Drifting season for the Cyrious Garageworks and Scion Canada drift team has returned! I've been looking forward to the beginning of this season all year long, so it was nice to get back behind the wheel of FR-S again!
Over the off season we have made a few improvements to the car to make it faster and more responsive. I was excited to see how we would stack up against the competition at Round 1 of Formula Drift Canada.
Practice was a bit rough for us. We were fighting a random mis-fire problem in the engine, which took the team a while to figure out, so by the time we had that sorted out, there was only enough time for about 3 laps of practice, which didn’t really give us much time to play with the car set up and they weren't my best laps by any means. But on to qualifying we went!
First lap out I messed up and missed my downshift from 4th to 3rd gear in the braking zone, resulting in my car straightening out, zero score. Do or die lap. This time going into this lap I decided I wasn't going to downshift, just keep it in 4th and see what happens. Well, it worked great and we qualified 2nd!
Top 16 was in front of a huge crowd and the weather couldn't have been better! My first battle was against Stephen Van Sleuwen. We had a decent battle and I was able to edge him out and take the win!
On to the top 8. We were to go against Youri Levesque. He's been around for a few years now and has been one of those drivers with potential. I led first, he followed me closely but made a few corrections and drifted at less angle to stay close. When I followed him, I wasn't as close but my line and angle was better. And while I didn’t have any corrections, he was given the win.
Like all race events, we walk away with lessons learned and know where we need to improve for the next one. I will be driving much more aggressive from here on in, I can promise you that. Next round is finally just outside Toronto, so I look forward to seeing all of you local fans at Sunset Speedway on June 25th!
For the third round of Formula Drift Canada, the team and I travelled to the famous streets of Trois-Rivières, where people have been racing since 1967! Held over two weeks in August, the Grand Prix Trois-Rivières plays host to multiple series race events that include NASCAR and World RallycrossRX, and for the first time a drifting competition with FD Canada.
The streets of Monaco inspired the track and while on paper it appears to be two turns, it’s actually quite difficult. To start, the track is entirely lined with concrete walls so there is really no margin for error. Secondly, we were only given two 30-minute practice sessions which really didn’t give us any time to make set-up changes so everything had to be pretty good right from the get-go. Luckily, we were able to walk the track the night before the competition, so I was able to get an idea of what I was going to need to do to make every lap of practice count.
My first practice run went great! I felt really comfortable right away with the track, placed the car where it needed to be, and felt really fast throughout the course! We only got one lap in on that 30 minute session because there was a crash, but I felt good about how I did. Next session out I was able to get in two good laps, and I was feeling confident going into the top 16 competition.
Unlike the other FD Canada events this year, there was no qualifying. Instead, they used the championship points to decide the order of the top 16. Also, due to the time constraints of GP3R, there would be no “one more time” calls from the judges so every run really needed to sway the judges in your favour. The top 16 battle was spread out over two days, with the first half held on Friday and the rest of the competition on Saturday.
With me leading the board on championship points, I qualified in first and was paired up with Jo Thiffault. I led first with a good clean lap, but while Jo kept up, he made a few mistakes. On my follow lap, Jo slowed down way more than I expected on entry, causing me to straighten up for a second but I managed to keep up with him for the rest of the run. It was a close call, but the judges gave me the win!
My next battle was against Tomy Boisvert-bellamare. We’ve battled against one another every round of FD Canada so far. Knowing Tom, I knew he was going to give it his all and this was not going to be an easy fight. I led first and did a near perfect run! Tom hung with about two car lengths back but couldn’t close in on me. On my follow lap, I was able to close the gap between him and I and was awarded the win.
On to the final 4! I was up against Martin Langlois, a really good driver that’s pretty aggressive. I led first, did a great lap and Martin stuck with me by about three car lengths only making some minor mistakes. Which meant that my follow lap would have to be perfect. We took off down the straight into the first corner and I mis-shifted, putting it in fifth gear instead of third. Right away Martin gaped me by four car lengths. I tried to make it up but just couldn't close that gap and Martin took the win. I heard that many of you were saying “one more time” on Periscope! I spoke with the judges afterwards and they agree that had it not been for the circumstances, they would have called for one more time.
In the end with my first place qualifying position, I finished the event in third overall! But the day wasn’t done just yet. With the competition out of the way, the top 3 drivers of the event got to do demo runs Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Dean Kearny. Even better, I was lucky enough to take Yves Levesque, the Mayor of Trois-Rivières along for the ride! We had some great tight runs, the Mayor loved it and the crowd went wild!
So after three exciting rounds of FD Canada, I ended up being the top qualified driver going into the final World Round in September back in St-Eustache! I’ve also been told that I am officially FD Canada’s “Drifter of the Year.”
Up next for us is FD Pro2 in Texas. We will be making some changes to our transmission that will hopefully prevent mis-shifts from happening and do a few other little things but overall I have been extremely happy with how my Scion FR-S has been performing this season!
We’ve just returned from the second round of Formula Drift Canada and what a round it was! It took place at one of my favourite tracks – the Autodrome in Montmagny.
Held over a weekend, practice and qualifying were done on Saturday with the main competition happening on Sunday. The good thing about a 2-day event is that you have plenty of time to find the ideal setup to get your car just right.
Autodrome Montmagny is your basic stock car style oval with a switch back in the center section of the track. The most difficult part of the course is coming off of the first bank before going into the infield. With such a tight turn, you have to slow down from probably 100 km/h down to 50 km/h to hit inner clip 1. When done correctly, you could carry lots of speed into the second bank, and during practice I nailed it every time! No other car that followed my FR-S could keep up with us after inner clip 1. As soon as we would get past that point, I would put the car in fourth gear and rocket into the second bank, billowing Yokohama smoke from the back of the FR-S! Despite the weather, the practice went very well. We made some changes to the car and found some new ways to develop more grip out of the chassis, so the car was very fast in wet or dry conditions.
Qualifying was to take place on a wet track, but we were prepared for it and I was feeling very comfortable drifting in the slippery conditions. As the points leader, I was the last to go. I did my run with good speed, hit all the clips and placed the car in all the right zones and qualified second. On a side note, I'm very happy with how my qualifying has been going this season, I've made top 3 at every event!
On Sunday, we had about 3 hours of practice before the competition started. We used the better part of the morning to adjust our set up to match the dry conditions. We made a few changes and overall I was pretty happy with the car. The only thing we lacked was a bit more gear ratio in the first bank, as I was on the rev limiter through most it, but our gearing was perfect for the rest of the track and the FR-S was extremely fast and had a ton of grip!
We entered the Top 16 against Tomy Boisvert-bellemare. Tomy and I have battled many times, he's a very smooth and consistent driver, and is also very good at doing tight tandem. I was first to lead, and pretty much did the same consistent lap I had been doing all weekend. Tomy ran a decent lap behind me, but just couldn't match my speed in the second sector of the track. On my follow lap, I stuck close to him all the way around the course and had a good feeling when we pulled up in front of the crowd to wait for judging. The moment I stopped the car, one of the officials noticed some flames through my bumper – my car was on fire! Before I could get out of my car, Tomy had already jumped out, fire extinguisher in hand, and he quickly put out the fire. If you were watching the live stream on Periscope, I’m sure you were as impressed as I was and it really demonstrates the spirit and sportsmanship of drifting. I can't thank Tomy enough for his help! With the fire out, we learned I had won the round, which left us about 25 minutes to tow the car back to the pits, figure out what happened and to fix it. Turns out that the oil drain line on the turbo had come loose, causing oil to leak onto the manifold, resulting in fire. We tightened it up, threw on a fresh set of Yokohama Advan's and lined up for the next battle.
In the great 8 I was to go against Marin Guilbault. Marin is a decent driver from Ontario that has been in the Pro-Am scene now for about 4 years and has been trying to go pro for the last 2 years. I had a feeling going into this battle that it was going to get ugly. I led first and once again followed my qualifying line. Unfortunately, while I slowed down in the braking zone, Marin bashed into me causing quite a bit of body damage to the side of my FR-S. I managed to save the car from spinning and continued my run. On my follow lap, Marin had missed a shift real bad, and after running his car into the dirt on the top of the bank, I shut it down behind me since I knew I had won that battle. On to the final 4…
We had about 10 minutes to check the car over and fix what we could after the contact with Marin. Something in the rear suspension was definitely effected as we could see the alignment didn't look right on the left rear wheel, but our next run was coming up fast and we didn’t have time to start replacing arms and realign the car. So we did the best we could and lined up for the next run against Alex Gosselin. He was looking good all weekend so we knew it was going to be a fight. I led first, initiated at the same point I had done all weekend but this time my FR-S didn’t slow down the way I expected it to and I washed out into the gravel on the top of the bank, zeroing out on that run. For my follow lap, we pushed hard to get a ''one more time" call from the judges. I initiated right on him, and stuck about a foot off his door the entire way around the first bank! We came into the braking zone and I was right on him, but he slowed down a bit more than I anticipated, which bogged my car down. I tried to spool the 2J back up by clutch kicking hard but on the third kick one of the rear axles snapped, causing the car to be one wheel drive and pretty much ending our weekend.
Overall it was one wild weekend, and at the end of it all, I'm still in first place with respect to the championship points race. We'll fix our Scion FR-S up and come back strong at Round 3 of Formula Drift Canada in Trois Rivieres!
Thanks for the support!
Didn't make it to Round 2 of Formula Drift Canada? The team @ScionCanada has been streaming the race live on Periscope. Check out the replay of the Top 16 below.
It’s been over 2 years since I've stood on the top of the podium and feels great to be back!
We returned victorious from the first round of Formula Drift Canada at Autodrome St. Eustache, and I'm very proud of our team and my FR-S on a long awaited win.
The two weeks leading up to this event were hectic to say the least. I spent most of the break fixing the car from our crash in Florida. It came down to the wire, with parts showing up only days before the event, and then finding other parts that were damaged the day we were about to leave. Luckily, I was able to get it all sorted out with just enough time to make the six-hour trip to Montreal.
The event was held over the weekend. Saturday was just a practice day, which was great because I figured there would be some bugs to work out of the FR-S. However, everything felt right the moment we got on the track. I was feeling comfortable with the car very quickly and after 10 laps of consistently hitting the same line, we decided to shut it down and save the car/tires for the main event!
Sunday morning we had two-hours of practice before moving straight into qualifying due to the stormy weather approaching. I did about six laps in practice, all relativity the same – very smooth, smoky and consistent. We threw on a fresh set of AD08's and went into qualifying. My first lap out I did the same line I had been doing all weekend, which put us in second place. On my next lap, I pushed a bit harder and got a slightly better score but got edged out by two other drivers so we ended qualifying third.
The battles that followed were pretty tough. The competition pushed the FR-S and I to do some of the best driving we’ve ever done together. We had an edge on everyone! The FR-S just seemed to have more grip than the rest of the field. On all my lead laps I would gap the competition by at least one or two car lengths, and then on my follow laps I was able to stick on everyone. We fought our way through with no "one more time" battles, and the judges’ decisions were all definitive. Nobody was able to touch us that day, from the Top 16 to the win!
We will carry this momentum into Round 2 of Formula Drift Canada in July. I truly love drifting the FR-S. After two years and a lot of hard work, it’s the car that I’ve always dreamed it could be!
I hope you had a chance to check out the live stream on Periscope. You can now watch the team and I get ready on race day by following @ScionCanada on the app. I enjoyed answering your questions and I'm stoked you get to see the action live from the side of the track!
I'm very excited for the rest of the season and looking forward to the next battle. Thanks for the support!
Hey it’s Pat Cyr here, just giving you a little update before the drifting season begins!
This off-season has been the busiest one we’ve had to date! At the end of last season, we realized some major changes were needed if we wanted to keep up with the way drifting is going worldwide! So we decided it would be best to start from scratch. A fresh FR-S chassis was taken down to bare metal and built from the ground up at my shop, Cyrious Garageworks!
