Anthony Nguyen and his Nissan 240sx

Japanese cars are a desirable commodity in the states these days, especially rare cars like Nissan 240sx's also known as the Silvia back in Japan. These cars are highly prized for their ability to handle well and improve performance on the streets as well as on the track. They are discontinued so they are hard to come by. Anthony Nguyen, a Seattle native, has had a passion for cars ever since he first got his sisters black 1997 Nissan 240sx back in high school.

In 2003, Anthony was rear-ended and totaled the car. Anthony and his family both share a love for the Nissan 240 so they spent a bit of money repairing the car and now his mom Tina drives it. After the accident, Anthony used the money from insurance to obtain his own ruby red pearl metallic 1996 Nissan 240sx, which he currently drives up until today. "The main reason I chose to get another 240sx was mainly the way the car was built. It was considered to be a very rare car at the time, great handling, good looks, and rear wheel drive. This car became very popular a few years later due to the popularity of 'drifting,' which originated in Japan." When he got the Nissan 240, the car condition was almost brand new. The car only had 32,000 miles and was driven by a mother who rarely drove the car because she carpooled with her husband to work. Since then, Anthony has spent a good amount of money and effort into fixing up his new red pearl beauty. For all of you unfamiliar with cars, fixing up refers to making the car handle better, faster, along with interior and exterior work. To name a few things, Anthony has installed stance coilovers, RUCA's, Tanabe sway bar, front and rear strut bar, B&M short shifter, GP sports spec r exhaust, Buddy Club racing seat, Nismo motor mounts, a limited slip differential, deep corn steering wheel, and he has made many more modifications. He looks to add a turbo sometime in the near future and get new rims.

To some, cars are just a main source of transportation from point A to point B. They are taken into the shop for maintenance and an oil change every thousand miles. For the lazy, they are washed once in awhile, but nothing more. To a true car enthusiast like Anthony, he would beg to differ. Instead, cars are used to symbolize a form of inspiration. "A car has its qualities. It takes a lot of devotion time and patience to take care of one though some race cars are hard to perfect because there is always room to enhance its performance. Cars to me would be related to my everyday life. It taught me to keep trying in all aspects even though I may think it is too hard for me to succeed. In the end, I learned that everything can be accomplished if you put your heart to it."

Drifting is considered to be a new sport in automotive racing that takes an incredible amount of skill and practice to perfect. It involves taking risks because drifting is a dangerous sport due to the high chance of being in a serious wreck so those who have mastered or dare to take on the sport have courage. If you are interested in Japanese cars and want to learn more about the Nissan community and how-to's, than Anthony suggests that car forums like www.zilvia.net and www.northwestnissans.com are a great way to get started. "Forums are a way to get quick answers to the many difficult questions that cars create and also it helps you learn things you never knew before. The Nissan community allowed me to fix things on my own, and learn things that I have difficulty understanding."

Putting his passion into good use, Anthony along his business partner Ken Hsu are currently the owners of Zealous Motorsports, an automotive performance parts company. Zealous Motorsports is a company based in Seattle that specializes in import and domestic automotive performance parts. They seek to further improve the performance of their customers' vehicle by providing quality parts at a reasonable price. Look out for them in the future and visit their soon-to-be-up and running in Summer 2008 website www.zealousmotorsports.com

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