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So the baby is coming… and it was time to sell my daily driver S13 to buy a bigger car. I’ve had it since 2003 and it’s been awesome to me ever since. When I bought it, it had less than 100k miles and it helped to complete the Mega S13 freak collection. At one point, we had one S13 from every year that S13s were available in the USA. We had an ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ’93. If you are a nerd, you are telling me that S13s were made in also ’94. Well, ’94s were all convertible and no way in hell would I buy an S13 convertible, so be quiet you nerd!

It was really nice driving it, and according to my friends I was going to start fixing it up weeks after I bought it. But I resisted. I already had a low, loud, no frills drift car so I wanted to enjoy the 240sx in stock form. It came with tinted windows, working a/c & heater… it was quiet and had a really strong engine. it was the nicest S13 I’ve ever driven.

Working on it was cake, because NOTHING was rusted or seized. When I worked on it, it was like working on a new car… I would effortlessly pull out nuts and bolts and they looked shiny and new.

The car sold FAST! Luckily it went to a very nice man named Chris who LOVES Nissans and was just looking for a nice daily driver just like what I was looking for when I bought the car.

It was fun while it lasted!

I am still being impressed by this car that impressed me a month ago, and the month before that, and the month before that.

I <3 you, Nissan.

So I was doing my daily rounds of reading blogs and on Jalopnik I saw the released pictures of the new Dodge Challenger. And was immediately let down.

I’ve been keeping a mental note of how American car companies seem to half-ass their designs. They seem to be doing a lot of throw back style cars where they make a new car look like their classics, which in itself is kind of lazy I think but it’s not such a big deal to me because that seems to be the trend with a lot of things. If you can bring back Cabbage Patch Kids and Transformers, why can’t you bring back the Mustang? The problem is the way these companies seem to spend much time on creating nice detail… nice lines here and there that are reminiscent of the classic car yet modern and artistic… then you get to the rear end of the car. What happened??? Did you guys just get tired of designing?

The new Dodge Challenger has been doomed to the same fate:

Nice.	Nice.	Nice.
WHAT THE!!! The Delorean doesn’t look any more modern than this thing.

Here are some other sad examples of what I’m talking about:

I just picked up some M-Sports carbon fiber canards from Mr. JDM Rice Tang @ SIX Autoworks. I can’t wait to put ’em on!

I’ve been waiting for some time now, collecting more and more parts so I can go back to see Jim @ Sleeperz and get it all painted! Let’s see… new aero, paint the wheels a new color, paint the hood, my mirrors, and I’m not sure… leave the canards alone, or paint them red?

For the sake of posting another embedded video on my journal, here’s a video of Nadine and I drifting tandem:

Drifting Pretty had a banquet last Sunday to celebrate it’s 4th year and to celebrate all the women who have been involved with the program. It was really great to see the camaraderie and the friendships that have been created over the years. Looking back at all the hurdles the girls had to jump through to get where they are now really reminds me of the same hurdles that Drifting Pretty as an organization has had to jump through. There were some growing pains but the organization has really grown into something that embraces goodness and generosity. Goodness… generosity… drifting… what the heck! It sounds too good to be true!

I’m really proud of all the girls who have had such a great attitude this year. You’re really getting what drifting is all about… it’s nothing more than a plain old hobby just like bowling or knitting… but there’s nothing better than a hobby that you love where you can make life long friendships and help people do the same. I’m really glad that I was able to take part in it all.