Drift – Gripshiftslide

Keep It Reet Battle Royale RND#1 – 2023 – Run the wall

Grant — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 02:50:04 +0000

Meguiars MotorEX – Drift Cadet Drift Demo’s

Grant — Thu, 05 May 2022 13:42:00 +0000

It was 2019 last time we saw Drift Cadet put on a drift demo at Meguires MotorEx. So why has it been so long between events? Well we all know the answer to this one…COVID. That’s right I said the C word! regardless it was great to see Drift Cadet bringing drift to the uninitiated crowd.

Adding a live action event to Meguires MotoEX has made the event so much more than just a car show! Bringing Drifting to those who have never seen it before really blows peoples minds.

The speed and action of drifting really gets the crowd going! Even though some die hard burnout fans think that drift is just like doing a fishy up the street! Its more than that!

If your a fan of GSS you will know 90% of our content is drift! Why? because its our favorite form of motorsport. Although we love Rally, Time Attack and Circuit Racing.

Daniel Prior is a gun behind the wheel, his 370z is so loud and angry! not to mention grippy, the car really gets down and booggies!

Big car show means big crowd, Drift Cadet did a great job selecting some of the best, most consistent safe drivers for this event.

Mr Engineered to Slide, AKA Nigel Petrie. A name that is well know around the internet for a good reason, not only can he build and engineer a car from scratch but he is also one hell of a drifter!

We all know that JDM prices are soaring! And seeing Dean Newcomb throw his S15 around like a toy scares me! Although we love to see these cars in action they are now becoming rare and the parts to fix them even more rare.

Motorsport is not dead! people love it but with the distractions of social media and life many people don’t get a chance to see live Motorsport anymore. This is also a reason why its hard for some drift event to pull a decent crowd.

Now to secure a big crowd at a Drift event you have to spend a big wad of cash to advertise. Social media is still king, to reach an audience these days you have to compete against all the other events. So to even let people know that there is an event on you have shell out more cash than ever.

In the future I think we will see more of these type combination events or pairings. Car show and big drift event together or Major car event plus smaller car event combined.

With the prices of all things on the rise it is a certainty that many events will join forces. More the merrier right? Whatever keeps drift alive is ok with us!

Justin Gruener’s newest addition to his fleet of performance vehicles is this super tough R32. This was the cars first event for Justin and it did not disappoint.

Everything was going great until the clutch started slipping, in true fashion Justin decided to drive around the issue and take it easy on the car to prevent more damage happening.

“Two hot boi’s” Well I think that’s what the kids say these days! What I’m trying to say is that these two boys are super popular online.

Its for a good reason, their S chassis are some of the nicest looking low Silvias in the Victorian drift scene. These boys can also steer! Their cars are not just trailer pony’s!

A historical figure of sorts the 180sx of Nigel Petrie has been in this form for at least ten years! The car still turns heads! The 180sx has been engineered to drive low, Nigel intentionally moved the rear sub-frame up so the rear wheels can tuck and have enough travel to drift well.

Ben Loft is a quiet achiever! Some call him the ladies man of the century.. I’ve herd many rumors that he has millions of fans on social media and has turned down offers to be on the Bachelor TV show.

But its not only the girls that find Ben hot! the boys find his car rather exciting as well. Ben is part of the infamous SR20 tribe and many people in the crowd lined up to hear its sweet sounds.

The smoke the noise and the battles are what was making these kids get rowdy! Im not sure if they had ever seen drift before but one thing is certain, they loved it.

Nigel’s fabrication online courses are a massive success and now he has started his own Youtube channel to document all his adventure’s! check it out here and be sure to subscribe!

The battles between Matt and Ben were intense! They really had some door on door action, the passengers who were lucky enough to get a ride along got the best seat in the house.

The owner of the worlds largest Hoshino racing wheel collection was in attendance at Meguiars MotorEX, otherwise known as Matt Russell.

Gavin having not as much power as the other car’s in the field was having to grip up to catch the faster cars, but once in front he dictated the pace.

Kumar a scholar of the drift game was putting on an absolute clinic for the unsuspecting MotorEx crowd. He kept pushing wide and getting as close as he could to the plastic barriers which was fun to watch.

