Engineered to Slide vs The Toffee Apple.

One of the great stories to come out of the D1NZ grand final was that of Nigel Petrie, the popular Aussie behind cult blog ” Engineered to Slide” and a talented fabricator and drifter who has created one of the kangaroo nations finest and most admired slide rides. I had a quick catch up with Nigel to gather a few thoughts on his trip “down under”

Welcome Nigel, Can you tell me how the offer to drive Matt Sellers S14 came about?

Hey Thanks, Well…I kept up to date with the 2009-10 season of D1NZ and just had to fly over to watch the final at Hampton Downs, I spent a fair bit of time in the pits and got chatting to the Sellers family, I ended up throwing on Matts racesuit and having a passenger ride with Jason (Matts Twin Brother) in this very S14, we kept in touch and Matt asked me at the start of this year if I’d be interested in driving the car at a round, I chose the Hampton Downs round as it had the most amount of runoff, that’s an important factor when you borrow a car.

Any fears about taking someone elses gear and damaging it?

There were a lot, when Matt first asked me I said I would get back to him, I kept thinking about the negatives and the possibilities of damaging his car, it took me about a month to even say yes.

How different is the setup to your own car?

It’s remarkably similar to my car, we have gone about our builds in the very same fashion, both are budget cars with a lot of thought thrown into them, they are both low tune SR20s with similar chassis and suspension mods. Its a really nice car to drive, its very stiff in the chassis, the suspension works as it should, it has very predictable grip and the brakes work really well.
What if I asked you for 3 major differences between Australian vs NZ drivers?

This is a good question, I’ll try and brake it down to 3 differences

-Entry Speed: If a lot of our aussie drivers drove Hampton Downs then I believe the entry speed would be a lot higher, some may say that faster is a good thing but I disagree, a controlled flick into the first clip to maximise angle and line will always be better than a mega fast shallow entry.

-Listening to the judges: I found that people listened to the judges a lot more, respected their views on the course and drove as they were required, Justin Rood did a great job in drivers briefing and pretty much said “this is the line I want you to drive, if you stick to it you will score highly”

-Team dynamics: It was really refreshing to see drivers who had a full team of people for the weekend, everyone seemed to get on really well, lend a hand when it was needed and be friendly to one another, as an outsider coming into the final round I wasnt expecting a warm reception but I got it and im very thankfull for that.
How did you find the NZ event experience vs oz?

I absolutely loved it, NZ seem to hold drifting in a higher regard Vs Australia, even the people who aren’t into Motorsport seem to hold a good view on drifting and I think the success of the D1NZ series has a lot to do with that. Your drivers are very professional yet still have a good time and a lot of people look up to that. Our series has been on a rollercoaster ride since the begining and it has a lot of challenges to overcome before we see it reach the hights that D1NZ has.

Who’s going to #1 qual/ Win WTA this year if it isn’t you?

It’s definately not going to be me, I really struggled with my car last year as the lack of power really held me back, I’ll see what I can do but Curt Whittaker sure had the track dialled by the end of last years event.

Who’s the darkhorse to surprise?

Well it could be anyones, you have so many drivers that havent battled each other before, throw team orange into the mix and you have a wide selection, I think a certain T51 fed Rotary could do big things this year

Lastly, ETS has a bit of a cult following, how did that come about?

I guess because of the Hilux build, NZ readers have been pretty loyal since the beginning, people like to see what goes on behind the scenes, I love to take things to the next level when it comes to building cars and this Hilux build will certainly be just that, Next Level!

You can check out Nigels work here- http://engineeredtoslide.com/

Nigel, Thanks for your time Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaateee, see you in August