Team Tuffcore – Gripshiftslide

Vic Drift :: April Members Day

Grant — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:54:24 +0000

Winton Raceway was once again host to another Vic Drift practice day, being a members only day you have to hold a current club membership to be able to enter.
I believe the popularity of drifting in Australia is finally on the rise. After seeing the amount of cars entering and supporting the club, we are in for a good future.
With so many people traveling 2-4 hours and spending their hard earned just to drive on a practice day, it is a very good sign, not just for the Vic scene but Australia-wide as well.

The level of skill of the drivers is getting better each and every time I attend one of these practice days, there are always plenty of spins and people heading off track too to keep us on the edge of our seats.
But throughout the day, every driver shows so much improvement and most carry that on to the next event, getting better each time.

The weather was beautiful with hardly any wind at all, this made for some interesting shots as the smoke would settle on the track and create some creepy backdrops.

Justin Powers has recently made the switch from behind the lens to behind the wheel and he is killing it!

The car is looking great with all the Insane Drifters livery, loving the sticker location Justin.

The thing that surprised me was the amount of smoke the cars were getting. Normally on a practice day there are only a handfull of cars that can ‘bake’ the rear wheels. Not this practice day though, everyone was showing off!

Entry speeds were also pretty impressive, this of course got a few drivers out of their comfort zones and a few left the track…

Dirt drop!!

Dirt bomb?

There were a few moments with almost ‘Drift Train’ groups linking corners in succession. It looked great seeing some very different cars and drivers of multiple skill levels ripping up the track together.

This R33 was easily one of the most consistent drivers all day, the setup must have been perfect for the day.

Each lap he looked as though he was the happiest person at Winton that day and with all that smoke in your rear view mirror, who wouldn’t be?

As I said before, the smoke made things pretty interesting.

Someone that was going absolutely berserk, was Troy and his rotary powered Corolla!

I always get the same funny feeling seeing this car out on the track. When you look at an ant scurrying across the ground they look unnaturally fast… that’s the sensation I get when Troy’s tiny AE86 flies past!!!

Although, I think it might be because this car is actually scarily fast, while the exterior isn’t as crazy as the engine bay but the interior is perfect!
Clean and functional.

Unfortunately Troy had an incident with the little hatch on one of the last laps of the day, the AE86 ran wide through a corner and became airborne off the rumble strip.
When it came down, it came down hard!! There is a lot of structural damage underneath and we are hoping along with Troy that it can be repaired.

Jason Ferron’s V8 swapped R31 sounded tougher than ever!

This is what this car does best!

Adam ‘Silky’ Graham was going well all day in his S14 despite blowing a turbo in the afternoon!!

Michael Prosnik in the Supreme Caravans 180SX.

The car is performing just as perfectly as it looks, since it’s makeover.

Everyone convince your parents to buy a caravan from these guys, help them because they have done a lot for the Victorian drift community.

Billie’s Sil80 is back from its hibernation, running a new engine setup.

Billie and James are still ironing out some teething issues but it’s nice to see ‘Ziptie’ back in action.

Whats this? ‘Ziptie’ has a brother? Yes!! Billie and James have got their Cefiro track-side now as well!

This Falcon Ute was actually going pretty well all day, no massive angles but the car was sideways every chance it had.

However it did have two wall taps. This was the worse of the two but luckily the Winton safety crew were quick to act!

I’m a big fan of Roman’s 180SX, the car looks great at every meet scraping it’s sump on the cats eyes as it drives on the street.

On the track that very same car at the same height slides like an animal!!

More R31 goodness, there is just something cool about four doors sliding!

Another car I haven’t seen much of before was this “kicker” 180SX.

The 90’s graffiti look grew on by the end of the day too!

Ender Esenyel about to head out for his last track day before ADGP’s in Tasmania.

I think it’s safe to say Ender is loving his new tune, the SR20 is now making 325KW at the wheels!!

Ender’s S13 is probably the most photogenic car in the drift scene at the moment, no matter what colour, parked or driving it looks great!!

