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

[ae8zn6]

Yeah, should probably get around to poncams at some point, still there are other things I want to sort out before more power that I am saving for, so power will just have to wait, I really do have more than enough for the time being, seat time is going to give me way more benefit at this point... speaking of which:



BAM!

So next weekend is the car's first drift event, bit of a shakedown still so hopefully no major issues crop up. If they do I will just have to try and sort them out trackside.

I was hoping to make up a bash plate for the sump before the event but I don't think I will have time at this rate I will just need to be fairly careful around ripple strips...

Got some tyres ready as I have no idea how many I will end up going through with the old NA setups and even the GZE it was never really more than 2 pairs over a weekend... I dare say that I won't get away with that kind of economy anymore...

so:



In addition to that I have the wheels on the car, another pair of wheels with brand new tyres and another 2 tyres that are in the garage, so should be enough...

Also noticed that I won't even need SR power with one pair of tyres on the car because I will have the power of the Triforce!



well that and they are 175s lol, but seriously if Gannon turns up he won't know what hit him...

Also went to a family wedding over the last weekend and my Dad gave me something pretty cool that some people on here will like and others not so much...



These are genuine custom plates he had on one of his rotaries when we lived back over in the states, still with the rego stickers and everything... I think they friggin rock, so a couple of drilled holes later:



We are West coast stylin' on the West coast...

Pretty freaking excited about next weekend, will be awesome to finally get a chance to test the car out at what it was built for!

[ae8zn6]

OK, I thought it was about time to write up an update about the weekend!

Before I headed out I wanted the car to be one colour at last, I was out of Vinyl, so I did what I should have done ages age... bought a couple of rattle cans and finished the rear bar. I also figured I would need a rear tow attachment in case I ended up beached off CAT corner (turn one) which I have to admit plenty of people managed several times over the weekend.

The results the night before:



Then all loaded up on the trailer ready to go at BS O'clock



After arriving at the track at about 6:40 with a crispy morning temperature of 3 degrees it was time for the dreaded scruiteneering...



Really I had nothing to be worried about, but being the first time the car has been scruiteneered since I built it I was always going to be a little nervous. That said, the car passed with no concerns or even a second glance really which is always a relief

After the driver's briefing came the first (and only) race of the weekend, which was who could get their cars to the line in pit lane first, lol. I placed somewhere mid-field but in the end I was all set to go:



I am not going to lie to you guys, I was pretty damn nervous about heading out at all. To put it in perspective this was the Car's first proper track event and even including driving to and from workshops and bringing the car back from tuning it had less than 150kms on it since the ground up rebuild, so it was still pretty much untested

Then there is me, who hasn't been to a drift event since 2011, hasn't been driving an AE86 since then too and hasn't been out at Barbagallo since early 2008 (where did 6 years go???) On top of that a few of the guys from work where out to watch and one of those guys is famous for his mental Supra track car that breaks something at every event it has been to for the last couple of years. So I knew the first question on Monday morning from every single person was going to be 'Did you break your car on the weekend?'... Anyway, soon enough it was my turn and out I went, I was pretty terrible, lol. I think I was just being too timid and not trusting myself or the car. I started to get a bit better by the end of the day, but was still pretty average. Still, I was reasonably happy by the end of the day because the only problem I had with the car was a bit of a boost leak which (I thought) I had fixed up. Unfortunately after tightening the hose that was leaking, it pulled the outlet pipe right off the turbo and I got stuck on the side of the track with no throttle response.

'Well there's your problem'...



Anyway I fixed that up and got back out and still had a good time. But left the day with mixed feelings about myself, but a lot more confidence in the car.

Unfortunately all of the pics I have seen so far were taken on Saturday, here they are anyway:







Anyway, overnight I decided that I would push a bit harder and that as long as I could connect C-red (the long uphill left hander) intermittently with the hairpin after it than I would call the weekend a success because that's roughly what I was able to do when I left Perth last time (in 2008).

