Look out, Sweden!  There’s a humdinger of a twin-turbo Nissan coming your way from Britain.

John Bradshaw’s Scandinavian plans for 2012 reflect, in part at least, his impatience with drag racing’s rulebook.  Bradshaw had wanted to race in Pro Modified – he would have been instantly competitive in the MSA British Drag Racing Championship – but as a committed Nissan man, he is a V6 diehard.  Pro Mod, though, is a V8-only zone; no other configuration is allowed, not even one with fewer cylinders.

“We all know we could probably go quicker if we put V8s in our cars,” he says, “but that will not happen.  We are Japanese through and through and proud to say so.  People can relate to the engines we run from their own road cars.”


team Project Zed

So Bradshaw and his Project Zed* team will go Sportsman racing next year in Britain and Sweden, with a weekend trip to Hockenheim in Germany.

(* To British eyes, the letter Z reads as ‘Zed’; Americans pronounce it ‘Zee’.)

Competition Eliminator will be the common thread, with the recently announced European Drag Racing Series a prime attraction.  In addition, Bradshaw will continue to participate at home in Santa Pod’s Jap Drag Series and will take on the behemoths of Top Doorslammer in Sweden.

The busy schedule will need two cars.  Bradshaw’s current Nissan may pack just 3.5 litres under the hood but it is no slouch.  Designated PZ1, the red 350Z achieved best performance marks of 6.63 seconds and 211mph (340km/h) in 2011.  A stablemate, PZ2, is expected to reach Britain soon.  The cars have identical chassis built in America by Jim Geese at his previous business, Vanishing Point (Geese now constructs for Roger Burgess’s R2B2 Racing empire).  The engine and gearbox will undergo substantial changes, though they will remain a Nissan V6 and Lenco.  As for expected performance figures, Bradshaw notes, “We have a target in mind and it’s fair to say we wouldn’t be planning the changes unless we thought it would be beneficial in the long term.  The quickest Japanese car on the planet currently runs 6.38 and we’d love to acquire that distinction for ourselves over the next few years.”

Bradshaw and his family live on England’s south coast at Weymouth, the venue for 2012’s Olympic sailing regatta.  So what brought him into this fast and furious internal-combustion world?

“A fateful Run-What-Ya-Brung in a bog-standard Skyline in 2005,” is Bradshaw’s answer.  “It was the start of the downfall… sorry, drag racing career.  I was absolutely hooked and couldn’t wait to get back and do it again.  The whole competition element was amazing and there was no looking back.  I’d had previous experience racing motorbikes but, after one accident too many and metalwork being inserted, it was time to look at four wheels.”

Bradshaw describes his 2008 entry into mainstream racing as a huge step.  “At the end of 2007,” he continues, “I approached the owners of Abbey Motorsport, Tony and Mark Gillam, to see if they would be interested in helping me really try to push the boundaries of Japanese car performance in Europe.  Abbey are very well known and respected in the Japanese tuning world and have extensive experience in multiple disciplines – fast road cars, drag cars, drift cars, race cars – and they’ve won many, many awards over the years.  In 2008, Abbey took over all engine-building and development work, car tuning, set-up and crewing, and the benefits were immediate.  Their attention to detail is second to none and their approach absolutely professional.  Our team has taken huge strides forward on the world-class stage with certainly more to come.”