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Opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one. But some are worth listening to more than others...

Welcome to my world, my world of turbos, tyre smoke, and tuning...

Tuning cars, driving cars, testing parts, and complaining about everything. It's my job, and a the majority of my non-work life too...

RUSSIAN DRAG CARS- THEY'RE FUCKING MENTAL! - PART THREE

10/3/2016

 
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Russia- They don't fuck about when it comes to tuned cars; in fact they're flippin' incredible! First up, if you've not seen part ONE and TWO, they're HERE and HERE, and now, the third and final part of this feature.

First up, the MR-S (MR2, whatever) in the opening picture pulling a wheelie. BIG power turbo engine, right? Wrong! It's got the naturally aspirated 2ZZ engine in it, just like they have when standard! This car however is heavily lightened, and the 2ZZ is massively tuned, and the thing runs 10.1seconds in the quarter mile! Here's the engine...
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Next up, another small Toyota engine, albeit much older- THE most powerful 4AGE I've ever seen! These engines are best known from the AE86, and push out 125bhp as standard from their revvy 1.6ltr engine, and in full-on crazy Formula Atlantic race spec, they make nearly double that, and still 1.6ltr and non turbo.
But this one, fitted to a 1990s Toyota Levin, is pushing out a claimed 1000bhp!
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How true the 1000bhp claim is, I've no idea, but the thing runs 10.5sec quarter miles, so it's sure as shit got a LOT of power!
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Next up, some REALLY fast LADAS! It is Russia afterall! Most interestingly, these run Lada engines too, the small 4cyl 16valve Lada engines, and are REALLY fast, so they're clearly damn good engines.

​First up, a front wheel drive, 1.5ltr 16V Lada, that runs 9s!
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I think it's a pretty badass looking car, but the engine is a beast, with a little 1.5ltr fitted with a big Holset HX52 turbo! HX52s are well proven to spool amazingly for their size, often fitted even to 2ltr engines, but a 1.5 is deffo the smallest I've ever seen one fitted to!
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Cool engine setup too, proper twin scroll turbo setup with twin wastegates, 8 injectors with 2x fuel rails, nitrous just after the compressor outlet, and a chargecooler built in to the inlet manifold by the looks of it. The end result? 9.8sec quarter mile.
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Next up, a RWD Lada, but again, a turbocharged version of the Lada 1.5 16V lump...
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Would never imagine that would run low 10s unless you saw under the bonnet, but it does, and you deffo wouldn't imagine the next one is just as fast...
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This one I have a little more info on the engine spec, and it's amazing how standard it is!
It's a 1.5 16V, turbo converted of course, but running standard rods still, and the pistons, while not standard, are just ones from a Lada Niva! Regardless of this, it runs 10.5s!
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The final Lada is again, the 1.5ltr 16V lump, but front drive again, but non-turbo! And despite this still runs 10s! Making big power with a turbo just proves the engine is strong, but this N/A performance shows they're pretty damn good for tuning too...
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I like how the engine is tilted forward to maximise weight on the front end, and therefore maximise traction...
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Last, but certainly not least, a car that not only doesn't look at all like a drag car, in fact it's a fully road legal car with a full interior, but it doesn't even look like the sort of thing the Russians usually tune- An E30 BMW touring!
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The front mount intercooler is the only thing that hints that it could be fast, but this is REALLY fast for a full interior road car- It runs 10.5sec quarter miles! But how? Well...
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Not only is it packing a 700bhp turbocharged M50B25 engine, but it's a 325iX, ie the 4wd model! A 700bhp 4wd E30, now THAT sounds a whole lot of fun!
​

THAT'S IT FOR THIS FEATURE, SO WHAT'S NEXT? ANOTHER 80'S F1 TURBO ENGINE TECH FEATURE I RECKON. MAYBE...

RUSSIAN DRAG CARS- THEY'RE FUCKING MENTAL!   PART TWO!

