|Mike’s Entrance to Drifting|
Do you remember your first bicycle? Of course you do. Whether it was a 12-speed mountain bike, a nimble BMX, or a comfortable cruiser, that was your first enchilada of freedom. You scraped your knees, popped the tires, scratched the paint, maybe you even got a little crazy and stayed out past your curfew. Point being, that first bike taught you how to control a basic vehicle, and after a while you knew how to do all kinds of things with it.
Well this, figuratively, is Mike’s first bike. Mike has wanted to start drifting for a long time. After some time working here at Grip Royal, the stars aligned and he was able to pick up an S13 shell to start his drift build. You may be thinking, “build? it looks pretty stock to me.” And you’d be correct, it is pretty close to stock, but it is very much built.
This car started out as a BARE shell. No interior, no drivetrain, accessories, subframes, etc. Windows and maybe a few nuts and bolts is what the car came with. It also sat outside for a long period of time before they got it, it even got snowed in. Over time, Scott and Mike we able to piece together a complete vehicle at a very low cost.
Mike opted to use the Chuki front (1991-1994) for its sleeker lines. Eventually he wants to get an East Bear style front lip. The front end has been painted yellow, but the rest of the car remains the original color while we wait for the weather to get a little better. The wheels are the cheapest circle-track wheels that would bolt up to the 5×114.3 hubs, sourced from an S14. The wheels are 15×8 +15, following the same principals of briggs’ car.
For suspension, its equipped with coilovers and adjustable arms. Adjustable arms are key for any driftcar. Having the ability to change your alignment specs allows you to set up the car to initiate and carry a drift. Not a totally necessary upgrade, you can get anything to drift if you try hard enough, but its very useful. The exhaust is also a brandless piece, but it does a pretty good job of being an exhaust. All red tail lights garnish the rear of the car, a very nice touch. These can’t be purchased like this, so a set of 50/50 tails were purchased and modified here at Grip Royal.
Mike decided to keep most of the interior gutted, because racecar. He found an old cracked dashboard and spent days filling the cracks and sanding it all down to a smooth finish. After the surface of the dash was smooth, the dash was flocked. The flock comes in a bag and you blow the flock fibers onto the dash, which is covered in glue. When you’re done you have a fuzzy, non-reflective, surface (like those small horse toys), which looks good and reduces glare when driving.
For controls, there is a Grip Royal Walnut King Gold for steering and a hand-made Grip Royal Tap Shifter for the gears. Driver and passenger sit on stock S14 seats; a great upgrade from S13 seats but bucket seats are definitely coming soon. Aside from the stainless-steel battery box behind the passenger’s seat, the rest of the interior remains bare.
Under the hood is a very healthy KA24DE. Nearly everything is painted matte black. Other than the ISR Performance 4-2-1 header, the aftermarket intake, and the Koyorad radiator, the engine is completely stock. The front tubs came with the car, so the relay boxes were re-routed to the front of the car, under the headlights. Everything that wasn’t necessary for the engine to run has been removed in order to keep repairs and diagnosis of problems easy. After putting it in the car, it started right up. The engine runs so smooth and quiet, but the exhaust is loud enough to awaken your childhood pet hamster from the grave.
The first test of this car was at Hangover Fest 2017, an event hosted by the local drift organization Traction Optional. This was not only the car’s first time on the track, it was also Mike’s first time really getting out on the track. The rain throughout the day made practicing hard, but he got some good seat time in and already started to get a feel for the car by the end of the day.
So what’s next for the Fancy Missile #2? We noticed at the event that his clutch seemed to be slipping. So he’ll be adding on an ACT clutch kit and lightweight flywheel. Nothing else on the car really felt wrong at the track, so for the most part its good to go for the next event.
Maybe we can get rid of this vertical two-tone fade soon too.
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