Project Nissan 240SX S13 Silvia Suspension - Volk Racing CE28N Wheels

1989 Nissan 240Sx S13 Suspension Camber Plate

The JIC struts also come pre-assembled with adjustable camber plates. The attention to detail everywhere on the suspension pieces is impressive.

The JIC struts also come pre-assembled with adjustable camber plates. The attention to det

Thanks in part to a lightweight aluminum mounting hat, the Brembo rotors are only 5 lbs heavier than the tiny stock rotor (16 lbs compared to 11 for the stock rotor). The enormous F50 caliper is only 1.1 lbs heavier than stock (Brembo is 10.1 lbs, stock is 9 lbs). To cope with the violent temperature swings and the different rate of thermal expansion between the cast iron rotor and the aluminum hat, the two are not rigidly mounted to each other. The rotor bolts to the hat through oval-shaped holes to allow the two pieces to expand different amounts when hot. The mounting bolts have some slack in them when tightened, and every other bolt uses a McLaren spring (so named because it first appeared on the McLaren F1) to keep the rotor and hat from rattling against each other.

The Gran Turismo kit comes very complete and is beautifully packaged in a giant box that could easily double as a display case. Rotors, calipers, mounting brackets, Ferodo FM1000 brake pads (same as the Ferrari, again), Goodridge braided steel brake lines, even Loctite and a brake bleeding hose are included.

Though simply bolting them on and driving will work, some adjustments should be made when using this kit on a 240SX. First, the pedal effort is too light and there's too much pedal slop when using the 240's 7/8-inch master cylinder. Second, with the 300ZX rear brakes and Porterfield R4S pads, the rear brakes actually lock first. Not only does this make for some eye-opening behavior if you threshold brake into a corner, it doesn't take full advantage of the powerful front brakes.

A larger master cylinder and adjustable proportioning valve are in the works.

Wheels And Tires
Choosing wheels and tires has been an ordeal, the details of which I already griped about in the September, 2002 "Technobabble." In short, we wanted to use Falken Azenis Sport tires, but couldn't conclusively determine what offset wheel would allow this tire to fit. It's important to note that a wheel and tire that fits with the stock suspension may not fit with coil-overs. The stock spring sits above the tire, while the spring on most coil-overs sits beside it, possibly causing clearance problems.

Now that we've actually tried it, the 225/45ZR-17 Azenis Sport will fit in front with a 38mm offset wheel. We actually used a 43 offset Volk CE28 with a 5mm spacer. The spacer takes up 5mm of thread on the wheel studs, leaving only about four turns of thread engagement for the lug nuts. As a general rule, you should have at least one bolt's width of thread engagement (in the case of a Nissan 12x1.25 stud, that's 12mm, or 9.6 turns) and many sanctioning bodies require more. Nismo makes extra-long wheel studs that are available at any Nissan dealer.

Tire clearance in the rear is abundant, so we used the same wheels without spacers.

We went through the spacer ordeal just so we could use the CE28. As a successor (but not a replacement) to the ubiquitous six-spoke Volk TE37, the CE28 is actually slightly lighter, uses strong, forged construction, and with the even rim support of its 10-spoke design, should be quite strong. The 17x7.5 inch size we used weighs only 14 lbs, and the quality of the finish is simply amazing.

Surprisingly, even with the lightweight Volks, the wheel and tire together weigh 41 lbs, which is exactly the same as the stock SE-R Spec-V wheels we had been using. Grippy, long-lasting and inexpensive, the Azenis Sport also appears to be quite heavy. Twenty-seven lbs, in this size, is a lot for a performance tire, but we suspect this has something to do with the very deep, very large tread blocks and the stiff sidewalls. All that rubber and sidewall structure has to weigh something.

Naturally, we also took this opportunity to brace the top of the strut towers with a lightweight JIC aluminum strut tower brace.
Naturally, we also took this opportunity to brace the top of the strut towers with a light
Our rear coil-overs are using a prototype dual-spring arrangement. The main spring is the same 6 kg/mm (335 lb/in) as the normal production JIC rear spring, but a light tender spring has been added to keep the main spring in place under full droop and to smooth droop travel response. Like the front, the rear shock also has an adjustable lower mount and comes with a spherical bearing upper shock mount. The adjuster is accessible from inside the trunk.
Our rear coil-overs are using a prototype dual-spring arrangement. The main spring is the
The 240SX uses a post-style lower shock mount (left), while the 300ZX twin-turbo, from which we stole our rear uprights, uses a fork style lower mount (right). If these lower mounts are welded to your rear shocks, you'll need to buy new rear shocks to switch to the Z upright. JIC's threaded mounts make changing just the mount simple, and make it possible to switch uprights economically at a later date.
The 240SX uses a post-style lower shock mount (left), while the 300ZX twin-turbo, from whi