Tag: Banzai

There’s something terrifically unnatural about Zane Petty’s 2JZ 350Z. One thing’s for sure, it’s definitely not vanilla; in fact, it’s totally bananas…

Feature taken from Banzai magazine. Photos: Viktor Benyi

There’s a lot to be said for humans just taking a step back and letting nature do its thing. Yes, we like perfectly manicured lawns, but letting a few weeds and wildflowers peep through is good for the bees, isn’t it? And if there’s one thing the world really needs right now, it’s more bees.

However, life in all its disparate aspects is primarily about balance. Nature and nurture working hand-in-hand. Take the humble banana, for instance – the type you find in the supermarket (the Cavendish banana, fact fans) literally could not exist in the wild; every single banana you’ve ever eaten has been an asexual clone, artificially inseminated by humans in a process called parthenocarpy. And vanilla – the artificial insemination of vanilla orchids (using a blade of grass to open the flap that separates the male anther from the female stigma, then smearing the sticky pollen from the former over the latter with your thumb) is so labour-intensive that it’s the second-most expensive spice in the world after saffron… and yet humans keep doing it because nature won’t satisfy our gratuitous whims all by itself.

The point of all this is that cross-pollination and overt human intervention are necessary for our basest pleasures, and the 350Z you see before you throws this all into sharp focus. The brainchild of a vividly imaginative Chicagoan enthusiast by the name of Zane Petty, it fuses all manner of unnatural ideas to create something truly spectacular. Sure, he could have just bought himself a 350Z and kept it stock, and he would have had a jolly nice time zipping about in it as they’re bloody good cars. But that’s not the way this game is played. You don’t read this magazine because you’re interested in people reviewing day-to-day life in standard cars. So you’ll be pleased to learn that Zane’s full-on custom Nissan is packing a mighty blown Toyota engine among its assorted tricks. All thoroughly unnatural, which is precisely what we like.

“This is the third car that I have modified, but definitely the first one I have built,” he assures us, and the definition is essential – there’s a world of difference between applying bolt-ons and tearing something down to reimagine it anew. “Before this I was into Euros, and had a B5 Audi S4. This was the first car I learned to really wrench on, it was a super budget build while I was in college. But I had wanted a 350Z since I was in middle school; I had a poster on my wall as a child that now hangs in my garage! I loved the style, and I love that everything on the car has a Z on it… even though the fenders are all that’s left now.”

The vision in Zane’s head was of a tastefully modified black 350Z; indeed, he’d already built a black one in his imagination so he knew exactly what he was looking for. However, dreams and reality seldom synthesise in the most logical way, and instead of buying a standard car to act as a blank canvas, Zane’s attention zig-zagged askew when he saw a supercharged version advertised which really tickled his pickle. “It was three hours away, and really overpriced,” he recalls, “and owned by a guy who really didn’t know anything about the car.” Sounds like a strong basis for a happy relationship, then. And as is so often the case, buying someone else’s project turned out to be a bit of a pain in the backside; adding a Vortech supercharger to that VQ motor is unquestionably a recipe for thrills, especially with 375 horses in your skyrocket, but the dodgy state of tune meant that it blew up before long. “I destroyed that motor when the crank decided to bounce around inside it,” he deadpans. “So the car went to Touge Factory outside of Chicago to get a fully built VQDE with a brand new Vortech supercharger. That motor had a million issues keeping the belt on though; I towed it down to Dynosty in Louisville, Kentucky for them to fix it and give me more power. I was pleased with the shop’s efforts, but sadly not with the outcome – so I decided to swap the motor myself.”

A reasonable response, although this was no logical plan to simply swap in a fresh new VQ V6 and make the car happy in its established niche. No, after these various machinations, Zane was adamant that he needed to level up, and installing the revered and iconic Toyota 2JZ-GTE straight-six was the way to do that. And so, in his garage with his own two hands, that’s precisely what he did. “The car only left my garage for fab work and tune,” he’s keen to point out. “The whole build was done by me and a couple of friends with hand tools; the motor and tune was done by Sound Performance just outside of Chicago. In choosing parts I really didn’t want to cheap out on anything or miss anything I would regret later, and the build all went pretty smoothly – from pulling the motor to it being tuned and running took around eight months. The only really significant hurdle I faced was on the day it was going in to be tuned, and the car caught fire! The turbo was thought to be ruined; I had a BorgWarner S366, and in that moment I decided to go with a Precision 6766 instead.” Blessing in disguise really, as that mighty Precision turbo is a superb flourish on top of a beautifully built engine: Zane tore the whole 2JZ down and rebuilt it afresh, adding in BC 264 cams, BC springs and valves and re-angled valve seats at the top end, with fuelling uprated via a Walbro 450 pump and FIC 1300 injectors. The Mishimoto catalogue was comprehensively raided, yielding an intercooler, radiator, fans, catch can, power steering reservoir and coolant overflow, and custom downpipes were crafted to mate the Supra Store 2JZ manifold to the hardcore Z1 350Z dual exhaust system. A few other tricks and tweaks, the sensible addition of an ECUMaster EMU Black ECU, and mapping by the legendary Turbo Joe, and the 2JZ was making a neat 500bhp at 15psi. Given how ludicrously strong the 2JZ is, that’s power Zane can use all day and every day.

