art or junk?

i haven't been able to do much lately for obvious reasons. though i had some time weld up some new stuff. don't know if i can call it art, but i'm sure whoever claims it at the time attack this weekend can call it what ever you want. it's spare parts i had laying around which i probably won't be using for a while. glad it's out of the garage. i can finally move around garage again.




yeah it's a bit on the rough side. just threw together from what i had layin around. though i must admit they are interesting.

what am i looking at

[source: citytireonline.com] buy tires from these guys

the car sits, battle scars left untouched, its owner is working at half capacity. yeah i'm sitting here typing with one hand. anyways let's look at the mess i've created.

2 busted XXR wheels

this probably hit @ maybe 60-70mph. i'm guessing since i don't look at my speedo during runs. i know i was in 4th when i initiated so i'm guessing i slowed at that speed when i hit.

the other one was cracked by eric O sullivan i let him borrow it. it was a valiant effort by him and his team but now he owes me some fish and chips. i don't know how fast he was going. but surprisingly it's still holding air.

both fenders

1 wise square taillight i picked up while in japan. y'all probably thought i had the ebay special. silly kids.

i didn't even have them for a year (sigh)

the bending was regulated in front of the engine cross member. richard r. took a quick look at the chassis and assured it wasn't bad. nothing that a big tree and an f series can't take care of

fiberglass hood and bumper in emergency repair with richard r.

1 lower control arm

equipped with battle version heim joint kit.

1 outer tie rod end. this was actually bent at 90 deg. but it still looks horrible.

they served well for many battles and will be sorely missed.

one thing interesting is that nothing else was destroyed/ damaged, like the radiator and intercooler. the oil cooler was slightly bent, nothing that a hammer can't fix.

Red Bull WDC 2008

Since my day was over, rather sulk the whole weekend. I indulged on the many things that was the Red Bull WDC. But before that, I lent some parts to Eric O' Sullivan driving the Rockstar AE86. He had an unfortunate running with a k rail and damaged some suspension bits. Since my car was down I gladly offered my car as the parts car.


Taka and Richard removing parts for the Rockstar AE86

O' Sullivan's strut on the left. Ouch
Team Ireland feverishly working on the car before qualify rounds.

The teams efforts and my parts were able to bring Team Ireland into the top 32. Unfortunately, they crashed and were not able to move on.

Since I was still in pain, i made my way to the Red Bull hospitality tent to make my self feel better.


And better I did feel.

That's until Cyrus showed up. Drunken bastard.

Overall it was an awesome event. The Driving was spectacular and the drinks were non stop. Red Bull sure knows how to throw an event. I didn't take too man photos of the hot chicks at the event. Hmm maybe i need to get my head checked, must have suffered a concussion,but enjoy.

Aftermath, WTH

With the late nights and $$$ spent to get the car ready, what happened? Victorious I was not. From the beginning my mindset was in all the wrong places. Was it because I was tired or just plain negative. Nevertheless this clouded my judgement which resulted in a horrible injury to me and the vehicle. I sit here typing one handed due a broken left hand, the machine I have built from the ground up sits in ruin outside my window. Now I contemplate what's next for me. Do I rebuild, start all over, or just walk away. I'm not saying due to the crash I'm giving up racing. I just feel for the time an effort I ended with pain. But that's racing right? It's the money pit I love to give to for years, but as I get older, where do I stop. Money will probably be the biggest factor since I don't have much of it. I'll contemplate where I stand on this subject in the next few weeks and where I go on from here.
But seeing this everyday won't help my cause

Thanks to a few people for helping me out in no particular order:

Naoki K. and drift day staff for having awesome events

Ash N. for lending me some parts

Matt p. hope you didn't burn your hand on the hot manifold.

Taka A. pillaging parts off my car and helping me put it back together

Alex P. Super dope parts and awesome cage from a crazy mother f!$%%r

Steve C. He has breakfast before he will change tires b$%^h

Steve R. letting me use the dyno the night before the event.

