2009 - 2016
The beginning of 2009 came along and I made a few more changes to the car. To start off, I ditched the steam roller 3 piece wheels in favor of some smaller, more functional wheels. I ditched the SSRs and grabbed some JIC Magic JForce 07s in 17x10 all around from Forrest. Since he was running the D1GP USA series and was sponsored by Nexen, I also got a set of Nexen tires from him, in addition to the tires that were already on the wheels, in addition to a few small misc. items I was after.
The new wheels allowed me to lower the ride height and change the alignment up a bit. I went from running around -2.2 rear camber to about -1.5. Also went from -3 front to -4 front. The smaller 235/40 tires meant more clearance which meant no rub, and it also allowed the wheels to break traction easier. After all, the car was a pretty basic setup, using the standard KA24 with a GReddy TD06 kit. The block was stock though, so boost was kep at a lower level. I ran 6psi on the street for 91 octane, and then cranked up to 10psi when I drove and filled up with 101. On the higher setting, the car made all of 250whp. Luckily, the car had a shorter final drive to help.
The new wheels made 3rd gear initiations a breeze. With the large 3 piece wheels, the car would struggle a bit. Now the car felt great. Very predictable and easy to drive. I found it to be the perfect setup.
The car stayed like that for a bit before going through a couple other small changes, including a paint color change, and then the car was parted out in mid 2009. I was lucky enough to have some friends help with the process and quickly sold everything off.
While that was taking place, I ended up snagging a 93 240sx hatchback from a friend. Nasty champegne/doodoo brown interior combo. The car was decent, having some minor cosmetic faults, but otherwise a solid drivetrain/chassis and interior. I added some basic stuff to the car and ended up selling a year later in 2010 to take a break from cars and drifting. I had finished high school and was still working at the same Sonic Drive-In and was starting to get anxious to start doing something productive in my life. So I went ahead and enlisted.
Fast forward through BCT and AIT in 2011, and I was stationed in Oklahoma. I owned a couple basic cars and then eventually ended up in a 2012 WRX that I did the basic bolt ons to. While I was doing that, I met some people on post who were fairly active in the 240 scene. One of which had a nice S13 and was interested in drifting it. We got to talking and I got him motivated enough to go to a local event. I gave him some pointers and he was kind (brave) enough to let me drive it. They were doing some sort of solo run competition and I ended up taking 3rd place behind an XDC prepped, V8 powered Volvo station wagon, and some 400hp S13. Considering the fact the car ran a stock SR with the stock sidemount I/C, 245 width rear tires on VSXXs and no handbrake, I was pretty content with those results.
This seemed to ignite a fire back within me to get back into drifting, though I was really not wanting to mess with another 240sx. I didn't want to start with somebody else's project. Spring 2013 roles around and I ended up in a Scion FRS. The car was stock for all of 4 days before some parts started showing up. The car did countless events with no more than some coilovers, control arms, and an exhaust. The car was plenty fun though. With enough aggression, I could manage to keep up with the 300hp+ cars without too much difficulty. Of course, I had shallow line and angle, but this wasn't competition, so who cares?
I did multiple events between Texas and Oklahoma and the car ran flawlessly the entire time. At the end of 2013, I made a trip to the west coast and spent some time drifting in California, as well as making a trip to Vegas to visit Forrest and friends at "Get Nuts Lab". Needless to say, lots of drifting took place. I even managed to get some tandem in with one of the JZ powered cars, and I also stuffed the FRS into one of the plastic K rails. Luckily, I was only doing like 10mph on impact, so aside from a broken bumper grille and corner light, there was just some minor scraping on the front bumper and that's it.
I spent most of 2014 deployed overseas, so I didn't get to do any driving. I did get quite a few things done to the car though, including some 30mm todoroki fenders, 18x9.5 Mag Blue TE37SLs, and more. Also added a Tomei EL header, some tuning and some tie rods to give the car a nice bump in power and steering angle. Unfortunately, the 9.5" wheels don't clear the frame rails with increased angle, because of the wide boxer engine, so I opted to get rid of the TE37s and Todoroki fenders and went back to some simple 17x9 wheels.
At this point, I felt as though the car was pretty much perfect. The new header and tune pretty much eliminated the mid range torque dip and added some much needed top end grunt, while the tie rods added the much needed steering angle this car needed from the factory. In my opinion, this is the perfect setup for a DD ZN6 with the intention of seeing some drift time.
The setup is simple, reliable, inexpensive, and plenty enough to link just about any flat road course or parking lot setup. Thanks to the close ratio gearbox, 3rd and 4th gear entries were pretty easy. You have to keep the throttle pinned, but it's easily manageable. All in all, I came to the conclusion that the FRS was, without a doubt, the most fun vehicle I've ever owned.
This was actually about the time that I started the TougeFriends Instagram page.
