2015 Lone Star Drift Round 4

Well, due to the low location of the radiator, a cone in Round 3 decided to crush it in.  That was fantastic...  The radiator. however, was a SIGNIFICANT change and cooled the engine beautifully.  As always, we left a bit late, but for good reasons.  Axle added an additional lower bash bar to prevent any further possible damage to the radiator.  The motor began to surge as if the head was blown.  That was scary.  Turns out a plug came off the motor and caused coolant to pour out of the motor.  After some time and getting it re-plugged, the car ran smoothly again.  And we were off.

Texas Motor Speedway had always been a challenge for us with the SR20DET.  Not as much smoke or speed.  So, we were hoping the change of adding the LSA motor would do wonders.  It didn't disappoint.

But TMS didn't go without its hiccups.  Axle ran great all day and qualified 2nd overall.  So far, we had qualified around 6th or 7th in the series, so that was awesome.  During practice the next day, Axle decided to run a tandem with the 3rd qualifier - a beautiful Honda S2000.  During the follow run, the S2000 spun out, and Axle went off into the dirt to avoid the collision.  The drop caused the fender flare to pop off and the quarter panel sliced into the tire.  The drop also flattened and opened a hole in the headers.

But the saga doesn't stop there.  While on another follow run, we used another wheel we use as a spare - and OEM 370z wheel.  Typically, the smaller tuner lug nuts we have aren't a problem.  However, then OEM wheels typically use a lug nut with a collar, and that's exactly what they needed at TMS.  At the speeds and how extremely grippy the track was, the slide caused three of the wheel studs to sheer, and it pulled two of the lug nuts through the wheel.  The wheel flipped under the car, causing the car to hop and land in the dirt, sliding.  Luckily it didn't flip the car.

That then caused a train reaction.  During our competition rounds, we made it through to top 8.  However, during a few runs, the power would cut out completely.  Not having much time between competition runs, he just went with it.  During a lead run, the car lost all power during a slide and completely died.  After being towed to the pits, we discovered the battery was laying in the middle of the trunk.  Apparently, when the wheel flipped under the car earlier, it dented the quarter panel and broke on of the battery tie downs.  Up until the last run, the ground basically held the battery together like almost in a tug of war match.  We through some tie downs on the battery, ensured it's security, and Axle when to finish the run.  Unfortunately, because of the battery cutting out, we got a 0 on that lead run and to win the round, the other competitor had to run off course or spin out....which he didn't.  And that ended our competition for the day.

Regardless, we felt great and had the satisfaction of performing well at TMS.  I wouldn't say we conquered it.  But we definitely didn't get taken by the course.

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Round 3 Prep - Radiator

You'll have to bear with me, I realize I'm starting in the middle of the year. For the moment I'm just going to focus on laying down some material, we can revisit rounds 1 and 2 later.

Where to start?! I was a little more determined to fix my car issues quickly this time, as leaving on time promotes a happy drift environment for the team. Otherwise known as "Happy wife, happy life."

 At rounds one and two the car ran HOT, far too hot to be sustainable. Working on a budget, I scavenged the radiator and fan combo from the donor CTS-V. It's quite a large unit, and instead of forward raking the radiator I was forced to lean it back, resulting in a lower ground clearance and less direct air flow, not to mention having to retool the front body hoop to secure the new unit. Once a new position was determined I began digging for some conveniently shaped scraps, such as some one inch DOM that harbor freight crushed along with my dreams. Reshaping the upper tube frame to accept the radiator wasn't too difficult, but I took my time anyway and made sure everything was kosher. I also added a PBM swirl pot to serve as an expansion tank, something I wouldn't recommend for another LS car. Because of the high coolant flow from the steam vents and radiator bleed port an extreme vortex is made, one that reaches all the way down to the return port. Translation, more air coming out of the pot than going in! I'm going to cut it up later, maybe just add a box reservoir to the bottom to cancel the swirl out. Sadly my foolish attempts at being awesome were thwarted when I didn't update my bash bar to protect the radiator, you can see the damage ONE cone hit did below. A bash bar update is definitely part of round four prep, and a new radiator. I'm also debating building a splitter before the next round, strictly to serve as protection.

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Lone Star Drift: Round 1

Well, the battle has been fought.  After finishing the LS swap (to be discussed later) around 8pm, the drift car was loaded and on its way to Houston for the 10 hour haul.  And that was just the beginning.  In order to pass tech, the doors, hood, trunk, and many other panels had to be reassembled on the vehicle.

LS motor...pushing the smoke.

With some help from friends, "Kim" was assembled and passed Tech inspection.  With that behind the team, it was on to learning the new motor, and its relationship with the car.  Kim's new heart was incredible.  The amount of smoke and grip that it put out was sheer giddiness.  Still, there was a lot of learning to do before qualifying in a few hours.

At the end of Day 1, Axle qualified 9th out of 50 drivers.  We were all excited.  That was a win, considering such little seat time.  Day 2 came with more learning.  And although we qualified well, we still had a series to compete in.  Where we finished that day would tell us where we stood starting out.

Top 32: Stephen Bayles.  We have seen Stephen compete before, and he's no noob when it comes to drifting.  His tenacity doesn't make our first round an easy task.  But with some careful and aggressive driving, Axle was able to walk away with the win and moved up to Top 16.

"Axle" Riser vs Stephen Bayles

Top 16: Travis Heath.  The battle with Travis is actually kinda funny.  Several years back, Travis was a spectator with aspirations of drifting.  Not sure what to do, he asked Axle during an event what he needed to do to start getting into the sport.  With some friendly, advice of getting a 240, setting the suspension correctly and learn how to drive the stock KA motor...Travis set out to do just that, and he did a fantastic job.  Although Axle won this round, Travis didn't let it go without everything he had.

Top 8: Ian Trinidad.  We had been at an event with Ian before.  I recall best at our final Round in 2013 at the Texas Motor Speedway.  Ian is no doubt a fighter, and wouldn't prove to be an easy battle either.  His car was set up well.  And most believed him to be the top contender for the competition.  How could you blame them? He was, of course, the top qualifier for the event.  However, Axle pulled another W, advancing him to the Top 4.

Top 4: Randall Waters.  Newcomers this year put Team MSA in a world of unknown.  Who were these drivers, and how well do they drive?  It doesn't help that we sat out last year to regroup.  This round ended our climb up the ladder.

The fight for 3rd or 4th place: Harrison Johnson.  Another unknown driver to Axle and Team MSA, it was a go for it.  Axle was on our last set of tires.  During the lead run, the tires had already gone slick.  And with the LS motor behind it, "Kim" spun out, almost causing a collision.  Harrison responded correctly, and both cars were saved.  Being the match went to Harrison, Axle did a crazy burnout, accepting Team MSA's placement at 4th.

Satisfied, this doesn't leave Team MSA at the top of the board, but it doesn't leave us at the bottom either.  Now...time to gear up for Round 2.  We didn't have time to cosmetically prep the girl, so we will use this time to do that.

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