Automotive videographer and photographer Larry Chen is one of the best content creators in the automotive world. His photos and videos are excellent, and his YouTube channel can be seen showing off some truly epic builds. These range from the original Falken drift Mazda RX-7 to the equally impressive Ferrari drift cars. But this Nissan 350Z might be one of the craziest cars Chen has ever shown off, and certainly the craziest Nissan Z car he’s ever seen.
This Nissan The 350Z is already a performance machine. If you take a base Nissan sports car, shove a 4.2-liter engine into it, turn it into a hybrid electric car, and add the Formula 1 KERS system, it just gets more performance. It sounds like fantasy and dreams, but that’s exactly what Sasha Anis’ Nissan 350Z has under the hood and all its glorious, aerodynamic bodywork. You might think that the Nissan 350Z is having a blast. Well, Anis is here to make sure we never forget his own Nissan 350Z.
The fiercest, wildest 350Z you’ll ever see
Chen was at an event at Lime Rock and had to cover this rather incredible machine. What looks like a spaceship was originally a Nissan Grand-Am race car from California. Arnis inherited the car as a racing car and then, as he puts it, turned it into a spaceship. It’s a pretty ridiculous build with holes in the engine bay just for spring clearance. In terms of power, the powertrain is a 4.2-liter, 15-to-1 compression naturally aspirated Jim Wolf Technology engine.
It has huge headers, and the fully integrated engine makes about 530 horsepower at the wheels. It’s a VQ42 engine that runs amazingly on just plain pump air with additives. So, a simple addition of regular gasoline makes 530 horsepower. It’s insane, and it spins around 8,300 rpm, so it makes a lot of noise, as Chen’s video demonstrates. Reducing the weight of the car is a nightmare because all the additions up front make it front-end heavy. New front and rear batteries do help reduce the weight and balance of the car.
Added F1 technology to Nissan 350Z
Chen describes this absolute beast as a spaceship, but it is. The car has a Formula E electric motor inside the car, located in the bell between the engine and gearbox. Yes. Formula E racing. This car has no clutch because the electric motor has to act as a starter at the same time, starting the engine and making movement at the same time. The car has to be started by that electric motor, which means it’s effectively a direct-drive car. Once the engine exceeds a certain RPM, the engine will start.
Things get more high-tech. Inside the 350Z we find a DC-DC converter, the same unit found on modern Red Bull Formula 1 cars. It’s actually the same KERS system you see on grand prix cars, when you brake the energy is all recovered. Modern Formula 1 cars achieve this with the MGU-K system, which is actually a more advanced version of the KERS system introduced to F1 in 2009 and redeveloped in 2011.
A hybrid electric monster that wows Chen
The battery for the KERS system itself comes from a BMW i8, and the cables go to the distribution box behind the driver, which then all connect to the F1 KERS system where the passenger seat is. All of this is then fed into the car’s electric motor. Chan was equally astounded to discover that the wild car had four wheel steering, all of which were actually designed to help bring down the power of that massive front engine, all by buying the actuator and reverse engineering it .
One of America’s Most High-Tech Time Trials
We could delve into a lot more stuff with this 350Z, but this is just the highlight of one of the most outrageous builds we’ve seen so far on Chen’s channel. The sound of this monster roaring around the track is indescribable, and knowing it has Formula E and Formula 1 technology only makes it more impressive. When this 350Z left Nissan’s factory, it’s extremely unlikely that the engineers who assembled it could have imagined that it would be such a monster of a track, and that Formula 1 technology has taken it to the next level.
Source: Larry Chen YouTube Channel