Preview: NZ Performance Car Issue No. 239

ISSUE

SLICED & DICED A31

one of only

300!!

! ?

F T WITT’’SS AA I

9 416803 800821

B O DY- S L A M M E D E 3 0 B M W

+ N A 2 0 B R X-7 + R 3 5 T H R A S H T E S T L E A R N T H E F U N D A M E N TA L S O F B U I L D I N G A D R I F T C A R

NOV. 2016

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$9.99 INCL. GST

C E L E B R AT I N G 2 5 Y E A R S O F W R X

CONTENTS

024 SCARCE METAL

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EVERY NOW AND THEN YOU STUMBLE ACROSS A RARE VARIATION OF YOUR JAPANESE STREET CAR, BUT WHAT YOU DON’T SEE EVERY DAY IS ONE OF ONLY 300 HOMOLOGATION MODELS WORLDWIDE — ESPECIALLY THOSE THAT FORGED A REPUTATION AS AN ICON OF NEW ZEALAND’S EARLY 2000S PERFORMANCE SCENE. THIS IS HANDS DOWN THE CLEANEST MAZDA FAMILIA GTAE YOU WILL EVER SEE

032 DEFLATED REFINEMENT

Purchased as his first car in high school, Sean Clark’s E30 is all grown up now with a class that belongs in a whiskey lounge. V8 powered, with Accuair i-Level, one-off Rotiforms, candy paint and a killer interior, this E30 ticks all the boxes

038 17 YEARS TO LIFE

While Mike kept busy building a reputation as a rotang builder, his Series 1 RX-7 sat in the corner of the workshop, waiting patiently. No fewer than four engine swaps and 15 years’ worth of development later, it now lives life as a 20B-powered award-winner

048 THRASH TEST

We headed over to the iconic Phillip Island Circuit in Australia to get behind the wheel of the new 2017 Nissan GT-R (R35), and to find out if after nine years in production the R35 still has it: plus we asked Nissan head designer Hiroshi Tamura for the answers to all your burning questions

076 CHURBISU

It’s been a long time since anyone drifted the streets of Hamilton without fear of Johnny law, but thanks to hard work by some local drivers, that recently became a reality

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CONTENTS

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054 TUNING JAPANESE

Cutting up exotic supercars is a modifying path few dare to travel. But for Liberty Walk boss Kato San, it’s all in a day’s work. Aaron took a closer look at Kato’s daily-driven 458, bagged and widebodied with a growl befitting that flat-plane Italian V8

058 SICKER THAN YOUR AVERAGE

Ute chops are traditionally a half-assed job done in the shed with the boys over a few beers, and end up as cringeworthy creations. That shit wouldn’t fly for this LS1-packing drift hero, and the body is home to so many custom-made parts you won’t know where to start looking

068 GOLDRUSH RALLY OF COROMANDEL

The Coromandel is synonymous with blaring sun, beautiful beaches and chilled-out people. When the final round of the NZ Rally Championship hit town a mixed bag of weather conditions created plenty of dust in some of the stages, but rain quickly stirred up the leaderboard

070 DRIVEN LIKE HE STOLE IT

A tuner by trade, Dan Kane brought this STi back to life after it was stolen and recovered. Under constant development for the past six years, the WRX now packs 435kW and placed a very amazing sixth overall at Leadfoot this year

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002 EDITORIAL 004 ED TEAM CHATTER 014 NEWS 020 THE MOTORHOOD 022 CASTROL EDGE PCOTY 044 EUROHAUS 064 PRODUCT TEST - MILWAUKEE 9.0AH 067 SUBSCRIBE AND RECEIVE 080 WEEKEND WARRIOR 082 GRAM GODS 084 CRUISE MODE 086 DEMON BABE HUNT 088 THE FUNDAMENTALS OF DRIFT 094 HISTORY LESSON - SUBARU WRX 098 NEW PRODUCTS 102 DAILY DRIVEN 104 UNDER CONSTRUCTION 106 GIG GUIDE 108 DRAG TIMES 110 TRADE DIRECTORY 112 WHAT’S COMING NEXT MONTH

C. 66 M. 60 Y. 60 K. 45

THE MOTORHOOD GET YOUR DAILY FIX ONLINE: themotorhood.com

WHAT’S ONLINE AT THEMOTORHOOD.COM THIS MONTH? The Motorhood is the new online home for NZ Performance Car and its sister publications, NZV8 and New Zealand Classic Car. It’s the hub for all things automotive, from news and reviews to event coverage and more. You can enjoy articles from the magazines at The Motorhood home page, themotorhood.com, or if you want modified performance import vehicles only, just head to our old website address — performancecar.co.nz — to be redirected straight to the NZ Performance Car side of the new site.

