you take that cam gear off, if you do not put a chop down in there, the spring pops out, it drops down to the bottom. And I will tell you, in one day, trying to get it configured properly, I took the front of the engine apart three times, all right?

It was a nightmare. But every time I turned it a tooth, turned it a tooth, turned it a tooth, I finally got it tuned properly. You could tell the first two or three times I started, you knew it wasn’t right because of the way it sounded. But the last time, I got it started properly. I mean, got it, got [00:03:00] it set up prop.

Started and you knew right away the way that it was firing. I put it back together. I take it for a quick test drive J Knew a guy who had been racing z’s for a long time and they used to call him a z man And he had what was called a triple weber carburetors And so he said al let’s take a ride and see if he had him for sale because at the time I had to I mentioned that I had the big throttle body which really to me wasn’t really giving me that much, uh, performance.

I went over to the guy’s house and his house was like a mechanic shop, right? He was single. He had parts everywhere. He was a nice guy, but he had parts everywhere. It’s like going to visit Mountain Man Dan then. I gotcha. I understand. We would talk to him. Jason, uh, did the introduction and asked if he had the, uh, carbs.

He said yes. He said how much he wanted was 500 at the time. I had 500 in my pocket, which they couldn’t believe and I literally took those cars down to the shop [00:04:00] and put them right on. I didn’t clean them. I did nothing, but they were, I just popped them right on. The car started right up. And ran phenomenally.

And again, I would tell you that I wasn’t a racer. Uh, the guys down the shop, uh, Tree, Mike, and another guy who’s named, uh, escapes me right now. But Jay was kind of like the big dog on the block. Jay had a RX 7, the, uh. 13b. He was all tricked out. Another one of his friends had a Mazda, and Mike had a Mustang.

5. 0 had been tricked out. So it was at like, uh, 85, I think. These guys were astonished that in maybe two or three months, I completely rebuilt and the car was race ready and Jay asked me, Oh, why don’t you race these guys? And I was like, well, I’m not really a racer. So, so we go up to the light and from the light to the shop doors was about a quarter mile.

All right. [00:05:00] I can see where this is going. So I need to back up a little bit because I will tell you that. The name Big Jase, he had that name for a reason. He was very cocky. If he wasn’t the guy with the biggest, fastest car, then he wasn’t, he would take his shit apart. But that’s who he was, right? Now, I didn’t know some of this stuff early on, right?

I mean, you know he’s brash. You know he’s always Got a lot of mouth, got a lot to say when it comes to cars. So he asked me to go out. We’re lined up at the light. Just before the light turns, I stomp on it. I launch on the Mustang and, uh, the Mazda. By the time we get in front of the shop, I’ve got the Mustang by two cars.

Cars screaming. And I was like, okay. To me, I’m like, yeah, is, okay, is it fast? Ha ha ha! Is what I’m saying, right? Because I’m, I’m like, well, I’m newbie to this, right? Later on that night, let me [00:06:00] just say this, they used to race on Nolan Parkway and Wabash. In between the police rotations, when they would change shifts, they would, they would be road racing.

And you would go up and there’d be hundreds of people out on that strip. Jay asked me to meet him up there and I was like, all right. I took my nephew, I’m sorry, my cousin, who was probably 10 or 11 at the time. There were all kinds of motorcycles, cars, trucks. Everything you can think of were racing and people were making money.

So I got there probably about between 11 and 11. 30. And one of Jason’s friends had been watching me build a car. But if you go down to the shop, I will be coming after work. There’s so many people, I don’t know who’s who. So there’s so many people coming back and forth. When you’re working on the car, sometimes you pay attention.

I mean, I was in a safe environment, but sometimes you don’t, you just continue to work. All the other stuff is noise, right? And unless you’re getting help, it’s just noise. So I’m saying, say there was somebody watching me build the car unbeknownst to me. So he says, Hey, I want to [00:07:00] race your car tonight. I’ll give you 500.

And you know, I look at Jay, I’m like, what do you think? He’s like, yeah, let him. Okay. I said, okay. So he takes the car, he races an M3 BMW, quarter mile. He takes off and blows the. The M three away. They start arguing. I get my 500 up front. I get my 500 up front. And I will say these guys bet 5000. Whoa, right.

And so became a big deal. Because There became an argument about who left first and it was a whole, it was a whole thing, but I was like, I don’t know, I got my car, I got my, took my cousin, and we went home, because I had my money, I was no, I wasn’t a part of that, but you know, that was my kind of introduction to racing and to Z.

So J once my car one at Northern Parkway at [00:08:00] the races. He went the next day and took his Car part. And so he had on his, on his Mazda, he had every imaginable part. Headers, exhaust. He had the big throttle body carburetor that was proper for that year. He took it all apart and sold it. And then he sold the car.

He said, if I’m not the big dog, I’m not it. The next time he and I really had a good conversation about cars, he was driving a Chevelle, big body Chevelle, where he had taken the motor apart, put it all back together, And completely redid the thing. Now, I was not even in a class with that big boy V8. You know, but he was, he was doing something different at the time.

So for me, for Z’s, right, is a natural thing. I, I, so how did I get to a Porsche? We, we fast forward some years. Big J is now, unbeknownst to me, collecting Porsches. And so one day, uh, I go by his house, and [00:09:00] in the back of his yard, he has four. And I was like, what are you doing with all the 9 11s? And so at the same time, he was about to move to Atlanta.

