CAMautoMag

Salt City Drift Round 1: Meet in the Midway

Words and photos by Michael Chandler

After months of waiting there was finally organized drifting happening again in Utah.  This past weekend the Salt City Drift weekend opened up at Miller Motorsports Park, specifically in the Midway.  Yes, that strip of pavement between the East Course and the big dirt patch played home to the season opener.

I ran across this Volvo coupe as I was wandering through the paddock before getting to the course.  I dig older Volvos, especially when they’re rocking the Prancing Moose, but this one was making weird noises.  It didn’t sound like ANY Volvo mill I’ve ever heard, so with Tyler Brown (formerly of Innovative Garage) in tow we went to investigate.

There’s usually a good reason when a car doesn’t make a sound that’s usually heard coming from that particular kind of vehicle, and the Volvo as no different.  The Swedish mill was ditched for one of the two liter four cylinder out of an S2000.  This F20C  wasn’t doing to well unfortunately, VTEC wasn’t kicking in yo engaging.  This was most likely due to an oil pressure issue, but aside from that it ran.

The cabin was business like.  The S2000’s digital gauge cluster sat under the cowl instead of the old one, and a home made switch panel sat just under the dash.  The old moose is a work in progress, and I’m hoping the bugs get worked out so it can slide about in the traditional Scandinavian fashion.

Out on the course something interesting was happening.  As you may or may not know, Nick Stucky left the world of Miata world behind and bought an S13 240SX with a Ford 302 cubic inch V8 swap.  Last week he earned a sponsor in the form of D-Spare Garage, making his friend (and Formula D driver and noted opposition of V8 swaps) Brandon Wicknick his boss, if you choose to think of sponsorship like that.  On Saturday morning, Mr. Wicknick hopped into Nick’s car and took it for some laps.  He took it for a few more laps throughout the day, seemingly trying to figure out what sort of ancient magic was at work under the hood.  He’s probably not going to go twin turbo V8 for this upcoming Formula D season, but there’s a chance (insanely slim, but still) he could do that down the road.

Meanwhile, on the course people were getting after it, as is the style currently.  There’s a gallery of more people sliding through the key hole, along with more shots from the paddock and grid.

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