“Secondary Weapon” With the drift season already started, I found myself still without a car and no seat time under my belt. It was a definite time of need where I had to get into the driver’s seat and start pursuing my dream. With the Sil-80 still going under construction, drifting in a video game was the closest I could get to the real thing. At this point I was in a search for another 240, or another RWD platform to try and get out there. I slapped a for sale sign on my civic and started my search for a new car. Soon I came across a local guy with a SR20 powered S13, and had everything I needed to hit the track. Unfortunately the owner’s asking price was way out of my expenses. And with the Civic still not sold, things weren’t looking too “sideways” anytime soon.
Luckily, Geoff from FULL-RACE.com knew somebody selling a S13 with a SR20DET already in the car. The real shocker was that I got the car for a mere two thousand bucks! The owner before me said he had a wiring problem and couldn’t get the car to start. Once I took the car off his hands, the car went straight to the guys at POWERZAMCAM.com. Under the hood we definitely noticed the wiring problem the owner had and why it wouldn’t run. After the countless hours of rewiring we got the car started and running. But little did we know, there were way more problems with the motor than just the wiring. By the looks of the motor, the previous owner must of taken apart the motor and repainted the whole thing. Turns out when they put it back together, they used some cheap sealant instead of using gaskets.That wasn’t the only problem, the pistons were marked with a flathead of some sort and they marked each piston with numerics.so those pistons were shot along with the whole motor. So this called for a “rebuild kit” and luckily Chris and Robbie over at AHM PEFORMANCE were able to take care of the SR20.
While the SR20 was being worked on, the KA24 was still in my Sil-80 begging to be worked on. Brian from BRIAN CROWER sent over a whole rebuild kit as well for the KA24 motor, which was sent over to AHM PERFORMANCE to be done. The street car was still a “shell”, thankfully all the sponsors on the race car decided to give me the helpful hand and prep the street car to be capable to compete to its fullest. Kevin from BUDDY CLUB sent over their whole line up of parts for both cars, and well as Jack at DUNLOP supporting me with a season worth or tires to shred apart! COMPETITION CLUTCH sent over their Stage 2 Clutch for both cars as well to take my beating of clutch kicks while drifting.
Weeks passed and we finally received the motor back from the shop. Basically as good as new, but now we had an even bigger problem on our hands. The car had to be built before D1GP in Englishtown, so one of our drivers at POWERZAMCAM.com could try and qualify for his D1GP license. We literally had four days to build the car from scratch and be ready for D1 to drive! Amazingly, the car was finished two hours before the deadline for the qualifying. Unfortunately, our driver was unable to grab a D1 license, but this gave us a day to test and tune the car to its needs. Now with one car drivable, it was time to hit the events and get some seat time.
I recently went to Summit Point Raceway for the Hyper-Fest event. This was my very first real event, and I had a blast! The track was awesome and barely chewed up my tires. I still have a lot more to learn, but the only way to learn is to attend as many events as I can and hopefully progress along the way.
A week after, on July 4th, Summit Point Race Track had a drift day and Hyper Fest / US Drift so me and the team were able to get as many runs as wanted as long as the car held up. To make a long story short, the car lasted for more than five hours of pure punishment. Within the last runs, with coaching from Sal, Geo and my brother, I finally got my “sweet spots” with my throttle, steering, and initiations power over, clutch kick, and feints. The one thing that I also had to learn right away was to not only control my car but, teach myself to stay calm and mature as a driver. That, by far, was my biggest challenge. As soon as I started to find my “driving style” I realized that my eye started seeing the track lines and linking all my turns, I found it to be the most satisfying reward, especially making my brother cry like a little kid when making him realize that I can drive better than he can!
Then last weekend, DUNLOP called and asked if we wanted to do a Dunlop Tires Drift Demo at HOT IMPORT NIGHTS’S NIGHT SHIFT in NYC and I was all over it! I called up the team and my brother to let them know about the demo. Next thing you knew the entire team was driving with some of the best on the East Coast. So knowing that the car had to look its best, I remembering meeting this guy Mike from HIDEYOURRIDE.COM whom my brother worked with on the Bosal/PZC/Emanansala Subaru STi. I remember my brother telling me “dude I don’t have time to paint this car so I’m just going to wrap it!” I though to myself “that’s wack!” But you know what, his STi looked better than any paint job out there. So with minimal time and no funds for a paint job, I picked up the phone and called Mike, three days later we had the artwork laid out and slapped it on the car! It was night and day, the car looked like a full D1 car, which just turned me into another person yet again bringing me to another level of driving and maturity.
You know you will see that a lot of people helped me get to this point, and drifting is not an easy sport but the one thing that you have remember is who has your back: my parents and brother have been a great support. My brother and his best friend Steve even got me a job at Beacon Auto Sports, and my parents paid for a lot of my traveling. Without them I would never have been able to get seat time. My Team, PZC (power zam cam) spent countless hours teaching and building the car, and not to forget my brother and ELITE DIVISION MARKETING, without them I would not be in the position I find myself today. My new and old sponsors, thank you for your support! Now everyone knows that you too can drift as long as you get the right parts! Thank you all!
TUNERZINE.COM gave me and opportunity to tell you my story so that one day you guys can tell us yours! Email me at mark_manansala@yahoo.com and tell me your story! If you have the time and dedication that I have put in the lifestyle of drifting we want to YOU in the next Drift Diaries issue, only on tunerzine.com!
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