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Thread: The road to competition in my s14a drift car

  1. #61
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    Me and the misses went on the not so short trip to Teesside in Milddlesbrough last weekend, 350miles each way! Left in good time and went straight to the hotel which also had a pool. Nice to relax in there for half hr before having food and a good nights kip.

    Onto Sunday morning, got to track in good time, unloaded and went to briefing, track was ran the same as the year before (pretty much only layout other than when they have done it backwards on very rare occasions) and off into practice, it was a bit slippery for the first couple runs as it had rained over night but sooned dried up. Was all going well until I got a bit keen on one of my last few runs and took out half my rear bumper. Anyone that hasn't been there needs to go, going into the south bank corner top end of 3rd gear is awesome.

    2019-07-17_12-48-27 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Then was qualifying, didn't run as good a line as I did in practice but managed a 53 point score which put me in 26th, that put me through to top 32. I have now qualified in the top 32 in 4 out of the last 5 events which is quite nice.

    My battle was against Marcus in his 650-700hp skyline, hell of a car and good driver. I was chasing first as qualified lower, I kept with him as best as I could but unfortunately I made a mistake slowing down into the second corner which meant I understeered and then briefly straightened which I think gave me a zero. Then we swapped around, even though I then ran the best lead line I done all day it was too late as my mistake from the first run overturned the score and Marcus also chased me well. I was pretty annoyed at myself to be honest as hadn't made a mistake on that corner all morning in practice but that's drifting for ya.

    driftcup round 3 Teeside 14-07-19 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    So got a bumper to fix and then i'm off to the local Autofest event this weekend at smeatharpe banger track for some fun local skids and might be giving out passenger rides so if your local come along and say hello!

  2. #62
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    Went to a local show called Autofest that was having a mini drift day/comp. Cable tied the rear bumper back together and I was ready to go:

    Autofest and crash by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    First practice runs I got a bit keen and tapped the wall (it is a banger track so completely surrounded by non moving metal barriers) this destroyed the rear bumper and smashed a light so not great but could carry on still. It surprised me the amount of grip considering it had been raining the night before and it's probably had a lot of fluids spilt over it from other races. Someone managed to get a picture of me running the wall lol:


    Autofest 2019 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Done a few more practice sessions and didn't feel too bad, done a couple runs getting really close to my mate in his 2jz bmw but didn't get any video or pics unfortunately. Then they done a qualifying session and this is where it all went wrong, went through the first corner spot on then went to flick the car the other way and it seemed to go straight on. Boom! Hit the wall.... That was my weekend over, bent the drivers side lower arm and tie rod, smashed in the wing, light brackets, bent the bonnet up a little and broke my oil cooler. After checking the car at work on the ramp the rear subframe bushes have pulled through and i think thats what pushed me straight on.

    Autofest and crash by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Autofest and crash by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Autofest and crash by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Plan is to get the car back together as best possible in probably a multi coloured fashion, make up some new extended arms and tie rods, look at the rear poly bushes and fit the body panels I have managed to obtain over the past week. Hopefully be a reasonable state ready for Driftcup round 4 at Three sisters!

  3. #63
    Now with 400bhp....
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    Smeatharp oval is a drift car killer, seen so many go in to the wall over the years. Good luck getting it back together
    1998 Nissan 200sx s14a , 2000 std 5 speed with nismo supercoppermix clutch bn6 Sapphire Blue

  4. #64
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    put poly bushes in the rear subframe. solid are way to noisy. change the diff bushes whilst you have it out.

  5. #65
    Graphics Guru Davus200's Avatar
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    Great to read a locals build, Nice photo of you running the wall

    I take a spare tie rod with me to Smeatharpe now after hitting a pot hole on lock

  6. #66
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    Cheers guys, I should really try to come to one of the southwest meets at some point to take a look at your cars, mine would probs be the roughest of the bunch body work wise lol.

    I do take tie rods and track rod ends but never bent a lower arm like that before and as it was not far from home I thought F*** it. The rear subframe is already poly bushed but realise now after looking that the washers that I had on the rear 2 mounts weren't the correct ones and too small so made up new ones that are much bigger and cover the whole bush so shouldn't be able to pull through like that again. Live and learn I guess

    Here's how work on the front end has gone, straightened the corner of the bonnet and pushed the wing mount/inner arch out enough for the wing to fit:

    2019-07-29_10-22-31 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Rear end looking a bit straighter too and mocked up a stock bumper as my other one is destroyed!

    IMG_20190726_182827 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    More to update soon.

  7. #67
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    Cut and extended another set of poly bushed arms that I bought off a guy on the DW forum. Cut and sleeved another set of tie rods too, didn't have time to get it tracked so that's a job for next week. List of bits to do is getting smaller but still a good few things to get ready for Driftcup round 4.

    IMG_20190729_180548 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    IMG_20190730_172513 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    IMG_20190803_095110 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    IMG_20190803_103914 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    IMG_20190803_172625 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Re-fitted most of my panels now too and it's looking a bit more complete!