There’s more to this build than that engine swap of course, that goes without saying. The two-jay-zee may be the big-ticket item, but you don’t see that when this thing rolls into the showground and airs out. What you do see is an absolutely killer stance thanks to an Air Lift Performance setup carefully tweaked for the perfect fitment. The wheels sit supremely flush, having been precisely crafted to do so by 5One Customs in California – they’re iForged Senekas, in staggered widths with the rears measuring a massive 11-inches wide, an effect impressively enhanced by the application of sparcely-treaded 265-section R888s. It’s part of a full-on because-race-car vibe that extends to the Corbeau buckets and harnesses in the interior, genuine NISMO sideskirts, and that perky Rocket Bunny ducktail. And we just love the fact that beneath that striking spoiler you’ll find a boot build panelled with real wooden planks – just one of a plethora of amusingly jarring and unexpected details that this home-built hero loves to serve up.

“The car is mostly used for shows and events, although occasionally I’ll take it to work,” says Zane, no doubt winning the office car park on those particular days by quite some margin. “People’s reactions are amazing; if someone knows the car when I pull into a meet, there will be a swarm around it by the time I park! I love that people truly appreciate the project, and see it for a complete build that flows from the engine bay all through the car.” Unsurprisingly, after all this time and effort, he just can’t stop tinkering with it. Well, you would, wouldn’t you? These things have a habit of getting under your skin – so before too long it’ll be sporting a vented carbon bonnet, an upgraded fuelling system to properly cope with E85, and hopefully somewhere in the region of 600bhp. Or more. You know these 2JZs can take it!

The entire process is wholly unnatural of course, but that’s what makes it so enthralling; the savage cross-pollination of Nissan and Toyota, taking the best elements of both to create something stellar and unique. It’s the tastiest vanilla-banana milkshake you can imagine… with a lingering aftertaste of race fuel.

Tech Spec: 2JZ 350Z

Engine:

2JZ-GTE VVTi 3.0-litre straight-six, Precision 6766 turbo, re-angled valve seats, BC 264 cams, BC springs and valves, Titan crank pulley, Supra Store exhaust manifold, Perfect Tuning intake manifold, custom downpipes to Z1 exhaust system, custom intercooler piping, Mishimoto intercooler, Mishimoto radiator, Mishimoto fans, Mishimoto catch can, Mishimoto power steering reservoir, Mishimoto coolant overflow, Drift Motion idle motor, Walbro 450 fuel pump, flex fuel sensor, Aeromotive fuel regulator, FIC 1300 injectors, carbon fibre spark cover, CD009 transmission, Collins Garage swap kit, Collins Garage Stage 5 clutch, ECUMaster EMU Black ECU, Wiring Specialties harness, tune by Turbo Joe

Power:

500bhp @ 15psi

Chassis:

Custom 9.5×18-inch (front) and 11×18-inch (rear) iForged Seneka wheels (built by 5One Customs, California), 225/35 Yokohama tyres (front), 265/35 Toyo R888 tyres (rear), Air Lift Performance V2 air-ride, 350Z Brembo brakes with custom powdercoated gold calipers, stainless brake lines

Interior:

Corbeau seats and harnesses, K Bar harness bar, Status full carbon steering wheel, NRG quick-release, Likewise gearknob, AEM wideband and boost controller/gauge, custom wood boot build with Air Lift tank

Exterior:

KBD V2 front bumper, NISMO sideskirts and rear add-ons, Rocket Bunny wing with custom rivets, tinted taillights, headlight eyelids, carbon fibre rear diffuser

There were only 250 Nissan Skyline GT-R M-Spec Nur cars ever made, and this one is filled with enough rare and valuable parts to make any Nissan fan drool.

