It's not often you get to be surprised by whats under the hood of a Nissan S chassis. You typically find SR's, RB's, and 2JZ's to the point where it's becoming rare to find one with the factory motor. The amount of engine bay space gives the owner the opportunity to go with a variety of engine choices. But how many have considered a F20C?
As I visited the home of Bryan Brouwer, one of the drivers from Curacao, I was distracted by a S14 with a "Powered by Honda" sticker sitting at the back of the workshop. Seeing it instantly spiked my curiosity as to why this vehicle had the sticker to begin with and going around to the front I gazed upon the familiar valve cover design of the F20C. Now of course at this point I was saying to myself, "Oh crap" because I knew once I tell this story back home, people were going to be flipping out about it. So I made it my mission to find out what would compel the owner to go with this engine.
First and foremost he's a Honda guy. Meaning he's highly experienced in working with their motors after years of racing them. When it came time to get into drifting, he would ask his friends which vehicle would be the best to use for drifting. The general consensus led him to purchase a Nissan S14 shell. Debating on what engine to go with, he decided to go with what he knew best which was a Honda motor. He decided to go against a Nissan motor because he felt they weren't reliable enough. Time and time again he would witness engine failures from his friends running Nissan motors and he just didn't want to deal with the headache of going through motors. Knowing how reliable Honda motors typically tended to be, he did his research and went with the F20C. Basically he tried putting together the best of both worlds by going with the motor he felt was the most reliable into the chassis he felt was the best to use for drifting.
Obviously at this point you must be saying, "That's shenanigans!" in regards to his statement regarding the reliability of Nissan motors, but he may be onto something. How often do you hear Nissan engines failing? Compare that to the number of times you hear Honda motors failing. Do rocker arms, oil starvation, or bearings ring a bell? Here's another example, when was the last time you heard of Bert's car having an engine failure? This entire encounter made me think back to Bert, who we all know makes use of all 9000 available RPM's, and how reliable his motor has been up to this point, even after all the abuse he's put it through.
At the same time you could argue if he wanted reliability, he could swap a motor from different manufacturer. True but if you already know which motors are reliable enough for the application you'll be using it for, why not go for that instead of a motor you've only heard about and not personally tested it's limits. Plus after years of dealing with Honda motors, I'm sure he has connections and access to parts that he wouldn't be able to get otherwise.
So why did I write this? What's the point I'm trying to make here? To introduce the idea of giving the F20C a second look when considering engine swap choices. With SR20's becoming harder to come by, drivers will be forced to look at other engine alternatives if they're looking to stay with a 4-cylinder. Or in most cases settle upon upgrading to an inline-6 or V8 when left with no choice. Going with an uncommon engine gets people to talk and check out the vehicle in question, which of course sponsors like that. And at times it's just easier and convenient to work on something you're familiar with because in the end you want to minimize downtime as much as possible. You shouldn't be afraid to go against the norm, people like gsracer is such an example by helping to create a following of individuals swapping in Q45 motors when they were never considered before.
And in case you're wondering how Bryan did at the event, he made it through the night as he continuously bounced off the rev limiter throughout the event. Some of his friends with Nissan motors on the other hand experienced engine issues, causing them to drop out from the competition. I know of a certain AE86 owner who has gone through a similar experience.
Update: As requested, here is some video of it running
[ame]http://youtu.be/TgB1S5CVmM8[/ame]
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