Indholdsfortegnelse for No 270 June 2019 i NZ Performance Car

I’m not one who has always had a huge budget to throw into cars, but I’ve pushed hard over the years to make it happen for myself, and, yeah, I’ve blown my fair share of pay cheques and gone without lots of other luxuries in life to do so. I’ve seen those with unlimited means going hard spending cash on cars, I’ve seen people going hard spending money someone else did the hard yards to earn, and I’ve seen a lot of inspiring people make it happen for themselves. Would I have had it any other way for myself? You know, I’m not going to lie, I’d love to have easily earned stacks to blow on cars — I’d build some shit, I’m telling you — but I don’t think…

11 MAY CJC PRESENTS: GRIPFEST ’19 MANFEILD CIRCUIT CHRIS AMON, FEILDING Whether you love ’em or hate ’em, the controversy kings known as the Circle Jerk Crew (CJC) know how to handle their business, and part of that means hosting the slickest of track days. While it’s been two years since the last incarnation, Gripfest returns in 2019 with a new venue on the poster — Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon in Feilding. With limited and exclusive spots and top-tier organization to ensure maximum track time, it’s a solid experience. Driver spots are sold out for this one, but if you’re down to watch some grass-roots circuit thrashing then you’re in the right place — spectators get in for free. For all the finer details, search on Facebook to find the…

When shopping for a new daily-driver, the car that gets you from A to B, to the shops, to the beach, or to carry out whatever menial daily task it may be on that day, you’ll typically have a list of boxes that need to be ticked before settling on a purchase. Stuff along the lines of being tidy, reliable, cheap to run, having lots of room for the dogs, being easy to maintain; for some, even looks might come into it. Generally, the vehicle’s willingness to accept a 450kW 2JZ between the struts is not a box many are looking to tick. This was certainly the case for 21-year-old Grant Paik, who, after one forgettable Subaru B4, was in need of a new daily — something that ticked his…

DRIVELINE GEARBOX: Factory (third box) FLYWHEEL: Standard DIFF: (F) Cusco RS one-way limited-slip, (R) factory limited-slip SUPPORT STRUTS: Custom MCA Red BRAKES: Evo V brake master cylinder, Tilton brake bias; (F) Evo V four-pot Brembo calipers, Endless slotted rotors, Endless pads, Hel braided lines; (R) Evo VII two-pot calipers, Endless slotted rotors, Racefab adapters, Endless race pads, Hel braided lines EXTRA: Five-stud conversion, Hardrace camber arms, Evo IV trailing arms, custom steering arms, custom tie rods SHOES WHEELS: 18x8.5-inch (+38) Evo X Enkei TYRES: (Street) 235/40R18 Falken RT615K+, (track) Hankook Ventus TD semi-slick If your birth date falls somewhere before 1988, and your teen years were spent poring over Hot4s; Fast Fours and Rotaries; and, of course, this very title, then chances are you spent untold weekend nights chasing drag…

In the beginning, Toyota focused on its initial flagship series of vehicles known as the ‘Crown’ — large luxurious sedans that catered for the family. However, the necessity for a smaller car came into play, and the compact substitute for the Crown was born; namely, the Corolla, which translates from Latin into English as ‘little crown’. In recent times, the word ‘Corolla’, which has become a household name, has had many meanings for many people. It can be someone’s memory of their first car; to botanists, the word means ‘petals of a flower’; it was the name for headgear in ancient Roman times. To the people who attended the very first Eight Six / Seventy Meeting held at Evergreen Drift Park, however, their Corollas mean a whole lot more. For…

Almost everything we have today is the product of a pathway paved by those who have come before us. New Zealand’s long-running motorsport history tells us of names that act as pillars within the fraternity to allow the next generation to continue the legacy — the likes of the legendary Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, and Rod Millen. While we all know those names well, there are even more that are lesser known — people putting in the hard yards in the background to cement motorsport as a legitimate pastime, and even profession. Many of those names could be found quietly mingling with the crowd at the Ralph Watson Memorial Day 2019 held on 31 March. An eclectic gathering of historic race cars, automotive finesse, and modified radness, the event is…

