Teddy's "I drive my track car on the street" BUILD

[Future_gohan]

after thrashing/effing up my car on the street/canyons I've come to the conclusion that track time is the way to go. Track time is not cheap(at least for my income and my bills/expenses) but it's worth it IMHO as far as actually learning how to drift.

I've slid around on the streets and parking lots and i learned a lot just from that but the combined seat time for all that is probably not even an hour lol I can't imagine how much i would learn on a FULL DAY of sliding

I've only recently started drifting, i've been to 3 events and its amazing how much better you can actually get by trying and practicing all day long.

[Sleeping240]

how about some updates???

[im_looking_for_a_240sx]

work. 11r. whitehttp://images.google.com/imgre...m%3D1

[Nguyen91]

oh! inspirational threadddddd

[S13Teddy]

Sorry for the small pictures in this post. I only have them this size.

So I competed in the 626Drift TopGun Showdown on December 6th, 2008. There were major sponsors there, such as D-MAX USA (who was already sponsoring the team), Blitz USA, Discount Tire Center, Clutch Kits.net, and Sonic Motor.



A lot of tension could be felt in the pits that day. The driver's meeting was interesting. Quoc Ly and Justin Pawlak were there to judge the competition that day.

I'd competed in 626Drift Competitions before, but they were small "in-house" contests. This was the real deal. Drivers from Las Vegas, San Diego, and Los Angeles were here to compete for a real cash prize and some sponsorships. The friendly vibe amongst drivers seemed to have disappeared.

8am was time for practice. It was my first time on the track with my car in quite a while. Before, I had stayed off because of the lack of power steering, a decent running motor, and a good alignment. I finally had a somewhat drivable car, and these practice runs would be my first test runs with the new set-up. I could tell the car wasn't reacting consistently to certain things, but it would have to work.





As luck would have it, within the first ten runs I bent a tie rod. That would conclude practice for the day. Sweet. My chances of qualifying for Top 16 had just been reduced by a longshot. There were some amazing drivers I would have to go up against, such as Mike Essa, Jeff Jones, Mark Fernandez, John Chow. I did what I could to get a new tie rod on the car before qualifying was up.



As I changed my tie rod, I watched the first cars qualify. I was on a very limited amount of time to get this stupid car back on the track. Bernard from D-MAX came to help me with the operation, as well as the on-the-spot alignment.

I got the car back on the track in time to be the last car to attempt at qualifying. I would have to trust my s***ty eyeball alignment to get me to the next round. First run, I came in 3rd gear to the first clipping point, kicked the clutch, spun in the transition to the ring. Sweet. Second run looked good. At least, I thought so until I spun. Again. I was beginning to think it would be over before it began. Thankfully, I did a nice, clean run on my third attempt.



If you look at my bumper, you can see where I clipped one of the clipping points very nicely.

Onto the second driver's meeting. Announcing the qualified. "No way in hell I made it in," I told Cody Sarem, my fellow teammate. "Me niether," he replied. We stood attentively around Jackson and the billboard which would hold our fate: who qualified, and who didn't. It would also show, for those who qualified, who would go up against who.

Jackson revealed the board. Everyone scanned it as if it were the roster for the high school football team, showing who had made the team and who hadn't made the cut. I frantically looked for my name. 1st? Of course not, keep scrolling. 7th, no. 11th, no. 13th, no. 14th was Cody. Good job, Buddy. I thought I hadn't made it, until I spotted my name, under 16. I had qualified! Sure, it may have been last place, but holy hell, I made it! I would get an opportunity. Who was I paired with? Mike Porter, also known as "Mike FC".

Time for practice again. We would get a 2-hour practice session before the Top 16 battles. During this time would also be lunch, but forget that, I needed to get used to my car before throwing myself sideways door-to-door with another car. I was able to compensate for the car's will to grip hard during a left-hand drift, while wanting to spin very easily during a right-hand drift. By flooring it in 3rd during initiation, then early downshifting into 2nd, I could maintain fair angle into the first corner. I would then have to slam on the brakes right before the transition into the ring. Since the first corner had been elongated, it was a much faster entry, which meant locking up the brakes to slow myself down enough...



During the last quarter of practice, I was coming into the first corner, transitioned, then spun. Little did I know, Nieko was following closely behind in his white S13 coupe. He slammed hard into my front end with his door. It was a sight which would bring attention to every spectator watching. Glass was on the track, and my paint was on his door. Let's see the damage.



No time for lunch, time to bring on the hammers and start bashing the living (or non-living) crap out of some metal! We ripped off the headlights, but most of the grill and passenger headlight was wedged in-between the bumper support and radiator support. Oh well, time to stage for Top 16!



It finally came time to run in Top 16! I was running against Mike Porter, driving a 13b turbo FC3S RX-7. He pulled hard on me in the straight, but I managed to stay somewhat close. Unfortunately, I spun in both runs, and lost to him right then and there.

