Nigel Petrie – Gripshiftslide

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.

ADGP Rnd 2 :: Day Two At The Thunder Dome

Grant — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:55:10 +0000

Finally the wait is over!!
I present to you, our ADGP Round Two, day two coverage!
After a monstrous day of qualifying, the competition was going to be fierce. Speculation was that Fink might not be the sure thing like he has been for every other round, with some serious mechanical issues placing a cloud of doubt over Fink’s head for the remainder of the weekend.
So the top spot could really be up for grabs from anyone!

We hit the track at 7:30am sharp, with temperatures dropping the night before it was literally freezing!
The pit area was a sea of beanies and gloves.

Soon the sun cracked over the hill and things started to warm up… It was now a cozy 8 degrees!

Hands down, the Pidwell S13 has to be my favorite car at this round of the ADGP. With every panel showing some damage in true missile form, it doesn’t feel like your average track beater.
There is just something different about this car. It is a purposely built drifter that somewhere along the lines got a bit rough and never really recovered. After years of being truly driven it now looks like it sits here…
Absolutely perfect!

Homemade lip spoiler = Baller as fuck!

Adam’s V8 swapped 200SX was gaining a strong following after impressing a lot of people during the qualifying with some impressive driving and one hell of an exhaust note!

Adam finished half way up the field in 8th position. With more on the line today, we knew the car would not stay this pretty…
The run-off sections of Calder Park were set to claim a few victims.

9:30am hit and it was time for drivers to fill up the start grid.
After a few practice runs, the real competition got under way!

Danny “Denzo” Vahoumis was itching to get back out on the track first thing in the morning.

Danny managed to qualify 5th, so big things were expected from the RB powered S15. The Achilles S15 finished in the exact same position on Sunday ending up in 5th spot!!

Papa from the Insane Drifter has really stepped up in the competition game recently. John finished in the top 20 in 19th place!
It was great driving from one of the best looking S14’s going around!

Clint Cohen in the Team Chaulkin Sil80 was a force to be reckoned with on Sunday. With some insane power and fantastic sliding, he was a strong contender for 1st place.

One of the unfortunate interstate drivers to experience a few issues on the weekend was Ryan “Slide” Cummings, after a leaking radiator forced him to miss out on some vital practice during the morning sessions.

The team quickly got it sorted and the car was out and putting on the smoke show once again!
Ryan was knocked out early before the top 16, but still holds a tie for 10th place overall for both rounds so far.
Don’t worry about not seeing much of the car in these photos, soon we will have our full feature of this S13 live on the site!

This was the last lap where Adam’s S14 would look like this…

Adam came off the track and hit some nasty terrain, ripping both the front and rear bars apart!

Ben Purtell fought his way into the top 10. The bright yellow 180SX looked like it had come straight from Japan!

Ender Esenyel was showing us some of his best driving yet in this competition and on his home turf too!
It seems his new favorite number is 6…
Qualifying 6th on Saturday and finishing 6th place on Sunday!

It seems the walls had claimed another victim…
Anthony Cece’s Nissan Cefiro wasn’t looking as straight as it did the day before.

Peter Vouyoukas’s R33 seemed to have changed it’s steering components since the last event.
The car now has massive amounts of lock available!
However this didn’t help secure a poll position for Peter after a close battle with Clint Cohen.

We are big fans of this Skyline. The car doesn’t miss a beat at all and was back at Calder Park the following week frying more tyres at a practice day!

John Dreyer’s S13 was easily one of the most exciting cars at the round, with the finishing touches being completed the night before the practice day.

Inside the JDM-R S13 are some of the best details we have ever seen in a drift car here in Australia.

Believe it or not this car is running a stock standard gen 3 V8 and transmission!!

John piloted his way into 3rd place. So with a bit more money and fine tuning he plans to take on every competition he can get to!
We can’t wait to see more of this beast in action!!

Hayden Buckham was knocked out after contact with Pidwells S13 causing a spin, the judges gave Pidwell the win and Hayden went on to finish his tyres during the afternoons expression sessions.

In the street class it was the battle of the JZX Chasers, Nic Wilson hunting down Nathan Saunders.

