The Betrayal - 2001 Nissan 200SX

[Willis]

It's been a long time since I have been active on this forum.
I've missed it.

In the current age where 'facebook groups' are the new 'forums' I can't help but long for the sweet embrace of the more mature car audience.. ahhh.
Feels good.
 

Introduction

Who am I? I was born in the year 1990 on a cargo ship marooned off the coast of Venezuela. If the stories are true then my family has been on the run for almost three decades. 
At the tender age of eighteen I joined the military and endured a life of servitude at the hand of the dominion republic of Congo.

What little they provided in financial support I decided to spend on automotive vehicles. 

I've been fortunate enough to own a rather enviable (in my opinion) selection of imports over the past thirteen years.
Noteworthy mentions include,

2 x R32 GTR's
2 x R32 GTST's
3 x Nissan 180SX
Mazda RX7 FD3S Type RS
2 x Toyota Corolla KE70
Honda S2000
BMW E46 M3
 

In among that list are a couple of attempts at owning a 'normal' car but these vehicles didn't stay in my ownership for long. 
On average I seem to switch cars every 12-14 months.. a habit that I hope to break over the following decades. 

As far as modifications go I've never gone 'all out' on any car. I've never really even done proper power mods like an upgraded turbo or injectors. I seem to mostly play around with suspension setup as I believe it to be a more cost effective method of improving the amount of enjoyment that I can extract from a vehicle. 
I don't plan to go all out on this car either by the way.

I'm a twisty mountain road kind of guy, not a quarter mile kind of guy. 
I do enjoy a dabble in rear wheel drive related shenanigans however but I wouldn't call myself a drifter. 

Still here hey? Well that's a surprise.
 

My Betrayal

I bet you're wondering what the hell this 'betrayal' nonsense is all about..
Well.. I was a skyline guy. RB the world (provided you've got a Nitto oil pump, fitted oil restrictors and added an oil drain from the rear of the head back to the sump) and all that jazz. 

Instead of buying a Toyota Supra MK4 as my second car I decided to get an R32 GTR in gunmetal grey. What a colour hey?
Then I joined this forum and the rest is history. 

If you check the list above you will find that I've never owned a Supra and I'm alright with that. 

I enjoyed my GTR but at the height of the drifting boom, I, like so many others succumbed to the smell of rubber burning and the thrill of controlling a slide. 
This saw the end of my first GTR - sold to fund (let's be honest, make room for) the purchase of something rear wheel drive so that I could 'give it a go'..

I never really did try it though (not for years anyway)

I bought a 32 GTS-t to combine my love of skylines with my (still) desire to slide and look cool (drifting).
Then realised that if I put it into a wall I would loose a lot of money.

So I gave up on that idea and bought a car for the mountain roads near where I used to live in Sydney.
A 2001 Mazda FD3S RX7. That was fun and all but I still wanted to try this drifting thing. 

A few cars later and I eventually bought my first good 180SX (third time's the charm hey?) It was a well sorted car, SR20DET t28bb - 5 spd manual on R33 GTR wheels. The body was rough but it was mechanically solid.
I didn't realise it at the time but after only owning cars in 'good' condition it was such a relief to own something that I didn't really care about. I was able to park it next to other cars at the grocery store because I genuinely wouldn't notice another car door ding in the car. Living in Sydney this was the perfect 'type' of car for me.

The suspension work had been done, coilovers and adjustable arms throughout. After I realised that the differential was on it's way out I paid a mate to weld the differential so that it was locked.
Not my brightest move but oh my goodness.. that single modification not only ruined the car but made it the best (in my opinion) vehicle I've owned.

I couldn't believe how much fun I was having.

I know it sounds cliche, but I was probably 24 years old, young, dumb and full of... great ideas.

It really sold me on S chassis. It felt light and nimble in a way that my skylines never did. Turn in was impressive (even with the welded diff) and it was so predictable when the rear end did eventually step out. 

I managed to do a few skids at a local track day at my workplace. I was taking my friends and colleagues for happy laps and I felt like some sort of local hero.. it was strange! People I didn't even know where laughing and screaming next to me (I wasn't a very good driver.. ok?) yet they all left having experienced a type of Motorsport that most will never get a chance to. 
I don't think I've ever smiled so much in a single day. I destroyed 6 pairs of tyres and didn't encounter a single problem. 

So yeah I'm a Silvia guy now.. not really proud of it but here we are. I used to be that guy who didn't like SR20's because they sounded like a tractor.. well now I quite like my tractor.

I kept the 180SX for two years. It slowly wore me down as I drove it to work everyday.. with the clunking welded diff and stiff ride.. not to mention the interior road noise (old man warning). It was at the height of the drifting hiatus in the Sydney region. You couldn't drift anywhere.. Eastern Creek had gone all 'pro' circuit spec and Wakefield banned drifting due to noise complaints (sounds familiar) and as such eventually I decided that I wasn't going to be a drifter after all. Work was also moving me to Townsville and there's no race circuit there..

