CRUISE MODE

NAME: MICHAEL MACNAUGHTAN AGE: 24 LOCATION: AUCKLAND OCCUPATION: GEOLOGY POSTGRADUATE STUDENT

NZ Performance Car : Hey, Michael. Can you tell us how you got into modifying cars and what the first you dabbled with was?

Michael: Hi, NZPC. I’ve always liked cars and started tinkering with my first car for fun around 2012. That was my blue GX81, and it ended up a bit wild …

So, that was the car that would eventually become the Pepsi shark nose (from NZ Performance Car Issue No. 223). What made you want to jump from that to a big body like the Verossa?

Yeah, that’s what it eventually became [laughs]. Even with the X81 being my first car, since the age of 15, I’d always wanted to specifically own a Verossa. I have early 2000s Yokohama street drifters and their video footage to thank for that. So, owning a Verossa felt like the natural next step after feeling like I’d done Pepsi justice.

We understand that you initially bought another example but then found this one and swapped the good bits over — why was that?

Value. Verossas depreciate a lot, and this one is a factory manual with some expensive parts that I was already lining up for my initial car, which was a factory auto. I’d known of this specific car for about 10 years, and its past owners all had no issue with buying quality parts for it, so I knew what I was getting. It made sense to buy this one versus doing it all myself at over double the cost in parts. Additionally, the freedom to keep my alreadybought bits and move them onto this car made it a no-brainer.

Makes sense! What else have you done to it since purchasing, and what does it mainly get used for?

I’ve only swapped my parts over from the initial car currently, and ruined a pair of tyres. It’s the first car I’ve owned with an LSD [limited-slip diff], so it’s perfect for quiet drives and gentle trips to the shops, that kind of thing [laughs].

Verossas haven’t quite reached the same levels of popularity here like the Chasers / Mark IIs have; what do you reckon people think about them locally?

There’s only 120 Verossas in New Zealand from when I had a look, so, understandably, most people aren’t familiar with them let alone know they came with a 1JZ turbo. Generally, people are repulsed by them in stock form, but I think most agree that, with T&E Vertex aero, the car is really improved to the point where it actually looks quite cool.

Might even pioneer the chassis as the next trend. Cheers, Michael.