The Kid Rocks! A Look Inside Walker Wilkerson’s Nissan S13

The battle of the S Chassis, Yoshioka's supercharged LS vs Wilkerson's SR20DET.  Two drivers, two schools of thought on how it's done.

The last SR20DET left in Pro drifting in the country.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Walker at the Atlanta round of Formula D and he was nice enough to let us take some detailed pictures and share the specs of his car.

The 2.3 liter SR20 is the last of the Mohicans.  This is truly the last SR20 that is competitive on the pro drift circuit.  Even if you don't like drift cars, you can always get ideas on how to build a car properly for reliability under brutal abuse by looking at good examples.

The engine is a very solidly build black top SR20DET equipped with VTC variable cam timing from an S14.  The engine's bottom end is fortified with a BC stroker crank.  Carillo rods are hung with CP pistons and ACL bearings.  An A'PEXi folded stopper head gasket keeps the head seal secure even under high boost.

Heat management is critical as the S chassis was not designed to be turbo and left hand drive.  Heat has caused many an S chassis to catch fire.  The team makes extensive use of heat blankets, thermal wrap and heat sleeve as insurance.  It might not be show pretty, but it works.

The cylinder head has been ported and fortified with BC big valves and retainers.  JWT valve springs are used with JWT C1 camshafts with SR20VE mechanical lifters assuring valvetrain stability at high rpm.  Tomei rocker arm stoppers also keep things together at high revs.

Greddy high capacity and baffled oil pan makes sure the engine has adequate oil under high G loads.  Pro drift cars pull as many and sometimes even more lateral G's than road racers.

Greddy underdrive pulleys keep the water pump from cavitating, essential on an SR20 to keep it cool.  Samco silicone hoses are more reliable that rubber coolant hoses.

The use of an A'PEXi Power FC allows the car to run without a MAF.  Now non recirculated BOVs like this Tial can be used.  Catch cans are used for every vent point on the engine and cooling system.

The controversial Forsberg / Wilkerson battle.  Chris lead out very slowly, perhaps thinking that his V8 could drift better from a slow speed but Walker was still able to initiate the pipey small turbo motor and battle back hard.  Only a broken diff took him out.