Yes!!!!!

Today I took my car to Owosso Speedway for a bit for practice before this Sunday's event. I went out three times at about 5 or 6 laps each time. The first was spent trying to get acclimated to the steep banking of the track. The second went rather well, decent angle and good consistency. The third, I tried too hard and spun the car quite often. I'm running hankooks, which are kinda hard so they don't make a lot of smoke, but they wear very well. All in all, I don't think the day could've gone any better. My car and I are ready for Sunday!

Car Craft magazine's Real Street Eliminator

Car Craft magazine has this shoot out for the street machine of the year, called the "Real Street Eliminator". Usually the cars chosen for this are big dollar builds, often referred to as "Blank Check Cars" by those of us who are REAL hot rodders. Not these fucking mid-life crisis suffering douche bags who have more money than viagra pills. So, I rolled the dice and entered my hooptie. On one hand, I don't exepct to be chosen because my car cost less than the trailers most of the chosen cars will show up in. If chosen I will trailer my car on my POS $500 trailer. It's ugly as fuck, but it tows great.
On the other, It's not YET ANOTHER GODDAMN CAMARO or FUCKING CHEVELLE. Not that I hate on these cars, but you can't swing a dead dog with out hitting one of these played out over priced cars that had enough money dumped into them to buy a nice starter home. The fact that my car's different from the norm may work in my favor.
If I happen to be chosen, being the broke ass I am, I will charge the entire trip to St. Paul Minnesota if I have to. And why not? How many chances do you get to have your "chop" in a national magazine?

So I watched some of the Taledega NASCAR race

Observations from the two NASCAR races over the weekend....
1. Rousch/Fenway got see two of their race cars flushed down the toilet while in the running for the win so close to the end of the race. That's like $500,000 worth of machinery? I'm sure some parts can be salvaged, but it sucks for them none the less.
2. Any time drivers are on camera, they always try to take a pull off of whatever soft drink sponsors them. You know just plugging the bill payers, right? When Jamie Mcmurray(?) was interviewed after his wreck and said "The Crown Royal Ford is probably done for the day." instead of soda, he should've taken a hit off of a bottle of Crown Royal, Right? The car was toast, it's not like he'd tip some back then go back out with a buzz. He was done racing! That'd be cool! As a side note, Jeff Gordon had FIVE Pepsi stickers in view of the "shifter camera"! Was just so if some dumbass missed the first four, he'd see the fifth for sure a go buy some Pepsi? God awful........
3. If there was ever any chance of me renewing my interest in stock car racing, it was killed for good after seeing that "Digger" has an online store full of crap for what has to be the stupidest fucking character ever created!!!!!!! Annoying little fucker......

YES!!! FINALLY!!!!

Today was the day I've been trying to experience for about two months now. I installed the breather system (can be seen in photo) and ran the car over to Meijers to fill up with a tank of fresh E85. It went perfectly. I'm soo happy.......Finally. The new cam sounds awesome and the car pulls HARD! We saw the top of 110 mph on a couple of short 4th gear blasts from 60. I really missed driving my car. Wow, did I ever. And the cooling issue? Fixed. Hell yeah! 160 degrees all the way into town and back. MUUUAAAAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

The other neat thing I noticed is when cruising through town, people, who know the sound of a built engine, look around to see where "that noise" is coming from. Kinda makes you feel like a badass. Especially when they probably think, "That bland 4 door is what sounds so tough?". Oh well, I'm very happy. As the Japanese might say: "Boku wa totemo ureshii desu yo!" Next up is practice at the track Wednesday to get ready for SD14, a week from tomorrow!

I 'm finally getting an ass!

Okay, the title's a bit weird, I know. But, you see, after weeks of working out with weights, I noticed I'm getting some shape to my backside. You may think this sounds a little vain. No, it's really not. In the past there was no change shape from my back to my butt to my legs. Now, I finally have shape to my backside! I HAVE AN ASS!!! Horray for me!

(Big sigh).......Totemo tsumaranai desu yo.

1. Work is REALLY damn boring. I'm almost to the point where I wish I would get laid-off. That's bad!
2. Got the fittings welded on my valve covers today. Cost me $37. Pretty reasonable. I'll get them installed this saturday, along with the hoses. The tank I installed last sunday.
3. Been really getting into "Tayutama - Kiss my deity", a decent show, one I don't feel I'm wasting my time watching. One of the best things about it is the Fox girl deity. Frighteningly adorable character.
4. Bought more lottery tickets. It's up to $130 mill, I think it is. Come on lottery!!!!!

