Here I’d like to share some of my past 10+ years of experience that some may relate to and maybe help others.
Sit back and take as small travel back in time with me to the last century, when drifting was just stories from a country far far away and the import market in Switzerland next to non existent.
After looking at many different cars I finally decided and opted for a Nissan S13 (affordable, nice looking and lots of potential). This was mainly influenced after having a glimpse or two of the UK scene and their lovely laws regarding car modifications.
Now I had my own S-Body and plenty of plans, unfortunately as a poor student most of these plans are just dreams especially when they are inspired by proper cars in countries where racing is daily business. I soon realised, achieving the same thing in Switzerland quickly adds a zero or two to the end of the calculation. But as I was young and stupid this wouldn’t stop me.
Arie used a stock grey 200SX S13 as his daily car – while building the other one
So fast forward to my first mistake – as mentioned I had plenty of plans and none of the them included any fancy bodywork but as it happens eventually one night I had a small incident so my car was in need of a new front end. Being silly me I thrown all my plans aside and started my search for the best way to get an S15 front onto my car and some aero to suit the new look. So I gathered all the money I had and splashed it out to find the joys of miscommunication and the world of delays. About a year later I finally got hold of all the parts spending almost twice the money that I should, so ended up broke and no means to fit it. Now without further delay straight off to mistake #2, doh.
He even enjoyed it more than his ‚race car in progress‘
Say hello to ‘never ending project’ – After taking so long to get the above mistake sorted out I thought feck it if I do this now I’ll do it right – yeah sure. SoI took the car of the road got myself another cheap S13 fixed it with parts from my project car and was now left with a bare shell and and a fancy aero and a plan to turn it into a proper race car built from ground up. Now for some this wouldn’t be a problem as they live in the countryside and there’s plenty of space in the barn to store away such a project for a couple of years to save enough money to finish it.
Unfortunately I lived downtown where parking space is at a premium and a non insured car needs to be locked away in a closed environment which is more expensive again.
So there I was – broke, broken car and some runaround that was fun but doomed to end up the same way as the project car. So for once a good choice was made – I sold the daily and replaced it with a Toyota AE86 (cheap to maintain – at least for me, easy on insurance and fun fun fun).
This is how everything should be in the end – a nice S15 front mated to the 200SX S13 body
The project still being around, slightly faded away from my everyday memory and after other life changing moments (getting married and moving abroad), I finally got round to invest in my project again – but I was living 700km away from it. Now about 6 years after starting the project I had 99% of the necessary parts to finish it off but no time and was heading off to Africa for the next 2 years.
After a lot of pain, years and money spent I finally managed to find a good new home for it and despite huge losses it will be nice to see it running sometime in the future, even if it will be finished as a cruiser and not a racer.
With the AE86 on the Nürburing – nice!
Conclusion of a long story – since I started the marked has changed a lot and I still think projects are nice but (and that’s a mighty big BUT) prepare yourself properly as even with proper plans and a healthy budget – there are still plenty of things that can go wrong or change (I’m sitting in Africa right now). So if you are a young man or woman drawn into the thrills of motorsports, check your budget and start of small. As for most of us, seat time is the fun part of it all (although I personally enjoy working on the cars just as much but that’s me) so make sure you can spend your time and money driving and not looking at a bare shell dreaming away. Keep it road worthy or have twice the amount of cash needed to complete your dreams in the shortest possible time.
He moved to a new country – still with the AE
If I could turn back time I would still go for a project car but there are plenty of things I’d do differently now. For one I’d first gather all the money needed to complete every step of the plan. Means after each step the changes would leave me with a working/usable car.
Also if you plan to build up a car from scratch – consider a huge amount of cash needed.
Personally I would start off with a very good base car, means if I want a good cage in there I’d look around for a shell that already has one etc…
For me personally the steps are as followed (although small things continuously change):
1. Reliability
2. Suspension
3. Safety (matching the planed use of the car)
4. Power
5. Looks
So far I managed to keep to this plan quite well with my AE86 and I hope I will also in the future.
Drive safe but drive 😉
BeanBandit (Arie Bergdorf)
PS: This all sound rather cautious and but for me it was true but the only thing about it that I will really regret for the rest of my life was that I haven’t sold my project earlier in favor for an even bigger project that I could have had which would have gone by the name of ‘Devil Z’
Here I’d like to share some of my past 10+ years of experience that some may relate to and maybe help others.
