Hi,
Started a build thread on driftworks a few months back and thought I would put it up on here incase anyone is interested, there was an sxoc sticker on the car when I bought it so the owner might still be on here?! Anyway my name is Dan, 26 from the Southwest. I am not really massively into car show's and car park meets etc but I am pretty keen when it comes to drifting!
I will copy my other build thread over but will take a few posts to get it all up as I do ramble on a bit ha ha.
If this isn't allowed I apologise but I thought my thread will be all about drifting and the events I attend so this would be as good a place as any to put it up
Any comments and criticism's welcome. My instagram is @dan_the_drifter. Thanks
I was lucky enough to have been around jap cars from quite a young age as my dad imported a few whilst running his normal garage, unfortunately before I was old enough to drive he sold the garage and my parents moved away, I started renting and was then pretty skint from 18 onwards, thats a story for another day though. Once I had been in a couple supra's and skyline's especially as a teenager, I was hooked and I was always going to end up with something jap!
So I got to about 21 when insurance was affordable - ish and started looking for something, was torn between glanza's and s body's as they were quite similar in price at the time but as I couldn't skid the glanza and could only afford one, s body it would be! Was looking online for months as you do and along came a nice looking s14a not that far from me, so off I went to look at it. Drove up and met a nice bloke from Burnham on sea only a couple hrs from where I live and I new I was going to buy it after being there for about 2 mins as I could see this car had been well looked after, loads of stamps in the book up to 90k and the guy I bought it off seemed to have kept everything up to scratch and owned it for about 6-7 years.
27-04-13 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
30-04-13 05 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
30-04-13 04 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
Here it is when I got it home, was on 116k if I remember rightly and fairly clean all over. At this point it just had a few bolt on mods and the body work and interior all stock, even came with the original optional extra sony stereo with cd changer in the boot! Mods were:
Blitz Air filter
full custom exhaust with de-cat and hdev manifold
apex coliovers
Competition clutch
lightweight prop
subframe locking collars
18" Dare alloys
Front and rear strut braces
Blitz boost gauge
At this point I was driving the car as my daily doing a 45 mile round trip and was loving it. Started to do a few small things, fitted an aftermarket re-circ valve, fitted a ball and spring dawes device and upped the boost to about 0.8 to 0.9 bar. Was fairly happy with the performance at this point and after meeting a friend with an s13 and going to a couple drift days I thought I would have a go myself.
ResizedImage_13701978574581 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
ResizedImage_13883415816281 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
These pics are my first ever attempt at drifting at Westonzoyland which is fairly local to me. The car was as above and still with the stock lsd and no lock mods or anything. After a few goes I noticed the diff was unlocking a lot and I was actually struggling to get the hang of it more than I thought. After another event (and driving my mate rich's s13 with a welded diff fitted which felt much better and easier to control) I decided that's what I needed. Managed to get a s13 manual diff and welded that up. Gave me a slightly better ratio as went from the stock 3.7 to the manual s13 3.9.
Rich's s13 diff 1 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
Rich's s13 diff welded by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
So I done another drift day and then added some small rack washers and ground down the lock stops a bit.
IMG00056-20140412-1751 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
This was now noticeably better and I actually started to enjoy drifting the car. Probably a year later and after I done a couple more drift days I thought the lock and amount of turns of the wheel were holding me back, I was throwing the steering wheel around like crazy every time I transitioned! So I bought a fairly old set (which I am still using now) of modded knuckles, these are stock knuckles that had psm adaptors welded on, got these cleaned up and painted and away I went! Chucked on a nice omp steering wheel and steering was lots nicer
DSC_0004 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
DSC_0006 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
DSC_0008 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
DSC_0009 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
10922561_1378805679090011_2659635577454705743_n by Daniel Collins, on Flickr
What a difference, anyone who has read this far and is just starting out take note that once you have the basics down upgrading the knuckles is a night and day difference! Much quicker steering and easier to transition as the ackerman change stops the outside wheel from dragging and slowing you down! This seemed to make the car 'click' for me. Probably one of my favourite times owning the car as I was still driving it to work and back but as I was only running the hubs on the first of the 2 settings on the hub I could use the stock length rack ends etc and the car was pretty well planted and still fairly usable day to day as i still had the full leather interior and stereo with cd changer etc.
I will add the rest soon as possible but a bit slow as have to re-link every photo!
Thanks for reading, Dan