Innehållsförteckning för No 278 February 2020 från NZ Performance Car

For most of you, by the time you’re reading this, work/study will be over for the year and summer will be welcoming you with open arms. My summer holidays will involve plenty of methanol, dirt, prepping between races, and heading to the beach with my family. It was 12 months ago exactly that I mentioned I was building an F2 midget and at the time of writing this, I’m fighting through my final issues and about to strap myself in for the first time. So, all going to plan, if you’re heading to the Springs over summer, I’ll expect a hello if you’re passing my pit space. It’s been a testing time trying to piece that damn thing together, and despite the size and seemingly simple design that a midget…

In a ceremony at Automobile Club de France, veteran Kiwi racers Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber were among 29 title winners from the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) inducted into the FIA Hall of Fame. The ceremony celebrated the efforts of world champion endurance racers from around the globe, and the pair joined 33 champions of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship and the 17 winners of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) inducted in the previous two editions. “Endurance racing occupies a special place in the history of motorsport as well as in my heart, and the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans is a major event on the WEC calendar,” FIA president Jean Todt said. “It is, therefore, my greatest pleasure to inaugurate 29 FIA WEC title winners…

Tesla’s Cybertruck has absolutely demoed the Internet for a fortnight, swallowing up nearly all the automotive media outlets with back-to-back stories taking shots at the wild styling, the botched launch event, and the viability of an electric pickup. Regardless of what the loud minority may think about it, there have already been more than 250,000 pre-orders worldwide and the number continues to grow. Kiwis are now among them, with the Tesla New Zealand website having added a Cybertruck portal where buyers can throw down a $200 fully refundable deposit to get into the queue for the 2022-onwards delivery. Three variations are on offer: single-motor rear-wheel drive, dual-motor all-wheel drive, or tri-motor all-wheel drive. The full New Zealand pricing has not yet been confirmed, but the truck’s priced between US$39,900 and…

HEART ENGINE: Billet VR38DET, 3800cc, V6 BLOCK: Custom DMS billet block, Bill Miller Engineering (BME) forged alloy drag rods, Diamond pistons, heavy-duty diamond-coated wrist pins, Bryant billet crankshaft HEAD: DMS drag package, CNC ported heads, custom camshafts, oversized Super alloy valves, heavy-duty valve springs, titanium retainers INTAKE: DMS custom alloy intercooler piping, custom billet / carbon intake manifold, EXHAUST: Custom stainless side-exit TURBO: Garrett GTX5544R Gen II (106mm), DMS stainless exhaust manifold WASTEGATE: Twin 44mm TiAL BOV: Twin Turbosmart Race Port FUEL: Twin MagnaFuel 675 fuel pumps, Walbro 255 pump, custom billet fuel rail, 1700cc primary injectors, 5750cc secondary injectors IGNITION: M&W capacitordischarge, M&W coils, MSD leads ELECTRONICS: MoTeC M150, twin MoTeC PDM, custom race harness COOLING: Custom small radiator, Davies Craig EWP150 EXTRA: Peterson dry-sump pump, Peterson oil tank…

No car goes harder and takes more abuse than the one you don’t own! Whether it’s a rental racer, a company thrasher, or a family loan — as long as your name isn’t scribbled on the ownership papers and your credit card isn’t wearing the repair costs, you’ve got yourself a guaranteed ticket to Good-Times-Ville. Especially in one’s formative years, mechanical sympathy is a phenomenon reserved for the cars that you’ve sunken your own paychecks into, right? People should know by now that from the moment you’re handed keys to a car that you have no vested interest in and you’re out of eyesight, the party is already starting. There are no promises that the poor machine will make it back in one piece, or even back at all. HEART…

Within the linguistic space of our little automotive community, there’s an unassuming three-letter acronym. It simultaneously ignites heated debate and awakens passion and inspiration. Those three letters: RWB. If you’ve pried open these pages, you probably know what RWB is all about. Standing for ‘RAUH-Welt Begriff’ (translated as ‘rough world concept’) it is the brainchild of one Japanese individual: Akira Nakai. In our world, Nakai-san is a superstar. Although the genesis of his craft is in the twin-cam scream of AE86s, it’s his signature modification of air-cooled Porsche 911s that’s escalated man and machine to cult status. It’s a reputation forged over the past couple of decades or so, beginning with his own iconic matte-coated Porsche 911 (930 generation), christened ‘Stella Artois’ (all RWB cars are named) rolling out of…

Getting lost in a big-dollar car build that spans years and swallows the entire contents of your wallet, time and time again, is something that is all well and good if you have the budget and patience, but what if you had limited funds and wanted the entire project to be over in a matter of weeks, not months? That was the brief given to JTune Automotive for our project, code-named ‘Budget Boxer Build’, for which we’d keep the total build cost under $10K and extract as much party power as the factory engine would allow while still holding on to its rods. The project is based around a 2003 Subaru WRX two-litre turbo with 240,000kms on the clock. The plan? To push the power levels to around the 170kW…

