Engineered To Slide – Gripshiftslide

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

WTAC '13 :: Film Only

Grant — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:09:24 +0000

Hands down the World Time Attack Challenge is the biggest event on our radar, each and every year Ian Baker and the team step it up constantly raising the bar. We’ve been fortunate enough to follow the transition from the old Super Lap event days, into the world class spectacle it is now known and loved by, under the current name as the World Time Attack Challenge or ‘WTAC’ for short.
The first ever post on gripshiftslide.com was you guessed it, WTAC 2011! To say the event has held a special place in our hearts ever since, would be a massive understatement. We thought it would be a great tribute to create an entire post capturing the event on good old fashioned 35mm film. The charm of anything analogue is hard to deny, the hiss of a record, black & white movies and the grain and colour of a film camera.
We hope you enjoy our unique look at last years event and let us know if you would like to see more posts like this in the future by leaving a comment at the end of the post…

Once again we returned to Sydney Motorsport Park, having access a day early let’s us get up nice and close to the teams as they began final testing before attempting some ‘hot’ laps over the weekend.
It also helps not having any of the crowds around as WTAC is one of the only event’s that spectators can literally walk up to the pit bays see teams working around the clock preparing their car for each session.

The first day of racing last year will be one to remember, as bush fires threatened the nearby blue mountains thick smoke blocked out the sun.

The scene was a very uncomfortable one with reports that hundreds of homes were under danger and the eerie light from the smoke meant there were next to no shadows.

The soft light did make for some remarkable photos though as we spent most of the afternoon watching the drifters set up their pits. While WTAC is all about the remarkable machines pushing the limits of engineering and the laws of physics, at the same time it is arguably the highest profile drifting event in Australia, with many international guest taking part in the competition that takes place in the evening.

One of the biggest appearances last year was from local Melbourne lad, Nigel Petire and his extraordinary home built drift Ute. He made the trip with not one, but two cars!

The Ute was handcrafted in a garage barely bigger than the car itself, don’t believe us? Check out our feature of the build here.
This was the first public event for the Ute to not only be displayed to the public but also be driven on track!!

Nigel was grinning from ear to ear when he wasn’t losing his voice talking to the crowds about his stunning build. He was both nervous and overwhelmed from the excitement of driving his precious creation on track with other cars for the first time ever!

While the car itself doesn’t comply with current competition regulations, Nigel isn’t bothered as he built it for demonstration purposes and of course tyre shredding FUN!!
He brought along his tried and true 180SX for competition duties. So when he was behind the wheel of the Ute, he was just concentrating on getting to know his new friend.

After the first night of track demos in the Ute, something didn’t go to plan and of course that’s just cars for you! Due to the ultra light weight, yet super strong body, the transmission was not having a good time dealing with the punchy SR20 and very grippy tyres, ultimately giving up and retiring the Ute from track duties much earlier then expected.

You could tell it was not how Nigel envisioned his first weekend away with his new toy, he had contemplated getting busy and swapping parts over from the 180SX to get it going again. After the crushing blow the spirits were not high in the Petrie camp and Nigel pulled the pin and left the Ute to be a static display for the rest of the weekend. Since the WTAC he has traveled to New Zealand with Ute and enjoyed hassle free drift demos for all to see and Nigel is set to bring it back to this years WTAC event. We can’t wait!!

Speaking of NZ, Kiwi drifter Mad Mike was over here competing in the drift comp with his world famous “Madbul” Rx7.

The heart of the car is a quad rotor, which produces a very haunting and howling exhaust note that sounds like an F1 car possessed by a demon.

This fire spitting Rx7 has been seen the world over with trips to America, Europe and Australia 3 times now!! Mike sure has a lot of international events under his belt!

Another car that made the trip over from New Zealand was the PPRE RX4 featuring a massive 6 rotor!!! Yep 6!
Mad Mike was invited to pilot the crazy coupe around the full circuit, paying absolutely no attention to any sound restrictions, it broke necks and made ears bleed!

South Australian drifter and “Wunderkind” if you will, Jake Jones is one of the youngest Australian drivers competing on an international level.

His aggressive driving style has seen him go door to door with the worlds very best and scored him international drives in drift competitions in both Japan and China.

Jakes Onvia has even rubbed panels with Daigo Saito most recently at the Melbourne round of FD Asia, check out how he went against the current drift world champion here.

In between all the track action, there’s always plenty to see off the track. Each year the show and shine grows in size and the quality of cars is always impressive.

We’re suckers for old school cars and what better to fill up our roll of film then a pristine Sunny truck.

