Daze's s14 Navan street-style drift

[Daze]

Once again, its been a fair time since I've last updated this! Been so busy recently that just haven't had the time!

On the 2rd of August, as a fairly last minute decision, I went to Santa Pod to join the Drift Taxi crew for USC (Ulimate Street Car) show. I went last year for the whole weekend, but found it way too taxing on the car, and on me, so opted just for the Saturday only. I think it was a good choice, plenty of seat time, a great laugh, good company & the car went faultlessly.

I must have had fun as I didn't take any photos at all the whole time I was up there! Luckily, a few days after the event, I found a couple of photos of me show up on Facebook.





After a beer & Chinese with some mates who were up there, I left at about 9pm for drive back home. A lot less stressful & so much easier towing everywhere! Stopped in at another mates house on the way back who were having a BBQ, so actually got home at just past 5am! Unloaded the car, apart from being filthy everything was good.



I say faultless, there were a few minor things that I found. Both my old Bride passenger seat and the passenger Takata harness failed. This was a major PITA for passenger rides as well, so I had to fix that. I bought myself another Bride Brix (one that isn't broken!) and bought a pair of RSA NASCAR-style harnesses. The harnesses are a major improvement!



And finally, my wipers decided to fail (again) half way through the day. This was not ideal when it was raining either! It was the same problem as I had at the Finalboss Matsuri - the linkage. I've since got myself a new 2nd hand linkage, and have also ordered the part from Nissan direct (£15-something). Hopefully that won't happen again!

Next up, I have a hectic week toward the end of August. Sunday 24th is SXOC weekender track time (I'm down for drifting & grip, should be fun!). Then Wednesday 27th is DWYB Santa Pod day which I'm going to along with a bunch of friends! Too busy, great fun!!

[chris-a]

Ugghhhh dude this car is perfect!

[Daze]

Ugghhhh dude this car is perfect!

Thanks man

---

Ok, absolutely tons of seat time had over the past few days, things have been very hectic, but a lot of fun!

On Saturday afternoon me & Ryan Pothecary set off for Snetterton for the SXOC weekender. I followed him up with my Land Rover and s14 on the trailer. Its so much nicer going to events now and towing, rather than driving the s14 there & back!



We arrived in the dark, was very foggy & cold, and got the cars unloaded, gazebo setup all ready for the morning. I slept in my Land Rover, actually had a decent night sleep considering! Got into the swing of things and remembered how much I love the Snetterton 100 circuit, then randomly my handbrake begins to fail, which is not ideal when ploughing into the 180* left hander at 90mph+

I came into the pits, removed calipers & discs only to find one shoe had completely cracked! I didn't take any photos as I was annoyed & just wanted to get back out there, so for the rest of the day I ran with it de-adjusted and didn't touch my handbrake.

That night, a mate of mine (pit crew) swapped my offside shoe assembly with Ryan's (as his sil80 uses a hydro working off discs/pads), and as my car wasn't completely broken, I bought a ticket to drift on the bank holiday Monday too.



With the handbrake adjusted, a few laps down and it bed itself in, and I really settled into it. Managed to chase Ryan down, with my mate taking 1000's of photos from the passenger seat. So good!



Started to rain, and me & Ryan got a little too friendly. We both spun into the double-apex right hander (Oggies), and ended up smashing into the front of his car with the offside rear of mine. Bugger!



Luckily only cosmetic damage though, so I did a couple more runs, although it was fairly stupid as the track was like driving on ice! Very tired, by around 4pm I had packed up & was on my way home. 3 days & 2 nights at Snetterton sleeping in my Land Rover, I was broken, certainly more than the car!

As always, here's a full incar video from Snetterton (in the dry). I have to say myself here, but I am really happy with my driving over the 2 days. From looking back at my previous Snetterton attempts, you can clearly see an improvement, which is something I always aim to do.



