feature car

 FEATURE CAR
S
S
A
K
C
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K
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aving acquired a fairly leggy
1995 Nissan 200SX S14 1995,
Southampton-based
Nathan
Pearce had to decide whether to
save it or bin it, although the latter was not
really an option for the Oriental enthusiast.
It is funny how people can generate a
reputation for their personal interests,
especially if they happen to be in a conventional
working environment and word gets out about
34
their likes and dislikes. Nathan purchased
the car in August three years ago from an exemployee where he was working. There was a
certain inevitability attached to the connection,
as Nathan recalled, “Due to the fact that most
people at my work know that I am a bit of a car
nut, especially for Japanese cars, while I wasn’t
looking to buy another car at the time, the SX
was likely to be a bit of a bargain. I had owned a
number of turbocharged Orientals in the past,
TOtal nissan  SEPT/OCT 2009
including a couple of S12 Silvias, a Skyline GTR
R32 and also a Mitsubishi GTO but the thought
of another one for not much money meant that
I felt compelled to go and have a closer look.”
When Nathan arrived, he found it ‘buried’ at
the rear of a garage. It had not seen any use
for a while but it started up and idled sweetly
without any hassle. Taking it for a test drive
showed up a couple of problems, including a
rapidly dying clutch and dangerously floaty
200s
x
‘Taking a pocketmoney runabout
from rags to riches’
suspension but, other than that, it was in
moderate fettle and, after bartering, it was
his for £700. The car was standard apart
from a Pipercross air filter and an unknown
specification cat-back exhaust.
“I considered my options,“ remembered
Nathan, “deciding to fix the suspension
and clutch and just have it as a mess-about
machine that I could use at RWYB (‘Run What
Ya Brung’) drag days and some track days.”
Yet, the path towards performance modifying
is seldom direct and the first replacement
suspenders he came across did not work as
he expected them to. Thus, he bought a set of
Apex Gen 1 track-spec coil-overs and an ACT 6
paddle clutch with matching Cyn-R-G flywheel.
The suspension was rock-hard, there was no
ride comfort but the hooks were in and Nathan
could not stop the bandwagon.
His best mate and mechanic Chris worked
at a garage at Combe Bissett. Over several
weekends, a raft of new components was fitted
to the car and they were both proud of the fact
that almost everything except the respray
was done themselves. Nathan’s girlfriend,
Sam, seemed only too willing to also wield a
spanner. Nathan remains grateful to Jeff, the
owner of Fairway Motors, for allowing the use
of the workshop out of hours, because without
it, the project was unlikely to have occurred. 
SEPT/OCT 2009  TOtal nissan
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 FEATURE CAR
u Joining The Ranks
Shortly after buying the first two items,
Nathan had found the SXOC. He was introduced
to the seemingly endless array of tuning parts
available for the car, notably the second-hand
section, from which a lot of future parts would
be sourced. As he stated, “I had no real sense
of direction for the car. Buying one item, soon
led to another and the entire process became a
game of consequences.”
He found a vented carbon bonnet for sale
but then noticed a set of fibreglass front and
rear arches also up for grabs. This dictated
the need for a respray, which also paved the
way to repairing the only patch of rust on the
rear wheelarch, discovered while ‘rolling’ the
original metalwork with a lump hammer in order
to fit a set of ridiculously big wheels that he had
bought. Although the PCD (location of the studholes) was right, the front wheels had to be
spaced out 5mm (the maximum before they hit
the arch), while the inner wheelarch liners were
ditched and the arch lips rolled. The clearance
was still insufficient to clear the brake callipers,
so they were attacked with a grinder and, after
about 10mm of metal was removed, everything
fitted. The rears were the exact opposite in that
they protruded from the arch by around 10mm,
so they were despatched to be machined down
to fit, as rear brake clearance was not an issue.
As the car was sent to GP Speed for the
bodywork, the front bumper was modified
to allow for increased flow to the new front
mounted intercooler. The overall series of
alterations happened on an ad hoc basis,
picking up parts whenever they came up on
the forum. As Nathan highlighted, “I had been
competing in RWYB drag racing for years and
this car was no different. Its first outing to
Santa Pod three months after I bought it,
resulted in a 14.2 seconds run, with a terminal
velocity of 98 mph, running on the original
dampers and the slipping clutch.
