Hard Times at Hadashi
Cowboy Charlie is an interesting guy. He's been into cars and motorcycles all his life and has been turning wrenches at his shop Hard Times outside Chicago for years. From BMWs to Harleys and Skyline GT-Rs to Ford Torinos, he can fix anything. After his first trip to Hadashi it was clear that he can drive anything as well.
I'd had a "drift-ready" S13 Silvia stored at Hadashi for a few months, and when Ben and Charlie decided to make a trip to Japan I offered them use of the car. I bought it for cheap off Yahoo Auctions because it didn't have any documents, which meant it couldn't be registered for the street. Essentially, it was a drift missile. With a boost up SR20DET under the hood, coilovers, 2-way and a roll cage it was ready to go, or so I thought...
At the time of their visit I'd never actually seen the S13 in person or driven it. I'd simply bought it and had it dropped off at Hadashi. Eric from Kunigan was nice enough to help get it ready for Charlie and Ben. I picked up a set of Grenade GX-01s for it and Eric had our go to Nankang NS2-R and Kenda KR20 tire combo mounted on them along with some spares.
A few issues did come up after getting it on the track. It was running insanely rich and needed a tune, and there was very little steering angle along with a side brake that worked intermittently. A quick trip to UpGarage in Hiroshima fixed the angle issue with a set of D-Max tied rods, but power and side brake issues still plagued the Silvia on the track.
Those issues didn't stop Cowboy Charlie. It was literally his first time drifting a car, and a RHD car in Japan no less. He didn't hold back and drove the hell out of the Silvia. From the jump he was clutch kicking and going wall to wall down the main straight. After seeing video of his sessions I was convinced he was sandbagging and had been drifting plenty of times.
The day went without issue until the problems with the side brake resulted in a run into the bank on turn one...
Thankfully it was just minor cosmetic damage and the S13 was back out on the track in no time.
Save for the performance issues with the Silvia you can't ask for a better way to drift for your first time... in Japan at Hadashi behind the wheel of a Silvia. He even managed a dirt drop as you can see in the video below.