The Fun to Drive 4 Door Economy Car
I started with a 1998 Nissan Sentra SE which I purchased new. It was cheap, fun to drive and handled pretty well off the showroom floor. Deciding this was a good starting point, I went forward to try to make the car a better performer. After a bit of work, it turned out rather nicely.
1998 Nissan Sentra Driving Impressions
With its 2.0-liter engine, the Sentra SE offers sporty performance for a compact sedan. You may not win too many drag races, but it's a lot of fun to drive, particularly on a winding road.
How do you make a Sentra go faster?
Well, you rip out the stock motor and drop in a JDM 2.0 litre turbo motor.
The turbocharged and inter-cooled SR20DET engine block produces an extra 67 bhp and 80 ft-lb of torque than the puny 140 bhp and 130 ft-lb of torque the car had in factory trim. Designed from the same basic casting as the stock 2.0 litre in the car, the SR20DET bolted up to the transmission and motor mounts with no fuss. The extra power definitely made the car fun to drive but I needed to balance it out because keeping it on the road while driving it hard became a chore. My friend Matt described it as being stupidly awesome to drive
How do you keep all that power from getting away from you?
Well you need to do a couple of things.
- You need a larger set of brakes.
- This is the most important thing by far because obviously the brakes stop you when you need to slow down.
- The faster you make your car go, the faster you will need it to stop and at a certain point the stock brakes just don't cut it any more.
- You need a good suspension.
- It will keep your tires and your car on the ground when you're zooming around corners.
- Keeping your tires on the ground while navigating a road will help your brakes stop the car when you need to slow down.
Let's start with explaining the brakes.
Luckily the Sentra has a cousin in the US that came with a bigger set of brakes. The Nissan NX2000 was a small sports car produced in the early 1990's. The calipers and rotors it came with supply approximately 35% more clamping force than the stock Sentra brakes. That and the ability to bolt onto the Sentra with no modification make these a great, cheap upgrade.
Next, we have the suspension.
With the numerous possibilities out there, this can be the most confusing. To keep the car fun and drivable, there is one thing you need to remember. The shorter the spring, the less suspension travel you will have to soak up the bumps. So, even though the slammed look is cool, don't be tempted to do it. Especially with the Sentra, because it has limited suspension travel. What you want to do is find a higher tension spring with a limited drop then mate it to a strut with a good dampening rate. With the proper combination, you can get a set up that will ride as good as stock but be able to carve through the twisties with the best of them.
What do you have when you're done?
My Sentra set up accordingly was a fun car to drive and it would keep up with most of the high budget race-prepared cars in the local SCCA chapters for a fraction for the cost. On top of being fun and cheap, it was reliable and got great gas mileage. I do feel kind of bad because the Sentra, being so unassuming, caught most of the SCCA members and Ford Mustang owners off guard.