“After a trip to the Nrburgring in relative
comfort, I reached a conclusion that the car was
to be used primarily for racing and that comfort
was not an issue. The entire interior, except for
the dash and front door cards, was stripped
out, including unused sections of wiring loom,
all sound deadening materials and every spare nut and bolt. At that point, the aircon and ABS were also consigned to the bin, along with anything else I could find
that seemed to serve no purpose.”
After much scouring of the ‘For Sale’ sections, Nathan secured a very rare set of
18” Sparco Racing Viper R forged alloys complete with sticky track tyres. They were
purchased without confirming whether or not they would fit (again). However,
the weight-saving over the 19” wheels was immense, even though the 18” wheels
were 1.5” wider at 10” all round. Although the fit at the front was tight, no further
modification proved necessary, thanks to the 20mm wider front wings and 50mm
wider rear wings, in fact the rears are still running a 15mm spacer to get the desired
effect.
The vastly improved handling, coupled with full ‘stage 1’ mods, resulted in a 13.2s
@108 mph run at Santa Pod almost exactly one year after the car’s first outing. At
this point the car had been dyno’d at 286bhp, which, taking the limited changes into
account, was a very respectable figure. On the road, this translated into a sports
car, possessing a significantly more purposeful engine note and vastly enhanced
responses.
36
TOtal nissan  SEPT/OCT 2009
BELOW> Purposeful additions and making
the wheels fit have given this 200SX a new
lease of life

 FEATURE CAR
BELOW> It is just as well the car was basically
sound, as the detailing on Nathan’s redeployed
200SX is first-class
uHammer To Fall
It was clear that it had progressed long past a used heap, turning
into a moderate project, so the decision was reached to set a target
of 400bhp and achieve a sub-12.8 second ¼ mile time, a figure Nathan
had achieved in his old Skyline. Yet, no time target was set. As Nathan
had decided that more circuit work would be desirable, he acquired a
Driftworks adjustable, rose-jointed, alignment arms set along with
some polyurethane bushes. Once correctly aligned, their addition
transformed the handling, with the rear of the car feeling much
better planted and the steering gaining more precision. His girlfriend
suggested that the SX was becoming “horrible to use on the road” but
there was no going back now.
A key investment was made in a set of K Sport 8-piston callipers
and 356mm brake discs coupled with Ferodo DS2500 brake pads and
a Z32 brake master cylinder. HEL braided brake hoses were specified
throughout, including to and from the Line Loc brake system used for
warming tyres before a drag run. They were deemed essential, after a
38
TOtal nissan  SEPT/OCT 2009
track session at Castle Coombe, which
resulted in massive brake fade after
only a couple of laps. The stopping
power they provide is substantial,
matched by excellent pedal feel and
virtually no fade.
Although the main object of the
car was to make it go faster, some
attention was paid to the exterior and
it was taken to Kelly at KDS Detailing for
a comprehensive clean. The difference
was amazing and Nathan gives it an
occasional lick of wax to maintain the
protective coat. At the same time,
Lepsons refurbished the previously
white Sparco wheels and the centres
were resprayed in a Porsche Gunmetal
Grey colour.
“To reach the target of 400bhp,” highlighted Nathan, “I often
purchased parts that were massive overkill for the current spec, full
in the knowledge that they would hopefully be ‘future-proof’ but this
caused one major problem (more about that later). An HKS 3037 turbo
kit came up second-hand on the Driftworks forum, which was purchased,
along with some Nismo 740cc injectors and an Apexi Power FC ECU.
“All of these items sat around for a few months before I had saved
enough money to get the new ECU mapped but, eventually, the funds
were present and it became time to fit them. At this point a major
problem became apparent, the ECU was wrong. Unknown to me, a
lot of S14 model 200SXs were fitted with the later S14A wiring looms
and ECU’s, which had totally different pin-outs and sockets on them.
Repeated attempts at making an adaptor loom all failed and, in the end,
it was easier to sell my current Power FC and look for the correct model.
Another couple of months passed but eventually the correct version
came up and I headed back to Fairway Motors.”

 FEATURE CAR
u
200SX SPECIFICATION
Body:
•
Chargespeed 20mm wider vented front
wings.
•
Chargespeed 50mm wider rear over-fenders
•
Full respray in Audi Ibis White.
