2004 350Z

Getting off the train at Shanondai station deep in the Japanese countryside after boarding at Tokyo is like shooting through a wormhole and suddenly popping up in another part of the universe. It's easy to forget the train is traveling at 200 mph, which makes for some quick changes of scenery. The effect is heightened by the slower pace of Shanondai. It's noticeably more relaxed than Tokyo - people are walking slower, talking more. After eight days hustling about, it's just the change of pace we need.

The serenity of the place is flung out the window as the DC5 Integra makes its appearance, however. As if on cue, the elderly crowd around us disappointingly shake their heads as the Championship White Type-R slices through the throngs of taxis slowly making their way through the roundabout in front of the station. In an attempt to be as inoffensive as possible, we pile into the car as quickly as we can, and then we're off to neighboring Fujisawa for a visit to Opera Performance.

When we arrive, the first thing I do is take stock of our transportation. It's clear from the noisy and fast ride over, that some very peculiar chassis tuning has taken place.

We have a method of classifying cars here in the U.S., and it usually goes something like this: First, we look the car over, noting whatever body enhancements may be in place. Next, we move on to the interior, making the same observations before we finally make note of the engine bay and the inevitable slew of aftermarket parts that have been applied.

As I begin to circle the rear of the DC5, Yamamoto jacks up the front. I'm straining to find just one piece that appears to be out of the ordinary as wheels and tires are being taken off the front and splash guards are bent out of the way. After circling around and getting on my hands and knees, I'm afforded a view behind the plastic, in which a battleship-gray sheet of metal reveals itself.

Like many of the loadbearing walls in the RSX, the metal in the fenderwell has been doubled in thickness and stitch-welded for even more rigidity.

Yamamoto's goal with the RSX was a lofty one. He set out to make the car as rigid as it would be if it had a rollcage installed. Unlike the S2000, the only parts that have been Swiss-cheesed are new sheets of metal, which are MIG-welded to the chassis. So if you're looking at the caged and gutted S2000 in the previous few pages and thinking your streetcar could never benefit from such a ruthless regimen of chassis reinforcement and borderline bulimic weight loss, think again. While much of the engineering is race-only stuff, the majority of the chassis reinforcement procedures are applicable to a daily-driven machine.

In fact, the process to make a truly rigid streetcar may actually be quite a bit more involved than designing a flyweight racecar. Things need to be more than just effective - they have to look pretty and not interfere with the regular use of the car at the same time.

A perfect example of the attention to detail required in street cars can be seen in Opera's Nissan 350Z, where chassis glue (a la Lotus Elise and Exige) is used to stiffen things up in the rear, as opposed to welding. The glue changes the harmonic point of the chassis, which actually makes the suspension noise quieter than stock. A welded rear end results in resonance in the cockpit that is unacceptable in a street car.

The two cars we've been citing happen to belong to two of the most important names in car video game nerdery. Kazunori Yamauchi and Satoru Takasugi are the guys that made it possible for any car lover with 50 bucks and a PlayStation to drive whatever car they lusted after with virtually reckless abandon.

That's why the other place you can find Mr. Yamauchi's 350Z is right next to the Opera Performance S2000 in Gran Turismo 4's "Tuner Garage." The DC5 RSX belongs to Takasugi, one of the track designers of the same legendary game. He's the guy who spent more than a month at the Nrburgring with a tape measure and enough Red Bull to kill an actual bull, making sure the track was dead accurate. All three cars are gathered here for a brief reunion, thanks to the cooperation of Yamamoto-san at Opera and a couple of guys who eat, sleep, and breathe at the game manufacturer, Polyphony, and thus don't need their cars anyway.

After stripping the cars down to bare metal and skewering them onto the rotisserie, custom crossbraces were fabricated and fitted to both roof and undercarriage and welded to newly reinforced structural members of the existing body.

In the RSX, a unique brace makes a giant "X" across the roof and is supported using custom-formed metal triangles. Like the other braces found throughout the chassis, these have been drilled through with various-diameter circles and chamfered for strength. The brace was later covered in a thin layer of plastic, and coated with fabric to match the rest of the roof.

In an attempt to have the most accurate templates possible to weld atop the stock pieces, Opera Performance purchased a number of frame pieces directly from Honda and Nissan and simply fit them atop the existing framework. The new pieces were cut to ensure they were no larger than necessary and that only weak areas such as bends and joints would have the additional reinforcement. The pieces were bolted on and welded into place.