If you haven’t taken a look at my shop tour of Malaysia’s R Tune Garage yet, go and do that before continuing here.
OK, are we good now? Great!
It’s always great to find someone who is into the same things as you are, and when we’re talking about Speedhunters that would happen to be cars. But it’s a whole different thing to find someone who is truly passionate about cars. Someone who goes to sleep thinking about cars and wakes up doing the same (and sometimes anime, but that’s for a different story).
Ever since he was little, the S30 was that car for Dwayne Ho. It was the rich heritage and styling that won him over, and he knew that when the time was right he would own one.
That day came when he found this S30 in stock form. Of course, it had a few rust spots here and there but for a year, Dwayne was content – he had his dream car after all.
Eventually, the urge to fix those rust spots took over. Dwayne stripped the car back in preparation to do a little body work, but things quickly got out of control. For the next six years the Z was under the knife.
When Creativity Goes On A Rampage
One of the first things Dwayne did was replace every bolt-on steel panel with carbon fiber.
The purpose behind the excessive use of carbon – besides the weight reduction, overall strength when compared to regular FRP, and simply looking badass – was to prevent future rust from occurring.
With the exterior mostly taken care of, next on the list was the S30’s suspension. The billet lower control arms were sourced from Arizona Z Cars, and everything else was done in house at RTG. To achieve the best possible handling Dwayne replaced all the bushings, too.
15-inch AME mesh wheels fit perfectly with the carbon-clad exterior and pull the overall look together well.
All In The Details
It’s one thing to change the exterior and make something look incredibly menacing as Dwayne has with his S30, but often times the engine is left stock. Fortunately for us, it’s not the case here. Dwayne has taken the time to create a work of art underneath the carbon fiber hood.
What are some of the first things that you see once the hood is removed? Is it the colorful trumpets attached to the 45DCOE Weber carburetors? Or maybe it’s the MSD ignition system making sure the engine doesn’t skip a beat in delivering the correct spark?
Maybe you’d notice the custom RTG brackets, or the ‘Z’ dipstick?
I think you get the point – virtually everything under the hood has been customized or changed. Although the valve cover says 2400, that’a more of an homage to the engine that originally powered this S30. Dwayne took the original 2.4L engine out and put in its larger 2.8L brother. He then proceeded to stroke it to 3.4L.
Along with forged pistons, rods and a stroker crank, the engine features a performance cam and oversized valves – and the list goes on. The exact power figure is still unknown, but Dwayne estimates it’s somewhere around the 300 mark.
Spent gases are dumped out of custom headers into a stainless steel exhaust system, again, all done in house at RTG.
The power and torque currently finds its way to the ground through the S30’s stock transmission, though Dwayne he says that will change soon.
As it was for the exterior and the engine, the interior is also a work of art and testament to RTG’s abilities. It’s nothing too over-the-top though; minimalism is key (in regards to the interior at any rate)
The trunk, however, is a different story. Stainless steel fuel lines snake to pumps, and the custom RTG stainless steel fuel cell has been wrapped in leather.
The goal behind the leather was two part: Firstly, Dwayne wanted the tank to look like it belonged there, thus the dark leather helps it blend in with the rest of the interior. The second part was to get rid of the horrid glare that reflects off the stainless steel when driving.
Having spent the day at RTG and with Dwayne, it’s easy to tell that this S30 is a true representation of his work ethic. He’s put in hours upon hours of effort, energy, stress building his dream car.
This level of passion is something I hope we all can see in our own personal builds, or whatever it is we are doing.
Ron Celestine
Instagram: celestinephotography
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