T-Minus 4 Days - Mexican Standoff Preparation

I believe it's important to at least attempt to keep a balance of normal life to drift life. Drift life, as some of you may know, is staying up all night working on your car. It's dumping every last dollar into making it happen. It's missing out on friend and family time, or time with your spouse. I've found my way to to keep things in check is to set aside big blocks of time for both sides. When I get home from an event, normal life begins, yards are cut, date nights are had. Depending on the amount of work required for the next event, one to two weeks before the event weekend begins DRIFT LIFE. So lets begin, we head out Friday, and this is Monday nights catch.

 

The car took a pounding at the last event, literally. Drifting at Houston Motorsports Park (video here!) 

 

A new 3 inch turbo dump tube was installed right before the event, but poor studs and nuts backed off mid way through the day, so I started there for Monday night. I ordered new studs, locking nuts, turbo to manifold, dump tube, and exhaust gaskets. I don't think I've ever been so excited to install new fasteners.

  

 

One of the worst feelings as a driver is lack of confidence in your car. These simple maintenance items and a few proven practices leave me completely free to focus on my driving instead of what might break next. Upgrades to power or suspension are always nice, but a reliable car is more important! Lots of SR20 owners have issues with turbo to manifold nuts loosening via all the weight, vibration, and heat created by the turbo. I have only encountered this issue once, and upon checking the car none had loosened. I thought for some extra confidence I'd tack them down.

Love the looks of these copper nuts!

Here you can insert lots of tight wrenching, the kind that leaves your hands cramping in places you were unaware could cramp. Turbo setup is reinstalled onto the motor without a thorough exterior cleaning, as previously stated time is an endangered species around here. Stainless steel turbo coolant and oil lines make installing a breeze. Most other items are left OEM, as they are proven to work and there's no sense in making a cheap upgrade that's going to break and cost us a great finish at this event (fingers crossed!).

There's plenty left for the rest of the week. I'll be building the car some new knuckles, adding a flex pipe section to the exhaust setup, and a few other maintenance items. Somewhere in there I have to sneak in some body work!

Alexander "Axle" Riser

Driver / Competitor/ Builder, Team MSA | MSAStore.com | BCRacingDirect.com