Nissan
November 7th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
A car taking on a helicopter in a straight-up drag race is a bit of a no brainer. The helicopter will win every time. But what if the car is Steve Millen’s hardcore Stillen R-35 Nissan GT-R?
It was a question no one asked but still got answered during the second day of the Targa New Zealand race. Other competitors and spectators witnessed the spectacle when the competing cars were paused at a pit stop.
Steve Millen was behind the wheel of his car while acrobatic racing pilot, Leigh Hopper, controlled the Eurocopter named ‘Squirrel’. The results are somewhat inconclusive but the car/helicopter drag race made two runs down the runway with a turn at the end.
Check out the video of these Targa NZ sideshow shenanigans below. Read the rest of this entry »
October 31st, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Queensland-based Scot Tony Quinn and co-driver Naomi Tillett (Nissan GT-R35) have successfully defended their Targa New Zealand tarmac motor rally crown, leading this year’s five-day event – which ended in Hawke’s Bay on Saturday - from start to finish.
The win is the pair’s third in as many years in the annual event and marks them as one of the most successfull pairings in its 
17-year history.
Though the final day in the Hawke’s Bay on Saturday was the first in which Quinn and Tillett did not win a stage – all seven went to hard-charging young New Zealand rally ace Glenn Inkster and his co-driver Spencer Winn – the pair had done enough on the first four days to guarantee them the overall event win for another year.
“One of the things I’ve learnt over the years,” said Quinn at the finish in Havelock North,” is that to win this event you need to get in front early and stay there. That’s something I learned from Jim Richards when he was winning everything and I was finishing second or third or whatever and it’s advice I’m happy to share with whoever wants to listen. Glenn (Inkster) was trying hard today but I knew by lunch time it would take a miracle - or a decent accident – for us to lose it.” Read the rest of this entry »
October 28th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett (Nissan GT-R35) continue to set the pace in this year’s Targa New Zealand tarmac motor rally but all eyes as the event entered its third day yesterday were on the Glenn Inkster/Spencer Winn (Mitsubishi Evo 6) and Clark Proctor/Tony Callaghan (Nissan GT-R35) combinations.
Queensland-based Scot Quinn and Australian co-driver Tillett won the first two stages in the northern Waikato but Inkster and Winn won the third – which skirted the Kawhia Harbour – and Proctor and Callaghan won the fourth and the fifth on the way back east.
Inkster was lucky to get away with a high-speed ‘wall-of-death’ ride up and along a bank in the fifth stage – explaining why he could only manage the seventh quickest time through it – but after replacing a damaged radiator he bounced back to win the sixth stage and finish second to Quinn in the seventh.
The result was that Quinn and Tillett’s names remained on the top of the leaderboard with Inkster and Winn 26 seconds back and a much happier Proctor and co-driver Callaghan back up to third, just over two minutes behind.
Though he still has a big job ahead of him to pull back the two minutes he lost on Quinn and Inkster as he struggled with a combination of mechanical and engine management software issues on the first two days of competition in Northland, Proctor was all smiles as he and Callaghan pulled into the service park in Taupo at the end of the day.
“I can’t fault it today,” he said of his distinctive red and yellow GT-R. “It just ran as it probably should have all along and because of that I think I’ve been able to settle into driving it. As I built up confidence in the car I got a little bit braver and the times reflected it.” Read the rest of this entry »
October 27th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The Taranaki pair of Glenn Smith and Andy Lowe (Mitsubishi Evo 10) joined the battle for the lead yesterday in the Modern category of this year’s Targa New Zealand tarmac motor rally on the second of five days of competition in Northland.
On the event’s first day on Tuesday, defending Targa Modern title-holder and two-time event winner, Gold Coast, Queensland-based Scot Tony Quinn and co-driver Naomi Tillett (Nissan GT-R35) swapped stage wins with local rally ace Glenn Inkster and his co-driver Spencer Winn (Mitsubishi Evo 6).
Quinn and Tillett continue to lead the event from Inkster and Winn after six more stages in and around Whangarei yesterday but Smith and Lowe certainly made their presence felt, winning the first and fifth stages outright and finishing no lower than fourth in the other four.
Heading into the final publicity stage at Springhill Farm just south of Wellsford late in the afternoon Quinn and Tillett led the Modern standings by 24 seconds from Inkster and Winn, with Smith and Lowe just 10 seconds further back in third, the pair having displaced the Nissan GT-R35 of Clark Proctor and Tony Callaghan and Subaru Impreza driving Targa Rotorua winner Leigh Hopper and his co-driver Shaun Bawden.
