OUT OF THIS WORLD
HE DID IT HIS WAY
When Nate Rosen began his involvement in the tuner scene, he wanted what everyone else wanted: to do things his way and not like everyone else. The problem many people face in their desires to be different is that they never really succeed in their quests because they begin with identical foundations. Instead of running out and buying a Honda like many other tuners were doing, Rosen decided to go another route altogether. He picked up a used ’97 Saturn SC2 and began with that. Now that’s different.
When Rosen started this job, he wasn’t sure where it would land him. He found out that there weren’t many aftermarket companies catering to Saturns. There was no great interest, so nor many parts were available. Rosen set out to change all that.
With substantial research and development, he has been able to prove that the Saturn motor is a great starting platform. By keeping his nose to the grindstone and making infinite phone calls to aftermarket companies, Rosen decided to take his Saturn effort another step further.
In early 2002, Rosen opened up a retail website just for Saturn lovers. He wanted a site that would be informative, but one that would also have parts for other Saturn owners. Since the launch of
www.eastcoastsaturn.com, Rosen has seen an impressive amount of traffic and support from Saturn enthusiasts. Of course, he now uses his beautiful high-powered beast as a calling card to show off everything that Saturn is capable of becoming.
At first glance, its hard to tell that Rosen’s car is a Saturn. Speeddesign Custom Graphics did an awesome job in applying a killer graphic scheme that adds a whole new dimension to this coupe. Rosen went with a Wings West lip kit, which keeps the body lines of the Saturn yet adds a sportier look. Rosen wanted a carbon fiber hood (which was hard to track down at first) and he also added an A&A GTR carbon fiber wing, giving an aggressive demeanor.
Finishing off the looks on the outside came way of a set of 18x7.5-Hyper Black Ace Spades. These wheels are connected to a sweet set of 215/25/ZR18 EZ4 Toyo Proxes. The Hyper Black design looks great against the blue tribal graphics. Rosen wanted to make sure that he wasn’t rolling like a truck, so he went with a set of springs from Sprint that dropped the car about 2-1/2 inches all the way around.
Rosen not only wanted to have the Saturn appear aggressive on the street, he also wanted it to have the power to back it up. He hated when he saw tuner rides sporting little mufflers ride up next to people and rev their motors with nothing going on under the hood. He was going to make sure that Saturn owners wouldn’t have to do that.
After considerable research, Rosen eventually managed to lay down 417 wheel hp at 24 psi. That’s right, our man has big power under his fancy carbon hood. Achieving that power wasn’t easy. However, now that Rosen knows the formula, he says that he can turn any Saturn from a gentle grocery-getter into a well-balanced performance terror.
Starting with a 1.9-liter DOHC Saturn motor, the cylinder head was ripped off and sent to JG Engine Dynamics for a complete head job, this would ensure maximum airflow and strength under extreme pressures. The bottom end was fortified as well with Crower rods and JE pistons. The factory clutch had no chance, so Rosen place a call over to Nate and Chris at Clutch Masters to get a Stage 3 clutch and a 7.9lb lightened flywheel. While Rosen was down there, he decided to throw in a Quaife LSD for better traction.
Now it was time for Rosen to turn to his friends Jeff and Rob over at Twistec Performance in Elyria, Ohio. These guys were responsible for most of the turbo kit, starting with the polished intake manifold and 60mm throttle body. More air can turn into more power and the boys over at Twistec made sure that there was plenty of air to make lots of power.
However, air wont make power by itself, so Twistec had a custom set of injectors made for this beast. Along with the injectors you can find a Twistec fuel rail and an SX Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator. Since this car was going to be under pressure by a T3/T4 hybrid turbo/TiAL wastegate setup, they knew it would need fuel.
Along with the turbo install, Twistec had all the custom 2-1/2-inch turbo piping polished to go with the show car look. Mounted to the custom turbo piping is a beautiful KS blow off valve. A nice, big Twistec intercooler was neatly mounted to the front for everyone to drool over. This thing just screams power when you see it.
All of this power has to exit and it does so in a hurry. At the back of the turbo, you can find a 3-inch exhaust running all the way back to dual HKS titanium mufflers. The exhaust sounds so mean when Rosen jumps on the gas and the turbo spools up.
The stock motor mounts just couldn’t hang with all the newfound power and torque, so Twistec had to install a set of custom set of mounts to handle the job. Funny, there isn’t much on the factory side that would handle the job that Rosen was throwing at it. Why should it? I bet that no one over at Saturn thought they would see the day when someone was driving around a 400hp Saturn.
Engine management is vital when going with big boost like this and Twistec took its time in this department. It went with a SDS stand-alone unit that allows complete control over tuning the motor. There was one problem: Twistec needed to fabricate an engine harness. It took its time and made sure everything was right. The end result is that these boys had it all under control.
Things get a bit heated when you add a turbo to a naturally aspirated car, so Rosen decided to beef up the cooling system. First, Twistec designed a trick coolant hose relocation kit to keep things nice and tidy. Then it extracted the factory radiator to make room for a Twistec four-core piece along with dual SPAL fans.
As you can see from the photos this motor is setup with all the goodies down to the Hose Techniques hose kit. With a motor like this, no wonder Rosen hits the streets on a daily basis, making 313 turned-down horsepower to the wheels at 15 lb-ft boost in the process. The car will make 417 without the nitrous. For that it deserves mad props, as this is no easy task.
You’re probably wondering how Rosen stops this thing now that its all beefed up. That’s a great question – and one that Rosen had to answer himself. He knew that the factory brakes wouldn’t handle the task, so he turned to Fast Brakes, which took car of the big brake upgrade that was desperately needed. Rosen had a rear disc conversion done for added braking power.
Not only did he want the race feel in the cabin, but he also wanted style. The interior was handled with care and well planned. Rosen went with the ever-so-popular Sparco Torinos for the front seats and he turned to Revo at Stitchcraft to cover the front and rear seats and door panels with Alcantra (Italian suede).
Once the cabin was all plush, Rosen installed the vitals – gauges, controllers, and NOS. An Auto Meter Ultra-Lite custom dash cluster keeps Rosen informed about what’s happening to the motor under extreme pressure (especially when he hits the NOS button).
Speaking of nitrous, there are two NOS bottles, neatly stored away just for the right moment when Rosen feels he needs another 100 ponies. There’s no messing around here. As for safety, MOMO four-point harnesses keep the driver and passenger nice and snug in the front when the pedal is smashed to the ground.
This car sees action on a daily basis, so you know it has to have some sound in the trunk. Up front you will find a Clarion DRX9575 CD/TV tuner along with a Clarion 5-1/8 –inch color monitor. In the trunk are two 12-inch Phoenix Gold X Max subs along with Phoenix Gold wiring and two Phoenix Gold amps. As you can see, not only does this car look good and go fast, but it sounds good, too.
With lots of hard work and determination, Rosen has helped pave the way for Saturn owners to customize their rides. We look forward to seeing what else comes out of the East Coast Saturn stables. We’re sure Rosen has something more up his sleeves.
HCI April 2003 issue
HCI saturn April 03 
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