Wrecked Blogger Brad Hettinger

Brad Hettinger Signs with Kenda Tire for 2011

bradhettinger — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 02:16:14 +0000

COLUMBUS, OHIO (January 27, 2011) – Kenda Tire has signed Formula Drift rookie, Brad Hettinger, as the 2^nd driver to compete in the Formula Drift Professional Drifting Series for 2011.

Brad, owner of Groundwerks Garage, is no stranger to competition. In 2009 Brad finished in FD Pro AM 5^th place qualifier and 13^th overall. Hettinger, also qualified 7^th in XDC New Jersey running on Kenda Tires in 2010.

Brad will be joining team mate Dennis Mertzanis in a V8 powered Nissan S14 owned by LM Racing. To follow Kenda Tires and Brad Hettinger’s effort for the 2011 Formula D season, point your browsers to: http://www.groundwerksgarage.com & http://www.luismartinezracing.com

Kenda, a leading manufacturer of automobile, bicycle, motorcycle, ATV (All Terrain Vehicle), golf cart, lawn mower, industrial and trailer tires in the world, has maintained its North American headquarters in Columbus, Ohio for the last three decades. Since the inception of the company in 1962, Kenda has operated on core values of honesty, innovation, quality, and customer service. For nearly 50 years, Kenda has continued to develop and expand its product selections to meet changing market demands.

Visit http:// www.kendausa.com for more information.

Big Things Happening For 2011- S14 partout!

bradhettinger — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:32:26 +0000

Wow I havent used this forever but I think now may be the time to kick it up a bit. I’ve been working feverishly to get the 3 Groundwerks Garage cars prepped and ready for the 2011 season. I will be moving into a s14 chassis for this season and with that I am parting out much of what that car used to be. I will be publishing later in febuary what exactly is going on with this new s14 as well as what I’m doing for 2011. For now I just want to get these parts out of my shop and into a new home/car.

This is a brand new engine with only around 2000 miles (I have receipts for this!). The transmission has about 145,000 miles. But a brand new stage spec stage 4 clutch w/ only about 2000 miles as well. This motor wasnt ever drifted or even raced for that matter. The car was built as a show car.

The motor put down 578hp & 386 ft lbs. tq to the wheels on 110 octane and 316hp on pump gas w/ a mild tune

Engine:
578 HP / 386 FT lbs TQ
2.4L KA24DE DOHC 16V

Block bored and honed .020 over
JE 9:1:1 Forged Pistons
Eagle Rods
ARP Hardware
Supertech Valves
Supertech Bearings
Supertech Keepers
Knife Edge Crank shaft
Stage 2 ported/polished cylinder head
Cosmetic Head Gasket
Price $3000

Revhard Manifold
T3/T4 Garret Turbo 60 trim/ .63AR
Projectsilvia 3” downpipe
Price $1200

Spec stage 4 clutch- $200
Spec lightened flywheel- $100

PWR Front mount Intercooler- $175
Greddy type s blow off valve- $150

Vibrant 3″ Cat-back exhaust- $200

PHAT KAT fuel rail- $200
Blitz turbo-timer- $100

Exterior:
Extreme Dimensions Front Bumper- $100
Extreme Dimensions Rear Bumper-$100
Extreme Dimensions Skirts-$100

Interior:
Autopower Roll cage- $300

Suspension & Wheels:
Apexi N1 coilovers- $400
19×8.5 F 19×9.5 R Enkei RPF1 wheels- $900
225/35/19 F 255/35/19 R BFGoodrich Tires- $800
Will do thew whole wheel and tire package for $1400

Everything is obo whatever sells out of this stuff gets my car going for this season so lets get a move on

For anyone interested in this stuff email me at Brad@groundwerksgarage.com I’m pretty flexible on prices, also whoever buys the motor if they need it installed I will install at halfprice into your personal car.
Thanks Guys
-Brad

Anti Team Stunt Demo with fresh paint

bradhettinger — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:37:59 +0000

Took the car out yesterday with its fresh paint for a demo in York, Pa with the Anti-team stunt bike crew. These guys and myself will be doing demos here and there throughout the season. The Anti-team is also hooking me up with some of their gear which is pretty sweet. Check them out

