GT Live 6 Extra Crap

During the down time, when I wasn’t practicing or working on the car, I made some time to take some snaps of other happenings.

Taka hanging out with the locals. He’s famous in Utah.

Poor Choh’d had lost his phone. He was depressed cause he won’t be receiving any booty calls for a couple of days. But the track workers did find it and wrote him a friendly note. Utonians are so friendly.

They take friendly to a whole different level.

Choh’d oil temps were really hot +250F and couldn’t keep it cool for the whole event. They tried to make the cooler work better with this make shift duct. Unfortunately it didn't work so his day was pretty much over.

Cyrus was hot on and off the track so everyone did their part to keep him cool.

But she is even hotter.

Wish I had a better shot, of Naoki doing his impression of Deebo. If you don’t who that is, then get a copy of Friday.

Herb knows how to keep cool.

D.A. staff relaxing before the start of the event.

Before I returned home I had to stop by and pick up the awesome Alien Jerky. If you’re ever in Baker, Ca. stop by and check it out. It’s a bit on the expensive side but it’s well worth the money.

Overall, it was a great event. Everyone was really friendly and we got along really well. What really annoyed me was I had to pay to get in to the venue. It should have been stated on the site and/or added into the registration fee. It’s kinda like they’re nickel and diming me. There also should have a been a packet that contained wrist bands, parking permits, etc. I kept on going back to the main office, first to get tickets, then the parking permit. It’s like every time I return the gate keepers had something different I needed.

Well enough of me rambling let’s enjoy.

The End

Pro Am Utah

This past weekend was spent at Tool Tooele, Utah, which is about ½ hour away from Salt Lake City. You’re probably wondering what would be interesting in a place called Tooele? Miller Motorsports Park of course, which was the site for GT Live 6, I was there to participate in the Formula D/ Pro- Am qualifier presented by Mazda. Miller Motorsports Park, located in Tooele, Utah, is the host to great racing series such as American LeMans, AMA Super Bike, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, etc.

The plan was to leave Thursday night with an ETA of noon Friday. Only after a 2 hours of driving I had to stop. I was so drained the past few days that the road started looking like this, so I had the co driver take over.

As we got closer to Salt Lake City, gas got cheaper. But you get cheated by being served up 85 octane. Being the cheap bastard, I filled it up to the top. It’s a Ford it’ll take anything you throw at it. I had arrived at the track Friday afternoon after a long 12 hour drive up from Los Angeles.

Even being in the middle of nowhere, I have to admit, that this was one of the most amazing tracks I have been too. It's a bit smaller than what I thought it was. It seemed much bigger from videos and maps I saw online.

We were assigned a garage space, which was setup along pit row. Here’s stupid Choh’d getting in the way and ruining the shot. The garages themselves are fully decked out, with all utilities. From air hook ups to televisions, even the bathrooms were hella clean, I couldn’t ask for anything more. It definitely beats working on the car with the under the sun.

With 1^st day of practice over, I really hadn’t been able to link the whole track. Due to the higher elevation, my car was down on power. I couldn’t get the tires to keep spinning as I normally do back in California. I’m not making any excuses, cause AE86 drivers don’t need power to make things happen. Just a bigger bag of pixie dust will make things work, not excuses here.

On Saturday my car was just had some minor problems, leaky clutch slave cylinder and an oil leak around the rear main seal. I had to travel back to the city to get the slave because the little town of Tooele didn’t have them in stock. But I noticed that this town doesn’t have very many import vehicles to begin with.

2^nd day of practice was much better, with some good advice from Taka, I made some changes to my setup and my driving technique. I was able to link up the first 2 corners once, I was getting very close.

There was a time attack on our side of the track so here’s a couple of snaps.

She wasn’t driving but still looked fast.

