Tony Angelo’s Hold The Line Formula Drift Pro Am Series is designed to give those drifters the chance to obtain their Formula Drift Licenses. The HTL is based in the Northeast and brings the competition from the MidAtlantic regions as well as our friends at Gold in the Net Drift Team from Canada. The HTL series is splitting time being hosted by Clubloose and D-UP Drift Companies with events at Monticello Motor Club and the home of all Northeast guys Englishtown, NJ. What makes the event so unique is the Pro Am being judged by an official FD judge outside an FD event. These drivers battle hard without having the numerous sponsors and the 8 Go Pros all over their cars for that corporate made video clips, 5 minutes during a Pro Am usually means just put the car back on the trailer and enjoy the rest of the day. On this day the field was full of real tough door to door competition with XDC Drivers, DMCC Drivers and your tough A Group from Clubloose. The setup was a bit of suprise to all by drifting on the course the C group practices and it made for some great action, and now I see once you conquer this course you are ready for the”big boy” track.
Lee Alexander after a rough outing at XDC Charlotte came to HTL more focused and ready to shred like we are used to seeing him do. He had a little mishap earlier in the day and ended up cutting some trees down with the car but came back with a vengeance and qualified 5th for the day.
The next Hold The Line event will be run by D-UP at sometime in the fall at Englishtown so make sure you check www.d-updrifting.com for more information on that event. The new word on the street that the ultimate Dstroyr from the land of maple syrup will leave Ol’ Canada behind and run more events in the US so we look forward to seeing more of that awesome Toyota Mark II smoking up our tracks and putting pressure on our drivers. You are always welcome here Mr. Mats Baribeau.
Congrats to Miro Ovcharik for taking the win this round, can follow him at www.mirodrift.com, Tanner Munson finished second and he is at www.tannermunsondrifting.com and Nick D’Alessio in the awesome 1jZ Silvia finished 3rd and he is at https://www.facebook.com/NickDrifting.
BJ bought this 1993 Efini RX-7 R1 a couple of years ago and immediately took a plain black RX-7 to the next level. The first thing you notice about this car is it’s crazy color. I think he was playing some Forza to come up this idea to paint his car Porsche GT3 RS green. To get this job done up to his standards, he took it over to Josh at Crolls Customs, who has the knowledge and track record of bringing a car above and beyond. When building a classic tuner car of our generation, you make sure you fit it with a set of classic tuner wheels, Blitz 03 wheels.
Being part of an elite car club like Technical Advantage out of Rockland County NY, you have to keep on your toes. There are no Cavaliers with hood scoops allowed.
When you pick a RHD vehicle from JDMlandia you rarely get one a nice body kit or lip kit, so BJ went out picked up a nice Shine Auto front bumper and side skirts. The RX-7 in it’s hay day was a great circuit car and the look of the car with his Amemiya Carbon Fiber rear diffuser give the look the car is ready for some twisties.
The Efini 3rd Generation RX-7 R1 model was rated at 252 horsepower, and with the little upgrades and tune, this RX-7 has surpassed it’s stock cousins out there on the streets. BJ has installed the ever so important to your rotary engine the Apexi Power FC Ecu with Commander to make sure everything is doing what it supposed to do without hurting anything.
Exterior: Porsche GT3 RS Green Paint by Croll's Customs Shine Auto Front Bumper Shine Auto Sideskirts AutoExe Rear Bumper Spats Carbon Fiber Rear Diffuser RX7 BoutiqueFlush Headlight Buckets 99 Spec Turn Signal/Parking Lights Blackworks rear tow hook
Engine: Apexi Power FC ECU with commander Greddy Full Auto Turbo Timer Trust FMIC Greddy Throttle Body Elbow Greddy Pulley Kit Greddy Airinix Intakes Koyo N-Flo Radiator Samco Hoses Petit Racing Overflow Can Supra Fuel Pump NGK Plugs/Wires HKS Downpipe Kakimoto Special Exhaust
Interior: Takata 4 Point Harnesses Pivot Short Shifter Razo 340g Shift Knob OMP Deepcorn Steering Wheel Headliner/A-Pillars/C-Pillars re-wrapped black microsuede 3M CF Wrap Center Console Pioneer AVIC-D3 Headunit
Suspension: Tein Adjustable Shocks Tein Springs Front/Rear Upper Strut Tower Bars Banzai Racing Transmission Brace
Wheels: 17x8.5/17x9.5 Blitz 03 Wheels BF Goodrich Supersport A/S Tires Blackworks Lug Nuts NRG Wheel Locks
BJ and the rest of the Technical Advantage crew is not done by no means. If he didn’t have enough to do with the FD, he recently picked up an AE86 to do tofu runs and get sideways at local drift events. You can catch up to this FD at his crew’s cruise nights at The Dog House in Nanuet NY or any Rockland Scion Car Show.
