About a month ago at Black Hills Circuit I managed to crack my subframe. I didn’t hit anything, or do anything out of the ordinary compared to how I usually drive.

They only thing that really makes sense is that this was a small fracture that has been compounding over time. Possibly a hairline fracture that has slowly grown with each aggressive-arsed clutch kick.

I talked to R&D over at Turner Motorsport, and had them assemble a fully reinforced subframe… complete with aluminum subframe and differential bushings.

I’m actually glad my subframe cracked where/when it did – because sure enough – just as Turner R&D advised… there were cracks in the driver-side rear subframe mounting point that I couldn’t see until the subframe was removed. The infamous subframe weakness in the e46 subframe mounting points WAS starting to be exploited – so fortunately I caught it in time before the entire thing tore out of the car. I am still VERY surprised that the damage was so minimal considering the on-off torsional load that has been put on that subframe (and it’s mounting points) for the past 3 years.

Fresh out the box…

Turner also reinforced the rear sway bar mount:

Almost ready to yank-r-out…

The crack near the mounting point:

Another view of the cracked subframe:

Rear end: out.

New vs. Old:

All assembled:

I forgot – I ordered shiny blue Turner adjustable rear camber arms!

METAL.

Crack detail:

Pwn4g3.

In order to reinforce the front subframe mounting points… you have to drop the gas tank… which should have been easy – but it’s German… so it wasn’t. Once I finally got it out, the remaining mount points ground down to metal, battery, alternator, and ECU disconnected… we had to rig the rear end on a dolly and carefully move the car over where the welder was, because I was on the far lift – where the welder doesn’t reach. Nerve racking doesn’t even begin to describe the fun that was. :P

We got it over there, all prepped and ready to weld… got two of the plates welded in the bottom mounts… and ran out of argon, and had to finish the welding the next day (the day before Drift Fury).

Bye-bye stubborn gas tank.

Cuts inside the trunk above the mounting points:

Ground down METAL ready to weld:

Daniel Willie behind the stick:

GRINDING METAL!

Driver side rear lower reinforcement:

Driver side front lower reinforcement:

My shop glasses from high skook pwn u.

Drrrty mohawks > Clean mohawks! ;P

Driver-side front subframe mounting reinforcement – ready to be primed and painted.

Passenger-side front subframe mounting reinforcement.

Driver-side front rear mounting reinforcement.

Passenger-side front rear mounting reinforcement.

Primed.

Painted

I lifted that rear-end into the car, and bolted it up by myself. (j/k)

OMFG DONE!

On the alignment rack at Gran Turismo East @ midnight. *Note the “UNSPONSORED(tm)” sticker’s partial removal to reflect how I felt, lol.

I CANNOT THANK BATLGROUND ENGINEERING & GRAN TURISMO EAST ENOUGH for their help. I would not have been able to get all of that madness done without them, and definitely would not have had the car ready for Drift Fury otherwise. Seriously… there is a reason I say they are THE BEST IN ATLANTA… because they are.

I will say it again – Batlground and GTE are the BEST in Atlanta.
<3

I’ve been working on a nice flyer illustration for Drift Fury. I’m really pleased with the progress… I definitely want to run some shirts with this design.

I threw a quick video together of the mayhem that was unleashed as the five maniacal
DGTA demo drivers took center stage unleashing a bombardment of ATL Slide Style on an otherwise unknowing circle track crowd.

Live it… love it… don’t bootleg it.

Enjoy.

Erik Jacobs, Tony Schulz, Dennis Mertzanis, Jonathan Martin, and myself were invited up to Lanier National Speedway for a 10 minute drift demo between circle track races.

This was some of the fastest I’ve consistently drifted to date. Usually you get a super-fast entry… and slow down a good bit for the rest of the course layout –
but this was top of third gear – pedal through the firewall the entire time!!!

A few pictures from the drift demo madness (c/o www.codywellons.com).

After the Formula Drift Qualifier was wrapped up in Houston… we blazed trails to Lousiana for the Import Face-Off invitational. It was gawt damed AWESOME. It was a road course that was very challenging (for underpowered cars :))… And by mid-day we were killing it. Hot lapping the entire circuit with non-stop drift madness at every corner.

Marty, Dan and I all made top 8. Marty and I both advanced once, to be eliminated. I was taken out by the 1st place finisher (mostly due to fuel cut with gas sloshed to one side), and Marty was taken out by the second place finisher… Also in a Miata.

Marty and I got to battle it out for 3rd/4th… Just like the drift expo!!1 it was AWESOME. From what we were told it was the best tandem of the day. We got wikkid close, and finished it off with some slow manji standing burnouts for the crowd to finish the day.

People at the event were SO stoked about drifting. It was really a cool day, and it totally validated all the stress, sleep deprivation, and personal anguish I put myself through in the two weeks prior to the event. It was an amazing track and an amazing day.

Next competition they run there we HAVE to go back!

