Brian Dewitt is rad, aka he smashed hard and almost finished the roll cage

I do not know how to weld. I have tried in the past, and blown holes in what ever metals I was trying to stick together. While I was out running errands trying to get parts bought, paid for and sold, Brian was at Car Crafters destroying time and space building the cage.

Before I had even arrived, he had the main hoop, cross support, and top hoop done. Thats what 8 hours of work looks like for a normal person, but that is only 4 for Brian :)

The car started off this morning as a lonely bare shell. It needed love badly.

Brian had bent and MMS'd me a picture of this before I was even awake... MADNESS

Added some plating, you know so the cage doesn't stab through the floor and what not when I roll it off another 8 foot hill.

Hoop D...

Rad.

Tipped down to weld

Mo plating in the front of the car

Passenger side

Additional supports were added to the halo to prevent crushing in the highly likely case of me flipping again.

Picture of the beauty!!!

Bash bar is in!

Again, I cannot thank Brian enough for everything he has done to help me out. If you see this man at an FD event with Jim Guthrie or at a Pro Am with me, make sure to give him a high 5 just for being that awesome. 

We dun flipped it! Another s13 240sx coupe build post

So I did this to my white car filming the Icon video, Motorcycle vs Drift ar Battle 2:

So, I am now rebuilding another coupe! With Brian Dewitt from Car Crafters epic skills, we did all this in one day.  Santiago came to take some nice pictures of the build, but I dont have acces to them yet, so cell phones pics it is! He also helped out with the sound stuff removal, thanks buddy!

The first pro am event is in early Feb. so we have a ton to do, and not a lot of time to do it. 

This is the car (1993 coupe) as it sat yesterday morning at 10am. Sad, dirty and feeling a bit unloved.

A few hours later, we had removed the lights, sunroof, pedal assembly, steering column, rear bumper, front bumper, fenders, doors and trunk, and thusly had it stripped to a shell. It was diiiiiiiiirtay.

Removed all the glass...

 

Minus the brackets, cell phone and cardboard, this is what it looked like under the seat and carpet :(

Vacuumed it out, pounded on a few dents, removed the gas tank (it was pretty dented), and all the lines doing to the front of the car. We now have a 90% bare shell (subframes and e-brake still on).

Used 6 cans of oven cleaner (this stuff is amazing) to get the nasty off of the entire car. I sprayed down the entire car top to bottom with this stuff.

Once the car was soaking in 6 cans of oven cleaner, we got to taking out all the sound deadening. Dry ice is pretty damn amazing as well, and from start to finish took about an hour to get all the stuff out. 

The cleaner had soaked in and done its job, the sound crap was all out, so it was time to wash it. Twas so dirty, the drain got clogged. 

The shell is now cleaned and ready for the next steps!!! Cage, paint, test fit of parts from the white car and hopefully a test drive soon.

The oven cleaner revealed these sweet 80s stripes the car had at one point in it's life. Rad.

Happy coupe!

That's all the update I have for now, more to come soon. Stay tuned.

Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle 2 : Details on the Mustang Cobra!

The mustang has the following mods to help it be the beast it was for the video. All work including paint, and custom welding was done by Car Crafters in Albuquerque, NM by Sean, Luigi and Brian!

The car is now for sale!!!

Quick over view of the car:

Dynoed at 490 hp and 490 ft lbs of torque

Fully customized and modified suspension

4 point roll cage with Sparco seats and 5 point belts

Details:

    

Engine:

a. Upgraded fuel injectors

b. Terminator throttle body

c. Custom x-pipe exhaust - no cats or mufflers, stops just past rear axle making it legal for any drift organization.

d. Custom air intake

e. Port and Polished supercharger

f. Billet pulley system for 12 plus lbs of boost

g. AC compressor eliminator

h. Aeromotive fuel pump with return system for constant high pressure

i. MSD 2-step rev-limiter, cuts the ignition before the fuel, unlike the stock ECU and is much better on the engine.

