Saturday, November 12, 2011

WE HAVE MOVED

Hey guys, Just incase you missed out, all Midnight Mechanics related stuff will be featured on Excitement! Car Magazine. Be sure to watch daily for awesome drift team content as well as automotive content from all over the place!

www.excitementcarmagazine.com

Friday, October 7, 2011

HERE IT IS GUYS!!!
This is what I have been working on for the past few months.
My Brand New Magazine: EXCITEMENT! Car Magazine
http://www.excitementcarmagazine.com/

Tomorrow is the official Launch date, but I am very excited to be releasing it to you guys now. It's taken a lot of effort to get the content I have so far and be sure to check every day for DAILY CONTENT!

You can check us out on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Excitement-Car-Magazine/171972799538596?ref=ts
As well as Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ExciteCarMag

Keep watching guys and be sure to check out for all my coverage of the QR 24hr drift Matsuri!!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

2 MORE DAYS GUYS!!!
I will be finally releasing my new project that I have been working on for the last few months!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

3 more days guys!

Here's a quick teaser:


Tuesday, October 4, 2011

4 days to go guys!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Good news

Something very interesting will be coming in 5 Days!
And no it's not the Queensland Raceway Matsuri ;)

Will be keeping you guys posted

Monday, September 26, 2011



Good god I LOVE film





I went to the Japanese Classic Show and Shine yesterday and shot the entire day in film, so here's a photo of Zak D's SR20 Volvo from Streetkarnage. In about two weeks (hopefully) I will be releasing my new project, I know some of you have seen it, but for now just keep it hush and you will all hear about it soon! <3




Thursday, September 8, 2011

More Hill Run Photos


My new site is slowly coming together and will hopefully be ready for release very soon. You'll be seeing a bit of repetition of what I am posting on here as I still will be bringing you all things cool about us Midnight Mechanics but there will be much more cooler content as well! I know a few of you guys have found it already but I will be sure to let you all know when it's completely ready.
For now, here's a few more shots for you guys from the drive the other night.


Monday, September 5, 2011

Hill run with the crew

Went for a hill run last night and got some photos while I still have the 5D on me. More later! :)




Saturday, September 3, 2011

RETRO AUTO



Thanks to a buddy of mine, Anthony Bryant, I got the heads up that Performance Imports magazine has a new sub-magazine called Retro Auto. It looks to be a great read especially with cars such as the Hakosuka, a boso Ta22 and a rad S30z sporting the pages.


It just so happens that they chose to feature my corolla in it too so I thought I would share those pages with you guys.


HPI has shown the same feature before, but I won't be complaining as that alone was a dream come true for me.


It seems they have revamped the photos in this magazine to give it more of a grungy retro feeling.


Having only read the lead article on the GC10 and flipped through a couple of pages, I cannot wait to read though through the whole thing. I have much awaited more old school Japanese related magazines to come out so I'm excited to see more issues of this!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Time for a drive


Saturday, August 27, 2011

Update

Hey guys, just trying to keep a flow of stuff for you all to look at while I'm busy with building this new magazine.
If anyone is an experienced photographer and is interested in being a contributor, send me through an email to grant@grantscottphotography.com and show me what you got.

I'm very eager to get as much drift and Japanese content nationally and especially internationally.

As always, hang tight guys, I promise the wait will be worth it :)

- Grant


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Hey Guys,
A quick update.

I have just a bit of an update on what I have been working on this week. I have been flat out preparing for last weekend where I took the trip down to Sydney to shoot the World Time Attack Challenge. Despite having a full uni week first thing Monday morning after my Sunday night flight back, I have been slowly culling down the 2 something thousand photos I took over the weekend.

I'm looking forward to finally releasing this Magazine so I can show all you guys what I have been up to

For now, Here's a snap of the Cyber Evo piloted by Tarzan Yamada resting in the pits.


And the Pan Speed FD RX-7 driven by Sasaki-san


Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Film

Damn it I love film! I have had dotted patches of experience with it across my life but really not as much as I would like. I got my first roll of film from my EOS 1 developed yesterday and I couldn't be happier.
Here's just a taste of the deliciousness that is film: a BMW 5 series I snapped in Shinsaibashi, Osaka. For more amazing film shots you'll just have to wait until I release my new magazine I have been building.


Saturday, July 23, 2011

I've Been Busy

Hey guys,
Not many posts lately as I have been very busy building my new online magazine.
I won't shed too many details yet but I am putting a lot of hours into it in a hope it will become one of the more quality automotive publications out there.
I can assure you that when the time comes for me to release the new magazine you will hear of it!

You can expect content from drift events, car meets, car features and of course quality coverage of all stuff related to Midnight Mechanics.
I am also heading down to Superlap in the next two weeks for content for the magazine.

For now, here is just a tease of what I have been up to in the last few days.


Tuesday, July 12, 2011

MotorFIX Represents!

I've been trying to keep as much content going as I can for lately, but I have been pretty slack lately because I'm working on something really big for the Midnight Mechanics site. Hopefully I will be able to show all you guys in the next couple of days :)

I found a new video of the 1uz powered MotorFIX ke70 on Nozomu's Facebook wall the other day. To my delight I also spotted this!



Sunday, July 10, 2011

Jason's Fresh 4AGTE

Those of you who have been reading for a while will know that Jason has been busy having his 4agze motor professionally rebuilt. Jason previously had a SC14 supercharger and W box lined up for this, however half way through the build he had a change of heart and decided it was time to turbo this sucker.

Having received the motor back yesterday, it has now been treated with bigport cams, a brand new T28 on a steam pipe manifold and is waiting on a custom inlet manifold running a larger throttle body and 550cc injectors. To tie it all together the motor will be run with an Adaptronic ECU and coil over plug ingnition.

The builder of the motor, Marky, has gone absolutely nuts with the restoration of it. There has not been a single part of the engine that has not been polished, replaced or improved in some way. Every single bolt has been replaced with new alan key bolts and every plastic bit has been painted. Even the alternator and crank angle sensor has been polished. A great example of Marky's attention to detail is the front harmonic balancer; here you can see the cover he created using a lathe to cover up the main bolt on the crankshaft.

Jason lives about 35 minutes away from me now so I don't get to catch up with him as much as I would like. Seeing as I was down there today I took the opportunity to get some photos of his R31 hack he bought recently.

 This thing has been the perfect drift toy. It came with a full set of coilovers for $1500 and it was immediately ready to slide. Having had a go of it last track day I thoroughly approve!

We also decided that Jason's photo for this site is not scandalous enough.





Saturday, July 9, 2011

Jayrad's S14

So today Jayrad got his new blacktop to go back into the S14. The previous one had decided it no longer liked having useable rings and thus became unusable. There are some pretty good plans for this new motor, seeing as money had to be spent it would seem that Jayrad decided to go big.


 The s14 was already pretty damn cool on the outside running 18x10 Work XD9's and an Instant Gentleman front bar. However the motor was previously a pretty standard S14 blacktop with a T28.

The new motor is now running 265/264 cams, GK Tech rocker arm stoppers, GK Tech stainless turbo manifold, Kando Dynamics TD05-20g turbo, Apexi Power FC, Tomei 740cc injectors, Tomei Sump, and a custom clutch from Direct Clutch. On top of this, to take care of cooling Jayrad has added a Greddy oil filter relocator and a Koyo triple core radiator. 
Sounds like it's going to be one hell of a motor!

 A lot of people say that stainless turbo manifolds are useless and they always crack welds, and with good reason. You are always far better to own a new steam pipe manifold than a cheap eBay item or a very old manifold bought off Yahoo auctions. But for the prices that GK Tech sells these brand new stainless manifolds  you can't argue that it's worth giving it a go. The quality of these is quite amazing. 

This is the TD05 that is going onto the motor. Jason actually runs one of these on his 4agte and although it's a little laggy for a 1.6 it should be awesome on an SR build of this quality.

 After a lot of dicking around during the afternoon we finally got Jayrad's motor in. Having had this motor out for the past two months, and at the time of removal it being his daily, it being back in the engine bay is something of a victory for Jayrad.

Victory pose! Plenty more on Jayrad's S14 soon guys!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Hill Run at Dusk

 Since arriving back from Japan I have been very eager to blow the cobwebs off the Corolla and go for a proper drive.
Yesterday afternoon a group of friends and I went for a late afternoon hill run up an area called Beechmont here on the Gold Coast. I would not claim it to be the most amazing collection of corners around but it does have some fun parts.

My good friend Ross came along in his WRX. Being a rally driver he certainly knows how to steer a car so I always love trying to keep up with him on the hills.
The base of Beechmont has a few cool corners to tear through but there are pockets of residential areas that you really need to go slow through. The best part is when you get to the top of the mountain and there is nothing be straight sweepers where you can really open the taps!


Nathan also brought his 1200 along with some mates in other rad looking old school cars.
As said, Beechmont may not be the most amazing hill run around but it certainly has some great views!


Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Midnight Mechanic's Adventure to Meet MotorFIX

Anyone who has any interest in drifting and E model corollas will have heard of MotorFIX.
For the last 6 years of building my Corolla, MotorFIX has been a constant and ever increasing inspiration for myself. I have always been in awe of every car that has had this workshop's name associated with it. Whether it be a rusty corolla wagon or immaculate sedan that has been built by this crew.

Recently I was in Japan for a holiday and on the 18th of June I was incredibly privileged to attend an Event at YZ Circuit in Gifu that was held by Nozomu Sakai, the owner of MotorFIX. Having accommodation in Osaka approximately 180k's away meant that the day was by no means going to be a short one but it was well worth it to meet these guys. Not only to watch them drive, but also to have had several passenger rides in Nozomu's new 1uz ke70!

Before I start with the pictures and the story I would like to extend my extreme appreciation to both Shane Bingham and Ewan Paterson of K-Tours for making it possible for me to get to this event. Especially to Ewan for driving us up on the day!

Onward to photos!

For both my girlfriend Emily and I the day started at about 4.30am... Typical drift morning wake up time.
We had to get up to take the local train from Namba to Shin-Osaka station so we could catch the Shinkansen to Nagoya where we would meet Ewan at 8am.

The countryside in Japan is just amazing, I can't get enough of watching the rice patty fields as we fly by on the Shinkansen. Which is a good thing because there were plenty of them!


Ewan picked us up from Nagoya station in his newly acquired JZX90 chaser. Actually knowing a few people with 90 and 100's in Australia I knew how much more comfy the 2.5 hour trip (which was only 40 kilometers!) was going to be in something like this. Unfortunately for us and especially Ewan, we got pulled up by the local police in Gifu due to the car being too low, too loud and the dealer plates not being fixed to the bumper. Standard stuff, but the police were quite nice to us so it wasn't too long before we got on our way again.


Finally arriving at YZ Circuit we quickly caught up with the MotorFIX guys. Nozomu is an amazing driver and is far too humble about everything. I had been having talks with him on facebook about meeting up in Japan prior to this date so he had an idea that I would be coming to this event. Even though we had a bit of a language barrier on the day I really enjoyed discussing as much as I could with him about each others corollas. I also made sure to bring up plenty of Midnight Mechanics stickers for him as well as a Zoom magazine with my car featured in it. 


As I walked around the paddock to have a look at some of the cars I found it impossible to decide what to look at first. There were so many amazing cars here!
This Ae70 had the typical beater approach that you see with a lot of the cars. Just look at the camber on the front wheels! 


Inside it was running a silvertop 20v 4age. So many people have headaches about the dizzy on these previously fwd motors, I would say this guy has found the most appropriate solution!


I had to keep pinching myself every time I turned around to see the line up of these three cars. Until this year I would never have dreamt I would see these in person. I've always been a big fan of MotorFIX for their rusty cars, but when the maroon sedan was built I fell in love. So much time and effort has been put into this to create a seamless corolla and to top it off they put a Beams 3sge with ITB's in it!
Unfortunately though, neither the maroon or beige wagon were driving on the day.


I remember when they first built this car they ran 15" Watanabe's, however they have now changed to 14" Work Equipe 03's. Perfect choice!


Of course, until recently the maroon car had been the cleanest corolla MotorFIX had built. 
Anyone that has been keeping their eye on all things MotorFIX will know about the latest creation - A 1uz-Fe powered 2 door ke70. 


The 1uz motor has made its way into a few E series chassis corollas in the drift scene across, but its still not a common conversion. Understandably it would not be a very easy conversion either considering it is 3 times the capacity of the original factory motor.


It certainly does wonders for the power to weight, and having gone for several rides in it during the day I can assure you it does not run out of puff.
See for yourself here.


I have also been a huge fan of the wagon since it was build. I love their idea of using a sedan chassis and welding a wagon on top of it. A perfect solution to get rid of those nasty leaf springs!


Of course in true MotorFIX style the car has been salvaged from the junk yard and no regard for the quality of the panel work has been given.  


It's probably a good thing too because as some of you may know they have already put it on its roof.
To my disbelief (and joy!) they just belted it out and got it back on track.


I love the idea of having an absolute hack of a car running quite possibly one of the most sought after 4age conversions from a  20v Ae101 Levin, and a very clean one at that!


Incredibly, in a huge contrast to the outside, the inside of the car has been made immaculate. The engine bay is painted a tidy primer grey, where the inside of the car has been completely caged up and sprayed white.
I also spotted some full length 4-link in the back of the car, I would say that's pretty out of place for a wagon wouldn't you?


