Although I have been to a few events in the past at other locations, this specific track holds sentimental attatchment. Some years ago, before I made the trek out to start college in the panhandle, my friend James showed me a glimse into the world of drifting. Although I never made it to an event that he drove with his Jzx81 mark 2, I did finally go down from Dallas with him to attend KnuckleUp 6 with his new to him Nissan Silvia. Although I already enjoyed the style and presence this scene had to offer, KnuckleUp is a special kind of unique in the modern drifting scene. Due to its doors being damn near closed to invite only, this event was the hotspot for authentic and well executed late 90s and early 00's style, mimicing what was seen out of japan through outlets such as Video Option and Battle Magazine. Riding passenger for 4 hours to Houston from the DFW area in his s13 Silvia only to roll through the gates of Speedsportz to what seemed like a recreation of any given day at Nikko/Ebisu in those days really showed the level of effort many of the drivers here are willing to put in to emulate this style. Everywhere you look is more often than not to have a right hand drive drift car, in full paint and decked out with rare aero, this was the real deal.

Ever since that day in 2021, I've wanted more and more to be apart of this experience, I wanted to build my own machine. For some years now I've been driving an NA Mazda Miata, which worked well and did provide itself as a great learning experience in what goes into building one of these projects, however I wanted more. After a few events with that car and many months of saving what little money I had, along with shuffling some funds around to aquire a daily, I finally picked up my 1992 Nissan 240sx. Over the course of 2024, I rebuilt the blown up KA24de, restored the entire fuel system, rebuilt and painted a body kit, styled up the interior, purchased some Work VSKF's and welded my differentia, I finally had an entry level car that I felt was "KnuckleUp Ready." My goal for 2024 was to drive at least ONE event at KnuckleUp before the year's end, which in this case was their finale Double Cup 4, a twin drift competition where along with their typical open track experience, you and one partner of your choosing enter in a comp to see who can put down the best two person tandem lap. Although I didn't go in expecting to win anything, I still thought the idea was fun enough to give it a go. After some weeks and my teammate declining my offer to drive with him a year out because he was "already partnered with ---" A familiar face surfaced on the internet who was looking for a partner, the original source for why I built my miata now lived in the Texas area and needed someone to drive with, so I send him a message. Soon enough, he agreed, even with my little experience driving in tandem, we decided to make it work.

Driving as much as I could on friend's racing sim setups to get an idea of how this new car would handle vs the miata that I already grew acustomed to, I found a tight balance between preparing the remaining parts to be installed between work, school, and sim time as the day got closer and closer to when I would leave for Houston. The last steps on the setup were to run Bransons old gktech roll center correctors and install a cusco strut tower brace to try and tighten up the front of my s13. Unfortunately we found out that once installed, the gktech RCC no longer fit my front wheels as they would collide with the coilover, and when a spacer was applied, the scrub radius was so large it would immediately hit all of the inner wheel wells. At this point, Branson was very kind and let me borrow his OG TE37's to run on the front of my car for DC4. These wheels are not cheap and did make me very nervous to mess them up in any way due to their inherent value, however It was either this or raise the front of my car, which we both felt was lame.

At this point for most of 2024 while going to school, on primarily the weekends I worked at an auto parts store to throw whatever I could at building this car, although this was better than the tire shop from before, I was still constantly broke and it made any progress feel like taking a step over the trenches in the Great War. Retrospectively I'm surprised how far this project got under those circumstances, but either way that needed to change. Late into December within the couple weeks before DC4, I was given the opportunity at a new job, it's adjacently related to my major and pays significantly more than any other place I've worked before only caveat being that its a night shift. The stars seemed to align and managed to get it. As long as I can keep up with the work school balance, 2025 will be the year I make this car something special, to me anyways.

Begin packing for Houston, also forked up the cash for a trailer due to our track record with s13's making it back in one piece

I really can't understate how much relief it is having a trailer for this trip, especially knowing exactly how much money was in my bank account at the time in the event anything happened.

Houston, or at least Ty's place, 12 hours of driving and 2 of us contracting a disease, we made it.

Up until this point I have been street driving the s13, trying to work out any last minute issues, one of those was my alignment. Constantly pulling to the right I was short on time and already under enough stress, so I took it to a local place that does low car alignments in the houston area. Who would've thought multiple other drivers for the same event would also be there last minute!! Ran into mr initialsilvia who I met while doing media around 2022 or so. Did lots of catching up while waiting a few hours to get my car on the rack.

It sat in time out for those hours lol

This photo really doesnt do this car justice because of the blown up kit and swapped back to oem hood, but I finally got to meet esteban, who I actually bought my "gp sports" side skirts from earlier that year. Out of all the newer people I got to meet on this trip, he was definitely one of the best to talk to, and especially to tandem with! This green is incredible too.

FINALLY on the rack!

Annnnd thats way more camber than I expected! those gktech RCC's are no joke, this is with maxed out top hats on PBM coilovers but still crazy.

Turned out that my alignment I did back in amarillo with toe plates actually did a good job zeroing the toe, but I must have glossed over my coilovers being slightly different heights (and the top nut came loose AGAIN on the passanger side after the event making this worse). But at the very least for this event, after leaving that shop it felt really dialed, yes on mostly stock arms but it felt good for the first time, and I was slowly gaining confidence in myself and in the car again.

SpeedSportz, James returns in his pink machine, and for the first time, next to my own. They differ in style by a lot but I think both hit the mark on what they're trying to achieve, or at least mine is broke but still trying if you had a walmart equivalent to break Ito, Itai, and koguchi combined.

BROWN! yeah.. I know get over it. But check that out a giant storm hits the track right after drivers meeting, along with the buzzing of phones in the pits alerting of a tornado only miles away!

Silly guys down the pits from us.

The first day went into the night, heres around the time the comp started (We didn't qualify) but still had so much fun!

Wild seeing all of these guys again.

Really cool pics I saved a while ago, unsure who took these but after some digging I'll give them a tag or take down if requested.

After two full days and zero issues, managing not to damage my aero and getting tons of seat time with friends, finally tandeming with Zay in his RB S14 and giving James a ride while his SR was fighting him tooth and nail, it was time to head home, but not empty handed.

This!! Is my new to me CA18det, what makes a 180sx a 180. And what will in the near future be powering my s13.

With the new job I'm hoping this swap goes by at a reasonable rate but It'll still take some time, I want to do it right and sort out as many issues as I can before taking it back to the track.

Until then, I work 8pm to 4am saving up funds to do it all again and keep up a little more with the fast guys.