FIAT NINJA
KAWASAKI NINJA–POWERED FIAT BUILD
You may have seen a certain European-built E30 at the first Mad Mike’s Summer Bash. It ran a supercharged LS9, a Corvette transaxle, billet front suspension, and a rear cantilever set-up, all enclosed in a fibreglass E30 ute with tube-frame underpinnings. Well, the man behind the build, Slovakian-native Majo Janecek, has upped the gnarliness again with a scratch-built weapon straight out of the Eastern European hills.
“I built my first race car back in 1991 and used it for my first amateur race at Stone Pit near my home town. After that competition, I thought that it wasn’t worth bringing back home, but I did,” Majo tells us, continuing, “and that was a good decision, as I found many things to make better and stronger, which probably marked my start to building cars.”
His latest build is loosely based on a Fiat X1/9 — a twoseater mid-engined sports car produced from the early ‘70s until the mid ’80s that’s popular in Europe due to its light stature. Majo has employed the help of a Slovakian friend to shape a custom fibreglass widebody shell and has constructed a full spaceframe chassis that will see but one occupant in the cabin.
“I’ve been doing this job [ building race cars] for over 15 years. I love this job and love racing cars. By actually being behind the wheel of the car, I can bring information straight back into the set-up and reset or modify any parts if needed,” Majo says. “The idea behind this build was to build a small, lightweight, and fast hill-climb car, incorporating my years of experience to build the best I could.”
That ethos has seen the front end of the chassis treated to
Cranking out an impressive 137kW strapped inside a body that is set to weigh nothing more than 595kg (minus driver), the power-to-weight will ensure that this thing flies”
Majo’s own cantilever suspension design, utilizing Bilstein shocks and a series of custom-made arms. “I love this type of suspension system because it has a huge range of options when it comes to setting it up — it’s very similar to the custom suspension I used on my drift car,” says Majo. Also up front is a V-mount radiator fitted with air ducts, and hidden behind the widened 13-inch steelies shod in Avon Motorsport slicks is a set of Wilwood four-pot calipers.
But the real secret behind this build was the choice of heart — a 1000cc four-stroke power plant originally found inside a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. Cranking out an impressive 137kW strapped inside a body that is set to weigh nothing more than 595kg (minus driver), the power-to-weight will ensure that this thing flies.
“To me, power-to-weight ratio is always the most important thing on a race car, but it’s also important to think about the weight ratio between axles and [to] set up corner scaling,” says Majo. “A good power-to-weight ratio is important for acceleration and, paired with good tyres, makes for a quick take off. Weight ratio between axles is important for completely balancing the car — you don’t want to have all that go but not be able to control it.”
And while he was willing to share with us this much detail, Majo insists that there is more to come. “There are still many things to learn about it, and there are lots of details hidden that will stay a secret.”
The end date isn’t far off, as the build is currently running and driveable — but only in and out of the garage before more work commences.