So…. I guess I’ll continue where I left off…. 6 months ago 🙂
Lets get things started with a quick little recap of previous events. This site, and a few other “build threads” from back when I frequented internet forums, is built off of a car I purchased in February of 2005. It catapulted me into the ridiculous sport that is known as drifting. I was still in highschool, about to graduate, and every one of my friends had Honda Civics, Integras…. stuff like that. I had stumbled upon the 240sx and, subsequently, drifting. I don’t know about anyone else, or what they think about the sport, but once I discovered the “drifting” world/community…. my life was completely changed. Drifting had been around for a few years by the time I found it, but it was still a relatively new sport in the US back in 2003/2004 when I had really started to look at these cars.
I made the purchase through a local drifting forum called D-Town which is pretty much dormant nowadays. It took me a couple summers to get the car to where I wanted it, but once it was running, I drove it through college and countless events across the country. From the midwest states of Minnesota and South Dakota, to southern Arizona and eastern Florida. It allowed me to meet some of the coolest people on the planet and I can truly say I have a set of life-long friends in each of those states. As a matter of fact, most of these people I would not know today if I hadn’t started drifting.
Now, getting to the point of this post. As it turns out, there is a circle of life for all things. It seems that most cars snatched up by teenagers learning how to drift somehow end up killing the car within the first year or two. I guess I could consider myself luck it lasted close to 8 years.
Anyways, this car no longer exists…. here’s how it happened:
While driving a local grassroots event at Three Palms Speedway in Punta Gorda, FL, my rear tire de-laminated coming off the bank. I could feel the vibration from a flap on the tire, but didn’t really think much of it. The tires were high performance tires of a quality brand that were given to me as used tires, very similar to tires I’d used at numerous other events. They were still extremely healthy looking and I had only done a single lap on them beforehand. I was in disbelieve they could be shredding so fast so I decided to stay in it (bad move). Anyways, I came off the bank, transitioned onto the straight (the car felt pretty loose) and transitioned again back into the opposing bank….spinning right into a wall.
I was really lucky that the wall was lined with monster truck tires as I came in pretty hot. My passenger and I were fine and we let the track crew check us out quick before we dragged the car off the track back to the pits. Going back to that drifting community I was talking about earlier. It’s pretty amazing how fast all of my friends rounded up a truck and trailer for me to load it onto. I honestly hadn’t even thought about how I was going to get it home before my buddy walked up and told me he was going to go get his friends trailer to tow it home and he’d be right back. It was way cool how everyone rallied together to help me out… especially since I really had only met these guys 2 or 3 times since living in Florida. #grassrootsforlife
Here are some pictures of the car and a video of the crash. Oh well, all good things come to an end!
Crash: 2:12
Aftermath: 3:22
So, with that being said, it was time to strip this glorious chariot of all it’s guts and glory. My faithful steed, it’s time to put you to rest.
As with any twisted chassis, proper steps for destruction MUST include a sawzall. These cars really are pop cans. It probably took me a total of 45 minutes cutting time to get this thing from chassis to pile of garbage. Goodbye.
Wall memento.
But wait….. there’s more!!
In the next installment, I will finally start talking about the new car. Yes, a new car….. House Of The 450sx v2.0!! Plans were originally to salvage everything off this car, minus the chassis, and transfer everything over to the new one. However, in my infinite wisdom, took this opportunity to somehow let it snowball out of control and build what I have envisioned for years. Below are a few shots of the new chassis. She sure looks like a pile now, but this thing will be a gem when finished.
House of the 450sx 