Over in England in a place called Southend, a company called SB Motorsport is hatching one of the world’s craziest trucks. But first, we should talk about the drift machine that SBM currently fields with 1,200 horsepower (1,217 PS) on tap.
Press play and watch the first few seconds of the video at the end of the story. That’s not the twin-turbo V6 of the R35 GT-R as we know it, but a Chevy motor. Godzilla purists will also notice that the car – nicknamed #LSXR35 thanks to the 7.4-liter monster under the hood - is rear-wheel-drive instead of all-paw drive.
To make a long story short, the 2010 Nissan GT-R had its original engine, dual-clutch transmission, and many more bits and bobs replaced in order to create LSX R35. And as you may have guessed by now, those parts are going into a Navara truck.
Over 1,000 horsepower (1,014 PS) is the output that SB Motorsport is targeting for the Navara-R as founder Stephen “Baggsy” Biagioni calls it. As part of this engine swap, SBM intends to “maintain as much of a factory finish interior as possible.”
The Navara-R won’t stop there, though. In addition to the heavily-tuned V6, in will go the dual-clutch transmission, the AWD system from the GT-R (!!!), and plenty of suspension and chassis upgrades. Of course, the front and rear subframes will be modified as well because engine swaps aren’t as simple as dropping the engine in.
“This project has always been on the cards for SB Motorsport, ever since our initial GT-R project,” said Baggsy. “With this build, the aim is to keep the Navara road-legal, all the mod-cons of the vehicle, rather than creating a race-car chassis with minimal extras.” And as you can tell from the photo gallery, work is already underway.
SB Motorsport intends to keep us updated on the build with a series of videos on Baggsy’s channel, and the first upload is coming on June 10th. After that, look forward to videos every 2nd Wednesday of the month over the summer.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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