So I was like, well, what are you, what are you doing with all the portions, man? I don’t understand. I’m like, I’m parting these out, and I’m taking three with me. I was like, okay. So you got four, you know, part out one, put it all in, you’re going to toe, make a couple trips and tone down. He’s like, yeah, you know, my story was, you know, you need an advocate for you.

Somebody that’s going to keep you motivated. So you need to let me get one of those forces. You don’t need three, right? You don’t. Absolutely. And so he took, he Literally took all three down there, made the trips, two trips, got everything down, and for six months we had a conversation. And we still talk to this day, but for six months, on and off, it was, Hey, Jay, what are you doing with that [00:10:00] extra Porsche?

Jay, what are you going to do with that extra Porsche? Oh, Al, somebody’s going to buy it from me. I said, Jay, that’s not what you want. You still need an advocate. And the whole time, when he was collecting Porsches, he worked. And drove for Porsche, um, modifications shop on route one,

Crew Chief Eric: uh, TPC turbo performance center,

Al Alsina: right?

He drove for them and for three or four or five years that he drove as a, cause he was not only was a mechanic, but he was also a big rig certified. So he had a CDL. So he used to drive for them to track, but the whole time he drove. They never shared any information. Interesting. Ever. Not once. And he complained about that shot more than anything, so finally he got frustrated.

Once he, you know, he had enough parts, figured he’d figure it out. What was amazing was, that in the three or four years that he worked for them, I met you, and I got more information from you, more information out of you and Shane, and then I met Ted. Ted into being a [00:11:00] turd, but more information on YouTube than he got in the whole four years.

Wow. And so, you know, he was, he was upset about it, right? Because people, he felt like they wouldn’t share with him. And I started sharing because you guys share with me.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. And when we met and you said, Hey, you know, I don’t even remember how we even got on the subject of cars. And you brought it up and said, Hey, I got this 77, nine 11 target.

And I’m like, Oh, well I come from, um, you know, uh, let’s call it a vintage Porsche family with the nine 11s. We had nine 14 and stuff like that. And so, you know, we got, we, we started to bond over that. And so it was good to find somebody else that wasn’t like, Hey, I drive a three 30, I BMW, like, you know, I don’t know.

So it’s cool to, you know, Oh, I got a vintage Porsche. You know, it’s, it’s pretty nice. Right.

Al Alsina: And so, uh, I don’t know if Brad knows, early on in our conversation, Eric would say, Hey, Al, I have this parts for you. Don’t worry. You’re going to come and get it. [00:12:00] It’s true. It’s true.

Crew Chief Brad: He still does that to me now. I mean, he’ll call me and say, I just got you something.

Right. You know what I do

Crew Chief Eric: now? I just leave the parts in the garage with yellows. Post it notes that just say Brad and then when he comes over they’re just sitting there taunting him So I don’t have to even say anything anymore.

Crew Chief Brad: The best part was one time I left my car there at his house and I got there.

He was doing some work on it And there was like a 300 stress bar across the, the engine department. It was like, what the hell is that? It was like, Merry Christmas.

Al Alsina: Right. I, how do you like that? Right. So sort of somewhere in there. So, uh, Jay had heard my conversations, right. And one day, one Saturday morning, he showed up at the house.

With the car in tow. Wow. And put it in the backyard.

Crew Chief Eric: And now eight years later. So wait, let’s pause there a second. I never saw it in its original configuration. I saw it after you got it painted. So what was the condition of the, the Targa?

Al Alsina: So the Targa was in, it [00:13:00] was in great shape. It was white. I pretty much just replaced the carpet on the interior.

What you saw other than being white was the way that I got it. Now, I will say that there was no transmission and there was no engine. And I was good with that. So, you know, over time you can source, uh, enough stuff, right? And trust me.

Crew Chief Eric: So you sourced a motor

Al Alsina: for it. What did you end up with in the beginning?

It was a 3L. That was a great motor. I will tell you that I made some mistakes with that, but I rebuilt that in the driveway. I was not really comfortable with my ability, so I never really took it anywhere. But I would take the car out, and there’s a, there’s a few roads around my house that I would call my test track.

We all have one of those. And in the middle of the night, I would take it. and burn around the neighborhood and I mean it would fly. There was, there was a couple of times that I took it down to, I can’t remember the name of the shop that moved to [00:14:00] a 100. They did a dyno and tune on it. I never really felt comfortable with my work so I never took it anywhere and I always thought something was wrong with it.

And that being said, you think something’s wrong with it enough times, something’s gonna be wrong with it.

Crew Chief Eric: Transitioning from a late 70s or Nissan for most people that recognize it as a Nissan Z car to a Porsche, right? From an inline six to a flat six. You’re still dealing with six cylinder. Did you find the transition easy because they’re both carbureted motors or were they just so drastically different that you knew how to turn wrenches?

You just got to figure it out at that point. Turning a wrench was the easy part. Working on

Al Alsina: the motor, that portion part was a little bit more difficult to me. Never having seen one apart, never really kind of grasping. It wasn’t till we, or maybe Shane and I had some conversations about the motor, became more familiar.

And anytime, the more you do anything, the more you become familiar.

