These days, it seems as if every second street machine can put out at least 1000rwhp. But a thousand at the tyres in a two-wheel-drive chassis won’t actually seem all that impressive on the street – it’ll mostly be tyre smoke and revs. However, if you up the ante to 1200hp and make it four-wheel drive, that’s a very different story!

First published in the April 2025 issue of Street Machine

It’s a story that William Behan, owner of this stonking all-paw Nissan Patrol, was keen to tell. “I wanted to build a car that would scare the shit of me,” he says. “It’s a handful! My mates won’t even get in it with me anymore; they call it a death trap, so I guess I got the car I wanted.”

The seed for the build was planted at an evening roll racing meeting, where Will fell in love with a mate’s turbo LS-powered, short-wheelbase Patrol. He immediately began hunting for something similar, eventually finding this one already equipped with a budget-built, turbocharged LS2.

Keen to get straight out to the roll racing and hurt some feelings in his new steed, Will decided to turn the wick up on it. Unfortunately, the alloy LS2 block had different ideas and ended up splitting a bore.
“After it totalled the engine, I went out and saw Sam Fenech at Westend Performance about a new combination that would make 1500hp at the wheels.” Will says. “Incredibly, Sam said he had a 427ci motor in the shop, ready to go. What are the chances?”

With a replacement mill sorted, William took a good hard look at the Patrol and decided to rebuild it from front to back, as it wasn’t likely to take what he now planned on throwing at it.

He began by converting the rear diff to a full-floater piece with 40-spline axles and a full-spool centre, and upgraded the front diff to run 31-spline axles.

A Pro Mod TH400 built to hold 2500hp was sourced through Northmead Auto Centre with a Reid case, roller extension housing, ringless input shaft, straight-cut gearset, 10-clutch top gear drum, and a custom transmission pan by GrooveRyder Fabrications that holds almost 20 litres of fluid!

Matt Sofia from SDR Motorsport made new engine mounts before fashioning a new hot side comprising a GTX55-based Pro Mod 88 Pulsar turbo, four-inch dump with a vacuum-operated AS exhaust cut-out, and a 3½-inch cat-back exhaust system. On the cold side, Matt installed a front-mounted air-to-air intercooler and all the associated plumbing, including for the Turbosmart blow-off valve and single 60mm wastegate.

It now looks very busy under the bonnet, but Will says it’s easy to work on. He was keen to keep the factory low-mount alternator set-up, so the engine has been positioned ever-so-slightly off-centre, with a Holley sump assisting fitment.

The factory transfer case has been retained, as have the front and rear driveshafts, which are only about a metre long but have survived the abuse so far.

A massive aftermarket steel fuel tank was fitted with a swirl pot and a brushless Aeromotive pump, mounted at the rear.

With the driveline mounted, the Nissan was sent to Jack at Earls Performance to be fully plumbed, and it was then wired at Northmead Auto Centre with a Haltech Nexus R3 VCU, Racepak dash, remote touchpad, and what seems to be most of the Haltech catalogue.

The attention to detail lavished on this build is impressive: the coils are mounted inside the guards, a Plazmaman billet intake manifold wears an LSA throttlebody, and everything is neat, colour-coded and well designed. Even the disc brakes are next level, with massive six-pot calipers on the front and four-pots on the rear.

“We had a pretty good idea of what Will was after with the car,” says Northmead Auto Centre’s Nick Tzavaras, who project-managed the build. “This has really been a no-expense-spared build, and it’s been great to work with a customer who doesn’t want to cut corners. We got everything straightened out and got the car wired and tuned; it’s pretty impressive on E85, and it cranked out just on 1200rwhp on 26psi of boost.”

Nick says he made the mistake of going for a drive in the Patrol with Will after it had come off the dyno. “At 70km/h, you mash it and it will just blow the tyres off it in 4WD and wants to turn itself inside out,” he laughs. “Will told me to wait until he gets the hang of it and he will take me for another ride – it’s a missile, but I won’t be getting in it again!”

Once Will gets the Nissan engineered, he’ll be heading back to the roll racing in it, before installing a rollcage. By the sounds of things, stocking up with a ready supply of clean undies might also be a great idea!