Nic went on to take the win and had a very close battle for 1st place with Clint Cohen in the ‘Team Chaulkin’ 180SX.
With multiple contacts throughout the battle the judges awarded top spot to Nic!

Nic “Drift Kid” Coulson in VE ute was the runner up for round two, finishing in 4th place with a brand new car and being the youngest competitor, this is no ordinary achievement!

Stirling Wright was a brand new crowd favourite with a new theme and a strong following from driving at the South Australian Drift Super Cup. Stirling was consistent and pushing very hard all day.

Stirling was knocked out rather early in a battle against Nic Wilson in the white Chaser, after hitting the dirt and spinning right on the finish line the judges awarded Nic the win.

Brett “The Reaper” Reid was out having a blast after having several collisions with the wall he soon lost the fear of breaking his baby and just started blazing tyres!
The Reaper was knocked out very early on in the day but made an appearance in every open session just to make up for it!

People’s choice winners, Simon Michelmore and Nigel Petrie went head to head after receiving the most amount of votes.

After numerous reruns (simply because it was just that good watching the two bright red cars go door to door around the track) Andrew Hawkins announced Nigel as the winner.

After a two year long stint Nigel is planning to strip the 180SX and freshen up the car from top to bottom, front to back, the last outing will be the 2012 Tectalloy Drift Challenge at this years WTAC in Sydney.

Both drivers were just happy to have some private track time after being knocked out fairly early in the competition.

Simon was showing off his brand new ‘no hands’ trick high up on the bank. Since the event there has been about 7 million photos of Simon waving his hands in the air while nearly scraping the wall!!

Simon is set to compete alongside Nigel at the Tectalloy Drift Challenge as well, here’s hoping we can see the duo go head to head again later this year!

During the lunch break the pits went from the chaos of teams frantically changing wheels and fixing issues from blown turbos to even changing engine bearings, to a different kind of chaos…

The spectator ‘pit walk’ where fans can literally walk around the cars while teams are making repairs and they can even stop in for an autograph with their favorite driver!

Not long after lunch, Luke Fink got a chance to drive his S14.

First up was a battle with local mad man from the Insane Drifters, Andreas “Aggis” Paraskevas.
Luke took the win moving forward into the top 8.

Here is the battle between Pidwell and Buckham, coming into the first corner the VE clipped the S13’s rear bumper causing a spin.

The judges in accordance with the rules awarded Pidwell in the S13 the win.

Soon the track was getting damp from some light rain and the smoke show was over. Here the back of Fink’s S14 would normally be ablaze with smoke but a few puffs was all the wet tyres could muster.

The moment everyone had been waiting two days for…
The final battle, Whyte Vs Fink.

Both driver were the top qualifiers so the Judges had to work hard to determine the winner…
As the announcement was made, everyone was in shock because for the first time in the series Luke Fink came in second losing his winning streak to Rob Whyte in the Monster Energy 350Z.

After the award ceremony Luke quickly checked to see how much of the Holford Motors S14 was intact after some wall kissing action.

The winning car after some very intense battles!

Two of the best drifters this country has to offer, Fink and Whyte.

As the event wound up the track was hired till 5pm so many drivers turned the cars back on and headed out to make the most of one of Australia’s best drift circuits.
This post does not conclude our ADGP coverage, we still have a video in the works so you can see all the action unfold in motion!! What a crazy world we live in!
The full results can be found here ::
http://trackbattle.com.au/adgp/

We would like to quickly thank all the organisers for another massive event and each and every driver for getting their cars ready and destroying them like mad men purely for our entertainment!
Without you guys the world would be a boring place, just keep drifting!
– Gwyn.

ADGP Melbourne :: Day One

Grant — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:50:09 +0000

Round two of the Australian Drift Grand Prix kicked off last weekend here in Melbourne. Arriving at 8am Saturday morning at Calder Park Raceway, the stage was already set for one of the biggest things in Australian drifting!

With a field of nearly 50 cars and some of the best drivers this country has to offer, it was the drifting event not to be missed!
Calder Park’s ‘Thunder Dome’ race circuit was the integral stage to this show! With it’s daunting sloping banks and unforgiving solid concrete walls, it puts even the best drivers to the test!!