Remember when Corolla’s were cool! We loved this white duo, the KE30 was our pick of the two.

The Heasman steering girls were all smiles despite the blistering sun beating down against the concrete.

We said each year Ian and the team step it up – this year they had a half pipe with BMX demos all day long.

This sort of entertainment can easily go unnoticed at such a large motorsport event, I remember stopping and watching for a good 15 minutes. These guys had talent!!

One more standout from the crowded show was this striking bright yellow widebody RX7, the RE-super G bodykit is one of the wildest looking kits for the FD RX-7. So aggressive!!

This tubular framed beauty is very serious Nissan Stanza built for the sports sedan series and was part of the Turbo Legends segment were power houses of yesteryear get to prove they still have what it takes to put down a quick lap time.

Back near the pits we hunted around for some of the most impressive builds we could find. This RX8 looks to be a future competitor but for now it was just a static display. If you think the aero looked great the engine bay alone has had more money and time spent the some cars see for their entire build.

The Evolution Custom Industries Porsche was literally the black sheep of the field. One of the only European based cars it had a massive cult following going into the event.
The car is a work of art and seriously fast, the team didn’t get to show their best with a turbo failure ending their chances early.

We thought it would be nice to include this picture of Agges’ 180SX of Insane Drifters fame, some 8 months and many, many events after WTAC the mighty red 180SX finally had it’s last collision at an event here in Melbourne.
Drift cars receive quite a beating and when you’re as competitive as Agges it’s bound to happen sooner or later and sadly this 180SX won’t be seeing the track again.

Melbourne based workshop and tuning specialist Road Track Rally had been achieving great wins with their Evo X. Sadly the Evo lost control at high speeds and collided with a concrete wall.
The team has been busy repairing and will be back for 2014!

All eyes were on the reigning champion Nemo Racing Evo, this engineering marvel had taking the rule book and thrown it out the window and really forced the Australian and Japanese time attack community to go back to the drawing board of what’s possible.

What goes up must come down and in a strange turn of events the team behind this magnificent car crumbled during the weekend sending rumors flying. The car only managed a couple of ‘safe’ laps before being retired back to the pits without a chance to hold onto it’s winning trophy from the previous years WTAC.

With so many classes competing at WTAC you really get a great comparison for times against so many makes, models and platforms. How does a tuned FWD Mitsubishi Colt perform against an street trim Nissan GTR? You’ll find out at WTAC.

Many Japanese teams have started to really to take to series, this year saw some very big hitters from Japanese tuning culture attend.

Top Fuel returned their super agile S2000 to Sydney to once again take on the worlds best, the previous year the car was relatively untested and effectively “out of the box”.

However driver Nobuteru Taniguchi still found the car too challenging to achieve it’s goal, the car performed a lot better but we think Nob will be back to prove he and the car have what it takes.

The Esprit NSX was easily one of the most anticipated international cars this year and with Tarzan Yamada behind the wheel it was a hopeful podium finisher too, after a few hairy spins and a small engine fire the mighty NSX did not get it’s time to shine.

One of the most eye pleasing cars was the RE Amemiya Hurricane RX7, this car was originally built as an Autosalon demo car. This just proves that the Japanese do not do things half-arsed at all, this car is not just a show piece and can really strut it’s stuff in the Time Attack arena!

Back to Australia and the Queensland based Mighty Mouse CRX, This David vs Goliath honda was determined to hold onto it’s NA FWD record from the previous year, Rob and the team did just that. Now with pressure on for a third year the team has since converted the car to left hand drive for better weight distribution… Yep, they’re determined to win again in 2014.

A rare sight outside of the original Fast & The Furious movie here in Australia, The Mitsubishi Eclipse is not something we’re used to seeing racing let alone driving on the street. This FWD racer is owned by aero extraordinaire Andrew Brilliant.
The car originally raced in the America and had many victories under it’s hat, at one point it was the number 1 car out of 50 high powered RWD and AWD cars. A true testament to Andrew’s skills aerodynamic skills.

After three long days of racing the last cars rolled back into the pits, most came back under their own power, some returned to the pits on tow trucks. WTAC is not for the faint hearted and you have to be willing to put it all on the line to win.

After all the action stops the show is packed up and we begin counting down the days till next year, thankfully as we post this we’re less than two months away from the 2014 World Time Attack Challenge!
Don’t miss out on the biggest event on the calendar and book tickets, time off work and accommodation now!!
Check out all the details here www.worldtimeattack.com
We hope you’ve enjoyed this nostalgic glance at our favorite event, it took two rolls of film and nearly a year to get it developed but we love holding a real photo in our hands!
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

ETS Hilux :: Engineered To Perfection

Grant — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:16:42 +0000

Nigel Petrie has been building his Drift Hilux for only 11 short months and in this time he has accomplished more than any normal car enthusiast could possibly hope to achieve in several years.

