Wheel horsepower is how much power the car actually delivers to the wheels. It’s measured after the power passes through the drivetrain, so it’s a practical number for real driving and racing.
The Toyota GR 86 is a small sports car meant for fun handling. It’s designed to feel responsive and balanced when you drive it. The podcast brings it up as one of the cars in the guest’s project history.
Car
Toyota 3S GTE
They mention the Toyota 3S GTE, which is a turbo engine that’s famous in Toyota circles. The episode says the Celica originally used that kind of engine, but this new build changes it.
Car
Toyota Stout
They also talk about a Toyota Stout project. It’s a less common Toyota, and the point is that Ryan put a performance engine in it (a 3S GTE).
They’re talking about a Toyota Celica that’s been rebuilt with newer parts. The goal is to keep the car’s vibe but make it faster and more capable.
Car
Toyota G16E
They say Ryan changed the Celica’s engine to the Toyota G16E. It’s a newer turbo engine design, and the swap is a big reason the build can feel more modern and capable.
They mention the GR Yaris because it uses the same Toyota G16E engine. That helps explain why this engine choice makes sense for a performance build.
Term
direct ejected turbocharged engine
They’re describing a turbo engine that uses direct fuel injection. Direct injection means the fuel is sprayed right into the engine, and the turbo helps make more power.
Tuning EFI means adjusting the computer settings that control fuel delivery. The goal is to get the engine to run correctly and make power without running too lean or too hot.
A wiring harness is the car’s electrical “cables and connectors” that connect the engine computer to sensors and components. If it’s wrong or poorly made, the car can run badly or not start.
A “performance engine” is an engine that’s been modified to make more power or feel more responsive. People usually change things like how it breathes and how it gets fuel so it can perform better.
Data logging means recording what the car’s sensors and computer are doing while you drive or race. It helps you figure out what’s going wrong and whether a tune change actually improved things.
Fabrication means making custom parts by physically building them—like cutting and welding pieces together. Performance projects often need custom brackets, mounts, or exhaust pieces.
Drifting is when you steer the car so it slides sideways through a turn on purpose. It’s not just chaos—good drifting is about staying in control and doing it smoothly.
The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution is a fast, performance-focused car with a turbo engine and all-wheel drive. It was known for rally-style driving and strong enthusiast support. The podcast is mentioning it because people feel like it’s no longer around the way it used to be.
The idea is that Toyota (or any brand) decides to make more cars that are fun to drive, not just practical. That usually leads to better driving feel, stronger engines, and more tuning-focused engineering.
They’re talking about the Toyota Camry as the typical, everyday Toyota most people buy. The point is that enthusiast cars are sold to fewer people than the regular commuter models.
Formula One is the highest level of racing with very advanced technology. If a car company returns to F1, it often helps them build better performance know-how for their regular cars too.
Scion was a Toyota brand that sold more “enthusiast” cars. It was used a lot in racing and sponsorships because it helped teams get support and attention.
The Scion FR-S is a small sports car with rear-wheel drive. People like it because it’s a good starting point for upgrades and building a car to their taste. The podcast is referencing it as the guest’s first Scion project.
An inline-six is an engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line. Because it’s often physically longer/heavier than a four-cylinder, it can move weight around and make the car handle differently.
Front-wheel-drive means the front wheels do the work of moving the car. That setup can make the front end carry more load, which changes how the car feels when you turn.
Trailing arm suspension is a rear suspension design where the arm pivots and controls wheel movement through suspension travel. The speaker highlights it as something they still like, implying it provides predictable behavior for their competition setup.
A steering kit is a set of parts that makes the steering feel tighter and more precise. The goal is usually to help the car turn in more predictably, especially when you’re driving hard.
They’re talking about how the back of the car sits and how far it sticks out. If it’s short, you can end up hitting the wall with the tire or wheel even if you think you’re clearing it.
They’re talking about switching from a smaller engine with four cylinders to one with six. The reason is basically to get more power and make the car perform better without hitting limits.
Car
B58 engine
The B58 is a turbo inline-six engine used by BMW. It’s mentioned here because the team chose a stronger, more capable engine direction for the project.
Concept
power limit vs grip limit
They’re saying there’s a point where your car’s power becomes the limiting factor. If you add more grip but don’t have enough power to use it, the car won’t feel like it’s improved as much as it could.
It’s not just about having a lot of horsepower. A faster car also needs the right balance of power versus weight, and it needs enough traction so the tires can actually use that power. If the tires can’t grip, extra power won’t make the car easier to drive or faster through corners.
A trailing-arm suspension is a way of mounting the rear wheels so they move in a controlled path. The upside is it can help the tires stay planted and generate more grip. The downside is it can make the car feel different when you change throttle, like when you lift off.
A five-link suspension is another rear suspension design that uses several arms to keep the wheel positioned more accurately. In drifting, that can help the car stay stable when you lift off the gas. The hosts are basically saying it’s easier to control grip with a five-link than with a trailing-arm setup.
Off-throttle grip is how well the tires keep holding the road when you stop pressing the gas. If the car loses grip when you lift, it can be harder to control the slide and set the angle. The hosts are saying the trailing-arm setup makes that part trickier.
Wheel horsepower is the power that actually reaches the tires. It’s usually lower than the engine’s advertised horsepower because some power is lost inside the drivetrain. It’s a useful number for comparing real-world performance.
Low RPM torque is how much pulling power the engine has when you’re not revving high. More low-end torque usually means the car feels responsive right away instead of waiting for higher RPM.
A power band is the part of the RPM range where the engine feels strongest. A wider power band means you don’t have to keep the engine at one specific RPM to get good acceleration.
Nitrous is a system that adds extra oxygen to the engine for a short burst of extra power. It can make the car feel much stronger quickly, even if the engine doesn’t naturally make huge torque at low RPM.
“Rods” refers to connecting rods inside the engine, which transmit piston motion to the crankshaft. The question about “keeping the rods in this block” implies they’re concerned about durability under higher loads, such as aggressive boost, nitrous, or hard launches.
Weight distribution means how the car’s weight is split front-to-back. If more weight is up front, the car often feels like it pushes or understeers more in turns, because the front is doing more of the work.
Engine tuning means adjusting the settings of the engine so it runs better. The goal is usually more power, better throttle response, and smoother operation.
WinOLS is a widely used software tool for editing ECU calibration data. Tuners use it to locate and modify maps that control engine behavior, such as fuel and ignition strategies.
CAN bus is how different car computers communicate. A CAN bus device is something that plugs into that communication system to read or control information.
Formula Drift is a racing series focused on drifting—driving the car sideways on purpose. Drivers are judged on how well they keep the slide going and how clean their runs look.
This is a Toyota Celica GT-Four, and “ST205” is basically the specific version of that Celica. People like it because it’s built for rally-style driving, so it’s a strong platform for tuning.
That’s a Ferrari V8 (from the 458) being used in a non-Ferrari build. It’s a big deal because it usually requires lots of custom work to make it fit and run correctly.
It means keeping the car’s body/chassis, but upgrading the important mechanical parts like the engine and drivetrain. Builders do this to get newer performance and easier parts support without starting from scratch.
They’re saying that before you commit to a build, you need to make sure replacement parts are actually available. Otherwise, the car can become hard to maintain or repair.
They mean choosing which engine and drivetrain parts to use together. It’s not random—builders research what will fit and work reliably with the rest of the car.
They’re talking about making sure the car’s body/chassis works with the drivetrain you want to install. It’s about fitment and compatibility so the swap can actually be done.
The Subaru WRX is a sporty car with a turbo engine and usually all-wheel drive. It’s popular with people who like fast driving and upgrades. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as one of the well-known performance cars people still talk about.
JDM means the car was made for Japan’s market. It can have different parts and specs than the same model sold in the U.S., so enthusiasts sometimes seek them out for that reason.
Donuts are when you spin the car in a circle on purpose, usually by breaking traction. With all-wheel drive, the car can often put power down more easily while you’re doing it.
NA engine means the engine doesn’t use a turbo or supercharger. It relies on normal airflow into the engine, which often feels less punchy than forced induction.
A donor car is a car you buy mainly to take parts from it or use it as the starting point for a project. It’s often cheaper than starting with the most desirable version of the model.
Homologation is the process of building a limited number of road-legal (or otherwise eligible) cars so a race version can compete under the rules. It’s common in rally and touring-car racing because the regulations require a production link to the race car.
The World Rally Championship is the biggest global rally racing series. Teams build and tune cars to follow the rally rules, and that’s why you’ll hear about specific technical limitations.
Wheel size affects what tires and brakes can physically fit on the car. In rally, teams sometimes can’t use smaller wheels because the suspension or brakes take up space.
Rally New Zealand is a famous rally event in New Zealand. They’re using it as a memory anchor for when those Toyota rally cars were the top competitors.
Anti-lag is a turbo trick that keeps the turbo “spooled up” even when you lift off the gas. That way, when you press the throttle again, you get power faster—very useful in rally driving.
The segment argues that rally drivers are uniquely skilled because they must adapt to changing surfaces and unfamiliar stages, often using pace notes while managing traction limits. Unlike circuit racing where the same corners are repeated, rally drivers encounter many different corners in a single event, demanding rapid learning and precise car control.
Pace notes are like a rally “cheat sheet” the driver uses during the stage. They describe what’s coming up next so the driver can go fast even though they haven’t driven the route before.
A drift car is built and driven to slide on purpose while staying in control. The driver uses throttle and steering in a very specific way to keep the car sideways without spinning out.
Four-wheel drive sends power to all four wheels. That can make the car feel different in turns because it grips more and the driver has to plan the corner earlier instead of just pivoting like in a drift car.
Pivoting is basically turning the car’s direction quickly by getting it to rotate. The point here is that the same “quick rotate” feeling doesn’t happen as easily when you switch from a drift setup to a 4WD rally setup.
Term
3S 5S combination
This sounds like mixing parts from two different Toyota engine families to make a setup that works better for the build. It usually means custom work and tuning so everything fits and runs correctly.
Cam control is a system that helps the engine open the valves at the right times for different speeds. It can make the car feel smoother and more efficient without sacrificing power.
“OEM setup” refers to the factory configuration engineered by the automaker, including calibration, materials, and component matching. Starting from an OEM design can improve baseline reliability because the engine was validated to run that way under real-world conditions.
Concept
engine project
An “engine project” in this context means a planned upgrade path—often involving internal components (like rods and pistons) plus supporting changes and tuning. The goal is to balance reliability with higher performance while keeping the engine’s modern control systems working correctly.
The GR Corolla is Toyota’s performance hatchback that uses a modern turbo engine. The host is using it as proof that this engine makes enough power for fun without being uncontrollable.
