HeatBloomEric + Veronica: A Love Story

[Drades]

I decided the old thread wasnt really worth reviving, and so i started a fresh one!

Well Im not really sure where to start this story.So im just going to start it!

I had traded an old s13 coupe shell of mine for a running hatchback s13 from a local jdm junkyard/partsdealer in september of 2009 in order to drive in a amature competition at race city. The car came with no brakes, popped 3 tires on the way home, only had one headlight, no interior, been in a few drifting accidents before, and had generally lived an exciting life. Through my grade 12 year i rebuilt/drifted that car in my highschools automotive/autobody classes/ local drift events and drift spots and sold it for a decent amount of money at the end of the year.






A decent amount of money which i used to import this beautiful work of nissan history. The Nissan Skyline!

I have always been in love with oldschool japanese nissans and drifting, and they the R32 seemed like an unattainable goal. There was one locally that was/is one of the nicest r32s ever, and the driver at the time dominated all the local/national competition. In the end i was left with a sort of legendary romance with skylines, and the only day in my life I've ever had enough money to actually buy one, thats exactly what i did.


And there she was.
I knew it was love the first time I saw the ad, and i have not stopped loving her a day since.
When she landed in canada, she took a train from Vancouver, BC to Calgary, AB. At the time i was in college near Saskatoon, SK, so when i came home on thanksgiving to find my family out of town, me and Veronica shared a Delissio Pizza (not delivery) on the shop floor on the first night we met.
First thing was first, If she was going to be my bitch? She's got to have some attitude.
Coilovers and wheels.



getting all up in that ass! haha



Now that a girl got some sass in her ass and some junk in her trunk, ( thanks to HeatBloomMatt for the wheels and coilovers) Its time to move to BC.

I suppose i am just a romantic fellow, or perhaps its just about a few things, but Skylines, dark haired women, and British Columbia have always started my fire. As an Albertan this place always felt cold and empty, I always longed for the ocean and the sun, and when our family would adventure out to the coast in the summer i would finally feel alive. So I packed my **** in my four door, ( and i mean PACKED) and i left my life behind to start something for myself on Vancouver Island.

And as a naive 19 year old i started my TERRIFYING journey through the Canadian Rocky Mountains on January 5th on worn 215/40/18 kumho exctas. haha I wont bother to type out the whole adventure but it was really quite a trip, which involved getting stuck in Golden, BC and having to buy some spare spacers and tires off of an employees shed at a tire shop. Me and my faithful friend Jonathan made the trip together, and thats his white 500hp Subaru he was taking to crawford to get re tuned.

[Drades]

But my baby got some new shoes, and i finally got some traction. haha. just a little though.
Finally at home on the island i put the shiny wheels back on and hit up some drift events down in Victoria at Western Speedway. Met a bunch of rad dudes, and a bunch of dicks. But overall Victoria is a really cool scene, its just a shame the government have such harsh laws, it makes it really hard to daily your drift car, and im way too committed to Veronica to shove her in a shed for any more time than i already do!
I did my first couple events with the stock viscous diff, a hicas system that worked great (makes drifting really...spontaneous?haha) and got my hands on this nasty aids steering wheel from a mini cooper, and made this bubble shift knob out of a shower towel rack! I used the chrome tube off of it to make my ebrake nice and chrome, which actually turned out perfectly. At this point in my life i had moved down to Victoria and didn't have a lot of money, so i was scrapping together what i could in order to get out there and sling it with the guys.



But thats exactly what i did!






Me and Veronica at this point had been homeless together a few times as well. She was my only possession at times, and we also laughed atop the mountain and looked over the city as king and queen. I moved away from all of my friends and family and found great struggle in really connecting with the strangers around me, so to me Veronica was home away from home. We adventured as often as my wallet allowed and have shared too many memories to articulate them all, but ill post a few.
The bay down from my house in Nanaimo

Making close friends together

Getting a serious (real)girlfriend...

Competing at Western speedway

Diff shimming/**** HICAS party with my brothers R32 and best buddy Sheldon from Limiters Unlimited in Victoria.

Replacing axles (seems to be a reoccuring theme...)




I really got involved in the drifting community there, and although i was literally living in the forrest and starving, i managed to keep a smile on my face and a spring in my step. I would volunteer at the event when i couldnt afford to drive, and was working building docks in my days.
I got to slide along side Drift Union, and many other well respected teams and drivers.



And this wall!

And best of all, my friends.