NAME: JONO DELEEUW // AGE: 27 LOCATION: AUCKLAND // OCCUPATION: AUTOMOTIVE SALES NZ Performance Car: Hey, Jono. Killer EF. We understand the catalyst for building it had something to do with a memory from your childhood? Jono: Hi, guys. Yeah, that’s right. The first car I ever remember was my mum’s white EF hatch; that was when I was about four. Since then, I’d always had a soft spot for the EF chassis. A lot of my friends own and race Hondas too, and I wanted to get in on that fun. It seemed only natural to hunt down a white EF9 for nostalgia reasons. This one was sitting in a shed in Palmerston North for 10 years with the registration on hold. I purchased it with the idea of…

NAME: MARC RITCHIE // AGE: 33 LOCATION: CHRISTCHURCH // OCCUPATION: SALES REP NZ Performance Car: Hi, Marc. What is it about rotaries that you prefer over a piston motor, and how did you get into them in the first place? Marc: Hey, team. Oh man, everything. The performance, the noise, the flames, what’s not to like? When I saw people getting 450–500kW out of a 13B turbo, it was just crazy to me. A couple of mates had RX-7s back in the day, and I always wanted to get one like them. It’s just a unique-looking car with a unique engine. What was the first rotary you bought? his was actually my first rotary, and I don’t know if I could ever part with it now! That’s a tough bond…

WHEELS / TYRES MAGS, TYRES, WHEEL ALIGNMENTS, WHEEL BALANCING, AND REPAIRS AUCKLAND MTS PERFORMANCE Lowest price guaranteed on wheels, tyres, and suspension mtsp.co.nz / 021 4 TYRES (021 489 737) / 82 Wairau Road, Glenfield ARROW WHEELS NZ’s leading builder, repairer, refurbisher of alloy wheels for 35 years arrowwheels.co.nz / 09 818 8388 / 6D Westech Place, Kelston, Auckland BRUGAR ENGINEERING Mag wheel repair specialists since 1979 magwheelrepairs.co.nz / 09 486 6832 / 7 Barrys Point Road, Takapuna, Auckland WAIKATO WORLD OF TYRES Hamilton’s leading retailer of tyres, wheels, batteries, and wheel alignment servicing worldoftyres.co.nz / 07 847 0330 / 62 Greenwood Street, Frankton, Hamilton TARANAKI TARANAKI TYRETORQUE LTD Taranaki’s leading tyre/mag specialist, providing automotive services and customization tyretorque.co.nz / 06 757 5988 / 53 Molesworth St, New Plymouth WELLINGTON…

Yarns, yarning, talking shit, shooting the breeze, chin wagging, or — as most people with normal decency would call it — talking. Whatever your preferred noun for having a yarn is, there’s no denying that there’s always time to stand in a driveway, on a front lawn, or at the inner doorway of a workshop to have a good old yarn — even if that time isn’t yours to spare (i.e., on the clock); sometimes you just get caught in the yarn and have no choice but to let it run its course. In a job like this, yarning is everything. So, naturally, I like to think that I can handle myself when it comes to getting amongst the yarn, having been asked, and offered, a myriad of subject matter…

After a decade of being tucked into the corner gathering dust at Kelford Cams headquarters in Christchurch, the company’s infamous H-series EG Civic drag car has returned to the strip and claimed a new title and personal bests for the effort. Motivated by Kelford’s Josh Kemp, who was involved with the car when it originally ran some 10 years ago and didn’t want to see it go unused any longer, the team has spent nearly two years revamping the car to become the uncontested quickest and fastest naturally aspirated (NA) frontwheel drive in New Zealand, straight off the trailer! Running the last meet of the season at Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna, the team managed a series of passes with Richard Blenkinsop at the wheel that separately set ET, mph,…

Gbot Instagram? Want print fame on top of all those likes that fly your way each time you post a photo? Want to show us your whip without actually talking to us? Want to see what other readers are up to in their sheds? The answer to all these questions and why these two pages exist lies in the use of the hashtag #nzpc. Search it, use it, and thrash it! We keep a very close eye on it and will be choosing a bunch of hashtagged posts each month to print right here. And that’s not all — the best shot will earn its photographer a little prize for their trouble. So remember, next time you’re gram’n’, use #nzpc.…

