post by: Alex
Martini
date: 04/23/2024
The first mod anyone USED to do is an aftermarket intake. I remember being 17 years old, walking into my local Advanced Auto Parts and seeing that huge K&N display in all black and orange. Curiously, I walked up to it and nearly cried in minimum wage as I saw the $200 price tag for a filter and what seemed like..just a L shaped plastic tube. The years have gone by and the experience behind aftermarket intakes has grown with it, but the larger than life price tag fear has stayed the same for me. Are they any good? Are they worth the price? What’s the point in all of this anymore? What’s the meaning of life?
Well today, we’re not answering any life questions, but we are taking a look at K&N’s brand new intake for the 2023 Nissan Z (400Z) / RZ34 platform.
I was able to review this intake back at SEMA 2023 at the K&N booth and give my initial thoughts to their marketing and development team. At first glance, the kit is enough of a looker to make an engine bay pop, but affordable enough that some people may question its quality. What you get is a set of air intakes for each side of the engine, with the filter itself wrapped in a carbon fiber-esque style finish and a gunmetal gray aluminum intake pipe. The additional hardware is solid, with 2 couplers included and 6 stainless steel clamps. Because i’m a weight snob, I quickly asked about if this is a weight reduction or adder to the car and their response was “lighter always” which was great to hear.
The aftermarket system will weigh about 12lbs and open up the front end of your 2023+ Nissan Z engine compartment.
We were lucky enough to get our hands on the kit before it goes live for sale to install on our 2023 Nissan Z Performance and honestly, it was one of the easier installs we’ve ever done. The unboxing experience was typical of K&N. You get a big, heavily corrugated box with nearly everything individually wrapped and instructions that actually read as if someone wrote them in proper English, which is getting increasingly difficult to find.
While we weren’t an initial fan of the faux carbon fiber on the intakes, it did compliment the entire system once we installed it in the car (which took about 45 minutes). Outside of basic tools, the only thing you need to prepare for is the inevitable chance you drop your tool when removing the OEM intakes as it does require the hands of a 10 year old to get anything out of this car.
After install, we immediately took it out for a quick drive and shakedown. K&N reports the 2023+ Nissan Z Cold Air Intake System lifts horsepower 19.16HP at 7,000 RPM which is ludicrously good for a $500 intake. Something most forget though (& we did too) is just how much an aftermarket intake opens up the audible experience with this car. Our Nissan Z that we’ve driven for over 7,000 miles has some awesome perks, but one of its largest shortcomings is how the car sounds under driving. We’ve installed downpipes, a full cat-back exhaust, and so much more just to try and get some sound out of this car (you can learn about our exhaust choice here). This intake system made the car sound 1000x better and for that reason alone, we highly recommend this system.
The installation is easy, the cost is affordable when comparing it to other intake systems for the Nissan Z, and it opens up the sound & performance of this platform in a way that I wish it had from factory.
So if you’re looking to pick up the Nissan Z RZ34 400Z Intake System from K&N, you can find it here -> https://martiniworks.com/products/performance/intakes/?year=2023&make=Nissan&model=Z&submodel=Performance&feed=67-29927-897
Not your cup of tea but still looking for car parts? Do we have just the place. -> https://martiniworks.com/
