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I have some videos for you

May 30, 2003 No comments

Hello internet land! Well, I have videos for you. Here you are:
1st run
2nd run
3rd run

ANYWAYS, if you want to look at me try to get better but fail, you’ll notice that in my first run, I don’t do such a bad job, but I felt like I started my drift too late, and on top of that, I wanted to get a lot closer to the inside of the turn. You can see as you get through to my 3rd run that I do that – however, my exiting speed isnt as good as the first run. What did I realize? That although I put my car where I wanted it to be in the corner, it actually hindered my exiting speed – because I was putting my car at the wrong spot! The apex of the turn was much later than I thought it was… I wasn’t thinking – at all! Anyways, the beauty of video… you can watch yourself and see what you’re doing wrong.

Well, another cool thing is that I’m a new and proud owner of an Exedy Hyper Single clutch! It comes with a 6 puck cerametallic clutch disc, a forged aluminum clutch cover and a steel flywheel. I think it’s good to 400hp! I can’t wait to get it… because then it’s clutch kicking time. I’m beginning to realize that although most people find that kicking the clutch is the easiest technique as a beginner… and then later stray away from it as they get better… and then there’s a point where they go back to clutch kicking – because as you get better, you can learn to use the clutch to send the car to it’s absolute limits and stay there, in control. I guess we’ll just have to see… The D1 drivers search is coming up. It’s on June 15th at Irwindale Speedway. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it, but for sure I’ll do my best to put on a show for all of those awesome drivers that I’ve looked up to for the past few years. Time to get working on my car!!

Cars ,

Drift Day

May 27, 2003 No comments

DDay5 was this past weekend, and I had a BLAST. It’s great helping out other people who are trying to learn and get started because I remember what it felt like to be in their shoes… only, back then, we had to teach ourselves. So, you guys should realize how lucky you are that Moto and Club4AG is willing to provide us with so many resources to make learning faster and less frustrating! On Sunday, Club4AG staff was able to drive along with other registrants… The courses designed by Taka created a whole new challenge (which is expected, since at every event, Taka makes me learn something new). The advanced course wasn’t so much about entry speed, which we’ve done in the past… but instead about driving line and not only entry speed but STAYING at that speed in order to carry the drift to the other corners. It really got my adrenalin pumping… something that I haven’t felt since the first days I was learning to drift. Even the intermediate course taught me about line and how much it affects your speed during and exiting each corner. I was running a lower tire pressure during the day… and that forced me to re-learn my car a little bit… it didn’t oversteer so easily as it originally did… however it allowed me to gain more speed while drifting and hold more difficult angles. And while this helped me out tremendously when I figured it out, it made lower speed drifting more difficult and initiation on any course more difficult. I realized that I really had to exaggerate my technique in order to get the car sliding.

So at the end, there was a competition, and who placed at the end? None other than Alex Chang! Haha, I was so happy to see him win… what an idiot. He’ll probably go on and on about his Z rated tires and his strange car set-up for another few weeks. Haha! I’m also very proud to say that Nadine rocked the living $#!t out of the skid pad! She made like 6 revolutions around a cone… sticking CLOSE to it just like I wanted her to! I’m so proud, and that made the day well worth it for me. I think her next step is to learn how to use the countersteer and throttle to bring that tight radius donut out to a larger radius donut. All in time… but she’ll be getting there quickly. Good job honey… I’m so proud of you! As for me… I spun 2 times out of my 3 runs trying to go faster and start earlier… all while apexing at the wrong point in the corner! Haha – oops. That is another thing that I learned… That day was a little strange for me, since at a normal event, I’m learning technique… this time, I was learning more of a strategy: driving line, strategies at other parts of the track in order to approach a certain corner in a certain way, tire pressure… Well, I’m glad that finally I can learn something in a whole new area of drifting. I’m happy. Congrats again, world wide chang and neen180. :) Hopefully I’ll be getting some video for you soon…

Cars

Drifting Magazine

May 23, 2003 No comments

Have you seen the most recent DRIFTING magazine? It went out on newstands last Tuesday… go to your nearest 7-11 or Barnes and Nobles and see for yourself! There’s and article about me and Nadine, and there’s also an article that I wrote, explaining a beginner’s drift setup for a 240sx. In other news, I’m just getting ready for Drift Day 5… and then a private event for staff… and then the drift event in Vegas… and then the D1 grand prix screening… that’s 4 weekends in a row of drift events! Man, I remember last year… 4 drift events in the whole year! Now it’s all in one month! Hahaha… amazing. I hope my car as well as everybody else’s can hold up to all of the stress. Anyway, I’ll hopefully see some of you guys at Drift Day 5…