NAME: DOMINIC GRIFFIN // AGE: 24 LOCATION: TAURANGA // OCCUPATION: ELECTRICIAN NZ Performance Car: Hi, Dom. Can you recall when you first discovered drifting? Dom: Hey, NZPC. Yeah, I used to go along with mates to a few of those old gymkhana days at Hampton Downs. That would have been the first time I saw drifting in person. What was the drifting scene like at that time? It was much of a muchness as it is now. Pretty casual and easy to get along with everyone, other drifters were and are always really good with helping each other out, which makes it a cool scene to be apart of. The only real thing that’s changed is the power of the drift cars that are around these days. How did you…

Look, there’s no easy way to tell you this; it’s not something that I ever thought would happen to me and I’m at a loss for words. One minute you’re living a healthy, normal life, and the next you wake up to the crushing realization that it’s all going to change. I know this news will be just as crushing to you. However, I hope we can all come to terms with it given some time. I like electric vehicles (EVs). Before I get knocked on the head with a tyre iron and shipped off to a secure ward to be recalibrated, let me explain what I’m talking about. I don’t specifically like the mundane, commuter kind, your plug-in Nissan Leaf or hybrid Prius and so forth; I like the…

Ever since we got our first taste of Red Bull Drift Shifters on the streets of Auckland City back in 2012, we’d been waiting for it to go international. In 2018 it finally did, tearing up the streets of Liverpool in the UK. After our own Gaz Whiter took out the top spot at that event, we’ve been hanging out to get word of what country would next play host to this unique sideways competition. The man behind it, Mad Mike Whiddett, announced last month that thanks to having already undertaken some wild projects there and meeting a heap of rad fans, he is excited to unleash his high-octane pinball event in Herning, Demark! The date is set for 16 May 2020, and a full driver line up has yet…

It may not be NZ Performance Car’s specific rodeo, but if you’re based in the North Island and anything like any of the thousands of people who flood the gate every year, then you’ve grown up with the iconic Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Show. The event has clocked up an impressive 25 years in the game and amassed a cult following unlike any other. Stationed at the Kumeu A&P Showgrounds, where it has been held since day dot, the next incarnation is set to take place over the weekend of 18–19 January 2020. Kumeu promises paddocks and paddocks full of classics, vintages, hot rods, customs, muscles, and pro-tourers. If that wasn’t already enough to get you drooling, there’s a massive swap meet that could very well have that…

18-20 JANUARY 2020 ANIMAL STYLE GP HAMPTON DOWNS MOTORSPORT PARK Since the day it arrived on the drifting scene back in 2009, drift team Animal Style has been known for its aggressive, sharp driving and unparalleled car styling. Representing home-grown US talent, these days Animal Style is a global name in the drifting community, and the team lets its drifting do the talking in countries such as Japan and Australia. Now, thanks to the crew behind the massively successful Pinkstyle GP — D-Club and C’s Garage — the guys from Animal Style will be making their way to our neck of the woods in 2020! Dubbed the ‘Animal Style GP’, the two-day bash will see Animal Style founders Julian Jacobs and Jason Bostrom venture down under to carve their signature…

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We live in one hell of a beautiful country. There’s upwards of 18km2 of land per person on offer and most of that is swarming with wonders that the rest of the world can only dream of having on their doorstep. At the heart of that lushness are the offerings of our southern island, which gets swamped by tourists and is heralded for its mountain ranges; long-spanning plains; rich historic townships; and, most important, one of the biggest weekends on the automotive calendar: the V 4&Rotary South Island Champs! ONE OF THE BIGGEST WEEKENDS ON THE AUTOMOTIVE CALENDAR: THE V 4&ROTARY SOUTH ISLAND CHAMPS! Hosted by the sleepy city of Timaru, what is typically nothing more than a quiet coastal port town on the drive from Christchurch to Dunedin transforms…

NAME: BROOKE BURMESTER // AGE: 20 LOCATION: CHRISTCHURCH // OCCUPATION: SALES NZ Performance Car: Hi, Brooke. Tell us how you got into cars? Brooke: Hey, NZPC. Since I was young, my dad has always had nice cars, motorbikes, and jet skis — basically anything with an engine. So it has always been a part of my life. And what made you want to buy the Golf? I used to own a BMW 120i, which was terrible! I wanted to buy another European car that had a bit more performance and also looked nice. The Golf definitely stuck out in that regard. What was the initial plan after purchasing it? Well, it was going to stay stock and just be my everyday get-around car. There was no intention of modifying it.…

MIDWAY MOTORS’ ENDURANCE 86 In a field of much newer, far bigger-budget cars, Chris Henderson and his Midway Motors LS-powered AE86 were the underdog that delivered a violent attack to its competition in the South Island Endurance Series (SIES). For their efforts, they tucked two championship wins within the one-hour race class under their belt. However, a three-peat wasn’t meant to be, after the car was wrecked in an incident at the start of the 2019 season that saw car and driver barrel rolling down the wall at Teretonga. Unfortunately, the chassis was simply unsaveable, meaning that a complete re-shell was the only way forward. Instead of sticking with the ageing Toyota steel, Chris has chosen to jump forward nearly three decades and transfer all the running gear into a…

