Last week Jeroen posted up a poll asking which was the favorite of the Nissan cars currently competing in the D1 Grand Prix, and I can’t really say that I was surprised to find out that you guys picked Yoshinori Koguchi’s 180SX as your favorite. That actually worked out pretty well for us since we had been saving Koguchi features for Nissan month. The man and his cars achieved have hero status among hardcore drifting fans, and in an era complex pro drifting, the guy from Tochigi-ken continues to keep it real. I’d say his current car is one of the finest 180’s in the world without a doubt and it’s built on years of experience. And now a closer look at the car built and driven by the man who is known as the king of 180SX drift style.

Koguchi’s 180 has been a constantly evolving project and it has come a long way from the old days of tearing it up at places like his local Nikko Circuit. Earlier in the year, the 180 underwent a slight make over with a new graphics design that features the colors of Dunlop, Koguchi’s new tire sponsor in D1. Most people know Koguchi as a big time Falken guy, but Falken dropped their D1 program in Japan and the Falken drivers made the switch to Dunlop, Falken’s sister company. I don’t think the current design looks too bad, but I did like the previous design where you could see the old green and white livery underneath.

The heart of the operation is this SR20DET that has been outfitted with a full Tomei Geneis 2.2 liter kit. The turbine is a Blitz K5-660R and I’m sure you see the big V-mount intercooler from HPI there in the front. The radiator is from HPI as well. Other engine modifications include Tomei cams, Trust pulleys, a JUN Auto water pump, and Blitz injectors. If that wasn’t enough, there is also an NOS Nitrous kit for added juice, which I’m sure comes in handy when Koguchi is driving on the big high speed D1 courses like Autopolis and Fuji Speedway. Exhaust is handled by a Blitz manifold and a one-off titanium exhaust system. All together, the set-up is good for 530ps. The transmission is a six-speed sequential from Holinger while the
clutch and flywheel are from ORC. The diff is a Nismo GT LSD
Pro with a 4.6 final gear.

The cockpit has everything you would expect from 500+ hp competition car. The roll cage and side bars are both one-off, and it looks like dashboard is about the only thing left OEM on the inside of the car. The driver and passenger bucket seats are both from Juran as is the rally style steering wheel. The safety harnesses for both the driver and passenger are Scroth. The cluster is a drool-inducing digital piece from Stack.

And another view of the interior showing the nitrous tank and some more of the one-off roll cage. It still might seem a little strange to be running nitrous on drift car, but a number of D1 drivers are “spraying” these days.

The exterior of the car is sporting a mixture of parts from various makers. The front bumper, side skirts, and a rear bumper are all BN Sports Type IV while the hood and front and rear fenders are original parts from Koguchi Power. The carbon fiber 3D GT wing is also an original Koguchi Power product. Other exterior modifications include C-West GT mirrors, an Abflug fixed headlight conversion, and smoked euro taillights from G-Grow.

The suspension on the car consists of DG5 coilovers with Swift springs, just like most of the cars in D1. Other chassis parts include 3-UP knuckles, a Nismo power brace, an S14 Silvia rear sway bar, and TEIN tie rods and ends. The brakes in both the front and rear consist OEM Brembo calipers and rotors from a BNR34 Skyline GT-R. When the car was made over earlier this year, another addition was the new Gram Lights 57 Accelerate wheels. Sizes 17×9 +12 in the front and 18×9.5 +12 in the rear. Tires are of course Dunlop Direzza D1 Star Spec, the same one used by all the Dunop cars in D1. The new Gramlights wheels have a pretty interesting look to them with the small black spokes next to the large ones. What do you guys think?

So there you have it. Don’t you think the car just looks awesome while drifting? The bulging fenders, the hood and BN aero make this car one of the toughest RPS13’s out there. It has also has proven to be a winning set-up as Koguchi was victorious the Fuji D1 even earlier this spring finished 11th in the season standings.

The D1 car is awesome to say the least, but if you want to see more of the “original” Koguchi style, wait until Antonio writes about his other 180 that we checked out at his shop back in August…

Koguchi Power

-Mike Garrett