•
Smoked rear lenses.
•
Clear front and side indicators.
•
Vented carbon bonnet.
•
Carbon BGW on ultra-low mounts.
•
JDM option side-skirts.
•
OE-copy rear spats.
•
Modified OE front bumper with I/C cut-out
enlarged.
•
Road/Track Wheels - Gunmetal Sparco
Racing Viper R 10x18 with Toyo R888 allround 245/40 front and 265/35 rear tyres.
•
Drag Wheels -8x16 Nissan Skyline R32
GTR wheels with BF Goodrich Drag Radials
255/50 x 16 tyres.
Interior:
•
Interior stripped of everything except dash,
door cards and both front seats.
•
All sound deadening removed.
•
Interior sprayed black.
•
Centre stereo panel rebuilt to house EVC, TT
and various switches.
•
Plumbed-in fire extinguisher.
•
Border fixed driver’s seat on Driftworks
ultra-low rails.
•
Cheap no-brand reclining passenger seat on
homemade rails.
•
Flocked dash with eight ancillary gauges.
•
Battery relocated to boot and replaced with
Varley Red Top.
•
Nismo or Greddy gear knob (dependent on
mood).
•
OMP deep dish suede steering wheel.
•
Quick release steering wheel boss.
•
OMP alloy pedals.
•
6-point Sabelt driver’s harness.
•
3-Point Willans passenger harness.
Suspension:
•
Apex Gen 1 coil-overs with 8 and 6 spring
rates.
•
Full Driftworks alignment arms, inc. carbon
front tension rods.
•
Apex lower braces front and rear.
•
Driftworks carbon upper strut braces front
and rear.
•
Full poly-bushed suspension, except subframe (being sandblasted).
•
Drivetrain:
•
ACT Max Puk 6-puck clutch.
•
Cyn-R-G flywheel.
•
Nismo gearbox mount.
40
TOtal nissan  SEPT/OCT 2009
This time, it was successful and the new ECU, turbo kit and injectors were fitted.
The car was test started at the workshop and then transported to Jez at Horsham
Developments for a road mapping session. This is where the aforementioned problems
with buying future-proof products came into play.
The mapping session was going well, with the turbo running at actuator pressure
(0.8bar), but all was not so rosy, when the boost was increased. On the first attempt
at over 1.0bar pressure, massive compressor surge was felt and, despite Jez’s best
efforts, it was obvious that it could not be mapped out as the engine simply could not
handle the air-flow. This was strange, as other SR20 engines have run happily with this
set-up, at much higher pressures, but there was no getting around this one. The end
result was 308bhp, which for a £2,000 investment was not a significant increase over
the previous 286bhp. The answer was simple but posed a major financial problem; the
engine had to flow better, so internal work was required.
Total Strip
Nathan knew that the engine was going to need a full rebuild with uprated components
but the costs were the hurdle. The SXOC came to the rescue with a fully-forged engine,
complete with Arrow rods, Omega pistons and Tomei Poncam’s all held together with a
Cometic 1.6mm metal head gasket. The unit was bought and fitted straight away and
all fingers were crossed as the car was taken to FC Tuning for a rolling road re-map.
All signs of surge would be revealed. The result was a staggering 400.6 RWHP which
translated to 460.4bhp at the flywheel coupled with over 400lbs ft of torque. This was
massively over the intended 400bhp being aimed for and demonstrated that there was
even more, when the fuel system was upgraded again (the ‘future-proof’ injectors had
reached their limit already and were peaking at over 90% duty, when running 1.6bar
boost pressure).
The standard gearbox fitted to the S14 is relatively fragile and has been known to
fail, when trying to force 350bhp and matching torque through it. With 460bhp and over
400lbs ft it would not stand an earthly chance of survival but the money was short. After
a minor hiccough, with the boost pipe feeding the ECU boost pressure monitor and the
following check-up mapping, the car and Nathan headed back to ‘The Pod’ for Japshow
2009, to see if he could break into the 12.0s and hopefully duck under the target 12.8
seconds. The first couple of runs were made at a base-line boost pressure of 0.8bar and
resulted in a 13.1 second time, so it looked good.
