The 2023 Nissan Z offers plenty of bang per buck straight out of the box. Starting from $40k, you get a rear-wheel drive 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 coupe that makes 400 hp (406 PS) and can race to 60 mph (97 km/h) in the low-four-second range.
But Chicago-based tuner AMS was able to make big performance gains by equipping its recently acquired yellow Z Proto automatic with some fairly simple bolt-on mods that will ensure the Nissan has nothing to fear from its Toyota Supra arch rival that has proved slightly faster in comparison tests.
First, let’s talk numbers. In stock tune AMS’s Z made 373 hp (378 PS) at the wheels, suggesting Nissan’s 400-horse flywheel figure is rather conservative. And we know from Hagerty’s drag race video that a mod-free example like that with the automatic transmission can cover the standing quarter mile in 12.3 seconds at 116 mph (187 km/h).
With AMS’s mods applied the engine output jumped to 500 hp at the wheels (507 PS), the quarter-mile time tumbled to 11.43 seconds and the trap speed improved to 124 mph (200 km/h) on a “cold and unprepped surface”, which the tuner says “likely hurt our 60′ times more than they helped”.
Related: Nissan Is Going Racing With The New Z GT4, Public Debut Set For SEMA
Those gains came courtesy of new exhaust and downpipes, heat exchanger, intercooler, a remap to take advantage of 100-octane fuel and a set of 28-inch Hoosier drag slicks. The use of the tires might prove slightly controversial for some Z fans, because while it’s interesting to see how far a Z can be pushed with only bolt-on mods, they obviously make the car illegal to use on the public road.
But an earlier post on AMS’s Facebook page has good news for anyone wanting to improve their Z’s performance but unwilling or unable to commit to fitting so many parts and limiting themselves to high-octane juice. Before the guys had jumped into the bigger mods they’d worked up a new calibration for the stock car that lifted its 373 whp to 440 hp (446 PS) at the wheels, without the need to gas up with anything more than widely available 93 octane fuel.