First Test Day of the Season

bradhettinger — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:47:04 +0000

Took the car out finally for spring moves at clubloose, I wasnt planning on it but I worked my ass off on friday to get this thing going. I was at the shop until about 10 pm till I got this thing up and running. The day went pretty well was having some grip issues with the new coilovers I’m running this year from Function and Form mainly because the spring rates are a little too harsh so I’ll be swapping them out this week for softer springs. The motor sounds crazy and after I spend about a day on the dyno tuning it it should be everything I expected. I still am surprised how awesome the response is especially because my afrs were in the 10.1 range the whole way though the rpms. Also my new trans setup is the shit the trans itself is a little noisy but other then that the gearing is awesome.
Here is some pics as I find more I’ll post them.

Motors in and crunch time is on

bradhettinger — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:37:42 +0000

I’m been working like crazy for the past few weeks putting everything on this car together, everything has kind of started to become a blur. I know it was only 2 weekends ago that I built the motor but it feels like a month ago.
Here is the specs of whats going to be under my right foot for 2010.
S13 Sr20det
Stock crank
Clevite bearings
Eagle rods
Cp pistons
Apexi head gasket
BC springs and retainers
Hks 264in and 272ex cams
GTIR ITBS’s with 740cc inj
Peak boost exhaust manifold
Tial 44mm wastegate
Garrett t3/t4 hybrid turbo
Apexi Power Fc

I have a pretty sweet 6 speed trans setup behind all this as well that I’ll be showing some shots of in a few weeks. Hopefully this new setup wont leave me with a broken output shaft like I experienced at Pro am.

S13 almost ready for Long Beach, Formula Drift

bradhettinger — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:45:57 +0000

It has been a busy off season at Groundwerks Garage but we are finally wrapping things up on our Nissan S13. With the state of the art equipment we have at Groundwerks we were able to completely revitalize then entire car. This year I will be partnering up with Luis Martinez Racing, they been involved in motorsports since 2006, mostly drag racing, but now venturing into the drift world. The Groundwerks Garage / Luis Martinez Racing Nissan S13 will debut at Formula Drift in Long Beach, California. Some new parts that are being installed and will help us compete Formula Drift and Xtreme Drift Circuit this year are BN Sports Body kit with Blister fenders, AEM gauges, and Function & Form Type II coilovers.

Some of our other associate sponsors for 2010 are: Nissan North America, Meguiars, AEM, JDM-Wheels.com, and Elite JDM. More sponsors will be announced shortly!!! Please check back soon!!

WHAT AN AWESOME WEEKEND!

bradhettinger — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:36:08 +0000

Drift Mechanik’s Keep Drifting Fun from Joshua Herron on Vimeo.

I got to spend the weekend before pro am with a bunch of guys that truly make drifting awesome. The main goal is always fun and these guys know where its at.

My New Favorite Blog Beard Life

bradhettinger — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:00:24 +0000

BeardLife is brought to you by the Drift Mechaniks Guys and has been catching my attention lately.

Beards have become a trend in drifting lately I even was bit by the bug at one point

Their write up on Chris ForsBerg had me rolling

And the site wouldnt be anything without the lovable P Haire

Barbie Car gets a make over while she has to wear snow boots

bradhettinger — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:53:02 +0000

I’m Rebuilding the car over the winter as I really cant keep driving it as the eye sore it has become.

I got a lot of new tricks in store I’ll keep it updated as everything transpires

7000 miles of Fun

bradhettinger — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:26:08 +0000

On Nov. 10th I got a phone call from Casisdi at Formula D saying that I did have an invite to the Pro Am in Irwindale, Ca. I proceeded at that point to scramble, I made ten million phone calls it felt like trying to get whoever one board for this as I was completely unprepared and really wasn’t sure my car was ready. For the next 3 days I did nothing but work on my car and make phone calls. The twist to the story was I had to leave on Nov 13th to drive another event that I already paid for. So all I really had was those three days, Thursday night I went to dinner with a special someone and laid down all my plans and who I had on the table. I have Nexen Tires giving me sneakers for my car and so far had a couple close friends throw me some money to put their name on my car, things were looking ok but a lot need to happen.

