SYTFU-blogz

gangsta grillz.

2012-02-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

Grr.

that is an authentic V mount with perfect execution. look at that intercooler core, touches the top of the rad, like a boss.

Its all about the detail.

2012-01-20T14:50:00.000-08:00

It's form and function. my key features are retained, and placed for proper weight balance. Thats Hotline...

small sneak peaks, but the whole car will come in 1 whop. stay tuned.

twas a good year.

2012-01-19T00:58:00.001-08:00

stay tuned :)

Rehab.

2011-12-19T00:17:00.000-08:00

30 days and she will be a new spirit.

Rebuild and molding.

primed and ready for paint.

the rest is just bolting on aero, and that... ladies and gentlemen... we will have to wait and see during round 1.

BUT, trust me... this year it's going to be alot of cool things going on, so you guys mind that i am going to skip out on showing you the booring build photos.

to be continued:

Tokyo.

2011-12-17T19:43:00.001-08:00

pharell gives a look into the 3/11 incident, shows some pretty cool spots in the land. one day i will get the chance to go experience this country first hand, until then.. this is really a cool look into the environment.

all of us think we have it so bad here at home... but it's everywhere, the world is so different. most of us walk with our heads down, but theres so much change in the world today. theres alot to realize thats going on. this will give you a bit of insight on the events in the east.

Dinosaur!!

2011-12-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

So I was going thru a few things and came across a very ancient form of entertainment... a VHS tape. Once I took a closer look at it, I cracked up laughing.

I bought this when I was 18... I still dont have the courage to crack open this damn rotary motor.

Just like the good ole' days.

2011-12-11T08:57:00.001-08:00

Yesterday i helped my good friend step into the realm of fitment... I sold him some of my spares from last season with the same tire setup i run. on a s2k, that's pretty tough to fit from what I hear... so we dove right in. This is so remnant of our first years tuning, we all used to be at his house outside working on our cars, so this scene was so nostalgic to me, it made me feel like I was 17 again.

Here is how he had it set before on AP2 17's.

Its pretty much on the floor. everyone that knows how low my jack is can imagine how low his car is, hence the wood boards under the wheels.

A quick switcharoo and voila... look at him in the background "ooh, he-so-happy"

He was pleased, can't you tell?

But, we had allot of work to do still... This s2k is now sitting on 235/45/17 fronts and 245/40/18 rears. 17x9 +37F 18x9.5 +37R.

The car was obviously not going to be able to roll on this setup, I couldn't get a hold of anyone with a fender roller and he had to get to work in the morning, but stock wheels weren't an option lol.

We worked well into the night, setting correcting, changing on the suspension.

Of course the rear had to go up anyway, he was tucking tires on 17x7's and now were on 18's out back. So we set it just above the tire, and I stiffened up the coilovers..

He took it around the block quite a few times, and man his block is bad. potholes, construction, speed bumps, etc... and he did a few heavy throttle pulls, this was still the clearance when he got back. so we know the rear will be good for a day or so. But the fronts were a different story... only slightly.

We just raised it off the tires a bit, so he could get in driveways fine. when I have some more spare time, I am going to roll his fenders and set the car back down to a slammed height. ...but for now, she does still look good monster trucking.

Oh yea, for those of you that remember me attempting to slide this car but failing horribly... I found out why. He had preloaded the springs tremendously, and unevenly on all 4 corners.... and the shocks were set on soft. Well, its corrected now... but sonoma drift is over with. :( Oh well, we got a ncrc track day coming up, he says he wants to road race and I am going to set his suspension up as much as I can and we will test it out on the track in a few weeks... wish us luck.

Fully Loaded

2011-11-18T07:54:00.000-08:00

Dropped by AIT and snatched up a bit of aero. 3 full kits now, all getting painted @ Hotline With the car, just incase i get too agressive.... a quick trip to the pits will return my luster.

THE Hotline.

2011-11-17T21:57:00.000-08:00

so after another one of my famous 32hour missions, i have gone down dropped my car off, hung with the crew planned out the 2012 modifications, and also made a few sponsor stops. on my way driving down i saw this video on Facebook, BUT... i couldnt watch it on my phone, so i just had to peep it at the shop. This is some ILL shit!

