Why would anybody jump out of a perfectly functional airplane you ask? Unless one had a death wish, more than likely they were planning on skydiving through the air before parachuting down safely to terra firma. In 2007, over 2.5 million people took the leap of faith skydiving through the air searching for the ultimate adrenaline rush. During the free fall a skydiver can reach a terminal velocity of 150 mph -faster than 95-percent of the production cars built today. While some people look to the air for the high, others look to the ground.

Sitting shotgun in a finely-tuned drift car with Chris Forsberg at the helm can possibly be the ultimate high. Best of all, this high can be obtained without risking your life by jumping out of an airplane. The V8 engine rumbles with a lumpy idle and everything around you shakes uncontrollably, including your body. We give the head mechanic, Kevin Wells the thumbs up to indicate we are ready to rock-and-roll. The "Z" pulls out of the pits and the car immediately accelerates. The torque from the big V8 engine generates enough g-force to further push your body into the seat. There is no speedometer on the "Z" but as I glace through the corner of my eye I can tell we are nearly reaching triple-digit speeds. The car accelerates for another second before Chris flicks the steering wheel and the "Z" starts to gracefully slide through the corner. The transition from the first apex to the next is seamless and smooth as if you were on a roller coaster ride with tracks keeping you in place. The drop top "Z" rips through the gear as a huge cloud of tire smoke billows out from the back of the car. Riding in a car performing a drift at over 100 miles-an-hour is out of this world, experiencing it all in an open top roadster takes it to a whole new level.

Powering the Chris Forsberg/NOS Energy Drink/Maxxis Tire 350Z is the Nissan VK56 V8 engine that was hijacked from a Nissan Titan. Finding room for an extra row of cylinders is no easy task but Wells is not your average Nissan-loving fanatic. Wells has performed some sick swaps into 350Zs, including one that was powered by an SR20DET. According to Wells, the VK56 engine was chosen to simplify the vehicle. To generate the same type of power that the VK56 makes, a VQ35 engine would have to utilize some sort of forced-induction system. That would require additional intake plumbing, supercharger or turbocharger, intercooler, etc. Kevin states, "by using the V8 engine we eliminate all of that and also reduces the chances of failure." In order to win, you will need to finish and the V8 350Z is the epitome of that type of thinking. Surprisingly, the 5.6-liter VK56 longblock is practically stock with the exception of 256-degree S2 camshafts and upgraded valve springs from Jim Wolf Technology. This is certainly not something you would expect from one of the top drift vehicle in the nation. The four-pack of Jim Wolf bumpsticks feature 256-degree duration and .430"-lift (232-degree with .346"-lift stock profile) which allows more air to reach the combustion chamber resulting in greater power generations. Another byproduct of the increased duration camshafts results in the powerband of the VK56 engine moving higher in the RPM range. This is crucial in drifting as the driver is constantly running the engine near redline. To help prevent the valves from slamming into the pistons at redline, the factory valve springs were replaced with stronger units from Jim Wolf. Finally, custom Hogan's Racing sheetmetal intake manifold was fabricated to channel air and fuel into the cylinder. The reverse-mounted manifold (throttle body towards rear of the vehicle) incorporates a dual Holley 52mm throttle body that dictates how much air reaches the intake plenum.

Great Balls Of Fire

All the additional airflow from the intake manifold and camshafts is useless unless combined with the right amount of fuel. The roadster runs an eight-pack of Bosch 680 cc/min injectors mounted on the intake runner one-inch prior to the cylinder head intake ports for better fuel atomization. Keeping the injectors primed is a Walboro 255 lph fuel pump and Aeromotive fuel-pressure regulator. The fuel pump draws high-octane juices from an eight-gallon Fuel Safe fuel cell that is custom-mounted in the trunk. The combined air-fuel mixture is then compressed in the combustion chamber by the 9.8:1 compression factory slugs.

Mounted in the cylinder head at the center of each combustion chamber is a NGK Racing Iridium spark plug that gets ignited by a Chevrolet LS1 coil pack. Orchestrating fuel and ignition timing events is a BigStuff3 GEN3 PRO SEFI system. The GEN3 PRO system is a fully-sequential engine management with full data logging capability. After the air-fuel mixture is burnt and power is extracted, the exhaust gases are evacuated by a pair of JBA Headers. From the headers, a custom LS Automotive 3.5-inch exhaust system channels the gases to the back of the vehicle terminating at the rear bumper. The entire engine combination produced 360 rear-wheel horsepower and 340 lb-ft of torque on the Dynojet chassis dyno.

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