And then the wet track version, along with the crash at the end



Tuesday saw a "day off" (fixing car stuff, sorting tyres, etc) ready for Santa Pod DWYB on Wednesday with a ton of friends. Pod was fun, although I was very tired still I didn't put in my best performance by any means. Its also very noticeable how incredibly different Snetterton is to Santa Pod - almost a completely different driving style has to be adapted to suit.

Either way, I had fun. My main aim was to get some real close tandem runs down with my mate Adam, who's also in our team Throwdown. I think we succeeded









It was all good fun. Half way through the day I pushed a little too hard and actually hit Adam. I don't regret this as its something I've wanted to do for a long time - make contact while drifting and carry on!

It was on the same offside rear corner that I hit Ryan as well, typical. At least I didn't replace the rear light between Snetterton & Pod lol







And again, incar video



Anyway, finished up at Pod a little earlier than normal as I was so tired. The car wasn't doing its best either, a full service and some TLC are defiantly in order now. Here's how she's sitting at the moment



Phew! What a hectic past few days!!

[mikx]

Loving the car Been an inspiration

[Daze]

Loving the car Been an inspiration

Thanks man!

---

Well, as strange as it is for me to say this, but last weekend I took absolutely zero photos of the car or event in question. Luckily however, others were there to capture the action. Lydden Hill Drift Cup Round 3. This was my first ever competitive drifting event, I've been drifting just over 5 years and I've never done anything competitive, so I was somewhat more nervous than what I'm usually like at practice days.

It was raining the entire drive up (left my house at 3:45am), and arrived just before 7am in an absolute torrential downpour. Luckily I bought a gazebo the week previous, which helped a lot.



The day got started with a drivers briefing, explaining what the judges were looking for in terms of qualifying lines, and how practice & qualifying was going to work. We got 2.5 hours of practice, then lunch, then onto qualifying for Street class & Cup class groups. I was in Street class.

After lunch I did my 3 qualifying laps. 1st lap, 1st corner - spin. Zero run. BALLS! I finished the rest of the run & queued back up behind the other 24 cars. 15(ish) mins later, I was onto my 2nd lap. Calmed down a bit and did pretty well, thought I hit all the clip points fairly well. And again, after another 15min-or-so wait, my 3rd & final qualifying lap was done. This lap I was really pleased with.







After lunch the qualifying results were called out in front of everyone. To my absolute surprise, I qualified FIRST in my class!!! I was blown away, couldn't believe that. Then, after the Cup class qualifying results were called, all of the Top 16 guys from both classes were called in for a Top 16 briefing. This explained furthermore on what the judges were looking for, and what to do in various chase & lead situations. I was teamed up with 16th place qualifier, Ryan Potter.

We had 1 practice run first, then onto the lead & chase battle. I lead first, I didn't look back at all so I had no idea how well or not Potter did. Because of this, on my chase I went pretty hard & got pretty close to him! Was fun to drive with Potter, especially being both Navan s14's!



As soon as we finished, I was called up and congratulated by a marshall who told me I was through to the Top 8! Wow, amazing!!

My next battle was with someone (at the time) I didn't know. Dean Newport in his R33. Suddenly the pressure & nerves got to me a bit knowing that I'm now through to Top 8! It was suddenly real, but because of this I made a few mistakes. I chased first and screwed up my entry. My handbrake "button" locked on & for a split second stalled the car. I managed to regain drift and catch Dean back up though



Then on my lead run, I did pretty well, fairly smooth & was happy. The judges called a OMT (one-more-time!) Sweet. Now that mistake I made is completely in the past I thought, forget that and I have a 2nd chance at this...

I chased again, this time went super hard & tried to get as close as possible to the R33. Needless to say this resulted in some pretty cool photos





I was pretty stoked with my chase run, with minimal mistakes I thought. Then onto my lead. My entry was great, everything going well, but I made the mistake of looking back too much in the worry of where he was, and then miss-shifted from 2nd to 5th gear on clips 6 & 7. My car straightened completely over the last 2 clipping points. DAAAAMMNN. Kicking myself I knew that was it.

