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DETO in the April Issue DSPORT Magazine

DETO's First Featured Car: 4UDREW S15 SILVIA

This is DETO's first featured car, which makes this special, but the story behind what the car stands for is really what makes this feature stand out. This J-spec RHD Nissan S15 Silvia is in memory Drew Panettieri.

SHIFTR LIFESTYLE EXPO

It's about that time to recap this years ShiftR Auto Show in San Jose, Ca. The crew at AXION and NOS teamed up to make this show and unforgettable experience brought to you by my boy.. Emil at Imagine Media Group. There was a fashion show and B-boy breakdown contest which kept the energy in the building high ..not to mention all the free NOS that was floating around. Be sure to check us out at upcoming shows in the Bay Area and I can tell you right now.. you definitely don't want to miss SpoCom on May 1st. More to follow .. drinknos!

And me with Lena (left) and Lisa (right) from lisachuphotography.com. These girls are the best!!

 

Rebel 8 Clothing

I got a package recently from a brand called Rebel 8. They make a wide range of artwork and clothing that is all made in house. Every piece of artwork is hand drawn and not altered with digital enhancing in any way. The founder’s clever means of hand drawn art and guerrilla marketing built this clothing brand up to be internationally recognized.

Here is a couple of the shirts that they make…

 

And they also sent me this sweet jacket!

 

 
 Check out the rest of their stuff at www.Rebel8.com

Solar Panels and New Parts

Got some more work done on the rig. We have been building racks to get stuff up off the floor and make more space for this season. One of the things we also installed was a solar panel on the rig help keep the batteries fully charged up between trips.

 

I then picked up a couple more SSR Type F rims for the rear of our 350Z. Then I took all of our rims and loaded them up to take to powdercoat! I wanted to change up the car a lil bit and make the rims brighter and more coordinated with the car. So I am powdercoating all of our rims gloss white.

 

The rims needed to be sent out on a pallet to get the current powdercoat stripped off.

 

Lastly I picked up some new dry carbon rear quarter panels from Seibon. My passenger side has had a hole in it since Sonoma, so I have been waiting to fix it till right before the season started.

 

Took the rear quarters up to Sam’s Auto Land to have the antenna and gas door filled, then I will lay the stripes down to get painted.

 

Maybe my old quarter panel will end up on the wall!

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Weekend in Missouri

Everything was feeling great after two days of practice and shakedown at a Bison Ranch we visit in Potosi, Missouri, every year at this time to get the car set up for our first gravel event of the season: the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood.

Ken Block was there at the test location when we arrived, and his 10-man crew was pulling their competition car apart piece by piece to refresh it, no detail missed.

Their team chief kindly invited the three of us to join them for a wonderful dinner prepared by their in-house chef and, since the team is mostly Swedish and they're big hockey fans, we listened to the Canada-Russia Olympic hockey game on streaming audio – in Swedish.

Our car was feeling strong and we were looking forward to the race – even after we holed the oil pan of our street car during the reconnaissance pass. We were first on the road after the seeded draw and our strategy was to push hard and stay there all weekend with the aim of edging Ken, four-time event winner, out of the top spot this year.

No such luck.

We went out to do a couple of passes through a practice and VIP ride-along stage Friday morning and the motor blew -- just hours before the start of the event. Even if we had had a spare engine, which we didn't this weekend, it would have been tight to get it in and running in time. So we had to bow out of the competition.

But our fans in this part of the world have always been incredibly kind to us and we didn't want to disappoint everybody. So instead of going home early, we decided to stick around.

We hauled the car out to the starts and service areas and met a ton of fans. We signed autographs, had little kids sit in the car, and let some serious Missouri gear heads get a really close look at our car.

And we hung out with fellow competitor Travis Pastrana – who was in the lead after having won almost every stage until he broke a suspension arm on a Super Special late on Day 2 and DNF'd to surrender his lead to Ken. We helped with his attempt to fix the car, but there was no way to make it work.

We'll get 'em next time.

PS: We also found this puppy (the second puppy we've rescued in two years at this event) and found her a great home in Vermont with friends from Travis' team. She's called "Salem" -- after the town we found her in.

 

Having an "off" day

In rally competition, we call little incidents like the one pictured here having "an off." Mild understatement for when we have a "moment" that goes bad and turns into a potential race-ending crash.

