Words and Photos: Richard Opie
“Buy once, cry once!” It’s a catch cry that’s often associated with building the best damn creation you can.
Whether you’re operating out of a ramshackle single garage or a state-of-the-art workshop facility, the phrase holds the same weight. Don’t cut corners. Don’t you dare scrimp on the critical bits and pieces. Above all, ensure you’re doing it once and doing it right.
It’s not something we all abide by, though, when we dive headfirst into this melting pot of chaos we like to call “car culture.” It’s something of a learned experience. An approach shaped by years of building, breaking, improving and ultimately enjoying whatever car-shaped morsels your particular box of choccies had in store.
For Timaru-based, recidivist slider, Johnny Baxter, this searing yellow S15 is the embodiment of this sentiment. It’s a diamond hewn from missteps and madness, good times, and even better people.
Building a weapon this complete, to this level, isn’t an overnight process. It’s a bit of a journey, and before the passion for sliding took hold, Johnny, like most of us, mucked around in a few street cars.
Johnny’s vehicular history offers up a variety of treats, mostly short-lived. Humble beginnings in a naturally aspirated S14 Silvia gave way to lashings of boost and traction, courtesy of Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru STI rally-bred performance. He’d eventually get a taste of boosted S-chassis life, and even made a self-admitted mistake by getting into a bagged minitruck, complete with an SR20DET installed. You know, for a bit of turbo whistle while laying frame down Timaru’s main drag.
The minitruck would be swapped for an ’81 Mitsubishi Lancer EX, with a 200kw-plus 4G63T doing the business. “I regret writing that car off doing skids,” ruefully admits Johnny, and as a result, the involuntary license-free period meant a bit of a reassessment on how he should really be enjoying car life.
“I bought this factory turbo S14 for about five grand,” he recalls, “it needed a bit of work and a cert, I was just going to tidy it up and move it on.”
The problem here was, he’d always had a bit of a taste for the sideways, smoky action of D1NZ. “I’d followed it since the early days,” explains Johnny, “you know, when Justin Rood, Jairus, Fanga and that were all at the peak of drifting.”
It’d be the arrival of C’s Garage on the scene, and the proof that comp cars “could look super cool,” that cemented Johnny’s direction with the S14. Here’s a hint — it did not involve a quick tidy up and a TradeMe listing.
“I’d gotten to know the C’s boys, the Jenkins and those blokes through internet yarns and crewing for them in D1NZ,” says Johnny, “and one night Joel [from C’s Garage] asked me what I was going to do with the S14.”
Cutting a long story short, Johnny went drifting in the S14. It’d eventually receive the full suite of Origin aero, a fresh coat of scarlet paint, and even a set of CR Kais that lived a previous life on Joel’s C’s Garage S13.
Drifting alongside his good mate Daniel Scott (responsible for the stellar fab work on the yellow car), Johnny started breaking stuff. A dicey tune on an equally sketchy Nistune ECU setup led to a melted piston.
An eventual 2017 rebuild — thanks to another good mate, Daniel Liemburg — would lead to the S14 getting a bit more serious. A proper ECU, lifted from the remains of the EX Lancer, was wired in. A cage was stitched into the shell. An alloy dash. A better turbo. And all of a sudden, in the latter stages of that year, Johnny found himself deeply immersed in Drift South.
It’d foster a friendship with Sean Binnema — who’d recently bought the ex-Ben Jenkins S13, and would eventually join up with Johnny and Daniel Liemburg, blossoming into the ‘B-Style’ team. “We intended to drive a lot,” says Johnny, “but man, my car used to break a lot. It still had the stock gearbox, we were sort of learning to tune it as we went, and it was a big learning curve!”
But it did help connect with a lot of folks in the Kiwi drift world. The Streetmeat guys, the Team Gusto boys, and even a whole bunch more North Islanders following an excursion up to the Animal Style GP at Hampton Downs.
Of course, we all know what happened late in the summer of 2020, and the Covid times only strengthened Johnny’s ties to drifting, courtesy of sliding about seated in the sim rig instead of a Silvia. His sim stats show something like 2070 sessions, 19,900km, and even 5900 off-track excursions, using the wide line — all equating to a solid 12 days of non-stop drifting.