The late Drift demo show had less of a crowd as the spectators tended to see drifts in the morning then looked at the car show. Because Melbourne Showgrounds is a big place it takes a long time to complete a full lap of the venue.

Top Chef Michael Greenhill cooked up a storm for the demo drivers, then put the Drift Cadet V8 ute through its paces around the car park kidney course.

This was a great event, good crowd great energy and a great bunch of people. Drift Cadet always do a superb job of organizing these Drift demo’s. We can’t wait to see more demos like this at other big events around Australia.
Thanks for reading,
Grant

Bonus Video

Keep It Reet – Friday Night Drifts

Grant — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 04:02:00 +0000

Friday night drifts are always full of good vibe’s and fun times. A mix of drivers turn up to the Keep It Reet Friday night event’s with pro drivers and beginners shredding tyre’s well into the night. Below is a selection of my favorite photos from the event

Shockworks Bayside Matsuri :: A Beachside Touge

Grant — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 22:39:13 +0000

For the last couple of years I had heard of an event by the sea where drifters come together and burn tyres by the beach. When I received an invite to get out to South Australia and check out the Shockworks Bayside Matsuri over the October long weekend I did not hesitate.

This invite included a road trip with Mike Lake a relatively new driver to the drift scene in Victoria and Matthew Choong the local drift club president. How could i say no? Last minute repairs were still being done to the car just before it was to go on the trailer for the long trip to the event.

Everything was going according to plan except the fact that the starter motor, which was only held in with one bolt, decided to free itself when the car was restarted just as the car was being loaded onto the trailer. This then caused a difficult 3 hour fix that none of us were expecting. Once fixed we were on the road and within no time we had arrived in the sleepy town of Mount Gambier.

The first thing that shocked me was exactly how close the event was to the beach!
Held at Surfers Way, Port MacDonnell in South Australia this small beach access road had been turned into a makeshift drift track!

So how did Bayside Drift start?
Bayside Drift started when a local rally club ran a hillclimb on the same bit of road. In April 2015
Ben Collins arrived in his freshly tuned S13 and burnt tyres all day along the winding street course by the bay.

The same event rolled around in 2016 and he did the same thing! Unfortunately this time it didn’t go down so well.. He was asked to leave by one of the stewards for not driving in the spirit of the event.

Fast forward to 2017; when it came time to SEAC running their Twin Peaks Hillclimb for the third time, Ben’s drift club (South East Motorsport Alliance) were offered the opportunity to piggy back alongside their event. Sharing infrastructure, Ben ran on Saturday and they ran on Sunday.

The first event attracted roughly 25 entries from SA and Victoria and was held on one day. Same again early in 2018 Ben piggybacked off SEACs event again but was shunted to a Friday and had trouble filling a field due to the long drive between Adelaide and Melbourne. Hard to justify 10 hours of travel for only a days driving.

This was the first event solely run at Surfers Way, Port MacDonnel by South East Motorsport Alliance as a stand alone event. With only 50 spots available the event sold out very quickly. The field was a mix of drivers from Victoria and South Australia.

Among the list of drivers attending included some very well know and unknown drivers. Names like Simon Michelmore and Luke Broadbent. Both of these drivers have had years of experience and seat time in many high level drift competitions.

The mix of drivers made for some interesting driving, the less confident drivers soon became much better with experienced drivers chasing them down the track and pushing their limits. Mike Lakes BMW was on song all weekend, it didn’t miss a beat. Standing from the sidelines I watched his driving steadily improve as he tandemed with the large variety of drivers.

A surprise attendee was the amazingly unique rx7 from Cliff Clayson sporting a head turning body kit from BN-sports. Its is the very car that is being lent to Takahiro Immamura or otherwise known as the ‘Drift Samurai’ to compete in the World Time Attack International Drift Cup.

With WTAC only a week away is was a great chance for Cliff to give the car a final shakedown before the big event. Recently Cliff had the TTi GTO 6 speed sequential gearbox out of the car, and it was given a thorough going over by NEAT Gearboxes in Adelaide where It had some special treatment ready for WTAC. Along with that Cliff recently added some new MEGAN Racing Australia rear adjustable control and toe arms.

