Maxxd.com

Category: Maxxd News

ROCKET BUNNY PS13: RAMPANT RABBIT

Serial Nissan modifier and professional drifter Toshiki Nagai wanted to build something different for the SEMA show. And that’s why we see him here rediscovering the joy of six with his Rocket Bunny PS13.

Feature first appeared in Fast Car magazine. Words: Dan Bevis. Photos: Jules

Show-ready drift cars are one of the most brilliantly confusing things on the modding scene. The whole point of drifting is to spend the entire time having an accident, skidding at zany angles and then j-u-u-u-ust catching it before something imperilling occurs, then flicking into another accident in the opposite direction, and so on and so on until either you score enough points to win the bout, or you succumb to the whims of fate and actually have the full-blown accident you sort of deserve. As such, cars built for this purpose are often function-over-form affairs: machines built to be hilariously agile, supremely chuckable, amusingly powerful, and ever-eager to atomise their rear tyres at will. What they aren’t, usually, are show queens. This is because they’re always covered in sticky black bits of rubber, and more often than not they’ve banged into a number of walls so the back bumper’s hanging off, and there’s tyre rash from tandem competitors who’ve tried their luck just a little too hard. What we’re looking at in broad terms is a wilful and celebratory disregard for purity. The antithesis to the concours scene, in which every bolt-head must be artfully aligned and every part must boast the correct serial number; with drifting, fit-for-purpose is key, and this taster-menu approach has spawned a glorious mongrel scene over the generations – cars with the wrong engines, mucked-about chassis specs, and fibreglass addenda stitched together with cable ties. Liveries change season-on-season, paint shades swap at whim, bodykit options flit back and forth as they get trashed running the wall… but what you’re seeing here, glinting beneath the Las Vegas lights in the dwindling embers of the SEMA show, is a hardcore drift weapon that’s also a pristine show-stopper. After all, you don’t get into SEMA if your car’s not appropriately pretty. So how has this confusing miracle been achieved? Well, it’s all down to its owner and creator, Toshiki Nagai. This guy is no ordinary tuner. He’s set his sights high, and nothing but the best is good enough.

“I just love S13s, they’re my favourite drift car,” he explains. “It doesn’t match the S14 or S15 in terms of body rigidity, but I like the S13 because it’s cool and sexy. At the moment I’ve got seven of them.” Can’t really argue with that, can you? And for those who may at this point be questioning the sanity of somebody who owns an entire fleet of drift-ready S-bodies and is perhaps concerned for his welfare, we should point out that Nagai-san is a fully-fledged D1 drift competitor. He’s also the driving force (quite literally) behind TN Service Kyoto, a garage whose name sends emotional ripples through car fans across Japan and beyond, so it makes sense that when he puts a car together, there’s no messing about. Show-and-go is the order of the day, and SEMA is the ideal platform to showcase how adept he and his team are at crafting world class performance machinery.

He’s certainly got the domestic-market chops to help him walk the walk, as Nagai-san has been hooning about in aspirational machinery from day one. “My first car was an FD3S Mazda RX-7, which I bought at the age of eighteen,” he says, immediately dissolving everyone in the Fast Car office into fizzing pools of jealousy as we recall the crap we were driving at that age. “After that I was driving 180SXs and Silvias for drifting, and Aristos and Soarers on the street, everything lowered on big wheels…” It’s a classic formula, something we can all relate to on a personal level, and a highly aspirational lifestyle to boot. So, fast-forwarding to the acquisition of this particular PS13, it was as much by reputation as desire that it found its way into the TN Service Kyoto fold. “Everyone knows I love an S13,” Nagai-san shrugs, “So if anyone’s got a good one for sale, I’m the one they call.” And sure enough, when he saw this car, he knew it’d make the perfect base for a top-flight SEMA build. Totally stock and completely solid, this seasoned veteran saw nothing but potential. It helped that this opportunity temporally collided with an ongoing badgering of TRA Kyoto’s Kei Miura; “I’d been pestering Miura-san for two years to create a Pandem kit for the PS13, and the dream finally came true,” he recalls, and that adds an extra layer of textural depth to this car’s brutal aesthetic. It’s not just a cool car wearing a boxfresh bodykit – the slick new lines were the result of many conversations between these two captains of automotive industry, so the finished product has an intensely personal connection.

