Your parents constantly warned you to never judge a book by its cover, and that little nugget of parental wisdom is perfectly represented by this immaculate 1996 Nissan 240SX. its Skyline-sourced Bayside Blue paint and sitting low on chrome Advans, and you might mistakenly assume it’s a show car, or at the very least, tucked away in the corner of a covered garage. in bubble wrap for most of the year.
The reality is that Ryan Coffel and his S-chassis have been through quite a bit together, and while the Nissan shines like a trophy hunter on show mats, it’s a fully capable drift car with plenty of events in its history. summary. In fact, even before Ryan took ownership, the car’s previous owner used it as a drift car for years. Since then, it has been done more than twice and its current state is by far the most ambitious.
Ryan says, “I bought this 240SX back in 2016 when I was in college, thinking I would daily ride it while building a custom metal widebody LS400. I already had an S13, but sold it a couple of years ago before because it was very hard around the edges. and I wanted to move forward with building the LS400 at that time.” With only aftermarket coilovers and a KAAZ LSD on board, Ryan picked it up and after going to a few drift events with it, it was hooked.
He would then give the car its first major makeover with a Car Modify Wonder kit and a new heart. “I bought and built the engine while working at the Hyundai manufacturing plant, oddly enough, assembling engines for Sonatas,” he adds. A four-hour trek to take part in the new engine’s first drift event took care of the entry process and held up to its antics on the track without a single hiccup.
Inside the lower half of this SR20DET, you’ll find CP pistons and Manley H-beam rods connected to an OEM balanced crank with a Tomei oil pan underneath, and Ryan fitted the head with Tomei cams and plugs rockers Like the rest of the build, he wanted some style to go along with the performance touches, so he topped it off with a unique lowrider-inspired valve cover. Replacing the stock turbo setup is an ISR manifold and an original V1 Twisted Motions GT2871 with an internal wastegate. As has become more popular in recent years, no shut-off valve is used in place of the sweet sounds of turbo flutter.
While the build was headed in the right direction, Ryan’s health hit a major roadblock along the way, he tells us: “I was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2018 and at the time I was regularly attending drift events at Midpond . there was an event. the weekend after the surgery that was required before starting chemo. I went and drove that event with all my friends and family there to support me before I knew I had to take a break from the sport. That event and the drifting community, while both very small given the scene in central Alabama, meant a lot to me and solidified a lot in me that it was worth it going back to it a lot more once I was physically able.”
Once he was able to get back in the driver’s seat, the ECU presented some issues and the factory transmission decided enough was enough and called it quits, not to mention the Car Modify Wonder kit was pretty much destroyed. In need of a major upgrade, the ECU was ditched in favor of Haltech’s 1500 along with its digital dash and the transmission problem was fixed by adding a CD00A fitted with a Mazworx adapter kit, but not before being fitted with a twin OS Giken disc and flywheel. There is now a one-piece aluminum driveshaft and the Chase Bays clutch line kit and clutch master cylinder adapter added a 5/8 Wilwood master cylinder.
Other bits pulled from the 350Z parts bin included axles, hubs and knuckles. Beyond the cross-platform OEM suspension changes, there are plenty of custom touches like CounterSteer Motoring’s offset front strut cup hats that work with Fortune Auto’s 500-series coilovers and camber plates, 30mm of extension added to the front lower control arms and a modified subframe to move the steering rack forward one inch. That, plus a host of adjustable arms, traction and tension bars, and a 6-point cage from Top Garage.
With the engine and transmission reliable and the suspension set up, Ryan thought it was time to finish the car and used the Vertex Ridge Green S14 he had used as his computer background as inspiration. The extended eight-piece aero kit was sourced along with Eastbear wing mirrors, DMax roof and boot wings and rare Silvia louvre side windows with illuminated badging. The car was covered in the aforementioned Skyline paint code and then finished off with a blue carbon fabric hood by M Sports.
Those kouki taillights that have been finished with a blue flake clear coat to match the theme were nearly new and came from a 240SX that Nissan gave to body shops to use as a body repair canvas. With less than 1,000 miles on the odometer and no VIN meant it was useless to the automaker and the mint taillights were removed and discarded. A friend of Ryan’s took over those lights and put them up for sale and they almost got shot, but luckily Ryan has good people around him. “My friend who was selling them was contacted by a well-known figure in the automotive industry who tried to double my offer on them,” he recalls. “Knowing what I was trying to put together and the mindset behind it, he chose to sell me the lights.”
Based on its current look and condition, most would expect that this car wouldn’t dare put a tire on the drift, but that goes back to the whole “judging a book by its cover” thing. Ryan states, “My main goal is to treat it as carefully as possible to preserve its condition, but use the car for what it’s built for. Many American drift fans have approached the sport with such a good mentality. Driving equals constant contact and mayhem. You have to be on someone’s doorstep at every turn or the internet won’t approve of you. However, drifting started as a way elegant to run a racing line on the track without any contact or wrecking.With that goal in mind, you’ll be seeing this car in drift events sparingly for years to come, and hopefully without needing another full refresh as far as I can help. – it”.