It was lucky that Ender had this chance to take the car out as a few laps into the day the car started to misbehave, thinking the worst he retired the car to the pits.
After a day or two of hunting down the cars ‘gremlins’, the problem was solved by swapping out the crank angle sensor.
I can’t wait to see how he goes in Tassie for the first round of the ADGP series.

Ibi Kunduraci smoking up a storm in the Transcar S15.

In the last 12 months I have seen this car progress, it’s always looked great but it’s performing so well now.
Great work Ibi!!

Mrs Vic Drift herself, Catherine May!
After the new addition of one solid looking roll cage, Mrs May seems to be feeling invincible on the track.

Every time I looked, Catherine was either sideways or smoking up the rear wheels.
Much more consistent driving from Vic Drifts #1 female driver, awesome stuff Cat!

Another driver constantly impressing me is Nick Bennett of Team Tuffcore fame, being a close friend of mine I’ve been able to see the effort going into building this car and to see him enjoy it is priceless!!
Well it’s actually $40, for a high-res copy 😛

Despite some issues with the engine/tune the car performed well and made good use of those rear tyres!

Now my pick of the drivers would have to be this guy in this fearless silver KE Corolla, seeing this car drift the entire straight was definitely my highlight of the day.

The car just did not stop drifting, great driving!!

The sun faded a lot earlier now that summer is over, leaving you with this sun set and smokey haze as everybody packed up to head home.
Another great day by everybody, despite a few bad eggs wondering around the pits and taking other peoples belongings it was a great day to skid.
I hope everybody enjoyed themselves and these photos, I’ve mixed things up a little with my editing for these. Being a practice day I thought I’d practice with my camera too, let me know what you like and what you don’t like about them.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

XXL2NV :: Hyundai Time Attack Car

Grant — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:45:42 +0000

What simply started as a tuned street car soon ended up a dedicated track monster.
Built by the crazy lads from Team Tuffcore, this Hyundai is going to shake things up this year on the professional time attack circuit.
Everything you see here is built by the boys themselves, no workshops, no help, just blood, sweet and hard earned dollars.

With a completely built car ready to hit the track, the boys needed to get some exposure. As you well know, racing isn’t cheap. Fuel, tyres and travel costs can all add up pretty quickly.
So we were approached by the boys to become their official media sponsor and needless to say we jumped on board straight away without hesitation!

The car is a shadow of it’s former self with massive over fenders and aggressive areo, all helping to transform the car completely!

This is no grocery-getter, not unless you are Michael Schumacher and had a hankering for ice cream 5 minutes ago!

The car got out of hand as a simple street car. Once the boys realized that it could hardly be driven without taking the paint off speed-humps wherever they went, they decided to bite the bullet and retired it from its’ street registered duties indefinitely.

Not a single bolt has been left untouched during the build, everything has been lightened and strengthened in the search of the fastest lap time.

The car runs a very high compression engine with a lot, I repeat a lot of boost!
Helping keep things reasonably cool under the hood is this massive vent.

The problem with building a car like this from such an uncommon platform has meant the guys have had to do a lot of custom fabrication along the way.
Things like these neat little GT mirrors have been completely built from scratch!

Now with the build being on a strict budget they have had to cut costs along the way, believe it or not, these wheels are replicas!

While the interior is still largely intact for this shoot, the boys have since built a dry carbon dash!!
We can’t wait to see it!

The car sits just 20mm from the ground, this made navigating the local streets for the photo shoot extremely difficult!

Here is a shot with a random child for scale references, the car is clearly bigger.

The Excel is running some pretty wild negative camber, the boys told me this was just for the shoot.
On the tack it is not so intense to save on tyre wear.

This Hyundai is tough to the core… (sorry!!)

There are a host of gauges and warning devices in the cockpit to help keep an eye on all the important things.

No stone has been left unturned, inside the bucket seats are mismatched so the driver is firmly in place in the very tight Groom seat and the passenger has a regular Bride seat for a little more comfort.

