As part of the coverage of the brand new
MicksGarage Irish Amateur Drift Championship we'll be running a driver/car feature after each round. At round 1 we caught up with one of the most talked about car & driver combinations in the championship: Shea Rogers and the ex Lucas Oils, now TFR Refrigeration Supra. Here's what he had to say:
All images courtesy of
brianwalshphotos.com
What got you into drifting…
A couple of guys from the town I’m from started doing like drift days, non competition things, in cars like BMWs. I thought I want to get into this, it looks fun, something to do on your day off. So I borrowed a car, went down there, I had a bit of fun and people who were doing competitions in the North said to me would you not do a competition. At that stage I didn’t have a car, wasn’t sure if I really wanted to but then over the next year I thought maybe I do want to do this. Started looking for a car to do a bit of competition in and that’s where I’m at now.
What car were you using at the drift days at the time?
A BMW 328
And what made you go for the Supra?
I went and looked at a couple different cars, stuff that you looked at and thought - ah I don’t know if I want to go for that. I saw that car up for sale for a while, lads were trying to put me off it, thinking was there something wrong with it cos it had been up for sale for a while. I thought I’d go look at it and see. The horsepower was definitely a big factor in why you’d want to buy it plus it’s a well known car, really good spec and once I saw it I just fell in love with the car and wanted to buy it.
And what do you think about it now after driving it?
Its an unbelievable car to drive, I’d say anyone could drive the car if you weren’t scared of how fast it can go forward. With the Wisefab arms, hubs front and rear, 8 pots in the front, 4 pots in the rear, the car is really well set up. The guys that had it before me said they spent two years developing the car, getting it right and it definitely shows now in how it drives. It turns in really well, grips really well, the way I’d describe to someone who asks how is it to drive, driving that car in 3rd or even 4th gear is like the BMW in 2nd, it’s just so easy to drive fast.
What power are you running it at now, we know it was built for 1,200 horsepower?
Well originally it was built for that power, but the guys took the turbo off it and put a GTX40 on it. It’s running about 950bhp, there’s a couple of different maps on the car, over the licensing day I gradually built up a bit more confidence with it and put it to the full power and that’s what its running now.
And considering the development that went into the car and that it’s your very first competition, do you feel there’s a bit more pressure on you considering the car that it is?
Em, well, you definitely can’t turn around and say it’s the cars fault, its always going to be the driver at this stage. I don’t really feel pressure there, well actually you kind of do, you invest that money in a car and you don’t want people laughing at you, saying you can’t drive the car! But me and the car seem to click, the first day I sat in it I felt comfortable with it, its more adjusting my driving style that’s the bigger objective.
What do you think of the IADC and IDC split championships?
I think it's really good, it takes a bit of the pressure off the inexperienced guys like myself who don't necessarily want to rock up at Japfest and have to perform in front of 10 thousand people or whatever or against the likes of James Deane and the rest of the pro's or semi pro's. It looks like it's shaping up to be a great feeder series to the IDC and the judges are great too, they're really trying to help lads out and bring them on you know.
Do you think the new tyre width rule levels the playing field enough considering the huge variances in power?
People will probably disagree with me when i say that it does but this morning there it was wet and i was running a 245 tyre and was up against a guy in an e46 328 and taking off the line and heading into the first corner he was beating me. I was chatting to him later on in the day and he was telling me his car wasn't even running right, so in the wet anyway power certainly isn't everything and the tyre rule definitely leveled the field. I just couldn't get the power down at all this morning. When it was really slippy earlier, the car was basically either on boost or off, there was no playing with it you know, it was just hitting the limiter and going nowhere, it was very difficult to drive. As it started to dry up a bit in the afternoon it got a lot better and the grip was there and I could use the power.
What are your expectations for the season?
Well, everyone has come down here to win haven’t they? Ah I’m just going to play it by ear, its my first year competitive drifting and this is my first competitive drift event, It's my first time doing proper battles. I'm happy with qualifying today, we've had a few issues, but qualified in 15th so i'm happy with that. Yeah I want to do well obviously but I also want to have a laugh, have a bit of craic you know, that's what drifting's all about, make plenty of smoke, go plenty sideways and put on a bit of a show for the fans!
Engine
Garrett GTX4088 Turbo
SATS Motorsport /Cosworth 2JZGTE Titan Motorsport Stage 3 Cylinder Head
Titan Motorsport 280 Cams
CP 87mm Forged Pistons Brian Crower Conrods
ACL Main & Big End Bearings
PHR Oil Pump
HKS Head Gasket
ETS Exhaust Manifold VWR 4" Exhaust
Hypertune Big Port Inlet Manifold
Injector Dynamics 2000cc Injectors
Aeromotive Fuel System
Mishimoto Dual Pass oil cooler setup
Mishimoto 6 Fan Setup
HKS 80mm Wastegate
Custom Power Steering Piping with Mishimoto 19 row oil cooler
Samco Silicone Hoses
Mishimoto Radiator
K&N Air Filter
Drivetrain
Exedy Triple Plate Clutch
Getrag Six Speed Gearbox
TRD Rear Diff with 2-way LSD
ECU & Electronics
Link G4+ Extreme ECU
Link G4 Knocklink
Race Technology Pro DASH 2
Suspension & Brakes
MeisterR Zeta II coilover system
MeisterR 8 piston 356mm brake setup
Front and Rear Wisefab Super Lock Steering Kit (Modified by SATS)
Super-Pro Bushing Kit
Wisefab Rear Suspension Arms and Hubs
HEL Brake Hoses throughout brake system
Wheels & Tyres
8.5×18 BC RA-01 Wheels custom offset
10.5×18 BC RA-01 wheels custom offset
Kenda 245/40/18 Tyres on rear
Maxxis Maxsport rb5 225/40/18 Tyres on front
Interior
Custom Wishart Motorsport Cage to MSA/BDC/Forumla D spec
Cobra Suzuka Carbon Seats X 2
FIA spec fire system S
ATS Motorsport Custom Wiring Loom
Exterior
Full Ridox Carbon Fibre Bodykit
Ridox Wide Rear Overfenders
Ridox Wide Front Wings
Shine Auto Carbon Rear Diffuser
Shine Auto Carbon Doors
Seibon Carbon Bonnet
Seibon Carbon Bootlid
APR Rear GT500 Spoiler
APR Door Mirrors
Plastic 4 Performance Pro Window Kit
