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HEATSOAKED is a Florida-based car culture podcast hosted by Cris and KT - two 30-something year old car nuts who live the stories they talk about. What started as two friends having late-night conversation about dream builds, blown budgets, and heat soaked engines turned into a platform for the culture that raised them.
This isn't about perfect cars or polished influencer content. It's about the grind behind the build. Cris and KT bring real conversations about the 90s and 2000s era tuner scene, passion-built machines, and the culture that keeps them alive. Every episode dives into the journey of a typical gearhead; including the victories, mistakes, lessons learned, and the passion that keeps the culture moving.
HEATSOAKED - because nobody remembers the cool nights.
KT (00:02)
Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of heat soaked. I think we're on episode eight now
Cris (00:07)
⁓
my god, absolutely yeah, that's all. Doing the damn thing, man.
KT (00:10)
Doing it. ⁓
But yeah, thanks everybody for all the great feedback both on YouTube and on a podcast world which is Spotify, Apple, whatever, all that stuff. But we got a lot of great feedback and you know, we're doing it for you guys. So continue to follow us on social media, YouTube and Instagram, HeatsoakedFL, our personal Instagrams. Cris and myself, Cloudy.IS300 and your storm spec
Cris (00:42)
Yep, Storm_Spec_IS. This bad boy right behind us. So I mean talking about episode 8 man, we've had a little bit of adventure. We've talked a little bit about everything so far I feel like. Talking about import, talking about muscle, talking about the fun of initial D. We talked about you know our old cars, our old stories, you know and getting into the day we're going to talk a little bit about what we've done if anybody is updated or excuse me those who have seen our social media would know we went to Ledfoot City.
over there in Brooksville, Florida and we did some drifting and had a bunch of fun so we want to dig in a little bit today and just talk a little bit about more get in depth with drifting and just get into the history and have some fun. Did you have a good time man? you have a blast?
KT (01:26)
That's
It should have lasted way longer. yeah, absolutely. That's how it is when you're having fun. Time flies.
Cris (01:34)
Yep,
absolutely. Big shout out to Ledfoot for letting us come by on one of their very first classes. It was definitely a good time. We learned a lot from some of their active drivers that are driving in their events. A couple of great guys out there. If you guys are looking for a good spot, I'd definitely recommend Ledfoot City over in Brooksville. To get into it, I think the question was asked. I had a blast out there. I truly enjoyed just hanging out with some car guys.
as we talk about community all the time, sitting down and just going through the process and the different ways of the drifting and drifting processes, especially because there's a lot of technical information that you learn. I think between us, we've done our fair share of drifting. But a lot of people ask us like, hey, man, like in our personal lives, those who are in the cars aren't in the car culture. They're like, mean, we see it, but what is drifting? What's the
what's the point, you know, what's the goal? And I think today we're going to answer a couple of those things and go from there and that's going to be the best thing for us.
KT (02:38)
Yeah,
for sure. Well, let's just get into the history of drifting, know, a quick little history lesson. Yeah, long, but drifting started out in Japan, 1970s timeframe. So during that time, drifting was essentially a necessity to go fast. Tire technology wasn't as good as today. So one of the faster ways to get around the corner was to drift. That's some of the popular drift cars back then in the 70s.
What do we have?
Cris (03:08)
Man, we had ⁓ the old school Celica, the Gen 1s, 240 Nissans. We have the OG rear-wheel drive Skylines. ⁓ Man, and not a lot of people remember this, but an RX3. I don't even know what the name of it is. I just, RX3 is what they used back then. Like KT was saying, man, 1970s was the time. ⁓ Very first in the godfather of drifting. Everyone knows who the drift king is, is K. H. U. Sachiya.
But not a people know that his mentor was actually Kunmitsu Takahashi. And he was the gentleman that really got into it. It all started on this Touge roads. Everyone has their stories of drifting and goes through. the Touge or these winding mountain roads, the faster way to get through them was to take the corners at a certain speed. Now, we talked about tires, we talked about how they use them. Well, guess what? Tire technology wasn't what it was back in the 1970s, right? So...
KT (03:59)
car.
Cris (04:06)
these tires to get past these corners and then they started turning into the same thing that we do every day. Hey man, I found this cool trick with the car. Get in, let's go. So finding that and of course, Keiji Tsuchiya went on to become the Drift King when it actively became more of a circuit. But these are the really, really important things in the history of drifting. So as we go through the story and this breakdown.
KT (04:07)
bald.
Cris (04:34)
We talked about it little bit more because it started influencing the press, magazines, started influencing the race culture in Japan. It bled over to Europe, the United States a little bit later on because we heard about, I mean, what's our favorite thing we talk about when we talk about drifting?
KT (04:51)
culture too.
