[Yuri]

Since there seems to be some interest in the golden era of Zilvia, I'll share some of my recollections of what it was like having a built 240 and being active in the SoCal drift scene back around 2003-2007.

PART1:
The cars: At that time, the ways cars were built was quite a bit different than today. Regardless of the part used, it tended to be a quality piece, either imported from Japan, or made by a reputable machine shop in the area. There simply were no cheap knock-off companies that built low-quality parts for our cars. Parts were made by Tein, Cusco, Blitz, HKS, Tanabe, Bride, Personal, Momo, etc, and people saved for a while to drop a chunk of change on them. Occasionally you could find used parts, but not too often. The exception to this rule was used JDM wheels. SoCal Alteration was a small shop completely stocked with quality imported used JDM wheels. Oftentimes they would be quite odd too, as they would get in stock that wasn't popular even in Japan, but most of the wheels were pretty spot on for S-chassis. If you were ok with thinking outside the box and trendsetting, you could find wheels from them or other importers that were dirt cheap. This is how I ended up with first a set of Enkei G-square Trentinos, and then, the first set of Weds Kranze Cerberus in the US. I didn't get them because anyone thought they were cool, I got them because an importer friend was having trouble selling them, and they looked ridiculous. (No one was attempting to fit an 18x11 on an S-chassis at that time.)
Drivetrain wise, most people were still running KA's, many having swapped out their single cams for twin cams. SR's were starting to become popular, with several shops doing the swaps for customers, Cartune Motorsport and Driftspeed being two of the more prolific swappers. Cartune would also source low-mileage shells for customers looking to do a swap, and selling the shell itself for cheap when paired with the swap. A few people were doing RB25 swaps, but drifters usually avoided these because it was a lot of added weight over the front wheels compared to the lighter SR. LSD's were considered a requirement for the semi-serious drifter, and almost everyone I knew ran a Cusco 2-way if they had the money, a stock VLSD (or a jdm one) if they were on a budget, or a welded if they were totally broke. You could always tell an enthusiast owned car when it pulled into a parking lot, because many of them would have a 2-way set to an aggressive lock, and would start popping as it would pull into the lot.
Suspension wise, the variety was crazy, as everyone was running coilovers, new or used, always JDM brands until Megan racing came on the scene towards the end. Everyone who had the money avoided megans at the time as they often broke. It was pretty cool in terms of suspension set up, because before Tein released the drift spec coilovers, there really wasn't a set up that was tailor-made to drift cars, so everyone ran what they could get, and then tuned the settings to their liking. I myself ran (and still have on my S13.4) Tein Type HE Winding Masters, a coilover that was designed for the touges of Japan, and I ordered them through Super Autobacs. (Yes. We had those.)
In terms of stance, everyone wanted to go low, but not to the point where we were grinding bodyparts on the road.
Until Brian Harte happened. BH (as he was known) was hardcore into jdm trend watching, and he and the Pink Godzira team was always a step ahead of much of the 240 scene. Brian would always go lower and lower, and as he went lower, more and more cars started to strive for what was referred to as "BH Low." It got to the point where Brian actually had a custom set of one-off coilovers made (I can't remember who made them, it was some JDM brand) that were named BH-spec.

Around the earlier part of this time frame, aero and body mods were generally pretty clean. Many strived for a straight out of Japan look, and Silvia faces on coupes or hatchbacks were an expensive mod. Zenki front lips were also popular. Aero kits didn't start becoming widespread until around 2004 or so, and even then, they were subtle, usually of the vertex style. You could buy brand new jdm parts if you had the cash, through places like Superior Nissan of Puente hills, with an entire Kouki 180SX taillight conversion with kevlar garnish running $500. You could get Nismo parts too, but except for the front subframe brace, most people went with other well-established japanese brands.

Around perhaps 2005 though, there was a big shift in aesthetics. Drift cars started getting super-flamboyant, and much of this happened on the Ziptied forums, which were an invite-only set of forums that were only populated by the hardcore.
Aggressive body kits, slammed ride-height, and uber-flush fitment became the order of the day, with bright candy or metal flake paint covering everything. Graphics still were limited to team style stickers on the glass.
Pink Godzira built a series of cars that were done up Japanese team style, matching colors and all, but around this time, a group known as Viceroy in Texas started pushing the limits of what was being done. While the super flamboyant style was taking off, there were still super clean builds being done with lots of attention to detail, like Norm's (USDM180SX I think) S14. Norm's S14 was super clean, with most everything modified being extremely subtle and well-executed, with basically just a ride height change and wheels hinting at what was going on under the sheetmetal.
Most of the builds didn't remain fixed, they would often go through signifigant changes every once in a while, with an aero change, wheel change, or color change being the norm. People would be constantly trying out different parts to find what worked best for them, and everyone knew everyone else, often times going to other's houses to trade car parts for others. A chargespeed bucket would be swapped for a c/f hood and so on.

Anyone who was into the scene at that time can tell you what a pain finding wheels was. The S-chassis mostly used a 4x114.3 lug pattern, but also took a low-offset which no one made at a decent price, so everyone used either used JDM, or did a 5-lug swap. If you wanted to run a widebody, you almost had to get five-lug, or run huge bolt on spacers, because you'd never find wheels in that sizing.

I hope this has brought some light to the scene back in the day.

Join me later for future installments including:
Part 2: The night life (meets and canyons)
Part 3: The Drift scene
Part 4: The shops