top of page

Updated: Oct 11, 2021

We have had a few very special GTR days of late as well as expanding our line of carbon fibre parts specifically for the MY17 and upwards, for the last couple of yeras we have been as for the latest GT3 style street front and rear bumpers upgrades, but that’s for another day, as the GTR that has given us the thrills over that last couple of weeks is the Purple beauty we built back in 2014, its returned and to say we are excited is a bit of an understatement.


We really should dislike this GTR immensely, as when the car was constructed its caused various in-house business related management issues, of which we will blog abaout at some point over the coming months, but as they say something good comes out of something bad and for us this car is proof of that is fact as this is one GTR we have a huge softspot for and who can blame us ... just look at it.

 
 

When the car was sold back in 2014 it headed down to Dorsett and pretty much went off the radar for a few years, it did resurface in 2018 when owner Steve got in touch looking for some modifications he was considering, as well as wanting recomendations for a paint specialist, with Lee from LA paintworks in Milton Keynes our firm recomendation for that bit of love and affection, it also gave us the chance to meet up with Steve to dicuss the modifications he was considering, which unfortuantly never materialised.


A few months later we were very surprised to see the car advertised for sale at The Motoring Team, but it was good seeing the purple beauty back on our daily media feeds, with the TMT tagging us on every post they did and looking just as good as the day it was built thanks to the guys at LA Paint and it and it wasn’t long before the car was sold with the potential owner reaching out asking us all about the GTR, we're happy to report two weeks later Matt Straughan purchased the GTR and is now the proud new owner and we couldn’t be happier, at last the car now has an owner who will get the car out and about, its one very unique GTR and one that deserves the limelight.

We don’t think Matt had the car a week and he hit Knight Racer, with Albert Wong caressing the power adding their in-house KR650 tune, so it now has the power to match those astonishingly good looks, all kept under control with the Meister coilover suspension, we have a feeling this power upgrade is merely the starting point, with more to come in the future.

 
 

So what is in store for this Carbon fibre wide body beauty, well to be honest it really doesn’t need much enhancing, the colour and the look of the car is absolutly perfect, the wheels are as new as the GTR sits on our light weight 3 piece forged VAD CR Evo in size 12x21 front and 13x21 rear, wrapped in 345/25R21 rubber , although there will be a few tasteful carbon fibre upgrades in the future including a rear wing at some point, we feel thats all the car needs, but as you can see from the stunning photoshoot done by LP Media this car just oozes attention, Lucian showing his incredible lens skills capturing some of the best photos we have seen of this wide body GTR and the good thing is he is a man for hire, find his details at the bottom of this post and tell him the guys at VAD sent you.


The most satisfying part of building a car is seeing it completed and out in the public eye, being in the hands of a petrol head is a bonus, Matt is active within the car scene and will use the car as it should be used, car shows, cruises, photoshoots, as a car like this needs to be seen up close and personal and we are just ecstatic that a guy like Matt has ended up with one of our builds.


Lets hope 2021 we have plenty of car shows to make up for the 2020 right off, so we can once again drool over this rather epic machine, well done Matt and welcome to the VAD family.


Follow the guys and LP Media and Matt on his GTR travels




We have built and collaborated with some pretty epic GTR’s over the last few years with our close friend Jan and his VAD CarbonZilla a real favorite, but this GTR also holds a very special place in our heart, as it was the very first GTR to wear our GT3 wide body aero pack for the street, we also connected with the owner at the time Bryce Jenkins and we are still good friends to this day.


For reasons we will not get in to, it never really got the exposure we were hoping for, even after the incredible photo and video shoot Brandon did from Woyshnis Media it still never quite hit the sweet spot, that was possibly due to the fact that as soon as the car was finished Bryce got stationed over in Afghanistan, so he never got the chance to enjoy or promote his GTR GT3 creation as he was away for the best part of 12 months, so it lost an incredible amount of exposure in that time period, but whilst Bryce was away it was put in the hands of Destin from Dapper Dips who transformed the car from white to the incredibly stunning Black rose metallic the GTR is current caressed with, and from what Destin has told us Pictures do not do the paint colour or finish any justice.

