Stillen Nissan Day
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The smaller, "Nissans only" version of Stillen's Open House had a lot of potential... but it fizzled as the day wore on, in part because Stillen didn't obtain permits to close off the street beforehand. It's much more enjoyable to look at 150+ cars parked on the same 1/4 mile of street rather than 100 cars parked over 1/2+ mile of street.
Dave Lopez (00-01 SE), Lordrandall (92SE), my friend Barry (`02 SE-R Spec V), and myself met in Burbank at the hellish hour of 6:30am to make it to the Irvine pre-meet (which was disorganized but impressive) at 7:30am... which in turn rolled out to Stillen over an hour early... the NorCal group and some others arrived at around 8am, and the next thing you know, the street on both sides was filled with Maximas! Much to my surprise, the Maxima group was by far the largest there at over 30+ cars...
The biggest thing was the new Nissan 350Z and the bubbling aftermarket that is waiting to unleash itself now that 350Z's are finally on the street. Painfully little was shown by Stillen; their big surprise (a positive displacement supercharger, either a Roots or an Eaton unit, I think) through a hood cutout wasn't even close to finished, nor was it terribly impressive in its current form. JIC USA was there with a 350Z and Volk CE28's, another owner with a new silver 350Z Track Edition from Mossy Nissan was there, a copper 350Z Touring or Performance edition was there, as well as a handful of others. The 350Z Track edition put down only 228rwhp corrected, a disappointingly low # vs. other published dyno runs of 240~250rwhp.
Whether or not Stillen's Dynojet reads lower than other Dynojets in the area is open to debate (R&D Dyno in Gardena is a popular one), as Mike Kojima's 1992 300ZX Twin Turbo (aka Sport Compact Car's Project 300ZX TT) put down "only" 561 rwhp corrected- I am not sure how much boost, 22-24psi?), a gen3 VG-powered Maxima automatic put down 123fwhp (about expected), a new Sentra SE-R Spec V with big heavy wheels, intake and muffler did only 143fwhp (ouch!), and Mossy Nissan's `03 Altima 3.5SE with intake and exhaust put down 228fwhp. Some of the numbers are as expected (the Altima and gen3 Maxima in particular), some seem low (the SE-R Spec V, Mike K's 300ZX, and the 350Z track), although you could probably explain all three of the "low" numbers with the following reasons: big heavy wheels/ineffective muffler, insufficient airflow over the intercoolers (Stillen didn't have a big fan!), and low-octane gas (350Z's can handle 100octane and make power gains...).
Stillen's facility tour was about the same as it was when I first went on it 4 or 5 years ago; not bad for newcomers, but nothing had really changed. Lots of prototype work going on- they've been busy. A bright blue SE-R Spec V prototype was inside for Nissan (6500rpm redline!), as were a new Hummer H2 and some other toys like an Infiniti G35. Just... not a whole lot to see!
Vendor cars... an R33 Skyline GT-R, Eibach's usual Lotus Elise, Yokohama's Nissan Frontier, a funky color-shifting green gen5 Maxima, Stillen's usual fleet of project cars: the black supercharged 350Z, a silver 350Z, a bright red SE-R Spec V, the orange Altima 3.5SE, plus everything else parked in back (SUV's, their Q45, two 200SX's, etc.).
A big surprise wasn't the G35's or 350Z's there, but a brand-new Infiniti M45. I didn't catch the owner's name, but the vehicle must have litterally rolled off the dealer lot that day. It's a lot better looking in person than in pictures, but it's still far from beautiful. The square pug nosed look looks much more imposing and aggressive in person, although again it still isn't good looking!
Maxima.org'ers from California and Nevada showed up.
- Kevin Wong's 97SE with the HKS Hyper Ground kit was there.
- Matthel's turbo 95SE with a built motor and finally sporting a 5-speed manual was there (his car is still impressive, despite its 1000's of gremlins)
- I30Krab's very impressive I30 was there (built VQ30DE with DET valvesprings (7500rpm redline!), DET pistons (9:1 compression), JWT cams, Level 10 automatic transmission controller, air-to-water aftercooler, NOS, rollcage, and more mods than you can shake a stick at...
- Lordrandall's 92SE with 16x8" RX-7 wheels was one of the few gen3's present...
- Jane's 97SE supercharged was there, as was Y2KevSE (minus his car, which is also finally a 5-speed! And a turbo... wowzers.)
- Cheston's 97GXE supercharged with Progress/Cattman gen3 coilovers and the Brembo GT brakes was there as well- no need for me to describe his car to the death, he's got a website for that!
- Malik's gen4 with AP Racing brakes...
- Nabil's freaklishly strong 96SE (intake, MEVI, y-pipe, 17x8 Volk TE37's, etc.) was there...
- Hiroshi's 97SE was there- hey, is your car being featured in a Nissan commerical yet?- with JIC FLT-A2 coilovers,y-pipe, CAI, MEVI, 18x8.5" Volk AV3's, etc...
- And one of the last of the old-timers, Rick (having sold his 97SE) and his Audi A6 2.7T was there with Stoptech brakes, OZ Superleggra's, other goodies and a stage I chip (310lb, 366lb-ft?)... wow. The first video linked is his car. Impressive.
Not too much else of note... the Stillen parts sale was a bust; the only real good deal being 300ZX calipers and some wheels. Lots of K&N's on sale for $10, but most, if not all, lacked the velocity stack, making them useless for most... and the raffle sucked, too.
Nissan Performance Mag was there, as were a bunch of Sentra.net guys, FreshAlloy was there too... plus a few random other guys Barry and I knew.
Beyond that, not too much else.
If you've got names to associate with people in the pictures, please let me know. I'd be happy to start matching names and faces, if you'd give me a little help. E-mail me with the picture number or file name, the names of the people in the picture, and who they are in the picture!
All images (c) 2002 Brian J. Won (homepage). vq30de.net and brian1.net are property of Brian J. Won. VQ30DE is Nissan's engine designation for their all-aluminum 3.0L gasoline DOHC engine. No infringement or misuse of the VQ30DE designation is intended.
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