Our favorite anime which we cover extensively on this podcast.
Cris (04:58)
D.
Yep, Initial D. If you guys haven't seen that episode, go and check it out. Pause right here. Go check out the Initial D podcast. Come back to us. We're to go a little bit deeper as we go into it. Okay. Initial D.
KT (05:09)
Beyond that, Fast and Furious, Tokyo...
Cris (05:12)
Everybody remembers Tokyo Drift. If you didn't know this, which a lot of people seem to not, Keiichi Tsuchiya was in ⁓ Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift. He was the fisherman in the scene where he's learning how to drift his Evo on the docks and that was ⁓ good. But it also had this greater influence on car culture where...
KT (05:21)
Yeah, a little cameo.
Cris (05:34)
Well, you know, back before we learned about this, we were always doing our own thing. Personally, myself, I was taking my car sideways in parking lots, gravel roads, anywhere that I had a truck or anywhere that I would drive was possible. But I never learned the technical side. I never had a functional education on drifting. And I think ⁓ actually going through the process and learning these different ways, ⁓ for example, we'll talk as we'll hit on a little bit later.
⁓ Like I said, the technical side of drifting is a little bit more ⁓ specific and a little bit more of a feel. Like I could tell you how to drift, ⁓ function to function, but unfortunately it's more of a, you have to feel it while you're in the car, which as my car guys know, when you're enjoying it and you're going through that process and you're learning, that's when you fall in love with something, when you're going through it by feel. Is that your experience with it at least?
KT (06:29)
Yeah, I'm excited to talk about that a little later on in this segment. know, back to just the history of drifting and we've mentioned it again in past podcasts, but I think we didn't really touch on it. like, what is drifting actually? So what is that process? What does that look like?
Cris (06:47)
Man,
I think of my definition on the very first time I just spit out something that was in my head. So let me ask you this. What is your definition of drifting? You have a more technical aspect of it.
KT (06:58)
So I just call it a controlled slide. It's controlled chaos as Anthony, our instructor.
Cris (07:04)
Yeah,
yeah, it's a man.
KT (07:07)
So essentially what it is is that you are just breaking the threshold of grip right over the maximum amount of grip that you have on your car so that you're sliding the car but to the point where you're not just completely losing control and often to the bushes or something. You just have just enough of a loss of control that you can still bring it back in when you need to. Which is really interesting because
Cris (07:25)
The tail of it.
Yep, absolutely.
KT (07:36)
On the opposite side of things, you're talking about grip driving, so typical track racing, you want to be right below that threshold of maximum grip. But in drifting, you want to be right above it.
Cris (07:49)
So your comparison for that, like you were saying, when you're finding the limits and you want to exceed the grip, but you don't ever want to exceed the full control of the car. Exactly. And your experience with that, of course, is knowing that you've done autocross and of course the driving with that and the precision that it requires. But in autocross, if you lose that tail end at any point, it's a deduction. Yeah. So it's a deduction of time, which affects the driving, which affects your...
you know, your race standpoint or your lap standpoint. And it's a little bit of a different function and that's kind of what you found out when we went out there.
KT (08:26)
Yeah, drifting for me personally, it's really fun and I honestly I wish I got into drifting before I got into like racetrack driving Yeah, because it it allows you to find the limit of your car and just go slightly above the limit Absolutely. And at that point then you at least know how much you need to dial it back to be within your limits Of course, and I feel like in some other forms of racing you try
really not to hit the limit, you want to avoid the limit because when you go above the limit, bad things happen. And a lot of driving scenarios, they always teach you don't get near the limit. But in drifting, you actually want to exceed the limit, but just enough. So if anything, it probably is easier to dial back than it is to try to find what that ceiling is.
Cris (09:15)
Absolutely, and I think that's a really good representation of what drifting actually is and what the goal inside of that is. Because of course, like for me, know, who've done the dirt roads drifting or the parking lot drifting or the gravel road drifting, like I call it these things, but it was less control. was more, I had the ability to move the car, slide around in a real-world drive, whether it be a truck or a car.
and it wasn't controlled because I didn't have any LSD welded diff. I always would catch on one side or not really learn the full function of it and I think that's when we get back into the history of it. These guys were just having fun. They were finding out, hey, if we weld the diff, both tires can spin, we can move this through.
have a locking slip differential which is going to be important for drifting. can't just drift with an open differential and both tires aren't going to spin. You're not going to have that same effect. But it led into this sport that we know now today and finding that limit, right? It's a right, like you said, controlled chaos. It's one of my favorite things that was said during the class time. It's finding the ⁓ excess of grip.
to the limit of control in a turn or in a spin, man. And that's one of the funnest things. And I can only imagine back then in 1970s Japan, these guys are flying through mountain passes and they're going, they see like almost a 90 degree bend in the road and they're like, yeah, that looks good. Let's try that. Dude, it takes to do something like that. I can only imagine. But at the end of the day, like we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the Godfather's drifting.
