I went and did some drifty stuff in the middle of the Porsche GT3 Cup madness. Friday night the Salt City Drift folks got together at RMR, and slid the bowl with varying levels of success. There was a competition, but I bailed long before that went down. Anyway, here’s a gallery
What you’re looking at is a car that is as old as I am; and much like myself, this car has gotten wider as the years have gone by. Unlike myself, however, Austin intended for the car to be wide. I did not want to be wide. Let’s talk more about Austin Fenn’s Corolla.
We’ll get to the flares in a minute, so settle down. Austin plucked this car from a perpetual project state, and built it into what you see here. And he did a fair amount of that work in his garage. He’s touched every aspect of this car, like the suspension. Megan Racing supplies a set of Track series coilovers, roll center adjusters, and their adjustable four links. Up front is an MR2 steering rack (because it fits and is also manual), extended lower control arms, and T3 modified steering knuckles.
The shock and coil perches in the rear have been modified to allow for additional droppage, and there are hand made traction brackets as well. There’s also a T3 panhard bar for good measure. There is Motul 600 brake fluid coursing through braided brake lines on all four corners. The OEM calipers grab onto slotted rotors. All of that is tucked behind a set of Basset steel wheels, 14×8 in the front, and 15×10 (-52 offset!) in the rear. The front wheels are currently wearing a pair of Yokohama S.drive tires, and the rears are sporting Falkens.
The rear bumper has been ditched, and a pair of boso pipes are sticking out the back. The US spec front bumper has been cut up and tucked, and the body (underneath the custom livery that Austin designed, and Hero Prints turned into printable files) is some satin black paint and Chrysler Crystal Metallic Graphite.
He’s fitted a set of Jblood sideskirts, and popped on some sideskirt extensions he snagged off of eBay. Now let’s get to the thing you’ve been waiting for:
The flares are truly one-offs. They aren’t some super rare Yahoo Japan finds, or something he found at a swap meet. No, these are flares that he designed, AND MADE HIMSELF. You won’t be able to get a set of them unless you A) rip them off Austin’s car, a move which is highly un-advisable for a litany of reasons or B) beg him to make a set for you, which will probably result in an answer in the negative. They’re N2 inspired, but all Austin’s design.
Turning our attention under the hood, we find a 20 valve 4AGE! And no A/C or power steering! He has a newer xB, which has at least one of those things. There’s a big Mishimoto radiator, and matching fans, along with a Setrab oil cooler and a thermostatic oil plate.
The 20v inhales through a set of individual throttle bodies, topped with 75mm T3 velocity stacks. It exhales through a very good looking header that I can’t remember the name of, nor the reason that he chose this header. But damn is it good looking. If there’s a bad looking, aftermarket header for the 4AGE, I haven’t seen it. And I don’t want to. Oh, and the head has been ported and polished. And the whole shebang is being orchestrated by a Sprint 500 standalone ECU.
There is no carpet inside Austin’s Corolla, only custom floor mats. The rear of the car doesn’t even get the luxury of floor mats, it just has the relocated battery, sitting inside of a stainless steel box. There’s a Veilside OG fixed back seat, which necessitated the recovering of the OEM passenger seat and door cards. You know, so they match the Veilside bucket. The steering wheel is a Vertex (by Vertex) wheel, and doesn’t have a horn button. It is very colorful though. Oh, and that stuff sitting on the driver’s seat?
A sweet pair of Shirts Tucked In driving gloves.
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Whilst down in Vegas, as Gavin was gallivanting around in a giant Lexus SUV, I ventured into the cut to hand out with Ian Perri at “the trap house”. You remember Ian, he’s hard to forget. Anyway, he has a Corolla coupe, and he’s doing stuff and things to it.
