s14a

His and her Nissan's. Not sure which one is which, but I have time to figure it out.

I was looking at r32 gtr's, but although much cheaper than one would be in the States, about 8kGBP (12kUSD), it's still a lot of money, and if I ever drive it in this country, the gtr's are VERY expensive to insure. Quotes upwards of 5kGBP yearly were normal with the godzilla engine under the hood.

Scaling back, but not far enough, fresh s15's are easily found unloading from import by a number of companies. These actually cost more than the used r32's that have been in the country for a while, or even the ones on the same boat as it turns out. Between how MOT/Tax regulations have molded the car market in this country, and the crazy exchange rates, newer is viewed as much better, and thus more expensive than the used car segments. It's as if there is NO do-it-yourself mindset in this country at all. I realize there's many in the magazines I've been reading to get my car fix, but outside of that, nothing.

Yearly MOT/Tax comes around and everyone brings their car. MOT includes not only emissions, but inspections. This includes everything under the sun, from minimum tire depth, to seat belts not retracting, to rust spots, to worn suspension bushes, serpentine belts making those funny noises, and low wiper fluids. Certain things are recommended to take care of, others are required to pass. MOT centers will run the test, fail you, call to let you know of your dirty air filter that passed emissions, but not inspections, and finally let you know how much it will cost for them to fix it. You have 7 days for a free retest at the same location, and depending how close you are to your MOT date, this removes most DIY intention.

If you are still allowed to drive the car, in theory you could take it to another shop for cheaper parts, but I think all the shops are on the same network and know better than most what the going rates are for service. They would charge you again for their own MOT test, negating potential savings, but also risking new failures, adding to the cost. Unless you can get parts at wholesale and are doing the work yourself in your non-existent garage with non-existent tools and know-how, which would make you an owner of your own MOT center, it isn't worth it.

The prices are just below the limit that would tip the scales between effort and cost outside the MOT centers, and the UK mindset of paying the "expert" is engrained from the very top. All maintenance items that don't cause the car to stop rolling down the road are taken care of by the MOT centers, giving the car another year on its life lease. Eventually these yearly MOT costs are high enough that it's cheaper for the owner to buy a new car and start again, propagating the mindset of new is better all over again.

This started because my wagon in the States needs an engine. I was considering a local ka24 or some variant of sr, whether it be a DET, DE, or Autech. I came to the conclusion that most small displacement non-turbo engines are too underpowered. It takes so much more dollar per hp, or quid per pferdestärke, to get good results from these that it's just not worth it. The right engine was also based on the fact I didn't want the wagon to be a racecar, I already have one of those projects. These Nissan engines simply bolt in, so it's quick and easy as far as swaps go. The engine compartment of the wagon is small, fitting at most 4 cylinders length wise. A larger v6 might work nicely assuming it fits width wise, with a v8 sitting on the other end of the spectrum, but again, not racecar.

I decided on an sr20det, and since I'm already in the UK, I started looking into s14's with this engine standard. Depending on cost of shipping, it may work out, get the engine I want with the ability to actually test drive it in the actual car it came in. This would completely eliminating the risk of not getting everything needed for the swap when ordering a motorset. It's even better than ordering a half cut, which can run pricey especially when considering shipping.

I was looking for another stock 200sx, this time with an sr20, but rightfully so, it seems more of these are modified. If it wasn't oem, the changes needed to be correct, on a clean chassis. To be honest, I never researched all the differences of s14 variants in the jdm v domestic v uk markets. S14's in the States didn't usually do it for me, although every now and then I would spot one that was slightly different I liked, making me wonder.

I quickly came to the personal conclusion that the kouki facelift makes the s14 look completely different, in a great way. A quick search will show the differences between headlights, taillights, fenders, bumpers, and hoods between the later models and the earlier zenki. UK classifies this model distinction simply by s14 and s14a.

Another issue about classifieds in the UK to overcome are distances between sales. Imports can be few and far between, quality is of high concern with used cars, and most classified services cater to the entire UK. There might be a great car for sale in Edinburgh, but who wants to take a 7 hour drive to get there, not to mention getting everyone home.

I found this recently listed s14a, located diagonally 3o minutes from work and home, in what looked to be a house on a farm at the end of a street of town-homes. The owner's son apparently had several cars and was looking to consolidate, so all were for sale, luckily the kouki didn't have stickers, as the other cars were more modified than I would like in this case, moreover not Nissan, rear wheel drive, or awesome.

Back to the s14a...

There was a little negotiation on price, and a test drive later, handshakes were made. More importantly, they agreed to hand deliver the car to my flat in London, solving many logistical issues I would otherwise have. All this was during a heck-tick travel season at work, so I wired over a deposit that night, probably more trusting than I should. The owner needed time to transfer the private reg over, which included several steps from applying to the DVLA for removal, to adding back on the original numbers that came with the car, and picking up new plates at Halfords.Yes, they print plates at the local auto parts store after presenting the proper ownership documents.

Next lesson about the UK, registration follows the car, not the person, so if and when you sell or buy a car, the plates, otherwise known as the reg number, goes with the car and is transferred to the new owner. The same number stays with the car throughout it's life, unless the owner buys a private reg and goes through the process of re-registering it. Private registrations are so expensive though that this wouldn't normally be transferred to the new buyer.

As a side note, you can tell what year the car is in this country and what location it was originally sold by the registration number, which is much more useful than the 1oo % random numbers you get stateside.

