Born into turbo'd motors, Adrian may
has the best of both worlds with two, very different skylines...
For the majority of us, our modding careers
start off with a relatively simple and insurance-friendly motor. Low-powered
and cheap are the tick boxes for most first cars, so when Adrian May's dad
handed him the keys to a fully-loaded Impreza Turbo at only 17 years young, he
thought all his Christmas's had come at once!
The
8.75x15in steel wheels that sit under the R32's arches, originally lived on a
Jeep
Fast forward to 2013, and Adrian's dad
hoped that, by now, his son would have progressed onto something a little more
sensible – how wrong he was!
Adrian had always fancied a bit of sideways
action, so a couple of years back, he went on the hunt for a suitable motor.
His weapon of choice came about in the form of the classic Nissan Skyline R32,
but it was far from drift-ready when Adrian picket it up.
"The car was a wreck but I loved the
aggressive look of the R32 so it had to be done, plus at the time parts were
cheap". Mr. Mav explains.
With only 70,000 miles on the clock, Adrian
took the Skyline home and dived head first into the mods. His first port of call
was sorting out the suspension. A set of Tein street coilovers have been fitted
and bring the R32's arse satisfyingly close to the road. To help hang the car's
arse out, Adrian also fitted a HICAS lockout bar and Nismo LSD. Keeping the
Skyline rigid and straight is a pair of front and rear Cusco strut braces. Nice
work.
The
R30s were released back in the early'80s
When it came to wheels, Adrian opted for
small and wide. The 8.75x15in steel wheels that sit under the R32's arches,
originally lived on a Jeep.
Unsurprisingly, getting them to fit the
Skyline wasn't straightforward, as the smaller rims wouldn't go over the
Skyline's brake discs. So he binned off the standard brakes and replaced them
with a smaller set of discs combined with S15 calipers.
Before fitting, the wheels were re-drilled
to a 4x114 stud attention to the bodywork he's done a good job of dropping
weight off the Nissan, the doors have been replaced with lightened N1GT-R doors
and the bonnet enough, Adrian also bagged himself an ultra-rare and collectable
R30 Skyline after a night of eBay trolling. The R30s were released back in the
early'80s, and to say they're something of a rarity would be an understatement
Adrian's was built in South Africa with the rare L20 2-litre lump from a 260Z.
This
retro ride may be a world apart from his super-tough and epically low R32, but
it's as cool as a pair of box-fresh '80s sneakers
After a bit of research, it's estimate that
there's only about six left in the world with only haft of those actually on
the road. Bought together with his girlfriend Penny, the plan was to restore
the car and keep it in tip-top condition.
Finding parts for a car this rare was
always going to be something of a ball-ache, but our man came up trumps again
when he found a set of Hayashi Street alloys.
"These are the wheels to have if you
have an old school Skyline, I've seen them sell for $2,250+ in the past!"
Adrian tells us.
Other than few subtle mods, the R30 has
been left as nature intended, and rightly so! This retro ride may be a world
apart from his super-tough and epically low R32, but it's as cool as a pair of
box-fresh '80s sneakers.
With two awesome Jap cars to his name, we
can't wait to see what Adrian pulls out of his JDM bag next!