This new design allows for a lot more adjustment over the previous set up, and is far superior in strength with the gusseted bolt thru toe arm connection to the control arm.
We asked Cliff if he was excited to see his car driven by the ‘Drift Samurai’ – “I am so excited, this is a dream come true for myself and the whole team. Personally it’s such an honour to hand the Crazydog Rotorsports Rx7 leash to ‘Drift Samurai’. He has been a long time drift hero of mine, since I started watching the Japanese drift tengoku DVDs back in 2002.

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to meet Samurai on many occasions such as Tokyo Autosalon and D1GP events. I admire his aggressive driving style and individuality. I never would have dreamt anything this cool could possibly happen. A big thank you to Michael Ginn (Dorijunkie Imports) & BN Sports for making this vision a reality”.

Cliff told me that “testing it was insane! Everything is working perfectly”. The team at Garage 7 and Cliff spent the Friday doing the final checks and Saturday morning was spent with the Garage 7 tuner – Declan Walsh.

He went over the computer and shift cut parameters in time for Bayside event. Cliff did however damage the centre bearing cage on the right rear axle part way thru the day. They suspect this was due to damage which had occurred prior to the event. So upon his return to Adelaide, a spare axle will be installed ready for WTAC.

I then asked Cliff “Did you always have this BN kit in mind for the car?”
Cliff: “When I originally set out building this Rx7 back in 2008, I had an idea in my mind to make it as aggressive as possible, both mechanically and in its appearance. Over the past 10 years it has slowly evolved. The first form was completed back in 2015 which we campaigned thru till the end of 2016. It was around this time that I wanted to change the look. With the unveiling of the BN SPORTS BLS FD3S Rx7 at the 2017 Tokyo Autosalon, I knew that this kit would complete it.

With help from Michael Ginn (Dorijunkie) we were able to make this final transformation a reality. I never dreamed it could be this CRAZY but with the help of many amazing people the end result has far exceeded my expectations and I couldn’t be happier”.

I was shocked that Cliff was about to attempt this track considering how technical it is. One mistake and he could be going for a swim. Lucky Cliff was not running the car ‘balls to the wall’ rather just lightly testing the car under load to weed out any weak points before it was about to compete.

Another special guest on the day was Stewy Byrant a rather special driver who has been invited to drift all over the world because of his unique style. If you like sparks and crazy driving check out his promo reel, you will not regret it! ( https://youtu.be/4Qgk16h3uVI )
Stewy is that well respected in the drift scene that he was selected to design the brand new drift track at Taliem Bend!

With his years of experience and depth of knowledge he has even built specialised steering systems, suspension components and other wizardry to help drifters achieve more lock with greater adjustability than anything else on the market. Acostal Ms Dev is some serious gear.
Although Stewy was not driving on the day he did grab a few passenger rides with his mates. One particular ride ended in a serious hit to Simon Michelmore’s car that basically caved in his left rear wheel! Thankfully no one was hurt and the safety crew was there within seconds to render assistance.
(video of crash>facebook.com/inertiams)

The most impressive thing about this track layout is that the drivers get to experience two tracks in one. What do I mean by that? The drivers have to approach each corner differently depending on the direction of the track. The drivers all line up at a dummy grid on top of the hill and once that light goes green they drift their way to the bottom and line up again for the return run to the top.

Over the two days the drifters got more acquainted with the track and were able to form some nice drift trains in front of the small crowd that traveled a fair distance to see the special event. This new style of drift street event is a great mix between illegal streeting and a general drift event at a track.

Yet this one is completely legal with no flashing lights in sight. This could potentially breed a new type of touge competition in the future on public roads around Australia! Maybe I’m dreaming.. but at least it’s a new step in the right direction for the drift community with the limited amount of tracks that allow drifting in Australia.
Thanks for reading
-Grant

Engineered To Slide :: Don't Call It A Comeback

Grant — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 06:44:27 +0000

It seems like a life time ago when I last saw Nigel Petrie drift. Yet out of the blue he turns up to support Drift Cadet at the Melbourne Motor-Ex drift demos. Did Nigel suddenly have a drift relapse? put the motor bikes away and uncover the cars from the shed?

