Nissan S14 – Madamoiselle Silvia Gallery

Posted in Automotive by Janx, July 6, 2010 at 1:45 am | 5,350 views, 16 comments

This is a shortened version fo the article that was featured in our first issue of the magazine as well as in the July 2009 issue of Performance Auto and Sound.

Helder Martins is a genuine car enthusiast. He had to work for every penny put into his Silvia and he enjoyed every second of it.

Born in Portugal, he moved to Calgary, Alberta when he was just seven-years-old. His father, Antonio, came West in pursuit of work.

Ever since Martins can remember he’s been car crazy. “I used to wake up at five in the morning to watch Formula 1,” Martins said. “My uncle got me hooked, he owned a bike shop, the obsession with cars just spiraled out of control from there.”

Before Martins even had a driver’s license he and his friends decided one night to take his father’s Fiero out for a joy ride. “We ran into some girls with a 5.0-litre Mustang,” Martins said smiling. “Sure enough I got pulled over for racing and on top of that I blew the differential. We had to tow the car back to my house, my dad wasn’t too happy.”

“I’m a true Silvia S14 fanatic,” Martins said, “I’ve always been really taken with the S14’s lines. Clean and Simple. There’s just something about that car.”

Martins picked up his ‘97 Nissan 240SX from a dealership back in 2004. The car started life green. Immediately he brought it to a local tuning shop called Autodream, renowned for its knowledge on the S series platform of Nissan cars.

Over the next year Martins would experience first hand the frustrations that often accompany being a true automotive enthusiast. Three different SR20DET engines would make their way into his S14 all resulting in different problems.

Past the point of frustration Martins would sell his S14 to Autodream and jump into a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R. After the engine in his GT-R blew he sold the blown GT-R to Nguyen and Autodream and bought a Toyota Aristo. Not having enough excitement though he then sold the Aristo and bought an M3.

Months passed, 2007 rolled around and the M3 stayed reliable. Martins put a down payment on a house with his girlfriend and he seemed to be happy.

But, something was eating him up on the inside. His desire for his Silvia was not dead and he felt as though he had unfinished business. “The M3 is a good car, but it’s just not the same as the Silvia,” Martins said.

After nearly a year, Martins went back to Autodream and discovered that his S14 was still there. He bought it off Nguyen and decided that this was it, no more fooling around, time to really build a car.

Martins went to work outsourcing a Kouki wing and a D-Drug hood. He also went to work detailing the engine which still had all of his original parts only now, thanks to Nguyen, they were on a brand new, fully built, SR block with an S14 head. After a suggestion from an Autodream employee Martins decided to go with deep-stepping dish Work Meister S1 chrome wheels. For the S14’s paint Martins decided on a basalt-black native to Porsche. The S14 was in the body shop for nearly six months having the quarters stretched, the kit fitted and the paint perfected.

After a year of waiting, nearly four years of hard work and four different engines, Martins S14 240SX was finally finished.

The first thing he did, “I drove the shit out of it,” Martins said. After all, aren’t cars meant to be driven?