Nissan C33 Laurel with SR20

This is now up for sale: http://www.driftworks.com/forum/drift-cars-sale/248390-nissan-c33-laurel-sr20-hsds-geomasters-work-wheels-etc.html

 

Aw man, sorry about that!

 

Took a few pics with the new URAS NS01 wheels:

 

Wow, haven't updated this for ages. I'll try and catch up...

So here's where things were last time. Was daily driving it most days.





I fancied a set of matching wheels so I test fitted a few WORKs but couldn't settle on anything.





Picked up a set of Uras NS-01s in 17x9 and 17x9.5 from Dan Brown, so here's a few whoring photos.

 

Got invited to the Meguiars BBQ which was pretty cool.



In the DW workshop with my Y32.



Fitted a set of 326Power wheel nuts, end caps and valve caps.



Bought a house back in Manchester so moved the car back up there.



Back out with Manchester pals.





Back to being a daily driver.



Driven up into the hills so we could jump into a reservoir. I'm glad that it's not too low so as to ruin the fun of the country lanes round here. Can still drive it pretty hard and not worry about smashing stuff off, which is great fun.



Went to Japan and picked up some 326Power knuckles while I was there. The Geomasters were great for ensuring the car felt like a car and didn't have any nasty traits (while also being easy to control on full lock) but I found them quite numb around the centre line at high speed. Changing lanes on the motorway, overtaking on country lanes and doing confident big flicks on track were all things I didn't enjoy with them fitted, so I forced myself to go back to cut knuckles to try and regain some of this feel.

 

Finally, time for some drifting again. Fitted the knuckles, the car felt good so I drove it up to Scotland for the event I'd organised at Driftland over two days for myself and some friends.



Motorway services somewhere.



Camping in the car wasn't too bad.



Driftland was great fun. The car felt awesome to drive, was nice and quick. The knuckles felt much better in terms of chucking capabilities but less controllable on full lock, which is what I expected the result to be.











My buddy Josh span while I was chasing him so unfortunately broke my headlights in the impact along with breaking my bonnet a bit. Also broke both bumpers due to heroics. Still drove it home mind. Some on-board footage:

And how the car looked once it was home (complete with smashed headlights fixed with cable ties, glue and sellotape)







My friend Adam from StyleCase somehow pieced the bumpers back together for me so I could drive it without being too suspect.



The car felt good again so I decided to head to Three Sisters the following day.

 

Three Sisters wasn't too great for me; the track was patchy, I didn't enjoy the new track layout and the car felt a bit odd. In particular, it had a tendency to want to fall onto full lock, i.e. it was hard to balance it at half lock for example when doing a manji, without holding the steering wheel deadly still. If you let go, instant full lock and loss of momentum, not cool.



I guessed my leading wheel leaning over so much on lock wasn't going to be helping, as you can see in this photo.



Queuing up on track.



Post-drift day wash.



Frozen.



Later that week while driving one morning I could hear and feel and awful locking from the front left. This was soon followed by the brakes stopping working altogether and the front left wheel feeling like it was going to fall off. Thankfully I managed to get the car home where I found the wheel bearing had completely collapsed.

I got a new wheel bearing from Slide Motorsport and also decided to have my LCAs extended by 20mm (thanks to Adam from StyleCase for doing these) to try and help with the aforementioned leading wheel issue. I also fitted new balljoints and longer tie rods to suit the new LCAs.







My HSDs were also making some binding noises when steering, so Rich from DW kindly supplied me with some replacement parts.



A quick eye-lignment and back out on the road - it feels great!



I also found a split silicone joiner on the drivers side boost pipe down to the intercooler core. When I removed it the intercooler almost fell out the car. Turned out my front impact at Driftland had broken the bracket on that side and the pipe had been suspending the core - no wonder it had started to split.

Plans for the car? Just carry on using it and trying to keep it looking decent. I've given up trying to keep it looking as tidy as it did and worrying too much about it as I have way too much fun driving it as regularly as possible and driving beyond my capabilities as opposed to playing it safe (which would of course be the more sensible and cheaper option!)

Apologies for the lack of long-winded storytelling on these last few posts; my frustration from using Photobucket for the first time in months sapped my enthusiasm to type somewhat!

 

That's an awesome shot man, thanks! Shame about the headlights though...but StyleCase Adam has fixed it for me, haha.

I'm trying to remember now. I recall trying to get it to 7.4, but the tension rods were too long (DW Geomaster items so they're S14 length), so I think I'm on around 7.2. So if anything I originally wanted the wheel pulled further forward than it is now. It could use another proper alignment soon though, but only after I've replaced the rear subframe (one of the lower arm mounts has torn off - it's been welded back on but I'd rather put a new frame on as I don't doubt that it wasn't welded on particularly accurately haha)

 

Just on the top mounts but so long as you put some force on the knuckle while bolting the brackets up you can gain a tiny bit more camber. I actually hate driving with anything more than around 4deg front camber on the road for obvious reasons so even with the new LCAs I've made sure to push the top mounts all the way out. I'll wait and see how it looks and feels on track before I make any more adjustments but, it feels great at the moment and I've been driving it every day on normal roads, country lanes etc.

But yes, I'm sure the overall length might be playing a factor too!

 

Been an age since I updated this; awesome to see the forum rejuvenated and with added functionality.

I've been too busy to do plenty of real drift days as such but have still been using the car pretty much every day throughout the winter. Including picking up the Christmas tree for my house in it. That was fun.



I also finally treated it to a new battery at Christmas. I'm sure any of the DW guys who got used to bump starting the car with me will be more than happy to see this.



I'm glad to have all of this right on my doorstep nowadays.





Adventures with the lads.





Which resulted in a flying rear bumper and a gentle curb grind for one of the rear URAS. Ditched the rear bumper and had to return to collect it in my daily. That was fun at 5am.



I went to Teesside for their NYE drift day, which I made a blog post about here.

I broke one of my front URAS wheels simply riding a rumble strip so had to borrow StyleCase Adam's Advans to get me through the day.



Cool photo by Peter Bartle. The car felt a ton better with the new extended LCAs.



A little GIF I made of a clip taken from a video by Ieuan Rees. I found it hypnotic watching the rear wheel tuck into the arch on compression, but that's just me being really sad.

https://giphy.com/gifs/Lp8AyxaWhiDK

 

Got the front URAS repaired by Huxley. Considering how ruined it was I can't believe he managed to sort it by chopping a piece out of an old WORK CR Kai and welding it in.



It balanced up within 10g which really wasn't bad at all.

Went to get some new Nangkang NS-2s for the front.



Happy days.



Back on matching wheels and good tyres and not the Brexit-spec plastic things that were on the Advans.





And then the snow fun began.







The best bit of having your fun car on the road; random drives into the hills.



When you can't be bothered to use your estate for the day's deliveries.

 

And a few more random photos. The best thing I've done recently is re-set the car and ride height up to make it totally enjoyable and 99% worry-free on country lanes. It's a pretty fast car with a super-responsive turbo setup and a proper diff, so it's a huge laugh on the roads that surround me nowadays. Bringing back steering feel around the centre-point has been the biggest improvement by far for fast road driving, at the sacrifice of some control and predictability on full lock when drifting.














And last but not least, my dad touching up one of the many paint chips and dents in the rear quarter while hiding under an umbrella from the rain. I can't remember who/what/where caused this particular one.