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Driftstream Interview Rd4 Seattle

ERIC — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:58:45 +0000

Formula D commentator and Live Stream host Jarod caught up with me early on Saturday morning for a quick chat. Cameo appearance by D-Mac.

July Update – Corolla’s and Crashes.

ERIC — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:09:16 +0000

The past couple of months have been pretty hectic between one thing and another so bare with me while I try and catch up with whats been going on during July.

Prodrift round 3 on the 26th June was supposed to be my return to the Irish drift scene but unfortunately things didn’t exactly go to plan. Having re painted the corolla and replaced all the broken and bent suspension pieces I arrived for the Friday test day eager to get back in the drivers seat of my own car.

However, I could immediately feel something wrong with the steering.It was getting stuck on full lock and not returning to centre making the car spin out on almost every corner.

After a couple of laps I decided to get under the car and have a look. Well over an hour later and after swapping out many parts it still wasn’t right, all I could do was work with it and hope for the best. I ran the final practice session only to have another set back when the passenger side engine mount failed. These are fully custom mounts made for to fit the F20 engine into the corolla so there was very little I could do to replace it.

After returning to the workshop and assessing the damage I made the decision not to retire from the event. Even with the mount repaired I didn’t feel confident with the steering especially when the first corner outer clip was a solid steel wall !. The last thing I wanted was a repeat of Long Beach when I last drove the car so I focussed on prepping Amy G’s FC Rx 7 for the amateur comp on saturday instead.

I must give a big thanks to Kev and the garage hachi crew for getting me some replacement parts to try and fix the car at a moments notice. The car is now almost back together with some new steering knuckles which should cure the problem and Im looking forward to testing it again at the next drift practice day in Mondello Park on the 31st.

Next on the Agenda was Formula Drift round 4 at Evergreen Speedway in Seattle. This is the event that I podiumed at last year and is one of my favorite tracks on the FD circuit. The flat out 4th gear bank is insane, the spectators here and their cars are awesome and there’s a real party atmosphere around the pits.

Landing late on Wednesday night I met up with the team and headed straight to Intec racing where the Hankook Tire GTR was receiving some fine tuning on the dyno. Myself and Robbie wimped out and left the rest of the Dynamic crew to it as we left for the hotel for some badly needed sleep !

Thursday was practice day and right off the bat the Subaru fealt good around the big bank and much better through the infield than last year. Jason and the rest of the team had been working flat out figuring out the wiring issues that plagued us in New Jersey so with renewed confidence I pushed the car hard all day. The marks on the rear bumper at the end of the session were a good indication of just how well it was performing !.

Thursday night would see the official launch of the Apex Lexus SC430 in downtown Seattle but before that myslef and Kearnage with the rest of his Intec Racing crew headed for some go karting at Skykart . Needless to say, things got out of hand very quickly on track with myself, Kyle Pollard and Deane pushing each other around. After our second session, where Kyle got airborne, Kearney broke another kart and I held up every one else trying to drift the entire track, we got on the road and headed for the Apex party in the city .

With Ryuji’s Sc parked out on the street under lights everyone knew Formula D was in town. There was a great turnout from all the FD crew who were treated to a preview screening of a short film showing much of the behind the scenes work that went into making the drift SC a reality. Big respect to Chuck and the entire Apex team for building something different, I’ve no doubt that after some development Ryuji will be back on the podium showing the American muscle powered machines how its done !.

Unfortunately I couldn’t take much advantage of the free bar Apex supplied since we were due at the track early Friday morning, we hit the road and made our way back to the hotel for the night .

Qualifying on Friday would prove to be a little frustrating. After another good practice session I lined up for my first run with the intention of getting an average score in the bag, just enough to make sure we would be in the top 32. For my second run I planned to go all out, aim high on the wall and nail all the clipping points but as I sat 3 cars back in the queue before the run there was a massive oil spill. Jeff Jones (Yellow RX7) took off from the line and left a massive trail of oil all the way to the first corner and around most of the track. If it wasn’t for Ian Fournier sitting in front of me it may not have been noticed but he got the track officials attention and they set to cleaning up the mess.

After 20 mins we were given the green light and Ian set off ahead of me on his second qualifying pass.He spun on the infield and word from his his Drift Safari crew was that there was still a huge amount of oil on the infield that hadn’t been moved, great !

The officials waved me on and I had to go for it regardless, the bank felt good but as soon as I dropped into the slower infield the car took off towards the wall with a huge amount of angle. I held on, dropped a gear and some how managed to get it back on line, it wasn’t pretty. Strangely enough I received a higher score from the judges for my efforts which put me in 28th place and my first top 32 of the year.

We drew Chris Forsberg for top 32 so I spent friday evenings practice sessions running behind as many slower cars as I could in preparation for the battle.As usual, it was difficult to hold the subaru back without it dropping out of boost but with I managed some decent chasing runs and felt confident.

