Walter’s Sentra: Lifetime Obsession

A lifelong Nissan fan and a crew member for an old NASA team running an SE-R, Walter seemed destined to pick up this particular Sentra. His family had brought him up on Zs and Maximas, so when Walter turned 16, he bought his first car, a 1991 Sentra.

That sowed the seed for the next several years. Inspired by Need for Speed, he started tuning his Sentra and soon became a knowledgeable voice in the community as well as an in-demand mechanic. His reputation opened the door to crewing positions for several big teams running in NASA’s SE-R Cup series back in the early 2000s — some of which even ran in the 25 Hours of Thunderhill.

In 2003, Walter stepped away from cars to focus on family. That break lasted for fifteen years. After that long interim, he picked up an E46 M3 and started driving himself. As good as the BMW was on the track, the love for the old Sentra, now mixed with his recent racing experiences, led him to consider building a special Sentra for racing. However, he couldn’t spare the time he once could, and so he hoped something half or wholly-built would pop up in the classifieds.

When an old friend reached out to Walter with news of a special car for sale, he felt like his stars had aligned. Not only was this particular Sentra built by MotoIQ’s Mike Kojima, but it had been the brother of a car Walter was familiar with — one which had been raced in SE-R Cup back in the day.

That particular car from his crewing days was named “Dog I.” This was “Dog II,” the sister car. The two had been given their monikers from their Petco sponsorship; they had pawprints plastered all over them during their racing days. The latter wasn’t used much in Spec SE-R, but it had seen some action in the Pacific Tuner Championship ten years ago. Since then, it’d been stored and taken out for the annual track outing. The price was right, the build quality was obvious, and the decision was easy. Walter drove his truck and trailer down to LA that weekend and began a new relationship that joined his past with his future.

Like its sibling, Dog II is built upon a body-in-white build with all the right parts. The motor, a 2.1-liter SR20VE with 11:1 compression, produces 200 horsepower and 170 lb-ft of torque on a 50-50 blend of 91 and 100 octane fuel. It’s a peaky motor, but with only 2,600 pounds to push along, it makes do.

An oversized Koyo rad is part of the beefy cooling system that helped Kojima run the car comfortably in desert heat.

Handling comes courtesy of a square set of 235/40R17 NT01s wrapping Volk TE37 wheels and an intricate cage connecting all four shock towers. Ground Control coilovers, plenty of front camber, and a bump steer kit help the car follow every minor steering input. The final touch, a little bit of rear axle bending to toe the rears out slightly, contributes to the Sentra’s immediate turn-in — the kind that is vital in a front-drive sedan. “Super oversteery” were the words Walter chose to describe its balance.

The car was just about perfect. Aside from updating the safety equipment, Walter felt it needed nothing. That was until he drove it on track for the first time and struggled with the peakiness of the motor. Despite the SR20VE’s variable valve lift, it isn’t quite as tractable as he wanted. So when picking out a new Nismo LSD, he specified a 4.75 final drive to keep the engine in its sweet spot more of the time. And like that, he was done with modifying it.

The problem with a car like this, even a relatively simple car that’s nearly completed, is that it requires a trained race shop to maintain it. He leaves it to Tarek at All Automotive in Mountain View. “They have the suspension geometry expertise and motorsports experience needed to direct the continuing development of the vehicle as well as continue the maintenance needed after every season,” Walter adds.

Now that the Sentra’s up to date and running reliably, he hopes to put in as many track days as he can. It hardly uses its brakes; the Wilwood four-pistons and 11.75” rotors are understressed. For how fast it is, it’s remarkably easy on consumables. It’s still on the same set of tires the car came with, too.

He played a supporting role for many years, but once the ball was rolling and he was able to sit himself in the seat, things have gotten steadily better. His racing education helped him make the right decision when it came to buying a purpose-built car — one which has given him the opportunity to put in his 10,000 laps without having to regularly wrench on the car. The fact that he’s finally getting to hone his driving skills on track in such relaxed fashion is sweet, but it’s not quite as sweet as being able to simultaneously revisit his tuning heyday and witness his racing future expand.

Near-Win at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill: Team Tazio Ottis Racing's Day-Long Battle

Four days before Friday’s Final Practice, Team Tazio Ottis Racing was treated to a reassuring practice at Sonoma Raceway with Speed SF Track Events. It had been the cherry on the sundae after a successful season in WERC E0.

The second year of competition had given Tazio and his team to sort out their FK8 Civic Type R. Their transmission, the FK8’s weak link, had been fortified with stronger third and fourth gears, which has served them well the whole season.

Concerned for the health of the drivetrain, they decided to cap the power at a healthy and reliable 300 horsepower and seek out more speed by reducing the total wet weight to 2,850 pounds with Seibon carbon parts and a titanium Remark exhaust. Along with that car, they had a team of four strong drivers: Tazio Ottis and Daniel Wu, the team’s regulars, aided by Patrick Chio (Speed SF) and Will Wattawongkiri (WRTeknica) for the 25.

Unfortunately, they seemed to have snagged a bad part. During final practice for the 25, third gear blew. After a successful season without gearbox issues, it came as a surprise.

