D1NZ ROUND 2 (Manfield) *Mechanical Dramas again*

Hey yall,

Another adventure was on its way in NZ and my car was in need of some work before the event, so I had the following work carried out.

Steel Gears put in the N1 Pump. *lucky as the N1 Gear has cracks already*
ROSS Balancer
E85 Fuel will now be what the car is run on so
Fuel pump
Injectors
Rail
Fuel lines etc all modified to suit

And just to make the most of it all the Turbo was changed to a GT35R. The main reason for changing the Turbo was to not only make more power but to keep the intake temps down. The Td06 i have been running on the car so the last 2 years has been maxed out and causing the intake air temps to sky rocket. I can safely say my temp problems are now a thing of the past.

After all this the car was then ready to be run up on the dyno and sure enough it shocked everyone.



just a tiny bit more then before @ 470RWKW. I had Spec Performance De tune it back down to 450rwkw which was way more then i was expecting and way more then i should need haha.

After this was all taken care of while i was working i was then on my way over to road trip up with the Spec Performance crew and my mates to the North Island for ROUND 2.



I arrived in Christchurch on the Wednesday and we went straight to Spec Performance where the car has been getting its work done. I have never been away from the car for such a long period of time and it was damn good to finally see it again haha.



I Was worried when i first heard the power output of the car and really wanted to De-tune the car. But Spec said it will be fine as the tune was safe as houses :)

While i was around spec i took a look at some of the customer cars and its fair to say they work on some crazy rides.





Mate Paul Tomlin was heading over for Round 2 also and his new motor blew up on the Wednesday before we left on the Thursday. So Paul had a loan motor from SPEC which he put in over night and then just needed a tune up. Spec made a healthy 300rwkw out of it so Paul could still make the event.



Good mate Phil Sutherland was also heading over with his crazy 2JZ powered A31 Ceffy. I cruised with him for the 5 hour treck to the Ferry while the Spec crew towed my car up to meet us. On the way i seen some of the best scenery ive ever seen. It may not look like much to you but i was loving it!!!





Water you can actually see through :O





As we were getting closer and closer to the ferry Tommo's trailer was getting more and more camber on the left hand side. We needed a welder and soon lol



More crazy fresh water... It may be stupid to most but i find it damn awesome.

We finally got to a town were we pulled up and used a workshops welder. Tommo had a mate weld it up and we were off again..



Not without the help of Bull though mmmmmm...



We made the ferry just in time.



How ever my car was still a good 20 mins away and the cut off time was getting very close. Thanks to a great pair of understanding NZ ladies we had the boat cut off time delayed slightly so my car made the boat in time :) Thanks Ladies!!

We made it over to the North island on the 3 hour ferry ride. Was awesome to see so much of NZ. We then got over and had another long drive to get to Palmerston North were Manfield is.



Check out the Snow caped mountains, just awesome!!!

Macca's in NZ that bad they leave the Plastic on the seats :S haha



We arrived at our little hotel and crammed the cars in..



It was a long journey and one ill never forget. THanks Lip Lip for putting up with me the whole way (Even though i had to take over after the ferry) hahaha.



Got to the track and sure enough Mike was already there. Mike has also been kind enough to help carry all my gear around in NZ. So thanks heaps to Toni and Mike for their help :)



God damn the Rig is just awesome isnt it!! Love the whole setup Mike has its just wicked...

It was now into the Drifting on the Friday. After the drivers briefing we were lining up straight away ready to rumble. I checked over my car to make sure everything was still in tack and lined up with Mike ready for a practice run.

To say the car was crazy quick in an understatement. ITS INSANE!!!!



Thanks to Matt Malcolm these pics are from the Friday practice session.



I was loving the track but unfortunately i was having Missing issues and then the Steering rack didn't want to turn right anymore.

I was now on the look out for a Power steering rack and with the day ended and no shops open around town i was left with one option. To take Lip Lip's rack out of his Ceffy and put it in mine. Phil blew his gearbox so he wasn't going to be driving on the Saturday anyway. Thanks Phil and the boys for helping out Friday night at the Hotel changing them over.

It was now Saturday, the main day and i was pumped to put down a solid days drifting and having a blast with my new setup. Steering sorted and new coil packs in ready to solve the missing issue.



Well.... the first session was the end of the weekend for me. After the first 2 laps around the track i seen the temperature raise up to 90'c which is didn't get to all Friday so i knew something was up. I drove another half lap to just try cool the car down and it then went to 100'c. I quickly came in the pits and shut the car down.

Sure enough something that never ever happens to anyone happens to me lol. The welsh plug from the back of the head came clean out and lost its water. To fix this we had to take the head off and we didn't have time before qualifying to get that done. So my weekend of drifting was finished early once again. It didn't mean my weekend was over though. I took this chance to take in how it all works from a spectators point of view.



The setup at Manfield was cool. Corporate boxes all up above the pits which i was invited to for a few beers during the battles :) yeah!!!!



The crowds getting around during the early morning on Saturday.



I went out to check out this Laurel i spotted from the corporate box and loved it! Kiwi style ;)



Adam Richards RB26 Ceffy is damn cool. Adam was kind enough to lend me his spare coil packs also. Thanks Adam


Curt Whittaker 2JZ R34 is just awesome. Ive got a few ideas from this car :P



This was the corporate box i was in while the battles were on. Thanks to Murray Coote for getting me up there :)



Big Crowd! Something Aussie hasn't seen in a fair while :(

I also took the opportunity to make my car flash and put it on display. Getting maximum exposure next to Optimus Prime!!! :D



I have a heap of vids I'm going to share from my crazy stupid quick car to the victory burnouts that i was like one meter away from. Awesome!!!!

More to come all but hope you enjoy this update

Regards
-Squid

D1NZ ROUND 1 *Across the ditch*

Hey all,

As you all know my car was shipped off to New Zealand to compete in the D1NZ drift series.



The car arrived safely and was sent to a good mate’s workshop in Christchurch. The car awaited the team’s arrival and as we rolled in on the Wednesday it was straight to work.

The car needed a check up on the Dyno on NZ fuel and Craig from Helps Metalwork’s went over a few days earlier to get the screamer plumbed back into the exhaust.



With the car all ready to rumble it was loaded onto a tow truck to head to the track on the Friday morning. When we rocked up Jon from Spec Performance jumped in the passenger seat and we did a quick road tune to make sure everything was perfect. Will all the checks taken care of and everything under control it was go time. As I drove the car back to the pits and shut it down for a while, I started the car up again and had no oil pressure. We didn’t waste anytime and flat towed the car back to Spec Performance.

Back as the work shop (ICON) my new helmet sponsor :)



One of my best mates "Lee" from Australia made the trek over with me to help out



Mark and Janita Boxer from Hoon Media came over to do some filming from the event. Here is basically day 1 of how things unfolded (PART1) Please note part 2 is down the page :)



Sure enough we had the car fix that night and went back to the motel for a couple hours sleep.

The next morning the car was flat towed back to the track to make it in time. It wasn’t long till I got out to the first practice session as I had been so keen too do all weekend :)

I took a lap to putt around and just zone everything out.





First practice session without any testing since way back at the start of 2010 and an eye alignment it felt rather good considering.





Mark and Janita were running around putting Cameras all over the car haha. Here is a shot from inside the car :)



The New Zealand scene is so much bigger then the Australian Scene. I couldn’t believe how much the crowd gets into it all. Mind you when you have 4 rotor screaming FD's like MadMikes it’s fairly easy to get pumped haha



Going back into the pits to put a fresh batch of Yokohama S Drives on the car for Qualifying



Qualifying was up and I was ready for it. Layed down 5 laps and managed to get 20th spot which didn’t put me into the top 16.





One thing I love about the D1NZ series is how easy they make everyone watching know what we are trying to aim for :) *Oz take note* :P



Overall I finished 20th for the round and considering the lack of driving I had and the mechanical problems it wasn’t a bad place.

Part 2 of the video Mark and Janita is here thanks to ADVAN Australia and HIOCTANEDIRECT.com


Matt from Speedhunters was out in force taking some awesome pics also







The car is now getting some serious work done to it ready for round 2. Corn juice is now the fuel it will be sucking down :)

Can’t wait for round 2 which is only 3 weeks away so I better get back to work haha

Thanks again to Advan Australia and HiOctane Direct.com for making this all happen :)

To check out all my sponsors follow through onto my website which will have the updating from each day when I head over next time.

DRIFTSQUID

Till then...
Peace :)
-Squid

Driftsquid Represent OZ in the D1NZ Series

Hi all,

How are we all?? As most know my sponsors and I have been flat out getting the car rebuilt and ready for a massive adventure overseas. It was released today that I am heading over to compete in the D1NZ Drift Series. Since the day I started watching drift videos it’s been a dream to drift in the D1NZ series. I'm nervous, excited, anxious and eagerly dying too rip through the PPG box for some of the fastest drifting I will ever do in my life in New Zealand. :-)

I have had the idea of heading over to NZ for awhile now and decided to see how possible it was going to be. After working it all out and talking to the D1NZ crew, I needed to hurry things up if I was going to make it all in time.



First off the car was sent down too Help Metalworks to get some custom work done to comply with the D1NZ regs. Craig turned the car around quick enough for me to make sure I could get everything sorted in time.

Autosolutions and Restorations like always went all over the car and made sure it was going to be fit for one hell of a thrashing. I put a new GTR rear end in the car so we knew the car was strong enough to handle anything I gave it. The RB26, PPG dog box and GTR rear end make this car so strong it’s going to be one less thing I have to worry about.

MCA suspension was put into the car the week after and knowing how awesome this suspension is I shouldn't be worried that I haven’t tested the car before I sent it off to NZ. :D



The car was re tuned back on BP 98 as NZ is now only using Green Fuels :) Simon from Morpowa took care of the beast and made more power back on 98 then it was making so it’s working out well. Thanks Simon :)

Now in preparation for it to get through to NZ the car must be spotless. I have never spent so much time cleaning ever single bit of the car ever. From underneath to the top of the sub frames. I went a little too far and decided to paint the whole underneath (Well Andy from Autosolutions did most of it haha) thanks Andy and Fred for everything!

Here is my car getting a check over from the top blokes down at the Harbor



And here is my container :S



Containers scare me, the fact they don’t lock into each other while on the boat just gives me chills down my spine! Fingers crossed Im in the middle of the boat haha :)

Waiting around for customs i decided to take some pics with the container and car haha





Nice background eh?



Customs came and told us we should clean the dirt off that the car picked up in the yard. I was now worried like crazy haha. If they are that picky how will it ever get through in NZ. So as we rolled it into the container we cleaned it down so not dirt was anywhere near it!



Before I knew it the car was in the container and ready to roll



I then turn around to see the truck is already here to pick it up and take it to the docks. Talk about express haha



Hair rasing moment (Please dont drop it sir) haha



Even got a damn nice rig to take it down to Outer habour for me :)





And just like that the car was gone!



It has been such a crazy couple week’s I’m not sure how it all happened. but I do know without the help from Hi Octane Direct, Autosolutions and Restorations, Advan Australia, Morpowa, Helps Metalworks, PPG gearboxes, Lewis Engines, ElectricScan Automotive, MCA suspension, Mr Bing, KC Customs, Savannamotorsport and family and friends this wouldn’t have happened. Thank you all so much and I can’t wait to represent Australia in New Zealand! Bring it on :P

So many cool things I can release soon so stay tuned.

Cheers
-Squid