Engine
The weapon of choice for propelling the car is an RB20DET, a 2.0-liter DOHC inline six cylinder engine with ceramic turbo and a side-mounted intercooler. This is a direct bolt-on engine for a basic drift car that has a decent amount of power and torque to be competitive in drifting events. In stock trim, the engine produces 215ps@6400rpm and peak torque of 265Nm@3200rpm. The low-mileage engine was sourced and installed by DMF Drift Garage. Additional fuel requirements of the new engine prompted the installation of an Airtex high flow in-tank fuel pump. A new Fremuff Drift-spec 3-inch exhaust system was also installed since the engine did not come with an exhaust.
Feeling the thirst for more power, the car was brought to Autoplus Sportzentrium for performance upgrades. A custom intake system was made and finished off with an HKS Super Power Flow filter. The engine clutter was vastly reduced with the modification of the standard intake manifold to a better flowing unit personally made by Raymond Go of Autoplus. This was then the blueprint used for the new aluminum piping system for the new aluminum front mount intercooler which was interconnected with Sard silicone hoses. To better control the fuel delivery, a Sard Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator was installed while the standard fuel rail was also modified. A Sard R2D2 Blowoff Valve was installed to help relieve excess boost pressure. To adjust the boost of the turbine, a Turbosmart manual boost controller was installed, while a Sard Electronic Boost Gauge monitors the pressure. The engine oil was then replaced with Double-Ester 100% Synthetic Motul 300V oil the engine’s new lifeblood. An aluminum radiator was also installed for better cooling and filled with Motul Inguel engine coolant.
Drivetrain
Essential for every drift car is a locking differential. We were able to source a surplus Nismo Limited Slip Differential from DMF Drift Garage, who also replaced the differential housing with a Nissan Silvia unit which has cooling fins which help a lot when the car is going sideways. A short-cut process to this is to weld the stock unit together to create a limited-slip effect. This is very cheap and also very dangerous. Therefore it is not advisable.
We also decided to upgrade the clutch to a metallic six-puck racing clutch with uprated pressure plate for better power transfer from the engine to the wheels. The uprated clutch is also able to handle more power. It was rated to work with cars with up to 300 wheel horsepower. Now flowing through the gearbox is Motul’s Gear300 transmission oil which provides protection for the gears under the stress of drifting.
Wiring
The backbone of every modern day engine would be the ECU (engine control unit), this controls the functions of the engines via processors which basically tells the engine how to perform based on the readouts from the corresponding electronic sensors. With all these inside, a proper electrical wiring system should be in place for the car to run properly. For this job, we employed the services of Auto Precision’s wiring guru Eric Evangelista.
Evangelista brings more than twenty years of experience in auto electrical wiring from mechanically controlled to electronically controlled models. His meticulous detail in working was also one of the considerations for the job, because we wanted a properly running car. With a major conversion like this, one bad connection or two could result in burnt out sensors or worse, a burning car. He carefully mapped out and reconstructed the wiring harness from the our RB20DET transplant engine which comes from a Nissan Skyline R32 GTS-T to adapt with the electrical system of the car. An extra detail added to the engine harness was a quick release coupling system for easy removal in case of major engine servicing.
After the wiring was done, and the car running properly, we decided to make the engine more tunable by upgrading our engine management. We chose the route of the Nistune system which is an add-on daughter board replacing the standard ROM chip allowing full ECU tuning parameters. Tuning was done on the Dynojet at Autoplus Sportzentrium by engine tuner Francisco Blanco. The result was an astonishing 249.1 wheel horsepower and 251 lbs-ft of torque on an internally stock engine.