Stroke is how far the piston moves inside the engine. A longer stroke can help the engine make more “pull” at lower speeds, so the car feels torquey and easier to drive.
When you accelerate, a turbo needs time to build boost pressure. “Spooling the turbo” means how quickly it ramps up, which affects how responsive the car feels.
The BMW 8 Series is a luxury car designed for comfortable, fast driving. It’s meant to feel smooth and capable, including on longer trips. The podcast mentions it while talking about performance results and engine output.
“GR” is Toyota’s performance brand. Saying “GR engine” usually means it’s part of Toyota’s racing-focused lineup, designed to handle more performance than a basic engine.
A three-cylinder engine has three combustion chambers instead of four. The surprising part here is that, with the right turbo and tuning, it can still make a lot of power.
Kelford is an aftermarket camshaft brand commonly used in performance and motorsport builds. Camshafts control valve timing and lift, which helps an engine breathe better—especially important for boosted setups targeting high power.
SuperTech Valtrain is mentioned as the source for valvetrain components. Valvetrain upgrades (like valves, springs, retainers, and related parts) are often used to maintain control of valve motion at higher RPM and boost.
This is a company that makes performance engine parts like rods and pistons. When you’re pushing big boost, these parts are chosen to handle the extra stress safely.
The Garrett G3770 is a specific turbocharger model used for high-power applications. Turbo sizing affects spool characteristics and airflow; the G3770 is typically chosen when the goal is strong power at higher boost levels.
“PSI boost” is the amount of extra pressure the turbo forces into the intake manifold. Higher boost increases airflow and potential power, but it also raises stress on the engine—so supporting parts and sealing (like head gaskets/studs) become important.
The head gasket is a seal between the engine block and the cylinder head. With high boost, it can be the first thing to fail if the engine isn’t built to handle the pressure.
“Headroom” here means the margin of safety in the factory engine design—how much power it can handle before components become a limiting factor. The speaker notes that the community discovered surprisingly high power capability without changing many internal parts, which is a big deal for cost and build strategy.
Term
G16E engine
The G16E is referenced as a newer engine platform the build may be moving toward. The key idea is that changing engine architecture can affect how much power is possible and what supporting modifications are needed.
The oil pan is the part at the bottom of the engine that holds the engine oil. They’re measuring how tall the engine is from the bottom (oil pan) to the top (valve cover) to explain why it takes careful fitment.
The valve cover is the top cover on the engine that helps protect the moving parts inside. They mention it to explain how tall the engine is, which matters for fitting everything under the hood.
Packaging is about fitting the engine where it needs to go without hitting other parts. Tilting the engine toward the firewall can create more room and make it easier to work on the car later.
Vertical placement means how high the engine sits in the car. If the engine is tall, you have to place it carefully so it doesn’t run into the hood or other parts.
Serviceability is how easy it is to get to parts for maintenance. They’re saying the way the engine is fitted creates more room, so certain jobs are less annoying.
Term
drive trailer
This sounds like they meant “drivetrain,” which is the parts that send power to the wheels. They’re asking whether those parts are stock or modified.
The hosts clarify they’re using a Toyota engine for the build, which matters because Toyota powertrains have well-known fitment paths and aftermarket support. In this segment, they’re setting up a discussion of what’s been swapped and how it affects the overall build.
Hollinger makes race-focused transmissions. “Sequential” means you shift one gear at a time in order, which helps keep the car accelerating smoothly during hard driving.
Sequential means you can only go to the next gear up or down, one step at a time. Racers like it because it’s fast and consistent when you’re driving hard.
A transfer case is the part that routes power to the wheels in an AWD-style setup. If you’re building a custom drivetrain, picking the right one helps the car put power down the way you expect.
“Rear-end” is shorthand for the rear axle assembly, including the differential and final-drive gearing. In drivetrain builds, matching the rear-end to the transmission/transfer case is essential so the gearing and torque delivery work together without driveline bind or mismatched ratios.
LIVE
Yeah, we needed more capable, reliable power. And, you know, on Freddy's side of the team
on the Supra, the thing worked awesome. And they had probably about 300 wheel horsepower
they had over us at one time, which is a drastic amount. So if you have more power,
you can add more grip into the car and do different types of things. So
Welcome to the HPA Tune In podcast, I'm Andre your host and in this episode we're
joined again by Ryan Turk. Ryan's probably best known for his career in formula drift
in the US but he's also really well known for building some, in my opinion, the coolest
Toyota's out there. Last time we had him on the podcast we found out about his history
in drifting and we also found out about a couple of his project cars, particularly his
Ferrari 458 powered Toyota 86, as well as his, at the time, freshly built Toyota
Stout running a 3S GTE. And we've gone and done it again and we wanted to catch up with
Ryan about another car that he's just recently completed, which is his Toyota
Celica or Celica, if you're coming from the US, I don't know which way I want to go with that.
But either way, someone's going to take exception to the pronunciation.
In typical Ryan fashion, he's really gone and taken the original car but then modernized it
with the running gear and engine, particularly in this instance. An interesting choice in
engine going from the original 2.0L 3S GTE, he's actually dropped a cylinder and some
capacity to the very popular G16E engine. Of course the direct ejected turbocharged engine
that powers the GR Yaris as well as the GR Corolla. We talked to him about how he goes
about deciding on these builds, the process of this build, as well as selecting the engine
that he has selected here. We also wanted to catch up with Ryan and talk about his recent
move into business with 411 Works, supplying fabrication components all around the world.
So we talked about what it's like to take that plunge into business and what he's found
so far in the year or so that 411 Works has been running.
Before we jump into our chat, for those who are new to the TuneIn podcast, High Performance
Academy is an online training school. We specialise in teaching people how to build
performance engines, how to tune EFI, how to construct wiring harnesses.
We also cover topics on fabrication, 3D modelling and CAD, race driver education and data logging
training, just to name a few. You can find all of our courses at hpacademy.com forward
slash courses. All of these courses are delivered in high definition video modules that you can
watch from anywhere in the world provided you've got an internet connection.
This means you can learn from the comfort of your own place and you can learn at your
own pace. All of our courses also come with a 60 day no questions asked, money back
guarantee. So if you purchase them for any reason at all, decide it wasn't quite what
you expected, no problem, let us know, we'll give you a full refund.
And for podcast listeners, you can also use the coupon code podcast75 that will get you
$75 off the purchase of your very first HPA course.
We'll put the coupon code in the show notes to make it nice and easy for you to find.
Lastly, if you like free stuff, then I've got a great deal for you.
We are constantly partnering with some of the biggest names in the aftermarket performance
industry to give away some great prizes. You can always find our latest prize at hpacademy.com
forward slash giveaway. It might be an aftermarket ECU or dash, it could be some engine components
or engine building tools or just about anything in between.
They are great prizes and we will ship them free of charge to your door if you're the winner.
There's no tricks here, no purchase required to get your name into the draw.
Alright, enough with our introduction, let's get into our interview now.
Alright Ryan, welcome back to the podcast and as usual we kind of want to get a bit of your background.
We've already done this so let's get the abbreviated version, give us maybe the 30,000 foot view of who
Ryan Turk is for those who have been hiding under rock and have never heard your name before.
Sure, so yeah I'm a professional Formula D drift driver in the US and I've been competing
in Formula D full time since 2006. I'm now one of the old guys in the driver lineup.
In about 2016 I started really getting more into building cars and that's been another huge
build up to a huge passion of mine to where I now have a pretty cool garage full of awesome
pretty sweet Toyotas.
That is an understatement, an absolutely understatement.
Last time we caught up with you I think we probably covered off the stout build which
at the time had I think just been finished and now you've gone again and you've built a,
I'm going to call it a Celica because I come from New Zealand, you're going to call it a Celica?
I wish I could say Celica properly.
You did it.
We say Celica in the States unfortunately so that's probably the biggest thing people have been
ripping me up about that car is saying Celica.
It's not a Celica, it's a Celica.
Yeah I mean accents are in fact a thing and coming from New Zealand we often get comments
on our YouTube videos about my horrible accent and I mean I can't change it nor can you.
I love the New Zealand accent, I like the Australian accent, I think they're all great.
It's just such a you know worldly thing.
Let's park the drifting, maybe we'll talk about that a little bit because I've got some aspects
of that that I want to tie into your current trajectory but you're obviously very firmly
in the Toyota camp and I can get down with that because I think looking at the current
crop of cars that are coming out, Toyota at least as far as the Japanese manufacturers
go, I see as one of the only ones that are still actually making interesting cool cars
like everyone else has kind of gone dull and boring like there's no Mitsubishi Evo
anymore, it's just not like it used to be.
I guess the first question on that basis is like what is it around Toyota that they
saw the need to still bring out cars that appeal to the enthusiast?
I think it was just a thing, this is my theory and maybe I could be wrong but I've got to
potentially be close, I think Akiyo Toyota grew up in the era of the 90s with all the
cool Toyotas that we've had in the past and he went through so many years of watching
the brand do something different and I think when he got to the point of where he could
make some big things happen maybe, he decided that he wanted to inject some performance back
into the world of automobiles and he's done a phenomenal job at that.
I don't know how long ago he had to stage that process but he has made quite a unique
situation in the world that we live in today for an auto manufacturer.
Yeah 100% I mean obviously I have absolutely no clue about the economics of building passenger
vehicles, I can only imagine though that building something that appeals to the enthusiast
you're probably going to sell one of those to every 100 Camrys or some boring mundane
passenger vehicle that just gets people from A to B so on that basis does it make sense
for a brand to double down on enthusiast based vehicles?
I mean I want to say yes because I enjoy them so much and I'm one of the fans of that side
so I think they quadrupled down you know with how much they have going on to this day and getting
involved in Formula One again on a level with Haas team, I think his trajectory has really
truly been like very steep and very high and they're continuing to come out with more GR
vehicles in the car range of things, not even sedans but in hatchbacks and coupes and everything
so I think it's pretty special to be a part of Toyota in this era of the brand because
of how many cool things that they're coming out with.
Yeah now I couldn't agree more.
I guess if you could rewind how did you first get aligned with Toyota, how did that sort of come to pass?
So for me I you know I looked at Formula Drift probably back in 2012 just looking at you know
there was two manufacturers involved and there's still you know there's a couple more today
but mainly the two major ones were Scion at the time which is the sister brand to Toyota
and then there was Ford and they've been the two name stays for the majority of the Formula Drift
manufacturing sponsorship stuff and when I was younger I came from a GM program
and then back to a Nissan 240 for a year and then I decided I wanted to build my own car
and I you know you kind of can pick should I go back to an S13 and just build a new chassis
or maybe try to build something for the future and slowly potentially get some help from
one of the two manufacturers that are really involved.