The team was stretched thin hustling to repair the box with a used third gear—one with eighty race hours on it. The effort took them until 11:30 that night, and the delay had kept them from attending qualifying and relegated them to the last position on the grid. Thankfully, they had a long race ahead of them.

Rolling around to take the green flag in last, Will Wattawongkiri was feeling the weight on his shoulders. All of a sudden, the car wouldn’t move. It turned out the driveshaft wasn’t seated properly, so it came out and they brought the car back in the pits and lost six laps. Clearly they weren’t off the start that they wanted.

There was something to lift their spirits, though: the speed was there. Compared to their main rivals on the DIG Motorsport team, their pace was comparable and so their fuel economy was superior. Perhaps the Mustang’s dry performance was better, but things didn’t stay dry long enough for them to benefit much.

The weather was tricky; starting wet, staying wet, and eventually drying slowly, but the Honda was well suited to these conditions. An OS Giken differential and the added weight over the driven wheels helped when the track was slippery. All this was more impressive by the fact that the hasty gearbox repair kept them from getting a good alignment. As a result, they had to swap the fronts out every two hours.

With a prediction of thirty percent rain a little before midnight, they opted for their grooved Toyo RRs—their dry tires. “The difference in lap times was as much as twenty-three seconds, but it was a little risky to go to dries. The dry line was obvious, but it was extremely cold and wet off-line. Passing off the dry line would result in a massive loss of traction, so we had to pick their passes especially carefully,” Patrick said.

Thankfully, they gambled intelligently. In the slippery conditions, the Civic enjoyed a real advantage over the DIG Mustang, which struggled to put the power down. Additionally, the team’s overall pace—very similar across all four drivers— was not limited by the equipment. “We never had to soft pedal the whole race—we all pushed really hard,” Tazio noted.

TTOR were clawing their way back to the front of their race when the fuel started dropping to a worrying level and the fog rolled across the surface. When the fog was deemed thick enough to warrant postponing the race, they had to park the car on the front straight and leave it alone until the race resumed.

“We were catching up lap by lap until three in the morning when the fog rolled in. We were only two laps down when the race was stopped,” Patrick said.

Around 7 AM, the conditions were deemed acceptable for a restart. The team gathered around their new car and stuck Patrick Chio in the seat.

Their Type R had parked on the right side of the track and DIG’s Mustang had parked on the left. A prototype ahead stalled at the restart and boxed the left lane, though that hadn’t stopped the NASA marshall from continuing to wave the right line to move, resulting in a reshuffling of the grid that didn’t sit too well with the DIG team. However, the Civic needed to refuel and had to pit as soon as the green flag dropped. (Note: During a full course yellow condition, the pit lane is closed, prohibiting any team to do any work on their vehicles).

Around that time, DIG lodged a protest about passing during the restart, which Tazio and the team chose to debate initially, but did not persist in fighting the call. They accepted the compromise presented to them: a half-penalty drive through, which they served an hour afterwards.

Thankfully, they could make up for this minor setback. The similar pace among the TTOR drivers meant none of them had to double-stint. To improve matters, they could lap fast enough to push DIG’s fastest driver into running a triple stint and driving quite defensively. The Type R was catching up lap after lap and finally when, with Will Wattawongkiri at the wheel, they eventually passed the DIG Mustang in the twenty-third hour; giving them the class lead and a ninth-place-overall standing.

The actual action in some endurance races only lasts a dozen laps, but that was not the case here. Tazio enjoyed a multi-lap battle with DIG’s Michael Whelden. “Michael was making his car very wide and I was trying to get in his head by flashing my high beams. Honestly, that whole stint felt like a sprint race!”

Roughly one hundred minutes from the end, TTOR made their final pit stop. While stuck in the pits, the DIG Mustang regained the lead of E0, though they hadn’t yet pitted for refuel and we were aiming to repass them and lead the race til the end. They planned to pass; pace was still very strong—until third and fourth gear broke . They had to back off, using fifth in most places, minding the car, and watching their delta grow and grow.

Fifty minutes from the finish, they had to make a decision. “We could have continued running in fifth gear, but the transmission was making a lot of noise. We wanted to avoid blowing up the gearbox and leaving oil all over the track, so we decided to retire the car,” Patrick explained.

“It just made sense. Plus, we wouldn’t have been able to make up the deficit. It was the right thing to do at that point,” Tazio added.

“While we spent many hours in preparation for the race, picked great endurance components, hired a lineup of strong drivers, our team executed perfect pit stops, the 25 was not guaranteed—it never is. The mechanical failures during the last hour made our hearts sink, and we still feel the pain of losing—we were so close to crossing the finish line in first place,” Patrick reflected.

“We couldn’t have done it without our excellent crew and our sponsors. We’ve learned a lot about the car and the competition, and we’ll come back stronger next year.”

Thanks to all who supported TTOR:

Aventon E-Bikes

Honda Performance Development

Toyo Tires

Greddy

Seibon

Inozetek

Titan 7 wheels

Paragon Performance Brakes

Clutch Masters

Hybrid Racing

PTP Turbo Blankets

OS Giken

APR Performance

Remark Exhaust

Student Driver

Speed SF

WRTeknica