Nearly five years ago Kurt Blackie had to pull his daily driven Nissan Skyline R32 off the road, thanks to a green sticker presented to him by the police. He then began the drift car transformation. After many track days and numerous blown engines, Kurt decided to get serious and make some modifications to his purpose-built drift car.
While pretty much living in his garage (or an airport hangar, judging by the size of that wing, which I doubt you missed), Kurt has bent and constructed the tube framing with his own two hands. Using a touch of Kiwi ingenuity, and a fair share of brute force, he used the sill of the car as a leverage point and bent all the bars with impeccable symmetry. The wing sits on custom mounts that he made himself. It currently sits 850mm from the tube framing and that is after he shortened it by 100mm. The side plates of the wing have already claimed a few face plants and headbutts, hence the height reduction.
“I love the wing and I know there are a lot of people out there who have called me insane for making it so massive, but I couldn’t care less! I love it, it’s so in your face’ — it is definitely me to a T,” Kurt says.
Kurt chose the RB25DE to power the Skyline as they’re extremely affordable nowadays, and are known to handle big power levels with the addition of a turbocharger. With this in mind, Kurt decided to turbocharge his RB25DE with a Garrett GT35/40, which is high-mounted atop a custom stainless steel turbo manifold. Exhaust gasses that aren’t screamed out of the 50mm Turbosmart wastegate, exit through a three-inch exhaust system, which has been custom made to exit just before the passenger-side rear wheel.
The GReddy-style intake plenum and billet fuel-rail support house the 650cc injectors, which are fed by a Sard fuel-pressure regulator, Bosch 044 external fuel pump, aftermarket in-line fuel filter, and custom-made 450x450mm fuel cell. The unopened RB25DE+T produced a healthy 301kW (404hp) at the wheels on 11psi of boost, thanks to the RB25DE’s higher compression, big turbo, Link G1 ECU, and more than capable fuel set-up. The engine is kept cool by a DSR front-mount intercooler and radiator, and is also fitted with an oil cooler supplied by Elusive Solutions. In time, Kurt wishes to invest in a Link G4 engine-management solution.
Thanks to the chocolatey-bronze colour of the car, painted by close friend Jamie Richards, it has been gifted the name ‘Truffle Butter’ by Kurt and his friends. Kurt is a very passionate car enthusiast and aspiring drifter. All going well, he hopes to soon enter some competition events in his Truffle Butter R32 and potentially pick up a few sponsors.
“The ultimate goal is to compete in the Pro-Am development series in the upcoming season [of D1NZ]. Before I finalize my decision, I would like to spend some time behind the wheel and get a feel for the new set-up. I am not too sure how the car will drive with the wing and the rigid frame, but I am excited to test it all out!”
Kurt would like to thank the following people for all their time spent on helping him over the years: Steven Mckee at BNT Automotive, Matt Chandler at Elusive Solutions, Lin at CDM, Bentley at Bay Tyre and Alignment, Jamie Richards, Brett at Commercial Signs, Mitch Mcdivott, Kass Prujean, Simon Lee, Jorgi Jansen, Braeden Taylor, Luke Richards, and, of course the olds, David Blackie and Heather Payne.
