The state Arizona hosts a large population of Nissan 240SX’s. It is really not uncommon to come across one buzzing around on your short commute to function. Florida transplant, Dan Marino-I mean Doug Maiorino-has built one of the most unique Nissan 240’s Arizona has ever seen. This took a lot of motivation, money and time and dedication. Doug has come a long way from doing donuts behind his old high school with his classmates.
And taught him the ropes around cars before he died in 2004, doug’s father was really a gearhead as well. A few years later, when Doug was 14, The Fast as well as the Furious: Tokyo Drift came out. With all of the hype around drifting at the time, Doug wanted one thing: to drift. Even though the drift scene wasn’t very popular in Florida at that time, his mind was set on drifting. Moving to Arizona just a year later really fueled his desire for cars and drifting. The drift scene in Arizona was huge at the time compared to Florida. Doug would watch videos and play Xbox to get his drifting fix, since he did not have a car or a license yet. He would pick up magazines, like Import Tuner, to keep up of what everyone was building and to stay motivated to attainBecoming Reality
He already had a build plan under consideration, by the time Doug bought his first 240. Shortlyafter and though, he caught a VIP-style bug and sold them back for a Q45. It didn’t take long for him to appreciate it wasn’t what he wanted, so he off-loaded the Q45 and bought the 240SX that is currently gracing these pages. Doug, being 18 with his first real develop the horizon, wanted to honor his father who was always a big impact on him. Getting the voice of his father in the back of his head, he knew he couldn’t let him down. After receiving a make sure that was left to him after his father died, Doug chose to build the vehicle in his honor.
Not wanting to blend in with all the masses of overdone styling, Doug took a sleek and simple strategy to the body. Drawing inspiration from some of the guys from Risky Devil as well as the older Japanese drift cars, Doug tailored the rear end of his car with Kouki-style taillights, a Type X rear wing, and BMagic 50mm over-fenders, in the mean time tucking 18×10.5 Weds Kranze LXZ’s. Doug stuck with the stock metal fenders up front to suit the 18×9.5s instead of the typical fiberglass fenders; he didn’t want to destroy them while tucking the front tire since he drives this car daily. To keep with all the simple and sleek look, Doug fitted the vehicle with a Supermade Instant Gentleman body kit. From there the automobile was finished off with Dark Driftwood Metallic paint.
If you notice the car you believe style, but what is style on a car without power? The initial choice in relation to an engine swap will be the ever-popular 1JZ. Instead, being the thug that he is, Doug chose to stay in gangsta paradise and go with the SR20DET. Realizing that a stock SR20DET swap is just plain boring, Doug opted to upgrade the tiny-time turbo to your slightly bigger GT28R. This required plenty of extra cooling and fuel to hold the engine streetable. Doug added HKS injectors, a Walbro fuel pump, as well as an aluminum radiator to battle the Arizona heat wave. Doug still desired to keep the engine bay looking flossy, so he took the car to SPS Autosport to have a custom wire harness tuck done while having an aluminum coolant overflow tank, Isis intake manifold, along with a FMIC setup installed. Together with the engine setup complete, Doug took the vehicle to Evan Smith at Es Tuned, where the PowerFC was used to tune the vehicleThrough the two-year build, Doug took an interest in the low car lifestyle. He was hanging out more and more with folks from the Oof! Crew and Street Sweeper Gang. Wanting to have the car as low as possible, he installed a set of coilovers, in addition to the necessary adjustable arms, to attain his desired ride height. After tucking the wheels into bed, Doug took a very Spartan approach to the interior. He planned to hit the real key points to generate a solid street/drift car with good feedback for the driver. With this in mind, he installed a Buddy Club racing seat and Nardi 350mm deep corn steering wheel. Even with the auto pretty much established to the way he envisioned, it still wasn’t done. By putting in a complete sound system with subwoofers-something he feels every true street car should have, doug necessary to add more style points. To Doug, he had built the ultimate car, and something that might also make his dad proud. Doug managed to separate himself in the pack of standard 240 project builds and still stay on track with his goals and dreams that he or she set so young in life. Even though the engine developed rod knock shortly after doing a John Force-sized burnout after the photo shoot, Doug wasted almost no time beginning the massive rebuild process. The car should be done and better than ever, by the time you read this.