Say hello to one of the toughest Nissan S30Z's I have ever seen. This dark red Z is owned by Kuni-san of Gunma Prefecture, and when I first spotted it at the spring Omega Cup event at Tsukuba Circuit I could not keep my eyes off it! After first drooling over the car's amazing stance, I began to notice the overall attention to detail on the car. While it's as functional as a track car can be, it is also nice enough to rival many of the show cars I see. The majority of the classic cars you see racing at the circuit are mostly original and the drivers are out simply for the fun of driving. This car is different. Every part of the car has been built for maximum performance, which has earned the car the nickname of "Battle S30Z".

Out on the track, the car sings beautiful inline six music and moves with thrust that you wouldn't expect from a car over 30 years old. Although the car reaches very high speeds on the faster sections of the track, the car retains its clean lines without the use of a GT wing or other extreme aero parts. The car's minor body enhancements seem to work well enough.

In the corners, the car's massive SSR Professor wheels wrapped in Advan A048's give the car all the grip it needs. To accommodate the large rubber, the car has been outfitted with a set of FRP fender flares. The doors and hood are also constructed of FRP for added weight savings.

In this shot with the car loaded up on its transporter, you can see the upgraded brakes which were sourced from an FC3S Mazda RX7. Suspension wise, modifications include a custom damper set up from ZEAL and Nismo stabilizer bars.

While most built up S30Z's are swapping over to turbo RB power, Kuni keeps things real with a fully built naturally aspirated L-series engine that has been stroked to 3.1 Liters. All of the engine internals have been replaced with high performance components, and induction comes from a set of Solex 50's. The exhaust system is one-off for this set up. In this photo you can also see the car's custom twin fan cooling system. The engine is mated to an R32 Skyline transmission with an OS Giken clutch. This set up dynoed at 337ps to the wheels at a recent power check gathering. That is well over 100hp per liter naturally aspirated!

This photo taken during the car's build shows the custom 23 point roll cage that dominates the interior. During race days, the driver sits in a single Bride racing seat.

Talk about a mean looking S30.

The car needs much more than the standard ZG flares to cover the giant rear wheels and tires.

So how does it run?

The car's best lap time on the Ebisu Circuit west course is 1:04.801 and at Tsukuba Circuit it has an overall best of 1:02.911. Hey, that's not too far off from a stock R35 GT-R.

Not too bad for a classic non-turbo Z wouldn't you say?

Battle Z Homepage

-Mike Garrett