It really is a magnificent piece of design too, isn’t it? Having seen so many types of car attended to by the Rocket Bunny team, we know what to expect from a Pandem kit: a flawless fit that neatly follows the factory lines, but massively exaggerates the arches to create a style that’s more in-keeping with an old-school Touring Car grid, accommodating fat rubber and working with updated aero to form something breath-taking. We just love the combination of the adjustable high-rise wing and the ducktail at the rear, and the almighty girth of the arches is sensational. It’s particularly cool that TN Service Kyoto opted to finish it in a two-tone colour scheme, as that’s always a winner, and it’s interesting to note that it’s been painstakingly painted on rather than wrapped.

The interior’s been treated to a full-blown assault from the spray gun too, and it’s painfully evident in here just how serious a drift machine this is: everything superfluous stripped out, countless gauges mounted in clever places, and a set of super-lightweight carbon fibre Pandem buckets. You’ll find all the necessary competition addenda, from harnesses and window nets to that serious-as-hell rollcage, and it’s evident from every inch that this machine has been primarily engineered to be used, and used hard. And yet it’s all so, so clean. A race car in lipstick, ready for a raucous night on the tiles.

There must be something pretty serious going on under the bonnet, then? Oh yes. Yes, there is… and it’s not what you’d expect to find in there either. The SR20 is long gone, having been ousted in favour of the wildcard Toyota 2JZ. This is a longitudinally-mounted 3.0-litre straight-six which usually wears twin turbos in its native environments, but in this instance it’s rocking a vast single Garrett T04 for maximum awesomeness. “I hold a D1GP professional drift licence, as well as a Formula D licence, so I swapped this engine in purely for its competition potential,” Nagai-san says. He’s playing his cards pretty close to his chest in terms of specs and power outputs, which is probably unsurprising as he’s unlikely to want to hand an advantage to his competitors. If you ask him what it pulls on the dyno, he’ll simply tell you “Safety belts,” with a wicked grin. But given that even on stock internals these engines can make Ferrari-shaming power figures, and a sodding great Garrett snail like this is good for a number beginning with a five (or possibly even a six), there’s unlikely to be any half-measures here. Everything about this car screams ‘maximum attack’.

“Obviously the engine helped it to stand out at SEMA too,” he continues. “It surprised a few people when I suggested fitting a 2JZ, but everybody co-operated and everybody respected my decision. This car was completed because of everyone’s help and goodwill, and I want to prove in the future that it is not only a show car, but also a proper drift car. When Gumball 3000 came to Japan, for example, a staff member came to my store to play and I ended up drifting with them in the passenger seat.”

And that’s just the start of things. Plans may have gone a bit Covid-shaped this year, as we’re seeing all over, but having wowed the crowds at SEMA, this car then went on to do the same at Tokyo Auto Salon, and you can be damn sure that it’s going to transition from static to action with devastating flair. So fear the show thing in Las Vegas – it’s out for blood and it’ll swallow your tyres whole.