So I did that I got a Scion FRS and I built that into my first Scion non Nissan car
and slowly things kind of turned around and we chipped away and chipped away and started a relationship
and then things you know throughout the years we started getting better part support
and a little bit more support here and there and then it really kicked off in 2020
when I jumped on the Papadakis Racing program where things really kind of came unlocked
and a lot more cool things were possible.
Looking in from the outside with the Papadakis Racing which we've had Stefan on the podcast
in the past, it looks like you've kind of made your job as difficult as possible
taking that platform and turning it into a competitive Formula D car.
Would you agree with that? I mean obviously it works, it's proven
but it doesn't seem like the simplest way to get to the podium.
I really do like the car, I think it's probably the best competition car that I've had.
Now let me add an asterisk to that, it was the best competition car I've had
when I had the four-cylinder engine in it.
Now it has an inline six and being a front-wheel-drive car that pushes the weight really over the nose
and that changed the whole chassis dynamics of the vehicle
which I'm still kind of trying to come to grips with
but beyond that is still, I really like the trailing arm suspension in the rear.
Stuff developed a really nice steering kit for the front
and it's just a nice car to drive, it's super capable
and I build a lot of confidence behind the wheel
and I'm just complaining about the lastly, you know, 5% that I want to get out of that car.
Overall it's still a phenomenal vehicle to drive
and the only other really slight drawback is just how short the rear bumper is
so when you're grazing walls and stuff, if you go in just a little more than you want to
it typically means that you're going to have your tire or your wheel also in the wall.
Yeah, okay.
Yeah.
Let's talk about that change from the four-cylinder to the six-cylinder.
I can assume here that was driven by power and reliability.
Yeah, we needed more power or we needed more capable, reliable power
and we're at the limit of what the four-cylinder was doing at the time
and Steph just didn't want to, he wanted to kind of consolidate,
he already invested money into developing the B58 engine program
and, you know, on Freddy's side of the team on the Supra, the thing worked awesome
and they had probably the most power difference, probably about 300-wheel horsepower they had over us at one time.
Wow.
Which is a drastic amount.
So, you know, we're limited to your car setups at that point.
You can't push the car setup any further than you can on the power side.
So, if you have more power, you can add more grip into the car
and do different types of things.
So, I was on board with the change and it was, yeah, it just made it better for the program as well
to share the same engine program.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
On that basis, is it just a case of more power is better?
Surely there is a limit.
Well, yeah, there's definitely a limit, I think, for, you know, there's always going to be that balance of power
to weight and power to grip and all of that.
I will say with the trailing arm setup that you can add more grip than you'd ever want out of the car.
So, if you keep out in power, you can keep out in grip.
It's pretty wild how the trailing arm setup works
and now that I've been driving it for going to be my seventh year in that car, it's awesome.
I just like how adjustable it is and how easy it really is to dial in grip out of the car compared to like a five-link setup.
Yeah, maybe can you talk to us a little bit about what you think that trailing arm setup gives you as an advantage
over a multi-link or any other sort of rear suspension design?
Yeah, I think it just lets you drive the wheels into the ground a lot harder.
Basic, you know, since it's on more of a swing arm setup.
Sure.
Now, it does have a con where it floats a lot more off throttle, so it's a lot harder to get off throttle grip.
So, you're basically steering with the throttle a lot of times where you have to be on the gas to get it to go where you want to.
Now, you have to do that with other cars as well, but side-byte in a five-link is typically better than the trailing arm setup that we have.
Okay.
In terms of power numbers, we just talked about is more power better.
Like, where do you need to be now?
Obviously, power is just one of 100 metrics that you need to be on top of to be competitive,
but where do you need to be now in Formula Drift to be on the top step of the podium?
I think you're still looking at about 1,000 horsepower at the wheels probably, yeah.
I feel like that hasn't changed much since the last time we chatted.
No, no, it's about the same.
But reliability, of course, with a B58 is going to be dramatically better.
It's just a less stressed platform, and I'm guessing also a wider power band, more low RPM torque.
Man, that is one of the tougher things, like the way that Steph had the power come on with the four-cylinder.
Now, it was a 2.7-liter four-cylinder, so a huge stroke in the thing.
Yeah, so you're actually not that far down on capacity.
Yeah, and when the nitrous came in, it was just like a wall of power.
It was unbelievable. I loved it so much.
I guess nitrous is going to make up for a lot of disappointment in terms of low RPM torque,
so maybe that's not a fair comparison.
For sure.
So my biggest difference between the two engines is the four-cylinder hit like an absolute hammer,
and the six-cylinder was just really smooth and a lot more linear.
Now, it's still made phenomenal power and still ramped up pretty well,
but it just doesn't hit like the four-cylinder did, and I love that hit as low as possible.
I'm like, Steph, are we keeping the rods in this block today?
Right, you mentioned the weight distribution, which kind of is a no-brainer with an inline six versus a transverse four.
What is that actually equate to in terms of the driving feel that we're just talking like a lot more push from the front end?
It just pivots off the nose a lot differently.
So the four-cylinder was like borderline kind of where you would want the weight to be just put into the front over the front axle.
So the four-cylinder already had two and a half cylinders over the front axle,
where now you have a six-cylinder that doesn't weigh that much more than the four-cylinder package.
It probably weighs maybe 40 to 50 pounds more overall, which is not much,
but you have all this extra weight now hanging over the nose,
so you only have a little over four cylinders over the front axle all the way out to the front bumper.
So that's going to make the car pivot a lot differently over the front end
than you would with some weight hanging closer to the driver's side, or the driver firewall.
And it changed it way more than I ever anticipated it would,
because we were only looking at the point, the fact that oh it's like 40, 50 pounds, no big deal,
we'll just put some ballast somewhere else and offset it and no, it just, it was completely different
and it's just taken quite a bit of time to figure out.
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Alright let's get back to the episode.
Being that you've been competing in Formula Drift for as long as you have,
is the passion still there?
Is it sort of just a case of Groundhog Day now?
I would say yes and no.
I think having kids has kind of changed my perspective in starting a young family.
It changed my perspective a lot on just life and my career and what I've been able to do over the years
and just all the fun I've been able to have.
I think it makes me appreciate it a lot more.
And maybe that's perfect because yes, it does become okay, this is a job, there's budgets,
there's money, there's expectations for everything.
So it's 100% a job but it's a pretty damn cool job.
No doubt.
And that perspective has helped me out quite a bit, especially these last three years or so
and made me really appreciate being able to come to the racetrack and get paid to be there
and just drive with some of the best drivers in the world.
I can only assume as well having a young family with drifting as your career,
that's a lot of time spent away from home.
Yeah, it definitely makes home life a lot more challenging.
Just with trying to, you know, my wife works full-time and we now have a four-month-old on top of a four-year-old.
It's a lot, man.
It is a lot in life.
And my wife and I decided to have kids, you know, in our 40s or late 30s.
So having kids later in your life, the long nights definitely wear you down a lot more so
than if we have kids in our 20s.
Yeah, I've got a 14-year-old daughter now and a 10-year-old son.
And fortunately, I think you tend to forget the pain of those early days
because otherwise you probably never breed again.
But yeah, late nights, lack of sleep, it's a lot.
It's a lot.
And speaking of that, we're going through some of the same things now with our four-month-old that we did with our older son.
And I'm like, wait, that happened?
You know, I had already put it behind me and wasn't expecting to do it again.
I genuinely think the body plays tricks on you because otherwise you wouldn't do it again.
But probably a little bit off topic and probably not something that most of our listeners are too interested in.
But I kind of went through a similar thing with my career trajectory at one point before we had kids.
I think I spent three and a half months of a year out of the country
and quickly realised that after we had our daughter that that probably wasn't sustainable for a happy family life.
And you adapt.
So it's kind of a natural aspect, I think.
Moving on, let's talk about building these cars outside of Formula Drift
because I think that's what's also built a massive fan base around what you do.
You have a knack of building incredibly cool cars.
And you've just completed your newest build, your Celica GT4 ST205.
So how do you select what you're going to build for a start?
You've built the FRS slash 86 with the Ferrari 458 engine.
You've built the Toyota Stout, which I didn't even know that was a thing until we bumped into you at SEMA a few years back.
And now the GT4.
Well, first off, I think Toyota has so much history in racing.
They've really left the legacy of some really cool vehicles to be able to build and utilise.
And for me, it's like a pretty common theme of taking a chassis and putting modern running gear in it, so to speak.
Well, besides the Stout, that was just older and then slightly older.
I mean, you could definitely argue that there's much more modern drivetrain for sure.
For sure.
Yeah.
You know, I think you look at what's available to you.
Number one, you just see what is out there.
Is some of that able to be acquired?
Is it still around?
Is it still live and have a life and are there spare parts for that and so on and so on?
So I think you first just come up with these ideas and you do research and you do homework and you find out what is available to you as far as engine combination.
And chassis combinations and then go from there.
And that's really what drives me because I think that's the most exciting part is like finding out what you can get your hands on and then coming up with some recipe for that to all work together.
We're probably a little bit spoiled in terms of Japanese cars here in New Zealand because we had free access to essentially everything that came out of Japan.
And so the Mitsubishi Evo's, the Subaru STI, WRX and the Toyota Celicas were common and still are a common place on our roads.
Was that ST205 chassis a US delivered vehicle?
Or did you have to source that out of Japan?
No.
So we sell this Celica.
I'll try to say.
No, you can say how much you want.
I'm not here to judge.
I'll try to.
Yeah, so I first got a JDM.
My first JDM purchase from Japan through an importer here in the States.
I got a ST205 and I was going to utilize that car to, you know, because I'm so busy.
I was so busy with FD and upgrading other cars and you're always on a deadline.
So my idea was to get this Celica and then have it be my street car and then I could slowly add parts to it over time.
And great car.
I had a lot of fun in it.
It ripped the heck out of my driveway doing all wheel drive donuts and just having fun with it.
And then I was in the middle of pitching a new idea for a built project.
So that gave me the inspiration to do the GT4, but with a modern engine and modern drivetrain.
And we pitched that and obviously it got approved and here we are now.
But buying that JDM car really kind of set me on that path to build that car.
And we, so no, we don't have the 205 as an all wheel drive turbo here in the States.
We have an ST202, what they call, and it's just a front wheel drive car with an NA engine and pretty boring besides.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What I didn't want to do is cut up my JDM car.
So I actually found a front wheel drive also left hand drive, which is what I wanted.
And we just purchased one for like $1,800 here in New Hampshire.
