It’s safe to say that Brian Wilkerson’s most memorable driving experience in his 1993 Nissan 240SX has nothing to do with taking the scenic route to a weekend getaway.
Wilkerson is one of the proprietors of Baltimore’s MA Motorsports and a sponsored drift car racer. You might describe him as a man who is not comfortable unless he’s moving sideways.
Wilkerson, who competed for five years, drives tandem, a drift event in which two cars round a track, one after the other, the leader attempting various oscillations of the car’s body. The objective is to angle the rear of the car, bringing the car into a sideways slide, while the second driver tries to mimic the movements of the first.
To perform such feats of daring, the vehicle Wilkerson drives must be tuned to this very odd and off-brand racing style.
“In competitive drifting you want to have good traction so you can pull away from your competitor,” said Wilkerson.
Where others look at engine dynamics to give their car that extra pep, Wilkerson and his team invested in beefing up the suspension and stiffening the frame of his 240SX, ensuring that “flex” and “bend” were not words in their vocabularies. Still, the rubber must meet the road. One way Wilkerson worked to eliminate wheel hopping issues was to add Dunlop Direzza tires so that sideways sliding in is always smooth and painless.
But the car itself is no slouch in the speed department. Making over 400 hp at the wheels, this monster tears into corners with personal prejudice.
When attempting a car restoration, most people gut the car only to build it back up. Wilkerson gutted his vehicle and left it that way. Wilkerson said the reason was to cut down on excess weight. He does keep a second seat in the car for the occasional passenger, but with only the bare essentials otherwise, the interior has an eerie skeletal feel.
Wilkerson and his team, consisting of two other friends, built the car in record fashion.
“We started on it in January. We were getting it ready for an event in Miami in March. So we built the engine, fabbed the chassis and roll cage, and all the stitch welding, and everything was done in about two months,” said Wilkerson. “It was definitely a lot of rush.”
In the time it might take to finish a home improvement project, Wilkerson’s industrious team put together an entire race car that is helping him to remain competitive in this relatively new form of competition.
What do you drive?
It’s a 1993 Nissan 240SX.
And why do you drive it?
240SXs are cheap to start with. It was my first drift car. This is my second one. I just really like them a lot. It’s easy to drive, easy to modify, lots of parts available for them.
What makes this car so special?
It just has a lot of custom fabrication to it. We did a lot of suspension setup. That sets it apart from your average 240SX drift car. It hooks up really good. It makes about 400 horsepower to the wheels. [It’s] just a good combination of parts and good tuning.
What is your most memorable driving experience?
That would probably be making Top 16 at the D1 Grand Prix, which is a big deal, especially for myself, who was an amateur at the time.
What was the first car you owned?
The first car I ever owned was a 1991 Acura Integra, which I also modified. I’ve been modifying cars since before I had a license.
What’s currently in your CD player?
It doesn’t have a radio. You have to keep down on the weight. Anything I don’t need in there was taken out. No speedometer even. I don’t need to know how fast I’m going.
And your first ticket? What was it for?
My first ticket was actually for a speed competition (laughs). When I first got my license, I was big into racing.
