560hp Nissan 240z With a Turbo L28… No LS1 Swap in Sight!

What's up guys, Larry Chen here. Welcome to another episode of Hoonigan Autofocus. We focus on the coolest cars, and we got a really awesome car to focus on today. We got my buddy Rob here from Zcar Garage in San Jose, California. If you guys need any work on your classic or 90s or even newer Zcar, right? 1970 to present day. Bring your car here. He'll tune it up real good for you. We got a really, really crazy car here. It's appropriately named the Nasty Z. Correct, and then the other name is Medusa is what James Stevens calls this car. And it's a labor of love. He built this car with us over the course of probably the last three or four years. And it's been a work in progress and we drive really well with him. He has a great idea, we build on it. We have an idea, he approves it, and it just kept going and going and going. Okay, first of all, I just wanna get this out of the way. I've never shot a car feature in a dino room. I showed up today and legit this Z was already just strapped up to the floor to your dino jet in your dino room. Correct. Basically ready to do a pull. Absolutely. So you're gonna let me do the dino, right? I am. This is why I love these guys. I don't even have to scumbag them. They basically scumbag themselves. We're in, yeah, no, we're in it. We're here to prove that Datsuns are driven, that you can have a car that looks really nice but gets down at the same time. All right, so let's start off with the engine bay. I think this is kind of the centerpiece of the car. This is not a RB or a 2J or an LS. It's not L, L but without the S, L series. So this is a actual L series but this wasn't the actual L series out of this. It is not. No, it is a 2.8 that's been board and stroke to 3.2 liters. And this engine was built by Rebelo Racing and it has a turbo cam and we picked a little lower compression so that way we could cram a bunch of boost in it. So tell me about, I mean, is this like a typical motor package that you would use for this kind of thing? I mean, this is probably one of the craziest L series builds I've ever seen. I would say that definitely we tried to go to the extreme. Like we had seen some stuff and we had built some stuff in the past and James really wanted to have the most powerful L series engine that we had done so far and so far he's achieved that. Got a custom intake manifold that James had built and then it has a 280ZX turbo manifold that we've modified and actually welded an external wastegate onto. And then it is a Garrett 3576R turbo and then it has very large injectors. It has a thousand CC injectors in it. And then it has a custom intercooler that was built by Sheepy Built in Southern California. Those guys are great and they did a fantastic job on our intercooler. And then we just kind of started to put everything together. We wanted to look really nice and we wanted to be able to service it because we knew we were gonna be pushing the limits and if we had a failure, we wanted to be able to easily take things apart and put them back together. And in a way, it's kind of cool. I love how simple it is in terms of like, you don't even have an electric fan on this thing. No, we don't. Actually, that's one of the things I really, I really like fan clutches and we use them on almost all of our builds. Electric fan, I haven't really ever seen one that does what a factory Nissan fan clutch will do. Wow, this is so, so cool. Thank you. I love everything about it. Me too. It's a really cool car and it's fun to put something together for a customer, but then see him use it. Like this car goes up on mountain runs and this car goes to meets and leaves in a hurry. And it's just a lot of fun for us to, I guess, not just make a dyno number, not just have a car that looks good in a parking lot, but a car that makes you feel really good when you're driving it. So did you guys actually build this from the ground up in terms of like stripping it down to bare metal? We did actually. This car had another build on it and James bought it like with a lighter silver paint and a lot of just work that wasn't the way that we do it. And so, yeah, this car got completely taken down. We use Williams Auto Body in San Mateo. They're our exclusive painter. And so we painted it. We redid the flares cause we wanted to put really big wheels and tires on them. And then we didn't want it to rub. And that's one of my things that I'm proudest of in this car is that you can really drive this car fast and not have to tell your friends the list of excuses. Hey man, sorry, it's not idling today. Hey man, sorry, that tire rubs. Or, hey, can you hold onto the store? It's gonna open. And so we wanted to build kind of a no excuse, vintage, powerful Z car. I love the arrow. I love the carbon fiber theme. Wow, this is crazy. So what kind of wheels are these? Those are Watanabe wheels that we had custom built for us by Love 20B in Southern California. And that guy is fantastic to work with. We made measurements, we asked him questions and he helped us with the perfect wheel fitment. Awesome. Yeah, shout out to you, Matt. And I think that's what made this car work is everybody that gave us a hand was in it to win it for James, right? Down to the wheels, the engine work, our paint work, all of it. And then even the interior, which we can talk about whenever you're ready. So, and tell me about the suspension setup on this. So the suspension is, you might know it as KW. And so this car has the KW coilovers. It has Techno Toy tuning components. We use their lower control arm exclusively. And so it's got suspension techniques, front and rear sway bars. Yeah, and Techno Tuning is based out of California. They are, yeah. I believe they're in Plasterville or somewhere in NorCal, but they're fantastic. Another guy, right, that is building a company, taking care of his customers and like gives attention when needed. Like for instance, we build all of our suspension in our color and he does that for us, which is really cool. All right, let's go around to the back here. Oh my God. It's so wide. I don't think I've ever seen a Z car with such wide wheel and tire setup. Yeah, there are 12s in the back. Yeah, 1712s. 12s, and what size are these? 