Trent

tylerdosmil from Northwest Nissans shared this desktop of Trent's AE86. Thought we would share it.  

Click the image for full size or use the flikr link. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3462/4046018070_b5a0d33c62_o.jpg

Classic Japanese Cool, Driving Spirit, Nimble, all these are terms that come mind when people talk about the AE86 Corolla. When you add a bunch of power and handling to an already fun car, you get a crazy ride. This is a lesson that Trent is not new to him. The 340hp that his Nissan S14 SR20DET engine produces to the wheels makes his Corolla fast. But fast is just the start of what makes this car cool.

It is the stickers that make it... oops, not the stickers, but the whole package. With the wide Origin rear over fenders, and the 16" Work Meisters fitted under them, to the unique 2 tone paint job. This car is made with style and "becuase racecar" in mind. This car is not a show car, even though other Drift Safari team members call it that when he washes it before heading to drift events. This car is build to be drifted, and really take a bit of abuse. The stock USDM rear bumper is one of the things that was left on to do just that, take abuse. A fibreglass one would be destroyed the amount this thing has been hit. A fresh coat of paint and its like new. 

Inside the driver is faced with an array of guages to keep on the overall status of the engine, which is not always good in the life of a drift car. Catching that temperature spike, oil pressure drop or lean engine can make the difference in a engine that will last the rest of the day, or the rest of the season.  

The SR20 in this Corolla is not stock at all, a Microtech ECU controls the SARD 550cc injectors, spraying into cylinders filled with CP forged pistons, topped by the Brian Crower 264 cams, a larger S13 throttle body controls the air from the 2860RS turbo bolted to a JSP Fab manifold. All the exhaust is spent through a 3" exhaust from the turbo out the back of the car.

The front bumper setup for Trent's AE86 is meant to take abuse as well. He runs a Japanese Trueno bumper, which is hard plastic, with a custom modified Volvo lip. Behind that all is a Fortress Fabrication Rondell Bar, which is build as a rebar for that accidental bump while on the track. 

This low stance is not the lowest the car can go on the Techno Toy Tuning coilovers, front and rear, but is a good mix of ride height and handling. Finding that good suspension setup, and not messing with it when it is dialed has been Trent's goal.  

Simple and agressive, this car fits that description perfectly. 

 

All photos by Zack Geng. Thanks.

(Readers note. this is my second time typing this the first time i was about to click send when my safari decided to "stop working" and exit on me..... NOT COOL!)

For the last few week or so as you may have herd or seen here on our blog we recently have move into a shop! this allows us to wrench late, street test late... and as we found out last Saturday party late! This past few days we have been wrenching on Pat Lee's 2JZ S13 In preparation for Trent to drive it at The Evergreen Drift Pro-Am series event #1. Here is our  past few days in a post.

Let me start where Mat left off in his last post... ( The shop all nice and neat and empty with trent being bit by Edward Cullin... yes i made a twilight reference. )

Heres Ian mounting up pats fresh Work VS-KF's ( since non of us felt comfortable mounting them and Ian was familiar with the machines from his days at The Skyline Shop. Also Wheels specs are as follows FR: 18x9.5 +2 RE: 18x10.5 -2 )

Fronts sitting all fresh like!

As any shop owner knows it does not take long for a nice clean shop to get really really messy. It did not take us long to figure this lesson out.

Here we are doing what we do best! sitting around!!

So this brings us to Saturday night Trent, Pat, Brayden and myself were  thinking we were miles ahead of the game to have the car completed that night and ready for sunday morning. Much to our displeasure While mounting our last tire we kicked the electrical breaker and soon found out our fuse panel is in the shop on the other side of the wall which no one was inside.  After some creative thinking Pat started chopping up electrical cords in effort to wire up some crazy contraption which drew power from the front office into the shop! Although we were unable to have the lights on and run the compressor or the tire machine which left us mounting the last tire in cell phone lighting.( sorry for the lack of photos  It was 1 am and with lots still to do i was not thinking photos.)

Now was do or die time, We loaded up tools and tires into the truck hooked up the trailer, All that was left was to get the car off jackstands and finally see if it ran and if so how well.  * kill switch on *  *turn key* "...... nothing...... oh wait i forgot to turn on the fuel pump"  * turns on fuel*   fired up like a champ.  After a few run up and down the side of the shop our goal was shattered. brake booster was leaking and the e brake wouldnt work.  It was a long tiring emotional night.  We all headed home and slept in.

