Style is an important part of drifting. Judges look for the cleanest most-aggressive lines, overall speed and amount of tire smoke when deciding a winner. When the call is close, it's important to have a car that stands out visually. With this car, however, Stew stayed away from outlandish paint or vinyl themes common in drifting and instead stuck to a classic clean silver with tasteful aero. A Sexy Style Version 2 kit, including a front bumper, side skirts and a rear bumper paired with Origin 30mm front fenders and Chargespeed 50mm rear fenders give the body a rough-and-tumble yet subtle and tasteful look. A D-Drug 1600mm Sparkle Magic GT wing gives the car a touch of aesthetic flare as well as functionality, providing extra downforce at high speeds. A beautiful balance has been achieved. While this S13 won't give you a headache by looking at it in direct sun for too long, it's still immediately apparent that this is no ordinary Nissan.
Under the hood of this car you'll find something that may strike you as odd: a Chevrolet V-8. Now before you go and cry, "Blasphemy!" to the drift gods, think about it for a minute. The choice to go with a V-8 over a more common swap like a SR or RB isn't a bad call-any powerplant has benefits and downfalls. Stew struggled with turbo problems on his last car, so after doing a lot of research and picking a lot of brains, he decided to give the LS1 a shot. Instant torque, lots of peak power and relatively low cost made the motor an ideal candidate for the build. The main issue people face when dropping an LS motor into a S13 is how to make it all fit, so Stew and his father custom-made a set of motor mounts and then turned to Victor at Autobahn Service Center and Elijah at 501 Automotive for the finishing touches. Outfitted with a brand-new custom driveshaft, custom headers and a fully redone wiring system from the ground up, the car was ready to get tuned.
The LS1 swap Stew chose isn't close to being a drop-in, so in order to tune the 5.7-liter engine properly to run with the car's custom wiring, Stew turned to East Texas Muscle Cars and HP Tuners for engine management and dyno time. In essence, the guys converted from a MAF-based setup to a MAP system to optimize power and tunabilty. The results are sweet, too-a nice, even 420 whp and 400 ft-lbs of torque. Now that the car is all built and tuned, there's only one thing left to do: drift. And Stew does exactly that-this car is no show queen. In fact, it competed in the Formula Drift Pro/Am during the '09 season. It's always nice for us to see cars out there being driven for the purpose they were built, and we can't wait to see what Stew has in store for us in the future.
Worth Knowing
»The Chevrolet LS1 is becoming a very popular motor swap among Japanese car owners, and with good reason. The aluminum block and iron sleeve construction makes the motor strong and still relatively lightweight, which is important to preserve the car's weight balance. With more than 300 hp and plenty of torque right out of the box, the LS1 is a great way to power many RWD cars.
»By the time this article hits newsstands, Stew will have had several events already under his belt with this car, including the Formula Drift Pro/Am finals featured on page 82.