If you didn’t already know Engineered To Slide is the brain child of Nigel Petrie, A garage where wild things are created by hand! Famous for the Hilux drift ute that took the world by storm around 2012.

The tube frame drift Hilux broke the internet way before facebook funneled the internet into a predictive advertising portal.
A time when planking was cool and the Australian dollar was nearly on par with he american dollar.

We were glad to see Nigel Petrie behind the wheel again with two of his most iconic cars, the Drift Hilux and his red 180sx.

The main car he drifted for the Meguiars Motor Ex Drift demos was the 180sx which performed flawlessly all day!
Nigel is a huge fan of the KISS principal and for the reason the 180sx has stayed relatively unchanged in the last ten years.

As a testament to Nigels workmanship this car has being running strong all that time while still running the very same engine and gearbox installed all those years ago.
Athough the car everyone was wanting to see was the Hilux, me included!

It’s amazing that Nigel has not been behind the wheel of his 180sx for 2 years, within 2 laps it all came back to him and he put on a flawless display for the entire 2 days of the drift demos.

Engineered to slide has been concentrating on motorbike build’s in the last 3 to 4 years but it’s great too see that Nigel has not lost sight of his motorsport roots.

Even know I did not get to witness the Hilux drifting in person here is a quick video of what the lucky crowd was able to see at MotorEx.

Thanks for reading,
Grant

VicDrift :: Round 1 2018 – Top 8 Video

Grant — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 12:38:20 +0000

Enjoy this eleven minute feature on the very first event for VIC Drift in 2018. Running a completely new track layout, many experienced drivers were knocked out of the mix by young guns.

Drift Cadet :: Bringing Drifting To The Masses

Grant — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 12:54:50 +0000

The popularity of drift within Australia has gone through many phases and the ability to get into the sport has changed. Despite the national drifting series dwindling, statewide competitive drifting has increased, so the question is what is being done to further the culture of drift?

How should the sport foster talent of newcomers? Or even inspire the younger generation? Those kids who haven’t even got their licence yet! How often do you see drifting of any kind on TV? Yes it’s easy to find on the internet, but only really if you go looking for it, and especially Australian drifting.

The culture of drift in Australia is missing some vital things to increase the popularity of drift as a whole. Where is the Auskick for drift? Where are the heroes of the sport and what are the incentives?

The barrier of entry is too large in Australia. There is no easy way to go to a track, acquire a drift car and test
your ability against others; especially if you’re just trying out the sport. Not to mention the now infamous “drift tax”
stopping people from affording cars that were once cheap and capable.

Therefore the amount of drifters are low relative to other countries. The reason being accessibility to the sport and equipment.

Thankfully Drift Cadet has created an entry point into the sport of drift. Not only do they provide the car, they also have Victoria’s best competitive drifters as coaches! With three different levels- beginner, intermediate, advanced. From skid pan to the track, nothing is left out.

One of the greatest features of Drift Cadet is the ability to just arrive and drive. This really puts Drift Cadet on the map as one of the best drift schools in Australia. Better yet there is no cost of owning a car, maintenance, or repairs and no towing the car back and forth from the track.

From viewing drifting through the lens for so long I thought it was time to actually get in there and have a go.
To say I was excited is an understatement! My only drifting experience thus far was wet roads and an over boosted MR2 Sw20 or doing roundabouts in a Honda Beat with over-cambered rear wheels and cheese cutters showing wire on the outer edges.

The Subaru BRZ’s are the cars we were learning in. So why did Drift Cadet choose this platform? Because with the number of BRZ/86s manufactured in the last five years you can most definitely speculate that they will become the new S13 in the local drift scene. So what mods are they running? Well here is the kicker! Basically nothing!

The setups run on both cars are as follows; Kaaz 2 way LSD, Shockworks coilovers, bucket seats, lock spacers and tyres matched to the wet surface of Winton skidpan. If you’ve ever heard the saying “keep it simple stupid”
then you will understand the philosophy of Drift Cadet.