Sure enough, I was knocked out & Dean got the win.

However, I had a fantastic day overall and have definitely got the bug for more competitive drifting. I've always said that I never know how good or not I am compared to other people, but qualifying 1st place reinforces my doubts on my abilities. There's always room to improve, and always time for more practice, but its nice knowing that I'm holding my ground at least.

As always, there are videos from my onboard GoPro

My 3rd run qualifying lap (I think my best)


Top 16 battle lead & chase with Ryan Potter


Top 8 battle lead & chase with Dean Newport (and OMT battle)


As far as the car goes, it went as smooth as I could have hoped for. The engine is definitely getting tired now, with VVT rattle at an all time high, and with an odd hot-starting issue.

But as of now, I'm no longer drifting or using the car at all until next year, and until my new engine setup is done. So it'll be a fairly quiet winter & few months in terms of actual drifting, but it means I can take some time to sort the car out, the new engine & turbo setup, and save some funds in time for early next year practice days & events.

Finally, thanks to all involved with the running & organising of DriftCup. Everyone I spoke to was very friendly, very well run, and all the marshall's were on form. Can't wait for the 2015 season to kick off

[Daze]

As I may have mentioned on my last post, due to funds & saving for the engine swap, I'm no longer going to Anglesey Matsuri this year. That sucks, but it does mean saving a ton of money. Because of this, I've been doing somewhat of a parts-buying spree over the past few days, and have decided to go into full "winter build" already.

Firstly though, something that I've wanted to do for months. Offer up the new turbo & manifold to my new engine. Strangely I've had this setup lying around for about 6 months, but never had it all together until now.



Oooooof! Can't wait

Anyway, I set out on finally fitting the Apex Performance full cage that I've had sitting in my garage for almost a year. Taking all the interior out wasn't too bad, just time consuming. A little over an hour from complete interior to this, not too bad.



Getting the rear part of the cage in was easy. Then I realised I had to get the front part in first, so that was easy. Then trying to get the rear in while the front part is in - impossible! Seriously, took me almost the entire day trying to figure this out. Eventually did it.





Obviously not bolted in, and none of the bolts are tight in the cage yet, but its 90% there at last! Just need to get both door bars in & fitted, and I'm good to bolt to the car.

I wanted to keep as much of the interior from the car as I could, but annoyingly I've had to remove a lot of it. The carpet will be going back in, but roof lining has had to go. As well as the rear door panels & B+C panel trim. I may be able to modify these to get them back in which is something I'm going to try.

Obviously the dashboard will need cutting to suit too, along with the door cards, all of which I'm going to seriously take my time on as I want it to be as neat as possible. Even though I'm going down the "competition drift car" route now, I still want this to be a nice place to be - carpets, dashboard, door cards & as much sound deadening as I can keep!

As far as how the car is looking, no change! Apart from a glimpse of the cage sitting in the car, looks hard!



Oh, and my classic Mini in front of it. Sat there under all the Nissan parts!

[Daze]

Ok, so I thought I'd update this as its been a while! Not a massive amount to really say, but its progress either way.

Firstly, earlier this month I dropped my new engine down to Nispro in the safe hands of Walton Smith for a refresh. He'll hopefully have the engine done & it'll be back with me in the next couple weeks. I'm going for a full refresh on the engine - metal h/gasket, ARP bolts, ACL bearings, VVT pistons & rods, etc. Not going down the forged route still as the price just increases so much. Anyway, here's the engine dropped down in his workshop



I've bought some goodies online for it, a Tomei N2 oil filter block adapter



And some bits from FRsport (who one of the guys drew my car on the box, awesome!)



I bought an OEM Nissan waterpump, OEM rear main oil seal, Circuit sports clutch pivot, an exhuast valve/flap thing, and a couple bits of merch.

