Right click on the images to get the source link or to save!

Aaron has been wanting to build a drift car that has very little fiberglass on it so it is far more resilient to smashing into things. In its previous state, Tyler’s missile car had a crappy eBay URAS kit and lacked cool wheels. The end result was sort of tacky and blah looking. Aaron wanted to go in the opposite direction with this car, cool wheels to make the car with big tires, and stock looking body work that fits well and only rely on fiber glass for the fenders to fit the tires.

With his plan in place, Aaron ordered up some Origin type 2 rear fenders and some origin front fenders. He has been trying not to use ebay chinese stuff anywhere at all on the car. He got them in the mail and started really doubting himself. He didn’t like the look of the type 2 rear fenders at all, and after mounting them, he was doubting myself even more.

Still unsure about the fenders, some good still came from the day by installing an Enthalpy tuned ECU, Nismo 550cc injectors, and a Z32 Maf.

It all worked like a charm and is awesome.

For those of you who don’t know, in order to receive the benefit of running over fenders, you have to cut your existing quarter panels to allow for clearance for the wider wheels. The cut is then obviously covered by the over fender and the fender is then riveted in place. This process goes as follows:

Take a Sharpie marker and sketch out a quick guideline. If you’re not comfortable with this process yet, it may not be as simple as Aaron makes it seem.

Take your cutting wheel and have a field day

Anddd here’s the piece of your quarter panel that is no longer there

Luckily the fronts are just a simple swap of the old fender for the new one.

Steering angle!

Wouldn’t be a missile car without a semi-assembled interior

Spacers on spacers. Gotta fill out those new front fenders somehow!

I love the way the car looks and drives. The wheels and tire fitment really pull the car together. It has extremely little actual setup time since I hadn’t ever really driven the car before. But going off the principal that wheels make a car, it worked out. I love the stance, don’t hate the ride height, I love monster trucking over cones if they are in my way and not worrying about body kits or fragile things. The motor is a little BEAST. It makes around 310 whp, but does an amazing job. You definitely don’t need a V8 or big turbo to have fun still. And remember, this thing makes as much power as a stock LS1, with a cool little T28 turbo! Tyler would have been in LOVE with the way this thing drives!

And to wrap things up, here’s a little video footage of its first day out at the track!

Tyler Cox Missile car project test day from aaron losey on Vimeo.

Traditionally on turbo cars, the factory intercooler is replaced with a larger front mount intercooler unit. Intercoolers increase the efficiency of the induction system by reducing induction air heat created by the turbocharger and promoting more thorough combustion. This removes the heat of compression (i.e., the temperature rise) that occurs in any gas when its pressure is raised or its unit mass per unit volume (density) is increased. Now in drifting, it is not uncommon for cars to collide. With a front mount intercooler being at the very front of the car with little to no protection from the bumper, it doesn’t stand very much of a chance against a frontal impact. With a mid-mount intercooler, however, it is tucked away safely sandwiched between the core support and radiator allowing for plenty of contact with other vehicles.

Stuffing a large front mount intercooler in a location where it’s not really supposed to go requires a bit of modification. In this case, the core support needed to be modified along with the intercooler end tanks and some intercooler piping.

This process took two days of measuring, cutting, and building the mid-mount intercooler setup and piping.

As you can see, the mid-mount setup is tucked away nicely and clear from danger!

I should be able to run into quite a few people without killing my piping hopefully, and sidelining me for a day.

Aaron and Derrick opted to remove the blow-off valve and weld the hole shut on the intercooler piping. You can also see the custom intake piping from the turbo to the Mass Airflow Sensor sitting below that.

To add to the sandwich of cooling parts, Derrick added the power steering cooler on top of the radiator.

Now while this car was Tyler’s, and it’s about keeping his memory alive, it wouldn’t be right if Aaron didn’t add his own little flare to this project. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Aaron over the last year or so, it’s that this man loves his Starbucks’ green tea. And by loving his green tea, I mean daily green teas. He walks through the door and the barista has his cup on the counter before he finishes walking up. Grande iced green tea in a trenta cup, the rest filled with extra ice and water, and three pumps of classic syrup. I hate to admit that this is now also my daily regiment. Anyways, it’s only suiting that Aaron opted to use a trenta Starbucks cup as a catch can in the engine bay.

Next time on Part 3, the wide body goes on and the car endures its first drift day.

Photo of Tyler Cox by: Phi Dong

Drifting brought Aaron and Tyler together nearly 7 years ago, and they had a great time running around the country and drifting all over the place. All over the place wasn’t an exaggeration either. Aaron recalls traveling to 27 different states with Tyler. Some of those states like Louisiana, California, Nevada, Georgia, and Florida were frequented quite a lot.

We spent so much time together people thought he was my little brother multiple times, and he used to pick up my mannerisms constantly. Those were great times.

