Click here if you want to read my story up to this point!
The Car That Outran My Story!
This latest car came just as school was ending. The only time she ever saw the school lot was on the very last day, and boy did she have quite the smoke show on the way out! Through school that day, *everybody* was talking about the drift car in the parking lot, and only a smart few could tie it to me. It definitely stirred up a lot of rumors, which could be the worst or the best things in school. Throughout school, that was one of the big things I had to deal with, managing the rumors about me whilst managing business.
It wasn’t easy, but I go over how I did it more in my article about How To Balance School and Entrepreneurship. One car, by far, has stood above the rest in my life. I’ve driven vintage Porsches, nimble sports cars, and quite a lot in between! One thing I’d been missing though, was some serious speed. My quickest 0-60 had been about 5.8 seconds in my S2000, but I wanted to go faster. Much, *much* faster.
I was looking for cars that had much more horsepower than my S2000. The likes of STIs, Lan Evos, and Skylines were in my searches. With Craigslist, there’s an automated email service that I used. It sends me an email every time one of these cars is posted, basically. One bonus of this service is that I get cars that are tagged with those names, too.
Search and… Rescue?
Some people tag unrelated cars like pickups and SUVs with those names, sadly. Some cars though, actually are similar enough to deserve the tag. I’d seen plenty of RX-8s, WRXs, Cobalts, and Mustangs because they were tagged with these names. One car, when it came on craigslist, just blew me away. I thought it was super cheap for what it was, and it was close by! It was a widebody, SR20DET-swapped 240SX. The entire car had a widebody kit, the hood was louvered out, and it had a rat rod kind of look that I loved at first sight. I called the guy within *five minutes* of his posting! I offered him my S2K as trade, and with my luck, he was interested!
When we actually were able to meet, it was already past sunset, we couldn’t see much of one another’s cars. Most of my car was okay, being silver and all, but his black/purple car was nigh invisible. We used our phone flashlights the best we could, and found a few issues because of neglect. When we looked under the hood, we found a beautiful, metal-flake purple head, on a clean SR20DET block. There was almost no gasket left on the turbo wastegate, however. One corner was attached and just spinning around the bolt, and there was nothing left besides that. There was an impact above the passenger rear wheel too, where there was a spiderweb of cracks in the fender. It pained me to see her this way, but I knew she could be beautiful again.
Everything about that car was beautiful, and served a purpose. From the wheel spacers giving stance and camber to the bucket seat holding me tight, nothing was without purpose. The only other big downsides were the lack of AC and the 1.5-way limited slip differential. Both were good for drifting, but bad for daily driving. It was still an amazing car, and I wanted it. The car weighed around 2200 pounds, and was pushing close to 400 horsepower. Certainly no slouch!
Negotiations
Now, one thing that’s crucial to negotiations is confidence. Even if you make a mistake, roll with it. If you show a hint of weakness, you’ve lost. So when we got to negotiations, and he began to him-haw over whether he wanted to swap, I took charge. I started to talk about the money I’d need to put into his car, and started negotiations by saying he’d need to throw money on top. That does two things. One, it deflates the value of his car, in his mind. The second thing it does is inflate the value of my own car. If I need extra money on top of his car, then my car must be worth so much more!
Those are the thoughts that I put in his head, then I let them sit. I made an inflated offer, knowing he wouldn’t do it, but I asked for $1,000 and his car for mine. Then, I just shut my mouth and let him talk himself into a slump. It’s hard for someone to hear an offer devaluing their car, then immediately return and try to devalue mine. So, after I planted that seed, I kept my mouth shut. The one who opens their mouth next loses. They’re the one who looks in need, or wanting of the deal. Silence is how I got this deal. I just kept quiet after that, he talked himself out of the $100 (which was expected), and then countered with a straight trade. Which is what I had wanted. IT WORKED!
The Aftermath
The work that went into the car afterwards was minimal, for what the car is. It took me a weekend, but I pulled the hot side of the engine off and redid all those gaskets. Putting it back in was much harder than removal, as getting to some of those hoses and bolts wasn’t easy! It got back together eventually though, and runs/spools perfect now! I’ve taken it to drift events, I daily it, it does everything for me and doesn’t really ever give me problems! To date, my favorite drift event has been my first one, where I literally had a blast! (I blew a tire 🙂 )
Or to watch on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvgVcrdCzCQ
MAJOR LIFE EVENT!