Central Otago is set to receive a new gravel hill-climb event thanks to Kiwi rally hero Hayden Paddon. Run by his Paddon Rallysport Group, the Ben Nevis Station Golden 1200 Hillclimb in Cromwell will take place over 7–8 March 2020. It is intended to be a sister event to the iconic Race to the Sky, which Paddon Rallysport is currently working to bring back for 2021. If the famed hill climb does return, the two events will run on alternating years. The hill climb will use 6km of Nevis Road, a remote high-country route between Bannockburn and Kingston, with Ben Nevis Station featuring as the service park and hill-climb start. Each driver will get three runs each day, and the fastest time from each day will count towards the competitor’s…

In a refreshed season opener that saw the D1NZ National Drifting Championship Pro-Sport class run separately from the Pros and hosted at the Drift Matsuri Spring Break, Waiuku drifter Russell Vare claimed a seemingly unlikely win to kick off his 2019–’20 campaign. Going down at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park, Taupo, Vare nearly didn’t make the round after setbacks meant that he was left without a comp car and was forced to step into the driver’s seat of the Matthew Brown–owned Nissan Silvia S15. The pair qualified 9th and 10th respectively in the 20-car field. The shocks hit straight away as series veteran Calvin Clark, who had qualified 16th, knocked out top qualifier Adam Whitehead in the Top 16 battles. Clark went on to battle Vare in the Top 8 but…

Amid pending legal action against its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, who was arrested last year on various financial misconduct charges, and the failing of Ghosn’s successor, Hiroto Saikawa, who stood down after a scandal of his own centred on dubious income, Nissan has appointed a new chief executive: Makoto Uchida. Uchida, who is also Nissan’s president, has been thrown into the hot seat at a time of crisis for Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, with sales and profits tumbling. He told reporters that he will emphasize transparency and work to restore the company’s credibility. He also stressed that the alliance with Renault and smaller Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. must remain strong, with deepening cooperation while respecting each other’s independence “as equal partners”. Analysts say that Nissan has fallen behind in…

Andre Simon is no stranger to these pages, but when a recent yarn with the legendary Kiwi tuner/ex-NZPC tech expert swung towards the ‘good old days’ and the fact that plenty of our younger readers probably didn’t even exist when Andre strapped his first car onto the rollers, we knew it was time for a good ol’ campfire chat. This is a story about exceptionally bad haircuts, burning money on the cutting edge, and finding new callings beyond the soot-stained, sound-proofed walls of a dyno room. NZ Performance Car: What was your first introduction to cars, and what was it that captured your interest at the time? Andre Simon: It’s a little hard to pinpoint a single thing, to be honest. I think I was kind of brought up with…

There are not many companies in the motorsport world that can make ‘win on Sunday and sell on Monday’ happen across a range of motorsport disciplines, but UK-based Prodrive has turned this talent into a way of life. Many of us know the brand for its dominant partnership with Subaru throughout the Group A and WRC eras, and I have always itched to get a look behind the scenes to see how they do business. Recently thanks to Ben Sayer, who heads up public relations for Prodrive, I was given an opportunity to peek behind the curtain of a workshop that has captivated me since I was a child. It has been a good while since Prodrive’s workshops were crammed full of blue Subaru rally cars, but now rather than…

SHOES WHEELS: 18x9.5-inch (+12) Rays TE37 TYRES: Toyo T1 Sports There’s an age when a small amount of freedom and the issuing of a certain plastic card convinces us that we’re completely invincible. Those teenage years make you feel as though you could go anywhere, do anything, and survive to tell the tale. Thankfully for most of the population, there’s usually a pair of sensible parents laying waste to any such ideas that would probably have seen any number of us not making it into our succeeding decade. It’s usually why the first car that we all owned was either a hand-me-down family hauler or the most painfully slow econo-commuter known to humankind, rather than the wildest turbo deathtrap that we could find in the classifieds. But hey, there’s always…

At Paddon Rallysport Group (PRG), the past month has been full on with various motorsport projects on the go at our Highlands Motorsport Park facility. Our core project — New Zealand Electric Vehicle Rally Car 1 (NZEVRC1) — has been making steady progress, particularly as we now focus on the construction of the chassis. Confirming the design of the chassis has been a long process: taking the geometry data from a WRC and AP4 car, and factoring in the completely different weight distribution of an EV car — heavier and all the weight centralized. Using CAD and our new Ansys software we have been able to simulate all scenarios and finalize a design that we are very happy with and excited about. Once the engineers, Matt Barham, Jack Williamson, and…

NAME: JAMES HORNER // AGE: 25 LOCATION: CHRISTCHURCH // OCCUPATION: ENGINEER NZ Performance Car: Hi, James. You’ve owned your fair share of Toyota steel. What made you buy this KE35 and how long have you had it? James: Hey NZPC. I’ve always wanted a KE35. My mate spotted this Deluxe in a paddock and posted photos of it online, but said he wasn’t going to try to buy it. He told me where it was and how much the previous owner wanted. Turns out I had driven past it for ages but never spotted it sitting there. I bought it back in November 2014. What condition was it in when you got it? It was very tidy apart from one side that had damage. It was a one-family car from…