Preview: NZ Performance Car Issue No. 252

R E F L A S H I N G

Y O U R

F A C T O R Y

E C U

F O R

M A X I M U M

G A I N S

10-second Volvo arse-kicking RS Legacy boosted BMW DIY surge tank

le- k, p i r t bac s ’ e k i X-8 is ever M d Ma tor R than ro dder ba

Driving THE ART OF

ISSUE

MUSCLE GARAGE

252

K A N S A I A L L S TA R S

E V E RY S U N DAY O N

$10.99

INCL. GST

9

416803 800821

DEC. 2017

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

“WITH DRIFTING, EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN DRIFTING STYLE, THEIR OWN PERSONALITY, AND IT ALL SHOWS THROUGH THE BUILDS, THAT’S WHY I LIKE TO DO EVERYTHING OURSELVES, AND THAT LEADS TO MY OWN STYLE OUT ON TRACK”

18

ENDURING WONDER MAD MIKE’S RX-8 REDEFINED

42

SUNDAY SILVIA SESSIONS

28

ARSE KICKER

INSIDE TJM

SAVAGE RS LEGACY

HIDDEN THRILLER BOOSTED BMW E30

50

2

themotorhood.com

QUICK BRICK TEN-SECOND VOLVO SLEEPER

66

CONTENTS

60

56

006 EDITORIAL 008 ED. TEAM CHATTER 010 NEWS 040 SUBSCRIBE AND RECEIVE 074 WEEKEND WARRIOR 082 CRUISE MODE 092 NEW PRODUCTS 094 UNDER CONSTRUCTION 096 GIG GUIDE 098 DRAG TIMES 100 DAILY DRIVEN 102 LOCAL SPECIALISTS 104 WHAT’S COMING NEXT MONTH

76

84

056 ANTISURGING OCTANE 060 HIDDEN POWER 076 LET THE BATTLE COMMENCE 084 FIAT NINJA DESIGN AND BUILD YOUR OWN SURGE TANK

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF ECU REFLASHING

ROUND ONE OF DRIFT SOUTH

KAWASAKI NINJA–POWERED FIAT BUILD

34 THE ART OF DRIVING KANSAI ALL STARS 2017

4

themotorhood.com

78

The 10-Second Man

adly, last month we lost a legend of the New Zealand import–drag racing fraternity.

Arnie Nguyen was a pioneer of the sport here in New Zealand, and was a bigger influence on the local guys than he may ever have realized. His infamous peach-coloured 13B turbo–powered S1 RX-7 and, later, his S6 FD RX-7 were hero cars for many. The stuff Arnie was doing in the late ’90s and early 2000s really helped propel the local scene forward, and when he eventually ran the first ever 10-second pass with an import car on our shores, clocking off a 10.9 at 121mph during the Outlaw Drags at Meremere in 2000, he cemented his place in the history books.

Later on, the car came back out with a wild Kiwi-RE 13B package, and many of you will remember his Armco-tapping antics at the 4&Rotary Nationals. He would drop his PB to 10.74.

Arnie was also the man behind the wheel of Jonah Lomu’s R34 GT-R, and, behind the scenes, he played a pivotal role in the fabrication and running of many top cars, right up to this day.

It’s likely that Arnie didn’t realize the impact that he had on the wider community, and the lasting impression he left on us all.

Rest easy, Arnie. You will be missed by everyone, and our condolences go out to your family.

16

themotorhood.com

Arnie’s ‘Peachy’ S1 RX-7 ran a S5 13B, which made 194kW thanks to a T04 Garrett. The car won the ’98 Nationals and ran low 12s

Contract stipulations meant that Jonah Lomu was not allowed to race his own R34 GT-R. The man he trusted to take his place was Arnie, who was probably half the size of the All Black

The car that really put Arnie on the map was his S6 FD RX-7. At the time, no one was building cars of this calibre, and Arnie replicated an infamous FD from the US. The TV51R, GReddy drag intercooler, extra injectors, and A’PEXi Power FC netted a massive (for the time) 336kW at the rear wheels.

