15/01/2012

My S14.... the progress so far!

Recently I've been working really hard to turn my S14 from a daily drifter to a competition car with the intentions of competing in the 2012 season of the BDC and sometimes it's just nice to look back and see how far you've come with a project.

So, here we go! In June 2009 i picked up an almost standard red S14 off Pete Barber, the only uprated parts being KYB Shocks, Tein springs, a 3" exhaust and a set of Advan 3 spoke rims.



The day i picked it up i drove it straight to the garage for a fresh MOT and of course to weld the diff! A couple of days later i was drifting at the Japshow drift demo at Santa Pod.




Two months later i treated the car to some nice posh coilovers, HSD HR's from Driftworks.




From then on i did mostly aesthetic changes, painted the splitters etc and just generally made it look a bit better.


After my time living in the Isle of Man, i moved back to the UK and also got the S14 some new wheels!! They were 15" x 8j et -8 Rockcrawler wheels off a Jeep and seemed to draw a lot of attention!



Next up was a replacement exhaust as mine came flying off mid drift lol a nice cheap replacement which actually looked pretty awesome, at the same time i replaced the downpipe with a twin superlow one from Japspeed to help with clearance!



I also removed the rear interior and fitted a Thrash racing bucket seat and Willans harness.


Of course in between there was plenty of drifting at various tracks, Santa pod, Norfolk Arena etc




Did some arch flaring with Arch Enemy to squeeze the pokey wheels under the arches!



In December 2010 i officially became a team member of the Mint Tyres Drift team and also gained sponsorship from Carbon Copy Japanese Bodykits. The car was then fitted with a roof spoiler from SRB Power, Blitz Type 01's 17" wheels and some sponsorship stickers.


Other parts fitted included new front lower arms with adjusted lock stops, strengthened and extended tie rods, steering rack spacers, Apex Front mounted intercooler, a new steering wheel, Vertex sideskirts from Carbon Copy, an Apex gearbox mount and a shorter ratio (4:1) diff for better acceleration.


I tested the car out at Mallory park in May 2011 and really started to notice the improvements i was making, the 4:1 diff by far being the best modification and helping me to use 3rd gear more.



In May 2011 i was pleased to announce a new sponsorship deal with RS Repairs in Wellingborough, RS Repairs will continue to be involved throughout the 2012 season. I also then collected a full Vertex bodykit from Carbon Copy which started to transform the look of the car.



I decided a change of colour was in order and actually decided to have the car vinyl wrapped by Craig and Precision Drift Clothing, i wasn't familiar with the process of vinyl wrapping a car but Craig did an amazing job and the result was awesome!







I was really impressed with the skill it took to apply massive sheets of vinyl on his own and the quality finish could never be had for the same money if you were to paint a sparkly colour like i have.

Since vinyl wrapping the car it receives a lot of attention not only from drifters but from all car enthusiasts so i took the car to two photo shoots and got some cracking shots.








In June 2011 i was over the moon to be awarded my BDC Semi Pro license at Donnington, giving me lots of enthusiasm to get the car up to spec for the 2012 season.



I also attended Awesomefest 2011 at Mallory Park, my first outing with the new colour and unfortunately my last until now!





I have a lot more updates coming soon and I'm looking forward to a new challenge and improving as much as i can in 2012!

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