Found one, but it was very clean and rust free considering the salt and roads that we have.
And we were going to cut it up anyways and build it into a race car.
So I was like, this is the perfect donor to have.
So actually no reason to start with a genuine ST205 for drive chassis.
Just basically take the front wheel drive and turn it into what you want.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And the GT4 that I got was one of the homologation ones, so the one of $2,500.
And I just didn't, it felt weird to cut it up and make it left hand drive and do the whole thing anyway.
So yeah.
Yeah, totally.
A couple of things on that.
So if my rally history is correct and it may absolutely not be, there was something odd
about that ST205 when they were running in the World Rally Championship.
Were they the only manufacturer running on a 16 inch wheel?
Oh, you know more than I do.
I believe it was something to do with the front suspension, maybe front suspension and brakes
and they couldn't fit a 15 inch wheel on it.
You might be right.
Rally enthusiasts will definitely roast me if I'm wrong there, but that sticks in my mind.
I do remember watching rally New Zealand back when those ST205s were the current weapon of choice.
And I remember standing on the start line, this was when anti-lag was just coming in.
You were there?
I was there.
That's amazing.
Yeah, it was actually incredible just watching and it's interesting, we were standing on
the start line of this one stage and it's this tiny, tiny little road, no wider than a car
and there was maybe like maybe 100 yards and then there was a sweeping maybe 120 degree corner
and on the left hand side there was a right hand corner, on the left hand side there was
like a wire farmer's fence and then it was a cliff down into a paddock.
And you could tell certain drivers had decided this was a stage that they were going to attack
on and the Toyota team, I can't even remember who the drivers were at the time, should have
probably researched this before he jumped on.
But yeah, it came off the start line with the anti-lag and just watching them, the car
was completely sideways before this corner and I'm like that is on a whole other level.
But I do genuinely think rally drivers are the sort of top of the top.
F1, sure it's faster but Formula 1, it's the old story of circuit racing, you see the same
corner a thousand times and for a rally driver you see a thousand corners one time.
And being able to read the road like that, despite obviously yes, you've got pace notes,
it's just the skill set is incredible, hats off to them.
I couldn't agree more, couldn't agree more with you, they're truly unbelievable.
We've gone off on a tangent there but...
Rally cars though, rally cars!
How good are rally cars?
I mean, there's obviously a good crossover between drifting and rally.
How do you see that?
I think there is, I think drifting gives you a phenomenal skill set to go out into the
world and do other things too.
You have just such a great base of car control, especially if you've been doing it a long
time and I think you can utilize those skill sets in other areas of motorsport quite well.
One thing that I am learning now with my Celica is that all-wheel drive is so different.
You drive the car so, so, so differently than a drift car.
I can, maybe because I've been doing it for 20 plus years, I can just drive a drift car
so easily, almost just drinking some tea or whatever kind of thing, you know, where you
get an all-wheel drive car and for me it's just, it's pretty foreign and it's just going
to be a lot more skills for me to develop a lot more than I anticipated.
And I just haven't had a real proper day in the car.
That's like a real day to learn.
But yeah, truly it's just, it's just a lot faster and the way you pivot and transition
the car is just so much different.
Can you maybe just expand on that a little bit more?
Like the differences between a rear-wheel drive drift car and a four-wheel drive, you
know, rally based car?
Yeah, I think in a drift car it's a lot easier, I think, to pivot because you don't have the
front steering, there's less to take into consideration where the all-wheel drive stuff
you have to kind of, you have to set up for the corners a lot earlier than I anticipated.
And I think that throws me off, especially my depth perception on like what I'm typically
used to doing with a drift car, I can just pivot the drift car on a dime almost wherever
I want and make it work.
Whereas an all-wheel drive car, I'm looking at the distance between myself and the turn,
I'm like, there's no way I have to start here and I'm going to make it.
You know what I mean?
So it's just learning a lot of that because the all-wheel drive stuff, I think it just
takes a little bit longer for currently in my new driving skill set, it's taken me a
lot longer to pivot the car and make it react how I want it to than I can in a drift car.
I have no doubt that understanding will become second nature in time and it is all just time.
Let's talk about the modernizing of this drivetrain.
So you obviously already had experience with the 3S GTE from Stout so I'm going to piss
off a lot of people here and say it's never been one of my favorite engines but you've
had that experience with it so why not stick to what you knew?
I wanted to, after the experience that I've had with the Stout and the 3S 5S combination
that I've had in that car, I just, I really wanted to have a modern engine that was more
efficient, had cam control and yes, I could have put a beams head on the 3S and I'm sure
that would be light and day better from my current setup with the old 86 naturally aspirated
head with no cam control but I just wanted something that was modern, had modern materials
used and components and something that already produced quite a bit of horsepower from the
factory from the OEM setup so you knew it was going to be potentially really reliable
even at a higher level with some rods, pistons and the usual parts that you would throw at
an engine project.
Now clearly you have to pick from the Toyota lineup here and most people that follow this
project already know what you've chosen but yeah, fill us in.
Yeah, so the G16E was my engine of choice and now that I've driven it, I think it's a,
I mean, I've driven it in factory form and a GR Corolla's here in the States and I love
that car.
I think even as a road car that car is phenomenal.
It has just the amount of power to really have fun on the street but not too much to
really get yourself in trouble type of thing.
It was grunty, it has a longer stroke for 1.6 liter so it still spools the turbo really
well and it makes good torque and I was watching a lot of what Australia was doing during this
timeframe because there wasn't many people doing anything with that engineer in the States
just yet so I watched a lot of that and took a lot of notes.
Australia kind of led the charge with that and I didn't realize that maybe it was a little
bit slower to get released into the US.
Yeah.
I mean the numbers they're seeing out of these stock G16s is just absolutely out the gate.
On paper, it kind of doesn't make sense.
You've lost capacity being 1.6 liter versus 2 liter, you've lost a cylinder.
So why is it so good?
I don't know, I think they just, I think it's, you know, it's a GR engine so they put a lot
of extra time in a building a performance based motor or sorry, a performance based engine
and they just, it's Toyota, they just, they know how to do those things and they've done
it time and time again throughout the course of their performance vehicles and I think
that they just did a great job with the balance of it.
It being a three cylinder and still making a lot of power out of a 1.6, I mean the, our
engine, so we built it, we probably didn't even have to build it to run the power that
level that we're even at in the Celica but we built it with, you know, rods and pistons
from Nidda Performance Engineering and SuperTech Valtrain, Kelford Cams and the engine does
500 at the wheels or 505 at the wheels at 32 PSI boost at about Garrett G3770 Turbo.
Now it's the same turbocharger I'm running on the stout but the three cylinder spools
are even better than my three S5s does.
That kind of just tells you almost everything, doesn't it?
To your point though, it's been now well proven that that sort of power level has been
easily supported on the stock engine.
I'm definitely not a specialist on that engine but maybe a head gasket and a set of head studs.
It's funny, there's a colleague of ours here in New Zealand that was quite early on the uptake
of these engines and went all out on one and did absolutely everything, pistons, rods,
went through everything with the fine tooth comb and made insane power but then it was
pretty quickly proven not long after that people were doing much the same without changing
any of the internals which is absolutely wild that there is that much headroom in that stock engine.
I can only assume there's also a benefit with moving to that G16E engine in that it's
going to be, given it's an alloy block and you're missing now a cylinder, it's going to be a lot
less weight than a 3S GTE hanging over that front axle line.
Yeah, it certainly is a lot less weight.
The other thing though is that the engine's really tall.
So from the oil pan all the way up to the valve cover, it's actually a really tall engine
so the only thing that we had to really take into consideration was the vertical placement
but it does free up space in the engine bay which is great because it's obviously not as long as a four cylinder.
So we've had room to where you can service it a little bit better in some areas
but we've had to, you know, I'm pretty sure it's tilted backwards towards the firewall
in a GR Corolla and we did a similar setup with it as well.
I think it's like 15, 10 or 15 degrees.
Okay.
But yeah, it's great.
I mean, the Celica weighed out with me in it fully wet at two and pounds, 2,850 which I thought was
pretty light for how much running gear is in that thing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was very, very surprised.
That's quite impressive.
I would have been guessing more around 3,000 plus pounds.
So yeah, but that's a great result.
Talk us through the rest of the drive trailer.
Again, is it all stock or stock Toyota or where have you gone with that?
No, no.
This is where things get a little murky for me and so I'm using a Toyota engine.
I'm using a Hollinger MFE gearbox, so full six speed sequential gearbox.
We're using a transfer case from Mitsubishi and then a rear-end also from Mitsubishi to
complete the package.
That's an interesting combination.
So can you explain the rationale behind those different components?
My rationale was I didn't, there wasn't enough information on the GR drive train.
After I started the project and how intense it was to try to make all those combinations
and parts work together, I wish I had done the GR drive train.
But it's one of those things where you have to make a decision and you just don't know
which way to go.
I just knew that these other parts were proven in rally and in drag racing and everywhere
else.
So I was like, it's the safer bet even though it's going to be the harder road to take.
Now, the GR drive train has now been put, I think, to the test and has really come out
with flying colors and man, it would have saved me so much time and a lot of money if I just
did the GR drive train in this project.
But that's just one of those things when you're having to make decisions and go down a road
or a path, you just want to do what's best.
I think that's the difficult part when you're dealing with a platform that is relatively
new and unproven.
Exactly as you say, do you commit to that factory drive train and then work through the inevitable
bugs and shortfalls you're going to find?
And then potentially spending double in research and development costs and custom-making parts
which I'm not opposed to doing and I think I have a lot more, a lot better idea of what
those costs are these days and it's something that we could have done in ours here with
411 Works.
But unless you are very, very well resourced, you're always going to be better off sort
of co-tailing off what others have already proven.
But to that point, and again this isn't a platform that I've got personal experience
with, but seeing what they're doing on the quarter mile and the fact that there's off
the shelf sequential gear sets or gearboxes for them, that is supported now but I guess
that's all sort of water under the bridge, you've made your choice.
Don't make me feel bad about it, I have to go to bed with it every day.
With a four-wheel drive drivetrain, you've sort of got the front rear torque split and
I'm just wondering if you can talk to that a little bit, how important is that I think
a lot of people kind of bring this up as a really critical aspect, you know, how important
is that, is it tunable, what can you tell us?
The all-wheel drive platform and the combinational parts we have is the most, I don't even know
if I've ever had at my fingertips.
I now have buttons on a steering wheel which I've never had before, you know, there's
a transfer case that you can lock up in different percentages or different pressures.
