Rays_EK

Over the last few years, the drifting phenomenon has experienced tremendous growth across the globe. Since this motorsport gained mainstream momentum, it has been a professional-level sport with unlimited-class vehicles coupled. The privateer stood little chance of competing against teams that received heavy support from sponsors and shops.

In order to encourage growth in the sport, the D1 Grand Prix organizers created an entry-level class to give talented drivers with limited budgets opportunity to compete on a national level. These street class drifters were required to be registered while retaining a factory "un-caged" interior. These restrictions were implemented to level the playing field.

Yashio Factory's Prime Product

To broaden their competitive scope, some of the tuning shops developed entries for the street-legal class as well. Yashio Factory, a Nissan tuning shop in Saitama, Japan built this Nissan Silvia S15 to compete in the street-legal class. Known for radical aero tuning, Yashio Factory gave this Silvia's body a facelift. The full Yashio Factory aero kit starts with the front bumper, which features a very large central air dam to feed the HKS intercooler. Two large side openings channel air towards additional coolers and the brakes. The bumper incorporates a lip spoiler, which curves upward towards the edges to help with airflow. Wider and lighter Yashio Factory front fenders replace the factory items, while the Yashio Factory fiber reinforced plastic hood helps with engine cooling via a large hood vent. Taller side skirts and a more aggressive rear bumper complement the more aggressive stance. Over-fender strips were added on top of the rolled wheel wells to facilitate travel and clearance for the aggressively-offset wheels. As a final touch, a Do-Luck rear spoiler was added to help keep the rear-end planted. For a more modern look a set of Yashio Factory LED taillights replaced the stock units while a Bellof HID system brightens the headlight beams.

Stoked and Stroked

Under the hood sits a fully-built Yashio Factory SR20DET engine. Inside the SR20, the stock rotating assembly has been swapped out for an HKS 2.2-liter stroker kit. The HKS stroker kit is comprised of a fully-balanced crankshaft, H-beam connecting rods and forged-aluminum pistons. The head takes advantage of HKS stage-2 camshafts (256-degree intake, 264-degree exhaust) and an HKS metal head gasket for durability. The Yashio Factory stainless-steel exhaust manifold bolts to an HKS GT-Pro turbocharger. The GT3037S turbine expels the hot gases via a full Yashio Factory exhaust system made up of the outlet pipe, front pipe and cat-back system.

An HKS Super Power Flow intake bolts directly onto the Z32 mass airflow meter (MAF) to handle filtration duties. An aluminum induction pipe joins the Z32 MAF to the compressor inlet. Yashio Factory piping links the compressor to the HKS front-mount intercooler. Thanks to a set of SARD 600 cc/min fuel injectors and a Nismo 260 lph in-tank fuel pump, this 2.2-liter SR cranks out 443 horsepower at the wheels. Yashio Factory's Okachan installed a nitrous-injection kit from Nitrous Oxide Systemsthat was jetted for a 100-shot of nitrous oxide. The single NOS nozzle sprays nitrous and fuel into the intake just before the throttle body. Okachan installed a Yashio Factory water-injection system to insure against detonation.

Power To The Ground

To take advantage of the horsepower, the driveline required a substantial upgrade. An HKS twin-plate clutch sends power from the crankshaft to an HKS 6-speed sequential gearbox. At the rear, a 3.9:1 final-drive is fixed on a Nismo 2.0-way LSD. The power is sent to the wheels by way of Skyline GT-R axles.

As for the suspension, a fully-adjustable Yashio Factory damper kit with matched springs lowers the center of gravity and improves chassis response. A host of suspension components including Nismo front upper and lower arms and the Ikeya Formula toe control rods add strength and adjustability to the suspension. This setup allows the suspension geometry to be fully adjustable and adaptable to different tracks. To bring the hard charger to a stop, the factory brakes were replaced with Endless 6-piston calipers and Endless pad that bite down on R34 GT-R discs. Advan Model T6 wheels in a 17x9-inch offering were wrapped with sticky 235/40R17 Yokohama Neova AD07 tires.

Yashio Factory is constantly on the build, producing new vehicles and competing at the leading edge. In 2007, the S15 was sold to Powervehicles.com to make way for a new 2008 machine. Within days of acquiring the car, Powervehicles sold this pink slider to a drift team in France. The French are now armed and ready to do battle on the European Front.

Rays_EK