2004 Nissan Fairlady 350Z - Signal Auto - Time Attack

The tranquil calm of the Izanagi Jinjya is shattered by the barely muffled SR20 barking to life. The aural assault gets even worse as the Cusco LSD engages bolt-action style, causing the massive rear meats to jerk and chirp, reducing the perfectly manicured gravel parking lot into a staccato shower of pebbly projectiles. The cacophony proves too much for the shrine's resident golden lab, who runs off in search of more peaceful surroundings. The other visitors are also rattled, not expecting to find such a car, along with us motley gaijin, within the confines of this peaceful sanctuary. Others may come here seeking serenity now but on this day our shrine is the house of Signal Auto and we came to worship at the bumper of its JDM Fairlady Z.

Sacrilege never felt so good. Signal Auto Grand Poobah Kousuke "Mad K" Kida is a certifiable Nissan zealot with a fever for the flavor of the GT-R and Silvia. His younger brother Hiko is Signal's top tuner and is also tight with the peeps from Izanagi Jinjya, a very zen-like religious shrine located in the Suita City district of Osaka, Japan, just a pebble's throw from Signal Auto HQ. We've been here before, flaunting our complete disregard for Japan's social construct in order to shoot some of Signal's other super dupa cars. Come to think of it, we've even shot this exact same car before, for the cover of our November 2004 issue.

Back then the Z was a mildly-built demo car with a radical SR swap intended primarily for drift exhibitions. While the car you see before you may look like the same Z33 Fairlady we featured almost two years ago, there are very few shared traits between the two variants aside from the Signal signature Andromeda hue, a custom blend from those colorful characters at Maziora lovingly applied by the gang at Show-Up Full Spot. As I watch the idling Z shake the shrine's paper lanterns "mildly-built" is the furthest descriptor from my mind.

In the locker room a man is often measured by the size of his big swinging, uh, gym bag, but in terms of Japanese tuning potency inches don't matter as much as seconds, more specifically how many of them it takes to complete a single lap around a circuit such as Tsukuba. A demo car designed for light drift duty just ain't gonna cut it as a super lapper. With this in mind Mad K completely rebuilt his Z33 to prove the Time Attack potency of Signal Auto; and prove it he did when the Fairlady threw down a 1:00 minute lap at Tsukuba late last year.

Yukihiro Takenaka was at the helm for that session. Takenaka-san has driven in Super GT and Super Taikyu, which makes him, well, a super driver. While nothing to brag about in the sack, hitting the minute mark at Tsukuba is seriously fast for a four cylinder FR, and Kousuke-san believes the car has another three seconds in it when completely dialed (even though its current time is already the fastest for a Z33 at this circuit). The car may even make time at our upcoming 2006 Time Attack Finals on November 8, where long-time Signal Auto friend (and super driver in his own right) Tsuneaki "Manchan" Mankumo will take the wheel. If the Z comes to Buttonwillow in November Kousuke-san thinks it could pull a 1:52, which would place it atop the Unlimited FR ladder. That's big talk, but it takes more than talk and a set of big brass ones to score that perfect lap. It takes the perfect blend of parts selection and precise tuning.