The event is split into two days and two classes to allow for plenty of practice time and to keep things running smoothly. Day one is reserved for practice and qualifying sessions.
While this might not sound all that exciting, with 50 drivers coming to grips with the demanding track, tuning and perfecting their setups while they look out for other drivers as they practice, the sessions are basically a free for all!
Day one saw plenty of mishaps, like cars colliding with walls and even each other!

Once I had woken up and found my bearings in the icy morning wind in Melbourne’s west, I got to pointing my camera in the general direction of some cars. The first thing that you notice in the Thunder Dome is that every car is 10 times louder thanks to the grand stand seating and massive banks surrounding the track.
Top this off with the ridiculous speed drivers need to push off from the start line in order to hit the first corner with enough gusto to get sliding and get the perfect line and ride the wall into the second ‘horse shoe’ corner.
Now this wouldn’t be a problem if the designated media spots were not running the length of the entire start line only 1.5 meters from the actual live race track… I should have brought ear plugs!!

This year there was massive improvements to the spectators area, now only a few meters back from the track with a raised seating section which gave anyone wanting to spend an extra $10 the best seat in the house, literally the best spot to see any of the action!!
Now onto some of the action from day one…

After only 20 minutes of practice laps, drivers started to get nice and close and starting to find their ‘groove’ to prepare for the battles that would follow the next day.
This of course meant right from the start there was going to be a few ‘hairy’ moments…

Here Matt Russel screeched to a halt avoiding contact with a spun-out car only metres in front, narrowly avoiding bending in his very straight AE86!

As the morning went on there was spin after spin as drivers got used to the steep banks in the final section of the short course.
This Toyota Cressida had already made friends with a wall earlier in the morning. Chris Grinter was pulling out all the stops to keep his 1JZ powered sedan off the walls for the remainder of the day!

John Dreyer in the JDM-R S13 was the number one qualifier in the street class. The V8 powered Silvia had the finishing touches completed literally the night before in the carport at home, with a fresh coat of paint to top it off!
The car looked and performed so well and sounded even better!!

Hit and Run drifter Waz, was having a host of issues over the weekend in his 180SX. Defying all odds, he managed to actually change some damaged engine bearings in the pits before hitting the track again! True dedication and skills right there!!

Another car from the NSW drift crew, Hit and Run.
Brett’s “Reaper” S14 is an absolute crowd pleaser with it’s monstrous L98 V8 engine and menacing looks from the ridiculously wide wheels.
Here Brett chucks the 200SX into the first corner after a massive run up from the start line, with a scando-flick the massive S14 grips just before hitting the wall running a near perfect line.
Now I say ‘near’ as the rear corner of the car didn’t look all the same after this photo…

With a few scrapes from the wall, the back eventually ended up around 30cm shorter on one side!
Also check out the smoke coming of the front tyre!!

With the back of the car facing the outer wall of the track the sound of the massive V8 was beyond deafening, easily one of the most unique cars with tonnes of character.
I can’t wait to see Brett Reid’s ‘Reaper’ in action again!!

In between runs the Calder safety crew ventured out onto the track to collect the debris from the collisions and wall taps, the little safety buggy was literally overflowing with panels and bumpers at one stage!

Leigh Pidwell was finding the limits of his borrowed S13 early on, not only was it Leigh’s second time driving the car competitively, it was his second time driving the car ever!!

It didn’t take long to tame the beast, soon Leigh was enjoying some friendly tandem action with Hayden Buckham in his V8 VE Ute.

With Luke Fink’s Holford Motors S14 out of action with several gearbox failures, all eyes were on Queensland favorite, Rob Whyte!

He was drifting in one of the most professional looking cars on the track and running a supercharger too!!
The Monster 350Z is actually Rob’s second car! Everything the team did right on the first S/C 350Z they copied and bettered on the version you see here.
So how many of you can say you own two supercharged, professional drift 350Z’s??
Rob is surely the envy of many!

This is the second time we have managed to snap away at Rob Whyte drifting away at Calder Park in this very same car!
Last time was for the Ken Block/Monster Energy event held late last year.

