Editors note: 100 percent of this story is 50 percent true. The other 75 percent is only partly accurate, though based entirely on facts. Except for the lies.
This just in from the Department of Redundancy Department: Ryan “Party Boy” Novak likes to party. Plus, he’s a raging alcoholic, a well-documented shit disturber, and a homosexual homophobe. Also, he knows a lot about sucking and blowing, both because his company, Novak Mechanical, specializes in HVAC and because his race team, Novak Racing, has a stable of turbocharged beasts, including a Time Attack–prepped GC Impreza that’s so sexy, it makes straight men drop their pants.
As if to prove his poor judgment beyond his preference in beer (Coors Light—seriously, dude?), he recently acquired one of the cheapest Ferraris ever built, a 360 Modena. As anyone who’s ever had the displeasure of owning one of these Italian hunks of scrap can attest, pose like a douche bag next to one long enough and parts will literally start to fall off of it.
And yet, somehow, Party Boy remains one of the most interesting men in the world, partly because of his brutal honesty (he once told us cars have ruined his life), but mostly because of his passion for posting pictures of himself wearing threadbare tighty-whities on Facebook. We seriously recommend you add him as a FB friend, because his posts combine a flamboyant mix of racially based rants that’d make the crack-smoking Mayor of Toronto blush and drunken selfie video clips ripping on Obamacare.
1993 nissan 240SX bride carbon seats Photo 2/9 | 1993 Nissan 240SX – Party Boy’s Latest Money Pit
Oh, and in case you haven’t figured it out yet, he also has a bunch of badass cars, including his latest money pit, this Rocket Bunnied S13. As Ryan explained between sips of Crown Royal, “I never really liked 240s, to be honest. I never paid much attention to them, as I always thought they were just good for drift cars. Last winter my shop partner, Frank, bought a 240SX convertible for a beater, and to be honest, I couldn’t have cared less—that car did nothing for me. Then a few weeks later, he sent me a rolling shot of the Touge Factory S13 wearing the Rocket Bunny kit. I instantly got a boner.”
That’s when Party Boy started looking into S13s and realized that there was a massive aftermarket for them and that you could swap pretty much any engine into them. As Ryan semi-coherently put it, “I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so naturally, I went out and got me a fresh 240. Within the first week, the Rocket Bunny kit and the suspension bits were on their way. I was originally going to do an LS6 swap, but there was this thing inside of me that didn’t want a mutant car, plus that swap generates so much heat from the headers and exhaust under the car. I needed to keep it all Nissan to be happy, so I went with the RB25. The goal was to keep the car full interior, air conditioned, and reliable for the street—the definition of a true street car.”
OK, hold on. That all sounded pretty reasonable. So apparently the syphilis hasn’t completely destroyed Ryan’s brain yet, but dumping this kind of cash into a project that started with a boner does still leave things open to interpretation. That said, one of the more rational decisions he made was to spray over the tired old factory paint, having first stripped the chassis down to bare metal inside and out, and then lay on a fresh coat of GT-R Ztune Silver.
1993 nissan 240SX front end conversion Photo 3/9 | 1993 Nissan 240SX – Party Boy’s Latest Money Pit
Actually, Ryan did make a few other surprisingly sensible decisions, especially when you consider his willingness to admit that he built this car mainly so he could hang out at his shop and get hammered five nights a week. For starters, he left the RB25 pretty much alone, including the turbo. He figured 350 hp was more than enough since he doesn’t have any plans to race it, but the driveline was still pretty heavily reinforced with an ACT clutch, Blitz flywheel, Kaaz LSD, and a DSS aluminum driveshaft, so you gotta assume there’s some drunken drifting in this car’s future.
The suspension makeover is pretty serious, too, including camber and caster arms by Circuit Sport, Fortune Auto coilovers, and Whiteline sway bars. Add to that the 300ZX brake conversion, and Party Boy’s plan to strictly bench race this thing starts to look even more suspicious. The Bride Cuga seats and Nardi steering wheel also suggest some sideways action, though the baller-status suede-wrapped rear seats and door panels and JDM fanboy-status Type X cluster do add serious hard-parking credentials.
The motorsports-grade engine and chassis wiring harnesses from Rywire might lead you to conclude this is at least a pro-am drift project, though, as would the AEM series 2 EMS and sensors. Plus, all the charge pipes and lines appear to be done with the utmost care and professionalism, despite having been fabricated in-house by Ryan and his band of booze-soaked nut huggers.
1993 nissan 240SX RB25DET Photo 4/9 | 1993 Nissan 240SX – Party Boy’s Latest Money Pit
And then there’s the Rocket Bunny body kit, which requires one of two wheel solutions: über-expensive custom wheels to achieve the very low offset required by the massive fender flares, or some cheap-ass Rotas and gigantic wheel spacers. One thing about Party Boy is he doesn’t cut corners, so you shouldn’t be too surprised that he took the high road by ordering up a set of the never-played-out Work Meister SR1s. And like the confused racer/drifter-wannabe/hard-parking poser he is, Ryan wrapped these Meisters in legit race rubber, in the form of Toyo R888s.
The end result of all this intoxicated wrenching is one of the coolest S13 street cars out there. But there’s a problem: Ryan just might be too big a pussy to actually drive it, let alone do some proper drifting with it. “At the end of the build I was so excited to have it finished so I could drive it, but it came out so good I’m almost too scared to drive it. The best part about this build were the friends who came over late at night and helped me drink beer [and wrote things on his ass with a Sharpie] while I was building it. I think I gained 20 pounds during this build.”
1993 nissan 240SX side bolsters Photo 5/9 | 1993 Nissan 240SX – Party Boy’s Latest Money Pit
Specs & Details
1993 Nissan 240SX
Engine Nissan 2.5L RB25DET turbocharged straight-six
Engine Modifications SYKO engine and trans mounts and downpipe; Godspeed intake manifold, Nissan throttle body, ID 1,000cc fuel injectors, After Hours catted mid-pipe, Apexi WS after-cat exhaust, Novak Racing intercooler and intake piping and lines; Koyo radiator, Circuit Sport water overflow and power steering reservoir, Rywire Mil-spec engine harness and chassis harness; AEM oil pressure and oil temperature sensors; Walbro 255-lph fuel pump
Engine Management AEM series 2 EMS and boost controller
Drivetrain ACT clutch kit, Blitz flywheel, DSS aluminum driveshaft, Kazz 1.5-way LSD
Exterior Silvia front-end conversion, Rocket Bunny body kit, V carbon-fiber hood
Wheels, Tires & Brakes Work Meister SR1 18×11’’ (f) and 18×12’’ (r) wheels, Toyo Proxes 285/30R18 (f) and 315/30R18 (r) R888 tires, 300ZX brake conversion (f/r), Stoptech brake lines
Interior Bride Cuga carbon seats and rails; Nardi steering wheel, suede-wrapped rear seats and door panels, Type X gauge cluster, Kenwood double din head unit
Suspension Circuit Sport caster and camber arms, Fortune Auto 500 coilovers, Nismo power brace, Cusco strut bars (f/r), Whiteline sway bars (f/r)
Special Thanks Frank Chen at JRZ, Ryan at Rywire, Ken at Godspeed, Matt and Scott at Fontana Nissan, AEM, Coors Light
1993 nissan 240SX rear duck bill spoiler Photo 6/9 | 1993 Nissan 240SX – Party Boy’s Latest Money Pit
Party Boy’s Other Projects
Just in case you think Ryan Novak’s a one-hit wonder, here’s what’s currently taking up floor space. He’s built a ton of other no-holds-barred project cars over the last decade or so.