I believe many of you will recall our report from the 2015 SEMA automotive show several months ago when we closely followed the battle between five 2015 GT Awards finalists, all brought together from various categories. Presented by Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi himself, the ”Best in Show” crown was awarded to a painstakingly-modified Datsun 240Z, which is owned by popular Fast & Furious movie star Sung Kang.
This custom-built machine got a sufficient portion of the limelight due to an interesting story that crafted the entire car project from the cradle. We shared three episodes showing the making of the car from scratch, or how one car enthusiast’s dream finally became a reality after lots of effort and sweating.
Of course, it is only natural that such an achievement be recognized by other people who understand and love cars, which is why it is not surprising that popular stand-up comedian Jay Leno inspected the car closely, and heard all the impressions from the Kang himself. The car was featured in Jay Leno’s Garage show, and he even got to drive the car in person! Watch the video below and enjoy the outstanding sound of the RB26 engine:
If you happen to enjoy what you’ve just seen, do not throw yourself into despair yet – all previous winners of GT Awards are scheduled to appear in one of the future Gran Turismo installments. Given that the 240Z received very strong feedback from our community as well, there is no doubt that the appearance of this beauty is highly anticipated.
See more articles on Fast & Furious, GT Awards, Polyphony Digital, and SEMA.
Even though some Fanboys will call me a “hater”, but this is by far the ugliest 240Z in the universe. Such a classy timeless car destroyed with an ugly bodikit.
Lets be honest. If this car wouldnt belong to Sung Kang, everyone would hate the modifications.
Don’t think Leno was really all that impressed and was just trying to be diplomatic. He seem more on the side of keeping the car close to original without the body kit. They should have fixed the brake issue before letting Jay drive the car. For a car that was built more for track I think the brakes would be the number one issue. You can really go fast if you can’t slow the car down quick enough to hit the apex. Now if you would go out of your way to put all that meat on the tires you would wan’t a 5 bolt rim and not 4. They put priority over looks and style rather than performance and purpose on that. Finally putting all that meat on the tires to gain grip but detuning a turbo engine and spending a tone of money to tune it to be normally aspirated is counter productive. If they wanted to go normally aspirated engine they could have just modded the original engine and get the same outcome and not needing all the extra grip from the tires. Seem the sole intent for the restomod was just for show and not to get real performance from the car. Even Jay was saying that they should drive an original Z of the same model and see the real drivers feel of the car the way it was design to drive. Too much grip and not enough power makes a car boring to drive.
Oh and Jay was not at all impressed with the next project either. A Ford Maverick “Really?”
Sung Kang seems such a nice and easygoing guy, wish he had appeared in more F&F movies :S
Yeah, he seemed super chill.
That Z reminds me of my favorite show, the anime version of Wangan Midnight…
I love that show! To bad Sung Kang’s car isn’t blue and have subtle over fenders as Devil Z. A little too much chicken, steak and squats…heh-heh. Although, it wouldn’t be original if that was the case. Overall, it does look good and I love the sound of that RB25.
My name says it all…