These days, if you are going to build a car from the 1960s or ’70s you’re likely to choose one of three directions for your project. First off there’s the restoration route, where you do your best to return everything back to how it was when the car came out of the showroom. It’s surely the most traditional way to revive an old car.
Then there’s the resto-mod option. You repair and restore the problem areas on the car, and then add in some aftermarket bits for extra performance and style. It’s a method that seems to get more popular each year.
And the third way? Well, that’s when you decide to get a little bit crazy. Rather than embracing the old school way, you take the shell of your vintage car and transform it into something much different and much more powerful than anyone could have dreamed when it was originally built.
Toni Laari’s Datsun 260Z out of Finland is a car that falls into the that third category. It’s got the unmistakable look of an early ’70s Z, and the kind of streetable power that no one could have imagined back in 1974.
When Toni originally acquired the Datsun it wasn’t as if he was searching high and low for an old Z to build into his dream car. He simply found the car for sale nearby his house and thought it had a good look to it. Not only that, but he liked the fact that it was rear-wheel drive and had plenty of room in the engine bay to accommodate whatever wild power plant he might decide to go with.
Also of interest is that Toni’s Z is not the more popular two-seat body style, but the less commonly seen 2+2 shape. While some think 2+2 Zs are a bit awkward looking, I think Toni’s car shows they can look just as good as their two-seat counterpart. It also gives the whole thing an added layer of uniqueness.
Even before he acquired the 260Z, Toni knew he wanted to build a street car with tons of power for the track, great handling and a very cool style. With the Datsun in his possession, he rolled the car into his garage and began on making his vision a reality.
Nissan fits the bill perfectly here: a mainstream yet reserved manufacturer that every once in a while produces something wild and makes us smile and forget about all the curiously-styled electric cars and toaster-on-wheels minivans they offer. Granted, they’ve pretty much had us all with the Skyline, the Silvia and the Fairlady, but in recent years – aside from the range-topping GT-R – there hasn’t been much to really wow us.
I’ve often wondered why Nissan never takes the German approach to building cars. I mean, if you are going to develop a car like the GT-R, which is powered by one of the most epic force-induced V6 engines ever made, why not drop that engine into a few more cars in your line up? I’m not talking about making slightly massaged versions with a body kit and a louder exhaust over the stock car. No, I mean making more cars like this badass Juke-R.
This really hit home after I got the chance to drive this crazy little machine… albeit for only two minutes. It was a hot lap on a makeshift track, so I did get to put this interesting creation to the so-called test. Insane doesn’t even begin to describe what 485hp and all-wheel drive feels like in a compact package like the Juke. The whole idea seems so far fetched I’m surprised it actually materialised. There are rumours that Nissan’s execs didn’t even know that Nissan Europe commissioned the RML Group in the UK to build the Juke-R – nor was anyone expecting such great feedback from the project. But I guess when you step away from the norm and do something crazy, people take notice.
Walking around the Juke-R you can’t help but approach it all with a smile on your face. It seems almost cute that they chose this platform for the project, but believe me this is one very serious piece of hardware executed with the highest level of knowhow. The approach was pretty simple – spawn a car that would embody the mechanical equivalent of a GT-R having a wild night with a compact crossover. There are many details that point to the fact that this is as far from a stock Juke – like the R35 NACA ducts on the bonnet.
The track is identical to the R35 – the GT-R’s front and rear subframes and ancillaries being transferred right over to the Juke. Obviously a lot of cutting, welding and fabricating was needed to shoehorn everything in place, mated to slightly stiffer R35 suspension set a little lower than it is in the GT-R. That’s due to the fact that the Juke is a much taller vehicle, hence requiring a little rethink on the whole roll center and overall balance of the finished car.
Along with the oily bits the R35’s Brembo brakes and 20-inch wheels were also part of the swap, as were the sticky Bridgestone Potenza tyres that help generate that impressive amount of mechanical grip that the GT-R is renowned for.
The Juke-R’s stance is brutal; the composite wheel arch extensions just managing to envelop the wider track and wheel combination.
Along with the front bumper, RML also designed and produced a whole new rear bumper which has a functional diffuser integrated into its lower section to give the Juke-R a purposeful appearance. The best touch of all has to be the exhausts though – not only for the way they exit from the corners of the bumpers, but how they are presented within carbon fiber outlets to shield the surrounding plastic front the generated heat.
