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Xtreme
Auto Show preview
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Broadcast
dates : 31st July 2005
6th August 2005 |
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The
Castrol Extreme Auto Show opens its doors at the Coca
Cola Dome near Randburg on Saturday 6th August. And in
Car Torque this week we feature some of the exciting
machinery that will be on display.
The re-emergence of Car Culture in the past few years
has been quite phenomenal with speed-equipment,
car-audio, and customizing industries showing
exceptional growth.
Car people all over the country lead conventional
nine-to-five lives during the week. But weekends are
time for motorized boogying, be it at car shows or the
drag strip.
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Looking
good comes naturally to Honda’s S2000, especially in
the face-lifted guise that arrived in 2004.
But for autobody specialist Fred Hardy, the owner of
this black beaut, the S2000 was simply a raw canvas
for a vision that included a carbon bonnet, a full
Veil Side body kit including sideskirts front and rear
bumpers , a carbon rear wing and an Importparts
guillotine door kit.
The engine was given a perk-up to go with the
outrageous bodywork.
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This
includes a CompTech supercharger based on the famous
Paxton blower configuration, extra fuel injectors, and
a racing button clutch installed by RGM.
The guillotine door kit gives the Honda a Lamborghini-esque
appearance when standing still. And it’s 13,9 second
quarter mile is not too far off a Lambo time.
Inside the Honda has been given the requisite
DVD-Audio treatment and in the small confines of the
cockpit, the sound is exceptional.
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Drag cars
will be a major attraction at The Dome and one of the
most successful quarter mile machines in South Africa
right now is this Ford Sierra, running in the
non-supercharged modified V8 class.
Owned, built, and driven by Gavin Wilkins, the car was
acquired as an abandoned project, with Gavin
affectionately referring to the car now as "Scrappie".
There’s nothing "scrappy" about this
machine, which has been completely rebuilt with a
tubular frame beneath the bodywork.
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This
is a full-out, drag-slick-tyred racing car with no
pretensions to being a road machine. And that
parachute at the rear is definitely not for show.
It runs the quarter mile in the eight-second bracket,
with a speed through the lights of around 260 km/h.
That’s zero to 260 in just over eight seconds! As
the Americans like to say…."go figure".
"Quite strong" is an understatement. Being a
fanatical Ford man, Gavin imported a special Dart
Sportsman Ford V8 block as a base for the engine, the
best that money can buy. This is a so-called siamesed
block with no water jackets between the cylinder
bores, to make the block stronger.
It has a chrome moly forty-three-forty crank, forged
pistons, and Victor Glidden heads. And……..well the
list of special parts goes on and on.
The cockpit is pure race car, with a strong roll cage
surrounding the driver and aluminum sheeting replacing
the dashboard and floor panels.
Although some of the bodywork retains original Sierra
sheet metal, this is essentially a tubular space-frame
racer.
The roll cage is designed to form an integral part of
the suspension structure at the rear, and extends to
the engine frame at the front.
Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed some
interesting-looking gas bottles in the cockpit, and
Gavin explains their significance.
Gavin was concerned about the dusty conditions at
Rainbow drag strip and confirmed that he would not be
attempting a full-power run.
Bilstein coil-over springs and dampers are used at the
front and the rear. The off-centre axle lines are due
to the extended wheelbase of the car, which aids
stability if not appearance. And it needs stability!
A cool aspect of the street machine scene is its
diversity. It’s not just about customized bodywork
and quick quarter-mile times. Supercars, especially
those with a little something extra, have their place.
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