A LOOK BACK AT FREDDY THE GM POWERED S14

Over the past 4 years I have owned and have been building this 1997 240sx.  It was a project that all started with a motor.  I picked up an LS1 from a friend that had spun a rod bearing, then spent the winter rebuilding it.  I went all threw the motor.  It got a new rod, all new pistons, crank, bearings, heads, valve train, cam, etc.  Like many other car guys, I enjoy the build more than owning the car.  I liked the idea of learning a new motor and the time spent going through it.  Now, at the time I started on the motor, I had no idea what car I would put this LS1 into.  To be honest, I wasn't even sure that it would going into a car.  I have always wanted to build a series of motors, just to collect and let sit around my garage.  The same as a model car hobbyist builds for the enjoyment.  

After some time I remember seeing a local guy swap this motor into his 1998 Nissan 240sx.  I was blown away at how he made the motor look at home in this chasis.  He was one of the first people I had even seen complete this motor swap.  At this time there were no motor count conversions of driveshafts that were built to length.  After reading about how capable the car's suspension was, I knew that I needed to find a 240 and get to work right away.

I searched the internet for almost a year before I found a car that I believed to be worth the money.  I found the car on a forum and had it shipped down here from Boston.  The car was a completely stock, automatic, 1997.  The day I bought the car I ordered wheels, tires, coilovers, and every adjustable suspension arm.  I drove the car like this for about 6 months before I was ready to pull the motor.

Looking clean but still VERY slow!

That winter I pulled the motor and began work on the engine bay.  There was a small amount of rust that needed repaired and I wanted to tub the wheel wells.  

 

 Im not going to get into the full build in this post but more so look bad of some of the stages I went through to get to where the car is now.  In this picture, most of the sheet metal work was complete.

 

 Skipping forward a couple months, the motor is in and ready to run.  At this point the engine bay was painted a Lexus grey.

The car was finished for the time being and I loved it.  The motor made about 380 wheel and was a great daily driver!  I actually enjoyed the car more back then than ever.

I bought an extra set of wheels and used them as drift spares.

I bought a JDM Kouki wing and ran if for about 1 day.  Just didn't fit the rest of the car.  I wish I still had that wing.

After driving the car for a good 9 monthes I decided to take the car apart to paint it.  Things went the way they usually do with me and I got carried away.  What started as a paint job turned into a roll cage, turned into a fuel cell, turned into cutting the roof off, then cutting the front end off, and thus continued on for almost 2 years.

 

Here I can finished welding the new roof on and had moved onto the front end.  I built a tube front radiator support and had also made a panel to house the coolers.

Still funny Colten.

 

Last spring I decided that I wanted to drive the car on the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour.  Im a last minute, three week dash, we got the car into my shop and finished it for the last time.  By this time I was about ready to paint the car.

After all of the painting was finished we still had to wire the entire car, run brake lines, fuel lines, get it all assembled, and tuned in the last week and a half.

Beleive it or not, we made our deadline and headed out the next morning for the Power Tour.

My long time friend Brandon came down from Chicago to go on the trip with me.  We drove from southern Illinois to Detroit, then to Arlington Texas, and finally back home to Illinois.  I had a great time this year however, Im sure Brandon could have benefited from more leg room.  Next year will be better my friend!

Once we arrived in Arlington I decided to enter the Optima Batteries Ultimate Street Car Invitational.  This was a great chance to test the car out on a road course and an autocross.

 

Optima Batteries actually picked the car to compete this year in the final for the Ultimate Street Car Invitational.  We were among the top 50 to be competing.

We had a great time during the event and also got the opportunity to have the car at SEMA in Las Vegas.

Freddy had been a great car.  I have enjoyed working on it, driving it, getting into trouble with it, cursing it, and even dreaming about it.  Thanks for reading.