350Z SR20DET Drift Car Build :)

[SR 240Z]

Yes this is for real! We are in the midst of building the roll cage for our 350z to Formula D rule standards.

The car is going to primarily be a competition drift car which I (Alex) will be driving. I will be documenting progress on http://www.AlexVillabrille.com as well as through this thread. I was able to get some semi-sponsorships to help with the build from Daryl Alison at JustDriven.com, M1 Autosports, and Dynamic Autosports.

I do not have my license yet but have been practicing and once the car is ready will go out to get my license.

Attached are some teaser shots for your viewing pleasure:

May 7th:





May 8th:



May 9th:



Roll Cage COMPLETED!!! May 12th:

[aris_unlimited]

Why would you put an SR20 in a 350z? You are losing tons of performance with the initial swap that you will have to make up in mods.

[ZedHead]

Tons of performance?> 82HP is a bit but I dunno bout tons..

Easily made up with a little more boost... and im gonna guess that because so much work in being put into the car itself that a build SR is going in as well.

Sr weights less so thats good, and much easier to work on? More room in the engine bay and so on. And maybe they just had one layin around..

Anywho... awesome projoect, on with the updates

[bmike818]

Cool! keep us posted

[noobdrftr]

this should be interesting...cant wait to see the final product

[SR 240Z]

Zedhead: You hit it right on the spot. The SR we are putting in is pushing about 510whp currently and is the engine that will be dropped into this project car.

The VQ was tossed out because of the lack of room, cost to build and turbo the VQ and also the weight of course.

I will keep you guys updated as more progress continues.

Thanks for the comments

[_b.jaye_]

man this makes me wish i had a shop... and money... and talent. is moving the F/R weight ratio back something you really want in a drifter? i woulda thought the stock ratio was pretty ideal.

cool build, throw on some vids!

[SR 240Z]

The stock F/R weight ratio is not bad by any means but after practicing around with a Stock Nismo R-Tune car and a 2-way LSD i was experiencing some understeer which i never enjoy at all so i think that when this car is finished and running it will be a totally different animal.

I go to pick up my Sparco Pro2000 seats tomorrow

[Citrus]

Why would you put an SR20 in a 350z? You are losing tons of performance with the initial swap that you will have to make up in mods.

Forsberg's first Formula D car was an SR powered 350z. Not only is there a good deal of weight to be saved, but the weight is both lower in the engine bay and located closer to the firewall. The SR20det also has more aftermarket parts available than the VQ and should cost quite a bit less to build for big boost (albeit with lower peak potential, but that's not the point).

http://www.chrisforsberg.com/gallery/v/rebuild/srz/

OP - Keep us posted on the progress, cage is looking good!

[SR 240Z]

Thanks for the input Citrus

As for updates, here you go:

Well I went to Pro-Motion Distrbuting on Friday and picked up their final stock of the Sparco Pro2000 Seats as well as some aluminum side mounts.

I also got my Momo steering wheel hub but still trying to decide on which steering wheel to do with...

Keep your eye out for the ETB Instruments DigiDash coming soon

Check the seats out:

[SR 240Z]

Been trying to clean up the rest of the interior so we can prep it for paint and begin to move onto the rest of the good stuff!!!

The rubber seem sealer is a pain in the a** to wire wheel all off, but it is finally done! Oh and I used dry ice of course to remove all the tar.

http://www.alexvillabrille.com

[stunnaben]

bump ttt

[SR 240Z]

Well this would have been a productive weekend usually, if we had actually liked the final turnout of the interior paint. We spent the entire day on Saturday prepping the car to be ready to paint and we got to the interior on Sunday morning and were going to start painting the exterior of the car but it was drizzling and not a good day to continue. The end result of the interior we didn’t like so much, but you guys be the judge. Going to re-paint it this weekend hopefully.













TODAY:We brought the infamous SR20 powered 240Z to rip its heart out! It was sad to take the car back home on a trailer but it had to be done at some point. In the future the 240Z is likely to get a 2JZ for some street fun. (Don’t mind the tow straps as were pulling the engine, its super light and didn’t have the transmission attached to it anymore)







Be sure to keep up on http://www.AlexVillabrille.com

[rmezz13]

very nice... apparently you can see something in person i cannot see in the pics. It seems to have turned out well per pics...

[SR 240Z]

A few updates over these past few days.

The motor pulled from the 240z was dropped into the 350z Fits very nicely and just need to modify the top-mount manifold so that the turbo clears the strut tower and is closer to the motor and further away from the brake parts.