So there's that along with anti-lag settings, I've had that in the past, but it's just
there's a lot more going on with this car as far as tunability and adjustability within
even just the cockpit, which is pretty neat and I've only messed with the combinations
not very much, like the transfer case is probably the biggest thing to change as far
as the car is feeling under your butt, but I've only pretty much gone from fully open
to fully closed and just I haven't even messed around with maybe what's the best set up
for me yet because I don't even know what that is currently.
You've sort of alluded to this a couple of times, sounds like you haven't really still
had much actually seek time in this car, explain how much it actually has been.
Yeah, so we've done the dyno where I learned that I had to keep both hands on a steering
wheel at all times and that's not a real drive car.
Yeah, how about that?
So that was my first and then where'd we go from there?
I think we went out to a big field at my local NASCAR track New Hampshire Motor Speedway
and big thank you to them for giving us access, a friend of mine plowed the field and just
we just went out there with snow tires, no studs in them or anything, went out there
and messed around in a snow and just did a good shakedown.
So I had probably about 30 minutes in a car at that point and then some asphalt donuts
in front of the shop.
I did probably six of those and then we went right to the fat ice race with some studded
snow tires and that was probably the most driving I've had in it where on Thursday we
got to hit probably three or four turns about five times and then the ice race you got two
and a half laps around the track each session and you got two sessions a day for two days.
So that's not even been a full day of actual driving this car at all just yet.
I guess there's still a little bit to get yourself in the car, pretty much dialed in.
A lot so.
Yeah, very much.
There's a ton of skillset that I need to learn and could become comfortable with.
All right, I've got to ask because you brought it up, ice racing, it sounds sketchy.
I mean ice is in fact slippery.
Studded tires are not, I'm guessing that this would be a pretty difficult combination.
It depends on what your setup is.
The ice, as long as you get over being on a frozen lake or whatever the case and you
get past the fears of falling in, which obviously can still happen, it'll be cold.
You are, yeah, I'm always like, I'm going to have like a little oxygen tank near me
just in case I go under and I need to.
You know, take a breath, hasn't come to that point, knock on wood.
But yeah, ice racing, it's super cool and you can get these really gnarly studded tires
and I haven't experienced this just yet, but just to give you some information is that
the rally, the 15 inch rally studded snow tires that they race with or ice tires that
they use typically have more grip than an asphalt car does.
Really?
If it's a properly like conditioned ice track or ice on the ground type of thing, then
there's just even more grip than asphalt.
This is what I've been told by multiple people who have experienced those types of tires.
I have not experienced that.
I have heard that in WRC conditions with those studded tires that the drivers actually hunt
out the ice instead of the patches of snow because therefore the ice actually has more
grip.
I mean, it's all completely foreign to me, but I guess I can understand the rationale
behind that.
Yeah.
Dude, I mean, if you've seen a rally tire, like a proper WRC tire, they're like nine
millimeter studs coming out of them and they're all patterned in a certain way and they look
so insane, like so intense.
So next year, I'll hopefully have those on my car, but my brake package isn't small enough
to run a 15 inch wheel.
So I went out there with a mild stud as like a four and a half millimeter stud and there's
only inside and outside treads that had studs in them.
So it was a pretty slick still on this ice track in Montana with fat and we had fun.
I was definitely super bummed out because I thought we're going to have a competitive
car and the first day I was like, there's no way.
We're just slipping around.
I can't even steer off the front end.
There's no grip.
So it just was really hard.
And then the second day we actually locked out because they laid down like 4,500 gallons
of water on the track in the hopes that it would freeze overnight.
They've had a lot of very warm conditions in Montana this winter where there hasn't been
super cold and there hasn't been a ton of snowpack.
So they laid down all that water overnight, only the top layer froze up.
Now that was great for me because I had was very behind on my small, not aggressive studded
tire, but it was still a snow tire.
So we took our track position very smart and we just went last up so all the other cars
could break up the ice and try to dig down into some of that loose stuff.
And that's exactly what happened.
And they got down to the snowpack that was a lot more catered and a lot more better for
the tire that we had in our car and went out there and we ended up in second place.
So it was pretty turned around and worked out.
That's a pretty good turn of events.
I'd say, what are you sort of competing against?
What are the other cars that you're racing against?
There were some other, there was like a, you know, an older historic, like a Ford Escort
that had a really nice set of studded snow tires on it or ice tires.
There was a couple of those.
Lauren Healy, who drives with for the Funhaver team and his trophy truck, he was out there
and they had like 800 studs in each tire.
You know, the tires are like, I forget what size tires they have, but they're fricking
huge. You like half the size of your body.
And he just smoked everybody by like, you know, five plus seconds.
It was insane how fast he could go out there.
So that was pretty neat to see.
But yeah, so my class is the four wheel drive rally class.
And so they just let anybody, that was basically all wheel drive in there.
Yeah, OK.
Just electronics package.
I'm guessing we've still got John Reed involved on the MoTek side of things.
And for those who haven't heard that name before, past podcast guests, so we can link
to his episode in the show notes as well, if people want to find out more.
I think John has been very, very excited about this project because he came from the rally
world and that's where his true passion lies as well.
And coming back to this car, I think was such a passion project for him at this stage
in his career as well.
You know, MoTek USA and MoTek Australia got on board to help out the project a bit.
And John Reed massively helped out the project and we're using all MoTek equipment
for everything as far as harnesses, as well as PDM and ECUs.
Any kind of challenges with this project?
Obviously, an engine that uses direct injection.
Yeah, that's obviously not impossible with aftermarket electronics,
but as a challenge, you know, anything that stuck out as a potential problem with the project.
No, nothing, nothing.
I mean, it was all pretty standard for the amount of stuff that John has done
and MoTek has done these days.
I mean, they've had the MoTek M142 ECU, which is their direct injection ECU out
for quite some time.
And I actually have that M142 in the Ferrari powered 86 because that has direct injection.
So yeah, it wasn't anything out of the normal for them.
It's pretty MoTek do offer a plug and play ECU for the GR Yara slash Corolla.
So the engine is well known to them.
The DIY side of things already characterized.
Yeah, exactly.
I think the biggest hurdle for us was actually the starting procedure of the engine
and getting the DIY pump pressure up enough for it to fire on DIY.
So John was having to figure out how to how much port to use.
And if you would have to even shut off DIY altogether, just to get it fired up on
port until that DIY pump built up enough pressure to switch over to that.
So that was, I think John has that sorted out now, but that was in the beginning of
the kind of the first starts in the dyno session where he had to kind of jump
around to help that out.
But that was really the only serious thing, which is not that serious that we had
to kind of overcome.
OK, I might be talking at a turn here, but from what I understand, and this came
from my interview with John, he's done most of your tuning remotely.
Is that was that the case with the silica as well?
No, actually, is John was so pumped on the he actually came out.
So we plan this like insane, like three days like, all right, so John's
taking a red eye from the West Coast, we're going to go straight to the dyno,
tune the car, and then we're going to get and then we're going to get a night
sleep and then the next day we're going to go test the car and then drop
him straight to the airport after testing.
So it all it works pretty much flawlessly.
Like it was pretty insane because, you know, a brand new car with like this
combination of parts has never been done before and it went so smooth.
I couldn't even believe it.
It was literally the best dyno session I've ever had since the
Formula Supra, where John also tuned it in person.
So it was pretty awesome having him on board to come out and tune the silica
in person as well.
Yeah, absolutely.
Probably my best dyno session we've ever had.
OK.
Antilag, I just want to, I'm going to actually go out and let me hear
because I'm not 100% sure.
John, I know as a big fan of Fresh Air Antilag, is that what you're
running on the silica?
Yeah, we're running Fresh Air.
Obviously, if we'd be bigger fans of the other type where you can run a
proper valve that's made for Antilag, but they're just so expensive and it
just wasn't in the budget.
And we know the Fresh Air works.
You just have to work around, I guess, it not being as efficient as the
real deal kind of type of valve.
Maybe just for my own benefit here, explain what the real deal valve is.
I honestly don't even know.
From my perspective, when I was involved with turning rally cars,
that the Antilag we used was pretty rudimentary in that you cracked
throttle blade open a certain percentage, which obviously results in the RPM
climbing.
So you fix that by using a combination of ignition retard, ignition cut,
and then you've got unburned fuel and air being passed into the exhaust
where it combusts and spulks the turbo.
But the problem with that is there's kind of a limit of how much throttle
opening you can use because then the car starts sort of pushing under
brakes, it's trying to drive.
So that's quite disconcerting particularly to relatively novice drivers.
So that kind of limits how effective the Antilag can be.
Whereas fresh air Antilag, we're bypassing the throttle completely and
passing fresh air straight through into the exhaust system where we can then add
fuel through the injectors and it combusts in the exhaust.
So that's my sort of take on it.
Can you elaborate on what this...
I will elaborate a little bit more.
I mean, you have the general idea of the situation and how it works.
But so for the fresh air, we basically use a small boss,
dried by wire, electronic throttle body on the intercooler.
And that acts as, say, the blow off valve.
So it's sending all that compressed air and there's a pipe from the intercooler
and it shoots all that fresh air into the collector of the manifold
into the turbine housing.
And basically all it's doing is just adding more air.
So it just makes an oxygen rich environment in a very turbulent,
non-rich environment to help with the explosions and just make them bigger.
And be able to sustain higher PSI boost pressure.
So you've got the drive by wire throttle body on the intercooler.
Are you incorporating that with like typically how I see it?
TurboSmart brought out their fresh air anti-lag valve,
which is essentially a modified or, as I said, a modified wastegate.
Are you using something like that on the collector as well?
We are not. OK.
Yeah, just the drive by.
So that's where the more that's where like that turbo smart valve would probably be
better and also like a proper valve that is that like the WRC teams
would have used or do use today potentially.
We're probably getting some leakage.
Yeah, through the throttle blade or the throttle plate from the exhaust system
back through the intercooler, which is not the most ideal.
Yeah, they don't really tend to seal 100 percent, do they?
Right. So that's the drawback between the fresh air, but the fresh air cost
is hundreds of dollars and the other one is thousands of dollars.
So it's just I was just being cautious with our time and our money.
And we know this one thing and we know how it works.
And the other thing, we don't know how it works and how reliable it's going to be.
Sure. Yeah.
And it's just one of those deals where it's just kind of a little too expensive for my appetite.
I think that's actually something that's worth sort of drilling in down on a little bit as well.
I think probably most people that follow you on on Instagram, et cetera,
kind of just assume that Toyota just drop off a big old U-Haul truck full of cash
and you kind of do what you want with it.
It's not obviously that's not the case.
You obviously are very budget conscious.
Yeah, I mean, dude, building building a proper race car with with professional
fabricators and professional equipment and top level parts is extremely expensive.
And anybody out there that buys parts and modifies their car, even at a low level,
understands that.
So just times that by a million and money goes just flying out the window in a heartbeat.
So you have to be very cautious to really manage the project well enough to not come
out of pocket at the end, where I've done that for almost all of my projects,
unfortunately, because when you have X amount of budget, you're going to spend all of it.
And that's just the way it goes for me.
I actually think when you've got X amount of budget, you're typically going to spend
between one point two and two times X budget and everything, as usual,
takes longer and costs more than you you expect at the start.
I don't know. I mean, no doubt.
I'm almost 50 years in and I still haven't kind of figured out how that all works.
Like best laid in plans, best intention.
You did. You did. You just said it.
You know how it works.
You just fool yourself every time.
Yeah, every, every single time you come come into a new project
and you forget everything you've learned.
It's like having a second kid.
You forgot everything already, all right?
And then you do it to yourself on purpose.
Coming back to the kid thing as well and definitely 100 percent off off topic here.
But the other thing and maybe four months in, you've still got a little bit to learn.
What I found is we had the first one and you're like, oh, yeah, OK, I've got this dial now.
I know I know how it all works and you have the other one.
And you might as well throw the book out because everything you thought you knew
just the second one will always be completely different.
So that that's fun. Yeah, we lucked out with that, though.
Well, so far in four months in, only four months in, our first is was really hard.
And our second is just like, he's just so chill.
He's just chilling. I wouldn't have spoken too soon.
I know it's coming. He is me.
So it's going to change. Yeah, I'm in for it.
Just expect the unexpected back to our actual topic.
So this is obviously as discussed, pretty fresh project, not a lot of seat time with it.
What's the sort of plan for events, exhibitions, etc.
that that's going to be used for?
So for this year, I mainly just want to get some seat time and try to, you know,
just learn how to drive it in there.
We have a great series of hill climbs called the New England Hill Climb Association.
So I'm going to be taking a car to a lot of those.
And they run up the fire roads of the ski mountains up north.
So in New England, we have all over New England, Northern New England.
We have a lot of different mountains and ski resorts and all of that.
So there's quite a bit of events to go to, which is I'm really looking forward to.
So these will be actual gravel roads.
They will not be gravel. They're all tarmac, but they're all pretty Irish spec.
So very bumpy and frosty and road undulation like crazy and crowns and all of that.
So it's a pretty, pretty cool deal still.
One thing back in the early days of my career, I was helping out on a rally team
that was running in the New Zealand Rally Championship.
And what I could never make my peace with is you'd spend the whole off season
building this new car or refreshing this car.
And the start of the season, it'd be freshly painted, it'd be pristine, beautiful.
And then you'd go to a shakedown and it'd be two mile gravel road.
And two runs up that road and they come back and it's all gravel rashed.
And like it, it's just...
Destroyed, it's destroyed.
I just can't handle this.
I like my shit to be nice and maybe it's not always nice.
But dealing with gravel, it's hard and then you look at all of the underfloor protection,
the Kevlar, underfloor protection, even that, that doesn't last.
It's just so hard on the car.
So I'm glad that you said you're not actually using on gravel.
Yeah, the amount of consumables for rally or gravel is unbelievable.
It's insane.
And I'm only just learning about a lot of this stuff now from building this project.
And I'm just like, there's no way.
I don't have budget to throw at this car to even do one stage rally with it, unfortunately.
But so Tarmac is it.
I don't have a lot of fun doing hill climbs.
And then the biggest thing it'll do this year is in my local state in New Hampshire,
we have actually the oldest hill climb race in the US, which is up Mount Washington,
which is our biggest mountain in our state.
I've destroyed a fair few cars on iRacing up Mount Washington hill climb.
That's actually no joke.
That's, yeah, it's a long hill climb and it's pretty, pretty challenging.
Yeah, there's like 100 and 100 plus turns.
And, you know, I mean, you're maxing about, I think just under 6,000 feet,
but there's a lot of turns and it's really narrow.
And the frosty is in the bumps and the undulation in the road is pretty intense.
Not a lot of room for error.
I mean, it's no pikes peak, but probably second best I would imagine.
Pastrana has the record up the mountain and there is a phenomenal video of his in car
while he's breaking the record and it is scary fast.
It is looks incredible.
So I've been using that to try to learn and just wrap my head around all those turns.
I have months to go, so it just might as well start now.
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's move along.
And the next topic that I kind of wanted to talk about was your relatively new project,
which is your business for 11 weeks.
So yeah, fill us in.
What is it and where does come from?
Yeah, so 411 Works is a fabrication components company and started by myself,
my two brothers and our longtime friend, John, who's a 20 plus year machinist.
And I just wanted to start something and building cars for multiple years now
and just utilizing other people's parts.
I'm like, well, it'd be really neat to just use my own parts.
And that's kind of was the idea behind it.
And I thought we could do a much better job at some of the stuff
that's on the shelf and available these days.
If we could control the material, the design, the function
and really just put something out there that's better than what other people have.
And yes, it's going to be a little bit more money and we're going to have less margin.
But it's kind of the mantra that we've all decided to work towards
and having some of the best products that are out there
and the best products that we can produce.
And we go into this with a super open mindset company
where we will take everybody's feedback and make changes as needed
before we make another batch of parts just to make sure that we are catering
to our customers the best possible.
And the other thing is to really understand what people need out there
and how to make the fabricators who are designing and building
and creating these cars, how can we make their life easier and faster and more efficient?
And I think some of the parts that we are making are kind of catering towards that.
And that's just the start of kind of where we want to be and what we're doing.
And it's just a slow process.
You know, it's a startup company we've open.
We've had the website open for just about just over a year
and we're direct to consumer.
We don't have any distributors or anything just yet.
So it's just us cranking away and just trying to come up with great ideas
and great execution. Sure.
OK, so I'm going to go on a limb here and guess that maybe about 25 percent
of our listeners are people who are already either running businesses
in the automotive performance space or are considering that jump in starting a business.
So I'm interested to dig into this a little bit.
So, you know, how scary is it with your career that you've already got
coming in and deciding, OK, we're going to start this business
and we have no idea how it's going to go?
Yeah, it's super scary, man.
I've invested a lot of my personal money into it.
And it's like at a point where like, OK, this has to work out.
I actually I think that's almost a good thing.
It's kind of that Viking like burn the ships.
You've got no way back. It's just got to work.
So if it's got to work, you're going to figure it out, right?
100 percent. That's exactly how I feel about it.
It's just it's tough with running a full motorsport schedule
throughout the months and just having all these cars creates such a
plethora of maintenance schedules and upgrades and R&D.
Because if there's something on one of my cars that I don't like,
I'm going to fix it and sometimes that just takes a lot of time.
So that's taken time away from me and my effort towards the business.
So right now it's great that I have my two brothers and a friend, John.
That's kind of leaning and putting a lot of extra effort where I am when I'm
busy during the summer months and racing.
They're pretty much is handling the whole thing.
And we all just come up with ideas together and try to push forward.
But yeah, it's it's definitely hard.
And the first year in because you're you put so much investment of time
and money into it, and then it just takes so long to see some of the things pay off.
And most of it hasn't yet.
I mean, we're just so so new and the business has not really reached the outer
skirts outside of maybe the drifting world where most of my fan base is
and most of the people that know me are.
Yeah, I mean, I guess probably outside of your Instagram.
I haven't seen too much about it, which is one of the reasons I wanted to jump
back on a podcast episode, whether you can kind of dig in a little bit more.
So what are I guess what are the capabilities of 411 Works?
You've sort of mentioned a little bit briefly, but can you expand on your capabilities?
Yeah, so we have two Haas VF mills and one Haas ST CNC lathe.
So the lathe does all our turn parts, obviously, and some of the stuff is some
two ops, so we'll move it over to the to the mill to finish them off.
So we're pretty capable as far as what we can make right now.
Manufacturing is obviously tough because when soon as you see a low order
quantity, you're like, oh, crap, and then we're just rushing to to change
the machine over tooling wise for different material, if that's what it takes
and and get up and running.
But that's also the cool thing, I think that we can do is like, OK, we see
in the low order quantity and, yes, we're going to scramble to get the machine
turned over and bust out into the batch, but we can do that.
And I think that's pretty neat and we're very versatile and everybody's very
capable that's involved in the company and just willing to make it happen.
So there's just still a lot of room to grow and a ton to learn in this industry
as far as being a business owner, but everybody's really dug in and excited
to continue just trying to make the best we can.
I can only assume that the business trajectory for manufacturing in the CNC
space kind of starts a little bit like what you're saying.
Low order quantities got to be flexible.
Hey, at the end of the day, you've got to put money in the bank to pay the bills.
So you're going to do just about whatever someone asks in order to pay those bills.
And then I think you probably find that at some point you reach a bit of maturity level
where those lower order quantities maybe no longer make sense.
And just to be viable, you have to start running larger batches.
Would that be fair?
Yeah, 100%.
And we're starting to see that now with the lathe, we could turn on another lathe
right now and put ourselves in a much better position.
But it's just we got to get to that point where there's a little bit better cash flow.
And because everything we're making now is just getting reinvested and straight
back into the company and material or a new product or the website or whatever it is.
It's just there's so much to do.
And I think our eyes are always bigger than our appetite type of thing.
And we can only do so much.
And I can only put so much pocket money into the company.
So it's just one of those things where some bits of it are going to take longer to grow
in some areas and other areas we're going to grow quite fast and kind of have to be forced
to move to the next level, which I'm hoping for.
I hope that happens more often than not.
Yeah, fingers crossed.
In terms of coming up with products to develop and design, so how is that getting driven?
Is that market driven?
People are requesting XYZ or is it just obviously you're no stranger to modifying and building cars?
It's just from building cars.
And my brother's and I and our friend John, we've all been building our own drift cars for years now.
And I think that is the perfect or the number one catalyst to how we are and what parts we're
making and how we come up with ideas.
It's like we're just trying to problem solve and make our lives easier because we're here
building cars and it's just like, well, how can we be more efficient?
And we'll come up with an idea and make something.
And if we think it's going to be good enough to sell, then we'll put it on the market to sell.
And so that's kind of been how we do things.
And I think that's how you get the best ideas is from actually building a vehicle and figuring
out what those little things are that can make it your job or your life just a little bit easier.
Yeah, definitely.
I think until you have also used a product that someone else is offering, it can look great
on a website.
And I mean, it can be a great product.
And then you actually start getting into the nitty gritty and you kind of find that,
hey, maybe it's just not quite what I need for this particular application.
So yeah, I just don't think it's possible to know that until you're actually deep into it.
And at that point, it's almost maybe too late.
