You’ll definitely have seen our mate MacGillaz at one of our track days; he’s the stern guy that’s waving or pointing the black flag at you for being a jerk. But what you might not have seen is Andrew on the race track in one of his many track day projects.
We see you at the track all the time but your always officiating…some of us have probably forgotten what you’ve got in the garage so let’s start with what’s in the shed?
Last time I checked my first R31; the GXE-R was parked in there. It certainly has been a few years since it attended a trackday. There’s numerous other Nissan’s that also dot the property and a few interloppers that are also in my care.
What’s an R31 GXE-R, all those letters must mean something?
Gather round folks and let me tell you a story on the forgotten 7th Generation Skyline. An R31 GXE was the middle or Executive model of R31; above the base GX (everything hand adjusted) but below the Ti (Luxury spec). The R comes from the ‘legendary’ Redtop RB20 DET-R that was fitted to 800 HR31 GTS-R Nissan made to homologate the R31 for Group A racing back in the 80s.
It was on the back of their developed model that Jim Richards of Gibson Motorsport took the 1990 ATTC Championship with the 31 doing most of the heavy lifting as they introduced the R32 GTR; Godzilla, for the last 3 rounds of the series. Thus when I did an engine swap of pulling out the Dose Master RB30e (engine shared with the Holden’s VL Commodore) to fit the RB20 + GTS-R manifold plus a modified Garrett GT turbo and an R32 GTS-T Gearbox, the car started to be a blend between the 2. It’s also a way to differentiate between the 4 R31s that I presently own; GXE-R, GTS1, a Pintara and GXE Wagon.
As long as we’ve known you it’s been all about Nissans. Have you been a Nissan fanboi all your life and where did this passion start?
Hey guy, the 2nd longest car I’ve owned is a Ralliart Colt, so I’m no one-eyed Ford/Holden/Honda Fanboi!! My Nissan Collection started with my Pa giving me his last car; a certain white on grey R31 GXE, as my grand parents no longer needed 2 cars and they wanted me in a bigger/safer car than my original Mini Clubman. While he said I could sell it and get something else if I wanted, the decision to start modding it, doing Winton Fun Days encouraged me to look at what else I could do to it. This was back in the ‘golden days’ of Automotive Forums; remember them … I made some life long friends and family through them, but I digress 🙂 As my Pa passed away, I made the decision to never sell his car and thus it would be my track/fun car for as long as possible. Thus I ‘needed/wanted’ more cars to fill in other requirements, so the collection began!!
Do you still have the Mini Clubman? Must have been an awesome car to punt around?
Sadly I sold the 2 minis I had while I was still at Uni as I was driving the 31 everywhere and even though they didn’t take up much space, it was space the olds wanted to use for more boring things like compost bins and a potting shed!!! A mini is a great learning car, in that they don’t go fast, but due to their size and lack of weight, you don’t have to slow down for corners. With no servo assistance on the front discs, learning about threshold braking was awesome, and with its lack of rear weight, the car was an absolute riot on a gravel road when 1 up. There were several life flashing moments experienced by myself and others in the car as a young and dumb P plater, but if you ever get the opportunity to drive one, I thoroughly recommend you do as they are like a go kart with gears on the street.
You’re one of the few people who has rolled their car in a track scenario. Take us through that experience?
It happened after a single pass chicane at DECA; where I determined that because I caught the slide at the previous one at around 100kph, entering the final one at 110 would be fine … On exit the car was quite crossed up and unfortunately, the organisers car had been parked on the grass where I was heading, thus I lifted off the gas causing the car to rotate back the other direction, the high profile tyres folded under the rims tipping the car on the drivers side which I then proceeded to slide down the road on before rolling onto the roof, before I turned the motor off.
Lesson #1; Don’t back off the accelerator when in a fwd slide, oh and probably
Lesson #2: Don’t get competitive with a mate in his JZ80 Turbo Supra!!
Maybe that should be #1, but in my defence that guy was less than 1 sec ahead with like 8 times the power and grip so yeah, red mist can be dangerous!!!
So when can we expect to see you back at the track and with what car?
Now that’s a question I get asked a lot 🙂 Honestly I don’t really know, maybe either the Super SLX, or the GXE-R. As much as I enjoy driving my own cars, I enjoy assisting mates with getting their cars ready pre-event and even at the track. Whether it be a CSA, EXE, NN, HNats, SAU-Vic, WRX club or much larger events like VTA or WTAC; the memories and experiences with mates and others who have become family, have truely helped me through some tough times over the years when I was doubting myself and what was going on.
Thus being “free” from having to work on or fix my own car, I’ve been able to be a MacGuyver at track days, helping keep folks out on track. 2 Memorable ones are when someone blew their VAG IC hoses off and they had marshalling to do or a fabricating a completely new brake light switch with wire removed from the GQ. Otherwise just catching up with folks that we often only get to catch up at track days due to the our business of everyone’s lives. Helping in the organisation and the running of EXE days and other events has really helped in connecting with people that I otherwise wouldn’t normally socialise with.
That being said, I have taken all my registered or permitted cars on a race track; 2 Micras, 3 R31s, S1 Stagea, Ralliart Colt and the GQ Patrol (tow beast), so I’m a firm believer that any car can be your racecar, just drive to your own limits and enjoy the experience. I’ll get out there soon enough, but there’s far more to track days than just driving at them IMO 🙂
EXE-Crew 