‘It’s the fastest car I’ve driven, but not the safest’
FROM his high school years into early adulthood, Preston Chetty, 36, of Bayview, Chatsworth, had been ‘stealing’ his father’s Toyota Corolla Avante to race. An act of passion that later fuelled Chetty’s expensive yet thrilling hobby – sports cars.
Chetty, an automation and electrical expert at Safx Instrumentation, has owned some of the most sought-after sports cars in South Africa, including a Turbo Honda Civic, a BMW E36 M3, the elusive Honda S2000, a Honda Civic Turbo and most recently, a BMW E30 with a 1JZ turbo motor.
The 1JZ is a 2.5 litre in-line six-cylinder engine that was made for the Toyota Supra mark II.
Chetty has been known to break his cars with ease but this has helped him become a more experienced driver, especially with rear-wheel-powered vehicles such as the M3 and E30 BMW, famously used for “spinning” across the country.
The E30 is a vehicle that has developed cult status, hiking up the price of second-hand “box shapes”.
Chetty acquired his latest toy from Johannesurg.
“The car has got bigger injectors and it’s currently on maximum boost, which is 1.2 bar on the stock turbo and it is running on normal pump fuel.
“In the first week, the differential tore off the subframe so I basically redid it. It had a new subframe differential service, new prop shaft as well.
“We built a new clutch with a custom releaser and we also refurbished the rims,” Chetty said about the E30.
“I drove a good couple of rear wheel drives before this box, including the S2000 and M3, which I think prepared me for this. Power coming from the rear end is completely from the front wheel. It’s a lot harder to handle.
“But I always wanted to drive a ‘box shape’ BMW,” he said.
The car makes around 275 kilowatts on the wheels but not all that power is delivered to the ground, as the box spins its back tyres from the first gear up until the fourth.
Chetty said there were still a couple of tweaks to be made to get the vehicle to where he wanted it.
The interior of the car is fairly straightforward and has not been changed much, with the exception of an old-school wooden-finish steering wheel.
Chetty earned his stripes in his beloved Toyotas before he jumped into a rear-wheel drive vehicle.
“I started off in school, stealing my dad’s Toyota Twincam. I used to race, break it and then fix it over the weekend,” he said.
Besides Hondas and BMWs, Chetty also owned a Lotus Seven, a rare sports car made for racing from the late 1950s to the end of the 1970s.
But out of all the cars he’s owned, Chetty said the E30 was the fastest.
“I think it’s definitely the fastest I’ve driven, not the safest, but extremely fun to drive.”