I had my 2 civics in the build process. When my friend Mege and I started our friendship in 1999/2000, he sent me pictures of his S13 Silvia and drifting. I only know of building Hondas as this was the dominant cars in American shores. After doing some research and finding that it is in fact the Nissan 240sx here, I would just start looking up stuff for it. At the time, there was not much of an aftermarket for it (which is a HUGE CONTRAST compared to today). I was only able to find an Injen Intake system. But I started to talk to others who had 240sx online. There was a National 240sx convention (remember, they were not common place back then) and one person who I totally admired, was Nadine180. Her 240sx was dope and I believe at the time, one of the very first to be built (at least from what I remember).
I did not know what the Silvia was initially, but it was interesting to see the drifting aspect. Now, some of my friends here couldn't understand why people would beat their cars because we were the opposite, we were trying to fix our cars to look good.
Shortly after, one of my co workers said he had a head gasket problem with his father in law's car. It was an 89 240sx fastback. It had been sitting for 2 yrs and they did not want to mess with it anymore. They had replaced the head gasket, but the oil and coolant were still mixing and they couldn't figure it out.
I checked it out and they offered to sell it for $400. I picked it up and drove it for a few days, looked at the coolant and sure enough, it was mixing with oil, but I never got the temperature to be high. Shortly after I started to take it apart. Now, most of my buddies were Honda guys, so working with a Nissan was kinda out of the knowledge about.
Right around the time when I bought my 240sx, I was looking for a NX pulsar. I wanted both pop up headlight cars because of how they look similar, but one being FWD and the other being RWD. I seriously felt they would look cool next to each other.
I immersed myself into Nissns, so I was trying to learn and own some different Nissans. It wasn't until the drifting scene kinda started to get going and everyone started to pick up a 240sx. This lead some of the prominent forums to be bias. Northwest Nissans was one of the local and popular forums and when it started to become dominant RWD forum (people talking down on cars that were not RWD or drifting), people who owned Nissans before this "BAND WAGON CROWD".
It is hard to explain it because the climate is different now compared to back then. So I will say this:
Before drifting took off and people were picking up 86 corollas, 240sxs and mazda rx7s, there were people on forums that were enthusiasts of these cars before the sudden flood of people wanting to build these cars and drift (including myself).
Then the new crowd that had 240sxs, started to give others owners with FWD cars arguments (at least that is what I felt).
I never picked up a Pulsar. One of my friends picked up an FC rx7 chassis and dropped a V8 in it, but had a lot of issues and decided to give it up, which he sold to me for $400.
I didn't do anything fancy with the 240sx as I was focusing on other projects and eventually, I picked up an Infiniti M30, which became my favorite car to drive and became my identity back in those days.
FAST FORWARD
Well, people used to unified on a couple Nissan forums, but once the RWD folks started bashing people with FWD cars, many of the split to other forums.
Even though I had my 240sx, I never rolled with it for that reason, I didn't want people to think I was one of those RWD/drifting/240 guys that talked down to other owners based on their choice of cars.
So I always rolled my Infiniti M30. When one of the biggest meets was coming around in the NW (Golden Gardens), I jumped on many forums to get many of the other cars out. A perfect example was here:
http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/northwest-u-s-canada/217649-any-one-going-golden-gardens-bbq.html
My friends there were Altima owners and in the beginning posts, one guy was talking about how he was bashed because his Altima was not a sports car.
Now this was a trend that I saw with people that had Pulsars, Nx2000s, G20s, sentras, maximas and altimas...etc.
I hated what NWN became, but when my buddy Eddi started Nissan Pacific, I tried very hard to get other Nissans involved.
-----------------------------------------------------
It felt good to be an ambassador for Nissan Ownership! But most importantly, I met tons of great people and since I liked all cars, I learned a lot as well.
Shortly after, one of my co workers said he had a head gasket problem with his father in law's car. It was an 89 240sx fastback. It had been sitting for 2 yrs and they did not want to mess with it anymore. They had replaced the head gasket, but the oil and coolant were still mixing and they couldn't figure it out.
I checked it out and they offered to sell it for $400. I picked it up and drove it for a few days, looked at the coolant and sure enough, it was mixing with oil, but I never got the temperature to be high. Shortly after I started to take it apart. Now, most of my buddies were Honda guys, so working with a Nissan was kinda out of the knowledge about.
Right around the time when I bought my 240sx, I was looking for a NX pulsar. I wanted both pop up headlight cars because of how they look similar, but one being FWD and the other being RWD. I seriously felt they would look cool next to each other.
I immersed myself into Nissns, so I was trying to learn and own some different Nissans. It wasn't until the drifting scene kinda started to get going and everyone started to pick up a 240sx. This lead some of the prominent forums to be bias. Northwest Nissans was one of the local and popular forums and when it started to become dominant RWD forum (people talking down on cars that were not RWD or drifting), people who owned Nissans before this "BAND WAGON CROWD".
It is hard to explain it because the climate is different now compared to back then. So I will say this:
Before drifting took off and people were picking up 86 corollas, 240sxs and mazda rx7s, there were people on forums that were enthusiasts of these cars before the sudden flood of people wanting to build these cars and drift (including myself).
Then the new crowd that had 240sxs, started to give others owners with FWD cars arguments (at least that is what I felt).
I never picked up a Pulsar. One of my friends picked up an FC rx7 chassis and dropped a V8 in it, but had a lot of issues and decided to give it up, which he sold to me for $400.
I didn't do anything fancy with the 240sx as I was focusing on other projects and eventually, I picked up an Infiniti M30, which became my favorite car to drive and became my identity back in those days.
FAST FORWARD
Well, people used to unified on a couple Nissan forums, but once the RWD folks started bashing people with FWD cars, many of the split to other forums.
Even though I had my 240sx, I never rolled with it for that reason, I didn't want people to think I was one of those RWD/drifting/240 guys that talked down to other owners based on their choice of cars.
So I always rolled my Infiniti M30. When one of the biggest meets was coming around in the NW (Golden Gardens), I jumped on many forums to get many of the other cars out. A perfect example was here:
http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/northwest-u-s-canada/217649-any-one-going-golden-gardens-bbq.html
My friends there were Altima owners and in the beginning posts, one guy was talking about how he was bashed because his Altima was not a sports car.
Now this was a trend that I saw with people that had Pulsars, Nx2000s, G20s, sentras, maximas and altimas...etc.
I hated what NWN became, but when my buddy Eddi started Nissan Pacific, I tried very hard to get other Nissans involved.
-----------------------------------------------------
It felt good to be an ambassador for Nissan Ownership! But most importantly, I met tons of great people and since I liked all cars, I learned a lot as well.
I can relate when you said you love Japanese cars. I don't know if it’s the look or the quality of the parts, but each one that I’ve owned has lived many years past what I thought it would. Turning a few hundred thousand miles is par for these cars, and the parts are even cheap to replace.
ReplyDelete