JON ATTWOOD’S BARRA NISSAN C33

There’s something irresistibly satisfying about smashing the most out-the-gate combination of motor and chassis together then watching people scratch their heads in awe at how you managed to make it work. A few years back, putting a Ford Barra in anything would have been considered a fool’s task; now it’s widely considered one of the best swaps around. For Jon Attwood, it had always been his long-term plan with this Nissan Laurel C33.

It wasn’t until the RB25 that used to reside in the engine bay decided to eat itself inside out that said plan was rapidly accelerated.

“I’d always wanted to do the Barra swap, but it came sooner than intended,” Jon explains. “I’d only just finished rebuilding the RB25 after it had destroyed itself the previous time and it was going to cost more to fix again than just doing the Barra swap would. The Barra motors are cheap to buy, too, so replacing them down the track is less heavy on the bank account.”

Jon handles all his own fabrication work, so the mounts to get the big four-litre in there were by way of his own hand, as was the exhaust manifold, which was designed and built in-house before the final tig job was contracted out to a local shop.

The car’ll run a VH45 throttle body, Proflow fuel rail, and hearty 2200cc injectors on the cold side, while the turbo is a custom Holset HX40 on the hot side and employs twin Turbosmart 45mm wastegates.

Backing the package is a G-Force four-speed h-pattern dog box that will send power rearward to a GT-R rear end. Once the project’s completed, you can expect to see Jon slaying tyres at local drift events.