  8. #68
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    Had a bit of time today so managed to replace the smashed oil cooler with another one, also extended the lines and moved the cooler to the front of the car rather than infront of the drivers side wheel/under the wing.

    Oil cooler by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Removed the bent leaking one then mocked up the bracket to hold the new one:

    Oil cooler by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Oil cooler by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    All fitted up:

    Oil cooler by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Oil cooler by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Forgot to take a picture with all the bumper fitted but sits nicely in the air stream. Something else me and a friend have been looking into for the past 6 months that i'm excited about is running a twin caliper set up for a hydro but keeping the stock caliper and disk set up. Every other available twin caliper set up i've seen involve z32/skyline calipers and internal drums/shoes for the normal handbrake, some even use different mustang discs etc. We made some brackets and mocked up some other twin piston calipers incorporating the original disc and caliper mounts and spacing them out plus some grinding of the original hub to make it fit. Photo's of all this to come in the week! Had enough of the stock handbrake not always locking up

  9. #69
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    My hydro and brake T piece arrived yesterday whooop! Handle can be flipped either way which is nice so lift or pull back type and for the money it seems pretty solid and fairly light being nearly all alloy.

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Had a quick mock up and decided I needed to drill another hole to get the handle how I want it, basically i want it in as close to stock position as possible.

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Pulled out the interior trim and had another look with the adjusted handle, bit more like it! Then started drilling out the spot welds of the stock handbrake ready to move it over:

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Will pull the seat and finish drilling the other spot welds then try and make up a new bracket for the hyrdo in the stock-ish position.

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Look at the size of the second caliper compared to the stock one lol, hoping the 0.7 cylinder fitted is big enough to move enough fluid for it to lock without having to pull the handle out the window.

  10. #70
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    A bit of a mad rush but pretty much got all the bits together for the hydro now. I finished drilling out the spot welds of the stock handbrake and moved it over, cut the bracket about a bit and re-welded it on the left of the gearstick then tacked in the hydro bracket which is just a bit of 2mm steel with a couple holes drilled in it. On my way home went to pull the handbrake, grabbed the hydro by accident as its not plumbed literally grabbed nothing and had a mini heart attack lol. Proves that my muscle memory of the handbrake will be fine with the hydro though

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Also got the copper lines and T piece in ready, all I need to do now is connect the flexi's and make up a couple brackets for them, then onto bleeding it all up!

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Hydro by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Managed to give the area I welded a quick splash of paint before I re-fitted the stock handbrake and hydro. Got to load the truck with wheels and tools etc tomorrow as well so busy evening after work!

  11. #71
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    Haven't updated in a while, managed to get the flexi's fitted up in time for Driftcup round 4.

    IMG_20190815_173315 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    IMG_20190815_173737 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    IMG_20190815_192223 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Got the car back together as best possible but didn't look great

    IMG_20190814_205354 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    IMG_20190814_205448 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Didn't have any time to test the hydro so went to Three sisters with no idea how well it worked other than it seemed to lock ok in the yard at my work lol. Skip forward to practice and a new extended layout of the track was run that hadn't been run before. Fun but quite tight, tried the hydro after a couple laps and nearly worked too well! First few times I was pulling it as hard as I used to yank the stock one and I spun out, took a while to get used to plus learning the new track layout but managed to piece together a good enough score to qualify through around 25th/26th I can't remember exactly now.

    Bob Ormiston by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    On to top 32 battles and unfortunately I was trying too hard to keep with the other car and very near to ploughing through his rear quarter in a slowing down zone and decided to pull the handbrake, probably a bit more than I needed to (as you have gathered it's better than my stock one) and did a spin.... Great. Flipped around so I was leading and Axel in his rb s14 only made a few mistakes but not enough to over turn my spin so that was the end of my day. Soo annoyed i spun but i think the pressure does get to me when put on the spot in battles so that's something I need to work on.

    Bob Ormiston twin with Axel by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    On the plus side the car seems to be working great with the replaced extended arms etc and the hydro I just need to get used to. Will update a bit more when I get time over the next few days.

  12. #72
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    Back home I wasn't happy staring at the purple rear bumper so decided to give it a quick spray up and also polish out as many of the scratches that were still left on the overfender from my little crash before. Also decided to cut the bumper down to meet the rear over fenders as I seem to catch or pull off my rear bumper at pretty much every drift day so hoping the extra clearance will save it a bit!

    IMG_20190825_132239 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    IMG_20190826_181736 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Fast forward to the weekend just gone and Dakota drift event, my local practice day. They now allow more cars on track at once and seat time was much improved, did 12 sessions and went through 10 pairs of part worn tyres! It is a very rough surface though and the way the sessions run you do 3-4 laps consistantly so the tyres just get super hot and pretty much explode. Should have some pics come through soon. Car was faultless and only had to swap tyres and I was back out on track. Even my rear bumper stayed on

  13. #73
    Graphics Guru Davus200's Avatar
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    Loving the updates, good work!

    Have you cut out and flattened the boot floor? I've been toying with the idea of cutting the bumper in half and fitting a diffuser as love the look!

    Also good to hear that Smeatharpe has better seat time now. Thats what has put me off going recently as was a lot of sitting around...

  14. #74
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    Smeatharpe

    Quote Originally Posted by Davus200 View Post
    Loving the updates, good work!

    Have you cut out and flattened the boot floor? I've been toying with the idea of cutting the bumper in half and fitting a diffuser as love the look!

    Also good to hear that Smeatharpe has better seat time now. Thats what has put me off going recently as was a lot of sitting around...
    Thanks, sorry for slow reply! Ye I have kind of half done it, cut both the quarters to meet the boot floor, there is pics at the bottom of the first page in this thread. Makes it super easy when working on the back of the car too so definitely worth it, will probably flat floor the spare wheel well eventually but its handy to chuck an extra 2 wheels in when going places so will leave it as it is for the minute.

    I have bought a ticket for next Smeatharpe in November, you going?

    Faven Photography got a good few pics of me last time here's a couple:

    72549917_2187315561374454_835472474530381824_o by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    72754589_2187314444707899_1661674914987376640_o by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    71810271_2187313604707983_9080336345859096576_o by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

  15. #75
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    Bit slow to update but went to Birmingham wheels raceway for driftnights, another banger track but a bit bigger than the one I crashed at a while ago. Was taking it steady-ish as had the car booked in for paint over the next couple weeks and managed to do the whole day with just a rear bumper scuff and the front wing catching the tyre rubbing through the loom slightly, think this was from one area of the track that had quite a big bump when transitioning. This was a lot better than my last banger track experience so happy with that

    Was good seat time as they run qualifying battles rather than 2 qualifying runs so about 10 battles on top of the practice and top 32/16 runs.

    There and unloaded nice and early:

    Birmingham wheels by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Ready for top 16 battles (it pissed it down at this point):

    Birmingham wheels by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Birmingham wheels by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Small video from the practice in the morning with a guy in a v8 e36


  16. #76
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    Haven't updated this for a while! So after Birmingham wheels the car got painted including an srb front splitter which I think looks good. Went to local zoyland and then smeatharpe drift days, both wet particularly the smeatharpe day!

    Drifting by Daniel Collins, on Flickr


    Drifting by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Bit of manifold glow!

    Drifting by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Couple video clips on my Instagram account:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B4svaj8n..._web_copy_link
    Last edited by drc; 23-02-2020 at 03:03.

  17. #77
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    Wasn't entirely sure what was happening this year but decided to try another year of competition, going for RDC or Retro Drift Challenge as it's known instead of Driftcup but will see how the year progresses. Behind the scenes been speaking to quite a few people, I now have a facebook page just for my drifting - Dan Collins drifting. Please give it a like if you get a minute, thanks.

    I'm also excited to announce I have my first proper sponsor, PartService. We have used them at the garage I work at for years and will be contributing towards tyres, hoping to run better tyres this year to gain a bit of consistency!

    IMG_20200307_145805 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Also started wireing in my electrical cut off switch and mounting/plumbing the fire extinguisher. Will get some better pics when it's all in but here you can see the spaghetti of wires, had to re-wire the ignition as someone had been in there before me (must have been a long time ago) for an alarm or something!

    IMG_20200307_132543 by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

  18. #78
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    As the Corona virus has hit us all the first round of RDC will be missed and no idea when or where I will be drifting next. On the plus side I managed to get a partnership/ bulk buy discount with https://uk.tirestreets.com/ for the 2020 season (whatever is left of it) and my first delivery of 651 sport semi slicks turned up last week before the lock down. Very good service I must add, ordered Wednesday turned up Friday morning!

    Tirestreets Accelera tyres by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Tirestreets Accelera tyres by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Tirestreets Accelera tyres by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Tirestreets Accelera tyres by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Tirestreets Accelera tyres by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    This also means I have a discount code, normally you get 10% off your first order but if you type in Dan15 in the discount code box at the checkout you can get 15% off for as many orders as you want, give it a try! Very decent tyres for track and drift. If you do make an order give me a message would be happy to know someone has used my code

    The garage where I work has now closed today for the foreseeable future which I am totally ok with. I will probably try and do a few small jobs on the car as its at home with me and I won't be going anywhere I don't need to, might even try and make a video.....
    Last edited by drc; 25-03-2020 at 22:04.

  19. #79
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    Working from home

    Been working on the car at home over the past few days, unfortunately don't have some of the tools I normally have at my disposal but still manage to do a fair bit!

    Work at home by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Started to strip the front end and remove the hubs/bearings, got to swap the extended studs over next...

    Work at home by Daniel Collins, on Flickr

    Made a quick video, mainly to practice my editing as i'm pretty bad when it comes to it. Hasn't turned out too bad, feel free to like and subscribe as will try and make a few more!


  20. #80
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    Part 2 video now up, a bit longer so get a cuppa ready before watching!


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