One thing I always worry about with these King of the Ring reports is the content going stale. As with any championship of any discipline of motorsport there are contenders who will always be at events and I often worry that people are going to get bored of reading about the same drivers and seeing the same cars and, possibly even worse, I would no longer enjoy writing about it.
Thankfully, these events never get stale though. There are always new drivers and new cars coming into the series, either as amateurs or drivers coming in from different tracks or series who are looking to have some fun and to take up a challenge.
For round 6 we had a team of Lithuanians, who are apparently based locally but have never driven King of the Ring. They brought a spectacular array of machinery including this V12 powered 5 Series BMW
They also brought a manual, twin turbo 300ZX and a 325i E30.
The E30 has gained quite a following here in the UK as a classic car and are quite sort after especially in a manual, straight six configuration, which is why I was quite surprised to see it here going around the track. Don’t panic though! This one is left hand drive and from my knowledge there are still plenty available on the continent so it’s not a super rare vehicle. Importing a BMW from the continent is probably quite a good way to get an E30 chassis now and it surely can’t be a bad thing to be able to drive (or drift) LHD.
The team’s piece de resistance however was this RB30 engined Ford Transit. Yes you read that correctly, an RB30 engined Ford Transit.
This absolute monster is running 750hp and is currently on eBay for sale: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-TRANSIT-SPORTIVE-750BHP-RWD-DRIFT-DRAG-RACE-/282631261120?hash=item41ce22cbc0:g:~8QAAOSwgeRZpvD5
Throughout the day all you could hear was it burbling on idle. From this far away it was the most distinct sounding machine.
On track it was just savage. Spitting flames as it went round. I don’t think I’ve seen this much smoke over Arena Essex since Drift Allstars wayy back in 2015.
It was fairly unusual watching such a large machine going around the track at speed too!
The Liweren’t the only ones bringing their ‘A’ game though. BDC driver and fabricating legend Mike Marshall came to play in his 1JZ powered E36 BMW.
I’m writing as though these cars are head and shoulders above the rest of the field but some of the regular King of the Ring cars really aren’t that far behind. Tom Yate’s E36 M3 has a massive lock kit and wide Westlake Tyres all round. I’m sure the S52 is down on power compared to the 1JZ but I reckon it’s not by a huge amount.
Tom Yates’ brother Robbie was also back out in his touring. I’d really like to see this lad take a win here!
Mazda normally produce very happy looking cars…
… I think someone had annoyed this one though!
The BMW non M-Sport, non engine swapped E46 and E36 BMWs were still the dominant cars of the day though. Here we have James Wilkins Cageworx E46. I love these front wheels!
Lining up behind Mr Wilkins was Mr Darrel Smith. Looking more and more confident in the touring.
I’m not sure who owns this one. I love the different colours though!
Away from the line we have Nerijus’ Skyline. Always a pleasure to watch this man drive.
Alex McKenzie of Team HD was also making a return with the E46 touring. This car has featured a lot on this blog and for good reason; the steering lock is insane!
Mr Johnny Smith was also present with his estate. Looking a little worse for wear but I’m told it’s still MOT’d and has a full service history! Could be yours for the right price!
In the BMW club but not in the estate club are the boys from MAPT Motorsport. These chaps always put on a good show. For some reason I only took a picture of Paul’s car and that was with the boot open.
I did take a fair few photos from on the track as well which after some thought I’ve decided will be posted as a sort of image dump. Throughout some of my photos you might find this handsome chap in a blue high vis vest wandering about the place. His name is Aaron Hawes and he runs My Square Wheel Photography. He will have much better action shots than I do so you should definitely look him up on Facebook!
As always I really don’t mind you saving and using the photos from this blog. If you could link the people you share them too to this blog that would be amazing!
Here we go!
Of course there’s more to King of the Ring than just the drifting. The Show and Shine once again brought a nice variety of cars to the event.
First off we have Mark Clarence’s S14a. He was parked right near the gate at the start of the evening and then had to make his way up to Scotland to support his son, Aidan at Drift Cup. Having the car there all by itself made for a nice opportunity for a little photo shoot though!
The 14a was later replaced by this lovely Mercury Monterey and a heavily modified R35 GTR.
Opposite these cars was the Monster Energy truck. Monster Energy are super cool with the way they support King of the Ring. They not only give a crate of drinks to the podium finishers but turn up with their truck and some support staff to hand out drinks to people and have a chat. Their logos can also be seen dotted about the place and they even put our resident DJ Luke Paul (more on him later) in a branded gazebo to play in!
If we turn around once more the show and shine continues along the front of the club house. First up with have a Mk3 Ford Capri. A Capri is on my bucket list of cars to own, with the Essex V6, they fetch crazy money now though!
Here’s Luke’s Mazda RX8. Much like Mark’s S14s it never gets old taking pictures of this car. It just looks amazing from every angle! As I menetioned before Luke is a DJ and always does a good job at KOTR. I’m not 100% sure on how you book him but if you are looking for a DJ for an event drop him a message on Facebook!
A little further up with a couple of super clean Nissan’s an R34 GTT Skyline and an S14a
The other car that really jumped out at me in this section was this little Nova track car. I think these little things are super cool! Again, I’d love to take one that had been boy racered up back in the day with the big kit and stereo etc and pull it apart to turn it into a fun little pocket rocket. Maybe one will come up one day!
To the side of the club house is the main gates. There are a few show cars normally parked there as well. The highlights here were this original Mk3 Golf Cabriolet:
Alongside this V8 Mustang. White and blue, either way around is the colour to have on a Mustang in my opinion!
Behind those was this little Triumph Herald parked up all by itself. Lovely looking little car and I’m sure it’s a tonne of fun to drive!
If we swivel back around we find an RX8
Sitting alongside a Skoda Fabia. I promised the dude a pic and gave him a business card and he actually liked my Facebook page from it so he is a top man in my eyes! Skodas are cool and reliable little family cars too! With a drop and a nice set of wheels it would turn some heads! You don’t see too many modified.
The show and shine area also runs up behind the club house too. There were a few cars of note here including this Megane and Focus ST. Both popular track day cars!
You may have sneakily seen this Team S1 BMW E36 lurking in the background too!
This E30 convertible was also stunning!
I’m not sure if it was actually part of the show and shine but this little totally standard and original Honda Logo really caught my eye! A little 90s classic that hopefully gets preserved! Keep it up Mr or Mrs owner!
The car of the night for me has to be the Essex Rotary FC RX7 though! This car is a veteran of King of the Ring and was on deaths door when the boys took it in. They’ve straightened it and made new rear quarters for it, tidied it up inside, put on the body kit and wheels and painted it. It looks superb and was only done in a matter of weeks and yes, they will be competing in it!
These guys are really pushing themselves at the moment both in terms of business and in drifting. I really do wish them the best of luck and am looking forward to seeing what they do next.
Proper Dropperz were also in attendance. I’m afraid I only popped up there early evening so there wasn’t a huge amount of stuff up there. These two modified vans were very nice though!
All in all it was a really nice evening, I’d just like to take this moment to thank Adam and Steve for organising the event along with Arena Essex for hosting it and all the marshalls, flag staff, ticket staff and everyone else who makes this possible.
Big congratulations to Jon Hudd, Dan Tyler and Mark Chapman who made up the podium for the evening’s competition.
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