LVVTA OFFERS UPDATED STANDARDS

The Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association (LVVTA) cert process in New Zealand is one that we will all be familiar with by now — if you haven’t been through it yourself, you’ve probably heard all about it from a mate. It’s one of those facts of life — if you’re modifying a car, the powers that be want to make sure that it’s completed to an acceptable standard.

The process has copped a bit of flack over the years from people who disagree with certain rules,

GIANT KILLING V8-POWERED STARLET One from our sister title, NZV8: Trevor Crowe understood what power-to-weight meant on the track and decided to ditch the big old American chassis’ that packed the field in New Zealand racing in the ’70s and ’80s in favour of an Oldspowered Starlet picked up for a lazy $400.

Complete with era-correct square widebody aero and a deliciously huge wing, this thing was a rocket and even received a turbo after a bit of continual development demanded an extra kick of power. If that wasn’t enough, it was later purchased by an astrophysicist and received a Tom Walkinshaw–built Rover V8.

We won’t give away the rest of the story, but believe us when we say that it’s a biggie, and the amount of history, development, and series titles this thing clocked up is impressive.

You can read up on all the finer details at themotorhood.com — just search ‘V8 Starlet’.

and, recently, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) ran a survey to find out how the process could be improved. This has led to a standards update, which has changed things around in several areas — suspension, driveshaft hoops, and certifier categories, just to name a few. Jump over to themotorhood.com to read a bit more about how the changes will improve your future experience and ease the pain, both to your arse and your wallet.

GARAGE LIFE: THE ED’S E36 BUILD IN ALL ITS GLORY! While he tends to keep everyone up-todate with build progress on Instagram @marcus_nzpcmagazine, Marcus has finally succumbed to pressure to kickstart his E36 build thread as there’s so much to show and not enough gram in which to do so in detail.

It’s exciting times at the Momowerks bunker as the project nears the final stretch toward being a completed car, some four years since it was started as a cheap drift car build.

Breaking all the cardinal rules for building a project, it has now spiraled into a no-holdsbarred race machine with more hand built parts than Blac Chyna herself. Never-the-less progress has been steady and there is plenty to see, so check it out, if you want to know what we do in our spare time.

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KEN BLOCK STRIKES AGAIN

Ladies and gentlemen, we have yet again been treated to another cinematic delight that is part of the Gymkhana series. This time around Ken takes aim at a raw industrial playground in his 600hp fire-breathing, curb-eating, sideways-inducing Ford Focus. Perhaps not the most mind-blowing instalment to date — let’s be real, it’s going to be hard to ever top the Hoonicorn from Gymkhana Seven —what Gymkhana Nine

lacks in city-destroying madness, it makes up for in absolute balls-deep commitment to the course that leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat thinking the Hoonigan team have turned Ken’s Focus into a submarine — lucky for him, this scenario never eventuated. Regardless, if you’ve got a spare 10 minutes or so, turn up the loud dial, hold onto your swivel chair, and enjoy!

WORDS: MARCUS GIBSON PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

EVERYONE KNOWS MAZDA FAMILIAS WERE NOT BLESSED WITH A STRONG DRIVETRAIN. SO, YOU’D THINK THAT, AFTER OWNING 15, TONY WOULD KNOW BETTER, BUT HE HAS THROWN CAUTION TO THE WIND AND PUT 273KW INTO THE RAREST OF THEM ALL — A GTAE

The three-rotor 20B was only available in the 1990–’95 Eunos Cosmo and was the world’s first volume-produced twin-turbo set-up, but Mike opted for running his NA to achieve the sensual sounds of rotary goodness

PERFORMANCE POWER: 220kW at the rear wheels

SHOES WHEELS: (F) 17x7-inch Simmons FR17, (R) 17x8.5inch Simmons FR17 TYRES: (F) 215/40R17 Bridgestone Potenza RE002, (R) 245/40R17 Bridgestone Potenza RE002

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1992 NISSAN CEFIRO (A31)

r e k c Si

than your average

THERE AIN’T NO BETTER WAY TO GET PEOPLE’S BLOOD BOILING THAN BY CHOPPING OFF YOUR ROOF AND CALLING IT A UTE — UNLESS YOU THROW AN LS V8 INTO THE MIX, TOO WORDS: JADEN MARTIN PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

e’ve seen a lot of interesting things at photo shoots over the years; however, we’d be lying if we said that we were expecting to jump out of the company car to find a feature-car owner cutting through bollards to free a car trapped behind. A lot of noise, sparks, and laughs about the keys being in a safe place later, what fired into life and rolled out of that factory was nothing short of stunning — in its own rough way.

