Innehållsförteckning för No 276 December 2019 från NZ Performance Car

Anyone who has perused the pages of this magazine over the years will undoubtedly know that I have an obsession with workshop spaces. To me, this is almost as important as the projects that reside within, and I think you can tell a lot about a person by the shed they keep. It’s something that has dictated the living situation for my ever-supportive partner and me every time that we’ve shifted. I’ve been lucky to have had some pretty special workshop spaces over the years, from the Kerikeri party pad, complete with garden bar and huge gravel skidpad, to the Remuera mansion where I soda blasted and painted shells — much to the neighbourhood’s dismay — to our Penrose shop, where I built the rotary E36. When building the Penrose…

When is one bigger and better than two? When two of the biggest wheel designers and manufacturers merge to become one. Wheel Pros and MHT Wheels have combined to become the largest automotive aftermarket wheel platform in the world, meaning double the experience, double the design power, double the impact — forging the way forward (pun intended). Under the Wheel Pros banner, the newly formed conglomerate — along with our own DTM Wheel & Tyre Ltd — will continue to boast all your favourite brands: Dub, Foose, Fuel, Niche, Rotiform, US Mags, KMC, XD, Asanti, American Racing, Moto Metal, Helo, Motegi Racing, and a whole lot more. Celebrating 30 years in the business this year, DTM Wheel & Tyre Ltd continues to be the New Zealand distributor for Wheel Pros,…

While the annual main-island party that is the 4&Rotary South Island Champs was announced as a reduced two-day banger for 2019 (over 16–17 November), seeing the traditional Saturday track day–and–Sunday show day format switched to the show on Saturday and track day on Sunday, we’ve received word that a third day has just been added. Open to all pre-’90s Japanese cars, along with all rotary-powered cars, Friday, 15 November will be known as ‘Japfest’ and go down at Timaru International Motor Raceway. All competitor and spectator entries will be administered at the gate, so you won’t need to pre-register, and there’s no risk of missing out on a spot, as long as you get there early enough! Gates will open at 10.30am, with the track live between 11.30am and 5pm.…

When someone reckons that they’re going to slap together a hack build in the shed, it brings with it a certain set of expectations. First, this is a car that’s going to have the wheels absolutely thrashed off it, right? The priorities generally lie somewhere in the zone of function above all else. The art of dealing to countless pairs of tyres in the name of drifting seems to provide many with the perfect excuse to build a thrasher. Realistically, to slay a few innocent treads, the requirements are fairly simple: ample grunt under the right foot, a satisfactory chassis set-up, and a few bits and pieces in the name of safety. Looks? She’ll be right — the bumpers are gonna be hanging off or in a billion pieces by…

The wise Keiichi Tsuchiya once said, “What is power without control?”; when it comes to boosted applications, the wastegate is front and centre in the fight on over-boosting. So, why is something so integral to the performance and reliability of the boost system often the last concern during the design process? Your turbo has an insatiable appetite for spent exhaust gases; left unchecked, it would consume everything, including your engine’s internals. The wastegate’s job is to keep your turbo in check. It does this by bleeding off exhaust gas pressure over and above a set psi to avoid over-boosting. This psi is set first and foremost by the spring located inside the gate, held in a sealed cavity between the flexible diaphragm and the top cap. The exhaust pressure inside…

NAME: ETHAN LOWE // AGE: 29 // LOCATION: AUCKLAND OCCUPATION: OWNER, HI-POWER PERFORMANCE NZ Performance Car: Hi, Ethan. Is this the first AE86 you’ve owned, and what was it about the 86 specifically that made you want to buy it? Ethan: Hey, NZPC. Yep, this is the first one I’ve owned. Ever since my mate Charlie imported it for himself, I had wanted to own it. I liked the fact it’s a notch and not hatch, and it was bloody tidy. It’s only done 117,000[km] total and is a legitimate AE86, not a converted 85. You have a bit of a connection with this 86 through your Hi-Power Performance workshop, right? Yeah; it actually started around four years ago, before I had the shop. We rebuilt the motor in [Charlie’s]…

DREW COPPINS’ F20B CIVIC Setting goals and achieving them ain’t always a straight-cut process. Drew Coppins admits that, for him, it usually means being the guy who fluffs around and never really commits to a project, let alone one single car, for any longer than five minutes. However, when 2019 rolled around, Drew set himself a few serious goals, one of which was to start a project car and commit to it. The plan was always going to be building something outside that box that didn’t require huge amounts of customization. Having picked up a super-tidy, low-kilometre 1993 Honda Civic EG5 (New Zealand–new GTi), Drew, along with JP from R Developments, put together a foolproof plan of attack that would make use of an F20B. Sourced from an Accord SiR-T,…

