Gearing Up to Shred 2012

The start of 2012 brought a lot of opportunity for the J1N team. We were building our already fantastic team even stronger. New partners have stepped up to really round out the team. We have 40Milimeter Tshits making up some team swag, AutoMeter keeping us informed while racing, Flex-a-Lite cooling us down, ASD locking up some rear tires, and then a few other suspension changes to use the ASD programs extensive knowledge to really get this car back in shape. For over a year we have been battling some steering gremlins. More on that later.























This season we wanted to fix a lot of wrongs with the car. We have been so limited by bad luck eating away at the budget, we haven’t been able to correct known issues. We started on the outside as you saw from our Performance Racing Industry Show recap where we debuted the 2012 S13.5 style. We had the outside pretty well done, but the interior, wiring, and suspension had not been addressed.


Starting off at All American Street Car Performance, John tore into her- cutting out the stock wiring and clearing the way for some custom setup. Shaun also supplied use with a fancy battery box so we can clean up the engine bay a little. While John was working on the wiring insanity, he had the idea of recovering our 20 year old, cracked dash. Just days later I saw my buddy’s, Jonathan Heinsen, dash that was covered and asked him how he did it. Hazel, my girlfriend and #1 supporter, took on the task as I have skills in craft work! She did an AMAZING job!

Once we received our Cobalt Blue AutoMeter gauges, John got to work on the dash panels and wiring. I must say, it is very hard to pick which I like better, the exterior or interior!























Also changing up the interior we changed out our handbrake for the glorious ASD Motorsports handle. Really looks great, and we were hoping with the correct sized slave cylinder, we would have a working handbrake again after 2 years!

Under the car we were working on some needs for setup and handling. Since we have swapped in the LS1 (2010), I have not been able to run a front sway bar due to clearance. In the rear we stayed stock. Knowing this could be the likely cause the car was so lazy, we picked up the front LS1 swap designed SIKKY sway bar, and a Progress rear bar. I’m excited to have these new tools at my disposal. We also took the opportunity to change our front lower control arms to some Circuit Sport adjustable ones. Out back we also got the Magnaflow mufflers installed to liven up the roar of the LS.
Improved Racing showed their multi-season support by hooking us up with a new style GTO pan that carries their redesigned and more efficient baffle kit! I have to say out of the various baffles I’ve seen people sell or install, Improved has the best looking and I truly believe the best functioning one. If there’s one thing I like, it’s keeping the oil where it should be!






















Extreme Dimensions hooked up the body kit so we could make the amazing transition to the s15 front, and NissanAutoSports.com brought it together with the front and rear lighting. One of the lights had been on delay for months, but it finally arrived and the car was FINALLY ready to be completed. Now, I’m not a body guy, but with some time, help from John, Hazel, a drill, sawzall, dremel, and some handy zipties, we got it looking pretty solid! Check out our next post to see the finished look!!
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