Indholdsfortegnelse for No 239 November 2016 i NZ Performance Car

Anyone and everyone loves free stuff; it's that feeling we all got as a kid at Christmas, demolishing that pile of presents sitting under the tree. We are trained to love it from birth, but many foolishly seem to think that building a race car automatically means the gravy train will unload on their head. It's the ultimate dream, right? Being handed copious amounts of money and/or free parts in return for a sticker on your door. Well, that sort of arrangement might have worked in the 1930s, but in these modern times, when people are hounded by advertising 24/7, sponsorship is no longer that simple, and new racers need to understand that it's not about their passion as much as it is about business. NZPC is often inundated by…

Back at it again, New Zealand's largest male lifestyle show — Big Boys Toys — will invade ASB Showgrounds, Auckland, on October 28­30 for another year of the latest and greatest products and services from the automotive, lifestyle, and consumer-electronics industries. The team is calling it "bigger, ballsier, and better" than ever, and punters will be treated to five massive halls jampacked with cars, motorbikes, and a bunch more combustion- and foot-powered machines. Entering its 16th year, the Big Boys Toys show caters to over 35,000 people each time and is the number-one place to get your automotive and liveaction fix. The Automania Showcase this year will be home to all things race-car related, including the boys and girls from the Demon Energy D1NZ National Drifting Championship, super saloons, exotics,…

With all the buzz surrounding the release of Milwaukee's new 9.0Ah battery for use with its M18 Fuel range (check out page 64), those of you kitted out with Milwaukee's M12 tools might be feeling left out. But don't fear — the M12 range has certainly not been forgotten with the release of the new 6.0Ah battery compatible with the entire existing M12 tool range. With double the runtime of the current 4.0Ah batteries and 20 per cent more power, the new 6Ah batteries also feature the RedLink intelligence system, which allows the battery and tool to communicate — ensuring that when you swap tools, the battery will know this has happened and supply the appropriate power for the new tool. The 6.0Ah has now hit the New Zealand market,…

`Mad Mike' Whiddett will swap his drift car for a McLaren 650 GT3 when he makes his circuit-racing debut in the inaugural Hampton Downs 101 on October 30. The new event at the Waikato circuit is part of the Australian GT Championship, and Whiddett will team up with Australian amateur Klark Quinn in the Pro-Am format. Realizing how big a challenge the shift to GT racing would be, Whiddett sought out good friend and supercar sensation Shane Van Gisbergen, and caught up with him at Hampton Downs to get a few laps under his belt without smoking up the back tyres! "I couldn't ask for anyone better to teach me the ins and outs of circuit racing," Whiddett said. "Me and Shane both have hectic schedules, so as soon as…

August 13 marked the very first Eurohaus event, held at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in Taupo. Run purely for vehicles of a European persuasion, the low-key track day was created by Chris Howard — who runs the famed Zeroclass Drift Matsuri. He cited a lack of local events for the ever-growing Euro scene as the reason he set the wheels in motion for a kick-ass event that would be entertaining both on and off the race track. Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park radiated a Euro energy like never before on the day. Yes, there were DJs, but the atmosphere at this Euro party was of the piston variety. "The idea behind Eurohaus was simple: we noticed that the scene was growing significantly, and we wanted to do our thing to provide…

Wataru Kato, founder of Liberty Walk, has never been content to just create cool cars; he has always sought to make a statement. Rolling lukewarm creations out through the sliding doors of Liberty Walk has never been in his playbook — there is simply no passion in playing it small, and his company has not got to where it is now by playing it safe. One of his sexiest Liberty Walk cars to date is this 458 Ferrari, a car that was born over 9700km away in Maranello, Italy. For centuries, Italy has been the world's centre of style and ornamentation, obsessed with beautiful lines, simple yet cunningly sophisticated at the same time, and the 458 is just that. Kato-san worked on all those memorable lines and introduced a hint…

The Rally New Zealand Mahindra Goldrush Rally of Coromandel marked the final round of the New Zealand Rally Championship on August 20 and took place under a mixed bag of weather conditions that created plenty of dust in some of the stages — though, when the rain came down, things soon changed. There were 10 special stages, two of which were super special stages in the Whitianga township — where Rally Headquarters was based — and the remainder were in the areas surrounding Whitianga. New to the Rally of Coromandel this year was the 16.25km Port Charles stage, which started in Tuateawa and finished in Whangaahei. As per the World Rally Championship (WRC), there was a power stage, SS9 — Ernslaw, the winner of which received double points. David Holder…

NZPC: Hi, Rizwan. Why did you choose the Evo VIII, and had you owned an Evolution prior to this? Rizwan: Hey, guys. I had never owned an Evo before but always had an interest in getting my hands on one. This popped up for sale as a New Zealand­new car, and something about the bright yellow paintwork made it irresistible to buy. Is it a different beast to tackle from the other cars you have owned? Yeah, it was a bit of a leap from what I had driven before. I traded my S2000 for this, in the end; the changeover from a rear-wheel-drive naturally aspirated Honda to an all-wheel-drive turbo was pretty different. It's quite heavily modified — was there a car or person that you drew ideas from?…