I got there as he was wiring up the headlights. They go up and down, and they also have a party mode. I was impressed, wiring is black magic in my eyes. He also had the engine in place, but that’s all I’m going to say about that. He swore me to secrecy, but there are some other things I can tell you about. I.E. stuff I remember!*
The Bride seat came out of a kei truck, and has a Speedhunters lookin sticker on the right side of it. Except it isn’t a Speedhunters sticker. It says “SPINNERS”. What it is is a mystery to us, so if you have any clue as to what it is, let us know.
Dope, but it’s a place holder. It was at this point he decided to make the OEM grill fit into the new, smaller hole that the front bumper has left. The professor grabbed his tools, and go to working in the lab.
Safety first.
After trimming, test fitting, more trimming, test fitting again, some light cursing, and more trimming, the grill fit. Fit pretty good.
I left soon after the grill went in. Twas dinner time for me, and he had a birthday party to go to. It’s always good hanging out and doing car things with friends, especially when they’re doing double super secret car stuff. As soon as Ian has the car up and ready, we’ll head back down and take more pictures of it and give you more details. Until then, enjoy what’s here.
*I can’t promise any accuracy in my memories.
It was a nice day out at Utah Motorsports Campus! Mostly sunny with some intermittent clouds, sport bikes from the Apex Track Days event wailing on the West Track, and tires howling in the West Paddock from the drivers of the final Salt City Drift event of the season. At the end of the day, there would be two winners crowned: the winner of the event, and the overall season champion! Let’s see how that all played out:
In third place in the day’s competition was OP Anderson! Despite organizing and being one of the guys running the event, and despite having a box stock Saturn Sky Redline as his chariot, he managed to go out and slay enough to get on the podium.
In second place was the man, the myth, the Southern Dandy: Blaize Potts! We finally got to see his LS powered FC RX-7 ripping, and rip it did. Put a pin in this, cause we’re gonna get back to him in a minute.
Taking home the win was Trevor Malan! Trevor’s S13 has everything that the internet seems to love: sparkly paint, big Weds wheels, a DMAX kit, JDM nose, it’s dumped, and it’s a ripper. And it has something I love: a dude behind the wheel who’s down to drive. Doesn’t matter how cool your car looks, or what parts you’ve thrown on it: if you can’t/won’t drive it like it’s supposed to, then you’re blowing it.
This is John. I like John, cause he’s down to get weird. Here he is in his Wisefab equipped E36, munching a cone. It also has some crazy stiff springs out of the Lyfe Motorsport GTR. It was quite a sight to behold.
This is Devin. His Corolla has Arizona tags, lives in a garage in Michigan, and has a BEAMS 3S-GE under the hood. He drove, in that Corolla, all the way from Michigan just to drive in this event. And it isn’t some well sorted, fully developed Corolla. Very recently it was just a lump of 80’s Toyota, sitting in his garage. He got the car on the ground, got it running, then got it running well enough to drive across the goddamn country to slay some tires. Think about that for a second. Devin is the man.
In addition to the actual competition, there were two games being played: limbo and table. Not quite sure how limbo worked, but the guy who won got some cash. Good job there, fella! It looked like Blaize was going to take the table win, until Nick Stucky showed up. He was having car troubles, but finally managed to get his car running. He did some tandem with Scott Bradshaw, and then he went for the table. Name of the game was to drift through the last two turns of the course, then slide your car to a stop next to a table. You needed to be parallel, or close enough, to the table to be in the running. Blaize set the bar pretty high, or low, but Nick cleared it in whichever direction was necessary. He slide to a stop mere inches from the table, on his only table run of the day!
Speaking of tables (AWKWARD TRANSITION), here’s the podium for the season championship: in third place, with an E30 325, is Hayden Campbell! He might have taken second if he drove the event, but third isn’t bad!
In second place is the guy who used two cars this season: Blaize Potts! He sold the KA24DE powered S13 coupe, and was handsomely rewarded for doing so. Look at that 2nd place trophy and moderately priced champagne!
