Now I know our most recent article written pertaining to the quality of cars in the drift scene here in Sask left a bad taste in the mouths of a certain few (if not dozens) who disagreed with the article on a few social media platforms. I’ll be as blunt as I can – I wanted to showcase one of the cars I personally appreciate the most here in the drift scene. I’ll remain indifferent on what is a diamond in the rough and what is coal.
But I will say this – with all of the recent discussion of “poor quality” drift cars in Sask – there are some aesthetically and mechanically cool things out here with competent drivers to match. My goal is getting out and finding the people who are into that “aesthetics with function” thing. Sure, there are eyes gazing from afar at how things are done out here, and to them I say: “Don’t give up on following our scene.” In my humble opinion, Travis’ car is both a form and function winner.
Here we take a look at Travis’ Toyota JZX100. They’re good-looking cars, whether stanced for hard-parking or sliding around a track. Travis’ car does both, and does it rather well.
Travis Hilts has a nifty Chaser that he had acquired after selling his SR20DET-powered AE86 Corolla. The driving skills he honed in that car has been applied to this new build.
It’s a lady in the streets but a freak in the sheets. It will turn your head while parked out front of the Milky Way ice cream parlour and nab your attention while Travis swings the car around corners. Sounds good, yes?
These images were shot in September at the end of the 2017 car season. Unfortunately for Travis and I, my original intent was also to shoot the car at the track on a practice night but our window of opportunity had closed. Mayhaps I’ll be able to get some imagery of this car in action during this upcoming 2018 season. For now – these stand still images will have to do.
Let’s start with the color of the car. You hear the term “paint is dead” from a lot of enthusiasts. On first glance, I thought this car was indeed vinyl-wrapped. To my surprise, I learned that Travis’ Chaser is painted. Copper. That’s something I respect.
“But why?” you may ask. “It’s a drift car” you might follow-up with, rolling your eyes. The answer is simple – vinyl is convenient for a car on the track that gets bumped and scraped, and in some ways it’s easier to deal with after the fact. That in itself isn’t a bad thing. But paint is something you see dying out regardless of the application for cars these days. The color itself is interesting as it shifts from a chocolate brown to a brilliant copper in a different light and retains its lustre. Painted panels may take a little more care and a cleaner run around the track. I’m not saying we won’t see this car get bumped and scraped, but the paint is pretty handsome.
Travis’ Chaser was delivered “as is” but he has slowly been adding to the car and making it more of his own. He’s completed the Origin wide-body kit with corresponding under panels, roof and trunk spoilers. The carbon fiber runs 360* around lower edges of the car. The seats have been swapped and brackets made to house some Recaro bucket seats out of an EvoX.
Travis had swapped on some Work VSSD wheels in 18×10 the front and 18×10.5 rear and is lowered on KSD coilovers and has some Cusco roll bars all around. The elongated rear end and low body lines make this look decently high-class as it was designed for in Japan – and looks even cooler with all of these additions.
So, we have some looks, but what about performance?
Travis cruises the streets in this car as well, so the mod list is moderately… modest; it doesn’t have some crazy engine build and in a way can be deemed as reliable as a functional track car on the street. For those unfamiliar with the chassis, this JZX100 sedan is powered by a 1JZGTE VVTI attached to a factory five-speed manual transmission. Therefore you can embellish on some honest power, RWD and manual drive. Maybe behind the steering wheel you might want a more spirited drive. And why the heck not, right? The Chaser line was and still is pretty slick for factory from 1990s era-Toyota. They seemed to do such crazy and outlandish things back then. It’s a simple composition of what you’d like in a drift car.
An HPI intercooler sits out front connected by the HPI piping kit. Under the hood, you’d find an HPI J-pipe delete and an HPI turbo elbow that is straight-piped right through to an HKS muffler. She sings that 1JZ goodness.
As I mentioned before, there is a lot of cool stuff hiding and driving around in Saskatchewan. I hope to see some more “complete” cars out this season and the following seasons to come. As mentioned before, I appreciate the car for what it is: a form and function winner.
-Lee