|The life of a Driftcar|
Everyone’s definition of “Drift Missile” is a little different. Some say its a car thats slapped together in a week. Others may say its just a drift car that can be slid into a wall without any further remorse. In my opinion, it has a lot to do with the history of the car. Therefore, you don’t set out to build a missile, you build a decent car and it may slowly become something that can be slid into a wall with no remorse.
Scott’s yellow drift car has been through many phases. We can go as far back as its teal stage, when it had a VH45DE. At that point, the car was a shimmering metallic teal with SSR VF1s, Extreme Dimensions Rear overfenders, and Chaser aero. Scott had fun with the VH45, but it proved to be very difficult to work on. Most repairs required pulling out the engine, which isn’t very easy to do when you have tubs up front and a relatively monstrous 4.5L dual overhead cam V8. The car was not a perfect showpiece, but it looked very decent and served its purpose.
Eventually, that motor needed to get out of there, so Scott sourced an S13 SR20DET and swapped it in. Switching to the SR alleviates tons of headaches since thats technically the engine that is supposed to be in the car. Wiring was made easy with a ChaseBays plug and play engine harness. At this point, the car had turned red. A Big Country Labs wing sits on the trunk lid, towering over the rest of the car.
Photo: Robert Caen
This setup seemed to work very well. Scott later swapped out the 5-speed SR transmission for a stronger 6-speed trans out of a 350z. Now the car has a solid drivetrain and a solid exterior. Scott drove multiple events like this, hit a few things, repaired the car, and drove harder. Done? Of course not. We all get the itch, and soon enough the car was due for a color change. Here is when that signature yellow comes into play.
Why yellow? “Well, I already did teal and red…” This is the current color of the car, now with white Cosmis Racing wheels. The engine and trans have stayed constant, although the z-trans was replaced with another after the synchros went bad. The BCL wing stayed on for a while, but eventually got pulled off and sold; and that is where we are now. Right about here is the missile stage. The car still looks pretty damn good when you stand back, but when you start to scrutinize, the missile status becomes clear. The passenger side front corner of the car is smashed due to a collision while doing a tandem run.
If you stop and stare at the front of the car with the hood open and the bumper off, its apparent that the whole front of the car has shifted to one side. This is why the panels dont really line up in the front anymore. Scott has jokingly said in the past that he’s just waiting for the day the spot welds in the sheet metal give out. Really it could use a shell swap, but that means getting a new cage made, which takes that whole idea over-budget. However, this car still does whatever Scott tells it to do when he’s behind the wheel.
Inside is a cockpit centered around the driver. Buddy Club and Sparco bucket seats firmly hold the occupants as the vehicle goes sideways at 90+ MPH. The car is controlled with a Grip Royal Knight steering wheel and one of our Tap Shifter shift knobs to change gears. It also has a full cage with door bars to keep everyone safe during tandem runs.
Theres an array of switches on the center stack where the radio used to be. The setup is clean and easy to understand, something that is very important when all you’re trying to focus on is driving. This car does not have a factory gauge cluster, so all of the monitoring is done by aftermarket STACK gauges. A robust cell phone mount allows a phone with a GPS speedometer app to float in the driver’s peripherals. The phone also controls music, which is definitely not absent from this vehicle.
The engine here is an S13 SR20DET. It has plenty of bolt-ons to keep it healthy and stout. A power-steering cooler, oil catch-can, oil-filter relocation, and an ISR Performance turbo manifold jump out at you when you open the hood. The motor is putting down close to 300hp and its plenty to get this thing to do what Scott wants it to. The underlying theology for all of the drift cars here at Grip Royal is to keep it simple. At the end of the day, what we want to do is drift. So build a machine that you can progress in and add to it as you need to. A lot of people get caught up in the build of the car and miss out on a whole season of drifting because it! This setup has proven to be a good one for Scott, so he’s left it alone for the most part other than repairs.
Scott has had this car for a long time and he’s been able to drive all kinds of events, meet new people, and learn new driving techniques because of it. So whats in a drift missile? Its a car thats proven to hold up to a beating. Something that started as a nice drift car and evolved into something that can hit another car without the owner getting too bent up about it. Maybe even something that might be a little too sketchy to drive on the street.
Also it should have an LED lightbar. Definitely.
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