I went ahead and pulled the brake pedal (was automatic before) to cut it down to size and also install the clutch pedal and master cylinder at the same time. Brake booster and master were also set in place and re-installed

We also got started on the re-wiring of the standalone and complete car. The factory wiring harnesses for the car weigh so much its ridiculous. This new EZ-Wire setup definitely comes in handy but is very time consuming.





http://www.AlexVillabrille.com

[S133P3R]

Why would you put an SR20 in a 350z? You are losing tons of performance with the initial swap that you will have to make up in mods.

ever seen this?SIGNAL AUTO SR20 POWERED Z33.

ill be watching this thread for sure!
Modified by S133P3R at 12:46 PM 6/15/2009

[SR 240Z]

We are trying to have continuous updates and progress on the car while still working on customer cars during the day. These past two days I have been doing routine service and prepping cars for swaps while my dad started to work on the dash center panel.

He found some carbon sheet lying around the shop and got to fitting it into where the old navigation and Bose stereo used to be. The gauges fitted into the pod are temporary for fitment purposes only.

Check it out:



http://www.AlexVillabrille.com

If you go to the blog page you can click on all the pictures to view them in full size.

[Corbic]

ever seen this?SIGNAL AUTO SR20 POWERED Z33.

ill be watching this thread for sure!

Modified by S133P3R at 12:46 PM 6/15/2009

Ever think Signal and others do this sort of thing for attention? To be different?

The OP has already made up his mind, and more power to him. But I don't think the SR is a good match for the 350Z, hell I don't even think the SR is a good match for the 240sx. (KA-T here)

Bottom line, that 510HP SR was no cheap engine, and if that is all it's going to make, I don't see how that was any cheaper then building a VQ and turboing that. The VQ, with more displacement and starting horsepower will also make more power at lower boost, and have a better power curve as well. It's not going to be guttless On/Off.

As for weight. I'm not convinced. A VQ is about the exact same weight as the Iron Block KA24DE, which is only ~100lbs more then a SR.

That's not a lot, and in a stripped out, track only car, that can easily be made up for. Ever see the video of the heavy stock 350Z HR whipping up on a S2K at the track?

As for Chris's "ultra light 350z". Once again, I feel it's more of an attention stunt, then an actual "practical" set up. He is also driving a roadster.

[SR 240Z]

Well the idea is that this engine has already been paid for and is completed, tuned and running. To build the VQ and do all the tuning and get it ready is what would be more costly. Putting the money out of pocket up front is the last thing we wanted to do with the engine setup.

Plus the ease of working in the engine bay makes us more relaxed when we have to do anything related to the engine.

[S133P3R]

car looks good! curious to see how it handles on the track...

[SR 240Z]

Chet at Galek Motorsports came through with the ETB Instruments DigiDash 2 Lite. It finally arrived today after such a long time in deciding what we were going to do with the central gauge setup.

We will have it installed and wired as soon as the rest of the sensors come in the mail and get some new lit up pictures! Dont forget that if you go to the blog page you can view the pictures in full size when you click on them.



http://www.AlexVillabrille.com

[NismoG20T]

wow very nice work...looking forward for updates

[Citrus]

As for Chris's "ultra light 350z". Once again, I feel it's more of an attention stunt, then an actual "practical" set up. He is also driving a roadster.

The orange roadster is actually powered by a VK56 v8 out of a Titan.

The silver SR powered Z weighed in at 2389lbs. He was using a VQ transmission adapted to fit the SR motor.

I think the reason the SR was done in the first car was simply due to the limited aftermarket & knowledge for the VQ at the time. Building a 500HP SR20 was much less complicated than building a 500HP VQ35 in 2003-2005.

TT VQ35, VK56, SR20det... All have proven to be viable options for competitive drift cars. Driver preference probably plays the biggest role in the end. Getting attention is pretty much guaranteed to make sponsors happy too.

[s2klove04]

wow nice build progress is looking really good and clean work on everything

[Mcpot132]

jeez thats NICE roll cage work, i cant wait to see the SR dropped in that bad boy lol keep us posted!

[j9Easy]

wow very nice build!

[MB86]

I think its great.

[SR 240Z]

I know I haven’t lived up to my word in supplying updates for this build but we have been hard at work trust me! UPDATED!!!!!!!!!!!

The entire blog post can be viewed at http://www.alexvillabrille.com

Here is a preview:“…KA24 510 tuned but ended up blowing the motor due to tuner error :/ We brought the car back, pulled the KA24 and swapped in an SR20det instead…”



“…new brakes for the 350z track car (Wilwood 6-piston front and 4-piston rear), new front windshield installed, as well as painting the roof…”

[Citrus]

FYI - if anyone has been following Forsberg's blog, his SR20Z is being setup for time attack. It'll be interesting to see how it does.

http://www.chrisforsberg.com/b...ttack/

[SR 240Z]

Well finally got some of our parts in that we have been waiting for, WHEELS!!!!!!!!! Check out the full post over at http://www.drftmytail.com (Redirects to http://www.alexvillabrille.com)