Nigel P. has dedicated the last two-and-a-half years
to creating this home-built piece of art in motion.
If you’re reading this article, then chances are you love to
build and modify cars to suit your own taste, style, and needs, no doubt
pouring months’ or years’ worth of blood, sweat, and tears into the project,
not to mention creating that black hole in your wallet that swallows every last
cent you earn. But the fact is, when all is said and done and the project is
complete, generally what you’re left with is just a modified version of a
production car, something that was mass produced in a factory somewhere. This
also means that at every turn during the modifying process, you are forced to
deal with the limiting factors, which are the confines of the original unibody
chassis.
It was December 5,
2010, that Nigel hauled-arse to Sydney from his home in Geelong, Victoria, and
picked up a bare 2002 Toyota Hilux single cab
These two points have always bothered Australian Nigel
Petrie from Engineered to Slide (ETS). Nigel has a long list of builds to his
name, including many S-chassis drifters, but every one of his builds left him
with this same feeling. That was until he decided it was time to act on his
five-year dream, a dream that ended up keeping him awake at night and consuming
every spare moment for the next two-and-a-half years of his life. “In 2005 I built
a bagged Toyota Hilux that served as a tow car for my 180SX drift car.
Something happened in those years of ownership that I just couldn’t get out of
my head; the thought of combining the two styles seemed to work perfectly for
me.”
It was December 5, 2010, that Nigel hauled-arse to Sydney
from his home in Geelong, Victoria, and picked up a bare 2002 Toyota Hilux
single cab. Only days later the floor was removed with an angle grinder and the
fun could begin.
The first the world saw of the project was simply a gutted
cab sitting on the ground, with a set of Volk TE37s jammed under the guards.
Nearly three years on from that day, looking at the completed full-tube
chassis, you would assume Nigel is a seasoned TIG welder, but the truth of the
matter is that before attempting this build, he had never picked up a TIG torch
or notched a piece of roll-cage tube.
Given such a mass
of bare steel, every three months the chassis was stripped bare and cleaned
with wax and grease remover, then coated with lanolin to inhibit rust.
By day Nigel worked as a fitter-and-turner for Ford
Australia, but by night he would plug away at the project in his single garage.
It was in the early stages of the build process that those
following the ETS blog got to learn about the type of guy Nigel is. We aren’t
sure what our Aussie cousins call it, but here in New Zealand we call it
good-old ‘Kiwi ingenuity’. Nigel didn’t have the $3000 required to obtain the
pipe notcher, roll-cage bender, and TIG welder he needed to get started, so he purchased
the TIG and built this own tube notcher and bender before ordering 48m of
Chromoly tubing, which would eventually become the chassis and roll cage. “I
didn’t have any drawings, I didn’t have the necessary skills, money, or time to
make this happen, but I knew that where there is passion, there will be a way
to overcome any obstacles I might face,” Nigel said.
The three-inch 304
stainless tube exits the tunnel and runs up the center of the chassis, exiting
via twin 80mm alloy tips
He soon became an addict, searching for the perfect bend,
the perfect notch, and the best way to achieve strength, all the while
documenting the build in meticulous detail, with almost daily updates on his
blog. The project gained momentum, though at stages it felt like 10 steps
forward and five steps backward, mainly because as progress ticked on, Nigel’s
skill set increased. That meant things he had previously completed were now not
up to spec, and on discovery, each was greeted with the grinder as he removed
and reworked it. And we aren’t just talking about small details – the first
rework involved removing the entire completed floor and front frame-rail
sections that he had MIG welded in favor of a much simpler TIG welded design.
The engine/gearbox mounts also received constant attention,
with no fewer than six different concepts worked on, implemented, and then
scrapped in favor of a new, cleaner design – all just part of Nigel’s pursuit
for home-built perfection. The first six-month completion date came and went,
but by mid-2011 the chassis was rolling utilizing a bunch of S-chassis parts,
like the rear diff cradle, that would all come to be removed later down the
line.
The Hilux was towed back to Sydney for its first public
showing as a work-in-progress at the World Time Attack Challenge (WTAC), where
Nigel also drove his trusty 180SX competition car in the Tectaloy International
Drift Challenge. The WTAC was to become the yearly showcase for the project,
and it again showed at the 2012 WTAC in a far-closer-to-complete state, then
very fittingly made its on track debut at this year’s WTAC event, the weekend
this magazine hit the shelves.
The engine is the
SR20DET out of my PS13. It has a built bottom end with some upgraded cams and
valve springs.
It was between the 2011 and 2012 showings that the build
really started to take shape. Nigel and his partner Celia left behind the
one-car garage and moved to a new home, a property with a shed big enough to
house all Nigel’s projects (he owns a few). Although this one was stalled for a
few months, it was soon back into full swing.