For those unfamiliar with the term missile car, it’s basically defined as a cheap, beat up car where drifting is it’s primary purpose. Missile cars are built so the owners can thrash on them and have a blast not worrying if they hit something or if something breaks. And boy, did Aaron inherit some broken parts. To give you an idea of the condition the car was in when Aaron brought it back to Fort Worth, here’s a portion of the list of things wrong with the S14:

Now with the car local and conveniently down the road, Aaron recruited the assistance of Derrick Rogers to help him get Tyler’s beat up 240 up and running in time for our next local drift day that was only about a week or so away. Once Derrick drove into town, they began working on the car by compression testing the motor to see if it was worth their time, money, and effort for such a ragged out car that was pretty damaged. Much to their surprise, the motor checked out to be 170 across all 4 cylinders.

Those spark plugs have seen better days! Now it came time to start breaking down the motor in preparation for replacing the current turbo for a bigger one, as well as fixing other miscellaneous broken and / or neglected parts. The fun part for Aaron was getting to dig through his growing turbo collection to try and decide which would be the perfect match for the SR20DET that was currently being taken apart. He often encountered the problem of “this turbo is too big” or “this turbo is too small”, but eventually arrived at the conclusion that the 2860RS, or commonly referred to as the Disco Potato, would be “just right”.

The 2860RS is visually very similar to a T28 turbo, however, makes more power. The SR20 S14 is an amazing platform that can compete with the best of the cars in our [Lone Star Drift] series with just 250 whp, and can keep the build budget in check. A fantastic S14 can be had for 4-10K $, while building yourself a V8 car will cost something approaching 20k $ at the minimum. The turbo on the left is a GT3076R, next is the 2860RS, then the S15 T28, then the T25. The party starts from left to right at 4500 rpm, then 3500, 3000, and probably 3000.

Aaron then sandblasted the turbo manifold and handed it over to Derrick so he could tack weld everything in place in preparation for the final welds.

I chose the turbo because I wanted an enjoyable playful car that didn’t make a ton of HP, had really quick response, and would let me show people they don’t need to go V8 to tandem well and have an awesome time.

I hope everyone has enjoyed this story so far! Since there is so much content, we’re going to split this up into a multi part post.

Coming up on Part 2: Fabbing up a mid-mount intercooler setup.

Obviously Anthony Patino’s JZX90 is not in stock form, in case the large front mount intercooler, aggressive stance, or the blue jungle gym of a cage increasing the rigidity of the car didn’t give it away.

Anthony has been into drifting since around 2005 and was first introduced to it through the form of Japanese drifting DVDs like most of us. He was also motivated to begin drifting by hanging out with his friends Josh Buckley and Tyler Cox.

Unfortunately we lost Tyler but he will never be forgotten

Anthony doesn’t know why in particular he chose the JZX90 to use as his drift platform, he just knows he’s always been into four door sedans, such as the JZX100 Mark II and four door R32 Skylines. What really appealed to him were the flared front and rear fenders and the beautiful House of Kolor paint that shines brightly in the sun.

The 1JZGTE under the hood is powered by a large 35R turbo and a custom E85 fuel setup. The rear end has custom multi-link suspension along with a TRD 1.5 way differential. This JZX90 also has carbon strut bars, 17/18″ staggered SSR Vienna Courages, Bride bucket seats, Nardi steering wheel, OS Giken twin plate, Koyo radiator, and a GReddy e-manage ECU.

The only thing Anthony doesn’t like about his JZX90 is that it doesn’t have a double din, haha.

In the future, Anthony plans on sourcing a new body kit, as this one is getting a little beat up from all the drifting.

Shout out to Anthony Patino, Josh Buckley, and their team D-Realm!

Photos by Jake Guenthardt and Sy Pham

On Friday I got to see a great deal of their practice rounds as well as the qualifying rounds of the some 27 odd cars who were fighting for a spot to compete on Saturday.

Stew, a long with a few others, made the long trip from various places across the country in order to take place in the event.

Hanging with Stew this past weekend really put into perspective of how much work really goes into competing in one of these events.

Stew ended up qualifying 5th for Saturday’s main event.

The competition ended late Saturday evening with Texas Native Chelsea DeNofa taking home the top spot.

After some careful deliberation, we decided to toss these fine rollers on my buddy Tom’s car instead of mine. Since his was fresh out of the body shop, shaved like a porn star, paint almost still dripping, it was really a no-brainer.

Combine some tiny tires, some spacers, a slathering of camber and what we have here is nothing short of automotive eye candy. Not only was Tom’s subframe completely floored, our jaws were too.

As a wheel whore enthusiast the 18″x8.5″/18″x9.5″ staggered set, with the perfect posture of this car, just strums all the right strings. The classic styling, the gorgeous finishing work and the flawless fitments of these hoops really set them apart from the rest of the cast wheel market.

One does not simply walk into Helen Georgia! You come in rolling hard as fuck!! Forge Motorsport and 3SDM helped us do just that! Don’t fret though, you’ll be able to do the same, long before SoWo 2013.

Big shout out to Sean @ Forge for the southern hospitality, Kyle from 3SDM for making this all a reality and the residents of Helen Gerogia for welcoming us with open arms. Unicoi State Park and Lake really made the perfect backdrop.
www.ForgeMotorsport.com
www.3SDM.co.uk
www.SwitchedStance.tumblr.com