I know I promise Brent every time i see him that I would start blogging asap! Here it is Brent! Finally!! First of, I would like to introduce myself. I am Bryan Revilla, and I love cars! As some of you readers know, I compete professionally at LATERAL DRIFT CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES. This is actually my 3rd season competing in the series.

This season, Lateral D is back with a bang! Sicker than ever with sick cars, sick track layouts and with more crazy drivers! LOL! Every year, Burnt Rubber Productions makes Lateral D bigger and bigger. I remember, when the events were held at CCP with only a few sponsors and now it’s hella crazy that a lot of companies are trying to get into the bandwagon. It’s really great to be part of history seeing this sport grow.

my s15 all taped up

The 1st round is over, however, I would just like to share that it was one for the books for me as a competitor. April 25, 2009 is the date that I won 2nd place and my 2nd time to step into the podium. This was the highest position I was able attain in my drifting career, what an unforgettable experience! Though, it was something I wasn’t even expecting. Earlier that day, I was already having problems with the car and my driving style. Qualifying for the top 16 was already a problem for me knowing that I’m still having a hard time adjusting to the new car and having to deal with a sliding clutch. My 1st run was not pretty at all! Under-steer on the first turn but luckily I was able to finish that run. Good thing I was able to get a conservative yet not so great 2nd and 3rd run. I thought my day was over knowing the fact that I was wasn’t driving a 100%. I was already losing hope of actually getting into the top 8 if this continues through out the day…. Surprisingly, my name was called as one of the top 16 drivers! I was actually happy I made it past the first eliminations…

As the eliminations for the top 8 spots began, the same problems I had during the previous eliminations happened again for my 1st run! I made sure that gave the crowd and the judges a good solid 2nd and 3rd run which I actually did with style and a broken bumper. I was praying that those runs were good enough to get me into the top 8! Luckily, my prayers were answered! I made it into the top against top qualifier Lt. Dan Javier. Dan was driving like a mad man earlier that day sticking the rear of his car to the barriers and clipping every point with speed and great angle. 1st run I was in front and Dan had the advantage, I know Dan is one of those very unpredictable drivers not knowing if he’s going to do. I made sure that I would make him get near me as possible during that run. 2nd run, I have the advantage but unluckily I spun out at the first turn. Score tied at 1-1, we both know that we have to give this our best for us to advance. 3rd run, it was a tight battle but Dan under-steered at the 1st turn committing the same mistake I did during the 2nd run giving me the win.

me and jason during practice. Who knew that it would be me and him figting it out for the win that day

Top 4, it was Me vs Kevin tayao and Yellow Cab’s Alex Perez vs AI’s Jason Choachuy. The battle between Jason and Alex was really tight but Jason got the win upsetting the champ Alex Perez who would later win 3rd place that day. Next in line was me against Kevin. Kevin is one of those drivers that I really looked up too in this sport and it was really crazy that I would go head to head with him. 1st run I was able to get the win with my balls in my throat cause I was really nervous during this time. 2nd run, I felt more relaxed after getting that point during the 1st run. As the 2nd run began, Kevin was in front we were really close going towards the first turn, we initiated almost the same time making it really close but Kevin clipped the tire barrier which flew into my line which caused me to stop and losing the point to Kevin. Scored tied once again, its do or die for me. 3rd run was to close to call that the judges had to call one more time. 4th run Kevin in front, we were close approaching the first turn. I wasn’t expecting that the unexpected would happen, Kevin spinning out. I was thinking “Is this what I think it is?” truly enough, I heard the announcer say “Mr Revilla!!! You are going to the finals!!” I don’t know what I was feeling but for sure I was really happy to be there in the finals going head to head with my teammate!

it really doesn’t matter if I win or lose but come to think of it, it was a damn hard to get into the finals and I’m not going to give up with out a fight. Now or never, it was my first time to be in the finals. 1st run and 2nd run both drivers were given one point each. 3rd run, it was hella close! It was hella disappointing spinning out towards the end of the course! With that mistake, Jason got the win making him the champion for the 1st round! Like I said win or lose it didn’t matter, I was just happy to be there competing head to head with Dan, Kevin and Jason. That day, I realized that I burnt my clutch and I pretty much lost my bumper..

before

and after

Next round will be another story but till then, see you guys on round 2 this Saturday May 23, 2009!! Same time same place!

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY SPONSORS DMF DRIFT, PR AUTOSPORT, AUTOLINE, STAGE 21 BODYKITS, VISUAL SPEED AUTO DESIGN, AGR EXHAUSTS, MAXXIS TIRES, AUTOINDUSTRIYA AND MY WONDERFUL PARENTS!!

See you guys on round 2!!