On Sunday Naoki decided to put his art skills to use and drew a penis on my car. Why? I never did anything wrong. Competition consisted of 3 runs taking the best of 3. All that was needed was one clean run. My goal for the day was to score points for by completing first 2 corners, I really didn’t think I was going to make the third corner. 1^st run was o.k, too many corrections more than likely a zero run. 2nd run was a zero dirt drop at the end of the 2^nd corner. By this time I wasn’t sure if I was going to choke and go home empty handed. Naoki came over asked me how I was doing and I think he offered to draw another penis on my window. 3^rd run definitely a score. A bit on the dirty side but I’m pretty satisified, I hope the judge was too.

Returning to the pits, I was greeted by a beautiful sight. The GT Live models happen to be hanging around in front of my pit garage. So I took it upon myself to at least grab one picture with all of them because I couldn’t find them during my pit walks.

She was hella pretty.

After all the fierce competition, we’re all still friends by the end of the day and it still shows.

Congratulations to the top 10 who got invited to Pro-Am. Which includes me!

The rest of the pics are here

Last Chance

The last weekend to prep before Utah. I took the day off from my second job to take care of the maintenance for all the vehicles. And made some final adjustments on the car before Utah.
Picked up some tires from City Tire if you are in so cal, consider yourself lucky, a shop like this which caters to the drift community. For the larger events, they even bring out a truck and trailer equipped with tires and mounting equipment. If you can't bring enough tires to an event, pre order from them and they'll bring them out to you. Wow, that's service.

Just like an assembly line I did the maintenance on all the vehicles in the fleet. It really doesn't help when it's +90 deg out side and sweating like crazy. I want a bigger garage.

The oil I use for all vehicles. Motorcraft for the Ford, cause it's specifically blended for the Ford. Eventually, like all the other vehcles in the fleet, i'll be transitioning over to Rotella T, to make things less complicated.

Being a blistering hot weekend, just made things really difficult. By the end of the day my eyes felt like crap, I don't know if it was cause the sweat was running into my eyes or cause it was so bright out. But the neighbor had a nice bbq at the end of the day which made things much more nicer with an ice cold beer.

One Weekend

In three days I pulled the motor, slap together another one and dropped it. All while working my regular day job Monday – Friday and my second day job on Saturday. The only way I can even afford to participate in this expensive hobby. I even made time to give praise to the man up stairs. That’s church for all you atheists out there. So maybe it’s about 2 full days of work. I can’t say it’s a great motor, it’s just something I scraped together. Don’t ask specs cause you may just cringe. But for people who know the specs on the past motor, well this one is worse than that.

Probably the only redeeming thing about this motor is I used the made in Mexico TRD timing belt. Cause it’s hella stronger than stock and so all the Mexicans and Filipinos can jock the TRD. The life expectancy for this pile is probably 6 months. I’m just falling down the 4AG totem pole. But no matter, I’ll get it running with whatever parts I find.

As for the previous motor, here’s what it looks like. As I expected, number 1 and 4 cylinders were toast. “Catastrophic engine failure” as that guy from Pinks would say. It’s sad to see it go, but it lasted longer than I expected for an engine I just slapped together. BTW it lasted about a year and a half of hard track and drift days each month. No need for high dollar stuff here, when factory stuff works fine for what I do. For an engine that I actually was expecting to last no more than six months, this isn’t bad at all. I underestimated myself and the strengths of Toyota motors.

I only have one pic which was the pretty much when everything was already installed and I was taking a breather. I was busy just trying to get everything done this weekend. And wasn’t sure if I was going to finish on time. I’m busy during the week, 19-20 hour days sometimes, so I don’t have much time to work on it. But everything dropped in smoothly that it probably took ~ 2 hours to have everything running. So far it’s not bad, a bit on the smokey side, but that’s more points for them smokey drifts. Drives a bit strange, may be I’m not used to it. Who cares Utah here we come!

AE86 Tip #86-2: Clutch Install

I'm sure most people have seen this trick, but if not read closely. Loosening and tightening the flywheel bolts and pressure plate bolts can be a real pain if you don't have the correct tools to hold the flywheel. Rather than buy some trick tool from Snap-On or questionable from Harbor Freight, here's 2 i've used with good success.