I was so suprised on how well a standard car puts up with such punishment. The BRZ/86 is such an underrated car and the fact is that most people never get to test the full potential of these great cars. The first lesson we had was to perform donuts around a cone on the skid pan. We were instructed to get the car in the high revs then dump the clutch and keep the car in a controlled donut without losing drift.

All the hours on Assetto Corsa drifting on the online GripShiftSlide server helped out and the donut came with ease, yet mastering the figure eight did not come easy. I found out quickly that speed and weight transition are things that translate very differently in the real world. They say that with time you are able to feel what is happening with the car using your bum?

Quickly I went from doing well to constantly spinning out and it was a combination of things I was doing wrong.
Both instructors gave me plenty of pointers yet I was too pig headed and excited to fully implement their instructions.

After learning how to implement the clutch kick and handbrake into the mix I successfully
pulled off a couple of figure eights but often built up too much speed and would spin out.

Breaks in between sessions gave me and the students time to watch others on the skid pan. This also gave us the opportunity to sample the great coffee and snacks on offer from Amabelle Patisserie.

Time went so fast and before I knew it the day was over. I learnt so much yet the surprise of the group was a fifteen year old that made us all look like amateurs! He was cutting figure eights straight out the gate!

Drift Cadet is really the only independent group teaching drifting in Victoria and you also get a CAMS Speed Licence when you complete the beginners course.

When the lessons were over we were invited to go for a ride with the teachers. They didn’t hold back in pushing the BRZ’s to the limit at speed around the skid pan! It was a great way to leave us with a lasting smile.

I really admire Drift Cadet for putting it all out there and creating a platform for beginner drifters in Victoria.
Creating such a great day and driving experience has left me with skills that I will not forget.
If you would like to lean more about Drift Cadet check out their website or facebook page.
Thanks for reading,
Grant

VICDRIFT :: Round #4 – Things get serious

Grant — Sun, 10 Sep 2017 10:58:44 +0000

The year is quickly coming to an end, it’s this time of year when all the motorsport events start to fire up as the weather begins to get warmer.
Round #4 of the Victorian Drift Championship was held at Calder Park in front a strong crowd and a large amount of eager drivers.

Every year we seem to see a changing of the guard, a new champion and a new set of hungry drivers ready to take the title of Victorian Drift Champion.

This is the second last event of the championship, the time to count points, the time to patch the car up and hope it holds together for the upcoming battles.

The day had just begun, it was time for the drivers briefing which was held on track. The drivers were about to learn what exactly the judges wanted to see from them, some divers attentively listened to the judges while others were just talked smack to their mates.

Last year round 4 was won by this man; Adian Ing, he surprised everyone by beating out some very seasoned veterans of the sport. This year he has found him self in a new car for the season and has been looking to steal another win.

This layout is as fun for the drivers as it is for the crowd! Having to throw the car with full commitment straight at the crowd then transitioning up and around the bend makes for an exciting spectacle.

Some of the higher powered cars tended to bog down and lose momentum on this particular track layout. The higher grip lower powered cars were impressive as they are able to catch ground quickly on their high powered rivals.

Jason Ferrons new rig has had its up’s and down’s! Haunted hill’s really made the car look like a half crushed coke can. With help from friends and a lot of talented people the R33 sedan was fashioned back together in time for round #4.

Be gone shabby paintwork! The boys over at WrapedUp did an amazing job making Jason’s car look like it was straight from the paint shop.

Nissan is still the dominate platform for drift around Australia and in many other places around the world. With so many options for custom aftermarket parts made especially for drift I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon.

Choonga the president of VicDrift has had enough of sitting behind the sidelines and organizing everything.
Round #4 saw him borrow a friends R32 four door to jump in the mix with some of Australia’s best drivers.

Everyone was pushing hard during qualifying, Justin Gruener took the top spot followed closely by Christopher Schulze and Matty Russell rounding out the top three.

Every year I watch drivers come up through the ranks and overtime see their skill’s develop.
One of the drivers who has been very impressive in the last six months is Zac Bongnar. Although his name sounds like an evil villain straight from a bond film his driving is aggressive but not demonic.

