With a variety of highly-tuned, roadcar-based machines pushed to the extreme, World Time Attack Challenge offers a spectacle that is somewhat rare in racing these days: showing just how far one could, theoretically, tune a road car. No wonder then that it’s such a crowd-pleaser. However, only pros can expect to find the potential of these home-brewed rocket ships.

Nobuteru Taniguchi is one of the well-known hired guns, along with V8 Supercar stars like Bamber and Slade, brought in to take some frighteningly quick machinery to the limit and, on occasion, beyond it. Though Taniguchi, being a Silvia fanatic, must be driving this beast largely for pleasure, he has to be serious. With some considerable money on the line, time attack down under is hyper-competitive.

Taniguchi’s smooth style comes in handy when harnessing the hit of the huge single turbo.

The Sutton Brothers S15 is all-business, despite being built by two ambitious brothers in a shed outside of Sydney. It sports an elaborate aero kit reminiscent of the GT300 Silvias Taniguchi drove alongside in JGTC, yet the car seen here makes more power than the touring car ever did, with a stroked, SR20DET mated to a Precision 6466 turbo making 730 horsepower on 34 pounds of boost. Of course, some of that thrust is capped to ensure decent traction – but even dialed down to 575 ponies in race trim, the featherweight S15 is capable of astonishing speed.

Much of that straightline speed comes from the response offered by the Hypertune plenum and the JUN 2.2-liter stroker kit, and the seamless power delivery from the Holinger sequential gearbox. With every pump of the gear lever, Taniguchi keeps the monstrous Nissan firing in the right direction.

Nismo N2 heads and a Hypertune plenum help get the necessary airflow to bring the big snail up to speed quickly.

Aragosta coilovers, Ikeya Formula arms and SARD swaybars complete the footwork, so the Nissan should be expected to handle well, but that’s only part of the equation. Time attack is all about top speed and big numbers, so a Nismo LSD helps put that incredible power down. What the dominant “>MCA Hammerhead seems to use to its advantage is selective boost pressure depending on the gear and throttle position to make a more manageable power delivery. By contrast, the Sutton Brothers’ engine might comes on too strong, as evidenced by the regular wheelspin. Taniguchi is probably the smoothest driver in the Best Motoring series, so it’s fair to say it’s the car, not the driver.

A massive Voltex wing and diffuser keep it planted at speed, but finding low-speed traction is still tough.

Though it lacks the refined power delivery and incredible traction of the MCA Silvia, it still manages to put the power down effectively, though the wheelspin is still a bit too much to keep it running at the sharp end of the pack. Seeing as this car is the brainchild of two ambitious youngsters and their father, it’s achieved a hell of a lot.