Nissan Advice

One of the biggest cinematic franchises of the last two decades, the Fast and Furious movies loosely follow the wacky japes of a crew of former street racers as they have slowly transition into international anti-terrorist action heroes. Where once it was all about punk kids not liking the tuna and closing off roads for pizza boys to find another way home, these days it is all secret agency tac-op

A key part of “celebrity life” is having a garage heaving with expensive, exotic cars to maintain that image of wealth and success. Sports stars, musicians, actors, fashion designers and others in the glitterarti have plenty of pesos in the bank to fund a lavish lifestyle, and a few of them have spent their hard-earned building seriously cool collections of cars.

What is a kit car?A kit car is a type of vehicle either built at home or in a small workshop using components sourced from other vehicles, and are often designed to look like a fancier, more expensive vehicle.At one point in Australia’s motoring history the kit car industry was a booming business. Beginning in post-war years, handy people who weren’t prepared to get grimy scrounging wrecking yards to build a hot rod could order a set of plans, or parts in kit form, to build a vehicle at home.The Lotus 7 was thought to be among the first cars sold in kit form, as a way of cheapening the cost of buying the vehicle and avoiding delays in having Lotus assemble a running, driving car. The popularity of the 7 led to a whole class of clubman vehicles that are all about home-built super-lightweight fun.Kit cars in Australia back in the day would see punters order the bare bones parts of the vehicle, sometimes including the chassis and body, which would be supplied unfinished. These DIY handymen would then find the drivetrain from popular makes and models.For those not so talented on the tools, a kit car can be more of a custom vehicle based off a cheap, commonly available donor like the Toyota Celica or Volkswagen Beetle, with a modified body fitted on top. These were often offered as a drive-in, drive-out customisation for client’s existing vehicles by companies like Adelaide’s Creative Cars.Creative Cars sold kits to turn a Beetle into a Porsche 911 lookalike called the Poraga and Porerra, or a Celica dressed as a Ferrari 308 called the Cerino, among others. The latter was initially known as the Ferrino, until Ferrari objected to the name. These weren’t cheap, with the Poraga conversion costing $10,000 back in the mid-1980s!However, the kit car industry was impacted as road rules were created to control the types of cars allowed on Australian roads. While it was OK in the 1950s for anyone to put whatever engine into another type of chassis and fit their own, home-made body on top, by the early 1980s we had federal laws setting a minimum standard for cars being brought into Australia to be sold as road cars (Australian Design Rules), and then we had ever-tightening state-based laws controlling what modifications were permitted for road-going vehicles.By the late 1980s kit cars were mostly sold as replicas of rare 1960s exotic cars like the Ford GT40, Shelby Cobra and Ferrari 250 GTO. Sometimes these cars could be ordered as a turn-key car, or a DIY kit to be built at home to the owner’s exact specifications. However as road regulations tightened through the 1990s, the cost of gaining registration approval for road use skyrocketed to over $300,000 per-car (depending on the state the vehicle needed to be registered in).These costs came as the vehicle had to be built to the same standards as a modern car, which is incredibly difficult in a vehicle built at home to replicate a 1960s car, and then approved by a registered engineering signatory who had a process of inspecting and testing the vehicle. As laws are fluid and constantly changing, many kit cars end up unfinished as owners find it difficult to navigate a highly complex and expensive process. This is why kit cars are all but extinct now in Australia.The good news is there are many ways to build a kit car today, if you have plenty of dollars in the bank and can set aside several years to step through the whole process. For this reason, many people choose to customise their car in a more traditional hot rod-style, rather than building a complete vehicle from the ground-up.Today you can buy car body kits online for a variety of budgets. Among the most popular are the Japanese “Rocket Bunny Pandem” kits from TRA Kyoto’s Kei Miura. Featuring fat, 80s-style rivet-on boxed wide-body guards, deep front bumper extensions, and his trademark duck-tail spoiler, they end a massively aggressive race flair to otherwise common sports cars.Talk to any late-model tuner car enthusiast and they’ll tell you the hottest cars in their scene are Toyota 86 Rocket Bunny, S14 Rocket Bunny Silvia, S15 Rocket Bunny Silvia, an RX-7 Rocket Bunny, or a 350Z Rocket Bunny. They rarely look anything like the original car and could almost be considered a kit car, especially with the popularity of power-adders like the many Toyota 86 turbo kits on offer.For those who are feeling really adventurous there is the Vaydor, which is a drastic restyling of a core Nissan/Infiniti G35 Skyline. There is no firm confirmation if the Vaydor G35 is a road legal kit cars in Australia, so don’t spend your pennies there without doing a lot of research first.The booming market is in electric car kit swaps, where a petrol or diesel drivetrain is replaced with an electric one. Again, legalities concerning these modifications aren’t super-well-understood yet but this is a potential area to keep an eye on if you want a silent-running car but can’t afford a Tesla, or don’t want to give up your favourite ride. 

