TC24-B1Z

If you have ever wondered what 414hp (420ps) at 9000 rpm from a normally aspirated L-series straight six sounds like… Well wonder no more. Feast your ears with the video above. Not that this is just any ordinary hot L6 of course. OS Giken worked its magic back in 1980 to produce the exotic TC24-B1… a bespoke 24 valve DOHC cylinder head for the venerable L-series, which breathed new life into the old favourite. In 2012 they overhauled it to produce this, the TC24-B1Z….

Engine Museum

The modernist style building you see above started life in 1934, as Nissan’s first head office, in front of its original factory, in Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama. Remarkably, given the huge post war expansion of the company, it continued to serve this function until 1968, when the head office was re-located to a new, larger office block in Ginza, Tokyo. The old building remained in use as a guest hall for the Yokohama plant, which sits behind it, until 2003 when it started a new life. Having been designated as a heritage building by Yokohama city and also by the Japanese Government as an important heritage industrial site, the building has remained well preserved, complete with most of its original 1930s features, both inside and out. Perfect then, for the location of Nissan’s ode to eighty five years of first class engine design…