1993 Nissan 300ZX Turbo - Rising Star

Thanks to the success of Kyle Puckett's awesome street Z, SGP Racing has emerged as one of the rising stars in the Lone Star State, which is no easy feat, considering the competition is as intense as a Texas heat wave. From rather humble beginnings, Kyle and SGP have powered their way into the record books. The Z car has been a regular on the Texas drag circuit for some time and has recently gone national as a "PR vehicle" that works 1,320 feet at a time. Its current best effort of 10.64 at 129 mph is the benchmark for street Zs. However, being the world's quickest street Z does not exile the Nissan to trailer queen status. Kyle flexes the Z on the street with surprising regularity. During its transformation, the Z has made the pilgrimage from Deer Park to Dallas up to 10 times to battle the quarter mile. During the developmental stages, Kyle racked up victories at ID Drag Wars and was both the Quick Class winner and RWD Class runner-up at the 1999 IDRC Lone Star Nationals.

Unlike many other cars, making power is not the key to low e.t.s for a 300ZX. And unlike Hondas, it's not front-drive suspension tricks. When it comes to Nissan's high-tech supercar, it's all in the tranny. For Zs, a manual gearbox is not the preferred option. An automatic is the key to 10-second performance. We have driven many wicked street Zs, only to see them granulate the rear rubber trying to bag a good quarter-mile time. The problem is, in order to get a clutch capable of handling the power, one ends up with an on/off switch that makes it impossible to feather the clutch off the line. An automatic transmission bypasses this shortcoming and allows the engine to build big-time boost on the line. Level 10, the leader in upgrades for import-application automatics, provided the power transfer needed to net 10-second timeslips. Level 10 hit the import scene via the Toyota Supra gearbox (March 1998 Turbo) and has expanded its lineup to include the twin-boosted Z-car. For the Nissan, Level 10 upgrades the R01 transmission's internals with Raybestos Blue Plate Special clutches and Kolene steel retention plates. Since this combination increases the unit's coefficient of friction threefold, an accompanying increase in line pressure is made to ensure that it can handle a great deal of power and add snap to the Z's shifting characteristics. The tranny runs a 4000-rpm stall speed Level 10 converter, B&M oil cooler and spins an SGP one-piece driveshaft.

The Level 10 gearbox is fed thrust by a fully built engine. Since preparation equals power, the block was meticulously machined to ensure a stable foundation for performance. The cylinders were bored and honed with a torque plate to ensure optimal piston ring sealing and the block was magnaflux stress relieved. Inside, the VG30DETT V6 sports a grip of JUN products. The powerplant's reciprocating mass is made up of JUN forged pistons and JUN forged billet rods that swing on a shotpeened and magnafluxed stock crank. The pistons are 2mm overbore units which push bore to 89mm. Atop the short block, we find a set of SGP performance-ported heads tightly sealed via GReddy metal head gaskets and secured by battle-ready ARP fasteners. The gaskets are thicker than stock and serve to further lower compression to boost-friendly 8.0:1. In addition to the porting and polishing, the heads have received a five-angle valve job and have been fitted with stock-spec valves which are ceramic coated to better withstand the rigors of boost. Valvetrain orchestration is handled by a set of JUN cams with fine tuning coming from JUN adjustable cam sprockets. All four bumpsticks sport .374 inches of lift and 256 degrees duration at .050 inches of valve lift. JUN valve springs, retainers and guides round out the cylinder head mods. SGP port-matched the upper and lower intake manifolds to smooth the flow of air from the bored-out SGP throttle body into the powerplant's custom-carved combustion chambers.

Unlike the Supra, where many enthusiasts swap to single-turbo service, the Z's V-design engine does not lend itself to this route as well as the inline six of the Toyota. A pair of GReddy TD-05 turbos with 16G compressor wheels pressurizes the VG30DETT. A dual POP Charger filter from Jim Wolf Technology cleanses incoming air. Once compressed by the 16Gs, the charge air is chilled by twin GReddy intercoolers mounted in their factory fender locations. As it arrives in the combustion chamber, the charge air is joined by fuel delivered through upgraded 720cc RC Engineering injectors. The remainder of Nissan's fuel system consists of an RCI 10-gallon fuel cell, Cartech high-flow pump, -8 AN lines, an Essex fuel regulator and an SGP-tweaked fuel rail. The ignition system is stock spec.

