On a cold and miserable day in Napier, we found ourselves huddled in the corner of an ITM warehouse with two late-model Evos. Owned by a pair of young brothers, Simon and Hamish Ellingham, one is a 500hp streetcar that would have to be one of the tidiest we have ever seen and the other a battle-hardened circuit racer built to adhere to the strict rules of the Tier 1 Production Racing Series.
Walking up to the pair your eyes can’t help but be drawn to the bright yellow paint of the Evo VII, which is owned by younger brother Hamish. When Hamish mentioned he was in his last year of high school, we were a little shocked. This is certainly not your typical high school car, unless things have changed since we went there to eat lunch?
The yellow Evo was purchased around two and a half years ago with only 40,000 on the clock. And a quick peek at the ODO revealed it had now done just over 60; it’s barely run in. For those first years it remained in pretty close to stock form, with only the basic mods like a pod filter and wheels.
It wasn’t until Hamish decided t Read the full story »
It was announced today that Toyota will be joining the NZV8 grid for the 2012/2013 season, in the form of two Camry’s. They will be using the new COFT generic chassis, that are set to replace the current production based chassis limiting the class to only Ford and Holden. Designed and built by Mitchell Race Extreme in Hamilton, chassis #001x has been tested at race tracks around the country all summer, showing positive results, even without the new specced engine and transmission fitted. Orders have been coming in thick and fast for the new platform, with 20 chassis’s needing to be built. It is rumored that Toyota won’t be the only manufacture to join the field. “With mooted entries from Holden, Ford, Toyota, Mercedes, Nissan and a number of other marques, the ‘Car of Tomorrow’-style control chassis will provide an added element of parity to the exciting new era of V8 racing in New Zealand”, a spokesperson from NZV8 wrote on their website.
The Team diving in first however is Paeroa Based Richards Team Motorsport, a division of Tony Richards Toyota. The two Camry team will have current NZV8 driver Martin Short and another driver yet to be announced. Most exciting is the fact that Toyota New Zealand is behind the project and have sourced TRD developed five litre 32 valve alloy v8s from the USA. That are built for use in events like the Daytona 24hr race. All eyes will be on the NZV8 grid next season to see how the Toyotas stack up.
Christchurch’s Japanese Race Supplies, stockist of both Exedy and TiAL, have put together ten prize packs of merchandise to give away. Each pack contains an Exedy Racing T-Shirt, a TiAL Sport T-Shirt, a Jap Race T-Shirt, a Jap Race Hat, an Exedy Racing beer holder, an Excedy Racing sticker sheet and an Excedy Racing keychain. Each pack has a value of over $200. To win simply head onto Japanese Race Supplies’ Facebook page, ‘like’ it and leave a comment on why you should win a pack. Then head here and enter the draw. The competition closes on May 31.
Microsoft has just released Star Wars, the game, for Xbox 360 — but with a twist, it’s controlled by Kinect. So get up off that couch and swing your lightsabre. We’ve been playing it in the office and you can check out the review in Smoking Thumbs on page 80 of the latest issue.
WIN!
Microsoft has given us four copies of the game to give away. To win simply go here and answer this simple question: What is Darth Vader’s real name?
Over the weekend we made a proper start on the E36 drift hack, luckily when we picked up the shell from Hell BM it was already partially stripped of the running gear and a lot of interior, so that made our job a little easier. Saturday morning we ripped in and took all the remaining parts out in preparation for the chassis work. As we will be adding a lot of weight with the cage, I want to lose as much as possible anywhere else I can. So far we have made some big savings, including 30kg on the seats, and 15kgs on the loom, not to mention the 30-plus KGs from all those other luxuries that won’t find their way back in.
The new issue of NZPC is out in stores today! Issue 186 features both Carl Robertson and Chris Burrett’s amazing show-quality street rides (complete with engine bays that need to be seen to be believed) on the cover.
This issue also features a big 7-page pictorial on our highly successful (if a little controversial) NZPC Wellington Hardpark, plus full coverage of the D1NZ final round at Hampton Downs, 4&Rotary Jamboree, Automania 2012 and South Island Hardpark. We’ve also packed in a great selection of feature rides to accompany to the two cover cars, with Matt Sellers S14, Graeme Smyth’s monster Series 1 RX-7 and a rapid Version 8 Rex from GCP Performance. All this plus pages and pages of the usual great content you’ve come to love. Get it in stores now! (Or, if you want to be smart about it, subscribe here and save money)