And the winner of the 2016 Salt City Drift driver’s championship is: Nick Nengas! Proving many things this year (any seat time is good seat time, the 350Z is a solid platform for damn near anything, looking like a child has its benefits) netted him the top spot. It wasn’t an easy task, there were some guys who could shred, but Nick shredded harder. Now, what do three guys with champagne do with it after they’ve received awards?
There was much rejoicing. And so ends the Salt City Drift season. It was an enjoyable one, a solid one, and hopefully one that has a bigger succeeding season. Congratulations to the winners, the people who tried, everyone who came out to support the events, and especially the folks at Salt City Drift. They’re trying to bolster this community we have by hosting these events, and it’d be killer to see some more folks driving, or even volunteering at these events.
Anywell, until next time, dear readers…
Not sure if you guys know this, but it got chilly just in time for this past weekend’s Salt City Drift event. And I’m not sure if you know about Tooele County, but it tends to be a bit windier out there. Despite the wind, and the cold there were some brave individuals doing some skids! Brandon Wicknick came out with the D-Spare hauler, unloaded some cars (including his IS300), then took a nap. Listen, it’s hard work being America’s Favorite Drifting Ginger. He deserves a nap every now and again!
Derrick Lopez was out in his simple S13 hatchback, ripping up the course in his own, quiet way.
Nick Nengas let his inner street ripper out, and laid down some solid runs in front of the Metro Security SUV.
That’s a ripper Trevor, that is indeed a ripper.
There was a contest, but I have no idea what happened. So in lieu of results, here’s a big ass gallery!
It was another hot one in Utah, but despite the heat, and traffic, and a massive fire that billowed smoke into the area, round four of the Salt City Drift season carried on.
There was, of course, a competition. I’m not sure how tandem turned out, but I can say that it did pull some of the drag racing spectators over to the bowl. That was pretty cool to see. On the solo side, we had Blaize Potts and his Scoundrel mobile in third.
Crowd pleaser Hayden Campbell in second.
And Nick Nengas & Teddy took home another win. Next event is back at RMR on August 5th. Come spend an evening in the oval with us! Here’s a big ass gallery to tide you over
While new cars are getting faster, and handling better, but there’s something to be said for the simplicity that is an old car. The venerable AE86 is as about as simple as it gets: twin cam 1.6L engine, 5 speed manual, and a limited slip diff in the middle of a live rear axle. It gets simpler, but not by a whole lot.
In and among the happenings at Miller Motorsports Park was Salt City Drift. Well, not really “in and among”, more “far and away from”. The kids were corralled in the Midway, at the far east side of the facility. Not that close to where the NASA Utah action was happening, but I still managed to get some photos.
Instead of hoping the small plastic barriers in the horseshoe would stop a car, I took up a post where the only thing that would save me would be something I don’t have: cat like reflexes. I would’ve been more nervous, but then I saw who was in the queue and I was more OK with my decision to crouch next to a chain link fence.
Eric (Erik? Erick? Erich? I know damn well it isn’t Aaric) was out in his 180SX, doing things on the cool side. I say that, because it’s a legit 180SX, which means it’s right hand drive, super kawaii, and other superlative adjectives. Eventually we’ll feature the car, but in the meantime enjoy the photos of Eric doing what he does in the car he built to do it in.
I don’t know these guys… But how often do you see a pair of S13 coupes doing work? SUBQUESTION: how often do you see two coupes, with different front ends, and different means of induction getting wild? I’m hoping you’re saying not often, because if not then this whole paragraph is just wasted space. Not wasted space: who has more info on the JDM fronted coupe? It looks fancy.
This is the most hateful thing I’ve ever seen or heard. It’s Josh Hadlock’s V8 powered Corolla, and this is the first time I’ve seen it slide in person! This made me happy, because I’ve been wanting to see it do drift car stuff for… a while.
Speaking of lengths of time: you don’t have to wait a long time for the next event! The next event, according to the schedule, is August 2 at Rocky Mountain Raceway. That’s, like, ten days away! You should totally go.