It’s not often that an experience pushes me into an angry rant; in most of those circumstances, it’s simply a case of gritting my teeth and letting it go. But when that same experience occurs day in, day out, and seems to be localized solely to the place you live, it’s hard to ignore forever. I’m talking about people pissing around at traffic lights. Why Aucklanders have such an issue with paying attention when stopped at traffic lights is beyond me. It’s a very straightforward task that so many continue to fail at actioning. When the lights are red, you stop — although this first step seems to be hard enough for some — and wait behind the allocated line, watching for the light to change to green, then promptly…

Since the day it came onto the drifting scene back in 2009, Drift Team Animal Style has been known for its aggressive, sharp driving and unparalleled car styling. Representing homegrown US talent, these days, Animal Style is a global name in the drifting community, letting its drifting do the talking in countries such as Japan and Australia. The team has caught the attention of the drifting greats and picked up tricks from the best, the likes of Naoki Nakamura and Team Burst. Now, thanks to the team behind the massively successful Pinkstyle GP, which saw Naka himself grace our shores back in 2017 — D-Club and C’s Garage — the guys from Animal Style will make their way to our neck of the woods in 2020! Dubbed the ‘Animal Style…

26-27 OCTOBER WAIMATE 50, WAIMATE Clocking up a whopping 60 years, the Waimate 50 has become one of the most iconic motorsport events in the country. Each year, thousands descend on the small South Canterbury town of Waimate, a tradition spanning back to 1959 when a young Bruce McLaren went on to win the 50-lap around-the-houses street race. This year’s incarnation will go down between 25 and 27 October (Labour weekend) and promises a series of toptier motorsport names, including the likes of Hayden Paddon, ‘Fanga Dan’ Woolhouse, and Kenny Smith, among the many drivers who flock from all over to get in on the tight and unforgiving 1.3km Waimate Street Circuit. It’s a race in which the spectators are able to get close enough to the madness to taste…

HEART ENGINE: Toyota 1JZ-GTE VVT-i, 2492cc, straight-six BLOCK: Factory HEAD: Factory INTAKE: Elwood Parts billet plenum, 90mm throttle body, custom Bespoke Fab intercooler with Plazmaman 100mm core, Bespoke Fab three-inch intercooler piping EXHAUST: Bespoke Fab four-inch stainless-steel turbo-back system, custom resonator TURBO: Holset HX40, billet core; Hypertune twin-scroll manifold WASTEGATE: Twin Turbosmart Gen V Hyper-Gate45, Bespoke Fab bonnetvented screamer FUEL: Walbro in-tank pump, E85-rated braided lines and fittings, Turbosmart fuel-pressure regulator (FPR) IGNITION: VAG coil packs, Cooper plugs ECU: Haltech Elite 2000 COOLING: Fenix twin-core radiator Peel back the endless layers that make up the trials and tribulations of a ground-up build the likes of which you’ll find on these pages, and you’ll see they always follow a pretty straightforward equation, an equation that dictates exactly how far things will…

The year was 2009, and a new style of grip racing that focused on all-out, balls-to-the-wall single laps was emerging out of Japan. It was a fast-paced, edge-of-yourseat type of racing that shunned traditional circuit racing and inspired a whole new generation of racers to pick up a helmet. It was something that the import guys could call their own and a sport that others didn’t seem to understand. Although, for those in the know, like Auckland’s Leon Scott, it was the dawn of something special. Leon was what you’d call an early adopter, and his Evo VII was one of the first Time Attack builds New Zealand had seen. “When I first built my car, no one knew what Time Attack was or cared for it very much,” recalls…

Crack open the high-security storage vault that is more commonly referred to as your home garage and dig through that series of ‘strategically’ arranged piles, and you’ll no doubt find more than your fair share of parts that date back to a car that you owned five or more examples ago. For the seasoned car enthusiast, no part is ever wasted, because there’s always that niggly thought in the back of your head that says you might need it one day. While this usually relates to small items — an old steering wheel, a spare set of tyres, or the likes of engine-bay components that aren’t model specific — on some occasions, it can mean hoarding away a special set of rollers that you’d simply never find again, your favourite…

Borrowed car, slammed, 215s — that doesn’t sound like the normal combo for taking the top spot in a competition event in this day and age, right? But Sheldon Kneale managed to do just that with a brilliant drive to pull off the win in round two of the 2019–’20 Drift South series. Kneale hadn’t fared so well in round one, being the one coming off worst in a multi-car incident, writing off his beloved long-serving 180SX. However, thanks to fellow Team Gusto member lending his RB25 Cefiro, Kneale managed to qualify second, before bagging the top spot overall to keep his championship hopes alive. For round two, a shift to the faster section of Ruapuna proved a challenge, as the drivers took some time to get their heads around…