I slid a lot, and learned alot about the cars and world around me, as well as myself.



Broke my hicas bar, doing a quick repair thanks to J Blake Welding! ( sorry for the crap pic)



Yep. It was a good life in Victoria. No, a great life! I had explored and grew, and really enjoyed being out and on my own. But in the end it was too hard to find a job there, and it was a such a poor lifestyle that after two long rambling years i finally moved back to lethbridge to reap from the benefits of oil money, a stable income and really dig myself out of a hole of financial and emotional debt.

[Drades]

CHAPTER 2: HeatBloom
Me and my brother ryan both lived out in victoria together ( not in the same home) for a while, but never had enough money at the same time to drive together, so we both returned to lethbridge just in time for out third team mate to move home from his 2 year long adventure in South Korea. Matt has a KA-T r32 skyline sedan thats pretty cool, and he was actually the last team member to join, but the first to get an actual sedan skyline haha. For those who havent heard of HeatBloom we are a grassroots drifting family from Lethbridge, and we only drive sedan skyline r32's. We all love the car, and it really suites our style. So this was the first time that all three guys were together and had their skylines, so we had an absolute blast and spent lots of time with eachother and our cars, burning the tires away!
First thing was first, i had moved to vancouver in order to survive fincancially, and so Veronica stayed in victoria and was in storage. so I needed to go put her together, get her running, WASH HER, and move home to ab.

Sexy shower

Beast mode as me and HeatBloomMatt take off to challenge the mountain passes on the 1200km trip to Lethbridge.
Pictured is my friends monster KA-T silvia Q.

Home Sweet Home!

This was the first time all of our cars met despite owning all of them for over a year! haha Welcome back Matt!

Well it was my favorite time of year, i had just gotten a jgood ob paying 23 bucks an hour ( vs my old 10$ part time job) and my favorite girl desperately needed some love. So i picked up these bad boys! I adore chrome 5 spokes <3


But front fitment was a bit of an issue running 18x10 +20 with an inch spacer.


So we did what heatbloom does! We made some ****! Upper control arms shortened 17mm

[Drades]

annnnd were in business.





I got myself this D max roof wing, and picked up a stock GTS rear wing as well. The stock four door wing is terrible, and i like how aggresively scoopy ( is that a word?) the gts one is. It really gives the rear end a fair amount of action. Those got mounted and can stay.


Until now i had been running some GTS stock 2 door skirts that i just kind of slammed on there just so she wasn't naked. I think they generally looked bad, but they had honest moments where she pulled em off. Anyways i decided to go with a URAS Skirt, but use a two door skirt and modify it to fit my foor door. with the missing back section you can pull the skirt in closer and flatter to the car and it will sit differently than normal. It gives it a bit more flare and makes the car more interesting to look at, my only issue with the URAS skirt for the fourdoor is its pretty blocky and boring, so i've done my best to be unique, and not be blocky and boring. Its hard to explain, but ill get some better pictures of it to show you guys eventually. I think in person you're eye can actually catch the effect of it a substantial amount more.


I wanted to avoid a fiberglass front bumper due to the fragility. Im probably too dedicated to my ride height, as it gives me some headaches, but i wanted the GTR lip so i could scrape along the ground and not have to worry about losing chunks of fiberglass.


And so there we were! Our cars were all working out their little bugs, and we were becoming more comfortable in their cockpits after a long offseason.


Matt welded me up this sweet exhaust that sounds great too! Shout out to that guys welding skill!


We lucked out pretty hard and made a friend with a pretty gnarly driveway who didn't care at all if we had our way with it. So maybe there is a god? haha. I have my whole body kit at this point, but just getting everything to line up clean was a challenge. So sometimes different pieces of the bodykit are missing due to bodywork.





I love this shot i grabbed of Matts KA-T tearing up this sweeper out in the foothills!






Good spots never die! What a beautiful country we live in!

[Drades]

All of our cars progressed a lot, Ryans car got painted white, and i got rid of tons of little demons in my own ride, as well as putting a bit more class into the interior with some woodgrain! A really cool unique steering wheel made of walnut that i bought from malaysia, and a shift knob a friend from victoria made for me as a gift! shoutout colbeekerthesneeker!



I picked up some S13 coilovers because the way skyline suspension is designed doesnt function properly when lowered so much. The rears are in, but im still gathering parts before we cut into the front strut towers to rebuild for s13 suspension conversion in the spring.



