The current Nissan Z has spent its whole life borrowing styling cues from the original. For SEMA, Nissan has reversed that and put the new car’s engine in the old one.
The Datsun S30 Concept was built by Chris Forsberg, a Formula Drift champion who has worked with Nissan for years. In its SEMA announcement, Nissan describes the car as the original S30 shape combined with the twin-turbo V6 from today’s Z. Forsberg’s team added NISMO engine parts, replaced key body panels with carbon fiber and fitted custom suspension and brakes. The car will be at booth #21521 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center from November 3 to 6.
A bigger engine than the car was built for
The first U.S. Z had a 2.4-liter inline-six and was designed for North America, where it went on sale as a 1970 model. The engine now in its place is the VR30DDTT, a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 rated at 400 horsepower in the production Z.
Nissan hasn’t given a power figure for the concept. The parts list on the build sheet suggests it isn’t running a stock tune. The engine has Garrett PMAX turbochargers, NISMO cold-air intakes, a NISMO heat exchanger and a NISMO twin-disc clutch and flywheel. Power goes through the current Z’s FS6 six-speed manual to a NISMO R200 limited-slip differential.
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Stuffing a direct-injected, computer-run V6 into a shell drawn around an inline-six disturbs almost everything around it, starting with the fuel system. The build sheet lists a Radium Engineering 10-gallon fuel cell, a Radium FCST and a DeatschWerks 450-liter-per-hour pump. FCST stands for fuel cell surge tank. It keeps the pump supplied with fuel when hard cornering pushes fuel to one side of the tank, which is exactly what drifting does. A 10-gallon cell also means short trips between fill-ups if you drive it enthusiastically.
Cooling is the other big issue. The heat exchanger is there because the turbo system needs to get rid of heat, and the front of an S30 wasn’t designed with that in mind.
Chassis and brakes
Most of the chassis work comes from Techno Toy Tuning. It includes a billet suspension package, front and rear coilovers, a new front crossmember, a steering rack, billet tie rods, new control arms, sway bars and strut tower bars at both ends.
The front crossmember is where the swap lives. It carries the engine and sets the steering geometry, which is why builders replace it to fit an engine the car was never designed to hold.
The brakes are a Wilwood conversion, with six-piston calipers up front, four-piston calipers in the rear and larger slotted rotors. The car sits on NISMO 17-inch forged wheels with 245/40 tires.
Carbon fiber replaces the front fenders, hood, air dam, bumpers, hatch and spoiler. The paint is Nissan Seiran Blue with a NISMO 40th-anniversary decal set. Inside, there are OMP Silverstone seats, a Speed Hut gauge cluster, a Grip Royal steering wheel, a harness bar and a black aluminum NISMO shift knob.
Before you copy this build
Nissan’s own fine print covers the legal side. A footnote in the release says modifications can affect performance, safety, emissions, durability and on-road certification, and that resulting damage may not be covered by Nissan warranties.
Emissions rules vary by state, and the chassis year matters a lot. California, the strictest state, publishes its engine-change rules in the Smog Check reference guide. Very old gasoline cars are outside the Smog Check program, so the model year of the donor S30 can decide whether a swap like this needs a referee inspection at all. Nissan hasn’t said what year this car’s chassis is. Anyone planning to copy the build should check their state’s rules before buying the engine.
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Insurance is the other thing to sort out. A standard policy priced on a vintage Datsun’s book value won’t come close to covering a carbon-bodied, fully custom build. You’d need an agreed-value policy backed by receipts for every part.
Why Nissan built it
This car isn’t a preview of a production model. Nissan says its SEMA concepts aren’t for sale and are used to gauge what enthusiasts want, and it points to its Rock Creek trims as an earlier result of that process. Some of the Nissan and NISMO parts shown on these cars may be sold through dealers.
Nissan executive Kim Less summed up the company’s thinking: “Nissan has always had passionate fans who aren’t shy about telling us what they love and what they’d like to see next.” Nissan has openly blessed a swap enthusiasts have been doing on their own for years, and stopped short of promising to sell the parts. Would you buy a factory-backed kit, or is the home-built version the whole point?
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