The people that follow us on Facebook have probably already seen this, but I figured I’d make a proper post on this little project to show you some details and give a bit more information on this RX-7.
It was inspired by our annual trip to southern France, but more on that after the jump.
Regular readers know that Tijs and I have been going to Grip Zero in the beautiful town of Roanne in France for the last 2 years. Amongst the many friends we have made there are the guys from Team Skud, who have this awesome pink-on-olivedrab livery. Normally this round of GZ would take place around this time of the year, but a change in schedule means that it now takes place in October. Still, my heart longed to some sunny days and drifty nights with my gallic amis, so I decided to build this shell as a small hômmage.
Right, so it is 4 days before an unscheduled trip to Germany for some Raijkon Dorifto and I don’t have a shell to use. The RX-8 had already been given an honorable discharge of service so I had to build something new. I had bought this Yokomo Greddy/RE-Amemiya FD3S at last years Euro’s but never got round to building it. I knocked up the design, Tijs then came up with the TWS “Charging Rhino” and the build was started…
In true TWS fashion the build was completed at the very last moment, making it look slightly unfinished in the pictures. I arrived in Germany at the RC Drift Arena with the shell still in the overspray film and a stack of stickers. Fast forward some hours and this is the result!
The headlights are R-Magic style for that agressive look. The inside of the buckets are covered with matte vinyl, leaving just the projectors chrome for that authentic look. I had planned on smoking the indicators/DD lights but I had no smoke paint nor smoke foil left so I’ll have to finish that another time. Also still on the to-do list is a custom lightkit.
I’ve always liked the symmetrical designs that you would see on Japanese driftcars from the late 90’s/early 00’s, but I’ve never had it on one of my shells until now. The spoiler is by HPI Racing and is mounted on Speed Way Pal low-slung mounts for that agressive look and to blend in with the roofline and ducktail.
The wheels are from Mikuni with StreetJam tires. I would have liked some more modern wheels on the car but since the Yokomo shells are quite narrow(or at least the older ones) these were the only ones that fitted properly. Still, I quite like the look of them!
The #twerkitmiley hashtag I believe was started by professional drifter Danny George and our buddy from Team DriftCrue Bauke “The Ninja” van Wieren was kind enough to make some 1:10 size ones for anyone who wanted it. Also proudly on the windscreen is the TWSxJPN sticker that Tijs made for his trip to Japan, more of which you can read here .
Thats it for this time, have a good’n!
– Bop