However, 2015 rolls along and I start prepping to leave the military. Knowing that when I move, I'll be engaged in school and work full time, I came to the conclusion that it was probably best to move on from the FRS, as it wasn't the most practical car and I wouldn't have a place to really work on it since I was going to be living in an apartment. I ultimately decided to get something that was more ready to go from the factory and wouldn't require so much time or money working on it. I parted out the FRS, traded it in and ended up getting a 2016 Subaru STI shortly before moving back to California.
I kept the car 100% stock for a few months before starting to make a few small changes. Added a lip and some upgraded brake fluid and attended my first event with the car just a couple months later before the end of the year. The car did really well, but I came to the conclusion that a few small things would need to be addressed before going back out. I developed a game plan to add some items here and there, but remained firm on keeping the overall setup simple and inexpensive.
The brakes didn't last very long before experiencing some pretty noticeable fade and the front end scrubbed a lot through the corners. You know how whenever people review the STI, you hear them complain about understeer? Well, part of that comes from the fact that the vehicle is severly nose heavy, with a 60/40 weight distribution. However, a big part of it comes down to the alignment. In an effort to keep kids from wrapping these cars around poles, Subaru gives the STI -2 degrees of camber on the rear, and roughly -0.5 camber up front. Less than 1 degree! This means the front end easily washes out, and you get that push from the front in the corner. It gets very frustrating very fast. So I knew that needed to be addressed. I also knew that the oiling system needed some upgrades due to the type of driving the car was seeing.
So, I opted for some Project Mu brake pads, Whiteline camber bolts, an upgraded oil pickup tube/windage tray, and an air oil separator. I figured these items would make a good impact on the performance and reliablity of the vehicle under hard driving conditions - because ring lands, right?
I went to another event after the changes, and the car did much better. The car still pushed, but nowhere near as bad as before. You could now the car to remain more neutral mid corner, and the corner was more eager on turn in with a bit of trail braking. After that event, I was starting to remember why I liked these cars so much back in the day. I was able to keep up and pass cars with twice the power and twice the pricetag with no issues. The car was still on stock tires, and stock power. The idea of keeping up with cars in a much higher price bracket with much more power was a fun concept to me, so I made the decision to keep the engine stock and not worry about power. Instead, I wanted to focus on the chassis and my own driving. I decided on the next steps I was going to take for modifications and got to work. The end of 2016 came along and I picked up some upgraded rotors and brake lines, more aggressive pads, some springs from Swift, and some upgraded bushings/mounts to add to the drivetrain.
I also came up with a game plan on events to attend for the 2017 year between my school and work schedule. 2015 and 2016 only yielded 3 events for myself, but I set myself a goal to do 4 events total in 2017. It's no easy task getting out to the track when you're juggling a full time school and work schedule. Not to mention when your wife also has a full time school and work schedule and you want to include her in the fun. That being said, I spent a lot of time looking at different schedules for different event organizations and also paid close attention to my future school schedule. Work can always be adjusted, but school was pretty much set in stone with no wiggle room for either of us.
Either way, I was pretty happy with how things were going with the car, since I felt as though I was pretty much just a couple items away from being able to consider the car "done".
The new wheels made 3rd gear initiations a breeze. With the large 3 piece wheels, the car would struggle a bit. Now the car felt great. Very predictable and easy to drive. I found it to be the perfect setup.
The car stayed like that for a bit before going through a couple other small changes, including a paint color change, and then the car was parted out in mid 2009. I was lucky enough to have some friends help with the process and quickly sold everything off.While that was taking place, I ended up snagging a 93 240sx hatchback from a friend. Nasty champegne/doodoo brown interior combo. The car was decent, having some minor cosmetic faults, but otherwise a solid drivetrain/chassis and interior. I added some basic stuff to the car and ended up selling a year later in 2010 to take a break from cars and drifting. I had finished high school and was still working at the same Sonic Drive-In and was starting to get anxious to start doing something productive in my life. So I went ahead and enlisted.
Fast forward through BCT and AIT in 2011, and I was stationed in Oklahoma. I owned a couple basic cars and then eventually ended up in a 2012 WRX that I did the basic bolt ons to. While I was doing that, I met some people on post who were fairly active in the 240 scene. One of which had a nice S13 and was interested in drifting it. We got to talking and I got him motivated enough to go to a local event. I gave him some pointers and he was kind (brave) enough to let me drive it. They were doing some sort of solo run competition and I ended up taking 3rd place behind an XDC prepped, V8 powered Volvo station wagon, and some 400hp S13. Considering the fact the car ran a stock SR with the stock sidemount I/C, 245 width rear tires on VSXXs and no handbrake, I was pretty content with those results.This seemed to ignite a fire back within me to get back into drifting, though I was really not wanting to mess with another 240sx. I didn't want to start with somebody else's project. Spring 2013 roles around and I ended up in a Scion FRS. The car was stock for all of 4 days before some parts started showing up. The car did countless events with no more than some coilovers, control arms, and an exhaust. The car was plenty fun though. With enough aggression, I could manage to keep up with the 300hp+ cars without too much difficulty. Of course, I had shallow line and angle, but this wasn't competition, so who cares?I did multiple events between Texas and Oklahoma and the car ran flawlessly the entire time. At the end of 2013, I made a trip to the west coast and spent some time drifting in California, as well as making a trip to Vegas to visit Forrest and friends at "Get Nuts Lab". Needless to say, lots of drifting took place. I even managed to get some tandem in with one of the JZ powered cars, and I also stuffed the FRS into one of the plastic K rails. Luckily, I was only doing like 10mph on impact, so aside from a broken bumper grille and corner light, there was just some minor scraping on the front bumper and that's it.
