Really? A Z32?

Once upon a time I was younger than I already am. Go figure right? A young boy, originally from San Jose. I think I knew what drifting was before I even really knew what to call it. Like I had seen it, but didn't know what it was or why it was done. And I can probably give thanks to my mother for taking me to the old video store in Japantown before a dentist appointment. I grew up in the garage thanks to my father so anything involving a cool car had my interest, including my first and surprisingly only copy of Video Option sitting on the self in that video store. I had no clue what the Nissan was on the cover but I knew it looked cool and I wanted it. Obviously I didn't understand it so I got bored of it. Gran turismo was way more fun to me and had cool japanese cars. Skip ahead to me starting to learn a bit about drifting. Videos of D1GP were easily attainable now, formula D was a thing in the states now, and I was in highschool ready for my first car. I remember seeing tire marks by the old altamont speedway, right in front of the bar on that one corner. This had to be around '04 or '05. Whoever was drifting there would choku dori every time into the right hander leading to the track. I didn't know any of these terms at the time but I knew those tires marks were a result of drifting. From then on I wanted an FR Nissan chassis, but sadly got an FF car in highschool. Skip forward 4 years, I finally obtained myself a FR nissan. It wasn't the S13 hatch I wanted but a very clean Z32 slicktop. It need some maintenance and a respray of the front bumper but otherwise a very untouched car(at the time )






Please remember these photos noticing how clean the car was. K. Cool. So now. Let's get to modifying the car for drift purposes. I did some donuts in parking lots and eventually tried turns I shouldn't have which involved bent control arms and tow truck rides home. After coilovers, fresh subframe with full ES poly bushings, welded r200 diff(4.08 gears), stillen sway bars, powertrix control arms F/R. Powertrix tension rods, tien z33 inner tie rods, moog outers. Era 1 20mm rack spacers, poly rack bushings I finally went and had a go at a track day at Sonoma. Sucked. Came back. Tried again. Rinse repeat. Except I got better. Eventually learning how to ride out full lock consistently I decided "hey, modded knuckles seem cool" but there was literally one option obtainable for me at the time. Just cut and welded Z32 knuckles which are cast aluminum and that's kinda spooky m8.

Full lock stock.



Full lock chuckles.



K photo dump to drifting and the car getting gradually lower and lower.










Drifting the car was going great. It was consistent, predictable, and balanced. But seeing my counterparts have great looking cars aside me I decided it was time to step up the looks department. I had a long time vision that I just didn't know how to put to reality(fiberglass). But with the help of the m8's (cunts) we did some magic.

S13 skirts would now become contributions to the world of science in the low car drift style.









Some Russian science with a 326 power wing and paint. Some updated suspension and steering including extended lca's, subframe risers, ride height adjustment, stiffer springs (18k/16k) we ended up with this.









So the car looked cool to me. Drove cool to me. And it was time to head to the midwest. Something I never thought I'd ever do for a drift event. Final Bout was the coolest thing I've ever done involving cars. Ever. The car ran like a champ all weekend and never skipped a beat. I only had to come into the pits to change tires, eat, piss, and rest my clutch foot.















to be continued... (i'm tired and drunk)

drunk at 12:22pm? dapsang, starting a little early m9

im so stoked that it isn't an s-chassis, this thing is awesome!

Lol oops. I copy and pasted it from last night cause my shit was acting up again. I guess I should continue now.

travisroush wrote:im so stoked that it isn't an s-chassis, this thing is awesome!

It's slowly becoming a s-chassis. Hope you like disappointment.

(continued)

So Final Bout was a success and I was super stoked with my car but also kind of tired of it from the constant grinding to get ready for such a trip. So it sat for several weeks at the shop. Max and I revived our cars in time to have some winter fun. Couple events at sonoma, drift cave series, daily driving throughout the winter, and some impromptu fun around town.









Car held up great for the most part. But I knew it was time for a major revamping underneath. The janky coilover set up(megan racing with stupid stiff bc spring) was getting old. The rear knuckle bushings were starting to blow. The ride height was becoming lopsided. I was experiencing steering issues at higher speed entries. And I was swapping out axles more than oil changes.

So it was time to take on the biggest science project I've ever done. Out came the old suspension for cleaning up and new parts. Began sanding the car and fixing dents from bad touching. The car looked like it was getting parted out for a little bit.

















I was bouncing back and fourth between paint prep and suspension/steering. I decided "Hey dipshit, rolling a car around for paint with no suspension will probably suck a lot. So I should get this thing back on the ground." So I put away all the sand paper and metal hammers and out came cutting wheels and welders.

The goal was to put everything from a S13/14 into the Z32. The Z originally comes with a double wishbone front end instead of Mcpherson. I knew it was possible because it had been done before. But there no write ups or build threads to go off of. So I was a bit blind. Another crazy thing I wanted to tackle was to raise the diff in the subframe to stop going through axles so much at a low ride height. INB4 why not just raise your car? NO. The subframe thing was a bit beyond my fabrication abilities so I sent it off with that tall Julian guy so it can receive that special Heat Maker touch. Along with the subframe went my front Xmember, S14 knuckles, and my front LCA's.

This is what I received back.









The guys over a TFworks helped me get set up with a perfect set of coilovers for what I was attempting. S13/14 Stance SS coilovers with custom valving for 16k/12k swift springs and low ride height. These things are beefy.





So how the fuck does all this shit go back in to the car now? Luckily Z32's and S13 practically share the same rear end minus a few things. So this wasn't too bad. The PBM s13 rear drop knuckles bolted right up. Just had to change the ball joint. And swap the rear brakes for s13 because pbm's knuckles cannot receive the drum type Z32 E-brake. And I wanted an E-brake. Had some clearance issues with the diff hitting a frame rail and the driveshaft touching some stuff but after cutting, grinding, and hammering, it was all in.









Now the front end was a whole different story. After looking thoroughly through my options I decided the best way to go about it was to cut out the existing strut mounts and weld S13 strut mounts into the correct place. Being two different types of suspension, if I bolted all the s13 stuff up, the camber and caster would have been way too agressive. So after taking measurements and comparisons from Max's S13, I went in with the help of Rick from Heat Maker.







So cool. The car is back on the ground. That was an exciting moment. Now it's time to paint it with just a few days to spare. Fuck...



To be continued...

wow holy shit,

car so low you can't even run over a zip tie and not hear a noise.

much cool, so rad.

love all the custom work done on this thing. serious dedication! i still want my subframe modded by the tall dude too. keep it coming!