NZPC 259 20180528 preview

CUTTING LAP TIMES WITH AERO GT1 FC RX-7

SLOAN COX INTERVIEW DIY WELDING GUIDE

259 ISSUE

$10.99 INCL. GST

JUL. 2018

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416803 800821

CONTENTS

14 PICKUP ARTIST

FAULTLESS B2000 WITH TROPHY-SNATCHING DETAIL

S A H T T C E J O THA R P G E R B N I A O E ETH D T AT Y 0 S 1 D SOMTENDETLY TH ’ U EM STLE ER IN XAC R I W WRE NEV TO E N WARSFECT I PE

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30 CAN’T STOP,

CROSSING OVER

WON’T STOP

SLOAN COX: TAKING ON THE EUROPEANS AT RALLYCROSS

GRANT WALKER’S DAILY SQUAD

SURVIVING THE PLUNGE

UNDER THE SKIN OF A GT1 RX-7

46 66 BEST SERVED COLD AN EVO BUILT FOR REVENGE

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CONTENTS

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004 EDITORIAL 006 ED TEAM CHATTER 008 NEWS 012 GIG GUIDE 038 SUBSCRIBE AND RECEIVE 072 CRUISE MODE 074 POWER PLANT 080 WEEKEND WARRIOR 086 P’CAR BABE 088 INDUSTRY INSIDER 090 NEW PRODUCTS 092 KILLER CONCEPT 094 SPECIAL BUILD 096 DAILY DRIVEN 098 UNDER CONSTRUCTION 100 DRAG TIMES 102 LOCAL SPECIALISTS 104 WHAT’S COMING NEXT MONTH

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040 FLOW FORM 054 GET YOUR WELD ON 060 ALL HAIL THE KING 082 GRAVEL SPRAY IN THE REI CUTTING YOUR LAP TIMES WITH AERO

ADVICE TO SET UP YOUR OWN WELDING STATION AT HOME

CROWNING THE 2018 D1NZ DRIFT KING

2018 INTERNATIONAL RALLY OF WHANGAREI

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STRAIGHT CHILLIN’

THE TINT SHOP SHOW AND SHINE themotorhood.com

A LIFETIME LOVE AFFAIR WITH UTES HAS LED TO THE BUILD OF THE CLEANEST B2000 YOU’LL EVER LAY YOUR EYES ON

WORDS: MARCUS GIBSON PHOTOS: ADAM CROY

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WE SIT DOWN WITH WITH TALENTED WHEELMAN SLOAN COX TO TALK RALLYING IN NEW ZEALAND AND PURSUING RALLYCROSS ON AN INTERNATIONAL STAGE WORDS: JADEN MARTIN PHOTOS: RX ACADEMY, NZPC ARCHIVE

NAME: SLOAN COX

AGE: 26 HOMETOWN: ROTORUA, NEW ZEALAND CURRENTLY BASED: RX ACADEMY, FINLAND DISCIPLINES: RALLY, RALLYCROSS, HILL CLIMB ACHIEVEMENTS: 2010 NEW ZEALAND JUNIOR RALLY CHAMPION, 2011/’12 NZ HILLCLIMB CHAMPION, 2016 NEW ZEALAND JUNIOR RALLY CHAMPION, 3RD OVERALL LEADFOOT 2017, 2ND OVERALL LEADFOOT 2018 RECORDS: THE ASHLEY FOREST RALLYSPRINT — 55.3S VEHICLES: RENAULT CLIO RS RX, TASLO ENGINEERING HILLCLIMB EVO, GROUP N EVO X, EX–DEAN SUMNER EVO VIII, PULSAR GTI-R TARMAC, EX–LEE-ANNE BARNS EVO III, SUZUKI BALENO

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NZ Performance Car: Hey, Sloan. First of all, congratulations on making it to Europe to further your rallycross career.

Can you tell the readers what sparked your interest in motorsport?

Sloan: Thanks, guys — I’m really thankful for what we’ve achieved so far. My interest in motorsport started really early on in my life, thanks to my father, who loved rallying and followed it as a spectator for years but didn’t get into the driving side of things until later in his life when his business was doing well and the money was there to fund it.

My older sister Tarryn and I would go along to events with him, so early on we would follow him around with our mother and the service team loving it, and that put a love for rallying into us both from a young age.

When did you first get behind the wheel yourself, and where did it start out?

At the age of 12, Tarryn started driving and me, being two years younger, had to watch and wait. When I finally turned 12, that’s when things really kicked off, and I started driving at club events, learning more to drive rather than race, and it would grow from there.

At 13, we had an Evo III club car that I learned to push hard, and, by 14, I had started to win club events against competitors of all ages and experiences. Things started out at just the Rotorua Car Club, which I was a member of, being local, and it eventually grew out to clubs further away, like Tauranga. As I got older, we could travel more, and, from 13 onwards, we would head up to Thames Valley, which had some awesome events and plenty of seat time on offer.