HotLine - Justin Pawlak from Loren Haleston on Vimeo.

Be sure to remember to "LIKE" my driver page " http://www.facebook.com/Lexisking?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Lexis-King-Performance/209043079149412 "

all the new updates will be posted there.

The home of the sideshow.

2011-10-13T11:33:00.001-07:00

ok, so here was a idea i brought up to facility director at infineon raceway... earlier in the year i saw teh europeans set the world record for donuts... and i thought, WTF. the bayarea is the home of the sideshow, we can shut this shit down. so yesterday, we had a preliminary warmup. it was all inclusive..

now i take notice that some cars were laying down some one tire fires... but that isnt going to cut it for the record.. we will lay some qualifying qualities we are looking for, and then we are going to have a go at it...

Watch us work.

oh, and it made it on the news somehow lastnight. lol SEEE told yall you couldnt stop the sideshows!!!

Car got ported into forza

2011-10-04T13:19:00.001-07:00

Props!!!

final fight, last chance to make a statement.

2011-09-19T08:25:00.000-07:00

this has been one hell of a year, and the final round of our Pro-am series was upon us. being set on a odd day, the vibe was literally odd but not in a bad way.... the entarouge was light today, but that wassnt necessarily a bad thing. spirits were light, we were laughin and talking about all kinda other non vehicular related issues, and before you knew it we were at the track.... and early too.

I had a few minor things to do to my car for it to run properly, but since we were early... it was no sweat. Also, something new i was implimenting in our program today was a check list. everyone who knows me knows i get scatter brained, and end up forgetting alot, and just totally ignoring a few things that i shouldnt when it comes down to competition. so in my more calm thinking times i developed a check list of the important things to focus on tho be consistent thruout the day.

this checklist consisted of task/duties that were important for practice, qualify, then finally battle, if we made it that far.... this had given everyone something to do, and honestly, today my team proved vital to my success... soon as we got the car off the trailer we were at it. changing fuel filters, changing wheels and tires, setting all the air pressures, shit even cleaning the car.

since today was the final round, and i wasnt in any position to go in the points chase, i was just carefree and chillin... after tha last round i felt i got out strategized by another driver, i also felt i have been letting my whole team down and decided to do something about it. typically our drives home consist of alot of wtf's.... simply because my whole crew and family KNOW my performance capabilities, but for what ever reason i never put it together as i do in other venues. i realized the reason why.... everywhere else i am having fun, so why not here? my simple idea was to just not give a shit... not care about what whoever thought about whatever, not to care about the guy i was lining up against, not to give a shit about a image, not to even care to much about filming or taking pictures. today i just didnt care. it was all about wilding out, and having fun... so thats what we did.

joe and I along with my cousin who was my active crew manager today rolled into the drivers meeting. we're in there cracking jokes, playing top gun soundboards, and generally being loney. LifeBlaster photographer, and lab17 owner Andrew Bohan (whose photos i am going to use since i didnt take any from this day) caught a glimpse of us acting stupid... this was in the middle of a Andrew WK impersination.

(reference)

the crew and i have been going at this joke since summer jam... it was pretty funny that bohan cought that.

after we all understood what the judges would be looking for, we took off to go have some fun! we get back to the pit and the car is done coming off the jacks its set and ready to go.

we did quite a bit of prep, so i was just able to focus on driving. joe and i go out and play with tandems all morning as usual. initially where they set the starting cone was PERFECT!!! it was drag launch full throttle up to 3rd where i went for initiation. i literally did no lift shifts to a 3rd gear clutch kick... hella speed, and got very comfortable with how i was initiating. for some reason, the people that mattered decided to move the starting line back about 150 feet. i dont really know the reason, but i immediately knew it was going to be weird now, because i was so used to full throttle entries. ofcourse my first run would warrant an off track experience, lol. i just had FAR too much speed, but understanding why they did this about 3 runs in, it allows you to have more speed to get to that rear clipping zone, but for me the problem was that the rear of my car is slightly heavier than the front of my car, and for soooo long J P. was telling me this was a problem, i never really thought about it till now. the only issue i was having with this course was that i toss the car pretty hard, and that little bit of extra weight in the back would rotate the car too fast and i would either compensate to correct it and come up hella short and go over the inner clip, or i would let it sail out, and back off track, so i had to figure it out.