And at the end of the day, it's one of my favorite things to do. I learned it early, as early as I could. But like I said, the technical side never came to me. But nowadays we're looking at sports like Formula Drift. It's going to be here in Orlando, I think coming up real soon. In this month, right? of May. End of May. So and it travels all over the world.
There's Drift Masters, I think in Europe, and then there's a lot, think, I can't remember the one in Japan, but I know there's a competition in Japan. So all over the world, we have a sport for the car culture, for our community, which is extremely exciting for all of us who drag, autocross, and finally drift, you know? that's, think that's what is one of the most exciting things is finding out there's other people that really want to push the limits.
What that chaos is you can't driving in chaos man is that you get your adrenaline pumping start breathing heavy You know, you're like just just cuz you're you're amped up the adrenaline is running through your body You're doing something to a car that it wasn't it wasn't really designed for but at this point in time We're gonna do it. I think one of my favorite things when it comes to that is gonna be as fun as possible It's gonna be going through that and making sure
KT (12:05)
Yeah.
And you hit on it, the evolution of drifting. So we talked about it starting out in the 70s and in the 80s and then going into the 90s with Initial D and get into the 2000s with Tokyo Drift. think that was a 2006 move. And then Formula D is really big right now and all those other drift competitions. But drifting has evolved as we just described it right there. And nowadays there are cars that
Cris (12:29)
Yeah, something like that.
KT (12:43)
are considered like almost out of price range for a lot of people because of this thing called the drift tax. ⁓
Cris (12:50)
Absolutely,
there's the drift tax. There's the LS tax the 2j tax and I can keep going into the RB tax You know, we all see all of these certain motors who are used to getting abused taking turbo extremely well You know really fighting for the the horsepower because back then these guys were racing with these skyline Celicas 240s these very low horsepower Vehicles and they were doing they were drifting
but now it's evolved from that into this high horsepower, really lightweight function.
KT (13:25)
But
inherently they were rear-wheel drive vehicles. Manual transmission. was easy enough to break the rear end loose. Correct. But when you think about today and even in the 2000s, like what were the popular cars back then? The 240s? So those are the S13s. S14s. The RX7s were popular drift cars. The IS300s were popular drift cars.
Cris (13:43)
That's 14s. That's 14s. Yep, that's right.
hugely popular
Nowadays apparently these are like, are the next generation of-
KT (13:55)
350Zs, G35s, so they're certain cars that were not necessarily designed to be drift cars, but they just were designed in balance that drifters took to them, right? They made sense.
Cris (14:10)
It was more of like a niche in the car manufacturing that they discovered. Anything with almost a 50-50 or as close as you can get weight ratio, rear wheel drive, locking slip, and a manual. As long as you had those four or five options, you were able to drift. And that's where drifting and the drift tax came into play. And like I said, we have...
We see Formula D, sometimes we see these extremely high end cars. We see the Mustang RTR drift specs nowadays. I T-Pain's racing with RTR, racing an RTR drift spec. But then we see guys that are out there, the Deanda boys, and all seeing that. We're seeing ⁓ Adam LZ with an E36 still balancing it out. We used to see him with a Silvia, same thing as an S14, S15.
You know, so we're still seeing that same niche of cars. But then of course we have some cool guys that are doing like Mustang or seeing Fox bodies. We met a guy who's developing a drift Camaro. And honestly, I was in for that because it looked pretty dope. But that's fun, man. Like finding out there's American car that you can go and find a drift angle kit for. Dude, I'd never even thought of a catfish Camaro or anything like that.
having, being able to throw an angle kit on and go from there. This guy opened my eyes to it. He had two. He was just building this thing out and I was excited. I was like, dude, I'd love to see this on the track one day. So that was, that was going to be the blast of that, but that's the evolution that we led to. It's now a sport that we all look for. I know I watch Formula Drift as much as possible just to see how crazy these guys get with these insanely like thousand horsepower motors. And then, you know, I come home to, to that.
And, but my goal at the end of the day, think, after our class, there was an evolution inside of myself as well, because my original thought for this build was, yeah, we're gonna, know, here's what we're gonna do. It's gonna be a street champ, you know, we'll make it nice and pretty. But at the end of the day, I my driver feel has to be, you know, top notch. As much as I like things looking nice.
as you can tell by the paint job on this car, ⁓ I would never sacrifice the driver experience or the form, I guess form over function type of thing. I would always choose function over form every single time I get. But after drifting, it's like, man, I want to see what this thing can do on that track, man. I'm just super excited to do that. So I guess going back and finding the evolution of myself, you know, did you have any epiphanies that day of your first time like full on drifting and going?
