Bulging fenders, 20-inch rollers, and a twin-boosted powerplant make this 350Z a jaw-dropping cruiser.
photographer: Henry Z. DeKuyper
When it comes to turning heads few cars on the road are the equal of the Nissan 350Z. It may be the car's roots in JGTC racing or simply its low-slung, highly appealing shape. No matter the reason, the Z has been an enthusiastic body tuning participant from the beginning. So when we heard the first-ever VeilSide wide-bodied 350Z was coming together we lined up a photo shoot especially for our special body kit issue.
VeilSide is known for its leading-edge design characteristics and precision manufacturing. The brainchild of Yokomaku Hiranao, the company name is taken directly from Yokomaku's name, "maku" meaning Veil and "yoko" meaning Side. VeilSide was established in 1990 and at its first Tokyo Auto Salon in 1991 took home the first of many awards of recognition.
VeilSide really hit it big time at the 1994 Auto Salon when its Combat Kit for the Toyota Supra made a ground-shaking debut. The original Combat kit spawned others in the line-up as well as new line-ups of styling kits. As the number of applications grew so did the VeilSide legend.
One year at the Auto Salon VeilSide went crazy and filled an entire row with wild looking cars ... the same car with insane body transformations. It took peering in the cockpits and seeing the gauge clusters before we realized all the cars in the row were Supras. Therein lies another of the company's strengths. They don't just make one kit for every application. If a particular car inspires multiple looks, Veilside will make multiple kits.
Such is the case with Bill Chen's seductive Nissan 350Z. The car's wicked stance is enhanced with a VeilSide Combat Version 3 widebody kit. The VeilSide parts include an aggressive front bumper, widebody fender flares, rocker skirts, a rear bumper, a trick hood and carbon fiber wing. Heck, the only surfaces left untouched are the roof and the trunk. The installation of the kit and application of the car's gleaming red paint was handled by 20/20 Autobody.
The widebody look has trickled down from racing where wider bodies mean wider tires and more mechanical grip. To this end Chen's Z boasts gargantuan 20x9.5s up front and mind-blowing 20x13s out back. The weapon of choice: Work Meister S1s, each wrapped in sticky, low-profile Continental rubber. The remainder of the car's footwork consists of Tein Flex coil-overs with EDFC, which allows cockpit adjustment of dampening on the fly and a Brembo front brake upgrade flexing 14.3-inch lightweight rotors and big-bore calipers.
With meaty 13-inch wide wheels and a correspondingly massive contact patch Chen's next goal was to make 'em chirp in third gear. Answering the call is a GReddy twin-turbo kit. Chen started with the basic kit and intercooler upgrade but elected to mix it up with twin TiAL wastegates, an HKS SSQV blow-off valve, twin Helix straight pipes and an HKS F-CON V Pro for tuning.
On the fueling side of the equation we find a pair of Walbro 255 lph pumps feeding six RC Engineering 440cc injections via an HKS rail. The installation of the hard parts and the tuning of the F-CON V Pro was performed bySP Engineering.
On the dyno the boosted VQ35DE pumped out 425 whp and 384 lb-ft of torque at a conservative 16 psi. It seems that 425 is a healthy number; good power and acceptable stress levels on the V6's stock internals.
The Combat-kitted Nissan is a leisure car taken out on fair-weather weekends and for special occasions. Imagine leashing up a T-Rex and taking it for a walk in the local dog park and you get an idea of what weekend drives in the country must be like for Chen. Yep, with its dominating widebody-enhanced stance, 20-inch meats and turbo induction even the pit bulls cower, whimper and scurry away.