Alex Gouveia has been charging hard all season! His battle’s are always super entertaining, he is one driver we will be seeing on the podium next year for sure! He put down plenty of great runs during the day but was knocked out of the top 8 by Justin Gruener.

The judges where wanting drivers to run wide on the first corner and touch wheels on a patch of concrete just at the start of the corner. To do this it required a fair amount of speed! Here you can see Zac Bongnar and Christopher Schulze’s first initiation before the cars even get to the corner. Zac’s battle against team mate Christopher was re-run it was so close! Eventually Christopher Schulze ended up winning this battle.

Top 16 and top 8 Results where read out right in front of the crowd sitting on the above hill. Drivers sat side by side as they were read their verdict.

Big power versus no power, Kevin Flynn almost ran into trouble narrowly missing Julian Di Battista on his run. The crowd cheered as they thought they were about to see carnage, yet Kevin Flynn’s years of experience kept him from binning the unique 2JZ S15.

I can’t imagine the thoughts going through Christian Stella head moments before he was to battle his long time friend and Vic Drift President Mathew Choong. Do you push it! Get on door? Or leave a safe distance?

Thankfully Christian Stella did all of the above without damaging the car that Mathew Choong had borrowed especially for the event. It was a great battle that was re-run it was so entertaining! Christian ended up taking the win and moving all the way up to the top 8.

The people’s choice award was voted live on facebook by the crowd watching the event, they chose Mathew Choong and Warwick Fitzgerald as there favorite divers of Round 4 Vic Drift Championship. This then meant that the two would have to battle to the death for the audience’s affection! Both drivers put on one hell of a show with Warwick taking the win in his small but mighty MX5.

Justin Gruener has been hard at work all year! Hey has reached the VicDrift podium many times in the last couple of years yet he has never been able to get the win. This time however all his stars aligned.

Not only did he take first qualifier and impress the hell out of the judges! But he also took the win at Round #4 and the best part is it was also his birthday! What a hat trick!

So who will take the crown of Victorian Drift Champion for 2017? With many regular names missing rounds of the championship its anyone’s game! The 2017 championship definitely looks like it is favoring the underdogs this year. The last round is quickly approaching and we cannot wait to see who can take the win this year.
Thanks for reading,
Grant.

Triple H Liveries :: The Virtual World Of Drift Livery Design

Grant — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 10:48:13 +0000

GripShiftSlide has been a big fan of Triple H Liveries for quite some time now, yet we wanted to know more about the man behind these amazing designs. Creating recreations of real world drift liveries for the Forza community is no easy task there are not many people who can create liveries to the high standard’s that Tripple H does.
GSS: What made you start creating race livery’s for Forza?
I would go to drifting events and come home searching for a design I saw and couldn’t find it so I just started making replicas for myself. After some positive feedback I started sharing them and making more.

GSS: What Program do you use to create your designs?
Everything I design on Forza is created with the paint editor tools within the game.

GSS: Are you a big fan of Australian Drift?
Yes always try to get to the local events like ADGP, DCA, QLD State Series and Stadium Drift Australia while also watching the other ones on TV.

GSS: Have you always played racing sims?
Yes I have been into racing games ever since i can remember playing games like the Need For Speed series, GT 1 & 2, Colin McRac Rally series, V8 Supercars (TOCA) and a lot more. I always enjoy a good racing game.

GSS: Do you design your own Liveryies for race cars? or do just recreate existing Liveries?
Probably 95% of my designs are replicas and I make my own designs on Forza but mainly for myself only.

GSS: Who inspires you?

Definitely my children inspire me, my daughter has a disability she has been through a lot in her life and is one of the happiest people I know.

GSS: Have you always been into motorsports?
Yes I’ll always been into some type of Motorsports over the years V8 Supercars, rally, and drift.

GSS: Would you like this to be your day job?

No it’s always been for fun and to take my mind off other thing’s, making Liveries for Forza will not become my day job.

GSS: How do you first start your designs?
I start by searching Facebook and Instagram for pictures of the design I want to make. I collect pictures of the car from different angles and the I go looking for logos of there sponsors. After I have enough pic’s I start by laying down the design on the side of the car and work my way around. Finishing with creation and placement of all the sponsors logos.

