Update #2

The most recent development in the whole build of the drift car is the engine plans. Now I had intended to stick with the Nissan SR20DET engine and rebuild it with a Tomei 2.2litre stroker crank, rods and pistons. However with that sort of spec it was going to cost a lot with the addition of all the other supported mods to be able to achieve my goal of ~500bhp. So I started looking at other options which included several Nissan engines such as the RB26DETT, the RB30DET, the VQ30DETT, a VH45DE but they were all seemingly heavy engines and or produce lower levels of power. Then when looking into various V8 engines I started reading up on the Chevrolet LS series engines that have been used in various forms in several different cars in the last 10 years, ranging from Corvettes to Pontiac GTO's even the Monaro. Then I found that the latest Chevrolet Corvette z06 used the very latest LS7 engine which is a 7 litre pushrod, cam-in-block and dry-sumped 505bhp, 470lbft unit. It was also surprising to read that it only weighs ~15-20kg more than the SR20DET. The scope for future developments with an LS7 engine is unreal due to its specification as standard, with minimal modifications and forced induction the unit has been seen to run over 1000bhp with ease. This for me was the only option. So for the last couple of months the drift car has been put on hold whilst I put plans in place to fund and ship and LS7 Crate motor from the US. Stay tuned for something very special.

The car is all ready for the new power plant and its current state of completion is shown in the pictures below:

Following those pictures the roof was prepped and painted in Nissan QM1 bright white paint.

Have a read through the post below to catch up on the other work that's been done on the car.

Update #1

Time for an update? Yeh, about time too eh! Well quite a lot has happened since the last update way back in April so I'll do my best at bringing this site back up to date, here goes.

First up was to add a firewall to the rear of the car between the passenger/cockpit area and the boot where all the fuel system components are kept. The panels had allready been cut and shaped previously but now it was time to attach them and seal them up. This was a rather simple task of pop riveting the panels in and sealing them up.

Next up was a trip down to Eastbourne to Neweras UK workshop to meet Gareth, he had some new wheels and a windscreen for me to take away. Nice! I arrived home after a long journey which also included going to Rye House for a 2hr endurance kart race with the Le RML team in Club100. mmmm wheels... :)

I bolted them up at the front to see where they sat on the car, they're not too bad but could do with a 10mm spacer or so.

The next job was to try and locate the pull cables for the cutoff switch and extinguisher system. Now I'd seen that people usually mount them up between the bonnet and windscreen and lay them down flat against the screen with a bracket mounted on the scuttle panel just above the wiper motor. That to me was just untidy and me being me had to find a neater solution which led to cutting a hole in the nearside front wing and moulding in a recess to allow access to the two pull handles secured to the upper chassis leg:

A couple of general shots of the car in the garage with the four wheels on for the first time since the car arrived.

Next up was making the v-mount ducting. This meant a lot of cutting of cardboard and lots of swearing! I think pictures show exactly how it was done so here they are:

The cardboard templates were transfered to aluminium sheets and formed to fit:

The decluttered, lightened and repainted steering column went back in:

These rear lights arrived as a surprise gift from Miguel at Newera in Japan!

James and Phil at Driftworks were kind enough to offer to replace my mismatched adjustable arms with a complete set of their orange arms in return for using photos in their online shop:

The bootlid attachments were then sorted with some spacers made to get the FRP bootlid skin to sit nicely and line up with the rest of the bodywork:

Next up was to recondition the steering rack. This meant I stripped down the rack, cleaned it all up, gave it a lick of paint and replaced the parts that needed replacing:

The tyres arrived for my wheels so I could finally have the car sitting back on its wheels with the right ones on there:

The next job was to make the polycarbonate windows for the doors and rear 1/4lights:

The rear fuel filler recess in the the drivers side rear wing was annoying me so I decided to fill it with some chopped strand FRP matting: