Late for class," he says-Eric Francisco throws us the keys to his 240 so that he can take his last final of the semester. The Windy City is working overtime this afternoon as the sun begins to set in the distance. "I probably won't see you guys again tonight," he says, "Nice meeting you." And in seconds, we have free reign with a local drift car. Right away, Carter and I start thinking of ways to pawn it off so that we can pay for our last night in town, which will most likely include a visit to a local steakhouse and a nightclub where the female employees gyrate in exchange for $20 bills. But our conscience gets the better of us; it's much too pretty to let go. The way the staggered wheels tuck and sit flush to the extended fenders are a perfect match for the S13.
His friend's AE86 is no different; it's white to match, slammed and hugging a deep set of 15-inch Work Equips. David Hruska, we're told, drifts this little coupe as often as he changes socks, which could be pretty disgusting if it was only on weekends. And he's also not afraid to make contact with any objects that get in his way, like, say, a wall. But if damage is in the cards, David sends it right back to the shop for a touch up. When we shot it, it had just come back from another session.
Eric and David's cars represent Chicago's drifting elite and are the unofficial demo cars for Touge Factory, a shop buried deep in the suburbs outside the big city. The shop's founder, David Lee, is responsible for helping to organize most of Chicago's major drift functions, representing Drift Association's Midwest chapter. Like its primary West Coast division, Drift Association headlines a majority of the grassroots drift events, giving plenty of drifting hopefuls the chance to improve their sideway skills. Touge Factory, however, is also the sole importer of Origin Lab, a Japanese body kit company that specializes in widebody extremes as shown by these two examples here. The AE86 and S13 are both rolling showcases of how to build drift cars the right way.
Fire Wire
When he's not filling out Scantrons, Eric's busy at Touge Factory as the company's wiringspecialist, an important job if you're working with cars that are always seeing engine swaps like the SR20DET or the 20v 4AG. But having owned a 240SX since he first got his license, Eric spent the past six years perfecting this S13 coupe. Concentrating heavily on power, he swapped in a red-top SR20DET from a '93 Silvia, upgrading its valvetrain by installing 264 HKS stage 2 cams and GReddy valve springs to handle the increased lift. A larger intake plenum, also from GReddy, sucks air in from a Z32 intake, feeding the Garrett T28 turbo before it's routed out through a Helix turbo manifold and down to an Origin Lab exhaust. A thick GReddy RSPL intercooler core fills the front gap of the Origin Lab bumper, lowering intake charge and boosting power as a result. It's estimated that Eric's SR20 is topping out somewhere around 300 horses, which is plenty for a drift setup.