Daily Slideshow: GS300 Drift machine from Stone Motorsports is a Real Competitor

1. Project Promote

Making the jump from competition driver to builder of competition cars is no small feat. It's not enough to build a better product and wait for the world to beat a path to your door, first the world has to know you exist. Sometimes you can kill two birds with one stone by building a car for four people, and that's just what Prodrift Ireland (now the Ireland Drift Championship) Pro class champion Brendan Stone did when he created this Lexus GS300 drifter with quad seating. “The main aim of the car is to get eyes on it and to promote our business,” explained Brendan. “It also has to work for passenger rides at lunchtime and be able to qualify in the afternoon, so it had to be reliable.”

>>Join the conversation about this Drift GS300 from Stone Motorsports right here in Club Lexus.

2. Party of Four

Brendan's company, Stone Motorsport, isn't the first to make a four-place drift machine—there's Chris Forsberg’s Infiniti, and Gatebil has been offering rides to attendees in its M5 taxis for years now. However, Stone's JZS160 was designed to compete as well as entertain. The car's body conceals a completely reworked structure beneath, with a custom roll cage protecting the driver and front passenger, and an extended roll cage protecting the rear occupants. A rear firewall was built to separate the second row of racing seats, which sit on a modified floorplan, from the gutted-out trunk and package shelf area.

>>Join the conversation about this Drift GS300 from Stone Motorsports right here in Club Lexus.

3. The Way Back

A Japspeed 70mm Supra radiator, visible through the disappeared license plate recess, surrounded by a custom aluminum shroud, and cooled by dual Mishimoto fans, inhabits the rearmost portion of the Lexus. Also in the rear, you'll find a custom fuel cell, a Facet lift pump, twin Bosch 044 high-pressure fuel pumps, an OBP swirl pot, and a Bosch ethanol content sensor, all plumbed with Aeroquip.

>>Join the conversation about this Drift GS300 from Stone Motorsports right here in Club Lexus.

4. Back to the Front

The GS300's original 2JZ-GE six made the cut, but got a rebuild and, of course, boost. To handle the extra power from the Precision 6266 turbocharger (with Precision 60mm wastegate) the engine's internals were strengthened using forged CP-Carrillo pistons, forged connecting rods, and ACL bearings, though the factory crankshaft, cylinder head, and cams and were all retained. Fuel and air delivery were stepped up via a modified 2JZ-GTE inlet manifold, 1000cc Injector Dynamics injectors, and a modified Japspeed 100mm intercooler, while a 6Boost V-band exhaust manifold feeds gasses to the other side of the turbo. Though Stone states that reliable function was more important to him than ultra-high hp figures, the sedan's engine measured 530hp at 20.5psi of boost on Stone's Dyno Dynamics chassis dyno.

>>Join the conversation about this Drift GS300 from Stone Motorsports right here in Club Lexus.

5. Putting it Down

From the 2JZ, power goes through a triple-plate ACT clutch to a G-Force GF5R 5-speed dog-gear transmission—on custom mounts to relocate the shifter—then on to the rear end via a heavy-duty driveshaft. Save for the stock Lexus driveshafts and rear hubs, and Stance coilovers, Stone Motorsport custom fabricated nearly all of the suspension, including the front suspension's top and bottom control arms, steering knuckles and arms, and custom roll center adjusters, as well as the rear suspension's adjustable camber and toe arms.

>>Join the conversation about this Drift GS300 from Stone Motorsports right here in Club Lexus.

6. Requisite Video

Stone took the four-seater to a couple Ireland Drift Championship rounds near the end of the 2016 season, allowing the team at Stone's to test the car out, and also to get used to its quirks before they gave out any joy rides. In only two events Brendan managed to place the GS300 19th out of 65+ entries in the year-end IDC standings. Check one item off the compete/promote list. And with this cinematic YouTube video, they checked off item a dó (that's "two" in Gaelic). One 530hp GS300 now accepting passengers.

>>Join the conversation about this Drift GS300 from Stone Motorsports right here in Club Lexus.

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