Featured - May 2024

Tyler has had a long history owning Nissans. Starting with a 1989 four door r32 skyline that was written off and repaired twice before selling after 10 years of ownership and many sets of rear tyres at drift events in South Australia. Shortly after selling the skyline, Tyler had moved to Canberra and had the itch for another turbo manual Nissan. His life had changed a little due to family requirements and needed more room for activities. Tyler found a 1999 Nissan Stagea RS4S on the northern beaches in Sydney. Within two hours of first contact with the seller, Tyler and his friend made the trip from Canberra to Sydney to buy the Stagea. Two days later the Stagea embarked on its first family trip to Adelaide and didn't miss a beat on the 3,000km round trip.

The Stagea with its RB25 Turbo neo motor and factory AWD manual GTR running gear quickly became the best all-rounder, ticking the boxes of family car, workhorse and trackcar. Tyler soon located a wrecked Stagea racecar that he bought to convert his front end to resemble the fabled R34 GTR.

With help from some friends and an understanding wife, Tyler start cutting, bolting and wiring up the R34 GTR front end to his Stagea in the driveway of his first house. He then installed a front mount intercooler, coilovers, a new clutch, brakes, wheels and fabricated an exhaust from scratch from bends he bought from a local shop. After a couple of years Tyler decided the Stagea needed more than the standard factory power. He installed a new turbo, 1000cc injectors, coilpacks, Haltech Ecu and a tune that took the power to 290Kw at the wheels.

After seamlessly enjoying track days, spirited driving and the need for some rear tyres, the Stagea suffered a failure and required the engine to be rebuilt. Tyler needed to make the decision to either rebuild to standard specs, a forged motor or move on to something else.

He weighed up the options and made the heartbreaking decision to part out the car, which he still regrets to this day. However the silver lining is this meant that he could later order the new Nissan RZ34 Z Proto.

Following an 18 month wait Tyler was finally able to get his hands on the Proto Z with its single limited edition yellow colour, interior, wheels, brakes, Limited Slip Diff and 3L V6 twin turbo engine. Tyler opted for the manual option once again for the fun drivability dynamics and to make the most of the Proto Z's rear wheel drive and his love for wheel spin.

The lack of rear traction meant the requirement of new tyres sooner than expected. The purchase of some Rotor Grid and Grid R wheels and new tyres meant Tyler would always have a spare set for track or driving events as well as some newly released BC Racing DS series coilovers to stiffen up the suspension and lower the ride height. As new factory cars are fairly quiet, Tyler installed two Turbo Smart Dual Port Blow off valves and had a new rear section of exhaust made to 5 inch stainless tips to give the Proto Z the right street car sound.

Tyler can often be found at various car meets around the ACT and NSW and is looking forward to beating his time set at Wakefield park race track when it reopens later this year.