Sideways Sentra
What do you do when you’ve done everything? Well, you do nothing. Achievement psychologically locks you into your set possibilities; you can do no more. If it's not a plateau of ambition, it's a paralyzing sentiment. After years of dedicated time, wrenching, and experimenting Joe was boxed in with his car. He had a way out, but only he could progress. All things considered leaving the fruits of his labor behind was no favor, even if it meant forward progress.
When he first laid eyes on this car, it wasn’t much more than a simple Sentra sitting in the trade in lot of his work. He actually worked at a BMW dealer at the time. Meaning he was exposed to the best of the trade-in market. While the Sentra may have sat far below some of the trade-in lots' most extravagant offerings for him this was attainable. The car was just old enough to be had for next to nothing, and it made a good daily.
A car enthusiast’s daily is always at risk of being one modification away from retirement. He did begin towing that line not long after the car’s acquisition. Succumbing to the enthusiast mindset, he began meddling with his ride to work in the morning. The B15 platform was still fairly untapped by the aftermarket, so his work was only so intrusive. What he could do, and what he wanted to do, he started sharing on forums. He was active enough that he gained some notoriety and eventually got reached out to by a few companies wanting to R&D parts for the B15 platform. Developing these parts meant developing the B15 platform.
He was doing more than wrenching; he was pioneering. He was a tried-and-true tuner in the prime of the tuning scene. He’d tried out different camshaft profiles for the QR, different pistons, manifolds, even different casts of metal to change the positioning of his alternator. Through the lobes, brackets, and tubular manifolds, he was able to develop an educated discretion. Bigger cams weren't always better for more power. His efforts turned the Sentra into a thoroughbred. If he was to make it any more than that, his efforts would need to reach beyond nuts and bolts.
Something he wasn't quite ready to do, which was fine; he was proud of what he created and wanted to preserve the car's innocence. This was the same car he’d seen sitting on the trade-in lot years ago. Except now it was worthy of a second glance at any car show. One of the shows he would attend with the car was the Turkey Burn. A show for burnouts with burn-outs, some how this was legal. Unfortunately, careful planning couldn’t account for recklessness. Joe's Sentra got rear-ended by a truck during that show. So bad that the shell was unsalvageable. He was, of course, devastated, but the one silver lining to the whole situation was that the engine, the front suspension, the parts that he’d helped develop, were all still in good shape.
The car was more than a sum of its parts; there was nostalgia attached to it. Even when he swapped everything over to a new shell, it just wasn't the same. That truck driver ripped off the band-aid of nostalgia for Joe. He now had opportunities no longer limited by his past. Now he could explore other avenues of modifications. Being surrounded by drift culture, he had just the plan. Not long after the loss of the OG Sentra, he got his hands on an S chassis. It was a roller at best, smashed up and at the time basically worthless.
Joe’s plans surpassed drifting a ratty S13 around. He was gonna do what he'd spent more than the last ten years doing, pushing the envelope of the B15 platform. Truthfully, his plans involved the removal of the majority of the Sentra's underpinnings in favor of S-chassis rear subframes and suspension. This didn't involve a tubular chassis; he wasn’t gonna turn the Sentra into nothing but doors and fenders. The first step involved beer and surgery. With the Sentra up on a lift and tools/time abundantly at his disposal, he made the first cuts, removing the rear trunk/floor of the Sentra. These were precisely made cuts despite the setting in which they were performed. The rear floorpans of the S chassis fit right in. This was partly because of preparations that exceeded alcohol, but mostly because the basic architectures of the cars matched up surprisingly well. Hell, an S chassis front bumper fit on the car.
The solutions to his problems were equations in and of themselves. Sure the S chassis floor pan fit, but he needed to reinforce the Sentra’s body after removal of so much of the original structure. Turning the engine ninety degrees naturally created many more problems, most solved by way of metal and welding. Nissan original parts were able to fit between some of the welding slag and steel. Truck parts, surprisingly, some from Titans, and the largest being the transmission from a Frontier. This was far from a joint effort between him and Nissan, but their parts helped piece this project together.
His efforts would be in vain if this Sentra couldn’t drift. It had every ingredient needed to do it; the only trouble was Joe couldn't drift. He wanted to, bad enough to build a car to do it, but he needed seat time. A trial by fire for both him and the Sentra. It proved to be a great seat time car for a green drifter. In retrospect, he described drifting this car to a stock KA S13. The Sentra had some length over an S chassis, which was in its favor. His plans had come together. He’d joined his friends in the drifting scene, and he was getting good at it.
Plans are only good if you follow through with them; he never lost the will to drift. He’d just added a turbo to the checklist. Adding forced induction to anything is a recipe for a good time. His QR took to boost especially well due to the high-compression pistons he'd installed in the past. An optimal setup required optimal fuel; with that high of compression, 20 pounds of boost would pre-ignite if not for a high-quality fuel. This setup ran only on meth. This yielded nearly 600 horsepower. Trying to progress beyond the skid pad was made difficult with around twice the horsepower than he had before coming on halfway through a turn. The addition of a 30 76 turbo never translated into success on the tarmac. A peaky powerband and stressed cylinder walls left him too far sideways and eventually without an engine. Past machining over looks allowed for the forceful entry of boost into the cooling system of the QR.
The theme of this car is progress through loss. So despite being without an engine, Joe knew he was already going in the right direction. His first manuevor was to the junkyard. In search of a potent and consistent powerband, he had his sights set on a VQ. The only trouble was the VQ tax; everyone wanted top dollar for the engine from a 350Z. No one wanted anything for a Maxima VQ. Tasked with turning yet another transversely mounted engine sideways, he got to work with the welder. He was damned with the responsibility of custom fab regardless. A VQ wasn’t ever meant to fit in a Sentra, that was also kind of an S13. He was able to get some off-the-shelf assistance by way of VQ swap manifolds for S13s and again from Nissan with the CD009 transmission. This setup translated from the paper to the asphalt even better.
The powerband of the VQ was perfect for drifting, mid-range power that rose uniformly til red line. No 20 psi kick in the ass halfway through a corner. The VQ was a workhorse, and it allowed him to get the most of his seat time, helping him rise in the ranks of organized drifting. As with anything, there were some growing pains. Maybe it was the abuse, or the engine was just predisposed to it from years of neglect from its days in the Maxima. Ultimately, he smoked this VQ. Sacrificial scrap metal was nothing new to Joe, so he found himself another VQ. This time a Gen 3 with more power potential and a better reputation for reliability. He would put its reputation to the test in time; he wasn't waiting around to see its power potential. With plenty of goodies from uprev and fixed cam adjusters, he was able to dial in the engine and make a potent, and useable power figure.
If you go to the right drift events in New England, you’ll probably have the chance to see this Sentra careening through turns in tandem with cars it has no business going door to door with. Its capabilities are thanks to an unmatched commitment by Joe to the B15 platform. The Sentra has been an extension of his own laborious creativity for more than ten years. If your reasonable sense has told you you’ve reached the peak of your vehicle’s capabilities. Look no further than this creation as evidence that when you make friends with the unreasonable, you can make the unthinkable.