I left Friday Nov 13th to head to Nashville, Tn to an event that may or may not have happened with a group of people who probably were never there and it all happened at a venue I was never to. After all that I headed to Atlanta to meet up with the guys I knew from Drift Mechaniks and do a little once over on my car at Tiger Racing. Monday, I went go karting with the DM guys and did some sight seeing around Atlanta. Tuesday morning Hater Dan and I made the big trek westward with not a lot of money and really not knowing how we were going to get home yet. We had started a online fundraiser to make this happen and really nothing came of it. Mid way though Tuesday the funds started flowing in once people saw on my facebook we were going for it and I felt relieved.

Dan and I did some random things on our way out though the states that may have involved Team Rowdy stickers and State signs. We got into LA Wednesday night around midnight and stayed in the worst super 8 known to man, my car was on an open trailer so I feared for its life and didnt sleep very well at all that night.

The Thursday we headed to Nexens headquarters to pick up my tires and get them mounted later on a City Tire. Thanks to John at City Tire for all the help and letting us take up your parking lot for about 2 hours while we had lunch. We then switched hotel to a much nicer Marriott where I felt I could have left the keys in my car an it would have been fine also there were a lot of other drifters there as well since it was only about 5 mins from the track. That night we picked the boys from JerseyStreets.tv up from the airport. We showed them around LA and then headed to the hotel I was whipped and felt pretty uneasy about practice on Friday. I had been to the House of Drift before but never drove it and it definitely scared me.

Fridays Practice went really well, Dan kept telling me that I was really low on the bank which I later find out he was just saying to me so that I would push harder to run the car against the wall. We left the track and I felt ok but not statisfied and knew I had to pull something together for the next day. I watched a couple people wreck and didnt really see anyone who stood out like crazy but there were a few people that were doing well.

Saturday morning I woke up early and headed to the track, I hadn’t felt this serious since I was in High school and was competing in the national mechanic’s testing that I did. I went into practice nervous but made a few car changes for the better and put the car way up on the bank did a few runs and when I came in got a HOLY F*** from Dan, he didnt know if it was something I ate for breakfast or what but I improved drastically overnight. I ended up qualifying 5th which I was happy with and had an hour break for lunch after the drivers meeting to go over the car.

First round I was against Ameen in his Cressida, and I was having some trouble on the line with my car as the tire model during opening ceremonies stepped on my engine harness and now when the car hit a bump a certian way it would shut off. I was freaking out but went for the lead run anyway I lead Ameen well coming though the straight away clipping point the car shut off as I transitioned towards the inner wall I clutch kicked and it restarted somehow, pulled off the rest of the run and Ameen spun in the infeild so I my head I said ok this is in the bag. As I turned around in the pits the car shuts off and wont restart, I’m freaking out in my head right now like wow right now this has to happen. After about a minute of messing around it restarts and as I go to do the burnout to warm up the tire I big league it and dump the clutch like and idiot breaking the transmission.

I roll the car down the staging lanes and off track, pretty mad at myself at that point. Ameen ends up finishing 4th which was awesome and I was happy that if I wasnt able to continue or something stupid like that at least the guy who advanced did well.

Ian fourtier won the Pro Am and my fellow Nexen Driver Chelsea Denofa got Third, putting Mike pollard in the 2nd place position.

After all the serious stuff we all headed back to our hotel spent the night with a couple of cold drinks and some good food. Then headed home Sunday morning for the most part it was an all around good trip, and I got what I came to California looking for my Formula Drift license.

Thanks to everyone listed for making this happen

GroundWerks Garage
Nexen Tires
Elite Jdm
Drift Tough.com
RatedDrama.com
JerseyStreets.tv
TeamRowdy.net
Special Thanks To: Rayray, Bobo, Erika Spanier, Anthony Fallon, Drift pa, Collin K, Marty, Andy Sapp, Greg thore, Control Freaks, Cody wellons, Gerald Neusser, Scott allinder, Justin Marlow, Axel Mack, David jones, Sammy tiger, Shawn smith, Aaron Shrum, Tyler Clayton, Hater Dan, Jason Crane, My Mother and that girl I text too much. Without all of these people I wouldnt have been able to make Pro am happen.