12+ years of dreaming and 7 years of building later I finally have a demo car that can help me showcase my love for the “golden era” of Japanese car culture - the Lardel RS13.

I’ve briefly told the story of how I got into S13’s and how this one ended up in my hands before in this blog post, but all in all this S13 popped up for sale for 2500€ back in 2018. It was for sure not perfect and had been sitting since 1999, but it was fairly stock and I felt that this car gave me a perfect opportunity to learn how to wrench.

After a year and with the help of some friends I managed to get it roadworthy and inspected. I drove it around on some 16” Compomotive wheels on and off between broken turbos and exhaust manifold-leaks for two years before I initiated this phase of the project. As it’s an old car plus the fact that it had been sitting I changed arms and bushings in both the front and rear subframe, did a 5-lug swap, upgraded the stock interior and built a custom trunk setup, did a full open-door respray and much more, which took way longer than expected.

I missed several deadlines which felt like a huge failure each time and I lost motivation on the project multiple times. Each time I felt that I was close to the finish line I still had thousands of bucks still needed to be spent on parts and many many hours of work left and the goal never seemed to get closer.

But earlier this year I felt that this car NEEDED to get done as I wanted to enjoy the thing that had drained so much from me these past years and powered through the tough times, and again with the help of some great friends I managed to get it done just before Vicious Delicious in May of this year.

It’s not a perfect car and I never intended it to be either. I wanted a car that I could enjoy on the weekends, drive to work in and have it be cool enough to display next to the Lardel booth at events. And to have it a little bit less than perfect but be able to enjoy it fully is well worth it.

Some things are still far from acceptable and there is still plenty of work to be done, but in due time, when I feel like it and without leadlines.

Enough with the life story… I wanted this car to be styled with inspiration from the early 2000’s and the biggest inspiration has been Ito’s 180sx from 2001, which is where I got the kit combo from. Type-X front bumper, GP Sports G-sonic side skirts, Type-X spoiler and a Hot Road rear valence. The exterior is even matched down to the East Bear mirrors, but that’s more of a lucky accident.

The wheels are Gram Lights 57DR’s in a 17x9/18x9,5 double staggered setup. These wheel specs were common on 180sx’s back in the day as the 18” wheels filled out the rear wheel wells better than 17”s, but it’s easier to get clearance up front with 17” if you want to run a low stance, especially if you have some sort of angle kit.
The 57DR’s are the newer version of the old Gram Lights 57D’s that were released at the beginning of the century. The TE37’s have always and will continue to be superior in both quality and subjectively, looks. But the 57’s have always been a more budget friendly alternative, perfect for those entry level drifters who wanted to bring multiple rear wheels and tyres to the D1GP and D1SL competitions.

Type-X tail lights will greatly improve the look of most S13’s and make it look more modern. I was lucky enough to find this NOS pair for sale pretty locally for cheap a few years ago, and bought the RPS13 “kevlar” center garnish to match last year. A small detail that matches the bronze of the wheels perfectly.

I’ve been pretty set on painting the car white for a good while. It might not be the most creative choice, but is looks low key and clean and acts like a clean slate for future livery designs, where I’m not bound to certain color combos at all. The bronze Rays wheels with the red Gram Lights logo’s follow that clean street-look and the red interiors have always been sporty and will forever stay timeless.

The stock S13 mirrors fits the chassi very well, but as I got the chance to pick these East Bear mirrors up from a friend who got them for his old R32 GT-R I gladly put the stock mirrors on the shelf.

To keep it clean wile still giving the car some personality it has been given a light sticker tune. Some one-off’s, some future Lardel products and some support-stickers, like the Next Level URL decal I got in 2023 when I went to Poland with the Lardel booth and the Fiji-raw Coke slap.

A sticker a gladly put on the quarter glass was the Drift Tengoku 5 year anniversary sticker I got with the 2001 magazine featuring Fukuda’s 180sx, one of my favorite 180’s from that time.