9/29/2016

 
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1150bhp, transverse, FWD, 2JZ, never gets old...
First up, if you've not seen Part One of this feature on some of the maddest tuned cars you're likely to clap your eyes on this year, you better click HERE to check it out...

Now that's sorted, no need for an intro, lets get right on with showing you the rest of these flippin' bonkers cars. 

First up, a car you may have seen a video of on the Stav-Tech Facebook page, a 9second, front wheel drive, turbo, rotary engine, LADA. Yes, a flippin' Lada. This is Russia afterall...

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This is what we'd call a Lada 110, though in Russia it's a VAZ 2110, a front drive car produced from the mid 90s until late 00s in Russia, and actually has some performance history, having the aerodynamics jointly designed by Porsche, and competed in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2008 and 2009.

Anyhow, while 99% of the world don't realise it, Mazda aren't the only rotary engine makers of modern times, VAZ do. In fact these days VAZ do it a whole lot more than Mazda, for a wide variety of vehicles too, albeit in VERY limited numbers; and the above VAZ/Lada is one of them.
The VAZ rotaries aren't the same as a Mazda 13B, but they are the same capacity, but work very well, and have been adapted for lots more applications, inc front wheel drive...
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There you have it, a 1308cc twin rotor engine, transversely mounted and front drive, running 2x Tial wastegates, a Garrett GTX42 with a Tial v-band manifold, and dry sump by the looks of it. Mental. 
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While the 9.9sec quarters were done on the old engine it seems, and now it's got a new engine, though no new times yet...
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A bloody Lada THREE ROTOR! It's running a Garrett GTX55 too, so likely to be, well, lots! 1500odd, as they're good for over 1600bhp. 
Going by the pic, the engine is dry sump and almost deffo running on methanol as no intercooler, but most interestingly, look at the different design compared to a Mazda rotary- Peripheral exhaust ports on top, one per cylinder, but the inlet ports are below, and seems to be 6 of them, so they're either conventional side ports, or twin peripheral ones? Who knows. I also wonder if this engine is mounted upside down? It's dry sump so it's possible on a rotary.

Anyhow, let's look at something else. Or is it? Might be the same car in an earlier form...?
10.4sec, front drive, 3 rotor Lada, but NON-TURBO this time!

Right, on to something slightly more normal...
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An Impreza, that runs low 8s, and has a GT42 turbo hanging out the front of the car!

How about everyone's fave FWD drag car, a Honda Civic...
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Nothing to unconventional, but it's VERY fast, 9.7 1/4, which considering the barely prepped surfaces of Russian drag strips, that's properly moving.
And how does it go that quick? Well...
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A Honda B18 lump and most importantly. a big fuckoff Holset HX55! For massive turbos they really do spool well, and obv' no issue on this one, despite that being a 25cm housing by the looks of it, ie one of the bigger ones. A true 1000bhp capable turbo.

You know what's even faster though? A fucking massive Jeep Cherokee! 
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Fuck knows why it's even a 'thing', but there's a good few mental Jeeps in Russia running 9sec quarters! This particular one runs 9.5 and is powered by a 7ltr turbo V8.

You know what's even faster than both of these things? Another fucking Lada!
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Probably the most badass looking Lada you'll ever likely see, this runs 9.1sec quarters despite being FWD, and has a rather unusual engine and box combo...
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You might recognise the engine as it's the good old Vauxhall C20XE lump, running a massive GT4202 turbo, and nitrous as well.
Most interesting, the gearbox is a modified Mitsubishi Evo4 box, running FWD only.

You know what's even faster than a C20XE Lada? A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo3, but oddly, it has an engine swap!
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Looks like a normal Evo3, and indeed the standard 4G63 engine can produce some ridiculous power, well over 1000bhp, but this car is doing something a little different to get it's 8.9sec quarter miles...
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It's the 3ltr V6 normally found in Mitsubishi GTOs and 3000GTs, but running a BIG single turbo and nitrous too. Nice.