KT (16:51)
Yeah, so in my sort of like automotive history, I never really was a drift guy growing up.
I've seen drifting and watch Fast and Furious and all of that stuff. it just wasn't really something that interested me at the time. But I think I was still learning about cars and I was still kind of trying to figure out what do I like about cars. So we talked about it in a past podcast, but I like just being really hands on, wrenching on my car, doing things like that. And then eventually when I got into wanting to do more other than wrenching on my
it kind of evolved itself into more so like track days, grip driving. So, I to say I've never gotten a car sideways in a parking lot, but it just wasn't something that I really was like intending on doing as more of like a hobby. was just like, well, I have an opportunity to slide this thing. Let's just do it for fun. So I really got into
Cris (17:29)
Yeah
I'm
bad influence. I just want to start everybody off. I'm a very bad influence.
KT (17:51)
When
you're like a 16 year old or 17 year old, you and you have an empty parking lot, your eyes go like wide, especially if it's raining. Or up north when there's snow on the ground.
Cris (17:58)
⁓ yeah, that was...
See, I never experienced the snow. Like, I'm Florida born and raised. And well, I I grew up a little bit all over the world. ⁓ You know, my old man was, you know, just traveling a lot. So the main thing with me is the fact that we were pushing through, but it was always rain. You always waited for the rain in Miami. You know, as soon as it rained in Miami or even in North Florida or even right here in central Florida, you know that the parking lots were a little bit oily.
you're a little bit, you know, if it rained hard enough, man, you could have some fun out there. And you guess what? You didn't have to sacrifice your tires just to do that. You get some slip in there and then I didn't have to worry about having a locking slip differential or ⁓ welded diff.
KT (18:41)
You weren't really trying to drift like we were at Let's It powerslides. You getting the cards sideways for fun, right?
Cris (18:47)
Yeah
As
much as I could, yeah, absolutely. Because the second you see something like that, it's like, man, you see a car push to its limit, you want to make sure you focus on that and go from there.
KT (19:00)
Yeah, but you know for me when when I was getting the car sideways. It was just an unnatural feeling Yeah, you you're taught to go through driver school. You're taught at age 16 and you have your permit Yeah, just stay on the road. You know don't do anything stupid higher
Cris (19:14)
All four tires
need to be touching the tarmac at all times.
KT (19:17)
When you're turning, you know, make sure you turn slow enough that you know, don't you don't tip your passenger over in their seat
Cris (19:24)
The water cup and the dashboard. Oh man.
KT (19:30)
But that was kind of like me. And then I got into more motor sports and actually driving the car a little more harder, right? So going on a race track. So that slow buildup of the sensation of actually feeling like you're flying around in your seat. Because obviously we don't have bucket seats in our daily drive.
Cris (19:50)
Yeah
KT (19:51)
Even
even taking a turn at like 35 40 miles an hour you will feel you know the little sway But it's completely different than the feel when you're actually going around in a donut
Cris (20:01)
Absolutely, no and I can compare. So I have a funny story about the first time that I, so you know we had this old van right when I was learning to drive. Of course I had other vehicles but it was like this is, you're gonna learn in this little like Kia or this old school like Ford, you know metal body Ford and you're gonna drive around with that.
Well, I remember my old man's girlfriend was in the passenger seat and we're coming up to this turn and I had just got out and I'm watching all of these shows and I was getting so into it and there was a turn coming up and we're talking like straight 90 degrees and we're going up and I'm looking down and I'm still doing 40. I was like, I can make it and I could see the panic in her eyes as her eyes started getting whiter as we got closer. I started breaking and I just turned.
The van, remember this is a van. I am so lucky I didn't tip this thing flat over. But we just went, derrrr. I had to pull over the car because she was just freaking out. ⁓ But it was one of those really funny experiences that we have. And you know, the timing of it and everything was just so fun, but it was so terrible at the same time. So we can go from that.
KT (20:58)
you
And it's a really unique experience that, let's be honest, most people driving out in the world, 95 % of people in the world, they just drive their car point A to point B to work and whatnot. there's not many people that actually are into motorsports that do autocross, that do track days, that do drift events, drag racing, any of that.
