Nearly done getting her back together.

Few more parts and lights still to go on and basic finishing off.An then to build the deck!

For a fair while ive been dreaming of a big diesel! I love big diesels!I dream of towing stuff with big noisy smoky diesels! I originally wanted to get a big US  pickup, Diesel of course something like a ford f350  has to be turbo has to be manual. But finding one to suit my budget in New Zealand is nigh on impossible and its even harder to swallow when you go look at the things and see how cheep and nasty they are especially the interiors ,why oh why cant japan just build us some big dam pickups with truck engines in them!

So my next thought to save money was buy a big american pickup with a stuffed motor and put a big diesel in it.Well not only is it hard to find a pickup (so overpriced for total pos) but also buying a big diesel turbo with a gear box etc was pretty expensive too.So this is where I started to find that to get the running gear it was cheeper to buy the whole truck! well then I was like quit screwing around lets just build a real truck an be done with it.So here we go..  after keeping an eye on trademe for almost a year I finally found something that ticked most of the box’s for me being, 6cly turbo diesel, 10 speed manual,sleeper cab,alloy wheels, two axle (more practical for what I’m doing) and most important the price was right! She just needed a GOOD tidy up a paint a COF, REGO,a deck and hopefully not toooo much else but hey time will tell let the restoration begin.

Anyway heres a couple of pics of progress of course massive thanks to Steven,Mitch and Quinny @ Steven Sole Customs  for helping me on the massive mission of painting this thing the paints gunna look awsome.

So stay posted and ill put up some more updates as I progress

Adam

I knew the tight track was not going to suit my car quite as well as the more open tracks so I was going to have to drive the wheels off it!  With this in mind and knowing that the track was going to be surrounded by concrete barriers that the judges would insist we get close too, and also to impress the crowd I went about building a steel bumper bar to sit just inside the rear bodykit.This allowed me to literally sit the back of the car against the barrier! So much fun, I love the opportunity to thrill the fans with a real visual show and I’m keen to really throw it all on the line more than anyone!

After getting sorted in the pits and enjoying the fact that Dodsons Auto Spares/Dodsons Motorsport had kindly supplied there race truck for the WSR team to work out of, I headed out for practice.  The track was super fun and I was loving seeing how close to the clipping points and walls i could get!  Qualifying went really well even though the sporadic rain was making things interesting.  I was extremely happy to qualify 3rd! with one of the highest entry speeds-which surprises me with my big car on this tight track so also easily the highest privateer.

Onto the battles under a grey sky on a track with dry spots and puddles, well looks like NZ summer was back to normal!  My first battle was against Takeshi, I definitely knew I would have to be on form as these tight tracks are the Japanese forte.  Over the radio I was told I had a 6-4 advantage on my lead run,so I Knew My chase would need to be tight! the run was great , I got so close at one stage I gently touched his rear guard!And was awarded a 7-3 and took the win.

Next battle and again I found myself against defending champ Gaz Whiter.  It seems I come up against him at every event and its always a hard fought Battle usually including a rerun.  As I had qualified higher I was leading the the first battle, I knew i was going into battle against a substantially lighter and faster car and I would have to really bring my a-game so just went all out and had an awesome run and  was rewarded with a 3-7 advantage!

I was stoked and confident going into my chase run, so just went in hot right on Gaz bumper on the first wide corner unfortunately Gaz slowed heavily and although i braked as hard as possible I touched his rear quarter with my front, he then accelerated away.  This is where my larger car struggles to gain momentum and Gaz pulled a gap that I couldn’t regain and I then lost with a 2-8 in Gaz’s favor.  I was gutted as I felt so on form on the day.

Ohwell onto the next battle for bottom 4 of top 8!  My next battle was against 07-08 champion Carl Ruiterman again another driver not to be taken lightly! these were some straight-up good clean battles with me taking the win 4-6, 7-3.

I was now battling for my final position of 5th or 6th and then the rain starts falling.  I often find some of these are the most fun battles as to an extent the stress is off as apart from championship points 5th or 6th I’m not to worried.  So for this final battle I was up against that lovable ozzy Josh Cootes!

Josh and I have a great lighthearted rivalry going on this year!  With us always coming up against each other and although our cars are quite different we always seem to have tight battles with alternate wins.  And this appeared to be no different with us having a good clean first battle.  I took advantage 4-6 I was happy with this but hey I’ve been here before and know I still have to push every bit as hard on my chase run.  This next run results in a 5-5 but for some reason the judges call rerun???  Ohwell out we go again!

This time on my lead I pull a 3-7 advantage I’m feeling good! so into my chase feeling confident but still pushing hard only to spin on the first corner! So with that I handed it to Josh, haha ill get you next time!

So to sum up still a really successful weekend with a 6th place on a tight track I thought would of been a little tough for us with a bigger!  I cant wait to hit it in fine weather next year!  The car was running sweet with a fresh Dobsons Dyno Tune and the team and I are working well together having some good laughs and any making some good developments on a proven chassis.

Watch every battle below!

Had a mechanical failure at Pukekohe, more on that later. Sheesh I need to update this thing more often right?

After a mad rush to make it to the event, and after my precarious financial position causing me to almost pull the pin on the event completely;  getting on the podium was great!  When you have a great weekend of drifting with no major problems and then a good result it makes all the stresses from the previous weeks worthwhile.

It was great turning up to Manfield to nice weather on Friday morning for our first day (which is really just a fun practice day).  I really enjoy this format as it gives a whole day at the track without much stress.  And although we do not get a huge amount of track time it’s a good shakedown and chance to just hang out with the crew and around drift cars.  Although I hadn’t driven Manfield for at least a year I settled in and felt comfortable from the first initiation.  Manfield is my home track and is where I really got into drifting.