I spent most of 2014 deployed overseas, so I didn't get to do any driving. I did get quite a few things done to the car though, including some 30mm todoroki fenders, 18x9.5 Mag Blue TE37SLs, and more. Also added a Tomei EL header, some tuning and some tie rods to give the car a nice bump in power and steering angle. Unfortunately, the 9.5" wheels don't clear the frame rails with increased angle, because of the wide boxer engine, so I opted to get rid of the TE37s and Todoroki fenders and went back to some simple 17x9 wheels.
The setup is simple, reliable, inexpensive, and plenty enough to link just about any flat road course or parking lot setup. Thanks to the close ratio gearbox, 3rd and 4th gear entries were pretty easy. You have to keep the throttle pinned, but it's easily manageable. All in all, I came to the conclusion that the FRS was, without a doubt, the most fun vehicle I've ever owned.
This was actually about the time that I started the TougeFriends Instagram page.
However, 2015 rolls along and I start prepping to leave the military. Knowing that when I move, I'll be engaged in school and work full time, I came to the conclusion that it was probably best to move on from the FRS, as it wasn't the most practical car and I wouldn't have a place to really work on it since I was going to be living in an apartment. I ultimately decided to get something that was more ready to go from the factory and wouldn't require so much time or money working on it. I parted out the FRS, traded it in and ended up getting a 2016 Subaru STI shortly before moving back to California.
I kept the car 100% stock for a few months before starting to make a few small changes. Added a lip and some upgraded brake fluid and attended my first event with the car just a couple months later before the end of the year. The car did really well, but I came to the conclusion that a few small things would need to be addressed before going back out. I developed a game plan to add some items here and there, but remained firm on keeping the overall setup simple and inexpensive.
The brakes didn't last very long before experiencing some pretty noticeable fade and the front end scrubbed a lot through the corners. You know how whenever people review the STI, you hear them complain about understeer? Well, part of that comes from the fact that the vehicle is severly nose heavy, with a 60/40 weight distribution. However, a big part of it comes down to the alignment. In an effort to keep kids from wrapping these cars around poles, Subaru gives the STI -2 degrees of camber on the rear, and roughly -0.5 camber up front. Less than 1 degree! This means the front end easily washes out, and you get that push from the front in the corner. It gets very frustrating very fast. So I knew that needed to be addressed. I also knew that the oiling system needed some upgrades due to the type of driving the car was seeing.So, I opted for some Project Mu brake pads, Whiteline camber bolts, an upgraded oil pickup tube/windage tray, and an air oil separator. I figured these items would make a good impact on the performance and reliablity of the vehicle under hard driving conditions - because ring lands, right?
I went to another event after the changes, and the car did much better. The car still pushed, but nowhere near as bad as before. You could now the car to remain more neutral mid corner, and the corner was more eager on turn in with a bit of trail braking. After that event, I was starting to remember why I liked these cars so much back in the day. I was able to keep up and pass cars with twice the power and twice the pricetag with no issues. The car was still on stock tires, and stock power. The idea of keeping up with cars in a much higher price bracket with much more power was a fun concept to me, so I made the decision to keep the engine stock and not worry about power. Instead, I wanted to focus on the chassis and my own driving. I decided on the next steps I was going to take for modifications and got to work. The end of 2016 came along and I picked up some upgraded rotors and brake lines, more aggressive pads, some springs from Swift, and some upgraded bushings/mounts to add to the drivetrain.I also came up with a game plan on events to attend for the 2017 year between my school and work schedule. 2015 and 2016 only yielded 3 events for myself, but I set myself a goal to do 4 events total in 2017. It's no easy task getting out to the track when you're juggling a full time school and work schedule. Not to mention when your wife also has a full time school and work schedule and you want to include her in the fun. That being said, I spent a lot of time looking at different schedules for different event organizations and also paid close attention to my future school schedule. Work can always be adjusted, but school was pretty much set in stone with no wiggle room for either of us.
Either way, I was pretty happy with how things were going with the car, since I felt as though I was pretty much just a couple items away from being able to consider the car "done".
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