Crew Chief Eric: But

Al Alsina: I never [00:15:00] really felt A level of confidence for me in dealing with that car. The Z car is, to me, was more straightforward. Just, just in how to. The Porsche, everything had to be done a specific way. When I was looking or doing searches, I could always find something on the Z.

You could barely find anything on Porsche. That group, so because it’s a, to me, an older group, They don’t share the same as the younger demographic. They don’t share, they’re not posting stuff out on YouTube. If I wanted something for the Z, I could go on YouTube and have it in five seconds.

Crew Chief Eric: Porsche?

Al Alsina: Not so much.

So I had a hard time.

Crew Chief Eric: So how long did it take before the Porsche tax kicked in?

Al Alsina: Yeah, so right away. And so, you gotta know that when I go, I go all in. And so, it was Christmas. And I bought 3, 000 worth of carburetors, and then headers, and then, [00:16:00] you know, this thing, and it was always, you know, I need new brakes, I need, you know, if I’m going to do it, and I’m looking at, if I’m going to stop, what do I need to do?

If I’m going to do this, now. I would tell you the Porsche is so not like the Z, in parts of parts, but not really when you talk about, when you talk about Porsche parts, right? Because the cost is, I want to say maybe 10 times or 20 times the amount. So the last motor I had in the Porsche was a 3. 6, which I got from you.

When that motor went bad, and I don’t know if you guys know, Uh, the story about why the motor died. I don’t know if I ever told you that. It’s your opportunity to tell it. Last year or year before the motor died, going into, uh, the one, the fall. And so I parked it is when I noticed that there was something wrong.

And so you gave me a Tony, I think it’s translog. So I take it to him early January, maybe late December. He takes it apart. He finds a piston ring. [00:17:00] Down on the inside, there was no, nothing broken on the motor. There was an extra piston ring placed on the inside of the motor. Over time, that piston ring started getting chewed up.

And over time, you know what happens, right? You get metal fibers that you looked up in the crank. Number, I think, three and two position on the crank was worn completely out. So that knock that I was hearing, which I thought was somewhere else, I was like, how the hell can I have an issue when it’s a new bill?

So I will say that’s thanks to my friend Ted. Right. I won’t throw him under the bus by putting his last name out there, but yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: But that motor had some previous, we’ll call them curses or hexes on it too, because what did it eat? A rag or something, a shop towel, and another time something else happened, there was, there was always something always a little bit off about it.

Really surprised me because I did drive the car and it ran well until it just didn’t. [00:18:00] That’s the story, right? For eight

Al Alsina: years, I have a folder that, uh, you, so you talk about the Porsche tax that somewhere around, I don’t, I don’t want to say, cause my wife is outside the door, we’ll just leave it there.

Crew Chief Eric: You’re

Al Alsina: better

Crew Chief Eric: off,

Al Alsina: but I, you know, that, that portion of tax was hot when I listed it. And I had a couple of folks reach out and some, I wasn’t sure if they were scammers trying to get my personal information and I had been through that, Ooh, you know, I need my financier to call and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, that, that sounds like a bunch of crap, just like it is like those old Nigerian Prince emails we used to get back in the old days.

Exactly. And so, but once the guy from Germany reached out and he, you know, he gave me a deposit. A 5, 000. I knew that he was serious about buying the car and everything went well. I gave him more parts. I was just, [00:19:00] you know, when you’re done, and I know that you heard me say this, but when you’re done, I was done.

I was like, here, just take it all. I don’t even care anymore.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah.

Al Alsina: But

Crew Chief Eric: it opened the door for the Z, right? So for the listeners out there, as you kind of put in the story together here, Al had his 911, which started with a three liter. So a 77 Targa and ended up with a three six twin spark in it for about eight years.

And then he just recently sold it. So a lot of this is really new information, especially to the members out there that, you know, been listening to the stories of Porsche Al over the years. He’s now hung his Porsche hat on the hat rack. And has gone back to his roots. But before we talk about the new car, I actually want to step back in time and do a little comparison between the old car and the nine 11 for just a moment, if you don’t mind, Al and you’ve got some other interesting cars in your resume, you, you picked up another car, which we’ll, we’ll probably talk about towards the tail end of the segment.

The nine 11 was silver. Was the Datsun silver too? No, the Datsun

Al Alsina: was like [00:20:00] a brown something. Okay, that’s

Crew Chief Eric: 70s color, okay.

Al Alsina: Right, right, but I ended up getting that painted a burgundy. Almost like a cranberry gray. And I did, uh, like with the Porsche, I did a lot to that car. It was a tragic ending.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, you know, I’ve never heard the end to the Z, like what happened to it.

Yeah, I had a Z and cool stuff happened. Then I got a 911. It’s like, wait, wait a minute. What happened in between? Did you drive a Chevette? I mean, no,

Al Alsina: no, no, no, no. So now the car is complete, right? I had it painted. The guy who painted the car, he put seven coats of paint on the car, right? With a clear on top.

So it was phenomenal. It was, uh, one of those days, you know, when you shouldn’t drive your car out. And I’ll say that. I guess I’ll just put it out there. So, I needed a damn cheap part. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. And I went to the store to get a cheap part in a snow storm. Oh yeah. Right, and so me and the car ended up [00:21:00] in a pole.

Oh no. Right, and so I, I hit a pole at the door jam. The car wrapped around the pole. Right. I don’t know how I didn’t get hurt. I ended up taking that motor. So the car survived. It ran perfect. But, you know, you got a 14, two foot deep hole dent in the car. So I ended up later on, I end up sourcing. Another 280Z.