In the car bays before heading out I was talking to Matski (Matt-AE86 on here) and he asked how the car was going, I replied something like 'It could use a better driver' as a bit of a joke and then next thing I knew he had teed up one of the trainers to come along and give me some pointers. I have to say, best thing that happened all weekend. To be completely honest, he didn't tell me anything I didn't know, but pointed out a couple of things I was doing wrong with my line into some corners that I used to do right and got me to shift gears in slightly different places, which where also where I changed when I was here in 2008. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment and the confidence in my driving was also boosted by the fact that he was only pointing out a couple of minor things that I was literally fixing in the very next lap. To put the whole thing in perspective as to how much my driving developed between the two days, I was on the same pair of rear tyres all day Saturday. I'm pretty sure I went though 6 or 7 pairs on Sunday... Admittedly some of that was fairly early delam, but that's drifting



Some of my tyres must have gotten Stockholm syndrome because even though I brought them to a painful death the didn't want to leave my car:



I'm not sure that my tow point mascot was all that impressed...



Anyway, by the time my camera ran out of battery (just before lunch on Sunday) I was doing fairly consistent laps that looked something like these ones:





So yeah, in the end BDA was a kickass couple of days. Bit of a lackluster start to the weekend, but it made putting down consistent laps later in the weekend more satisfying.

I had told myself before the weekend started that I wouldn't drift the second of 'the esses' (the long chicane type corner after turn 1) because I have seen too many cars hit the wall there and I knew I wasn't familiar with the car. By the end of the weekend I think I would have been fine to give it a go, but I decided to not potentially ruin a good weekend but pushing that little bit too far and writing the thing off

For those who are wondering what happened to these:



The 175s were hilarious! With those puppies on I could pretty much do the whole course in 4th gear (which is up 1 to 2 gears depending on which section) it was an absolute laugh, but they only lasted 4 laps

I am definitely getting me some more, I really wish I had some footage of when they were on, I was laughing like an idiot the whole way around the track and you probably would have heard me over the motor, lol

But yeah, great weekend, car still undamaged and running strong. One thing I did notice was that the way I have routed the intercooler piping causes it to push up against the body of the car under revs, so that's what was causing the boost leaks. I will have to have a think and change the route a little to stop it from happening and possibly fit an engine dampener as well.

[ae8zn6]

Here's one video looking backwards at some tyres dying... This was actually what finished the session with the trainer...

[maxhag]

Well done mate.

[ae8zn6]

Picked up 14 tyres today

4 brand new Kenda Komets and 10 assorted used jobbies...

That must mean there is an event coming up right?



You got it

Mean while I have just been tidying up a few things, and gathering parts to make other things possible...

I finally got me a fixed back seat that is to my liking:



and I have also been piss farting around making up some decals and using others that have been siting in the garage for ages...



Anyway, Starting to get excited to have the car out again

I am learning that one of the major drags of having a track only car is that when you fiddle with things you have very little opportunity to test them before you hit the track.

In this case said track is about 2.5 hours drive away and not exactly near any auto stores if things aren't working right

[ae8zn6]

Collie Matsuri is done and dusted, probably the best track event I have been in... Collie is an awesome track, nice and quick and you can just throw the thing in like its going out of style...

It was my first time there, so I really need a bunch more time so I can work on consistency but when you get it right it just made you want moar...

The car performed really well the whole weekend. There is no way I could have run the lines I did with any of my previous builds as they just wouldn't have had the required power. Even this car could have benefited from another 20 killerwasps or so. Having said that was still an absolute ball all weekend!

This event was also the first time this car has been seen since the new signage had been applied. Without further ado I present the Infratherm/Moonlight Garage drift ae86:





I had an epic GoPro fail on day 2, so the only footage I have to show is from day one. As I said before I was a pretty hit and miss, but here are some videos of a few of the better runs.






So yeah, Loving this car, still a few more tweaks here and there, but it has come a long way, even if I do say so myself.

Thanks a bunch for the help from the community (ie you guys) and of course Moonlight Garage and Infratherm who helped me with the build at various times. I would also like to thank Matt for keeping AE86DC going so that I can leech the knowledge from you lot.

[ae8zn6]

and one more video because you can only put two in each post:

[maxhag]

Dose cromies and massif toyota bage r mad. Thay 4 sayle?

[Jimmee1990]

I'm with Jo, looked waaay moar siccc before

[Matt]

Yeah agree too, looked hektic cuz..

That sticker in your engine bay made me laugh tho. Awesomely built car and good to see you out enjoying it like it should be!