I was awoken early id say 9 am by Trent asking me for my set of shop keys  he informed me Ian was waiting for him there to fix the booster and e-brake. Trent called a friend and  organizer of the event, Russle. They had worked out a plan for trent to show up late and still qualify, after getting the booster and e-brake working Trent decided to take a look at the boarder wait...... again our goals crushed 45 minute wait on top of a 2 hour drive. we could not make it.

All said and done, This past week has been the most fun i have had in a very long time, We are a huge family and its times like this we all come together and spend countless nights and hours of blood sweat and tears to get one or many cars running just in time for an event. we ravage and pillage parts for all the cars in sight just to make one work. This is what we do for our family. we put aside our daily grind to get together and share times we wouldn't change the world. I want to thank Ian, Mat, Pat and Trent for just being totally awesome and teaching me so much in the last 3-4 years i have known you.  Thank you guys.

-Zack.

Dustin St. Hilaire put together a great video of the 2010 Evergreen Drift ProAm series, which features Drift Safari drivers Kohei and Trent. Check it out.  

Today is the big event day. This is the day where we see if the engine can survive, and how far into the competition we can go. We are up against Sam Hübinette for the Top 32 round. We slept in today to ensure we were ready. As we were leaving the hotel, we saw a few wild animals. The first was this lizard at the side of the pool,

the second was a rooster named Pat. The hotel was full of crazy things, so we left as fast as possible.

When we arrived at the track, the first thing we wanted to do, is find out how Nikolay was on the repairs of his car. As we got there, he was just putting the final touches on the car, and getting ready to try it. Nikolay did a few practice runs, and was happy that it worked, sort of.

Meanwhile, Zack was chatting with the MotorMavens model, Tailyr Brianne Monette, who is a totally cool girl. Glad to see she is not all snobby.

During practice, Sam's engine caught fire, which was bad enough that Sam's crew had not enough time to repair it. Basically all fuel lines, wiring, and more needed to be replaced.

Sam was a champ and told us that we had the win. Here is Sam and Ian, after their run. :) 

As the night fell, the competition began. Ian did a single run, just to advance to the top 16. After that, we watched as the crowd introduction of the Top 16 took place. The place was sold out, and all eyes were on us, well, so it felt.

Here Ian and Matt Fields, the Fatlace drivers, are rolling out to the intro line, following the DA guys.

Ian kept his cool, now that he is in the Top 16, he is going to push the car, even if it breaks. Media was excited to see Ian there as well. Here Antonio from MotorMavens.com is taking shots as Ian is lined up with James Deane for the first round.

During the first run with James leading, Ian put the pressure on James on the big bank, which caused James Deane to push a bit too hard, and hit the wall. We were shocked, as we had been told that James is a machine, and does not make mistakes.

Matt from Evergreen Drift was there to take video of the Northwest drivers, and to share his reactions to the camera. We were then told after James Deane took his 5 minutes, that they could not repair the car, and we advanced to the Top 8. In this round we were pit against Michihiro Takatori.

During the first run, Ian drove as hard as he could, and the judges gave them a One More Time! As we were about to run the second run, the start guy noticed an oil leak. We took our 5 mins and emptied the overfull oil catch tank. Doing this in 5 minutes is harder than it seams. Trent even took the hot tank in bare hands to empty it, and the oil was engine hot. We got it back to the line with 30 secs to spare, and ran the second round. During this round, Takatori chased better than us, so he advanced. 

We were still very happy with the results. Top 8, with a One More Time. Now time to watch. Ian and Trent are here relaxing against the car after 3 days hard work.

After the event was over, we started to load up the truck and trailer, when Teddy, a passionate V8 hater came over and talked to us about his car, our car, and the movement he is passionate about. No V8's in cars that did not come with them in FD. He even had this big sign that was being held up during the event in the stands. Cool kid.

After leaving the venue we met up with the MotorMavens.com crew for some Thai food. Antonio is a food lover, and knows a lot of great places to eat that you would normally just drive by. 

As we all talked about the good times, Justin told us about JR sticking his rubber in his eye...

JR did what???

That caused the table to get hysterical with laughter. Antonio then suggested we stop by his storage unit / shop to unload his gear and chill there. We hung out enjoying the good times of good friends, and cool cars, like his all original 1973 "Mango" Corolla SR5, until around 3:30am. It was the perfect way to end that day. 

