Patrick’s SC300: Seat Time Special
For someone who grew up in a family not particularly interested in automobiles, Patrick Marquis had a sound foundation on which to become a passionate gearhead. For starters, his dad drove a Nissan 240SX. “He and I knew nothing about drifting or anything like that. He’d sometimes let me take it to parties and whatnot when I was in high school. To me and most of my friends, though, it was only a brown Nissan,” he recollected.
Learning to wrench helped turn a cursory interest into a hobby.
But Japanese cars didn’t pique his interest then. By the time Patrick left for college, he had squirreled away enough to pick up a big, burly vst he could call his own: a 2001 Camaro with a manual transmission and a V6. “It was a boaty car, but it was mine. The nice thing about older American cars is that they’re pretty easy to work on — lots of room to wrench and mostly mechanical,” he said.
The charm of old cars and simple mechanics pushed him to trade his newish Camaro for an older 1981 Camaro Z/28 came about and Patrick didn’t hesitate. Besides the aforementioned appeal, it also had a 327ci SBC, a T10 four-speed, and T-tops — all were too cool to pass up. His mother thought her son had a screw loose, but she came around in time – Patrick’s enthusiasm for old motors was impossible to ignore.
Much to his mother’s chagrin, he ended up selling the Z/28 when he couldn’t make it emissions compliant. “At that time I was still pretty new to working on cars, so I didn’t know enough to bring the car back to stock. This is the car that got away — I still regret selling it!” he admitted. Thankfully, he could recoup most of the money he’d sunk into the unsuccessful project and put it towards another American coupe.
“The 1970 Buick Skylark was the big one for me. It’s still my main project car to this day. At this time, my mom started to accept my interest, too – she even let me park it in the driveway when I brought it home not running, where I started tearing into it.” After some initial diagnosis and with the help of the V8 Buick forums, Patrick found that the stock points ignition was bad and got the car running and driving. “That forum really helped me in my formative years. I think that’s something that’s missing for younger people trying to get into the hobby nowadays,” he said.
As a college graduate, Patrick relocated the Skylark to a newly rented garage where he could wrench. “After I had been driving it for a while, the car blew a freeze plug on the freeway. It just so happened that the plug that blew was behind the engine mount, so I had to take the engine out,” he recalled. This led to classic mission creep, and the Skylark went down for seven years while Patrick upgraded everything.
One of Patrick’s first jobs out of college was in sales. “It was at that job that I decided to start taking night classes to learn how to TIG weld. I wanted to up my car crafting skills and be able to make my own parts. I remember one of my coworkers told me drifted his Nissan. I still didn’t know what drifting was and thought he was joking!”
After a few semesters at Laney College, he began working as a welder for a shop specializing in museum exhibits, and later moved to one that did architectural work; learning a range of fabrication skills along the way. This eventually opened the door to a job with Alloy Motors in Oakland. It was grueling work, but he learned rust repair, custom wiring, aftermarket suspension, and drivetrain swaps.
It was around then, with the Skylark still sitting motionless in his garage, that he started looking for something sportier, lighter, and rear-driven. The car he settled on was an ‘82 Celica GT-S Liftback, sporting the original carbureted 22R engine – his first lightweight four-cylinder “The high-revving. lightweight combo was totally new to a guy who’d grown up on V8 American cars. I learned then how much weight mattered.”
His roommate had taken their Cayman to the track and suggested Patrick might get a thrill from testing the Celica at Sonoma. He was right. “I was bitten by the speed bug,” he recalled. “I grew up playing drums and I loved performance driving because it reminds me of drumming; using all four limbs to control something, making your instrument do something cool.”
Sadly, his chapter with Celica came to an close when Patrick was rear ended during his commute. Just a cursory glance at the collection of cars at any track day will establish the Honda S2000 as a popular contender, so Patrick bought a well-worn AP1.
“I didn’t know it was in bad shape – the hardtop was falling off, though – so I just ran with it. It was a good car, and it’s what I used to start running driving events regularly, but it wasn’t enough of a shitbox for me to fall in love with it. I wanted something less competent with more of that eighties vibe – something like my Celica, but nimbler.”