DIFFS:: Buying 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…

We Kiwis are a staunch bunch, and we don't often enjoy being told what to do, how to do it, or what the right way is to do what we're trying to accomplish. Don't get me wrong; I'm no saint, and I've more than once held this attitude when it has come to receiving advice about my car (sorry, Dad). I'm not afraid to admit that, in reality, my qualifications only allow me to bend words effectively, and that, when it comes to cars and motor sport, I am no expert, and I will never claim to be one. This is just a hobby that I've grown up around and been involved in since an early age, which is why I chose this field of writing — the old `combine…

Fresh off the back of his first full-season Demon Energy D1NZ Pro campaign, Jaron Olivecrona has hit the shed to transform his already gnarly 500kW RB26DETT-powered S14. Now with new sponsor The PartsTrader on board, Jaron and his dad, Kester, have embarked on arguably one of their wildest builds yet — a Toyota Century V12 1G-ZE. It's already unusual to run the factory-capacity engine at D1NZ Pro level against the 3.0-litre equivalent, but he's flipped the car's powerhouse on its head with the intention to pull a minimum of 522kW with 950Nm of torque out of an engine that left the factory floor with an official power output of 206kW (under the gentlemen's agreement — it's believed to be more in the region of 230kW). Unsurprisingly, offthe-shelf options for a…

We touched on Grudge Kings coming to New Zealand last issue, and, if you're keen to find out more of the gritty details and how to get involved, here is everything you need to know! The racing is split into three categories — Grudge Kings aka The List, Pure Grudge, and NZ Street Outlaws — to cater for all types of serious racers. The List is the big one, though, as Po Tung, the brain behind the event, explained: "Our aim is to find the fastest 10 street-based cars in the country, which will form The List." Po also said he plans to bring over four top Aussie cars to mix it up for the fans. All vehicles running must be on slicks or ET Streets, and class numbers are…

As the NZPC team members stood around with our tongues out, drooling over Sean Clark's BMW E30 during the photo shoot, in walked the guys from our sister magazine NZ Classic Car, who proceeded to make tongue-in-cheek remarks about how the suspension must be broken and ask where the hell the tyres were. Now, these guys know their way around an E30, but, given that the IS front lip was literally sitting on the ground while its rim lip was touching the guard, we could see how those old boys would be somewhat perplexed by what they saw in front of them. This car is a statement made with no apologies — it was engineered this way, what with its millimetre-perfect fitment and extremely deep candy paint, which grabs and…

For a few years now, the buzz around the R35 GT-R has been superseded by the hype over the much-speculated-about next model — the mythical R36 that no one, apart from those within Nissan, can be sure even exists. We live in a society that has an unquenchable thirst for the latest and greatest, placing more emphasis on obtaining this than enjoying what is currently on offer. Have we, the car community, simply become so accustomed to the goodness that is the R35 that we no longer appreciate it? The team at NZPC likes to deal in the now, with what we have at our fingertips, and, important for some of you younger readers, what you'll be able to pick up second-hand in years to come. Climbing on a plane…

We'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. 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…

he world of Instagram is a great one for those of us looking for a little build inspiration or simply a never-ending dose of car culture from all corners of the world. Through the use of hashtag searches, you can locate and pinpoint any damn thing you want — from something as wide reaching as `#drift' to as targeted as `#K20swappedcivic'. If you're not on Instagram, get on there and get yourself started! Here are six accounts we follow that we think you should, too. @86fighters Run by local underground drift­scene regular and part-time contributor Keisuke Nagashima, 86fighters serves up a healthy dose of all-original content (we are not fans of those who ride off the talent of others in the name of e-fame). He spends a copious amount of…

This year is a big one for Subaru, as November marks the 25th anniversary since the release of its most highly awarded motor sportbased car in history, the Impreza WRX. The story began when Subaru campaigned the Legacy RS in the World Rally Championship (WRC) to moderate success, before a shift towards smaller, lighter chassis forced Subaru to develop a new competitive vehicle — thus, the Impreza was born, and, on its debut, the iconic blue and yellow Impreza 555 car immediately achieved podium success. Numerous versions of the WRX have been produced since 1992, with the name itself an acronym for `World Rally eXperimental' (or simply, `World Rally Cross'), as, unsurprisingly, all the generations were packed to the brim with rally-bred technology. The WRX STi was introduced in 1994…

Warning: the following images and words may offend some readers, parental guidance is advised. When John McMurdo's father-in-law wanted to part with his 1938 Bedford pickup, which had been ripped apart and stored in boxes for years, John's friend Matt was in there like hotcakes. It was no prize pig, with rusty, bare panels and a to-do list longer than the old testament, so the pair devised a scheme that would confuse, impress, and stir trouble among anyone who gazed on it. This scheme is, hands down, one of the weirdest builds to have fallen onto our desks in recent times — it saw the truck become home to an RB25DET engine and five-speed gearbox package. Yes, you read that right — someone has put an RB into a 1938…

CONNAL GRACE Connal `West Auckland' Grace has been kicking it here at the NZ Performance Car office for more than a year now, and, while he is predominantly working on our sister title NZV8, Connal's closet love of anything RFB powered has him dropping plenty of knowledge our way when we need some backup — that may be a two-way street, but it sure doesn't include getting into the passenger seat when he is behind the wheel of our Mazda3 beater: no one has a death wish that big. GUY MAD MAX' MAXWELL If you've driven your car on an upper North Island race track in the past year, chances are you'll have blasted past a guy strapped into a bucket seat on the back of a matt black ute,…

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Nissan's triumphant win on the streets of Wellington in the Group A R32 GT-R, so, what better time for Nissan to return to circuit racing here in New Zealand than by contesting both the Hampton Downs and Highlands 101 events, in October and November, respectively, as part of the Australian GT3 championship? Nissan will run the GT-R Nismo GT3 that took victory at the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2015, and second in 2016 — the team is certainly launching a serious assault on New Zealand. Nissan New Zealand managing director John Manley said, "The GT-R Nismo GT3 has wins at iconic races such as the Bathurst 12 Hour, the Suzuka 1000, and Paul Ricard 1000. It would be great to add New Zealand…

There are a few things synonymous with a Kiwi summer — beaches, beers, and BurgerFuel. So, with the cold winter days receding and summer just around the corner, the culinary geniuses at BurgerFuel have whipped up what may be their best creation yet — the American Muscle burger. The ultimate gourmet custom modification of the classic American cheeseburger is being served in store now, and packs a double hit of BurgerFuel's 100-per-cent pure New Zealand grass-fed beef — smashed juicy for that ultimate caramelized finish and perfectly welded together with naturally melted cheddar. It's then carefully hoisted onto a bed of sweet, batch-brewed relish, bolted down by tangy long-cut pickles, and finished with generous squirts of BurgerFuel's new American mustard aioli. Everything is then pressed together between artisan wholemeal buns.…

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, 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…

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…

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 HEART ENGINE: Mazda Cosmo (JC) 20B, 2000cc, three-rotor BLOCK: Mild bridgeported JC plates, S5 rotors (9.7:1), MFR bearings, polished E-shaft, S6 exhaust sleeves, modified oiling system, Racing Beat adjustable regulator INTAKE: X-Air Performance over-theradiator (OTR) panel intake, four-inch alloy intake pipe, 20B throttle body, port-matched intake manifold EXHAUST: Two-inch three-piece headers, long primaries into three-inch collector, V-band clamp three-inch pipe, urethane mounts, Adrenalin R chambered resonator and eight-inch…

Those 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 M18TM brushless technology range, and a couple of its new 9.0Ah RedlithiumTM batteries —…

f you were anywhere near the corner of High and Empire streets, Hamilton, over the weekend of September 11, you sure as hell would have received a hefty dose of burning rubber, rowdy limiter bashing, and the biggest smoke show the city has ever seen. This, ladies and gentleman, was Churbisu. In case you're sitting there wondering what the heck a `Churbisu' is, no, it's not some new Pokemon kids are trying to catch. This absolute stunner of an event was a freestyle exhibition of skid racing, aka drifting, at its finest. But the most important feature of the event was that it wasn't held on the same old tracks drifting has been confined to over the years; it took it back to where drifting all began, the streets —…

Owner: Joel Jakicevich Location: Auckland Occupation: Baggage handler NZPC: Hey, Joel. That's a pretty sweet- looking MX-5 — how long have you owned it? Joel: Hi, guys. I bought the car three-and-a-half years ago. The roadster got a lot of praise online and in old reviews for being a driver's car, mainly for the fun factor. Around the time that I began looking for one, they were just hitting their peak in popularity with the import community over in the States, which meant a lot of cool, modified examples were popping up online, and I wanted to try my hand at modifying one as well. With that reputation, was it different to drive than your previous cars? If I'm being honest, this is my first and only car, so far.…

October 22 NORTH VS SOUTH DRIFT BATTLE WAIMATE TOWNSHIP, SOUTH CANTERBURY September 27 UNCLES CLUB TRACK DAY HAMPTON DOWNS MOTORSPORT PARK, TE KAUWHATA Summer is coming, which means so are the Uncles Club Track days. The first will be hosted on the Hampton Downs Club Circuit in September, with a limited number of entries to ensure that everyone will get plenty of track time. Starting at 5pm means a fading light­to­twilight­style session that'll make for an awesome photo opportunity as well — two birds with one stone, because who doesn't love seeing pictures of their car? Entry cost for the day is $125, and you can find out all the finer details on the Facebook page or at unclesclub.co.nz. October 1-3 LOCKTOBERFEST 2016 BRUCE Mc LAREN MOTORSPORT PARK, TAUPO The…