You know you’re obsessed with GT-Rs when you start a business to sell the excess ones you’ve bought. That’s what happened with Allen Cheng, founder of the legendary V-Spec Performance in Victoria, Australia. Starting off with a single Midnight Purple III R34, he soon progressed to owning so many he had to get rid of some, and having realised selling them could be a viable business, he opened V-Spec in 2011. These days, the business has grown to be what is undoubtedly Australia’s premier GT-R specialist sales outlet. One that, as well as similarly rare GT-R parts, also runs the Charge Speed Australia brand. Oh, and in case you hadn’t guessed from the images, they have an impressive workshop, too.

However, before they built this car, for all the company’s knowledge, expertise and ability to get rare cars and parts in, V-Spec didn’t really have much of a name for itself. Things had definitely improved after the signing of sales manager Simon Ong, who himself drives an R34 V-Spec II Nur and works hard within the community to promote the company, but V-Spec still needed a kick. So, there was only on thing to do, right? Yep, the team decided to build a proper demo car. Obviously it had to be something that would show off not just their ability to source some of the rarest and highest quality cars and parts the GT-R world has to offer, but also show that they could be unique and bring imagination to their work. The end result was this – their 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R M-Spec Nur, complete with a range of wish-list componentry.

So, let’s talk about what they’ve done. Obviously, the biggest change from the norm is the naked carbon front end. Simon says the decision was taken early to go this route, as it would best show off the insanely expensive Nismo Z-Tune dry carbon body parts. “We obviously wanted to be different, and we knew that, with the price for one of these dry carbon kits, not many people in Australia were going to have them, so we wanted to go down that track”. Simon says the plan was to leave it raw too, but eventually they coated it with a layer of clear, which serves to make it look cleaner. The coating also leads to a rather weird tactile sensation, as the dry carbon has all the lumps and bumps from the raw weave that you’d expect, but the clear makes your fingers glide over them in a way your brain has trouble processing. There is no doubting the finish is unique though, and in our eyes, the mix of semi-gloss black front-end, Millennium Jade mid and rear sections, plus black accents from the Superior Sport carbon wing stays (one of the few non-Nismo parts, simply because Nismo don’t make stays) and super-rare 19-inch Nismo LM GT4 Omori Factory wheels, gives this car a whole new take on the traditional black-and-gold combination often seen in other builds.

It’s worth talking more about those wheels too, as they’re another example of V-Spec’s (and specifically Allen’s) obsession with finding low-volume and discontinued parts. Any hardcore Nismo nerd will know the Omori Factory LM GT4s are a limited-run part, complete with unique machined logos and made to celebrate the facility where Nismo, until recently, spent its entire life. However, perhaps only the real super nerds will recognise how rare these 19-inchers are, as while 17 and 18-inchers were recently reissued by the company, the 19s only came out once, so while numbers are uncertain, there are likely only a handful in existence. Simon says even tracking down one set was difficult, and any you find today will cost more than £3500 a set. Of course, Allen being Allen, he managed to find two sets, so he’s got spares if needs be. “He has one set of silver in the showroom, then he bought another pair from someone else, then another pair from someone else again. Then, because one of the pairs was already black and the other pair was silver, we had a think about whether we could get the black ones redone [in silver], but because it was too hard and too expensive, it was easier to get the silver pair painted black. So we have one set of blacks and one set of silvers. Because Allen’s such a collector and enthusiast, anything rare and discontinued, he’s gotta have!” Simon laughs.

The rest of the car is a treasure trove of rare, discontinued, or just prohibitively expensive, Nismo parts – all tracked down or ordered by V-Spec. The car came from Japan with a full R1 engine, giving it 500hp or so thanks to the better turbos, exhaust manifold, cams, a different tune and countless other things, but to ensure extra ‘Nismo-ness’, V-Spec also ordered the company’s dry carbon intake and intercooler piping. Behind the engine, the previous owner had already fitted a Super Coppermix twin-plate clutch, which remained in fine condition, so there wasn’t much point touching that, but V-Spec did go for a Nismo 4.11 GT LSD. As for the suspension, it came with Nismo sway bars and the entire Nismo Circuit Link set, so again, there wasn’t much work to do, but the Apex N1 coils were swapped for Nismo R-Tune ones to keep the theme going. The F50 Brembos it arrived with were set to stay, but a few weeks after this shoot we were told R35 items were replacing them instead. Interestingly, the rear bumper, which had the ‘Skyline’ logo shaved, did stay, but no one was keen on the wing-less rear end it arrived with, so another factory bootlid was sourced, along with a stock wing and Nismo carbon gurney flap. Of course, Nismo LED tails finish off the back-end. Finally, to rectify the prior owner’s other ‘interesting’ exterior design decisions, V-Spec ordered Nismo side skirts and rear pods to match the already-fitted rear arch extensions.