The massive tacho on the dash has harmed visibility but “the cool factor was far too high to mount it anywhere else.” – said the boys during the shoot.

The engine bay is just has highly modified as the exterior, ITB’s, ARC air box and a mid sized turbo all come together to produce the very impressive 484KW (p.m.p.o) at the wheels!

Suspension is comprised of a heap of the brand new Kony 2012 coilover range, this thing handles like nothing else.

When you take a step back to truly take in everything the boys have done to create this wild track car, you really appreciate what it takes to build such a monster…

… Months of tuning and rebuilding each part to chase that 0.01 second faster lap time, for example these canards are the 5th set that have been created for the car!!

The massive rear wing has probably been the single biggest expense the boys have had during the entire build, it’s estimated to have cost $12,000 Aud.

Yes this is a Photoshop… However the boys need your help to realize this dream and get them to the 2012 World Time Attack Challenge.
Please head to our Facebook page and hit the ‘like’ button, for every ‘like’ our page has we will donate two ‘likes’ to the Tuffcore Team page.
Simple!

This is easily one of the most competitive time attack cars in the country right now and built on a relatively small budget thanks to in house tuning and fabrication.
This Excel is a testament to budget racing and the ‘underdog’ and after completing the local time attack circuit the boys have their eyes on taking the car overseas.

Don’t miss out on the amazing video we shot of this crazy car,

And, Visit Team Tuffcore http://teamtuffcore.tumblr.com/
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

Drift Matsuri :: Hot As Hell

Grant — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:37:38 +0000

Vic Drift Summer Matsuri is over and I’m crashing back into reality as I type this post. It was a monumental weekend of skids and epic heat, but I’m sure it has taken it’s toll on everyone involved and maybe even taken some years off our lives. Fortunately, most of us did more ‘living’ in two days than most do in several years!
Held at Winton Raceway around 3 hours from Melbourne, the event was spread over two days and let me tell you, it’s one hell of a weekend! With drivers from all over Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, it was absolutely packed on the track with up to 150 cars taking part over the two days.

The day kicked off around 7am Saturday morning, with drivers fixing problems and getting cars to the scrutineer bay or simply enjoying some UP & Go for breakkie.

Krish’s very clean and very, very low R32.

Eveyone was keen to catch up after the two-month long break.

There was plenty to catch up on! Some cars have had complete overhauls and others complete makeovers during the hiatus. Jason’s R31 Skyline has had one monstrous V8 engine installed over the break and it not only sounds amazing but performs just as well!

One car to receive a freshen up was Stirling’s R33, now with a full theme going on. Stirling even got into character, growing a handle bar mustache for the event.
I don’t think this official knew quite what he was looking at so early in the morning.

It really is amazing what planning goes on behind the scenes to run a race day like this, let alone actually getting it approved and organized. On the day 150 cars needed to be inspected and drivers were then split into groups. Then a schedule needs to be made and maintained and a safety crew is on standby to correct anything that happens on the track, and I do mean anything!

One car that has been getting a make over for a new season is Issac’s incredible S15, which has been off the road for 9 months! There are still a few things he wants to complete on the car and some gremlins over the weekend meant Issac didn’t get as many runs as he’d originally hoped.

Winton raceway got gatecrashed by NSW Drift Crew ‘Hit And Run’ with the boys terrorizing the track with their tough as nails drift cars.

The boys have quite the reputation and lead an almost ‘rock star’ lifestyle in the drift scene with plenty of followers of their online blog covering all the things happening with the cars and of course the all important STICKERSSSS!!!!
Check out their site for all the latest: http://hitandrundc.com/

With most of the morning gon,e it was time for drivers to speed things up an get some fresh tyres on before hitting the track.

The groups were called and the cars lined up, everyone was anxious for what would happen next!

Skids!!!!!!
Declan Walsh and Simon Michelmore were up from SA for the weekend, Declan was in his grey R32 and Simon brought along a black 180SX for some missile duties while his red S14 gets ready for the the full drift season ahead.