It was a 280, but I can’t remember the year that changed the body style.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah, that was a 2 plus 2. It started to look a lot like the 300ZX versus your car was the same chassis body as a 240, 260, just with a bigger engine.

Al Alsina: Right. And so this one had a digital dash. It was only okay. And so I took the motor and transmission out and shoehorned it.

I tell you, when you take that motor, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, motor and transmission together [00:22:00] on the Z, it looks like a Draxler motor, right? It’s very, like you said, very long. So I shoehorned it out and put it into another car and I pretty much got rid of that car. That was just before I joined the military.

So I drove that car for about three or four years, and then when I went into service, I parked it at my uncle’s house. When I came home from the service, it had been there from 94 to 99, right? It was at his house. And the year I came home, it got towed because he moved it from The house to the road or somewhere and I asked them where the car go, right?

Where’s my car? Cause you said it was okay, but ultimately the car got towed away and I never saw it again. Wow. So for a few years I had nothing until just before we met is when I picked up the Porsche.

Crew Chief Eric: When you compare your experience [00:23:00] with the Z, your first one, the 75, against the Porsche, which gave you the better driving experience between the two?

Oh, I can’t

Al Alsina: really quantify it as the Porsche, right? Because I’ve never, in eight years, I’ve never got any real time in it. So, you know, which is to me was tragic because I, I love that car was small when I do when I look at the car sometimes when I was on the highway, because there was a couple times I did drive, I even driven had driven into your house.

So, but, but when I looked on the highway is small. I can only say that I got the best driving experience from the Z. I remember making jokes to you a couple times how I had a better driving experience with the Volkswagen Jetta

that I had because it runs. You know, I never really have any issues. with the Jetta versus what I did with the Porsche. I mentioned earlier that I had the car dynoed, right? So, I wish I could [00:24:00] remember the name of the place that did the dyno. He used the new system where they take the wheels off the car.

And so, he gave me the sheet and was like, Oh, there’s something’s wrong with the car. The, it’s not necessarily the car, maybe it’s the clutch, right? And the clutch, because of this, up. What he said was identify any issues you had in your transmission clutch system, right? The way that transitions. I said, okay, so I’m driving home and me and my son were about a block from the house.

And I hear this, the fork broke. The fork broke. I was like, I just got the car back. And I would say that with the Porsche, it was always something. It like, it was like it did not like being in my house. It loved being a garage queen. I would say this to folks. Look, but don’t touch. Ooh, come and rub me, but don’t get inside of me.

Crew Chief Eric: She

Al Alsina: was, she was very temperamental, right? [00:25:00] And, and I’m just, today, I would say I’m glad she’s gone. I need something that I can, as a, as a car guy, I had gas on my chest, the truck just doesn’t do it. So, you know, I have that, I have that Ford F 150. It just doesn’t give me the satisfaction when you want to go just, say, a little over the speed limit.

You don’t get the same experience. In the big four door F 150,

Crew Chief Eric: right? Yeah, which motor sounded better? The Datsun straight six or the flat six of the Porsche?

Al Alsina: Hands down the Porsche. Hands down. Hands down. Unfortunately. It was a couple of things though that made, to me made it have a great experience with the Porsche as far as sound.

Even though the the Z that I had had a side draft by Weber’s. So with the same, same setup. Each car, each car had. a carburetor per cylinder. The Porsche had it and the Z. But just the from the configuration with the down draft versus side draft gave the [00:26:00] engine motor a better sound.

Crew Chief Eric: There’s a lot of rumors about who designed that car if actually Nissan designed it in the first place.

There’s there’s rumors that a certain West German company actually designed that, you know, the look and shape of the car. And I mean, they’re very attractive cars, especially the early Z cars are very good looking cars. They are very European looking. They didn’t look like anything else that had come out of Japan at that time.

So I wonder what drew you to the Porsche and not another Z car after having been through two of them. That was real easy.

Al Alsina: When I saw Jason with the car and I got a chance to look at it, I had. No experience with Porsche before. You hear it, to me it was always outside, it was always for somebody else. It wasn’t until he and I talked and I was at his house and I got a chance to really look at the car and have some experience because of him that I was drawn to it.

Crew Chief Eric: But, that evil mistress that was your 911 has driven you back into the arms of yet another [00:27:00] Nissan. How

Al Alsina: about that, right? Look, some days you just got to go home. You just end up home. How do you get there? Just, it’s like, you know, that penny you dropped on the carpet, right? You haven’t seen it for years. One day you’re moving all the furniture around.

There’s that penny. Comes right back to you. That’s what to me, the

Crew Chief Eric: Z is, right? It’s just natural. The 350 Z in this case, when it debuted in the early 2000s, what did you think of it? You got one in one

Al Alsina: period, right? I wasn’t ready. Right? Early 2000, I wasn’t ready because of family situation. Prior to the new one coming out, I had a 300.

Onion continues to be unpacked

Crew Chief Eric: here. I didn’t know you had a 300. Right. So I had a 300 before, yeah, just before I got married. So wait, which, which 300? The one that looks like the old ones or the newer style rounded one? The new style rounded one. Okay. So the 90s [00:28:00] version. Okay.