It was time to grow up.

I bought an E46 M3. An attempt at some more creature comforts with all the pazzaz of the legendary german 'hero' ..
Long story short - it wasn't for me. Vague steering feel, poor shift feel (6 spd manual) and a constant fear of the rear subframe departing the vehicle soured the otherwise fantastic experience. I kept trying to fall in love with it but I just couldn't. Maybe I should have welded the diff?

After turning down the chance to purchase another R32 GTS-t.. I was on the hunt for a Nissan S15. I figured that maybe since it was a bit newer and more modern that it would appeal to my ageing mind whilst still retaining everything I loved about my 180SX.

Then as fate would have it..
 

To be continued...

[PranK]

Bloody great post!

I can't believe the M3 wasn't for you! ?

I love the sound of that 180 and the thought of commuting in such a beast. You can put up with a crap load of discomfort when you're young eh!

Looking forward to the updates.

 

[Steve85]

13 hours ago, Willis said:

the sweet embrace of the more mature car audience.. ahhh

Ummm, mature... sure, why not? ?

What an excellent write up. I didn't even have to ask for pictures!!! Can't wait to hear more from you. 
I also feel you on that growing up, buying a more mature car, then ditching it. My "mature moment" lasted two years. Something about old Nissan's brings you back round again.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Nissan, it's like a meth addiction but more expensive.

[Willis]

As fate would have it I was home from work extremely early for some reason, I'm talking like early afternoon.. and I was browsing Facebook as we seem to do these days..

I think by this point I had been searching on and off for a few months but the tricky thing was the lack of options to choose from in Townsville. I had already inspected a fairly highly modified S15 but it was rusty underneath and the owner didn't boost it on the test drive at all..  he didn't offer me a drive and I didn't ask. Needless to say I didn't go for that one. Sometimes you just know that it's not for you right?

There was no other S15's for sale in Townsville.. that's it.
So I waited ..

Back to that afternoon on facebook.. I stumbled upon a surprisingly affordable S15 located in Charters Towers, an hour and a half from where I was living in Townsville.

Here's the kicker, it was listed in some strange cars, bikes, boats group and it had only been listed an hour ago. I messed the guy selling it stating that I was keen to inspect the vehicle asap.
While I was waiting for a response I remember feeling ticked off at myself for not checking Facebook sooner. 'An hour' I thought.. 'at that price? It's probably already gone..'

But he replied and I asked if I could just call him to save asking a heap of questions over chat. We had a chat and he gave me the vibes of an honest seller and he didn't think the car needed too much work to get back on the road. 

I made the decision that it was worth risking the three hour drive round trip for an inspection, even if it was garbage at least I would know. I figured I would have normally been at work anyway so I was only wasting 'work time' - it's funny how we justify things to ourselves sometimes.

I quickly prepared my car inspection tool kit and fired up the 3.2L S54 in my M3.
The tool kit included ;
Spanners
Socket set
Screw driver / bit set
Compression tester
Jack and vehicle stands

The drive went smoothly but I remember there being so many butterfly's out and about. 
Please stop flying into my cars path little guys.

Upon arrival into Charters Towers I found the car parked on the grass in the back yard of the sellers parents house.
That's why he had to sell it, apparently. The story was that the car had been left in his parents yard for 3-4 years, unregistered and gathering dirt and dust. 
After the folks finally putting their foot down (rightly so) old mate decided it had to go. He had a highly modified Evolution 10 and didn't think he was ever going to get around to drifting (his plan) the Silvia. 

I performed a thorough inspection on the car and found out that it had been in a minor front and rear end accident at some stage (to the surprise of the sellers - sure?) After confirming that the chassis rails were still straight I continued to inspect the car. There were so many issues but the majority of them were consistent with being left out in elements and unused. 

The only other issue of note other then the crash damage was a rust patch located just under the rear windscreen.
Strange I thought for a 2000 model vehicle. 

The car had a few modifications;
Lowering springs
Autosalon style leather seat
Exhaust
Pod filter
Front mount IC
Oh and a freaking Haltech ECU.. freaking random I thought!

I asked if I could perform a test drive but they would not let me as the vehicle was unregistered. This made me slightly concerned.. but I proceeded to conduct a compression test on the car. The results were not very good but the engine was serviceable (ish). I noticed a fair bit of oil on the spark plug threads also.

Now that the inspection was done I had to make a choice. I remember not being very certain about it. I knew that if I didn't put a deposit on the car then and there that I wouldn't get another chance. Old mates phone had been blowing up apparently, people offering him more money for it then his asking price sight unseen etc.. he also used this opportunity to tell me that the price was no longer negotiable.. fair enough I thought.

I decided to go for it. A quick trip to the local ATM to withdraw some cash and the car was earmarked to be mine.

The drive home was mixed with excitement and nerves. I've bought some pretty shocking cars in my time and I wasn't sure that buying this one was the right move .. it felt like I was still gambling a little as I hadn't been able to drive it...