“It 100 per cent made me want to go out, and drift better,” explains Johnny, “and sim drifting definitely made me a good driver. Instead of breaking the Silvia, fixing it, changing it, and not getting used to it, and just not driving it enough, I could just punch out lap after lap on the sim — and I wanted to build a car to make the most of it.”
With another catastrophic engine breakage, the S14 would evolve a bit more, with the chance acquisition of a built engine Sean “had lying around under the bench, meant for an S15 shell he had tucked away.” It’d lead to a reasonably successful season of Drift South — with a bit more poke under the right foot. But the S14 was still not the ideal.
What Johnny needed was a car that was the culmination of all his drift experience so far, both online and behind the wheel of a real-life car.
Eventually, that S15 shell would come up for sale. Johnny’s logic reckoned that if he stacked the S14, it was irreplaceable, and why ruin a decent car with rego still on hold? So why not snap up a decent deal off a mate, and use it as the base for his ultimate drift build.
“I wanted to do D1NZ Pro Sport, I wanted to build a gangster S15,” he laughs. “After we did a Matsuri up North, I came back with a plan. It was going to have the built SR20 from the S14, a sequential ’box, full Origin Racing Line aero, Sean had already started mounting the radiator in the rear, it had all the good suspension bits, it was going to be a weapon.”
Haltech even got on board after Johnny laid out his plans, and returning South, the build commenced with some help from Daniel Scott — now Scott Performance Fabrication. With the front and rear already chopped off, the S15 had bash bars fabricated at either end, with an SR20 mocked up to get the lay of the engine bay.
But then, Johnny had a steer of a car with a JZ between the struts. Over in Aussie at Queensland Raceway, a taste of Toyota six-cylinder life at the wheel of Tim Corbetts big power 2JZ 180SX proved convincing. “I fell in love with the JZ torque,” muses Johnny, “not like an SR20 where you’ve got to blip the throttle and dump the clutch, you can just get on the gas and it turned the tyres.”
“I’ve never really been a fan of an RB in an S-chassis — it’s kinda sacrilege — but I did want a six-cylinder, so JZ was really the only option,” smiles Johnny.
“I had to either commit to an SR20 there and then, and do the JZ later and pay twice, or just go ahead with a JZ,” laughs Johnny, “I reckon the 1JZ’s sound a bit better, and I wanted something a bit closer to the SR20 capacity — no real reason — it just felt right.”
A fellow Drift South competitor offered up a VVTi 1JZ, complete with Kelford cams and valve train. Hanging off the hot side now, is a Sinco manifold feeding a big ol’ Holset HX40RS the air it needs to spool up its prescribed 25psi of boost, controlled via a Turbosmart wastegate. The inlet side remains factory — save for a Bosch drive-by-wire throttle body. It’s all connected with accurately fabricated pipework, with a Fenix intercooler keeping inlet charges in check.
Dotted among the bay are several examples of Scott Fabrications’ handiwork. The dump pipe, catch can, swirl pot and more are born from Daniel’s steady TIG work, with no doubt a great eye for clever packaging and ease of maintenance — great attributes for a drift car!
Remember that plan for the sequential gearbox, though? Well, that never happened either. “I was keeping my eye out for a dog box or a sequential,” he says, “but then I shot over the ditch to a Halfway Hangs event and these ZF eight-speed ’boxes were starting to appear.”
For the uninitiated, the ‘ZF8’, as it’s commonly known, is an auto. They’ve got eight ratios within their stout casings and permit an absolutely mind-boggling level of tuneability and control, with the right electronics. They’re not a small unit, however. Daniel and Johnny just kept on cutting until the ZF fit in the tunnel — and then chopped a little bit more for good measure. It’s hanging off the back of the 1JZ block thanks to a Domi Works adapter plate, with Domi Works also supplying the billet oil pan.