Al Alsina: Right. Yeah. It was a great car.

The reason why I got rid of it is once I got married and have kids. It’s time for that car to go. What are you going to do with a two door

Crew Chief Eric: coupe? Yeah, exactly. Right. So,

Al Alsina: family first. And once you get your come ups a little bit, right, things start turning, you know, you can afford a little bit more is where I am now.

So, I went back home to the Z.

Crew Chief Eric: Before we talk about your Z, what do you think about the current one, the 370? There’s a rumor that the 400 is coming as well. So, sometimes it

Al Alsina: becomes too much noise. For me to keep up with all the changes and all the, so the whole time when I was looking and dealing with the Porsche, all I kept saying was, I need something to drive.

I need a Z. And so you had put me in touch with Racer Run, right? To buy his ZA couple of times. I wanted to get something that was relatively old that I could to buy and put it on a track. I can’t look at the new stuff. I went that way. [00:29:00] Before, but you know, I just want to get gas off my chest, right? Get some speed behind my wheel.

So right now I, do you know that the Z, I don’t know if we’re ready to go down this path, but the Z is in the shop right now. I’m getting the roll cage put on. I’ve been ordering parts. I’m trying to pump my brakes a little bit.

Crew Chief Eric: You’re in at 110%. But actually it brings up a good little segue. Brad and I did an earlier episode where we talked about good starter track cars.

And we, we decided that the 350z ended up on the honorable mention list, mostly because it’s often forgotten as a good starter track car. And I’m not trying to downplay it. It’s an excellent track car period. Very forgiving chassis, great power. It’s just a really all around good car, but most people overlook them and they probably figure, Hey, they’re either stance bro cars or they’re too expensive to get into.

Now you were really fortunate to find another one at a really, really good price. Do you feel as though you’re a bit of a pioneer? I mean, you’re the only Z guy in our [00:30:00] group, but on the same token, you were talking about sharing of information and things like that. Do you find it easy enough to find parts for the Z and build it out?

Or has that been a challenge much like it was with the Porsche?

Al Alsina: Oh, it’s nothing like the Porsche. Their parts are available and cheap, right? And not only that, but I mentioned there are plenty of YouTube videos. So as I was stripping the parts away and not quite sure how I wanted to mount something or how I wanted to do something, There’s somebody out there who posted a video on how to when I mentioned earlier when I looked at Uh looking to buy a new three six motor for the porsche Even having the one that I had rebuilt tony at translog said that he could not do it for twenty thousand dollars So when I looked at sourcing one off of ebay that was rebuilt They were starting price was 25, 000.

I’m going to change here now to the Z the Z motor rebuilt is a [00:31:00] thousand dollars. I wanted to say when I bought the header system and exhaust system for the. For the Porsche, I was close to 1, 000. I got a whole system, headers all the way back for, I think, 400. The headers were probably a little bit more expensive.

Maybe I paid 175, but the rest of the system was like 300. And then I got a bypass pipe that they don’t include that piece, which is where their catalytic converters would go. So they sell a bypass pipe. Those were like 80, but everything else was like 300. Parts are very available.

Crew Chief Eric: We got to see a glimpse of your car.

If people, if listeners are out there and they go back to our website and search. Dino day, 2020. We actually got a glimpse of your Z in the earlier stages before you started modding it and things like that. Cause I know you wanted to get a baseline and you talked about dino in cars, all of your cars at this point.

So I think you got some baseline numbers. Are you going to have auto fab after they’re done [00:32:00] doing the cage and whatnot? Are you going to have them rerun it on the rollers just to see if the enhancements you’ve made have actually made an improvement to your numbers?

Al Alsina: You know what? I’m not ready yet. I think so.

Because the last time. When they did the dyno, there was something off about the harmonic balancer. So they couldn’t get an accurate reading. They had to do it like three or four times just to get it to set right. So it can pick up. So I already have a replacement harmonic balancer.

Crew Chief Eric: So what other mods have you already done to this car?

And it hasn’t even turned a lap on the track yet.

Al Alsina: Other than the exhaust system, the headers. I haven’t done anything else. Does it sound good with the exhaust on it? Oh my God. It does. It does. You’ll have to see. You’ll see.

Crew Chief Eric: You bought this car to build specifically to go to the track, to go road racing with the rest of us.

Where’s your first event going to be? Do you have a, you have a goal date to bring the car out and debut it?

Al Alsina: Yeah. So I think there’s, um, there’s an event. Looked on driving. Yeah. I [00:33:00] think I’m coming out to that event. That’s, uh, sometime in the end of August. The one at Summit Point

Crew Chief Eric: or the one at Pit Race?

Okay.

Al Alsina: Thanks. So, I didn’t see the one at Summer Point. The one I saw was with the cookout at Pit Race. That’s a good plan. Come to Summer Bash. So that’s the, that’s the, that’s the plan. I’m excited, right? It will be my first time at the track in that capacity. Meaning, in the race car, ready to go. You know, so I’m trying to make sure I have, I’m sure you probably get tired of my, what do I need to replace questions, but I’m trying to make sure that I have everything in place.

Crew Chief Eric: And so for the listeners, unlike the episode we did, where we talked about what I wish I knew as a newbie coming to the sport, Al’s dealing with a car that at this point is already 17 years old, it’s got a lot of things that do need to be replaced, you know, bushings, motor mounts, the exhaust was rotted out, actually, his catalytic converters were completely shot, which is robbing him of power.

