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The Nissan Cima. Most of you have never heard of this car before because it is a domestic Japenese model. Too bad really, because it would sell like 1/2 price Viagra if introduced in the states (like a lot of Jap models I have seen). I have been living in Okinawa, Japan for over five years now. Before I came here, I was a rice-hater. I was fiercely American and thought that to approve of anything imported was close to blasphemy! I confess that my attitude has been forever changed.

My dream car is still a '69 GTO. Always has been and always will be. I love the idea of a 4-door with alot of power. That is why I am posting this Cima here. The Nissan Cima that you see here is an '88.

A disclaimer on the age: hardly anyone on Okinawa drives a new car. In Japan, every car must pass a rigorous, and expensive (min. $300) inspection, every two years! Because of this, used cars are well-maintained. Used car lots outnumber new dealerships by about 100:1. The Cima is the flagship of luxury cars for Nissan. It comes with all the bells and whistles, power everything. This model/year of Cima is infamous for it's popularity with the Yakusa (Japanese mafia) around the early '90's. You can fit a squad of Okinawan gangsters in this car, and it has the power to move fast.

The nice thing that the Nissan engineers did was to drop a VG30 engine from the 300zx into the engine bay. This edition is force-fed air by a single turbo instead of two. Mods I have completed:
Free-flow exhaust by TANABE

air cleaner by HKS

17" alum alloy wheels by RAYS ENGINEERING

tires by YOKOHAMA/TRAMPIO(215/45 front, 235/45 rear

OKI AIR INTAKE designed by Josh Kiser

5/13/03 swapped turbo up-pipe from a '94 Gloria with stock blow off valve

6/14/03 installed manual boost control from www.boostcontroller.com. It was a pain to get at the turbo from underneath but it is on. The factory setting was .5 kg/cm, now I am told that I can "safely" boost up to 1.0 kg/cm!

10/10/03 Installed Permacool 16" electric fan. Removed stock clutch fan.
12/27/03 replaced resonator in RS-R exhaust with straightpipe!

The paint was done by yours truly and a couple of friends, for $300!! The color comes from the '97 catalog, FIAT used it for their Spyder model roadster. It was my first experience painting, and my buddies 3rd or 4th time. We completed it in 3 days. The whole paint kit ran $200. Before you say anything, it was done correctly. If I had it to do again, however, I would have taken a couple extra days and put more coats on it (we got 2 color and 3 clear). THE CAR ONLY COST ME $2400 THREE YEARS AGO, C'MON!

FUTURE UPGRADES
I have done the easy stuff so far. I would like to:
1) install boost control done!; 2) intercooler;
3) swap manual transmission from 300zx;

PICS
page 2: my car
page 3: other cars