For the past week I’ve been in British Columbia and Alberta on a road trip based around the infamous Drift Union Invitational. After hearing what a blast this event always is, I decided at the end of last summer that I’d be going this year – one hundred percent. Needless to say, I couldn’t be more happy with that decision. Although there were some complications getting there after the car Carter Jackson originally built to go to the event decided to start knocking the night before, it wasn’t anything that stopped us indefinitely.
Pictured here is Carter and his daily driver in which he was not planning on taking. We had to grind that Wednesday afternoon away getting a few exhaust leaks and boost leaks figured out. The number four injector wasn’t sealing properly due to the fuel rail itself being bent out of shape, which was an easy enough fix.
Pictured here is the car Carter was planning on taking and had put insane amounts of work into over the past month or so in preparation. Installing the GTX3071 and a new top mount manifold, along with new cams and other supporting mods, the car was insane for about three days until the engine decided it had enough.
Then it was onto the exhaust leaks, where the manifold and turbo were pulled out of the engine bay to get new gaskets.
After all was said and done, the car ran better than ever and was ready to be loaded onto the trailer.
No Miley Street Junkee banner for this car, but this sticker would suffice.
Just a fraction of Carter’s spare tires loaded up. The rest would go in the back of the 180sx.
We were off and out of Regina by 9:45PM and aimed to drive as far as possible.
It wasn’t until 5:30AM or so when we got to Banff and decided to find a parking lot to crash. We figured a few hours of sleep would recharge us to get the rest of the way to Penticton. It was my first time stopping in Banff and it looked exactly how I thought it would: simply gorgeous.
On our way to Penticton that afternoon we met up with our friends Jon Fiorante – with the black 4 door Skyline – and Blair Mcintosh with the white BN S-Chassis we featured last summer. Here’s a pic of probably the smallest tent I’ve ever seen, along with some of Jon’s spares unloaded at our campsite. Jon would never actually end up using the tent, but made the rear seats in his truck work.
I had to take a picture of this thing another friend brought along, as it was easily the biggest tent I’ve ever seen. You could literally park that Civic inside it and probably still have room to play a comfy game of beer pong.
And then our friend Adrian Ahmadi showed up with his 180sx. He’s pictured here bolt-checking all of his suspension components to make sure nothing came loose on the vibrating trailer.
Pulling a diff out to get welded before the event – the things these drifters do! Carter and Lucas put in work to get the 180sx slideable in the rain on wet grass.
It wasn’t too long after getting our site set up when a couple of our friends from Drift Farm showed up. The first picture is Kurtis Goat’s insane 2JZ powered S13.4.
Followed by Dustin Brewster’s Zenki S14 on a sick set of Work Eurolines.
We unloaded the trailer down the mountain from the Lost Moose Campsite at Penticton Speedway – after a good 16 hour-or-so trip. Jon’s Stitch Gulf wheels fit perfectly in the pulled-out quarters.
Joining us from Regina was the Blacksmith team. Here is Riley Empringham’s Miata sitting lonely in the mountains. Although underpowered, the car did great the whole event and Riley says he has some big plans for the car in the future. I really hope it happens because I love Miatas!
Coming out so freaking hard this year was Kyle Zimmer’s R32 Skyline. Having been tuned the night before in Calgary until roughly 3AM, it was quite a journey for Kyle to get to BC. I was so glad to see him out having fun on the track all weekend long and a couple ride alongs were much appreciated!
Big and little.
Oh yeah, here’s a picture of our view from atop the mountain.
Now we get into the pits at DUI2014. After we unloaded and set up, I grabbed a few pics before the mayhem began on the track. I got to see Alex Lee’s V8 powered Serial Nine Aristo for the first time in person, and pictures don’t do this thing justice!
Paul Harrison’s TE72 is always one of my favorites to see on track.
Team Drift Farm in its whole form. Now onto the action shots…
Kurtis Goat and Kurtis Gilbert getting close and personal.
Jon Fiorante getting down in his RB25 Skyline.
Dustin a.k.a. DuggyB entering the hair pin.
This year was my first year seeing Jordan Hall’s new setup in action. It’s a pretty insane sight to see a Miata so fast and create so much smoke.
Alex Lee in action.
Adrian and his 180SX pulling his bumper around the track. I might be mistaken, but I swear he did two laps like this haha.
Adrian and Jordan exiting the hair pin.
Devin Horsely in his AE86 and Paul in his TE72 exiting the hair pin.
Platform Garage slayed the entire weekend and would take 1st place in the Team Tandem competition. These guys were a blast to watch!
Zimmer up on the bank.
There’s a bumper in the smoke somewhere. Jordan sliding the bank in his SR20-powered Miata.
The Signal Auto-inspired 180SX looks so right out on the track all weekend – especially up on the bank!
I have to say I’ve never taken so many pictures in such rapid succession at an event before. I’m used to shooting one or two-car runs, where they have full use of the track for a couple laps. At DUI it was a constant flow of cars and it became a regular thing to see four or five-car trains. Pure awesomeness!
Part two coming very soon!