There’s a lot, you know, brake pads need to be done, fluids need to be gone [00:34:00] through the car has about 160. So you really have to go over it differently. It’s a different conversation because he’s building something specifically for going to the track versus, Hey, I’ve got a, a really nice, you know, 2015 GTI, how about I go to the track for the first time?

So little bit different conversation for the people that have been following along with. So Al, you’re kind of in the middle and I know you being 110 percent of what you do, you’re going to be out in stage 12 land like I am, and they probably be a full on time trials car by the end of next season. But there, and there’s not anything wrong with that, but I’m really excited to have you come out and join the rest of us.

Having a unique car because you don’t see a lot of Z’s outside of Drift events and drag racing and, and, and some of the, what we call the stance bro events. It’s gonna be really cool and really unique. And with that exhaust note of that VQ engine, we’re gonna know where you are at at any given time.

Al Alsina: So let me ask you, why, why do you think that is that the Z isn’t being used for the racing [00:35:00] the way, the way that you do racing?

Crew Chief Brad: And this is all hearsay, that they’re kind of fragile. Transmission wise, when I was looking at buying my track car, I was interested in the Zs. Obviously, I didn’t go that way, uh, one reason is because I don’t fit. But another reason is because I didn’t have a surplus of funds to throw into replacing parts over and over and over again.

Now, going down the rabbit hole as I have, and I’ve had to replace many axles, a 60 axle is different than a 500 or 600 transmission. And that’s just what I’ve heard. And then the VQs, they’re pretty reliable. The head gaskets go every once in a while. I really can’t answer as to why they’re not bigger in the, in the racing world.

They’re, they’re really big in the drift world. Maybe it’s just, it’s just the culture of the car. A lot of people that are into that car aren’t into road racing. They’re more into drifting and things like that.

Crew Chief Eric: To Brad’s point, it’s probably the same reason that you don’t see a lot of Supras. And that’s also because those cars are a lot more rare.

[00:36:00] And I’m speculating because I have to go read the GCR, which is the global competition rules. I’m not sure that the Z classes well, and that’s why you may not see it because it doesn’t really fit into a lot of. Series. And so that’s, that’s where you end up with the whole discussion of buy what you see it around the paddock.

Especially if you’re going racing racing, because you’re either trying to do a spec series where you, it’s a Miata E36, E46, spec Boxster, spec C5, you know, stuff like that, where there’s a plethora of those cars and they just make them fit in the mold and you call it a day. And that’s what a lot of proper road racing and club racing is.

But the Z much like a 24 valve VR six. Or even the 1. 8 turbo Volkswagens. And I know we’re Volkswagen fans around here. I’m using them as an example. They don’t class. Well, SCCA does not have a class for them in the GCR, which means they’re a car that people would shy away from competition wise. They’ll go to something else like a Honda because it places an ITS or it places an ITA, you know, the older Mark two [00:37:00] Volkswagens in ITB and the, and, and so on down the line.

So it’s easy to go down the list and just. Pick something that qualifies and you can go racing now, because you’re starting out in high performance driver’s education, instead of straight on club racing, you can do whatever you want. They don’t really care. You’re you’re there to learn. You’re there to go fast and do what you want to do.

And if you have ambitions to go on to something else, you do hit a point where you come to an impasse and you say, well, do I want to go club racing or do I want to go to time trials? I have a feeling. That you may like time trials better than club racing, knowing how you like to take care of your cars.

It’s, it’s not full contact, like some of the other disciplines are, and you’re racing against the clock, you’re racing against yourself. In time trials, the classing system is also very different because it’s not based on the car must fit this mold. It’s based actually on a, like a penalty system, where you’re running this mod and these tires and this and that, and you can mix and match stuff.

So. I went to this event on Hoosiers and it bumped me up a [00:38:00] class. Well, I’m not going to run Hoosiers anymore. I’m going to run Nittos. That brings me up into a class where I feel I’m more competitive in or whatever it might be. So you got to jockey around with some parts, but everything you’re doing right now, especially, you know, with the halfback cage or the hill climb cage, you’re gearing yourself towards either doing time trials or hill climb.

Once you graduate away from high performance driving.

Al Alsina: Okay.

Crew Chief Eric: Again, that’s why I said you’re a bit of a pioneer. And I mean, you got the team behind you to support you anyway. So you need people to come turn wrenches. We’re all excited. Something new to work on. And we’re always willing to help. You’re at the tip of the spear on this thing.

You’re going to have to let us know, well, this was a waste of money, right? And that’s where we got to with the Volkswagen’s. Now we have the build sheets and it’s go down the list. This is what you need to buy, depending on what you’re trying to build. And so the same might be true of the Z. And, you know, we’ll try to see if we can find somebody out there to also get you better direction, but I’ve only come across a handful of these cars, and I know one of our other members who’s up in New York, who now has a Viper, started [00:39:00] in a Z.

And again, I sat right seat in that car for many, many events. And I can tell you firsthand, it’s, it’s an awesome ride. I have heard the same rumor Brad has had about the transmissions and stuff. I hear there’s a beefier one you can get, and then you kind of don’t worry about it again. At this stage of the game, you’re dealing with a 17 year old car.

