Back in an s body-180sx import drifter

Hey everyone, thought it was time to get another build thread up of my latest rwd, a freshly imported 180sx type x.

My first proper drift car (after owning a sierra and a vauxhall carlton)was a uk spec ca powered 200sx many moons ago, I sold it six years ago and have owned a 1jz manual soarer and a 1jz manual jzx100 chaser since then. Loved the jz power, but I really wanted something that would be more competitive that I didnt care so much about, ie more fun!!!!
And after the chaser taking a shunt to the quarter panel at a competition day I decided it was time to sell.
So with the help of my mate Alan McCrory at driftwizards I finally found my perfect car in Japan. A 1996 180sx type x in silver, grade 3, recently rebuilt blacktop, with a lot of good mods already done.

After a very long 6 weeks, she finally landed in Dublin on 17th May last year. We set off 3 days later on the 3 hour journey to bring her home

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After getting it back home and giving it a full inspection, I was really surprised at the amount of extras that came on it!!
As the car is going to be driven hard 95% of the time, some safety mods and reliability were the first thing to address. I ordered an ACT 6 puk clutch kit, the standard clutch seemed ok, but would be a waste of time trying to drift using it. A driftworks solid gearbox mount was ordered to help prolong the life of the sr box and help with gear changes at higher revs.
Also fitted a baffled sump and tomei rocker arm stoppers, new 10w 60 engine oil, redline gearbox oil, funches diff oil

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Next was to get her undersealed, fit a fog light for the MOT and sort the speedo, got it sorted in an afternoon and booked the MOT for the following day,
She sailed through
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The wheels that came on it were 16x6s, so it was time to get them replaced with something more stylish, I fitted a pair of 17x9 et20 Rays I had from the chaser, and bought a very similar almost matching pair off my bro in the same sizes. Also screwed the coilovers as low as the sump and diff would allow
Sitting pretty on my driveway fully road legal
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After some 'testing' on the street, I bought a rear strut bar and some kinked front tension arms, and dropped the car off to chris burnett for some steering lock modifications.
Picked the car up 1 week later, and by the time I had made the journey home I was already getting used to all the extra lock.
Next on the agenda was to get to a track and give it a proper days testing!!
Me and my brother attended our local track for a practice day in July. Part of the day was spent fine tuning the coilovers stiffness/height but by the end of the day the car was handling fantastic and I was getting confident with the big entries in my 240hp machine :)
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Thanks to JamesWilsonPhotography for the photos

Really clean looking car. Great to see it being put to use.

cheers rmc. Its downhill from here, shes already had a couple of taps front and back lol, pics to follow :)

So after the first practice day I was really pleased with how the car was handling/performing. A bit down on power compared to the 1jz's I owned, but the speed that can be carried in it makes up for the lack of power and torque
I daily drove the car over the next while, then entered it into the AMA Drift Series final at Nutts Corner on the 24th August (I was competing for fun on and off in the chaser in the AMA Drift Series, best I acheived in it was 4th place out of around 60 entrys and my chaser was basically stock bar fmic exhaust and lsd)

Nutts Corner Oval isnt a very forgiving place as its basically a stock car stadium with solid concrete walls running the full way around the outside of the track.
The way the organisers Con Tinney and Andy McFetridge set the track up was fantastic, balls out at the first wall, getting as close as possible, running the wall the whole way round, followed by a manji up the straight then another big entry into the bottom corner as close to the wall as you can get without it all going tits up.
Practice went ok considering it was a quite a hot day and the 180sx had just about enough power to get me round the bends the way I wanted.
Qualifying came, 3 attempts, I felt I done 2 average runs and a good run. I made it into the top 16, qualifying around 9th position.
The battles were intense, I was first up against an m3 bmw, I knocked him out and proceeded to the top eight, where I met another m3, running a lot of mods and wisefab lock etc etc, we done our lead and follow runs, and the judges voted for a one more time, but on the first one more time the m3 smoked me off the line, leaving the underpowered 180 a few car lengths behind before the first initiation, I closed the gap some, but not enough, so I was knocked out before I could make the top 4 :(
But I had a fantastic day, lots of fun and I was buzzing the whole way home, thinking about some stage 3 power mods :)

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Got so close to the wall on my practice I rubbed the paint off the bumper :)
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I noticed the temp gauge rising slightly after my practice runs, turning the heater on helped drop the temp but for piece of mind I ordered a fenix radiator of ebay for reasonable money. Fitment was 100%.
Also added an engine damper, bride bucket seat, takata harness, nardi wheel and removed the rear seats.
Next outing was a practice day at aghadowey track on the 27th September with my brother Chris in his sr20det s13 and Alan McCrory in his rb25 r34.
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Fantastic days drifting with a lot of close tandums, some too close :eek: The r34 and my 180 had a small 'incident' around the bottom corner, luckily both cars drove away with minor cosmetic damage.

A few rough videos I threw together, quality is quite shit as its recorded on ebay cheapies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaV9jvaYbxs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNu7xc__V0A#action=share

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRqjhIy6niQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hysd4eMmFls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szURGA6hwfQ

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After the love tap with Alans r34 my drivers headlight cover, plastic surround, wing and bumper corner needed some attention so I pulled the car into the shed for the winter and stripped the damaged parts.
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Currently in the process of getting it built back up over winter for more drift practice days and a few competitions.
I also ordered some hardrace tension rods and camber arms to adjust the rear for a little more grip
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So the initial plan after owning two quite expensive Toyotas was buy something and keep it relatively cheap, but we all know how that usually pans out when you own a Japanese rwd. Some new nismo injectors were bought from Japan,
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I got a used z32 in mint condition locally
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and bought a cheapy turbo to try (see how long it holds out :confused: if it shits itself I will buy a precision or garrett to replace it)
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Also found a used nistune ecu at very reasonable money. Plans are to use it for the first couple of events with the current power, then fit everything and take it to Richard Bradley for a remap which should see around 350bhp

Not much of an update... The kouki front was out of shape so I lined it back up as best I could with duck tape and cable ties, applied gentle heat and worked it back to where it should be. A tiny bit of fibreglass will be needed to tidy up below the headlight cover but its 99% back to the way it was, the joys of plastic bumpers lol

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Finally got the drivers front pulled back into position, wing straightened, bumper tidied and headlight operating again
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Good as new...almost
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Me and the homies
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Nice 15

Long overdue update - hard to get time currently with a new addition to the family and running my own workshop.

The baffled sump I installed last year when the car arrived from Japan had dodgy looking threads on the aluminium, bodged it up to get to a couple of drift days, though didnt fancy risking it a 2nd time when changing the oil so decided to install a new one and tap and helicoil the thread. While the sump was off I replaced the oil strainer/pick up pipe and gasket.

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I've been gathering up a few bits and pieces over the past few months-
found a good condition used oil cooler kit, also bought some gauges, Greddy oil temp, oil pressure and water temp, HKS water temp sender, a new header tank (the plastic one had a hole in it), new gaskets, a bigger turbo elbow(was running the standard shitty restrictive elbow), custom braided lines and a custom 2871 turbo.

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I was in two minds what suspension arms to go for, the price of the ebay stuff was tempting, but after seeing countless people breaking the cheap chinese ebay crap I splashed out on some hardrace toe and camber arms.

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My friend Adam who owned the grey s15 a few posts above sold it and imported a 180sx type x

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After getting everything fitted to the sr20 and removing some unnecessary bits from the engine bay, I drove the car around as sensibly as I could for the first 100miles, then on Monday night it was time to take her out the back roads and 'test' it.

The new turbo is very impressive to say the least, :cool: I was only running it at factory boost level, but the gains and performance over the standard t25G are night and day. The t25 seemed to run out of steam around 6k rpm, but the new turbo pulls hard right to the redline :) Before, the car needed good speed and angle to take 3rd, though now it takes 3rd in a straight line, and now takes 4th with enough speed and angle, in the wet obvoiusly

Ive yet to fit the Nismo 555s, z32 AFM, Nistune ecu and Innovate wideband, though there's an N1 Drift Series competition coming up next weekend I want to enter(havent had the car on track since September!!! TOO LONG) so for now I'll check AF ratios and adjust the boost to suit, then get everything else installed asap after the competition.

The power should be ample for now, I had the car at the final competition last year with the standard elbow and t25g, qualified for the top 16, knocked out a 328i bmw, then was matched against an m3, knocked him out, to be matched with another m3, he went on to knock me out (he turtle started me off the line!!!) and I couldnt catch him again! ended up around 7th place, which I was pleased with considering my power level and diff ratio. Im gonna do even better this time though :p

It will be interesting to see how that turbo performs with some mapping ..

How much was it if ya don't mind me asking? .

Just on the look out for a replacement on my t25

RMC, the turbo kit was just under 500 inc new lines, gaskets etc, just had to modify the air intake a bit to make it fit good. These turbos are assembled and then balanced in Taiwan and are good for up to 1.1 bar of boost reliably at approx 350bhp! Will be getting it to around those figures in the next few weeks.

I took the 180 to N1 Drift Series on Sunday, first time on track since last year! I was definitely 'rusty' the first couple of practice runs. The weather didnt help things either as it was dry until I got close to the start line, then the rain came on and it was my turn, no time to drop tyre pressures. The rain stayed on at least, so I was able to do the rest of my practice runs and qualifying runs with the correct tyre pressures. First practice run was going well, until I spun, so made sure 2nd and 3rd runs were 'safe' to try and qualify.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEGTVeX4XmQ&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvXniE-3Zig&feature=youtu.be

I managed to make the top 32, to be paired with a seriously modified sr86 :shocked:

We were the last battle of the top 32, the 86 chased first run, then it was my turn. First run I thought I did ok, though when I had to chase I just couldnt keep up. That was me knocked out, though it was a fantastic days fun! The only damage sustained was a broken rear spat, and I was the only man to drive to the track, compete, then drive home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy7P_lk1i8Q&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWhlllJInDw&feature=youtu.be

The car performed well with the power though I really need to get the z32, injectors and nistune fitted and mapped for the next competition day. Along with some hardrace suspension arms and some adjustment to put the power down

Its been a while!!! lol. Hard to get time to work on my own car since I spend my time fixing everyone elses.
Ive has the 180 on track a few times this year, just practice days to scratch the itch along with some streeto. Still havent got the 555 nismos, z32 and nistune into it yet for a map and some power gains, but hopefully will be done in the next few weeks or so!!
Installed new suspension for the last track day in Feburary and the car was so so grippy it caught me out trying to keep up with big horsepower cars lol

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A couple of dings but after all it is a drift car so these things are to be expected when driving hard. Plus it gave me the excuse to sort the cosmetic side of things...
Everything straightened up ok, but the paint was quite tatty, ever since the car arrived to me from Japan it wasnt in the best of shape, rough enough in places having lost the lacquer from getting baked with the Japanese rising sun for so many years. So instead of doing a few panels here and there I decided to remove the kit for a full repaint.
Another thing I wasnt 100% happy with was the height of the car, it was subtly styled with the kouki kit and I couldnt get it any lower due to the kit having no depth to it. Plus everyone seems to be going with kouki bumpers this year, time for a change!!

So I sourced a new body kit for it, and decided on a paint colour... eventually!! I spent way too much time looking at colours haha

This is how the car looks so far
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The kit is a Uras front, Vertex sides and Hippo Sleek rear bumper. A mix up of the different styles I like, plus I shouldnt see another one with the same body kit!
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The kit was fitted in an afternoon with not too much work with the help of Jordy and Chris, some minor trimming with a dremel got it 99% there. I was instantly happy with how the car was sitting height wise, I may even have to raise it a little at the front end for clearence issues.
Also bought a set of Nismo LM-GTs that will be going on once the paintwork is complete.

Decided to go with a black roof and pillars instead of the same colour as the lower body, and also remove the kouki spoiler. So far we got the roof and pillars freshly coated along with a dmax roof spoiler.

- - - Updated - - -

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awesome :)

Savage dude