GSS: Do you only design for Forza?
Yes because it takes so long to do one design I prefer to only do the Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon series and I enjoy playing the game as well.

GSS: Are all of your works Australian inspired?
Yes I try to keep all my designs Australian but do have one or two that are not.

GSS: How long do your designs take to create?
I have never really timed how long it take’s for me to make a livery, It depends on the design an easier one like Drift School Australia s13 would’ve taken about 6 to 8 hours and designs like Blaze Unit, Levi, Boettcher, Driftsquid and Yates would’ve definitely taken well over 24 hours to finish.
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GSS: What car do you drive and what car would you like to be drive?
Would love to own a VK Group A/3 and I drive a VZ wagon. I know my next car will be a wheelchair accessible van for my daughter which we are trying to raise money for.
If anyone can spare a few dollars to help Maddie to get a wheelchair accessible van please go to gofundme.com/madisyne Thank You.
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GSS: Are you the only person creating Australian drift livery’s for Forza?
No I don’t think so I have seen some other Australian drift designs around in the public lobbies.

GSS: How long have you been doing this for?
I’ll started painting back on Forza Motorsports 2 so I think that was around 2007. I started painting Dora designs on forza Motorsport 2, 3 and 4 just so my daughter who has Holoprosencephaly would let me play as she hated me playing Forza and then I worked my way up to making replicas on forza 4.

GSS: Are there any other artists you work with?
With Forza motorsports and Forza Horizon series on Xbox One you can’t work with other players.

GSS: Do you only concentrate on popular drifters or do you try and cover them all?
Yes I try to cover them all it doesn’t bother me if your popular or not just as long as you have a got a good design.

GSS: What is you favorite racing sim of all time?
With out a doubt Forza Motorsports 4 the cars and tracks on the game are just the best combination as well as the clubs, auction house and storefront. With multiplayer and custom public lobbies it is so easy to find players who want to play! from Cruising, Car shows, Racing, Tandem, Point drifting, Tag, Drag and Limbo.

GSS: Do people request designs from you?
Yes I had a lot requests for design and logos over the years It would be nice to get to all of them but it just isn’t possible.
Help Triple H raise funds for his daughter Madisyne who suffers from Holoprosencephaly and needs a new wheelchair accessible van, every dollar makes a difference.
Click here to donate
Click here to see more of Triple H liveries work on facebook.

Blog Heroes :: Low Key Fun

Grant — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 07:27:06 +0000

We’ve all seen the saying “Keep drifting fun” thrown around the net over the years. We certainly have some great national and state competitions in Australia, however outside of some casual drift matsuri style events, there really hasn’t been many track days that nail the brief. Unfortunately over the years many matsuri events have become synonyms with heavy contact driving between beaten up missile spec drift cars.
If you have a clean car and want to get out and burn some tyres with other like minded individuals where do you go? Enter Blog Heroes. The invitational event from the mind of Oliver Parkinson.

Oliver has been around the drift scene for years, in recent years he has been in the spotlight thanks to his stunning creation and arguably the lowest drift car in Australia. This black RB26 swapped S13.

Oliver set out to create his perfect drift car with just as much attention to the aesthetics as the mechanical side of the build. The car was never built with competitions in mind so that left Oliver with little to no events on his calendar to drive the car. The answer? Run your own track day and invite drivers from all over Australia who’ve proven themselves to be great drivers with the right attitude.

The best venue for such an event? Wilby Park Raceway, a great little secret near the Victorian/New South Wales border. The track originally started life as dirt course with an oiled surface. Due to council complaints the track was given a sealed surface. Now it hosts only a handful of events each year. With the event capped at 40 drivers it was the perfect laid back day for both amateur and professional level drifters.

The cars ranged from jaw dropping high dollar builds to low cost, high thrill drift cars. No matter the car, there were no bad attitudes or fake parts in sight. With a very opinionated view on replica parts drivers were encouraged to leave the fakes at home.

