ARTICLE and DYNO GRAPH COURTESY OF NissanPerformanceMag.com - October 2003

Project Altima 3.5 SE
Hotshot Headers

Nice Shiny Zoomies for our "Family" Sedan
By Aaron LaBeau
Photography by Greg Vogel


It's been a long 5 months since the last article on our favorite sedan. For a little while we hit a plateau where we had bolted on just about everything we wanted to and could. If we left the car "as is" we would have been satisfied. We've gained almost 20 hp from just an intake, exhaust and pulley. What more do you need in a full size sedan?
Bolt-on hp is a bug of sorts; once you get started it's hard to satisfy the beast. Since we gained so much power from our Mossy Performance cat back exhaust we were curious what would happen if we uncorked the front end with some headers. Our friends at Hotshot Performance have been in the business of going fast since 1994. Their headers are of the highest quality with minimum 3/8" flanges, all smog fittings in place and ceramic coated for a mirror finish. After approaching Hotshot and explaining what our gains have been with the car their interest was peaked with the idea of breaking into a new market with the Altima.
We picked up our car after Hotshot was finished with the fabrication process. Our car came back with an exhaust growl of a scorched dog. The exhaust sound was raspy with some pronounced backfiring pops. It's the kind of noise that makes us grin and our wives frown. Realizing that if we wanted to keep our manhood there's no way we're turning every car in the garage into a growling monster. So, off to the muffler shop we went to get the biggest perforated-core resonator possible welded in. in. The growl was replaced with a low rumble and was acceptable enough for us to continue to be able to procreate in the world.On the dyno our Altima gained 17 wheel hp! We were stunned to have a single mod almost double our gains so far. With these headers we've got enough power on tap to easily smoke our huge 19" wheels from a roll on. More and more this Altima reminds us of the insane fun possible in one of our Turbo projects. Only, with the Altima there's no waiting for the turbo to kick in or worrying about the tranny breaking - it's just fun!
You can't really explain to people that have to ask why we're modifying a sedan like this. We could give reasons and lay down the data at why we think this Altima makes a great project. Why do that when we can simply state this car will blow away full size European sedans out there costing twice as much. You might not think of words like refinement when you're in the cabin of the Altima but intelligent is something that does cross our mind. With the state of the economy these days we're less worried if our dash is made of burl-wood and more concerned with the $avings. Our car is proof that even though you make a sensible purchase you don't have to sacrifice performance.Dyno pull with headers also reflects addition of JWT flywheel.