Monster Mini Madness!

Yeah, as if that Toyota-powered Smart wasn’t insane enough, we found a feature buddy for the car.  This one’s sporting the same base lump, a 16-valve 4A-GE from Toyota and it’s been treated to boost too.  This nutter’s managed to shoehorn it into a Mini.  Yes, we’ve seen 16v turbo motors shoved into these before, but this looks like there’s just so much more happening.  Wally and Andy went out to meet Christi on the way into the bushveld.  Apparently it’s a bit of a handful to pilot.  No really, just a bit though.

Rocky’s Hygrade tweaked Hummer

Wally and Neeresh met up with Rocky to shoot his Hummer.  No, not literally of couse, although a Canon was involved.  Hummers are becoming more and more popular on our roads and that means the game is on, owners are trying to find new ways to make them special.  Rocky’s Hummer has the usual bling accessories and the obligatory super large chome wheels, but thanks to Hygrade it’s full of banging ICE now too.  At the shoot Wally got a bit of a surprise when a friend of Rocky’s was all of a sudden wearing clothing better suited to the bedroom.  While trying to impersonate a tripod Wally shot off a few rounds… with the SLR - for the results check out the next issue.

FRC Tuning - Wicked SEAT and a chat

We hooked up with Preggie and Praga from Frieling Racing chip tuning for a chat about their SEAT and a little bit about the FRC brand.  The chaps have been tuning VAG cars for a while now and have quite a following.  No online software wars are complete without FRC fans getting in their say about the brand and how much they love it.  Wally headed out to their new workshop and snapped some pics while finding out where FRC is from and what exactly makes them tick.

Genius or just Super Smart?

You know the thoughts you’re thinking now?  Well yeah, that’s pretty much what we thought when we got the mail documenting the build process of this Smart.  These things are powered by a monster 900cc turbo lump, and when they get serious upgrades in Europe, people shove in a GSX-R or Hyabusa bike engine.  This is SA though, we don’t screw around.  A madman has tunnelled his Smart for a propshaft and added in a Toyota 4AG-E motor into the mix - UP FRONT!  As if that’s not enough, he added boost!  Wally and Andy headed out to the workshop it was created in, and true as nuts, the car is real!  Check it out! Can you imagine a 200kW Smart?  No need to, here it is!

Dutch Dyno Day in Meyerton

Jean from Dutch Auto, an exhaust place in Meyerton, hosted a dyno day on the past weekend.  He’d told me about it a while back and phoned me during the week to remind me it was on.  No problem, I’d head out there on Saturday morning to see what the Vaal Triangle has on offer.  Was I surprised?  You betcha!  Considering it was out in the sticks, the array of cars was insane, here’s a sample or two…

Dayglo 130kW N/A ‘Tec!

Yes, this car is bright, super bright.  It’s so bright that I don’t think it even needs to drive with it’s lights on at night, all the streetlights would probably make this thing look like the Iraqi skyline during a friendly fire bombing blitz.  When Jakes told us the car was at his spot but that he wasn’t really too keen to drive it around because it attracted unwanted Metro attention, we thought he’d been sniffing the toluene again.  The car was in the workshop when myself and Wally arrived and it looked pretty bright, but once we moved the car into the sun, we saw it’s real power, and it hurt our eyes.  Seriously, if I close my eyes now I see the permanent outline of a Honda Ballade!  The cameras didn’t like the colour and the lighting equipment made the car look pink-ish.  This shoot was a mission!  We managed though, coz we rock.  The car’s back in Mozambique now picking on E46 M3s.  Wanna see what makes it tick?  Then keep an eye on Speed & Sound Magazine!

GWR’s Mustang Doorslammer = Sex on slicks!

Gavin Wilkins at GWR is well-known for his insanely strong Ford Sierra drag car, among other street conversions of course.  His monster Sierra has obliterated the drag strip on a time of 8.4-second at 262km/h - a serious time for a V8 running nitrous and no force-fed induction.  Even though the Sierra is mint and can easily win a concourse event, Gavin decided it was time for a change and so he set about  the simple conversion of fitting a new shape Mustang body.  Well that was the theory - Gavin had to rebuild the entire car and this is the end result.  Spyke and Wally headed round to his Alrode workshop to snap some pics for y’all…How friggin hot is this Mustang?!  We can’t wait to see it’s debut on the drag strip, but from the looks of things it seems a low 8-second pass is on the cards - hell, who knows, maybe there’s a 7-second pass somewhere in this monster Mustang’s future!

Group N replica racer @ Zwartkops

Yup, it’s here, Chris Davison’s awesome Group N replica Superboss.  We’ve been following the build of this car since it started, and as with everybody else who’s known about it, we’ve been very impressed.  This car started out as a scrapper and has ended up being one of the most talked about Opels in a very long time.  It even attracted the attention of the man who raced the original one in the early 90s, Mike Briggs.  Chris embarked on a ground up restoration of the tired superboss, and it now rivals his white one that we used for our Cult Car section of the Magazine.  The car makes great power and handles like no other front wheel drive I’ve been in, and no, it’s not just for show - the car will be seen in the Superhatch series for the 2010 season.  It doesn’t just look like a racecar, it IS a racecar!  Wally and myself found that out for ourselves during the shoot at Zwartkops when Chris took us for a few laps at pace.  I think there’s still combined fecal matter on the passenger seat…

335i Droptop at Stoneridge

So Rodrigo’s not a stranger, he had the LS-doored Honda S2000 we featured on the cover a while back.  That means he definately knows how to make a pretty car.  He’s since moved on from the S2K and was driving a Mk5 GTi for a bit, but he finally has his new ride all sorted out.  Myself and Warren headed out to Stoneridge Mall in Kempton to snap this car at Q-ba.  We decided a night shoot would be great for this car and yeah, we were right.  We arrived and the owner of Q-ba decided to take the night off and then ignore our phone calls but luckily the manager convinced centre management to let us snap pics in the forecourt and basement parking.

Rodrigo opted for a BMW this time, a 335i and he made sure he could still have his hair blowing in the wind by getting a droptop.  The 335i is already a good looking car, but with a few tasteful styling cues it becomes a tarmac sex symbol.  Rod’s car is now a two-tone affair and from a distance it can be confused with an Audi S5.  It’s running with all the good mods a 335i should, which means it’s fast, it kills M3 and most other cars he comes across.  It’s definitely a unique look, but my favourtite part is the rimmage - take a look at those puppies!  YES PLEASE!

SNS at MPH ‘10

Yeah, we were there with a huge kick-ass Rockford Fosgate trailer pumping some wicked tunes.  Kris Budnik’s E46 M3 that was featured on the cover of Issue 101 was on dsplay as was a wicked ICE’d out Series 4 RX-7 and an airbrished, HellaFlush carbon fibre-bodied Opoel Corsa.  At the back of the stand we had A.S.E’s insane Subaru WRX STi hatch as well as a sweeeeeet new Skyline GTR in a fresh light metallic blue paint, a complete change from the factory colours on offer.  Read more

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