shockworks – Gripshiftslide

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

From The Vault :: 86 Mega Meet

Grant — Sun, 09 Nov 2014 11:37:16 +0000

Here at GSS we attend A LOT of events around our full time jobs and sometimes life can get in the way for our two man team. So we will be bringing you a series of posts titled “From The Vault”. Each post will be an event or feature we’ve been meaning to post up but just never found the time.

Our first entry in the series, is from the very first Mega Meet of the 86 Club of Australia. It was held at Sandown Raceway Melbourne late last year. Coincidence has it, this week we’ll be celebrating the 86’s second birthday with Toyota Australia and the #festival of 86, keep your eyes peeled for that later this week…

Toyota fans from around the state flocked to the racetrack for a show & shine event run by the 86 Club and Pedders Racing, to celebrate the 86’s first birthday.
We attended a special event hosted by Toyota Australia a month earlier and enjoyed throwing the little coupe around a closed track. See it here.

We arrived bright and early to catch a quick briefing for all the attendees.

This wasn’t just a static show, the 86 club had organised a parade lap around the racetrack. All the drivers had to be to aware of the strict noise restrictions at this particular course.

With the clock ticking away, the cars lined up on the dummy grid ready for a 9am start.

With the noise limits in place, Matt Russell’s drift AE86 could not be started so it was pushed into place on the dummy grid.

With all the cars in position it was time for a few photos.

With so many 86’s to fit in the one photo some people needed some extra height.

There were smiles all round that morning – it is great to see such an active car club these days. A big thank you goes out to all the sponsors. Shannons Nationals, Pedders Racing, Import Monster and Martini Racing.

Already we were picking out a few favorites in the crowd, the Martini Racing 86 looked great covered in Charge Speed goodies. It’s crazy to think this car was completely stock on a show room floor just months earlier.

Pedders Racing brought down their race 86 to take part in the parade lap.

Once the clock hit 9am all the cars started up and took off, and while it was just a parade lap there was still plenty of spirited driving down the straight.

The Charge Speed kit looked even better flying down the straight.

After the lap the cars were arranged for the show.

Wheels and lip kits seem to be the first modification for most 86 owners and we spotted so many different lip kits. It’s nice to see the tuner market alive and well again.

It’s still hard to go past the original 86, the mighty little hatchback has really pushed the limits of being a classed as a “cult” car. It’s popularity worldwide is unbelievable now.

Definitely not what you think of when someone mentions a Toyota Corolla. This Tureno was an instant favorite of ours.

We found a few 86’s adorning some carbon accessories.

It’s not just lip kits, there was even a Rocket Bunny kitted GT86. This is the most extreme kit available so far, with huge fender flares and pot rivets as far as the eye can see.

Matt’s Russell’s drift car proved to be a crowd favorite. We loved the 80’s decals that have been added to make the little hatch more appealing for mainstream drift competitions.

Inside Matt’s office, simple but effective. Nardi wheel, seats and some sheet metal. Perfect!

Some of the boys explaining the difference between cars and women.

One of the most popular wheel choice among 86 owners, TE37 SL edition. These things are everywhere!

Some times it’s best to keep it as simple as possible. Bone stock dropped on a set of SSR MS1. An absolutely beautiful combo on the little white Toyota.

Orders from dealerships are still taking months to fulfill and it’s easy to see why when they look this good. We think the old saying about hotcakes will be changed to “They sell like 86’s!!”.

While everyone was busy getting their sausage sizzle on at the BBQ, we hand picked a few cars for some detailed shots.

First up – the Martini Racing 86. Wearing a full Charge Speed wide body kit and sporting some AP racing brakes and an Amuse exhaust too.

The club had local model Amanda stop by for some of the photos.

We couldn’t complain and began snapping away.

She had a lot of fun climbing in and out of all the bucket seats that’s for sure.

Cheeky… Smile!

We’ve seen plenty of examples of the Toyota Factory Aero Kit but none sit as well as this white GTS model.