Graduation! Huzzah! I was finally free of high school! I served my four year sentence (with some fun sprinkled in, Robotics Club was always exciting!), and I got out! Now what? My friends were all going off to University, and what was I doing? Definitely not that! Debt, tons of useless information, and losing another four to twelve years of my life? No thank you! They’re all just falling into the same rust almost everyone lives in, and it breaks my heart to see it happen to them. They were just never taught What To Do After High School To Avoid Getting Trapped. By no means is that their fault, but this information would’ve done them a world of good.
I didn’t have many people in High School that I actually cared about. There were maybe three people that I actually wanted to see after school let out, the rest were just acquaintances. I still keep in touch with those three to this day. Every time we talk though, I can’t stop thinking about all their wasted potential.. Even the ones as dumb as me could become multi-millionaires, if their heads were in the game! These days, all the money is in technology, and entrepreneurs have caught on! They’re using it to their advantage, and my generation was raised on technology! If only they’d listen, they’d figure out how much of an advantage we have on the world, because we already use technology in our daily lives. We can do it, (work it) harder, (make it) better, (do it) faster, (makes us) stronger!
Introductions, Meet The “Sphex” Machine!
Now, I love my 240. Don’t get me wrong. She’s fast, fun, and surprisingly reliable! But that front bumper is legitimately less than four inches off the ground. With clearance like that, there’s no way that I can drive her in the winter :(. So, knowing that, I needed a car that can handle the snow well. I’ve always had a fascination with the rally scene. In particular, the horrible beauty that was Group B. Sadly for me (but probably for the best), I couldn’t find any decommissioned Group B cars in my price range, but I knew of a WRC car that was plentiful around me, cheap, and super tune-able.
Subaru replaced their heavy Legacy GT rally car with their new Impreza WRX (standing for World Rally eXperimental) in the early 1990s. This lighter, more powerful car became famous in its blue and gold livery for their sponsor 555. That car looks good in *any* color though! They absolutely crushed the rally scene after hiring Colin McRae, and their WRX grew in popularity.
With a 2.0L turbocharged boxer-4 engine, all-wheel drive, and a five speed manual, this car is gonna be a blast for winter! There were a few dents in the car (we popped them out in an hour), and a few other issues with the car, but overall, she was a great buy, and I’m looking forward to throwing her around in the powder!
She Didn’t Even Make It To Winter QQ
Yep, it’s true. While I was daily driving her, she started to moan and groan under acceleration. I tried to pull over as quickly as possible, but I was only able to get to a side street before she died. With an immense CLUNK, the car came to an abrupt stop. Getting out, everything looked just fine, the car just wouldn’t go. It would roll maybe an inch or two, then stop. I called some help in, and we dragged the car into a nearby parking lot. We left it there overnight (with permission, of course), and came back tomorrow to diagnose it.
I went back the next morning, and after about an hour of looking around with the car on jack stands, we deduced that the center differential had grenaded. There must’ve been metal chunks lodged in the gears, as the car’s rear diff worked fine, and the front one did too, but the center wouldn’t turn. We loaded it onto a flatbed, and hauled her home. The engine alone was worth what I paid for the car, so I sold it as a mechanic’s special, and got my money back out of it. Net neutral deal, but a pain nonetheless. She didn’t even see a single snowflake when I owned her!
Next Drifter.. Another 240!?
Yeah, you got it! This time, four years older, with a slightly different motor. A 1991 240SX with a full S13.5 conversion kit, a redtop SR20DET (little less horsepower than the notchtop), in one of my favorite colors for JDM cars: yellow. I picked this up on the way home from an ATV trip, drove it six hours home with the seat way too far forward (cramps for days!), and got to know the car on the way. Tons of fun, it’ll break the rears loose in a heartbeat. Looking forward to getting back on that drift pad!
This is part of why I love cars so much, is the flexibility they provide. I loved drifting the S14 (my other 240) so much, and I missed it so much that I got another drift car. Just about any other profession, you wouldn’t be able to just, on a whim, go buy a drift car or build one. But here, with what I do for money, I have the capital on-hand to go purchase (as well as the means to maintain) a drift car. With the freedom that this business provides me, I can do what I want, when I want. If I wanted a Corvette tomorrow? I could find one, and have it by the end of the week. This amount of freedom is what makes this lifestyle entirely worth it.
As far as my plans for this car go, the body panels need some repairing, and a full coat of paint. On the inside, the driver’s seat rails were installed poorly, resulting in the chest portion of the seat belt being locked in place. Removing the seat, adjusting the rails, and restoring function to the chest belt are priorities, as is swapping the welded differential out for a 1.5-way limited slip differential. Once those are done, then I’ll go for some function modifications, including an angle kit and lightening the hood.