Stuff’s going to go and you know how it is, right? When you’re doing this and you’re really dedicated and it’s not your daily driver, it’s like, send it. If it blows up, then you know what’s broken and then you fix it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Crew Chief Brad: And if your car does well, that may inspire me to try and wedge myself into one or get a G35 cause they’re a little bit bigger.

Right.

Crew Chief Eric: To be truthfully honest, my sister and I, when we put the original article together that I was referencing earlier, the 350z came up with the list. Cause we both liked the way they look. The way they sound. I’ve ridden in ’em, they drive great, they got plenty of power and we’re always like, why have we overlooked the Z for so long?

Now they’re really affordable. It would make sense. It’d be a great rear wheel drive car to pick up and [00:40:00] have similar power to. You know what I have in the GTI. And so it would be a very easy transition. So yeah, I, again, as Brad is saying, I’m, I’m looking to you at the moment to say, where do we go from here?

Al Alsina: Right. And

Crew Chief Eric: so, you

Al Alsina: know, I have to rely on you guys because someone who’s new coming into the field There’s going to be a learning curve And so as I get, I will share, but there are things about racing, you know, I’m waiting for you to sit side saddle, hey Al, do this, do this, do this, no, no, no, not like that.

And so, uh, it’s going to be exciting. I hope to get, and you asked the question about. I hope to get at least two or three events this year. What that means, I don’t really know, but I know that I’m positioning myself to be ready. What Brad doesn’t know is that I got a trailer and ordered a trailer and got it.

Got it sourced, it’s ready to be picked up, and I’m trying to figure that out right now. [00:41:00] If I’m going to drive to Georgia, I’m kind of on the fence on the drive, not because I can’t drive, but I don’t know what’s happening down there from a mind perspective. And Eric mentioned earlier that the car’s in the shop getting the cage done.

Again, I just want to be in the best position in August, trying to have everything. The minimal set of things that I need so I can bring a car out and drive. I

Crew Chief Eric: think you’ve done the right thing. You took care of all the problems with the car because of its age and then you focused entirely on safety and that’s really the way to do it.

Because as I’ve said before, never modify a car past your ability to drive it because you continue to slide the bar to the right. And it makes it more and more difficult for you to find the limit. And, and, you know, we were debating break pads the other day and I said, well, you got this, this, and this, I would really tell you in the future, you’re going to want Hawks right now.

You’re going to want a set of EBCs because you want to experience break fade at the track. You want to know what it’s like to [00:42:00] encounter that particular use case. And then we’ll go from there. But if you just throw on a set of DTC seventies. They’re going to run you all day. You’re like, Oh, my brakes are fantastic, but you never really learn how to stop the car.

Right. And so it’s important and I’m not, I’m not trying to put you in a precarious position in any way, but again, you need to learn to out drive the car and then you can mod it. And you got to do your mods tastefully and slowly at that point so that the car and you grow together in the next step and airing on the side of safety.

Some people are like, ah, the heck with it. I’ll just buy a turnkey race car. You know, LMP2, Legere, and they go to town and that’s whatever, that’s fine, good for them. But, you know, if you want to really do it the right way and have a love relationship with the Z and, you know, not the relationship you had with, with the 9 11, then you’re really going about it the right way.

Al Alsina: Yeah, you mentioned a love relationship with the Z. You know, early on I mentioned that I, you know, as I do kind of replace parts. I start noticing things, [00:43:00] right? And I asked myself, and I even asked you, Hey, do you think I should do this right now? Right? And maybe, maybe not because when I look at the car and the age of the car, that’s a well, if I’m going to drive, if it’s going to go to the track without going so far overboard, because It becomes a, a touchy subject, right?

When you start buying, because I see that the valve covers need to be replaced. Well, if I replace the valve covers because of who I am, I’m going to replace the spark plugs. If I replace the spark plugs, I’m going to replace the ignition coils. If I replace it, so it becomes this, this cycle, right? Then you end up with, okay, I went in to replace this and here’s my budget.

And I went over my budget by, I don’t know, another thousand dollars, because the natural evolution, because you see these things, you think about how long it’s been, and I might as well replace that, and I might as well replace that. It’s like, okay, I’m never going to put the car

Crew Chief Eric: back together and be ready for anything.

I’ll say it again, if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, run it till it [00:44:00] breaks, and you’ll know it’s

Al Alsina: broken. You know, said that line to me, and I didn’t know where he got it from, was. Carol said that line to me the other day when I was replacing or putting on the hood latches. He says, run it till it breaks.

And he knows, you know, his nose broke. I was like, okay. So he got that from you?

Crew Chief Eric: Probably. I don’t know. I’ve got a lot of those sayings, unfortunately. I need to write them down. Okay. Okay. As we wrap things up here, let’s talk about your other, because you bought two cars at once. You bought the Z and you picked up something else as well.

You want to talk about that?

Al Alsina: Uh,

Crew Chief Eric: well,

Al Alsina: I guess I can, right? It’s not a, it’s not a surprise. You know, I had a gas on my chest, and a Z wasn’t ready. Maybe it was more about me losing the Porsche. Regardless of how things went, I did feel some type of way. I bought my garage, right? I, there was a love hate relationship.

And so I needed something to take that place. Although, I [00:45:00] picked the Z up, it wasn’t quite ready. It’s not like I can drive it anywhere. So I bought a 2017 Jaguar F Type. Supercharged V6. And it is a beast. It is gorgeous. And she loves to be driven. I don’t have any issues with her. She’s got a wide in the rear.