Keen eyes will spot there are two non-Nismo mechanical items on the car; an ARC Super Micro Conditioner radiator and a Power House Amuse R1 Titan exhaust. The radiator was put in because not even V-Spec could find a Nismo item before the shoot (long since discontinued and basically a unicorn), while the exhaust was a rather high-level placekeeper for a Nismo Weldina titanium model they fitted later.

Having finished the car and teased it on social media, the only thing left was for V-Spec to show it off for real, and for that they had the perfect platform – the inaugural GT-R Festival in Sydney. Trucking the car up there (driving it up would involve the hassle of removing the lip spoiler and finding a workshop close to the venue to re-fit it), they were sadly greeted by pouring rain for the first half of the day, but the stunned looks and large numbers of photos posted on both traditional and social media meant it had done its job regardless.

“All over Facebook people know our company now,” says Simon. “Soon after the show, we had someone travel from Sydney just to come visit us, because when we took it up to the festival, a lot of people saw it and now they know who V-Spec Performance is. So, the reaction was good. It did what we wanted – we wanted people to know who we were, become friendly with us and have chats, and we’ve achieved all that”.

In terms of how the car actually drives, post-upgrades, Simon says it drives pretty nicely, as you’d expect. Being a demo car, it doesn’t get driven around too much, but he says that the R1 engine “definitely feels more raw than your normal RB26”. “It feels more like a race car with that engine. Response is faster and it’s definitely more aggressive. Maybe it’s the cams, but it’s definitely aggressive. And with the exhaust on it, it does feel like you’re in a bit of a race car. It sticks to the ground like  a good ‘un too. Especially because of the size of the wheels and tyres, it certainly grips. It’s nice and solid; it definitely feels high quality”.

Indeed, ‘high-quality’ is what both V-Spec and the demo car itself are all about. There’s no doubt the components on this machine are expensive, but as with most things in life, you get what you pay for. And in terms of V-Spec itself, you clearly get more than just the componentry; there’s imagination, the ability to track down rare items others can’t and the satisfaction that comes with working with passionate, hard-working people. That’s surely worth its weight in Millennium Jade.

Tech Spec: Nissan Skyline GT-R M-Spec Nur

Engine:

Full 2.6-litre Nismo R1 engine with N1 block, pistons, rings and exhaust manifold, Nismo exhaust manifold spacer, 0.9mm metal head gasket, R1 camshafts, Nismo main and conrod bearings, R1 turbos, Nismo large capacity turbo outlet pipe, Nismo 600cc injectors, Nismo 50mm heat shield, Nismo large capacity air flow meter, Nismo sump baffle, Nismo air filter, Nismo strengthened timing belt, Nismo throttle chamber collar, Nismo oil gallery plugs, Nismo ported and polished heads, balanced and blueprinted rotating assembly, R1 coil cover and Nismo ECU flash tune, Nismo oil cooler, Nismo catch can, Nismo dry carbon intake and intercooler piping, Nismo intercooler, Nismo air intake kit, ARC Super Micro Conditioner radiator, Nismo oil filler and radiator caps, Power House Amuse R1 Titan cat-less exhaust from front pipe back and NGK spark plugs, Nismo Super Coppermix twin-plate clutch, Nismo flywheel, Nismo clutch master cylinder, Nismo GT 4.11 LSD.

Chassis:

10.5×19-inch ET12 Nismo LM GT4 Omori Factory Spec Machining Logo Version wheels with 265/30 Yokohama Advan AD08R tyres, Nismo wheel nuts, Nismo Circuit Link suspension kit, Nismo R-Tune coilovers (f&r) Nismo sway bars, Nismo titanium front strut tower bar, Nismo rear tower bar, Brembo F50 four-piston front callipers (f&r) with 355mm slotted two-piece rotors and Dixcel Z-Type pads (f) and 330mm slotted two-piece rotors and Dixcel Z-Type pads (r), Project Mu G4 brake fluid.

Exterior:

Nismo Z-Tune dry carbon front bumper, fenders and under cover (painted clear), Nismo R-Tune dry carbon bonnet (painted clear), Nismo dry carbon splitter, Nismo side skirts and rear pods, Nismo rear wheel arch extensions, Nismo carbon B-pillar garnish, stock M-Spec diffuser with Nismo fins, Nismo GT LED rear lights, stock R34 GT-R rear wing with Nismo carbon gurney flap and Superior Sport carbon wing stays.

Interior:

Nismo GT shift knob, silver painted interior trim, new stock R34 steering wheel, Nismo Combination Meter gauge cluster, Nismo floor mats.

Feature taken from Banzai magazine. Words and photos: Chris Nicholls.