Some video from the event:

Better late then never, I suppose… here’s a recap and some photos from the Formula D qualifier at Gulf Greyhound Park in Houston, TX.

Three events… Three days… Summed up: pure mayhem. The FD qualifier was a mess. Everyone was ripping it on the practice day prior to the qualifying event. There was a lot of speculation as to who was going to walk away with a license. It was looking really good for a lot of people.

THEN… it rained, turned all the dirt and sand in the lot to mud… and everyone turned on suck-mode… including myself. If it had rained, and continued raining, circumstances would have been different. But the rain had time to dry… slightly. So the track surface went from mud, to wet, to dry, to wet, to mud again – and if you hit that last patch of mud, you would completely wash off course.

I felt like I was actually running decent considering the situation… then qualifying started. I NEVER have issues with understeer. NEVER. NEVER EVER. I hadn’t understeered the entire weekend. Then by some stroke of magic (or lack thereof), I understeered three out of four runs… IN A ROW. I didn’t feel good about it at all. I knew I wouldn’t be getting a license. The thought of not getting a license didn’t bother me at all… but not quite understanding where my understeer issues came from did. I’ve since deduced that it was a combination of factors, such as tyres from Irwindale on the front (Dunlop left me high and dry on tyres) – and they moved the course in to help avoid the muddy-puddled area… which played a significant role in changing the track surface.

They only gave one FD license… To Quoc Luy in his satin black 13 hatch. A provisional license was given for the first three events to Wes Hamachi the green Garage 112 hachi. Two invites were given to the qualifier in San Diego. One to “Hachi Bill” Sherman from No Ants… And the other invite to me.

After the announcement was made we all went back out for an amazing session filled with tandem madness. It was sooo much fun. Once the pressure was taken out of the equation, and it dried up a little… People were ripping it. It was an AWESOME session!

http://www.driftday.com/fdtxqualifier_results.htm

Drift Racing + Podium Finish + Ambulances + Emergency Rooms = WIN.

This past Saturday was the first Atlanta Drift Expo downtown at Turner Feild. For it’s kick-off event, I think it went extremely well! It was an absolute blast.

The course was a little weird at first… but as the day went on, started to make more sense. It was awesome!!! Third-gear entry for a high-speed front section… linking to a lower speed back section that was tight and technical.

ATL made a strong showing, and it was a DriftMechaniks 2-3-4 on the podium… proving that we ARE Atlanta’s illest sect of sideways sliding lunatics. Harri Tervola from Ter-Tech took 1st place in his turbo e34 525i, Erin Sanford took 2nd in his freshly faced s13, I landed third place in the e46, and Jonathan Martin took 4th in his bare-METAL Miata!!! It was a really great day… emergency room and all.

Video c/o TedJ on www.southeastdrift.com

We had a champagne victory celebration at the end… and I couldn’t get mine open. I haven’t opened a bottle of champagne since college, lol. Caught up in the moment… getting champagne shot in my face… it made sense to try and smash the end of the bottle on the curb to pop it open. That would clearly be the worst decision I made all day.

I knew as soon as it happened that I had to go to the hospital. The bottle crumbled into large shards of glass that had no intention of going down without a fight. I cut across the face of my thumb, about halfway into it. Thankfully my mom was at the event all day. She sat me in the truck, and we took off for the hospital. I passed out as we pulled out of the lot… and when I came to I freaked out. I couldn’t see anything, and didn’t know where I was… I didn’t know what was going on. It scared the absolute hell out of me. My mom turned around and called 911. An ambulance showed up and took me to Atlanta Medical.

I got stitched up, and all taken care of. I was in and out in about two hours. They said my blood pressure dropped to zero… which is why I passed out and didn’t know where I was. The cut didn’t really bother me… but I never want to feel like I felt when I came to EVER again.

I checked the atlantadriftexpo.com site… and there wasn’t anything listed about a trip to triage for third place… I wonder what’ll happen at the next event?!? Death? Destruction? With the dM Wrecking Kru in the mix, you can bet on it.

All the DriftMechaniks were incredibly awesome to get everything packed up, and both the cars back home for me. I don’t know what I would have… or would do in general… without them. <3

I got my baby some new kicks today, c/o of Marcos Ruiz. He hooked it up, and they look SLAMMIN’ on the car. I snagged two 15×7″ Watanabe’s, and four Centerlines (2:15×7,2:15×8). Once I get tyres for the 15×8′s… I’ll prolly rawk the Centerlines all the way around – until I can find two more Watanabes… then they will be on there. Its amazing what offset can do for a car. I <3 it!!!

I couldn’t stop staring at the car tonight. It totally changed the demeanor. She doesn’t look like an SR5 to me anymore… but one step closer to a GTS!

Now… about that 20v…

This is one of the oversized prints I’ve been working on. This will be one of five printed on silk for display at the M5 launch on October 22nd here in Atlanta.

Here is a proof of one of the poster layouts I’ve been working on for the world-wide launch of the M5.