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WHY THE 300ZX IS THE PERFORMANCE BARGAIN OF THE YEAR
STREET-SEEKING
MISSILE
LATERAL PERFORMANCE’S TOTB WINNING IMPREZA IS THE ULTIMATE RACECAR FOR THE ROAD
+EUROPE’S FASTEST
ST205 CELICA GT4 OLD-SCHOOL LANCER TURBO 2000 STANCED & CALI-STYLED MAZDA MX-5 JP’S GUIDE TO CHASSIS TUNING
850BHP 2.35-LITRE EJ22 BOXER
+ totb x special!
10 PAGES OF CARS, ACTION AND RESULTS FROM THE MOST HIGH-OCTANE EVENT ON THE SHOW CALENDAR
TWISTED FIRESTARTER ENGINE ROTATED 90º + TWIN TURBOCHARGED V6 + SEQUENTIAL TRANSMISSION =
JAPAN’S HOTTEST NSX OCT ’11 £4.35 No.129 www.chpltd.com
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untouchable AFTER DECIMATING THE COMPETITION AT THIS YEAR’S TEN OF THE BEST EVENT, THE LATERAL PERFORMANCE IMPREZA SEEMS TO BE AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE. JAPANESE PERFORMANCE GETS UNDER ITS BANANA-YELLOW SKIN TO FIND OUT THE SECRET OF ITS SUCCESS
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e t a r f e r v e e t t n e n B ha t
aw Sh ood t at rw : M he ds an S r Wo s: D Pic
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LL A OT TO N ND ENED AS A W YS APP HE A W T H CE, ... F O RS WI OF S RT E WO UT T AMT O L S TH CE, B DRE L N N A HE ON AYS I E T W OT LW K I A TR E, BU NS, N E'D S N IC LKI R H A N E C EM N WI E CA T FA TH TIA TH OF RIS ITH CH FT W LE
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C
hristian Wilkins is a simple guy. Not that he's a few sandwiches short of a picnic or anything, but more that he has realistic and simple aspirations in life. He's been a part-owner of a carpet warehouse for eight years now – which has more than sorted out his economic situation – he's got a lovely home-life with family and child, and finally, after several years of bad luck on the automotive front, he has the last remaining piece of the puzzle, as he is now the proud owner of the car he has always wanted, yet strangely, never knew existed. Like most of us, Chris got into cars at a young age. The countless posters of supercars and hot hatches that were sprawled across his walls sucked him in and got him hooked on cars like a heroin addict
needing just one more fix. We aspire to own them, drive them and generally lavish all of our attention on them. Which is fine… in theory. But what the posters and glossy advertisements don't tell you, however, is that cars take money, bruised knuckles, and can be the biggest ball-ache of your life. Christian is a severe sufferer of this addiction, and after growing up through the ranks of the blue oval brigade, from various Escorts to an XR2, an RS Turbo – and then the pinnacle of fast Fords – a Sapphire Cosworth, Christian felt like he had earned his stripes and could finally move on from the vice-like grip that is performance cars and get himself something sensible. But sadly, it was far too late for that, as his automotive addiction had taken hold.
The Lancer owes its improved handling prowess to a suspension setup from a Mk2 Escort. The Escort springs are a perfect match for the mitsi being shorter and stiffer than the factory items
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yer an Good k Words: D Wallban s ri h C Photos:
Insane
FORMER RALLY CHAMPION BUILDS A WORLD CLASS SPRINTER – THE FASTEST CELICA GT4 IN THE UK
Bolt ‘We were using an uprated Fensport dog-engagement gearbox which is capable of handling up to 650bhp, but we were asking it to cope with a lot more power than it was designed for. now we have switched to a MakTraK sixspeed dog ‘box with a Geartronics paddle-shift system. This uses an airoperated ram to change gears, cutting the engine, selecting the gear and re-starting the engine much quicker than is possible manually.’
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Y
ou only have to look at Jonny Milner’s Celica to know it’s special. Wrapped in a retina-stinging bright orange vinyl wrap, front splitter scooping up the tarmac, it just looks mean. From any angle it looks like the kind of bigwinged beast you’d see taking on the Pikes Peak hillclimb or perhaps the German DTM Touring Car Championship. There’s a very good reason for this visual similarity. As, like those racecars, the collection of wings and diffusers on Jonny’s ST205 Celica combine with a flatfloor to produce real ground effect or ‘downforce’. Of course, the aero package is merely the tip of a huge power and performance iceberg. At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, former double British Rally Champion Jonny Milner drove his Celica up the famous hillclimb faster than any other racecar at the event. A great way to celebrate the 40th birthday of the Toyota Celica. His fastest time of 48.07secs earned Jonny the coveted Tag Heuer Award, and the respect of everyone who witnessed the car in action.
