2004 Nissan 810/Maxima - Chernmax1

Nations First 6th Gen Maxima Turbo.

My Story:  

I decided to hang up his uniform in 2003 after serving 24 years in the United States Navy, I headed for the nearest Nissan dealership he could find and pulled one of the first 6th Gen Maxima’s off the lot, I initially went there to purchase an Altima 3.5L SE and the salesman asked me if I had seen the new Max.  He led me to the back gated area where the car was still wrapped in transport plastic. My heart started beating fast at how beautiful the new 6th Gen looked to me.  One of my overseas assignments when I was in the Navy was a 12 year tour in Japan, after coming from the Chevy V8 rear wheel drive community, I quickly learned to appreciate the engineering and feel of the Nissan lineup having driven Skylines, Fairlady Z’s (300Z), and my last car in Japan, a Bluebird SSSG (Altima SE). All were fast and fun cars to drive.

While in Japan I also attended many meets and quickly gained a newfound respect for what our overseas Nissan brothers and sisters were doing to their rides.  With a turn of the key on the new Max, I grinned at the salesman and said SOLD!!!   As I was driving the Max home for the first time and smiling like Bob on the male enhancement commercial, I was already envisioning some of the performance and handling mods I wanted to add.  Then reality struck, first I was no longer in Japan, second it would be months if not years for aftermarket parts to be made available for a new car platform.      

Most modders have goals, some like show, some like go, I tend to lean toward the latter myself.  As performance parts for the new Max moved off assembly lines at a snails pace I decided to take a more proactive approach and started calling companies.  My very first mod was an Injen Cold Air Intake and I never looked back.

I then started networking with other Maxima owners on Cardomain, Maxima.org, 6thgenmaximas.org, and NYCmaximas.org.  As the years passed I continued to mod with handling and performance goals in mind and the help I received from around the country led me to achieve several firsts.  The first was when my former sponsor RedLineMax and I installed a set of Hotshot headers that were initially made for the Altima SE-R, while other were saying it couldn’t be done, we did it with no modifications to the car or headers. So that was the first pie I tossed at the non-believers faces.

And now here I sit behind the wheel of the nations first 6th Gen Maxima Turbo with my Bob smile again and loving ever minute of it.  My max is still a work in progress but when all is said and done Speed Force Racing estimates 370-400whp if tuned correctly, they were the designers of the kit and successfully installed the Turbo Kit in another veterans car, a 2002 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE out of Southern Cal, that car put down 378whp on the dyno with the stage 2 upgrade, I’m hoping for similar if not better numbers.  

Last, I want to pay a special thanks to Tim of Speed Force Racing, Four T’s Garage in California Maryland, in particular Tommy (the owner) who installed the kit.  So to those who said it couldn’t be done