Words: Warren Sare Photos: Archee Lal
Ornamental Frogs!!! Thanks to Tina, chances are you recognise at least half of this month’s cover duo. Yes, it is that car, and no, the owner has absolutely no regrets about being part of a TV campaign. If you have attended any event in the past few years, chances are you’ll also recognise its garage-mate RX-7 and may have made the link between the distinctive gold themes.
Proud West Aucklander Bevan has a tough choice each week when he decides which toy to use to relieve the stress of running a business. As the owner of Hydroflame Plumbing and Gas, he spends his weekdays in a lifted Ford Ranger before coming home to enjoy the fruits of his labour. He opens the shed and can choose from a pair of street weapons, each distinctive yet still cohesive for an owner who, as he puts it, “ just loves gold”. Neither could be described as mild, but the RX-7 is perhaps right on the edge of wild and about to get even more so.
“I was a late starter [as far as cars]; my mates used to laugh at me paying a mortgage instead of buying toys,” Bevan says of his early experiences. “When I was younger, I had to do stuff myself, but these days, I’d rather get the pros involved,” he says as we talk about building not one but two amazing weapons. Each car has been extensively touched, but not so much that they are unusable, which was a key consideration in creating each.
We look first at ‘8SIAN’, a Mitsubishi Evolution VIII and the more ‘street’ of the two options with simple but well-chosen bolt-on upgrades resulting in a very drivable 290kW. Being Bevan, there’s always a chance a billet block could go in, but for now, the combination of extra fuel and air being fed into a Garrett 35/40 setup more than moves the car despite the fact she’s been beefed up and carries a lot more weight due to a combination of audio-visual upgrades and an airbag setup themed to fit.
The engine bay is simple and clean and boasts a few less-common updates, such as a carbon/ billet combination plenum and billet throttle body. The custom catch-can also draws the eye. The black-and-gold theme carries through and keeps a cohesive look, which you’d expect from an owner with a particular style to his builds.
The body kit, which comprises parts from Varis, Ings, and Voltex creates a massive presence about this car that you can’t help but notice, and the custom gold airbrushing simply draws the eye in even further. There’s a reason this car is well known and was chosen for an advertisement, right? When the air is dumped out of the airbag suspension and the car is resting right down over the 18 x 9.5-inch Forum wheels perhaps its stance does almost resemble a particularly menacing or muscular frog. Bevan tells me this one is meant to be the ‘family’ car, but that hasn’t stopped him from modifying most of it and if the kids get a bit too loud he can just turn up the high-end DC & Zeroflex–equipped audio system. Yes, that is what you can hear playing in the TV ad.
On the other side of the shed sits the Series 6 RX-7 known as PORNRX, a legit 10-second but still street-legal ride that boasts just on 400kW at the rear wheels and in Bevans’s words is “probably about as wild as you can go and still use it on the road”. The car has been through a number of incarnations in its nearly 15 years in Bevans’s hands and is perhaps now nearing its final incarnation as it has been booked in for a roll cage to begin a quest for a nine-second time slip.
Powered by a full-cut 13B peripheral port engine with a fair size huffer on the side from the Masterpower family, the car has seen ongoing development over its life. An example is the V mount intercooler setup, which we are told is now in its fourth configuration. Like many owners, Bevan has found that he’d change one thing, and then something else didn’t quite work, so he advises anyone starting out to make a bit of a plan and involve your build team to avoid extra cost.
Rotors love air and fuel and respond well to tuning expertise. Brian at NDT has the car making the most of its Haltech ECU, which fires the two 1000cc primary injectors and four 2200cc secondaries and quite literally shoots flames out the custom four-inch exhaust setup. There is RSL goodness through the bay with the intake and manifold both the handiwork of scene OG Ronnie Lim, while Turbosmart bolt-ons take care of boost management. Water methanol injection has also been employed in a further effort to keep temperatures down.
The real turning point in the build and decision to now make it more race-oriented has been the recent addition of an HGT sequential gearbox. A few breakages over the years saw the decision to pull the trigger made, and the car rolled straight out and did the 10-second pass it was capable of
Externally, the C West kit and RE Amimiya bonnet scream JDM racer, with the signature gold airbrushing and 18-inch TBC DK rims wrapped in semi-slick rubber giving the car the appearance of something that you’d find at any race track, looking at home doing either time attack, drift, or drag racing duties.