-Bryan Revilla

Engine

The weapon of choice for propelling the car is an RB20DET, a 2.0-liter DOHC inline six cylinder engine with ceramic turbo and a side-mounted intercooler. This is a direct bolt-on engine for a basic drift car that has a decent amount of power and torque to be competitive in drifting events. In stock trim, the engine produces 215ps@6400rpm and peak torque of 265Nm@3200rpm. The low-mileage engine was sourced and installed by DMF Drift Garage. Additional fuel requirements of the new engine prompted the installation of an Airtex high flow in-tank fuel pump. A new Fremuff Drift-spec 3-inch exhaust system was also installed since the engine did not come with an exhaust.

Feeling the thirst for more power, the car was brought to Autoplus Sportzentrium for performance upgrades. A custom intake system was made and finished off with an HKS Super Power Flow filter. The engine clutter was vastly reduced with the modification of the standard intake manifold to a better flowing unit personally made by Raymond Go of Autoplus. This was then the blueprint used for the new aluminum piping system for the new aluminum front mount intercooler which was interconnected with Sard silicone hoses. To better control the fuel delivery, a Sard Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator was installed while the standard fuel rail was also modified. A Sard R2D2 Blowoff Valve was installed to help relieve excess boost pressure. To adjust the boost of the turbine, a Turbosmart manual boost controller was installed, while a Sard Electronic Boost Gauge monitors the pressure. The engine oil was then replaced with Double-Ester 100% Synthetic Motul 300V oil the engine’s new lifeblood. An aluminum radiator was also installed for better cooling and filled with Motul Inguel engine coolant.

Drivetrain

Essential for every drift car is a locking differential. We were able to source a surplus Nismo Limited Slip Differential from DMF Drift Garage, who also replaced the differential housing with a Nissan Silvia unit which has cooling fins which help a lot when the car is going sideways. A short-cut process to this is to weld the stock unit together to create a limited-slip effect. This is very cheap and also very dangerous. Therefore it is not advisable.

We also decided to upgrade the clutch to a metallic six-puck racing clutch with uprated pressure plate for better power transfer from the engine to the wheels. The uprated clutch is also able to handle more power. It was rated to work with cars with up to 300 wheel horsepower. Now flowing through the gearbox is Motul’s Gear300 transmission oil which provides protection for the gears under the stress of drifting.

Wiring

The backbone of every modern day engine would be the ECU (engine control unit), this controls the functions of the engines via processors which basically tells the engine how to perform based on the readouts from the corresponding electronic sensors. With all these inside, a proper electrical wiring system should be in place for the car to run properly. For this job, we employed the services of Auto Precision’s wiring guru Eric Evangelista.

Evangelista brings more than twenty years of experience in auto electrical wiring from mechanically controlled to electronically controlled models. His meticulous detail in working was also one of the considerations for the job, because we wanted a properly running car. With a major conversion like this, one bad connection or two could result in burnt out sensors or worse, a burning car. He carefully mapped out and reconstructed the wiring harness from the our RB20DET transplant engine which comes from a Nissan Skyline R32 GTS-T to adapt with the electrical system of the car. An extra detail added to the engine harness was a quick release coupling system for easy removal in case of major engine servicing.

After the wiring was done, and the car running properly, we decided to make the engine more tunable by upgrading our engine management. We chose the route of the Nistune system which is an add-on daughter board replacing the standard ROM chip allowing full ECU tuning parameters. Tuning was done on the Dynojet at Autoplus Sportzentrium by engine tuner Francisco Blanco. The result was an astonishing 249.1 wheel horsepower and 251 lbs-ft of torque on an internally stock engine.

Chassis Preparation

After the alignment, the car was then brought to DMF Drift Garage for seam welding to stiffen the chassis for a rigid platform. In preparation for the process, the stock RB24S engine was taken out of the car also in preparation for the new engine transplant. Seam welding minimizes the chassis flex making the car easier to control and more predictable in a drift. It also helps maintain the alignment done on the chassis. A custom rollcage was then installed in the car for further stiffening and safety after the seam welding process.

Suspension

In order to have a proper footwork to put the car to the ground, a good suspension is required. The stock rear cradle was taken out for an R32 rear cradle to be installed, which would allow a better differential housing to be put in place. To handle the height and damping, a set of XYZ Racing Super Sport Coilovers from Makna Marketing were installed. A set of pillow-ball suspension plates was installed to allow adjustment of front camber. A custom front underbrace done by DMF was also put in place to further stiffen the chassis. It was finished off with a Cusco front tower bar.

For better adjustability, it is recommended to change also the front torsion bars to allow the adjustment of caster; and rear lower arm for rear camber adjustment. These two parts are just some more additional parts to make the car easier to drive and drift better. There are more adjustable parts that would make it better but also makes the cost more. We decided to forgo these for the meantime as we are trying to build a basic drift car.

