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
It finally happened! I finally sat down with most of the Take Luck team, and hammered them with some hard hitting questions. We also had pizza, which ended up on the floor a couple of times.
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SEMA was over! Oh glory it was over! We love going to SEMA, but good lord it gets tedious after a few days. You see amazing cars, but you see them sitting still. Static. Yes, you can admire the craftsmanship (or lack thereof in some cases), but you don’t get to see them do anything. Thankfully, there was a VegasDrift event the day after the show closed. Earlier in the week we helped Jason Smith get prepared for the event, so we figured we’d pop in and say hi.
It took a few hours, but we eventually did see Jason. Before we did though, we saw Ian Perri. It was nice to see him, and it was nice to see him drift in person.
Blaize Potts came down, started a small fire, and did some skids.
That’s not Scott, that’s Brandon! Yes, Brandon Wicknick was driving a V8 car. Will he see the light that is low end torque, and not having to wait for the power to come on? God willing, he won’t.
And Forrest Wang is powered by pizza. Anyway, here’s a gallery
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!
In a world full of real and fake, mislabeled things, and people trying to fake the funk, it’s rare we find someone with a real, correctly labeled, funky ass thing on their hands. Sometimes it’s a guy with a rad, rare camera. Other times it’s somebody with a copy of that movie you loved as a kid, but could never find in adulthood. In this case, it’s Erik with a legitimate 180SX. Right hand drive and all.
You can’t really see it, but the ID plate lists this car as a 180SX that came with an SR20DET. And this car ran an SR for a very long time, then Erik got an itch, and BH Motorsports got crafty, and it has an RB25DET Neo under the hood. It’s not crazily built, the only internal modifications are a set of Tomei Pon cams. Everything else is a bolt on. On the intake side is a Freddy intake manifold (Fake Greddy, keep up) with a set of R35 GTR fuel injectors and a Tomei fuel pressure regulator.
On the fun side is a Garrett 3076r snail, bolted to a CX Racing manifold. Cooling the compressed air before it gets to the Freddy manifold is a PBM intercooler. Watching over this whole ordeal is a Haltech Platinum Pro Series ECU, which gets and sends information via a Wiring Specialties harness. Tuning services were provided by D-Wreck.
Getting that power to the driven wheels is an RB20 transmission, loving stuffed with an ACT 6 puck unsprung clutch. In the back, between the driven wheels, is a NISMO two way limited slip differential.
Doing the stopping is a set of S14 brake calipers up front, and the stock calipers in the rear. Both have Project Mu pads in them, which seem to be doing the job.
Helping Erik get that sweet, sweet steering angle (which, as I’m told, translates to sweet, sweet street cred) is a whole mess of stuff that my feeble brain barely has a grasp of: PBM knuckles front and rear, lengthened and boxed lower control arms, Driftworks offset and bent tension rods, an GK Tech offset steering rack spacers.
Helping to maximize grip, something a drift car actually needs) are a set of Gecko street coilovers. Strut tower bars provided by JIC (front) and Cusco (rear), and a Godspeed full rear suspension arm kit in the back help keep things planted. Also some Stance subframe risers raise a subframe… Not sure which, but one of them is raised!
The front and rear wheels and tires are different, for reasons. Up front the 18×9 Rota G Forces are wrapped in 205/40 Federal 595s, and out back the 18×10.5 Vordovens turn 265/35 Achilles ATR Sports into white smoke.
Ok, now that we’ve covered what makes this car go, we can get on to the miles of style this thing has. In the back it has a set of JDM kouki tail lights, over which is a custom drag wing made by Team Orange. Who is Team Orange? They’re the drift team that ran RWD Evos and WRXs in D1GP.
The car sports a replica Vertex body kit, and a real D Max hood vent. It also has a one of ten Godai Elements: Earth windshield banner from Super Wow Factory. The gray and deceptively purple two tone was done by Brandon over at D-Spare.