Peter Vouyoukas is getting better each and every time I see him and his fluro wheels!
Peter managed to qualify in 14th just ahead of Nic Wilson in his white JZX100 Chaser.

As the temperature warmed up so did the driving, by lunch time you could be mistaken for thinking the battles had started!
Tasmania’s Andrew Considine here with Matt Russel hot on his S14’s tail!

Matt was really killing the angle out of the second corner, the little hatch looked right at home on the massive banks of the Thunder Dome!

There must be something in South Australia’s water because it really is the home of some of the best drifters in the country!
Simon Michelmore was another driver plagued by car troubles, at one point actually leaving for several hours to purchase a new turbo charger and installing it just in time to qualify 22nd!
Absolute top effort and driving from one of SA’s favorite drivers!!

Another driver making the long trip from South Australia was Anthony CeCe in the street registered Cefiro!
Yep that’s right, this car can be ‘somewhat’ legally driven on the road!
With a full interior and bolt in roll cage it can be driven home from the track! Now that is something to be proud of and qualifying in front of Simon Michelmore by just 3 points!!

A local favourite, with a fast growing fan base is Ender Esenyel. With one of the best attitudes going around it’s not hard to see why he is a favourite amongst other drivers too!
A big congratulations to Ender for taking 6th spot in the qualifying just ahead of Nigel Petrie!!!

One of my personal favorite cars is Jarrod Klinberg’s KE70 Corolla Wagon. The car is about as cool as they get and it cocks one of the front wheels through nearly every corner!!

No car was safe from loosing parts, here Nigel Petrie lost his rear bar after a ‘love’ tap from Denzo in his S15 from behind.

Nearly all the spots had been filled and the last few cars headed out to get every second of track time they had. Here we see Chris Fleckno getting rid of any last bit of that annoying rubber stuck to the round ‘rolly’ things under your car.

The sun was setting and temperature quickly dropped. After I got a few last images I packed up to get back home so I could get some sort of sensation back my hands again and get early night sleep in preparation for the absolutely massive day that ahead.

This was how the sky looked as I packed everything into the car, it looked like a sign that tomorrow was going to be intense… I was excited to say the least!!!
Stay tuned for the full coverage of the massive final day including action from both pro and street class battles…
Watch this space!
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.
Full qualifying results here ::
Pro Class
Street Class

ARC Forum Battle :: Time Attack, Weather Assault.

Grant — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:58:23 +0000

Earlier this month Melbourne played host to the inaugural Forum Battle.
In true Melbourne syle, all our interstate guests and competitors were welcomed by some of our finest weather (sorry about that!).

The Forum Battle consisted of three separate competitions, originally there were more, but the weather had the last laugh.
The Time Attack was easily the largest category, with sixteen cars competing. This included five interstate cars.

Mr Advan and one of the boys from the ‘Big Red’ team talking strategies.
The car was covered in tape and cloth to test the aero package on track, the crew also made some last minute changes by cutting into the the tyres to help gain some extra grip in the wet.

Marty from Mighty Car Mods getting excited as he headed out.

Pedro in the insanely loud, left hand drive VW Golf.

Looking down the line-up for the Time Attack cars, I was pretty impressed as there was such a varied mix of cars!

After one lap behind the pace car it was time to start setting some times. Ovi in this red Evo was first off the line.

During the very first lap on the second corner the worst thing happened! I wasn’t even ready with my camera and I don’t think Ovi was ready either.

The track was just too wet and Ovi came in far too ‘hot’.

After the smash the drivers in the dummy grid waited for the track to be cleared and at this stage it was unsure whether or not the race would continue.

Eventually the Evo made it’s way back to the pits on the back of a flat bed. The tow truck drove past the dummy grid…

And then the radio announced that the race would continue.
The RX7 drivers thought it over and decided to call it a day though.
Some of these guys were from QLD so it was not an easy decision to make having traveled so far and having spent so much money to get here.

A short time later, the show continued. Drivers paced themselves and gradually got faster throughout the day as they gained confidence on the track.
Stephen Verschuren managed to crack the one minute mark with his tuned and built Nissan Pulsar.

