Scott Armstrong campaigned his bright orange Sierra and his Datsun Stanza in '06, sat last year out, now it would seem he is back for blood with an odd car again, enter the S15.3...  

Scott is a driver by profession, he is an evaluation engineer for Continental Tyres based at their MIRA facility.  He gets to drive all sorts of cars, on all sorts of tyres, on all sorts of surfaces all over the world, at their limit and be able to give objective opinion...and he gets paid for it ! some peoples dream job, so he ought to have the qualities needed to be competitive.  Scott has been keen on motorsport since an early age and in the past has funded himself to compete mostly in rally championships such as the 206 Super Cup Challenge, the 205 Scholarship and has also run his Ex-Works Datsun PA10 Stanza in a couple of classic rallies.  He also, appropriately, won the amateur class of the Autocar sideways challenge a few years ago in a Capri.  When drifting began to take off in the UK it caught his attention, the format and nature of the discipline being more akin to his day job.  Scott has had a few attempts at competitive drifting and people may remember the V8 orange Sierra appearing at a few events but more often the Datsun was called upon to do battle.  The Sierra was just too unreliable to be competitive and the Datsun wasn’t really made for the job (resulting in expensive mechanical repairs being needed) but surprisingly this was the car in which he gained his D1 license ! This season will hopefully see a change in Scott’s fortunes since he has linked up with PPS, half owned by an old friend from University. 

PPS (Performance parts Services) is primarily a Japanese car dismantlers, set-up by two long term members of the SXOC, James Jeffery and David Reid.  They specialise in the high performance car market and in time hope to cover all popular Japanese marques.  It is operated from a well organised unit just outside Hinckley in Leicestershire.  PPS buy and dismantle cars, then rack and re-sell all serviceable parts at reasonable prices to the Japanese car community.  They sell anything from wheel nuts to full engine conversion packages such as Skyline engines into 200SX’s.  Their website www.pps-limited.com shall in time be an up to date ‘live’ inventory of everything they currently have in stock so that customers can browse and then order the parts they need.  PPS is currently run entirely in James and David’s spare time.  During the day they work as professional engineers having both graduated from Coventry University in 2001.  In time they hope to be able to undertake projects on customers behalf’s but at present they are spending every spare minute building their demonstration car for this years EDC; a supercharged RB30 powered S15.3…

The Car ....

To those not familiar with the terminology (an S15.3 not being a model ever produced by Nissan) the car is an amalgamation of two cars in appearance, both 200SX or Silvia’s but from two different generations.  The car is an S15 chassis with S13 front bodywork grafted on to give an unusual and distinctive look.  To power the car James and David wanted to be as unique as possible and have the ability to produce large amounts of power.  They opted for an RB30 (a Holden bottom end with a Skyline GTR RB26DETT cylinder head) and rather than the more normal turbo route they put supercharger on their ‘must have’ list.  The three litre straight six engine drives the rear wheels through a 5 speed Skyline GTST gearbox and exhausts through the rear quarter panel just in front of the passenger side rear wheel whilst Skyline GTR Brembo brakes slow the car.  It otherwise has all the accoutrements expected of a high level competitive drift car; Zeal adjustable coilovers, SARD adjustable ‘blade’ anti-rollbars, Tein Steering arms etc etc.  Although not unfamiliar with building specialised cars and engines etc James and David have undertaken a substantial challenge in trying to prepare the car in such a short space of time.  Hundreds of hours of fabrication have been completed, at the time of writing the shell is being painted with the teams chosen white colour scheme.  Due to the scale of the project, unfortunately the car is still very much in the build stage and disappointingly it may not be finished until the 2nd round of the championship.  Follow a detailed build diary here S15.3 Project. 

The Story so far in pictures.... (Click a thumbnail )

Needless to say James, David and Scott are all working every spare minute to get it completed as soon as possible, another car has been bought in order to be able to compete in the first round.

 Scott and PPS Aspirations...

Ambitious though it sounds, nothing but 1st will do ! Spectacular and competitive is the way to get there.  The fact that a substitute car has been bought in order to compete in the first round and not lose the opportunity to gain points shows a commitment to the ambition.  PPS are willing to support Scott’s talent and get him on the podium at as many rounds as possible.  A reliable moderately powerful car coupled with a good driver is all that it takes.  A belief in aiming high has always worked in the past, this coupled with hard work and a strong desire to win will enable Scott to produce the goods and finally gain some well deserved respect amongst the drift community.