Every city, town, and suburb has its own flavour of major event that its population has locked into the calendar and counts down the days towards — whether you’re fizzing to get your hands on a new hay baler at Fieldays, waiting for the national rugby team to play at your stadium, or simply want to get the best spot on the main street for the Santa Parade lolly scramble. However, for the past decade in Feilding, that year-long countdown is all in anticipation of the Manawatu region’s biggest automotive event: the V 4&Rotary North Island Jamboree. The event has become a staple not only for the residents of the small town but for anyone in the surrounding areas who enjoys the smell of petrol, and it regularly draws cars…

ROUND FOUR RESULTS TRACK: PUKEKOHE PARK RACEWAY WHEN: 30-31 MARCH 2019 PRO CLASS 1. ‘FANGA DAN’ WOOLHOUSE, Ford Mustang (Roush Yates D3) 2. DARREN KELLY, Nissan GT-R (RB30) 3. ADAM DAVIES, Nissan 180SX (13B) PRO-SPORT CLASS 1. MICHAEL THORLEY, Nissan C33 (RB25) 2. TAYLOR JAMES, Nissan S14 (RB25) 3. RUSSELL VARE, Nissan S13 (2JZ) TRIPLE CROWN TOURNAMENT RESULTS TRACKS: BAYPARK, WELLINGTON FAMILY SPEEDWAY, AND PUKEKOHE PARK RACEWAY PRO CLASS: DARREN KELLY, NISSAN GT-R (RB30) PRO-SPORT CLASS: MICHAEL THORLEY, NISSAN C33 (RB25) PUKE’S FASTEST Puting the battle tree aside, one of the biggest drawcards of Pukekohe Park Raceway rounds in D1NZ has always been the intense speed that drivers hit into the first initiation. It’s become so synonymous with the track that it’s consistently one of the most watched and attended…

Fierce rivalries among marques fuelled by gigantic budgets has meant that DTM touring car racing has produced some of the best tin-top door-to-door racing on the planet — racing that is set to get even better with the new rules forcing Class 1 teams to abide by strict fuel usage of only 95kg an hour and maximum capacity of 2000cc. This has forced teams to ditch the naturally aspirated (NA) V8s and get more in line with what manufacturers are offering in their road cars. Audi’s — or, more specifically, Audi Sport’s — answer to this is something that had our ears pricking up: a 455kW, turbocharged, four-cylinder, direct-injection monster. A clean-sheet project by Audi Sport, this is no modified production engine; it’s all new, baby. Some 2000 parts were…

BESPOKE TOUCHES The engine bay is no place to get lazy — getting the little things wrong such as the radiator overflow tank can change up the whole aesthetic. Vinny Fab has been making a name for itself in the South Island for precision fabrication work and is now offering its products country-wide, starting with custom radiator overflow tanks. Designed to bolt into factory mounting points, these one-litre units make use of Aeroflow fittings and laser-cut dimple-died brackets to ensure the best performance and a clean aesthetic in your bay. You have the choice of polished aluminium, gloss black, or satin black finish, and they only cost $300! For further information and to purchase, contact the team at Vinny Fab on 03 366 6558. SERVING YOUR NICHE We’ve said it…

MotorSport New Zealand (MSNZ) has announced that a contract has been penned with Touring Car Racing (TCR) global rights holders WSC Ltd to introduce a national series in New Zealand for 2020. Discussions are said to have been going on for a good six months. Developed by former World Touring Car Championship manager Marcello Lotti in 2014 as a cost-effective touring car racing alternative, the format is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. Since its inception in 2015, TCR has amassed four major regional series, including TCR Europe and TCR Asia, plus 15 national series utilizing the TCR regulations as their main rulebook. Closer to home, the first season of the newly created TCR Australia Touring Car Series will commence in May this year, and sources indicate that, once launched here in…

