Our job was simple. Wes, our ace photographer, and I were given two days inside the dissolute city of Las Vegas to photograph a car that promised to be the fastest Nissan in the world. This car was slated to shoot through Nevada Highway 278 at a chilling speed of 220 mph, challenging Ferraris, Vipers, and other exotic machines that even I can't pronounce at the 16th annual Silver State Classic Challenge, a high-speed race event to determine which man has the bigger cojones to withstand the pressures of racing down a public road in extremely outrageous speeds. This car, a '02 Nissan 350Z owned by Option magazine, Japan's leading automotive tuning lit, was made strictly for that race and to eventually break the event's average-speed record of 207.78 mph, printed as the fastest road race average speed by Guinness Records. In these two bleak days, however, the only thing going fast was the time for Wes and I to shoot this very elusive vehicle.
"I can't find it, man," uttered Wes during his short stint as my rental car navigator. Our pre-trip research told us that the Z would be inside the Las Vegas Motor Speedway running hot laps around the oval for qualifying and overall practice. Wes, a certifiable walking map with a brain catalog of directions and short routes to anywhere across the globe, couldn't find the car--anywhere. Called guerilla journalism, this car was up for grabs for anybody to feature, mediocre or not, and we weren't about to allow that to happen, especially when the car was set to go back to Japan after the race. We wanted to be the first and only to capture the car on film. So we were ready with a team, including myself, the writer, Wes the shutterbug whore, and a contact from Option magazine. With that, we thought we were the sure-shot candidates for the feature.
The only problem was finding the car. We went in and out of the speedway, asking every employee and bystander about the Z and the Silver State Classic Challenge but to no avail. We called everyone back home to get more information but nobody had leads. Nothing. We were stuck in Las Vegas, cameras and voice recorders in hand, for nearly six hours with the possibility of coming home featureless.
Volanti Sportivi 350mm Suede Steering Wheel sits passively in front of the driver. GReddy's popular Remote Switching System allows the pilot to modulate boost settings without taking his hands off the wheel--important when your going over 200mph! | 
A duo of Recaro Profi SPA seats tag-teamed with FIA-approved Takata 340MPH 4-point Racing Harnesses keep the driver safely secured during...you guessed it--200mph runs! The SPA has a much higher lateral hold than the already snug SPG. |  |
It was the good graces of our Option contact and her lengthy connections that finally led us to Sam's Town Casino, the Silver State Classic's home base and where the Z was comfortably parked. Sunset was coming down and the car was ours to abuse with film and digital flash cards. This was perfect, we thought, but Lady Luck has never been on Super Street's side. This car was supposed to be on our cover, baiting in readers like you from newsstands and dentists' tables alike. But as you can see, it's not.
Like paparazzi to movie stars, we had to hurdle over a lot of red tape just to get our voices and shutter clicks heard in the ears of Fuyuhiko Yoshimura, chief editor of Option, despite the fact we had our contact on our side. He and his book were very hesitant about letting us feature it in our magazine, and, reluctantly, for good reason. They were truly concerned about the Z's performance in the race because they, too, had a limited time to accomplish what they set out to do, not to mention the fact that they traveled all the way from Japan just to do it.
However, their indecision wasn't the reason why it's not on the cover. Obviously, we took some shots of the car and even received some tech info on the beast from the east. These pictures, however, were taken under duress and don't even contain a running shot simply because they didn't allow us to drive it around. In fact, we concluded that we should re-shoot the car for the cover after its race to get better pictures and more time. But before we dive into that, let's talk about the car first, since we're happy to say that this will be the only American magazine, if not the only magazine, to ever feature the car.
Outfitted with a GReddy T88H turbocharger producing over 750 ponies, this orange-pale metallic Nissan 350Z is a race-bred natural beauty. Peering inside the engine bay, I was entranced by the workmanship of the setup: A VQ30DET sits in the bay supported by an army of custom-made JUN products. "I chose JUN to tune the car because they have experience running in the Silver State Classic, as well as great knowledge in American tuning," explained Yoshimura-san. Almost every part inside and outside the engine is a JUN fabrication. JUN cams, boasting a 272 duration and 9.8 lift, help the stock valves open wide enough to let the exhaust and air move efficiently during the high speeds, which is also assisted by the JUN valve springs, while the air makes its way to the JUN cylinder head via a GReddy air intake, a VH45 throttle body, and a custom JUN intake manifold.
Inside the V-6 block, tunneled to make approximately 3.8Ls, are six JUN pistons crowned with matching piston rings. These powerful slugs help the fuel, which is spit out by 740cc JUN injectors, detonate effectively. The leftovers are thrown out by a JUN titanium exhaust system by way of JUN headers. The most important part of the mechanism was clearly left to GReddy with the T88H, as well as its blow-off valve, Type C wastegate, and E01 boost controller. The footwork is managed entirely by ZEAL springs and shocks, partnering up with choice Advan TC2s (18x8.5 in the front and 18x10.5 in the back). The power is transferred to the Michelin Pilot Sports Cup tires by an HKS clutch and regulated by a Cusco LSD. And if these tires were to ever fail or something goes askew inside the engine, Inada-san is protected by an 18-point rollcage and Takata racing harness, which brings us back to why this power machine isn't on the cover.
Just minutes after its launch to make its first run at the Silver State Classic, Inada-san reportedly reached 201 mph before a tire blew, causing the 350Z to flip seven times, crashing to a screeching halt, mangled like a junkyard beater. According to the Ely Daily Times, a local newspaper in the middle of nowhere, the Z crashed 7 miles from the start. This accident occured no more than 15 hours after Wes and I worked our asses off just to get these shots for you. Cover feature or not, we got this baby on film and Lady Luck finally gave us a big break. So bear witness to one of the only clean features of Option's Nissan 350Z.