Dennis Mertzanis’ Renoavted S14.5

A few weeks back, Panda and I shot our friend Dennis’ supercharged VQ-powered S14.5. Dennis has always been a great driver and builder, but until recently his car was always a bit more of a performer than a looker.

Dennis’ S14 spent most of the 2007-2008 season looking like many of today’s drift cars – battle scarred and a little beat up, but still functional.

Right before Formula D Atlanta this year, Dennis delivered the car from his home in Ohio to a good friend in Atlanta, Eugene Chou. Eugene has been a huge supporter of the Atlanta automotive scene for many years and has done lots of work helping out DGTrials with grassroots drift events since 2004. Eugene had volunteered to help Dennis rework the car visually if he ever wanted any help, and Dennis finally decided to take him up on that offer. Eugene tracked down a S15 front end conversion for a great price and proceeded to install it right before Formula D.

Unfortunately, Dennis took a pretty bad hit during the ProAm competition which added a good bit of work for Eugene and his overhaul to the car. Eventually, all of the body work was completed and the car was ready for paint.

The S14.5 came out of paint looking like an entirely new car.

In addition to the exterior renovations, Eugene fully painted the interior/engine bay, and spent a great deal of time cleaning up all of the wiring.

Dennis and Eugene did an amazing job putting this car together and we can’t wait to see how Dennis does with it. Judging from the action we’ve seen so far, he’s taking to it quite nicely (check out this video from last weekend – Dennis averages about 75mph while fully drifting this entire circle track in 4th gear).

Thanks again to Panda for shooting this car with me. There’s a chance some of these shots will find their way into an upcoming print issue of S3, but until then hopefully these preview shots will keep everyone entertained.