Hi everyone!
I made precisely one other build thread in my lifetime so please bear with me, this may be a TLDR situation;
The car is a 2002 IS300 with the typical story we all know and love. I wanted to take a break from drifting, sold my S13, got the office job I went to school for, etc; I thought this was my chance to be 'normal'. After a rollercoaster of life events, I then ended up in a Honda Accord, the furthest thing from drifting that I could be: a FWD NPC vehicle. Life was bleak at the time.
The S13 that was sold:
When you are down, many of us know it is quite difficult sometimes to get back up. Days become harder, the meaning of life starts to fade, and everything just starts to blend together in this baby food concistency for the average human to just swallow. BUT I WANT TO SAY, I have the best friends anyone can ask for. Every step of the way supporting my return back to the hobby that brought us all together in the first place.
I then traded the Accord for the Lexus IS300.
It may look clean in the photo above, and it definitely was to an extent, but this car was blessed with the IS300s weakness; a rebuilt title. Despite everyone's advice, I decided to pick up the car anyway. The inital intention was basic: a cool daily that was a little bit more entertaining to drive, AC, a sunroof, and newfound Toyota reliability.
A day passed, and someone posted H&R shocks and Koni springs locally for I believe $100 so I took that as a sign and installed them immediately:
Aligned for the first time:
Quickly started addressing every oil leak I can find, polishing the body up, and cleaning everything to make it feel like mine. All services in the beginnning were being performed at Faction! Motorsports in Rutherford, NJ. I believe the service we did included cam seals, front main seal, valve cover gaskets, etc. None of which fixing the leak which turned out to be the VVT-i cam gear leaking inside the timing cover and making the absolute largest mess ever any time you drove more than 30 minutes.
Bought a set of cheap wheels because again, they were local and $150. You see the trend here:
I drove it in this form for a while. Just going where I need to go, maybe switching the wheels for winter but life was good. Even acquired a set of wheels I always liked: 17x9 5Zigen FN-01
I started to find out that the car actually felt pretty good to kick around! Sure it would only lock up on left turns but mind you, I have not drifted in a few years at this point and was probably foaming at the mouth with the thought of: hey, I can do this again. So............
Now I needed a manual. I thought hey, I can daily drive a manual car it won't be crazy. With the amount of options with transmissions, there were pros and cons for each. A W series transmision would have longer gearing and be more fragile but retain that OEM feel. Any other 'non-oem' option would create a great deal of noise in the cabin, and require more modification.
WELLLL a CD transmission was for sale locally again for, you guessed it: $150. I pondered this for about a minute or so and bought it because, well, I am hard headed and I was certain I can get this so called 'loud' transmission to be usable everyday.
I was dead wrong. We did this swap 17 times on the ground utilizing the Collins 'cut bell-housing' kit. I know, I know. How???? This was my first time ever getting something that was not intentionally for the car to begin with, to work. Multiple combinations of clutches, slave cylinders, master cylinders, bleeders, and 3 transmissions. I was punching the air every day looking for a solution.
Eventually, got the car to drive, bought some bits and pieces along the way:
Put about 20k on the car just driving it around, switched the coil and spring to a BC Coilover (+200 cash on my end) , wheels to 18 inch AVS Model VS5s. My neighbor was throwing out a fixed back bucket seat that I scooped up, I bought an ebay Altezza style lip, and some side skirts (at the time i did not care much for the rear lip) Aside from the chatter I actually quite enjoyed the gearing vs. the W-series. tit for tat.
Couple more weeks go by and I acquired a welded diff. At this point I am now onto the idea that this car can possibly be less of a daily and partially a drift car. SO, I bought my first Toyota Sequoia to hopefully set myself up to be able to trailer the car to events and have a rolling couch to drive and sleep in despite the rising gas prices. So that is exactly what I did; I towed my own car for the very first time in the dead of winter for a Englishtown private day with some friends I made at the shop:
Sequoia had some wheels I bought from facebook for yet another $150 and brand new Kumho AT52s I got from TireRack.
