Friday 28 August 2009

Home made

Took a trip over to GarageRippleDrift in sleepy Spalding, Lincs last night to get some tyres put on the Origin wheels. I caught Paul Smith and his Dad come-Chief Mechanic Roger putting some finishing touches to his Japspeed Maxxis Tyres S15.

The car started out life as a Spec-S non-turbo Automatic model but was treated to the SR20DET and manual swap by Mitch at Driftgarage during his brief ownership of the car.

The transition from good base-model drift car to full on purpose-built track car, including paintwork has all taken place inside Paul and Roger's modest garage out the back of Roger's house. Note in the picture above the SERIOUS amount of steering lock, this has been achieved by using Japspeed steering arms and ends and some very trick GPSports knuckles which allow for adjustment of the steering pick-up points on the hubs. The front arches have been cut out and 'tubbed' to make the most of this generous extra lock.

As I was visiting Roger was working on the finishing touches of the wiring loom which he assured me was 'just wiring the wipers up'. I'm not sure if he was joking or not, that amount of wires is enough to send me running! The interior is simple and purposeful, a pair of Corbeau seats and powder-coated white Fabricage occupy the main cabin space, meanwhile the stock S15 dash has been modified to accomodate ProSport gauges, which look almost factory!

The car now sports clean white paintwork, a departure from last year's standard Nissan red. Japspeed have been supporting Paul for the last two seasons, I am looking forward to finally seeing the car drifting alongside Danny Ayles' and Shane Lynch's Japspeed S15s in Sunday's BDC Team Event at Norfolk Arena. Danny and Shane's cars are both running high-power RB25 engines from the R33 Skyline so I hope Paul can keep up!

Something tells me he will be able to! The piece-de-resistance takes centre stage when you lift the EPRacing carbon bonnet. The engine is a 2500cc 1JZ lifted from a Toyota Soarer. The turbo is a GT3076R mounted to a Japspeed top-mount manifold and the combination produce 474bhp and 440lb/ft torque, more than enough to chase down the other Japspeed S15s. Sadly more than enough to twist the prop earlier on in the month at Prodrift Round 3 also!

The car is finished externally with some nice touches, red/white rear lenses, carbon bootlid and DMax wide fenders complete the picture.

If you want to see the S15 in action be sure to pop over to Norfolk Arena at the weekend for Round 4 of the British Drift Championship - two days of full on action! Be there Saturday from 6pm for Round 4 and Sunday from 10am for the Team Drift Competition!

Thursday 27 August 2009

Had the roof painted black with some heavy metalflake, just looks black in the pics though, also steve at fc tuning mapped it on monday, man its fast now full boost is now 3700rpm and 310lbft torque

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Tokyo baby!




Last year I went to tokyo for a week - and it was amazing!! The place is so busy its unreal! Didnt see much of the car scene sadly but did pop to super autobacs and was greeted with everything a car lover could want - an entire wall of the latest nardi steering wheels, a whole section of awesome wheels without a single rota in sight!! Only managed one picture inside before security demanded i stop :(

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Okishima FD3S makeover

It's been a busy few weeks sorting the RX7 out, but the styling's just about there... for now anyways. The biggest change is the satin paintwork which is actually a vinyl wrap - really impressed with the finish, time and cost, much cheaper than a respray and takes just a day to apply. Anyways, enough of the rambling, here's a few latest pics:

Saturday 22 August 2009

Ad's PS13





Thursday 20 August 2009

FAO Banzai Readers


If you've just found us from Banzai magazine, thanks for checking us out. The writeup kind of explains what we're all about. You can find pics from our last meet HERE and HERE. We'll have more to show you in the very near future, so watch this space. (We appreciate your comments, good and bad, so don't be shy).


Friday 14 August 2009

What it is.....


Just spotted this on DW. Great video and great music. Check out www.fatlace.com and Mos Def's new Album - The Ecstatic.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

forwards momentum




Well after deciding to buy a house and putting the engine up for sale in an attempt to gather some funds i decided to spend some time on the car this evening.

What resulted was an S13 with a V8 sat in the engine bay!! Looks awesome sat there and proves my mounts work which is a relief. Just sourcing some collectors and bends to make the manifolds - need to decide on twin side exits (will it pass an mot with an exhaust exiting on the passenger side?) or two into one and use my 3inch system.

Want to keep it now which may be possible with a deal ont he horizon which will get my deposit paid and my debt cleared!