NZ Performance Car

All right, so this editorial is going to be less about the automotive scene, industry, and magazine, and more about me, your ed. I recently moved out of my seaside home in a bid to create a space in the country that’s more suitable for my needs; more sustainable for the future; and, most important, my own. For as long as I can remember, when people have asked what my ideal home is, I have always said the same thing: a shed out in the country in a field, surrounded by epic gardens and spaces to hang out during the weekends. I thought at 31 that I should have a crack at making this a reality. I am incredibly lucky in that my parents have some land north of Auckland, which I…

OK, so with my initials being MAG, it’s no wonder that I’ve been working on mags for almost all my working life. I’ve been at the Performance Car magazine stables for 17 years and have had the pleasure of working on all of the Parkside Media titles. I was raised by an adrenaline-junkie father who was still in his 20s when he was strapping me into the three-point harness of a beach buggy to launch over the sand dunes at Muriwai. He bought that for my mum as her daily driver. My first driving experience was behind the wheel of one of the two 7.4-litre Corvette Stingrays that he had just bought back from the States to raise money for his next adventure. I was eight. As the graphic designer…

We’ve been jam-packed with press vehicles lately and been very lucky in that regard, getting to pedal around the various performance vehicles that manufacturers are churning out at the moment, before the inevitable demise of the internal-combustion engine. However, it’s a weird one, as customers aren’t just liking it — they’re loving getting their hands on proper, performance-focused hot hatches and sedans with similar pedigrees to those of the good ol’ days. The Hyundai i20 N hot hatch is just that, packing 150kW of front-wheel-drive manual epicness — a lively small weapon capable of tearing up the back roads. With limited space this issue and an upcoming Hyundai i30 N press car coming our way, keep an eye out for the next issue, when we’ll compare the two direct-injection turbocharged…

Gracing our cover recently was Ifraz Begg’s ‘Bula Bullet’, which, at the time, was aiming to make a big noise in the import drag scene. After the article went to press, the team ended up going back to the drawing board and made some changes to meet tech requirements. The car now features a single ’chute set-up to pull it up from the expected 240-plus kilometres per hour, while the turbo has received a billet front-wheel update in Garrett GTX42 spec, and the gearbox has been replaced with a Momentum UK sequential item. Always a character, Beggz tells us that he’s got new Marley drainpipe side skirts, but to us they look a little more high end. The team expects to do some testing over the Winter Drag Wars and…

One of the biggest criticisms the latest generation Supra faced on its release — other than not having a 2JZGTE engine — was that there was no manual gearbox offering, with the only option being an automatic ZF transmission, based out of the BMW Z4. Although a quick shifter and capable of holding a decent whack of power, true manual transmission enthusiasts have been yearning for a manually shifted, foot-clutch-engaged gearbox. Well, Toyota has answered with the news that, next year, it will be releasing a six-speed manual variant with the Intelligent Manual Transmission (iMT) tech used in the Yaris and soon-to-be-released GR Four Corolla. There are whispers that the gearbox will be from the BMW parts bin, which is not terrible news, being that they’re capable and stout units…

The annual MOD (Mitsubishi Owners Day) took place at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park over Queen’s Birthday weekend. Celebrating all models of Mitsubishi, it played host to a full day of cruising and roll racing, as well as the Andrew Simms parade/record attempt — achieving 236 cars on the track, a little shy of the 2008 world record of 273. After a full day of action, Te Puke–based Evo specialist Mike Gibbons thrashed his self-built monster Evo III all the way to the title of King, running the car out of brakes in time attack and then hitting the pad for a solid heli display. Taking out Queen was first-time attendee Brooke Urquhart, who had the whole family in tow as she did multiple laps cruising. She then had her first attempt at…