Sport Compact Car is your best friend. Think about it. We own a car just like yours. We have an unlimited budget, have tried every trick in the book and are completely obsessed with learning what works and what doesn't. Plus, we're perfectly willing to destroy our car in the process.
This insatiable need to tinker and inform has become a garage packed with 19 project cars ranging from uncompromising performance machines to welding lessons on wheels. With so many, we've realized that tracking down the projects you want to follow is next to impossible. So this month, we've stopped just long enough to organize the garage and let you catch up on your favorites.
Project Rally Beater
| Part | Issue | Subject |
| 1 | Mar 01 | Cooking up the idea, setting |
| | | the priorities; finding 95 hp; |
| | | installing Fuidyne radiator and |
| | | Thermal Flex hoses |
| 2 | May 01 | Ground Control suspension; obsolete |
| | | Tokico shocks and Eibach race springs; |
| | | building a skidplate; finding |
| | | used wheels and tires; adding |
| | | a roll cage |
| 3 | Jun 01 | 280ZX brake upgrade; Goodridge |
| | | brake lines; electrical spaghetti; |
| | | aircraft lights; racing seats |
| | Jul 01 | The 510 debuts at the Ramada Express |
| | | International Rally. No tech, but lots of |
| | | dirt and glory |
Rally Beater began as a minimum investment entry into the world of rallying. But like all racing, rallying sucked us in, wallet first. This spring, the beater picked up its first sponsor, G-Speed Motor Importer in Gardena, Calif., which provided a used SR20DE and five-speed from a non-turbo Nissan Silvia. The SCCA's Group 2 rules are so wide open we were actually able to remove our carbureted, single-cam 1.8-liter eight-valve L18 and replace it with the fuel-injected, twincam, 2.0-liter 16-valve SR20 without being bumped into a different class. We'll cover the swap in detail in an upcoming "Hybrid How-To" once we're sure we did it right.
Meanwhile, the relentless pounding has warped the 510's frame rails, put four cracks in its chassis and one alarmingly large crack in its rear crossmember-the reason the 510 spent the last several weeks at Road/Race Engineering receiving structural reinforcements.
It may be getting more serious, but beater fans can rest assured it's still an eyesore, and the vinyl top will remain.
Project Nissan Sentra SE-R
| Part | Issue | Subject |
| 1 | Dec 97 | Black Racing wheels (no longer available), Nitto tires, Tokico shocks, Tokico springs |
| | | (both changed later) |
| 2 | Oct 98 | NX2000 brake upgrade, Goodridge brake lines, NT555 tires |
| 3 | Apr 99 | Complete early SR20 tune-up guide, Monster Hella lights, Suspension Techniques |
| | | anti-roll bars, trunk-mounted battery |
| 4 | Jul 99 | Hot Shot header, Injen intake, HKS exhaust |
| | Dec 99 | SR20DE header comparo |
| 5 | Jun 00 | Bolt-in camshaft comparo (Jim Wolf Technology S3, S4, Tomei Street, Comp 68, 72) |
| 6 | Jul 00 | Full Suspension: Shocktek/Bilstein struts, Eibach race springs, NuTech rear anti-roll bar, |
| | | Energy Suspension bushings. Review of Toyo T1-S tires |
| 7 | Nov 00 | Control feel update: Steering wheel, steering rack bushings, brake pedal adjustment, |
| | shifter bushings. Energy Suspension engine mounts. Cold air wall and Thermal Flex hoses |
| 8 | Nov 01 | Big cam test (JWT C2, C3) |
If we didn't know better, we'd think our SE-R was running great. But in our last installment, we tested some high-end camshafts from Jim Wolf Technology and ran into a horsepower ceiling. We completed the test with another, similar SE-R and it made about 15 hp more with nearly the same modifications. After hours of parts swapping between the two cars, months of interrogating the best minds in the Nissan tuning business, and conducting compression and leak-down testing (which revealed that our engine's innards are as healthy as a brand-new SR20), we still haven't figured out what's limiting our power output.
When we do find the problem, we plan to celebrate the car's 125,000-mile anniversary with a turbocharger. The JWT turbo kit we tested on a G20 back in the October '99 issue is finally becoming available now that a year-long turbocharger shortage seems to have been resolved. The kit has been fully developed and CARB legal for more than a year.