Earlier in the year i was invited by Janet of Urbanlava to get involved with a Car Show like no other before in Port Elizabeth... Her idea was simple, and thats to get all petrol enthusists in the Eastern Cape under one roof and experience together, all the stages of Petrol Madness...

I was asked to help her set up a area(circuit) for people who had not experienced "drifting" and allowed them to be directly involved, ie, get in the car and experience it for themselves....

First up we needed help with tyres.... As we all know here, this sport is hard on tyres and we would need more than 2 to last us the full 5 days of the Petrolhead Paradise Experience.. The choice was obvious and we approached our good friends from DUNLOP with the idea.... They said, "for sure we on board" and hooked us up with 12 tyres for the event.... Awesome....

Secondly we needed a car.... Something with enough power and the capabilities of drifting in a small area, and something that we knew would take up the challenge in its stride..... TOYOTA....

With the launch of the new 86 what better car to get involved... Just on the market and with the ad campaign promoting sliding, it seemed like a perfect opportunity for people to experience the new car and for TOYOTA to get some newly deserved advertising..... Janet called them up and they said they would love to be involved.... Head Office would send us a demo model with the TRD kit on it... Awesome....

We got into some meetings to discuss the area and how we would go about doing it all.... Everyone was super keen and exited for this new event as well as the new approach for PE to finally get this "drifting" craze out there to the people... As we got closer to the start of the show we started playing with layouts for the course....

I wanted something that would show off the tyres as well as this new 86... short tight turns using the handbrake to its limit and long sweeps to maximise the cars rev and torque range... a bit of smoke off the tyres - why not........ After a couple changes here and there the layout was sorted out.. Maximum crowd appeal, slow and tight, fast and quick.... For myself, i wanted the crowds and the people experiencing the drive to really enjoy it and feel the potential of the cars characteristics as well as how far we could take the tyres to limit and the accuracy of how the two worked so well together.

The show started on a Wednesday, with us only really sorting out the course and so on, in anticipation of the weekend and the hope of many people coming to experience our DUNLOP - TOYOTA Drift Zone... I kept tabs on tyre wear as well as the cars fuel consumption just for interest sake....

I received the car with half a tank of fuel and obviously a new set of Dunlop tyres.... Wednesday was raining so the circuits grip levels were down as well as the temperatures.... A total of 44km on a set of tyres.... In my opinion not bad for a layout of 500 meters having the rear wheel lit up the entire time?

Thursday was a different story with the warm weather out... A few more people attended with everyone loving the drifting, promising to come back on the weekend for more fun... The atmosphere was set by now with the excitement of everyone and the positive feedback from all... We were all looking forward to the weekend.....

Friday rolled in with us having some Municipality noise level issues which were finally resolved.... At one point we though the driving was over but we were told we were back on for Saturday and Sunday... Good
news......

Saturday and Sunday....

what can i say.... We had over 300 people doing runs with long ques of people waiting in excitement to experience "drifting"...... The feedback was all positive and thumbs up all round... People loved it, some driving up to 3 times....

I was really excited in knowing we had successfully put on a show for the Eastern Cape, the people, for Dunlop and for Toyota...
As for myself i was asked many times - "arent you bored yet"... i just laughed and said, "let me know after the run if you could get bored of doing this"...... the answer was always the same...... "NO WAYS"......

Thanks to everyone that made it happen, Janet from Urbanlava, the Dunlop guys, Anre, Koos, Juan and Craig.... really appreciate it..... and to Toyota South Africa and Toyota Cape Rd for all the help with the car.... It really stood up to the test...... thanks you.....

As for the statistics....

wednesday - tyres 44km - wet
thursday - tyres 22km - dry
Friday no driving
Saturday 2 sets of tyres - both 22km a set in the dry....
Sunday 2 sets of tyres - one set in the wet - 44km and a set in the dry 22km

yes,,,,, exactly half when the surface was wet.... incredible......

Fuel - Total tanks - 3 and a half...(R1600)
Total milage done over the 5 days - 429km
Total milage on the circuit - 150km( thats first gear limiter)

yes...... thats not a great fuel consumption......