actually i got the idea from an article in sport compact car where they compared a riced out, wide body, supercharged 350Z, to a N/A 350Z that had few, key mods done to it. small N/A upgrades designed not to make power but to improve response. as well as a 2 way diff with shorter gears to maximize the use of the VQ’s stock potential. the stockish Z massacurred the riced out SC’d Z on the track.
swapping diffs, gears and such are often overlooked by most people cuz they dont show any changes on the dyno sheet. but the dyno sheet is bullshit, most imports have a high enough redline to make good use of a shorter final drive. they make the car wickid fun to drive, and they make it accelerate much faster. like yours pat, i’m always touching cloth when i get out of your car.
as far as the motor swap goes, nothing you could swap into the engine bay will be original… so why dont you just put a motor in the trunk instead?