Sitting beside Chris at the line on saturday made a nice change from spectating in the spotters tower, I let him leave the line first and gave him some distance expecting to catch him by the end of the bank. About half way round I found a rhythm and began to close in when out of no where I see Chris parked up with big angle where I would usually be dropping a gear and nailing it down the bank for the infield.Even with a ton of brakes there was no way I could avoid hitting Chris without spinning so I let the car go round and the front right tagged the wall.

I could feel something was very wrong with the steering and sure enough a seriously bent tie rod meant that I couldn’t run again, my day was over.

I didn’t dwell on the incident after that, not until I saw Dai Yoshihara run behind Chris in top 16 and perform a mirror image of what I’d done, even down to bending a right side tie rod ! It would appear that it was Chris’s tactics to pile on a lot of angle and kill his speed at this point on the track. Chris is a really cool guy and is undoubtedly a worthy FD champion. However, there’s nothing cool about employing tactics to upset a chasing driver when he’s committed in 4th gear beside a cement wall; Taka’s injury was a stark reminder of this. As my fellow Irish Prodrift competitors will agree, pulling a stunt like this back home would result in the slower car becoming a buffer between you and that wall. Next time I’ll make sure that we both need to take a 5 minute rule!!

My Irish FD comrade Dean Kearney was also unlucky not to progress to the Top16, so we made our way to the spotters tower and watched the rest of the event unfold. Drama almost all the way through with our boy Freddy Aasbo knocking out JR and Darren making it to the podium for third place. Seattle was once again an amazing event for the fans and Im sure they all left happy.

We have some more plans for the subaru which should be implemented before the next event in Las Vegas and I’ve more seat time planned right here at home in the corolla . If it all goes to plan, hopefully I can get back up on the FD podium at what should be a very fast and extremely hot track in sin city next month.

Happy Anniversary Evergreen.

ERIC — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:46:42 +0000

Next weekends Formula drift event at Evergreen Speedway, Seattle, marks a great anniversary for me and the Dynamic Autosports team. At this event in 2009 we struck silverwear with a 2nd place podium finish. The event wasn’t without incident. We had a major collision with Vaughn Gitten as well as some other moments during the course of the Top32 but we return to this venue with fond memories and a renewed hunger to finally kick start our season.

This year has been fraught with disapointment for our crew. We have yet to score a single championship point and have been hindered with a string of really bad luck. Following the East Coast stint of the championship all of our cars have returned to the Lake Forrest headquarters of Dynaic Autosport and undergone a comprehensive overhaul to iron out the bugs and bring us back to battle spec.

Seattle is easily my favourite venue on the calendar. The high speed bank really seperates the men from the boys. There is zero room for error, let alone fear. The Subaru loves banked courses and our Hankook Tires perform brilliantly keeping us milimetres from the concrete perimeter on an extremely abrasive surface.

Without any pressure for championship position I can approach this event prepared to throw everything at the Evergreen circuit. For the sake of our team, sponsors and supporters I hope that the luck of our crew will change and we can once again challenge for podium positions.

Dont forget to follow the event on the Formula D live stream. My luggage is packed, flights are booked , car is ready. All that remains is for me to find me some Irish four leaf clovers to try and turn our luck around.

Eric.

VTec86 MKIII – the comeback.

ERIC — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 17:19:58 +0000

It has been a long time since I’ve sat behind the wheel of my Vtec Powered Corolla. With all thats been going on in Formula Drift over the last 2 years, the car has sat neglected in a corner of my workshop in pretty much the same state that it returned from the 2008 Drifting World Championships. Until yesterday.

The plan was always to completely overhaul the Corolla, however that can wait for the winter as there are some events that I want to get out in during the remainder of the 2010 season. With that in mind, we’re really just patching up the car for this year, running the existing hardware and freshening it up with some new aero and paint. Side note, I havent had any battles in FD 2010 so I’m long overdue an opportunity to go out and push for some door to door action. Prodrift will definitely provide that opportunity, the Irish Top 16 battles are some of the fiercest in the world.

We collected the car in its new fresh black paint from Dave Griffen Motors in Dublin. Big thanks to James for all the work he’s done on the exterior. It looks mint! The boys in the Dave Griffen Motors body shop are always on point with their paintwork too.

We’re going back to a 15″ wheel for this year so some ‘adjustments’ had to be made to spacers and wheel studs in order to get the right fitment. The wheels will of course be wrapped in Hankook Rubber. I’m going to test the best solution between the Hankook Ventus RS2, K110 & K105.

Here’s one of the may parts that were bent from the impact with the wall at Port of Long Beach (inner steering rod). The steering needed a decent overhaul.

These are the new steering knuckles & steering tie rod kit from Techno Toy Tuning. Really strong with good adjustment options and designed specifically for drifting.

Had to make some minor adjustment on the bench to allow for clearance of the knuckles .

Fitting them was pretty simple, just had to make sure it was reasonably tracked before we do full alignment.

Here they are in place. Lots of steering lock should make for some interesting Angle !!