Last but DEFFO not least, what's faster than an 8sec Evo3? Well an 8sec Audi S2!
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Looks pretty normal from the back, though clearly means business, but the front view is a little less subtle...
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Looks like the body is all carbon, and runs 8.8sec quarter miles thanks to, well, check it out...
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That's the legendary 5cyl 20V Audi Lump, packing a flippin huge turbo, at least GT55 size by looks of it, maybe GT60 in fact, and likely running the amazingly strong Audi 4wd system too, maybe even a stock S4 box as so many crazy power ones do. Here's another angle of the engine...
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AND THAT'S IT FOR PART TWO!
I'VE A FEW LEFT I WANT TO SHOW YOU, SO PART THREE COMING UP, WHICH WILL BE AN "ODDBALL SPECIAL" (AS IF THESE AREN'T ODD ENOUGH!).
​ALL CARS RUNNING 10SEC QUARTERS OR FASTER, BUT UNUSUAL ENOUGH THAT YOU'VE GOTTA SEE THEM!

RUSSIAN DRAG CARS- THEY'RE FUCKING MENTAL! PART ONE...

9/28/2016

 
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This is a Lada, running a Lada rotary engine (yes, they exist), powering the front wheels, with a HUGE turbo, and it runs 9s in the quarter! And this isn't the maddest one either...
The internet is a wonderful thing, it's made this world WAY smaller, and has shown us things, just by searching for them with Google, that we'd either never see otherwise, or at best only see if we were lucky enough to find that a magazine had hunted these things down.

It's not PERFECT though, as while it's not hard to search for stuff from English speaking countries, it's fucking tricky if the country doesn't speak English, and it's nigh on impossible if the alphabet they use isn't even close to what our is- You can't easily Google words that use letters your keyboard don't even have!

Granted, Japan is well covered despite the language and alphabet barrier, partly as they use a lot of English words in their tuning, and partly as the Japanese car scene is world famous, but even from Japan there's a whole lot we don't see unless someone who can speak the language tracks it down and share it.

But other places, less famous places? Well, there's very little to be found, if anything.

I mean, Russia, do you know much about the tuning scene in Russia? I've seen a few things, but nothing much; mostly drift cars. Due to the lack of press it gets you'd think the scene is pretty small and the cars are mostly quite tame, but no, fuck no, their drag cars for example, front, rear, and 4wd, are fucking MENTAL, and that's what this feature is all about.

I can't speak Russian, or read Russian, or anything close, so I don't know all the info, but prepare to mutter "What the fuuuuck" to yourself a great many times, as we take a look at some Russian drag cars...
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Well, it's a Mitsubishi Eclipse, the car made famous by Fast And The Furious, and a pretty badass looking one too, and the air filter sticking out the headlamp kinda indicates it means business, but what's under the bonnet? 
Well, some of these have Evo 4G63 turbo engines and 4wd as standard, so you'd imagine this has a big power one of these, right? Well... "What. The. FUCK" moment coming up...
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It's a muthafuckin' 2JZ! Fitted transversely and powering the front wheels! I dunno about you, but I've never seen a transversely mounted 2JZ in my life. It fits amazingly well, and shit, it's a properly mental spec one too...
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Badass long runner tubular manifold, huge custom inlet, big coils, huge turbo, dry sump by the looks of it too, and so far it's ran a 9.1sec quarter, and, well, it's got 1127bhp!
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Next up, an MR2 Turbo. No engine swap this time, the original 3S-GTE heavily tuned this time, but it runs 9.7sec quarters and pulls some fucking massive wheelies...
They love Japanese cars in Russia, but Russia is the home of Lada, so there's a lot of them too, but nothing like what we're used to here...
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This Lada runs 9.1sec quarters thanks to a big power 1.5JZ engine under the bonnet!
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It's not the only JZ Lada either, this one runs 9.3s...
Maybe it's a stereotype, but it's easy to imagine Russian tuned cars as awful looking DIY jobs, and indeed some are, but even these are bloody fast. This old Prelude looks ridiculous, serious DIY fibreglass bodywork going on, but it's powered by a naturally aspirated Honda B-series engine and STILL runs 11.1sec quarters!
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While we're on the awful looking DIY lightweight bodywork theme, check this out. A FWD Lada, still running a Lada engine, albeit turbocharged, but runs 10.7s!
Anyone who's been in to the Japanese car scene for a long time will remember in the early 2000s the Skyline GT-R drag racing scene was HUGE in Japan, with tons of dedicated and ridiculously fast R32 and R33 GT-Rs, but most seem to have disappeared, not seen for many, many years.
Ever wondered where they all are? Well from what I've seen, they're all in Russia! There's countless 8sec Skyline GT-Rs in Russia, not to mention absolutely tons of them in the 9s- Soo many I'm not going to show them in this feature. But they've got them in the 7s too...
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This R32 is the fastest of them all, running 7.4sec quarters via a Powerglide gearbox, but while the others are RB powered, this one isn't...
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Yep, that's a Nissan GT-R VR38DETT lump, but running two BIG turbos, and well over 2000bhp if my shonky Russian translation is accurate.