It’s been over a year and a half since I’ve hit up a D1 Grand Prix event. Over the last few years I’ve had a bit of a love and hate relationship with this series: initially I loved it because it gave this cool motorsport the attention and promotion it deserved, plus I enjoyed shooting it, experimenting with low shutter speeds and trying out strange new angles. Every time I went to an event, it was an exciting mix of witnessing drivers do their thing, seeing, hearing and smelling powerful cars pushed to the very limit, and then the photography aspect of it all.
Never did I expect D1 to disappoint me, but that is precisely what it did. Seeing such a great series spoiled by poor organization that forced even the founding fathers to leave, but then seeing it continue to evolve into an overly-protected series; well if this doesn’t kill your passion for a sport, then I don’t know what will. But I believe in second chances and with the last round of the 2013 Championship being held 30 minutes from my house…
… well I thought, why not? I wasn’t there to follow the proceedings as I would have ten years ago, getting caught up in the battles and anxiously waiting for the judges’ calls. No, I was there for the very simple desire to shoot some wild slides…
… and to take a look at the cars that are currently participating. After all, this is exactly what caught my attention all those years ago. It’s always been about the cars for me: that, the way they are driven and the resulting pictures I can walk away with.
The morning started off with some solo runs, drivers getting judged on both entry speed and the line they managed to put down…
… around the makeshift track that was laid out at the same car park that hosts those cool Mooneyes and JCCA gatherings we always flock to every year. There was much I wanted to see, starting off with Manabu Orido’s 86…
… which, since the last time I saw it, had ditched its hard-to-work-with ISF V8 powerplant in favor of some American muscle. After a quick initial and very smooth pass however…
… everything went pear-shaped for Orido. After clipping one of the last concrete barriers as he powered out of the turn, his car straightened up and the front end pushed into one of the guardrails, the resulting push allowing the following guardrail to literally stab the front end of his car. Orido’s weekend was over before it even started. The big spear-like hit had bent a portion of the chassis, and despite his team managing to get most of it fixed up by the end of the day, the car wasn’t used, even in Sunday’s exhibition round.
Single runs led to some tsuiso battles between drivers in the first group, and there were some pretty cool cars to see, like the HDO KP61 Starlet of Hideo Itakura, seen here leading against Mitsuro Murakami of Team MMM.
The top five drivers in D1 Street Legal were called in to do a short competition between each other: drivers that included Andrew Gray and his Powervehicles JZX100, which, thanks to a 3.1L 2JZ and an HKS T04Z blower, does a good job of burning through Neova AD08Rs like they were butter.
One of the youngest drivers in D1, Masanori Kohashi, always manages to put down smooth and consistent runs and is always a pleasure to see in action.
PRESENTATION MODE
DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER
SHARE
There is always much energy in a D1 paddock, especially as drivers are lining up their cars and warming engines before going out for a run. I will be bringing you a spotlight-o-rama post of some of the cooler cars that I came across…
… just to see what your modern day D1 machines are looking like – from what big teams like DrooP put together, to what those that manage to participate in the series with far smaller budgets come up with. Diversity is the most exciting thing in any drift series I think.
It doesn’t look like much has changed in the 19 months since my last D1 round…
Much of the same cars are still there like the GP Sports/Toyo Tires S15 of Sakuma and the RPS13 of Kawabata. These cars have been perfected with so much time having been put into setting them up; it’s not surprising a move away from the known and trusted puts some off.
Kuniaki Takahashi of course doesn’t belong in that camp. His move onto the Mark X platform back in 2011 was a very respected one and one that in no way hampered his competitiveness in that year’s championship. His car is looking even better this year thanks to the face-lifted Mark X front end. Oh and Utumi’s S15, despite not having changed much, is still a badass looking machine and one that likes to take to the sky as shown by the opening picture!
There is another type of driver I respect in D1: those that like Iwai continue to rock old school rides, despite being confronted with the highly powerful and more modern cars sported by the rest of the field. Hats off to you sir!
This sort of debate always brings you to the question: what makes a true drift car? A well set up older car like the 3S-powered DrooP AE86, or a true race-car build like the ZN6 the same team put together for Hibino? Tough one right?
PRESENTATION MODE
DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER
SHARE
What has always made Odaiba fun is the number of foreign drivers that are given space to show off their skills in front of the Japanese crowds. However this year, Indonesian driver Emmanuel Amandio has competed in the full championship, and behind the wheel of his JZX100 has proven to be rather competitive among established drifters.
