About
Hi, my name is
Bryson Cook
Hey everyone,
Thanks for checking out the website. I'm the owner and founder of STRAND TYPE. Despite my family not being into racing, I've had a love for it all my life, growing up with video games like Gran Turismo, and in high school finally discovering the anime Initial D and Youtube Channel: Hot Version, where I could watch old Japanese racing and drifting programs. Even before I had my first car, a 1st generation Subaru WRX, I purchased a Logitech G27 simulator racing wheel in 2013 and put it to use on the newest Gran Turismo 5. It was here I first learned the basics of drifting, long before the popularization of Assetto Corsa, which pretty much everyone uses now.
Once I hit 18 and had some real driving under my belt, the Subaru quickly found its way to the track after a few simple mods, such as the world's cheapest coilovers, exhaust system, and fake Volk TE37s. The car was great on track but didn't quite give me the excitement of the simulator while drifting. I wasn't sure if I wanted to pursue a drift or grip style approach to my track driving at this time. Being confused and young, I decided the best approach to experience drifting in real life was to work with what I had.
Due to the inspiration of Japanese Drifting Team Orange, I converted my WRX to rear wheel drive (an uncommon thing to do at the time) for the total cost of $180 and a transmission fluid flush.
Good things can only last so long. The WRX was sold 5 years later to switch to a FC RX7 with an LS1 V8. This car was street driven for the first two years as it slowly became a race car, switching back and forth between time attack and drifting before I condemned it to become a drifting machine.
(Time attack was boring...sorry not sorry.) I decided to pursue drifting at a recreational level for a couple of years and it was great (and inexpensive) in order to get my driving skill up. It also gave me time to figure out how to make the car reliable (the first year it broke down at every event). Once I felt confident in my skills and the car, I entered my first tandem competition ever in ~2016, a random pop-up event with cash prizes where I took third place against a pretty stacked field all looking to win the money. I was sure I was going to get knocked out early, but a podium finish reassured me my driving wasn't just mediocre and I decided to pursue drifting competition further.
At this time, I was welcomed by a courteous sponsor who helped me get my foot in the door to road course racing. I was able to compete in racing series Spec 944, part of the Porsche Club of America (PCA). Through this sponsorship, I was able to race at tracks like Daytona International Speedway, Sebring International, Watkins Glen, and Road America. I was taking home wins and setting lap records for the SP2 class all year with the unbelievable car my sponsor had prepared for me, only to finish 3rd in the championship due to a blown headgasket. With no continuing sponsorship after year 2, I fell back into drifting.
After competing a few more times at the ProAm level in Canada and the States, the cost of this sport began to reach an all-time high. I realized that spending this kind of money regularly for high level competition was beyond absurd for a privateer (although the driving experience was second to none), not to mention the stress I was putting on my friends and family who were helping me out in every way possible. I had to take a step back.
I stopped driving the RX7 and purchased a completely stock 240SX for $4000 in 2020 with the intent of continuing to drive at a lower level, and perhaps renting it to others who might have difficulty getting into drifting. I found my first customer, and lucky for me he kept coming back! 5 times over the year he came to drive the car at skidpad events that my friends hosted and I couldn't have been happier. Maybe I was on to something.
In 2022, I added two more cars to the rental fleet: a Nissan Skyline R32 GTST, and a Mazda Miata NB. The picture on the right shows both cars during a tandem battle demonstration at our August school event last year (at Shannonville) between myself (in the Skyline) and Jeff, one of the instructors (in the Miata).
We love to take the students out for a tandem ridealong after lunch. Even though it's an unnessessary risk to the cars, it's nice to showcase a higher level of drifting for those just entering the sport. When Jeff and I are driving together, we are unhinged. Unfortunately, Jeff has moved to Japan as pf April 2023. A fan favourite in the local drift scene and incredible drifting instructor, Jeff will be missed. Best of luck with your business in Japan, Jeff!
Anyways, back to the story. I moved into our 1500sqft shop unit at the start of 2020. At first I only rented half of the the unit. It was a hole in the wall. Terrible looking and terrible smelling. There was an abandoned hot tub on its side in the middle of the unit when we first got it. Together with the help of my good friends, we built a second floor, installed hoists, painted the floor, the walls, installed proper lighting, acquired cabinetry, desks and other necessary tooling. From here, we built, serviced and maintained streetcars and racecars to pay the bills, along with offering the difficult service of motorsport electronics which I specialize in. A number of special electronics projects have taken place here over the past couple years including a 20B 3 Rotor FD RX7 build, and a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia EV conversion.
Although our first renovation was a massive improvement at the time, we finally renovated once more (with a bit more money being spent this time) at the end of 2022 to drastically improve the front end look of the shop. This picture is the first iteration of the shop downstairs.
And here it is now. Looks a little better, right?
Thanks for reading the entire about page!
Hopefully you've got a better idea of what goes on around these parts. See ya on the track!