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Staff Bio's >> Mark (mtcookson) Maxima-VG/VE ModeratorBio: I was born in Bloomington, IN and am now living in Howard, KS. I first got into Nissan's by a very embarrassing way... My first vehicle was a 1991 Isuzu Rodeo that was handed down to me from my parents. After watching... Fast and the Furious... is when I started to really get into car "performance"... I know, I know... I'm sorry, but this is how it happened. I wasn't really looking for a sports car at the time as I liked to have some extra room in my vehicles so started searching for an early Nissan Maxima. My friend had a friend with one and said it was fast. He said his friend raced a TT Supra and beat him once (yeah, like the Supra in F&F). I was stoked (told you this is embarrassing). Anyways, I began my search not having much luck. I started thinking about looking for other import 4-doors like the Camry but it had to have a 5-speed and pretty much no Camry's had them that I could find. Luckily one day I found a 1991 Nissan Maxima GXE with less than 100k miles. I t was an auto but I wanted a Maxima so bad that I settled for it. After swearing to my Mom up and down how reliable imports were, I finally got them talked into getting it for me. Got it for $4,000 and finally had a Maxima. Not long after, the transmission died (uh oh... mom will be mad now). Sadly, as it turns out, the transmissions were pretty weak in these cars. We got it fixed and kept on driving it. I just so happened to be driving around town one day and found a 1990 Nissan Maxima SE... 5-speed. They only wanted $2,500 for it too. I was stoked but kept it on the back of my mind. About a month later it was still sitting there and I decided to test drive it. My friend was 18 at the time so I had him get the test drive and I absolutely loved it. I started talking to my parents and got my Mom to test drive it as well (found out she was better at driving a manual than me at the time... actually, she probably still is). After some talking we got it and that's when the modding really started. I found a Maxima forum and started reading a nd posting normal noob ricer posts getting extremely flamed in the process. After a harsh dose of reality I finally started to really study Maxima's and performance in general. After a while the new Maxima had a problem... the transmission died. Yes, the 5-speed died. Talk about embarrassing. Well, this time around I decided to try fixing it myself. The stock transmission was completely toast as the bad bearing caused the case to break. I ordered a used tranny to find out that it had a bad bearing, only after getting it installed and running. After this I decided to try fixing the bearing. Ordered the parts needed and with my dad's help I put the new parts in and got it running. After getting into the car that much, I was ready to start modding. I did the normal intake, exhaust, and audio stuff finally decided later on that I wanted to turbocharge my Maxima. I did some reading around and found that not many people had done it and there was even less info on how to do it. I decided on an engine swap as I accidentally found a JDM engine that resembled the Maxima's engine almost exactly. After purchasing that, I started the swap. In the middle of the swap my family had decided to move to Kansas so it slowed the process by a few months. Eight months after starting the swap... it was complete and running. After having my first dose of turbo power I was hooked and was absolutely hooked on Nissan's. Since then not much has happened due to a major lack of money to finish projects I've collected and started. I've worked for my dad doing website work and some management but now own my own donut shop that is sadly the major source on me not having any money. Regardless, I have started and am in the middle of various projects that are very exciting. I'm currently working on a 1991 Nissan 300ZX, swapping in a 1990 Q45 VH45DE. Later on, it will of course be turbocharged. Another project I'm working on is a 1990 300ZX that I am planning on putting a VG30ET into. It will be a completely stripped, caged, track car and will be very fun. The Maxima is still around but is requiring major, major surgery due to extensive rust from the Indiana's salty roads in the winter. I have some extreme plans for it though that will surprise quite a few people and will hopefully be on the road in the not too distant future. How Nissan crazy am I? Here's a list of the Nissan's I have: 1991 300ZX - 450ZX project 1990 Maxima 1990 300ZX - VG30ET project 1990 300ZX 2+2 - parts car 1985 300ZX Turbo 1990 Q45 1975 280Z And planning on more... |
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