Dear A’PEXi Racing 2014 Partners,
It is with much disappointment and regret to inform you all that the A’PEXi Racing Lexus SC430 will not be competing during this weekend’s Formula Drift – Round 4 Wall, New Jersey event, and there are no words that can be expressed to excuse our absence for this weekend’s competition round.
Soon after the Round 3- Miami, Florida event, we enacted the decision to upgrade our current Twin Turbo setup to ensure that the machine keep the pace of the highly competitive level of other vehicles in the current professional field. With our New 2014 Partner – Garrett Turbo (www.turbobygarrett.com), the installation process from the older A’PEXi IHI Turbines to the Garrett GTX3071R commenced and with this install came many different complexities from exhaust manifold and downpipe layout, changing oil/water lines, but most importantly overcoming the major issue of clearance within the engine bay. In order to maintain the clearance integrity of many critical mechanical moving parts and the V8- 5.0L engine, extensive time and fabrication is required to assure that the reliability of the engine platform would exist for future rounds.
With a full effort and non-stop working days, it was highly likely that the SC430 would have been on-time for the event on Friday morning prior to qualification rounds, however, it was deemed too risky to go to competition without pre-testing and having extra time to properly setup the engine. As a result, the difficult decision was made to not compete this weekend. Currently, the Lexus SC430 is in Florida, the crew is tirelessly hard at work completing the project, and then will transport the vehicle back across to the West Coast for the remaining 3 rounds.
Driver- Kuniaki Takahashi remained in Japan after being contacted, he will be competing in the upcoming Inaugural Formula Drift Japan event, during the July 4th weekend, soon after he will be flying over to test the new twin turbo setup here in Southern California and also a pending schedule in Seattle, Washington at Evergreen Speedway.
We thank you for your support and the team has the utmost confidence that this scenario will net towards progressive results.
If you have any questions or concerns on specifics, please feel free to contact Charles Griffice or myself at any time.