TURBO MAG MAXIMA

NOV 6, 2000 - DECEMBER 2000 Issue
As the wife was hunting sales at the mall, I wandered into the book store to browse through some auto magazines. Lo and behold, Turbo magazine is doing an article on the Maxima! I quickly went to the appropriate pages, and here's a summary of their Project Maxima:

1. Sorry, but although there is a big "turbo" sticker on the front windshield, this 2K Max is not powered by one. It's propelled by nitrous. They went with ZEX for its "easy-to-install design". But they still hired KG Precision Engineering to install and tune, probably because of time constraints. An hour later, the install was complete. For now, they played it safe and went with the small .38 nozzle, yielding an additional 30 horses (190 hp baseline to 220 hp). The ZEX kit can be configured to go as high as 75 hp. However, they need to do additional testing because KG's experience is that Nissan fuel pumps max out at 60 psi, while Honda's typically reach 80 psi. So they are contemplating upgrading the fuel system. Nevertheless, on the street, they claimed "the V6 proved to have an appetite for nitrous."

2. They originally had 19" wheels, but decided that the 18 inch Volk IIIs carried more visual impact. The wheels are wrapped with Yokohama rubber. Even going down to the 18 inchers, they did notice that their horsepower numbers dipped a little because of the heavier wheels. But by how much, the article did not specify.

3. They experimented with the air filters. Replacing the stock air filter with a K& N filter yeilded a quick 4 hp increase. Going with no filter at all would get you only 0.4 hp above the K& N.

4. HKS, who made the exhaust system for the magazine, has announced that it plans to go into full production to sell the exhaust system for 2K Maxima enthusiasts sometime this month if not already.

5. In their next article, the Turbo magazine plans to explore "other, more extreme, possibilities for power hungry Maxima pilots."