The S13 Silvia has always been near and dear to my heart. I bought my first one in 1996. A dark green 1990 K’s with a CA18DET under the hood, it was only 7 years old at the time. The shaken had expired and only cost me $300 plus the inspection and registration fees. These days a clean S13 Silvia would run you $10,000 plus! It wasn’t long before I was climbing through junk yards looking for any upgrade I could get my hands on. This was back in the day when UpGarage and Yahoo Auctions weren’t around, but there were plenty of junkyards to scavenge for parts.

Eventually, I found myself spending every Friday and Saturday night at popular touge courses around Hiroshima and Yamaguchi learning how to make my Silvia go sideways without putting it into a guard rail. After learning how to drift uphill, I grew a pair and started drifting downhill as well. It was an exciting time and the spots I went to were always packed. Those days may be long gone, but my love for the S13 Silvia never faded.

About 5 years ago I came across an S13 for sale by a member of Shout Rogue, a drift team out of Chiba prefecture. It was a One-Via that he had run in MSC and D1 Street Legal Regional competitions. The price was too good to pass on.

It wasn’t old enough to import into the US at the time so it sat in a friend’s lot in Japan collecting dust and weeds. The specs were pretty nice with a Trust TD06 20G, HKS cams, Power FC, 2-Way LSD, Yura Mode knuckles, CE28s and a mis-mash of PS Duce, D-Max and Kouki 180SX aero.

Over the years I traveled to Japan and took it out to Hadashi Tengoku Circuit. I was definitely happy with the performance and handling. It actually had far more steering angle than any car I’ve owned. I did run into some maintenance issues, but they were easily resolved.

Eventually it qualified for import under the 25 year exemption, so it found it’s way onto a boat and, eventually, into my driveway. At the time. I still had my R32, so the S13 got put on the back burner.

It was a cool car, but I didn’t want to drive around in a car someone else built. In no time the motor, wheels, seats, and aero were all removed and sold. I was determined to build the S13 I’ve always wanted. It’s not going to be a stripped out race car. It’s going to be a stylish street car that is comfortable to cruise around in, but can still hold it’s own at the track. With my R32 now sold, I can focus my efforts on getting the S13 done and on the track in 2020. Stayed tuned for more.