Saw Luke Fink was running a comp here, UK drift grand slam, thought sod it, I wanna do skids, so booked in.
A couple of mates were meant to be doing it but then had to bail due to either mechanical failure or over-doing the skids thing. So it was going to be just me going up by myself, which put alot of stress on me cost wise as van hire/hotel etc was going to be halved. But thought, only got one life, whats money anyway?
Luckily my hombre Mark drove the hire van up, took 28 tyres with me, came back with the 4 road tyres on the car...
So got my thinking cap on, removed the stock front crossmember, made a new one a few inches closer to engine, mounted rad further forward, fitted the viscous and remade all the mounts, also fitted a PAS cooler and did a bit of tidying up. Also fitted a stock UK rear bumper and made some quick pockets, didnt look great but so glad I did
Event was unreal, from the get-go it wasnt like any other practice day, it was a massively chilled environment, good banters with all the flat out factory guys, and had some awesome fun twinning with Chunk in his 505bhp Soarer, the car performed fault-lessly mechanically, alas, during practice I ran my front bumper off the speedbump they wanted us to jump a bit too hard and it ripped it off, made me realise I needed it to get home, so left it off for the rest of the weekend.
When it came to the competition I managed to qualify 7th (/26) with a 90.3, which I was stoked with, I made a few stupid mistakes in my quali and couldve put my line deeper in on entry, but semi played it safe after my first practice run pre-quali I threw it up the bank and popped my tyre off its bead on the grass bank...
I was then given a by, so didnt have to compete straight away, got to watch all the guys battling for top16 which was mega, so scared as to who I would be put up against, in the end I got put up against Reece Cannell in his E36 328 Saloon, his driving had been on point all weekend, and although my car should easily outrun an e36 it wasnt quite that simple with the tyre rules and the fact I know full well e36's have a load of rear end grip.
So, battle on, first lead run was good, reece stayed with me but made a few mistakes
My chase run I messed up, hit the speedbump too hard again causing me to straighten
OMT the judges call - my heart goes a bit faster
Lead run, twice as mental, clipped the wall twice, flat out, get the curse word away from Reece mode activated, he stayed with me pretty well, mild mistake from him
Chase run - sat on him for the first half, then once again, hit speedbump too hard and mildly straightened but tried to keep it on his door
....ONEEE MOREEE TIMEEE - what the curse word. will my tyres last? whats going on? who cares, lets do skids
Lead run, balls out, curse word it, what you got to lose? Lose Reece a little bit but on my big transition thru the middle he catches back up, I'm shitting myself, foot to floor, commitment like shes some fine ass latino, flat out m8
Chase run - sat on him, thought curse word, this is it, didnt curse word up on the speedbump, infact got massively close to Reece, thought curse word, ive done it, this is sick skids brah, oh wait, my tyres are delamming thru the last half, nooooooo monicaaaaa, as the tyres get so damn slippery it must be game over for me, sat on reeces quarter with zero grip coming into the fastest part of the track
Oh wait, what? reece has stopped skidding and is trying to get away from me, have his tyres gone? no... unfortunatly his electric fans had packed in, his headgasket RIP'd itself on the track. I was absolutely gutted because I would love to have known how the judges would have called it if we both completed that run.
So I went through, curse word stoked, top 8 in first competition, now who am I against?
Oh...
Willie Rose, e36 compact with an E46 M3 engine... right... More power, half the weight of my car, loads of grip... ach curse word. Lets just forget the fact that Willie is an absolute scottish lunatic...
So yeah, first run, I'm chasing, I manage to keep up with willie, shocked to say the least, up until the last hairpin it was going so well, then my car fuel cut, cockend me didnt look at the fuel gauge all day, yeah, no fuel.
5min rule, went and got fuel, rushed back out, went back out to lead run against willie and my head got the better of me, he was on me like white on rice, so to try and get away I went flat out and clipped the wall on the exit of the 2nd to last corner, straightening me and unstraightening my shell, game over, comp done.
I qualifed 7th, finished 8th, first ever comp against some of the most serious drivers going, curse word was fun.
Car sustained a fair bit of damage, both rear quarters got taps throughout the weekend, rear quarter glass exploded on the 2nd run with reece, front bumper damaged, but all in all, cosmetic minor curse word.
Anyway, enough boring talk, pictures!
Anyway, theres an update, savour it.