The lifted reverberations from a Nissan Sentra’s SR20 motor is something Cape Town racers are accustomed to, as the Japanese power plant is a favoured choice for those wanting to race or perform an engine swap.
But across the country, in the Capital City of Tshwane, Lucky Tladi, a police officer with a passion for the cult-classic Nissan Sentra VVL, has accomplished an incredible feat, after his drag spec car went down the quarter mile in a time of 11.3 seconds @191km/h with a 1.6 second 60 foot time.
What makes it even more special, is the fact that the car remains naturally aspirated, the way most racers prefer it to remain – screaming down the 400.
Tladi, 38, together with brothers Nathaniel and Brandon Murray from Murbros, also from Pretoria, entered Race Art’s Forward Wheel Drive Shootout (FWD Shootout) at Dezzi Raceway on August 10.
With a typical KwaZulu-Natal winter sun warming up the track, traction was promising for those looking to earn bragging rights as some of the fastest FWD cars from across the country, including the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were all ready for war.
While parked in line for inspection, Murbros gave Auto Rush a short tour of the all-motor VVL, which is clearly gutted to the core, braced and looked ready to lay down some rubber.
But before the Sentra lost its guts, it was Tladi’s dream, and the first car he ever bought as a young man starting out life.
The VVL bug caught a hold of Tladi and never let go after his cousin took him for a spin in his car in the 1990’s.
“I was still in high school back then but can still remember it clearly. It was my cousin that bought a Sentra back in the 90’s. I went for a ride and fell in love.
“Years later, when I started working, I saved up R30,000 and bought my first car. It was a Nissan Sentra 200 GXI Sabre with the SR20 motor. I was around 20-years-old at the time so you can imagine how it was,” Tladi said.
“The Sentra VVL is not such a popular car here in Pretoria and at the time, I was one of the frist few people to have it and race it.”
As for DVD – GP, the current Sentra race car, Tladi acquired it in 2014 as a fully licensed street car. It was purchased from a friend who initially asked him for help with a VVL conversion. Tladi’s friend had sold the Sentra to him after the conversion was complete.
He drove it on the streets for around four years until 2018, when he entered the track racing scene for the first time. By 2019, his passion for the track deepened and decided to go all in.
Tladi’s success with the Sentra VVL extended after he started working with the Murray brothers, in 2017, a relationship that has grown into a brotherhood, to the point where they attend functions and parties together.
“By around late 2019 to 2020 we got more serious about track racing. All of the work on the car, engine building and even parts of the fabrication were done by Murbros. Tenny’ builds and maintains the car.
“To be honest, it’s no longer a friendship between us because it’s like we’re together all the time now. It’s grown to more of a brotherhood. We work on the car after hours together because during the day they work on customer cars,” Tladi said.,.
At the front end of DVD-GP aka “The Pain”, sits a SR20 motor with a flowed head and cams. Murbros fitted in a set of 86mm pistons which come out of a SR16 motor, just to up the compression further in the n/a screamer.
The cam dialling was done by Janus from JT Race Engines while Per4mance Tuning handles the car when it’s running on coast while Grey from Sustech tunes when it’s running inland.
The Sentra a stock 86mm bore and stock SR20 crank. Air is sucked in through a custom made induction kit while power is delivered to the front tyres via a SR20 gearbox with a 4.7 final drive.
The Sentra runs a 421 branch with a shortened exhaust, also manufactured in-house by Murbros.
The roll-cage was also done by Murbros while all but the front windshield was swapped out for plexiglass.
The set up is strung together by a Sustech engine management system.
“This was a budget build which we really just tried to take from stock to high compression and I think we did quite well considering the results at Dezzi. It felt good after we got the results because I had a lot of Sentra’s and it was a dream of mine to go lower than 11.5 seconds.
“When I was coming up, there was a guy named MW Derekson who drove a Sentra that went 11.5. It was named Veldskoen and I always remembered that car. It has been an inspiration for me and motivated me to go fast in a Sentra.
“All of that hard work was worth it,” Tladi explained.
Now that they know that DVD-GP is capable of running the quartermile in the low 11-second bracket, Tladi and Murbros want to push it even further on the current set-up and see if they can’t achieve a 11.1 or 11.2 second pass.
“Hey, I mean even a 10 would be nice,” he said joking.
But Tladi and Murbros plan to build a serious Sentra when they’re done pushing DVD to the limit.
“This was a budget build and I think we really pushed it. When we retire this, we are going to build a proper race engine and do some serious things,” Tladi added.
Jehran Naidoo/Auto Rush
