Pictures featured by Shahiem Bell
You would have heard the name Jonathan Schaffers or, as he is known on the pitch, “Johnny 2J”, due to the positive spin he has helped put on Spin through the NPO Supporting People In Need (SPIN).
Today we look at the cars that helped him make his name, and they are all Nissans, his brand of choice.
Bobby Nitro spoke to Johnny about his involvement in the Cape car scene after seeing this lekker shoot from lensman Shahiem Bell.
He says: “After having to leave school at an early age when my father passed, I spent a lot of time with my grandfather in his garage where he did mechanical work. This is where I acquired most of my knowledge with anything car related.
“Since then, I’ve been working on cars, buying and building them up to enjoy. As a young man, I was doing what young men do with cars – racing, spinning and everything else.
Johnny is probably best known for his blitsvinnig red Skyline, with its Nissan VK45, turbo-charged V8 motor. It’s a beast at Saldanha Bay top-end drags.
Johnny says: “The Skyline was always a crowd favourite as it made good power figures, and was one of the exciting cars to watch down that airstrip.
He explains that his choice is to stay with the old-school cars but to add a touch of new technology, saying: “It’s just so much more fun for me, the challenge to beat the newer cars in these Skylines.”
All three cars in the pictures are 1987 Nissan Skylines. The blue one has stock Nissan RB25 details for his son, Ricardo. The grey car has a Nissan L28 from the old Skyline 2.8l GTX, and it has an added turbocharger. The red one has a Nissan VK45, V8 motor, also turbocharged.
Ricardo says: “I grew up loving cars because of my daddy. For as long as I know, if we could eat Nissan Skylines for supper, we probably would have. I can definitely appreciate other brands, but I’m definitely a Nissan fan, like the rest of my family. We blame my dad though!”
Bobby had to ask Johnny what he considers the essential Skyline mods to be.
He says: “I choose to keep it quite simple and affordable, hence the grey Skyline.
“It was the very reason for it's existence, especially with the way the racing genre is going, which has become all about buying an imported engine and just dropping it in. That route is just not challenging enough for me anymore. I specifically built the grey car to show enthusiasts that the old school way is definitely still relevant.”
Johnny sends a shoutout to the business owners who became close friends, having put so much passion into his vehicles.
He says: “Appreciation goes to Nawawie Dinie for his mechanical work, Lukmaan Adams from LA Bodyworks, Curt Adams for his spraypainting, Duwayne from MACE Performance, Zahier Paulse from Zeeline Performance, Denis from Denis Extreme, Ismail Abrahams from Smiles Auto- works, Ensile Tyre Destination and Trailer hire and last but not least, my family for sharing this passion with me.”
For the lowdown on Johnny and his cabbies, see his episode on KarBrasse, which will be airing on 8 March 2024 on Kyknet & Kie (DSTV channel 145).
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