Mazda 323 Repainting.

Yeah wad u see is true.. the 323 is in for a new fresh coat of paint.. upholstery, and sport rims.. stay tuned!

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800hp electric Bugatti?

According to certain sources, Bugatti, the luxury supercarmaker is planning to do something similar to that of sister company Audi with the E-tron. But being Bugatti and having the Veyron to live up to, they need to maintain that excessive amount of horsepower from the powertrain. Thus the power unit they’re looking at is somewhere in the range of 800 horses. Engineers will get some help from the VW Group’s repertoire of electric drive train units.

The car is supposed to have already been built but there are no plans yet to put it into production. It has also been said that the reason that the car has been built is only to showcase the technology, and hopefully will allow engineers to explore the possibilities of production of similar units.

The prototype is supposedly based on the chassis of a Bentley Continental GT and produces an amazing yet typical of an electric motor 2,200Nm of torque from just 0rpm. All this is produced from just two electric motors powered by an advanced lithium-ion battery.

As you can imagine acceleration of an electric car is already incredible, but the problem that the company seems to be facing is the discharge of the battery power after a simple bout of power. You might just have to tow the car back after hitting top speed once!

This wont be the first electric model that Bugatti has produced. Founder Ettore Bugatti built an electric Type 56 that he used to drive around his factory. Never intended for production, due to customer demand Ettore built it anyway. It would be good to see an electric hypercar in production, and hopefully by putting the word out there demand would grow among the insanely rich.

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Ferrari 612 Scaglietti by Novitec Rosso

The 612 Scaglietti is not a very popular member of the Ferrari family. More often than not, the big grand tourer is eclipsed by its prettier, sexier and nimbler sisters. Those shopping for a Ferrari are also likely to already have a “family car”. But famous Ferrari tuner hasn’t forgotten the 612, and has released a tuning package for the successor of the 456.

The 5.8-litre V12 engine gets a horsepower bump to 565 bhp from 530 bhp. Torque has increased to 609 Nm from 588 Nm. These new figures are achieved with the help of a “specially calibrated engine management system” along with Novitec’s high performance exhaust system. This means the Scaglietti’s 0 to 100 km/h time is down to just 3.9 seconds and top speed is 325 km/h.

Other additions include a new taillight design and a new tyre/wheel combination – 275/30 ZR 20 up front and 355/25 R 21 rears. Inside, one can customise the seats to their heart’s content. Leather seats can be custom tailored to body measurements and even the addition of lateral support and lowered seat positions for tall drivers can be done. Customers can go as far as choosing the thickness and material of their steering wheel. Like many supercars today, the steering will be flat-bottomed.

Novitec Rosso has an authorised dealer in Malaysia, Iktikad Raya Sdn Bhd, which brought in the Novitec tuned F430. We’re sure they’ll be happy to specially import one of these in for you.

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New Zealand's first SuperCar.

You are looking at the first Kiwi supercar, and the four-year old company is named after New Zealand’s only F1 World Champion, Denny Hulme. The Hulme CanAm is no ordinary supercar, because it comes with an experience unlike any other.


But first, you should know what you will be getting from your £295,000 purchase. Potential customers can express their interest with a £10,000 fully refundable deposit. This deposit will then be held in a trust account “pending a private viewing and driving experience of the car at or before the 2011 Goodwood Festival of Speed for those who have purchased an option to order,” said Jock Freemantle, managing director of the Auckland based firm.

When you have confirmed interest in the product (and have paid up in full I imagine), you will then be treated to a host of luxuries. Firstly, each of the 20 limited run CanAms will be customised according customer requests. They will then be flown down to New Zealand via Air New Zealand’s Business Premier along with one week of luxury accommodation, where driver fitting, the finishing touches and road testing will commence. The car is then shipped off to the destination of choice. This “free holiday” makes the purchase price a little more palatable.

The CanAm gets a 7.0-litre Chevrolet LS7 V8 which develops 600 bhp along with 600 Nm of torque channelled through a close ratio, six-speed CIMA manual gearbox. Paddle and sequential gearboxes are options.

Hulme says that the CanAm does 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds, which is helped on by the fact that the car weighs under 1,000kg. Top speed is in excess of 320 km/h.

“Created for both road and track use, the car blends the raw flavour and appeal of a Formula racing car with dramatic design, superb craftsmanship, exceptional performance and a thrilling and achievable driving experience,” Hulme explains.

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Cayenne: From Russia with love.

Old or new, we’ve never been big fans of the Cayenne’s looks. Now, look what Topcar has done to the second-gen yet to be launched Cayenne. The Russian tuning firm has developed three different styling packages for the super SUV. Each model gets a 200 horsepower boost from 550 to 750 bhp and will sit on forged wheels. Other standard offerings include new side mirrors and added LED lighting.

The first of the three packages is the Cayenne Advantage 2, which has Porsche 911 headlights and includes front and rear spoiler bumpers, extended fenders, side skirts, wide door caps and a new bonnet. Only 25 of these cars will be specially built. What do you think of those classic oval headlamps on the Cayenne?