The end of financial year might be the best time to nab a deal on any new car, but the deals on a spanking-new ute can be absolutely stratospheric.

Owning a car comes with a sense of pride, so people don’t generally deliberately go out and buy ugly vehicles.

Truly Australian car brands – as in brands that mass manufactured cars locally, regardless of the origin of their overseas parent companies, became a thing of the past in 2017.

Australians have always loved the idea of the ute, an iconic vehicle with outback cred, and indeed one that was invented here by a Ford engineer, but that didn't mean we actually bought them.

However, the popular "softroaders" don't have low range. In which case, simply choose a lower gear.  If your vehicle is automatic and has sports mode, then use that.Keep the engine revving so it has power for when you hit soft sand.  Be aware that an automatic gearbox can heat up in these conditions, so it's a good idea to rest the vehicle periodically.The smoother you drive, the better. Don't make sharp turns because the vehicle won't respond. Instead, you will plough straight ahead, like understeering on a wet road. If this happens, unwind the steering and wind it on again. You may have to repeat this manoeuvre several times and slow down a little.Turn in long, slow arcs a good distance before you need to avoid an obstacle.  Place your hands gently at three and nine o'clock on the wheel and keep your thumbs pointing out. The steering wheel can get flicked around by ruts and can dislocate your thumb.Don't fight the steering. Let it go where it wants.  In deep, hard ruts you may need to "row" the steering wheel to gain traction on the sides of the ruts.  Also, be smooth on the brakes. Sudden braking will lead to slides and can bog your vehicle.If there are dunes on the beach, drive up swiftly but pause at the top in case traffic is coming the other way.  Fit a tall flag on the front of your car so people can see you approaching from the other side of the dune.Never turn on a dune. You can easily get bogged or roll.  Don't follow too closely. If the vehicle in front becomes bogged, then you won't have time to steer around them or brake safely. If you follow a slow-moving vehicle too closely you also run the risk of losing momentum and getting bogged.When you stop on the beach, park on hard sand. When taking off again, move slowly to avoid wheel spin then pick up speed as quickly and smoothly as possible.  On beach tracks always give way to vehicles travelling uphill as they need to keep up momentum.TOP 10 SAND DRIVING TIPS1. Check tide times and drive at low tide.2. Momentum is your friend, so keep revs high.3. Deflate the tyres to about 18-20psi, depending on load.4. Use a tyre pressure gauge. Do not guess the pressure.5. Be smooth with steering, acceleration and braking.6. Keep your thumbs pointing out from the steering wheel.7. Look ahead for gullies and other obstacles.8. Don't follow other vehicles too closely.9. Obey all normal road rules.10. Watch out for children.

These hatches coming in 2019 look like a very sweet bunch of low riders indeed.

I know it seems like the army of SUVs currently marching across Australia will never be defeated, but there is a pocket of resistance forming, and it's one that is genuinely fighting back against the rising tide of high-riders.