CURT WHITTAKER GOES BACK TO JZ

Current Demon Energy D1NZ National Drifting Championship DK Curt Whittaker has been absent from the D1NZ grid this season, although he has not hung up his skid lid just yet. After seven championship seasons, the team felt it was time to retire the chassis from competition, and gave it one last birthday. It was stripped bare and Steven Sole Customs repainted the car inside and out, including new underseal, before a full reassembly with all-new suspension. As this is now not his comp car, the V8 has been pulled, and the old 460-kilowatt 2JZ set-up that Curt drove to the 2012/’13 championship was returned to the hole.

“When we swapped to the 410, we took everything out, so, when it came to swap it back, it all just bolted back in. Ross from DDT, who built the motor back in 2013, inspected the bearings and also gave the car a run-up on the dyno after upgrading the Link’s firmware,” Curt said.

Vertex Lubricants and Kaspa Transmissions have come on board as title sponsors this year, and Curt hopes to get the car to as many events as possible which take his fancy while he’s not competing. After running at both Leadfoot and Mad Mike’s Summer Bash, Curt found the switch back to the 2JZ a welcome challenge: “It’s much harder to drive with the reduced torque — you find you don’t just drive with the throttle; you have to actually drive it — there is a big difference. You have to be aggressive, and you’re not as smooth, but it’s really enjoyable” Curt told NZ Performance Car.

He is not sure when the car will be out next, but there is talk of returning it to the road in the near future, as it’s still 100-per-cent steel, without any tube framing, and it has all the panels a road car would and even electric windows. Not bad for a machine that’s done seven D1NZ seasons!