Cris (21:34)
Yeah, I mean that's true man. It's like once you experience like that's how I'm curious to see it from your eyes is I never experienced the you know, of course everyone drives you try to keep it on the road. We kind of keep a grip, you know, I know how to take corners how to go from the outside in inside out things like that. But I never experienced the autocross days that we talk about and I've experienced the drift but now we're kind of going into each other's world and experience and it's I enjoy the opinions in the
factors that you see it as, especially when you're doing the full circle or you're losing control for the first time from a clutch kick, you know, and things like that. And that's, that's, I feel like it's the best feeling in the world. I, was, I was grinning in your ear to ear. And when our instructor was like, all right, we're going to see how this feels. was like, hit it. just put my hands on the corner and he looked over at me and he was like, and he just clutch kicked it. And we did it. And we started rolling and I was like, all right, I'm ready. I'm ready.
KT (22:33)
So what was your favorite part of that day?
Cris (22:35)
dude, of course it was learning the balance of control. The actual, ⁓ the most fun about that day was the tire change part. So what had happened was ⁓ one of the tires actually blew, just blew, it beated off the rim in the G37 that we were driving around. And after that, it was realizing like your gearing and your tires and your every angle, your
your your camber, all those factors that you talk about have a difference on what gear you're controlling the car. My change from second gear drifting to first, which isn't the best, because I want to make sure I stay in second, but with those grippy grippy tires, you got to get that jump on it. So I was in first gear a little bit differently. The most fun part of that day for me was learning that difference and finding that point of control where I can just start bouncing on the accelerator.
and started bouncing on the gas and really get that full, you saw it when I got it. Like you saw the moment when I started just ripping that thing and that was the best. When I started doing full 10 of circles and started trying to turn out of them, that was the best part. It was real control, it was that feel behind the wheel and it was that driver experience that I won't forget. And it's really...
honestly got me wanting to get back into that driver's seat and make sure that we just keep practicing to get maybe hopefully to a point where I can tandem group. And that's honestly like that's what I was thinking. It was just a blast. That was my favorite part of that class. ⁓ It was developing that control, really listening to those guys who know what they're doing. They were drifting every other weekend using that pad.
Leftwood City was awesome, man. I had a blast. What was yours?
KT (24:31)
Yeah, it's so gratifying when things kind of click.
Cris (24:34)
Yeah, absolutely when you finally get the hang of something you've been working on for a while absolutely
KT (24:40)
Yeah, and you know, we definitely need to go out there more because you know one class isn't going to make it. We learned a lot and it was really fun. For me, I think my favorite part of the day, there was a couple of things actually. So one of them was that I didn't throw up.
Cris (24:45)
Oh no, I'm not, I wouldn't
He was
so nervous. was like, I was like, wait, what's going on? I he's nervous. He's like, I just don't want to get her up, man. I was like.
KT (25:06)
I didn't want to have so much fun and realize I was nauseous.
Cris (25:12)
I
like it nauseous ⁓
KT (25:18)
How bad would it have been to like love this sport love this activity only to be physically limited by your body I would
Cris (25:25)
I would have
physically inserted Drum and Main into your body and just made sure that you kept going. Dude, we'd have to figure it out. I cannot believe you didn't tell me that until we were there. He didn't tell me any of this. We're driving there. I'm like, yeah, we're to have a great day. We get there. We're about to get in the car. And he's like, yeah, help me don't throw up. I'm like, what do you mean? And then he tells me this story. And I'm like, what do you mean?
KT (25:32)
Good luck.
Cris (25:53)
my god, it was that was hilarious. I laughed so hard, but then you got in And you you you pulled it put your boots up man and you in the car
KT (26:00)
I survived
I didn't have to take any sort of like medication nothing so I'm good. I'm good to drift
Cris (26:12)
So we're good to drift. That's what I'm talking about,
KT (26:15)
I
think every part of that day was enjoyable. There were different aspects that were enjoyable. So you were describing the first time he took us out there just to go like we were in the passenger seat just to go a couple circles just to get us to feel what it feels like to be in a car like that. You know, that was a pretty fun experience right then and there. And then actually when we got to sit behind the wheel you know, he gave us a little rundown of this is what you have to do. You have to give it a little bit of gas, get it moving, just really low gear.
clutch kick it while you're slightly at angle. So that experience itself, know, when someone describes it versus when you're actually doing it, you know, it doesn't translate one to one. So that's what makes it fun. It's a little bit of a challenge. Like, hey, they gave me instructions, but I got to execute.
Cris (27:00)
And
I think what I love most about that is the challenge like and and I think what what you were explaining in the beginning when we got in that car or my favorite part of actually like sitting down and going from there the factor of it was this was it really threw me back in time to the process and like really like threw me back to when I was trying to learn this sport and really like focus on something like that but then like I'm in a place where I can develop my skills
It was that realization that really like there was that connection point and I was like, this is great. I can actually, you know, go full on. I don't have to hold back because of, you know, anything crazy. This is an open, like learning objective that I'm really focused on. And, and honestly that memory of being back in the crappy little car and just in a part wet parking lot.
