When I first landed in Japan I refused to buy a car that I could get back in Australia, for me there is no fun in modifying a car that I have already owned or I have seen parked on every corner street so I set out on the hunt for a JZX100. I slowly started to notice that the JZX100 was parked on every corner street in Japan and at any local track day they would make up the large majority of cars in the field. This coupled with the fact they have a chassis about as rigid as banana and after one good crash it would also be shaped like a banana my good friend Hoshino from Hoshino Car Style told me a JZX90 would be the best bet due to the smaller numbers seen on track days and a much stronger and stiffer chassis design, I agreed as he would be the one fixing my car when I crashed it.

A week later I got a phone call and list presented to me with the title JZX90 at the top and under a list of all its modifications and in a flash we were in Hoshino’s cars heading down to GOODS car yard a good friend of Hoshino’s to see what they had lined up for me. Presented to me in all its matte black dented up broken aero glory was my future JZX90, after a quick test drive by yours truly I handed it over to Hoshino for the drift test to which he had no problems kicking it out sideways inches from the corners guard rails, a very good selling technique I must admit.

After some hard work by myself, Andy and all the guys down at Hoshino Car Style the car had been sanded back, fixed all these little dents that were everywhere on the body of the car from the last owners who also decided matte black was a good paint scheme, pulled the front and rear fenders to suit its new shoes and she was ready for her new war paint and my welcoming to Team Geki or in full Geki Kassou Dan.

Look at her, all pretty and new not a dent or a mark to be seen, she was in need of some new wheels and lower stance but that was already organized.

After a couple track days at Honjo Circuit and Ebisu disasters struck in the name of understeer and lack of confidence. When attacking Ebisu’s Minami course there is one main thing you need, its called confidence. If that course senses for a second that your not committed to every corner laid out in front of you it will make sure your car does not leave with out a reminder of your stupid mistake.

The car had a touch up and got pulled straight it was time to head back out to Honjo Circuit for a shake down as it just had some new Swift 14kg / 12gk springs and rear Ikeya Formula solid mounts installed. On the day I was playing around with my damper and that in conjunction with my front tire choice being Advan Neova’s this car turned from a sluggish boat into a car that felt very much like any smaller chassis S13 or S14 drift car, it felt great!

Some video footage from the Honjo track day.

Now that the car was feeling perfect and it had just had all its paint work finished, got some new offset and adjusted the car height I had my eyes set on conquering Ebisu’s unforgiving Minami course at the upcoming Drift Matsuri. Some gentle persuading and hints from my friend Paul who was over from Australia on holiday and success, I had now mastered Ebisu. I was so worried about crashing again I lost all my confidence but after Paul forced me to do it I realized how easy it is as long as you treat it with the respect it needs, it really is such a scary and dangerous course in person, DVD’s don’t do it justice. The only bad thing about drifting on Minami is not one course I have been on gives me the thrill that Minami does, when your faced with completely writing off your car with just one little mistake it adds to the adrenalin rush.

New wheels filled the guards perfect!

New ride height made sure I could ummmmm, no longer store drinks under my car.

My front guards after the Drift Matsuri at Ebisu, was cool to see streams of smoke coming from my front tires while drifting.

This is a shot grabbed from the below video of my car on Ebisu’s famous Minami course.

Drifting footage from Ebisu’s Minami course.

After a great last year of drifting its now time for a little break and a breather, this year the JZX90 will be lucky to see one track event and the last time I drifted it was at Mt Akagi last week which was cut short by a JZX100 crashing. So its just going to gather dust in waiting for its retune in 6-8 months. Until then I will try and borrow some junk cars to thrash at local events but that’s about it for me and drifting this year.

How the JZX90 currently stands, dirty and rough around the edges, how any drift car would look after 12 months of hard work.

Current mod list
—————————
Engine standard running 1.1 bar on standard gutless twin turbos
HPI Front mount kit
Re-Tuned ECU
Coilovers 14kg fronts and 12kg rear springs
2 way LSD
Defi guages
Bride Seat
CST Wheels 9.5 +15 offset at all four corners
Full straight through exhaust
Big Koyo alloy radiator
Real Dream Aero
Rear floor brace
Rear Cusco sway bar
Project Mu brake pads
Slotted front rotors
Ikeya Formula solid mount rear end

Im sure I have left off quite a few mods, but they are the main ones.

The offices front desk.

Nothing great in here, it just works and does its job.

Team stickers, Geki Style!

……………………………………..

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 8:12 PM and is filed under Crashes, Drifting, My JZX90, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.