The car actually eventually popped one of the axle stubs out, having me believe it was a blown diff. So after
addressing that, I noticed a tin sound at the bottom of my oil pan. Low and behold it was a thrust washer that dropped from the rotating assembly (no idea how the hell that happened to be honest) so I pulled the motor out again, and traded it with some cash for a 2JZGE longblock with unknown mileage from a friend of a friend (thank you David D, the motor is kicking just fine). MY best friend Darrel (probably the sole reason anything got done during this time), actually needed to sell David an SC400 as well so we towed that up and my GE to upstate NY during a rain storm.
Got the motor back to my garage, tore it down as much as I wanted to, replacing every seal along the way. I taught myself how to do valve seals, how everything goes back together, and practicing general cleanliness:
(sorry for the lack of photos of the when the motor was picked it up, but you just have to trust it looked like a boat anchor)
Before:
After:
Motor back in, car started first try.
I drifted the car this way for a little while. The limit of the IS with regards to drifting was honestly just the amount of stock angle the car had. It was not impossible, however with so many aftermarket options almost readily available, I caved. I was hell bent on using the stock plant so that I can just drive it at 110% all the time. Slowly, I was ridding the car of its daily driving capabilities. Nonetheless, throughout my drifting "journey" I have never had any sort of angle kit. Found a cheap DriftHQ kit, paired it with some GS outer tie rods, and new LBJs.
I went through a few events with the car in this stage. Proving its reliability to me as I continually drove it on the street as much as I saw fit. I learned more and more about what the car really needed in terms of agreeing with my driving style. There was a lack of rear grip due to the stock rear suspension configuration. Ignoring that, I chose to give the car a bit of an exterior upgrade. Ended up ordering a cheap body kit online, finding a paint guy locally, and teaching myself how to paint using a paint gun for the first time. Found a rear wing off my favorite place to spend all my money: FB marketplace. I believe it came off of an R33. I thought it fit that 00's aesthetic that I view as my favorite era of drifting. I ended up making some eyelids as well, mainly because i did not want to wait the 5 weeks or whatever it is for shipping.
The car is slowly falling apart here and there. Yes that is blue vinyl wrap that I ordered off Amazon specifically to bring to events for quick repairs (sometimes I lay masking tape down and then the wrap on top? chefs kiss lol)
Onto the most recent modifications started with eliminating some of the rear camber by installing generic rear upper control arms:
More rear grip, running better tires.
Nearing the end of the year, I had an opportunity to drive MidPond for TriptoThePond v5 and was extremely ecstatic. I also acquired a new to me Sequoia that had everything I could ever want. The almighty 04' Limited with a frame replacement (east coast things) Unfortunately, tragedy struck:
The driftHQ angle kit sheared off, thus ending my Trip to the Pond experience. Still had a great time, met some great people, and finally got to take my now 2nd Sequoia on my first long roadtrip:
I was in a bit of a time crunch at this point as I was about to participate in my first competition for East Coast Drift School. THANKFULLY, I had some friends with spares that were able to get to me in time so I can get YET ANOTHER alignment prior to driving. Shoutout to Bayside Brent, Rawson, and my friend James V. The new setup now consists of HEYMAN Knuckles, JZX upper control arms, and new 555 GS inner tie rods.
The final event of this year for me was the Casino Royale kart track competition. As I mentioned, this was the first competition for me. This was a chance for me to show my friends and family that this sport I love is real. I even got my mom to come! We did not advance as far we had hoped, but my friends and family's support had me feeling like I was on the top of the world. Thank you to Ken Fuji and Darrel once again for helping me that day.
The evolution of this car hasn't been groundbreaking or shocking by any means. However, I would not change a thing. This car taught me how to work on things, how to look at challenges differently. Driving changed once I decided to commit a little bit for once. Throughout all the emotional turmoil, mental struggle, and every day challenges the IS was something that I can go to and escape. I met some of the most valuable people in my life because of it and hope others can experience the same. 2023 was great. If you made it this far reading this, I commend you. This was a long post that had me smiling ear to ear.
Will keep updating this as I go, thank you to the creators of thedriftclub.
K-SPEC/Faction Motorsports
Karl did full write up on his IS ❤️