Classic Meets High-Tech

Photos by Dino Dalle Carbonare

When it comes to classic car restoration, Rocky Auto approach things in a somewhat unorthodox way. Forget your period specific wheels and OEM paintjobs, this is a place where classic cars meet modern day influences.

Watanabe-san, the owner and founder of this very special place, loves classics cars through and through but doesn’t see why he needs to put up with underpowered motors and outright dangerous handling and brakes. He has pioneered the art of modernising vintage cars, taking a particular interest in Nissans.

The car yard outside the Rocky Auto showroom will have most enthusiasts’ jaws dropping straight to the ground, as there must be no fewer than 70 cars on display, either up for sale or awaiting a full restoration or, more accurately, a transformation.

Watanbe-san loves the RB engine and has dropped turbocharged and naturally aspirated versions into numerous S30s and various generations of Skylines.

If you’re like me, you probably eagerly follow the coverage online of the Tokyo Auto Salon each year and the car Watanabe-san chose to present as a demo car at the 2010 event is the perfect example of just how crazy his ideas can get – a 600ps RB26 into a lightweight S30 chassis that has been reinforced and built from the ground up.

To squeeze all of this power out of the modern straight-six, it has been filled to the brim with forged goodies from the HKS catalogue, with a T04Z turbine also sourced from the world famous tuning brand.

Funnily enough its owner, Sawasaki-san, told us that despite all the power the ’Z is actually very sedate to drive at low-RPM and only really starts to go bonkers in the early midrange. We can only imagine…

On top of the impressive line-up of cars outside, it’s in the workshop where all the magic happens.

This spotless S30 bare chassis was getting a new set of Brembo brakes installed ready to take the savage power of an RB26.

His mind never stops coming up with new ideas and one of his more famous creations is probably the most extreme he has come up with; a full dry-carbon S30 Fairlady Z.

This is a car that Watanabe-san truly went all out on; using all of his company’s expertise to create the ultimate driver’s Fairlady Z. Balance was to take over outright power to help make a car that would tantalise the senses with just the right amount of performance.

Weight-saving came courtesy of custom-made carbon body parts that replace the old, thick steel panels of the 36-year-old S30. He didn’t cut any corners by using cheaper wet carbon; with every panel moulded and subsequently formed in lightweight dry carbon, which for anyone that doesn’t know, has to be vacuum-sealed and pressure-cooked in an autoclave to guarantee its rigidity.

This has helped shave weight down to a miniscule 1040kg.

To create the ultimate driver’s car from any platform, great attention must be paid to suspension components and although in the past he has greatly utilised borrowed later model Nissan components, the carbon Z called for something far more advanced.

A complete custom rear sub-frame was created, first carefully designed in CAD and then precision cut from billet aluminium to guarantee the best performance. This is joined by billet aluminium front and rear lower arms, and a host of other linkages that give the S30 incredible precision coupled with yet another substantial weight saving.

To be fair though, a driver’s car is all about the engine and Watandabe-san has whipped up a doozy! Under the dry carbon bonnet you will find something both familiar and strange, an RB26/30... with triple 50mm Solex carburettors?

For once goods were shipped the other way, with an RB30 block sourced from Australia to be mated with the RB26 head, with the combo internally stock besides a pair of 270° bumpsticks.

The sound of this RB is simply breathtaking, mixing an uncanny resemblance to engines of yesteryear in its response and induction noise, with a smoothness and urgency of a modern race-bred motor.

For most, a car like this would last a lifetime but in true Watanabe-san style, the carbon Z was sold almost immediately to make way for his next creation. The Rocky Auto shop is one worth dropping past again and again as each time you visit, the line up is completely different. What will he come up with next?