Ben's two tone s13

[BenRice]

Just had a read through some of the forum, figured I'd post up what lives in the garage. A couple of us old farts run a blog: nomnomturtlebrains | zombieturtles – out of the sea and behind the wheel if anyone wants to have a squiz.

I'm in New Zealand, so some small differences to the cars here and there. I’ve been involed in drifting for about 9 years now and am crewing for a mate in our national drift championship. He’s originally from California but now lives in NZ obviously.

The “zombie car” (as its been nicknamed) was a factory CA18DE auto Japanese import. Previous owner converted it to RB25DET and manual from an R33 front cut from Japan.

Some good basic modifications were also done by him: 3" exhaust, Tein coilovers, 6-puck clutch, Apexi filter, aftermarket intercooler, R33 brakes and 5 stud conversion, R32 GTR radiator, S15 seats, brick headlights and he had the conversion certified for road use.

I bought it looking bone-stock on 16” R32 Skyline GTS-T wheels. I previously built a 1993 C34 Laurel powered by an S14 SR20DET which I lost a lot of money on so figured I’d do it the other way around and buy this S13 with all the hard stuff done.









Since purchasing it 5 years ago it’s had only minor changes, mainly suspension and cosmetic but been used a lot and maintained religiously. I’ve added a Vertex bodykit along with Dmax roof wing and BN-knockoff vented fibreglass bonnet, factory monsoon shields (rare), swapped the old Teins for new BC Gold (recently going to 12kg/mm front springs and 8kg/mm rear springs), R32 GTS4 rear swaybar, had the knuckles modified for more lock, gusseted lower arms with adjustable lock stops, adjustable camber, castor, toe added, Racetech fixed back bucket seat on Super Low Bride rail, Nardi wood grain, Autometer water and oil temp and oil pressure and a bolt in half cage.









Mechanically it’s had an oil cooler plumbed up, 3x electric fans and ducting added, Walbro 255l/hr internal fuel pump, cut-and-shut plenum to reduce the intercooler piping, and recently a Power FC. It made 216kw at the wheels on 9psi with a nice safe air/fuel across the board. Standard injectors and ceramic turbo remain in place.





It started off rolling on 17x9 Advan SA3Rs, stripped and centres repainted gold with the lips polished. I collected another four of these so now have eight 17x9 +38 as spares for the track. Then some VS-XX popped up for sale (17x9 +22, 17x9.5 +26) that I bought and had refurbished. Fronts have 25mm spacers so they are sitting at -2, while the rears have been a work in progress. As I’ve been searching for more grip as I’ve progressed I’ve been pulling rear camber out, but because it tucks almost the whole sidewall I’ve had to reduce the space to clear the guards. Currently it sits at 13mm of space, so an effective offset of +13. I may have to pull the guards a little to allow me to get the camber to -0.5deg without having to reduce the spacing anymore. The Advan’s run anything from a 215 to a 235 so need to have a variation of space so I fitted extra-long studs to allow a variety of spacing.



Getting the car to events can be expensive, hiring/buying a transporter trailer and running a daily with enough grunt to tow it. To reduce the weight to allow a lower-powered/more economical daily I went for an a-frame set up that hitches up to the tow hooks. The S13’s taillights have trailer wiring spliced into them and run through the car to the front where a trailer plug sits ready to be unwound and plugged into the back of the daily (1998 C35 Nissan Laurel RB20DE). In NZ it’s not illegal to a-frame unroadworthy cars, for now anyway, so it’s worked out well. The locked diff makes the tow car predictably push a little in the rear, but it tracks really well.







Lately I’ve started tidying it up, with the bonnet the first panel to be repainted. I’ve redone the ducting in the front and tidied the butchered front bumper support. Next are the cam covers which will be done in black wrinkle paint, then try to source a small boot spoiler to hand off the rear (possibly Origin).



It’s next outing is middle of next month and I’m running new tyres on the rear for the first time. They aren’t anything flash (215/45/17 Austyres) but at $90 each I can’t complain. The last day saw pairs only lasting an average of 7 laps of a 30sec 3rd-2nd-3rd three corner section.









So thats where its up to, been a good solid car so far and hope it continues to do so. No huge plans in the near future, just keep doing around an event a month and having fun with it.

Let me know what you think.