I installed a Sparco racing seat in last night – A bucket seat… I have a whole new understanding of how my car feels now! With almost no more cushion on my ass, I can feel every little bump in the road that my chassis feels. I can turn much more agressively now too, since I don’t have to strain my body by bracing myself against my car with my knees. It’s really a strange feeling… I don’t really know how to explain it. All I know is that I can control the car much better now, since I feel like I’m one with the car instead of just a driver being thrown around in the car while trying to control it. Okay, that’s it. I think I’m going to make a trip to touge sometime soon… drive safe everybody.
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Sorry to keep you guys in the dark about this past week… I went to Buttonwillow Raceway on Sunday for Speedtrial’s Drift Event! The drive there was LONG. It took us two hours driving at the minimum of 80-85mph. Anyway, when we got there, it was pretty damp out on the track… but it soon cleared up. The track was interesting… a new place for me to try and drift… I learned quickly that the track was kind of narrow, and the two inch drop from the track into the dirt wasn’t very appealing to me. And the track was FULL of those dreaded right turns! Well, I guess that was a good thing, because it forced me to get used to them… and I did. After a few run groups, the courseworkers got really mad… because the people on the track were not abiding by the course rules and not paying attention to the flags… so they confined our drifting down to one single turn. That got really sad… and I got bored of the track. But hey, the event was only $50… and I think I got my money’s worth this time… I don’t think I’ll ever go back… the track was so small.
After all that working preparing my car for the drift event, my sileighty feels GREAT! My new exhaust manifold gave me such a horsepower and torque improvement throughout all the rpms… The turbo spools up earlier, quicker, and harder (and my blowoff valve sounds good!) Anyway, the day started out kinda weird… me and Nadine woke up late, and on the way to the event, one of my radiator hoses decided to bust and let out ALL of my coolant all over the freeway. Luckily Nads notified me of this right in front of a Nissan dealer… so we pulled in and got charged too much money (Nadine says, “make sure you say we got raped”) for a new hose, coolant, and some other junk. We changed my hoses right there in the parking lot and the poor janitor had to clean up all the coolant when I was done. So we finally arrived at the track a little over an hour late and as we were setting up, some guy decided to smash his new s2000 into the pit lane wall. There was a driver’s meeting shortly after reminding everybody of the rules and telling people to use their heads… and the track was shut down for over an hour. Then I finally got onto the track with my baby in the passenger seat… I was a little rusty on my first few laps, but I was determined to get that right hander in front of all the spectators before I went home that day. So on my third lap, I got it… I pushed the weight of the car to the left and I tapped the brakes and the handbrake. Immediately the car slid out to the far left and with some throttle, I was able to get it near full countersteer. The screetching of the tires sounded so good to me… I heard Nadine yay’ing me in the car and the crowd let out a big “woah” sound. I saw a bunch of camera flashes as I made it all the way around the turn… then I went in the dirt. Haha. But it’s okay! Because I knew exactly where my drift was going to stop so I kind of meant it to go there. Anyway, I was very happy. Then Nadine’s run group was out on the track… and it started to rain. I was a little scared at first, because this was her first time driving on a road race course… but then I remembered after a few laps that Nadine is a good driver… So as we were out there, she started to experience power sliding like she never has before… and it was pretty fun. She learned to feel for when the car was about to break loose and how to control it when it did. She did REALLY well, and I’m so happy that she’s been learning so much. Maybe she’ll want an LSD one day so we can go drifting together. That was Nadine’s first and last run of the day… she was pretty nervous while she was on the track. If I were her, I’d have been too. So then I went out a couple more times on the wet track… I was nervous, but everything was great. Drifting in the rain is like drifting in slow motion… I can enter turns at slower speeds but drifting at the same angles as when it’s dry… inputs of the car are more sensitive – braking drift, side brake, and weight transfer. The bad thing about the rain is that you don’t get to hear that satisfying tire squealing that you would hear in the dry. Anyway, I had a good day… I got a few thumbs ups, I got to see my friends, I got to spend a crazy abnormal day with my love, and I learned a lot… AND I got that stupid right hander, and I got it good. And in the end… my car still runs really good, and I’m happy that I was forced to get my car in good running condition. See you guys at the next event!
I went back up again last night with Nadine after bleeding the coolant. I didn’t have any problems with overheating… good! Except this time, my turbo good enough that this time I loosened 2 turbo ehxaust nuts and they fell off, leaving me with 2 left. Hopefully I can change my exhaust manifold tonight and fix that problem. And on the way back home, some crazy SUV was on my ass… so as I was not feeling well, I pulled over as much as I could to the side so he could pass… but no, he decided to keep riding my ass and not pass. So I got pissed and took off. At first he was trying to keep up with me, and Nadine and I heard his tires screetching and his truck went out of control through some turns. But after a few bends in the road, he was long gone. Turns out he was a Sheriff. Ooops! Haha. Well next time, don’t harrass people on the mountain roads, you jerk! (We have a lot more work to do on our cars before this weekend!)
Okay, so I changed the muffler. The car has much more low end torque… I’m assuming it’s because of the fact that the resonator is larger on the Apex’i than the Blitz muffler. The car sounds much better now, since the exhaust leaks are gone. Nadine and I went up to touge last night to watch the meteor shower… it was pretty cool. And then I did some driving to play with the new suspension, thermostat, and muffler. The suspension felt really nice, and the muffler sounded and felt good… The car overheated driving uphill, and I realized later when I got to the bottom of the mountain that it was because there was a lot of air in the radiator… I’m not sure why, but it’s either because I forgot to bleed the coolant system, or it’s just because I lost coolant somewhere. I’ll make sure to bleed the system today, and after I change the exhaust manifold in a few days, I’ll go up and test the car again. I want to be sure that I’ll have a lot of fun at Willowsprings without having to worry about any car problems…
Ack! The willow springs event is in a week!! Between helping Nadine with her new house and trying to take care of Kristy, I haven’t had any time at all to get my car into good running shape. I changed my engine oil last week, since it was about two weeks overdue… yeah, I told you I havne’t had any time… One of my biggest upsets of the last event was that my car kept overheating so through most of the track, I had to drive slowly until my car was cool enough to drift a turn… So today, I flushed the radiator, added some Redline Water Wetter and I swapped out my old thermostat to a Billions 67 degrees thermostat (it opens up at 10+ degrees cooler). Next is my rear brakes… The pads and rotors have been screaming at me for the past 2 months and I haven’tchanged them yet. After that, I have to change my spark plugs, fuel filter, belts, exhaust manifold (I still have a nasty leak), diff oil, and change my exhaust (I think thats it!) Nadine is letting me put on her Apex’i N-1! Cool! I need it, since my exhaust hanger has decided to break off again…
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