There are some things in life that I will never understand. No matter how many books I read or museums I visit or hours of TLC I watch, I find myself staring the same nagging mysteries again and again--like a fly into a window--never with an answer nor an iota of insight.
Why do L.A. drivers instinctually freeze with unbridled alarm at the very sight of descending droplets of water? Why isn’t shoe size measured in inches? And why does a name like Smuckers mean it has to be good?
Useless stuff? Worthless thoughts? Or perhaps just the uncontrollable wanderings of an under-used mind. Whatever the label, Nissan contributed to this vexing list when it chose to offer a turbocharged version of the revamped 240SX in Japan and Europe but not in the U.S. Voilà, another superfluous inquiry stamped and delivered first-class to the frontal lobe of my cerebral cortex. Offering it in Japan I can understand. But Europe? To think that some wine-loving, cheese-eating, cafe-socialist rat-bastard Pierre is flaunting his red turbo 240 down the Champs Elysèes, seducing Eurail-bound American coeds by the busloads burns me with the white hot passion of ten thousand suns.
Visions of flirting Frenchmen may not have been in the minds of the engineers down at HKS, but they were clearly perturbed enough by Nissan’s cold-shoulder to the American market to build a turbo 240 almost exclusively out of HKS parts and accessories, with the spotlight on their GT 2540 turbo. And when all was said and done, HKS wound up with a car shooting 250 hp at 5,250 rpm, which not only surpasses but crushes Nissan’s factory turbocharged engine output, a sputtering 200-plus.
HKS started out with a stock 1997 Nissan 240SX LE and fitted it with its very own GT Ball Bearing Turbo, which, quite simply, rocks. Scary as it might sound, the car doesn’t hit its comfort zone till the speed needle pushes 85 mph (Not that any of us drove it that fast. That would be illegal.--MP). Cruising at that pace, the car just glides, with only a dampened rumble from the engine as it pleads for more. And getting to the right side of the dial is just as fun as staying there. Popping the Centerforce clutch through the low gears, pushing the rpm meter through easy 5,000s, whispered whooshes from the HKS sequential blowoff valve.
Though the turbo unit relishes a better part of the glory, without the other engine mods--HKS Super Mega Flow intake, Dual Drager exhaust, and F35I plugs, as well as Goodridge USA hoses, plumbing, and fittings--this kind of performance would be as impossible as scaling Everest with a spool of thread. In April, tech god Romans (Shh! You’ll scare off the readers saying stuff like that!--BR) said in our evaluation of the 240SX SE that he would’ve been happier with another 50 hp tacked onto the stock 155hp engine. Well, HKS provides all that and a bag of chips, and guess who’s doing baby cartwheels around the office.
But HKS designed this car for more than just speed. Whipping through the wiry canyon trails of Mulholland Drive overlooking Los Angeles, the HKS wheels (18x8 in front, 18x9 in back) and Yokohama AVS S-1 tires (245/40ZR18 and 265/35ZR18 respectively) screech a little, but never give. Road moves through the rubber into HKS HiPer Damper coilover shocks, controlled further by Nissan Motorsports bushings, strut bar, and antisway bar.
External modifications were kept to a minimum save for tinted windows, Modern Image graphics, a spoiler by Wings West, and an altered front bumper to reveal the HKS intercooler. Inside, however, is a different matter altogether. HKS distinguishes the car from gray market turbo 240s with gadgets and gauges--five dials, EVC IV, VPC, and turbo timer--all fitted neatly into a custom dash unit in place of the stereo. Sitting on the San Diego Freeway southbound to Long Beach, California, on my way back to HKS, with the grime of fumes from stop-and-go traffic (in which the Stillen/Brembo brakes saw their fair share of work) and the late-afternoon sun striking my forehead with the searing intensity of a focused laser, I found myself yearning for a song to assuage my deteriorating condition. Fiddling with the gauges didn’t help, but then again, HKS didn’t design this car for traffic jams. It was built for Montana.
For 25 years, HKS has been perfecting aftermarket parts and accessories, and its expertise shines in this turbo 240SX, finally giving the U.S. market what the Japanese and Europeans already enjoy. And though my mind still churns overtime, pondering unponderables, at least HKS has lessened some of the aggravation. If only someone could tell me why Rice-a-Roni is the San Francisco treat.