AK Racing 2010

I’m happy to say I am offically drifting again.

The dyno went great @ SR Motorcars on Monday the 26th. Big Thanks to Steve and Forsberg for all the help! Needed a few things after the dyno to get ready for the test day on Wednesday the 28th so Albert took me up to West Covina Nissan and Ray helped me out getting the last minute stuff together. Thanks Guys!! 350rwhp @ 14psi. I’ll take it. Leaving it there for a long time.

On to the test day. After waking up early on Tuesday the 27th and changing my oil before going to work, then going to work, coming home and frantically trying to get the car ready. At 9pm Forsberg and I finally headed up to L.A to pick up Tony and headed out to Lancaster to stay the night @ Nick’s house which is about 10 minutes from Willow Springs. Got there around 11:30 and to our surpise it was about 40 degree’s out!! It was amazing!

Nick and his wife were gracious enough to let us stay the night. Thank’s so much for your hospitality!

Wednesday morning we woke up (i only slept about 4-5 hours…couldnt sleep), got some food which I could barely eat because I was nervous/exicted/nervous to drive again. We finally got to the track @ about 10:30am and met up with my wife Jess, Jack and James. Bill Wood was also there to do an interview with Tony and Forsberg, I ended up being in a few shot’s of them teaching me/helping me out w/ the car and a few driving shot’s too I’m sure. (Can’t wait to see his footage, including the in car!!) So we started to unload, check fluids, prepare for the day ahead.

I had not drifted in over 2 years so I honestly had no idea what to expect and I dont think anyone else did either. So the first order of buisness as per Forsberg and Tony was to just grip the car around the track about 10 time’s both directions just to get a feel for the car, make sure it’s running ok, get the rust off the rotors, make sure it’s boosting ok, etc etc.

Thing’s that went wrong right away:

Boosted 22+ psi due to a faulty boost solenoid on the AVC-R (it was giving me problems on the dyno too.) So we disconnected that and ran 10psi on the wastegate.
Ran on 3 cylinders after it boosted 22+psi. Tony ended up figuring out the ECU plug was loose. Cylinder 1 = No spark. Fixed.
Finally time to drift! Wrong! Power steering high pressure line ended up having a hair line crack in it and was squirting fluid all over the manifold. After about 2 hour’s of BS’ing around with Old/Bad JB Weld, Sanding Copper washer’s Jess/Jack and James found a high pressure line @ an Autozone 11miles away. Life savers!!

NOW it was time to drift. Started out with some donuts then moved onto driving. The car is…amazing. At first I was all over the place trying to figure out what I was doing. Forsberg and Tony were HUGE HUGE HUGE! help’s and rode with me/drove the car a few time’s and really taught me how to drive a car setup this way. The car is setup totally different than anything else I’ve ever driven or built so there was a bit of a learning curve to say the least. Tony and Chris played with different shock setting’s and tire pressure’s and made the car feel so much better with just minor adjustments.

I feel really good about the way I was driving by the end of the day. I still have a ton to learn but am looking foward to it. The car is AMAZING (yes I said it again, it’s THAT good) I have NEVER driven a car that feel’s as good as mine does now.

The car need’s a new transmission BADLY, it grind’s every gear and it just feel’s plain awful. It also need’s the steering sorted out ie; more angle and a new rack.

Maxxis Z1 Drift’s are the BEST tire I’ve EVER driven on. They are unreal, I ran them all around, 235/40/17 up front and 255/40/18 in the rear. The rear’s lasted for over 20 lap’s each and they have grip down till they were completely flat and worn. I’ll be buying these….forever, they are my first and only choice in a tire!

DMax coilover’s were working out really nicely, they were dialing in as we wanted them to and with some more testing I think they are going to be exactly what I need for this up and coming year @ Just Drift’s Top Drift Series.

I could write here for hours and hours, so much happened in such a small amount of time I am just going to leave it at what’s written above and leave you guy’s with some raw footage I quickly spliced together from what Jess filmed.

For not driving for 2 year’s I am thrilled with how the day turned out. I couldnt be more happy and am so glad to be back in the drivers seat. The car is honestly the best car I have ever driven and it’s not even fully dialed in yet. I can’t wait to drive her again!!!!

HUGE Thanks AGAIN to (in no particular order!):
Jess, Forsberg, Tony, Nick, Jack, James, Albert, Steve @ SR Motorcars, Ray @ West Covina Nissan, Dousan, AZNDoc (internet famous Jack), Dmax, City Tire, On Track Motorsports, Simple Line Autoworks.I love all of you guys! Thank you all SO much for your support I couldnt have done it without any of your help.

VIDEO: No driving for 2 years. 10psi on my turbo setup. These are some of the better run’s from what the wife had on our camera. Bill Wood has some of my best run’s which I cannot wait to see!