Would you agree with that?
Yeah, yeah, I would definitely agree with that.
In terms of the, I think you said there's four of you in the business, your two brothers,
your friend and yourself.
So what are the different roles?
Obviously, you're pretty busy.
Yeah, I mean, everybody's kind of wearing all hats.
Everybody's kind of taken on different areas of the company at different times where my brother,
Justin, has been doing a lot of the shipping and orders as of recently.
And then he's going to start getting busy with something else soon.
So my younger brother, Evan, is probably going to start taking over orders and inventory soon.
And John has just strictly been on just making the parts because he's a professional.
That's what he's done forever.
Like, I'll come up with an idea.
And I've learned a lot of my CAD skills from actually watching the
Horsepower Academy videos, which is awesome.
So left here to say thank you during the podcast for that.
But my skill set is just not, I just haven't grasped all of it yet.
So I'm still very, I fumble around quite a bit and I'll put out a design and something
to make it look the part.
And then I'll send it off to John, who's the proper designer and machinist.
And I'm like, he doesn't say no.
He doesn't even tell me.
But he's like, all right, cool.
I got it.
And then he just redesigns the whole thing from scratch.
I'm like, God damn it.
This is definitely, I know enough to be dangerous,
but yeah, this is definitely on our side of things.
Connor's department, he's the pro when it comes to 3D modeling CAD.
But going through and helping him develop his course
and the design for manufacturer section in that course,
you can draw something in fusion, you can draw whatever you want in fusion,
but that doesn't mean that you can actually make it.
And then you could design a part and you could design it in two different ways.
It's gonna achieve the same function, but one will cost a third of the other to manufacture
because you've actually thought about the manufacturing process,
how that's going to work and design the part around the tooling and the equipment that you've got.
So I think that for those who are just like absolutely fresh to fusion,
just understanding that design for manufacture aspect of it is absolutely so critical.
My, well, the thing is, I'm not like, I'm not elevated enough to even design anything super
complex.
So whatever I am designing is still relatively easy to machine.
But I'm still like, my design intent is not there.
And a lot of those little things that make a proper design professional.
I just don't have that yet.
I don't have that experience level yet.
And it's tough because I'll go into the wintertime or the off season
with a head full of steam and start picking up new skills and progressing my skill set on fusion.
And then I just get, I just get tied up with other projects.
And I just, then I leave it for like a month or two at a time
and come back and try to pick up where I left off.
So I'm like just getting little dribs and drabs of my skill set increasing,
getting better.
But thankfully we have John who is a professional.
So my goal is like, I'll take inspiration from the world of motorsports
from all different years of racing and try to come up with an idea or design around something.
And then I'll send it to John and he's like, cool, got it.
Not going to tell you, I'm going to redesign it, but I'm going to start fresh and boom,
this is, then he'll come up with the prototype.
I'm like, but you've given him the core idea to work with.
Yeah.
Whether he uses your design or has to redesign it.
It doesn't really matter.
It's getting, getting the product out there.
Yeah.
In the end, all that matters is that we're putting together a product that is going to be 100%.
That we will stand 100% behind.
Yeah, sure.
And that we're proud of.
I just wanted to talk about one of the products that I spotted on your website,
which is your works clamp.
And I kind of, I think these, these sort of quick disconnect clamps for the likes of,
you know, intercooled plumbing or intake plumbing or coolant plumbing.
They've been around for a fair while.
I think Wiggins probably were the kind of the original one in the industry,
but these things are just cringingly expensive.
Now you've kind of got every man and his dog sort of making a version of that.
So when this is, as I see it, quite a saturated marker,
how do you differentiate that product?
I think, I think you just take the, I feel like anything, if you're going to,
if you're going to design something, a new product for yourself,
and if it's something that's already been on the market for a while,
so you're basically copying something of somebody else's,
why wouldn't you just copy the best one out there?
So why wouldn't you copy and make something the best that you can
at an affordable price for the consumer,
but have it designed as close as possible to the best product on the market,
which is going to, we're going to say Wiggins.
Might sense to me. Yeah.
Yeah. So that was kind of the idea and we came across that clamp.
That's actually an outsourced part for us that we put our own design onto
and changed a few things, but it's mostly somebody else's initial design.
But when I saw that, I was like, it's not going to get better than that.
So unless you buy a Wiggins.
I think a lot of them as well.
So the Wiggins clamp was a tool-free design.
That was kind of, I guess, its claim to fame,
other than the fact it kind of just did what it says on the label.
It doesn't leak, it connects two pipes together.
You've got a lot of them now at a much, much lower price point
that are CNC machined alloy,
but they have a couple of cap screws through them or something like that.
So to me, yeah, it gets the job done, but you're no longer tool-free.
And then you've got the problem of if you've got vibration existing in that part,
which it will, did the two cap screws end up coming loose?
So I don't know.
To me, it's almost a potential failure point over a piece of silicon hose
and a couple of hose clamps.
Do you agree with that?
I agree. Yeah, I think the clamps, those types of clamps are, they're great.
I think they dress up the engine day well.
They look better than a silicon coupler with a couple of worm clamps on there.
But yes, they're more expensive.
They're harder to install.
It's just all around a deeper or more expensive products from start to finish.
To me, I think probably you touched on it there.
The key element is it's a dress up item, but it's harder to install.
It's a potential failure point.
I'm really making these sound much worse than they are, but I'll get back.
But then the other part that I think people overlook is, yes, you've got some angular
misalignment incorporated in the style of clamp, but it's nothing like a silicon hose.
And the downside there is generally if you want these things to live,
you're going to either have to go to solid engine mounts or at least much more rigid engine mounts.
And that's fine for a race car, but if it's a street car, the increase in NVH,
like if you haven't experienced it, it's actually outrageous, right?
Yeah. I mean, there is a bit of articulation in the clamp, but not a ton.
So ideally, you're going to want more of a race car or solid mounted setup,
whether that's Delrin or just stronger engine mounts in general.
The one thing that I do like about it, and I've had this problem in the past,
is a lot of the intercooler piping out there that you're buying is pretty thin wall.
And they crush pretty easily, especially if you're running a higher boost pressure.
And if your bead roll becomes an issue at some point,
then it's probably never going to go back to being correct.
And these clamps very much take care of all of that.
So as long as it's installed correctly, I think it looks phenomenal.
And it does serve a much higher performance purpose to just keeping your system in check
without blowing off a intercooler pipe at 30 plus PSI or whatever.
I doubt there's anyone with a modified turbocharged car that hasn't at some point
had a silicon hose pop off an intercooler pipe.
So yeah, I mean, the fact that that's essentially impossible with this style of clamp,
yeah, that's obviously a massive performance benefit.
In terms of upcoming products, looking far out on your interior crystal ball,
what else do you see as possibilities here?
A lot. We have so many ideas in the tank.
It's just tough to figure out which one of those might be sellers
and which ones won't be.
And we have to be pretty strategic as to what we think is going to sell
because we're just trying to continuously trying to level up.
And some of the things that we want to do right now,
we just can't do because we need more investment from our company
in order to make that happen and more time to design prototype and make it.
And some of those are more time consuming products
that will take longer machine time to make.
Whereas a lot of this stuff we're making right now,
like these weld cups and bungs are very simple to make.
And you can turn them out very quickly on the CNC.
And it's just a lot more hands free.
So John's cranking out a batch of some cups and bungs on the CNC.
And he's able to spend some more time designing and programming something else.
So for us, those have been a great seller.
And something we're going to keep leaning into for now.
And so we get to kind of across the board of sizes,
a size range and diameter range that we want to run.
And then we'll eventually be able to move into something else
that we kind of just want to get through that.
And then we'll have a breath of fresh air like,
okay, let's get into something more complex
that can show the capabilities of our company a little bit better and more so.
So I think that's our plan is to jump from that to something
that's a little bit more complex that we can add to the line.
I kind of almost think though, sometimes you have to do those more complicated parts.
As you mentioned, it kind of shows your capabilities and your expertise.
But sometimes I think probably the money is actually in the simpler parts.
Would you agree with that?
It is because the simple parts are the material is typically cheaper,
less machine time, less wear and tear.
And you're making volume wise, you're making a lot more volume on this part
that you probably have a better markup on than you do on a more complex part.
You have a probably a lower markup and it just takes more time
and you're creating less volume and probably less sales in the end as well.
Yeah, sure.
Last question, I guess on four eleven weeks for the moment is marketing.
How have you sort of gone about getting the brand out there in recognition?
We haven't done a ton of marketing and that's kind of been our,
I think our biggest drawback at this point being a year in is we've been really just
relying on myself, my car projects and my own social channels to really
try to get the business out there.
Whereas we're at a point now where we need to elevate that and branch out and
try to pick up some marketing and some other drivers and some other areas of motorsport
like drag racing here in the U.S.
We have a great sponsored driver, Nick Amaral, who runs the Wild Evo here,
was one of the fastest evos in the world as far as quarter mile time.
And he's been great and he's been a great test bed for us too.
He's tested our works clamps over a hundred PSI, a boost pressure with no issues and
so that's been cool.
And we just need to kind of continue branching outside of drifting into these other areas.
Of motorsport so that people understand that we're making a quality product and it'd be
a great addition to whatever they're building.
I guess now that you've got a facility and you're making all these parts,
it'd be tempting to also maybe bring your new car builds in-house completely
because you've been outsourcing fabrication, et cetera.
I mean maybe not quite what 411 Works is all about but is that something that you would
consider doing as well or is that sort of take I guess the eye off the ball,
so to speak, for 411 Works main business model?
No, I think that's you're exactly right and that's exactly what I've been kind of gearing up to do
with the new location at the shop and having places for my vehicles and now having
Snap-on come aboard and outfit the whole place.
I now have the equipment and everything I need to be able to build a car from scratch.
Am I going to build a car from scratch myself?
No, not yet because I don't have the skill set to produce professional level fabrication work.
I want to get there someday but it's going to be after my full-time driving career
and I can put more time into something else and I think, like I said before, I think building your
own cars is going to really dictate what products you're going to put on the market
and what you're learning from those car builds is really going to help make your decisions to
what products you're going to sell with 411 Works and I feel like that's our biggest,
one of our biggest assets is that we are car builders and we
do try to make smart decisions as to what we put on the website for sale.
I think there's always something to be said with building a product to kind of fix a problem that
you've personally got with a car. You're actually building products that are required as opposed to
throwing a whole bunch of stuff out there and seeing what people are going to purchase.
This kind of segues nicely into what's next in terms of car builds for you. You've kind of been
pretty consistently building a cool new project car outside of drifting consistently.
So is there something else that's already taking your fancy? I'm guessing if there is,
you're probably not able to really disclose exactly what that's all about.