Sit back and take as small travel back in time with me to the last century, when drifting was just stories from a country far far away and the import market in Switzerland next to non existent.
After looking at many different cars I finally decided and opted for a Nissan S13 (affordable, nice looking and lots of potential). This was mainly influenced after having a glimpse or two of the UK scene and their lovely laws regarding car modifications.
Now I had my own S-Body and plenty of plans, unfortunately as a poor student most of these plans are just dreams especially when they are inspired by proper cars in countries where racing is daily business. I soon realised, achieving the same thing in Switzerland quickly adds a zero or two to the end of the calculation. But as I was young and stupid this wouldn’t stop me.
Arie used a stock grey 200SX S13 as his daily car – while building the other one
So fast forward to my first mistake – as mentioned I had plenty of plans and none of the them included any fancy bodywork but as it happens eventually one night I had a small incident so my car was in need of a new front end. Being silly me I thrown all my plans aside and started my search for the best way to get an S15 front onto my car and some aero to suit the new look. So I gathered all the money I had and splashed it out to find the joys of miscommunication and the world of delays. About a year later I finally got hold of all the parts spending almost twice the money that I should, so ended up broke and no means to fit it. Now without further delay straight off to mistake #2, doh.
He even enjoyed it more than his ‚race car in progress‘
Say hello to ‘never ending project’ – After taking so long to get the above mistake sorted out I thought feck it if I do this now I’ll do it right – yeah sure. SoI took the car of the road got myself another cheap S13 fixed it with parts from my project car and was now left with a bare shell and and a fancy aero and a plan to turn it into a proper race car built from ground up. Now for some this wouldn’t be a problem as they live in the countryside and there’s plenty of space in the barn to store away such a project for a couple of years to save enough money to finish it.
Unfortunately I lived downtown where parking space is at a premium and a non insured car needs to be locked away in a closed environment which is more expensive again.
So there I was – broke, broken car and some runaround that was fun but doomed to end up the same way as the project car. So for once a good choice was made – I sold the daily and replaced it with a Toyota AE86 (cheap to maintain – at least for me, easy on insurance and fun fun fun).
This is how everything should be in the end – a nice S15 front mated to the 200SX S13 body
The project still being around, slightly faded away from my everyday memory and after other life changing moments (getting married and moving abroad), I finally got round to invest in my project again – but I was living 700km away from it. Now about 6 years after starting the project I had 99% of the necessary parts to finish it off but no time and was heading off to Africa for the next 2 years.
After a lot of pain, years and money spent I finally managed to find a good new home for it and despite huge losses it will be nice to see it running sometime in the future, even if it will be finished as a cruiser and not a racer.
With the AE86 on the Nürburing – nice!
Conclusion of a long story – since I started the marked has changed a lot and I still think projects are nice but (and that’s a mighty big BUT) prepare yourself properly as even with proper plans and a healthy budget – there are still plenty of things that can go wrong or change (I’m sitting in Africa right now). So if you are a young man or woman drawn into the thrills of motorsports, check your budget and start of small. As for most of us, seat time is the fun part of it all (although I personally enjoy working on the cars just as much but that’s me) so make sure you can spend your time and money driving and not looking at a bare shell dreaming away. Keep it road worthy or have twice the amount of cash needed to complete your dreams in the shortest possible time.
He moved to a new country – still with the AE
If I could turn back time I would still go for a project car but there are plenty of things I’d do differently now. For one I’d first gather all the money needed to complete every step of the plan. Means after each step the changes would leave me with a working/usable car.
Also if you plan to build up a car from scratch – consider a huge amount of cash needed.
Personally I would start off with a very good base car, means if I want a good cage in there I’d look around for a shell that already has one etc…
For me personally the steps are as followed (although small things continuously change):
1. Reliability
2. Suspension
3. Safety (matching the planed use of the car)
4. Power
5. Looks
So far I managed to keep to this plan quite well with my AE86 and I hope I will also in the future.
Drive safe but drive 😉
BeanBandit (Arie Bergdorf)
PS: This all sound rather cautious and but for me it was true but the only thing about it that I will really regret for the rest of my life was that I haven’t sold my project earlier in favor for an even bigger project that I could have had which would have gone by the name of ‘Devil Z’