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The short wheelbase version of the 300zx has always been the looker of the family, but with the addition of the Z Centre’s wide arch kit, it could now stand alongside genuine supercars with pride. The kit is available through the Z Centre as a complete kit or as individual panels to allow you to mix-and-match for a unique custom look
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Nissan’s forgotten muscle car Pics: Words & ood w r e Dan Sh
IT MAY NOW BE OVERSHADOWED BY ITS MORE MODERN STABLEMATES, BUT THE 300ZX TWIN TURBO IS STILL A CAR WITH SERIOUS PERFORMANCE POTENTIAL. JAPANESE PERFORMANCE TRACKED DOWN TWO STUNNING EXAMPLES TO PROVE IT
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Twisted
Firestarter BY TURNING THE ENGINE AROUND 90º AND ADDING TWIN TURBOS, JAPANESE TUNER ESPRIT HAS BUILT AN NSX THAT’S READY TO SET THE TIME ATTACK SCENE ALIGHT
To stop from such insane speeds, Esprit has equipped the NSX with 355mm Endless discs all round with huge six-pot calipers at the front and meaty Brembo four-pot calipers at the rear. Endless race spec pads all round ensure the Honda’s stopping power is verging on vicious
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n sherwood shaw & Da y miskelly, fl Words: matt on sim erwood, Pics: dan sh
Ten
X
of the
Best
NOW CELEBRATING ITS TENTH EVENT, THE UK’S MOST POWERFUL CARS ONCE AGAIN WENT HEAD-TO-HEAD AT ELVINGTON’S ACTION-PACKED TEN OF THE BEST X SHOWDOWN
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ack in 2002, the biggest and best all round motorsport event ever opened its doors to the fastest modified metal in the UK. Now, some nine-years later and with a special anniversary to celebrate, the Japanese Performance and Competition Clutch sponsored Ten Of The Best X competition was as fierce as ever. Once again, the show was broken down into a two-day format, with a test ‘n’ tune day on the Saturday and the main event on the Sunday. However, as an added incentive to really go for it on the opening day, the fastest runners were granted ‘Golden Tickets’, which entitled them entry into Sunday’s showdown. It turned out to be both the hottest weekend of the year and one of the hottest TOTB shows we can remember. As ever, the crowned king of the event would be undisputed, after taking on three gruelling disciplines it takes something special to come out on top, and it just goes to show that anyone can enter the competition, but only a few can tame the handling course, the quarter mile and the standing kilometre events to take the title overall. Many stuck to their specialist events in the hope that shaving precious seconds from their time or adding just one more mph would be enough to catapult them to the top of the leaderboard. In years gone by, perhaps this would have been enough, but this year, whoever would take the title of overall champion needed to excel at all three challenges, with no weak links in the chain. In the end, the title fell to just such a combination of man and machine, a man who, with the help of his big yellow banana, became the best at Ten Of The Best X.
SPONSoReD BY
PREMIUM NCE PERFORMA PARTNERS www.japaneseperformancemagazine.co.uk
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SupraMan Words & Pics: Dan Sherwood
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WHETHER IT’S TIME ATTACK, DRAG RACING OR TOP-FLIGHT SALOON RACING, IF YOU OWN A TOYOTA SUPRA AND WANT IT TO GO MUCH, MUCH FASTER, THERE’S ONLY ONE MAN TO SEE…
K
nown as one of the UK’s most prolific Supra tuners, 38-year-old Paul Whiffin of Enfield-based Japanese specialists Garage Whifbitz, is a man who doesn’t like to shout about his achievements, but instead prefers the cars themselves to do the talking. So, when he dropped us a line saying that his road-going Supra demo car had just made a ‘conservative’ 1178bhp on the rollers, we were more than a little keen to have a chat with Paul to find out exactly what lies beneath that cool exterior and how a small premises in Enfield can consistently turn out some of the most powerful cars in the country. ‘Before I got into Japanese cars I was working at Minispares, a company specialising in parts for the old classic Minis,’ laughs Paul. ‘I did the whole Mini thing for quite a while, and eventually started up my own business, exporting the tiny classic Minis abroad.’ But it wasn’t until Paul came across the Toyota Supra that his interest in modifying Japanese machinery really took hold. ‘In 2000, I imported a Supra from Japan for my own personal use and just started off modifying it how I wanted it to be,’ explains Paul. ‘Back then tuning parts for the car were much scarcer and the choices limited,
especially when it came to styling, so I made my own custom bumpers and took moulds from them and started selling them as a new kit. They did really well.’ Around the same time, Paul set up Whifbitz (now called Garage Whifbitz), which was mainly a car import business specialising in importing cars from Japan. ‘I used to bring in all sorts, from Evos and Imprezas to Civics and RX-7s, but as I got more and more into the Supra scene with my own car, I got a reputation for finding the best Supras, and towards the end of the import business, Supras made up the majority of what I was bringing in. They were easy to sell and were in big demand at the time.’ However, with the economic crisis hitting home, the import market just isn’t what it used to be, with the strong Yen meaning cars are almost twice the price that they were just a few years ago. With this in mind, Paul axed the car imports and focused on tuning and parts, and through this various exploits in the UK Time Attack series, and more recently in the Euro Saloon Series, he has developed an extensive range of own-brand parts that have been proven on both road and track. ‘We’ve got just about everything you
could need to tune a Supra, but we’re just as capable at tuning other models too, such as Skylines, Imprezas and Evos,’ says Paul. ‘One of our coolest products at the moment is the twin-scroll turbo kits that use the new Borg Warner turbos. They’re an amazing kit and for around £4k, they really add a serious hit to the Supra’s straight six.’ With tons of other products already available – such as titanium exhausts and Whifbitz’s own cams and pulleys – and new ones being developed all the time, Paul is looking to expand his specialism to include the Nissan GT-R, but still feels his main income will be from Supras for quite some time to come. ‘The Supra is still such a capable car,’ Paul explains. ‘For very little money and very little effort, you can bolt on a handful of mods and achieve a 600bhp car that’s as reliable as your Mum’s Ford Focus. There really isn’t much else out there like it that can take such abuse and make such big figures with relative ease. I still don’t think we’ve reached the limit yet either, and ours is now running 1178bhp on Shell pump fuel at just 1.9bar of boost.’ And if that’s not a reason to seriously consider owning a slice of Toyota’s favourite supercar, then I don’t know what is JP
For more info about the company, the available products and Paul’s incredible car, check out garagewhifbitz.co.uk
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