Then, a couple weeks ago now I bought my own trailer! This is fairly big news for me, and it'll help a lot getting to drift days, events & getting my car around to various people in the coming months for work to be done.



And, for the past few weeks I've been mostly working on the fusebox & loom relocation, and battery relocation to boot. It hasn't been half as bad as I thought it was. It seems s14's are a lot easier to do than s13's from speaking to a few people - there are actually just 5 wires to extend for the front lighting loom, and about 6-8 wires for the starting loom. And that's it!

Pulling the fusebox through the hole in the drivers footwell wasn't too bad - the fusebox separates into blocks. There are a bunch of earths to disconnect first, then simply just pull it through. Its defiantly a dashboard-out job though, it would be near impossible with it in. But removing the dash isn't a major problem.

Then a simple case of working out which wires were for lighting & starting loom (I marked all the plugs) then cutting and extending (I also marked each wire before I cut). This weekend I tided more of the loom and fusebox, its not too bad now.

Before tidy


After


I haven't yet reconnected any of the front lights, so I've yet to test them, but the important thing was to make sure the car started & ran as it should. Which, I'm glad to say, it did first time I sat on the floor and drove it off & back on my trailer, and left it running for 10 mins. Everything seems to work as it should which is great.

Now, the current VVT engine can be removed in the knowledge that my wiring works. Once the new engine is fitted & then the car sent up to Nispro for first-start & mapping, at least I know my wiring is correct which saves Walton time (and me money!)

[nessie]

Only coming across your thread now!

WOOOOOW some goodies going into that car in such a "short" timeframe...thats awesome!

love all the very nice and clear pics as well, looking forward to more!!!

[Daze]

Only coming across your thread now!

WOOOOOW some goodies going into that car in such a "short" timeframe...thats awesome!

love all the very nice and clear pics as well, looking forward to more!!!

Thanks very much!

[nash`s]

one of my favourite zenkis on the board for sure. hats of to you interested to see the interior back in with the cage etc.

[nessie]

finally read through it
hilarious as well, i was looking for a waterpump a few days ago and came across FRsports and was wondering if it would be any good to order from them since ive never really heard of them, and now i see u got a waterpum from them haha.
was it a complete new one and does the quality seem ok?

[mikx]

hilarious as well, i was looking for a waterpump a few days ago and came across FRsports and was wondering if it would be any good to order from them since ive never really heard of them, and now i see u got a waterpum from them haha.
was it a complete new one and does the quality seem ok?

I can recommend frsport too, ordered a lot of aftermarket and genuine nissan stuff there, never had problems. Just keep in mind that you have to pay taxes for importing (if you guys do in england, not shure )
Also a nice place to shop is perfectrun.jp, you can write a mail if you need specific items, and they get you a quote.

[nessie]

thanks for the tipp! ive been also onto another fella from Japan but he needs the part # which I have to find out first..

yeah I got caught with customs already, so wouldn't be surprised if it happens again :S

[Daze]

one of my favourite zenkis on the board for sure. hats of to you interested to see the interior back in with the cage etc.

Thanks! I'm now getting the rollcage modified by Nickson Motorsport to include a couple of additional bars & braces. This is happening mid December, so after that I will start playing around with the interior to get as much of it as possible back in and looking as factory/neat as possible!

finally read through it
hilarious as well, i was looking for a waterpump a few days ago and came across FRsports and was wondering if it would be any good to order from them since ive never really heard of them, and now i see u got a waterpum from them haha.
was it a complete new one and does the quality seem ok?

Haha, cool. Yeah, I bought my new waterpump from FRsports. Its OEM Nissan, comes in a sealed OEM Nissan parts box with the correct part number. Its stamped with Nissan too on the pump itself

I can recommend frsport too, ordered a lot of aftermarket and genuine nissan stuff there, never had problems. Just keep in mind that you have to pay taxes for importing (if you guys do in england, not shure )
Also a nice place to shop is perfectrun.jp, you can write a mail if you need specific items, and they get you a quote.