One of my personal favorites was Brendan Mulcahy’s V8 swapped KE Corolla, this thing was ridiculous! Constantly blowing tyres all day!!

It wasn’t hard to see why this car was going through a set of tyres every session, leaving a constant trail of white smoke, this car was lighting the rears up the whole way around the course.

Plenty of Hachi love, with six Toyota AE86’s destroying some sets of tyres over the weekend.

Justin Niblock had been driving flat out all weekend, with some of the fastest entries even his rear bumper couldn’t keep up!

Issac’s superb S15 looked great sliding around Winton, I can’t wait to see how it will perform when it gets the final things ticked off the list of mods.

While this Matsuri was purely a just for fun event, some drivers made sure they had plenty of ‘fun’ with some door to door action.

Another car that has been stealing both my eyes and my ears every time it hits the track is David Jakic’s AE86.

It really is the complete package, equipped with a Beams 3S-GE motor and looks to kill, this car can boogie!

I have a massive soft spot for tiny black hatchbacks that make a lot of noise, I really don’t know why 😛

Brett Reid’s ‘Reaper’ 200SX was easily one of the quickest through the corners.

The hellish sound that came from the exhaust was terrifying. The 6 litre V8 made a rumble that could be heard from everywhere. There was no escape!

One of the Winton safety crew had lost $2, so the session was stopped while the team frantically looked for the gold coin.
Actually it turns out due to the heat on the day, dry condition of the track and some super low cars a small grass fire started in the middle of the track!

Another v8 swapped car getting around is Aaron Dewar’s ‘570SX’, this thing was faultless all weekend even through the hottest part of the day.

John Lillie killing it, drifting the main straight in his R32.

The Supreme Caravan’s 180SX didn’t make an appearance until late Saturday, when it did hit the track though it was smoke from start to finish, the whole course!

I don’t know who was driving this S14, but they did a hell of a job linking the last few corners. It was a great car to shoot!

Nick Bennett from Team Tuffcore enjoying a few laps in his R32 after spending many late nights (including the night before at the hotel) fixing a few small issues. It was a pleasure seeing the car finally out their and the angle and speed has been improved significantly since last December!

Another grass fire started before lunch on Saturday, large enough that the firetruck had to be called out.

Backwards entry from Catherine May!

Harley Jones in one of the best KE’s there, The Hit and Run boys brought one cool collection of cars with them.

The angle this car was getting through some corners was crazy for such a short wheelbase.

V8 swapped BMW, piloted by Joshua Bossong. Was a nice mix up from all the Nissan’s and Toyota’s.

Another Hit and Run’er, Ryan Moran screaming up the straight in front of the dummy grid. This car looked great!

Hows this for rare, a drifting Nissan Gazelle! Awesome driving by Troy Clarke too!

A lot of repairs and modifications took place in the pits, my favorite… The “Mexican Battery Stay”.

Everywhere you looked there was a Hit and Run car laying a smoke screen. This one is the teams’ affectionately named S13 – The Jabberwocky.

Matt ‘Rusty’ Russell’s new rig looking a lot better in a fresh coat of new paint, last time it was just in primer but still ripped great skids.

Ethan Falkenberg’s intense looking R32 Drift Missile, the other drivers were scared as hell to get near this thing.

One of the last shots i took before the rain hit, this awesome looking s14 was coming in very hot into the last corner when I snapped this.
There really is just way too much I would love to put up, but short and sweet is best.
Massive thank you to all those that said hello and of course all the people that make these things happen, Yoshi, Cat, Ben and Tony and anyone else involved.
We would have nothing without their time and dedication.
Support the scene that supports you!
http://www.vicdrift.com
And of course all the people that pour their blood, sweat and hard earned cash and give up their time to enter these drift days.
The rest of the photos will make their way to our Facebook page very soon, be sure to hit the ‘like’ button so you don’t miss out.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.