You’ve probably seen loads of photos and videos of Alex Law’s S14a by now, quite probably on this website or my Instagram or Facebook pages. Nobody’s ever really done a more technical feature on it though and, with so many people asking questions about the car, I thought I’d post some more detailed pictures. I took these at Drift Bash Party 3 in France a few months ago but the spec hasn’t changed much since.
There’s no harm in starting with the visuals before getting to the nitty gritty stuff though. Vertex bumpers and side skirts feature all round, although these will soon be replaced by D-Max items.
The front wings are +50mm items, trimmed for additional clearance so the 18×10.5-23 WORK VS-XXs can reach full lock without catching.
The rear overfenders are technically +50mm, although they’ve been heavily pinched to widen them much further so they can accommodate the 18×11-25 WORK VS-XXs and 255/35/18 tyres.
The Lambo Door kit was a random eBay find that was modified to fit. The doors do open regularly as well, should you wish to get out of the car in an area where the locals wouldn’t take too kindly to doors opening upwards.
Time to move onto the suspension setup and Driftworks CS2 coilovers and Geomaster knuckles feature all round.
Japspeed front lower arms and rear alignment arms take care of the other areas, while the subframe is solid mounted to the chassis to prevent any unnecessary movement. The rear brakes are Z32 items mated to the hydraulic handbrake setup.
Alignment settings aren’t compromised by the rear fitment – 1deg of camber is still achievable thanks to the forward thinking that went into choosing the wheel and tyre sizes, along with the pinching of the overfenders. This allows for very decent wear across almost the entirety of the rear tyres, even on the super abrasive concrete surface that Drift Bash Party 3 was held on.
This impressed Maxime somewhat, it must be said.
There was no chance that an off-the-shelf exhaust system was going to be tucked high enough to give sufficient ground clearance, so Craig from Top Gear in Stockport fabricated the complete system from the turbo-back. As you can see in the photo below, it sits right up against the subframe and is no longer the lowest part of the car.
Craig was also responsible for the rest of the custom pipework on the car, including the high mount intercooler piping and the intake setup. Note also where the power steering tank has been relocated to due to a lack of space elsewhere thanks to the massive tubbed inner arches.
The engine setup is fairly straightforward and effective compared to many tuned SR20s: forged pistons and rods are joined by an aftermarket head gasket, ARP studs and 740cc injectors. The head remains stock. The rocker cover was painted by Adam Maciejewski from RetroShine.
The turbo is an HTA3073RS unit from Owen Developments – if I remember rightly this setup is producing around 420whp at 1.4bar. Note also the twin screamer pipe, another part of Craig Baxter’s awesome fabrication work.
An oil cooler tucked away in front of the intercooler core helps to keep temperatures down.
Aside from the BDC-spec roll cage and usual interior additions such as a deep dish steering wheel, hydraulic handbrake and various gauges peppering the interior, that’s about it for Alex’s S14a.
It’s by no means the most mind-blowing car in the BDC paddock from an engineering perspective but what you can’t see is the countless of hours that have been spent ensuring it makes the best visual statement possible while being drivable. It’s also driven on the road at this height with no real issues, which is a testament to the hard work that’s gone on behind the scenes (especially if you’re familiar with the state of the roads here in the UK).
This car wasn’t built to win competitions around the world by drifting as fast as possible while creating ridiculous amounts of smoke with ridiculous amounts of steering lock. It was built to look cool while going sideways and, if that doesn’t make sense to you, then please give this video of D1 OG Mitsuri Haraguchi of 326 Power fame drifting his infamous FC3S at Nikko circuit a watch.
If it still doesn’t make sense to you then that’s fine – everyone is always welcome to their own opinion, just please try to appreciate the route Alex has taken with his S14a while forming your own.
And if you hadn’t seen it already, here’s some on-board and exterior footage of Alex drifting at Drift Bash Party 3 during the summer. Enjoy!