Photo Gallery: ZCON 2017 at the Circuit of the Americas
Z car owners come together during ZCON to celebrate and show off Nissan’s sports cars.
Normally, “catching some Zs” is more associated with drifting off to sleep on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Unless, of course, those “Zs” happen to be a group of legendary Z-cars that Nissan has produced since 1970. We recently saw several stunning Nissan Zs at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas during this year’s ZCON. One thing we didn’t catch a glimpse of? Yawning faces. Everybody at the event was wide-eyed and ready to celebrate some of the most iconic sports cars to come out of Japan.
ZCON 2017 ran from Tuesday, June 20 until Saturday, June 24. Events included a Texas Chili Party, a ZCCA (Z Car Club Association) Judged Car Show, a high-performance driving event, autocrossing at COTA, and tech talks with the designers of the Z32 300ZX and 240Z. Via email, ZCCA Executive Director Chris Karl said, “We had ~700 officially ‘registered’ attendees this year and another ~200 spectators throughout the week. Car-wise, we were between 325 and 350 cars – the largest population was at the People’s Choice Car Show.”
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We went out to COTA to take pics of the cars on display at that show. Loyal Z owners shined up their 240s and 260s. Z31 and Z32 300ZX drivers popped their hoods to display their clean and customized power plants. The 350Zs and 370Zs looked ready to tear up the road in stock form and even more aggressive with mods, which were just as common a sight as Z badges. Nissan brought some cars from its Heritage Collection, including the 1999 240Z Concept.
One particularly special Z we got a chance to photograph belonged to the ZCCA’s first executive director and its current liaison to Japan, “Mad” Mike Taylor. He told us in an email that his 350Z (aka “EZ-SAN”, a combination of English and Japanese that means it’s the third Extra Z car aside from his 240Z that he’s owned) wears a body kit that he received as a present from a former head of Nismo. “It’s the only one I am aware of in the States. Handles like a dream esp. on a track – helps EZ-SAN really hunker down and grip smoothly.”
Check out EZ-SAN and several of the other Zs at ZCON in the gallery below. No caffeine required.
