The Hibernation

After the second lemons race and the dispersion of interest in racing among the team, I satisfied my track interests and build interests with other projects. It was during this timeframe (2009, 2010) when I finished my LS13 (Ls1 swapped 240sx (s13) chassis). It became my HPDE weapon of choice, and I spent alot of time and cash on the car. In 2012/2013 I stopped spending money on the car and diverted that money into buying track time. Thanks to my father, we became VIR club members, so I had the opportunity of 14 track "weekends" per year at a reduced cost with low attendance. I cannot say enough about VIR club and the opportunites for learning and improvment it has provided us.
VIR Club

Much of the knowledge and information for the LS13 swap came from the following webpages:
http://www.nissanroadracing.com/
Nissan Road Racing (suspension setup information - A generally smart and helpful group of guys)
http://www.silviav8forums.com/forum/
Silvia V8 (Engine swap information)

The car is currently sitting, waiting on a roll cage, brakes, and a set of proper dampers before it gets back onto the track. It will ride again one day (soon).

I will be working on a excerpt of the build documentation for the 240sx here. I am attempting to recover the build thread from the now defunct carolinanissans.com. If that is not possible, I will have to re-construct it from photographs and memories.

After the initial completion, and before the 2011 upgrades, I had the opportunity to weigh the car. 2750 Lbs (without me). Should be about 2700 in its current form with the weight reduction measures that were taken.

The first track-outing for the completed LS13 happened with Chin Motorsports in November 2009. The rain may have slowed the speeds, but it didn't dampen the fun. It was a good thing the rain came, because I drove it home with the e-brake after totally wasting the front pads that were on it. At this time, it was running 300zx front brakes, but I do not know what pads were used.

The current car configuration is as follows:
Chassis: 1992 240sx BASE hatch, original Paint, NC car - Rust free, Clean title

Mods:

Suspension:

D2 V2 coilovers with Z32 rear lowers
Sikky Front Swaybar
Hicas Rear Swaybar
Defworks Modified FLCA with RollCenter Correction
SPL Tension Rods
SPL Outer TieRods
Z32 Inner TieRods
Polyurethane Steering Rack Bushings
Aluminum Steering Shaft Bushing
Defworks Rear Upright Spherical Conversion
Z32 Aluminum Uprights
SPL RUCA
Custom Rear Traction Rods
Custom Rear Toe Rods
SPL Offset Subframe Busings
S14 Subframe and RLCA
Ebay Front Upper Strut Bar
Ebay Rear Upper Strut Bar
OttoFab Custom Upper Hatch Seatbelt Brace
ARP Extended Wheel-Studs
Enkei RPF1 17x9.5 with 255/40/17 Hankook Ventus V12 Evo k112

Drivetrain:

2000 Chevrolet LS1 - from a Camaro
BorgWarner T56 6speed
Monster Stage2 Clutch with 18lb Billet Flywheel
Pro5.0 Shifter
S15 HLSD with Q45 3.54 Final Drive
Custom Aluminum Differential Mount Bushings
Daft Mount Kit
Wilwood Clutch Master With Remote Bleeder
GTO oil pan
Daft Longtube Headers Coated by JetHot
Megan Racing Radiator
Altima Fans
Custom Surge Tank Setup
Moroso Oil Filter Relocation
Moroso Oil Thermostat
E-Bay Aluminum Oil Cooler
Turn One Powersteering Pressure Reduction
Junkyard Powersteering Cooler
K&N Filter On Custom Aluminum Intake with Heat Shield
LS6 Intake Manifold
TSP Torque V2 Cam
Patriot Gold Valvesprings
LS6 Ported Oil Pump
LS2 Timing Chain
TSP Hardened 7.4 Pushrods
SLP 160 Degree Thermostat
Custom Mandrel Bent Exhaust with E-bay Muffler Axle-Back (for stealthy looks)
Custom Engine Harness - De-pinned, Re-routed and trimmed, Re-Wrapped
Factory Fuse Boxes Relocated to interior
HP-Tuners Tuning

Brakes:

Z31 15/16 Master
Wilwood Brake Proportioning Valve
Custom Wilwood FBSL Setup Front
350z Track Rotors Front
Wilwood Polymatrix B Pads Front
Z32 Rear Rotors and Calipers
Z32 2+2 E-brake Cables
Carbotech XP-8 Pads Rear
E-bay Stainless Steel Lines

Interior:

S14 Gray Cloth Seats
S14 Black Seatbelts
Completely gutted save for dash,console, and door sills
Rustoleum Refrigerator Paint
German 200sx Cluster
E-bay Chrome Trim Rings
ATI Gauge Pod on Steering Column
Daytona Digital Water Temp Gauge (digital)
Prosport Voltmeter, Fuel Pressure, Oil Temp, and Oil Pressure
Dakota Digital Speedometer Correction
AEM UEGO Wideband O2
2 Stage Manual Fan Control Over-ride
Delrin Shift Knob
UltraGauge OBD2 Gauge
Custom Interior/body Harness - De-pinned, excess wiring removed (10#), Re-loomed
Fuse Boxes in place of Glove box
Battery Re-location

Exterior:

Big A$$ E-Bay Faux Carbon Wing
Re-enforced Hatch for Wing -Junkyard Hatch Painted with Rustoleum Refrigerator Paint
VIS Faux Carbon (fiberglass) Hood with Custom Venting
AeroCatch Hood-Pins
Junkyard Stubby Antenna
20% Tint done by TVP in Raleigh with 3M tint

Additional Parts (NOT INSTALLED):

Rota P45R 17x9 and 17x9.5 with 255/40/17 Hoosier R6
Original Hatch. No spoiler holes, Original paint, No rust. Tint matches cars windows.
Original white hood. A small section of the under support was cut to fit the LS, but other than that it is in excellent condition.
2 Rear Wheel bearings
2 Rear Wheel bearings with Hubs and Lug-studs installed
HP+ Rear Brake pads, 50% life left
300xz Rear Uprights, With LCA's, Ebrake Assemblies, and Calipers
Passenger Side Axle
S14 Master with Proportioning Valve removed
SPL Offset Subframe Bushings for installing S14 Subframe
S14 RLCA's
S14 Subframe with Bushings Removed, Rust free, good condition. I believe it is a Zenki version.
Factory Front Lower Control arms with good ball joints and bushings, purchased new and used for less than 15k miles before the Defspeed install
Factory Non ABS front spindles with factory calipers, rotors, 4 lug hubs, bearings, ect
Factory rear 4 lug hubs
S13 rear uprights
D2 lower mounts for use with s13 rear uprights
extra factory control arms of assorted conditons and types
Welded s13 non abs diff with 4.10 gears
extra empty non abs housing
z32 rear diff cover for use with s14 subframe, has additional cooling fins and capacity.
Interior Panels, Rear seats, Headliner, Hood Liner, Carpet in OK condition, and plenty of other items.
S13 ABS Retrofit kit (Pump, Lines, Computer, Wiring, etc) pulled from junkyard

Major "recorded" issues

1. Brakes!!!
The brakes are all wrong. The pedal is very stiff, and there is no modulation (on/off switch). The bias is not correct F/R

Possible solutions:
      A. Master Cylinder Sizing - A smaller master will move less fluid and result in more pedal travel - aka more modulation. This is complicated by the off-the-shelf choices available from Nissan, and the built-in bias valve (For front/rear bias) in some. Available sizes: 7/8, 15/16, 1, 17/16. The 7/8 size is OE S13/S14 fitment, but includes a built in bias valve that is difficult to bypass.       B. Brake Caliper Sizing - Larger front brake caliper bores will acheive the same result.       C. Adjustable Bias Valve - This did not help the sensitivity / Lack of modulation. This did correct the bias - More front brakes could be dialed in after this was added and the factory bias valve was disabled/bypassed on the 15/16 master cylinder       D. ABS - This has not been installed yet but I have sourced and acquired the parts. A full S13 ABS removed from a junkyard car, including harness connector pigtails and the computer. This will provide confidence in the brakes by being able to just "mat" the pedal lap-after-lap without worrying about modulation.


2. Shocks
The shocks are cheap D2 chinese-tiwanese crap that I bought in highschool. $900 I paid... I regret that purchase to this day. I could write a book on how D2, Tein, BLITZ, etc are crappy suspension pieces. Mind blowing, I know... Being HELLAFLUSH isnt fast... its a lifestyle choice. I am not after HELLAFLUSH - so suspension travel is important. Maximize the grip available from the tires and track surface at any given point.
Solution:
      Install actual Dampers, with correctly matched springs. This will be either a Koni or Bilstein offering, Likely Koni 8611's. It requires custom strut tubes to contain and mount the dampers. A source used to sell them from the northwest (from NRR.com), but they were prohibitively expensive and his responsiveness and turnaround were less than stellar. I will need to fabricate my own and source a machine shop to thread them for the containment "nut".
      Ideally I would like to run standard 2.5 inch "Hypercoil" style roundy-round springs. They are cheap, readily available, and come in a multitude of different rates. I could play with the spring rate until I find the best combination.

3. Safety
The car is unsafe for the speeds it generates.
Solution:
      1. Roll Cage. I have purchased the Tubing Bender and Die (1.75 inch, 5.5inch radius), the Welder (Miller 211), and the material (.120 1.75 DOM, .125 plate for baseplates) I need to make the time and generate the motivation to fabricate it.
      2. Seat. I need to purcase a actual race seat, like what is in my E30.
      3. Harnesses. It needs actual Harnesses. Seatbelts, attached to the roll cage. DUH.

Track Footage

Best recorded lap - Chasing an Ariel Atom (I can only keep up due to traffic)


Lap recorded using bumper-cam - interesting perspective of the "old" track surface. Kind of halarious that now I am running 2:22's with a 160hp E30.


Driver Failure here - The brakes have always been a sore subject with this car, and I have yet to get them where I want them. Here I am on two separate occasions over-driving into turn one and narrowly getting slowed up in time to avoid the tires.


Dash-cam footage from Driftwater 12 (grassroots open-track event held in Moyock NC) in 2011. Nothing spectacular happens, but there is a good 10 minute span of me chasing a miata.


Me trying out some Drifting at my second trip to Driftwater (Driftwater 14 in 2012). I'm obviously not very good at it - maybe I will stick to normal racing.

For questions about this web page:
Email Huggins Racing