The two most significant changes to this car was a completely new steering/suspension setup from Wisefab and a swap to the all mighty 2JZ engine! With those major parts in place, we focused on making the chassis as light as possible, and moved some weight around by installing a Mishimoto radiator in the trunk.
Many hours of hard work and planning came together a few weeks ago with the help of Sasha from OnPoint Dyno, where he tuned the Motec M150 ECU controlling our 2JZ to make 630whp! This is by far the most powerful drift car I have ever had! Once that was done, we finished off a few loose ends to get the car ready for testing!
In the past few seasons, our off-season build would leave us with little time to test. However, this year we made sure to put in some crazy hours at the shop to ensure that the car would be done as early as possible. So we were able to test it at the track and make any changes necessary before the season starts. I’m hoping to get in as much seat time as possible in the new car, so you can bet that we’ll be coming out of the gate swinging!
Our first test session was nothing short of amazing. The new car is an absolute monster! The 2JZ engine has a very wide powerband, is very controllable, and even has power to spare! Along with the steering set up from Wisefab, the steering angle and return feel has never felt better.
Overall I'm extremely excited for the 2015 season to begin and I have a feeling this is going to be our best season ever! Be sure to follow our journey this summer and I look forward to meeting you at the tracks!
Pat Cyr here! Very excited to write my first blog post for the new FR-S chassis we are building for the 2015 season at my shop, Cyrious Garageworks!
At the end of last season, we knew that we wanted to make some major changes for the 2015 season to be more competitive and keep up with the high horsepower cars that dominate drifting these days, so we decided it was in our best interest to swap in a 2JZ engine, taken from the iconic sports car the Toyota Supra! The 2JZ is known around the world as one of the most reliable engines ever produced, and when modified, it can produce upwards of 1000hp! For next season, reliability is a key thing for me. We push the car and its engine to its limit, so having a set up where I can just focus on driving will be great for us!
The other major change is the Wisefab steering system we will be running this season. It is a purpose built drift steering system just for the FR-S and produces loads of steering angle so I should be able to achieve those crazy backward entries!
For the past 3 months we have been focusing on getting the chassis prepped. You have to start with a strong foundation, so we had the new chassis acid dipped to remove all of the factory paint and seam sealers, then we went to town with the welder, spot welding every seam on the chassis to stiffen it up and also adding longevity to it as well. After that, we built the all-important roll cage. Roll cages are one of our specialties here at Cyrious Garageworks, we like to build them tight but also try to add in a bit of style where we can! I also wanted a really clean engine bay to showcase the 2JZ engine, so we went ahead and filled every excess hole in the engine compartment to give it a clean, smooth look. After all that was done, we sent the car over to our good friends at Davis Autobody to get a fresh coat of epoxy primer laid down on the entire chassis to prevent rust and protect the chassis.
Back from the body shop, we mounted the 2JZ engine and transmission in the FR-S chassis and fabricated mounts to bolt that big engine in the car! When building cars, a key thing is mocking everything up. Sometimes things will get mocked up 2 or 3 times before final assembly. So after the engine was mounted, we mocked up the Wisefab suspension. From there our focus switched to the interior of the FR-S. First thing to do in there was to mount the dash which had to be modified to fit with the new roll cage. Then we installed the pedals and set up my new Sparco seat. Once I got it in a comfortable position, we built a custom steering column, made a custom shifter for our Tremec transmission, and mounted up our hydro e-brake handle. We spent a decent amount of time doing this, laying everything out, moving things around and making it as perfect as possible, as driver comfort is a very key factor.
Next on the to-do list is the paint. We will be heading back to Davis Autobody in the next few days to have the interior and engine bay painted up in gunmetal metallic; then they will lay the base coat down for our new livery design! The look of the car this year will be different than anything I have ever run before, so I can’t wait to show it to everyone at the Montreal International Auto Show in January! Next season will be an exciting one for us and I’m looking forward to sharing our journey with you.
That’s it for me today, now it’s time to get back to work!
