NISSAN 370Z w/ AVANT GARDE F421 WHEELS and STILLEN INTAKE / EXHAUST

Jaybee ValledorNovember 2, 2015

When I was 15 years old, my uncle brought me to the movie theaters to watch the film “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”. At the time, I had no idea what I was walking into. I was young and clueless about the car world and I really didn’t know what the whole fuss was about with cars sliding and making all this smoke. To the teenaged me, it was very abrasive and belligerent.

I’m sitting down, chowing down on my popcorn, watching Takashi and Sean race inside the parking structure (you all know what scene I’m talking about, don’t play dumb) and at the end of that scene, at the end of that race, I changed. I became the Jaybee that would stop at nothing to sit behind the wheel of my own Nissan 350Z. In 2013, I got lucky and came across a Z33 350Z for a relatively cheap price. Every time I drove my Z around, I just could not stop smiling.

Through the ownership of my 350Z, I learned about the passion that was used to create these moving masterpieces of art. The original 1969 Datsun 240Z, aka the S30, was what started it all. The late Yutaka Katayama, widely known as “Mr. K: the Godfather of the Z”, former president of Nissan Motors USA at the time, brought the 1970 Datsun 240Z to the states and began a new revolution of cars referred to as the “Fairlady Z” back in Japan.

All of this brings me to Anthony Garay’s 2015 Nissan 370Z. The Z34 370Z is Nissan’s current generation Fairlady Z model to hit the market. Ever since its arrival in the states in 2009, the 370Z has not only continued the lineage of the Z, but has provided owners of previous generations to enjoy what the new world has to offer. Anthony wanted something head-turning, a unique Z all his own that incorporated the trends of today but in a clean, classy way.

Mod Expert Sean and our experienced technicians here at Mod Auto (our shop) wanted to help Anthony make his vision for his 370Z a reality. Anthony decided to go with the Avant Garde’s exclusive, bespoke AG Function-series F421 wheels. The AG Function F421s are a beautiful, uniquely deep concave wheel with a gorgeous twisted spoke face.

With a STILLEN Intake and STILLEN Full Catback Exhaust also installed here at our shop, Anthony’s VQ is now able to belt out around 350 horsepower – which is certainly nothing to ignore, as that’s more power than you get with any of the NISMO variants of the car.

The sound of a stock 370Z is already very meaty and instantly recognizable – any Nissan fan can pick out the sound of a VQ anywhere. With the beautiful sound of the stock Calsonics exhaust, the VQ engine has an amazing and efficient exhaust system. Anthony wanted to beef up the sound of his car and performance products created by STILLEN. Founded by Steve Millen, the STILLEN guys have been building trophy & award winning Nissan racecars for decades, making them the ideal manufacturer to give the Fairlady Z the modifications it needs to help bring out its true character.

Featuring a high-flow dual inlet design, the Gen 2 STILLEN Short Ram Intake pulls out the raw torque and mid-range power – not to mention a great intake sound. Combined with the STILLEN Full Catback Exhaust System to give that signature VQ sound a bit more of a roar, the VQ37VHR engine under the hood of Anthony’s Fairlady is a real beast of a VQ.

When you go to a local car meet or to even a bigger, sponsored car show, you see car builds that make a lot of noise, are a special kind of color, or are even just outrageous in every aspect of the word. Anthony Garay’s 370Z is simple, sexy, and for lack of a better word, downright beautiful. When he rolls up to a parking lot or to a meet, he hard parks it and stands at a distance to relish in the slammed-ness of his Z. If you aren’t familiar with the phrase “hard park”, it essentially means the car is air’d out to the ground. Yes, his 370Z does, in fact, have air suspension installed and it is absolutely amazing.

To achieve the kind of stance that breaks necks but is still usable on the street, an air suspension system is basically the only option. Of course, you could drive slammed to the ground on coilovers (known as “static”) but with that you’ll get the annoying scraping and the stressful angling going in and out of every driveway and plaza. Not saying that its necessarily a bad thing, but it’s definitely factors to consider when being low. At our Mod Auto Performance Shop, we installed an air suspension set-up for Anthony because he wanted to hard-park everywhere he goes.

The AIRREX Air Suspension Systems for Nissan is a perfect air suspension upgrade that will surely wow people. The suspension on Anthony’s 370Z was a bit different than what we we typically install, but this off-brand system was nothing our techs couldn’t handle, allowing Anthony to tuck his wide wheels and air out with a touch of a button.

With a little help from Mod Expert Sean and the ModAuto team, Anthony’s Z34 now looks like it’d be perfectly at home on the set of “Tokyo Drift” or at the local In-N-Out Burger meet. We hope you enjoyed the photos! Thanks for joining us, see you next time!