This past week, I built a ps13 at my main job, Z Fever. Although they specialize in late model fuel injected Z cars, they are starting to get into the late model S chassis' as well. With the addition of Martin and me in the fleet, this venture into a new chassis is not difficult at all for them.

We picked up two 13 coupes for a great price. One was a silver/grey two tone that had a swap, but was hit hard in the front. the second was a chuki charcoal coupe that had no motor.
I had 1/2 a week to turn both of those cars into one good running car.
That week I cut the entire front core support off of the silver 13 in order to get the motor out. I not only had to take the sawzall to it, but I had to actually get chains and a truck to yank the frame away in order to get the swaybar from locking down the sr.
As the week went by, the intercooler, fuel pump, boost gauge, boost controller, engine, drivesahft, front brakes, tc rods, exhaust, downpipe, wiring harness, carpet, and interior was painstakingly removed from the silver car, and placed into the grey car. Finally hearing it run was a big relief.

The car had just started breathing on it's own Friday, so I opted to take it home for the weekend to 'get it running right'

Apon first drive, I knew this engine was strong. Running Mattback spec plugs, Mattback spec timing, and Mattback spec plug gap, the car has a bit of a miss on idle, but absolutely screams when under boost, to the tune of no traction in first gear, very questionable traction all of the way through second gear, and a heavy bark into third gear. All of this on a stock clutch, decent grip tires ( although very noisy), and a stock T25 turbo pushing 1.0 kg/cm^2 of boost. Boost comes on rediculously strong, and passing someone requires no more than 30% throttle in any gear, completely waiving the idea of having to downshift entirely.

Having the PS13 for the weekend really let me explore it and get to know it alot better than, say, taking a friend's car for a test drive. With most test drives, all you do is romp on it, put the right foot to the firewall, and see how quickly you can get the speedometer needle to completely hate the idea of having to rotate any more clockwise than physically possible. Having this car for the weekend really opened my eyes as to how docile the sr20det can be. When off boost (and it's hard to keep it out of it), the motor has exceptional torque , bite, and throttle response. Enough to make me wonder if the compression ratio was really 8.5:1 as advertised. Scooting around down the car tugs at you even without the turbo spooled, and always revs smoothly, the transitions between suck and force feed being smoother than a completely horizontal reading ont he richter scale. As the car pulls out of vacuum, the tell tale sound of turbo spool resonating through the long stainless steel cold air intake really is pleasing to the ears, and the blowoff valve and hint of compressor surge makes daily driving a complete blast. Nice curvy roads turn into melodic symphonies of engine growl, turbo spool, boost blowoff, downshifting upshifting, the whole works is incredible.
This car was fitted with an Eibach pro-kit and KYB GR-2's. Although nowhere near the epitome of handling, the lightweight coupe and basic engine setup really worked well for it. Responsive and nimble, yet smooth enough to cope with Dale Mabry, the suspension allowed me to have some great fun on Patterson road while cornering relatively flat. The steering response on turn-in is waht amazed me. With the lighter engine up front, the car just wanted to rotate. Not to the point of out of control, but to the point of "Enjoy the Ride". Nissan really knew what they were doing with this car.
Driving to orlando on back on 3/4 of a tank of gas is another great feature of having a 2 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder. When cruising I saw high 20's in the miles per gallon. Not bad at all guys, especially with 15psi at the blink of an eye on the freeway.

Monday morning came just too soon, and with the car back in the hands of my boss, I knew why so many people loved this car. I've driven many an SR, but I've never had one for my own. I guess I got to sample this over the past weekend, and It really made up my mind about a bunch of things. If i had the money or resources to build one, I would, no questions asked. I'll tell you one thing though, join the bandwagon while you can, These cars are just way too much fun!

 

first off i bet it felt good writing that post Hey come help tune my car when you have spare time hehe. good luck with your car.

 

i enjoyed you telling me about it on saturday night.....never underestimate what you can do with alittle creativity and dedicated work (like pulling the motor, swapping, tuning, etc.) sounds like a bad ass little project

 

although not having had chance to ride in, but only alongside, this car seemed really balanced and seemed to look as if it pulled better than most stock turboed swaps. whoever gets to own the car should add a vlsd, and that thing would be complete (ok maybe new paint). but i wouldnt change a thing about it. it lost me on i-4 many a time on the way home and finally just rode out on me with probably little effort (and no help to the tourists riding slow in the left lane on the way out of orlando).

cars like those make me want to ditch the ka-t project and just save up for the swap itself. which i technically could still do since i have all the parts ready and all but the manifold could switchover to the SR (i could swap head flanges on the manifold and already have a t3/to4e equivalent setup).

 

Sounds like fun Matt. I'm insanely jealous of you right now.

If I could afford it, I'd do it all over again

 

if cash flow was faster, id do sr. but i will later on with car #2 when i finish car #1

 

Mattback, that was a great post...possibly the best Ive read in a LONG time. Almost poetry, and I hope you can get into an sr for yourself soon.

Later.

 

You didn't mention which intercooler... are we to assume it was the stocker?

Chris