So this was the destruction of my car. That Nieko fellow completely ruined my life. That night, I was forced to leave the car at the track, considering I had driven it to the track that morning, and I wouldn't be able to drive it at night without crashing to my fiery death.

So we took off.

I came back the next night because I'd finally sold my black hatch, and go figure, their house was no more than 10 minutes from the track, which was 2 hours away from my house.









So I borrowed a trailer from my friend Donny at Versus Motorsport and trailered the hatch out to Palmdale the following night. We got to the guy's house pretty late, probably around 8pm or something like that, and dropped off the hatch. We then headed out to the track, truck and trailer, and got there shortly after.

Well the gate to the track was closed.

So what do we do? I mean, shiiiit we drove all the way out there with a trailer to not pick up the car? Yeah right.



Well the gate is located on the middle of the map to the far left. See balcony? It's located near the top center.

Yeah, well Devin and I walked from the gate ALL the way to balcony. It was freezing cold and it was night time.

Oh yeah, and I can't forget to mention it was raining too.

That hike must have been forever, because the road never ended. Plus being in the middle of the desert and the track being closed, it was pitch freaking black too. We had this feeling that we would get devoured by some mountain lion or coyote that was lurking nearby, but luckily we never encountered one.

Good for him, I would have opened up a can of woop-a.ss on the b.astard.

We finally reached the peak of the hill (Willow Springs is built into a mountain). Low and behold, my destroyed Silvia was sitting there. So we started it up and drove it down the mountain. I had no headlights, and it was so dark that I was forced to stick my head out the window to see anything. We slowly made our way back to the gate at the bottom, which opens up to let people out of the track.

As we started loading the car up on the trailer, a guy came out of the darkness. He was the one of the track managers. He asked us what we were doing, and we told him about walking all the way up to Balcony in the rain yada yada yada.

Then he says, "Oh, if you guys had knocked on the door I would have opened up the gate for you."

Doh!

Well we got the car home, and after inspecting everything, it looked repairable with a bit of work.

























So I kinda fixed it. Kinda.



I tried to drive it to the Pipeline meet that night. It didn't really work out. I went two blocks and turned right around. Everything was dragging, scraping, hissing, screaming. it just wasn't working out.

I couldn't drive it like that, so I returned it to "stock" until I picked up a daily driver, considering I had work the next day.





It was such a sad sight. But remember, I had money from having sold the hatch. I had money for a daily driver! So I looked at all sorts of cars, LS400, Q45, G20, Hondas, FC, trucks.

Well stupid me. I bought another S13, and her name was Lucy.

[Dire91]

Was there a lot of hammering and bending while fixing your coupe, or did you cut and replace?

[S13Teddy]

It was all hammering. I've had a complete spare front end sitting in the backyard... I'll be doing lots of chopping and welding in the next couple months.

[NismoZRS]

this thread gets me amped

[BrianHarte]

Teddy, your car has tons of pen15.

[240lookis]

cool car dude.

i cant believe you put you interior back in though. makes me feel like im the only guy yelling to my passenger to communicate anything while dailying to school.

good move though. realistically, stripped interior is pretty dumb.

[Future_gohan]

cool car dude.

i cant believe you put you interior back in though. makes me feel like im the only guy yelling to my passenger to communicate anything while dailying to school.

good move though. realistically, stripped interior is pretty dumb.

You'd think that, but I love stripped interior. mine roxs. XD

[Kalypso]

spare front ends are nice to have.

[nieko]

Why do you blame me for your spin ***hole?

<3

[Kalypso]

guilt

[AverageS13]

:O MOAR!!!!

[NismoZRS]

Teddy... i think you should write a book haha.. this is some good s***

[S13Teddy]

Why do you blame me for your spin ***hole?

<3

Because it was clearly 100% your fault.

[spooled240]

[S13Teddy]

Did you guys notice that the 240 section got moved???

[Dire91]

Yes, to the top of the section!

[Gabes13]

Did you guys notice that the 240 section got moved???

I thought I was the only one.

[Leash]

You need to get another 510. lol

[YoungGun]

Oh man I remember that day at balcony looking over last second seeing you spin and nieko lock up his brakes and BOOM!

I thought to myself "oh s***."

Cool story bro.

[Kalypso]

I just traded my coupe for a hatch....

[Sleeping240]

dude kalypso, where did you get your avatar??

I believe it is due time for storytime.

[nieko]

Oh man I remember that day at balcony looking over last second seeing you spin and nieko lock up his brakes and BOOM!

I thought to myself "oh s***."

Cool story bro.

see everyone....

clearly Teddy spun in front of me...

pst

thank you cody ahhaha

[S13Teddy]

Clearly I told you NOT to follow me because of my bad alignment!

Douchebag!

[nieko]

<3

[Jdmstyles]

Nieko I just realized I saw your coupe before. It was about 2 months ago when I got my glasses in the OC. You were on Euclid going north ;o

[nieko]

hahha siiiiiiick