Remember the episode of 'The Simpsons' where Bart enters a billycart race; Homer builds him some rickety looking contraption with wheels, while the Springfield super-geek shows up in a streamlined technical tour-de-force? Well, my friends, you and I are the ones struggling along in our wooden billycarts while people like David strive to achieve what is automotive perfection. His show-proven Nissan 300ZX TT has been spared nothing in its build up.
Bought as an everyday driver, David starting off tweaking his Zed with a few performance basics - a high-flow exhaust and intake, a pair of upgrade intercoolers and an electronic boost controller. This was then augmented with a fairly basic interior re-trim, tasty 18-inch rims and some graphics on top of the standard silver paint. Much to David's delight, in this configuration, the car won a trophy for its graphics at a show and he's been hooked on that scene ever since.
There's been a lot of water under the bridge since grabbing that first trophy and, because there's only 24 hours in a day, it's probably best for us to focus on the car's current guise...
The car has been fully dismantled, its panels massaged to perfection and then reassembled ready for a bare metal respray. Three coats of Bavarian Yellow, two coats of green pearl and three clear coats now cover the Nissan steel. Custom airbrushing has been big on the show scene for a few years, so David opted for a "flame theme" on the bonnet, down the sides and on the rear bumper.
Interestingly, the standard 300ZX is capable of cutting it in modified car shows more than 10 years after its release. As David says, "they're a simple, beautiful shape that has aged very well." The only non-standard bodylines are a subtle Stillen body kit. Note that the headlights have also been subtly modified and quick-release clips are also used to hold on the front and rear bumpers and aprons - this makes it easier to get the car onto transport trucks. Oh, and the car is also known by its custom number plates - YUM E.
The rolling stock fitted to the car for our shoot is a set of ex-Japan Minervas (measuring 19 x 8.5 and 19 x 9.5 inch) wearing 235/40 and 265/35 Continental tyres. This completely fill the Zed's guards and, recognising the standard brakes would look dinky through those massive rims, David installed a stonkin' braking arrangement. AP
6-pot front calipers put the bite onto monster 391mm discs, while AP 4-pot calipers and 341mm discs do their stuff at the rear - note that these rear brakes are usually used as a
front brake upgrade on ZXs... Apparently, the brake conversion was quite involved necessitating new lines and a modified brake booster/master cylinder.
The suspension, too, got a comprehensive once-over. Ride height has been brought down about 3-inches using aftermarket springs teamed with adjustable Koni dampers, Stillen swaybars, Urethane bushes and adjustable front and rear camber kits - this allows improved tyre wear, which became somewhat of a problem with the fitment of the lowered suspension and big boots.
Another obvious external feature of YUM - E is its open bonnet section, which lets the fully chromed, colour-coded and airbrushed engine to be viewed. The bonnet itself is not simply a standard Nissan part that's been attacked with a metal nibbler - David says "cut-outs in the standard bonnet look cheap, so we made a mould of the original bonnet and poured the open bonnet from fibreglass."
The powerplant is, of course, the VG30DETT as factory fitted to the Z32 300ZX series. In the early days of the build, David had problems boosting the engine past 0.8 Bar; when a welsh plug had to be replaced, it was discovered that a conrod or two was bent... Nobody's quite sure why. The task of rebuilding the engine (not a pleasant job given how packed the TT Zed's engine bay is!) was handed to Sydney's BD4s Service Centre. BD4s revived the VG30 with (new) shot peened rods, forged pistons (giving a compression ratio around 8.5:1), ported heads, US-sourced cams and valve springs, HKS adjustable cam sprockets and a pair of Garrett GT25 ball-bearing turbos. HKS air filters, twin Blitz blow-off valves and a large oil cooler were installed as well.
The intercooling arrangement was upgraded with a Plazmaman front-mount core, which is some 6-inches thick. There's also some tricky pipework, which reduced the total length and number of bends required through the system. An important part of the engine revival was replacement of the under-bonnet wiring loom, which had gone brittle over the years; this step prevents having to chase intermittent problems further down the track.
Providing fuel for the worked 3.0-litre engine is an upgraded fuel pump working with Nizmo injectors and a re-written chip in the standard ECU. David tells us he's contemplating a switch to MoTeC M800 programmable management, but this will be a
major job to integrate into the Zed.
While the engine has only travelled about 700 kilometres since its rebuild, boost pressure has been kept fairly conservative - 1.0 Bar. Still, 1.0 Bar and Shell Optimax is all this baby needs to churn out 312kW at the back wheels; there's no denying this car has plenty of show and go. Just wait until the run-in period is over and boost is nudged to 1.4 or 1.5 Bar!
Torque is put through a Daikin twin-plate clutch teamed with a Stillen lightened flywheel. The gearbox, meanwhile, is a rebuilt standard 5-speed and the diff from a R32 Skyline GT-R has been fitted under the rear. Redline fluids are used throughout.
Inside, absolutely everything has been covered in leather or chromed. A pair of Recaro front seats replaces the standard items, but - as David explains - the ZX's low roofline means there isn't much headroom in the back and certainly not enough room to fit another pair of Recaros. Instead, the factory bench has been re-shaped and trimmed in matching leather.
As you can see, the centre console trim and the switchgear have been chromed and there are a few extra gauges plus an A'PEXi turbo timer, AVC-R and Rev/Speed Meter. More airbrushing - including the car's well-known name "Yum E" - can be found on the dashboard, on the speaker grilles and the carpet.
The audio-visual system is something to behold. Up front there's an Alpine head unit and DVD player in the glovebox and - get this - an Alpine LCD screen integrated into both front sun visors. Rear passengers are also treated to their own LCD screen, while, in the hatch area there's ain't no room junk. The cargo area contains two 15-inch Earthquake subs, a pair of Earthquake full-range speakers, three Earthquake amps, twin CD stackers and a 15-inch digital screen that's wired to a VCD. A secondary Odyssey battery and 5-farad capacitor can also be found hidden in the catch area. Again, the hatch area is coordinated with the rest of the interior with more flame airbrushing, including on the cones of those big 15-inch drivers.
Needless to say, a car with this much detail (and with an extraordinary amount of money thrown at it) completely dominates the car shows in which it's entered; YUM E has claimed trophies for Auto Salon Final Battle Champion as well as the Auto Salon God. Not only that, the car has already made an impact overseas, having been featured in British and French car mags; people just can't get enough of YUM E!
Just after our shoot, however, a clumsy trucking company was responsible for nearly writing the car off; it hadn't been strapped down properly for a long interstate journey and it jumped around inside a container... The damage extends to most panels, the rear audio system and, of course, the paint. This trauma just adds to David's plan to 'retire' the car from competition - "it's better to go now while the car is still popular, rather than wait until everyone's tired of it."
Besides, putting YUM E into retirement will give David more time to pursue his latest plan - a new Nissan 350Z with the works. We can hardly wait!
Contact:
BD4s Service Centre
+61 2 9879 3322
