The Cars Final outing in Romania, oct 2011
It’s hard to believe that this car, RPS13-05664 has been in competition with me for the past 3 years. For 2012 the ncdrifting team are putting together a brand new 180sx shell for competition mated the now proven and reliable 1jz power plant and running gear from the car above. More about the new car later but I think its only fair to run through the history of RPS13-056644 as a final farewell!!
I bought the shell at the end of the 2008 season and big plans were formed. The first JZ powered s-body in Ireland. Mated to a Supra v160 6 speed gearbox and a Skyline GTR Rear end the ingredients were there for a pretty awesome and competitive drift car.
With the help of WKD Imports we put the car together and the car made its debut at the 2009 Prodrift Rd2 competition in Punchestown!
The car happened to go on fire in Punchestown and set the tone for the rest of the 2009 season, with very few ups and a lot of downs. I think 3 engines we’re put into the car!! Mostly down to cooling issue’s and a lack of a budget to fix these issue’s because of all the engines that had to be bought.
Along with the engine issue’s the car handled like a bag of spanners. With the extra weight of the 1jz engine the end of the season couldn’t come soon enough for a full strip down and re-think!!
Even with all the mechanical issue’s we still managed a win in the 2008 season and a podium, Finishing up 7th in the Prodrift Ireland Championship. The car also received good media coverage with 2 magazine covers, one of which was Irish tuning magazine MIJ!
With the help of new parts from Driftworks including their Geomaster hubs and CS2 coilovers the handling issue’s were sorted for 2010. The car also got a ground up re-build and all the little issue’s and niggles we’re sorted once and for all!
2010 meant I also parted ways with WKD Imports and with the car looking a bit worse for wear wearing its 2009 paint job the statement of “whats on the inside counts” definitely proved true with a 2nd place finish and the start of the season long battle with my biggest rival on track James Deane.
The new paint job was unveiled exactly 1 year after the car made its debut, Rd2 of the Prodrift season in Punchestown.
With all the problems the year previous it was time to get some revenge on the Co. Kildare circuit. And after a 1st place finish, well, you couldn’t get much better than that. Beating James Deane in the semi’s after 2 “one more times” and Gavin Lenihan in the final! The new car was working and after a 2nd place finish in the first round we we’re on top of the points table.
Myself and James had some of the toughest battles imaginable that year meeting a total of 4 times out of the 6 rounds but eventually James came out on top and we finished up 2nd in the Prodrift Ireland championship in 2010. More importantly the car hadn’t missed a beat all year and proved to be more than competitive no matter who the competitor.
The car remained in this spec for the 2011 season and once again proved uber reliable. It was time to send the car on its travels and see how it fared out against its europen rivals.
At the end of the 2010 season the car was shipped to Dubai for an exhibition event. We couldn’t wait to get to the track so we managed a bit of illegal drifting portside!! 
The 2010 season finished with a bang, beating Remmo Niezen in the final and taking the crown of UAE Drift Champion.
For 2011 the car was permanently based in Europe to compete in the Drift Allstars European championship, and traveled to many different countries.
Somewhere near the Alps,
Malta,
Switzerland,
France, (not a good event this one )
Wembley,
and finally Bucharest, Romania!!
Not all events went so smooth, especially France as you can see from the picture above, so this year there was a lot of this,
and some of this, where the diff broke in Sunderland!!
It’s been a tough year to keep on top of things with the car this year. Mostly bodywork as we have been known to run a lot of walls…..
… but mechanically it has stayed strong and always got me to the end of an event!!
It’s cool to see re-makes of the car online and in computer games!!
This one made me laugh… a lot!!
So now after 3 years of hard competition and countless wall rubs the car sits in my garage awaiting its strip down. Looking very sorry for itself.
The car will live on as it’s been sold to an Irish drifter, but for me its the end. The team has recently purchased a mint 180sx that will converted into the ultimate 180sx drift car and you can follow the progress over on my facebook fan page over the next few months!!
So for now I bid farwell to you, RPS13-056644, its been a hectic, well traveled and exciting 3 years!! :)
Nigel
My lil man shani will miss your car as its his favourite car. Whenever we have races he says hes Nigel driving the Nissan with green hubcaps. And that I have to be captain slow. Lol. Great car though.
Nice job Nigel, Glad 2011 Worked out really well for you dude! Rock it up in 2012 now ya hear! bbbbbbbaaaaiii