One of the things you notice about top-class drivers is that they seem to be totally effortless at speed. Jeff looked very smooth, and watching the car in the turns it was obvious that, despite the soundtrack (screaming tires and wailing engine), Jeff was totally under control. The end of the first hot-lap stopped the timer at 1:36.88, with an average speed of 63.17 mph. The second lap was a little better at 1:36.50. Jeff then rolled into the pits and gave us some feedback: "I wasn't really pushing too hard on those laps, I wanted to get a feel for the car. The first thing I noticed is that it understeers badly on the initial turn-in. Once it settles down it's pretty good and seems to hold the line pretty well, but overall it feels very soft and squishy. The tires are a major limiting factor again and the brakes start to fade after a couple of laps. I reckon I could go a lot faster with better brakes."
We sent Jeff out again with instructions to push the car as hard as he felt comfortable with. Jeff responded with a very credible 1:36.33 on his first lap. The next lap saw him break into the 35s with a 1:35.98 at an average speed of 63.76 mph. On the third lap Jeff slowed considerably and rolled into the pit-lane with smoke billowing out from behind the front wheels.
"No brakes," he said. "They just faded away to nothing on that lap, and it's obvious we'll have to do something about it before we come back again. Also, the engine feels a bit sluggish. It's a little bit unresponsive to throttle input."
These comments just confirmed what most 240 owners are already aware of. The stock brakes are pretty puny and are generally upgraded at the earliest opportunity, and the 2.4-liter KA24DE is more of a torque motor than a high-revving speedster.
Once we cooled off the brakes and gave the car another check, "Hound Dog" headed out for one more try. We just told him to go for it and to hell with the consequences.
The final session saw Jeff doing a Texas-Two-Step on the ragged edge of adhesion. The car was starting to get a little out of shape, but Jeff still managed to post the best time of the day, a 1:35.69 sec e.t. with an average of 63.95 mph.
The Parts
Now it was time to decide what we could do to convert our S14 from pseudo-sports car to a razor-sharp canyon carver. I sat down with Kyle Thurber, owner of CTC Motorsports in Dallas, and we formulated a plan of action. We decided that although we didn't want to make our S14 a track-only car, we could still use high-quality parts with a racing background. The Nissan Silvia/240SX platform has a huge following in Japan, so it made sense for us to try to use as many Japanese-developed parts as possible. We compiled a list, I got busy on the phone, and we got our parts on the way.
Wheels And Tires
It was obvious from our tests the car desperately needed a lot more rubber meeting the road. To make this possible we needed to find a set of wider wheels. Weight was obviously a major consideration, so we called Alex Chung at 5Zigen USA to see what options we had. Alex (a 240SX driver himself) pointed us in the direction of 5Zigen's FN01-R Beckett racing wheels. These rims are forged in one piece for maximum strength and minimum weight (our wheels weighed in at a scant 15 lb each). We decided that we would install 17x9s in the rear and 17x8s up front. We knew that we would be installing a bigger brake package on our car, but Alex assured us the offset at 40mm would clear pretty much any system we installed (and he was right). We decided that a white finish would look good on our red 240, and Alex sent the wheels on their way.
By Chris Harrington
Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!