Nissan 300ZX, meet the LS1 small block
by Evan Griffey
photography by Steve Demmitt
With a storied reputation, chiseled one apex at a time in IMSA GTO and GTS competition, the 1990 to 1996 Nissan 300ZX flexed its twin-turbo power in the formative years of the import movement. The LS1 edition of the small-block Chevy brought a high-tech edge to that mainstay of American muscle, the Chevrolet Corvette, which has received its fair share of accolades on the street and in a variety of road racing series. Although these two automotive icons should be at odds with each other, BlackTrax Performance has coaxed them into joining forces. The rest could be USCC history.
This LS1-powered Z-car is the brainchild of Aki Maseba who, along with co-owners Natalie Bressem and Jei Chang, operates BlackTrax Performance in Milpitas, California.
Maseba's first experience with a Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo was a nightmare and he thought he would never lay his hands on one again. "After driving my friend's 350Z and my girlfriend's G35, I really wanted a fun sports car again. I searched and searched for a car I could drive every day and have some fun with at the track, but not empty my piggy bank in the process. No matter how much I looked, the 300ZX kept coming up. So I said to myself: 'Why not? [It] can't be as bad as the first one.'" Maseba made a deal on a 1990 model that had been collecting dust for two years and, after a quick revival, he was off and boosting.
The Nissan eventually dynoed at 440 wheel-hp. Maseba initially found driving the car an absolute blast. All that bothered him was the boost lag and the weight. As these nagging concerns grew larger and larger in his mind, Maseba was driving the car less and less."For weeks, I just let it sit and rot in my driveway while I decided what to do. Then it hit me-a V8 swap. The LS1 soon jumped to the top of the list. They're plentiful, nicely built, all-aluminum and drastically lighter than the stock VG30DETT. They come with a six-speed and aftermarket parts are plentiful. I didn't want the same old Z everyone else had, I wanted to stand out. I knew I was onto something."
A wrecked WS6 Pontiac Trans Am came up on the Internet, located in the middle of nowhere. Maseba immediately grabbed a trailer and went to pick it up. Of course, playing the part of the excited dreamer, Maseba bought the swap before he measured the engine and engine bay. Portions of the firewall were cut to make space, but nothing major was undertaken. The LS1 drivetrain was dropped in with some customized 300ZX/Energy Suspension mounts and wired with a custom harness from Painless.
The engine has been enhanced with some mild mods, namely Comp Cam bumpsticks (222-degree intake, 221-degree exhaust) and a serious 150-shot of nitrous from the blue bottle folks at NOS. Since the LS1 runs a larger 85mm throttle body, no nitrous kits fit the V8, forcing Maseba to concoct his own custom fogger set-up. BlackTrax's Jei Chang handled the tuning chores, via an EFI Live engine management system.
The headers were an area of contention. "I didn't want stock headers or shorties. I wanted some full length headers that wouldn't make me homeless," says Maseba. He cut, tweaked and welded a set of Edelbrock Race Headers to snake though the Z's undercarriage. He then fabricated a single outlet exhaust, purely for weight savings. The exhaust is full V-band, three-inch stainless steel feeding into twin three-inch high-flow cats, then to a resonator and finally to a three-inch Magnaflow muffler. Dual BlackTrax ECS cut-outs were added before the cats for track use and the dyno test.
Making power is one thing-getting it to the pavement is another. To this end, the BlackTrax crew installed a set of Nex GT Series coilovers. This set-up features a twin tube, low-pressure design, a 30mm piston, four-position dampening adjustment and separate ride height and spring pre-load adjustments. Additional suspension mods consist of Wicked Tuning tie rods, upper strut tower bar, upper control arms and radius rods, Kazama subframe spacers and a Stillen HICAS eliminator kit. Knowing the key to getting around a corner is braking, BlackTrax enlisted some choice upgrades to the stock equipment, including Hawk pads and sticky Kumho rubber from The Tire Rack.
Beyond suspension, chassis stiffening can really impact a car's controllability at the edge of adhesion, which is where USCC combatants will spend a lot of time. A six-point, mild steel roll bar was constructed out of 1.6-inch DOM tubing to keep the weak T-top structure from twisting under heavy g-loads.
BlackTrax says the V8's brutish grunt on the low end and nitrous-engulfed top end-combined with a stiff chassis, sorted suspension, overall attention to detail and weight savings-give this 90s superstar a good shot at USCC glory.