NZ Performance Car – October 2019

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“As a young fella, having a street car was always the key. My

mates and I used to go over to Tauranga and Hamilton and hang out

with car mates as were growing up. Having a car that you could drive

on the street was quite important to us; all we did was hang out in

our cars,” he says.

Originally powered by the formidable, albeit gutless, Toyota

4K, an unexpected conversation between Ben and a stranger at one

of those aforementioned car hangouts got the ball rolling towards

where the car sits today. That stranger approached Ben and said

that he had the perfect motor for the car, offering up a 1.8-litre dual-

overhead-cam twin-spark turbo power plant known as the ‘3T-GTE’

for a price that was too good to refuse. Ben shook hands to seal the

deal in little time and proceeded to “valve bounce the 4K all over town

until it finally blew up” to clear space in the engine bay.

With a fresh heart fitted — one that cranked out a ton more

power at the wheel — many a back road was terrorized in the name

of breaking it in; the kind of stuff that any young gun gets up to.

Around the same time, however, new laws came into place whereby

cars could be seized when caught, and Ben tells us that really put

him off the silly stuff. Which is where drag racing came into the mix:

somewhere to go, be a hoon, and not get into trouble for your efforts.

Clocking up more than his fair share of quarter-mile passes,

managing a PB of mid 13 seconds, Ben started getting itchy for

more power than the 3T was offering. He saw two ways to obtain

those gains: spend moonbeams on the old heart to go not that much

faster, or swap it out for a newer incarnation that would actually offer

the grunt in stock form that he desired. It was an easy decision, with

the 3T, the only engine to be by choice instead of being blown up,

replaced with its much bigger cousin: a 1JZ-GTE.

This was at a time when the JZ hype had yet to hit and putting

together a potent package meant cracking open the vault to empty

your savings, and then some. A humble Ben admits that, even back

then, prior to him having the more important priorities that he has

today, when he was able to blow every pay cheque on cars, it was

a damn expensive task. That’s why he opted to start out with the

package in stock form, running into the 11s before discovering a few

teething issues, which were to be expected when pumping far more

power through the car than it was designed for.

The rear end was determined to tear itself to bits once Hoosiers went on, which is why you’ll find a

shortened Hilux 4.1:1-ratio LSD with two-link, added leaf springs, and stiff shocks back there

DRIVELINE

GEARBOX: W-series

five-speed

CLUTCH: Custom single-plate

FLYWHEEL: Billet 4340

DIFF: Shortened Hilux 4.1:1

limited-slip

EXTRA: Custom driveshaft,

two-link

SUPPORT

STRUTS: Custom Celica

coilovers with Tein

camber plates, custom

Archers springs

BRAKES: (F) Celica calipers,

(R) MR2 calipers

EXTRA: Six-point roll cage

EXTERIOR

PAINT: Resprayed blue by

Nicholas Waiariki

ENHANCEMENTS: Chrome

bumpers, acrylic rear

windows

INTERIOR

SEATS: Racepro, RJS five-

point harness

STEERING WHEEL: Nardi

INSTRUMENTATION:

Auto Gauge rev counter,

Auto Meter air–fuel ratio

AUDIO: “Singing, yelling, or

bring your own”