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“Hey Brah, wutz it run in da quarta myle”
In the 6+ years of building this project this is the question we have gotten more than any other, sometimes it was asked in a less ghetto fashion, but the fact remaind that people wanted to know how fast the car could cover 1320'. While we at MotoIQ firmly believe that ¼ mile times are not indicative of a cars performance we thought it was time to prep the car and appease the masses. So if you’re curious as to what project 200SX ran at the strip read on, if your satisfied that this project reliably makes over 250 WHP and still maintains factory like drivability then don’t bother continuing.
First and foremost I am not a drag racer. I have limited drag racing experience and honestly I prefer hot lapping and auto crossing. Thus, with this car and these conditions these are the times that we were able to achieve. While we are pleased with these results others may duplicate our setup and run faster or slower times, so this is not the “be all end all”of GA16 ¼ mile performance. Because ¼ times vary greatly based on weather conditions, track surface, car setup, and most importantly driver ability, turbo GA16 owners can and probably will achieve different (read: better or worse)results. So please, take them for what they are………
With that out of the way let’s talk about car prep. Given that we normally autocross and hot lap this project we knew we would have to approach things differently to hit the drag strip. For one our normal aggressive alignment and Kumho R compound tires would not be well suited for launching a FWD car at this power level. Thus we decided that we should approach this the same way we approached all other details of this project, the right way. For this we acquired a set of Axis VPD drag wheels, measuring in at 13 x 7.5 and being light weight they were perfect for mounting up a set of Mickey Thompson 24.5 x 9 x 13 drag slicks. In order for these slicks to clear the NX2000 brakes you must also use a set of spacers. In order to safely use the spacers we called up Greg Vogel from Mossy Nissan and ordered a set of Nismo 60MM extended wheel studs. We also dialed the car back to zero toe and restored the camber to zero. With those parts sourced and the car aligned it was time for the test fit as we didn’t want any surprises at the track. With the spacers and wheel studs everything fit perfectly. The huge slicks barely cleared the struts but everything else was perfect. So we ripped them off the car and loaded them up for the drive to the drag strip.
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| Suddenly this little GA16 looks like it means business! |
The thought of launching on slicks was scary, I personally have never drag raced on slicks before and honestly had never done a proper burnout…. Thus this would be a crash course and we would either “go fast or suck” or worse “go fast and break”. At the track we teched the car and unloaded all our gear. We mounted up the slicks, checked tire pressures, and it was time. We can’t forget to add that we had to bring our helmet as anyone running a 13.99 or faster must be wearing one. With our helmet secured and car squared away I got into the staging lanes to wait my turn. While waiting in line I was getting anxious, thoughts of SE-R owners and broken trannies were coming to mind. Again feeling like the guinea pig I was ready to go.
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| Project 200SX awaits it's turn to do a proper burnout… |