As I'm sliding around, once you arrive back in your body from that flashback, you're like, all right, it's go time. I gotta make sure we're focusing and learning. And you're right, it's finding out your rhythm in a car. Everyone's rhythm is different, and every car is different. If you change one factor on that car, you have to refine your rhythm all over that. And I think that's the best way that I can communicate that with people is when they're like, what's drifting? I'm like, man, it's...
It's that controlled slide, it's that chaos, but it's also finding your rhythm behind the wheel. I feel like that's really important for people to understand because there's a lot of different types of drift entries, there's drift ways, there's the clutch kick, there's inertial drift. Missing one, it's right on the tip of my tongue and I can't remember it. Parking brake. Yes, I'm sorry. Yeah, thank you so much. The E-brake pull, we see a lot of that, especially in professional drifting.
But the e-brake pull with those three factors, that's a lot of different types of entry and a lot of people learn the different ways. I, of course, was all in the parking brake the very first time I tried it. developing your clutch kick, developing your control, your really motor skill function and the sensitivity at where you're at, that development for car guys, especially for me, I'll speak for myself and not the whole community, but.
I mean guys tell us what it's like your first time ever doing something like that. It's like your first time being in a turbo car. It's that first experience when you hear that know the blowout valve and you're like this is about to get serious. That right there was that was good.
KT (29:21)
Yeah.
You don't expect it.
I enjoy how with drifting you can be as technical as you want. Correct. So everything that you listed, all those different initiation methods, you you can go down a rabbit hole trying to perfect every single one, or you can just do like we did at that class. Just get a couple of clutch kicks in and you're ready going sideways.
Cris (29:51)
That's
true. I think that was that was the easiest way to start it off man The guys did it right they they really get you sideways They really try to develop you and I think like I said I can't wait to get back on track with my own piece You know and try it try to get out there and I'll have to bring plenty of spare parts because I know I'm gonna wreck some stuff
KT (30:10)
I think the camaraderie of the day was also something that was really fun and interesting to be part of. So when we were there, it was a class. There was about four other people there with us, as well as like three or four instructors. So we had a group of guys and girls there drifting and learning from each other and just talking about cars. It's just really fun, right? So everybody had a really good time.
learned from each other just about what made them get that particular car. The one guy we were with, he actually just got his Z not too long ago. He was like dying to get out there and he had just welded his diff He like, all right, thing out.
Cris (30:44)
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, dude, it's funny because ⁓ he had he had gone to the class before that and then basically the other guys So so there's two sets of groups, right? We were we'll call the beginner class, which is okay You know, everyone's gonna start from somewhere and that's where I wanted to make sure I wanted to refresh I wanted KT to experience that full starting method and you know, we had one other person with us But these guys had been in the intermediate section. They were learning their transitions. They were learning
a little bit more of that control. They had gotten everything down. The main function for that was the conversations and the, watch this section, especially if you're learning, if you're gonna develop your transitions and go from there. That's gonna be, that was the, you're right, the camaraderie of that. And talking to the guy and him going, like, we're all cheering each other on. Like, man, hey, that was a good section right there. Good lap, you know, keep trying that out, you know. And he was so excited about his, the diff and having the car.
and he had just purchased it like rough and ready. It was fantastic to see that kind of camaraderie, that kind of community. It was something that we live for. It's something that we really strive for and it's what I
KT (31:58)
One of the funniest parts of that day too is I think we started the day with like six cars and we ended with like two.
Cris (32:06)
This is no, this is no rap. This is no bad rap to anybody there. There was one guy, he broke like four cars.
KT (32:13)
He broke four
Cris (32:15)
Four
cars out of the six. And we were all like, aw man. But it was such a good time that it didn't even matter. We were just there to enjoy the time, the drive, the experience. And honestly, at the end of the day, that's what everyone was there for. I think it was a funny experience. The guys were all cool. The instructors were great. And we learned a lot from each other. We had discussions about, I mean, cars, but it kind of led into life.
It was some of the best, some of the guys were local to that area, some of the guys were from this side. And so that was the first part is finding that community everywhere, that culture, and that's gonna be the best.
KT (32:55)
Yeah, if you guys haven't seen it go on our YouTube go on our Instagram We actually made a short little video of our day But yeah, check out Leadfoot City if you're in Florida and if you're not you'll put it on your destination list
Cris (33:02)
Absolutely.
I'd at least recommend it. All right. It's a good time. I know we have some local spots here in Orlando We're gonna be looking ahead as well as getting back to let the city with this with this hunk right here and Really focusing on that, but I think the real good focus on that drift class was from beginning to end It was a positive place to be The everyone on the staff was all was great You know and it was gonna be one of those things where I look forward to even getting to an event with them
⁓ going back saying hi and they do events all the time guys at left foot city and you can ride with the driver if you want to really try it out one day really jump in the pool or try to swim kind of thing and you know now I'm thinking I'm thinking about taking this IS and possibly turning into a driftmobile ⁓
KT (33:58)
Speaking of which, if you
were thinking of turning us into a drift car, let's get into what needs to happen to do that.
