Street Machine Smyrnatus is a hotbed of wild engine swaps, and this year’s crop featured Ivan Turkovic’s 1978 Datsun 1200 ute and his twin-turbo V10 Dodge Viper engine swap.
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The Smyrnatus 35 was the first public outing for the little Ditto ute, a car Ivan had built himself over the past five years. “People have done LS and all that in these cars before, and I was a little bit over it,” Evan says. “I wanted to do something different, and then when this engine popped up I knew exactly what I wanted to make.”
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Naturally, fitting a V10 into a small Dato with a four-pot exhaust was no easy feat, and the pictures tell most of the story. Ivan moved the entire firewall back, while also creating a new transtunnel according to the red case ‘glide’. “The car is now a three-quarter tube chassis, I’m a big guy, so it was the easiest way to fit everything – including myself – into a small body shell.”
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As if the grunt of a V10 wasn’t enough, Ivan replaced the 1200’s headlights with a pair of GTX42 turbos to keep the big V10 honest. “I planned to go turbo with the V10 from the start, it makes it even more unique,” he says. The combo using the Fueltech ECU and methanol fuel made a slow 600rwhp at 5psi during run-in tuning before the ‘Nats, but Ivan is shooting much higher. “We will also do an E85 tune, but the goal is to get 1000rwhp out of it very soon.”
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The engine itself is still completely standard, but Evan believes it will be fine for now. “It only had 2000km when I got it, and being a 2002 engine it’s got all the forged internals so they’re already bloody strong from the factory,” he says.
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Completing the driveline is a full-floater nine-inch diff, which sits beneath Ivan’s custom-made bed floor. The tubs make room for 15×10 Street Pro wheels, which wear 28×12.5 ET Street R radials. You’ll also note the nitrous bottle sitting proudly in the center, which currently delivers 100 shots to help the twin turbos boost nice and early.
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Everything except the wiring, tuning and roll cage was impressively done by Ivan, the first two maintained by Warhorse Motorsports. He says he started building cars at a young age before getting into the construction industry, and wanted to do what he loved with the car. This is the final result. “My wife was a huge support and actually encouraged me to do it, and building it was a really enjoyable experience,” he says.
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At Smyrnatus Ivan took the Datsun for only a few cruise laps, mainly because he spent most of the time talking to the punters about his crazy machine. “By Friday I almost lost my voice because people kept coming up and talking to me about it, they really loved it,” he says.
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Ivan says he’ll break into the 1200 early this year with some roll racing to make sure the chassis is right, and then start looking for a seven-second time slip. “I’ve seen other Datsuns like this do sevens before, so that’s the ultimate goal right now and I’ve built the whole car to be that fast at the start,” he says.
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We’ll be keeping a close eye on Ivan’s progress with the 1200, and he’s confirmed with us that he plans to repaint the car in white for those unhappy with the black parts currently on the tub. Is.