Brakes

One of the most important things that you need to consider when you plan to make your car perform better is to upgrade your brakes. As they say, if you don’t brake, you’ll break your car.

We decided to upgrade the brakes coming from an R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R. These brakes come with cross-drilled rotors in all fours, four-pot front calipers and twin-pot rear calipers. These come with PCD 5×114.3 hubs, which allow for a wider choice of wheels and provide a lot of stopping power. The surplus calipers we acquired came with a nice red powdercoat finish giving it a very aggressive and fresh look after they were cleaned.

Drifting is one of the fastest growing high intensity motorsport events today. Its popularity has gained greatly due to the movie The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift and the Japanese Anime series Initial D. And with the organization of the professional drift competitions such as the D1 GP Championships and Formula Drift, the sport has truly gone through great heights from its grassroots beginnings with street racers drifting in mountain passes in Japan during late nights.

The first and foremost requirement for drifting is a rear-wheel drive car. You can forget about drifting if you have a front-wheel drive or an all-wheel drive car. Sure you can do a powerslide with those, but they cannot compete in professional drifting events.

*Popular choices for drift cars would be:

Toyota Corolla Trueno AE86 – a car highly popularized by Drift King Keichi Tsuchiya and Initial D, which was also insipired by Tsuchiya. Downside for this car is its value has increased considerably due to its popularity. The car is hard to find and is also not a very easy car to use for beginners.

Nissan Cefiro A31 – considered as the Honda EG hatch of drifting with its relatively low acquisition cost. The Cefiro is the result of the mating of an S13 and a Skyline. It comes with a stock RB24 engine which you will eventually throw away once you start with your project and swap in any RB engine of your choice with much ease. There are also some who install an SR20DET engine in the Cefiro. This is the drift car for the budget concious.

Nissan S13 – the cheapest Nissan two-door car to drift with. More expensive than the Cefiro, but definitely looks a lot sportier with two doors. Comes in a coupe and fastback iteration. Comes with an SR20DET engine in Japan, but most left-hand-drive models come with KA18 and KA24 engines which you’ll eventually swap with an SR20DET engine, which offers more flexibility and abundance of aftermarket parts.

Nissan S14 – the more expensive Nissan sports coupe, released locally standard with an SR20DET engine, which unfortunately was mated to an automatic transmission. A manual transmission swap is a relatively easy modification for this car. The S14 is a very good drift car and it is easy to power up the engine with bolt-on parts and an increase in boost. As with the S13, parts are very abundant for the S14.

Mazda RX-7 – one of the most stylish cars that can be used for drifting. Unfortunately, the engine does not last very long. There are only a few specialists for the RX-7′s rotary engine in the Philippines. Aftermarket parts are very much abundant in Japan and it is realtively easy to power up the car. Only recommended if you have a big budget.

*Note that the suggested drift cars are those that are available in left-hand drive form in the the Philippines.

To better illustrate how to build a drift car, we at AutoIndustriya.com decided to build a project drift car. Since we wanted to show the basics of building a drift car, we chose one of the most basic vehicles which costs the least. We acquired a 1989 Nissan Cefiro A31 with the help of David Feliciano of DMF Drift Garage, who will also be the one responsible for making initial preparations for the car.

Being a nineteen year-old car, it was not in the best of shape, but the chassis was still in good condition. We first brought to car to Velocity Motors to have the chassis alignment specs checked and readjusted to factory specs as the chassis will have deformed through age. After some minor adjustments, which actually made the car much easier to drive afterwards, the car was ready to be taken apart to begin its new life as a drift car. The chassis alignment step is very much recommended for older cars and especially if you plan on seam-welding the body. A straight chassis is always the best foundation for a project car.

Once regarded as an executive’s car, the Nissan Cefiro was a popular car in the early nineties when it was released. But now, the car is seen in a different light or in drift terms as a different approach angle. The once reserved and serious car is now being used as a project car for drifting because of its long wheelbase and rear wheel drive configuration.

Also in a different light is Atoy Llave of A-toy Bodykits who is more often known for his wild bodykit creations and extreme aesthetic modifications who is now into the performance scene as well. Being bitten by the drifting bug recently after he joined one of the drift clinics organized by the DMF Drift School, Llave has built his own drift car from a Nissan Cefiro.

However, a plain looking Cefiro would not be enough for him, so a custom widebody FRP aerodynamic bodykit and ground effects were added to the car to put the A-toy trademark on the car, while carbon-fiber aero mirrors and a carbon-fiber rear wing adds some contrast. Custom graphics made by Winner Graphics were also added to further enhance the car’s drift car appeal. The look is finished off with white ROTA P45Rs wrapped with Avon ZZ3 tires.

