I was looking at the 240sx on eBay motors - I'll probably never buy one living up north , but I'd love to own and do a JDM conversion as a show car or something. - and they all seem to be automatic "Drift cars" The one 5 speed I saw was an 89 for $500 with no bids.... I mean what gives? Isn't the clutch an integral part of drifting? or is e-brake drifting what's really popular? I found that kind of dissapointing. Oh well, gg.

 

There are a lot of 240s for sale on autotrader and car.com, and plenty of manuals.

 

No such thing as an automatic drift car. Being able to pick your gears is important in pretty anything that involves pushing your car. He probably put that in there because of the reputation that the 240SX has as a potential drift car.

And like what WSB said, plenty of manual 240s for sale. A lot of car sale websites let you specify transmission type as a search parameter.

 

there are tons of manuals out there, but if you truly are going to build a drift car or any type of 240sx, a SR20DET motor is an esecential part of the equation. So if you do that get a manual one and just do a conversion, auto to manual. I would do that if my only option was a super clean auto over a not so nice manual.

 

The 240 is not just a drift car. I hate when people start looking at 240's so they can drift their JDM tyte 240. Especially if they don't even understand what drifting is. Drifting is not the use of the e-brake. That's a power slide. A true drift requires a lot of skill and practice. it involves being able to oversteer yourself into a corner, then with using constant throttle application, you continue to countersteer the car as you use the throttle to push it through the corner.

Please please please, reconsider buying a 240 just because you think you can be a JDM tyte dorifter. The 240 community doesn't generally accept people who buy the car because they read in a magazine that the 240 is a drift car, or because they watched initial d and they think they can be as cool as takumi.

 

bull ****. You do NOT need an SR20 to drift. The KA24 is perfectly fine. All you need is the ability to control RPMs (manual gearbox), and some technique. I have seen plenty of people drift a stock 240 (or more than likely spin them out because of the open differential)

 

I agree that the KA is a good enough motor as well, but from everything i have seen in the past and every top car that is in the D1 events they have an SR motor. I understand also, that most of those cars are from Japan and already come equipped with the SR motor, but tuning wise and building an SR motor is, in my opinion, a stronger and easier motor to build. I also understand you dont need tons of power to drift, i mean look at all the old school corolla's dominating on S15's out there.

I dont mean to start anything, but if I was to buy a 240sx and build one, I would put an SR motor in the car, hell i might even consider the new wave of people putting in RB25's in there 240's....

 

RB25 swapping isn't exactly new wave. It's also heavier and less drift-friendly than an SR20.

Drifting is about car balance and throttle control. Gobs of power makes it easier to get the back end loose, but the AE86 guys do just fine with 100 hp. If you want to get into drifting, start with something cheap - you will wreck it at some point.

 

Kontra, I have an SR in my car, so I don't diss on it at all. In fact, the guys that do diss on the SR really **** me off. What I don't like though, are the hardcore SR guys that say every other engine is crap. The SR is a better platform than the KA to build up. Square bore/stroke ratio, silky smooth revving, large aftermarket support, etc. JIC built a drift 240 for the D1 grand prix back in the fall, and they swapped a built 240 into it instead of using the stock KA. The fact that I have yet to see a japanese company import and swap a KA into a silvia/180 also says something of the power the SR can contain.

What I'm afraid of, though, are the ricers who ****** up SR's and put them into their show/drag/autocross/drift machines, only to have this aweful amalgo-mess monster that doesn't do anything right. A waste of an SR.

The RB25 definitely is not new territory, but it is definitely the path less walked. I can only think of a half dozen people on NICO who have RB's swapped. And all the RB25 guys that swapped will tell you it is not a swap for the weak.

I agree with WSB that you need to think about the overall balance of a car when prepping to drift. RX-7's dominate for a reason. Near perfect weight ratio. The RB weighs an extra 180 pounds over the KA (which is only about 20 pounds heavier than an SR). A lot of that weight gets shoved over the front axle line, which horribly offsets the balance.

I just don't like all these people who watch Initial D and get it in their head that they're gonna be the next Takumi and drift hardcore style in their hachi rokus or their S ich-sans. I for one love my S13, and will never trade it for anything, but I advise people to think of what do they REALLY want to do with a car that has the potential to be a track car before they buy it and commit to something.

I also remember how WSB pointed out a while ago that most people selling 240's online advertise them as awesome dirft cars, or how these cars can be so easy to drift. That's bull. The S chassis understeers so horribly in stock form, it's not even funny. You need to consider major suspension work to even get the tail to wag, which brings me to my last point. A drift setup is not about how much power are you delivering, but how the suspension is set up. Talk to any professional drifter, and they'll start discussing spring rates, sway bar settings, and shock rebound levels long before they tell you how much power the engine is putting to the wheels.

 

Thanks for the read guys, I'll probably never buy a 240sx like Imentioned earlier. I agree that drifting takes a lot of practice, thankfully up here in NY we don't see a lot of kids doing that kind of thing (Well at least where I live). What I'd like to build up is a show S14 or S15. I saw a company that imported the S15 Aero for something like $40-50k.

