If you’re from the Chicagoland area or you’ve been to a ClubFR event you know who John Kim is. You also know he’s one of the nicest guys ever. Since I first met him years ago at Touge Factory he has gone out of his way to help me procure parts for my Skyline and now the Onevia.

If you don’t know John-K you may recognize his 180SX. Yes, I know, it’s a 240SX, but it’s getting pendatic at this point don’t you think? Every 240SX owner is either trying to turn their car into a 180SX or Silvia so I’m going keep things simple. A recent metallic blue re-spray and a set of Gram Lights sent Instagram on fire.

Although the Gram Lights looked great, running 18 inch wheels in the rear forced him to lower the car more than he wanted.

It wasn’t long before the Gram Lights were sold and replaced with a set of 17” bronze OG TE37s. It’s pretty hard to argue with the change. Bronze on blue is a color combo that’s hard to beat. Running 17s all around meant he could adjust his coilovers so he wasn’t scraping anywhere without sacrificing the lowered look he wanted.

From the front it screams 180SX. I didn’t recognize the lip, which turned out to be from Ezo-ism. It looks like the standard kouki 180SX lip, but with an integrated diffuser. Finishing off the front with more rare JDM bits is a genuine D-MAX carbon hood.

Quite the profile. I may be in the minority, but I always prefer 17s all around on an S13. Instead of running kouki 180SX skirts to match the front bumper, John decided to go with chuki skirts, which helps his car avoid the cookie-cutter kouki look. It sits nice and low on a set of Stance coilovers along with a variety of Touge Factory suspension arms to keep the wheels lined up.

John continued the unique styling in the rear with a Canadian market rear lip, kouki 180SX taillights and rear spoiler and an Origin roof wing.

Despite looking like it fell out of an issue of Drift Tengoku, this is just the beginning of the road for John’s 180SX. At the moment there is a fairly stock KA24DE under the hood. Will it be yanked, built and turbocharged? Or will an SR20 or even a K24 find it’s way under the hood? I for one am excited to see where he takes this project.

Make sure to follow John (@johnkimshi) on Instagram to keep up with his projects. He has a pretty cool 4Runner as well.