Inside, on the driver’s side, is a Bride Vios Low Maxx 3 seat, on Planted seat rails. The limited edition Jimmy Up steering wheel is mounted on a Works Bell quick release, and a NISMO shift knob tops the shifter.
On the passenger side is a Bride Zeta seat, also on Planted rails, and a set of Defi gauges mounted in the dash. No such thing as too much information.
And in the back, opposite the Sard surge tank, is a .50 caliber ammo box. Inside that box is not ammunition, but his battery.
This isn’t a 240SX with 180SX tail lights and center section. This is the real deal. It also hasn’t been dipped and deep fried in America either. This is about as JDM as you’re gonna get until you hit the home islands. It’s really authentic, and really a 180SX
He is a loathsome, offensive brute, yet I cannot look away
Seinfeld, episode “The Letter”
I can’t quite think of a better way to describe this car. That’s an awful way to describe Dane Seering, the guy who owns and drives it though. Dane is a giant ball of positivity, perpetually hyped on driving the Tarzan mobile at events. That’s a very good thing, because you need a guy like that at events.
Dane is rocking a big wing on custom uprights because big wings are cool. The uprights are cool too.
See?
Under the hood is an LS, with a T56 behind it. That combination will get most parties started, and keep them going until they get shut down.
The interior gets the job done, but won’t win any awards for aesthetic styling. The big handle on the hydro e-brake and the cue ball shift knob on the double bend shifter make it seem like this car is just raw power and energy, that’ll create tire smoke in whatever direction you point it in. Then you see the Racepak dash and realize that there’s some brains behind this brawn.
It’s not as refined and pretty as Scott Bradshaw’s bass boat coupe, but it’s not as rugged and undeveloped as some other cars that have come through the gate for the events. It’s hateful, it has a big ass wing on the back, and it’s driven by a guy who could definitely be Tarzan if he wanted to. It’s my favorite car driving in the 2016 Salt City Drift season.
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
Last month the Take Luck guys made their way up to Oregon for Bash To The Future 4. Unfortunately I didn’t make the trip with them. Fortunately Tanner Spencer, of Tanner Spencer Creative, did make the trip. He makes videos, and is a pretty cool guy. At the most recent Salt City Drift event, he let it be known that the video he did for BTTF would be posted on Sunday, and that we could repost it and share it and such. Since I have a website, I figured throwing it up here would fall under the loose guidelines he set out. This is a rad video. Like it, love it, share it.
Bash to the Future 4: Take Luck Takeover from Tannerspencercreative on Vimeo.
The Take Luck Team traveled up to Medford Oregon to compete at Bash to the Future 4, presented by Tandem of Die. They ended up taking 2nd in the team tandem competition. Here is the recap of the weekend. Enjoy and Share!
Spice up your desktop with this photo of Erik Brooks’s 180SX! Just right click and Save As, and show the rest of your co-workers or roommates who has style.
BUT while I have you here, we ARE going to be featuring this car. Just not now. We shot the car at the last Salt City Drift event, where Erik had some problems that ended his day early. He was in good spirits, despite that. I was stoked to finally be shooting the car, and unfortunately my stoke got in the way of me doing on critical thing:
Getting any useful information about the car.
I botched it, forgot to get a mod list; however, I did manage to get a few anecdotes that I will share with you now.
Erik wanted to make this car as true to something you’d see at a matsuri in Japan as he could. The hood vents, the sticker placement, even the super low wing help achieve that. And I’d say he’s there. I’m confident in making that statement, considering how hard I geek out on certain Instagram feeds and YouTube channels.
His battery box is a real .50 cal ammo box. Definitely different. I was surprised to see it, and didn’t believe him when he told me. But there it is.
That windshield banner he has is limited edition. Very limited edition. As in one of ten. I think his is #3. Whens the last time you put something that rare on a car that could very easily be written off?
And there’s that: a wallpaper and a few anecdotes about the car that will be getting the full feature treatment. And maybe a little bit more…
