Matty Hill and his 2JZ drift Silvia

What makes people want to drift? Today’s Haltech Hero, Matty Hill, says it is like an addiction “the adrenaline rush you feel from throwing a car into a corner, which to most looks to be completely out of control is like no other feeling I’ve experienced.” And boy, does he have some experience. From being the first international driver to ever win a D1NZ event,  to being one of the top drivers in Formula Drift Japan.

The early years

Matt says he has always been into cars, working on them as a kid with his father and godfather, and claims to have started practicing burnouts in his backyard at 12 years old, but it was drifting that caught his eye, and at 19 years old he decided to build his very first drift car… without ever having drifted!

“My first proper drift car was a 180SX that was powered by a $900 SR20 that I bought on eBay. I built the car from scratch on jack stands and a roller board in my back shed.”

“I had only the basic knowledge about suspension setups, turbos, and wiring, pretty much just enough to get me through. I asked lots of questions and consulted numerous online forums to help me complete the build.”

Eventually, after a few years of skinned knuckles and swearing, the little Nissan was bolted together and at 21 years old Matt started driving in local competitions and practice days. The car was constantly in and out of the garage and because Matty was studying at university he didn’t always have the funds to fix it every time it broke.

“At one stage I was forced to leave the car in the garage for 6 months as I had just blown up my freshly built SR20 and I didn’t have the $4000 needed to repair it. It killed me as I had put everything I had into that car, I actually cried, true story.”

He eventually got the 180 back together, and held onto it for almost six years, constantly changing things and improving it whilst learning more about drift setups and improving his driving skills. “I made lots of mistakes, broke things, I blew up SR20s time and time again, but it all brought me to where I am now.”

A new beginning

By the time 2014 rolled around, Matty knew the time had come to part way with the 180SX. He gathered all his cash and started building his dream car – a competitive car, something that would take his drifting to the next level. That car was a Nissan S15 with a powerful, almost bulletproof Toyota Supra engine. And that is the car you’re looking at here.

This was the first of three 2JZ-powered S15s Matt has built and competed with across Australia, New Zealand, and Japan between 2016 and 2020. By the time 2020 rolled around, this S15 was in need of a birthday, and during the extended COVID off-season, Matt took all the knowledge he’d gained from competing in these vehicles and rolled them into this ultimate evolution of his dream drift machine.

The ultimate drift machine

Finished just in time to debut at the 2022 World Time Attack challenge, this particular chassis is an original 200SX S15 Spec R. Under the hood lives a fire-breathing 3100cc Toyota 2JZGTE, complete with tough internals like 87mm CP pistons and Nitto rods. The factory port heads retain standard valves, collets, and retainers, but feature Brian Crower valve springs, and upgraded Brian Crower 272 Stage 3 camshafts. The head is bolted down with ARP studs.

Hot gasses spin up a Borg Warner 9180 turbo via a 6 boost manifold, with a Turbosmart 50mm gen V wastegate controlling boost, and a Fenix 100m tube and fin intercooler keeps the charge cool. That’s good for 27psi, which produced approx 900hp and 900-1000ft of tyre frying torque.

It needs that power too because those tyres ain’t small. 18×9.5 up front, and a huge 18×11 at the back. Sitting pretty on gorgeous three-piece Rays wheels. Behind the wheels are Nissan GT-R brakes, with DBA disks and pads.

A Wisefab front lock kit and front control arms are paired with Parts Shop Max rear control arms to ensure Matty gets both the lock and drive needed to perform perfect apexes at the track. The driveline is tough as nails and features an ex-NASCAR Jerico 4-speed dog box and a Sikky Winters 10inch diff. Sikky also provided the hydraulic handbrake, an essential item in any drift car.

Staying in control

When Matty straps himself into the Velo driver’s seat, his eyes are greeted by a Haltech IC-7 dash and the Haltech CAN keypad is just within reach. The keypad is an important item, because it enables Matt to control all the electronic devices in the car via the power management capabilities of the Haltech Nexus R5 VCU.

Tuned by Redsun Motorsport, the R5 is controlling not only the engine but also the variable speed of the Davies Craig water pump, the twin thermofans on the boot-mounted radiator, the staged fuel pumps, and even the wipers, and the indicators. It really is the brains of the whole car.

Matty has a bunch of people he’d like to thank for their support in getting this car competitive, including Sparesbox, Redsun Motorsport, Nulon, Fenix, Golebys Parts, Deltec Batteries, Gearboxmasters, Gourmetbodyworks, and of course Haltech.