Something about the slightly off white makes this factory kit work so well here.

Watch out boys, Miss 86 is showing you how it’s done! Simple lip kit and smoked fog lights do wonders to contrast the red paint.

XXR 527 wheels work quite well here and wheel nuts match the burnt titanium tip of the HKS exhaust poking out from behind the rear bumper.

Historic AE86 racer, check out that build number!!! The petrol filler in the boot wing is a very cool touch too.

Everything exactly as it raced more than 20 years ago. All untouched.

Plenty of scaffolding in the back to keep things safe.

This two-tone Trueno had our necks snapping when it rolled in. We loved everything about this period correct combo.

Single bride seat because who cares about passengers?!

The perfect amount of flare thanks to the body kit and the yellowish carbon bonnet sits nicely against the grey paint.

Up close and personal with Matt Russell’s drift machine.

The engine is of course absolute blasphemy… A Nissan SR20DET. Seeing how competitive this little underdog is out on the track, we couldn’t care less about the Frankenstein engine/car combo.

Everything about the styling screams “Back to the eighty’s”. Shockworks have jumped on board as major sponsor and you should check them out for your coilover needs. These guys are engineering wizards when it comes to comfort and performance!

Our favorite colour on 86’s both old and new. White!!

Initial D fan boys here… Akina, touge and tofu.

Amanda found a spare hat in this car and helped herself to it.

Some of the best club merch we’ve seen. Get on it!

Two good reasons to buy a Toyota 86… Cool merchandise and club meets.

Our pick of the entire event? This metallic red AE86!

Gorgeous from every angle and painstakingly maintained… This is a very loved car!!

Some of the Pedders family, proud as punch in the middle of their car show.

Here’s two of the event organisers with Amanda, showing not only that they can get a bunch of cars together for a show but they can also work it in front of the camera too!
Hats off to the great people behind this community, showing all other groups how it’s done.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed looking back at this day and can’t wait to unlock some more stories from the vault for you all soon.
Thanks for reading,
Gwyn.
P.S. If you want to check out the next mega meet it’s happening in Melbourne again on the 7th of December. Follow the link for more details. Click here.

Shockworks Corona :: South of The Boarder

Grant — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 06:30:30 +0000

So just picture yourself in the following situation: Your Dad owns and runs one of the most reputable suspension businesses in the country and specialises in making cars corner faster and smoother. How would you rebel against him and the family business?
Well it would seem that the best way would be to purchase a 1985 Toyota Corona and then taking full advantage of your Dad’s knowledge and his generous parts catalogue to slam it to the ground!!
Jokes aside though, Chris (the owner of this fine piece of machinery) actually works along side his Dad, Brett, for Shockworks. They are a local company pushing the boundaries of what shock absorbers can do in terms of both comfort and performance!
This Corona is just a way for Chris to have some fun.

Chris’ Corona started out life as one of 500 bog standard SR models, aside from some funky stickers, a front lip, boot lip and special steering wheel it was still just a another Corona. (Before Chris started tinkering of course!)
Fortunately it was however, lucky enough to be equipped with a 2.4 litre engine which was also found in the same age Hilux. While this is certainly not the pinnacle of performance as far as engines go, it is a step up from the original Corona powerhouse offered in the other models and makes for a good starting point for anyone thinking of modifying this car for performance purposes.

Since taking ownership of the Corona, Chris has kept modifications on the conservative side. Simple additions such as a pair of TE71 fender mirrors, genuine Bride seat and a Nardi steering wheel have helped inject a bit of excitement into the 1980’s Toyota economy box.

Chris’ real pride and joy is his set of SSR Starsharks. There was a point in time where he nearly considered selling the wheels and believe it or not, it was actually Chris’ girlfriend who convinced him otherwise and he ended up keeping them. Phew!
The impressive wheels measure in at 14×8″ -15 for the front and 14×9″ -25 for the rear.