 
 

Destin finished the car the back end of 2018 and by the time Bryce had returned home the GTR was sold, it resurfaced again briefly when Dylan owned the car, but it had very little if any social media presence or exposure, although Dylan did link up with Mark Vecellio on a photoshoot that produced some pretty amazing pictures, but unfortunately this beautiful GTR just hasn’t been seen since its completion ...well that was until Edward Andrade got his hands on it, and to say this guy is on it is an understatement.


Over the last few months since it’s been in Edwards hands the car has had a lot more exposure and we have the feeling it only going to get better as Edward puts his own mark on this GTR and we must say it’s great to see the car on our media feeds which seems to be on a daily basis and after taking to Edward he is already looking at upgrading certain areas of the car, with the first upgrade looking like it will be in the form of a rear wing set up, a set up like what Bryce wanted but unfortunately never got around to it and it desperately needs one.

Over the last week we have seen some pretty epic photos of Edward’s beauty filtering through our Instagram feed and with some investigation we found the extremely silky lens skills belonged to Kevin from Luxecapture, who wasted no time in sharing his amazing work.


 

Now we have seen some pretty good photography over the years so it takes something very special to get our attention and Luxecapture did exactly that, with some incredible pictures from all the angles that capture every part that has been fitted to the car and that’s the reason we like this images so much, Kevin has shot the car but the parts pop, for example the rear diffuser and the end I have never really seen on any other picture taken of this car, but with Kevin’s photography you notice those parts and it’s all those little details that create the perfect picture, his collection of photos of the Ichiban GT3 are the best we have seen to date, they are simply breathtaking.


With the rear wing decided on it would be fantastic to see the vented GT3 Vented hood on the up and coming modifications as this is another detail that would complete the ultimate street GT3 GTR, along with the double canard set up that is no longer on the front end, all being well they should find their way back onto the car for that ultimate race car look.


Keep putting in the work Edward, as we are certainly happy to have you onboard in the VAD family and if the final pieces of the GT3 conversion make their way onto the build, we hope Luxecapture is on hand.


GTR Owner @drean_zilla // Photographer @luxecapture web: https://luxecapture.wixsite.com/automotive



Updated: Jan 29, 2021

This GTR build has been in the planning stages for quite a while, with March 2020 pencilled in for completion and getting the kit packed up and shipped, but 2020 has pretty much been written off for most forms of motorsport, so the chance to get to see the guys at Concepts Garage put this build together for the time attack has unfortunately been put off until 2021 season which is a shame as this was a build that really got us excited, with every part ordered this is going to be a pretty special GTR.


There is no doubting that the GT3 race version of the GTR is the pinnacle look for the GTR, every aftermarket wide body GTR pretty much takes the styling cues from the GT3, you only have to look at the latest Liberty walk creation to see they have borrowed heavily from the GT500 look, which is a very aggressive style, which you’re either going to like or loath … for us the GT3 style will always be at the very top of the styling tree.


So what carbon parts do we have heading down under to the boys at Concept Garage, lets look at what is included in the track pack as the parts list is extensive and consists of:

 
 

Front bumper, front bumper canards, front splitter (complete front floor) front vented fenders, side skirts, rear quarter panels, rear bumpers (lights) rear bumper lower (exhaust) rear diffuser with strakes, rear boot lid, rear wing assembly, carbon replacement roof, front vented bonnet, super lightweight carbon doors.


The parts will be crated up and shipped out next week for the five-week journey across the sea to Sydney as there is no huge rush to get this build started … that’s to the pandemic they have all the time they need to make this GTR race ready for the 2021-time attack weekend.


A special thank you and shout out to our good friend Michael Zomaya from the Lowdown, as without him this would not be happening, appreciate your support as always, we will bring you more on this build as it happens at concept garage, we just have to try and contain the excitement.


 
  • VAD Facebook
  • VAD Twitter
  • VAD YouTube
  • VAD Instagram
  Website Design By VAD
  part of the Vad International Group
GT3RR-BMW-Z4-GT3_edited.png
Office Hours

Monday to Friday 9.00 am > 5.30 pm
Saturday                9.00 am > 1.00 pm
Sunday                   Closed

Unit 5
James Road
Tyseley
Birmingham
B11 2BA
Art...Some people collect it, We like to build it
bottom of page