Find out the latest on our Land Speed Racing adventures at the Ohio Mile and the Bonneville Salt Flats!
Why Land Speed Racing? And how did we pick the Nissan 240sx?
Since 2006 I’ve been to Speedweek on the Bonneville Salt Flats every years sans one. Each year I’ve (Jerry Hoffmann) gone out there I’ve come back with just a little bit worse case of ‘salt fever’. It’s a unique style of racing and an even more unique place to do it, there’s just really nothing else quite like it. Crewing for Gary Hart (241mph record) and the Collison brothers (multiple ~150mph records), later on for Lee Sicilio (273mph record) as well as helping out where needed on other efforts when we ran into customers or others that needed a hand was fun and a great learning experience, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough in the long run. After coming back from Bonneville in 2010, we went looking for a starting point for a Land Speed Racing project car of our own. The first step was to sit down and calculate what would make a good car for top speed racing looking only at the numbers. We built out a spreadsheet with all of the top candidates, noting their Drag Coefficient and Frontal Area. After running the numbers, the first generation (S13) 240SX fastback is where we landed. It has a great combination of small frontal area, low drag coefficient, rear wheel drive, and a roomy enough engine compartment for a wide variety of engine options. Not to mention they’re readily available and affordable.
Current Car Specifications
Last Updated 7-15-2014
Purpose
Designed specifically for racing at SCTA Land Speed Racing events (Bonneville) and tweaked to run at ECTA Events and similar. This is very different from most any other type of racing, even the concrete tracks are unprepped and no burnouts are allowed, and car weights are typically much higher than anything you’d ever build for drag racing. Typically we’re launching on about 5 feet of unpainted concrete before we hit paint for 20 or 30 feet making high power launches a real challenge in a fight for traction. Race weight is 4100lbs with driver. Some of the faster cars are up in the 6000lb+ range at Bonneville!
Class
F / Blown Gas Coupe (F/BGC)
F Motor = 2.0-3.0 liters (We’re right at 2997cc, just at the top of the engine class)
Blown = Supercharged or Turbocharged (turbo in our case)
Gas = Runs event spec race gasoline and no nitrous. Fuel is VP C16 at ECTA Events and ERC A8D at SCTA Events.
Coupe = Production 4-seat body aerodynamically stone stock with only a few minor tweaks allowed (mirror and wiper delete, air dam added)
Though the car was built for F/BGC, it has proven to be very capable of jumping around into different classes and currently holds pretty much a whole page full of records in Ohio due to this. We’re been able to run in BGC, BGALT and BFALT so far — currently holding records in multiple engine classes in each. In the future it’s likely we’re run the car in Comp Coupe as well.
Chassis
- 1991 Nissan 240sx body with custom 4-link and insane roll cage. (How many points does our roll cage have you ask? All of them.)
- Car weight with driver: 4100lbs
Engine
- Toyota 2JZ-GE head on a 2JZ-GTE block (same block, GTE has oil squirters though)
- Ported head, GSC S2 Cams, Swift Racing Intake, lightweight valvetrain, Manley TurboTuff Rods and Mahle Pistons
- PowerHouse Racing/Dailey Engineering Dry Sump system for the 2JZ engine.
- Turbonetics Mid-Frame 79mm Ball Bearing Turbo. Oil Cooled. 30-32 psi boost
Fuel System
- Aeromotive 11104 Eliminator fuel pump
- Aeromotive 13110 Pro Series fuel pressure regulator
- Aeromotive 12302 filter element
- 12301 fuel filters
- 6 x 1200 cc/min injectors
Engine Management / Electronics
- MS3Pro Fuel and Ignition Control
- 6 x IGN 1A Ignition Coils
- DIYAutoTune.com boost control solenoid
- DIYAutoTune.com 6 circuit switch panel
Transmission
- GForce GF4A Manual Transmission Dog/Straight cut gears
Rear End
- Chevy 10 bolt with spool. 2.73:1 gears.
Brakes
- DJ Safety Land Speed Parachute
- Wilwood Dynalites on the rear axle only. No front brakes.
Current Records Held as of September 2015
ECTA Ohio Mile:
Note: The letter(s) before the slash (/) indicate engine displacement allowed in the class. Our native class is F which is up to 3.0 liters or 183 ci. Anything above that is a record we hold in a larger engine displacement class, with a much smaller displacement engine. Including the AA/BGC record– which is an unlimited engine displacement class. And 3.0 liters holds it.
| Blown Gas Coupe | Blown Gas Altered Coupe | Blown Fuel Altered Coupe |
| AA/BGC – 217.3913 mph | ||
| A/BGC – 217.0767 mph | ||
| B/BGC – 215.4141 mph | ||
| C/BGC – 214.1837 mph | C/BFALT – 214.6946 mph | |
| D/BGC – 215.2080 mph | D/BGALT – 214.5923 mph | |
| E/BGC – 216.9720 mph | E/BGALT – 210.9705 mph | E/BFALT – 211.7647 mph |
| F/BGC – 210.5756 mph | F/BGALT – 215.8273 mph | F/BFALT – 213.9800 mph |