Project Ugly Duckling. SR86. 'Haters gunna hate, Tyres gunna bake'

[ae8zn6]

Well, the Wilwoods lasted just the single event after I realised that I couldn't get my 14's over them bit of a fail there...

Still,once again thanks to Ken, a bit of a change has already been made:



So I now have a second set of S13 callipers acting as the hydraulic hand brake. Its a little disappointing as I wanted the nice shiny Wilwoods to work out. After driftkhana I noticed a bit of a scratch on one of the callipers, which had clearly come from very tight clearances with the brakes on my 15's. I had more or less assumed they would fit under the 14's as its not like they had a larger outer radius than the S chassis brakes. The problem ended up being the X-factor, so I could have made it fit with some spacers, but I already have a wider diff, so I would have needed to cut the guards out of the way to increase rear track any further.

I also reinforced the mount for the hydro's lever, so I shouldn't bend it this time around. I am going to go to drift practice at barbs tomorrow night. It's actually my first (non-skidpan) event for this year. After that I have Collie matsuri the week after.

I thought I had fixed the problem with my cable handbrake too (to help with loading on trailers etc as an actual parkbrake) but despite it being very heavy to pull, the wheels can still be turned by hand quite easily... Not really sure what's going on there... I have some replacement cables now from the second set of callipers that I guess I could trial, but from what I can see under the car, it should be working fine as it is

[ae8zn6]

Went for what was likely to be my last trip to Collie on the weekend for D1WA's Collie Matsuri #1. It's looking like work will be moving me back over to the East coast some time later this year and I need to save for Japan.

It was a really good event, I got loads of track time and the car went well with pretty well no issues.

I munched my last FPR front bar and am still waiting on a replacement, so the car looks a bit gross, but you can't have everything. After this last event I am pretty well broke again, so I will need to be pretty careful if I don't want to get to Japan with no cash to buy the extra stuff (like food).

Photos are a bit slow coming this time around, there wasn't really many of the regular photographers or video crews out. I think they were a bit sick of driving down to Collie after the 4 events down there already this year. But here is what I have so far:







TBH after looking through my footage of Saturday I think I was driving like a bit of a sissy, Sunday was much better but I have always been more comfortable on reverse track for some reason... Weird because if you were going to total it would probably be on reverse track.

The two shots from the back track were also on Sunday morning. Was really comfortable running the wall. I have been told that I should have been entering faster, but it was only the second time I had been on the stadium track and all of the other guys I was with were slower than me in the corners so it was hard to pick a faster line that worked. As you can see the rear bar had been taken off before I was out at the back track. After I stopped I noticed this scratch... pretty proud of that wall scrape without wrecking the car...



As for footage, I will post a couple here and a second post with a couple more.

Here is a lap of normal track that didn't suck too hard, I wasn't really happy with many of the laps from Saturday (normal track all day Sat).



This one is messing around on the stadium track with one of my mates Jesse and his LS1 powered R31:

[ae8zn6]

Here is some footage of Reverse track (Sunday afternoon):



And here is a bit of 'chase cam' footage with a couple of the lads running a bit of a train.

[ae8zn6]

Just got back from Japan, went to Ebisu for Summer matsuri....

It was absolutely amazing.

Words are not enough... I want to bring Touge course home...


Here is some video:

[Matt]

Very cool video mate...

[ae8zn6]

Cheers Matt... Man I miss Japan already

In other news, I have successfully moved (again) and am now in Victoria. I'm not exactly near any drift events, but am hoping to travel to a variety of tracks once I've had a chance to set up. There are a bunch of sprints and hillclimbs near where I am though, so I will likely give the car a go at those as well. Should be pretty interesting given that I am not planning on doing any steering or suspension changes for grip, so hopefully I don't get in too much trouble like someone else I know *cough* Joe *cough*.

The good news about the move is that my cars fared better than my stuff, the bad news is that the house we are in is tiny and I'm not sure if I'll be able to fix the gearbox here

We are looking into buying a house here that would have the room I need... still, I have to source a box etc too, so its unlikely to be on the track any time super soon

[ae8zn6]

So, big news for us is that we have moved (again but within location) and bigger news is that I finally have a proper shed for the first time.

First thing I did when I got here was started to prep the floor for an epoxy coating and it has since been installed and just finished curing. We will be doing some basic house reno's as well, so I'm not positive how fast I'll be able to get the car ready for competition again, but compared to the last house, things are definitely looking up!

Now that the floor has hardened I have started moving my car stuff and tools in there, very excited to get set up.

Check this baby out








I also have some other news I'll post up in the next couple days which I am super excited about.

[Anthony86]

Dream shed! Love it... you stil based in WA ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ae8zn6]

Hey Anthony,

Afraid not mate, work moved me back to the East coast again. Currently in Victoria. Got a cool shed to help make up for the weather though

[ae8zn6]

I would like to welcome HAPP (Hood Auto Performance Products) to the team!

HAPP have come on board and will be supporting me and the car as I begin competing in events around the South East of the Country. With the new lift now installed, Project Ugly Duckling will be getting it's first major overhaul for 2.5 years to help make it more reliable and competitive on the generally tighter tracks in this part of the country.

Once it's ready I will also compete in a wider range of motorsport. Whilst still focusing on drift, I will enter sprint, hillclimb and even team endurance events as well.

HAPP offer a huge range of garage and workshop equipment including:
Hoists,
Tyre changing equipment,
Shop presses,
Transmission jacks,
Engine cranes,
Oil drains and
Industrial racking.

They have offices in QLD and VIC, and can deliver to anywhere in the country and offer installation as well.

Head over to their Facebook page and give them a like to thank them for their support ( ) and have a look through their website ( ) to see their range of products.

I will be doing a full write up on the installation process once I get a chance to show others how to install themselves, and despite warnings from a few mates I found it pretty straight forward (although a bit time consuming).

The shed is now looking like a professional shop