team 15 | Midnight Potato

Team Spotlight

If we're talking about low cars, I can't miss these two out. Rory and Mikey are just 2 lads from near cheltenham. Who both happen to love idiotically low cars.

Both their cars, Rory's s13 200sx and Mike's S14 Silvia reside on just 15" wheels. Rory's a set of XR-4 Longchamps in 15x9.5/10.5, and Mike's a set of Work Equip 03's in 15x9/10.

As a pair, the two are quite the spectacle. Both so low they are smashing the pinch welds on the ground on seemingly flat roads. But don't let this fool you, these two aren't just some stanced out show queens. They are both absolutely smashing (forgive the pun boys) drift cars.

First, we'll talk about Mikey's S14 Zenki.

Sporting some fantastically far out sparkly pink paint, this Silvia sticks out like a sore thumb. It gets more attention than most cars at any event it attends, this coupled with it's obscene ride height make it a very very impressive drift car. Watching it glide over the surface like a hovercraft is definitely something to behold.

But this doesn't mean Mikey is soft on the car, at all. I've been lucky enough to passenger in this fine vehicle at Drift Matsuri last year, and despite the scraping, the vehicle is impressively capable. Now this could be testament to Mikey's absolutely bonkers driving style, as the car isn't even turbo!

160(ish) Horsepower through some piddly 195 tyres makes this car an absolute hoot to ride around in, Mikey pushing his luck into every turn, firmly planted in the throttle, with no remorse on the limiter either. Pinging 7k RPM all day long with not a worry in the world.

Now Mikey's hard driving has put the car in quite a few sticky situations over the years, and I don't think I've ever seen this car at an event without Mikey crashing it, or being crashed into. But this doesn't dampen his spirits, every single event pushing harder and harder. This car is awesome, and the driver, some kind of a sadistic maniac.

Now onto Rory. Very much the same recipe from the start. 15" wheels, mega low, but a slightly more understated approach to paint.

This make's Rory's car a fitting companion to Mike's Silvia. It's like rhubarb and custard, Mikey brings the flavour, and Rory mellows it all out, making it all work. They aren't a total opposite though as Rory is just as maniacal behind the wheel, dirt dropping at every eventuality, scrubbing walls and of course, crashing on a regular basis as well.

As long as I've known Rory, this car has gone through 4 different engine setups, a paint change, and of course the addition of those absolutely gorgeous Longchamps. The car wasn't any less cool multi coloured though, the sheer ignorance of 15" wheels and the ride height they run them at made both the cars impressive long before they were 'clean'. I have to put that in quotation marks because my god have these cars had a rough life.

I've not had the pleasure of passengering with Rory yet, our paths have crossed often, but he has always seemed to be unlucky with reliability when I am there. At Matsuri he got into a little ding (pictured below), and I gave him my NoStyle number plate as a consolation prize.

Without a doubt these are two of the coolest cars in the UK. Low, aggressive, and driven by people who definitely belong in a mental asylum I really do hope these guys keep pushing even after the lockdown is over.

I've actually got a bit of a confession to make about these cars, when I first got my S14 I was taking lot of inspiration from Mikey's car, and actually had a fair few photos of it on my phone. I liked these photos so much, that since 2018 my phone background has been a photo of the pair at a Drift Elite event. In all their battered glory, before paint and wheels. It was just a look I loved, and still do. Rough and used will always hold a special place in my heart.

So now, to embarrass the boys about how rough their cars used to be, here's that photo to close it off.

Thanks for reading, please stay home, stay safe, stay stylish.

The original potato, Tom.

Team 15 - Rory and Mikey

Team Spotlight