2014 GITN Drift JZX90….. JEMIMA on Steroids!!!
Ok where do I start…. The first round of Formula Drift is now over and after the last 3 months of hard work and MANY nights of working around the clock with no sleep, it has paid off! I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the huge help of my Team! Thank you Korey and Norm for all the long days and nights that you two spent working on the car where you could have easily been at home spending it with family. The dedication means a lot! Thank you as well to Phil from APS for the many times you ran around late at night picking up parts or welding for us as well, Andrew, for all the times you made the trek down to the shop to give us a hand and Todd for the awesome design you came up with for the car, it truly looks amazing this season! Lastly, a big thanks to my girlfriend Michaela for all the help behind the scenes in the office as well as all the support from my parents!
The last three months have been extremely busy with getting the car prepped that I haven’t been able to update everyone on the build as I would have liked to. Lots and lots of planning and preparation goes into a successful race season. We learned that the hard way at the start of last season, which knocked us out of two events due to mechanical/parts failing. This off season, we made sure to go over every single inch of the car and if we didn’t think the part would last the entire season without giving us issues, we got rid of it and replaced it with something we knew could withstand the abuse of the entire season.
Anyone that drives or has driven a car competitively knows that it all comes down to the tires you run. For the 2014 season, we continue our great relationship with Falken Tires. Their RT 615 K tires are one of the TOP tires in the drifting world! These tires offer us extremely consistent traction and feel throughout the entire life of the tire. This is a must have if you want to drive at 100%! The other great thing about them is they come in basically any size you would ever need. This season, we are running their 295-40-18 tires in the rear to maximize forward and side bite.
The next thing on the list for us to improve on last season’s car was the power output. Last year we ran the original OEM 1jz that the car came with in 1993. This engine already had 4 seasons of heavy abuse to it and the head was built in 2009 with Brian Crower internals. We were extremely happy with the reliability that we had gotten with our engine that we contact Brian Crower again to see if they wanted to be apart of our new engine build for 2014. He quickly agreed to help us once we told him our plans for building an 800+hp high revving 1.5JZ engine. Brian Crower supplied us with his full inventory list of internal parts for our engine, which includes, Camshafts, adjustable cam gears, springs, retainers, headgasket, and rods. This engine is now built to handle over 1000hp thanks to the great high quality internals and the great machining work of Enrico at Pieces de Moteur Nationals in Montreal and the assembly work from Norm at NormAlexperts.
Now that the engine is built, we needed the best turbo charger on the market for our engine. This task was accomplished with a Turbo by Garrett GTX4088R. I’ve been driving turbo charged vehicles since 2004 and always heard that Garrett turbochargers were the best but had never tried one until now. WOW, these guys know what they are doing! Nothing out there compares to the spool up, quality and attention to detail that these turbos have. We don’t even need to run nitrous to spool this big turbo up as it comes in 500-700rpms sooner compared to last years much smaller turbo from another well known company.
Now with our 800+ RWHP monster alive, none of it would matter if we didn’t have a clutch capable of holding down that power. Last season we partnered up with Clutch Masters and have been using their 850 series twin plate clutch, which has been AMAZING! We are happy to continue our partnership with Clutch Masters for the 2014 season and know that their 850 series twin plate clutch matched with their hydraulic throw out bearing will allow us to reliably and consistently put down huge power through out the season!
Now with our engine and powertrain taken care of, the next thing to tackle is the shocks at all four corners. We are fortunate to be part of the BC Racing Suspension family as they offer great suspension. We partnered up with them before the Irwindale event last year. Due to the time restraints we were faced with, we ran the event with their off the shelf BR series coilovers. They truly impressed me. The valving was spot on and also nice to see they were quite a bit lighter then the previous shocks we had on the car. Formula Drift is all about being able to maximize traction and speed while having angle which is why we went ahead and used BC Racing’s ER dual adjustable coilovers this season. Right away after the first couple laps, the coilovers made a big difference with traction, speed and also being able to be at maximum lock while staying heavy on throttle.
Stay tuned for part 2……
