Midnight Mechanics – 2012 Season
The last twelve months has absolutely blown by, but for us Midnight Mechanics it has been a year of unforgettable drift events. Our 2012 saw more track time together than any other year, and as such we have been getting quite the collection of footage from each of our events. I thought it would be suitable to do a compilation of all of our events from this year into one video. I’m looking forward to bringing you guys even more footage for the 2013 season. With both Jasons now running high strung 4agte setups, Cass’s ae86 coupe build and his current 20v Ae86 hatch along with my Sr20 ae71 build, we are really looking forward to ripping up the track even more so this year! E!CM
The 2012 Queensland Raceway Matsuri
Many of you may be thinking that Matsuri is purely about drifting. Well, you would be wrong.
The Queensland Raceway Matsuri, for many, is an escape from every day reality. It is about the struggle between that boring life you live week in week out and the one thing that rips you away from it all. It is about the culture that we all live in, and most of all it is about spending time with your closest of friends.
For myself, and my close friends and fellow members of the Midnight Mechanics Jason Murray and Cassian Finnerty Matsuri was all of these things and more. Across both the 6th and 7th of October, 2012 there was no one thing that concerned us more than the smooth bitumen that we call Queensland Raceway. E!CM
Tandems!
Filmed and Edited: Cooper Macmillan Edited: Courtney McColgan
I know this post is slightly overdue, but the short track series ended with some spectacular driving that can’t go unmentioned. The drivers were out in full force with plenty of amazing entries and extremely close tandems. This series has been one of the best so far in Queensland for the drifting scene, and I definitely hope for it to pick up again. The atmosphere at these events is super friendly and of course with Mez M.C.ing, the night was even better. Flynn Dowling didn’t participate in the tandems as he had, somewhat unwillingly, entered the competition side, rendering him unable to join in on the tandem fun, but he did very well in the comp…
New Wallpapers | That Old Film Feeling
Here you go guys; I have added some new wallpapers for everyone to check out. I recently got my hands on some smooth Fujifilm Pro 160 NPS film so I thought what better way to try it out than on the Corolla and give you all some images to have!
Two Red Ae71′s
This this week I took a drive up to meet with Matt Sheather who was helping me out with some mod plate issues in my Corolla. Some of you may have seen his ae71 floating around as it looks very similar to mine, but with a very interesting difference. The first time I saw Matt’s car was up at a Queensland Raceway during a private day. Imagine seeing a very subtle red Corolla come out of corner two at QR. Now imagine this very same car accelerate up to mental speeds you wouldn’t have thought possible in a 1984 4 door sedan. I was mind blown.
Pulling Apart Jason’s 4agze
It’s a good feeling being near the good end of an engine conversion, isn’t it? I have been showing you guys a lot of the work Jason has been up to recently with his 4agze, but today I thought it might be good to show you where he has come from. As many of you would know; the 4age series of motors are getting quite old now with some of them getting around the 25 year mark. The 4agze that was sitting in Jason’s car when he bought it was quite tired and never really ran too well. Eventually it just gave up. These are some of the photos I took on the day we took it apart.
New Clutch | Time for a run in
I’ve just recently picked myself up one of these GoPro Hero 2′s which I have seen some fantastic footage with. Check out the GoPro web site! As many of you will know I have just purchased a new clutch and flywheel for the Corolla as well so the other day I took the GoPro and the car for a bit of a test run.
I will be doing many many more videos on the track as well as hills (maybe when the weather is a little more dry). To get the best quality go to Vimeo so you can view it in HD!
Cheers Guys!
- Grant
The Corolla Is Back!
I’m very happy to be writing this right now as I have not driven my Corolla since I completely obliterated my clutch at the Queensland 24 Hour Matsuri. Having been very busy with the magazine as well as work and university I simply have not had the money to buy a new clutch nor the time to source out the larger 212mm flywheel that I wanted to run. With a large thanks to Andrew from Kudos Motorsport I was able to promptly order in a brand new Exedy clutch, but this was only half of my problem sorted.
Car Feature | More Whine Than a Frenchman at Dinner
One of the things that I love so much about the 4agze motor is the noise that comes from them. It is like nothing else. There is that unmistakable 4age note coming from the exhaust, but the high pitched whine that the supercharger emits just leaves you speechless. Listening to Mereki Dawson power his baby blue 4agze powered ke70 through the Queensland Raceway Short Track left me in this exact state.
Retrospective | 4AGZE Build
Searching though many of my past images over the last few weeks it occurred to me that it has been over two years since I placed my 4agze into my Corolla. Considering this was the second engine conversion I had done on the car it was mind boggling to realise how quickly time had passed. I thought it would be fitting to show some of the images I took while the work was taking place all those years ago.