I also picked up this turbo vent out of an old 280z!




Then we got even luckier and a small airfield nearby opened up drifting practices only an hour away! We had to go!
Its a really cool abandoned WWII airfield and the owners son happened to have friends who were into drifting. The owner agreed and they are turning it into a legit event this year and hopefully more good times will be had here. On sunny calm days people go skydiving above you, very cool!
Shout out the the Hella Drift Society for putting on events and everything you guys do! Whats super cool about these guys is that all the money we pay them for entry to the events goes right back into the track! Built by drifters for drifters!







In the end i know that she isn't the nicest...


She doesn't have the fattest ass,


She doesn't speak in english, but she does speak in adventure,


And Loyalty


But its in her eyes





And in the memories she helps me create.



Shes an excuse to bring friends together!



And cause a little trouble...


to maybe leave our mark on the world, if only for a short while..



I know that Veronica may not be the nicest Skyline...
But Shes mine,
And after all we've been through, no one could ever feel about this car how i do. <3

[Drades]

Chapter Three: Storm Troopers move to BC

So you know that saying if its not broken dont fix it?
I should have listened.




I knew i didn't want to be black anymore. I loved the factory paint job, as it had a wonderful rainbow sparkle in it. But as time went on i found that the black of the car tends to erase a lot of the unique cool features of the r32, as well as blend tires/road/shadows/car together.



Even just sanding the car really made it stand out a lot more and command the area its occupying. So we argued about a team colour for a very long time. No one could really agree on one colour, as we all had very different and unique looks planned for our rides.




In the end we chose white, and since we sprayed it, i dont think any of us have really second guessed it. They look super clean/mean together!







You can imagine how excited i was! This was my first time spraying an entire car, i had only ever done single pannels before in autobody class, or on my own vehicles.




Then i managed to trade those crappy mustang replicas for a pair of my absolute favourite wheel the SSR ABC Exclusive. The puppies are 18x12 +20. Im in love with how they look, but im still struggling to get them to fit in such a way that i can drift and they not rub. I may end up downsizing to a slightly smaller ABC but either way this is the wheel plan for her.




One thing that matt and I have done to our cars is a full S13 suspension swap. This means cutting out and remaking the s13 strut tops.

[Drades]

There is alot involved in the swap and i never could have done it without matts help. I got s13 lower control arms, knuckles This setup is much simpler, lighter, allows for more angle, and better angle mods, easier and cheaper replacement of parts in general. I had a serious issue with my upper control arms smashing the tops of my strut towers due to being lowered in excess, but with this setup matt and I dont have to worry about it at all.






We also had to make ourselves custom swaybars, as the s13 and r32 no longer worked




The swap left us with one degree of castor due to lack of room in the strut tower, so we invested in GK tech strut adapters. I just got these in the mail, and havent had a chance to grab a picture of them yet, but i will as i install them.

Chapter 4: BRITISH COLUMBIA Rd. 4?
So alberta was a great place to build a foundation for my life, but there just wasnt any drifting there, and i just cant do without it in the long term. I had to move back, but this time i would take both of the HeatBloom guys back with me!




This time its 100% about drifting. I realized thats my main pull in life, and i actually landed an amazing job at the same time.



Ryan is going to VIU, and Matt is moving out in his RV so we can get in the seat time these cars were built for.
Goodbye Alberta!




Hello BC, I love you so!


The clutch was totally giving out over the mountains so i got myself an exedy replacement. I also recently got a new steering rack so i can regain my powersteering super power.



And thats where we are today! I'll keep it updates in real time from here forward!! Thanks for reading lolololol If you made it to the end of this, i tip my hat to you sir!

[mattheripper]

Dude head start to a novel here. Picture book styles my favorite. LOVE IT! Thanks for the props! Mmmm the 3 car.

[Drades]

haha, yeah pretty well could write a novel from my life, and this car could easily take up half.

[aaron86]

When you shortened your front upper control arms 17mm what camber did you end up with?

[Modb]

Man I love the car ahah, she got character!

[SpeedPls]

I remember reading this love story a while back. Nice to see some updates! Love the story

[Drades]

When you shortened your front upper control arms 17mm what camber did you end up with?

Inbetween 4 and 5 negative degrees. I think 4.5 sounds a bit high, but i dont remember exactly.

[Drades]

Man I love the car ahah, she got character!

Thanks guys!!!

[kabob]

Not a fan of your mods (never really cared for drifting) but great story!