photographer: Henry Z. Dekuyper
Even without a neon-pastel colored paint job or a body kit with a front opening wide enough to ingest small animals or children, this gunmetallic G35 Coupe fashioned by Mark Bruno is one hell of a built car. Boosted with not one, but two GReddy turbos (18Gs that have been modified with 20G compressor wheels), this particular VQ35 screams a sweet note of 571hp. To be so powerful with such subtle looks is an absolute blessing.
All it took was a quick spin in a twin-turbo Z to convince Bruno to take on the more luxurious Infiniti Coupe. "The exterior styling [of a G35] is sleeker, sexier and more refined than a Z," he says. Another friend of his gave him one with low mileage after upgrading to a Gallardo, and so began the two-year quest to turn out one of the cleanest and fastest Gs on the West Coast.
Bruno, who for years worked as an audio specialist at Rockford Fosgate, was used to building his car for the perfection of sound rather than performance, but he knew that the twin-turbo setup he had already seen was just what his VQ needed. Rather than bolting the kit in and calling it a day, Bruno prepped the motor with more boost in mind, and that meant rebuilding with stronger internals. UMS Tuning balanced out Carillo A-Beam rods with stock bore CP pistons and piston rings as well as the factory crankshaft, and after reassembly the cylinder head was ported and polished. Feeding the V-6 air-and lots of it-is a larger, stainless steel plenum from Kinetix Racing along with GReddy air filters.
On the fuel side, a Turbo XS U-Tec controller signals a Walbro fuel pump to send heaps of fuel to the 750cc RC injectors and AAM fuel rail, keeping the engine from leaning out. The dual exhaust, also from AAM, is three inches in diameter and has external wastegate dumps built into it for the TiAL 38mm wastegates. There are also two HKS Super Sequential blow-off valves to skim off any excess boost pressure and a GReddy intercooler mounted stealth-like in the front air dam.
In order to maintain the daily driver status Bruno intended on keeping, the handling had to come as close to factory as possible without being too rigid. He made a call to Tein, who supplied him with the Super Streets, a softer offering of their expansive coilover line, with the addition of an EDFC controller to make fine adjustments if needed. Hotchkis adjustable sway bars and Kinetix control arms also give Bruno further options to make the car more track appropriate if need be, and a Richie's front strut bar pushes the flex out of the shock towers.
Bruno's G comes loaded with plenty of other sought-after gear that one might expect to find on a ride like this. Dubbed-out Volk GT-C wheels going 8.5-wide on the front and 10.5-extra-wide on the rear are always a welcome sight, complimenting the freakishly large Baer 14-inch brakes. The Version 1 body kit from VeilSide makes us forget the wide mouth trend that the company became famous for and a custom silver carbon hood from Versus blends in so perfectly, you'd have thought it was a dealer option.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Staying true to his car audio roots, Bruno had to juice up the sound, stuffing a double-DIN Alpine IVA-W200 head unit into the center console, which in turn was customized with silver carbon paneling, a triple pod gauge cluster (boost, fuel pressure and nitrous pressure) on top, and on the lower portion, a pod to mount the Auto Meter Nexus oil pressure gauge. The trunk is a serious display of Rockford audio equipment, showing off a Power 1000 amp and a Lightning Audio 12-inch sub, complete with neon lighting and two NX nitrous bottles on each side. Inside, the black leather upholstery was upgraded with graphite and beige alcantera fabric then applied to the Recaro Sport seats, while the headliner and C-pillars were also covered to match.
Bruno loves driving a car that pushes nearly 600hp on a daily basis and gets over 200 miles to the tank. "Even though it doesn't look like much, every aspect of this vehicle has been modified," he explains. "Most cars with this much work done to them never make it off the trailer they're towed around on. I drive this thing around regularly." If we could squeak by like this without pulling unwanted attention, we'd get down just as much, if not more.
Fast Facts
'04 Infiniti G35
Owner Mark Bruno
Hometown Pebble Beach, CA
Daily Grind Realtor
Power 571.9hp @ 5,785rpm; 603.9lb-ft @ 4,999rpm
Under The Hood 3.5L VQ35DETT; Carillo A-Beam rods; CP pistons and piston rings; balanced stock crankshaft; ported and polished head by UMS Tuning; Kinetix Racing intake manifold; RC 750cc injectors; Aeromotive fuel regulator; Walbro fuel pump; AAM fuel rail, exhaust and high-flow catalytic converter; GReddy air filters, modified 18G turbos, oil pan and intercooler; NGK spark plugs; HKS Super Sequential blow-off valves; TiAL 38mm wastegates; port matched turbo gaskets; coated manifolds and turbine housings
Drivetrain B&M short throw; Centerforce DFX clutch
Brains Turbo XS U-Tec; GReddy PRofec B-Spec II boost controller; Tein EDFC
Stiff Stuff Tein Super Street coilovers; Hotchkis 35mm adjustable front sway bar and 24mm adjustable rear sway bar; Richie's front strut bar; Kinetix front/rear adjustable control arms
Stoppers Baer 14-inch Xtreme six-piston brakes and lines
Rollers 20x8.5 and 20x10.5 Volk GT-C wheels; 245/35R20 and 275/30R20 Falken FK452 tires
Outside VeilSide Version 1 body kit; '06 Infiniti G35 OEM rear wing; Versus silver carbon hood; graphics by Tora Vinyl
Inside Recaro Sport seats; black leather/graphite alcantera/beige upholstery; custom carbon dash by Audio Innovations; Auto Meter Nexus fuel pressure, boost, nitrous pressure and oil pressure gauges; Nismo shift knob
Ice Audio install by Sound Xpressions and Kartunes; Alpine IVA-W200 head unit and PXA-H701 media manager/Dolby digital processor; Rockford Fosgate Power 1000 amplifier, 600x1 sub, 100x4 mids and highs; Lightning Audio Storm Series 6.5-inch mids, 1-inch tweeters and 12-inch subwoofer; Sirius satellite radio; iPod interface; Parrot Bluetooth hands-free kit
Props UMS Tuning; Mackin Industries; Nitrous Express; Centerforce; Unorthodox Racing; Baer Brakes; Tein; Hotchkis; Team Prototype; Auto Meter; Lightning Audio; Sound Xpression; Kartunes; Moore Performance; Kinetix Motorsports; Sirius Satellite Radio; Xact Dyno; Darton Sleeves; Race Engineering
 |  Way to wash down those six hot dogs and four pastrami sandwiches with a Diet Coke, Bruno. |  |
 |  |  |
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar