Last minute preparations and then we’re off to Teesside!

The week has been a busy one at Team Japspeed HQ with lots of last minute work being undertaken in readiness for more battles at Round 3 of the Maxxis British Drift Championship at Teesside Autodrome. You can’t halt progress and a serious amount of work has been undertaken.

The workshop is currently humming with busy hands and powertools as the cars are being finished off. The clock is ticking before that first flag drops on the Teesside track.

The week leading up to this event has seen several changes to the drift fleet, some minor and some slightly more involved development work. A brief list of the work includes would be the fuel system overhaul on Shane Lynch’s V8 twin turbo Nissan S15,  refitting another uprated custom propshaft after it broke the last one (it is indeed a torque monster!) and sending it off to the rolling road for some dyno work to ensure all is well.

That wasn’t the only car having parts changed though, they’ve all seen some attention! Shane ‘O Sullivan has had the turbo and manifold removed from his RB-powered S15 after it broke at Round 2. While it was repaired at the track, it was never going to be a long term fix, the “oh, that will do” attitude doesn’t apply here! So, the clever Japspeed spanner-men have been working on developing things further to aid the all-important reliability. With the manifold and turbo taken care of, both the fuel and cooling system was overhauled. Then it was packed off to the rolling road for a mapping session to check things over.

Baggsy’s Subaru will be running a different ratio diff around Tesside, so that was duly swapped and after getting some driver feedback, the Subaru has been having modifications to further increase the already impressive lock it has. Baggsy himself even put in an appearance at the HQ while this last minute tweaks are being completed.

Paul “Smokey” Smith’s S15 has also been treated to some mechanical love too. It now sports a brand new Exedy clutch and a fresh turbo. The old clutch and turbo lasted two years of drifting abuse and podium finishes, including a 2nd in the last round at Norfolk, so after all this punishment Paul felt that they needed a new lease of life, that’s impressive considering how hard the clutch and turbocharger works during a drift event.

All this has been happening within a tight timeframe along with the usual tweaks, saftey and spanner checks throughout the entire drift-fleet, but as ever, the hardworking Team Japspeed lads managed to get it all done and now they are ready for battle!

The stockpile of the grippy and very smokey Maxxis MA-Z1 drift tyres are being fitted to the wheels, ready to be blazed across the Teesside tarmac in front of a packed house of drift fans.

Time for preparation and improvement is over now, it’s time to hit the road for the North East to tackle Teesside! We will be pushing hard for more points and podium finishes in the championship race and the Team Triple Drift Event, we hope to see you there! For all the information on the Maxxis British Drift Championship, go onto www.thebritishdriftchampionship.com