Jason Naidoo got himself into poll position in his highly tuned Evo 8. This was one of the cars to watch after a very respectable 1:43.0420 lap at last years WTAC.

The fastest RWD for the street class, Chasers east side division’s S15 driven by Manny Su.

After a few laps the Mitsubishi GTO pulled in after having some ‘technical difficulties’.

The car had already set a very quick lap so it was given a chance to rest in the pits and retired early.

Having two events running side by side was great for the spectators. So while the Time Attack was underway the rally cars were coming past to get to the starting grid.

One of the Calder park officials looking very official indeed!!

My personal favourite car from the field, Ken Matsuda’s turbocharged AW11 MR2.
This car performed brilliantly during the Time Attack and even better in the Motorkhana session.

Marty’s 1.3l beast – this little car had a lot of grip issues in the corners.
The throttle had to feathered the whole way around the course, check out the in car footage from Mighty Car Mods Video

The crazy Golf managed to crack the 1 minute mark, a very quick lap of just 56.4

Throughout the day the Vic Drift demos turned heads everywhere. I even overheard some of the officials comment that it was very exciting to watch!

There were just six cars representing Vic Drift over the weekend. This included Nigel in the ETS 180SX and the JAK Motorworks boys in their freshly painted blue Nissan S14 and R32 4 door.

The track was absolutely soaking and the boys did a great job putting on a skid show.

All the water meant the tyres lasted a lot longer!

The Thunderdome allowed for some ridiculously long drifts around the banking corners.

Here is the official leader board for the Time Attack results.

Place	Time	Name	State	Car	Forum	Group
1	00:47.0	Chris Thomson	VIC	Nissan GTR	SAU	Pro
2	00:48.5	Adam Newton	VIC	Nissan Skyline R32 GTS	SAU	Pro
3	00:50.6	Jason Naidoo	NSW	Mitsubishi Evo 8	EvoOZ	Pro
4	00:53.2	Steve Reed	NSW	Mazda 3 MPS	OZMPS	Pro
5	00:53.6	Shane	NSW	Supra	JDMST	Pro
6	00:53.6	John Kennedy	VIC	Mitsubushu GTO	3si	Pro
7	00:53.8	Ash Cosgriff	VIC	Nissan Skyline R33 GTR	SAU	Street
8	00:54.4	Ken Matsuda	VIC	Toyota MR2	MR2 Australia	Pro
9	00:54.7	Rory Hollingsworth	VIC	Holden Astra VXR	OpelAus	Street
10	00:54.9	Johnathon Green	VIC	Mitsubishi Evo	Fullboost	Pro
11	00:55.7	Stephen Verschuren	VIC	Nissan Pulsar SSS	Pulsar Group	Street
12	00:56.4	Pedro		Golf	Euroevolution	Street
13	00:57.6	Manny Su	VIC	Nissan ilvia S15	MelbS15	Street
14	01:03.2	Gareth Yemm	VIC	Nissan Pulsar N13	Pulsar Group	Street
15	01:03.3	Marty	NSW	Dihatsu	Mighty Car Mods	Pro
16	DNF	OviZabecca	NSW	Mitsubishi Evo 8	EvoOZ	Street

We still have the Motorkhana post coming up and a final recap of the entire Forum Battle event.
So until then, thanks again for reading.
– Gwyn.

Vic Drift :: Last Bash For The Year

Grant — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:33:52 +0000

Vic Drift’s last members day of the year was a great catch up for old and new friends, I only managed to take photos in the earlier sessions but this left me with plenty of time to catch up with some of the guys…

Like Stirling Wright and his beast of an R33 Skyline up close, look at those teeth!

Comes complete with speed holes!! After a quick chat with Stirling I learned that the holes are necessary to vent all the smoke that ends up in his cabin mid drift. See here…
The car has tubes in the rear and this lets all the smoke in, Stirling has a few more tricks up his sleeves to help. He really isn’t fussed by all the smoke tho and enjoys the show it puts on.

Bryan Lambino of ‘Frush’ fame’s clean 200SX.

Waiting for track time

Matt Russlle’s new Sprinter, same chassis and same wheels but can it drift?

Yep!!

Polished wheels are my favorite wheel to take photos of, they always look incredible in an action shot.

