If you are a fan of drifting, then you know all about Forrest Wang, who is renowned for his spectacular high angle and smoky driving style. His car builds have a lot of style as well and we have been trying to catch up with him for a year to be able to capture one of his masterpieces in a story.
The basis of Forrest’s competition is a Japanese Model Nissan Silvia S15. The S15 was never imported into the USA due to some boneheads in Nissan USA’s product planning department not thinking that it was a viable car for our Market. If you have ever driven an S15 you would know what a great car it was. In fact all S chassis cars had great potential that was neutered out of them when they were imported into the USA by questionable choices like the installation of truck engines and such, but that’s a different rant for a different day.
The S15 is a great looking and handling car but it’s 2 liter SR20DET engine has no where near enough power for todays world of pro drifting even when modified to the limit. This was all resolved when Forrest’s Get Nuts Lab got there hands on the car to transform it into the potent machine shown here.
The first order of business was to rip out the 2000cc SR20DET engine and replace it with a heavily modified Toyota 2JZ-GTE inline six cylinder. The engine is no ordinary 2JZ. Displacing 3.4 liters up from the stock 3 liters it can produce more than 900 hp, easily equaling many of its V8 rivals.
An RMR billet 90mm throttle body feeds the big plenum intake manifold. Get Nuts Labs crew chief Garret Nikolich also knows how to pet the engine and talk to it nicely which is credited for a lot of its reliability.
Many parts and lines in the engine bay including the entire firewall are protected from heat by gold kapton insulating film, the same stuff used on spacecraft. Forrest Wang is not just a highly skilled driver but a gifted fabricator as well and he fabricated the 4″ stainless tubing downpipe himself.
