NZ Performance Car – October 2019

PHOTOS: JADEN MARTIN

CRUISE MODE

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1 993 NISSAN SKYLINE GT-R (BNR32)

NAME: JARROD BIDDULPH-WALL // AGE: 26 // LOCATION: AUCKLAND

OCCUPATION: CEO AT MMS MOTORSPORTING SERVICES NZ LTD

NZ Performance Car: Hi, Jarrod. Tell us how you wound up in the

car scene.

Jarrod: Hey, NZPC. When I was growing up, my parents started a business

importing and selling Japanese performance cars, well before the likes of

Fast 4s & Turbos existed. Dad would come home each night in an early Evo,

VR4, Familia GTX, Skyline GTS-T, Starlet GT, etc. — just anything that he had

on the yard at the time that he could sell to young kids with money. I always

begged him to take me for rides in them, and it cemented my obsession with

’90s Japanese performance cars.

How did you end up owning a GT-R, and why this one?

I don’t know exactly when, but I realized that the GT-R was really the absolute

pinnacle. I got obsessed with the history of them dominating motor racing in

the early ’90s. Through a pretty large string of cars in my early 20s, I made

enough money to be looking at buying an E36 M3, and then I realized that

for not much more I could actually get a GT-R. I ended up hunting for around

a year before I finally found the absolute best example I could buy for my

money. It already had a Link ECU and a certification for the coilovers, and had

only done 120,000km. I didn’t want to pay the tax for sub-100,000km cars

because I always intended on driving the car and not selling it. Ironically, I

ditched Dad’s Father’s Day lunch to go and pick the car up, as the owner was

putting it on Trade Me the next day if I didn’t lock it in.

As values continue to go up on cars like this, was the goal always

to modify it?

I don’t really know what the goal was to start with, other than knowing they

were going to skyrocket at some point and I needed to keep it as stock as

possible while still enjoying it. All the interior mods were more because it

allowed me to remove the stock seats, wheel, and gear knob, which are all

immaculate, and preserve them while still enjoying the car. As it turned out,

the GT-R price boom kicked off about six months after I bought it, and would

have easily put me out of the market if I hadn’t been able to lock this one in.

What was it that provoked the full engine rebuild?

I had never intended to do much to the engine, other than keep an eye on the

oil pressure, knowing that they had a weak oil pump and could lunch motors.

As it turned out, one day I gave it a bit of stick away from a mate’s place,

and, about 30 seconds later, it completely died on me. The standard ceramic

turbo wheel had disintegrated throughout the motor, destroying just about

everything it could. The block was a complete throwaway, so Ethan from

Hi-Power [Performance] sourced a standard short block for us to rebuild with

rings and bearings, etc. That motor then turned out to be slightly out of round,

giving no choice but to go forged oversized pistons to compensate. While the

motor was out, I basically said I wanted it to be completely bulletproof, make

300kW, and spit flames. I ended up with two out of the three, due to coil packs

quitting on the dyno and us leaving the motor at a very conservative 250kW at

all four. The main thing for me is the fact that under the bonnet the motor looks

bone stock, down to the factory air-box.

Will you take the build further, or are you pretty happy with where

it is now?

At some point, I would like to put some form of drop-in cams in it and go

back on the dyno for the rough 300kW, but it’s pretty low priority with plenty

of other garbage in the driveway taking up those funds. I am still planning

on restoring it one day, so I am collecting stock trim components and other

bits and pieces as and when they come up before they become completely

unobtainable. It’s faster than my mate Scott’s non-forged turbo E30, so that’s

all that matters to me.

Fair call, Jarrod; it’s all about the balance.