Project Riceball, Prologue

"aquila121" (aquila121) 12/29/2013 at 00:08 • Filed to: ProjectRiceball, I'm not Tak Fujiwara, DriftLump

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Friends, this is what I get for reading about how Orlove picked up drifting in 45 minutes (after #Orlove-ing Tony Angelo's car the night before and passing Forsberg's missle car to a wanting ditch). I have entered into the following agreement:

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! >Raphael Orlove

So. Incredibly. Jealous.

I really need to learn how to drift. Looks like a blast. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! >Stef Schrader

Stef, I'll learn if you will—deal?

The way this works is, I post something about working towards this goal, you respond in kind. We'll spot each other, stay motivated, all that crap. C'mon, you already have a love/hate relationship with the 944 (love that it's a Porsche, hate that it costs money), that's FR. The gauntlet has been thrown, in the most supportive way possible. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

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!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! >aquila121

*nods*

There's a few drifters who fart around (sideways) at H2R—I just need something RWD to hoon.

This means fixing the 944, I think.

IT MUST BE DONE! !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

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(sorry I don't know the usual conventions for quoting kinja comments.)

Therefore, my resolution for as much of 2014 is to prove that the Drift Idiot has gotten too good at his chosen activity for his namesake—I will pick up the torch (along with many others, I'm sure). I'm going to need a few things first, though.

Budget? Bah, I have organs I can sell.

Talent? That's for people who race cars and get paid to drive stuff . They probably even have girls on each arm (or guys, I don't judge). Zero RWD experience here. Celebrating mediocrity at every track day I ever went to (save one).

Mechanical knowledge? That would entail good sense that would stop me at Hey, something's wrong before I move into Oh, shit—that's ALL kinds of busted, by driving the car into the ground.

Nope, don't have any of those things. Instead, I have a thick skin, to brush off all the inevitable naysayers on the internet; stubborn-ness, to actually want to acquire a skill where it looks like you're always about to crash; a distinct lack of hubris, to know that I'm going to crash/screw up (and often!), and I realize that my intimate knowledge of Initial D will do me about as much good as "Fast and the Furious" quotes at a drag-strip [none]. And oh yeah... I'm going to need a car with power going out behind me. Something cheap, underpowered, raggedy-looking—that way, it's no big deal when I obliterate the transmission or crunch up the sheetmetal smacking it into a wall at the track.

Hmmm. This thing's held together by zip-ties and rust. My brother just called this a "riceball" because I only buy Japanese, and it's about to fall apart. Damn him for that name being so apt.

But his fat-ass won't fit in the driver's seat.

Also, tires that don't look like Sir Charles Barkley's head would be nice. That needs to happen before these fail like if people judged rap music on grammar. (To be fair, all of the music industry says 'fuck it, just make it catchy,' these days.)

And I'll need a helmet.

Yeah, I've been using this for a year, and I don't care what you say—the stickers make me smile. Have some more angles!

So, what this amounts to is, I have the car, I have the motivation (thanks, Stef!), and I have something to protect my big, dumb brain, from the bigger, more solid rollcage. Now, I need to fix said car (exhaust leak/engine timing issues suck, so I'm told), then get out and see what's what. I'll pass along whatever I learn, Opponauts. Because I love all you guys and gals. And I want to back up my latest sticker above Deadmau5.

Your move, Stef—let's see we can coax our cars into running enough to get on track (I expect yours will be called DriftLump, amIright?).

GhostZ > aquila121 12/29/2013 at 01:32

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How much did you pay for the Corolla? It doesn't seem like a RWD 80s Corolla sells for under $6000, running or not, nowadays.

Might I suggest...

Cheaper, longer wheelbase (easier to swing around) more power, better upgrade potential, and better looking. Possibly more reliable (and definitely more reliable for the price). Some came with limited slip differentials, and you can swap ones from a 300ZX in pretty easily.

And an S13 is always a good choice.

From what I've heard, the AE86 is a fun car, but the main reason it was a popular drift car was because it was Keiichi Tsuchiya's drift car. But his AE86 (the one that Initial D is based off of) is heavily modified and would probably cost more than a modern car to recreate, and the stock AE86 is getting to be more or less collectible. I equate it to buying a 1967 Mustang Fastback as a drag racer. It's history carries a cost premium over other cars that are just as good/better at it.

And a few videos to get you in the mood:

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > aquila121 12/29/2013 at 09:02

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Dude!

I love that Gozilla sticker.

aquila121 > GhostZ 12/29/2013 at 09:55

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You're not wrong about any of that, as far as I can tell. I drove a couple of S-chassis cars, and while I realize they're popular drift machines for a reason (gobs of parts, great anti-squat geometry in the rear suspension, easy(ier) to learn with, etc.), the ones I was looking at just didn't speak to me. Yes, I overpaid; no, it wasn't six grand. But I look at it as such: the car already had the rollcage which I knew I would want sometime down the road, it looks like shit—so I won't cry too much when it gets worse on the outside, and it's purple. Drift cars are supposed to be loud and ridiculous, right? Besides that, the kid gave me a spare 4AGE engine which is probably half junk, and parts for a T25 turbo that he wanted to put on (way more work than it's worth, I realize now). Seriously, I thought it was fun tooling around foot-to-the-floor in a car with no balls and even less exhaust (when I bought it, there was nothing after the header). I wanted to save this one—by all-but-ruining-it while learning to drift. "In order to save the village, we had to destroy the village..." and all that.