Close your eyes and imagine yourself walking the floors of Makuhari Messe. You’re at the Tokyo Auto Salon, but it isn’t present date. No, it’s many, many years ago. And as you look across the convention hall floor, you see things you’ve only seen on the internet and styles that no longer exist. You’re looking at history in the making; what’s before you will shape present-day automotive culture. Now, strip away the thousands of people roaming the halls, the cameras and the hall itself, and focus only on one car. Now open your eyes: what you’re looking at is a living relic from that era.
What we’re seeing is a 1991 300zx twin turbo that belongs to Anastase Maragos. Obviously, this is no ordinary Z32. In fact, it’s a Veilside demo car built in Japan and used for events such as the Tokyo Auto Salon. If you were to image search Veilside 300zx, there’s a good chance this is the car that would show up.
If you don’t trust internet searches, that’s cool; the car also has a Veilside Evolution badge on the rear of the car. Anastase did his homework and discovered this badge was only placed on original Veilside Combat Evolution demo cars to prove their authenticity. He also put a lot of time and effort into tracking down the lineage of this car, which meant plenty of research and a few messages to Veilside.
At the time of the original Veilside build, the car was stripped down and painted the gold colour it is today. That colour is the same one that graces all Combat Evolution cars. The car is obviously equipped with a Combat Evolution kit and is sitting on Veilside Andrew Evolution V wheels.
The interior was re-upholstered with a combination of tan suede and leather. That leather and suede combo also lent itself to some Sparco seats. The car has been swapped from an automatic to a 5-speed.
Anastase believes that Veilside would have acquired that car sometime around 1995, although the number of years the car was in their possession is uncertain. However, at some point in the last eight years this car got on a boat and made the journey to western Canada.
Anastase is the first to acknowledge this car isn’t for everyone. It’s aggressive and a bit over the top, but that was the style of the time and Veilside was at the forefront of that movement. What I find especially interesting about this car is all the hard work Anastase has put into trying to trace its history.
Imagine ogling through present-day photos from the Tokyo Auto Salon, and then picture owning that car 18 years from now. We don’t know how things will hold up – perhaps the bumperless 380SX built by Ben Sopra will seem lacking, or perhaps we’ll ponder why so many FR-S’ cut perfectly good steel fenders only to be replaced with fiberglass. There’s no telling which way automotive culture will go, but it’s important to know where it came from so we can understand how we got to where we are.
Power Mods:
– Re-routed the intakes to underneath each headlight
– Dual Z1motorsports air filters /w velocity stacks
– Recirculated Greddy Type RS BOVs
– Custom Veilside 2.5″ intercooler piping
– Trust
– Greddy front mount intercooler
– HKS Type 1 Turbo Timer – APEXi 1st gen AVCR Electronic Boost Controller
– Custom Y pipe to fit a single exit exhaust
– 5zigen 304 Bordermax single exit catback exhaust /w 5″ tip – Z1motorsports test pipes
– Nismo short shifter
– Automatic>5speed manual tranny swap – Carbon Canisters removed
– Steel-braided fuel lines
– Z1motorsports tuned ECU
Suspension:
– Tein Flex coilovers
Exterior:
– Veilside CI 2+2 Side skirts
– Veilside CI 2+2 Rear bumper
– Veilside CI 2+2 Rear spoile
– Veilside CI 2+2 Front bumper
– Veilside Andrew Evolution V Wheels
– Original Veilside decals
– JUN carbon fiber hood
– Power Trix carbon fiber air ducts – OEM smoked signals – Chrome ‘Z’ battery tie down
Interior:
– Momo ‘Team’ steering wheel
– Tomei Duracon shift knob
– APEXi AVCR BC
– Type 1 HKS TT
– JVC Deck – 10″ JL Audio Sub
– 300w JL Audio Amp
– Custom 320km/h Veilside speedometer (Amongst one of the most rare Z32 gauge clusters)
– Sparco carbon fiber racing seats (Wrapped in leather/suede)
– Rear seats (2+2) wrapped in tan leather/suede
– New leather shift boot with red stitching
– Z32 Bride seat rails