VEILSIDE NISSAN 350Z – FAST AND FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT TRIBUTE – SXDRV
Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift – we have all seen it. Yeah, the one with all the Veilside Nissan 350Z's. If you haven't, then you must have been living under a rock since 2006.
It sure has been a while since we were all introduced to the Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift all those years ago, but it still plays in our minds as car enthusiasts, much like the original Fast And The Furious. I'm sure we can all agree that car customisation and modification taste has evolved and changed over the years, most will cringe at the styling we thought was cool when we were kids, but some of these movie cars really stand out and are nothing shy of iconic.
We were lucky enough to get our hands on a heavily modified Veilside Nissan 350Z, already preloaded with a Veilside bodykit, and when you think of a Vielside Nissan 350Z, what comes to mind? Exactly! The Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift.
This specific Nissan started its life as a 5th generation Z series, 2004 black 350Z performance edition hard-top, with the infamous 3.5 L VQ35DE V6 (hence the name 350Z).
Not too long after that, the previous owner installed a full Veilside bodykit to give it all the fat it needed to turn heads. It also received a carbon fibre bonnet, KW 3-way adjustable coilover suspension to give it that aggressive stance, lower centre of gravity, and, of course, more stability. What is a car from the early 2000s without scissor doors? Now, you can't go as crazy as that and still keep its running shoes stock so 20" full import TSW's were awarded to the 350Z.
The Veilside 350Z's interior was also not left untouched. The centre console, cluster and dashboard all got treated with touches of red and carbon fibre. The seats are bone stock, which isn't a negative as they are super comfortable. And, while you drifting sideways through the streets of Johannesburg, you can blast the Tokyo Drift theme song in the banging sound system from Kicker.
When we bought this monstrosity of a 350Z, we all agreed that it deserves a bit of attention and, one thing we could agree upon, is that it needed to be a Tokyo Drift Tribute build, specifically DK's Veilside 350Z.
So off to Fuel Garage it went to get some TLC, a complete makeover and tuneup. First thing to get done was a full stainless steel exhaust system, from the headers right through to the tips and, boy-oh-boy, does that sound mean! We needed to replace the steering rack, rip out the neon underglows which were not working and and were a potential wiring hazard, fix the power-steering and oil leaks, and re-adjust the coilover suspension.
The biggest, noticeable change was the full vinyl body wrap that was redesigned from the Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift movie, but with a custom SXdrv flavour to it. The original Tokyo Drift movie car only had the spider on one side of the car, the other side was plain – we decided to go more symmetrical by applying the spider to both sides of the car. With that said, our design is very similar, but much bigger and more compositional, fitting nicely to both sides of the car. If you have a closer look, you'll notice a skull embedded within the spiders body!
This tribute car build was an adventure and a great experience to say the least, seeing it all come together from everyone was mind-blowing. This car will be sure to show off all its glory at some local car meets over the next few months, so be sure to follow us on Social media to see more!