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To make the car easier to repair, the front of the unibody is replaced with a tubular structure by Garage Autohero as well. Walker's car used to be tubbed in front for more inboard tire clearance but he realized how much easier a tubed out car is to work on over the course of the 2011 season. A big Koyo radiator and Greddy oil cooler are used to help keep the LS7 cool. Note the stock power brake booster and master cylinder. Walker does not run dual master cylinders and a balance bar like many top drift cars. |
A look at the Garage Autohero fabbed rear tube work and the tin work that separates the fuel cell from the driver's compartment. |
The front suspension sports A'PEXi N-1 coilover shocks. These coilovers are independently adjustable for ride height and are single adjustable in damping. A Tanabe tubular front swaybar is used with SPL Parts tension rods. These are perhaps the quickest adjusting rods on the market. Era-1 drop knuckles are used. These give a lot more steering angle and lower the front of the car 1.7 inches without affecting the wheel travel or front suspension geometry. Pretty cool. With these you can use the stock control arms and tie rods and not have to worry about correcting the roll center and bump steer. |
You can see from the picture that the bump steer will be OK, the camber curve and roll center will be reasonable and the scrub radius will be under control with the Era-1 knuckles. A really cool thing about these parts is that they are investment cast from steel, not fabricated like other knuckles. These knuckles are probably stronger than the stock ductile iron parts! Walker's car uses S14 lower control arms which are 1″ longer than stock. This gives a wider front stance, more clearance for more steering angle and more negative camber without messing up the front end geometry like spacers would. |
The rear suspension sports A'PEXi N-1 coilovers, SPL traction, toe and camber links. Like we said before, SPL links are fast adjusting, just what you need if you call five minutes and things are bent. A Tanabe rear antiswaybar is used and Era-1 drop rear knuckles lower the car 2″ with no problems in the suspension geometry. The S13 has a fast camber curve and not having the links articulated upward deep into the camber curve will greatly help traction. Solid aluminum bushings are used to secure the crossmember to the chassis which is canted forward to reduce antisquat and improve forward traction. |
A look at the rear of the car from the back with the rear bumper cover removed. The rear sheetmetal and overfenders are hung from the tubular structure. |