Everything is a blur to Tim Mather. But Mather doesn't mind. For him, blur is a good thing. It's the way the world is supposed to look from behind the wheel of the hardest-working, multi-faceted, daily-driving rally/road racer that ever started life as a 1991 Nissan Sentra SE econobox.
"I bought the car in December of 1990," he admits. "I chose the SE because of the better gas mileage of its 1.6-liter engine." This should be the first clue that Mather's view of the world is a little bit different from that of the average motorsports enthusiast. Economy-car status notwithstanding, Mather has been intent on racing his Sentra whenever and wherever he can find a starting line. "The car has been on the track since the March after I bought it," he says. "I haven't looked back since."
Campaigning his Sentra every possible weekend, however, doesn't mean he's giving the car weekdays off. When he isn't racing, Mather's either driving his SE to and from his job at Compucom Engineering in Connecticut or heading out with it on family outings. In an age of specialized, purpose-built racers which are far too prissy ever to set foot on the highway, Mather is conspicuously bucking the trend with his 24/7 all-season Sentra that's positively unique in New England, if not all of North America.
Where there's a will, of course, there's a way; and the way Mather has elected to pursue his dream of virtually non-stop motor racing has been to enlist the invaluable collaboration of Bob Legere of Legere Motorsports Development in Newington, Conn. Leaving no cam unturned nor port unported, Legere effected a near-magical transformation of Mather's Sentra into a streetable racer that doesn't know when to quit. "I have competed in almost every type of motorsport with it," Mather explains. "A typical year starts in February with some ice racing." By March, the Sentra can be found road racing at legendary Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, followed by rally crossing in New York State, then hill climbing in Vermont and New Hampshire.
In 2000, Mather took his Sentra to dual class wins in Ice Trials and to another class win while road racing at Lime Rock. At the Apple Hill Rallycross in Middleburgh, N.Y., the all-season Sentra shamed every other two-wheel-drive contender in the field and chuffed its way to third behind two all-wheel-drive Eclipse turbos. "But my best result of the year," Mather says, "was my class win at the Mt. Washington Hillclimb in New Hampshire. It was my eighth year of trying, and I finished seventh overall-not bad for a 2,400-lb., 130-hp car."
A close look at the Mather Motorsports Sentra SE provides vivid proof that the key to reliable high-performance is mastery of the details. From the very start, Legere knew he was embarking into uncharted territory. Calls to Nissan Motorsports revealed performance research on Nissan's GA16DE engine was nil, while sources of aftermarket parts were virtually non-existent. "The only readily available pieces I could find," Legere says, "were a Tri-Y or four-into-two-into-one header, a cone-type K&N Filtercharger and an upgraded EEPROM. I quickly learned I was on my own, so I decided to tackle the project in a logical manner."
Preliminary evaluations convinced Legere that the Sentra's basic engine design presented shortcomings in two significant areas: On the one hand, the connecting rods tended-as Legere puts it-"to seek the atmosphere" when subjected to high-performance stresses. Legere's second major initiative was to improve what he judged to be a distinct imbalance in the proportion of exhaust flow to intake flow. From the factory, the Sentra's exhaust flow represented a mere 65.7 percent of intake flow (67 cfm vs. 102 cfm). In theory, at least, Legere felt a proportion of 75 to 80 percent would be optimal.
By Marc Stengel
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