Rallying duo Andy Gillies and Nathan Pilcher have entered the 2019 season of the New Zealand Rally Championship (NZRC) with a car that is not only familiar to NZ Performance Car readers but also to the series itself. Campaigning a Toyota Levin AE85, the Gillies/Pilcher car was formerly owned by Hayden Paddon’s father Chris Paddon. It’s not the only tie-back to the Paddon Motorsport base, either, with Pilcher recently spending time learning from world rally–winning and Paddon codriver John Kennard at the Co-Driver Academy in preparation for the season. The old Toyota saw Gillies and Pilcher cap a solid return with a podium finish in their class at the Otago Rally after only starting two rallies last season before an accident ended their run. The pair now sit third in…

PERFORMANCE POWER: 190kW FUEL: 98 octane TUNER: Glenn Suckling at GDS Automotive The year is 1949. It’s post-war Japan, and a young engineer by the name of Soichiro has just liquidated his second company for what little money he could salvage out of it, all in pursuit of a better future. All Soichiro had dreamed of since being thrilled as a toddler by the sight of the first car in his village was making a difference in the automotive industry. So, with a handful of funds, the promise of a successful venture to two employees, and a determination to produce quality cars, Soichiro — of the Honda family — incorporated a little company you may have heard of: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Fast forward more than half a century to…

1. THE RULE BOOK WAS RE-INKED JUST FOR IT Clearly Formula Drift (FD) organizers are no fools, and they see the electric vehicle (EV) as a new possible revenue stream, as it’s not often that a motorsport sanctioning body will rewrite its rules to allow such a drastic departure from the norm, but that’s exactly what FD has done to allow electric machines to compete — plainly, after Napoleon Motorsports told FD of its plans. Technical director Kevin Wells had this to say: “It also presents a great opportunity to showcase the performance possible from those manufacturers willing to support such a programme.” 2. NOB WAS DRIFTING A TESLA BACK IN 2015 AT D1GP OK, so it was a bone-stock Tesla Model S, and it was only a demonstration run,…

Red is the colour of energy, passion, and action; it excites the emotions and motivates us to make a move. One of the most iconic tuning houses in Japan, Nismo, which, of course, is emblazoned with red, was a mustsee, -touch, and -feel during my time in Japan. There’s no hiding the fact that, for the majority of my automotive-filled life, I have been a Nissan fanboy. I’ve owned countless Skylines, Silvias, Pulsars, Primeras, Stageas, and more in my quest to catch’em all. As a young player, Gran Turismo was my main automotive outlet, as it was for many, and Nismo special-edition vehicles were the spicy tits — in particular, the Nismo 400R R33 GT-R had me weak at the young hairless knees. When planning my trip to Japan with…

If you’ve missed the first two instalments of the 1000-plus horsepower (746-plus-kilowatt) pump-gas SR20DET engine build for Cook Motor Racing (CMR), we suggest that you go back and read those first. For those of you following along, let’s cut to the chase and get right back into it. During the past month, Reg has spent time in Australia with drag racing legend Collin Willshire of Jett Racing — a team that knows how to pull power from four cylinders, given that Collin is the 4G63-powered Eclipse is the quickest four cylinder on the planet. It was the compound turbo set-up the team runs that Reg found the most interesting. Having spent a good few hours chewing over the details of Jett’s set-up and getting his take on the project, Reg…

These days, most of us have one car for everything. A car for the daily commute morphs into the Friday night cruiser which might see the odd session on the track. Your standard insurance policy is designed to cover you when using the car in normal driving circumstances. Using your car on a race track steps outside normal use and most insurers have a blanket exclusion for losses that occur on a race track or if there was any element of competition surrounding the loss. NAC Insurance explains: “This is because use on racetracks usually exposes the vehicle to higher-risk activities such as high speeds, high-speed cornering, and close proximity to other drivers not used to driving their cars at speed.” That doesn’t mean insurers won’t cover you, you just…

Having owned his AE86 for some three years, which includes a week-long stint in the hands of a joy-riding thief, Ken Brennan now has it under the knife for some much-needed surgery. The car was purchased already running a Blacktop 20-valve 4A-GE, with a huffer hanging off the side and an old Link G1 ECU controlling the show, but Ken grew tired of the shoddy wiring work that had been done when a previous owner installed the Link, which was preventing the VVT from engaging. “The turbo was due for an upgrade too, as it was pretty laggy, so I decided to do a new ECU and turbo set-up,” explains Ken. “From there, I figured I may as well go all out. I was going to go for the GTX2860…