Fear. It is the rawest of emotions. As soon as fear hits, your heart rate speeds up, your palms get sweaty and a sharp chill pierces down to the core of your being. Fear is the emotion that is the least complex and the most obvious when present. We all fear different things. Some have a fear of spiders; others have a fear of being alone, and most have a fear of dying. What am I afraid of? I fear one day Wendy's will realize it can't turn a profit selling delicious chicken nuggets for 99 cents and stop offering them altogether. I mean seriously-the workers have to package it, bag it, give you napkins and a fork, and throw in barbecue sauce for just 99 cents? That is the deal of the century if you ask me, and that is my fear. (That and having to kiss my aunt who has a mole on her cheek with a single strand of hair growing out of it. That junk is just scary.) What you fear is definitely up for debate, but if you are a competitor at import car shows, you can at least agree on one fear: The fear of competing against one of the hottest 350Zs on the East Coast.
To say Minho Kim's 350Z is at the top of its game would be an understatement. He is one of the newest members in Team Emotion's family, and from what he's accomplished so far, they may as well name him rookie of the year.
But just because he's new to a team, doesn't mean he's new to the scene. Kim formerly competed at shows with a 2000 Honda Prelude that was hooked up to the hilt with upgrades like Volk Racing wheels, a Jackson supercharged engine, Ground Designs 2000 body kit, full interior and a custom fly yellow paint job. Not too shabby for your first time out. But after he hit the show circuit, Kim realized he wasn't happy just hanging with everyone else. He wasn't content in just playing the game. He wanted to dominate the game; he wanted to own the game. Or to put it simply, he wanted to be known as Minho "The Game is Mine" Kim. So out went the Prelude, and to take its place was one of the hottest tuner platforms on the market: a brand-spanking new '03 Nissan 350Z. He must've stood in front of his driveway admiring his new car for all of 19.2 sec because he didn't waste any time after that. The car was immediately shipped to the highly skilled Harry Nguyen and Ken Nhan of Car Trenz to start Kim's vision of global car show domination.
First off was the exterior. After looking at all the authentic parts Veilside made for the 350Z, Kim made up his mind. And like a fat kid at McDonald's, Kim went to the Car Trenz counter and said, "I'll take three of everything and extra ketchup, please." It took four months for the parts to come from Japan, but as soon as the crate arrived, the car was shipped to Rick Wells of Absolute Auto to redefine the bodylines with the new goodies. Wells first installed the Version 2 front fascia, rear bumper, side skirts, mirrors, hood and rear spoiler. This was the easy part. Authentic Veilside parts are so well made, little prepping is needed for a perfect fit. Then the tricky stuff began, like how do you make the Version 3 fender flares work with the Version 2 kit? (Veilside makes three different versions of 350Z body kits.) After a bit of skillful hacking, cutting and molding, Rick finally made the fenders flow with the existing kit.
In addition to the body kit, the antenna hole, rear wiper blade and emblems were shaved to give it a cleaner, sleeker look. The car's sheet metal was then prepped and sprayed with a gorgeous Desert Sand Pearl to truly enhance the new flowing curves of the Z. Once the paint dried, the last step was to lay down the graphics inspired by the Veilside cars at the Tokyo Auto Salon. Kim sought out Pag from Competition Grafix to replicate the Veilside Cherry Blossom graphic. Pag actually got a photo of the Veilside car in Japan and hand drew the graphic, which he later turned into a five-layer masterpiece on the side of Kim's Z.