After countless hours spent corner-weighting the car to try and offset a 30-kilogram imbalance cause by the right-hand side heavy K24 engine, the reconfiguration to left-hand drive utilising an ultra-quick Quaife 2.2:1 steering rack ultimately evened things out. Since the 2012 set-up, a number of changes have been made to the car but the most obvious was the switch from right-hand to left-hand drive in order to improve weight distribution across the front axle. We featured Rob’s giant-slaying Honda in 2012 right after he had destroyed all of the time attack competition at Queensland Raceway’s annual Jap Nationals, but after seeing how far the car had technically evolved when it turned up to race at the Yokohama World Time Attack Challenge in October, I knew I had to take a closer look when I was back in 101’s neck of the woods.
There were a couple of reasons why I’d made arrangements to visit 101 Motorsport, and this crazy little EF CR-X was one of them. I just couldn’t leave without taking a closer look at this personality-packed pocket rocket, so keep your eyes peeled for a feature soon… MightyMouse in the house Not that it’s short on power by any stretch of the imagination though – a custom Garrett-based turbo set-up takes care of that.
#WELCOME TO THE MOUSE HOUSE LICENSE#
Although there was no engine in the hole, in the past it was pushed down the 1320 by a 500hp-plus 13B turbo, which goes a long way in explaining the FN SYCO license plate.Īs this cool little K11 Nissan Micra (aka March) goes to show, not everything 101 engineers is built for serious speed. Without even looking under the carbon fibre bonnet, the V-mount set-up, Bride seats, roll cage and that CHOP U licence plate told me everything I needed to know about the firepower it was packing.īut I took a look anyway… Suspicions confirmed.Īlso flying the rotary flag was this drag-spec Mazda 1000 pickup.
Rotaries, of course, are a big part of the Australian modified car scene, so I wasn’t at all surprised to see a couple of tough Mazdas in the mix including this evil-looking satin black FD3S streeter. In the company of what must have been tens of thousands of horsepower around the workshop, I wondered how this RB26DETT was going to end up… That means everything from engine building to custom fabrication, wiring and final dyno tuning can all be handled under the same roof. Here’s another Aussie classic – this time a V8-powered GM-Holden HQ Monaro that appeared to be in the final throes of a twin turbo upgrade.įor the most part though, 101’s mainstay is Japanese performance and like so many other Australian tuners, the shop can pretty much turn its hand to all aspects of modification. One of the those cars was this GM Holden LX Torana which was set up for quarter mile duty and fitted with a Nissan-derived RB30 engine packing Garrett GT42R goodness. In fact, truth be told, Rob’s giant-slaying CR-X – which I’ll be taking a look at in a little more detail shortly – appeared to be the anomaly amongst the numerous hard-tuned turbo street and race machines of varied make and model that were vying for my attention on the workshop floor.
#WELCOME TO THE MOUSE HOUSE FREE#
Shooting feature cars and attending events is one thing, but to really get an understanding about what a company is all about, there’s no better way than being given free rein to look around the workshop – an offer extended to me by the owner of Brisbane-based 101 Motorsport, Varun Sharma, on my recent Aus-side excursion.Īlthough 101 has been around for a few years now, I got my first taste of its abilities at the 2012 World Time Attack Challenge in Sydney, when the entire crew made the 1000km trek south from Brisbane to support Rob Nguyen’s entry – the 101 Motorsport CR-X.īut from the moment I stepped through into the main workshop it became quickly apparent that this company engineers much more than a crazy-fast naturally-aspirated Honda track car named MightyMouse. Given my geographical position in the world, I don’t have to stray far to experience first-hand one of the most vibrant car cultures on the planet. More than 23 million people call Australia home and given that a decent percentage of the population was raised on an octane-rich diet fuelled by the V8 racing exploits of GM Holden and Ford, I take every opportunity I can get to make the short 3.5-hour flight across the Tasman Sea from New Zealand and check out the automotive land of plenty.