Cris (34:06)
Okay, well, ⁓ first maintenance. Everybody knows that anything worthwhile has to be done and maintained. So we've got to make sure the timing's all set up, redone, ⁓ make sure all the seals are good, no oil leaks, can't have anything on the track. make sure power steering's good, because of course you would always recommend power steering for the function as we need it to let go of wheel and movement. You to make sure your bearings are all set for the back tires, everything like that.
in the importance of it, that's just the maintenance side. If we're getting into the real function side of drifting, this is an automatic open differential ⁓ 2JZGE motor. So the motor itself could most likely do exactly everything I need it to do as is. If I wanted to add a little bit more power, it would be easy to kick out the back end. But before I can even get to that part, I need a manual. Because drifting in automatic is fun. You could do like an
8 HP swap which is ⁓ a different transmission swap that can do either you know automatic or manual but I want a real functional manual in this that's going to be the install that we probably go to first that we get done and that's going to be on content guys you'll see us start uploading on that I need to get a close this differential I'm looking at an LSD which is a locking slip diff ⁓ if not we can weld this one and go find a locking slip this somewhere else
That way we can switch them out on days we're doing something else. Doing any tracking or anything like that. ⁓ Honestly from that point, ⁓ it's double checking all the fun stuff. I need to make sure my suspension is tuned for it. I gotta make sure all of my toe, my camber is correct. I have to get it aligned, drift aligned. There's another set up that it requires for every other style that you're going.
And of course through this adventure that we're going to go through, that's exactly where I pull the trigger, that's going to be a fun little motion that we turn this into a little drift machine. So if that's the function, then that sounds like we're going to do. So in basics, to summarize your question, it's locking slip diff is needed or a welded diff. can talk about that as we go along. Manual transmission is going to be needed from there. This thing might actually do some slipping.
KT (36:29)
And you said it too indirectly, but you don't really need too much to get out drift. You don't need the whole coilover set.
Cris (36:34)
Exactly.
No,
no, no, no, you don't need an angle
KT (36:41)
You don't need that. mean, yeah, it's great to have. It'll allow you to get better angles and blow more smoke, know, all that. But in essence, all you need to do is be able to break this thing loose and go in a couple of turns and keep momentum going. So, you know, plan wise, I think you're on the right track. The biggest thing, like you said, is you need that manual transmission to get that diff handled.
Cris (36:45)
It's nice to have, yes.
What's up?
Right?
If
anyone's got a manual, W58, W55, or anything that can fit into this bad boy, hey, hit us up, let us know. I'd love to see if we can get it. If you're donating it, let me know. If you're not...
Also give me a shout. I'll definitely be interested in finding a manual transmission sometime here soon. Getting it, we're definitely making some content, throwing it on this bad boy. I'm gonna put KT to work, make sure we're using everything in his, but we have to get his car rolling as well. So we're making sure we're working on that one day at a time. But yeah man, you're right. First things first, let's get a manual in it. I can weld this diff and get a lock and slip diff later on as we go along. Especially if we're just gonna track this car for a little bit.
⁓ Also as we talk about tracking a car and we're talking about what it takes to be drift ready We're going into this $2,000 challenge this coming year and it's gonna be something that hey the options that we're looking for especially because it's gonna be completely different from the drift spec that we're looking at is You know is are we gonna focus on this car? We're gonna focus we the $2,000 challenge as we were explaining is we have to buy
build and race a car for under 2k and of course there are some people that go a little bit past that we want to stick to the rules we want to get it done and to do that do we want to look for something that can possibly be drifted later I don't know I would like that but at the end of the day that's something we have to decide as we look at hey we're gonna be autocrossing and dragging this vehicle is it something that
we look forward to the future. So maybe turn that into a drift machine, a drift car, a drift project, or we really focus on the task at hand and get into the auto cross section and get into the actual drag section and find something that we can be. At the end of the day, man, the world is our oyster. We're definitely finding something that we can do. We're going to be creative. We're going to develop it. And once again, heads up, if you see a W58 or W55 for this thing, I'd love to slap it in.
but keeping it simple with cars, especially if you're starting, you don't need all of those parts. Some of the best things that, and best conversations we had while we were there at Left Foot City ⁓ is basically less is more when you're starting drifting. You'll learn what you need as you go. Your car usually has exactly what you need to get started. Get that manual, weld that diff, slap it in, put some gas in it, do an oil change please. Make sure it's not leaking.
and go get on the track, have some fun, break some things, because that's what drifting is. There's a drift tax for a reason and honestly it will put a smile on your face at the end of the day. You'll be mad that you gotta pay for something, you'll be happy when you're back on track.