Cars

What a life

May 6, 2003 No comments

What an exciting week! First my stuff gets stolen from my OWN garage, then a few days later I go drifting at Irwindale Speedway, doing tandem drifting with my friends, and then I have a bbq at my place with all of my buddies for my birthday – and they all got me really great car stuff! You’ll all see it later, but I’m telling you my car is TYTE now! Hahaha! I don’t understand why people would go out of their way like that to get me such things… I don’t think I deserve them, but times like these remind me that I have really really great friends. Thank you guys… So… so what if my things were stolen? I want them back, of course, but really… who needs material things when you’ve got a home, great friends, a really special lady, and a little rugrat who never ceases to make me smile? I went out to dinner with my mom and dad, Nadine and Kristy for my birthday… can my life be any better? Uhh… I guess I could be a lot better at drifting! Hahaha. Bye guys. Stop stealing.

Cars, Just Talking none

Clutch gone

April 25, 2003 No comments

Video of me from the last journal entry: here

Well, my clutch went out… so Cartune put my old one back in along with a kouki 180 transmission. That transmission is bad, and leaking everywhere. Hahah. What luck I have. Air in my clutch lines decided to totally keep me from driving also – so Alex and Marc came over to help me late on Sunday night so that I could drive to work. Thanks guys! We concluded that all of the air was the result of Nissan’s use of a clutch line dampener right before the clutch line to the clutch slave cylinder – It’s not made to make bleeding the clutch a very easy job. So basically we removed it. And we bled it, and now everything is fine! I’m trying to get hold of a new clutch… maybe Exedy if life is good to me. In other news, I’ve got new anti-sway bars! I drove down to Torrance last weekend and installed a set of Tanabe anti-sway bars… they are noticibly larger than the stock bars. On the way home, I could feel it right away – even while driving out of the parking lot. Turning feels a lot more solid ESPECIALLY at speeds over 20mph. It was amazing how much of a difference it made while just driving on a banked freeway interchange! I really suggest that, when you get the money, to invest in some. I’m loving these. Anyone going to SEMA International Auto Salon? I think I’m gonna go see what’s going on over there. Ooh, Ray from KAAZ USA told me that I’m in this month’s HCI and LA Auto Weekly. Time to go magazine hunting! Drive safe everybody!

Cars

RS-R Drift Festival @ Irwindale

April 10, 2003 No comments

Sorry for leaving you all hanging! The engine is now running GREAT… it wasn’t a boost leak afterall… the wiring to the MAFS was falling apart, and it caused the car to idle fine… but the power wasn’t there. After fixing that, the engine is running STRONG. I mean, the car pulls really hard, and if I put the car into 2nd from 1st gear aggressively, the car will start fishtailing and will spin the rear tires for a while – with 215 Bridgestone S-03 on the rear!! There is still a small whining that is in tune with the rpms… I originally thought it was a loose spring on my clutch plate, but since I changed the clutch and the sound is still there, I’ve concluded that it’s something in my transmission. Good thing I got a transmission with my new engine!

The RS-R Drift Festival was great… again, Club4AG has raised the bar, and again, the US drifters stepped up to it. I can’t believe what a great show some of our drivers can put on for the crowd. I heard lots of cheering… as if this was a “real” driving event! It was great. So here’s my story… I started out with a new engine and new tires on the rears… I figured that I would try using my 215 Bridgestone S-03s on the rear – I didn’t like it. I had 3 laps to figure out my new setup… and I just could not predict the tires, maybe because I just need more time figuring out a rear sticky tire. I’m not sure, but I changed them after my first 3-lap session. The 2nd 3-lap session came around when suddenly I realized that my clutch went out on my 2nd lap. D’OH! I thought my day was over.. I brought my car back into the KAAZ booth, feeling kinda sad that I wouldn’t be able to drive for the rest of the day. Richard (JDM RICE) was nice enough to offer me his car for the competition (the next round was the start of the competition). Thank you Richard! My competing mentality was pretty much over for the day, since my car went bye-bye, but I figured that I could still have fun. So I went out… we had 2 laps to compete, which meant I had 2 laps to figure out his 330hp monster – with 275 wide tires in the rear. Needless to say, I couldn’t figure out the car in 2 laps Hahaha. But I did get a lot closer with each lap… it’s hard trying to drift while trying to overcome a handicap (boost lag under 4000rpms). But I am proud of myself for drifting the high-speed back sweeper… I started the slide in the top of 3rd gear and brought it all the way around to connect to turn 1. That in itself was a big accomplishment for me. Richard’s car is like a challenge for me now… I hope he’ll let me drive it again soon :) That’s the end of my story… congratulations to Alex Pfieffer, Andy Yen, and Ernie Fixmer for doing a GREAT job!! You guys are bad-ass! I saw A LOT of other people out there doing great too… you guys are bad-ass too! haha! Keep practicing… keep pushing the limit… and keep having fun and making friends!

Cars
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