The Art of Aftermarket: Nismo
Driving down the motorway, you see a “customized” car following you.
A strange color combination of orange and maroon obscures your rear view mirror as you see the car tailing you and flashing its lights, wanting to race. You turn on your indicator, telling him to pull up next to you. When he does, you see strangely shaped
red seats, with an obvious moron driving the car. As he looks at you, you shake your head, horrified by the almost three foot high wing in the back, crooked bumpers, tiny rims with tiny tires, and a makeshift performance exhaust which sounds as though it has
a hole drilled into it.
You tell yourself that it probably does.
You figure that you might as well show this “ricer” what an actual performance car is. You flash back to about a month ago when you purchased your brand new Nissan 350Z. However, this isn’t just any old 350Z anymore. It’s the Nismo edition.
Nismo comes from Nissan
Motorsport International Limited. They have been making modifications to Nissans since 1984. But all of that boring history is irrelevant if you want to drive fast and look good while doing so.
Nismo takes normal Nissans and turns them into mean machines. They change everything from spoilers and diffusers to wheels and tires to engines and interior. They make your car lighter, faster, and sexier.
Even though you could have bought a prepared Nismo, you decided to take a stock Z and Nismo-fy it. So you take your Z to a Nismo specialist, and decide whether you want an S-Tune package or the more ferocious Z-Tune.
Instead of choosing a package, you decide to go all out and go for the Super GT championship car package.
So over the next week, Nismo will turn your car from stock to shock.
They start with mechanics first. You go to the workshop everyday just to see the magic. You watch in horror as they strip your brand new car to just its shell. First, they decide to get the car back onto its wheels. They upgrade the brakes to Brembo brakes
with eight pistons in the front with 12.8 inch rotors, and four pistons in the back on 12.7 inch rotors. Next, they start with the suspension, removing the stock set and installing their own special Nismo tuned independent multi-link suspension.
To put the car back on the floor, they bolt on Nismo gunmetal grey RAYS alloy wheels, 18x9 inch rims in the front and 19x10 in the back. Those rims are wrapped in Bridgestone Potenza tires, wider at the back than they are at the front.
Now, for the heart of the beast: the engine. They take apart your engine as they did to the rest of your car. You hear them saying “Look at this piston, its c**p” and “What were they thinking when they put aluminum pulleys in?”
You honestly don’t know what they were thinking, so you ask them. They say that Nismo changes almost everything in the stock engine and replace parts with lighter, sturdier, and more efficient parts. They get rid of the crankshafts, pistons, valves, head,
and almost everything else in the engine bay, and replace them with their own ingenious inventions. They stroke and bore the engine and put it back together, while you pray silently that you didn’t make a big mistake.
However, as the car is put back together, you know that this was the best decision you ever made. They install an entirely new aerodynamic package. A new front bumper with splitters compliments the carbon fiber hood, which you decided to add. The side of
the car looks a lot cleaner, with added side skirts, as well as the back of the car. They install the Nismo tuned dual Catback exhaust system before putting on the back bumper, which is lower than the original with a carbon fiber diffuser. Last but not least,
they put a wing on for added down force.
So you come back to the present with the ricer still next to you. You down shift to second gear and listen as the orange and maroon monstrosity tries to leave you behind. But slamming the gas pushes your car like a bullet out of a gun.
You know that your Z went from 3,441 cc to over 6,000 thanks to Nismo. Pushing out over 450 horsepower, you rest assured that you will get, and stay, ahead as you relax in the Nismo Recaro bucket racing seats.
As you see the face of the driver in your rear view mirror trying in vain to catch up, you smirk. You know that there is no chance of him even coming close, as you can see the display, in the Nismo carbon fiber dashboard, indicating that you are crossing
200 km/h, and your car isn’t even breaking a sweat. That’s the magic of Nismo.
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