Treshen’s nifty lowered Nissan Micra

UNTIL a few years ago, I was sceptical about the fun aspect of cars with small engines.

This changed when my large, turbocharged saloon needed some repair work. I groaned at the prospect of having to pilot my courtesy car, a micro-engined Nissan Micra, around for the two to three weeks it would take to get my car ready.

To my surprise, the Micra was anything but disappointing, both in the city and on a fully-loaded road trip from Durban to Margate.

It was gutsy, nimble, frugal and it felt a lot faster than it was, which was fantastic because my brain was tricked into believing I was driving a car with an engine capacity three sizes larger than what was under the hood.

I was so impressed with the Micra that I was genuinely sad to give it back.

This week, we feature the owner of one such super-mini, 24-year-old Treshen Rugbeer of Phoenix, an office administrator.

Rugbeer is a fellow petrol-head who loves cars and drawing equally.

His car is a nifty 2013 Nissan Micra 1.2 Visia Plus. He calls it “Goonjin” after the screen name of a Glow TV actress.

Mechanically, Goonjin has a standard Nissan 1.2-litre, fuel-injected, variable valve timing, factory-fitted power plant. Its performance was enhanced by the installation of a Powerflow free-flow exhaust system.

The suspension received some work. It was lowered with custom springs to a 40mm drop.

A set of 17-inch wides and narrows BBS (8J/9J) mag wheels, mated to a set of Yokohoma 225/40/17 rubbers, work with the lowered suspension to keep this little car firmly planted on the tarmac.

The exterior boasts some quirky graphic decals as well as Password JDM bumper clips and a set of HID headlights.

Rugbeer is still getting a sound system installed. It was not disclosed how much was spent on this build.

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