Z31, The Undercover S-Chassis?

I have always been a fan of s-chassis as drift cars, first getting into them after seeing the old bloodmasters youtube videos. That was until I saw Brian Kolar’s blue z31 at a local car meet when I was in high school. I had no idea what it was, but it looked like a drift car and was something completely different. After doing some research and finding his SpeedHunters feature I knew I had to get one for myself.

I found my car in 2017 from a craigslist ad with no photos and a very short description basically say it was blown up and only good for parts. It was a few minutes from my house so I went to check it out and ended up coming home with it.

I spent a couple days working on it and after rewiring the fuel pump it fired right up.

Over the next year or so I began figuring out how to make it a drift car. I welded the dif, got some spare wheels, put a big radiator in it, and tried to do as much of the maintenance as I could. Still having never drifted an event and always being an s-chassis guy I figured the best way to go about drift car mods would be to follow the classic 240 setup.

I found a kit to convert the z31 to s13 coilovers and got a set of maxpeedingrods and tackled the rest of the steering. I used s13 flca’s (1in longer than  factory z31), s13 rack spacers, s14 inner tie rods, z32 outers, and some cut and welded z31 knuckles.

I drove on this setup for 3 seasons, taking me all the way from my first GLD test and tune to running 5 car trains on USAir and it was a blast.

This being my first attempt at a drift car there were some nagging issues that needed to be addressed and once my engine let go at the 2020 ClubFR season closer event I set to work upgrading the engine.

This go around I picked up a new to me engine from subpar_skids as he was swapping his z31 to an LS. As well as, a top mount turbo setup with a Garrett gtx3071R, external gate, fuel system, big fans and rad shroud, standalone ecu, a custom engine harness, and a long list of other mods.

After getting the car all dialed in and running reliably after some tuning bugs the car felt great. It was set to around 350hp and didn’t skip a beat for 2 seasons. As my driving progressed I started to uncover a few more improvements I wanted to make and at the end of the 2022 season I pulled the car apart yet again.

This time it was going to be a big mess of steering, suspension, drivetrain, and chassis work.

On the chassis side of things I stripped it all the way down and stitch welded from the firewall back as well as adding a ½ cage and new seat.

The drivetrain was upgraded with a z32 gearbox with a lightweight flywheel.

For steering and suspension I went down the rabbit hole as undercover s-chassis theme takes a stronger hold. I had become amazed by the fast, aggressive, Japanese style driving over the years and I wanted to chase that. I started by getting a set of s13 B-Knuckles from Heat Maker and went on to base the car around that. Gktech s13 lca’s, inner and outer tie rods, 9k front 6k rear coilovers, adjustable tension rods, gktech top hats, and some garagistic e30 rear trailing arm alignment tabs to dial in more grip.

After the last season of driving the car feels amazing, it has been exactly what I was hoping it would all those years back when I first started. I learned a ton having a much more capable car I’d be happy to write up a detailed thread on how I was able to do the whole swap.

The end of the season brought another tired engine and failed headgasket. Currently the plan is arp studs, e85, and bringing the engine bay up to the same level as the rest of the chassis.

Looking forward to more progression in my driving and building in the years to come.

Thanks for the read! I’ll update this thread with progress with this udercover s-chassis as it comes.