The Cyrious Report – FD Canada, China Demo and DMCC Finale!

It’s been a crazy few weeks for the team and myself! It all started a little over 2 weeks ago, when we headed out to Montreal for the first ever Formula Drift Canada event at Autodrome St.Eustache!

Going into this event I knew it was going to be tough because FD brought out some of their best drivers to compete! But in the past I have done very well at that track so we felt our odds of doing well was really good! With minimal practice time I focused on getting my line right where it needed to be and tried to drift the course as aggressively as possible! The one part of the course I was struggling with was the switch back on the front straight. I find that my FR-S just does not steer as fast as I need it to so I had to be careful though that section of the course or I would spin the car out. Problem being most of the other drivers competing could very aggressively attack that part of the course so it didn't look very good on me.

My first qualifying lap out I tried to do the best lap I could without pushing too hard and not make a mistake. It was what I felt was a good lap with a good line, but the judges felt I lacked angle and my transitions were not very quick. With that I scored a 62 which put me in 12th place after the first round of qualifying. Not bad but I wasn't safe because quite a few really good drivers got a zero on their first run, so I had a feeling I could get bumped out if I didn't better my score. Second lap out, I knew I had to push! I had a great entry into the first corner, rode the wall all the way to the front straight, went to transition the car but got too aggressive with it and spun. That resulted in a zero score. All I could do at that point was wait and hope that we would make it through. It came down to the final driver in qualifying, I was sitting in 16th place and if he bettered my score, I would be out of the top 16. Unfortunately, he did. So in the end I qualified in 17th place, just missing the big show. I stayed the rest of the weekend, signed a ton of posters and just hung out with the fans. I was pretty disappointed in myself but I guess that weekend it just wasn't meant to be.

Right after that event my brother Dan and I got on a plane headed to Xiamen China! I was going out there to do a drifting demo for the grand opening of a new high end car shop called Carvolution! When we arrived in China we headed straight to the shop to check out the car I would be drifting, a brand new Toyota GT86 with a turbo kit, Yokohama tires, suspension, big brakes – the works! I helped the boys finish off a few details on the car but overall they built a great car for the job! The drift demo was to be held on the day of the grand opening in a parking lot about 15min away from the shop. It was a small space but I was able to put on a good show, take people for rides and expose drifting to quite a few people that had never seen it before! The rest of the time there was spent eating, sightseeing and partying, it was a trip I will never forget!

After hanging out in China for 9 days I quickly had to get back for the DMCC finals in Sanair! I landed in Canada on Thursday night, slept for a few hours, then loaded up the FR-S and headed to Quebec for the final round! Morning practice was interesting. The judges struggled to get a course layout that they felt worked so they had changed the track 3 times throughout practice. This made it difficult to get in a groove and by the time they had a track they liked, I was only able to do 2 practice laps on it because practice had run out of time. We had a short break before qualifying, and in that short time it started to rain. The judges decided to give us all one more practice lap before qualifying to try out the wet conditions. I took my lap pretty slow as I did not want to crash (3 other drivers put their cars into the wall with the slippery conditions). I actually pulled off a decent lap, so that gave me a bit of confidence going into qualifying. My first lap out I tried to go in slow again, but I went a bit too deep into the first corner which resulted in a spin, zero score. By the second lap, the rain was really coming down and there was standing water all over the course. I watched car after car spin going into the first corner, including the guy right before me back his car right into the wall! I was determined not to spin! I went in at a low speed and tried to as lightly as possible put the FR-S into drift. It pretty much instantly spun on me! Luckily I was able to keep my car off the wall so it will live to drift another day but with that I got a zero score, so we didn’t make the show.

I have to admit, I've been pretty disappointed with my few past results. But what we have learned from it is that the FR-S still needs more work to get it to where it needs to be. At this point, there's not too much we can do with the season winding down, but plans are in the works to improve the car over the off season. I'm confident we will have the right combination next year with everything we have learned so far and I’m looking forward to improving the FR-S over the off season!

Targa Newfoundland Scion FR-S Suspension Tweaks and Racewear

Peter and Dave from Speed Academy continue their mad thrash on the Scion FR-S they’re preparing for Targa Newfoundland, this time by upgrading the sway bars, bushings and ball joints. And as you’ll see at the end of Episode 6 of their YouTube series documenting the entire build process, they also start to gear up to meet the safety requirements for Targa NL by wrapping themselves in Alpinestars’ new entry-level GP Start race apparel.

When Dave and Peter adopted this FR-S from last year’s Scion FR-S Tuner Challenge program it was missing a few parts including the front sway bar. This, of course, meant they had the perfect excuse to upgrade to Eibach’s anti-roll kit, which includes larger diameter and much stiffer front and rear sway bars that keep the FR-S’s amazing handling balance intact but reduces body roll in the process. Both bars are adjustable (two positions) so that roll rates can be fine-tuned to their needs.

Virtually all of the factory bushings on the car have been upgraded to Whiteline urethane bushings, which reduce compliance in these joints for greater handling precision and in some cases also correct suspension geometry on lowered cars. The front lower bushing, for example, is offset for improved caster and anti-dive characteristics.

Safety is, of course, also a big concern any time you go racing, especially at an event like Targa NL where trees and houses are just a few feet off the tarmac. In case of an in-car fire, both Dave and Peter will be wearing Alpinestars GP Start suits, which are constructed from 2 layers of fire-retardant Aramid fabric, plus a Nomex fire-retardant layer of underwear for good measure. Add to that GP Start gloves and shoes and they should be both safe and comfortable during the 43 flat-out Targa race stages next week.

They’ve also protected their heads with Stilo helmets and intercom, which have integrated mics and earphones so that they can talk to each other on the rally stages. It’s critical in a rally like Targa NL for the co-driver to be able to read the pace notes to the driver so he knows what’s ahead, be it a fast right-hander, a narrow bridge, or a giant pothole.