The FD became the first import to run a 10-second pass on New Zealand soil

Arnie was a long-time crew member for the Heat Treatments race team and its world-recordsetting R32 GT-R

In later years, Arnie worked at ST Hi-tec as a tuner, and played a big part in its team

28

themotorhood.com

1989 SUBARU LEGACY RS

OVER A DECADE IN THE MAKING, DUNCAN WISEMAN’S RS LEGACY IS KEEPING THE ’80S ALIVE AND PROVING THAT OLD DOGS CAN HAVE A FEW NEW TRICKS UNDER THE BONNET WORDS: JADEN MARTIN PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

here was a late entry into the midsize sedan field nearly three decades ago, in 1988. Back then, models were often tarred with the mundane brush in terms of both function and form, and while this era also saw rogue design teams within Japanese automakers produce, on occasion, versions of these cars that were pumped full of performance goodness and techno-wizardry, those tended to be more sporadic fits of passion, homologation specials, or technological showcases than ultimate driver’s cars.

By contrast, the subject of this feature was almost the opposite. The model was plunged into a deadly serious rallying campaign straight out of the womb, got overhauled as the premier model for one of the most revered factory racing-development departments of the time, and saw more performance development throughout its short lifespan than its competitors enjoyed over the course of decades. Better yet, beyond all the factory hype and rallying prestige, it forged a strong and now eternal presence in our local scene. Yep, we’re talking about the humble Subaru Legacy RS. Duncan Wiseman salvaged this particular RS from the inevitable scrap heap it was destined for by its previous owner over 10 years ago. “I bought it for 500 bucks, so that should tell you what condition it was in at the time, as it was rotting away in a storage yard. Its only modification was a badly fitted BOV and no air filter, and it wasn’t running,” he says. “A bit of head-scratching later, and we figured out [that] it had jumped a few teeth. Once I reset that, it jumped into life.”

driving A DRIFTING SHOWCASE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER — KANSAI ALL STARS

34

themotorhood.com

WORDS AND PHOTOS: KEISUKE NAGASHIMA

The Art of the art of

couple of months back, we had the pleasure of hosting the two best drifters, Naoki Nakamura and Miki Takagi, on our shores for the D Club GP x C’s Garage Pink Style GP, and, if you were lucky, you witnessed their talents behind the wheel, which are nothing short of amazing. You may also have seen the article in NZ Performance Car Issue No. 249 that mentioned they are both from the Kansai region in Japan. But what you won’t have read is that most drivers from the region are just as wild and aggressive, and possess that same ridiculously high level of driving talent — something which is overwhelmingly obvious at the region’s biggest event of the year — Kansai All Stars.

Each of the seven prefectures within the Kansai region — Osaka, Nara, Hyogo, Kyoto, Shiga, Mie, and Wakayama — fields a 17-car team. Each prefecture and driver feeds off the other to eventually be crowned winner of Kansai All Stars. But

what’s truly different about this competition is the format. It’s not your standard D1-type competition in which the drivers need to qualify before jumping into tandem runs. Instead, all competitors are judged on individual runs, known as tan-sou.

This allows the drivers to focus on pushing their driving to the absolute limit, taking the right lines to drive as fast as they can.

They are divided into groups of eight cars, with one group being a class for female drivers, and the top-three drivers of each group advancing to the next leg until a final three-car showdown at the end of the day.

Alongside the main competition, there is also the bestteam prefecture competition, which they call Team Dantai.

This is where each prefecture chooses its best five drivers to drift in a team, with the aim of showing the best and most exciting drift-train performance, which typically ends up with wheels rubbing and bumpers flying!

INSIDE THE SILVIA STRONGHOLD OF TEAM JENKINS MOTORSPORT WORDS: MARCUS GIBSON PHOTOS: RICHARD OPIE

ucked away deep within a semi-suburban South Auckland estate is definitely the last place you’d expect to find a race workshop stacked to the hilt with Silvias, but that’s exactly where brothers Troy and Ben Jenkins, aka Team Jenkins Motorsport (TJM) ply their drift trade. The family home is not 50m from the shed, but clearly the Jenkins parentals are supportive of their sons’ activities, allowing their property to act like some kind of drift halfway house, often hosting international drivers and their cars or travelling New Zealand teams.

Like all good race shops, it’s somewhat low-key from the exterior, with the only external clue of what lies within the converted farm buildings the mountain of destroyed Jinyus poking out from behind the shed.

The property was previously home to a prominent speedway family, who first converted the farm sheds to a race workshop — so the muffled bark of SRs and RBs would be a pleasant change of volume for the surrounding neighbours, compared with the previous sounds of roaring V8 speedway machines.

42

themotorhood.com