When last we left our brave travelers they were scrambling for cover from the sudden and violent storm that had rolled upon Magic Valley Speedway. Chance, Mikey, Brandon, Hector and myself chose to sleep in Brandon’s trailer, while Jordan and Riley elected to sleep in Jordan’s and Hector’s trucks respectively. And now for the conclusion of our tale…
The sudden storm lasted through the night, but had mercifully ended by morning. We awoke to a beautiful, albeit a little chilly, sunny morning. Those of us who slept in the trailer had has decent of a night as one can while sleeping on the floor of a trailer. Meanwhile Jordan and Riley had learned why you don’t sleep in your vehicle in the cold. While at least Jordan came prepared for camping, Riley only brought his hoodie. Suffice it to say they were both happy to see the sun creep over the mountains.
All over the makeshift camp grounds people were working on various things. Brandon was mounting tires for the day, and Mike had begun to cook breakfast for himself and his crew of jolly pirates. Zack was still working on his wheel studs, while Jordan was looking at what appeared to be a bent left rear wheel. Chance took Brandon’s truck into town, and left Mikey with us. Chance returned with breakfast for himself, Brandon, Mikey and Jordan. I had a Clif Bar, and Hector managed to score a parfait from Brandon.
Hector, having eaten, and Zack, having replaced his wheel studs, were the first two out on track, and were both giving ride alongs. Chance and myself made our way over to the track and were chatting about something inconsequential to this story while watching the two of them make their way through the infield. Hector took his usual line through the last two turns, and Zack took a wider line…
The rear quarter panel hit then end of the barrier, and spun the front of the car into it with a great deal of force. Zack and his passenger were ok, however his car was finally dead.
The car hit so hard it snapped the lower control arm, bent the coilover on that corner, dented the wheel well so deeply that the clutch pedal couldn’t be pushed in, sent the fender into the windshield and generally tweaked everything. As it sat the car couldn’t move or be dragged off the course without leaving more parts in its wake. So the plan was hatched to bring the trailer down, and drag the car on to it using ratchet straps, a jack and man power.
A crowd gathered to watch the lifeless S13 get dragged on to the trailer. It took some effort on the parts of everyone in the infield, but the car was on the trailer and secured.
Although he had the worst weekend on paper, he had the best weekend because he went out there and said fuck it. Blow out both tires? Finish the lap on the bare rims and swap them out. A wheel goes flying? Throw that thing on the hatch and get to work fixing the studs. Destroy the car? Jump on that hood, throw your arms to the sky and declare that you won’t be defeated by conventional means! It had cost him $75 to drive, and he got his money’s worth.
After clearing what was left of Zack’s car, the rest of the drivers came out to play.
Everyone was having a good time, just sending one after another after another. Things were moving like clock work.
And then Brad spun out and knocked one of his battery connections loose. This brief pause in the action allowed for some other drivers to fire up their chariots and make their way on to the track.
Crowd favorites Mikey, Brandon, Worm and Dennis all were out. Things progressed as they do: one driver led to pairs of drivers. Those pairs linked up with the other pairs and suddenly we had gridlock in the grid.
Thankfully this traffic jam passed, everyone was sliding, and I climbed atop a gigantic planter.
This continued for a few laps, then people started peeling off to grab tires or to let their car cool down. This left me standing on top of the planter, and Dane in his 1UZ swapped Celica Supra taking laps. After passing me he stopped, backed up and asked “Hey, do you want me to just hit this corner?”
Yes, yes I do. As so he did until the time came for him to grab new tires and take a break. Which it seemed liked we all decided to do. I took this time to wander about, change lenses, and eventually jam a GoPro on to Jordan’s car before he went out in a four car group. All was looking good.