It’s amazing how much angle Nigel’s 180SX can get in the seemingly straight sections.

One of the most dedicated looking drift cars I’ve seen in a long time.

KE Corollas are killing it at the moment, I really want to see some more at the track.

Two of the mad men in R33’s, having a bit of side by side synchronized sliding.

Nigel doing what he does best, I love how early he initiates his drifts.

Bryan getting some great angle first thing in the morning.

It’s amazing how much clearance these cars don’t have!

This Chaser is awesome, I couldn’t keep my eyes off it!

Very clean, not a massive fan of carbon wraps but this is a nice touch.

The “Camry” badge finishes it off!

Back out on the track this R33 was killing it, very consistent lines through the back section of Winton.

There was a couple of new cars I had never seen out, this 200SX was getting really good as i headed back into the pits.

Plenty of cars repping some “Frush” love, their site is coming soon so be sure to check it out!
http://www.frush.com.au/

A new car out on the track, Vas’s RX7 replacing his white 200SX. Loving it mate!

Love this photo, it’s like time has stopped!

Here is the track monster S13 again, really looking forward to seeing this car in some 2012’s competitions.

Stirling giving the thumbs up.

Drift Tek’s seem to be the wheel of choice for a heap of the street cars. i counted about 5 cars running them!

The early morning rain didn’t help keep the cars clean,

A massive plus to not taking photos in the afternoon meant that I could go for a ride with Nigel in his very quick 180SX.

This hand break gets quite the workout down the back straight of Winton!!

The last drift event in Victoria for the year was by far one of the most laid back I’ve been to, being a members only day it was really a big catchup/fair well before the year is out.
I hope you like the handful of pics, there’s a heap more on our Facebook page. check it out!

Can’t wait till next year kicks off, with events like Drift Matsuri and ADGP we have heaps to look forward too!

We still have plenty of things happening over the break, some more feature cars and a few meets coming your way!

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.

Supreme Caravans Drift Attack :: No Caravans, But Loads Of Drifting…

Grant — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:41:21 +0000

Arriving at Calder Park at 8am Saturday morning I was greeted by Ender’s stunning Nissan S13, it made it all worth while after fighting off the torrential rain to get there.

It didn’t take long for the sun to come out and dry the track out, by 9:30 the sunburn had started setting in.

The quality of drifting over the day was awesome. Sean Powers was piloting this clean 200SX.

I’ve never seen so many R33 Skylines drifting before. This black example did surprisingly well, considering the amount of smoke in the cabin.

Ender’s S13, looking just as good on the track!

With only a handful of spins requiring track marshals to tow cars out, the day ran amazingly smooth.

One of the best Toyota Chasers I have ever seen, driven by Justin Stockley. He looked very comfortable sliding around the track.

The amount of interstate cars attending was amazing and Jake Jones was a definite crowd favorite –

While Nigel Petrie was the ‘home’ favorite. The competition between the two in the Pro Class was going to be fierce.

While changing memory cards I found this serious looking Nissan Silvia hiding in the pits. The car didn’t compete but I was drawn back to it several times.

Simon Michelmore started the day with a bang, qualifying 1st.

Jake ‘Drift Squid’ Jones took the slow and steady approach and qualified 5th.

The Insane Drifters are definitely some of the best looking cars in the scene, luckily the boys can back it up with some quality drifting.

This matte black s13 was rocking an RB24 engine swap, need i say more?

Ender at it again, this car has been dubbed the ‘stormtrooper’ across the internet.

Darren Bishop’s yellow Nissan Silvia, before it lost its front bumper during a battle.

Chris Johnson’s R32 was driving fantastic all day, with quite a gap between the the other Street cars. I think Chris will be entering the next event in the Pro Class.

Bryan Lamb qualified 5th in the street class. I really liked Bryan’s style on the track.

Simon didn’t drop the bar all day, driving his way into the top 4.

It was becoming obvious quite quickly that Jake was taking the lead.

Chris and Stirling made contact during a battle, causing Chris’s rear bumper to come loose.

John “Papa” from Insane Drifters took the win against Matt Russel in his Toyota AE86.

Stirling Wright’s R33 at it again, I still don’t know how he could see anything.

