JY's PS13 Build

After many attempts of building a few 180's, I have finally committed to building a S13 to take over as my main chassis for drifting. There have been a couple times where I thought I would stick with a S13 Hatch since I was obsessed with them for many years but as I have gotten older, like many of you here with me, my interests have changed.

This is my first attempt at building a Silvia / S13 Coupe and I think the main reason that I have stuck with it to completion is that its RHD. I built a 350z a few years ago as a "practice car" but it just didnt feel right to me so I sold it after 1 event . Driving my R32 for almost a decade now, I feel like this Silvia will be perfect for taking priority in my drifting life.

So how did I start this whole journey you might ask, well I was in the mindset of wanting to change the aesthetics on the R32 so I was selling my Garsons until someone local to me offered to trade me a silvia shell for the wheels plus cash. After building a spreadsheet like I always do, I realized that I would make money on the trade if I didnt want to build the silvia.

We set off to pick up the silvia and boy, was it a POS. The car had been passed around a couple times because these cars now take alot of money to make something of them and its always a large endeavour. This is what the car looked like when we picked it up.

After pickin the car up and taking it home, the person who imported the car sent me pictures of it when it was in Japan. It was obviously a project in Japan and no one really made progress on it throughout multiple owners.

Once we got it unloaded, I put the car on jackstands like every S13 owner and started removing items that I knew I was not going to use or parts that I was going to replace. The car came with some cool stuff like Ganadors, clean Silvia fenders and hood, mint projector headlights and some suspension. I elected to sell all of these things because I knew that this was going to be a drift car and they are worth much more now before I could ruin them when I crash.

I ended up stripping the car down to a bare shell, cleaning some things, redoing the front and rear subframes then reassembly things. I was fortunate that I kept alot of new parts from previous S13 builds so I was able to reuse alot to save money from buying things twice. Front and rear recieved all new arms, Stance Coilovers, Heatmaker knuckles, new bushings, 2-way LSD, Z32 brakes and 5 Lug.

I usually set a theme with a car style I'm trying to acheive and like to compile as many parts to stick with that style. Late 2000's DMAX has always been cool to me with Noaki S13 and Yokoi S14 being being my favorites. I chose to use DMAX Type 3 kit, hood, wing and front fenders to complete the look. Origin rear fenders were used as they a similar to the DMAX version. And just to be truthful, this is all rep stuff to keep from breaking the bank :) Brick headlights and OEM mirrors to finish things off.

The car was never had a motorset and I had a spare S15 SR20 that lost some compression in cylinder 1 so I sent it off to get rebuilt for this chassis. New cams, pistons, rods and converting to E85 to make sure this engine is overbuilt and under utilized so it will last forever. I ended up buying a couple Z32 gearboxes as well so the idea was to mimic the setup of the R32 so that I could have share parts between the two in order to always have 1 driving car. Went with the Mazworx kit again but this time went with an ORC twin disc clutch.

While I was in Japan, I picked up a TD06 from Upgarage for cheap, sent it out and had it refurbished. I tracked down a GReddy top mount manifold and wastegate and purchased a new GReddy downpipe so complete the TD06 Hotside. After talking with my teammates, we elected to all run S15 T28's so this setup is now sitting in storage until I decide to use it.

While the engine bay was stipped, I wanted to stitch weld the bay, patch the tubs and add some bracing to the strut towers. The car was kind of rusty so I wanted to patch what I could and make things last as long as I could with improving structual rigidity. Also I think it looks cool.

Once the car was completed with suspension, I wanted to get the car painted. Classic silver engine bay is my go to but I did not have a color picked out when I started building this car. I knew I wanted to do a livery for this car so I reached out to Desire_DRS to have him design me something because I liked his work that he was posting. He ended up with a pink.

I sent the car off to paint but since I always have bad luck with painting cars, this one didnt go well either. The paint we used was very thin and ended up not working so we had to purchase new paint. It was a very bright pink but didnt spray out well and panels didnt match. I picked the car up after the first paint job so that I could install the engine and get some things done on the car while the new paint was being delivered. Changed the paint to Rubystone Red and the car came back for final assembly.

First Pink

Picked Up to Continue Work

2nd Pink

Silver Bay

Once the car got back from paint for the 2nd time, it was time to try to wrap things up. The engine was in, suspension was installed, so now I was trying to tidy up the interior. Scored a uncracked dash, Thrash wheel, reused a seat that I had, and a STI knob. I was going to go with a red theme interior but changed my mind to go with blue.

Rolled the car out into the drive way to see it in the daylight assembled. Was pretty cool to see 2 bright colored drift cars in my driveway that I own.

After this, it was time to start breaking in the engine. As of now, I have completed the initial break in and have drained the oil. Now it is time to drive the car to break in the engine even more but the car was dropped off at the alignment shop for final adjustments and a look over to make sure everything is ok.

Once the car comes back from alignment, I will get to drive the car for the first time. Its been about 15 months and about $25,000 in case anyone wants to know how long it takes and how much. After I drive the car, I am hoping to drift it for the first time at Double Cup 3.

If you have any questions about the car, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer! I hope you enjoyed this quick rundown of the car and I hope to keep adding to it when I can.