Although everyone who gets their car featured in Import Tuner is a star in their own right, the owner of this machine is a bona fide celebrity. Tyson Beckford has appeared on the big screen in Zoolander and the small screen in America's Next Top Model as well as plenty of other gigs in both media. His main claim to fame, though, has been as the face and body of several Ralph Lauren advertising campaigns. Beckford, now 38, started out as a male model. His agreeable mix of Jamaican and Chinese via Panama is a reminder that Nature is telling us we should all get along, and has set many a female heart fluttering.
Now it's Beckford's turn to set a few male hearts racing with his '04 Nissan 350Z. It turns out that Bronx-born Beckford isn't just a handsome face; he knows his stuff. This isn't some shallow rich dude who paid someone to make him a cool set of wheels because he's too busy preening elsewhere. He's worked on the car himself. And he knows what quality is.
This knowledge must have been a factor when choosing the Brian Crower stroker kit for his engine. Now displacing 4.1 liters, this VQ35 sports a BC billet steel crankshaft, with CP forged aluminum pistons and BC rings sliding up and down cast iron Darton Modular Integrated Deck (MID) cylinder sleeves. Ticking overhead are Ferrea valves, springs and retainers with Crower cam gears.
The main event under the hood is the addition of a Garrett GT35 turbocharger, reined in with an HKS boost controller, and kept chill via an APS (Air Power Systems) front-mount intercooler and plumbing. Inhalation starts with an air intake and manifold also from APS. Business at the other end is attended to by a Tial blow-off valve, a wastegate from an APS Extreme turbo kit, and an A'pexi N1 titanium exhaust.
Fuel supply is an area dominated by APS yet again, with those three letter adorning injectors, pump and regulator, augmented with an HKS AFK air/fuel knock amp. Temperature control is handled by a Ron Davis custom radiator with Samco Sport hoses. Oh, there's also the little matter of a Nitrous Express nitrous oxide delivery system. MRC Motorsports of Spotswood, NJ, kept the stock compression ratio of 10:1, then tuned the whole shebang for a boisterous (but not too stressed) 625 hp at 6,000 rpm.
Beckford stopped by Diamond Motors of San Dimas, CA, for some transmission work. In went an RPS triple-disc carbon clutch and 18-pound billet aluminum flywheel, a Cusco 1.5-way limited-slip differential, and a Nismo shift lever; a manual 'box is always a good sign.
Those Ralph Lauren shirt sleeves were rolled up for the next job. Beckford himself installed a Tein Super Racing suspension (with EDFC control unit in the cabin), lowering the front end by 1.5 inches and the rear by two. This setup is complemented at either end by an Eibach anti-roll bar.
Dangling off the shocks are gold-painted Kinesis wheels, 19x9 up front, 19x11 out back, shod with Pirelli PZero Rosso rubber: 255/30 and 295/30, front and rear respectively. Hiding behind this combo at the front is a Brembo Gran Turismo brake kit, complete with 14-inch rotors. The rear stoppers remain stock, although the whole system has been upgraded with Goodridge stainless steel braided lines.
With the owner of this project so associated with looks, it was perhaps obvious that he would go for something striking when it came to the exterior. And gold carbon fiber is not exactly run of the mill. This Seibon wide body kit includes a hood, hatch, doors, front and rear fenders, and side skirts, although the front and rear bumpers are from C West. Seibon did the installation with a little help from Beckford, so it's hard to tell exactly who's responsible for the hood's shutlines.