Under the hood is an RB25DET engine transplanted from a Nissan Skyline R32 GT-S. The intercooler from the R32 was also used and custom intake and exhaust pipes were done by Fremuff. Some additional parts are an HKS Super Mega Flow filter, Blitz blow-off valve and an Apex-i AFC Neo for instrumentation and minor fuel delivery tuning.

In the roadholding section, suspension is handled by a set of TEIN Type HA coilovers and a custom built rollcage. To further stiffen the chassis, it was also seam-welded by DMF. The brakes from the R32 were also transplanted to compensate for the engine’s extra power.

This is one mean car inside and out, and goes sideways. What more could you ask for?

Engine: RB20DET Engine, HKS Super Filter, Blitz Blow-off Valve, Front-mount Intercooler, FREMUFF Custom Exhaust System, APEX-i AFC Neo
Suspension: TEIN Type HA Coilovers, CUSCO Front Tower Bar, Nissan Skyline R32 GTS-T Brakes, DMF Custom Rollcage
Interior: Momo Drift Steering Wheel, Kazama Shift Knob, DEFI Black Face Boost Gauge, DEFI Black Face Water Temp Gauge, Cobra Bucket Seat, Drift-spec Handbrake Lever
Exterior: A-toy FRP aero hood, A-toy FRP front aero bumpers, A-toy FRP rear aero bumper, A-toy FRP aero front grill, A-toy Carbon Fiber Drift Wing, A-toy FRP Front Diffuser
Wheels: 17 x9.0 ROTA P-45R Wheels, 215/45R17 AVON ZZ3 Front Tires, 225/45R17 AVON ZZ3 Rear Tires

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Drifting refers either to a driving technique utilizing a difference in slip angle between the front and rear tires of a car, or to a sport based on the technique. A drift or oversteer occurs when the rear wheels are slipping at a greater angle than the front wheels. The rear end of the car appears to chase the front end around a turn; the driver utilizes both front tires and the rear tires to control the actual direction of the car. More throttle induces more rear wheel slip angle and the rear of the car wants to overtake the front. The goal is for the driver to achieve opposite lock and use the throttle to fine tune the car’s angle and direction.

Oversteer is a technique used in many levels of motorsports, especially ones that run on low grip surfaces such as dirt track rallying and rallying. The art of drifting dates back to even the 1930’s popularized by legendary Italian Grand Prix driver Tazio Nuvolari who utilized the four-wheel drift to take corners at full throttle to exit at the highest possible speed.

Modern drifting started in Japan over 30 years ago in the All Japan Touring Car Championship races as a driving technique of motorcyclist turned driver Kunimitsu Takahashi. He was popular for hitting the apex at high speed and drifting out of the corner preserving a high exit speed.

Takahashi was the inspiration of street racer turned ‘Drift King’ Keiichi Tsuchiya. Tsuchiya began practicing the drifting techniques on the mountain roads of Japan and quickly gained a reputation. In 1977, several magazine publishers got together and decided to produce a video about Tsuchiya’s drifting skills and techniques. The video has since been an inspiration for many of the professional drift drivers today. In 1988, Option magazine founder Daijiro Inada helped organize one of the first drifting events.

Tsuchiya however cleared out his main reason for drifting by a popular quote he made. “I did not drift because it is a quicker way around a corner, but because it is the most exciting way.”

Organized drift events outside Japan formally began in 1996 at the Willow Springs racetrack in California, which was incidentally organized by Option magazine as well. It has since exploded as a popular motorsport in North America, Europe, Australia and in many parts of Asia. Today, several professional drift competitions have sprung out. More popular ones are the D1 Grand Prix, and Formula D. In the Philippines, drifting was formally introduced in 2006 by Burnt Rubber Productions spearheaded by David Felicano, Mon Rayos, and Charlie Cruz.

Feliciano revealed that he only found out about drifting only a few years back, 1999 to be exact. Which he said was quite funny because he found out after many years that drifitng was the way he took the corners on the winding roads of his hometown Antipolo. After much exposure to drifting videos and magazine features, he decided to put together two Toyota AE86 cars and he and his friends started driving the cars up and down the winding roads in the hills of Antipolo. These roads were actually the old special stages they used in rally racing that have now been concreted.

Their plan to officially organize drifting in the country was formed in 2005 when he and Mon Rayos saw the increasing popularity of drifting locally, the duo then got into contract with Charlie Cruz who joined them to introduce the first drifting event in the country called Countersteer with 103.5 K-Lite in January of 2006. Its quite interesting as well that the winner of their first competition could not even get a driver’s lincense. Fourteen year-old Gio Rodriguez who has only been driving for two years.

“We give people a safe venue for drifting so they don’t do it on the street,” said Feliciano. “My advice to people who want to try it is, don’t be scared, it’s not as dangerous as it looks. It only becomes dangerous when you do it on the street,” he added.

For more information about drifting, Burnt Rubber Productions can be contacted through +632.4390262 or +632.4390263.

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