John Dreyer a local driver climbing the ranks of the 2016 VIC Drift Club competition was out in force with his incredible Bluebird.

This car started out as a very clean club registered cruiser eventually becoming the SR20 swapped competition ready drift car you see here. Despite the few badges of honor you see around the body, it is still surprisingly clean after it’s fair share of door to door battles.

Another regular of the Vic Drift scene is Mat Russell and his in instantly recognizable AE86.

Matt is not only known for being able to steer the pant’s off this little 86 he is also rather well known for owning every set of Impul Hosino’s in the world!

It’s always a pleasure to see the JVN Garage KE70 Corolla out on track, this car seems most comfortable flying towards a corner while completely facing the wrong direction.

If you’re in need of some GSS stickers make sure you head to our online store. Here.

Easily one of the cleanest drift cars in Australia and it’s street registered!! Gerald’s R33 sedan is always a sight for sore eye’s at local track days.

The most unique car of the day had to be this KE20 Corolla. While it wasn’t exactly setup to slide the owner looked like he was having a ball throwing the little car into each corner.

Another strange sight was this AW11 MR2. The owner brought it along to give the tiny coupe a shakedown. It was there purely for grip laps although that didn’t stop Matt Russel from getting behind the wheel and giving it a flick or two.

By 9am most drivers had finished unloading and then it was time for one of the most relaxed drivers briefings I’ve ever attended!

Oliver ran through the 4 rules of Blog Heroes.

“1. No dirt drops, 2. No spin & pin, 3. No statics, 4. Don’t be a d$#khead!” Easy right?!

Most people seemed to pay attention during the short briefing.

After the meeting the last handful of cars went through scrutineering and it was time to hit the track.

There didn’t seem to much of a warm up to the action, most drivers took to the track like a duck to water. Many of which had never driven here before.

The overgrown fields surrounding the track proved to be treacherous thanks to the heavy rainfall. In some places the standing water was well over ankle deep.

The track also claimed it’s fair share of aero parts early in the morning.

There was also plenty of drift train action between friends.

Despite the relatively low speed course, tyres were being destroyed left right and center!…

Many coming completely off the rim!

One of my favorite pairs to watch, The JVN KE70 and Michael’s R32. These guys had smiles all day long while getting nice and close in the corners.

The tiny MR2 actually became a crowd favorite as it constantly locked up the front brakes while screaming around the small track. It looked incredibly fast out there.

Even after coming off track a few times Gerald managed to keep his R33 sedan super straight although it did pick up a lot of mud by the end of the day.

The smoke kings, John Dreyer and Matt Russell made for an exciting couple of laps with huge thick walls of smoke behind them throughout the entire track from start to finish.

The action was some of the most consistent I’ve seen, there was never more than a couple of quiet minutes on track.

It was good to see a couple of Nissan Cefiro’s hitting the track, a much rarer sight here in Australia compared to our friends across the ditch in NZ who seem to have imported every A31 available from Japan.

Denis’ 1JZ swapped E30 BMW was having some braking issues during the day which meant we didn’t get to see the usual aggressive driving we’re used to from him. Nether the less the car looked and sounded amazing!

After a quick lunch break the cars once again filled the track.

The man himself and the host of the party, Oliver got strapped in ready to finally unleash the RB26 over the afternoon.

After a few reserved laps Oliver turned the volume up to 11.

The speed this car maintains mid drift is ungodly. Oliver was cracking a very large smile even while the rear tyres separated the quarter panel from the chassis.

A man happy to finally be playing with his toy!

I actually kind of dug the “cut away” style look. Maybe this will become a new trend?

By the late afternoon most drivers were really finding their groove.

Even the mighty little Corolla was getting in some impressive lines.

The relaxed nature of the track was an amazing experience for drivers and photographers alike.

This meant the action was super close and the energy from the drivers pushing harder and harder to nail a perfect drift in front of my camera lens was truly surreal.

John Dreyer spent the afternoon mastering backwards entries, many of which defied everything we know about physics. A true mad man!

With the sun soon fading it was time to end what was one of the radest track days I’ve personally been to.

Even with the wet shoes I cannot wait to get back out to Wilby and check out another invite only event.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.