everything else breaks, you have to upgrade everything else aswell in your driveline.
Joe: Grab an old streetcar find a track day and some old second hand tyres, just go to a couple track days and get the seat time, don’t do it on the streets. Don’t play with everything too, get used to your car the way it is!
Scariest moment drifitng?
Tom: Probably when the bonnet flew up, just gave me a fright haha That was at Taupo, just pulled out of pit lane and hit 70km or something and the bonnet just flew up, yeah just gave me a fright cause your not expecting it. I don’t think I’ve really had any other frights but when I nearly hit the wall at Puke this year it kind of gave me little bit of a scare because it wasn’t my car, I was a little bit worried, only just pulled it off.
Joe: I had a spin pretty close to the outer wall at Pukekohe in the wet one year, it’s a very scary track anyway without the wet. So yeah I nearly binned it pretty quick! I actually did a track day in a SR20 SSS Sentra at Pukekohe and spun out by the pit lane went through the grass and nearly hit the wall too haha
Tom: Was it scary driving someone elses car? did it make you hold back?
It did at first, cause I was struggling a bit but once I got used to it I started just acting like it was my own. Changaing gears and clutching and everthing, I’ve got a thing about knowing the limit, you have to know the limt, I think thats why me and Joe
You never really broke much gear did you?
Nah, not really, went through a few RB’s but that was more bad engine builds rather than being too rough on it. Joe from the beginning spent a bit of money and built a good engine we’re as i didn’t have the money and took shortcuts, cost me in the long run. I should’ve gone with a 2j from the start, cause there just that much more reliable and got heaps of torque.
Who have been your biggest supporters?
Probably Emma, my sponsors and all my crew!
Probably Teresa. And also Chas, Blair, Cam, Toby and everyone that’s helped out on the car.
Engine of choice?
Tom: 2JZGTE, with unlimited budget I would build an insane 2J. Like not just a normal one but an insane one.
Joe: VR38 fully worked!
Who does your engine work?
Tom: Mikes engines build them and then me and my mates Charlie & Blair basically do all the rest.
Joe: What was it like being in the competition with your brother?
Yeah it was good, you could compare your runs, like we’d say I keep stuffing that corner up, what are you doing there, are you dropping back a gear or are you dabbing the break, so it was good in that way. We would ask each other what we had done if we did a sick run. We only battled a few times in competition, one was Tauranga in pro am and he beat me, and the other was when I broke an axle at Manfield and he beat me again. We know each others driving styles which is good, it was a pain in the bum at manfield because it was a rerun so it was just all or nothing really doesnt matter if i hit his car or spin out cause one of us was going through no matter what but on the entry it broke so I was gutted haha. We battled a lot together during practice but we found that we probably shouldn’t have because we got used to each other but everyone else drives completely different.
Who are your Sponsors?
Evergreen Tyres
The Bling Company
All-Torque Media
NZFD
Kill-It-Daily
Fenix radiators
Mikes Engines
ATJ Hire
FleetPin
MSE Turbos-Steve Murch
Signosaur
Motul oil
Matt Clifford Panel Beaters
Henderson Automotive
When your on the grid, what do you do to psych yourself out?
Tom: Haha everyone cracks up at me because I look like im focusing or something everytime the camera comes up to me, I'm just on my own buzz ae just concentrating to win really.
Joe: You just sort of try and focus, think of the run before and see if you can better it or copy it and try not to stuff it, that's the trouble with drifting one little mistake your out and its just gone, you don’t have the next lap to fix it, maybe not all the time you don’t wanna go as hard as you can cause you might bin it.
Do you have any plans from here for drifiting?
Tom: No not at the moment, maybe in a couple years, its a lot of time commitment, the amount of all nighter's we’ve done in the shed, it’s just all the hours you put in after the event that makes it hard and stops us.
Joe: Not at the moment, maybe in a few years, if I do build another drift car I’ll probably put a Barra motor in it!
What would you say to someone wanting to get into drifting?
Tom: I hope you got deep pockets haha If you want to compete in D1NZ don’t go straight to pro, start off in pro sport. You can compete with 250kw or whatever and still be in the top 5, theres a couple that are up there power wise, but the rest have low powered cars and still do really well and as soon as you go up in your power
Scariest moment drifitng?
Tom: Probably when the bonnet flew up, just gave me a fright haha That was at Taupo, just pulled out of pit lane and hit 70km or something and the bonnet just flew up, yeah just gave me a fright cause your not expecting it. I don’t think I’ve really had any other frights but when I nearly hit the wall at Puke this year it kind of gave me little bit of a scare because it wasn’t my car, I was a little bit worried, only just pulled it off.
Joe: I had a spin pretty close to the outer wall at Pukekohe in the wet one year, it’s a very scary track anyway without the wet. So yeah I nearly binned it pretty quick! I actually did a track day in a SR20 SSS Sentra at Pukekohe and spun out by the pit lane went through the grass and nearly hit the wall too haha
Tom: Was it scary driving someone elses car? did it make you hold back?
It did at first, cause I was struggling a bit but once I got used to it I started just acting like it was my own. Changaing gears and clutching and everthing, I’ve got a thing about knowing the limit, you have to know the limt, I think thats why me and Joe didn’t break our cars that often because we both know that limit, like someone will limit drop it at 50kms in 3rd gear well thats just going to break something where as me and Joe will shift back to 2nd and ease into it. We’re still pretty hard on our cars but we know that limit.
You never really broke much gear did you?
Nah, not really, went through a few RB’s but that was more bad engine builds rather than being too rough on it. Joe from the beginning spent a bit of money and built a good engine we’re as i didn’t have the money and took shortcuts, cost me in the long run. I should’ve gone with a 2j from the start, cause there just that much more reliable and got heaps of torque.
Who have been your biggest supporters?
Probably Emma, my sponsors and all my crew!
Probably Teresa. And also Chas, Blair, Cam, Toby and everyone that’s helped out on the car.
Engine of choice?
Tom: 2JZGTE, with unlimited budget I would build an insane 2J. Like not just a normal one but an insane one.
Joe: VR38 fully worked!
Who does your engine work?
Tom: Mikes engines build them and then me and my mates Charlie & Blair basically do all the rest.
Joe: What was it like being in the competition with your brother?
Yeah it was good, you could compare your runs, like we’d say I keep stuffing that corner up, what are you doing there, are you dropping back a gear or are you dabbing the break, so it was good in that way. We would ask each other what we had done if we did a sick run. We only battled a few times in competition, one was Tauranga in pro am and he beat me, and the other was when I broke an axle at Manfield and he beat me again. We know each others driving styles which is good, it was a pain in the bum at manfield because it was a rerun so it was just all or nothing really doesnt matter if i hit his car or spin out cause one of us was going through no matter what but on the entry it broke so I was gutted haha. We battled a lot together during practice but we found that we probably shouldn’t have because we got used to each other but everyone else drives completely different.
Who are your Sponsors?
Evergreen Tyres
The Bling Company
All-Torque Media
NZFD
Kill-It-Daily
Fenix radiators
Mikes Engines
ATJ Hire
FleetPin
MSE Turbos-Steve Murch
Signosaur
Motul oil
Matt Clifford Panel Beaters
Henderson Automotive