The gearbox was still a major concern and drag launches did not help. Bearing it in
mind, all launches were extremely gentle, although it looked like it would prevent the
magic run. Eventually on the last run of the day, it was decided that it was make or break
time. The BF Goodrich drag tyres received their first proper burnout to get some heat
into the covers. The car was launched at 4500rpm, with a fair amount of clutch-slip to
prevent too much shock to the drivetrain and, once underway, it was flat out. The result
far exceeded all expectations and the car ran a 12.05s @ 118mph. Nathan’s target had
not only been achieved but had been exceeded. He decided not to push his luck and
called it a day, which as it turned out was probably the best decision.
USC was the next scheduled show for the SX and it was hoped that an 11.0 second
pass might be in the offing but it was never to be. Just eight miles from home, the
gearbox gave up the ghost, in 3rd gear, while accelerating on a dual carriageway. Yet,
rather than throw another standard unit into the car, it was decided to take it off the
road over the winter and carry out some planned upgrades, as finances allowed. The
break would also allow the chance to complete some cosmetic improvements, not
least in the engine bay.
The wish list for the car grew daily and as Nathan continued, “We have set a
new target to run into the 11.0’s in 2010 with a final goal of an 11.5 second run at
120mph plus. To reach this goal, the car will most need 500+bhp and obviously a
transmission to match. The shortlisted parts have already been chosen and it is
now just a case of saving for them and, of course, keeping an eye on the SXOC ‘For
Sale’ section. I have listed a bigger Garrett GT35 turbo (rated to nearly 600bhp)
and an Aeromotive 1000bhp fuel system to supply the juice. A Nissan Skyline RB25
gearbox is the most likely item to be fitted and should be able to deal with the power
and torque transmitted by the rebuild. A 6-point through-dash roll-cage will also be
added in preparation for increased track work next year. I have already acquired a KU
Engineering inlet plenum, which will allow the use of the 1000cc top feed injectors
required for the target power output.”
This is probably going to be another of those Nissan projects that is never truly
finished but that suits Nathan’s attitude, as it is still a hobby. Were a bigger budget
allocated, the task would probably be completed by now and there would be nowhere
else for Nathan to consider. As it stands, he can
still work outside on some part of it, until bad light
stops play. While he has kept every receipt incurred
and also kept a record of every part purchased
second-hand, Nathan has avoided establishing a
total spend but, as it is now approaching £15,000,
a not inconsiderable sum of money, he is delighted
with both the performance and the fact that the
SX cost him so little up-front. It may have been a
bit baggy but, with a little help and determination
from his friends, Nathan has kept another SX in
the running. n TN
Massive thanks to Chris and all the guys
at Fairway motors 01725519418 Ben @
HEL Performance Brake Lines Kelly @ KDS
detailing Lepsons Alloy Wheel Refurbishers
Randy @ Kicker Paul @ Sharp Signs Jez @
Horsham developments Steve @ FC Tuning
Dex @ Teamshock.co.uk And of course my
Girlfriend Sam.
Brakes:
•
K Sport 356mm 8-pot front brakes with
Ferodo DS2500 pads.
•
Braided brake lines.
•
Line Loc for drag racing with braided
lines.
•
No ABS.
•
BMC Stopper.
Engine:
•
Japspeed 3” exhaust.
•
Cat replacement pipe.
•
HKS 3037 turbo kit inc. manifold,
downpipe and ext. gate.
•
Tomei Poncam 256’s.
•
Greddy rocker arm stoppers.
•
Arrow rods.
•
Omega pistons.
•
Cometic 1.6mm MHG.
•
HKS valve springs.
•
HKS EVC 6.
•
HKS Type 1 turbo timer.
•
Cusco catch can.
•
Apex oil cooler and remote filter.
•
Apex alloy radiator.
•
Apex FMIC.
•
Sard R2D2 blow-off valve.
•
Blitz air filter.
•
Twin electric fans with electronic
controller.
•
Fuel pump hard-wired.
•
Carbon radiator cooling panel.
•
Apexi Power FC D-Jetro.
•
Nismo 740cc injectors.
•
Walbro 255lph fuel pump.
•
Cusco engine mounts.
•
A/C removed.
•
Power 460bhp
•
Torque 415lbs ft
•
all at 1.6 bar
ABOVE> Is that licence-plate legal?
SEPT/OCT 2009  TOtal nissan
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