My mate Fionan Reid called by for a chat on his way back from a Rally Sprint. Car looks pretty clean having come off the stages! You can check out a video of Fionan & I doing a rally sprint here.

Back to work, time to re-install the brand new Mishimoto radiator setup. We’re going with a new S2000 radiator as opposed to the Corolla version we used previously which is going to require some custom mounting. I’ve never had temperature problems with the F20 motor, largely due to the excellent cooling that this Mishimoto rad delivers.

Diff Doctor and fellow Drift Irelander Aaron Nixon was there to lend a hand and get the new differential installed, twice !

Old aero still shows signs of the perimeter paint of Drifting World Championships.

Heres the new front and rear bumpers courtesy of my long time bodywork partner Brian Campbell at Driftkits.eu.

And this is how we left it after a very productive first session.We’ve some more parts on order which will pretty much complete the job nicely in time for pre-event practice for Prodrift Citywest. We’ll keep you posted on the progress.

The signs of a productive night at the workshop.

I’m really looking forward to getting back out in the Corolla again. It will be a great change to get back to some N/A lightweight action. I’ve almost forgotten what its like to drive this car. For those that don’t remember how we drove in the hay day of this vehicle you can check out my playlist on youtube or take a look at the video below.

Video Blog- FD RD2 Atlanta

ERIC — Sat, 15 May 2010 11:14:08 +0000

Heres some more footage of the recent trip to Road Atlanta for the 2nd stop of the Formula Drift Season. Unfortunately things did not work out how we’d have liked it but it felt good to be back in the car again. ENjoy the video and I’ll be back next with the photos and report from the event.

Formula D Video Blog – Atlanta

FD Atlanta Thursday Video

ERIC — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:39:09 +0000

Before we head out the door for todays qualifying, heres a quick video report of how yesterday went. More updates after todays qualifying.

FD Atlanta RD2 – Thursday

New DVS Gear

ERIC — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:25:57 +0000

The guys over at DVS have once again brightened up my weekend with a substantial delivery of awesome gear for the 2010 season.
Included in the package were 2 pairs of the Carson shoe, one of which is charcoal and burgundy - fits in perfectly with the colour scheme of the Subaru!

To keep the top half fresh, DVS also included one of the new Half Tone Hoodys. Love this garment! The print, embroidery and detail is superb.

Also keeping in line with the corporate colours of Hankook Tyre, the DVS Dodgy hat looks the part.

With just a few days before we head out to Atlanta for Formula D Rd2 I’m already looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the Subaru! Thanks a million to the DVS guys, keep an eye on the site for images and videos of your gear in action!

Team Hankook Ireland Drift Report Video & Pics

ERIC — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:54:56 +0000

My good friends in Ireland’s Team Hankook have just released this video of their participation in Round 1 of the 2010 Prodrift Series. I was at the event to see this live and I’m stoked that Hankook have now got an AE86 in the team. Alan Sinnott also brought home the silver wear at the weekend, finishing an impressive 3rd on his team debut. Video and Slideshow below.

Prodrift Fermoy – from the tower.

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:09:54 +0000

Last weekend I traveled to Prodrift Ireland RD1, Fermoy, Co.Cork. I was there for numerous reasons, none of them involved competing.

Amy G was driving in the Amateur Class first thing on Saturday morning so we had to leave Dublin at around 5am for the long journey down. Thankfully the weather was on our side so we enjoyed a great Saturday morning at the track while the Amateur practice and competitions took place. When the Pro class took over after lunch it was time to hit the spectator area and watch the Pro boys tear it up in Pre Qualifying.

Main event day on Sunday was again busy. Aside from the thousands of spectators that showed up, I was back in the Hankook race suit to offer ride alongs in the fleet of Monster Energy Prodrift Academy cars. This is a new feature to the Prodrift event whereby during the breaks on track, members of the public can pay for some passenger time as Peden (Prodrift Judge), Bergo (Prodrift other Judge) and myself take drift fans for flat out spins of the circuit.

During the course of the day we did over 70 passenger rides and by the end of it we were triple drifting on each others door. I had a blast, and I’m pretty sure that our passengers enjoyed it too.

It was also great to catch up with the old PD crew. Team Hankook were there in force and of course the guys that were over at Formula Drift only a week ago were also present. For the main event I joined Prodrift commentator John Gibbons in the tower for some MC work, which also gave me the best seat in the house to witness James Deane win his home event in style.

Many people were asking me when my Vtec Corolla will be back out on Irish circuits. Prodrift at Fermoy might just have given me the urge to get the cam back out of the workshop and onto the grid for some 2010 Prodrift fun. Watch this space.

The photos above were taken by PD Photographers, Daniel O’Shea & Martin Cunningham

Video Blog – Formula Drift RD1

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:35:28 +0000

Its been just over a week now since returning from the opening event to the 2010 Formula Drift Season. Here’s a video blog that we captured. Obviously, we’d hoped to bring back some drifting footage, but…….

Eric O’Sullivan Video Blog Long Beach