Behind the wheels the braking performance has been upgraded with twin pot brakes and slotted rotors. In the very near future Chris plans on doing something some will see as sacrilege and others will simply see it as a cheap way to put a massive grin on your face.
Chris currently has a complete SR20DE+T engine setup sitting in his shed, he plans on putting it in over the next six months.
Once the conversion is complete he will be trying his luck at a few drift events and depending on how the setup performs and if there is enough grip, he will also be putting the Corona through a few sprint days too!

During our shoot with Chris’s car we found this very chilled out dog and so we decided to get a few shots of the little guy enjoying all the attention in his own driveway.

This dog wasn’t shy at all and very, very photogenic!
He took us through a few casual poses, working the camera like a pro, before we decided to move on…

The owner of the dog said that he gets a little excited by cars driving off and would try to stop us from leaving by any means necessary and he wasn’t kidding!!
The stand-off lasted for what can only be described as the longest three minutes of my life. After a few meters of crawling up the road, the dog eventually returned home safely.

Now back to Chris and his love affair of all things 1980’s, Toyota and classic Japanese styling!
The road to this Corona has been a long and windy one, a chat with Chris revealed he has owned over 10 pre-1990’s cars including 2 AE86 builds and a MA61 Supra!!
All the parts on this Corona have been in Chris’ possession for long time and seem to follow him from car to car, Chris’ philosophy is simple – “Suspension, seat and wheels. The rest doesn’t really matter.”

Over the years Chris has learned a lot about the physics and some of the myths behind suspension tuning from his old man. Now he can modify and build his very own shock absorbers to perfectly match his car/requirements from scratch! How cool is that?!

Shockworks is still a relatively young company. Founded by Brett (Chris’ Dad) the company was built off his reputation as one of the best suspension and damper specialists in the country, with over 20 years experience!
His career has seen him tune suspension for many companies and cars, from the humble Suzuki Swift to models from the HSV and FPV line up.

All tuning and valving is done in-house using the highest quality shock bodies that the boys can find. As the months go on, the range on offer has grown massively with replacement dampers and coil overs for many models including BA to FG Falcon, Skyline, Silvia, AE86, Evo, MX5 and even the new Toyota 86!!
But the good news doesn’t stop there! With many more parts to come, including something for all the Honda owners out there!

During the shoot Chris chucked me the keys to the car and said “Your turn”!
So it was now time for me to squeeze into the kidney destroying Bride bucket seat and after moving several of my internal organs I managed to get the seat belt clipped in and the key into the ignition barrel.

My ignorant knowledge of older Japanese cars had me expecting the Corona to awkwardly cough and splutter into life, I was instead greeted by the smooth growl of the 22RE engine kicking over instantly! It was like music to my ears.

Once I had the car traveling over 20kph it became immediately apparent as to how low it actually was. The smallest dips in the road would catch me off guard and would result in that all too familiar sound of the rear tyres screaming as they caught on the fenders.

The ride was pretty stiff at first and I felt a lot of the cars’ true 1980’s character coming through in each corner. I also felt a bit reluctant to drive with a bit of ‘spirit’ and but had to keep thinking to myself ‘Chris knows what he is doing so surely this is not all this quirky little Japanese sedan has to offer.’

A hesitant push on the accelerator had me approaching the next corner at the full ‘legal’ speed limit and all the way through without touching the brakes. The term ‘handles like it’s on rails’ immediately sprang to mind.
Turning the car anywhere but the ideal line through the corner had me feeling like death was imminent, exactly like a roller coaster fighting to break free from it’s tracks. Whereas when I allowed the car to follow the line I found myself rewarded with a very fast and smooth run through each and every corner, even on the bumpiest of surfaces!!
The only flaw in the cars’ abilities was actually my own driving style!
(Since the shoot Chris has been messing with the shocks some more and says that low speed comfort has been increased dramatically! I can’t wait to give it another go!!)