Tech Spec: Rocket Bunny PS13

Styling:

Rocket Bunny Pandem widebody kit, custom-painted livery, adjustable rear wing, blacked-out headlights, crystal taillights

Tuning:

Toyota 2JZ 3.0-litre straight-six, single Garrett T04 turbo, cone filter on custom pipe, Chase Bays power steering kit, Nagao Techno transmission

Chassis:

17-inch OZ Futura forged split-rims, 255/40 Toyo Proxes tyres, DMAX coilovers, GK Tech suspension arm package, GK Tech discs, pads and lines

Interior:

Fully stripped, Pandem carbon-shelled bucket seats, Pandem harnesses, full rollcage, carbon dash, window nets, ZSS steering wheel, Defi rev counter, boost gauge and fuel pressure gauge in OE instrument binnacle, Defi gauges in central air vents, PLX MultiGauge

Source

February 26, 2021
K-SERIES SMART CAR: 600HP “KATERTOT”

When it comes to engine swaps, the Honda K-Series is one of the more popular choices. But shoving a boosted one in a tiny smart car? That seems bonkers! Watch as That Racing Channel checks out this wild 600hp, K-Series Smart car complete with wheelie bar and a lack of doors…

[embedded content]

When it comes to engine swapping, Honda’s K-Series motors are some of the most popular engine swaps around the world. Here, though, is something a little more unusual. Engine-swapping a Smart car is nothing new, we’ve seen plenty of Hayabusa-powered cars. But removing the doors, the boot, widening the track signicianty, adding a roll cage and changing just about everything before adding in a boosted K-Series engine, well that’s a little more out of the ordinary.

As you can see from the dents across the bodywork, this is no show pony. Complete with wheelie bars (they have their own springs!), no doors and many dents from previous rollovers, this Smart car’s obscene power-to-weight ratio helps it blitz the competition.

Source

February 26, 2021
BMW N54 & N55 ENGINE GUIDE: A TUNER’S DREAM

With impressive turbo power and virtually limitless modding potential, the N54 and N55 are modern-day performance legends – here’s our BMW N54 and N55 engine guide as we delve beneath the surface to see what these turbo powerhouses are all about.

Guide brought to you by Performance BMW. Words: Elizabeth de Latour. Photos: Larry Chen, Daniel Pullen, Zayne Smith, Mike Kuhn, Viktor Benyi.

BMW N54/N55 History

The N54 engine first appeared in the 2006 E92 335i and was introduced across the BMW range over the following three years. The twin-turbo straight-six arrived in 306hp form with 295lb ft of torque and this is the version that the majority of N54-powered cars have; the F01 740i and US-only E92/3 335is came equipped with a 326hp version, which also received 332lb ft of torque, while the most powerful version of the engine was that found in the E82 1M Coupé and E89 Z4 sDrive35is, which made 340hp, with an overboost function that gave it 369lb ft for five seconds at full throttle.

The N55 was introduced in 2009 and went from two turbos to a single larger one and both its power and torque figures were unchanged from the N54, but peak torque arrived 100rpm earlier. Unlike the N54, there were numerous different incarnations of the N55 as BMW fitted it to just about every model. The F-range 640i, US-only E82/8 135is, F20/1 M135i and F01 740i all received the 320hp version with 332lb ft; the F22/3 M235i and LCI M135i both got the 326hp version, while the F30 ActiveHybrid 3 had the 340hp N55. Finally, the F26 X4 M40i came with a 360hp version that also got 343lb ft while the F87 M2 came with the most powerful version of the engine, with 370hp and 369lb ft of torque.

Let’s get technical

The N54 and N55 share their internal dimensions with the engine they’re based on, the M54. This means that they have an identical bore and stroke (84×89.6mm), and the compression ratio is also the same at 10.2:1, which helps to explain why it feels like a normally aspirated engine in the way it drives as it’s not a low-compression motor. However, there are several big differences – the M54 is a closed-deck single-piece block whereas the N54 is an open deck design and consists of two pieces. The water pump is also electric on the N54 whereas on the M54 it’s cast into the front of the block. As well as this, the M54 uses a more traditional fuel injection method, whereas the N54 features direct injection.

