Show cars rarely demonstrate mechanical creativity delivering both form and function. Engineering innovation is traditionally bred within motorsports in the name of edging out the competition. Street car tuners typically adapt, rather than pioneer, racing equipment for enthusiast use. However, some “show cars” that actually see time on the street develop some creative solutions that are beneficial to both form and function.
Wanting a platform capable of supporting both elegance and high performance, John Lotz purchased an Infiniti G35 in its debut year of 2004. At the time, John heard of tuners just beginning to successfully turbocharge the VQ35DE engines for substantial power gains. John desired to take it to the extreme. His original goal was to produce 1,000 horsepower without sacrificing any of the luxury coupe’s amenities. Satisfaction would only be realized if the car could be comfortably driven daily while being able to smoke virtually anything on the street.
By Brian English // Photos by Richard Fong
Prepping for Boost
In order to produce over 250- percent more power, John enlisted Mesa Balancing to prepare the motor for high-boost operation. Concerned about cutting off coolant flow to the cylinder heads by closing the deck, the machinist sent the engine dimensions to Darton Sleeves to design a custom set of ductile iron sleeves that support an open-deck water jacket. This resleeving would provide additional cylinder strength without changing Nissan’s original deck design. Inside the sleeves, a set of 95.5mm CP Performance pistons with an 8.5:1 compression ratio were chosen. The piston tops received a coating of Swain Tech’s GoldCoat Ceramic Armor thermal barrier to improve efficiency by reducing wasted heat energy escaping through the piston.
BDM designed this custom intake manifold to evenly distribute high-pressure air intake to every cylinder. The polished piping certainly sets off the engine bay’s appearance.
Open Deck vs Closed Deck
Both open and closed decks offer advantages over the other. While the open-deck was selected with this VQ35DE for a greater water jacket area against the cylinder head, a closed deck reinforces the top of each cylinder wall where compression forces are greatest. For example, many attribute the 4G63 motor’s ability to handle extreme cylinder pressures in stock form to its iron block’s closed deck. As technology advances, aftermarket cylinder sleeve manufacturers have developed decks that reinforce a cylinder’s topside without cutting off coolant to the cylinder head.
Iron Lungs
In preparations for John’s extreme power demands, Billet Design Motorsports (BDM) laid out a monstrous twin-turbo system. BDM fabricated custom turbo manifolds to mount a pair of Garrett GT3076R ball-bearing turbochargers. To maintain a stealthy profile on the street, BDM implement a unique exhaust diversion system to keep sound in check until the throttle is wide open. Each cat-delete pipe utilizes a TiAL Sport 44mm wastegate to diverge exhaust gasses to dump pipes when backpressure rises, bypassing the restrictive cat- back exhaust. This setup provides a tamed exhaust note at light throttle while enabling maximum exhaust flow under high load.
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