Aside from the MotorFIX cars, this has to be my favorite car on the day. An AA63 carina. These things come with a 16v 4age as standard, and I would have to say it was easily the loudest car on the day! Probably even louder than my corolla... So I don't know how he managed that.


This 86 with a BRIDE livery was incredible to look at. I would say it for every single car I saw on this day, but if this turned up to a track day in QLD it would attract A LOT of attention!


Even with no bumpers on this car looked stunning!


R31 House is just around the corner from YZ circuit, so this car was in attendance. After spotting the Australian flag on this I was very interested to find out that this car was built specifically for a drift event in New South Wales! The car was brought over by Shibata-san of R31 House with the help of Powerplay Imports.
Don't believe me? Check this out. Looks a bit like Australia to me.


I have to say I'm ashamed to admit this is before my time, I was just finishing school when all this was happening. I do know that 2004 & 2005 were pretty good years for drifting in Australia.. It would be great to see more cars of this quality being brought over for events again, but I just don't think it will happen.


As you can see the car looks just as amazing as it did 7 years ago! Anyone that owns an active drift car will know how much of a remarkable feat this is.


Being such a wet day there were a lot of spills on the track. Yz is a great little course. There isn't much run off but who needs it anyway! If a course is as good as this I'm happy with a block wall and someone to pickup your taillights once you've left the corner.


I kept watching in awe the entire day as Nozomu powered this beast through the wet corners. Every time I went for a lap with him he kept telling me "Kowai!" Meaning scary. I suppose 190kw in something that weighs about 900kg would be quite scary, but I'm used to Josh Young's old 1uz 86 so I just kept telling him how much I enjoyed it.


Of course this being the first track day for this car, they were still testing it out. While in the car I had my feet buried in wiring and at the same time I was looking at the dash and watching the digital air/fuel readout bouncing around and quite often hitting lean. The car has also been overheating quite a bit, but I hear Josh has a solution for them.


I had a soft spot for this Gx71 Cresta on the day because I actually used to own a Mx73 Cressida. Essentially they are the same car but they are so different it will make your head spin. 
My car came with a 5m-ge, where the cars over here come with a 1g-ge. I wouldn't say by much, but it's an improvement!
The front looks exactly the same, however the Australian model only has one orange indicator.


The rear however is completely different to the typical Australian Cressida.


This beige 86 coupe was incredibly tidy. It actually looks very similar to one I have seen quite regularly on Speedhunters, but with different wheels and panels I would doubt it is the same car.


Every one of the drivers at this event were good friends of MotorFIX. Nozomu is apparently an old student of a technical college that most of these people are studying at. This event was just a fun track day to bring everyone together.


I found the engine bay of this car very interesting to see how differently 4agze conversions are done in Japan. Obviously the heat is not as bad for Japan's summer. With a setup like this in Australia you would get a lot of heat soak in that top mounted intercooler.


I also had Nozomu ask me why I run 4agze in Australia. Ewan and I had to explain how much wider and larger the tracks in Australia are. Obviously YZ is quite larger than the go kart courses we have been using as of late, but for the actual fun tracks like Queensland Raceway a standard N/A 16v just does not suffice even with the most slippery setup.


This FC was just gorgeous. There is no other way to explain it. It is quite simply the most perfect Series 5 I have ever seen.


It was also very cool to not see it sit in the paddock all day like I am so used to seeing with cars of this perfection. 


This Crown was very calm at the start of the day and the driver didn't push it too hard. Throughout the day though it got more speed and more angle which made me start to wonder what was powering it. 


A vvti 1jz-gte will certainly do the job!


As said though this Carina was probably my favorite to watch on the entire day. Such a tidy looking car! 


The first corners at YZ circuit have got to be one of the most awesome collection of corners I have ever seen. You build as much speed as you can along the straight, give a yank of the steering along with a quick clutch kick into the first corner, flick it back the opposite direction at full throttle and then flick it back again in order to link it through these two corners.


The tandems that we being had between the Carina and Nozomu's ke70 were amazing! Especailly when they linked these two corners and sprayed up all the water that was building at the edge of the track!


There was also some amazing tandems between these Ae86's. I would happily own any of these three!


I still can't get over the cars at this track day. I much as I am a fan of clean cars I love the deterioration that is allowed to happen to these cars. This model of Ae86 would be very desirable in Australia, however the owner has just left it to rust. Despite this though the car still looks awesome and drifts hard.


Just getting to this track day and seeing these cars in action in person is a complete dream come true for me. My love for these cars and my corolla as well has been increased so much from being here. I'm also incredibly inspired to better my car from meeting Nozomu and the rest of these guys. I serious hope to get back to this area some day and actually tandem with these guys.