Cooling:

a. Eliminated the AC condenser for better cooling

b. Big aftermarket power steering cooler 

c. Steeda heat exchanger

d. Big aluminum radiator

e. Dual electric fans for over 2,000 cfm of air flow

Suspension:

a. Full Maximum Motorsports track package, minus cross member, to remain legal for all drifting organizations. This includes their purpose built dampeners, coil-over adders with correct spring rates, upper camber / caster plates, strut brace, all bushings replaced (including all of the rear IRS bushings), tie rod ends with bump steer adjustment. 

b. Custom blocks were made to relocate the front sway bar to allow for more steering angle

c. The front lower control arms were all custom fabbed out of DOM tubing. We had to make two different sets. The first set was very close to the stock arms just with more room but we found that we needed more camber and caster so a second set was made an inch and a half longer and we relocated the lower ball joint. Both sets will be included.

d. Front knuckles were cut and reinforced to allow for more angle and also worked to make sure the bump steer was perfect.

e. The final alignment was done and a lot of work has been done to make it handle great for drifting. On top of the alignment, the car is scaled and set-up for correct ride height, front to rear balance and cross weight.

Interior:

a. All the stock interior has been removed. This includes the heater box, radio, ac, stereo, carpet, headliner, center console, air bags, the stock steering column, etc.

b. The stock steering column was replaced with a solid shaft and a quick release racing steering wheel.

c. The ignition, starter, police lights, wipers, fuel pump, and fans are all on a custom carbon dash panel where the old radio was.

d. The boost gauge, water temp gauge, oil pressure gauge are all mounted on a custom carbon panel.

e. The headlights still operate from the stock switch.

f. The RPM, Speed, and other stock gauges work.

g. Sparco Racing Seats

h. 5-point racing harness for the driver and a 4 point harness for the passenger

i. Battery relocated to behind the passenger seat to offset the weight of the driver

j. 4 point roll cage is in the car currently, this will be legal for most pro-am drifting.

Someone made the car on forza 4! If you see more, screen shot them and post them in the comments section :)

Hope this helps to answer some of the questions floating around out there about it :)

This was submitted in the comments section, and he did an amazing job and after 8 hours of work produced this! attention to detail is spot on! His xbl gamertag is TehScrmin3agl3 Hit him up and buy this from his storefront!

Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle 2

Well everyone, the moment is finally here. Matt Sanders and crew from Icon, the riders Nick Apex and Ernie Vigil have done it again. The video is amazing, and I cannot describe what an honor it was to work with these guys. Thanks to Icon, Car Crafters, Guthrie Racing, Drift Exchange, Performance Fuel Injection and Pulstar Plugs. Without their support, none of this would have been possible!

I am looking for new sponsors for the upcoming season ;)

Driving during the shoot was one of the funnest things I have ever done, and was well worth flipping my car for.

Without further delay:

Well, cats out of the bag... Wreck info and pics inside!

For those of you that don't know, I totaled my car by sliding down an 8 foot hill, then completing a full flip rotation at the end, 10 points later, I stuck the landing. Not sure what happened, maybe I over cooked the turn, maybe I suck at drifting, maybe there was a fluid on the road. The end result is still the same, I totalled the white car :( Ernie Vigil snapped these shots.

I was out filming with Icon for the upcoming (Friday Jan 13th!) Drift 2 video, and we we had just finished filming, headed back down the hill, and after 150 or so runs up and down it over a period of 3 days, I wanted to take the motorcycle guys (Nick Apex and Ernie Vigil) on a ride. Ernie hopped in and off we went, things were going great until they weren't lol. About half way up, I lost it in a top of 2nd gear turn, slid off the road and down an 8 foot hill. Once the wheels caught, we began our spin, smashed onto the roof, and then landed back over on all fours, on top of a fence.

Shaken and sore but overall ok, we walked the walk of shame from the wreck around half way up, to the cars below. About 3/4ths the way down, Nick came scooting up the hill and scooped us up. 3 way on a scooter in the dark after flipping your car seems legit right? We dragged the car down the hill and ernie and I headed back to the hotel to see if we were messed up or concussed. Turns out we were ok thank goodness.

It was definitely one of the most violent things I have been through... And would rather not do it again :)

On a side note, Jim Guthrie let me drive this beast in his place for the filming. He was still hurt from Irwindale, so I was honored to fill in his shoes.

Now comes the part i'm not so stoked about... I have to build a new car for the upcoming season. I have another shell stripped down, and just got it to Car Crafters today. Thanks to Brian and Adriens help, we ripped the 5 lug off of it to put on my daily driver gray coupe, and will hound down on her next weekend.

The two coupes Gray Daily and Black pro-am (soon to be):

More on that build up to come - Missile deluxe for sure.

Threw the new wheels on the daily s13 - 18x10 xxr 521s. Still need to do some fender pounding and spacers but I like the overal look.

That was a big update, and I have had to be a bit hush hush about everything due to the secrecy of the film details, but since the vid drops this friday I figured I would share at least my details. More soon!

Edit 1/20/12 More pics from the wreck!