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1987 MAZDA RX-7 SERIES 4 FC3S

SURVIVING HE PLUNGE EIGHT YEARS AFTER HE CHOPPED UP HIS SHOW CAR, WE CHECK IN ON SHAUN JUDD’S EPIC HOME-BUILT GT1-SPEC FC RX-7 WORDS: MARCUS GIBSON PHOTOS: ADAM CROY / MITCHELL BODNER

ne class within the upper echelons of New Zealand motorsport exemplifies the Kiwi can-do attitude by offering such a loose set of rules that mad scientists– cum–race engineers can piece together tin-top machines capable of blisteringly fast lap times. It’s a class in which only one’s imagination, practical ability, and lust for speed are the hurdles between you and how fast you can go.

GTRNZ is home to our country’s fastest tin-top circuit racers, and one of them is the wildest-looking RX-7 you’re ever likely to lay eyes on. But the best bit about the flame-spitting FC is that owner/builder/pilot Shaun Judd has managed to piece together this weapon right from inside his humble two-car home garage.

It’s not the first time that we’ve pointed a camera at this FC, and, if we’re honest, we doubt it’ll be the last, as the 17-yearlong project has seen Shaun’s once-show-car-quality street car undergo more operations than Mickey Rourke. But in all that cutting, reworking, and reshaping in the quest for speed, surprisingly, the FC still hasn’t lost its soul — it is still instantly recognizable as an FC, and a surprising amount of factory tin remains, including most of the chassis rails, floor, firewall, and roof, all of which are a nod back to the original intention to run under the SS2000 regs. That plan quickly derailed and diverted onto a new track into what was then known as ‘Super GT’ and now as ‘GTRNZ’, a move made due to the restrictions placed on rotaries in SS.

THE LINK ECU D1NZ NATIONAL DRIFTING CHAMPIONSHIP FINALE SAW MULTIPLE TITLE HOPES CUT SHORT AND, FOR ONE VETERAN DRIVER, A BACK-TO-BACK TITLE WIN WORDS AND PHOTOS: JADEN MARTIN

redicting the podium for any round of the national drifting series is an almost impossible task, one that requires a mix of guesswork and educated assumptions, and even those who have been around since the series’ inception often get it wrong — you really need to have a talented psychic on speed dial and a healthy dose of luck on your side to get within the ballpark. It’s one of those sports in which no one really knows what’s going to happen, or when, and even those who look to be on a hot streak can be knocked out within a single battle for just one simple mistake.

The 2018 Link ECU D1NZ National Drifting Championship season has been no exception to this rule, with both the bigname and lesser-known drivers trading places on the Pro leader board round by round. Heading into the final round at Pukekohe Park Raceway, May 12–13, Darren Kelly had a firm footing at the top with 277 points, while Cole Armstrong was only just behind with 24 fewer points (253); Aussie invader Matty Hill was still in with a shot at the championship title on 229; and ‘Fanga Dan’ Woolhouse, on 214 points, could have nabbed a third title if a few key battles went his way.

But, for two hopefuls, the Top 16 would see that dream

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shelved for another season. Matty Hill was pipped by Dave Steedman, and Fanga Dan was taken down by the giant killer, Carl Thompson, who forced the two-time Drift King (DK) into a string of one-more-time battles, with Thompson taking the victory. With both Woolhouse and Hill out of title contention, it was the Top 8 battles that saw an aggressive-driving Benji Wilkinson send home points leader Darren Kelly, putting his title hopes in jeopardy, while Cole Armstrong knocked out young buck Cody Pullen-Burry to make it through to the Top 4.

On the other side of the tree, Gaz Whiter had beaten out Steedman for a Top 4 placing to face Thompson, but the experience of the four-time DK couldn’t be outmatched, and Whiter went on to the final battle against Armstrong, who had toppled Shane Van Gisbergen in a one-more-time repeat battle that mimicked that of the pairing at Round 2, and progressed against Wilkinson.

Whiter forced Armstrong to pedal hard, pulling a decent gap during his lead run, but the defending champion wasn’t holding anything back on his own lead run, with a 196kph initiation — also claiming the fastest speed for the weekend. The tight battle would have the judges lean towards Whiter, awarding him his first round win since returning to the series, giving him enough points to elevate his championship standing from ninth to third and narrowly edge out Hill by just 18 points.

On coming fourth overall, Hill said: “I never even thought I’d be coming up against these guys, being so competitive this early on in my career here … the quality here in New Zealand is crazy compared to what I’m used to back in Australia.

“The driving quality here is unreal ... I love driving here more [than in Australia]. I literally do not want to go home and would do another season right now.”

Whiter said that it was a big surprise to come back and get third overall: “We did it three seasons ago after a terrible run …

[This season] has been a testing one. It’s about being consistent, and we did’nt have that this year with car issues. But, drivingwise, we were pretty confident and qualified top overall here at Puke.

“I had a blast out there with Cole pushing the car to the absolute limit. You feed off each other, and you need to keep

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