In this edition of Project 200 things started to get moving...

Working for an automotive magazine or DVD and using your car as a project has its advantages and disadvantages. I’ve experienced my fair share of both. Towards the end of 2005 I was offered a free intercooler and radiator kit that I was guaranteed to make more power and increase response. Well, in short, it didn’t. I lost power, it had massive heat-soak problems causing the car to loose 50hp after 3 dyno runs. Well, once I discovered this, lets just say the manufacturer of the kit didn’t agree with me. It wasn’t pleasant at the time but it ended up with the kit not in my car and the results never published.

Autobarn Capalaba and Link International, distributers of Motul and Nismo Performance Parts, were already sponsors of the car and were happy to continue their support as the car became Ignition DVDs first project car. In December 2005 I met Carlos from Millennium Motorsports and began a 18-month working relationship with them. Our first product test together was a set of HKS Step-1 camshafts. All I’m going to say is, don’t bother. Then, my car’s first major problem. It started to blow smoke and foul up the plugs with oil until it barely ran. IT was showing signs of a broken piston but the leak-down and compression check showed it wasn’t. Well I was going to have to do it eventually, so I pulled the engine out and the guys at Millennium Motorsports started stage-2 of JET200.

While the engine was being built I got some other things done. A Safety-21 6-point bolt-in roll cage was bought and installed as well as R32 GTR seats, carbon boot-lid and some new suspension parts. This is also when I picked up the JET200 numberplates.

CP Pistons, Eagle rods, ACL Bearings, Ross Balancer and Trust Sump took care of the bottom end. HKS Step-2 camshafts, GREX valve springs and head gasket took care of the head. Millennium Motorsports fabricated the custom plenum, fuel rail and surge tank while I burnt the midnight oil for 4 weeks helping fabricate the intercooler and radiator piping, catch tank, header tank and various brackets. In the end the engine bay looked a million bucks. The Haltech E11v2 and digital dash was then installed before the car was started up for the first time in August 2006. It turned key at 3am Saturday night so we came back Monday to bed the rings in on the dyno. After an oil change and a 7000rpm limited tune I got to drive the car for the first time on Wednesday night but only down the street as the car wasn’t yet registered. The car was then engineered and given a mod-plate before being registered in Qld with it’s new plates so it could be taken for it’s first real drive on Thursday night. As I was flying back to Sydney the next day at 7am I figured I had about 7 hours to run in the engine. By the time I went to sleep at 4am I had done over 700km on the engine. Mission accomplished.

On my next trip to Queensland tuning began. On pump fuel 290rwkW became the invisible barrier for JET200 but on race fuel it would crank out over 350rwkW. A shot of nitrous briefly saw over 370rwkW but the giggle gas was never used again. Before taking the car home to Sydney I teamed up with Fulcrum Suspension and installed some Tein Super Street coilovers with EDFC and some Tein castor rods. I finally had coilovers in the car and damn they worked good. Perfect coilover for street and a high powered car with JET200 able to put down all of its power in every gear, proving that coilovers are usually too stiff. The car was then taken down to Sydney where the RB25 gearbox and NPC twin plate clutch were installed to help put the power to the ground.

I then took the car back up to Queensland for the Lexmark Indy 300 and decided to install some new camshafts as the HKS 272 Step-2s appeared to be too top-end biased. I installed some 264 GReddy Step-2 camshafts which did little to fix the cars lag and small power-band. It was time to look elsewhere to help driveability but not yet. The car then headed to the 2006 Autosalon Final Battle where, on race fuel, it took out the 4-cylidner category of the dyno comp. With the car going good and the drivetrain and suspension sorted it was time to turn my attention to the cars exterior and begin stage-3 of JET200.

The 4 stages of the JET-200 Development

To date, there are 4 stages of modification galleries.
Click the gallery name that you wish to view.

You are currently in the Stage 2 gallery.

> Stage 1
> Stage 2
> Stage 3
> Stage 4

Jet 200 as you knew it... get ready for the next evolution.

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