My S13 - Project uglification (1993 Nissan 240sx hatchback)
 

Hey all,
Just thought I'd introduce you to my daily beater, Project Uglification.
It's my 1993 Nissan 240sx hatchback. It started life as an autotragic, and over the first 12 years of it's life, was beaten on by a bad parent, then sold when she became the parent of a (probably) human child. When I got this car, it was running poorly, shifting poorly, and looked like crap. After buying it in 2005, I promptly swapped out the belt driven fans for electric, headlights for glass H4s, and the stock intake for an Injen that I pulled from my s14 when it got the turbo.

Since then, I’ve gotten the dents in the doors pulled, the power steering pulley swapped out for an electrical MR2 pump (on a switch, because you don’t need power steering other than when you’re parking), swapped a 5spd trans in there with a 14lb flywheel (down from the 22lb stock unit), upgraded the radiator when the old one cracked the feedneck, put some nice se version alloys on there, and some q45 brake calipers. A few other random upgrades include the Silvia digital climate control system, Canadian daytime running lights (rigged to a switch, like foglights), a J30 diff for the longer gearing (higher speed at same rpms = less work for the motor), a small nubby antenna, and a retuned ecu by a friend several years back. I’ve also got a home-made grounding kit on there, and an ignition hotwire (coil run on a relay directly from the battery, to make sure it’s getting full voltage, rather than running it through 20 year old wiring and losing .3-.5 volts). Also swapped the stock seats out for some s14 leather seats, which weigh maybe a pound or two more each, but are much more comfortable.

The car currently has around 212k miles, had a valve job about 12k miles ago, and is still running mostly strong. There is a strange idle issue when I’m sitting at a light that behaves either like a weak ground somewhere, OR a small vacuum leak. Because of the gremlin’s inconsistent nature, I’ve had trouble tracking it down and squashing it.
This car was never pretty, and I’ve done just about nothing to change that, shy of having the dents in the doors fixed. The oxidation on the hood, roof, and hatch have only gotten a little worse since I picked it up, but that’s because I wash and wax 2x a year, whereas the previous owner apparently parked it under heat lamps or something.

Love the shape, it’s pretty solid aerodynamically already, I just need to add a few bits, remove a few bits, and see what she can do! I’m calling it my Uglification Project, because when I’m done, the rear wheel wells should be covered, there will likely be wheel covers on the wheels (pizza pans – yeah!), a strange looking “inverse” spoiler lip on the back and sides of the hatch/rear end, an extension on the hood (wiper deflector), hidden mirrors, low profile lights (which will still flip up, just not quite so high as they are at present, and a nice weird looking splitter up front. Hopefully some lightweight wheels, cost permitting. Since much of my time is spent in traffic, I’m trying to get a nice solid increase in mileage there, and reducing mass (rotating and not) is going to be key in that. Aaaaand, since I don't have enough posts yet, I can't put pics up. I suppose I'll be back after a few more posts, with pics.

I realize I didn't post any mileage! So here we are - EPA estimates are 19 city, 22 mixed, and 26 highway. With the mods listed, I've achieved (at best) around 22 city, 25 mixed, and 34 highway. The highway improvement was at least partially due to folding in the big floppy dumbo ear mirrors for a drive to SD. Some A-B-A testing revealed that these are costing me between 1 and 1.5 mpg.
My goal is 40MPG without sacrificing A/C or comfort. I'm going to hit that, then target 50.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../S13/Front.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...ghtProfile.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...x/S13/Rear.jpghttp://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...eftQuarter.jpg

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...13/Cluster.jpg

I have always liked these cars, they are very sleek looking. Try doing a airdam on the front or a full belly plan. I have used lawn edging successfully on my cars.

Imho ugly is beautiful.

Added a bit more description to the thread title (outside of Nissan enthusiasts, people probably won't know what "S13" means... I actually thought I might be opening a thread where someone had converted an S10 pickup to a 1.3L engine :D)

Don't suppose you happen to know the car's stock drag coefficient? Just curious.

Actually, I just updated that in my garage - everything I can find says it's 0.30. I need to do some coast down testing to get a baseline so that when I do some aero, I can measure change.

- and thanks for the edit - you make a good point :D

If you can, I'd recommend doing your baseline comparison coastdown at the same time you want to test the modification.

Different days may produce different results, even without any changes at all to the car (from different ambient temperatures, tire pressure, drivetrain temperature, wind, fuel level) etc.

I'm going to do my best to test them at the same time - I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to get this stuff slapped on (still have to try to design it), and it's been a busy several weeks. I have some ideas, but they're all pretty much just imaginary at the moment. I need to pick up some rhino ramps, or two more jackstands so I can crawl around underneath to identify mounting points for a deflector and underside paneling.

I found this for you though it looks like you already have these numbers.
1993 Nissan 240SX SE 2dr Hatchback 2.4L 4-cyl. 5-speed Manual Features and Specs

Frontal area is length times width times .84.