Wad up! All yota heads big up. Yow! Few months back while I was still on vacation in Jamaica, I made a discovery. Well not really a discovery, I kind of stumbled upon it. What? What? While I was staying in the country side with friend and family, I found out that there was a 2 mile stretch of road where racers with hot cars from all over the island came to hangout and race every Sunday evenings. I found out about the little spot the day before, and this wasn’t passing me by without an investigation. On Sunday morning I got up extra early to make sure everything was ready and set to go. In the evening I couldn’t wait to get there, so I reached a bit early, but I was glad I did. If I had arrived a minute later I would have missed one of the more exciting race of the day. On my arrival I saw two wicked little fast fours lined up, a Nissan Pulsar Gti and a Toyota turbo Starlet, baby Godzilla and Mighty Mouse.

I couldn’t get my trust cannon sure shot out fast enough, so I grabbed the camcorder instead, sorry, no pics of the run. At least I got it on tape so let me know when you’re coming over so I could get the beers and chips ready. With that said lets get back to the event. There were a couple false starts, at least 3 times. The Pulsar sounded very strong, so did the starlet. As the starter hands dropped for the fourth time, both cars launched forward, and the spectators went wild. Most of the people there at the time were cheering on the Pulsar, since they were all from the same town. Even a couple of the local were wailing on the Pulsar’s band wagon, but the few loyal yota heads including myself keep the faith, and stood strong as we rooted for the Starlet. Neck to neck, side by side they came down the stretch, they shift first, then second, then third, that’s when the little Starlet got some good traction and jumped ahead of the mighty Pulsar Gti-R 2.0 liter turbo all wheel drive bad boy. Myself and the Toyota contingency were all going buck wild, while the Pulsar supporters were dead quite, with their mouth dropped opened, looking stunned from what just took placed. “Oh shit! Oh shit! The Starlet kick de Nissan rass”, some were saying. “ Pure luck, a buck up, the man missed a shift”, and so on, and so on. Do I hear sore losers? If that were the case we would see because the rules of this strip allow you to race twice. Why? Because one side of the strip is rough and the other side is much smoother, so they switch sides while lining up for the final run. About two more false starts, then off again, this time the Starlet got a good start and took off like it was shot out of a catapult. When the driver of the Pulsar realized there was no catching the little Starlet, he slammed his brakes so hard, the four tires smoked like a burn out. That how Mini mouse evolves into Mighty Mouse as it cruises down the strip flashing its hazard lights. If you could’ve seen this little Starlet ran, you would’ve thought it had extensive work done to it. In stock trim this car ran a 14.6@ 10psi, but before I go any further, let me introduce Mighty mouse and its owner.

This is a 91turbo starlet came stock with the little infamous 1.3liter 4afte motor, and it belongs to Spy. He loves this ride so much you couldn’t pry him away from it with a crowbar because he’s always in the gut trying to improve on something. Spy’s goal is to prove to the Pulsars and Nissan Sonny 2.0s that a 1.3 Toyota motor could eat them for lunch but In order to do that, Spy need a few upgrades. Since he doesn’t have the funds that some of the Pulsar’s owners have he had to settle for used parts from the junkyard, which is not all bad. One of the first things he was lucky to get from the junkyard was a blitz kkk turbo kit from a wreck Audi, which he made an adaptor plate in order to fit his present manifold. He ditch the stock ic and replaced it with one from a Ford Cosworth, but he removed it from the top of the engine to the front of the car for better cooling. Spy also needed a blow off valve but the dollars was still weak so he improvised once again by using a sc by-pass valve and turned it backward, and guess what? The unit worked and sounded great, just like one of those costly HKS, BLITZ etc. Spy still needed to relief some stress from the motor in order to quicken it’s the response, so he shaved the flywheel down to 9.6lbs. For added grip and pavement pounding a TRD clutch package was added. A 2.5inch down pipe was fabricated from the turbo unit to the cat, and straight to a free flow exhaust out back. For some balance and stability a set of NU Speed performance springs were liberated from a crash Honda for the rear, and the front got a set from a Lada. What’s a Lada? A Lada is a Russian made car that looks like the Fiat. The car rolls on a set of 13inch Panna sport wrapped with 185/60 Kuhmo tires from Japan for everyday, and for racing he uses 175/60 13 tires. The second time at the track mighty moose and Spy stopped the clock @14.2, and that was done on a hurt motor with boost still set at 10 psi. The motor got refreshed and Spy took it back to the track and stopped the clock at 14.1 without stressing the car or the motor, still running stock boost. Spy assured me the next time we speak the car would be in the 13s but 13 what? I spoke to Spy recently as 3/25/01 and surely enough the car was running 13s all day, but his best time of the day was a 13.5 when he competed against Victor Brown a reputable racecar builder in Jamaica who was running a starlet that day. Victor’s starlet ran a 13.3@ 102mph, but not that day. There will be a write up on victor’s starlet soon. Spy reached his goal by turning up the boost to, oops I promised not to say. He also up graded the fuel and improve his intake by mixing and matching parts from other cars, and it worked out very well for him as you could see by the #.

There are lots of little tricks he did and made me promised not to tell or mentioned this article and being true to my word hey! Until he say otherwise mums the word, but its guys like this gives guys like me and all the back yard mechanics out there confidence in doing your thing and don’t get discouraged by other negative elements out there. Keep up the good work Spy and keep me posted, But in the mean time keep it on the inside until we meet again on the pages of the inside scoop.

Lloyd@divisionone.org