[If you're a loyal reader of Sport Compact Car, then you'll undoubtedly be familiar with the Nissan Sentra racecar known as the Dog Car (Oct '08 issue, among others). Bought by long-time contributor Mike Kojima with the previous owner's dog food racing sponsorship plastered on the side (hence the name), the Dog Car is one of the most sorted and developed B14 Sentra racers in the US. This Nissan is the sequel to that car. - JL]
Originally purchased from a US Touring Car Championship team, the Dog Car was built and developed into the well-known NASA and time attack racer of today. When the Dog Car was purchased it came with an ample pile of spares, which included a pristine factory fresh body shell and nearly enough parts to build a second racecar. With noted enthusiasm for the platform, Tony Guardado sought to build the updated replica of the Dog Car right before your eyes, known affectionately as the Dog Car II. Since the original Dog Car has several less than optimal chassis fabrication issues that are not easily correctable, it was decided that the new car would be built from the ground up using the backup shell, along with the spares from the first car.
Although the concept seemed simple, Guardado embarked on a buildup that would take 18 months and a considerable amount of work. At the very onset of the project, the parts pile was shipped off to Technosquare in Torrance, California. It was there that Ritchie and Howard Watanabe of Technosquare shook their heads in dismay after looking at the pile, then dug in and got to work. The first job was to assess what was missing and what was needed to piece together a completely running car. A multi-page list, of nearly a hundred items, was complied and sent off to Nissan Motorsports. Even with Nissan's special racer contingency pricing, the total ended up costing over two thousand dollars.
For the heart of this racer, a fresh JDM SR20VE engine was obtained from an engine importer. The SR20VE is a high performance variant of the venerable SR20DE that was never imported to the US. It was found in the Japanese Primera and Bluebird models. The VE features a higher flowing cylinder head, higher compression and, most importantly, a sophisticated variable valve timing system with high and low rpm lobes, much like Honda's VTEC system.
This SR20VE engine was fortified with a set of Japanese N1 camshafts, intake manifold, and throttle body from G-Spec. The N1 parts are from the ultra-rare SR16VE N1 motor, a race homologation motor that was produced by Nissan in very limited quantities in order to race in FIA N1 events. The SR16VE N1 was a potent 1600cc engine rated at 200bhp. It was Nissan's answer to the B16 engine used in the JDM Honda Civic Type-R. The SR16VE N1 was found in the Lucero VZ-R, a coupe that is nearly identical to our own 200SX SE-R. Only 500 of these cars were produced for FIA homologation. The N1 cams have over 300-degrees of duration and 12mm of lift. The cams were mated to Jim Wolf Technology adjustable timing gears. When teamed with the stock SR20VE valve springs, they are good to 8000-rpm. The intake manifold features a 70mm throttle body, shorter and bigger runners, and a larger plenum.
A custom header was built by Advanced Street Performance for this Nissan using exotic and lightweight thin-wall 321 stainless steel and a Burns merged collector, stepped primaries, and a reverse-cone megaphone. The header is one of the key secrets to the power from the SR20 engine. The header's megaphone exits into a 3-inch exhaust system, fabricated by Technosquare using thin-wall 321 stainless. The exhaust utilizes a Burns Ultralight muffler for some noise suppression and then exits into a turndown, which terminates underneath the car.
By Mike Kojima
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