The second fastest R32 GT-R is only 0.1 of a second slower mind, and IS RB powered...
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7.5sec quarter mile from a flippin' badass looking R32 GT-R with a mega RB30 lump...
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Another red RB30 engine'd one is only slightly slower, at a still crazy 8.1sec, and while it just looks like a red R32, it's got 1200bhp, the exhaust manifold is pretty funky and puts the turbo by the headlamp, and it's got early RB20 cam covers, which always look good...
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Last of the Skylines I'm going to mention is this R33 GT-R, again running a ridiculous 8.2second quarter mile, with a similar exhaust manifold to the one above...
Skylines aren't the only 4wd straight six turbo Japanese cars running low 8s in Russia. This 1500bhp 2JZ Soarer runs 8.2s. "Hang on 4wd Soarer?!" Yep, fucking 4wd!
They seem to have a thing in Russia about converted normally RWD Toyotas to 4WD with GREAT effect, as well, here's a Supra road car that runs mid 9s and is also 4WD...
Perhaps the most unexpected 4wd Toyota is this one, a big 4 door JZX90 that runs 8.3s...
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It actually runs a modified Toyota A340E gearbox, and a BIG power 2JZ with nitrous too.
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I knew JZXs were popular in Russia, but the amount of them, even normal road cars, that run 10sec quarters is mental, but I'm gonna show you this one as not only as it runs high 9s thanks to the obligatory big turbo JZ lump, but also looks cool as fuck...
In the UK we're used to JZXs being drift cars, and are usually 550bhp tops, but in Russia they laugh at a mere 550bhp. The JZX100 below (RWD and 2JZ powered) runs 8.6sec quarters! That will be WELL over 1000bhp then...
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​THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, BUT THERE'S PLENTY MORE, IN FACT SOME OF THE MADDEST THINGS ARE TO COME IN PART TWO!
STAY TUNED...

    Hi, I'm Stav...

    You may or may not have heard of me, but I've spent the last 15 years working full-time in the tuning scene, and the last decade or so writing for various car magazines.
    I'm probably best known as 'Stavros', ex-DepEd of UK tuning magazine Redline (RIP), but I've also worked for countless other mags on a freelance basis, FastCar, Banzai, Japanese Performance, Fast Ford, Audi Tuner, Performance BMW, BMW Car, and many more.

    Unlike most people who work in automotive media, I've no degree in journalism (hence my average grammar skills!), but unlike most, I really, truly, am hugely in to it rather than just faking it to pay the bills, it's a huge part of my life- My hobby is building and driving stupidly fast cars, simple as that.
    ​
    Because tuning has been my job and my hobby for so long, I've experienced and learnt and incredible amount, good and surprisingly bad, a lot of these things that totally go against conventional thinking/rumour too, and as I constantly get asked for advice by tuners and tuning fans, I thought maybe I should have an official outlet for my knowledge, and that's here...

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