I decided that I would pick it up the following weekend when I would able to enlist the help of a mechanically minded friend. 
During the week I did the REVs check and the car came back showing a clear title. I also found out that the car was an Australian Delivered 200SX and not the imported variant - a win in my mind as the Australian cars are more likely to have an accurate history and not have a tampered odometer. Oh and they are P plate legal in some states which means that they are often more desirable (read expensive). The other surprise was that the car was originally an automatic and had been converted to the 6 speed manual at some stage in it's life (not ideal, but not terrible either).

I was a little dubious of it's 112 thousand kilometre odometer because the condition of the vehicle was so poor - so I paid the extra money for one of those more thorough vehicle history checks which show the KM's each time the vehicle changes owners. It all checked out.

I decided to try and drive the car home using an unregistered vehicle permit instead of hiring a trailer. Hoping that this would also be enough to convince the owner (his dad actually) to test drive of the vehicle prior to handing over the rest of the funds.
Thus giving me the peace of mind that I needed. I decided that the test drive was non-negotiable. I wouldn't buy the car if they would not let me drive it first.

It was an uneventful week spent mostly trying to decide what wheels I was going to buy for it..

 

Finally it was Saturday morning...

To be continued...

Edited July 2, 2020 by Willis

[PranK]

Loving your story writing! Makes for an entertaining read.

I really want you M3. Swapsies? 

What was the butterfly body count by the end?

I'm looking forward to updates!

[robbo_rb180]

Nice buy, having a haltech it may have a few other things done to it. What's the plan for it? 

[junkie]

I lol'ed at the M3 subframe departing comment. hard to believe that something this fundamental was stuffed so hard by BMW engineers

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

If it has a kebabtech Platinum Pro, if you put in a GTX2867 Gen 1, Poncams, 740cc Nismo @ 4bar, a decent fuel pump, a bigger FMIC I can send you 2x flex tunes I have done as a base to start with  

[niZmO_Man]

I bet you regret selling that GT-R now jokes

[robbo_rb180]

38 minutes ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

If it has a kebabtech Platinum Pro, if you put in a GTX2867 Gen 1, Poncams, 740cc Nismo @ 4bar, a decent fuel pump, a bigger FMIC I can send you 2x flex tunes I have done as a base to start with  

^Do this but gen2 , Walbro 460/bosch 540(draws less current)and top feeds. I can help touch it up.
 

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

or do the same thing, but put in the new revised 258 Poncams with the GTX2860R Gen 2 and I have a map I just finished off a few weeks back that will do this:

@robbo_rb180 can tweak it a bit to suit

[Willis]

On 02/07/2020 at 8:53 PM, PranK said:

Loving your story writing! Makes for an entertaining read.

I really want you M3. Swapsies? 

What was the butterfly body count by the end?

I'm looking forward to updates!

Thanks mate, appreciate it.

I sold the M3 about a year ago now. It is currently up for sale again on carsales though. Jetblack with high KM and lots of nice mods if you want to have a squizz.

 

On 03/07/2020 at 12:03 AM, robbo_rb180 said:

Nice buy, having a haltech it may have a few other things done to it. What's the plan for it? 

Cheers! The plan is to fix up what I can and try and get a reliable, some-what comfortable, street car that can attend drift / time attack days. I know that sounds vague.. I want it to be a jack of all trades - master of none. 

 

On 03/07/2020 at 8:50 AM, junkie said:

I lol'ed at the M3 subframe departing comment. hard to believe that something this fundamental was stuffed so hard by BMW engineers

Crazy hey. They did a class action lawsuit for it in the US but they swept it under the rug pretty good here in Australia.

 

On 03/07/2020 at 9:51 AM, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

If it has a kebabtech Platinum Pro, if you put in a GTX2867 Gen 1, Poncams, 740cc Nismo @ 4bar, a decent fuel pump, a bigger FMIC I can send you 2x flex tunes I have done as a base to start with  

Hahah kebabtech! That's a fantastic name for it. It's a Platinum Sprint 1000. If I do all those things I'll hit you up! 
If I upgraded the turbo I quite like the idea of the new G25-550 from garret.. cost a pretty penny though. 

 

On 03/07/2020 at 10:22 AM, niZmO_Man said:

I bet you regret selling that GT-R now jokes

I had no regrets at the time when I sold it, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't have any regrets now. All the JDM vehicles I like are skyrocketing and it's kind of sad to know that I won't own any of them again.. but at least I got to own them at all right? *sniff*

 

On 03/07/2020 at 10:34 AM, robbo_rb180 said:

^Do this but gen2 , Walbro 460/bosch 540(draws less current)and top feeds. I can help touch it up.
 

A kind offer sir! I see you are also in the ville' - hello.

[robbo_rb180]

If you decide to go a new turbo see Shane at Subaru Doctor/Shane Fraser Motorsport does good pricing and work.