Jonathan Cash Hurst bought his 2006 Nissan 350z just over 3 years ago. He found the car as a roller with no engine/transmission and it had a little body damage. With any project car, ideas start to flow left and right until you find what you exactly what to build the car for. Jonathan decided to start on this project with a simple swap. He went with a 5.7 LS1 block with heads/cam/intake in it within a month of owning it. It was a quick way to have a decent amount of horsepower, just around 440whp which is a fun daily driven power range. Of course with every build, something always leaves you wanting more.
Within just the first year of Jonathan decided he wanted more power. He sold the LS1 to his brother for his Nissan S14 project. Jonathan said “I wanted more power and wanted to have fun with boost, so I then bought a 5.3 LS block and put on a Single 76mm Turbo which we ended up making about 777whp on.” Jumping just over another 300hp, his once roller 350z was now turned into quite the Nissan rocket ship.
“I started to have some fuel issues about a year later, causing me to go through 3 5.3L blocks until we found the issue. After the third one I called Mike Lough with Mike Lough Racing Engines,and asked him to build me an engine that would take the abuse I put it through with drifting but make it a good power range for drag/street racing.” Mike and Jonathan decided to go even bigger this time around, building a 376ci Engine with not one, but two turbos! Once installed, Jonathan took the car to Dynosty where he had Hal tune the car. On the new setup, the Twin Turbo 376ci 350Z made a nice 1085whp/955wtq. Jonathan stated ” Hal wanted me to get a bigger MAP sensor and turn it up even more but we left it where it was. For drifting it stays on the low tune which is 750-800whp. The car still drives just like normal and even gets decent mileage on e85! I told myself I didn’t wanna own a car that had to be trailered everywhere so I kept my car 100% streetable .I also made the car where I was still able to just bolt on a set of drag radials and make it somewhat go straight since I like drag racing as well. The car is mainly set up for drifting as that’s my main focus but I still love to get out and race on the interstate and track.”
The exterior of the car started out a stock silver, and eventually was painted a crazy bright green. The first time I had seen this car it was in the far end of a track I was at and it got my attention. The car is just meant to stand out and catch your eye. Unfortunately just earlier this year, Jonathan was t-boned in a wreck and the whole side of the car was crinkled up. Luckily for Jonathan, the roll-cage prevented alot of damage and the car was able to be straightened out. We caught up with Jonathan at Street Car Takeover Bowling Green a few months ago just after he had it repaired and he had installed a wide body kit to make it more race-like. At that time, the car was multiple colors after being repaired but had some future plans for it. The car ran hard all weekend long and he even let Cleetus Mcfarland from 1320Video take the car for a quick drift section. (Video by 1320Video)
After SCT Bowling Green, Jonathan had a new color picked out and decided to have the whole car wrapped. He went with another bright color of orange and man does it look good. He debuted the new color at Holley LSFest earlier this month with all of his sponsors place well in sight. He was competing in the Drag racing and Drift competitions all weekend long at Beech Bend Raceway park. (Video below by BigKleib34) “I’ve actually had to daily the car for over a month so far while the transmission is out in my dually. So far the car has only went 10.35 at 147 in the 1/4 but it has a lot more in it. I can’t launch the car too hard because I’m still on a stock t56 transmission and stock Nissan axles, which I’ve broken 9 so far. The future goal is to run a 9 second pass next month like it is, then do a ford 9in irs and build the transmission over the winter. I can’t thank my friends and sponsors enough, this car wouldn’t be where it is without them!” – Jonathan Cash Hurst.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos via: T. Southern Photography – Crusin the Streets – AMSOIL
