Budget Racing S13

2010-05-11T22:40:00.012+01:00

I wanted to get into doing a bit of motorsport, but I was at the time a student and on a budget.

I had decided that whatever car I chose it needed to be rear wheel drive for the real driving experience. It also had to have a turbo, so the potential for power increase would be viably cheap, hence the choice of the Nissan 200SX S13.

I found two like minded friends to join me in my quest for cheap fun motorsport and together we purchased the S13 for £250. The very cheap price was due to the dreaded CA18DET bottom end bearings, which were shot, no MOT, and no tax, the engine was however running ok and the rest of the car was in good enough condition to pass an MOT with minimal work.

I set about changing the big ends with some help from http://www.sxoc.com/, it was an adventure for me considering I had never done any mechanical work before. After many weeks of blood sweat and tears and a few hundred pounds the S13 had a new set of bottom ends, a boost guage, and was road legal, ready for some racing!

Based on the Isle of Wight I joined an auto testing club http://www.iowcc.co.uk/ bought a nice yellow helmet and was soon doing on and off /road time trials:

As you can see from the above pics, more than a bit of fun was had from this car, which ultimately cost under £700 and it certainly served its purpose as a budget entry into motorsport as well as teaching me a thing or two about driving being my first RWD & first turbo. I even took the car to Brands hatch.

We had many plans to modify the suspension, and to hike up the power, but unfortunately after many months of abuse the car developed some running problems, and I moved to Lanzarote to work, so my friend scrapped it while I was away! without telling me!!!

I had so much fun in this car, I decided to sell my old Civic Coupe and buy a 200SX S14a as my daily car, which is the best motoring decision I have ever made.

Jam00's 200SX

Budget Racing S13