The magic happens thanks to the Turbo Lamik TCU. Johnny can run it full auto if he desires — there’s something uncanny about hearing a 450kw 1JZ shifting smooth as butter — but at the press of a button it’s transformed into an aggressive, hard shifting unit controlled by that big billet sequential-shifter-looking lever inside. There’s even a simulated clutch pedal, making mid-drift clutch kicks, and a level of slip a possibility.
Inside, the way the gearbox behaves lends an absolute freight train feel to the way the S15 boogies. It’s like it just doesn’t fall off boost — there’s no shift cut, no delay while selecting the next cog like a traditional manual transmission. It’s just a wave of torque, turbo noise and eventually tyre smoke. But we digress.
The Origin Aero thing didn’t happen, either. Notice a bit of a theme here? Well, it sort of did — Johnny went as far as acquiring it, but after trying to fit the Origin fenders and having a bit of a mare, plans changed.
“Years ago, watching old D1GP videos, I’d fallen in love with these squared-off kits on a handful of S15s,” says Johnny, “and it turned out to be Kazama Auto aero.”
To obtain it, Johnny needed a decent plug in Japan. Mutual Kazama Auto piner, Jonny Martin, put him onto Andrew at DefyAuto in Japan, and soon enough, there was a full, genuine Kazama Auto Proceed-SS kit for an S15 sitting in Timaru. “We were building the dream car,” asserted Johnny, “it set the tone for the build, and this is where it turned from a ‘Pro Car’ build and evolved into the ultimate evolution of the S14, really — a proper fun machine.”
The ‘buy once, cry once’ ethos had well and truly kicked in. The cabin was kitted out with Racetech seats, a DND wheel with quick release, Haltech UC-10 dash and several other bespoke fabricated components.
The attitude even extends to the brakes. It would’ve been simple enough to slap an old set of Nissan Sumitomo four-pots at it, but by the time you’ve slotted a new seal kit in and refreshed them, you might as well have bought a new set of Parts Shop Max units. “So that’s what I did,” grins Johnny.
Covering those, is a set of dark bronze Rays Gramlights 57XR, in 18×9.5-inch front and 18×10.5-inch rear. The sharp angles of the split six-spoke design complements the angular lines of the Kazama aero.
That Kazama aero needs a striking colour, and the S15 is dripping in yellow. But it ain’t the factory S15 lightning yellow. It’s actually Mazda Sunburst yellow, a colour more commonly seen splashed across the shapely flanks of an FD RX7. “I’ve always wanted a yellow car, and it had to be the brightest yellow I could find,” says Johnny, “and it doesn’t hurt that it matches Jonny Martin’s FD, too!” It’s the perfect tone — particularly for one applied after more than a few tins of Lion Brown — accenting the edges and apertures of the styling to perfection.
The goal was always to get the car to Streetmeat 2024, early December of that year. After an 18-month build time, Johnny and the S15 came so close to making it. A set of leaky injectors that had initially come with the engine put paid to attendance, but success came literally the Monday after — the 1JZ howled to life.
With a tune in the Haltech thanks to Reuben at Rapid, and the associated gearbox tune, the S15 poked out a healthy 450kW, but not without a diff failure on the dyno. With a replacement diff under its butt, Johnny was ready to drop the hammer at the car’s debut event, Mad Mike’s Southern Bash at Highlands Park.
“The car felt crazy, even on low boost,” says Johnny, “and I thought I’d just stick to 18psi and hope the diff lasted. By the second corner, it was up on 25psi and I was all barred up, having the time of my life!”
On a final note, remember that intent to build a Pro Sport car? Yeah, nah, that hasn’t eventuated either. Johnny’s transparent about the S15’s purpose now. It’s built purely for fun, putting a grin on his dial and anyone lucky enough to park their butt in that passenger Racetech.
The fun might not stop at drifting either. Johnny’s got eyes on street sprints, hillclimbs, roll racing and maybe even a bit of circuit work.
This Silvia’s more a case of ‘buy once, smile forever’.
