Those of you who read our Weekly Pitpass Reports should remember a story about my desire to purchase a beautiful 300ZX Twin Turbo, so that I would no longer have to scam Che into driving me home every night. Now this is very important for the sake of Che's sanity, as me singing "My Darlin' Clementine" all the way home is hardly relaxing. All of this aside however, I really wanted a car for another reason.
As some of you can probably guess I have been dreaming of purchasing a car that is capable of drifting for quite some time now, and those Siamese turbo's under the hood of this super clean 300ZX were calling my name. Unfortunately I hesitated and missed the opportunity as the car was gone the next day. Now would I have really purchased the car? Maybe not, but at least I could have checked it out and felt what it is like to own a 300ZX Twin Turbo. That would have been enough for me, but as they say hesitation killed the cat.
Well just as I thought my automotive life was washed up, I loaded up craigslist and browsed through some recent listings. It was really hard to concentrate on the task at hand considering my TV was belting out the beautiful sounds of a D1 battle on Suzuka, but somehow I managed to find this diamond in the rough, a 1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S Hatch; and this time I did not hesitate!
I immediately called up my main man Adam, and used my persuasive skills to coax him into driving me to check it out. I told him I found a car that I was about to buy, showed him the listing, and said that if he didn’t drive me out there I would burn his house down. Now Adam really likes his house. It keeps him warm at night, so he obliged. I honestly can’t even explain how pumped I was to find this car when I did, because any later and I am sure it would have been gone. Even the drive was painful, but with similar techniques I convinced Adam to drive faster.
When we arrived at our destination I finally got to see the car up close and fell in love instantly. The paint was in great shape along with the body, especially for a car that is only a year younger than me. The condition of the car was incredible, but with drifting in mind we immediately started scanning for upgrades. Currently it's set-up with JIC coilovers, a rebuilt engine/LSD, a Koyo Radiator and a Nardi steering wheel just to name a few. The car is seriously upgraded, and after I found out I actually fit in the driver’s seat (I’m over 6 feet tall), we took it for a quick drive and made the owner an offer to buy it right on the spot!
I am now the proud owner of this light grey Corolla GT-S; a car that makes me smile every time the headlights pop out of isolation. The car is by no means perfect and there will be some things to fix, but when I sit back and look at what I now have in my possession, I can’t help but to be excited!
So what’s next? Well as you can imagine the team here at Turn 10 is really excited about my purchase and are already arguing about what I should do to the car first. Some say Turbo, others say ITB’s; I say extra tires! All I do know is that drifting is something I have wanted to do ever since my first run down Fujimi Kaido, and after experiencing it first hand at the SCCA Drift School event on Saturday, I realized that there is no time like the present!
This weekend I am going to be re-assembling the gutted interior so stay tuned for more pictures, and maybe videos of my first time out on the track!
Peace,
Landin
