On September 24th, Ter-Tech held a first ever, night time drift event at the Palm Beach International Raceway. We have not been at this track since last summer, where I won the competition with the SR powered car. I was really excited to just get to any event, but this is one of the fastest venues we have here in Florida, and the facility is very beautiful with an amazing track.
Before the event got here, I still needed to replace the rear axle again. Fortunately, it was only one this time but I had no time to take her to the shop so it was a driveway job. Without a great angle to get full force on the axle, I had a hell of a time getting things up and in. We ended up unbolting a few suspension parts and she dropped in without issue. From crawling in and out and trying to do anything except pull the suspension, it took nearly 4 hours including setup and clean up but the axle was in!
The next night I finally got the parts I was looking for to re-enforce the fiberglass fenders and mount the front kit! Before installing the front kit, I taped off and painted the framing everywhere so the appearance of the car sans-bumper, is cleaner looking. Our first attempts were decent considering the limited fabrication abilities at my house. We had to go through several angles and mounting points for everything to look right. We put some strong supports behind the fenders and they are perfect, with no flexing. The front kit was a tight fit, I think due to the overfender shape and the supports we added. The only issue we have now is my mega awesome Mishimoto radiator is a tad tall and its very obvious with the front kit on. We have already added clearance to the underside of the hood, and are working on the best way to lower the radiator another half inch. Besides that, the ExtremeDimensions kit looks great on the car with the color and the shine from the XXR wheels.
So now the cars ready and we head out!
Arriving early, we got ready and rolled to the drivers meeting. We learned tandem class was unlimited in how many cars could run together and for the first time EVER, we were allowed to just hot lap. As we finished the course we only needed to get back to the start cone, and do a quick stop and go. With about 16 cars with cages we were sure to get a LOT of runs!
The weather played some games and we ended up with a wet track that dried up over the course of the night. The difficulty there was the track was uneven in its drying and the run would go from low grip, to high, to none, to low, to high. The car felt all unbalanced until the surface was more uniform. With the rain, and poor lighting we didn't see much tire smoke and the media guys had a hard time getting crisp shots of the action.
The other problem I faced was shifting the 6-speed. My first time making it to a high speed track and not breaking early, I was finally getting well into 4th gear. The shift gate is more narrow than my old Nissan 5-speed and I kept having an issue going from 3rd to 4th real fast (drag racing) and then from 4th back to 3rd in mid-drift. After the first run group that was drastically reduced and I had the best driving experience possibly to date in my career. I still haven't had to adjust my KSport coilovers yet since installing them in May; they are always doing what I expect and I don't have to worry about it!
We were entering near 100mph in 2-3-4-5 and even 6 car trains. This was also the first time I have seen such close tandem from other drivers. There were several people I thought I was going to hit I was so close and it was insanity. The event coordinator and owner of Ter-Tech, Harri Tervola, told me he saw me hitting other drivers!! I told him he is crazy and I never touched, he called me a liar and said he is going to check them for yellow paint, hahahahah. Harri is a highly respected driver and car builder here in Florida and that is a huge compliment from him. He is currently swapping a LS7 into a BMW and with a supercharger his car should be 1000+hp!!
This video shows a pretty nice run from 4 of us in the early wet stages.
To add to the night, I even brought extra fire gear so I could take other drivers (non-tandem class) for rides to show them what we crazy guys do. Its no where near as baller as the Sparco TechLight I rock, but it got them in the action! I could only take 1 person per run group because of the setup but.... one wants to now swap to a LS1, the other (z32 turbo- rod knocked this event) said he wants to get a 240 and LS1 swap it, and the last drove an old 944 Porsche and said the speeds and angles we are getting he didn't think were possible (and for sure not possible from his Porsche... his own words!).
This video has myself leading Patrick Goodin, then a REALLY close call when Chris Jackson nearly goes into the tires!
In this next video I get REALLY close to the car in front of me and we both pass another off line driver in a tandem drift!! crazy!
This last video shows me botching an entry (no ones perfect!) the track was finally getting dry and the cars were slowing down faster on braking and my entry was too early to make it with my 265 Nexens just grabbin up the pavement. I adjusted with a quick switchback and got back into it. The sad part is the last car in line loses it at the end and goes into the tire barrier on the last turn! Luckily, the safety barriers saved his car.
This one I'm at (0:59) following a black s14. He straightens and I just stay in it waiting for him to get back in the groove.
Over the night we did about 40 runs and no car issues at all! The car never even got close to overheating with that big Mishimoto radiator/fan setup. Also, the steering wobble is completely gone, and the axles held just fine. I am extremely excited to be getting back into a comfort zone with the car. Its falling into place very nicely.
For up and coming things, I am disappointed to say I can't afford a personal trip to the SEMA Show and keep up the event attendance. Unless I can find help with hotel or flight or both, I will see you at the PRI Show.
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