In this car life, it's almost guaranteed that the car brand you choose first becomes the team you bat for. If you've saved every picture of an AE86 and have fantasized about driving it down windy roads and calling yourself Fujiwara, then you'll find some way to get an AE86 in your possession. The car becomes your gun and you stick to it. In Andy Cheng's case, one might assume his loyalty to Nissan has been years in the making; you'd probably never guess that he once preached the Honda gospel. He's owned a Civic EG, an EK and a CRX with a B16, but sold every one of them and used the money he made to first pay off his tuition and then cross over to the Dark Side for a little rear-wheel driving pleasure.
There was no better time than the turn of the new millennium to seize the opportunity since 240's were still left untouched by mostly everyone. Andy wouldn't have to fork out much money either, to pick up his first Nissan, an S13 coupe that he dropped an SR20DET into. Shortly after he graduated from college, he found himself working for a company that could easily serve his horsepower needs-HKS became his home and his S13 became a test bed for many of the parts that HKS was starting to bring over as a result of the increasing popularity of the 240. He wound up selling the S13 soon after for a newer S14, taking his SR20 addiction to new heights.
Once the S14 was his, Andy went for a clean approach, although we think he's being too modest when he says "it's not that crazy of a car." Each mod and the time spent to tune them focused on producing a nice, linear torque curve. The previous owner had installed a S14 SR20DET Kouki motor, so he pulled the cylinder head and prepped it with HKS' Step 2 head components, which includes valve springs, rocker arms and retainers. He then installed HKS rocker arm stoppers and the 264-duration camshafts before putting it back onto the block. Combined with the GT2835R HKS turbo and increased boost, he was able to pull another 70 hp and 53 lb-ft, adding improvements to the curve overall. A 1.2mm head gasket drops the compression of the motor, making it a safer platform to boost with, and the 740cc injectors feed it the much needed fuel in order to operate efficiently. The exhaust is a combination of off-the-shelf HKS parts and some pieces you'll never be able to order unless you have mad flow to drop, namely a Limited Edition Dragger exhaust, downpipe and Racing Metal Catalyzer.