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Let’s rewind the tape five years. Scott, a panel beater and spray painter by trade, had a love affair with the big four-door family sedan that is the A31 Cefiro. Having previously owned several, he got his hands on what was at the time a hacked-up Cefiro body running an SR20DET down in the shaky land of Christchurch.

Although growing in popularity in recent years, back then, an SR in a traditionally RB-powered body wasn’t the most desirable prize, and, with half the roof and rear missing, this was one project not many people would step within a 10km radius of. Realizing the potential of such an undertaking and having already fallen in

PRODUCT TEST MILWAUKEE 9.0AH

C U TT T HC E I O N R G D WE PUT MILWAUKEE’S NEW 9.0AH BATTERIES TO THE TEST — THE BEST WAY WE KNOW HOW WORDS: MARCUS GIBSON PHOTOS: MARK STRAWBRIDGE

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hose who follow me on social media or read any of the tech pieces in NZPC will know that when I’m not putting the magazine together, I can be found in my workshop building cars.

I’m a slave to the cord, as all my power tools require an electrical umbilical line to be plugged into the wall. I was a bit of a nonbeliever in battery technology, as I wasn’t confident that it’d give the power and runtime I need, but I’m happy to report that I was a fool. For the past week, I have, as Milwaukee likes to say, ‘cut the cord’ — I ditched all my power tools and replaced them

with Milwaukee’s M18™ brushless technology range, and a couple of its new 9.0Ah Redlithium™ batteries — yes 9.0Ah! Walk into any power-tool store today, and you will find a range of cordless products around the 6.0Ah range — so, 9.0Ah is a huge step. In fact, its advertised run time is twice that of the existing M18™ 5.0Ah battery. It’s a claim backed up by some simple stats — 20 minutes of continuous grinding, 537 cuts on the M18™ circ saw in 2x4-inch pine, and 76 times drilling 20mm holes in 6mm plate steel using the mag drill.

As we tested these before the on-sale date, the batteries we used ran the American branding. The New Zealand product has a slightly different look

The battery casing is rugged and includes a rubber lower casing. We dropped the battery a few times on the hard concrete floor without a worry

DRIVELINE GEARBOX: Subaru six-speed, Kaps Transmissions six-speed H-Pattern dogengagement gear set CLUTCH: Extreme twin-plate FLYWHEEL: Extreme lightweight DIFF: (F) Subaru STI Motorsport plate-type 1.5-way, (R) Cusco plate-type 1.5-way, ARP crown-wheel bolts

EXTERIOR PAINT: Black, Ben Hunt Motorsport livery ENHANCEMENTS: Factory STi bodykit

The car pushes 435kW at all four, and Dan likes to chuck on a set of drift tyres and hit the track to show the rear-wheel boys what reverse entries actually look like

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(WRC) cars of its era.

He’s a big fan of the stylings that the WRX model had to offer, so wanted to make sure that the exterior remained relatively the same as what you would have found sitting on the dealer’s yard back in ’99. The only hints of any real changes having been made under the skin are the large frontmount intercooler, bonnet pins, and the livery it currently wears.

With a fresh lick of platinum silver on the car’s inner and a simple black on the outer, Dan turned his attention to getting the running gear sorted. An engine tuner by trade, he had the knowledge needed to produce a hearty package, especially one of the Subaru persuasion — having served time as a motorsport technician on various teams over the years, he now campaigns with Subaru-supported driver Ben Hunt. Purchasing the oily bits from a 2002 STi sedan, Dan fitted got everything up and wired in a Link G4+ Xtreme, installing a few bolt-ons to make a respectable 250kW at all four when running 25psi.