Until a small fuel leak caused a fire in his car. Thankfully the fire was extinguished quickly, but not before his wiring harness was toasted. Fear not though, there were still three of our group still running! Sort of…
So the trio went out, with various passengers who had GoPros on sticks. Since this was a grassroots, just for fun kind of thing nobody could communicate with the cars while they were on track. And car to car communication was primitive.
And occasionally crude… It was during these runs a few of noticed that Mikey was smokey. Really smokey.
Catastrophically smokey. There was an oil leak somewhere, and it was bad enough to send Mikey back to the trailer. He wasn’t done though, he would take a few runs in Brandon’s car. However, Hector was entirely done. He bent a tie rod on one run, did an epic burnout and headed back to his trailer.
Our crew may have been decimated, but there were still some people who hadn’t broken their cars! Mike and Worm were still out taking cuts.
And then the track cleared, and the Previa rolled down the bank, and began its runs.
Behind every good man is a strong woman, and Dennis & Katie literally demonstrated this. They mounted the rear bench seat of the Previa in the van backwards, she strapped in and went for a ride!
And it is on that note that we end our story. It was an awesome weekend, spent with awesome people and doing awesome things. If there was a better way to spend Labor Day Weekend, and close out the summer, I can’t think of one. This wasn’t an isolated trip either. While I can’t make it to the next event, I will make it to a few more next year. Until then, thank you Idaho! GOODNIGHT!
“Who’s going to the Boise Drift two day event?” It was a simple question that was posed to the Drift Utah Facebook group. I saw photos from the last event, poked fun at everyone who had broken (i.e. everyone), but never gave much thought to actually going to one. I would have to drive, I had no idea what their photos rules were, or even where I was going. Plus my arm was still in a sling. With all that in mind, I posted “If I can find a ride I can.” And that’s when this went from poorly thought out idea to a reality.
After some back and forth with Hector Jurado and Jordan Collier, I decided to hitch a ride up with Hector. He, and his friend Riley, were going to pick me up at 5:45AM on Saturday and then we’d head up to the Common Cents gas station in Roy to gas up, procure things and meet up with Jordan and Zack Penman. We made good time, gassed up Hector’s new Ford F350 and his old S13 coupe and waited for everyone. Zack and his crew rolled in, and while they gassed up we continued to wait for Jordan. And wait we did. Hector called him, left a voice mail, and we decided to leave him.
The drive up was pretty uneventful, aside from Jordan calling us around 8am to say he slept in and that he’d be coming up with Mike Fulkerson (hereafter known as Mikey) so I’ll introduce you to Hector a little bit. Before he got into drifting he was a Honda kid. He owned three EG Civics before buying a his first 240SX off of someone on the internet. He over payed for it, but it was his! And it was low. Worryingly low. On the drive home the rear struts blew out, so he had to have it towed. Upon further inspection some interesting things were discovered. First: the car was said to have “coilovers” and it did. It had two, and they were in the rear. The front had compressed stock struts with the upper and lower spring perches bolted to each other. No springs, just that ridiculousness. Second: the car was said to have an SR20DET, and it had most of one. It was pretty clearly an SR20DET at one point in time, but someone pulled the turbo off at some point and welded a “downpipe” to the exhaust manifold and then to the exhaust. He got rid of that nightmare, and into a friend’s cleaner (and cheaper) 240. And now he has the teal coupe you’ll be seeing a lot of.
Also of note: the day before we left for this event, Hector did something a decent chunk of American citizens can’t do. He passed the citizenship test and was rewarded with a tiny American flag! Also citizenship in this country, but that flag is nothing to sneeze at.
After a pit stop at the Garden of Eden truck stop, we pulled into Magic Valley Speedway in Twin Falls and unloaded. Zack and Hector brought a fair amount of tires, all mounted on different wheels for easy swapping between sessions. We all made our way to the little shed that housed the almighty waiver sheet, exchanged money for wristbands and signed our lives away. And then we had a driver’s meeting. And then Hector and Zack went out.
