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Blog : HKS with Castrol Edge & Toyo Tires Drift Demo at Jap Meet, Mantorp Park, Sweden Part 2

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Jul 09

HKS with Castrol Edge & Toyo Tires Drift Demo at Jap Meet, Mantorp Park, Sweden Part 2

Saturday morning came far too quickly for us as we were all still trying to catch up on sleep, but we all managed to gather at 06:30 to make our way to the track

We reached the circuit for the 07:00 start where the guys from JRM racing were already up and getting ready.

Scruitineering was already underway for all cars who would be running on the track on the day.

The other cars on the JRM stand had turned up and the venue was starting to come to life at last.

I had a word with the event organisers through Jocce and we managed to secure 3 slots for the day, 10:00, 13:00 and 16:00. The car was prepared in time for the first session and Brett changed into his work uniform

For each run, the car is prepped and checked with the following things:

· Fill the fuel tank

· Change/check tyres and change as necessary

· Start the car and warm up the engine oil and water.

· Jack the car up and engage gear and allow the wheels to spin in the air to warm the transmission and differential oils up.

· Check tyre pressure and torque of wheel nuts

This process takes a good 15-20 minutes which may seem like a long time but is essential to maintain the performance of the car.

The 10:00 session was upon us and this was mostly just to check the car over and allow Brett to familiarise himself with the circuit as he had never driven it before. Towards the end, he managed to get some good runs in and the car looked well also. A very successful first session for the team.

The 13:00 session came up on us very quickly and once again we had the car out. Brett was on much better form in this session and was getting some insane speeds through the course. On the last lap Brett found himself pushing right to the edge of the race track on the exit or turn two and found out the hard way how big and unforgiving the curbs are. The car came to a halt and after a few minutes, the tow truck was bringing the car back. All our heads sank in anticipation of the damage report once the tow truck had made it’s way back to the pits.

It turned out that the left rear hub had broken where it attaches to the bottom arm. Our race car has solid rose joints in each of its suspension arms which have no “give” compared to the standard rubber bushes. This means any impacts go straight to the damper or the other components in the suspension system and it was just a little too much for the hub to take. The loose arm allowed the wheel to move forwards and upwards in the wheel arch causing damage to the side skirts and wheel arch but luckily they were not too bad.

We always bring plenty off spare parts with us, but a hub was not on the list. The pressure was on to find another locally and get the car back together for the remaining sessions we had for the weekend. Unfortunately, the guys at JRM racing are Mitsubishi and Subaru specialists meaning that they have general very few contacts in the Nissan scene. We asked as many people at the event to see if they knew someone who may have the spare part but where coming up with no leads. The car was pretty much apart but awaiting the new part before any further work could continue.

We were all starting to lose hope, but then one guy mentioned in passing that he has a R33 GTS Skyline at his friends workshop about 60km from the track. After some careful thought, I asked him if he would be willing to let us take the part from his car if we replaced it. He agreed as his car is not drivable at the moment because he is awaiting parts. So off I went with two people I had only known for maybe an hour or 2 in search of a hub for our car.

The guys who helped us were called Johan and Jens. Johan had a workshop which we could use to take the skyline apart in and the skyline belonged to Jens. Brett and Johan had been speaking to each other throughout the day and had made a connection as fellow drifters. Johan drive with the “On the Edge” drift team (www.ontheedge.nu) and is a top guy so if any of you see any drifting in Sweden or Norway, please give him plenty of support.

I took our Van with Johan and Jens on board and headed towards the workshop. We arrived about 45 minutes later and grabbed a tow rope so that we could bring the skyline to the workshop. On the way to the car, we stopped by a local garage to see if we could by a 36mm socket which we would need in order to make the repairs on our car. They unfortunately didn’t have one so Johan started making many calls to friends to see what they could do. One such friend came up trumps and offered the loan of his socket and so we went another 5km to the next town. Under the guidance of Johan, we found ourselves at our destination in order to get our socket. The place was a little garage which happened to be the hangout for the local biker gang! One of the guys there handed us the socket, we thanked them and made our way to the donor skyline (I’m sorry for the lack in photos in this section. Things were a little manic and rushed at this time)

We reached the skyline and pushed the car off the drive (uphill) and got it attached via tow rope to the van. Some 10 minutes later we were back at the workshop ready to take her apart. The hub came apart relatively easily but is always a time consuming job. With the hub in our hands, we made our way back to the track to put the S15 back together again.

Back to Mantorp and we hand only one issue. The Skyline donor car has HICAS which is a rear wheel steering system used on some Nissans. Our S15 does not have this and so has a regular bush in the hub, whereas the skyline had a ball joint for the HICAS system which would need to be pressed out. After much trying, the joint would not budge. Time was ticking away and the sun day set (which was setting around 22:00-23:00) and the rain was coming down. With the situation getting desperate, I check with Jens if it was ok to destroy the ball joint in return of sending him a new and complete hub once we returned to England. He was happy to help and so the guys at JRM pulled out their power tools.

With the ball joint out of the way, some careful modifications were made to accommodate the difference in the bushes in the two different hubs and the car was finally put together. Russell was by my side the whole time assisting with the repairs as was Jocce from JRM racing. Brett constantly offered to help, but we needed him fresh for the next day if the car was fixed and so we sent him to sleep in the van.

The car went back on the ground at 01:30 on Sunday morning. We were all so glad it was back in one piece as we had all worked so hard to get it done but there was still a lot of uncertainty about whether it would hold together and whether the difference in the bushes and hubs etc would cause any vibration/knocking etc. A quick tidy up and back to the hotel for a shower at 02:15 and then bed at 02:30. Luckily we had a bit of a lie in for the Sunday and didn’t have to leave the hotel until 8:30 so no real chance to catch up on sleep but was late enough to catch breakfast at the hotel.