Nissan 350Z VK56 swapped DMCC drift car

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Around 5 years ago this 350Z was taken off the street and converted to road course use. After a few years of getting more and more aggressive with his driving the current owner Mike decided to give drifting a formal shot rather than just doing it once in a while. After taking part in some drift days in New Jersey he signed up for a Canadian Pro Am drift event and won it. After securing his DMCC pro drift license at the end of last season he knew he'd have to step up his setup on the car.

Since last winter he's been transforming the car to a more drift specific setup including suspension changes, adding an independent rear Brembo caliper in addition to the factory rear caliper for his hydraulic e-brake, and of course the engine swap. Once Mike told us what he had in mind we told him the ViPec V88 was the only ECU we recommend and now that he's seen it in action he understands why. The car runs flawlessly and it only took a few hours for me to map the ECU in every possible cell.

Mike decided on the Nissan Titan V8 truck engine, the VK56, based on durability, excellent torque and throttle response. Our guys at Innovative Tuning made the custom engine mounts and some of the other custom pieces involved, but for the most part Mike built this car himself and he's built what we feel will be an excellent package for drifting. He had a custom bellhousing adaptor made, machined the bellhousing, and he's running a 350Z 6 speed tranny with a Carbonetic twin carbon clutch/flywheel package. Of course this car has a great deal more done to it including the 370Z front end conversion, Racepak dash, a great deal of suspension mods, cage work etc.

Here's a short video Mike took of a 4th gear pull and then a quick test of the pit speed limiter which works great. I flipped it off while at wide open throttle to make sure my settings allowed the car to immediately take of when disengaged.

With 50-75% more torque than he had on the 350Z VQ35DE, we think this new engine package will help Mike take his drifting to the next level and the car runs better than ever on the V88. He has some loose ends to tie up with the build including putting in a fire suppression system, bigger and dual pass radiator, some additional cage work etc. and we look forward to seeing him in action at the pro level soon.

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Picture from testing in New Jersey: