Since the beginning of this year I have been on a mission to finish off what the 12 year old in me had always wanted, a clean daily driven RPS13 that can hunt the curves on the canyons with ease and bears all the right parts. This is a story of how I fell in love with my car and the progress of my build from beginning to end… for now.

As a kid I was always obsessed with car culture. I remember going to the hot rod and lowrider shows that occasionally happened around town. At home I played with nothing but car related toys from Hot Wheels, Matchboxes, and Micro Machines to the Gran Turismo series on Playstation until the Internet came about. Now there wasn’t much you could do with dial-up but when DSL became available, it gave me the ability to stream videos with reasonable load times. It was almost natural for me to find out about the world of Initial D, Best Motoring, Smokey Nagoya, and the illegal drifting in Japan all before high school. From car buying in Gran Turismo 2, I learned about the Supras, Skylines, and a handful of other Japanese and Euro cars that were forbidden fruit to the USA thanks to the strict import laws.

As I drooled over the early generation Lancer Evolutions, Impreza’s, and Skylines, I realized, due to price and legality, that most of these cars are more of a dream than a reality. Fortunately for me there was one car that stuck out from the sea of 90’s Japanese glory. This car also happened to fit my budget when it came time to own my first car. That was the 240sx, which yields many variations. Some of you might know it as the Silvia, Onevia, 180sx, 200sx, Sileighty, Type X, S13, S14, S15…I mean the list goes on but I’ll save you the explaination between variants because Wikipedia can cover you on that. Now it wasn’t the girlfriends from Impact Blue driving the Sileighty, or the white 180sx Chuki hatchback, or even the white S14 Keiichi Tsuchiya drove in the Drift Bible video that made me fall in love with the S-Chassis. What made me like the car so much was the plethora of body and engine variations that came with the S-Chassis. The idea of owning a car with so many versatile options of customization symbolized the freedom and ease of tailoring the car to my taste. This picture I saw in middle school of a red Type X with Blitz wheels probably also played a small part in convincing me.

Coming from my part of town, I had to earn my keep and make something out of nothing. Once out of high school, my options were either to buy a car or use that money go to college, I chose the latter and put my car dreams on hold. Being undocumented also meant that owning a car was too big of a risk. It would pain me to have my car taken away off a technicality or be slapped with a big fine that I couldn’t afford. By my third year of college I was commuting by bike to my community college and worked several freelance jobs. Public transportation sucks around my part of town and without a car it made it very difficult getting anywhere on time. Fortunately my parents were nice enough to match my savings so I can purchase my first car. All the while Deferred Action had also just been implemented by Obama’s executive action meaning I finally had the ability to get my drivers license in California. My eyes were set on getting a RPS13. Although the prices of the 240sx’s had plummeted in the early to mid 2000’s, by 2011 people were starting to realize how much potential of track car it can be and prices slowly inflated. The drift scene was picking up in the states and it was slowly getting difficult to find a car that was not abused, engine swapped, or gutted. A clean blank canvas would cost a few hundred more and this was known as the dreaded drift tax.

My goal was to find a chassis that didn’t have any detrimental dents and was not gutted or abused. It had to be a hatchback, a sunroof, and most importantly a manual transmission. Although it isn’t as hard as today to find a clean untouched sample for a decent price, it still took some effort. I remembered searching online for about four months before I had found what could potentially be “the one” and even then, the seller was a three-hour drive away. I remember being excited because it was exactly what I was looking for, a grey hatchback with a sunroof and manual transmission with a few nice surprises on top. It had rare un-cracked dashboard, clean title, and only 112k miles on the dash. I managed to score the car for much less than the asking drift tax price due to it having some simple maintenance issues. The car was an early 89-90 model therefore holds the single cam engine. Despite it not having the better dual cam motor it was match meant to be because it was made the same year I was born, 1990. Those pleasant surprises made me instantly attached to the car. When it came time to register the car, it actually got better. According to the DMV records, I was officially the second owner, making it a rare two-owner RPS13. This was verified by my friends’ Carfax report. Not bad for a 21 year old car at the time.

Stage 1 of my build was to make it a reliable daily driver; doing tune-ups and only fixing things that were broken. I completed that within the first two years of ownership. Being a broke college student at the time, I didn’t believe in doing heavier modifications until I got my first career out of college. I didn’t like the idea of building a car when I wasn’t financially stable. I patiently planned my build through an Excel sheet and tried to stay away from buying cheap knockoff parts. No shortcuts here. With the post 2010 trend of 240s being stripped down into drift missiles and unloved by many of its newer owners, I had a different goal in mind. Horsepower didn’t matter to me, so an engine swap or turbo is off the table until this one dies. The idea was to make mine a reliable, period correct, daily driver with only a few hints of modern amenities. Suspension is important because I want it to handle tight corners and small roads with ease. Throughout the past two years, I’ve been crossing off many parts from that long list which brings us here now.

I will get into more details of what parts are on the car in part two. In the mean time, my goal of completing stage 2 of my build is almost done. All the suspension, interior, and exterior upgrades I wanted were purchased and installed. It was finally time to send it off for paint at SoCal Auto Image in Long Beach to make this a rare, non-drift slutted 240sx with color-matched panels. Now we wait.

The post Running in the ’90s: Period-Correct 240SX Build Part One appeared first on FactoryTwoFour.

The last three months of last year was one rough ride for me. I left my stable job for a new exciting career path that is relevant to one of my passions…only to comprehend a month in that it was a toxic work environment with a dead end future. To top it off, I soiled some friendships over unnecessary issues,made minimal significant progress to meeting my end of the year life goals, and bought a totally wrong tire size for my 1990 Nissan 240sx project car. Nearing the end of December I realize that I was far from happy and would be ending the year on an all time personal low.

No job is worth your self-confidence consistently shot down to the point where you start questioning your self worth. Nor is any job worth trading your morals and what you stand for the sake of fitting in. With red flags flying everywhere, foreseeing no growth despite working over fifty hours a week, and almost forgetting how I really am outside of work, I called it quits on the last week of December.

I found it amusing that right when I thought I had post grad life figured out, I started off the New Year without a full time job and no definite future plan. As a person who finds relief in an organized and outlined future, I was frustrated and lost. I found myself in a state that many people consider necessary in your 20’s. Uncomfortable.

A few weeks into January, a family friend of mine told me she needed a ride to Berkeley. Being that I live in Los Angeles, I seized this as an opportunity clear my mind and reflect on the past couple months during the solo drive back home. The day before we left, I raised all four coilovers about an inch and a half to clear my new but overly huge 245/45R17 Yokohama S Drive tires. I’ve driven to the Bay several times in the past few years taking the usual routes but since life doesn’t always go as planned, I took it as an opportunity to try something new. Get there and back with minimal GPS usage, instinct, and take the roads less traveled.

On the way up, I knew I wanted to take Route 33 from Ojai and Route 198, zigzagging between the 101 Freeway and the 5. Although getting there took about twice as long, every mile was absolutely worth it. Route 33 rewarded us with never ending curvy corners and even snow at the peak of the mountain, a beautiful sight considering that California has been experiencing severe drought. Once at the top we were fortunate to catch golden hour. Amazing photographs ensued.

For the solo drive back down, it was a no brainer to take PCH from Monterey and figure my way back to LA using just road signs. I wanted to take it back to the old days, the days even before the Thomas Guide. When taking the Bay to LA via PCH, stops are a given. Being that I’ve done this trip once in the past, I took the opportunity stray away from the typical Bixby Bridge and Big Sur stops and just find places on the fly instead.

On the foggy morning of my drive back home, I set my phone on airplane mode and vowed to only use my phone for wide-angle shots as I only brought a 50mm lens with me. Taking a road trip with a friend is one story, but if you love your car and you happen to own a sporty one, taking a fourteen-hour trip down PCH alone is a whole different experience.

As the first 90-degree corner approached after a long straight, I down shifted and rev matched all the way to second gear. My bucket seat held me in place as the fresh tires gripped the apex of my lane. I stepped down on the accelerator and let my throttle open. At 4k rpm, I hear my intake, followed by the uproar of my aftermarket exhaust as I crept to redline. My Beirut album was playing low enough that I can hear the waves crashing down the cliff. I shifted up, and smiled. I had become lost in the moment. I felt free. It was then that I had a genuine glimpse of my inner peace again.

As the sun was setting, I took a random turn east bound in hopes to eventually find my way back to the 101. Although I felt lost, I insisted to not turn on my GPS. I was content with that…eventually I became lost in my thoughts. I concluded that when you pursue certain goals or career paths, things might not work out the first time around, or the second, or the third. But you know what? That’s okay, because life doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes things go south and occasionally it can be beyond your control. Sometimes it is under your control and you made a huge mistake and find difficulty coping with it. What’s important is the ability to thoroughly learn from the mistakes and quickly adapt to unplanned challenges. After about an hour of following what seemed like following mainstream traffic through isolated cities, I eventually saw the sign for the 101 south towards Los Angeles.

Although the last few months of last year were rough for me, I wouldn’t trade my hardships for anything less. To truly understand and appreciate what is good, you have to experience what is bad. Ultimately understanding these concepts are gentle reminder that you are trying to improve yourself every day. Similar to the routes I took to go up to the Bay and back, I decided to try an unconventional road for my career goals. Last month I managed to snag several awesome relevant part time jobs that left me with enough time to pursue my personal passion projects. Will I last taking the less traveled path? I don’t know, but one thing for sure is that my drive will.

One of my first victories after this trip? Being able to get a refund on those oversized tires.  

You can follow my photography @alvidee

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