KT (39:59)
I mean that's what the G37 was over there. It was more or less stock. It didn't have an angle kit. It didn't really have anything on it. Just as a manual transmission G37. That's it.
Cris (40:10)
Yeah, that
was it. Like at the end of the day, have I been looking on Facebook Marketplace for one? Maybe a little more than I should ⁓ because after that experience, I was like, this would be a lot of fun.
KT (40:24)
know maybe this will be your your built-up daily driver or weekend warrior whatever actually just get a dedicated drift
Cris (40:29)
Yeah, exactly.
This will get us to the shop, this will get us moving, you know, do exactly what we need it to do but at the end of the day, finding something for you is all up to you. But I recommend finding someone you know with all of those things. Getting to a drift day go to one of these, one of the tracks, go to one of the drift pads, find somebody that, you know, get involved in the community, talk to some people, do your research before you get into this. But at the end of the day, if you like cars, you're part of the culture you're part of the community.
You can't not have a smile on your face while you're going sideways but I had a blast it was fun. I can't wait for the next one I know this is episode 8, but we're cranking these out We're getting it done and now I gotta go spend some money ⁓ Which to my chagrin is gonna be fantastic. So I'm gonna go into debt now ⁓
KT (41:21)
Yeah.
Cris (41:23)
You're already in debt, I know, right? Like, ugh, yeah, I get it, I get it. But don't worry, I can't, listen, the day we get your car on the road, so okay, quick build update from KT, what step are we at now, what are we working on, what have we done? I know you posted some good stuff on your feed, so please.
KT (41:26)
I'm one step ahead of you.
The
entire right hand side, my entire passenger side of my rear suspension is assembled back into place minus my rear caliper. I have it off. I'm painting it right now so you know that's just...
Cris (41:58)
Yeah,
but you're so mad about break shoes
KT (42:02)
So many.
Those were the
Cris (42:06)
I'm laughing but it's so good. He posts, like, you know what I love about break shoes? Nothing.
KT (42:15)
That
little 30 second video in reality took, you know, like three hours.
Cris (42:21)
i'll uh... well i'll have a look at what i don't know the drill
KT (42:25)
But no, I got three out of four corners done, so I'm moving on to the driver's side. So once I get that reassembled, which includes my upper, lower rear control arm, traction arm, tow arms, my wheel hub, my axle is currently off as well. So it won't take very long, because I know what I'm doing now, because I did it on the right side, so I just gotta do it on the left side.
Cris (42:35)
Yeah.
Okay, gotcha
I got it.
KT (42:47)
Once
I get that in place, I just need to throw an exhaust back up there, put some gas in there, put some diff fluid, change out the oil. I'm like, to go. you know, it's gonna happen really soon.
Cris (42:55)
Yeah.
Dude, I can't wait. We have to take we are definitely taking a video and we're definitely doing a Development on this. I want you to walk through your car. I want the next episode for these guys to know how much work you put in it We're gonna do walk through the vehicle I want to make sure they see the effort you put into making this thing the probably the nicest IS like 300 ride Right, just just right at all that we're gonna see so I'm excited
I want to make sure we get there with you guys. tuned for that. That's going to be absolutely a bunch of fun. And I'll make sure we find time to do that for How long has it been since the car has been driving, man? So he's itching. This is a cars are pain. We learn that as we go along.
KT (43:36)
Aw man, it's been over a year. It pains me to say this, so stop making me think about it.
It
was my fault because I redid the front suspension and it only took a weekend. I got overly optimistic and I was like, it only took a weekend to do the front. I might as well start removing some of the rear as I'm assembling the front. But once you start taking things off and you have to physically cut it out, it doesn't go back in as quick.
Cris (44:05)
Also, you found rust, you found stuff you were going through, guys. Leave us a comment on what you guys want us to talk about. make sure you guys click that like button, click that subscribe button. Like us on Instagram at CloudyIS over for KT and Stormspect IS for this hunk right here.
and we'll go from there but I'm excited for the next one. We're looking at episode 10 coming up here soon and we're definitely going to be putting out some more of that short form content we talked about. We are putting out episodes every two weeks to make sure you guys are still hearing from us, knowing what's going on.
⁓ Definitely keep in touch about the $2,000 challenge and head out to Ledfoot City, head out to one of your drift tracks. Let's get Florida, let's get the world drifting again. Let's have some fun with that. Absolutely, brother. Let's get out of here. See you guys. See you. Have a good one.
KT (44:54)
sure.