Hello everyone,
Few words about me.
My name is Josef, I'm originally from Czech Republic, living in the UK since end of 2013.
I'm passionate about something where wheels are spinning since my childhood. I always wanted a car with rear wheel drive to enjoy drifting. When it was snowing I was always out drifting with parents cars, but always FWD. S13 200SX CA18DET with those lovely pop out lights made me fall in love looong while ago. Saw sooo many videos from Japan, movies, met friends who already had it... In September 2016 my dream finally became reality. And that's where all the story of my car began. Actually more than dream it was a bit nightmare... Want to know more?
I like to improving things and giving them new life rather than buying new ones. In my opinion old cars are much worth than current - you are driver, you are deciding what will happen, not some kind of robotic computer trying to save you or whatever. Just you, your car, one organism and that's it. I lost my mind little bit and after couple days watching eBay I found one not very well looking s13, but for good price. I just placed bid thought somebody has to do the same, but no, I won... Eeeeeey! Fresh MOT with a bit of rust on arches, no problem, my dad is mechanic, he will sort out body and other friend is specialist in engines so little bit of modification would be no problem. I bought it, happy as never before, took it to my friends garage. We lift it up and found a MASSIVE corrosion from underneath. Which means it shouldn't pass MOT, but it had fresh MOT so what's that?? In the end after couples of calls, going thru variety of options, I sorted this. That was another long story... I think everyone was punished enough to learn from mistakes. Live goes on. Advice for next time (you all probably know), if you don't understand this kind of cars, always take a mechanic with you.
After maybe 5 rides engine start knocking (facepalm). Crankshaft bent because of bearings on Conrods. Engine was practically death. Oil leaks caused not enough lubricating so once there was enough of small engine bits, it broke up completely. 6 months went slowly and finally I've got message from my friend to bring it into his garage. So March 2017 it went to doctor... Luckily engine body was still OK, but a lot of parts needed replacing. In the end, I had free hands to rebuild whole engine from each screw, save what can be saved, change and upgrade everything else. As long as my friend is professional racer and built already many racing engines including CA18DET, I knew he is the right person for this project (well he wasn't so happy in the beginning when he saw what I bought).
This car was going to scrap yard, but I paid for it.. And paid for it much more than I had to.. Never mind, lesson received. Anyway everything bad is good for something. I saved from death one S13 200SX and I will give it as much love as I can.
Want to read more about it? Stay tuned
In friends garage
Me trying to fix the engine in the barn..