1996 Nissan 240SX
engine SR20DET; Nismo engine mounts; Pistons 9.0:1 CP; Manley H-beam rods; ACL main bearings; ARP head studs; Mazworx Timing Chain Tensioner; Posture water pump pulley; TAARKS LS1 Alternator Kit; Removal of ignition from Wirened Specialties; VQ35 coil packs; Tomei 256 cams, rocker caps, oil pan, oil filter block adapter, widened turbo elbow; GREX Oil Filter Relocation Kit; 25 row Koyo oil cooler, N Flow radiator; GK Tech clutch fan; Samco radiator hoses; Koruworks radiator stays, engine hoist mount; fuse box cover sticker; Chase Bays Catch Can, Power Steering Kit w/ Cooler, Coolant Overflow, Fuel Line Kit, 100 Micron SS Fuel Filter; Aeromotive Stealth 340 lph fuel pump; Five 750cc side-fed injectors; Racetronix barb to 6AN fuel line adapter; Twisted Motions GT2871 OEM bolt-style V1 turbo, internal dump port; ISR tubular turbo manifold, intercooler pipes; CX Racing intercooler; downloading Blitz; DMAX test tube; Blitz Nur-spec R rear cat exhaust; alternate custom exhaust: 3-inch pipes, 5-inch pie-cut exhaust; custom intake with K&N filter; Setup without MAF; Haltech MAP sensor in cold pipe, 1500 ECU Elite, Nexus data logging software; lowrider style valve cover; clear camera angle sensor cover; 10AN Radius Engineering Valve Cover Adapter; Titanium Dressup bolts; Oil cap from Yashio Factory
transmission Nissan CD00A transmission; Mazworx adapter kit; OS Giken dual disc clutch, flywheel; 1-piece aluminum drive shaft; 350Z 3.69:1 diff welded ratio, subframe adapter bushings; 350Z axles, hubs, knuckles, external slave cylinder; Chase Bays clutch line, clutch master cylinder adapter and reservoir, 5/8 Wilwood master cylinder; Serial9 CD changer
suspension Fortune Auto 500 coils with camber plates; Power suspension bearings in rear sway bar, front/rear lower control arms; CoutnerSteer Motoring custom front strut cup hats, 30mm extended front lower control arms with adjustable steering stops, roll center correcting front knuckles for angle kit, modified front rack to move the steering rack to forward 1 inch; GK Tech Straight Style Frame Spacers; Battle version rear upper control arms, toe arms, traction bars; PBM Front Tension Bars, Bracket; Cusco shock tower bar; Top Garage 6 point cage with X support
braking January 1 Cadillac CTSV front 4-piston; Maverick dual rear caliper mounting bracket; PBM Z32 2-piston x4 rear calipers; Z1 350Z slotted front rotors; 2001-05 Cobra Rear Rotors; Chase Bays 6:1 Ratio Dual Piston Brake Booster Delete, Brake Line Relocation Kit, Fender Caliper Lines, V1 Standalone Hydraulic Handbrake, Handbrake Lines; Series 9 shift knob retrofit
Wheels and tires Street: Advan TC3 18×9 +25 front, 19×10.5 +15 rear; Bridgestone RE71 225/40-18 front; Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 275/30-19 rear; Drift wheel spares: Work VS KF 18×11 +19; SSR Koenig Monster 18×11 +18; Advan TC3 18×10.5 +25; Drift tires: 255/35-18 Valino Pergia 08C
Outdoor Bayside Blue paint; Vertex Ridge 8-piece aero kit; M Blue Carbon Fiber Sports Hood; Professor Aero eyelids; DMax roof and trunk wings; Eastbear S14 mirrors; Circuit Sport cornering lights, marker lights, headlight covers; Kouki taillights with combined paint badge and blue flake clear coat finish; S14 Silvia illuminated side blinds; police style strobe light kit; Street Faction front/rear shock bars; custom tow hitch; Koruworks rear tow strap
interior Thrash Racing FIA driver’s seat with halo, passenger seat without halo; Nagisa Auto driver’s seat rail; Passenger seat rail planted; Yashio Factory 4-point harnesses; TuckedIn Nardi ruffled shirts; OkeyDoke Custom Horn Button; NRG Quick Release; Worksbell Hub Adapter; Winking mirror; High Blue Knob Serial9 SK9; half-cut center console; Street Faction passenger seat fire extinguisher mount, ABS molded door cards; Tuxedo Black LRB Speed Rear Seat Drop Panels with Purple Flakes; Haltech IC7 digital dash; Mako Motorsports Board Mount
Thanks Friends: Casey Braedon Holmes for introducing me to Japanese drifting in the 240s and early 2000s over a decade ago, everyone on the Rowdy/Drift Mechaniks/Byron Hill team for always building cars to inspire me or the others, and Joey Hoke for the two Thrash seats.
family – my grandmother, Betty Fugate.
Shops – CounterSteer Motoring LLC, specifically Dylan Crumley. Koruworks (Gregg, Tyler, Ryan, Sebastian). The mind of rad aero. Jonathan Cheek and Canyon Mockabee of Cheek Automotive for the paint job
