We found this S13 for cheap on Craigslist with a rust free and relatively undamaged body, which was the most important thing when planning to build a race car like this. Not only was it cheap, the original single cam KA24E motor fires right up and runs better than it looks. The clutch was weak but would drive, it needs some suspension repairs from hitting a curb, and the interior is a bit rough, but keeping the stock parts there was never part of the plan anyway.

It sat out behind our shop just where you see it above for about a year as other projects took precedence.  We just dug it out recently.

 

Since it’s got a reasonably healthy motor, our first order of business was to throw it on the dyno and use the car for DIYPNP R&D and documentation for end users to follow when building out their DIYPNP ECUs for similar cars. We did that, and the car worked great for that, though the clutch started to give up the ghost when we were beating on it on the dyno.