Henry S. for providing such a kick ass tune which i only use 3 times.

The neighbors for letting me use the welder

Wesly H. lending me 2 extra wheels for the event and some safety tips

Formula D for providing a cool venue where I can crash.

What's left..

After many late nights, i'm still not finished. I'm so tired right now that I can't really think straight. I decided to drop off the car at Long Beach instead of taking it back with me so i can work on it. Which I initially was planning to do. But my judgement was so clouded that I thought that I need a only a few things done. Now I regret my actions after I realize that there may be more that needs to be done. Oh well I'm pretty sure i can get it done we'll see. At least I passed tech with these items:

Battery kill switch activated with

a pull cable.

Tow hooks of the Home Depot variety

Made sometime to swap out the fuel pump swapped out the fuel pump to a 1JZ pump. For that extra bit of confidence

Added the cock crotch strap, my least favorite item.

Thanks to Steve @ SRMotorcars and Henry S. for helping me out with dyno time and tune. The day before the event.

This week...

Elections are over and we have spoken. Congratulations President- Elect Obama for a well fought campaign. In other news, just been doing alot of work on the car. Little by little it's all coming together.

Fitted the dash

Some trimming was required to coerce the pieces in place.

Some new changes in management was in order

Out: HKS F-Con unit, it's probably older than some of you. But it still works as long as you keep around 10 PSI. But it's so difficult to resist the dark side of boost.

In: AEM stand alone, it's what I install as a part time job. Why did it take me 3 years to finally do my own car?

New seating arrangements

Old: Cobra Kevlar Sebring seat. Yes this seat is pretty old too. Unfortunately, it doesn't comform to current FIA standards so it must be sent out to pasture. It's served me well for the past 8 years and will be missed.

In: Cobra Suzuka seat that complies with FIA regulations. Besides Recaro, I consider Cobra having seats that best fit me. When choosing your seat don't let your choices come down to brand name, cause who cares what kind of seat you have, if you're the one that's uncomfortable.

Added this cool battery box.

We now have life!

A couple of keystrokes we made fire!

All it takes is a leaky water pump to bring back down. Really dumb but these things happen when I reuse parts.

One thing really useful about a non running Volvo Wagon is that it makes for great storage when rebuilding the other car.

The choice is yours

You can get with this or you can get with that. Today is election day, let's exercise our rights as citizens to get the vote out. I know this isn't car related but it something I think people have continued to take for granted. I've voted since I was 18 and years later i'm still voting. I'm not saying who you should vote. I just believe as citizens this is a privilege just like driving is a privilege. Can you believe some people think driving is a right. Anyways all I say is this if you didn't vote last election, you have no right to complain.

Monkey Bars by Battle Version

Picked up the pile from Alex P. this weekend. Alex P. besides being a former Formula D judge and currenly back in the driver seat as a drift competitor, is also fabricator extrodinaire and owner of the Battle Version company. Since I had to have a legal cage installed, I pretty much already had great trust in him to get the cage done. As much as I already hate installing extra weight on the car, it's a requirement for racing. Does this mean I'm a racer now?

Here's a couple of photos of the cage.

Rather than try and save some cash and reuse use the previous roll bar setup from TechnoSquare, I went ahead and had him build a whole new hoop, using the old one as a template.

According to Alex, he hasn't seen anyone use this configuration of door bars. So he claims it to an original design and thus be his signature door bars. It will make entry and exit of the vehicle a less painful experience on the butt.

I also made time to drop in the engine and remove the HVAC system off the car. Sigh, as much as I hate removing it it's a necessity to drop the weight down, and i was just hella lazy to do it. Though it didn't feel like much weight was removed just alot of work to do it. With winter approaching, going to track days are going to be much colder.

Go visit Alex's site BattleVersion for more info on his parts or if you need a cool cage like mine.