It's been about 2 years since I've last drifted and 5 since I've drifted Calder in National layout which was actually in the 180sx when I previously owned it.
I was super keen to drift again and spent weeks bugging everyone I knew to come join as it's definitely an activity more fun with friends.
I didn't have too much extra prep work to do for this drift day luckily. Josh gave me his storm harness protector he didn't end up using so I fitted that, repaired the loom where it had previously rubbed and tucked it above the lip on the chassis rail.
I treated the car to a proper extinguisher mount too as my previous one was a pretty crappy concoction just to past scrutineering and was located in the passenger footwell which I would struggle to reach in the event I actually needed it.
Unfortunately the scrutineering rules had changed which required a harness if a fixed back was fitted. I honestly wouldn't recommend using one without a cage and harness bar but the rules are the rules... Anyways I'll be building a cage for this car in the near future I was just waiting to see if I still wanted to continue drifting after driving this day.
I must say the hatch does make things easier to load. I did lose some boot space due to the subwoofer but having a good sound system is worth it.
I had Josh carry my pair of loose tyres as I couldn't fit it in the car. Will need to figure out what to do for future drift days maybe it'll be doable if I completely remove the back seats as I still had the back rest in there.
After a sleepless Friday night it was time! Drift day pre meetups feel quite nostalgic for me.
One of the reasons why I like Calder is the proximity. At my old location it was a 20 minute drive. From where I am now it's about 45 minutes which isn't too bad since it's mostly freeway.
Street crew assemble!
Scrutineering passed. Slapping on window numbers brings back some memories.
In short I had a blast. The car ran well overall just sadly I blew 3rd gear in the stock box shortly after lunch. I thought the gearbox would hold up with 216kw but it has had a very very hard life so I'm not surprised at the same time. Anyways I'll do a bit of a video/photo dump here first.
Here's a playlist of my clips from the day if you wish to go through them all: Youtube Link
I had a pretty close call with the barrier in the wall section. I must admit I thought I was going to hit it haha.
Here's a clip of the whole layout. Clips may get repetitive so I've left the remainder in the playlist if you'd like to watch.
After my first run I thought something caught fire due to the smoke that was building in the cabin. Turns out I just needed to open the windows phew.
And this is where I broke my gearbox. Sadly it was after spending 3 laps waiting for a clear run just to break it upon initiation.
Andy managed to break pretty much all of his aero throughout the day through various means.
Managed to get a run chasing him and Grub.
And then he blew a tyre which took out his aero.
I'm losing count of how many times I've seen his car with bumpers hanging off of it.
Unfortunately Kevan had a bit of a mishap too which cut the day a bit short for him sadly. We will rebuild and drive together again.
I managed to get one clip following him. Sadly we didn't get a clip at the wall section.
The trip home was a pretty sketchy one. My gearbox sounded like it was going to completely explode at any moment and I had a moment when waiting to merge that it completely jammed but it manage to unjam.
Thankfully I made it home without needing to call a tow truck.
It sucks that I broke the stock gearbox as it was nicer to live with and I also went through the effort of getting a new stock shifter.
At least I've got the CD009 setup still from the S14 I'll just need to get the tailshaft shortened along with actually fitting the gearbox which is a big pain in itself.
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