The latest issue of New Zealand Performance Car has just landed on our desks fresh from the printers. Only this time it did not return alone — instead it’s bagged with a free NZPC bottle cooler, to keep those summer beverages ice cold while you’re enjoying another instalment of Kiwi car culture.
It’s our big V 4&Rotary Nationals issue so we have put together a tasty selection of cars to coincide with the Nationals’ coverage, including this month’s cover car — an Amuse wide-body-kitted S2000. The S2000 was actually built a few years ago but seemingly vanished from the public eye after only one show before we could get our sticky paws onto it.
This time, however, we were taking no chances and jumped onto it before it vanished again, because cars like this aren’t built every day. It was actually put together by JTune Automotive before the shop existed and features a full Amuse GT1 wide-body and a TODA 2.2 nitrous-fed F20C with some of the most aggressive cams known to the Honda world.
We chat drag racing with Chris Anderson to find out how a work ute ends up as a dedicated drag vehicle with a 558kW 1UZFE and a pair of Garrett GT3582RS hanging off the sides. You may remember his Ford Courier, with a nitrous-fed N/A 1UZFE, running 10s? Well, Chris is back and gunning for single-digit passes, and knew boost was the only way to go.
Aden Omnet pops the hood on his drift-spec Toyota Altezza to reveal the 465kW 2JZ-GTE, and gives us the rundown on what it takes to get the four-door Toyota sliding competitively. He also talks to us about the personal sacrifices made to compete in the Demon Energy D1NZ National Drifting Championship.
For those with a taste for old-school tin, we have two boosted beauties in the form of an FJ20-powered Datsun 1600 …
… and a 238kW 4AGE-powered Toyota KE36, which rolls on a set of 14×8-inch SSR Shark Stars.
Regular J-side reporter Aaron Mai sits down with the legend himself Ken ‘Nomuken’ Nomura to talk everything from the current power wars in drifting, the New Zealand drifting scene, and also why he ditched the R34 platform for D1GP. Let us know if you agree with what Nomuken says.
For those who like to get their hands dirty in the shed, we run over the ins and outs of corner weighting. This is not just something for high-end race teams, pretty much any car will benefit from being set-up correctly, and we show you how. If you’ve just put coilovers in your car and it’s not handling right, this could well be your answer.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the post, this is the V 4&Rotary Nationals’ issue — and we have gone big with 10 pages covering both days, including all the info on the new cars unveiled at the show, some of the best engine bays, and all the results from both days.
We also continue our coverage of the Demon Energy D1NZ National Drifting Championship, with a look at Cole Armstrong’s domination of round three at Baypark Speedway in Tauranga. We also introduce the stunning Demon Babes from the event.
But as always this is only a taste of what you will find in Issue No. 219 of New Zealand Performance Car magazine. Grab a copy from a store near you today, or don’t forget you can always subscribe to save yourself a swag of cash, and automatically be entered into all of our competitions. Remember when grabbing your copy that it comes with a free bottle cooler for this issue only.