Best of the rest this time was Proctor and Callaghan, the pair quick but still struggling with niggling engine management issues. Read the rest of this entry »
October 26th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Defending champion, Gold Coast, Queensland-based Scot Tony Quinn and co-driver Naomi Tillett (Nissan GT-R35) head into the second day of the 2011 Targa New Zealand tarmac motor rally today with a 14 second lead after a battle royal on the first day today with Kiwi rally ace Glenn Inkster and co-driver Spencer Winn (Mitsubishi Evo 6).
On Tuesday the event headed north for the first time in its 17-year history and took in stages from Taupaki and Waimauku on Auckland’s North West urban fringe before crossing from the west to the east coast via the demanding Woodcocks stage across West Coast Rd to Wellsford then north again for stages in and around Whangarei.
Quinn and Tillett led home a Nissan GT-R 1-2-3 in the Instra.com Modern competition category on the first stage with Inkster and Winn fourth and US-based expat Steve Millen and his co-driver Jen Horsey in their GTR-35 fifth but Inkster storming through on the longer, more open second stage to slot in between the Quinn/Tillett and Proctor/Callaghan GT-R35s for second. Read the rest of this entry »
October 14th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Targa ‘King’ Tony Quinn crosses the Tasman later this month to try and claim his third consecutive Targa New Zealand tarmac motor rally crown. But there are at least two local drivers in the 130-strong field this year with their own claims to the winner’s trophy.
In recent years the Queensland-based Scot and co-driver Naomi Tillett have been the pair to beat in Targa events on both 
sides of the Tasman, winning Targa Tasmania in 2009 and again this year, and Targa New Zealand in 2009 and 2010.
In 2009, however, former Stock Car and NZV8 ace Clark Proctor and his co-driver Tony Callaghan took the battle to Quinn’s then brand new Nissan GT-R in Proctor’s quick but considerably less sophisticated Nissan-engined Ford Escort hybrid.
Proctor and Callaghan matched and on several occasions bettered Quinn’s times, ending up a little over five minutes behind – after losing at least two minutes mid-rally with an electrical problem – to claim a popular second place by event’s end.
Armed with a GT-R of his own last year, Proctor also proved a thorn in Quinn’s side early on in the 2010 event before being sidelined with mechanical problems, handing the baton to rally ace Glenn Inkster in his debut event behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Evo 6. Read the rest of this entry »
October 12th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
Allan takes off in Nissan’s GT-R supercar – his destination; the world-famous Chateau at Tongariro.
Around 16 years ago, I found myself at the wheel of a 1966 Prince Skyline 2000GT-A, one of the first of the truly hot Skylines. By today’s high-performance standards, the 2000GT-A wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows and yet, in mildly modified race-spec, 
this type of Skyline dominated the Japanese racing scene of the mid ’60s. Indeed, the Skyline GT’s development programme would eventually lead to the semi-legendary R380. Powered by a twin-cam, 24-valve version of the Skyline GT’s straight-six, the R380 was capable of reaching a maximum speed of 280kph (174mph).
However, even as Prince worked to develop its new sports racer, fate stepped in and, in late 1966, Prince merged with Nissan. The next evolution of the R380 – the R380-II – would carry Nissan badges when it appeared at the 1967 Japanese Grand Prix, which at that time was not a genuine, FIA-sanctioned F1 event. Later, the R380-III would also be developed by Nissan. The R380-III was intended to run with a new, quad-cam V12, but initially Chevrolet V8s were used until Nissan finalized its V12.
When the 5.9-litre V12-powered version finally came together, the car was renamed R382 – and with around 447kW at its disposal, the R382 was supposedly capable of attaining a top speed of around 350kph. Read the rest of this entry »
September 7th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The all Kiwi team from CMR Motorsport has arrived home from the Bonneville Salt Flats having achieved a new world land speed record in their class. Veteran race driver Reg Cook and his team from Clevedon in South Auckland, built a car specifically to run at the Bonneville National Speed Week event in August and break the current 2.0 litre production car body record.
The class is officially called the G/Pro for production bodied cars running a 2.0-litre engine. The previous record was set by a Chevrolet Cosworth Vega back in 2009 and stood at 156 mph (249.6 km/hr).
Cook, a Nissan enthusiast of many years, chose a 1990 Nissan 2.0 NX using a stock SR20 twin cam 4 valve engine as a base. The rules allow for extensive modifications to the engine and suspension but the outside body work must remain standard. Read the rest of this entry »
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