88 Mighty Max Drift Build

[frankencav]

After about 3 years of owning my 2nd gen, I finally retired it from daily duties because of the semi-weekly problems leaving me on the side of the road. My Cobalt SS took on the daily driver role, leaving Terk (that's what we named my MM) sitting at my dad's house in timeout for a few months. Terk is a member of the family and at the time, I wasn't sure what to do since selling was NOT an option. After a conversation with my brother on what direction we wanted to take with our 1987 300ZX drift build, we decided to abandon ship on that platform and focus on building Terk into our drift project, using the Nissan S-Chassis parts we had acquired and some goods from the 300ZX.


Here is the plan:
Suspension:
ISR S13 coilovers
ISR rear arm set
lots of poly bushings
Z31 front subframe and LCAs
S14 rear subframe
Z31 power rack & pinion

Drivetrain:
6 bolt 4G63t (nothing fancy)

[frankencav]

Here is Terk at a NOPI event about 1 year ago. I plan on retaining the look and feel with the rusted panels and black steel wheels.
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[frankencav]

My brother went to town on the S13 diff. If anything breaks, this won't be it.
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Here's some of my brother's powdercoat work on the RLCAs and diff cover.

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A plasma cutter made short work of stripping the frame rails. We still have some grinding/ prepping to do before we make the bends for fitting the subframe.
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The S14 subframe I bought already had poly bushings, but I still had to burn out/ install differential bushings and weld in some washers for deleting the eccentric bolts.
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Here's the ISR rear arms and coilovers mounted on modified Z31 front knuckles.
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[dash]

that is a considerable amount of mods, designated for the truck. Looks intense
Interesting u mentioned 87 300ZX, as I thought that would make a natural candidate for drifting
I've seen a buddy go wild, with freestyle burnouts (in wide open areas).... engulfing the surroundings totally in smoke
Often until a tire exploded. Upgaded to t3/t4, fmic, etc. He punished this daily driver every chance he got
Most shocking part... was after these extended hi rpm sessions, that li'l VG30 v6 would return to a whisper quiet, glass smooth idle, and not puke a drop of coolant! - one impressive tough sob imo. Incredible motor
I'd be scared to treat a 4g63 like that - lol

[frankencav]

that is a considerable amount of mods, designated for the truck. Looks intense
Interesting u mentioned 87 300ZX, as I thought that would make a natural candidate for drifting
I've seen a buddy go wild, with freestyle burnouts (in wide open areas).... engulfing the surroundings totally in smoke
Often until a tire exploded. Upgaded to t3/t4, fmic, etc. He punished this daily driver every chance he got
Most shocking part... was after these extended hi rpm sessions, that li'l VG30 v6 would return to a whisper quiet, glass smooth idle, and not puke a drop of coolant! - one impressive tough sob imo. Incredible motor
I'd be scared to treat a 4g63 like that - lol

I will agree that the VG platform is a torque monster. The issue with our Z was it had no title, so towing it to events was costly and inconvienent. Focusing on the MM will eliminate one project vehicle from the list and will keep it from being neglected.

[thefreack]

That looks like it should be fun. I want to drift my little mm too.

[frankencav]

Here's the bent frame:
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Here are the rails after some cutting (to mount the subframe as high up as possible):
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This is why I chose to bend the rails instead of notching and making a mess:
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[Jeff V.]

I'm interested to see how this turns out. Drifting isn't really my thing, but I always appreciate a good fabrication project :)

[Rcornsilk]

After about 3 years of owning my 2nd gen, I finally retired it from daily duties because of the semi-weekly problems leaving me on the side of the road. My Cobalt SS took on the daily driver role, leaving Terk (that's what we named my MM) sitting at my dad's house in timeout for a few months. Terk is a member of the family and at the time, I wasn't sure what to do since selling was NOT an option. After a conversation with my brother on what direction we wanted to take with our 1987 300ZX drift build, we decided to abandon ship on that platform and focus on building Terk into our drift project, using the Nissan S-Chassis parts we had acquired and some goods from the 300ZX.


Here is the plan:
Suspension:
ISR S13 coilovers
ISR rear arm set
lots of poly bushings
Z31 front subframe and LCAs
S14 rear subframe
Z31 power rack & pinion

Drivetrain:
6 bolt 4G63t (nothing fancy)

I have a question for ya,even tho this an extremely old post. What all had to be done for the rack and pinion? I'm cutting down a montero xls 4x4 front end to put on my 50. It has rack an pinion but I have to get a narrower one for the fit. Thanks,and love your build too!