Will the fun ever stop?........part 2.....

Saturday, my friend and I put the new (rebuilt) trans back in my drifter. It only took NINE FUCKIN' HOURS! Installing it back in the car went rather quickly, it was getting the other parts to work that took so damn long! Okay, The trans is back in and I decide to start and run it on the stands, just in case I have another failure like last time. With the shifter in first, I let out the clutch. Except for the crappy pedal (more on this fiasco later...) it goes well. Grab second, looking good. Into third, what's that grinding noise?. Whoops, better hit fourth,.... huh, that worked. Did you see the problem? That's correct! No third. Back under the car to try and figure out the issue. Everything looked just fine. After racking my brain for some time and trying a few things at random that yeilded no results, I came to the conclusion that the side cover was the culprit. Why? I couldn't tell ya'. It was a total shot in the dark. We made the drive back to the house grabbed the old cover and some shift arm seals to rebuild it, and returned, one hour later.... Rebuilt/replaced the cover and jury-rigged up this device for refilling the trans involving a funnel, 5' of 5/8" heater hose and a heater hose connector (there wasn't enough room under the car to easily refill it and the suction pump wasn't cooperating). With every digit crossed, I restarted the car, ran through the gears and Wa-La!, it worked! ???? What the F? Why this solved my issue, I cannot explain.
Next up was the REALLY soft clutch pedal. Anytime the trans is removed, the clutch m/c to throwout line has to be disconnected, requiring it to be bled when re-installed. Apparently, when we bled it after installing the trans, we bled too much out of the reservoir and got air in to the m/c, which is impossible to bleed out the conventional way. You have to pull it from the car and invert it, so the outlet is the high point and bench bleed it, then put it back. On my car because of the alum seats, you have to pull the seat out, climb under the dash and un-hook/re-install the rod from/ to the pedal. A right pain in the ass, I'll tell ya'
After all this crap, we finally got it right. A nice, sweet pedal, but it took over two hours to accomplish.
Lastly I had to pull the valve covers in order to have the bungs welded on for the hoses to connect to the breather tank, that I installed today. Once again, I didn't get to drive my car. Everything seems to be a "go". Next Saturday, I'll reinstall the valve covers and make the hoses. Then I'll run it to Meijers for some E-85. Will this be the majical day I get to drive my car? Or does more disaster await me?...... Stay tuned to find out!!!!!

Kudos to Ford....

I opened my latest issues of both Hot Rod and Maxim magazines and inside both front covers was a two page ad for the 2010 Mustang. The ad contained a bunch of Japanese script as well it was very clear they were pushing their connection with drifting and Vaughn Gittin Jr. I don't know to what extent Ford is involved with Jr's program, but I think this nothing but good for the sport of drifting. It brings brand awareness to Ford by exposing themselves to a younger audience. I'll not sugar-coat it, I'm not a Ford guy, but I give them props for supporting the sport. GM bailed last year despite having quite a few cars in the top 10 in points in Formula D. Will we see Chevy backing a drifter next year, when the long awaited Camaro finally arrives on scene? Personally, I doubt it. When Ford is pushing their hotrod hard, I expect to see Chevy do nothing to broaden their car's appeal, just like they did with the 4th gen Camaros. I don't know about you, but I don't ever recall seeing any kind of ad for the Camaro. They will just fall back on the free media hype they've gotten from it. As well, I'm sure Pontiac won't be back despite having a decent platform in the G8. Oh well, it's their loss.

Blah, blah, and blah

Here's one of my latest additions, Ryomou Shimei of Ikki Tousen fame. If one felt like it she can be posed sans skirt. That's right, in her undies........ I've seen two other versions on ebay. One is the same as you see her here, but with a white dress. The other is black dress with white hair, it looks very cool. How you see her here is the option I choose to display.

On other fronts, the weekend went quite well. Not that it was awesome or anything, but that there were no derailments; all went well. The new T10 trans I picked up for the drifter is on track to be rebuilt this coming week. Now I'm waiting for the parts kit which should be here Mon or Tues. I'm going to add a grease fitting to the tailshaft housing in order to keep the bushing lubed. I've found that this bushing running dry will lead to the bushing seizing on the yoke, spinning the bushing in the housing. The old trans had this happen, but luckily the housing wasn't trashed.