With at least 12 more months needed to complete the project, mostly due to funds and a lack of spare time (between drift competitions and a full time job), there is still a lot more to be done…

He started with the simple idea; a Toyota Hilux cab mounted onto a chassis with the same footprint as a JZX100 Toyota Chaser.

He has done this using proven and affordable parts from a Nissan S15, including steering and front suspension components.

The steering rack has been mounted further forward than the factory location to eliminate ‘binding’ when the car is on full lock. This is exactly the attention to detail that Nigel is known for and why his personal blog earns the title “Engineered To Slide”.

With a target weight of 950kgs for the build, Nigel has been conscious of what materials he uses.

The front uses all OEM metal panels for strength…

While the rear will use a fiberglass tail gate with widened rear fenders to save a few kilos and to help fit the massive 18 x 9.5″ rear wheels.

This is the metal panel that will be used to mold and create the fiberglass versions. The benefit of all this work is that Nigel can simply pump out copy after copy to replace the worn and damaged panels after competitions.

The front metal fenders feature a hinged section to allow for some ridiculous entries on full lock, and the rear fenders are 100mm wider then factory so it will be quite the monster when finished.

The Hilux sits incredibly low thanks to the flat floor pan and custom suspension built by MCA in Queensland, the lowest point is exactly 70mm off the ground.

You may be familiar with the father and son team behind MCA. Father, Murry and son, Josh Coote have been fiddling with cars for decades and Josh is well known for his drifting career, winning several competitions around Australia.

They also built and raced their Time Attack Onevia in this years World Time Attack, the car received lots of attention thanks to some very aggressive aero modifications.

Nigel’s flat floor pan incorporates a rake in it to produce some extra down force as well.

Everything on this car has been put there for a reason… To either be competitive or cost effective, everything is used to gain some extra performance or save some weight.

The gearbox is usually found on the back of a Nissan RB25 motor, Nigel chose this for it’s strength and reliability and ultimately for it’s cost.

Every dollar that can be saved during this build will be used to maintain the Red 180sx which sees all of Nigel’s track duties.

So it is important to be selective in spending your hard earned cash…

When you have obligations such as racing around the country.

Nigel’s spare time is spent preparing his red 180SX for competitions, any time left over after that is spent working on his Ute, making adjustments and building new parts entirely from scratch.

Keep in mind Nigel still works a 40+ hour week like the rest of us, so that makes all of his work a massive achievement!

The power plant is a Nissan SR20DET sourced from an S13 and built by Donny from Street Forced Performance. It is tuned to 260KW at the rear wheels. Handling all that power is a two piece tail shaft from a Nissan Skyline. Nigel builds cars like a 5 year old builds Lego.

Tinkering away in his shed, if it doesn’t fit he pulls it all apart to it’s bare essentials and tries and tries again.

The engine uses a TD06 turbo with a custom BRAE exhaust manifold and a combination of inlet manifolds…

Nigel found that using the runners from a Mazworx unit and the inlet plenum of a Hypertune manifold proved to be the best solution. The end result helps produce the much needed horse power and torque to keep the Hilux sliding, after countless issues and boost leaks with custom made manifolds Nigel opted for an off the shelf unit, even if he ended up mixing and matching it to suit.

What really sets this build off is that Nigel has built the chassis to allow for the cab to slip on/off, so nearly any shell can be mounted…

So he can drift a Toyota Hilux one day and a Honda Jazz the next, well maybe not that extreme but the possibilities are endless.

There are a number of things that make this build truly amazing, but it’s not just all the top shelf parts like the B.I.M Driftmasters, Nardi steering wheel, Trust gear knob or Bride seats…

Or the level of craftsmanship or quality of the work…

It’s the personal touches that make this car. It’s more a ‘modern’ piece of art than it is an actual race car.

Here are some of the tools that Nigel made to help with the build, a tube bender and a notcher.

Building these himself saved considerable amounts of money and ultimately helped get this project underway with a very tight budget.

This is the sort of puzzle solving and DIY ingenuity that truly makes Nigel the mad man that he is, capable of creating some incredible pieces of machinery at home in his tiny shed.
Thanks for reading and checking out this absolutely extraordinary car, be sure to check out the build progress and all of Nigel’s shenanigans at Engineered To Slide.com
– Gwyn.