Coincidentally, Patrick discovered Initial D around this time. The anime kickstarted his imagination and within a week, he’d decided that grip driving, as fun as it was, couldn’t maintain his interest in the way which sliding a car corners could. He hung up his racing Stilo and traded it for an open-faced bubble helmet with sparkle paint. “I finally understood what my coworker was talking about back then!” he exclaimed.
Inspired by the anime, he found the owner of a 1987 Corolla GT-S Coupe willing to make a straight trade for the S2000. “I loved the pop-ups, and the sound of the 16-valve 4AGE at high revs. It brought back that 80s feeling that I so much enjoyed in the Celica, but with a more aggressive character.”
The new car posed two challenges: to improve his abilities and find the necessary parts. “That was the car I really wanted to hone my craft with. With a stock 16-valve motor, it takes a lot of clutch kicking and balls-out driving to get an 86 to slide; it was always hard work.”
It was just as hard keeping the car running. “To be fair, I’d never run a car as hard as I had the 86, but it seemed to break more than anything else I’d owned. It was just too hard to find the right parts for it, and when I did, they were usually very expensive.”
When he felt he’d gleaned all he could from the shitbox experience, he made another convenient change. His coworker had got in over their head with a prepped SC300 sporting a 1JZ-VVTI, and when they expressed some concern in keeping such a serious car, he jumped at the opportunity.
With the AE86 gone and the SC300 now filling the same role, he could return to regular drifting events without the same sort of headache. The Lexus had a cage, a mildly tuned motor, decent coilovers, and a welded diff – all the necessary go-fast bits without anything that would warrant as much maintenance.
“It’s a stiff road car, but it transitions well on track. The long wheelbase means stability, and there’s moderate rear grip once it takes a set. The motor has minimal lag, and it’s easy to keep it on boost. The package is more than enough to drift with, and it makes you feel like a hero. Also, the blow-off sound is very addicting!”
With a dependable car begging to be used, he made Drift SF events a regular outing. “I’ve had a great experience with the people at Drift SF — Andrew Arani, specifically. He’s always been willing to help me on the theory side of things, and he’s even hopped in a few times to give me pointers. Also, he sets the courses up with lots of long, wide, sweeping turns — perfect for beginners,” Patrick explained.
Despite sustaining some damage at last year’s Winter Jam, he left feeling fairly hopeful and less than stressed. “I had to drive another few weekends before I regained my confidence, but the nice thing was that I didn’t worry about the costs. These cars are cheap and expendable, so I really don’t care if I wreck it. For now, I’m just trying to drive as much as I can while taking my time.”
As the SC300 requires next-to-no upkeep, Patrick can allocate his free time to the Buick, which is still in his garage undergoing surgery. This time, he’s working on ditching the automatic in favor of a manual transmission.
“For me, I think this SC is the perfect kind of car; low-maintenance, fast, friendly, easy to replace, but still stylish. I’ve bought tickets for this year’s Winter Jam — I’ll try not to hit the same wall this time around.”
MODIFICATIONS
1JZGTE VVTI w/ five-speed R154 transmission
Driftmotion C15B turbo upgrade
3” downpipe with dump tube
550cc Bosch green top injectors
Link ECU
2JZ radiator and water pump
Front-mount intercooler
Oil and power steering coolers
3.5 bar MAP sensor and fuel pressure regulator
AEM water temp gauge
Innovative Motorsports boost controller
Apex’i turbo timer
Stance coilovers
Full Battle Version rear bushings
Battle Version rear arms
Battle Version inner tie rods with spacers & steering rack bushings
Agile Performance angle kit
MKIV Supra Front Control Arms
Drift Cave Sonoma-spec roll cage with door bars
Corbeau racing seats
PRP Shreddy harnesses
Nameless Performance hydro hand brake with rear dual-caliper setup
Grip Royal steering wheel
LRB aluminum door cards
Vertex-style front & rear bumper & side skirts
TE37 clones - 18x8.5” front, 18x9” rear