315s. 315 NTO1 drag slicks. Hard to keep this thing planted with street tires, just regular ones, doesn't work very well. So how much did this actually dyno at? Well, this car just a few minutes ago, right, made 550 to the wheels and 530 foot pounds of torque. And what does that relate to in terms of crank horsepower? About 650. I don't even know what to say. Well, and here's where I'm at. That's just a number. When you ride in this car and you drive in this car, just doesn't matter what the number is. It's pretty scary. Got it, okay. So 560 to the crank. I also love what you guys did in terms of like getting that shaved look for the rear. All James. I would love to take credit for it, but all of the exterior cues of this car are all James. Like we fought each other. I'm not really into the black trim. And he was like, look, I'm putting together this. I have it in my head. Trust me. And you know what? Fantastic job. It looks great. We blacked all this, right? So all these trim pieces are all powder-coated black. The tinted windows, all those little styling cues, that is all James. A lot of times it's really hard to pull off classic Z cars with such big wheels. For me, it's like 16 or under, you know. But because this is kind of like a modern take on the 240Z, I feel like it fits pretty good. Absolutely. And I think we would be really hosed if we had a small wheel and tire. I don't think we'd be doing anything except making smoke all the time. So tell us a little bit about the interior here. Well, so we were building another car for a guy on the East Coast, and he had had his dashboard Alcantara. And while the car was here, we were finishing up James's car, and he's like, man, I really like that. I was like, I like it too. And then we were using a Haltech in this car to run the engine, and we're like, man, let's get that display. And so we got the Haltech display, and then the TechArt gauges, right? Can I see what it looks like when you turn it on? Absolutely, yeah, let's do that. No, don't turn it on, but I just want, oh, that is just so, of course he has tunes still. He does, yeah, you gotta have the tunes on, right? So what transmission is this one? Oh, man, this is, again, so when we put this car together originally, we had a 240SX gearbox in it, and it was having a tough time with what we were doing. And then we used Austin Hoek's six-speed kit, and we'd used it in a couple other cars, and we put it into this car. Game changer, absolute game changer. The six-speed behind this big turbo engine in our final drive, it's just, it really kind of was the final piece that just made it like, oh, man, now we can really drive this car fast and not worry about it. And it's a six-speed out of a 350Z. It is, yeah, it's a CD009A transmission. But then again, Austin Hoek's kit, we actually just ordered another five of them because I love the transmission in these cars. It just works so well. And then we have an R200 rear end with an OS Geek and limited slip. I love these seats, too. Thank you, yeah, the Recaros are fantastic. And again, this is all down to the belt, the interior. We just wanted the car to match how bitchin' the engine was. We wanted everything from start to finish to just be the way James wanted it, yeah. And then the other thing, too, right? It's like, you know, the door, right? Like, the door, we sound deadened the whole chassis, and it's just nice and it's comfortable. So tell me about the brakes. I see you have your own brakes on it. It's a Z Car Garage brake. Yeah, so, gosh, this dates back a really long time ago. I wanna think it was maybe 2007 or 2008. We built a brake kit using StopTech components. So we did the 328 millimeter rotor with the ST40 caliper. And so we kind of did that on our own. We used the components from StopTech, but we built the brackets, we figured out the master, and it works really, really well. This car's got really big wheels and tires. Well, they were kind of overkill for a regular car, and that's what made us do our Z Car Garage big brakes for small wheels, the ones that we're gonna install into your car. And it's that time I was like, look, StopTech, StopTech or Don't Stop at All, they're my favorite aftermarket brake manufacturer. I'm like, guys, let's build something together. And so Tyler, one of the engineers at StopTech, helped us develop the kit that's gonna be on your car. And we're actually going back and we're gonna make another big brake kit, kind of a, I'd call it rev two of this setup using a new caliper that they just came out with at StopTech. So stay tuned for that, it's gonna be awesome. But yeah, this is the original Z Car Garage big brake kit, but it would only fit a 16 inch wheel or a 17 inch wheel. So tell me a little bit about, I mean, how do you even get it to run? Like, does it actually run on the stock other brake components in terms of the brake booster? It runs off the factory brake booster, but you had to use the 280ZX turbo master cylinder, the 15 16ths, which actually is really hard to get these days. And it's another reason why we were trying to kind of take the hodgepodge out of brake kits, right? Where you're just like, oh, you gotta have this master cylinder. Oh, for two years they made this brake booster. No, we wanna make brake solutions that bolt onto your car. And that's kind of the hardest part with upgrading the brakes on the 240Z. So on mine currently, I have the Nissan Maxima, 1985 or 86 rears. But the problem is the proportioning is off because it never had discs on it, it had drums. So