We slept in until 11am, and checked out. Zack was wearing a sweater, even without wearing anything. Man that boy is harry.

The car is looking a little worse for wear, and the exhaust has been flow adjusted, fun and games as we say, and that is drifting.

We headed for Hollywood to grab some lunch and see a few sights. While in traffic, a crazy lady pulled beside us, and eventually into us as we were in traffic. The lady who spoke NO ENGLISH, busted Trent's mirror. Damn. 

After some Fat Burger, we headed to Hollywood Blvd, and saw a sun bather at a resort...

WTF????

Now for tourist action.

Ian with Kermit The Frog...

and Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen. Zack decided to show Britney Spears his crotch...

We hit up the famous Chinese Theater,

which is where all the hand prints are located.

Then Trent found his unit had a star named just for it.

People were taking pictures of the car on the trailer, as if it was a famous Hollywood attraction. :)

After seeing the Hollywood sign, we headed home. During our first gas stop, we discovered that there are more drifting related food products available here, not just Beer. 

Tandem Ice Cream. Here is a triple tandem. Team Orange has nothing on this...

We continued on our journey North, and stopped for supper in Sacramento with Gabe, Gia, Kenny and Lillie from Techno Toy Tuning and GT Faction.

After enjoying some food, we had fun in Gia's Lotus. Here Ian and Trent are in the tight car. Trent in the passenger seat has to move his leg to allow Ian to shift gears. lol. Awesome.

Here is the gang of trouble makers that we met up with. These guys are great, and the stop made our night.

So did this. Pimp.

After many hours of driving, we were getting close to Portland, wearing shorts in this was not the best plan. We decided to get some drinks and have a Bathroom (Restroom for American's) break. 

When we went to leave, the truck would not start. It acted like a dead battery. We even tried to jump it. No luck. Ian climbed under the truck to hit the started while we tried to turn it over. While under the truck, he discovered the main power to the started had corroded and broken off, some time in the last few hours. Well the corrosion may have taken longer. Napa fortunately delivered a ring terminal and some shrink, so after about 2.5 hours we were back on the road.

We arrived in Canada without any problems, and went home. This trip was amazing and like every drift related trip, an adventure. 

Day Three started with us getting to the track at 7:30am to diagnose the engine, and see if we were confident enough to run it as it sat. After a few adjustments, including replacing the injector for the low cylinder, and adjusting the catch tank to not overflow oil, we did a few pulls down the drag strip. The air fuel ratio's looked good. So we went on to make some checks on the rest of the car before the day begins.

Having the car ready, we got in line to do a few practice runs before qualifying. Ian relaxed and got into the zone before a big day of driving.

Good friend Roland Gallager was behind us ready to rock the track as he normally does. Roland and family have always been a great help to our team at every event. Thanks guys.

After a few practice runs, and a few hours, it was time to qualify. We were the second car in the list to run, and run we did. The first run was solid, with a 60.3 score on the board.

Followed by another exciting run to round out his runs. We were happy with the runs, and felt we did our best considering the engine problems.

Ian took the rest of the qualifying rounds to watch his competition and talk with the media guys that are right at the track for info on his runs.

During the excitement, there was a DOUBLE HELICOPTER. OMG, We all started crying. It was almost a triple copter.

After the sun set, we went to the signing area, where all the fans at the qualifying day can get a signature from the drivers. Nikolay Konstantinov was excited to get Ian's signature for his very own...

and tried to find the best of his cards to give to Ian.

The night get better for us, and sad for others. We attended the drivers meeting, where we were told that Ian qualified 26th place, making him able to compete in the top 32 for the first time this season. Go out with a bang was the plan for this event, and we are trying to make that happen. After the meeting Nikolay went back on track in the extra practice that the top 32 are allowed that night, when he had an unfortunate accident.

We stayed for many hours helping, along with other team mechanics who jumped in to help fix his car. This was amazing, seeing so much help from teams that are competing against each other. 

Trent here is making sad faces with JOE from Motormavens.com, as we really could not help Nikolay as much as some others, but we were ready to step up when needed.

The night was long for us, and even longer for the guys that stayed all night. We left the track at 12:30am to get some supper, and sleep for the big event. 

We will see you later today. Be sure to watch the live stream.