While the exterior obviously is what makes a car…

…it’s the interior you as a driver see and feel the most.

When I got this car the interior was fully stock, but something like this was always the end goal. Bucket seats, a Nardi steering wheel, external gauges, checkered floor mats and a classic shift knob.

The Sparco Sprint seats were the first piece of the red puzzle. As soon as they were secure I started working on reupholstering the door cards and the glove compartment in red fabric.

The Nardi was a birthday gift I got from my wonderful girlfriend last year. A 330mm Nardi Classic. While an old used steering wheel has a cool aura and holds a lot of mysterious history I like the thought of starting with a new and clean slate and wear it down with history myself.

While the seats and reupholstered fabrics looked great I wanted more red accessories, but the local marked failed to deliver. This sparked the beginning of a new sub-brand to Lardel, VTS-Visual Tune Special. I wanted to make it easier for the local scene to bring out more of their interiors. Floor mats were first of the line, really bringing the interior together.

Cupholders added a basic functionality that most Japanese classics lack.

The most recent VTS accessory and the one I take most pride in is the shift knob. It is inspired by the great shift knobs of the late 90’s - early 00’s like the Grex and Veilside knobs, but has been reworked from the ground up with new measurements all around based on optimal comfort. The most important feature is the curved bottom half, which allows for a sturdier grip around the whole knob which is great when you do some spirited driving and for sure don’t want to loose grip of your knob.

Epoxy decals available in colors matching to the rest of the VTS-lineup, making it easier for you to create a complete interior look with only one purchase (extremely shameless ad).

Another fun little interior accessory is the OEM Nissan fire extinguisher that came already installed in the car when I bought it. It, together with the other very minor mods done to the car before, gives a small insight of the cars earlier history where it was most likely used as a fun weekend track car. Hints of a few run offs have been found while sanding the car for repaint too which adds to this possibility…

The latest Lardel product in development is the Lardel Racing Gear gloves that will be tested by other drivers during this summer with the release of the final product coming later this year.

When you’re in the middle of the project you might as well… and that’s sort of how this happened. When I was a kid I got a S14 toy car that had a sound system in the trunk and a PS2 controller on the passenger seat and since then it has always been a small dream of mine to have a Playstation in a car. While the interior was already out I realized that there isn’t really anything that’s stopping me from finalizing that dream.

A lot of planning later here we are. A silver Playstation 2 lowered into the spare wheel well in the trunk, a 24” Asus monitor in a stand-alone box that can be flipped over for protection when loading the car with Lardel products going to events or stood up for better visibility when you try to drift down Jackson Heights.

Everything is wrapped in a grey interior fabric to keep it durable as I want to be able to load the whole Lardel booth into this car, tent and all, without having to worry too much about scratching it up.

The box that replaced the rear seat holds both the monitor and 2x 8” Alpine subwoofers (matching the Alpine head unit, the speakers in the back of the car and in the doors) with closed sub boxes crammed into the structure next to the screen.

Is there more that needs to be done to this car? Absolutely there is. And some things sooner than later. But after spending the last years and a lot of energy into it it feels amazing finally being able to drive it around and bomb the streets in the middle of the night blasting some Limp Bizkit.

I’m happy with the level of build I’ve created so far, the genuin golden are look I reached and the unique-factor of the interior that I’ve made, from the trunk setup to the VTS accessories.

For now I will enjoy it as it is with some maintenance and smaller repairs on the schedule. One day it will get a livery to market the livery-side of the Lardel business to.

And again, I’m happy to have a receipt to show for my love for the old school street style, and to be able to show and hopefully inspire others to look into the oneeightystyle themselves.

Started from a stock, not running car, to doing a half-assed job at a 90’s tiny wheels look for a little while, to a 00’s street machine. I have things I want to do exteriorwise in the future but that’s longer down the road.

In the end all of the pain has been worth it. Thank you for reading or look though this post. I greatly appreciate it.
And if you want to keep supporting me and the build you can go pick something up from the Lardel shop <3.