I saw as soon as he went out that he was there to drive 110%, probably generating more smoke than any one other driver and not afraid to take some aggressive lines with his spare car, as you can see in his barrier brush above. He managed to beat Ueno in the T&E E92 and move up to the Best 16 competition.
Hibino seemed to be more at home in his EJ-powered 86 compared to when I saw him take the car out in its debut round last year in Odaiba, going into the Round 6 competition in seventh place in the standings.
But everyone’s eyes were on Kawabata’s S15…
… and Naoto Suenaga’s Team Orange S15, the car that has replaced his Evo 9. Powered by the dry-sumped RB26 that was in Kumakubo’s Laurel, Suenaga has really found a superb set-up, landing him only two points behind Kawabata, point leader in this year’s season.
Suenaga was doing superbly all day until he came up against Imamura and his nichei S15…
… both drivers driving infallibly, run after run until Suenaga managed to grab the victory by a small margin.
Here is Russian driver Fedorov Ilia and Amandio, once again proving that D1 is in dire need of a foreign presence to throw a little unexpected excitement into the proceedings. These guys fought hard and aggressively, pushing their respective cars to limits that most Japanese drivers weren’t even attempting to risk, so big thumbs up because that’s what drifting should be all about!
PRESENTATION MODE
DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER
SHARE
But then in the battle against Suenaga and Utsumi something a little unexpected happened, that sort of redefined ‘limits’. After Suenaga lost his drift mid corner and almost came to a stop, Utsumi ended up using his steered passenger side wheel as a ramp…
… a ramp that sent him flying up into the air with a massive backfire, lightning up the whole underside of his S15. I’ve been shooting drifting for well over a decade now and I’ve never seen anything like that happen!
More fire? This time it was from the external wastegate on Kawabata’s S15 in his battle against Amandio.
Kawabata ended up going against Utsumi in the final and grabbing the win, taking those points that would guarantee he stayed in front of Suenaga in the standings, clenching yet another D1 Championship title. With the Exhibition to follow the next day, the weekend wasn’t quite over yet, but before we take a look at more drifting, there are some cars we should check out first…
Is Liberty Walk taking over the internet? Has the Nagoya-based company declared war on the SEMA Show? It sure seems like it if the number of cars we’ve seen wearing the company’s signature wide body conversions is anything to go by. If Kato-san was attempting to get our attention, it’s safe to say he definitely has! After taking a closer look at his Ferrari 458 last week, it’s now time to move onto his second SEMA project…
… a CG image that Miura-san at TRA Kyoto – the man that Kato-san has entrusted to design and produce his aero kits – later showed in a variety of body colors and angles. So like the 458, we all had a pretty good idea of what the car would look like in its finished form. However, as was the case with the Ferrari, seeing 3D images on the internet can never prepare you for the full impact of witnessing the completed car.
If there’s one car out there that probably doesn’t need its fenders blistered it’s the R35 GT-R. The big Nissan – successor to the Skyline GT-R – boasts a pretty robust stance to start off with: big Aeroblade (in Nissan talk) front fenders joining a chunky, bulbous rear end that makes it one of the most imposing cars on the streets today. But who the hell said aggression has limits?
Kato-san certainly didn’t, so when he asked TRA Kyoto to make those works-style overfenders as “in your face” as possible…
… Miura listened, and delivered. The bolted-on look is once again used, exposed screws…
… showing each mounting point onto the cut stock fender below it. The FRP addition follows the primary crease line of the GT-R’s wheel arch…
… extending downwards along the side air outlet, then all the way down to the main skirt line.
Making the LB☆WORKS aero stand out as much as possible, while sticking to the company’s recognizable design ethos, was all part of the plan.
Color is always important – especially for a show car – and the OEM dark metal grey makesevery line of the GT-R’s exterior pop under the sun’s rays.
PRESENTATION MODE
DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER
SHARE
The GT-R has been captivating the minds of the worldwide tuning industry since it was first revealed back in 2007, and it’s quite cool to see that Liberty Walk decided to do something with a domestic car instead of the usual imports and exotics it tends to concentrate on.
Will this car appeal to everyone? Of course it won’t – it’s not meant to. Like all the cars that bear the LB☆WORKS name, it’s aimed at a very unique individual – one that just isn’t content sitting at the wheel of a car that everyone can own.