Another limited edition package would be the Vantage GTR 2 which retains the original headlights but comes with wider intakes as part of a new front bumper, front and rear fender extenders, a bonnet and side skirts which gives is said to give the “bird of prey” look. Finally, the Cayenne Vantage 2, which is almost similar but not limited edition.

The upside to Topcar’s packages are that all of the body panels will be fully manufactured from carbon kevlar and carbon fibre, a combo that’s strong and light. The cars will be showcased at the Moscow International Motor Show in August and later at the Essen Motor Show.

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Honda FN type R gets supercharged.

The Honda Civic Type R, whether in JDM or Euro spec, is famous for its howling, rev hungry i-VTEC engine, which makes trips to the redline so addictive. But when faced with turbocharged Euro hot hatches, the Honda driver will need a lot of hard work and commitment to keep pace due to the relative lack of grunt. Forced induction might be the answer, as suggested by Torque Developments (TD).

The tuning house developed three levels of supercharger upgrades for the 197 bhp 2.0-litre K20AZ3 i-VTEC engine that powers the European Civic Type R hatchback. The conversions are based on a proven package produced in the US by CT Engineering, which has required revisions for right hand drive installation, plus the reworking of major components to ensure optimum fit and performance.

The Stage One supercharger was designed to work with the stock air intake and exhaust system, and is a straightforward bolt-on “Roots-style” kit that requires no modifications to engine. This low pressure (4-5 PSI) unit includes a Hondata ECU reflash to optimise ignition and fuel settings plus a carbon fibre fuel rail cover.

Meant to provide “linear boost”, Stage One adds a healthy 75 bhp (to 272 bhp) and bumps torque from 193 Nm to 258 Nm. Weak low end pull is one of the CTR’s weak points; with 90% of max torque available from 3,500 rpm things should be much improved. It costs £4911.50 in the UK, and comes with a 12-month/50,000 km warranty.

Stage Two builds on the above, with the addition of a smaller supercharger pulley to increase boost pressure by a further 3 PSI, larger fuel injectors and extra Hondata ECU remapping, which raises the FN’s rev limit to 8,500 rpm. In addition, a choice of Mugen, Toda Racing or HKS induction kit is “advised” for better performance. Adding 95 bhp (to make 292 bhp) and 85 Nm (to 278 Nm), this kit costs £5955.75.

Stage Three is the same as Two, but with an even smaller pulley for an additional 1 PSI. This ultimate CTR provides 302 bhp and 285-292 Nm of torque to play with. Now that the Honda’s front wheels need to handle significantly more grunt, TD suggests some parts to “retain the cohesive nature of the driving experience”. Cost options include a Wavetrac LSD, Fast Road suspension geometry set up, lowering springs, adjustable coilover suspension and exhaust systems from Toda or Mugen.

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Avus Performance RS4 to rival M3.

There may be no RS badged variant for the current B8 Audi A4, but German tuner Avus Performance has come up with a tweaked S4 that provides RS4 levels of performance to challenge the BMW M3.

In standard form, the S4 is no slouch with a 3.0-litre supercharged V6 engine that makes 333 bhp and 440 Nm of torque. Clearly not enough for Avus, they threw in a series of upgrades that included a custom exhaust system. The end result is 420 bhp and 540 Nm of torque, which compares well with the naturally aspirated M3’s 414 bhp/400 Nm. Avus doesn’t provide performance numbers, but their car should be much faster than the S4’s 0-100 km/h time of 5.1 seconds. Along with the added grunt, Avus added in a new spring kit along with 20-inch alloy wheels wrapped with 255/30 Hankook Ventus S1Evo tyres. Strange rubber choice from a European tuner.

The S4’s looks have been made more aggressive by a new front grille, spoiler, and rear diffuser painted in metallic black. Customers can choose to replace the abovementioned parts with carbon fibre items. Unsurprisingly, the car’s cabin can be specified with carbon trim as well. Gallery after the jump.

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1990 Nissan Skyline R32 GTR - 2010 project.

Special thanks to Mark Riccioni for this car.

Thought i'd post up my latest project having previously owned a little Civic and RX7 before!

Cut a long story short, I owned an FD-shape RX7 for a year - loved every second of it. Did a few tweaks to it, all cosmetic really, green wheels, absolutely decked, had no 'rotary problems' what so ever in 12,000 miles of ownership.

Problem was, it wasn't fast enough for me (was running standard-ish power). I say fast enough, if I had the skill to drive it properly it was more than capable, but for 'foot down, stomach feels weird' acceleration I needed something else.

Several months later Ross @ Dragon Performance showed me the following car available:

Looked cool, love the R32 shape but wasn't won over until I saw the engine and spec:

Turns out it used to be a drag car, running 700bhp... that'll do haha.

