Be the Drift King with this ‘Fast & Furious’ Nissan 350Z

By Stephen Edelstein December 15, 2017

Nissan 350Z from "Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" — Image used with permission by copyright holder

At eight movies and counting, the Fast and the Furious franchise is arguably the biggest automotive pop culture phenomenon of the past two decades. Even though it didn’t feature any of the main cast, 2006’s The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was particularly memorable because it introduced a large swath of America to Japanese drifting culture, which has taken on a life of its own in the U.S.

Now you can own one of the star cars from that movie, if you’ve got the cash. The 2002 Nissan 350Z driven by the film’s villain D.K. (aka Drift King, played by Brian Tee) is up for sale in the U.K. on Auto Trader. The seller wants a cool 99,950 British pounds (about $134,000) and, no, they aren’t interested in racing for pink slips.

The seller claims this is one of only two cars that survived the filming of Tokyo Drift, and the only one of the 350Zs to get actual performance upgrades. The stock 3.5-liter V6 engine was apparently upgraded with twin turbochargers, and the car sports a six-speed manual transmission, and a nonfunctional mockup nitrous-oxide system. The odometer shows just 11,000 miles, but like most movie cars, this Z has probably lived a hard life.

As D.K.’s main ride, this car was featured prominently throughout Tokyo Drift. On screen, it was seemingly destroyed after being driven off a cliff in the climactic race (this is why production companies always build multiple copies of movie cars). Like many cars in the Fast and Furious franchise, it sports an elaborate body kit (in this case from Japanese manufacturer Veilside) and complex graphics. The muted colors at least make it less of a visual assault than the candy-colored cars seen in many other F&F movies, and the Z is probably less controversial than the Nissan RB26DETT-powered Ford Mustang from the same movie.

Along with that Mustang and possibly a Veilside Mazda RX-7 driven by Sung Kang’s Han, the “Drift King” 350Z is one of the iconic cars from Tokyo Drift. Despite the high asking price, it will probably find a home with a well-heeled Fast and Furious fan, or just someone really nostalgic for the early 2000s.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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