The Stuff of Legends: Jason's Driftmaster S13

If you hang out in the automotive world, you'll mostly find two types of cars. The first types are show queens, perfect looking cars, not a scratch on their thousand-dollar paint job, with nice and shiny parts under the hood and perfect upholstery inside. These cars are the stuff dreams are made of, but to me, they lack something. That something is what the second type of cars have: a history. Scratched paint, cracked bodykits, used up leather on the steering wheel, the side of the seat peeling off due to too many in and outs, dirty engine bays, and, very often, half of the driver's life thrown in the raw, gutted rear are part of the things that give such cars a Soul. 

This is what makes a car priceless, especially to the owner who, when looking at a taped up part of a bumper, can remember how and when it happened.

Cars like these are not to be featured in an empty place or closed road; they belong on the open road, mixed in the crowd. That's where they "grew up" and this is also where they will die.

This S13 is such a car. Her story begins three years ago, when Jason bought this second hand 200SX after his desire to learn drifting won him over. Choosing the S13 for its low price, abundant aftermarket support and overall affinity with drifting, Jason asked Perfect Power Performance at Autobay Kaki Bukit to help him with the build, and about half a year later, this drift car was born. 

With the support of GT Radial for the tyres, Jason then started learning how to drift and ever since that time, has been spotted training and competing at many events in Malaysia and Singapore, racing under the colors of his very own Team Driftmasters.

His first donuts in January 2008 in Kulai Malaysia have seen him improve his control on his trustworthy S13 and this Nissan has seen, over the last two years, the asphalt of over 15 events, ranging from drift demos such as the Asia Auto Salon 2009, to major drifting events like Formula Drift Singapore 2010 and the Mettle Games 2010. 

Over the months and events, Jason has managed to get a good series of sponsors for his 200SX too, continuing his partnership with GT Radial, but also getting endorsed by LiquiMoly Singapore, DOTZ Wheels Asia Pacific, GEN Concepts, Oakley, Asia Apparels and Red Bull Singapore, with the Wings Team. 

Sadly, after all this fame and events, pride and hardships, this S13 is nearing the end of her life, and is due to be scrapped soon, due to Singapore laws. Her chassis is tired and softened due to the strain of this very demanding motorsport, her body is cracked and scratched, riveted and taped up, holes are appearing all over the undercarriage, preyed on by rust, but when you sit in the passenger seat, with Jason at the wheel, none of these matter, this car gives it all, and will continue to do so until the day she has to be taken off the road. And when that day will come, just by looking at this car and all her imperfections, you'll know that she took her owner for one hell of a ride. That, to me, is the Stuff of Legends.

Now, to all the show queens (and their owners) out there, stop boasting, and give this S13 the respect she deserves.

Mettle Games

The next event on my agenda: the Mettle Games.

The concept, honestly, is good and ambitious, especially for Singapore where people seem to be more willing to go jump off a bridge than going to events. Take two week ends, and throw in a fest of street sports, sea sports, motorsports, martial arts and live music… Basically anything young, hip and extreme. Welcome to the Mettle Games.

The idea is good, there seemed to be quite a good backing from the industry with three drift teams present, Russ Swift himself (for those of you who don’t know him, shame on you. Google.), and quite a few drag cars. I’ll only be talking about the second week end, as it was the motorsports week end and that’s the only one I felt like going to, surprisingly.

The industry backing was there, the local scene was present, even international talents were there (not just Russ Swift but also Ryuji Miki the pro drifter from Japan), the only thing that was lacking was only a minor detail, something we call spectators…

Friday’s turnout was quite poor, but some hope was still there as it was a national day and maybe people had planned to spend time with their families (unless there was some sales on orchard or discounts at Tangs, then you know where the crowd went). I couldn’t make it on saturday, but I was back on the crime scene on sunday and although there was a bigger turn up, I felt there should have been more people around.

Maybe there wasn’t enough advertising (I personally only heard about it a little more than a week before the event itself thanks to the drifters at D Experience – Thanks guys!-). Too bad because the organization efforts were there…

Still it was a fun event, I got to ride shotgun with Russ Swift… On two wheels. That was quite different from anything I had experienced before. Everyone knows about front to back forces (accelerating and braking), lateral Gs (cornering), a few lucky people know the feeling of sliding sideways thanks to drifting. This was yet another feeling. The first thing that goes through your mind is what-the-damn-it-were-gonna-topple-hey-this-is-actually-quite-enjoyable… 

Really, even tho I knew what was coming up, you can hardly get ready for it, the angle is such that I really expected the car to topple. You can hear the engine slowly hauling the car on two suffering tire walls and looking ahead just makes you realize the crazy angle you’re sitting at. Of course, this was just a stroll in the park for Russ Swift, who has been doing this for over 40 years, so after the first run he goes to get a second passenger. And then a third. And then a fourth. We end up running on two wheels with five people in the car: Russ (of course), me in the front passenger seat (got lucky there, at least I’m comfy) and three on the back seat, getting squished.

I recorded two runs for you to enjoy (too bad you don’t get the whole feeling).

Run 1

Run 2

The “sorry” you hear at the end of the second run is one of the girls in the back apologizing for hitting her neighbor when the car got back on all fours… As I said, I’m glad I was riding shotgun!

Another highlight is the close call I got during the Spark Motorsports drift demo…
basically I was shooting the cars at the clipping point just before the hairpin. Great place, ate a mouthful of rubber every run but the place was great.

That’s how close I was. Since I was using a wide angle lens, I had to get close to have nice shots. Very close. The cars were passing by sideways only an arm length away from me. I got a few shots there, then decide to move a few meters up course to catch the cars from a different angle. Got one run, no problem. Then the second run is the one where things got spiky: Ryuji Miki, at the wheel of the Supra hit the rear of Ivan Lim’s Sylvia, pushing him straight in the barriers less than 10 meters away from me, at the spot I was standing about three minutes earlier. I cursed myself for not having the reflex of shooting more of it, but I’m still glad I got some of it.

Ok that still got me a scolding by the track marshal, but at least I got some nice shots!