At the Rallye Perce-Neige in Canada a couple of weeks ago, we had an off very early in the race. We followed defending Canadian champ Pat Richard's tracks right off the road on an extremely slippery corner right at the start of this snow and ice rally. We went deep into the ditch and our rally could have ended right there, but for the awesome help of a whole bunch of enthusiastic fans under the co-ordination of one Sylvain Erickson -- an incredible rally driver with mad skills who spanks us all when he's out racing.

When he's not competing, Sylvain knows all the good corners for the best action so it came as no surprise he was right there when we slid wide and landed in the ditch.

When we went in, Jeremy and I knew right away that there was no hope that we'd get out under our own power. This was a deep ditch and traction? Eh. Not so much. We tried, but just spun our wheels.

But rally fans are a really amazing sort of spectator. Not only will they stand out in the freezing cold to watch us drive, but they'll also lend a hand when we get into trouble. These guys came to our rescue right away, pushing and shoving and shovelling with their hands to get us back on course and into the race.

Under Sylvain's expert guidance, these guys grabbed a tow-rope and physically muscled the car back onto the course. It was like a giant game of tug-of-war, with all these guys hauling on the rope. I normally wouldn't place a bet on manpower over horsepower, but in this case it was manpower that won out.

It took the guys about seven minutes (only!) but they got us back on the course and on our way. Thanks so much to everybody who got in there and helped and to Sylvain for masterminding the operation.

We were hoping for an amazing come-from-behind story and by the end of the day we had clawed back all the way to second-place overall heading into the final stage. We were on pace for the win... If only these guys were at the race-ending corner just six kilometers from the end of the rally, too... Ah well, you win some, you crash some. And it was totally worth it just for the experience of being hauled back onto the course by some of the best fans in motorsport.

  Thanks to Gilles Nault for the photos!

Thunderdrift: Nor-Cal Formula Drift ProAm Round 1

  Sunday Feb. 7th of 2010 was the season opener of the newly established Nor Cal Formula Drift ProAm Series: Thunderdrift.  The event had a strong turnout consisting of Nor Cal's finest ProAm drivers and seriously impressive drift cars.  Thunderhill's turns 13-10 (counter-course direction) provided the drivers with a configuration that demanded a high speed initiation and a tricky transition over a blind crest.

 During the morning practice runs the drivers gained confidence on the course and qualifying provided a great show.  Top qualifiers Ryan Kado and Jared Thompson displayed consistent runs that were full of smoke and angle.  By the end of the day it was Julian Jacobs taking the win.

 The drivers and spectators at the event enjoyed Nos Energy Drink's involvement to the fullest.  The winners of the event soaked each other down with bottles of Nos at the podium awards ceremony.  Come out on April 13th to watch Nor Cal's finest drift drivers battle it out in Round 2 of the Formula Drift ProAm Series: Thunderdrift.

for more info check out www.thunderdrift.com

mishimoto love ..

Another racing season has come and gone, and it’s time to tip our hats to all those who wowed us with their amazing performances in 2009. Chris Forsberg driving the NOS Energy Drink Nissan 350Z dominated the drifting world this season. Forsberg not only became the Formula Drift Champion but now currently ranks as the driver with the 2nd highest wins in Formula Drift history. With such a stellar record, it came as no surprise that he was named Formula Drift Driver of the Year.

It was also an exhilarating year for Team ACP who drove home with the North American Rally Championship in 2009. This win was especially sweet as it was the first championship for the team’s Mitsubishi Evolution X and the first rally championship for NOS Energy Drink. In the time attack world, AMS Performance secured first place wins throughout the season and hit a noteworthy milestone when they broke the EVO X Horsepower World Record back in October. The team at Mishimoto wants to recognize all the time and hard work these guys devoted to their sport to produce such a successful racing season. It will be exciting to see what happens in the upcoming year, so tune in.

New Quaife Transmission

There has been a lot of progress done to the 350Z in the past few weeks. The car is going to be ready to start testing again shortly so I wanted to post up some updates.

The biggest modification that we are doing to the car for 2010 is our new Quaife sequential transmission! I cannot wait to get to the track to try this thing out. The gear ratios are better and the I-pattern will help me feel more confident during upshifts on more technical tracks.

 

The transmission has a relocated shifter so I can place it where I need it to be. You can really see the quality of the product by the detail they put into every detail.