The Mighty Starlet

Gee

Member +
Source - Speedhunters.com

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I have been photographing drifting in the UK for quite some time now and that has given me a privileged view point, watching the sport from its meager beginnings back in the day to the mega horse power tyre-shredding spectacle we have today, One driver-car combination that has stood out over the years is Steve (Stiggy) Evans and the mighty Toyota Starlet.

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Stiggy was (and still is) a big Ford fan. He was hotrod racing Escorts when the Starlet became the must-have car in hotrodding. He always wanted a hotrod-look Starlet for the road so "the suicidal Starlet" was born. It started life as the gold 1982 1000cc Toyota Starlet it was intended to be. For Steve's road/drag dream, the 1000cc engine had to go. Now, there are many avenues Steve could have gone down to get more power but he just couldn't turn his back on Ford completely... so the engine of choice was a 2.2 litre Ford Pinto on Weber 50 carbs mated up to a Quaife 4 speed box, producing 230hp and weighing in at only 730kg. It was running 12.01 quarters on road tyres.

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03/10/2004 Stiggy turned up at Silverstone for the then OTP drift championship and has never looked back. The Starlet, sporting custom made hotrod arches and orange windows, was a bit of a novelty compared to the S-bodies and Skylines, but the serious intention of Steve and the Starlet was soon revealed as he blitzed the AM class and was promptly moved up into pro.

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2005 Round 2 of the OTP championship was held at Wildtrax motorpark and the Starlet took its first win.

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Serious intentions aside, Steve is known for his laid back attitude and sense of humour.

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Its not all fun and games though. A massive engine failure at Northampton raceway during practice for the Eurodrift championship saw Steve and the Starlet sidelined for the event. Steve took it all in his stride was out commentating the event.

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2006 saw the Starlet sidelined as Steve was driving the Sumo Power Skyline, but in 2007, it returned to competition with a brand new Autoglym livery, huge wing, and brand new 2.4 Burton pinto producing the same 230hp. This time, it had the slightly less-likely-to-explode 11-1 compression ratio rather than the pin-removed hand grenade 14-1 of the 2.2 litre. The car wasnt strictly ready for competition when it turned up in the paddock, missing a windscreen and and a fair few other essential parts........

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...but a mammoth effort from Steve and the team made sure that "The Mighty" (as it was now christened) was out in qualifying

Read the rest of the article HERE
 

Galen

Lifer
Seen stiggy drifting at JDMallstars in wembley last year. He made it to the final but just lost out to the rockstar AE86.
He really was gretato watch and the Starlet was awesome!:rockon:
 

Sparky

Member +
Amazing car

Those 2.2 pinto's are bloody good engines for what they are.

My uncle had a Dave Brookes prepared one in his Mk2 Escort pushing nearly 240hp on carbs!!!
 

AdDaMan

Member +
yer stiggys starlet is a beast.

You really need to see his latest project though...
Badass IS200. amazing.
 
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