One way is to use a transmission bolt and a 17mm socket. Setup as shown in the above picture. Note that the socket in this position will loose the bolts. Position the socket on the other side to tighten up the bolts.


Another method would require a custom part. What i used here was from an old 4AG flex plate. Cut a piece of it off and drill a hole.


Attach as shown above, you may need washers to space the flex plate correctly. Once properly position it works like a charm.
All these cost nothing and are very easy to setup.

The Aftermath

So begins the mission of replacing the engine for yet another ghetto faboulous build from yours truly, after blowing up the engine at the last Drift Day. Lately, I have been so busy with many things I haven't had much time to work on the car. Usually one day out of the week, for a couple of hours, I work on the car.


Right now i've been trying to source some used pistons to get another motor together. This has been no easy task. I thought everyone was like me and they just toss it in the back until it's ready for use. It seems everyone to throw this stuff away WTH?! If it's still good save it never know if a 4AG nerd will need them. I had a source that had some pistons, they were really dirty, I thought I can just clean them up and good to go. Unfortunately, as you can see above it has lived a miserable life. So goes the search.



Here is the block I am prepping for the next transplant.

You may ask why I don't upgrade to aftermarket forged pistons. It's like trying to make a 4AC fast. Sure you can make it fast it'll take a lot of money, but it still won't surpass the powers of 4AG. And since I have become addicted to power, I feel 4AG will just hold me back unless I have deep pockets. So i'll be looking for other options in my quest for more power. Please note, this is my opinion, you may or may not agree with this logic. And since I track the car a lot i'd rather spend it on seat time anyways.

At Musing's End

A short film made by Wongfu productions. I found this on Club4AG during my morning internet stroll. At first glance, I think chick flick. The only reason why I actually sat through it was because it had the Corolla in it. But afterwards I thought it was a really well made film. If i was a movie critic Wong Fu Productions gets thumbs up.

Camarillo revisited

It’s been a few years since I’ve been at Camarillo airport for a drift event. The last time I was here was probably around 2002 maybe 2001. Memory is fuzzy, but I guess that’s what tire smoke does to a brain. During that time, not many really knew what drifting was all about. Mainly enthusiasts who drove RWD vehicles from Japan could relate to you, more so if you were an AE86 driver. Now it’s 2008 and I had an opportunity to once again drive at one of the birthplaces of drifting in mainland U.S.A.
Photo courtesy of Wes H.

An early photo of me and Moto (Club4AG) gridding for some tsuiso practice at the first Camarillo Drift Day. Not really, at the time the art of tsuiso wasn’t utilized at the Drift Day events.

Not much has changed, this plane still sit in the same spot.

Drift Day staff checking on surface condition.

The surface itself has changed. It’s been repaved to be much smoother. Hence more tire friendly. If you’ve been here back then, you’ll know that the surface was really rough and consumed tires with a vengeance. To give you an idea, in my mild na corolla I had at the time, went through 4 tires with time to spare. Usually I’d go through 1 pair in a whole day at the old Irwindale parking lot.

Unfortunately my day was pretty much cut short, due to a blown engine. The gods have spoken with an iron fist. So it’s time to bust out the camera again and take some random shots.

No they didn't drift the Hertz Mustang. Though it would have been cool to see.



Many of the flying bill boards come from this airport. It's actually cool to watch how they actually attach the bill boards to the planes.

I even brought out the same helmet I used at the first event.

Even with my engine mishap, it turned out to be a great event. The low number or drivers, provided lots of seat time I wish my car ran right so I could have utilized the time. Thanks to Steve for letting borrow his car for a couple runs. Naoki and Drift Association staff for putting together another awesome event. If you're interested in drifting or even learning how to drift please visit the Drift Day website for more information.

For more pics, click here.