ETS Drift Ute – Overseas Vacation

Things are really different lately, its been a week since my Hilux sat on the startline of Hampton Downs Racetrack ready to attack the track, every night after work I head home thinking about it and it feels weird not to see it in the garage.

I basically came into pit lane, took my suit off, packed up my gear and drove to the airport thinking about all those things I would love to check on it. I would love to just spend one full day on it.

Last year when I broke the gearbox I knew I was on the road to failure with the rear end, the diff lasted but the same cant be said for the driveshaft, I sheared the right hand axle just as the spline started to enter the hub, it was a quick fix but one that I didnt want to perform again. The new sequential gearbox puts a lot of strain on the rear end, the harshness of the straight cut dog engagement gearset coupled with the grip levels of my setup spells certain death for the differential and axles.

My fix will be a GTR differential, GTR axles and GTR hubs. Im lucky because the GTR diff will bolt into the chassis, my custom input flange will slip in the GTR diff, the hubs will bolt into my S15 uprights. I want to switch to 4.3 gears instead of the 4.1 gears I currently have so a GTS4 skyline diff will be needed. Im also lucky because Aaron from SHRED motorsports in NZ has a Cusco 2 way, GTS4 diff, GTR axles, GTR hubs and has agreed to get everything ready for me.

Although I would be stupid to call my setup “bulletproof” I think I am running out of weak links. All along I didn’t care about making bulk power, all I wanted to do was get to the track and iron out all these issues, find out how to drive it and then work on progressing from that point onwards. When the ute arrives at STM Andre will confirm the power I am currently making and let me know where we can find some more.

Thanks to Link ECU aswell for helping me out by upgrading my G4 Storm to a Link G4 Extreme, this allows Andre to set up the gear position on my dash as an input into the ECU, it also allows some more headroom for further accessories down the track.

So in March I will be flying into Wellington, fitting a new diff, driveshafts, hubs, Andre will be retuning it on E85 to make some more power and then attacking the track at the 4 & Rotary Jamboree. Its difficult to orginize all of this this living in a different country but I am lucky that there are very supportive people who have my back in NZ.

Thanks to

4 and Rotary

Shred Motorsports

STM

HP Academy

Link ECU

2 Comments
  1. Loving the build Nigel. Have you considered building a spool differential using the GTR casing, shafts and hubs? It would be considerably stronger than the 2 way by eliminating moving components and should help with your insane levels of grip.

    Reply
  2. Hey I was looking as old posts of the 180sx. I was wondering how you mount the side skirts so that they are easily removable?

    Love your work! You definitely take pride in what you do

    Reply

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