There's a thousand horror stories from Japanese Auctions, spec not being what they are etc. and the spec on this car was ridiculous. I was preparing myself for a few bits not to be on there, but after Ross checked out the car, gave it a service and generally cast his eye over it the car's spec matches the auction sheet. To give a rough idea it's running the following:


rebuilt RB26 with N1 pistons, Tomei rods, headgasket, HKS cams, 720cc injectors, external 'gate, B&M ignition amp etc.
Twin Bosch 044 fuel pumps, braided lines
Garrett T45S turbo running 700bhp @ 1.6 bar
Nismo 2-way rear LSD, Tomei 1.5-way front LSD
OS Gieken 3-plate clutch
OS Gieken gear set
Ohlins coilovers, adjustable camber arms, tie rods etc.
Hi-Cas locked out
A bajillion gauges, water, oil, exhaust temp etc.
etc.


So I picked up the car, intended to use it only for 'weekends' but instead i've managed to rack near 1800 miles daily driving it since December - it's surprisingly tame on the road once you get going, clutch is harsh, same with diffs at low speed but once you're past 10mph it's a doddle. Scary when the boost comes on, too.

Onto the project side of things, basically trying to 'modernise' the bits which have been left behind. Bought some Volk wheels for it that desperately need R888 tyres which are fitted in the pics. I'm not a huge fan of the colour or the bodykit, so it'll be going back to standard GT-R bodywork when I have the cash. Not to mention the brakes... which are 20 years old and way way way not upto the job - not even V Spec brembos, just the standard Nissan items!

Unfortunately, our next door neighbours (who moan about our electric gates being too noisey) didn't like the new purchase, so at the end of December received this in the post:

Which was hilarious, checked with the council, well within our rights and 2 weeks later the case was dropped - you can be annoyed by a million noises, but that doesn't warrant it being a noise problem.

To celebrate, I DB-checked the car at 'track day spec' 3000rpm - it's quite loud:

And that's basically where I am now. I'll be changing a load of bits in the next few months, desperately need it mapping too. But for anyone interested, here's a few videos and pics of the project.

 

It's a strange one, the power delivery is just ridiculous - you start making positive boost from around 2-3000rpm but it's not until 4000+ that you're upto 1bar and beginning to pull. Then at around 4900 it's ballistic, fun but you've got to be 'ready' as gay as it sounds as it'll happily kick out even in 4WD.

 It's a very old turbo though, i'd like to get a more mordern design plus decent management in the not too distant future, should make a hell of a difference.

Forgot to mention about the rev-limiter/launch control system on it, allows for some fun pics

Quick update anyways, finally got the car on the Dyno just to see what the fuelling was like really, some good and bad news...First thing is figures - managed to pull 536 at the wheels, but only did the pull up to 6000rpm instead of the 7800rpm limit.

turns out the secondary Bosch 044 fuel pump (external) was seized, so above 5500rpm and 550hp the in-tank pump was giving up the go causing it to lean out massively.


Bit of a bugger, but at least I know the car's capable - roll on replacement pump and 7800rpm, no idea what 536whp works out with transmission losses, but good to know there's still another 100+whp in it yet that i'm yet to have!  

Anyways, on the thursday I had Knight Racer fit a 'hybrid' carbon bonnet, basically a normal carbon bonnet but instead of being a sheet of carbon over a crap load of fiberglass, it's all made out of carbon fibre. lot lighter and stronger and not a lot more than a usual one, can't recommend one enough.

Then on the Friday morning it was off to Thor Racing to use their Dynapack, just discussing at the minute whether to ditch all the dinosaur management on it and replace it with a Link G4 that'll rid the AFMs for a MAP sensor, work as a boost controller, launch control... basically make it run a crap load better, and be good to get a proper map put on regardless of how the Japanese one is working.

Oh and one last funny pic of the first aborted dyno run, only took the revs up to 6000rpm, but between 4000 and 5500 revs the torque goes from 160lb ft to 456ft lb, bit laggy haha

Christ I just realised i've not updated this in TIME! Soo, big changes since (well, not so much visually, but certainly to my wallet + engine power...)

Firstly, I decided to get some new shoes for it - Rota Grids 18x10 ET15 all round, Toyo R888 265/35/18 tyres. I loved the Volks, but for me they didn't quite suit the R32's look - a little too modern maybe.

Then it went for mapping - Thor Racing fitted a new Link G4 ECU with adjustable boost controller and Pete began mapping. Unfortunately, my old turbo did not like mapping, despite making 600 wheel horsepower @ 1 bar, the bearing went and shat itself.

Luckily, Ross @ Dragon Performance had a T88-33D going spare, so I bought that to use instead:

This was then fitted, the downpipe was butchered beautifully and re-welded to get it all up and running, before picking it up on Friday:

Then it was time to go be an idiot:

Realising I needed to stop being so idiotic, I went to Santa Pod for a bit of draggin...managed to get a few runs in, the two best being:


10.91 @ 130mph (60 foot 1.6 seconds)
11.16 @ 128mph (60 foot 1.6 seconds)


Which I was happy with as it was only at 1.4 bar of boost, unfortunately I managed to completely destroy 5th gear crossing the finish line on the 10.9 run Rubbish! But, at least i've still got 4 working gears!


Not too bad for a full-weight R32, full interior, even stupid Alpine speakers and amps in the back and the standard gearbox


So, if anyone has any R32 boxes for sale or knows someone who can fit 'em without too much of a ballache gimmie a bell haha.

Thanks for viewing!

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