So it seems that this sort of aero package is born out of exclusivity; the need to satisfy a very small niche…
… and judging by its rump – the sheer need to shock! Miura may as well have come up with the biggest works-style overfenders ever created for a car – the massive rear pieces extending from underneath where the door ends and arching all the way around and touching the high hip line. Over the top touches like this were sort of a necessity, you don’t try to make a statement with a car like the GT-R and not go full out.
Take how the overfenders end abruptly once they pass the bumper line…
… and tuck in, quickly merging into the original dimensions of the car. Miura here gave a nod to aerodynamics, the recess behind any fender helping the extraction of air from the wheelarch and some of the flow form the underside of the car, which if you recall is completely flat on the R35 to smooth air passing underneath it. While this detail may or may not add a functional aero effect, the fact that you end up seeing more of the rear tires is a big bonus in the looks department, that aggressive offset of the rear wheels making quite the statement.
Does it all seem a little exaggerated? Yes, but that was the obvious intention, having been given carte blanche there was little if no conformity to what he was sculpting away at.
Take the rear wing for example; Miura keeps up with the times, he gets his inspiration from a variety of styles, is always paying attention to how things change in the vastness of the car world and it was motorsports that provided the idea for the spoiler. As we have seen, with the introduction of DTM regulations in Super GT most GT500 teams are adopting the swan neck wing stays which literally hangs the wing from the top side over the car. Here it’s purely a style driven addition of course, but one that brings a touch of race spirit to the road. I’m sure we will be seeing more of these type of wing stays in the aftermarket during the course of 2014.
PRESENTATION MODE
DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER
SHARE
Race car touches don’t end there of course, the Liberty Walk GT-R sports a GT-3 inspired extended front lip spoiler to help slice through the air and actively boost downforce while at the rear Miura has extended the centre section of the diffuser and bolted additional winglets onto each corner, for an additional visual impact.
The LB☆WORKS treatment has created a one-of-a-kind GT-R that’s just as aggressive as the BenSopra R35, but in a totally different way.
No show car is ever complete with out a well chosen set of rims, and serving as a dark contrast to the silver-bronze body, Liberty Walk went for a set of Forgiato Maglia wheels…
… custom painted in satin black and measuring 20×11-inch up front and 20×12-inch at the rear. The LB☆WORKS GT-R runs Toyo Proxes tires, 285/35ZR20 at the front and rather large 315/30ZR20s on the rears, boosting grip levels considerably.
Providing the unmissable stance element and dropping the car right to the ground is the CSD Platinum VIP adjustable suspension…
… featuring air cups at each corner that allow the R35 to go from normal-ish low ride height…
… all the way down to show car mode at the push of a button. See what I mean with the tucked in rear over fenders? Can you see how much of the rear tires you can actually see? Yes we like!
The Japanese phrase Jiyū ni aruku underneath the Liberty Walk logo on the rear bumper roughly translates as ‘walk freely’, and it’s somewhat of a motto for Kato-san. It’s an emphasis on the way in which he approaches his cars and his products, and to some extent, his life – doing his own thing and striving to reach his goals in his own unique way.
PRESENTATION MODE
DOWNLOAD WALLPAPER
SHARE
While under the knife, the GT-R also gained some extra performance courtesy of a complete Trust exhaust system and a full hard piping kit which gets rid of the cheap looking stock items with lots of polished aluminum goodness. Trust Gracer Airinx filters have been positioned right behind the front grille so they are not only in the best position possible to suck in cool air, but also away from engine bay heat. Trust blow-off valves dump unneeded intake charge when backing off the throttle and also supply that must-have whooshing sounds many R35 owners dream of. An ECU remap takes full advantage of these upgrades, helping to obtain a slight bump in horsepower and a more responsive set up. However as the car was just completed the day before SEMA, no power measurements have been made.
The interior has been given a little custom touch too…
… thanks to a two-tone quilted leather seat re-trim courtesy of Newing…
… which also stretches to those tiny seats in the back!
If you are a purist and insist that any modification made to a car must be functional and bettering performance even in the slightest of ways, then the LB☆WORKS GT-R will probably make you angry. But if, on the other hand, you are more like Kato-san and are happy to enjoy the more aesthetic approach to car customization, then I think this R35 will be doing it for you. No matter what camp you may belong in though, the Liberty Walk GT-R has done its job – it has awakened some emotion within. Love it, or love to hate it as they say…
