Wes Stinson's 1994 Infiniti Q45t... B.A.D. Edition
The fun stuff: Mods
A little history on the car
Dr. Rex Birkmire, founder of NICO (Nissan Infiniti Car Owners), bought this car and modified the car as it is today. Below is an article, written by Rex himself about the car. The differences in mods are listed above.
B.A.D. Q45 - "Love at First Sight"
By Speeddoctor
May 10, 2002, 5:54pm
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The "Q" story begins with Doctor Rex Birkmire's insatiable need for speed and yet insistence upon the highest quality automobile. With a wife and three kids it was necessary to have a sedan that holds at least five people. Rex describes himself as a doctor by day and a gear head by night.
He fell in love with the Infiniti Q45 when he test drove a used model five years ago. When given gentle input the car yielded a quiet, comfortable, luxurious ride. This is all nice for a time, but when you want to put your foot to the floor you would think that Dale Earnhardt's 600 horsepower V8 was under the hood. This was even stock. The engines just howl with four valves per cylinder and four cams. The first time Rex test drove a Q45 and put his foot into it, he was going 140mph before he knew what happened (these cars will do at least 170mph when the top speed limiter, which is set at 155mph, is taken off).
Wide/Tune
Rex has the tuner/ illness and he always has to tweak and tune his cars. With the Q45 he started with Eibach springs for a 1 ½" drop. This gave him improved handling and an aggressive stance. Then he put a set of OZ wheels; 17" in the front, 18" in the rear with 235/40/17 Dunlop SP8000s in the front and 255/35/18 Dunlop SP8000s in the rear. That made a huge difference in the traction and handling and the Dunlops are very quiet due to their high-tech staggered tread pattern.
Compu-Tune
In search of more horsepower, Rex purchased a Jim Wolf ECU, which took the top speed limiter off and added 36 horsepower at the top end. The redline was advanced from 6800 Rpm to 7200 Rpm. This dropped elapsed times from 15.1 to 14.8.
Exhaust-Tune
A stainless steel BORLA exhaust was added, which yielded another tenth in the quarter mile and provided a wonderfully quiet ride when cruising easily through town, but provided a hearty growl when stepping hard on the gas.
Nitrous Oxide-Tune
Nitrous oxide was originally provided Jim Wolf. This system uses a Jim Wolf ECU upgrade to run a dry nitrous single fogger system through the throttle body. ET times dropped accordingly, but my sense was initially that the jets were not synchronized, that the jet was too small and that the engine was running too rich. After making numerous dyno- runs and track runs we finally settled on the proper jet range for the nitrous oxide, given the computer's calibration, which was a .67 to .71 jet. ETs now dropped even lower, to a best run of 13.2 at 101mph.
Fuel Tuning
Takash Racecraft fabricated a race gas system that can be switched to with a flip of a switch on the console. This ends any worries about pre-detonation when running on the bottle.
Trans-Tune
Transmission work was done to fortify the transmission. The torque converter was modified to increased the stall-speed and the valve bodies were re-drilled to provide firmer shifts and the clutch faces were Kevlar-lined to handle up to 1000 horsepower. This transmission can come in three stages , depending upon what the owner wishes to do with his particular transmission. These changes netted a total of 3 tenths in the quarter mile for consistent 13 flat passes.
Differential Tune
B.A.D. has developed a number of ring and pinion options for the Infiniti rear-end ranging from 3.3:1 to 4.11:1. A 4:11 was put in our project car and the off-nitrous performance was staggering. There is probably no single thing that you can do to the Q45 to change acceleration characteristics more than to add a 4:11 rear end and yet the top speed was not affected.
Wheel Tune
Finally, Centerline wheels were added initially to the rear because rotational mass reduction is so significant in quarter mile times. The rims, which are approximately 10 to 15 pounds lighter than the OZ cast aluminum rims netted at two tenths to three tenths gain in the quarter mild times giving a best run of 12.9 at 105mph. Recently Centerlines were put on the front, a set of 17" Centerlines on Nitto 555 series high speed Z-rated tires, which are 205/50/17s. This cut off another two tenths of a second and provided the best quarter mile time yet of a 12.6 at 108mph.
Final Tune
The B.A.D. Q45 is great for the street and track. It gets loads of attention, in part due to how unique it is and because it is such a sleeper. The fans go crazy when we start running 12 second quarter miles. They also like the fact that our 60 ft times are 1.78s and that we lift the front wheels off the ground anywhere from between 6 to 12 inches. Not bad for an automatic transmission equipped luxury sedan weighing over 4000 pounds!!
Stay tuned, Y2K plans for the B.A.D. Q45 will involve a super charging system with nitrous overblow as well as a new billet aluminum torque converter, which should, according to the manufacturer, cut at least five tenths of a second off quarter mile times. Total horsepower output should be approximately 600 to 700 horsepower. Elapsed times will drop into the 10's and the whole package will continue to be a streetable daily- driver.
Sources:
B.A.D. Performance
Eibach Springs
Jim Wolfe Performance
Superchips
Dunlop Tires
N.O.S.
Centerline Wheels
Mickey Thompson Tires
Takash Racecraft
Borla Exhaust
K&N Air Filters
Level 10 transmissions
Pictures, as the car is now.
Later, will come videos, and some other updates.