They gave ride alongs to whomever wanted one, and they were eventually joined on track by a fellow named Worm. He proceeded to make some serious runs in his bone stock 350Z, while being chased by his friend in the camera car. That camera car happened to be a turbo single cam Civic hatchback, and it kept up with everyone fairly well. And well is how things were going, and then Zack’s problems began.
In the course of the day his car decided to stop working entirely (top photo) and then shed a wheel. Also along the way he managed to hurt his wrist, but he wasn’t too torn up about any of it. His car started up again, and he got his wheel back on and went out to give more rides and play a fun little game with Hector.
And that game was “Who can touch the wall on the front straight?” As we can see here, Hector was the victor.
At this point you’ve seen Hector, Zack and Worm taking cuts. They weren’t the only ones doing so! From the top down we have Jason in the multicolor Rustang, David (one of our gracious hosts) in his SR20DET swapped Corolla, Brad and the little Miata that tried, and Mike in his missiled out S13 coupe. In a previous post I referred to Mike’s car as the “community” car because I saw many people who weren’t Mike drifting in it. It’s not wrong, or weird. Just pointing out Mike’s trust and generosity.
All was fun and well, and fairly normal for a drift event. Then two fairly unique Toyotas appeared.
First was Dennis Niedrich’s Previa. It had a roll cage (sort of) and no doors aft of the front ones. The bench seat was hanging around, and it was eventually mounted back in the van… Backwards. If someone like myself (but obviously not me because I can’t be trusted to do so) were to give out awards, Dennis would get one because that looked like the most fun. This is why I don’t give out awards anymore.
Parked next to Dennis in the paddock was this black Celica Supra. Seeing one out and about, and ready to shred tires is a hoot in and of itself; however, this one became the biggest hoot when I saw the 1UZ-FE sitting under the hood. Dane, the fellow who built this, barely finished it in time to come down from Boise to Twin Falls. He said that that drive was basically the big shakedown run. The drive served its purpose, because (from what I could see) the car ran flawlessly. Speaking of 1UZs…
Guess who finally showed up. The trio of Jordan, Mikey and Brandon Wicknick (America’s Favorite Drifting Ginger! TM. In your face Forsberg!) pulled in around 5pm, and were mostly unloaded by 5:30. I say mostly because Jordan’s transmission got caught on the trailer as he was backing off of it, and the car kept dying. Eventually he got off the trailer, and along with Mikey and Brandon, put on a show:
The mere sight of Brandon’s Formula D car drew a small crowd, even before it was fired up. It drew a massive one when he hit the track. He even took me for a ride in it! I learned a few things while riding with him:
After a while we (Mikey, Brandon, Jordan, Chance Behunin, Hector, Riley and myself) piled into Brandon’s truck and went into town for dinner. Since Brandon was driving, we were going to a La Fiesta, a Mexican restaurant where the give you chips and salsa. The chips and salsa was a big selling point for Brandon. After dinner, we filled up some gas cans, trolled the local populace and returned to the track just in time for the weather to take a dramatic turn. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of what the wind did, but I can tell you it blew people’s tents over and almost away and it threw a pop up canopy over 75 feet into a crowd of people huddled around a fire pit.
The decision was made to sleep in Brandon’s 45′ enclosed trailer. Only problem is the people sized door on the side doesn’t open from inside the trailer. To ensure we’d be able to get out of the trailer without kicking a hole in the side of it, Brandon attached a bungie cord to the door, and then to a conduit inside the trailer. Bundled in our sleeping bags, Brandon then turned off the lights, and we slept.
Did we survive the night? Does Brandon’s trailer have a new “door”? If Train A, traveling at 70mph, leaves Westford heading towards Eastford, 260 miles away. At the same time Train B, traveling at 60mph, leaves Eastford heading towards Westford. When do the two trains meet? How far from each city do they meet? Find out the answers to those burning questions in tomorrow’s dramatic conclusion!