Straight off the bat the cefiro felt strong, fast and stable.  I was managing to keep the throttle mashed to the floor through pretty much the whole section - and it felt fun. Of course being on a tight budget it didn’t take me long to get through my two pairs of tyres for the day so that was me spent.

Saturday dawned even finer than the day before.  It was obvious it was going to be a scorcher so the WSR team that was just Curt and I (as Steven’s gearbox problems were unrepairable) set up the easy up for a bit of relief from the sun.

The early Saturday practice went well as I threw down some solid runs and felt good with the car running strong and fast.  This was backed up when I was told I consistently had the highest speed on the sweeper (145km/h) although I was a little surprised considering all these lighter cars running a wider 265mm tyre and especially with some running much superior compound rubber.  This gave me some confidence for qualifying,

The good news is that since my previous post about the qualifying format at Round 1, D1NZ has gone to a superior format of doing three laps with the one highest scoring single run being taken.  This means the logical strategy is to put in one solid but conservative run to hopefully secure a position in top16 in your first run then go nuts in the next two to try and better it, that’s what I do anyway!

To be honest I was a little let down to qualify 8th as I thought I had a couple runs that were mean: Fast, Smokey, and hitting all the clipping points!  But hey bring on the battles!

Watch every battle from the day below:

My first battle turned out to be against Mike Whiddett so I knew right from the start of this top16 it was going to be serious.  Going into the first run I was leading so I just did the same thing as I had been doing all day and went into the section as fast as I could and just held the throttle on the floor around the sweeper,  then switched and got into the throttle as early as possible.  I looked back and saw Mike was a good few car lengths behind so felt good and aimed for the outside line as the judges wanted and just held it flat and made some smoke.  As I was switching into the hairpin, I checked my mirrors and saw Mike was right up close to me again.  I know his car is faster than mine, but I didn’t think it was possible for him to close the gap up that much while staying on the outside line the judges had requested.  I finished my run clean.

Thanks to the good people at Harris Communication, I for the first time was using a car to pit radio.  As I continued around the track to get ready for my chase run, my spotter Ross had told me that Mike had gone way off line and straight lined – which explains how he caught up with me so quickly.   This is where the communication system proved very useful as I then knew I had an advantage and there was no need to take any huge risks on my chase run.  I had a good close chase on the sweeper and continued a solid chase which was enough to give me my first battle victory of the day. I was happy to beat such a tough opponent and make it through to the top 8.

My next battle was against Gary Tenana, I was leading and as I accelerated and initiated my drift into the sweeper, my engine suddenly went flat and died for a moment.

I couldn’t believe it.

My trusty cefiro is usually so solid and for it to falter at such a crucial time was concerning!  After what seemed like an eternity about halfway around the sweeper the power came back and I managed to finish the rest of the run.  I was gutted because I knew that the flat spot would be enough to ruin the score for my run.

In a stroke of luck, my spotter Ross had told me that Gary had made a huge mistake in his run too, so I was still in the game.  As I came back around for the second run, I called five minutes and ripped into the pits to get Deon and Jono to check my car and see if there was any obvious problem that would have caused the misfire.  We couldn’t find anything so topped up the fuel and headed back out.  When I went to line up with Gary his car started to overheat badly and he had to pull out.  This gave me the win and put me though to the top 4.

My next battle was against Gary Whiter.  I knew it was going to be tough.  In my first run I was chasing.  Gary’s car is fast so I just stuck with him as best I could.  Although he did pull away from me at the first clipping point, I managed to pull closer at the hairpin and was really happy with my run.  On my second run with Gary chasing me, I went out and just ran as fast as I could.  I managed to hold off Gaz until I got on the outside clipping zone, where he managed to get inside me a bit. As we continued into the hairpin I carried as much speed as I possibly could which unfortunately pushed me wide on the exit of the hairpin and caused me to put one wheel off the track.  Unfortunately, the judges scored me zero for the run but I still had the Battle for 3^rd to fight for!

My final battle was against Cole Armstrong for third.  My first run I was leading and again I just drove as I had been doing all day and went full throttle into the sweeper and continued the rest of section as fast as I could making sure to hit the outside clipping zone and clipping points all whilst making a haze of tyre smoke to try and make it as difficult as possible for Cole to follow me.  I was awarded the advantage on the first run.  On the second run, with me chasing, I stuck to Cole as best I could even though his car was throwing out a thick smoke stream and I feel like I was driving blind for half of the run. I got fairly close to him in the hairpin and as we were exiting, I was watching his car out the side window and it became obvious he was getting way too much angle.

I anticipated the fact that he was going to spin and let my car slide wide to the outside of the track as his car spun off to the inside of the track.  I slid past him with inches to spare.  In that moment I knew I had won the battle and was extremely happy to have ended 2 full days drifting in the hot sun with a podium finish.

I was extremely happy with my third placing and it was made even sweeter with my WSR team mate: Curt Whittaker coming second.  Putting two WSR cars on the podium.  I also felt I had driven really consistently all weekend and it was good to have a solid result to show for it.

So we’re now sitting in 5th place in the championship and I can’t wait for the next round.  I am feeling confident and excited about the Auckland Round.  Please come along to Mt Smart Stadium on the 17th/18th of December.  It’s going to be a hell of a good time!  Until then, have a look at this highlights video from Round 2:

Thanks to everyone that helped out on the day.

Cheers.

Adam.