As far as a daily driver I'd like the S15, I just like the way it looks... heh. Not many sports cars around here. A while back I saw a S2000, see a few WRX's around here also. I think it'd be fun to have a car that not everyone has. Now all I need is $50k. :P

EDIT: P.S. I think the worst we put up with out up here is kids just being stupid and driving drunk/too fast. For instance there was recently a corvette crash out in a nearby town. I'm not too familier with the roads there, but from what I've seen the backroads out there are mostly long sweeping turns. The guys were going too fast and managed to crash and kill themselves. My friend on the other hand has been through 2 life threatening car accidents and managed to survive both with hardly a scratch. It seems lately he likes powersliding... ... ... ... .. .............

 

The S15 is importable for about 40K I think. As far a daily driver, I'd imagine the RHD would be a pain in the ***. The S15 would be sex to own though.

 

RHD is a PITA as a daily driver. You can't use ATM's, drive throughs, and passing's a b1tch. On the bright side, you can easily get your mail out of your mailbox, and if you ever became a mail delivery man/woman, you'd be set.

I didn't mean to come off as sounding negative towards you buying a 240, I was just trying to get you to see that 240's are more than just a cheap drift car. They're very potent track cars, and with an SR swap in them, they can easily attain 400-500 horse on the stock bottem end. Secret Services, in Florida, currently has a 540hp SR20DET in one of their cars, and it has a stock bottom end on it. Granted, I don't know how long it will hold that much power before the bottom end gives out.

As far as getting an S15, I would avoid doing that as you have to pay an exuberant (sp?) amount of money for one, and then you tack on the extra cost of making it a good show car. Find yourself a nice 1997 or 1998 S14 for around 6000-8000 (don't remember KBB values, but I think they're in that ballpark) and consider making that your show car. The S14 looks better with body kits and other visual bling. Also, you could consider doing an S15 front end conversion to the S14, so you get the nice front appearance of the S15 and keep the better looking tail of the S14 (although I think an S13 with an S15 front looks better). Just food for thought.

 

Give me a break. The essential part of building a drifter is the suspension. ANYONE who had any inkling of what it takes to drift knows it's suspension over power. You can drift a KA24 easily. 150hp is MORE than enough to put your car sideways. All you need is a decent set of springs or shocks, perhaps if you want coilovers, a strut bar to increase stiffness and plenty of tires.

Don't listen to these people that think SR's are essential. Most of them have more money than brains or have a warped conception of drifting.

Just because the Japanese cars all come with SR20's doesn't mean you need an SR20. Buying a $3000 engine and paying for labour just to have more power isn't going to make you drift any better. In fact it might actually make it harder because you have more power than you can handle.

Stick with the KA24, and if you get good and need more power, then the Turbo XS makes a sweet KA24 turbo kit. If you must be JDM TYTE YO, like Kontradictions says, an SR20 might be in order a few years down the road. But by no means do you need an engine like that to put your car sideways. Take it from a guy that has many friends who drift, including one who drives a little toyota corrolla from the 80's with an engine that puts out 120hp. This guy will make people who have the "best set-up" look stupid. Why because it's skill over technology. You just need the right car and the right suspension.

Finally the reason why all these so-called drift authorities think it's mandatory to have an Sr20 is because they're caught up in a JDM-fixation. If it's not JDM it sucks. The only reason why all those cars on the D1 have so much power is so they put out ridiculous amounts of smoke when drifting, it's part of the show. You don't need to do that. Just worry about getting sideways. You're not on the D1.

 

Not sure but PITA means but I'll assume it means bad. Anyways I'll respond:

ATM's, drivethroughs are both convienience things. The reason why people are so friggin fat is because they're too lazy to get out and walk into the place. Furthermore most drivethroughs and ATM lanes are so friggin thin that you'll probably end up scraping a rim or your bumper regardless of the side your on.

Not sure where you get passings a ***** from. I found it actually easier. Maybe that's because my blindspot window is big. And when you merge back in front of them it's easy to know when they are far enough back. If your the type of person that drives in the express or passing lanes, RHD is not a problem. But if your a left-hand lane driver maybe the initial pulling out is bad.

Hands down the two hardest things in a RHD is turning left and an intersection because you can't see on-coming traffic. And passing on a two-way road. Simple ways to alleviate this:

1) Wait until you CAN see.

2) Install a mini-camera on the left side mirror and put an LCD in the car.

3) Travel with a friend.

4) Own a 600hp car. With this much power your only on the wrong side of the road a few seconds. And around the corner in a split second.

 

Just thought I'd point out that two people are following the same train of thought here

PITA means Pain In The ***. It's a pain in the *** to pass, and when I say pass, I mean on a two lane highway, because you can not see if there's any oncoming traffic before you pull around the car. Your ideas to aleviate the problem are interesting, although I don't see the cost effeciency of installing a mini cam and LCD to just aid in passing. Not everyone travels with people all the time, and not everyone owns a 600hp machine.

I enjoy ATM's and drivethroughs. I am definitely not a lazy fat american, and even with my lowered S13, I don't scrape out going through them.

RHD is unique, but nothing more than a novelty for a country built around LHD vehicles. I would just rather be able to use the comforts we've created for LHD cars than to throw things off by being on the wrong side of the car.