We have no trouble critiquing every car that makes it in the pages of this magazine. Regardless which parts have been installed, we'll find a way to make the owner either feel like a hero for using them or a zero for picking wrong. For the most part, our readers take what we say and run with it, without a second guess. That makes life easy for our technical editor, Scott Tsuneishi. After all, if the giant hand of judgment never swivels in your direction, you never have to meet your moment of truth.
It was just two short months ago that Nissan showed up at our door with a brand spankin' new 350Z convertible. When blessings like these rain down upon us, the course of action is always the same-we build a project car. So, like the Z before it, that is this one's fate. In a moment of stupidity, Tsuneishi suggested we not only make the new Z a project car, but that we have it ready for SEMA. Better than that, he added, we'd have it ready for the SEMA issue you're reading now, a full two months before the actual show would even start.
And that's where the story of our ever-critical tech editor being put to the test began. While we sat back playing video games and eating pizza, our man Tsuneishi turned into a sleepless wreck trying to piece the car together in two months while juggling his duties at the magazine. Each day started with a frantic call to a manufacturer and ended under the hood of our new project car.
First to get the call were the guys at Tein, who offered a set of Monoflex suspension with EDFC, which features spring rates of 14kg/mm all around and in-cockpit shock valving control. Before the car would even have wheels installed, JP Aero stepped up with a Type N four-piece kit in fiberglass-reinforced plastic. The car then spent two weeks at DTM Autobody in South El Monte, Calif., getting kitted and painted.
In addition to the JP Aero kit, DTM Autobody installed a set of Nismo rear overfenders, courtesy of Performance Nissan in Duarte, Calif., which were custom altered by Tsuneishi to work with the new body kit. Thanks to Endless USA in Huntington Beach, Calif., a pair of Craft Square carbon Competition Touring mirrors replaced the stock units. Finally, the car was sent over to Six Autoworks in Alhambra, Calif., to have a bevy of carbon fiber by Seibon installed. Seibon makes a full complement of carbon fiber for the new Z, including a carbon fiber hood, carbon roadster trunk and a carbon tonneau cover.
While the car was in the body shop, Tsuneishi was on the phone with Mackin Industries, securing some Volk Racing 19-inch GTF wheels. The front rollers measure 9.5 inches in width, and the rear creates a healthy stagger at 10.5-inches wide. They're wrapped in Toyo Proxes T1R rubber-255/35/19 in the front and 285/35/19 out back. Tsuneishi rolled the setup into Six Autoworks, while they were installing the carbon-fiber accessories, and mounted and balanced the gear.
While Six Autoworks did the deed, our man was on the phone again, this time in an attempt to build an interior that could be called SEMA worthy. Nine times out of ten, the most time consuming aspect of setting up a show car is the stereo system. Tsuneishi called upon Creative Car Audio and Motorsports in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., into making something beautiful.
Creative opted for a system from Pioneer, including a Premier XDV-P6 DVD/CD changer and a Pioneer AVIC D3 double-din head unit, which broadcasts the DVD output to a mini TFT flat screen monitor, mounted where the rear view mirror once was. Tunes are fed through a Premier PRS-D2000 mono amplifier and a PRS-D4100F 75Wx4 amplifier. You can probably guess that the four-channel amp is what's sending power to the twin sets of 6-inch Pioneer components, while the 2000-watt amp is what powers four Premier 10-inch Slimline subs, in a custom enclosure behind the seats.