STREET LEGAL

There’s perhaps no greater feeling than driving to an event, beating the living snot out of your car on track — and it loving every second of it — and then driving it home like nothing has happened. To do this, having a street-legal track car is a must but is not always an easy feat — despite having a pretty solid system for making wild stuff legal on New Zealand roads. That was the goal for Jacob Berry when it came to building his 180SX Type X track car: it had to be street legal. “There aren’t enough road-going track cars out there. Talking to people like Charlie Lam, who has now done the same, and you realize that they always regret building a car and not making it legal, because you don’t get the same freedom to drive it nearly as much,” Jacob tells us.

Jacob’s idea of a track car would see the Type X’s SR20DET power plant ripped out and replaced by a forged 2JZ-GTE. The bottom end has been crammed with CP pistons and Manley rods, while the head is yet to be built to spec. A Sinco twin-scroll manifold will support an MSE Turbos NZ snail, along with a Turbosmart Gen-V 50mm wastegate. The intake remains the factory unit, while an Aeroflow fuel rail and 2200cc injectors replace the OEM examples in order to run E85 and 98 octane with a flex-fuel sensor.

With drifting in mind, the front end has been tubbed with quick-release panels, while the steering has been switched out for a Parts Shop Max Limit Break kit, and the same is set to go in down back, where you’ll find a Nismo two-way LSD and 900hp (671kW) Driveshaft Shop axles. The goal is to make 500kW at the wheels.