SPEC LIST
1999 Nissan Silvia (S15)
Heart
ENGINE: 1JZ-GTE VVTi, 2500cc six-cylinder
BLOCK: Factory
HEAD: Kelford 260/260 street cams, Kelford valve springs
INTAKE: Factory, Bosch drive-by-wire throttle body
EXHAUST: Sinco turbo manifold, four-inch downpipe, 3.5-inch straight-through, twin 3-inch tips
TURBO: Holset 40RS twin scroll
WASTEGATE: Turbosmart
BOV: None (Turbo flutter!)
FUEL: Radium fuel rail, Bosch 1550cc injectors, Turbosmart fuel pressure regulator, Radium fuel cell
IGNITION: Haltech R35 coil kit
ECU: Haltech R3 with PDM 16
COOLING: Fenix radiator, twin 14-inch SPAL fans, twin Fenix oil coolers (engine + gearbox)
EXTRA: Scott Performance catch-can, swirlpot with -16 line, RAD Industries water pump delete bracket, Denso 150-amp alternator, Leeson Engineering clutch emulator, oil filter relocation with thermostat block, Funk Motorsport turbo beanie
Drive
GEARBOX: ZF 8HP70
DIFF: R200
EXTRA: TurboLamik TCU, Domi Works adapter plate, Domi Works billet sump, oil cooler adaptor, Fenix transmission cooler, Scott Performance Fab gearbox cross member, billet output flange to 1350 driveshaft flange, Circle Track Engineering one-piece driveshaft
Support
STRUTS: Tein Superdrift adjustable coilovers, (F) 9kg Swift Springs (R) 5kg Swift springs
BRAKES: (F) Parts Shop Max 300ZX Z32 calliper, rotors and pads (R) Parts Shop Max 300ZX Z32 calliper, rotors and pads, GKTech hydro handbrake
ARMS/KNUCKLES: B-knuckle, D-Max arms, GKTech rear drop knuckle, GKTech reinforced subframe kit, relocated steering rack, 30mm lengthened lower control arms, GKTech tie rods, GKTech brake lines and hand brake lines
Shoes
WHEELS: (F) 18×9.5-inch (+12) Rays Gram Lights 57XR (R) 18×10.5-inch (+12) Rays Gram Lights 57XR, Dark Bronze finish
TYRES: (F) 235/40R18 Kenda KR20AX MAX (R) 265/35R18 Kenda KR20AX MAX
Exterior:
PAINT: Sunburst Yellow
ENHANCEMENTS: Kazama Auto Promode-SS Aero front bumper, side skirts, rear bumper, front guards and rear guards, carbon-fibre front diffuser, carbon-fibre canards, carbon-fibre side diffusers, front bumper cover, Origin Labo Swan Neck GT wing with custom taller alloy uprights, Stage 21 vented bonnet, bumper spats
Interior
SEATS: Racetech RT4100HR
STEERING WHEEL: DND 350mm Alcantara, DND quick release
INSTRUMENTATION: Haltech uC-10 digital dash
EXTRA: DCT shifter, gearbox controller, Aero Procedure flocked dash, JB Fabrication roll cage, Scott Performance Fabrication custom foot plates and seat mounts, Accusump, uC-10 dash mount, Beltenick belts
Performance:
POWER: 450kW
TORQUE: 746Nm
BOOST: 25 psi
FUEL TYPE: E50
TUNER: Sean Binnema and Reuben York
Driver Profile:
DRIVER/OWNER: Johnny Baxter
AGE: 31 +GST
LOCATION: Timaru
OCCUPATION: Transport solutions
BUILD TIME: 18 months
LENGTH OF OWNERSHIP: Two years
THANKS: Daniel at Scott Performance Fab for building the car, Sean for the wiring, finishing touches, and dyno work, and Reuben for tuning it alongside Sean and sorting the gearbox tune, Nick Gantley for the paint, Mike from Kaspa Transmissions for refreshing the gearbox, James from Haltech, Benny and the Fenix team, Kelvin from Premier Powder Coating, and Andrew from Defy Auto for sourcing and shipping parts from Japan. Also, the lads at Rapid Performance, HM Auto Electrical for sourcing gearbox parts, and Charles for all the eight-speed advice.
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This article originally appeared in New Zealand Performance Car issue 317
