Great Cars Under $1000 – All-Star Profiles – Nissan 240sx

One of the most popular platforms in the tuning market. Whether you’re looking for road racing, autocross, drifting, dragging, or just plain fast, the Nissan 240sx is one of the best giant killers out there.

Introduced in 1989, the 240sx has everything a great sports car should have. Rear wheel drive, independent suspension, disc brakes and a lightweight chassis. Extremely popular in its native Japan, the 240sx has been well known to many for years as an ideal tuning platform. The main downside though, as seen by many, is that when it arrived on our shores in the US, Nissan loaded these cars with the KA24DE, which of course is a perfectly decent engine and has plenty of tuneability, but considering that in Japan they sold the much more popular and more powerful SR20DET, it’s hard not to feel like we’ve been cheated a bit.

Fortunately for us, though, one of the best parts of the 240sx and most Nissans is that they are incredibly good candidates for engine swaps. The most popular swap is the turbocharged SR20DET, but people are also cramming everything from Skyline engines to even Corvette LS1s. The 240sx is just one of those chassis that can not only handle the new power but also keep its great handling characteristics. Also because the 240sx is such a popular platform for tuning, there is basically an unlimited supply of parts, from mild mods to full lean race setups.

Tips for Buying One: The first generation cars will be the ones that will fall in the sub-$1000 price range and there are still plenty of unmodified cars to be found on the cheap. Keep in mind though, these cars are still sought after and a clean chassis will command a decent price. A good tip for those of you looking to trade is to find an unfinished project that someone else left to bite the dust. Doing this can save you a lot of cash on parts and maybe even give you a nice head start on getting the car where you want it to be faster. For those of you who have performance in mind, I would recommend staying away from convertible models as they tend to be much heavier and have less chassis rigidity.

So if you’re looking for your next tuner project, it’s hard to go wrong with a 240sx, no matter how many there are, you can always have a chance to customize it and have something that’s fun to drive and different.

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