How-to: Mount Switches (and Gauges)

A few years ago the CD player in my car was stolen. Rather than pulling the unit out of the car they pulled out the entire center panel, leaving a giant hole. Since the car is being built as a drift car I decided to fabricate a panel to mount gauges and switches.

I would like to add a note here. Using the right tools makes all the difference. If you don't want to spend that twenty-something dollars for a drill bit or saw that's made for metal don't cheap-out and buy a wood one. You'll damage the metal you're working with, ruin the tool, and have a lousy time. If you're working with plastic or plexiglass make sure to go slow. Heat and torque are your enemies.

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Matt-Panic!'s Project Beams

Local drift hero Matt-Panic! is known, among other things, for his 1JZ-powered Toyota Cressida and his Blacktop 4A-GE-powered Toyota Celica. With the Cressida gone Matt decided to make the Celica just a little more special. The first thing he changed was the engine.

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FD 2012 // Long Beach -- Mike Phillips

April 6th. 7:30 AM. I never wake up this early on my own. Then again, I've never woken up in a beach front hotel to shoot a professional drift event either. After finishing off too much breakfast I walked to the race track -- I wish I could say that more often -- to shoot the practice and qualifying runs for Mike Phillips, Andrew Coomes, Kyle Pollard, Peter Funatake, Ian Fournier, and Walker Wilkerson; the PNW crew.

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Nissan Fest 2012: Pre-Meet

In the weeks leading up to Nissan Fest Cameron Sullivan of Boosted Photography and I decided to host a pre-meet so we, and a bunch of other locals, could caravan up to Evergreen Speedway. What started as a "Wouldn't it be fun if..." comment on Facebook turned into a flier and event page in less than one hour.

[Flier goes here]

Roll-in started at 8am, but between taking the wrong exit getting to Starbucks and the time required to have them brew the box of coffee I ended up rolling in around a quarter after. Cameron was already there, along with about a dozen other cars from Japan, Germany, England, and America. Aside from the sound of unmuffled exhaust echoing through each floor of the parking garage everything was quiet, the sun was out, and everything was going great.

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EVD71 // Evergreen Drift Season Opener

For those of you who don't live in the Pacific Northwest let me break down what kind of weather we have here. Rain, sunshine, snow, everything-covered-in-ice, hella-fog, and a bland grey of nothingness. This pretty much covers a whole year's weather in many places, but around here that covers about 20 minutes. This had been happening for the two weeks leading up to the event, so the conditions the day of the event were anyone's guess.

Pretty typical weather for the beginning of the season.

The morning started off with snow. That was pretty scary since I would be driving my track car 30 miles to Evergreen Speedway with no heater (see: windshield defogger). The snow turned to a drizzle, which remained for the next few hours. The combination of cold weather, rain, and a track virtually untouched in the last four months made for some slick driving conditions.

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