SplanK’s Primera - BTCC style + Turbo

SplanKs Nissan Primera 2.0 SRi - The beginning
Well it all started off back in May 2005 when I managed to snap a drive shaft on my old Primera 1.6, I decided not to repair it and was already tempted by the bigger engine version of the Primera. After a few days of looking around, I spotted on the owners club down a member down in Northampton had his Primera SRi for sale. The engine was 2.0 and had a load of engine goodies already done to it to take it from 130bhp (standard SRi power) to around 165bhp. The car was clean in and out and I fell in love with it straight away.



First things first, I transferred my sound system over from the old car, it had only really just gone in and I had not finished playing with it or setting it up. Later in the year at 2 separate events, I managed to get 155db - whaa I was aiming for 150bd but never thought I would hit 155!!



After taking the car to a few shows I started getting bored of the car and wanted to start doing other things to it. In November 2005, I was asked to go down to Santa Pod Raceway with a few mates for a weekend. This got me thinking - how quick can my car go without all of the sound system in. So out it all came and I threw my car up the strip and managed to obtain a 16.5 second quarter mile. I was pleased with the result and the performance of the car and the way it drove changed dramatically. This got me thinking... thinking a lot...



Yes, that was a twin turbo supra I was up against!!

After a lot of thought and careful consideration to my bank balance, in January I decided to do something that nobody had expected me to do, the new project was born...

SplanKs Nissan Primera 2.0 SRi..... BTCC Turbo
Ever since I had my silver Primera, I had always wanted a BTCC Primera replica - the idea back then was to just sticker it up and be done with it. But this project is far more serious and far more involved than just an all show no go car. I want a car that actually goes quick, can be used on track days and to say "I've been there and done that". This is my one chance at getting what I want from the car before I have to really grow up and settle down (hehe yeah right!). At the start there was no real full on plan apart from shear determination and "I'm doing this this and that". The plans were sketchy... 300bhp Turbo engine, larger brakes, new gear box, BTCC decals, roll cage, new wheels and new seats and belts...

January
So first things first, I decided to completely gut the car of all plastic panels, rear seats, rear seat belts, random un-needed bolts, rear speakers, old sound system, carpets... anything that was easy to remove and was not needed was removed!





After the initial shock of removing everything and trying to find a place to hide it in my room I started to play around with a few ideas. The first task was to move the battery into the boot of the car so there would be more room for boost pipes and to aid in a better weight distribution.

After some initial research and looking around, the battery was removed and the tray was also removed. In the rear of the P11 Primera, there are 3 bolts which are there to hold in the CD changer. After drilling out 1 new bolt hole, the tray was firmly fitted to the rear!!





The battery was then put in place and the wiring all connected up. There was no need to run new cables as I had kept the old 2x 4ga cables I had for my old sound system.

February
I had been looking around for some bucket seats for a while for the car, but I had a couple of days off sick (I actually was ill) and did some proper digging. I was almost settled upon the seats that I wanted until I had the sensible idea to try them out first. I took a drive down to Demon Tweaks on one of the days off (just to get out of the house) and they had a load on display - fantastic. I found the one I wanted originally so tried it out... I got stuck hehe. So glad that I didn't just buy them - would have been an expensive mistake. I went around the rest of the seats and sat in all that they were offering and fell in love with the Cobra Imola S seats. £250 per seat (£100 more than the ones that I originally wanted) but they were just so nice I would have been silly not to get them.



The seats are side mount which made it a bit easier and after a bit of measuring up and looking at the original frames - I thought I could easily sort them out myself. So I started on the passenger seat - ripped the old seat off. I found that the OE seats were on little angle brackets which would be suitable. All i needed to do was turn them upside down and re-drill and bolt the seats in. This took some doing and took me about a day to get one seat in.







Then I began to do the drivers seat. Dam - the frame is slightly different as the drivers seat had a base tilt function. Ended up getting another passenger side frame from the scrap yard and drilling the angle supports off that. The drivers seat took about a day and a half to do because of the extra time needed to get the angle frames and to drill some extra components off the drivers side frame.



WOHO they were both in, however they were sitting a little high, my legs were a few mm away from the steering wheel, not ideal at all. I decided to leave them as they were for that point. I had managed to fudge one the passenger side frame bolts so next time they come out, they were not going back in - great! At the moment, I am still using the standard OE seatbelts - but I am planning on 4 point harnesses in the very near future.

This month saw my car flying through its MOT (hehe the guy who tested my car commented on how he got stuck in my seats!) and another trip down to Santa pod where I managed to get my time down to 16.2. Clearly the removable of the carpets and such like made a difference! A video of the drag strip runs can be found on my website.

I had also chosen the BTCC car I want to replica - the 99 Matt Neils Primera P11!

March
Not a great deal done this month because lack of funds - however I had managed to get a fuel pressure dial fitted. Found out that the fuel pressure was running 1bar under from what it should be!



April
I ordered my new wheels this month - Team Dynamic Pro Race 1's. I decided against going for white wheels because they would be a pain to keep clean - so I went for black. I was not sure at first but they defo suite the car...



May
Managed to get around to finding some decent street legal (so I have been advised) 4 point harnesses. I really did not want the buckle type so I was really limited in choice. After a quick nosey around, I ordered some Luke Pro 4 harnesses. These are 4 points, but I can order the extra belt to make them 5 points at a later date if needed! On checking they are E marked so all should be good.





I also managed to get the seats properly mounted at the end of this month. A full day was needed to get them properly fitted... First of all the seats had to be removed from the car - not an easy task. Remember that bolt I was talking about that I managed to fudge... well it was well and truly stuck so I thought I would give it a bit of force *SNAP* the sodding weld holding the nut on behind the frame had snapped. I spend the next 30 minutes using a junior hack saw cutting the head of the bolt so I could remove it from the car.

The frames were out of the car and we could see what we were dealing with. The plan was to remove the slider mechanism from the runners and then weld 2 rather thick pieces of angle iron between the remaining part of the frames, and then weld the seats directly to those.

When I had removed the slider mechanism from the seat - it also left me without anywhere to attach one of my seat belt mounts.   Thankfully supplied with the seat belts were mounting fixtures. a hole was drilled out on one of the angle iron runs and the fixing,





Driving the car feels so much better - I am about 1-2" lower down now and combined with the belts makes me feel a heck of a lot more attached to the car!

June
JAE (Japanese car show) is just around the corner and there isn't a great deal done to the car to make it stand out. Now I know I said that the body work was shelved until the end of the project, but this I though could not wait any longer. I emailed a company called Splat Graphix in the hope that I could replicate Matt Neils 99' Primera. I was shocked when I had a reply off the guy saying he could replicate it almost 100% - but something's he just could not get hold off..

I went a total of 3 times, first time was to measure up and confirm the vinyl that i wanted and then the last 2 times was to put the stickers on. It took the guy a long time but I am VERY pleased with the results... and now my car gets a lot of attention!







July
Not a great deal to update on apart from I now have my hands on a LSD insert for my gear box and JAE.

August/September plan
Hopefully over these months I will be able to buy my front brake upgrade. I am looking for either 305 or 325mm discs and 4 pot callipers. Currently looking at Brembo or Hispec callipers.

Current spec:
Nissan Primera 2.0 SRi 1999
132bhp @ wheels
Custom cold air intake with K&N air filter
Nissan Primera GT Exhaust cam
Hotshots 4 - 2 - 1 exhaist manifold
Apexi 2.25" custom exhaust system + Decat
Nissan Primera GT 280mm front discs
Team Dynamic Pro Race 1 17" wheels
Matt Neils 99 Primera BTCC car based vinyl's
Primera GT front and rear bumper
Made to fit side skirts (unknown orogin)
Stripped Interior
Cobra Imola S bucket seats
Luck Pro4 4 point harnesses

Future Spec/Remaining:
Nissan Pulsar GTiR engine - 300bhp (@ fly)
305 or 325mm Brembo or Hispec front brakes
Custom made drive shafts
Re-con P11 gear box with LSD insert fitted
GReddy Emanage Ultimate fuel computer with Primera GT ECU
Coil over suspension
BTCC Style rear wing
Replica BTCC front bumper splitter
Roll Cage

Future updates, more pictures and plans information regarding modifications can be found on http://www.splanksprimera.co.uk

Edited by SplanK

Looks good mate. I was looking at Matt Neil's car and its not a million mile away from it. Now get that GTiR engine in....