{"id":773148,"date":"2026-07-02T00:25:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773148\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T00:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:25:22","slug":"shqrty-bmw-turbo-diesel-swapped-gq-patrol-ready-for-red-centrenats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/773148\/","title":{"rendered":"SHQRTY: BMW turbo diesel-swapped GQ Patrol ready for Red CentreNATS"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you stop to admire Jordan\u2019s bright-red Patrol, be prepared to stay a while.<\/p>\n

Ask him about his GQ Patrol, SHQRTY, and before long you\u2019re talking about backyard engineering, Saturday-night car meets, the history of hidden tracks in and around Alice Springs\u2026 and why on earth he decided to stuff a BMW turbo diesel into a GQ Patrol.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because SHQRTY isn\u2019t just another modified Patrol.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a reflection of the bloke who built it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve owned my SHQRTY for nearly 10 years,\u201d Jordan says. \u201cIt\u2019s been my daily driver and desert tourer, always reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The old GQ has become something of an icon among four-wheel-drive enthusiasts, and clean short-wheelbase examples are getting harder to find. Rather than restoring this one back to factory spec, Jordan wanted to give it another life, one that\u2019s just as comfortable crawling through the scrub as it is sitting in the Show and Shine.<\/p>\n

So two years ago, the Patrol disappeared into his Alice Springs shed for what he casually calls \u201cthe big refresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In reality, it was closer to a complete rebuild.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a bit of a cheeky bloke,\u201d He laughs, \u201cand I think that bit of a prankster attitude was kind of like, well, what if I just stuck something that just does not belong in there into it, and then see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer turned out to be a BMW M57N 3.0-litre straight-six turbo diesel backed by a built ZF six-speed automatic. Jordan even integrated the BMW electronics into the factory Nissan dash through a custom CANBUS setup, so everything works as though Nissan built it that way. It\u2019s the kind of homebrewed engineering that most people don\u2019t notice, but what turns a clever engine into a genuinely useable beast with serious torque potential and reliability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The interior is retrimmed with custom leather, a new roof lining, fresh flooring and restored trim, while underneath the Patrol is braced on chassis rails, strengthened diff housings, Fox remote-reservoir shocks, lockers, skid plates and custom bar work.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s designed to be a tank in the bush but fast on the street,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s somehow an off-roader, a street car and a show car all rolled into one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might not be a purpose-built drag car, but I have a lot of fun doing it,\u201d he says, \u201cThe beauty\u2019s in the eye of the beholder. And I built it to do exactly what I wanted it to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

It still heads bush. It still gets driven around town. It still tours Central Australia. And when Red CentreNATS rolls around, it swaps dusty tracks for the Show and Shine lawn before lining up at the drags and dirt drags.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And that versatility hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SHQRTY has already claimed back-to-back victories on the Red CentreNATS 4WD Track, taken home Best 4WD at the 2024 Show and Shine and built a loyal following online. But ask Jordan what he\u2019s proudest of and the conversation quickly shifts away from trophies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also important to keep people aware that the culture still exists,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a dying breed. There\u2019s still a lot of people out there who are into cars and it\u2019s not going to go away anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up around local car meets, he watched first-hand how one build could inspire the next generation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky. I grew up in a time where the car scene was still heavy with car meets and car parks filled with cars on a Saturday night,\u201d he says. \u201cYou saw young fellas and girls come up to these meets and get inspired to get into the industry, get into cars.\u201d<\/p>\n

He believes events like Red CentreNATS are helping create that same spark for the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s become such a broad event now that there\u2019s something there for everyone,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople see them as just an outlet for hoons\u2026 but throwing everyone in a bucket and calling them a hoon is simply untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Jordan sees the event as a celebration of craftsmanship, engineering and community.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a lot of cars and you get to talk shop and mingle with like-minded people,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery now and then you see something about as strange as SHQRTY rock up and you go, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s something different.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Whenever SHQRTY appears on social media, Jordan makes sure the backdrop gets just as much attention as the Patrol itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I take a photo of the SHQRTY, I always like to see if I can get a bit of the background in it too,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s as much showing people the car as it is showing them Central Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his way of challenging perceptions of Alice Springs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town itself is surrounded by some of the oldest and some of the most beautiful geographical anomalies and terrain that you\u2019ll ever see. It is stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ask him where visitors should point their four-wheel drives and he doesn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone goes down the West Macs,\u201d he says. \u201cNot a lot of people go up the East Macs. They\u2019re just as pretty, if not more spectacular\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And if there\u2019s one thing he\u2019d love to see at this year\u2019s Red CentreNATS, it\u2019s more people bringing their own projects out to join the fun.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s a championship-winning Patrol or a project that\u2019s only just made it out of the shed, Jordan reckons every build has a place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely bring it down, show it out, have a crack at the events. If you can\u2019t, just come down and say hello. There\u2019s so many different cars there and there\u2019s going to be something there for somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what Red CentreNATS is all about.<\/p>\n

Entries are now open for the 12th annual Red CentreNATS, presented by LMCT+, taking place in Alice Springs from 3 to 6 September 2026. Enter now, even if it\u2019s just to show Jordan. He\u2019s keen to see it!<\/p>\n

Visit redcentrenats.com.au<\/a> for more information on how to enter the Ultimate Festival of Wheels.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you stop to admire Jordan\u2019s bright-red Patrol, be prepared to stay a while. Ask him about his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,105],"class_list":["post-773148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}