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Kyle's 350Z
Identical twins are a rare occurrence in childbirth. To the untrained eye, identical twins have the exact same outward appearance, but ask any person who has a twin or is directly related to one, and they will tell you that even though twins may look the same, they are two totally different people. The same thing applies in the automotive industry. Two cars that look exactly the same to certain people look totally different to their owners. Take Kyle K. and Kyle C. for example. Both owners share Chrome silver Nissan 350Zs. Both Zs are equipped with automatic transmissions. Both owners even share the same first name! But the similarities pretty much end there. Both of these two enthusiasts took two very different modification paths. Just like human twins, similar outward appearance, but totally different underneath.
Let’s start with Kyle K. A native of Southern, Maryland, Kyle lives very close to one of the most famous dragstrips on the east coast, Maryland International Raceway. So constantly being around racing, there is no surprise that once Kyle picked up his 350Z, he felt he wanted to modify the car as soon as possible for more performance. For starters, Kyle hit up the local 350Z guys at Altered Atmosphere Motorsports for their Angled Plenum Spacer to allow his Z’s VQ to breather easier and 2.5” True Dual exhaust to free up weight and increase performance over the stock exhaust. Next on the list were an Injen Cold Air Intake and Unorthodox Racing lightweight pulleys to free up rotational mass to help the VQ spin faster and more freely. From there, Kyle looked into a rare, but efficient and useful upgrade for his automatic transmission. Kyle purchased the AAM Comp Valve Body Upgrade, which is one of the best upgrades that a 350Z/G35 owner can make if their car has an automatic transmission. The valve body upgrade helps the automatic transmission shift harder and faster when the engine’s power output is increased. After securing his car’s transmission, Kyle went to work on the engine management. An AAM Spec ECU Flash, and Greddy E-Manage were sourced to tune Kyle’s Z. The car was placed on Altered Atmosphere’s dyno machine and tuned for ultimate N/A performance. The car put down an very impressive N/A 270rwhp, and recently ran down the Kyle’s local M.I.R. dragstrip at an even more impressive 13 seconds flat. Pretty extraordinary considering the car is still driven on a daily basis.
Now Kyle C. on the other hand, took a different route with his 350Z. His car started her life as a base 2006 Z, but the car wouldn’t be stock for long. Upon discovering Altered Atmosphere Motorsports not far from his home in Montgomery County, MD, Kyle spent time with AAM’s 350Z/G35 experts to find the best upgrade path for this Z; one that would give him the power he desired, and fit into his budget. Kyle ended up falling on the very popular Greddy Twin Turbo Kit, arguably one of the best street twin turbo kits on the market. The GReddy Kit comes complete with all the standard turbo kit essentials. Turbos, Tial wastegates, RC 440cc Injectors, E-Manage Blue, a massive polished Front Mount Intercooler, and all blue silicon connectors all come from Greddy ready to be installed. Also, since Kyle was going to have all the work done at Altered Atmosphere Motorsports’ Facility, he decided to incorporate some of their turbo accessories into his install. AAM’s Oil Pan Spacer, Throttle Body Spacer, and Intake Plenum Spacer were all sourced to make installation of the turbo kit even easier and allow the car to run more safely and efficiently. To help those turbos spool as quickly as they were made to, Kyle also got a set of AAM Competition 3 inch downpipes and AAM Comp True Dual 3 inch exhaust. The free flowing downpipe and exhaust combination helped Kyle’s car achieve close to 400rwhp as it was being tuned on AAM’s in house dyno machine. Of course, with all that power, you’re going to want to upgrade your transmission to make sure it’s reliable enough for that amount of power. While the car was still at Altered, Kyle went ahead and upgraded his transmission with AAM’s Valve Body Upgrade. Kyle C.’s car is also driven daily, so he wanted to make sure that the car would still be very tame and driveable and still brutally fast at the drop of a hat.