Anyways, I'm working hard at trying to summon some motivation for work next week. It continues to slow down and it's VERY hard to be there when it's that boring. Hell, you can sweep the entire warehouse only so many times in a week!.......

I guess the world didn't end afterall.......

I'm doing quite a bit better since the last post, when I figured it was all over. My mom, god bless her heart, offered to loan me the scratch to buy another T10 that I'd found on craigslist. Interestingly enough, it was advertised by one of our customers at work. It's been sitting for a few years but is in WAY better shape than the unit I just trashed was in when I first got it. It will need a rebuild, but that's to be expected. I got it for $300, then add the $130 for the rebuild kit, brings it to $430. To fix what I broke in the first trans, it'd cost almost $400 alone. Not a bad deal at all. I will watch ebay and craigslist for good used parts to get the broken unit back together as a back-up. Goddamn, it's sure nice to know I'm going to make the first event of the year! THANKS, MOM!!! YOU'RE THE BEST!!!! (I don't think she reads this, but I'll throw her props anyways....)

Doshite...............

In the past 24 hours, since yesterdays potential derailing of my hopes and ambitions, I've noticed a marked change in myself. I've realized there is no point in wanting, desiring, or hoping for anything. It just brings me pain and disappointment. Whether or not this is a permanent change, only time will tell. Drifting is THE first thing I've ever felt like is was good at. I could actually see myself becoming great at it. I was VERY happy with how quickly I progressed last year and decided I wanted to make a run at obtaining a competitors license from Formula D. A long shot I know, but I really feel I can do it. This is such a big deal because never before in my life have I ever felt this way about anything. I'm having a hard time dealing with the weekends disappointment. This disaster set me back bad. Last year got out of the gate a bit rough recovered well enough, then ended poorly. This year the car is dead in the water, two events are off the schedule and the season hasn't even started! The only thing that will save the start of the season is winning some sort of lottery. Which means I'm screwed. These two events were D1 Underground events, a very big deal for someone looking to go pro at some point.
I suppose at the core of all this is that I'm not even that upset about this latest turn of events. I'm so used to failure that it's almost like just another day for me.

Why do I even bother?......

Today, I tore down the trans. Damn, it was not good. My brand new 1st gear some how welded itsellf to the 1st gear sleeve, which accounted for the being locked in gear situation. So, the casualties from saturdays 1/2 mi. ride: 1st gear, 1st gear sleve, rear bearing, mainshaft(this i'm not sure about, I'll have to get all the trashed stuff pressed off somehow to see if it survived), and frt bearing retainer. I found one on craigslist for $350, which isn't bad, but I'd want to rebuild it(another $112). The problem being I don't have that much scratch kicking around after just sinking $350 into it already..... I fear that at this point the first two events are of the schedule. This really bums me out. Why does this crap allways happen when I'm least able to sucessfully handle the issue....

Will the fun ever stop?........

My friend and I got the trans back in my car today. For the most part it went quite well. Well, that is until it was time for the test drive. We got about 1/2 mi. down the road when suddenly this rapidly escalating squeal started, then was followed by a couple of bangs and the car was locked in a gear. The shifter, how ever, was in neutral! I limped back to the barn and pulled the sidecover, but could see no issues. So, We pulled the trans BACK out.
Here we are. Roughly two months since, and I'm still trying to get my car on the road. I've become so used to failure that I'm not really pissed about it. I geuss this is what I expect to happen. At the rate I'm burning through cash on this car, I'm rapidly approaching the point where I'm going to have to start cutting dates from the schedule. The first "Drift Indy" date already having fallen victim to this. I just want to drive my damn car. Is that asking for too much?!

Awwww crap......

I just found out I'm broke. Until next friday anyways. Dammit. This is not good. Looks like I'll be existing on credit cards for the next week +. I'm never going to get out of debt am I? I need a haircut, I'm almost out of contacts, etc, etc....It never fucking ends, does it? please, by all means ignore me. I'm just "crying in my beer".
At least I'm on track to get my trans back together for the Mali to re-install this saturday. I'm thinking I'm going to bring along my camera and mount to do a little filming of my trying out the handbrake. We'll have to see. Well, I'm tired, depressed, and my eyes are sore. So, please fuck off, I'm gonna watch some anime now.........