Here at Everything Drift we love unique builds. We like to see someone, tell somebody that they can’t do something, and that person turns around and proves them wrong. In Our Eyes It Is Called Inspiration and Drive. Here is a build inspired by our good friend Ernie Gonzalez of his personal drift car. Ernie, a big supporter of the drift community, and of unique builds with thinking outside the box in this one. He is an amazing person who inspires people to do something different and to achieve their dreams.
When I first saw this build taking place, I could not wait for it to get done. A Q45 was a car that not many people have built into a drift car. Seeing what Ernie has done to this car has been a long road and a exciting build to follow. He has encountered many difficult challenges with this build and found every perfect way around it to make this car completely unique in every single way. Here is his inspiration in building this car and our inspiration on encouraging fellow drifters to think outside the box and never except an answer of “it can’t be done” or other people telling you not to do it. Pick up a build, stick to it and encourage yourself to push forward and build a car, something unique in your own way, which in the long run will turn heads and break necks like this beautiful drift machine Q45.
“Well, the idea of this unique build started a few years ago when I saw a well executed VIP 2nd Gen Q45. I fell in love with the body lines and how well it looked lowered. After selling my vh45de s13 convertible to a good friend, there was no turning back. I quickly found out through research that this was not going to be an easy build. There was not a lot of info out there to build it the way I saw in my head. The 2jz swap is the first in this generation (Y33) that we know of. We found a 1st gen with a swap but hardly any info.”
“I went against the nay sayers and started by stripping the entire car with the help of Jonathan Su and a few friends. Sent the chassis over to Daniel Carillo of GSWERKS in Palmdale. Where his team built the beautiful cage, seat brackets, rear and front bash bar along with tubed front end. GSWERKS also took charge of building solid engine and trans mounts.
I purchased the 2jz from Chris Ankor who supplies me and my friends with awesome deals, and R154 trans and the majority of my power plant parts from Aaron and Odom at Driftmotion in City Of Industry. I had to extend the trans shifter 4.5″ and ended up in a perfect location.”
“Once the engine and trans were mocked up, the rest of the assembly was a process of waiting for parts to be made and parts sourcing.
During this time my good friend Richard “Majic” Rabe took on the task of making sure my fiber glass parts were gone over for good fitment. He also modified a few of the parts that were made for different make and models to flow well with our design.”
“This is where we spent most of the time. Coming up with the correct parts that would help blend the VIP and the Drift Look. Looking at the VIP style cars my friends own, Always made me day dream of sliding them lol. Along the way of the build we would post pics of the process and everything people would say NOT TO DO, we did. This resulted a great blend of both worlds.
I reached out to Alex@Finelintetuning.com for hood vents, flares and other rad parts.”
“Once we had mocked up the body panels and all engine parts. We sent off the body to Tommy at Newport Auto Resto to get that Viper red all over. While the bodywork was being performed. We sent every parts possible to Rich and Allan at Americoat to red out all the things in powder-coat.
We reached out to Alex P. at Battle Version for some cool S14 parts all around and Dan at PoweredbyMax for them rear Dual Caliper Drop Knuckles to get the car nice and tight. Odi at Feal suspension custom valved the s13 coil-overs for the new vehicle weight of 2760. lbs.”
“Meanwhile Jason Kim of Rival Autoworks was wiring up the switch, gauges and chassis.
Once the car came back it was time to remove all the mock up stuff and install all the goodies. The assembly of the car was the best part for me. Because I could see my vision come to life.
I come from a different world of custom cars and have always been interested in building beautiful functional cars. My reputation follows me from my USO Car Club days till now. This car was gonna be no different.”
“Finishing up the car got us to the wheel and tire set up. Because of the size of this sedan, we knew that a bigger wheel was gonna fill in the wells better but also make it heavy. We soon found the solution to that in the Varrstoen ES2 19×9.5 and 19×11 at 21lbs and 27lbs.
I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to rep their products. They are great people who love cars and are involved in the car community.”
“After firing up the car and driving it up and down the street. The last thing on the agenda was to remove all the mock up stuff in the interior and decide which route to go.
I ended up getting the Sparco seats, Takata harness and D&D Performance Interior supplied us with two awesome steering wheels, one for my hard parking and the other to destroy tires. The shift knob is one of my favorite pieces along with the train handles that help my chunky butt out of the car :)”
“This build was a collaboration of the Bippu and Drift Lifestyle. I purchased a lot of parts from both parties along the way. Thank you all for being a part of my dream.
The next step is to continue building the car to perform better and most importantly always keep it clean. I have never let my cars go to the point of no return. #sowhystopnow
Much Love to my wife Christian and my Slide Assassins family.”
-Ernie Gonzalez