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Hey yall, I'm not a fan of the drama and I really don’t care to be dragged into it and made part of it. It's unfortunate that Casey has a beef with me because I have never had any problem with him whatsoever. I sort-of understand where he's coming from on the "novelty" part, but he needs to understand that that is part of the sport. There's no underlying conspiracy around us, I just started drifting my friend Jame's crappy El Camino because I didn't have anything else to drive, and we later found that the underdog character/image of the car was working in our favor. Whether or not we should have won the Drift Showoff, or qualified at FD, that's not for me to judge. I did, and I'm proud of it, but Casey's disagreement on my achievements should not rightfully be cause for bitterness, and I’m saddened that I can't be friends with a fellow drifter because of trivial animosity.
Casey also talks of deception. I wonder, how have we deceived anyone? That the El Camino is difficult to drift when it is actually cake to drive? That I actually suck as a drifter, but the El Camino is somehow magically making my driving look better than I actually am? That’s laughable. More likely, people recognize the El Camino as a difficult car to drift, and reward respect to anyone who can handle it well.
The El Camino is still as low-budget as it has ever been. The new motor is actually borrowed from friend with the expectation that it will be returned in good shape (lol), and with a blower slapped on it. Nothing special right now, but lots of potential down the road when if we are enabled to get our own motor and invest in some dyno tuning. The additional power helps with the higher-speed courses, but other than that, more work will need to be done to the car to make the most of it..
Since Drift Showoff, little has been done to the El Camino except the motor swap, new wheels/tires, poly body bushings, and an in-garage paint job. The suspension hasn't been touched in over 2 years - way before we started drifting it, and for that matter, it's a loooong ways from a good drift setup. But we haven't messed with it yet because we haven't had the time or money to do the necessary (and extensive) R&D it will take to make it significantly better. Remember, nobody knows exactly what it takes to make an El Camino a good drift car (although I'm leaning toward generalizing it simply as "an act of god"), and high-performance suspension parts, especially proven drift-ready parts, are non-existent.
This past year, we were basically making do with what we had, which really wasn't much at all - a very difficult car and limited funds. We are proud of how well we were able to do during this past season considering what we had to work with, but there's no questioning that major changes will need to be made if we hope to do well next season. If we are going to be running FD next year, there will be little left untouched in the El Camino - it will need a LOT of work to be competitive next year. Either that or ditch the El Camino for something else entirely - we'll see. . . .
And thanks everyone for the compliments on the Hot Rod article. I think it came out very well, and I expect it will help garner more respect for drifting from the domestic and grassroots groups, as well as encourage many of them to come out and give it a try. Like Taka Aono said to me: “This is America, why not drive American car?”
Originally posted by crusTE72corolla How did this go from me correcting somebody about the identities of people in Bubba Drift to Mikespeed bashing me and my driving ability?
HMM well i was at the grind event on august 1st, the IS300 was doing pretty well. if thats what casey was driving, i didnt see anything special about the black S13 if its the one im thinking of.
i didnt get a chance to see the article yet, but im gonna head to meijer and check it out in a few minutes, congrats derreck, ill see you in atlanta
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