According to David this is a grocery car, a go anywhere machine that is daily driven with family in tow. He does not subscribe to street racing although we know that we would not be able to resist prodding the accelerator and running through the first three gears just to piss of the guy in the Civic next to us.
Running is a straight line is this car's forté he admits, no corner drifting with this machine. Brakes and suspension have actually been left alone for the real sleeper effect. On the road this car truly is driven conservatively. When it appears at the tracks however, you'd better watch out! Provided of course we in Trinidad have access to a track. These days we're not sure.
Underhood we're looking at a standard Nissan SR20-DE with custom intercooled plumbing and a T3 turbo from the VG30-DET V6. For longer turbo life an HKS blow off valve was installed. Fuel duty is handled by an MSD fuel pump and upsized copper fuel lines which supply fuel to upgraded 370cc/min injectors from the SR20-DET. Remaining internals are all stock SR20. David says the trick is to keep the fuel mix right. With this in mind, a Toyota cold start injector with boost activated switch was added to keep the horses reliable. 2.5" exhaust piping is used throughout.
To keep things under control without unnecessary distraction David prefers just an rpm activated shift light without tach. Unusual, but David says he's from the old school– where they listen to the engine. Sounds like more sleeper tactics to us. Autometer rich-lean and boost gauges give remaining vitals and an HKS Turbo timer keeps the turbo from cooking it's oil and sludging things up.
Of course how the power is put down is just as important when it comes to drag racing. After trying the factory wheels (14s) for a while, the dragstrip faithful soon caught on to David's ploy. At this point he felt comfortable swapping to the 16s he originally wanted to run. Moving through the drivetrain, wheels get their spin from a 3.9 Bluebird Station Wagon rear differential which is more reliable and has shorter overall ratios than the regular bluebird sedan diff. The diff gets power through a Z20 5-speed gearbox. Just FYI, the Z20 is a JDM 2000cc single cam 8v Turbo engine.
As a final note, the battery was relocated to the trunk to free up space in the engine bay. David would like to specially thank Brenton aka Chanderpaul (mechanical), Sheldon Hazel aka Muff (fabrication), his brothers Brian and Peter, Carlos Fraser and all those who helped give this innocent little sleeping bluebird a serious shot of adrenaline.
DE BUDGET:
Engine & gearbox $6000
turbo $3000
gauges $1000 used & new
Shift light $700 new
HKS BOV - $600 used
370cc/min injectors $900 incl cold start injector
Diff - $700, installation - $600
Wheels & Tires - $5000
Fuel Pump $900 new
Fuel Lines - $100
Exhaust Piping - $1000