She’s got a great stance. Everything works, and I get that gas off my chest. And it’s good. So, so during, during this time when, you know, most of us are wound really tight from being home a lot. The one thing I’ll do in the middle of the night is get in the car about eight, and I will drive for an hour in any direction and see how far I can go, and then turn around and come home.

So one time I made it up to, almost to New Jersey Turnpike. I’ve been down to Crystal City, but I didn’t go, I went through D. C. I went the D. C. way, in the D. C. You know, and so I just take these [00:46:00] drives. I’m not gonna say I can’t take the family and the kids anymore, cause that’s really not what it is. It’s just that I need to be out of the house for a minute.

Right? And that’s what I do. I take the car, and so I will say that the Jag, the paddle shifters, is phenomenal. And so, I’m not sure if you really know that you can switch to manual mode. When you switch to manual mode, also comes up where you can, there’s another lever, which takes it into dynamic mode. Once it goes into dynamic mode, it’s race ready.

Everything changes. The performance, the handling, you know what I’m going to do, Eric? And next time you come by here or I come out there, I’m going to drive the car. I’m going to let you take it for a

Crew Chief Eric: ride. I hear it. I see a test drive article coming.

Crew Chief Brad: Sign me up. Let me, let me come by. I don’t even want to drive it.

I just want to get in it. So I’ll let

Al Alsina: you take it. I’ll show you the basics, how to put it in, in that mode and let you take it out. [00:47:00]

Crew Chief Eric: There’s another test drive article coming. It’s great.

Al Alsina: Right. So, um, you let me know and we can do that soon or as soon as you like. Right. Yeah.

Crew Chief Eric: Very cool. That’s another car. You know, we don’t.

Get a lot of Jags and an F Type is a great sports car, you know, a little bit more Boulevard GT sports car, but still a great looking car. You know, one of the newer Jags, it’s got all the modern stuff in it that you’re not plagued with all the classic British problems and whatever, but what, what a, what a great choice.

And we actually talked about the F Type on an earlier episode where we, V8 convertibles because there’s a convertible version. So I just wanted to highlight for everybody. Yeah, that yours is a coupe and that that midnight blue with the over the camel interior. I mean, just gorgeous car. Really, really stunning hashtag jelly on that one as well.

So good job, but regardless of all these car changes. For everybody that’s listening out there, he earned the nickname Portia Al because we had three Al’s in the club at one point, [00:48:00] Maserati Al, Portia Al, and Focus Al. But you’re the only Al that stands and we’re still gonna call you Portia Al.

Al Alsina: I’m good with it.

Look, I’m still here. I’m just glad that there’s that camaraderie, that you guys get together. You know, one of the things that surprised me about you early on, we had a lot of things in common. We looked up wise names. Right? Cars, transformers. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! So there’s a lot of stuff to geek out about, right?

I’m glad to be a part of the group and I’m also ecstatic about the possibility to see your dad’s car come alive. Cause I said all along I don’t care what anybody else said and you were trying to sell it. I don’t want to. I don’t want to. I was like, Eric, don’t sell it. Fix it. Don’t sell it. Fix it. Put it together.

Put it together. And I’m glad that that’s where you’re going with that. I am. I [00:49:00] am ecstatic to see the result of You’re you and your sister and everybody’s time on that car.

Crew Chief Eric: Yeah. So if anybody’s interested in what Al is talking about, if you go on Instagram and look for hashtag GTM project 914, I’ve been slowly posting the build pictures as I’ve been going along, resurrecting a 1974 wide body Porsche 914.

It’s an interesting build. You know, we’re modernizing it tastefully. We’re returning it to a 1. 8 liter, but you know, it’s still a VW motor at the end of the day, but yeah, you’re right. And so, you know, I’m, I’m glad there’s been a lot of people pushing me to get that car out of storage and work on it.

You’re not the only one race around the same thing. A lot, Matt, there’s a lot of folks that remember that car when it was running and they’re like, you need to do something about it. You need to get it back on the road. And so we’re getting very close. It’s going to make a trip to auto fab. Probably soon after your, your Z leaves there to get some work done and then we’re going to continue the build.

So it’s going to be pretty cool.

Al Alsina: Good. [00:50:00] Good. Good. I’m glad to hear.

Crew Chief Eric: On that note, I think it’s time to end.

Al Alsina: All right, sir. Well, thanks for inviting me on and I talk to you soon. Very good. Thank you much. Thanks. All right, Brad. All right, man.

Crew Chief Brad: If you like what you heard and want to learn more about GTM, be sure to check us out at www. gtmotorsports. org. You can also find us on Instagram at GrandTouringMotorsports. Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call or text us at 202 630 1770 or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.

org. We’d love to hear from you.

Crew Chief Eric: Hey listeners, Crew Chief Eric here. Do you like what you’ve seen, heard, and read from GTM? Great. So do we, and we have a lot of fun doing it, but please remember we’re fueled by volunteers and remain a no annual fee organization, but we still need help to keep the momentum going.

So that we can continue to record, write, edit, and broadcast all of your favorite content. So be sure to visit www. [00:51:00] patreon. com forward slash gtmotorsports or visit our website and click in the top right corner on the support and donate to learn how you can help.

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