The N54 uses two smaller turbos running at 8.8 psi in order to keep lag to a minimum, while the N55 uses one larger one, which features a twin-scroll compressor housing. This means that the exhaust side of the turbo is divided into two parts, each fed by three exhaust primaries. In addition to this, the N55 also comes equipped with Valvetronic variable valve lift technology, which improved throttle response and low-end torque as well as reducing fuel consumption by 15% and lowering emissions compared to the N54. The N55 also switched from the N54’s more expensive Piezo fuel injectors to solenoid-type ones, the former being deemed not worthwhile using any longer as markets outside of Europe could not benefit from their potential lean-burn benefits.

N54/N55 tuning potential

While the N54 and N55 are impressive performers in stock form, it’s when you start modding them that their true performance potential is realised. While both engines give good gains, the N54 will always make slightly more power simply because it has two turbos and that means it’s easier for it to generate more power. The good news is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money and you don’t need any complicated mods to see good gains on both engines – we’re going to be using the base version of each engine for reference because the more powerful ones already come pre-tweaked from BMW and so gains will vary on those.

Your first port of call will be either a remap or a tuning box and there are plenty of options for both and they’ll both result in similar gains. A remap will get you an increase of around 60hp and 80lb ft, while a tuning box like a JB4 or bootmod3 will get you up to 80hp, and with a lot of tuning boxes being incredibly easy to install there’s really very little effort involved in getting a substantial hike in power, and at around £450 it’s a very cost-effective performance mod. On naturally aspirated engines intakes don’t generally offer much in the way of gains, but on a turbocharged car they’re always worth a look and while an intake won’t do a whole lot on its own (apart from giving you some more induction noise, which is never a bad thing), once you start throwing more mods at your N54 or N55, it all adds up. There are loads on the market to choose from but the BMS one gets good reviews and is definitely worth a look, and it costs about £130.

The charge pipe (the pipe from the intercooler to the intake manifold) on both engines is flimsy and can fail even at stock boost pressure, so once you start upping the power an uprated one is an absolute must. For the N54 we’d look at the Rennessis pipe from SSDD (£200), which comes complete with an uprated blow-off valve, or the VRSF item (£200) for your N55. An upgraded blow-off valve is an important addition because once boost pressure increases the stock ones can leak – the N54 uses manifold absolute pressure (MAP) so is quite happy with either a recirculating or an atmospheric blow-off valve, while the N55 uses a MAF sensor and so it’s best to stick with a recirculating one (our turbo tech guide in the May issue explains why).

The most restrictive point of both the N54 and N55 exhaust systems is the downpipe. On the N54 you have one of these from each turbo, and on the N55 there is just one and it’s the cat in each of these pipes that causes the restriction and a massive increase in back-pressure. Fit a de-cat downpipe and you instantly gain power, torque, improved throttle response and more noise, so they’re an absolute win all-round and you can expect to pay around £400. The rest of the exhaust is fine and any changes won’t really make a difference to power, but they will give you an awesome straight-six soundtrack to enjoy, so we’d throw one on for that reason alone. We’d also look at adding an uprated intercooler to help keep intake temperatures down, thus potentially increasing power, and one from someone like Mishimoto will set you back about £600.

At this point, you’ll have around 400hp+ on an N55 and 420hp+ on an N54, and for most people that’s going to be enough; it won’t have cost you a fortune to get to this point and your car will feel very quick indeed. Of course, there’s always more you can do and the next step would be a set of hybrid turbos with uprated internals. It’s about £2500-3000 for a pair of hybrids for the N54 or around half that for one for the N55 and that will get you well over 500hp, potentially even over 600hp, on an N54 and around 470hp+ on an N55. You will need some additional supporting mods such as an even larger intercooler, uprated low-pressure fuel pump on the N54, and potentially even meth injection to help keep intake temperatures down and prevent detonation. If you still want more you need a big single-turbo setup and for that, you’ll need a manifold, which will set you back around £2500-3000 and then you need a turbo plus additional mods, so the costs will start to rack up but you can hit over 700hp.

Source

February 25, 2021