The POS cage was ripped out, the car was spot-welded to reinforce the chassis, and tubs were made for the front to allow for extra steering angle-not to mention they just look rad. Master Shake, along with Brian Wilkerson of MA, built the S14 a NASCAR-style cage to fit Vaughn's buffness; the left-side door bars of the cage were built to go inside of the door "NASCAR style" so that Vaughn's arms would never hit them.
Once the chassis was prepped for its heart transplant, AHM Performance from Baltimore machined, balanced and assembled the fully built motor by using a Brian Crower 2.2 liter stroker kit including stage 2 cams, rods, crank, valves, valve springs and retainers. The MA-Motorsport's solid lash kit deleted the troublesome factory hydraulic lifters and allowed the car to rev to over 9500 rpm. This S14 has probably the only real JUN intake manifold that has ever been seen in America. For those of you who know what JUN is, I'm sure you've got yourself a little chubby right now. For the transmission, Vaughn decided to go with a MAZWORX 300ZX Z32 gearbox conversion. For those hard yet smooth engaging shifts, an Exedy twin-disk carbon clutch was used to give a bit of slip and keep the transmission from exploding every time he banged a gear-is it just me, or is it getting hot it here?
Bringing this stunning S14 some serious pep to its step is the Bullseye Power S256 turbo with extended tip technology-bringing a whole new meaning to "just the tip." This powerful turbo sits on a top-mount Full-Race turbo manifold. The sweet sound that makes the panties drop is made via a Turbo Smart BOV accompanied by a Turbo Smart wastegate. Controlling the boost of this monster is a WORLD Electronics TBC-1 touchscreen boost controller. "Besides the American flag on the valve cover, my favorite part of this car has to be the radiator support-it was handmade by Brian of MA," Vaughn said. "He probably spent six hours making it. It's a beautiful piece that you definitely won't see anywhere else."
In the trunk there is a fuel swirl pot so that the car never starves for fuel-in drifting, this is very important. The low-pressure Bosch fuel pump feeds the flux capacitor, which feeds another Bosch high pressure pump, filling the MA-Motorsports custom fuel rail, providing plenty of C16 for this monster to devour. The S14 is equipped with both a Setrab oil cooler and power steering cooler. The custom radiator and intercooler setup was made by Griffin. Basically, the intercooler wraps around the radiator to ensure first that the short pipes stay straight, never blowing off; second, it allows the intercooler to be moved back in case Vaughn decides to give his tandem buddies a lil' love tap.
To help Vaughn's American dream car stop on the track, he's using Rotora six-piston brakes in the front and has a 300ZX brake conversion in the back. Vaughn opted for AME wheels, 18x10 rear, 18x9 front. The centers are powder-coated candy apple chrome. Ready to be destroyed by the clutch-kicking foot of Vaughn are the RT615 Falken Tires. The sweet red, white and blue graphics were made by Speeddesign Custom Graphics. The trunk, hood and doors are all Seibon carbon fiber and the internal door skins are Origin carbon door panels. "When I was in the shop cutting the door panels with the bandsaw to fit around the cage, there was a kid in the shop that just couldn't believe we were cutting these door panels in half," says Vaughn. "Those are the kinds of things you have to do when you're drifting-it's not a show car!"All the aluminum on the interior, dash and casings were handmade by Ben Freed of MA-Motorsports. The gauges are all Autometer and the steering wheel is from Sparco. Hugging Vaughn's thighs like Chris Forsberg's tight pants is a set of Buddy Club P1 racing Special Edition Racing seats.