I’m going to tell you something that you might find hard to swallow. This isn’t actually a car. It may have all the characteristics of an automobile: headlights, four wheels, doors and stuff, but this is not a car. What is it? It’s a WMD. A Weapon of Mass Destruction. You may think that the [...]
Motorsport is addictive. I probably don’t need to tell you that, but of all the codes out there I’m not sure than any fuel the fire of obsession quite like drag racing does. In a sport where success is often measured in one-hundredths of a second or less, that’s understandable of course. Consistency is one thing, [...]
Getting a 3700lb (1675kg) Nissan Skyline GT-R down the strip in eight and a half seconds flat on its very first outing since an intensive, yet short lead build, is not any way, shape or form an easy proposition. But behind the wheel of MGAWOT II, New Zealand-based but internationally-renowned Nissan RB-series engine builder Robbie [...]
Big engines and big cars are kind of obvious huh? Don’t get me wrong, I love a good V8 and have owned more than a few. An Audi R8 with that V10 sat behind my head? All day, every day my friend. Yet if I’m honest I think my ego gets in the way sometimes. [...]
It’s a fact I’ve never really been a fan of drag racing. Hang on though and stick with me, because I am now – and I hope that you will be too after reading this. Drag racing is not something I’ve just discovered either: I’ve been regularly visiting dragstrips for over 15 years. From Santa [...]
It’s not often I get stopped in my tracks. I’ve been a lucky boy over the years and have seen a lot of different things around the globe. I’m not jaded or tired of it, no, but usually I can take in the details with relative calm. Not today though. What you see above is [...]
Thanks to a barrage of new cars from the late ’60s and an onslaught of grey imports from the late ’80s, Japanese car culture in New Zealand is as diverse as it is far-reaching. But it was on the drag strip in the late ’90s and early ’00s where the scene as it’s known today [...]
There are plenty of different ways I could do this, but as some of my fellow new Speedhunters have opened with a discussion about how amazing it is here, a point on which we all agree, I’ll move on. As part of my year end indulgences I’m going to discuss the breadth of car [...]
The term ‘street driven’ is one that’s often bandied around drag racing circles. While I have the utmost respect for any production-based machine that can cut a quick quarter (and we’re talking a sub 10-second ET here), there’s extra something special about a car that can do it straight off the road. In my mind [...]
New Zealand might be a little country at the bottom of the world, but when it comes to import drag racing Kiwis have had their fair share of big results. Reece McGregor’s Heat Treatments Racing Nissan Skyline GT-R still holds the coveted title of the ‘world’s quickest 4WD’ with a 7.57 ET set back in [...]
Garage Saurus is one of those names that everyone has heard of. So you might be forgiven if you've been wondering what has happened to them. The owner, Hayashi-san, is still very much active in the Japanese tuning scene, continuing to build crazy GT-Rs and other JDM rides on a daily basis out of the [...]
It's not every day that you come across a Mazda 3 like this. While the 3 may be a popular Japanese family car, they're certainly few and far between when it comes to the drag strip. Initially, owner Kurt Scott only wanted a quick street car. But as is often the case, one thing led [...]
Our Street Cars & Sleepers month is coming to a close, but we still have some impressive cars coming your way. Take for example, Zico Tran’s K20A-powered Civic. With the assistance of JDMyard, the idea behind this Civic was to create a balanced all-rounder; a car versatile enough to be used on the street as well as [...]
With so many distractions in the present day, many of us are hard pressed to find time to actually sit down and let the brain breathe a little and relax. Yet, when those moments do happen, it’s when you least expect it. It’s always those quiet moments which gives us time to reflect on whatever [...]
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This is the final stop in our look at the Australian drag scene. I couldn't have picked a better shop, or car, to end this little tour of the highly impressive, power-crazy world that exists downunder. Welcome to JC Racing, a place that has built the fastest 1/4 chassis Mazda R100 in Australia. Out of [...]