So while this simple and clean sedan doesn’t scream for attention from the outside it still manages to break plenty of necks for anyone game enough to sit inside during a ‘fun’ drive!
We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Chris, his car and a strange dog.
We’ll keep this post updated once the new engine setup is installed and we’ll be sure to let you guys know about anything exciting happening at Shockworks HQ!
Chris would like to thank the following people…
“A big thanks to Brett at Shockworks for teaching me what I know and letting me raid the stocks when I needed something for this, Leigh at Inverse Tyres for always looking after me, the team at GSS for putting me on and my girlfriend Laura, for not just putting up with me spending every spare cent I have but convincing me to keep the Starsharks when I was considering selling them last year”
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.
Images from Brendan aka Blacktopimags and Gwyn.

Shockworks : BBQ

Grant — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:57:16 +0000

Recently local suspension experts Shockworks Australia put on a feast in the hills for customers and friends to have a friendly chat and show of their handy work, they also brought along a few demo cars to see how their products stack up against the competition.
When free food is on offer and a few rides are up for grabs its hard to resist! So the whole GSS crew trekked up to the hills to check out the view and fine cars on show.

Matt Russel went to huge efforts to bring his well know wreck ’em AE86 up to Olinda, fully caged and setup for drift, this car is a regular at many of Australia’s drift comps recently competing in Tasmania and Melbourne rounds of the ADGP series.

A crowd soon gathered to admire this drift weapons setup! at home in the engine bay is a Nissan SR20DET, just our kind of Frankenstein swap!

Only the bare essentials are needed inside, no 5 stack dvd player or gps units in sight!

From this angle you can see the similarities between the older Toyota’s…

The owner of this AE86 went to great lengths to make everything look factory finished under the hood.
With some mild tuning and supporting mods it has a nice healthy delivery of power hiding beneath all the factory intakes…
The grand prize here is the rare OEM Airbox setup!

Is this a specialist tofu delivery vehicle perched on top of a hill? looking right at home in Hatchiroku territory.

Chris’s Corona is one tough looking Toyota! It sits nice and flat to the ground on Shockworks coil overs of course!

The Star shark wheels look the goods too!

Chris knows all about fitment and finding those hard to find parts, since the BBQ Chris has fitted some electric JDM fender mirrors!!!

If your a fan of Initial D then you”ll know what this sticker is all about, this KE70 is totally at home in these hills.

A now rare wagon! it was great to see one in such good condition with a great set of wheels to match.

No paint on front bar… because race car! (This Chaser has attended a few of the recent DECA days)

Probably the best looking 4 door saloon going around, the Toyota chaser is big car with big power!

You may have seen Harley’s JZX100 Chaser on GSS before and this is for good reason… We love it!!

86’s were out in force thanks to www.ae86drivingclub.com.au for rallying the troops!

The SSR mesh wheels seem to be very popular, this because they look so god damn good on an older rig!

This car and its owner are said to be the god father of the Hachiroku in Victoria, just checkout the homemade fiberglass bonnet!

Nice colour choice! and great rims to match

The test ride vehicle may sit high, this is for good reason. The Shockworks coilovers are set at the most optimum setting for smoothest ride and handling. Hella flush isn’t everything it often leads to hella smash and hella no-functional!
But rest assured… they go low, very low!

Check out these ultra rare wheels on the Mikey’s S15 of Team Tuffcore fame. Mikey is a real ‘wheel slut’ with lower standards than most… he likes the wheels that others reject, only kidding Mikey we love you and all your tri-spoke wheels you are hiding a way for the day they’re popular again…

Is it a truck or ute?? We see a smoke stack with a hat!
Word on the street is that it is rb20 powered!

The entire GSS team enjoyed the BBQ amongst some fine cars and great people!
After a ride in one of the demo cars we were very impressed to say the least, the stock standard S13 (with no other handling mods) performed brilliantly even on the softest settings, it was put to the test with some quick flicks of the steering wheel.
On soft it was still super responsive and on the hardest setting it managed to navigate a dirt road with ease! No bolts rattled loose anywhere!!
Check out the website and see why they’re fast becoming a household name among local drivers/drifters and racers.
http://www.shockworks.com.au/
Thanks for reading,
Team GSS.