In the suspension department, the STi received a set of D2 Tarmac Rally coilovers, and, to clamp the discs, there is a pair of Brembo four-pot calipers up front, with Brembo two-pot calipers

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down back. Sitting over the brakes are the black and bronze Rota Grids, measuring in at a square-sized 18x8.5-inches, wrapped in one of two types of rubber, depending on what the day holds — either 245/40 Dunlop 03Gs when hitting the tarmac for speed runs or 235/40 Evergreens if Dan feels like slaying some tyres.

As a side note to the car’s first incarnation — we assure you it only gets better from there — a few years ago, after first completing the package, Dan took us for a blast around Hampton Downs at one of the local drift events. He spent most of his day showing the rearwheel boys how to get the job done, then a helmet was chucked in our direction, and we were given the order to hop in. It only took the run up to the first corner to understand what this kind of power — albeit only ‘small’ in comparison to the numbers some like to chase — can achieve when your car is developed to be usable.

With the hydraulic handbrake ripped, the car would spin so far backwards that it was almost guaranteed we would fly off track into the gravel traps, especially as the front of the car would now face where it’d just come from. But, before we’d have the chance to grab anything to brace for what felt like the impending impact, Dan would power-out clean as a whistle and go on to link the next corner, after corner, after corner — all-wheel-drive drifting ain’t no joke.

The STi stayed in this form for a little over a year and endured

CRUISE MODE

ENGINE: Holden RB30E, 3000cc, six-cylinder, DSR430 turbo, 38mm TiAL wastegate, screamer pipe, front-mount intercooler, front-facing plenum, 2.5-inch exhaust DRIVETRAIN: Holden five-speed, BorgWarner BW78 LSD, heavy-duty clutch INTERIOR: Standard EXTERIOR: Custom purple paintwork WHEELS/TYRES: 19x8.5-inch Advanti S920; 225/35R19 Neuton SUSPENSION: Super-low springs, shortened shocks

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BABE HUNT 2016 | FINALIST NO. 8

NICOLE

LOCATION: Wellington FAVOURITE DEMON DRINK: Tattoo FAVOURITE D1NZ DRIVER: ‘Fanga Dan’ Woolhouse FAVOURITE CAR: 2015 Range Rover Sport MY BEST FEATURE: My booty FRONT OR BACK SEAT: Shotgun WHERE MY FANS CAN FIND ME: Facebook: Nicole Souness; Instagram: nunu_nicole_x

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

The Fun damentals of Drift

We don’t need to sit here and tell you how huge drifting has become in New Zealand, from the early days of Pukekohe slide sessions to the rapidly growing national series, it’s somewhat crazy how big of a sport it is. Everyone is getting onboard, with top-tier drivers from the likes of V8 Supercars and rally using their spare time to drift. Local heroes are competing overseas and putting us on the map, opening doors that have never been available to what has been considered ‘boy racing’ for the better part of the last couple of decades.

You too, have decided to hop on the train, and bought yourself a bog-standard [insert Japanese drift chassis of choice] with a sick external gate and an extra set of steelies with tyres. You’re now ready to hit the track, right? Not quite — you may very well be able to hook a basic skid, but if you want the car to live beyond the first lap and not spend your day spinning out on every corner, there are a few components you will need to think about tweaking before hitting the track.

WORDS: JADEN MARTIN PHOTOS: NZPC ARCHIVES

Diffs:

B

uying a bog-standard street car, welding the diff locked, and hitting the track is a cheap way to get things rolling but not the best way to create a comfortable and usable setup. Obviously, as with all parts, selecting the right diff is dependent on what chassis you’re working with and how far your budget stretches; Stephen Wright from The Diff Shop recommends that someone starting out opt for a twoway mechanical LSD, as it provides the best performance without a lot of work involved to set it up. These are more dependable and consistent for someone who hasn’t had a lot of seat time to learn their preferences, and they act as a starting base for future development. As skill progresses, drivers can look at 1.5-way or even one-way LSD setups, which, unlike two-ways, which lock under acceleration and deceleration, alter how the car reacts into and out of a corner. The top end of things starts to incorporate locked or spooled diffs, but, unlike your backyard jobs, these are tuned to suit a specific setup and take into account what ratios are best suited for the track being driven.

Long story short — buying an aftermarket two-way LSD is the go and getting it refurbished by someone like The Diff Shop ain’t a bad idea either.

The Diff Shop thediffshop.co.nz 0800 102 122

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