Photos: Ray Horton Words: Ray Horton
Justin from NY Rollaz Auto Club has built a very nice 1983 Toyota Corolla SR5 Hardtop. He is part of a large old school Toyota car club filled with numerous hot rides, all of which at some point in time will be featured as Import Car of the Month, but every time I see this car I drool. I first noticed the car last year at their car show at Yonkers Raceway. I have seen plenty of corolla and even had one I called “The Brown Hornet” , yet the thing that always keeps me staring is the front end of the car. The headlights and bumpers just scream old school jdm. There are times when you do a feature you think I wouldn’t of done that or this, but there is nothing I wouldn’t of done any different on this build. I guess when you roll with a bunch of high rollaz you have to keep your old school game at a high level. The word on the streets is that the crew calls this car the “Pretty Bitch”
With any feature sometimes you run into issues with location and what I had planned as short shoot ended up being a two borough tour. We were to meet at 5pointz in Queenz, but Meres and his friends from around the world were having a graffiti festival with artist from England all the way to Japan.
We eventually ended up in Greenpoint Brooklyn and it’s nothing like The Notorious B.I.G’s Brooklyn. A single feature ended up being an NY Rollaz Photo op with a few dope whips joining the party.
Justin made sure with this build it was a mixture of OEM and a little JDM refresh. He could of went with another paint color when bringing this SR5 back to life, but he chose the factory black paint that you don’t see that much in this model; he has been bitching about detailing ever since. To keep it 100 he went with an awesome 4AGE swap, there is no turbo under this, just OEM Toyota goodness that flows with the direction of the car. He did a great job on this car and look out for this car at future events at Englishtown gunning for that Old School Trophy presented by our friends at Shiftgearclothing, future NY Rollaz car show at Yonkers Raceway , or if you’re lucky enough to see it rollin through the rotten apple.
Wheels: Drag DR 20 15x7 Suspension: Megan Racing Springs Tokico Blue Struts
Motor: Toyota 4AGE CXRacing aluminum radiator jdm clear cam cover DNA adjustable cam gears powder coated valve covers
“Unorthodox, But valid Engineering.� Building a 400 horsepower Rotary engine. By Christopher Pinckney
The rotary engine has received a bad reputation over the years as being unreliable, gas hungry and expensive to maintain. Fortunately there are those of us who dare to stand against the tide of conventional automotive wisdom and embrace this oddly shaped, 1.3L engine. With proper maintenance and a few simple modifications a rotary engine can provide you with years of trouble free high horsepower street or track based enjoyment. With no pistons, valves or camshafts; most mechanics will outright refuse to work on a rotary engine. There are shops that have fear of the engine but because the design is so drastically different. The Rotary engine in the standard configuration of two rotors ( 13B) is made up of 10 parts.
Those being; one eccentric shaft, two rotor housings, Two rotors, Two counter weights and three side plates. Of these ten parts five of them move to produce power; compared to 87 moving parts in a single overhead cam 4 cylinder engine. Additionally the Rotary engine is essentially bulletproof from the factory with substantially stronger internals than a stock piston engine. Unfortunately, the rotary engine has always been an underdog from the factory due to it’s relatively low torque. You will see today as we let this dog off it’s chain, and see what the beast within can do. For years the primary weakness of the rotary engine was that by design the engine will not produce the same amount of torque as a piston engine. However, the rotary engine has an advantage over piston engines that few piston engine owners are aware of. Due to the engines eccentric shaft spinning 3 rotations for every one rotation of the rotor, the engine will both rev much higher and its torque numbers increase exponentially until red line. Also, since rotary engines don’t have an exhaust “stroke “ the exhaust pulses are significantly stronger than an equivalent piston engine Rotary engine tuners have been taking advantage of this uniquely rotary quirk by adding turbochargers for decades. Essentially a 1.3L rotary engine moves 2.6L of air for every complete ignition cycle. This allows tuners to run turbochargers that are much larger than you would use on a piston engine of the same size. For example,the GT42R is a very popular turbocharger among rotary enthusiasts. However it is seldom seen on 4 cylinder engines due to laggy response, and is generally accepted as something used on larger engines such as a2JZ or RB series engine on a street car in order to get reasonably fast turbo spool. But, as with all things automotive there is always a catch. You can’t just go around adding a huge turbo to your car without changing a few things around and upgrading some parts along the way. As I mentioned previously the rotary engine is more or less bulletproof from the factory. The rotors are amazingly strong and have more than adequate cooling. The exhaust ports are much larger than you would normally see on a street car, and the eccentric shaft is already forged and balanced to 9000RPM. What you will have to change however, are the fuel injector’s fuel pump, radiator,clutch and the computer From the factory the fuel injectors of a turbo 13B will support approximately 350 Rear wheel HP at 85% injector duty cycle.