Nice! I'll check that place out

thanks for the tipp! ive been also onto another fella from Japan but he needs the part # which I have to find out first..

yeah I got caught with customs already, so wouldn't be surprised if it happens again :S

I also had to pay customs on my order from FRsport, but it wasn't too bad. On a £200-odd order, customs charge was about £18 from memory.

[nessie]

Mhm that almost convinces me now to go with FRsports too, I would love an OEM one (especially all original from Nissan). Customs sounds alright as well, thanks for the info

[mikx]

Nice! I'll check that place out

Dont blame me if you spent all your cash there ha!
As said, you can get all oem nissan parts there too, just fill in the special order list.
Shippment was super fast, my Blitz Intertooler was like 3 days shipping

[nash`s]

I can also highly recommend frsport. Ordered loads of stuff through them over the years.

Thanks! I'm now getting the rollcage modified by Nickson Motorsport to include a couple of additional bars & braces. This is happening mid December, so after that I will start playing around with the interior to get as much of it as possible back in and looking as factory/neat as possible!

Yeah I wanted a clean and as near stock interior when I was fitting my cage. Biggest problem with mine was the door cards fowling on the cage so came up with this





Some food for thought maybe.

[Daze]

Oh wow, that is ultimate!! Must have taken some time to get that right. How did you cut the rounded part out of the door card to match the rollcage bar?

[nash`s]

pics of how i done it in my build thread mate

[Daze]

Ok, so it seems like its been ages since my last update! Yet again, I should maybe update more often haha.

Firstly, the biggest news perhaps is that I now have a full weld-in rollcage! Fabricated, fitted & welded by the extremely talented Nickson Motorsport, all done within 1 day I might add! Popped up to his new workshop earlier this month and got it all done in a day, mega impressed by the quality of his work.



It's certainly a better feeling knowing that I'll have something so decent surrounding me in future events. I'll let the photos do the talking!











Just incredible!...







While he was busy doing that, and whilst I wasn't helping (which wasn't much, lol!) I decided to put myself to good use and relocated the ignition ignitor. With the management for the new SR being a Link G4, I will no longer need an AFM, so the AFM wires & plug were chopped, which just leaves the ignitor loom & plugs free, giving me enough room to put it well out of the way of the turbo.



Decided to tuck it up next to the wiper motor, used the existing bracket to mount it, but bent differently to accommodate its new position. Tidy!

Then, also earlier this month, I got my engine back from the wizard at Nispro Performance. Really pleased with everything Walton has done so far - he's been really helpful on the phone & on messaging and has helped step-by-step on my further understanding of what is actually going on, which is something I'm often easily confused with!

Today I managed to move the engine out a little & mount up the mid-mount manifold & my TD06 onto it. I mostly did this to take some measurements for the oil drain & oil feed lines which I'll be making up myself, but I also snapped some photos. Couldn't help it







So the engine is ready to be dropped into the s14, which is happening mid-January. Between now & then, its just a case of taking some time to tidy up the engine bay - doing all the little jobs & things that I've wanted to do for ages, but there's always been an engine in the way.

One of those jobs was to remove the battery tray. This was a bit of a bitch, but got there in the end. The metal that was underneath will ideally need patching and/or replacing entirely, but it'll do for now. It's easy enough to get to even with engine in place, so not too bothered.



Then sprayed up in Satin Black



And lastly, I got my Driftworks lightened flywheel skimmed by a local machine shop. It's great I can re-use it, for the cost of a £30 skim, rather than buying a new one!



Phew! Indeed, I've been pretty busy, but no rest for the wicked, as in the coming weeks I'll be re-fitting the dashboard (cutting around cage as neatly as possible), same with door cards, then re-fitting carpet (again, as neatly as possible around cage), somehow mounting fusebox in glovebox, re-locating power steering reservoir, finishing off front lighting wiring loom, making & fitting turbo oil feed & drain pipework. The list is endless, but its getting there!