Each different full moon, a enjoyable challenge automotive comes round seemingly out of nowhere and merely wins the hearts of the web.
I’m considering Rusty Slammington, I’m considering Riley Stair’s Firebird, I’m considering even the Hoonicorn. These are all vehicles of various calibres, constructed for various functions and totally different events, but are linked by a deep, intricate ardour and enthusiasm between the builds themselves and us, the neighborhood that will get to observe, take pleasure in and share within the joys of them.
Vehicles like these are larger than the web itself and as a rule don’t require any introduction. Simply by taking a look at a few of these pictures already, you may in all probability hazard a guess as to why right this moment’s protagonist matches this invoice completely.
Expensive readers, if you happen to’ve not met earlier than, I’d wish to introduce you to Kevin. A van, constructed by the beautiful gents behind the Nightride YouTube channel.
You be part of us on the day earlier than Subsequent Stage Drift‘s major 2023 occasion (story coming quickly). I’m working on three hours of sleep as I needed to catch a 6:00am flight from the UK to Poland. However the temper within the air is chipper with pleasure because the boys crack on loading the trailers up with their drift vehicles forward of what is about to be a really busy weekend. They’ve left me to my very own units, with Kevin neatly cleaned and tucked away within the nook of their unit.
There’s a lot to unpack right here, so let me simply dive into some blunt fundamentals: Kevin is a sixth-generation Daihatsu Hijet, initially bought by Nightride in 2019. Again then, the van was inexperienced in color and comparatively unique, utilized by the earlier proprietor as a searching car. It’s humorous to image that seeing because it’s not designed for the speeds of excessive pursuits, but it surely’s acquired loads of area for a couple of pheasants within the again.
Or not less than it used to have loads of area.
Kevin‘s major caretakers, Sam and Marek, initially purchased the van with intentions to make use of it irregularly for easy motoring enjoyable. “Often I’d take it to the retailers, but it surely didn’t get used an excessive amount of,” says Marek. With a background in media work specializing in low, enjoyable drifting vehicles, the boys began to tinker with the van. At first, they wrapped it pink and lowered it a little bit.
Subsequent got here the wheels, the place a set of slender, period-correct SSR MK-IIs have been chosen. From right here, the plans slowly grew. Having an enormous affiliation with Mazda MX-5s, the boys got here up with an concept.
“The unique plan was to place a 1.6L Miata [MX-5] engine in Kevin,” says Marek. “We even purchased an engine for Kevin, which presently lives below this workbench. As you may inform, it by no means got here to be. We measured it up and rapidly realised that the size of the engine and gearbox was principally longer than Kevin. So, these plans went out the window.”
A yr of Kevin possession got here and went earlier than one other plan got here to gentle.
“We simply wished Kevin to work so, hey, we determined to place a motorcycle engine in it,” Marek explains. “Tons of of hundreds of thousands of individuals have already carried out it; it’s a properly documented, frequent swap. It might match completely below the entrance seats the place the unique engine was, and it was going to be a simple job. Possibly a month’s value of labor we thought.”
I take a look at Marek with a barely kinked eyebrow, and ask how the concept progressed into what we now have right here right this moment. Because it seems, it got here considerably out of the blue throughout a night get-together. “I stated to the boys ‘pay attention, we have to purchase a motorcycle anyway, what’s the purpose of taking that engine out?’”
And similar to that, Kevin‘s most up-to-date iteration began coming to life. It might have been actual simple for the boys to take this concept and execute it sloppily, however they figured in the event that they have been to do that bike concept for actual, they’d give it a correct go.
They sourced a Yamaha Fazer 600 to be the principle energy plant… or extra precisely, the principle engine room for the plucky little Daihatsu, and went to work.
The primary transformation to show Kevin into what you see right this moment happened within the final yr. The wrap got here off, and the unique inexperienced paint was changed with a stunning lick of gloss pink. Touches have been accomplished across the van to complete it off, such because the smoothed rear taillights, black pin stripes and rear wing, which is a direct match from a third-gen Honda Civic hatchback. The Yamaha Fazer destined to be Kevin‘s new coronary heart was initially white, in order that additionally turned pink to match the remainder of the van.
Kevin‘s cabin wasn’t left alone both. Two steel buckets have been fitted, serving to to overexaggerate the home-built, skunkworks nature of the challenge. The steering wheel was changed with a pink Grip Royale merchandise, and the passenger window acquired a pink Sparco security internet. Sam’s favorite a part of the challenge is the roll cage, which he fabricated, fitted and painted himself.
My private favorite a part of the within must be the pink ground mat working all through the entire van. Customized-built by good friend of the staff, its flamed design will be seen in every single place, from the entrance badge to a little bit prolonged carpet on the dashboard.
“What’s this?” I level at a lever popping out of the roof. “Oh, that’s the ‘Australian handbrake’,” jokes Marek whereas yanking on it.
Because the van was basically being caricatured, the SSR wheels wanted fattening as much as full the picture. To make them match, bolt-on arches have been fitted. Dare I say it, they swimsuit the construct very properly, and are a neat nod to Japanese efficiency vehicles of Kevin‘s period.
So, the bike. That is the challenge’s actual murals. Fabricated to suit instantly into the van’s mattress, it’s been left comparatively intact. The purpose was to actually have the entire bike within the van powering its rear wheels, and that’s exactly what the boys have achieved. The entrance wheel nonetheless stands proud between the entrance seats, with the engine, handlebars and working gear all nonetheless connected to the bike.
A community of prolonged cables have been linked up so the Daihatsu’s throttle pedal controls the bike engine, which is mated to the bike’s sequential gearbox managed by quaint gearstick aligned in parallel to the ‘Australian handbrake’. The rear wheel of the bike has been changed by a chain-driven mounted beam instantly linked to Kevin‘s rear wheels.
Suspension is, err… restricted. The boys have informed me that sorting some type of rear suspension is on the playing cards for the subsequent section of the challenge, however for now “the rear suspension is precisely like a go-kart.”
“And that’s in all probability one of the best ways to explain the way it drives. It drives similar to a go-kart,” says Marek.
Sure, Kevin does transfer. The entrance is on a little bit of a Frankenstein suspension setup, utilising a pair of outdated airbags from “an outdated truck” hooked as much as a TATechnix compressor, and powered by Air Carry Efficiency administration neatly managed by way of the van’s key fob distant.
The boys kindly invited me to take a seat inside and begin Kevin up. It’s not the most important of cabins, and a tough one to get out and in of, but it surely’s filled with character. That stunning manifold working out the again is practical, making a singular, fast-revving motorcycle whizz paired with a deeper, car-like tone.
Completed simply in time for Ultrace 2023, the Nightride boys managed to carry Kevin out for his first outing with the rear bike plumbed up and dealing. When the van made it to the High 16 of the present, the group was chanting “Kevin, Kevin” in unison, within the hope he would get the primary prize.
After the awards have been handed out, Kevin and the opposite High 16 vehicles made their method to the drift monitor for a fast photoshoot. A crowd of individuals rushed to the barrier to get a greater glimpse of the van on the transfer, with the sound from its exhaust echoing off the carpark’s partitions.
This plucky little van has transcended being simply one other automotive, and even simply one other challenge. It’s extra like a rockstar beginning their world tour, or an athlete coming into their prime. For an inanimate object, it has a particular, full of life and charmful aura completely surrounding it. Marek and Sam have given the little Hijet life and the flexibility to entertain and make folks smile. Now if that’s not one thing value writing about, I don’t know what’s.
Michał Fidowicz
Instagram: candyshowroom
