Every daily driver I’ve had has been a sedan, so I always enjoy seeing people take a four-door and turn it into a bad-ass. That’s exactly what Carl Thompson and his father Jamie did with a Lexus GS300…if you can still call it that.
They modified the living daylights out of the car to set it up for drifting. The pair gutted the interior and swapped out the tranny, axles, brakes, wheels and tires. Those last two items required some custom body work to fit them. The Thompsons yanked out the straight-six and swapped in a race-ready engine with four 13B rotors, a big turbo and twin intercoolers. With 22 pounds of boost, horsepower leaped to 900 – at the rear wheels.
Did I mention they also connected a 200-shot of nitrous? Well…they did. (That wasn’t even the end of the line for the duo’s creation.)
Check out all of that fury – and plenty of fire – being unleashed in the video after the jump.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
Where do you go for answers when you have a Lexus with a gorgeous leather interior but are not sure about how to maintain that luxurious look? The "Club Lexus" forums, of course.