This is honestly as far as you should ever want to push any injector. Anything more than 85% and you start to lose injector pulse width which is a completely different article but In short, your injectors need time to rest between pulses to provide you with the right amount of fuel for upgraded performance. The solution to this is adding more fuel. The Rotary engine uses two sets of fuel injectors that are staged to provide less fuel at idle and cruising and more fuel under boost. These are your primary and secondary sets of injectors. The primary injectors should be upgraded from the factory 550 cc/ min injectors to 850 or 1000cc/min injectors, while your secondary injectors should be between 1000 and 2000cc/min. This amount of fuel gives you a lot of extra head room to upgrade your vehicle in the future well into the 500’s if you choose to. The weakest link in any fuel system is the pump. Upgrading your fuel pump to a Bosch 044 or a Walbro 255 will solve most fuel starvation issues. The Bosch is the better choice as it’s rated from the factory to support 600 hp, but in reality it will support 700 with little or no issues. Choosing a standalone is a complicated and personal choice. A lot of the decision depends on where you are getting your car tuned, and what your comfortable with as the owner. A lot of owners don’t want to go through the hassle of fabricating a custom wiring harness when they add a standalone ECU to their car. As such the aftermarket has responded with plug and play stand alones such as the Apexi Power FC , and the AEM EMS. While each ECU has its advantages and disadvantages as an owner and tuner I prefer Haltech ECU’s; the tuning software is easy to understand and user friendly. The unit is packed with features such as built in boost control, anti-lag, and a host of other features. Plus installation is easy with any of their preloomed and terminated wiring harnesses. What once was a six hour long task can now be completed in as little as an hour. With a standalone ECU it’s possible to adjust your air fuel ratio’s, ignition timing, and almost every other feature your original factory ECU controlled. While adding a few it didn’t have. Tuning is the key to any long lived powerful engine.
Cooling your car is also an important factor as well, but it’s also simple. Most cars use a Front mount intercooler which cools off your intake air charge in a similar way to a radiator cooling off your engines coolant. Front mount intercoolers have their advantages, but the disadvantage is that having one chokes off the flow of cool air getting to your radiator, and that can lead to overheating issues which is the bane of rotary engines. . To resolve this I suggest getting a double pass aluminum radiator, dual electric fans and running a v-mount intercooler setup. Why a v-mount? Simple, running a v-mount allows you to have a cooler running car, as well as shortening your intercooler plumbing which allows your turbo to spool faster. For some applications a vented hood may be desirable. I suggest everyone have a functional vented hood since it lowers under hood temperatures substantially,and will also increase your intercoolers thermal transfer efficiency ;due to the high pressure air that comes into the front of your car no longer trying to find an easy way out of the engine bay. It simply exits through the vents in the hood. More airflow solves a lot of problem, and heads off a few potential ones as well. The drivetrain on an RX7 is pretty sturdy from the factory. The turbo II transmission will hold around 650 Rear wheel HP before they become unstable and need to be upgraded to an after market model, and the FD transmission is good to about 600 although it is slightly more brittle than the FC transmission.. The clutch however, isn’t any where near that resilient. No matter what clutch brand you choose, a stage 3 clutch is the way to go. They are strong and allow you to upgrade over time. So what is the secret recipe to building a 400 HP daily driven rotary powered car without opening the engine? Upgrade the fuel system. The fuel pump and fuel injectors make great start into upgrading your car. Adding an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator is nice but it’s not strictly speaking mandatory. Upgrade your cooling system with an aftermarket radiator and electric fans. Upgrade the clutch and exhaust. Your under the car anyway, why not knock both out at the same time?Choose a turbo and manifold that meets your goals.For 400 HP to the wheels you can run 25PSI on a T4 GT35R 1.01A/R drop in your intercooler, and you will be amazingly happy with the results. Choose a standalone you and your tuners are comfortable with.Do some research ask some knowledgeable people and make the decision that’s right for you. Have fun and enjoy yourself!!
Waterfest 17 came into Englishtown with slammed, mesh fitted Vdubs and Audi’s in a sea of Euro machines everywhere. This was our first visit to this classic Euro only car show. The great thing I found about this event is how the Euro community is so tight knit and how they setup the whole show. One of the vendors supporting the show Unitronic was offering their chip upgrade service and on site tuning.
One of the leader’s in performance parts for the VW/Audi community is APR Tuning. If you check any modded Dub i’m sure you’ll find some type of APR performance part. APR in business for over 10 years have been the leaders in making great improvement in your Euro’s safe factory turbo settings or to help that Audi V8 breathe a little better and increase those ever so important torque numbers that every tuner loves to see change.
One of the coolest things I must admit was seeing a couple of VW junk yards in the middle of the vendor areas. It is not often that you go to a show and be able to pick up that rare hatch you need for your old 90’s VW Golf.
The VW scene is all about stance and throughout the show field, you would find mostly every car with stretched tires, aggressive wheels, and busted fenders.
The Euro scene is not only about fitment and stretched tires but also about boost. You will see most of the tuners with a nice front mount intercooler ,and some type of chip to trick that ecu into giving out more boost. The real brave tuner will upgrade that turbo and void that warranty for some real spooling fun and show the JDM guys that they can play too in the speed game.