When you’ve been involved in an accident or found your car/motorbike stolen, it’s fairly stressful. That’s why the team at NAC Insurance aims to make the claims process as easy as possible for you. So that you can understand exactly how the claims process works, and what information you’ll need, we’re breaking it all down right here. NAC CLAIMS PROCESS If something has happened to your vehicle, please call NAC as soon as you can on 0800 501 508. Your claims handler will ask for any information needed to get repairs underway, or take you through what happens if your vehicle is deemed a total loss. NAC will assess your claim. If your claim is approved, NAC will either: — arrange for the repair with an approved repairer or someone…

He told us it was his favourite event back in Issue No. 268 of NZPC, and now Kiwi rally driver Mike Young has claimed the top spot at the penultimate round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), Rally Hokkaido. Mike ended the two-day event with a massive 7min 18s lead over his nearest competitor, piloting the new Cusco-built Toyota TRD C-HR on its rallying debut, and was the quickest across all 16 stages. “It’s really, really awesome to have the win on debut with the C-HR — it couldn’t have gone any better,” the 26-year-old said. “Having done three days of testing with the car, I knew what it was like — that it was strong. All I had to do was to concentrate on my job and, most importantly,…

For the first time since the event’s inception, the World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC) will see a factory-backed entry thanks to Hyundai. Set to compete in the Clubsprint Class during the weekend of 18–19 October, Hyundai will field an i30 Fastback N that has been modified by Hyundai Australia’s product-development team, with assistance from the brand’s high-performance team in Korea. The car cops a couple of parts from the i30 N Project C, while the power train has been upgraded with a bigger snail and intercooler and retuned to suit. Gone is most of the interior in the name of weight saving. Even though the class restricts the aero quite heavily, Dr Sammy Diasinos, the man responsible for the outright WTAC 2018–winning RP968 Porsche aero package and a former Formula…

The powers behind the national drifting championship, D1NZ, have confirmed a major broadcasting deal with Sky Sport that will see the series live-streamed on TV for the first time. Announced earlier this month, the deal will see the full SpeedWorks Events calendar exclusively broadcast to New Zealand audiences. The deal extends to all five rounds of D1NZ, including stand-alone dates that are not under the SpeedWorks banner. The broadcasts will feature highlights from qualifying followed by the Top-32 competition. If you miss the live broadcast, you can catch up on all the goodness via Sky Sport and the Sky Sport Now app.…

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Since the birth of motorsport in this country, timed sprint events have held a significant place in the competition scene. On any given weekend, in any given corner of the country, chances are there’s a MotorSport New Zealand (MSNZ)–sanctioned ClubSport event happening. For those outside the organized car club community, bar the odd resident affected by road closures, most events of this status take place without so much as a mention, largely leaving the weekend warrior to race the clock for a fleeting moment of glory and not much else. The Ashley Forest Rallysprint has always been a little different. For 40 years, the undulating 1.7km gravel loop nestled in the pinecovered hills outside Rangiora has proved a hit with drivers and spectators alike. From the event’s inception, it has…

FIVE — SUSPENSION TUNING No matter how much power you’re making, it’s no good if you can’t put it all to the ground. Before even replacing anything, small adjustments in suspension alignment for things like toe, castor, or camber can make a huge impact. Shop around for a good alignment tech who knows his race craft. Replacing any wornout bushes will transform the handling before having to worry about shelling out cash for things like upgraded spring rates and shocks valved to suit your driving discipline. Cheap coilovers are rarely the key to quicker laps. Upgrading piece by piece is a great way to measure the improvements. FOUR — ROTATING MASS While we will touch on weight reduction later, rotating mass in particular is worth its own mention, as it…

NAME: JAINIT KNIGHT // AGE: “YOUNG ENOUGH” // LOCATION: AUCKLAND OCCUPATION: IAG BUSINESS INSURANCE CONSULTANT NZ Performance Car: Hi, Jainit. Tell us what made you want to buy an Evolution and how long you’ve owned this one. Jainit: Hey, NZPC. Owning an Evo X was a high-school dream for me, so onwards from there it became a goal to purchase one of my own. It was things like reading NZ Performance Car since I was 12, and 2 Fast 2 Furious, that really made me want an Evo. I was fortunate enough to be in a position to do that four years ago, and have owned this one since then. Did you own Evos before this? No, I have not owned any Evos before this one. My previous cars have…

DEGLAZE With summer rolling in hard and fast, up your photo game with a B+W XS-Pro Circular Polarizer MRC Nano Filter. This product helps to reduce reflections and glare, resulting in a noticeable increase in the saturation of skies and foliage, as well as clearer imagery when photographing in hazy conditions. The Multi-Resistant Coating (MRC) is both an antireflection coating and a protective surface. It also includes an additional eighth layer over the regular MRC, which results in a better beading effect with water for greater cleaning efficiency. You’ll even be able to see objects and people behind surfaces, such as shop windows and car windshields. These filters range in price from $135 to $319 and can be found at aucklandcamera.co.nz. BASS KICK With a no-holds-barred approach to design and…