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CONCRETE ORIGINALS.
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Fugu Z – Part 1: At the New York International Auto Show

May 17, 2016

The S30 Fairlady can arguably be considered as Japan’s entry into the sports car market in the 1970s. Influenced heavily by the styling cues of European sports cars, the S30 eventually developed its own identity. For many of the early owners, it was an inexpensive venture into a small sports car territory. Consider it the union between economy and performance.

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Sung Kang’s Fugu Z is so different from what the original makers of the Datsun envisioned but that is precisely the point of modding cars. We modify cars because a particular chassis may resonate with us but we want to put together our own interpretation and rendition of it. In our eyes, what we build is what the manufacturer should have offered to the public. In many ways, this is true for Kang’s revision for his Z chassis.

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Ravspec is a local wheel retailer and distributor who have been at the epicenter of tuning within the NYC area for many years and have been involved with SEMA builds and local car shows alike. This year marks their fourth year displaying at the New York International Auto Show on behalf of Rays Engineering and on display was the Fugu Z. I’ve owned and messed with enough straight six motors to know that it can possibly be considered the hallmark of the Japanese engine tuning. The L28, RB25/RB26, 1JZ/2JZ, are all great example of engineering. Each engine platform needing very little revision and span entire decades. The build of the Fugu Z was different in that it has a naturally aspirated RB26 from the great-grandnephew, R32 GTR. Higher compression along with individual throttle bodies and a custom set of Hytech exhaust manifold are just a few things that are needed to make the engine sing. Although shops like Rocky Auto from Japan have routinely swapped in a naturally aspirated version of the RB26, this build was among the first for many individuals stateside.

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Now we have to admit, we are complete fanboys when it comes to the S30 dubbed Fugu Z built by GReddy. Without shame, we followed every single build episode that led to the SEMA debut. One of the reasons why it resonated with us was because of Sung Kang. I remember him from way back in a lesser known movie called Better Luck Tomorrow where he played this gangster named Han but this began the Fast and Furious saga. I didn’t immediately make that connection and thought it was a coincidence that he played Han in both movies.

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Once the NYIAS ended, we were given an exclusive opportunity to have some time with the Fugu Z in Chinatown, NYC. Stay tuned for our part 2 where we got a chance to shoot the Fugu Z in the infamous “Bloody Angle”.

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Part 2 is now up. Click here to see the Fugu Z in Chinatown.

About Pravan
Prav comes from a background in academia and consistently pursues the development of a community both with his work in academia and his interest in all things motor. It is this community which he believes will help preserve automotive history and knowledge, priming a future generation of enthusiasts to expand and improvise on previous builds. Through his lens, he captures fleeting moments as car enthusiasts build, break and rebuild their creations as a means to preserve and express what the enthusiast originally intended. He finds his daily inspiration from the merging of cultures, mainly the transfer of street culture to the front stage of art, food and design. Consequently, nothing is more relevant to this merging than automotive builds meant for the street. You can find his daily life in images IG:@Pravzilla.
  • コネコ ちゃん

    it’s so beautiful…. 🙂