Form follows function in this builder’s case, but in the end this V8 S14 has it all!
It seems that over the last five years or so,
two schools of build philosophies have risen in our culture: the "school
of form" and the "school of function." You already know the "form"
students by their air suspensions and affinity for negative camber. The
"function" students, as you can imagine, put function before everything
else. Lovers of "function" hold the belief that aesthetics are byproduct
of something that has been built for a specific purpose and in its
ability to serve that purpose lies. One of the biggest characteristics
of a person who subscribes to "function first" is that they are not
purists. They do not hold to the idea that a car must be a certain way
to maintain its sense of what it is. Nothing is sacred in their world.
Damian Kho's 240SX is the perfect example of a build executed all in the
name of function. Damian spends most of his time building cars for his
clients out of his shop Tarmac SPL in New York. He specializes in
Nissans, but the cars of his past include an Eclipse GS-T, three (AE86)
Corollas and a few 240SXs here and there. Usually, Damian likes to keep
at least two cars on hand: a daily driver and a track car. However,
about three years ago he decided he wanted a weekend car that was still
completely functional as a street driver but something that could hold
its own on a track carving corners or sliding through them sideways.
That is when he began working on the V8-powered S14 gracing these pages.
1995 Nissan 240SX - Tryin’ To Function
Besides being a Nissan specialist, Damian chose
the 240SX due to its excellently balanced platform. In his eyes, the S14
has the "perfect wheelbase and perfect weight." He was also attracted
to the S14's ability to accept various motors with little modification
needed—this is where Damian's quest for balance really began. He started
with an S13-sourced SR20DET motor that he built to the tune of nearly
500hp. He enjoyed that setup for a while but found that the lack of
torque and boost lag was starting to take the fun out of things. From
there, he went with another SR, but this motor was built specifically
with torque in mind. It had less top-end power but much better throttle
response. In fact, the torque ended up being a little too great, causing
the engine to suffer from spun bearings. Fed up with the pitfalls of
boost, Damian decided that he would go the naturally aspirated route on
his next motor build—something lightweight, reliable but with sufficient
torque. This is what led him to the LS. The LS2 had the highest
compression of any other LS-family engine and it is also lighter than a
stock KA series Nissan engine. Really, it was a no-brainer, yet he did
this at a time when dropping a domestic V8 in an import was still
something of a controversial modification. Despite the haters, Damian
was going to go with what best served his purpose, so he ignored the
fanboys.
To get the LS2 to sit nicely in the engine bay,
Damian used a mount kit from Fueled Performance. The engine bolted in
with no headaches. He installed a large Griffin radiator to help keep it
cool, but its size would have put it past the hood line. To remedy the
problem, Damian mounted the radiator at an angle in a similar way that
Chevy does with the Corvette. Then, he fab'd a custom ram-air scoop to
make sure the radiator core gets as much cold air as possible. With the
motor all buttoned up, Damian selected a T56 tranny with a Diamond
Clutch stage 2 unit to escort all those horses down the driveshaft.
Splitting the power between the two rear wheels is an ATS Carbon 1.5-way
differential. Exhaling all of the exhaust gases from the LS2 is a
custom cross-pipe dual exhaust fabricated in-house at Damian's shop.
1995 Nissan 240SX - Tryin’ To Function
Once the engine and drivetrain were squared
away, it was time to make sure this S14 could handle its double duty as a
street and track car. The footwork starts off with complete Stance Pro
Comp coilovers. To aid in fine-tuning, Damian fitted front tension rods,
rear upper arms, tie rods and rear traction rods. The front and rear
lower control arms are custom units, again from Damian's shop. A set of
front and rear sway bars from Whiteline helps keep the S14's weight
balanced in the corners while Carbing front and Cusco rear strut bars
plus a GT Spec trunk bar help keep the chassis rigid. To help bleed off
speed, there is a Project Mu brake kit up front and Brembo calipers in
the back to bite down on the rotors.
Now that the performance was settled, it was
time to address the exterior. This is the area where there is some
crossover between those who believe in form and function. Although a
functional-minded person such as Damian tends to show a bit more
restraint in exterior mod choices, he started out with one of the
cleanest S14 Kouki body kits around: the Vertex T&E "Lang." It
shaves some weight, adds a bit of downforce and makes it look so damn
good all at once. To mix things up, Damian did go with Chargespeed for
the rear over-fenders to ensure that the wheels would remain flush.
Speaking of wheels, we think anyone would find Damian's choice of
three-piece Work Meisters a wise decision. This is apparent when you
look at the offsets: -1 in the front, -13 in the rear. These rollers
really pop, especially against the brilliant white paint of the body
panels.
For the interior, it can be easily seen that
this is where indulgences were allowed as the inside is practically
dripping with carbon fiber in all the right places and stacked to the
headliner with quality JDM bits. Both passenger and driver get to back
it up in to Bride Zeta III seats and buckle up with Willians five-point
harnesses. All the engine vitals are shown to Damian via an AiM Sports
MXL digital gauge cluster.
When it's all said and done, the philosophy that
someone chooses when building a car is of little importance. We've
always found that the best project cars were built by an owner who was
more concerned with his own expectations rather than the expectations of
others. It's a "can't-miss" strategy that people from both sides can
appreciate. You can say what you want about Damian's ride, but it can
never be argued that he did it his way...
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