B.A.D. Q45... The article

[elwesso]

I was doing some searching, and ive FINALLY found the article that Rex wrote on the B.A.D Q45...

For those of you who dont know, the BAD Q45 is the Q that Rex (NICO founder) bought and modified.... Best 1/4 mile time was 12.6 at 108 MPH... This Q is currently owned by Fred (hopefully not for long)... I also learned that it has a 4.11 rear end, and not the 4.08

Full article

B.A.D. Q45 - "Love at First Sight"By SpeeddoctorMay 10, 2002, 5:54pm

Email this article Printer friendly page The "Q" story begins with Doctor Rex Birkmire's insatiable need for speed and yet insistence upon the highest quality automobile. With a wife and three kids it was necessary to have a sedan that holds at least five people. Rex describes himself as a doctor by day and a gear head by night.

He fell in love with the Infiniti Q45 when he test drove a used model five years ago. When given gentle input the car yielded a quiet, comfortable, luxurious ride. This is all nice for a time, but when you want to put your foot to the floor you would think that Dale Earnhardt's 600 horsepower V8 was under the hood. This was even stock. The engines just howl with four valves per cylinder and four cams. The first time Rex test drove a Q45 and put his foot into it, he was going 140mph before he knew what happened (these cars will do at least 170mph when the top speed limiter, which is set at 155mph, is taken off).

Wide/Tune

Rex has the tuner/ illness and he always has to tweak and tune his cars. With the Q45 he started with Eibach springs for a 1 ½" drop. This gave him improved handling and an aggressive stance. Then he put a set of OZ wheels; 17" in the front, 18" in the rear with 235/40/17 Dunlop SP8000s in the front and 255/35/18 Dunlop SP8000s in the rear. That made a huge difference in the traction and handling and the Dunlops are very quiet due to their high-tech staggered tread pattern.

Compu-Tune

In search of more horsepower, Rex purchased a Jim Wolf ECU, which took the top speed limiter off and added 36 horsepower at the top end. The redline was advanced from 6800 Rpm to 7200 Rpm. This dropped elapsed times from 15.1 to 14.8.

Exhaust-Tune

A stainless steel BORLA exhaust was added, which yielded another tenth in the quarter mile and provided a wonderfully quiet ride when cruising easily through town, but provided a hearty growl when stepping hard on the gas.

Nitrous Oxide-Tune

Nitrous oxide was originally provided Jim Wolf. This system uses a Jim Wolf ECU upgrade to run a dry nitrous single fogger system through the throttle body. ET times dropped accordingly, but my sense was initially that the jets were not synchronized, that the jet was too small and that the engine was running too rich. After making numerous dyno- runs and track runs we finally settled on the proper jet range for the nitrous oxide, given the computer's calibration, which was a .67 to .71 jet. ETs now dropped even lower, to a best run of 13.2 at 101mph.

Fuel Tuning

Takash Racecraft fabricated a race gas system that can be switched to with a flip of a switch on the console. This ends any worries about pre-detonation when running on the bottle.

Trans-Tune

Transmission work was done to fortify the transmission. The torque converter was modified to increased the stall-speed and the valve bodies were re-drilled to provide firmer shifts and the clutch faces were Kevlar-lined to handle up to 1000 horsepower. This transmission can come in three stages , depending upon what the owner wishes to do with his particular transmission. These changes netted a total of 3 tenths in the quarter mile for consistent 13 flat passes.

Differential Tune

B.A.D. has developed a number of ring and pinion options for the Infiniti rear-end ranging from 3.3:1 to 4.11:1. A 4:11 was put in our project car and the off-nitrous performance was staggering. There is probably no single thing that you can do to the Q45 to change acceleration characteristics more than to add a 4:11 rear end and yet the top speed was not affected.

Wheel Tune

Finally, Centerline wheels were added initially to the rear because rotational mass reduction is so significant in quarter mile times. The rims, which are approximately 10 to 15 pounds lighter than the OZ cast aluminum rims netted at two tenths to three tenths gain in the quarter mild times giving a best run of 12.9 at 105mph. Recently Centerlines were put on the front, a set of 17" Centerlines on Nitto 555 series high speed Z-rated tires, which are 205/50/17s. This cut off another two tenths of a second and provided the best quarter mile time yet of a 12.6 at 108mph.

Final Tune

The B.A.D. Q45 is great for the street and track. It gets loads of attention, in part due to how unique it is and because it is such a sleeper. The fans go crazy when we start running 12 second quarter miles. They also like the fact that our 60 ft times are 1.78s and that we lift the front wheels off the ground anywhere from between 6 to 12 inches. Not bad for an automatic transmission equipped luxury sedan weighing over 4000 pounds!!

Stay tuned, Y2K plans for the B.A.D. Q45 will involve a super charging system with nitrous overblow as well as a new billet aluminum torque converter, which should, according to the manufacturer, cut at least five tenths of a second off quarter mile times. Total horsepower output should be approximately 600 to 700 horsepower. Elapsed times will drop into the 10's and the whole package will continue to be a streetable daily- driver.

Sources:

B.A.D. Performance Eibach Springs Jim Wolfe Performance Superchips Dunlop Tires N.O.S. Centerline Wheels Mickey Thompson Tires Takash Racecraft Borla Exhaust K&N Air Filters Level 10 transmissions



Apparently he was going to put the supercharger on this Q... Apparently he was hoping to get 10s out of this car.....

[Altiman94]

crazy. Id like to see that thing run in the nitrous

[Rex]

Not a real contribution to this thread just for the sake of clarity, but as my sig says I'm not that Rex .

[rsiwicki]

very nice article Wes....

from what I see the Q did 14.8 ET but I can't tell if this was done with the 4.11 mod or not. I see they say the exhaust subtracted another 0.1 off the ET for a 14.7 ET with exhuast and JWT stuff, but still can't tell about the 4.11 mod if it was installed then. I see them talking abou the LevelTen upgrade...I think the stall as something like 3,500 stall which from what I have read on stall speeds would make the car difficult to drive as a daily drivers.....is this correct? Just curious on all this stuff and how my car would compare against the BAD Q45 sans the high stall and NOS.

[elwesso]

Good questions Rob.... I will probably be in contact with Rex sometime soon so we will find out exactly. IT sounds like the JWT ECU alone dropped his times from 15.1 to 14.8

[HeavyDuty]

I remember this car from 2000. I also live in Orlando & he called to get directions to the shop then identified himself.

He pulls up in his silver Skyline with a ratty baseball cap, fake rotten teeth & a shoulder length black wig.

I was like, "Uh............Dr Birkmire I presume?"

Too funny.

Don't know him well at all, just chatted that one time & he told me about the Q & we went for a ride in the Skyline.

sssssssss ___psh! sssssssssss____psshhh!

That car was pristine when he bought it, I understand it's just nuts now.

[elwesso]

Does anyone know what B.A.D stands for.....?

[sultan]

birkmire automotive design, i think

[HeavyDuty]

Yup.