RC Choppers

Here's a couple of vids to show what these heli's can do. These things defy logic. Like Kensaku Komoro at D1 Las Vegas 2005 driving the Tec-Arts AE86. Who am I kidding it's all them Corolla drivers.



See what I mean.



I want one of them

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Z Nationals

Another year and the show scene has begun, which is all about the old school steel for me. No HI sin for this guy. The year starts off with the Motorsport Auto Z nationals. Held at the Irvine Valley park. This year seemed to be a bit smaller, at least from my perspective.

It's usually the same suspects each year, but there's always something interesting.


Old school HKS exhaust on a Z32


Not really rare, Corvette powered Z


When asians think of a mural for their trunk they think of South Park???


Real wood interior


She may give you wood



Outside the show area, was a group of RC enthusiasts flying their helicopters. The skills displayed was amazing and it was nothing i've never seen before. Time for a new hobby?
The show wasn't as great as past events, probably due to economy? Doubt it, hopefully next year will be a much better turn out.

For more pics of the event click here

Pomona Swap Meet

The Pomona Swap meet and car show is a staple for many Southern California gearheads. From Porsches, Hot rods and everything in between they do have. I've been living in So Cal for many years, i've never been here. This weekend my curiosity got the best of me and finally decided to check it out

Here's what to expect when you visit:


Porsches for sale


Hot Rods too


VW's



When shopping, the weapon of choice is the Radio Flyer to carry the goods. This one sports the hot rod look, very cool.


You may think this place doesn't have anything for the Japanese steel aficionados. Here I spot a set of lights and grill for a TE Corolla.


There were a few Japanese cars on hand too, like this Honda and Toyota.


Most of you think 4 throttle bodies is cool, then 8 must be orgasmic.

I wonder why I've never been here earlier. Oh yeah it costs money. Parking cost $9 and entry to the event was $8. It may be expensive, but for the gearhead it's one of those things you gotta check out sometime in your life. You never know what you may find. I wasn't even able to go through the whole show. So i'll definitely be back.


But I wanted to attend this show, which was happening at the same time.


For the rest of the pics from Pomona click here.

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Garage clearing

Once again I loaded up the truck to clear out some junk that's been getting in the way. Though this time around it's for the greater good. It seems that pinoys and Toyota have some deep connection that's very hard to break. As my thoughts of obtaining another chassis from another manufacturer (ahem Nissan) to replace the purple yam, I seem to have come up on another Corolla GTS. Sitting in the back of a shop sits an unloved being a slave to it's master for parts and experimentation. It was about to sent to it's finally calling before it showed up. Since I am a very good hearted person, rather than have this car see an untimely death I decided to adopt it as one of my own to continue a new life as a warrior to do battle.

WTF is wrong with me, it's not like I have enough to do already??

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Long Beach Grand Prix 2009

Long Beach, California, home to the Ice Dogs, the Queen Mary, and my old hometown. Once a year in April, the thunder of Indy Cars fills ocean drive. Way back I used to come here every year. Lately it's been once in a blue moon. Fortunately, this year I was able to score a ticket for saturday.

Pro winner Al Unser Jr. and celebrity winner Keanu Reeves taking a victory lap!

Which included the Toyota celebrity race and

Taka Aono in the lifestyle expo hall.

Formula D tandem practice.

Definitely a plus to see awesome cars racing and drifting. The highlight of the day was having Danica Patrick passing by within inches of me, she must be practicing. Definitely a minus for my camera crapping out early and didn't get a picture. The pics themselves are not that great either since it's literally pointing and shooting. If you recall the screen is broke.

Anyways for the rest of the crappy pics go here.

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Tool Book

I've received my share of tool catalogs during my time as a tech. They're usually just cheap and simple books. From Snap-On to S-K tools they were pretty much all the same. Until I came across this one from Beta tools. It's a hardbound book that looks like more an encyclopedia.

Where's the mojo

It's been a few months since i've been back in the seat, 5 months to be exact.

Image via Wikipedia

Like Austin Powers in the Spy that Shagged me., I thought I lost the mojo. But after a few minutes behind the wheel and burning a couple of tires at the past weekends Drift Day would tell me otherwise. It's good to be back but damn I just burned a set of tires, I bought yesterday, in an hour.

One thing that annoyed me was that fact I only driven the car with it's new found tune and boost only once. After spending a day with the car, i've become addicted again. The dark side (boost) is definitely good with this one.


Im also trying out a new suspension setup this time. I've been a Koni user/fan for most of my driving career ,but it's about time for a change. And I got a good deal on some TRD shocks so why not.

With the new suspension the car was hella dumped. The neighbor was concerned I would rip the fenders off the car. But alas it was not the case. I'm glad the dealer cares about the welfare of the car even though his car would probably say otherwise.

Image via Wikipedia

The car still has some quirks that need to be addressed, yeah I know i've gotta take care of the burning oil. My apologizes to all who inhaled. I guess it's time to cough up some cash for a turbo.

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Feeding the Socialists

Hope everyone has got their taxes squared away, as the due date is upon us. I just sent mine in yesterday. Now I can pay off a chunk of my debt and may be buy a tire. Cheers.

They're back...

After a long hiatus from El Toro, Drift Day has returned. To bring hooliganism and mayhem into a controlled enviroment. Saw some old faces and a couple of new ones. I seem to socialize more than I drive. But i'd probably be done before noon if I constantly drove. But enough of that let's take look through my broke ass camera.

The brakes look brand new. Is this car even driven

Midnight cowboy anyone?

Famous drifter Taka A. takes no break to assist Drift Association. Even after a long heated battle at Formula D Long Beach the day before. This guy is iron man.

I feel like buying an icee when I look at this picture.

Can you find Waldo?

It was a wonderful day overall. Can't say much more than that.
For more information on the next event, please visit their site
For the rest of the photos visit here

Yes. Friday is good

For Good Friday I had the day off. To take advantage of this rare weekday off, I headed in search of tools. Sure I probably could have assisted in helping a privateer in the Formula D event this weekend. But i'm semi retired from wrenching and nobody asked.


In a nondescript building in Huntington Beach, California, is a tool distributor known quietly selling Beta tools. Fortunate for me they just opened up the show room just a week ago. I can't say I have a tool fetish like some others, but I do own some rare tools that have some european heritage. This is where Beta comes in, it's the Snap On of europe and have supplied tools to


Formula One and MotoGP.

Here some stuff if you're a Ferrari owner and need tools to work on your prancing horse, cause you know will. But you probably take your car to Luigi anyways rather than work on it yourself.



Another thing that may tickle your fancy is that Beta is just a side business. The place is actually called California Hot Rod Shop. Their main business is of course high end hot rods. If you've seen the show Chop, Cut, Rebuild on Speed. Then you'll know of this shop. It's where they built the bonneville car. I was given a small tour of the shop and it is definitely a cool shop to see.

Finding the place is also very easy. As most racers know of Sube Sports, this place is right up the street from them.

And no the shop doesn't look like this. This was actually the shop up in Denver, Colorado. It's closed down and all operations are at the Huntington Beach facility.

For more information on Beta tools USA please take a look at the site. For the Italian site click here