Martyn Giles is another of the drivers that we are following this season in the HEL Performance Driftcup season, he is a third year driver with his Nissan S14.
In the off season I took some time to find out why the car had been over heating at some of the rounds toward the end of the 2017 season. It turned out the head gasket had gone so that was the start of the rebuild for me.
Instead of just replacing the head gasket we decided to rebuild the engine as a completely forged SR20DET. The engine went over to Walton Smith at Nispro Performance whilst the shell went over to the guys at Team Frandale where they fixed up the car and made her look pretty again.
As usual Sean and Amanda had decided to make a few small changes to the design to surprise me once again, adding some more orange to the existing design. It looks great in the sun with all of the glitter shining throughout the cars paint.
Once it was completed the engine was put back into the car and sent for mapping, it produced around 470 BHP, a big increase from last season.
Driftcup Round 1 came around quickly so I booked onto the practice day before the event to give myself some much needed seat time on the large technical track.
It took most of the practice day to find the right setup with the increased power to be able to run the required line around the track.
By the afternoon things were looking good, the car was driving great and it was producing a lot more smoke this season.
The next morning gave us another few hours of practice in the morning, the conditions had changed and now the track was dry with a lot more grip so we spend the session dialling in the car to the conditions.
As we headed into qualifying I was feeling confident with myself and the car. I went out on my first run with a bit too much confidence, throwing the car in hard at each corner, I ran wide at Turn 3 and then tagged the wall a little harder than planned at the final clipping point.
The second run was a more cautious run for me as I didn’t want to throw it all away and score a zero.
The rest of the field was so competitive this year that I didn’t qualify so my event ended earlier than planned. At the remaining rounds I will have to go hard on every run and not play it safe!
It was still an amazing weekend with everyone in the Driftcup family, it’s time for me to make a few small changes before Round 2 at Three Sisters Race Circuit in a couple of weeks.
Thank you to all of my fans, supporters and sponsors including Zestino Tyres, EverythingDrift.com, Drifther Clothing, Team Frandale, RacingLines, Nispro Performance, EMP Performance, Deep Shine Valeting & EBC Brakes.