Within the interior, the addition of Recaro seats and the almost compulsory Haltech dash gives Bevan the ability to monitor what is going on, and the removable steering wheel is a nice touch, as the owner says he doesn’t skip leg day, so it makes it a little easier to exit the snug factory cabin. However the attention grabber is clearly the HGT-branded shifter, and while they do find their way into race cars, a street car with a sequential is still pretty rare.
As we wrap up, talk turns to the fact that having one cover car is pretty special, but having two at the same time is incredibly rare. Bevan has created a pair of incredible quality builds, and that, as they say dear readers, is gold.
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This article originally appeared in New Zealand Performance Car issue 309
SPEC LIST
1996 Mazda RX7 (FD3S)
Heart
ENGINE: 13B full-cut bridgeport semi-PP
INTAKE: Custom RSL three-inch charge pipes
EXHAUST: Custom RSL stainless steampipe manifold, four-inch full stainless exhaust, AES resonator, AES muffler
TURBO: Master Power R7677-4
WASTEGATE: Turbosmart 60mm
BOV: Turbosmart 50mm
FUEL: 2 x 1000cc primary injectors, 4 x 2200cc secondary injectors, flex-fuel sensor
IGNITION: Haltech smart coils
ECU: Haltech Elite 2500
COOLING: Racing Beat radiator, four-inch front mount intercooler, Aquamist meth injection
EXTRA: Haltech EGTs, plenty of sensors
Drive
GEARBOX: HGT six-speed sequential
CLUTCH: Tilton twin-plate
FLYWHEEL: Custom billet flywheel
DIFF: Kaaz two-way LSD
EXTRA: Full custom bracing, Driveshaft shop billet axles, Porsche CVs
Support
STRUTS: BC Gold adjustable coilovers
BRAKES: (F) AP racing six-pot callipers, slotted rotors (R) factory callipers, slotted and drilled rotors, Endless pads
ARMS/KNUCKLES: Factory
Shoes
WHEELS: TBC DK (F) 18×10-inch (+15) (R) 18×11-inch (+11)
TYRES: Falken semi-slicks (F) 235/40R18 (R) 245/35R18
Exterior
PAINT: Factory Mazda black, custom gold airbrushing accents
ENHANCEMENTS: C-West bodykit, Carbon RE Amamiya hood.
Interior
SEATS: Bucket seats
STEERING WHEEL: Aftermarket
INSTRUMENTATION: Turbosmart boost gauge, IC7 dash
Performance:
POWER: 400KW
TORQUE: 528Nm
BOOST: 22psi
FUEL TYPE: BP Ultimate 98
TUNER: Brian at NDT Developments
2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII
Heart
ENGINE:4G63, 2000cc four-cylinder
BLOCK: Factory
HEAD: Kelford 272 cams, Kelford valve springs
INTAKE: CPC billet/carbon plenum, billet throttle body
EXHAUST: Custom stainless steampipe manifold, custom three-inch exhaust system
TURBO: Garrett 35/40
WASTEGATE: Turbosmart 45mm
BOV: Turbosmart 50mm
FUEL: 1000cc FIC injectors
IGNITION: Toyota coil-on plugs
ECU: Haltech Elite 1500
COOLING: GReddy intercooler, custom alloy radiator
EXTRA: Spec 2 Developments oil catch-can
Drive
GEARBOX: Factory six-speed
CLUTCH: Heavy-duty
FLYWHEEL: Factory
DIFF: Factory
Support
STRUTS: Autostance airbag struts, Air Lift management
BRAKES: Factory callipers colour-matched black and gold, DBA-slotted T4 rotors
Shoes
WHEELS: Forum Zeus 18×9-inch (+15)
TYRES: 225/40R18 Nitto NT555
Exterior:
PAINT: Factory Mitsubishi black, custom World War II–themed gold airbrushing
ENHANCEMENTS: Varis Hurtling Solid Joker widebody kit, Ings front bumper, Voltex Racing carbon hood, Ralliart carbon mirrors
Interior
SEATS: Stock
STEERING WHEEL: Stock
INSTRUMENTATION: Apexi boost gauge, Air Lift controls
Performance:
POWER: 290kW
TORQUE: 400nm
BOOST: 25psi
FUEL TYPE: BP Ultimate 98
TUNER: Brian at NDT Developments