Carbon trunk, tinted tail lights, real hid's, paint matched bonnet, big strut bars, adjustable shocks, coils, and suspension arms with spares, similar rota grid's I have on the 24o z back home, clean body and full oem leather interior, power everything, fmic with pipe work and full exhaust, standard engine, chipped and tuned ecu pushing 1.2 bar, no crazy gauges, wings, or bodykits, delivered to my door. That and I really like the sparco wheel and bride seat.

There is a mild stretch on the tires, but nothing too drastic and fits the body lines well. The camber and height settings are normal, not that couldn't be reset easily with all the adjustable bits underneith, but just something else not to worry about. It also gives me a warm fuzzy about the previous owners and how the car was raised.

s13

I realized I never posted the ad captures from my s13, a purchase that almost didn't happen. In trying to sift thru old emails, I found a 27 message long conversation re this car specifically, and that wasn't even the only one. At the time I was still living in the states, didn't even have a UK address, not to mention bank account. This proved to make things difficult on multiple levels.

The seller was amazing though, negotiated on the price, and was upfront about condition, even trying to fix the faulty speedometer that all s13's seem to be plagued with. Something interesting about the UK is that you must have insurance on a car before driving her home, in order to do this I would need an address, in order to get an address, not to mention the whole flat-hunting bit, I would need a bank account, and in order to get a bank account, I would need financial letters of intent from work, along with countless other forms of identification. The funny part of all that was ultimately, I needed an address to get the bank account as well, which creates an interesting catch 22 for someone trying to move to the UK.

I was trying to get at least one thing settled before I arrived to check things off my growing move list, lists growing do seem to be a personal problem of mine, but also so that I would not have to deal with having to find my way around and commute to work without a car in the interim. Having asked around, it turned out most people in the UK with cars bought them new, or at the very lease from a dealer. The secondhand market almost seemed taboo. On top of all this, since there are so many cameras checking everything from mot to tax to insurance on any reg that drives by, you simply have to have insurance. In the States, especially with a private sale, this isn't necessarily the case on the day you buy it and drive home.

Back on track, after yet another long email chain, this time with a friend at work, I was able to get bank details and transfer/convert USD in my account into GBP in his. After a few miscommunications on the other side of the pond between seller and buyer-DE-facto, I finally arranged for the seller to deliver it to a neutral location, the shop at which I was to be working in 2 months time.

My friend isn't exactly a car guy, but one of the work-leaders on the floor was the owner of his own hand-built Caterham. After doing my best to facilitate, everything finally came together, the s13 being delivered from 2 hours away by the owner caravanning with a second car, meeting, and this is important, someone with money and preferably someone to inspect. My friend delivered the quids, unquestioningly accepting that yes, it was a red car. Meanwhile yes, the work-leader quickly jumped in the car taking it for a spin around some traffic furniture and roundabouts, noting will need new tires/pads eventually, but solid car. And yes, the speedo doesn't work. Reg signed over by my friend, my home address being that of the shop, paperwork immediately mailed off by the now previous owner, and the s13 was pulled into the shop's gate to await for my arrival, keys in the work-leaders desk.

MOT was good for a few months, but due to several transatlantic flights, I almost got in trouble with SORN and a lapse in tax. As I would now expect in the UK, the tax, MOT, and insurance systems are all connected and automatic. A car must have all three to drive around and not be a rolling impound time-bomb. One can get away without insurance if the car is simply parked, but it must be parked off the street so that an auto-scanner on a police car doesn't pick it up. MOT is similar to insurance, in that the tires must not be on a public road or anywhere near any type of camera, or potential mobile camera, unless it's valid.

If taxes lapse, however, you have an undetermined amount of time to reinstate it, risking serious daily fines. The system assumes that since you have a reg you are driving. I called the UK DVLA and asked how long I had to tax the car under my name, as it would take approximately a week for me to simply get the new title in my name back via royal mail. It is up to the previous owner to send this off, otherwise he will continuously be billed the tax. Connecticut could learn a thing or two from this system, or just do it the way everyone else does in the States, instead of using all the negatives of each method. Since all the systems are connected though, the DVLA knows when they issue the transfer, letting the tax department know I now am responsible. Nowhere online, or on the phone, or in person for that matter, would anyone give me a date, or even an estimation of how long it took for these organizations to talk to each other and potentially send me a fine for not paying tax.

This mattered because I wasn't even located in the UK, yet owned a car without insurance, and the ownership documents were still in the mail quickly approaching the reg tax date. SORN declaration would be an option once the receptionist checked the mail at the shop, but this would take some fantastic facilitating. This would inform the DVLA that the car is not on the road, but the overlap after the tax was due and when I would be back in the country was so small that I did not want to go through the pain of turning in the plates, and then having to register everything upon my return, presumably they would take the registration and you wouldn't have to pay road tax for this period. Road tax, by the way, is actually based on engine size and emissions, not value as in the States.

I taxed the car three weeks late, and upon my arrival was warned by the old English lady behind the counter that I may have a ticket in the mail, but since nobody knew what triggered this, or more importantly when, I simply had to keep my eyes open. Nothing came.

The rear wing will need to be removed and ultimately replaced or left off. The boot lid will need to be cleaned, and some body work will be needed around the registration light fixture. Other than these areas, and regular maintenance items, the car is very solid and well worth the effort for someone who has never owned an s13. I am beginning to think the dash is crack free because the amount of rain this country see's, but I'm happy nonetheless.

My first ride in an SX was with a good friend, doing 36o's on a 3+lane wide dirt road in college. Over 1o years, countless moves and a country in between, I own my own, true unmodified rhd cadet engine manual trans, 2oo.