Jake and Papa got a little bit too close. After this pic, Jake lost one of his skirts!

Nigel and Simon’s battle: After around 4 reruns Nigel took the win.

The top three, Jake Jones 1st, Andrew Paraskevas 2nd and Nigel Petrie 3rd.

Jake happy with his win.

A great day, the weather turned out to be perfect!
Congrats to Jake “Drift Squid” Jones, Agess and Nigel Petrie for taking out the pro competition.
Also great driving to Chris Johnson 1st, Adam Mobarek 2nd and Richard Ryan 3rd in the Street Class.
Thanks to Yoshi and all the crew from Vic Drift for running such a great event.

Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.
P.S. There are over 200 extra photos on our Facebook page, so hit the ‘Like’ button on the side of our page and head over to our Facebook page to see the rest of the action.

Winton Part 2 :: Going Sideways

Grant — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:40:16 +0000

The action at this weekends Vic Drift day was so good that we had to have two posts covering the day!
Here is my favorite shot of the day, Nigel Petrie tearing it up in his 180SX.

Nigel was not the only one in the A group performing well, Thomas Sabo in this R32 Skyline was an absolute monster on the track.

This white JZX100 Chaser driven by Nic Wilson was incredibly smooth on the track, getting very close to the R32 above during a few tandem sessions.

My pick of the day – I’m a sucker for a tiny Trueno AE86.

Especially when they are as clean as this black example.

Can you imagine if someone put a Honda fwd K20a motor and mounted it in an S13 and strapped a turbo charger to it?
Wait… they did! What an awesome machine and the sound was not what I was expecting, but my god it was tough.

This Black Sil80SX has so much character and presence, topped off by the fact it was the only car driven by a female on the day.
I have a huge amount of respect for Billie, way to go!

Here’s the A class boys getting nice and close.

Even the B group were trying their luck at some side by side action.

The rain made for some interesting grip conditions on the track, luckily drifting requires less grip so the drivers were loving it!

Until this happened… This brown R31 Skyline tried its best to avoid a grey 180SX that had spun out moments earlier.

The 180SX took the brunt of it, the drivers make it look so easy sometimes you forget drifting is actually pretty dangerous stuff.

As the day went on our stickers started popping up everywhere. A big thank you to all the drivers who grabbed one and slapped it on!

Nissan Silvia with a side exhaust, instant win!

By the middle of the day most cars had gone through a set of tyres. I think this car needed to head into the pits for a fresh set, check out the sparks!!

This S13 was a solid performer with great angles all day long!!

Billie at it again, seriously how good does this car look?!

I’m not going to lie, I like this 200SX a lot! Showing a lot of the A class boys how to do it.

Here’s the S15 with the side exhaust again, this thing was loud… really loud!

Some of the A class drivers weren’t all that far behind Nigel in terms of skill, thanks for chucking the sticker on Nic!

Amazing what fresh tyres can do.

While most people would have this clean 180SX Type X in the garage, this owner prefers to use it for some high speed fun.

Tuffcore boys out in force as always.

Including this Onevia, the driver is getting better and better every session. way to go Mikey!

Nigel getting ready for a wet lap, does that sound dirty?

This 180 had some steering issues after it came off the track rather suddenly. The Winton safety crew jumped in to action to get the show back on the road.

Full lock! Thanks for the sticker love Jawsh.

Operation smoke screen.

Plenty of girls representing team Tuffcore on the day, loving the gram lights on this Onevia.

Nigel’s beast looking just as good off the track.

It’s all business in here, Defi gauges, Nardi wheel and a massive gear stick!

One of my last shots of the day, Nigel really is one of the best drifters to come out of Victoria. Top job mate!
The skill level of the regulars attending Vic Drift events has improved so much I forgot it was just another practice day.Angles were more extreme and more drivers were going in for tandem action in the corners.
Thanks again for all the people rockin’ our stickers, was great to get some photos with ‘gripshiftslide.com’ on every second car.
Big thanks to Yoshi and the team at Vic Drift for another great day and of course all the Winton safety crew for working hard throughout the day to keep things on schedule.
Next stop… Drift GP!
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.