the amount of fluid that's being pushed back there, honestly, is probably not enough, right? Well, and that's the biggest thing, right? And that's where engineering comes in and that's how amazing StopTech is, is they've done the brake math with us, right? So you know how much squish it takes to move this, to move that. And that's why the Z Car Garage big brake kit works so well, is that it's engineered and designed for your car, for your master cylinder, for your booster. I had a chance to drive this car. We'll touch on that later. But now I'm gonna dyno this thing. I've never actually done a dyno pull, so. Do I get to hold the camera now? Am I the camera guy now? I think Rob gets to hold the camera. I think that'll be fun. Turn the key to the on position, but don't start the car, please, sir. Messed this up already. Step one. You're gonna drive like you would drive on the street, right, and so you're gonna go through the gears. So first thing is you're gonna turn the brake off, okay? Oh, okay. You're gonna turn the brake off and then you're gonna start the car and you're gonna start driving just like you would on the street, okay? Then you get into fifth gear at like 25, 3000 RPM and you're gonna hit this green button, okay? You're gonna go to red line and whenever you hit red line, then you're gonna lay off the throttle, put the car into neutral, and you're gonna hit the red button, okay? Because that's what's gonna slow the car down. You can't hit the brake pedal and you can't touch anything once you hit this because it's gonna slow down the car. Does that make sense? So if you hit the brake, you're gonna, it's gonna shoot it forward, okay? So just be careful. So let's just do a, without video, let's just do a practice run where you can just do a little bit quick, jaunts up and down and then get comfortable. Or do you wanna just handle that? I think it's way cooler if you do everything because again, it's like, you know what I mean? Let's take the training wheels off and let's get to this. All right, let's start it. Let's do it for Johnny, man, yeah. Good horsepower! Oh my God, that's so cool. That was such a crazy experience. Like, I kind of am shaking a little bit. I'm like, I'm scared because this is not my car. You know, it's a wonderful machine that you built. It's so cool to experience these a different way. You know, it's a different thing for us to go out on the street and drive it. And it's even a different experience for me to drive it out on the street myself. But to be able to floor it, just, and it's not going anywhere. And I feel it vibrating and all the turbo noises are happening. That's super cool. So thank you so much. The thing is awesome. James, sorry. Sorry, James. I mean, more like thank you, James. Oh, actually, we actually have to go and take this out for a ride, don't we? We do. Yeah. 555 horsepower, 534 pounds of torque, which comes out to 650 crank horsepower, sir. And apparently the dyno jets read low. Yeah, this is, this is the heartbreaker dyno right here. This one will make you upset that your car doesn't break a hundred horsepower. My car doesn't break a hundred horsepower. I'm scared. Don't be afraid. I'm scared. It's too much power. Don't be afraid. This is crazy. How is this even a thing? How is this a street car? Yeah, it's cool. South? Yeah, it's an everyday car. Oh my God. It's running a 101 to 880, so merging should not be an issue. It's too much power. No way, except right now. It's unusable. All the people cry for it. It's nice, too. And you know what's great? We talked about this yesterday when you and I were at Butters. You said, wow, I can't believe your confidence with this car. Yeah. And you just drove this car for less than five minutes. Yeah. And look at how you can handle the transmission and the brakes and go into a corner. I don't say this often, but man, this is a perfect car. Like, this is perfect. Thank you. I love it, and I love how much James loves it. I love this thing so much. I'm going to continue driving this thing. Yeah, let's do it. I'll hold the wheel while you put the camera back on. I'm expecting your ---- right from the passenger seat. Whoa! Somebody call me a doctor! Oh, so good. It's actually, like, not angry when you don't want it to be. Exactly, and that is a great combo, right? Is we can start some ---- enough to get the cops called on us, but then we can kind of get into stealth mode. Right, I really like it. The clutch is really nice, too. I can't believe the clutch, what kind of clutch is it? Oh, it's Geekin'. And I can't believe it grabs enough to handle that 650 crank horsepower. Yeah, and it's cool. It's just, it's not hard to drive this car. I mean, you got to hang on. Yeah, yeah, you do. Oh yeah, you do, oh yeah. It hits rev limiter instantly. Instantly. I'm just spinning tires. 315 tires. That would be for drag racing. Like the real deal power here. This is the real deal. There's no question about it how awesome this is. Agreed. I love it. Lag is actually pretty minimal, and it comes on pretty gradually, but it's so much fun. Yeah, it's like, it's manageable. Like, we can get onto the drop. It's like, for me, it's like flooring it twice. You know? You know, you floor it, and it's like, oh yeah, it's pretty cool. And then when the turbo kicks in, oh my God, it's so cool. It's amazing. It's really cool. And the steering is very light in the front. Oh, that's why, okay. It's so light. Got big tires, right? I think it's the lightest Z car. This is what's fun for me. Even knowing you have this much power, and then still driving it slow and enjoying it. I love it. It's seriously like a drag car, Bob. Thanks, James. Yep. As advertised. No, it's not worth it. As advertised. Yep. Again. You're just mad? Yeah, perfect. You are a mad man. This thing is so, this is too much. It's too much. There's too much power. Oh my God, that was insane. That was awesome.