I often get asked why am I putting so much money into this M30.

I grew up in an era where quality spoke volumes about the time, effort and money one puts into the car. Those quality built cars always stood out. When people used knock offs, it reduced the significance of the build. That meant trying to use quality parts that have been tested. If someone didn't have money for the item, you'd save up for it, but it had to be that part. Also part of quality was the craftsmanship in building the car itself. It has been a personal goal to do a restomod and build a car from the ground up.

Project Leopard was done with utmost quality (check Project Car Magazine scans). Even years later when it was a drift missile, the car held up. It was a quality build from the start. Used many good companies/parts such as Greddy, Phase 2 motortrend and Syko Performance parts. When they decided to use ARK Design Boost controller and Rev/shift timer (lesser known company) they explained that ARK Design recruited several high tech engineers from some of the bigger tuning companies. They still focused on quality parts.

Nowadays, there are many small companies making various parts, some good and some bad. Some of these companies have done R&D into their products before putting them out, while others just send a design to Alibaba manufactures in China to make a batch of items. I've seen a few builds where people are just putting a bunch of stuff together, using the cheapest stuff and when things fail, don't mind redoing the process again.
I definitely understand budgets, trying to save money, time or just getting the car "going". Everyone has their own perspective and nothing wrong with supporting small companies as long as they put good stuff out (IMO). Nowadays, anyone can build a car.

I decided to follow the path of Quality and sensibility. Yes, there are some top of the line items, but they are impractical for my use. So I had to be sensible when choosing products. I decided to go with established brands such as Greddy, Tomei, Phase 2, and OEM Nissan, but also some of the newer, established brands such as Boost Doc, Franklin Engineering, Platium Racing and Wiring Specialties. I also tried to keep everything within these companies as much as possible. Not only are these established brands with research, but also many of them were part of the original Project Leopard build. I was fortunate that Marco of the SR20 Store was willing to do the process again. His expertise, experience, welcoming and willingness met my criteria of quality. He also has his established resources.
This ensures that I wouldn't be wasting time, engery, and money with lesser quality products failing and redoing processes I have never done before.

To take it a step further, REBUILDING the whole car also demanded quality on multiple levels. Interior being redone, all the problems such as chassis cracks are being addressed, exterior done by a Nissan/Datsun/classic car focused body and paint shop, and the engine done by Marco as aforementioned. So this is gonna be a quality build from the ground up.