RichDaBear

My build isn't anything crazy but I try and do things tastefully and clean with reliability in mind. At the end of the day I want to know I can street drive the car and do fun drift events and know that the car will be issue free. And after just over a year, it's been great!

Original Mod list when I bought it:
ROM tuned s14 SR on 18 psi
External wastegate
Koyo rad
550cc injectors
Tein Coilovers
Greddy Front Mount
Unkown sway bar
RUCA's
Cusco front and rear tower braces
and Battery relocated into the trunk.

Otherwise just a pretty clean Coupe.

I originally acquired the car April of 2014 from a buddy who daily'd the car for a few years with the s14 SR in it. Here is what it looked like the day I got it:







Within a few weeks I drove my first drift event at Orlando Speed World. Even though I have been around drifting since '05, I road raced a mustang and then an Rx7 up until this car.





I started acquiring parts ready for install. The plan was to build the car to have style, versatility, and be reliable. No corner cutting.

I have friends at Cosmis who hooked me up with a set of gunmetal XT206r's. I loved the style and they are an affordable wheel, i'm just not willing to drop the coin on hotboi wheels when I really like the style of these anyway.

5 lug conversion went on to accommodate the better wheel selection and while I was at it a fresh set of z32 calipers/rotors and master. Some neochrome muteki lugs finished this round of mods off... and with as many times as I take the wheels on/off while at the track, good lug nuts were a must!

I also heavily debated staying pop-up or going silvia, but I couldn't help myself. I went silvia and fell in love with the oem aero. After months of searching I found one for a steal! Once that was in place I bought the matching sides and rear valences from Dorki Dori which fit absolutely perfectly. I also went with 20mm front fenders and 50mm rear overs to give the car a better side profile. All of the aero pieces are mounted with dzus fasteners or rivnuts for quick servicing. I can have everything off in less than 15 minutes.











Next was to clean up the engine bay and add some comfort inside the car. A corbeau seat was added along with a scroth harness and harness bar. I also added a innovative wide band and prosport boost/water temp/oil press. A mishimoto oil cooler went on along with a remote oil filter with the help of a tomei oil block adapter. Due to track requirements, I also added a sealed mishimoto oil catch can plumbed in line with the factory valve cover and intake port to retain scavenging.

Apex Eight

This is sweet. I love the pignose front on my coupe, but a Silvia front end is oh so tempting, especially since my brother got into a little fender bender with it a couple years ago. Liking the build and your philosophy, keep it up!

RichDaBear

Next up was a turbo refresh. Having gotten the car last April and noticing severe turbo lag I decided to take the turbo setup off to see what I have and to refresh it all. The turbo went out to turbo bay for rebuild and low and behold it was a ball bearing… had no idea with the amount of lag. Apparently it was really gunked up from lack of maintenance over the years and needed new seals and a new wheel (there was a little shaft play which caused some bent fins). I also bought all new gaskets, studs, nuts, bolts, you name it… After working some magic and doing some upgrades to it here was the rebuilt product…

Next up was a wire harness delete, I didn’t have the time so I had a friend move the chassis harness and relay/fuse boxes from the engine and put it all in the trunk since I still have a/c in the car and don’t have room under the dash. I still have some cleaning to do back there but here is what it looks like front and back…





Picking it up from getting the wire work done…


And that’s pretty much where I’m at today. I should have it painted in the next couple of months, but here are some of the other random pictures from the last year.



I apparently went drift mudding…. I look like a deer caught in the woods in this picture. Notice the sweet John Derp written in the mud on the door….

RichDaBear

Next up is to prep the body for paint. The roof has some rusting around the sunroof so I'll be welding in new pieces for that. I'll also be doing LS coils and making a bracket for them.