It seems these days, it’s hard to not get bitten by the stance bug. Gone are old days of the “sunken battleships”; According to the new school rules, the super wide wheels must poke out flush with the fender, run a mild stretch, and dump the car to a stupidly low ride height. Although this new trend looks the part, the argument lies with the true performance enthusiasts who believe that it certainly doesn’t perform the part. This has been a topic in question for quite sometime, there is fact in the matter that if done correctly, the car can have the stanced look and perform just as hot as it looks.
Evan is no stranger to well-performing fast cars; his long list of previous vehicles include a fully built and big turbo’d eclipse GST that did well over 300whp on a self-tuned meth setup and standalone. After spending years of blood, sweat, and tears through the good times and the hard times of the DSM game, the GST was totaled and it was time to move on. Rather than building another DSM and having to deal with the reliability issues of these powerful machines, he decided on going a RWD route.
So without wasting time, Evan began the search to find the perfect 240sx. Fortunately, unlike most who can spend years trying to find the right match, this beautiful near-stock ’98 Kouki was found in a Craigslist ad not long after he started the search. A private sale by the original owner of the car, Evan knew he couldn’t pass this one up. After a week of conversation and test drives, the car arrived home in Evan’s driveway in December of 2009, thus beginning the ultimate tear down.
A perfectionist begins by learning what they have at the table to work with. Evan began tearing apart the interior, completely gutting the car to clean and rewire the entire audio system to his own specifications. Everything was pulled out, all the way down to the carpets and seats so that Evan could get the car as clean as he possibly could. The exterior was buffed and polished, the gorgeous mirror black paint certainly shows it’s reflections. After he performed his cleanup and basic maintenance, Evan can be quoted saying “I just plan on keeping the car stock for a while and cruising around.” It turns out he had spoken too soon.
Night after night, Evan was up late hours doing research on what parts work the best for his ride. After purchasing a coilover setup that ended up not working out in his favor, He decided on going the baller route and snagging nothing but the best. The car is currently sitting on a set of HKS Hypermax II full coilovers with HKS 2-way dampening pillow tops to achieve this gnarly stance. Yamato Garage rear upper control arms, tension, and toe rods keep this Kouki super stiff. Evan’s domestic side comes out in the wheel setup; Ford Mustang Cobra-R wheels in 17×9″ 225/45/17 and 17×10″ 245/40/17 keep this car planted on the asphalt. Like it was mentioned before, Evan is a perfectionist. Every single bushing has been replaced with all upgraded poly bushings including the diff and the steering rack. The brake setup has been upgraded to a Q45 “big brake” setup to keep this car stopping on a dime. A big fan of the factory exterior, Evan is a firm believer of the sexy stock lines of the S14, thus only adding a Kouki lip to the front end to polish off the look.
Proud to say, every bit of work has been done by himself in his own garage at home. Evan has stated that not one other person other than himself has laid a hand in the installs for this car. Future plans for this S14 include a RB25det swap supplied by Elite JDM which will eventually lead to a big turbo setup down the road. At the rate things have been going thus far, expect to see this thing swapped and ready to rock by the summer time.
-All Words and Photos by Justin Mondschein.
twenty PSI 