Oh yeah, I won't disclose exactly what it is but I have two projects that we're going to try to
see maybe one with obviously I'm not going to take on two at a time but see if one sells
and one gets approved. One of them would be a pretty simple project but a very
cool project and with a bespoke engine which would be killer. I would love to be able to do it.
It would be like the ultimate version of this car potentially and then the other one is a
restoration project for one of my current cars. I'll let you guess on which one that is but I
feel like it's time to bring that vehicle back out and build it to the level of experience
that I have now and I love to put a lot of four level works products on it. So I'm hoping that
gets approved then that would be a really fun one for me because I could start really pushing my
design skills and my machining skills as well to build a new car. I kind of feel like now all
we've done is just tease everyone which is a bit frustrating but I do get it. Is there a danger of
running out of cool Toyotas to reimagine or plenty in the catalog there that you can
continue to work with? Man that's a tough one to answer because I feel like I've always gone with
what has been current with me. The GT4 was an inspiration from the GT4 Celica that I purchased
as a street car and so I'm kind of always going off of a feeling or an experience that I had
and putting that into like oh that would be a really cool combination or that would be just
I just love to be able to build that car someday type of thing. So I think I don't really I have
ideas in the tank and a lot of them are kind of eh and a lot of them are like I would really like
to do but sometimes those eh ideas and it becoming top of the list because you're like figure out
okay this combination actually set that to the top of the list yeah and it's just how it works
and I think with Toyota ever evolving their performance line of cars and parts and engines
and everything it really still believes you with a long list of things and combinations that you
could work with. 100% I guess from what I see with you though there's not going to be a lot of
future in you buying a brand new showroom spec GR Corolla for example and then going to town on that
because every man and his dog's already kind of doing that you've got to do something that
that is unique and sets you apart right? Yeah I mean that's always what I'm trying to do and
I like the old school cars I like the 90s JDM yeah and that's my that's my favorite era of car
even though I grew up in that I'd never experienced that I grew up and I got my first 240 in like
2002 I believe no 2003 so I had just missed that era because I was only 19 when I got my 240SX type
of deal but I just loved that era I mean that was still what you would see when you started
looking at cars and downloading videos on Kazaa. I kind of think I grew up at the ideal time you
know being in New Zealand as I mentioned as I mentioned earlier we kind of had free access
to every JDM model and back then it was it was all of those you know rally homologation specials
that the Evo III Subaru STI guys were spoiled. We really were and now I look at what's available
to the younger generation sort of Toyota pretty much all of the other Japanese manufacturers
have really pulled back on just about anything performance related and you know so what's an
18, 17 year old going to buy now here in New Zealand like a Mark V Volkswagen Golf or something
like that you know it's the industry has kind of changed and I think maybe for the worst but
probably going a little bit off on a tangent there that's just my personal thoughts on the
performance industry as it sits at the moment. I think you're right I mean I think that's the
early 2000s where all the 90s JDM were kind of killed off in the States and we got very little
of that anyways and then in the 2000s we had nothing so you're buying the older 240s and
importing SR20s and doing that whole deal and Supra is back then I mean forget about it there
were just too much money for a young teenager like myself and a lot of my friends and all of that so
we just could do what was affordable and that was those are 240s and old Mustangs, Fox Money
Mustangs. I mean the Honda market was always a pretty popular one for the the younger crowd as
well but I mean even even now here in New Zealand you know a DC2 Type R Integra I mean
they're huge money compared to what they used to be, everything. All of the Nissan you know
S chassis's unfortunately drifters have put them into walls and destroyed them so
they've gone through the roof in price. Sorry everybody, I've done quite a few.
We'll let you off, it kind of worked out in the end where we can't change the industry,
that's just kind of how it is and I guess it will evolve and it will keep changing but
the good thing is that enthusiasts are always going to find some cool car to end up modifying
and making their own. I think we'll move towards wrapping this thing up and we've kind of asked
you these questions again but previously but maybe there's a slight difference to how you're
going to answer them, we've got the same three questions we ask all of our guests. First,
what's next in the future for you? I'm guessing more 411 works, more drifting.
Yep, I'm going to be changing some things up in my life so that I have a lot more time than
invest into 411 works. Obviously a big passion of mine is building cars now and I'm getting just
a lot more, it's just a lot more gratifying building these complex cars that were complex to me
and being able to drive them in the end and just enjoying them. So I think in the future,
in the near future, I'm going to be giving myself more time to be able to invest in the 411 works
to help develop my catability and my machining capability as well so that I can really start
making a small dent in what we produce and manufacture for the company. So the first day
that I'm able to design something that doesn't get redrawn and machine it on the machine,
I'm going to make a huge post about it because it's going to be a game changer for me.
It sounds like something that's definitely worth working towards. Next question,
is there any advice you'd give to a younger version of yourself to help reach where you are
today in your career faster? Last time I said, I wish I took some business classes,
which I still think holds true, but I want to get maybe a little bit more philosophical and
just following your passion. I think what I did was follow my passion to no end and it ended
up working out for me. I think following your passion is going to be your biggest asset to
going anywhere in life, no matter what it is, if it's motorsports or if it's engineering or if
it's business, whatever it is, I think if that's what you love to do, it's going to make your life
a lot easier because you're going to invest the amount of hours that don't matter to make it matter,
if that makes sense. I'd say that is the biggest thing I could tell myself,
but I think I did that for the most part. That does appear that you're definitely
following your passion. The old story, if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in
your life, which I can say mostly holds true. No matter what, you're always going to have
the odd bad day or something's not going to go quite right, but it's always going to be better
off than probably 80% of people out there who are just going through the daily grind.
The business side of things, I think though, does bear talking about a little bit more.
The entrepreneurial chap, I think, and I've talked about this numerous times on the podcast
previously, is someone starts a business because they love being a fabricator or in my case,
an engine tuner. You quickly realise that once you actually start a business that you can only
spend maybe at best half of your time doing the thing that you love, and the rest of the
time is doing all of this business stuff that probably is foreign to you, probably isn't that
enjoyable, and that's the trap. I think understanding business is definitely a prerequisite if you're
going to turn your passion into an actual business. Probably goes without saying,
but so many people don't do that. Yeah. Make a business plan. Number one.
Yeah. Last question for today. Ryan, if people want to follow you,
see what you're up to by 411Works products, how they best to do so.
Yeah, so I love the shout out 411Works. You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook,
and the usual channels, all at 411-Works. And our website is 411, the number 411-Works,
and that's all a direct consumer website with all our products on there now.
And then you can follow me at Ryan Turrick on all the regular social handles,
just first and last name. As usual, we'll put links to all of those accounts in the show notes
to make it easy for people to find. Always a pleasure having a chat with you. Ryan,
do really enjoy learning about your projects both in person with our Seymour interviews
and here on the podcast. So thank you for being so generous with your time yet again.
Well, yeah, thank you for having me on again. I love everything that you guys do. I love the
podcast. I listen to every single one. And also, I'm a part of Horsepower Academy and watch a lot
of the videos and get a lot of information that helps guide me with my decisions on things as well.
So I appreciate the support you guys get the community. Glad to hear it's all working out.
Thanks again, Ryan. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of Tundin,
and don't forget by using the code podcast500 at checkout, podcast listeners can get a huge $500
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Now HP Academy has helped me build my own engine, learn to fabricate at a more proficient level
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About this episode
Ryan Tuerck (Formula D drift veteran) breaks down his latest Toyota build: a ST205 Celica GT4-style project modernized with a GR Yaris/Corolla-derived G16E 3-cylinder turbo. The conversation covers why he chose the newer engine over the 3S-GTE, how the switch from 4-cyl to 6-cyl changed Formula Drift chassis dynamics, and what it takes to reach ~1,000whp while keeping reliability. He also shares early AWD learning, MoTeC tuning/anti-lag details, ice-race shakedown stories, and the launch of his 411 Works fabrication business.
We all fantasise about dream car builds, whether they’re elaborate masterpieces never done before or something stock standard we’ve seen a hundred times. Some people just have a knack for making things cool, and Ryan Tuerck from 411 Works is firmly in that category, with what might be the coolest collection of Toyota performance builds out there.
We had to get Ryan back for a second episode to unpack his latest creation—an insane ST205 Toyota Celica—and to find out more about his new business, 411 Works.
In this episode of Tuned In, we catch up with Ryan and see how things have been going in the Formula Drift world. We discuss the decision to move to a different engine combination in the search for more power, and how it hasn’t come without its challenges.
We dive into Ryan’s most recent build, his insanely cool Toyota Celica. We discuss the modernised running gear and the decision to go down in capacity from the original 2.0L 3S-GTE to Toyota’s new and popular G16E three-cylinder direct-injected engine. We also cover his anti-lag setup, ECU and electronics, plans for racing and driving the car, and how he comes up with these epic build ideas in the first place.
We then get into Ryan’s other big project at the moment, 411 Works. Through this new business, he’s begun supplying performance parts all around the world. We chat about the products they’re making and how they’re continuing to grow and develop exciting new parts.
This is another standout episode with Ryan. From a long and successful Formula Drift career to next-level builds and a growing business—if Ryan Tuerck is involved, it’s always worth a look.
John Reed episode: Judd V10 Supra | Tuning Ryan Tuerck's A90
Timestamps:
0:00 Next-Level Toyota Builds with Ryan Tuerck – ST205 Celica 3:59 Give us the quick version of who Ryan Tuerck is. 5:37 Why do you think Toyota is still making cool cars? 8:09 How did you first get aligned with Toyota? 10:59 Why did you change from a 4 to a 6 cylinder? 12:43 Can you tell us why the trailing arm setup is so good? 13:23 How much HP do you need in formula drift? 17:48 Are you still passionate about formula drift? 20:29 How do you come up with these epic build ideas? 22:10 Was the ST205 Celica sold in the USA? 26:44 What’s the cross over between drifting and rally? 28:58 Why didn’t you stick with the 3SGTE? 34:18 What is the drive train you’re running? 36:51 Tell us about the front and rear torque split 38:05 How much seat time have you had in this car? 39:32 How was the ice racing? 42:51 What cars are you racing at the ice race? 43:39 What electronics are you using to run the Celica? 44:24 Any challenges with this project? 46:52 Are you running fresh air anti-lag? 50:18 What sort of budget was this car built on? 52:50 What’s the Celica going to be used for? 56:09 411 Works, what is it? 1:02:52 How do you come up with products to develop? 1:12:11 What other products are you looking to make? 1:14:23 How are you marketing 411 Works? 1:17:10 What's the next project car build? 1:22:30 Final 3 questions