Engine management is handled by a Jim Wolf Technology-tweaked ECU. The ECU is configured to control the larger 720cc injectors and has a built in nitrous oxide program to oversee the car's 80-shot of laughing gas. Like the typical spool-up kit, nitrous is injected when the system is on and WOT is attained, and the juice flows until a pre-determined boost pressure is reached (with all the right moves being made by the ECU, as far as fuel enrichment and ignition timing are concerned). Kyle's set-up logs off at 14 psi, giving the turbos plenty of time to reach their 25 psi maximum boost pressure, which is regulated by GReddy Type-S wastegates. The Jim Wolf ECU's program can be augmented by an A'PEXi Super AFC controller that allows Kyle to make fueling changes based on the octane rating of the go juice being pumped through the 300ZX. On the far side of the combustion equation, the Z runs 3-inch downpipes and a B&B Fabrication exhaust system.

An exhaust system is key because this Z sees the street on a regular basis. Its street heritage is also evident in the suspension and in the cabin where street, strip and comfort converge. Tokico five-position adjustable shocks are tag teamed with Eibach lowering coils and Suspension Technique sway bars to provide a communicative street set-up as well as a grippy strip set-up. To better tailor the suspension for street or strip duty, SGP developed its own camber kit for all four corners. Any high-speed dragger will tell you that the scariest part of a run is slowing down. SGP addressed this by developing its own brake upgrade package that works equally as well carving an apex as it does slowing from triple digit trap speeds.

Inside, the Nissan's two-seat design means one can add a roll cage without concern for backseat passengers. C&T Fabrication welded in a six-point cage that clears the car for 11.99 and quicker e.t.s. Kyle pilots the car from a Momo Rookie racing bucket and is kept planted by an RCI five-point harness. The Nissan retains its stock interior trim with the addition of GReddy warning meters and the aforementioned electronics.

There are many constants in this world. One of the more popular around here deals with "the wife's car." This scenario illustrates how this Nissan and SGP came into existence; so instead of telling you about it ourselves, we will let Kyle lay it out. "Back in October of 1996, my wife, Christina, and I decided to go car shopping to replace her tired Toyota Corolla. She suggested we look at Nissan 300ZX twin turbos at a local dealership. After a few weeks of owning the car Christina informed me the car was mine-it was meant as a gift all along! I thought we had purchased it for her. Once I knew the car was all mine, I decided to do some basic upgrades. I took the Nissan to a shop that was just opened by my high school friend Mark Gust. He added the usual-intake, exhaust, ECU and so on. As the bolt-ons were installed, Mark and I began to talk about the growing import scene. I was getting burned out as the manager of a local stereo shop, so I decided to invest in SGP Racing and become partners with Mark. Once inside the scene, I realized the true potential of the 300ZX and moved to more intense modifications. About this time, we started racing the car at the strip. Times began to drop and on August 22, 1999, I ran a 10.82 at 127 mph to become the quickest uni-body Z in the USA. We have since bettered that time with a 10.47 at 140 mph at the IDRC Summer Slam race at Englishtown, New Jersey. The Z-car has been a rolling testbed for developing 300ZX parts. SGP has developed a number of Z-car parts, some parts never before offered for the Z, so other Z-car owners can benefit from our success."

Kyle's version of "the wife's car scenario" is a bit different. Usually the car begins its transformation and is taken over midway through the process. Sounds like he has a very cool wife.

With the likes of Kenny Tran (July 2000, Turbo) and his 9-second Jotech Civic and Ari Yallon (September 2000, Turbo) and his awesome street RX-7, being recognized in Texas is no easy feat. Through hard work and perseverance, the Z and SGP have done more than make an impression-it has helped develop a complete line-up of parts. Based on its strip experience, SGP knows what works best and offers complete staged Z-car tuning packages that will make any road-going Z a rising star in its own right.

Power Technik