after i got it, joe and i had some pretty cool runs.

i have this weird problem with wanting to only hear full throttle initiations, i figured out how i could pacify myself on this issue, plus give myself the perfect entry speed.... other wise if i REALLY went full throttle from the new start point, i would just sail off the track like many of the other competitors. my solution was to launch with some wheel spin, then short shift to second prematurely, then shift around 6k to 3rd... this would give the sound that made me comfortable with my approach, later on, it would also give my competitors the idea they were faster than me lol, but i have nothing to prove on acceleration at this point.

i went on a few solo runs so i could dial in a comfortable line and just get solid on what i needed to do for qualify.

i come in to check tire pressures and change to my heavily modified hood so i can let out some of those engine temperatures lol. the engine was staying around 189 degrees, 205 tops... the radiator was 165 degrees, but damn.. the turbo was 670 - 740 degrees. no arguement there, not even from my cousin.. hood went on. engine temps dropped considerably, from 110/120 celcius to 90/100 celcius during hard pulls.

my passenger rear tire was set to 36psi where my driver side was set to 40psi, but after coming in from a few runs air pressure rises 9psi on the passenger side, and 3psi on my side. we stayed diligent on this, because i wanted to have a standard of grip so my body and mind could get solid runs in a controlled environment.

i got some chill time in while they cleared the track of all the run off dirt, and by this time the handy man julio showed up with everything i didnt think of. including this AWESOME contraption.

once qualifying started, i didnt do to well in qualifying simply because i didnt try to do a major fantastic entry and what not. i just wanted some points, and used this as a high stress practice run. but atleast i did exactly the same as i had been doing all day, lol... finally some consistency. my qualifying position will place me in the top 16 battle vs. gabe stone, this person was currently in 2nd place in the championship. this required a little bit of strategy, nothing major, but just some consideration. first run he leads and went off line.. i was trying to follow close, so when he went off line i thought he was going way off track, so i just hugged the inside and aimed passed him... it looked like he was coming back on track and i just figured F'it if he hits me he hits me.. but i floored it, and kinda B'lined thru the clip, and slightly over rotated to a stop. might not have been so close outside the car, but it looked kinda scary in the driver seat. my lead run, my cousin comes over the radio... "if you fuck up, you're just eleminating yourself, because he already fucked up" so i knew to just run my pace and get thru the course. i went a little fast and dipped my rear wheel in a bad spot on the dirt that transitioned to a lip back on pavement... BANG. definitely thought i broke my wheel, the car was jumping and wobbling around like crazy. so i blast to the pits, i hear "OMT" on the radio, but i thought i needed to change the wheel, when i got to the pits i saw it was just an entire sand box in my rim... so i drove back out shaking off the dirt, were back in action. the omt went without a hitch. dude went off the track again, and my lead i just went solid... he tried to pressure me, but i just ran my own line and didnt worry bout it.

next run was going to be a interesting one... i never watched this driver, so i dunno what his attributes were, or were not. i just knew he had more power to weight than i had... his lead run i stuck to his bumper up to initiation. i stuck on the transition where i knew i could swing the last clip wide, and boy oh boy am i glad i did that.

look at my positioning, and look at his... he is super deep in the transition zone....
as i am transitioning wide... he starts straight lining.

he soon followed this up with a nice healthy spin out... and since i gave him spacing on the 2nd clip i had enough to modify and sail wide on him and drift around his mistake. we pull to the line for my lead run, my cousin says on the radio... "you have advantage, you know what to do..." i ran a calm lead run, and made a safe pass close to my qualifying line... my car was kindof feeling the stress from all this grip i had and i just took it a bit easy, but his fate was sealed with his own mistake.

next battle was with one of the homies... the tallest dude to do it, julian jacobs. julian and i RARELY go on a few runs together, but when we do it's usually some rad stuff. this one tho', this was the first time i lined up along side julian in a competition sense... kind of intimidating, but exciting at the same time. my car is getting rougher to get into gear, but julian said he was also having some issues with the car, so it was just what ever. were off.

solid run on the first one. i did my best to stick to julians line and keep as close as i was comfortable doing. he said he was down on power, so i didnt want to be too close and foul up my run. somehow, close to the end of the run....

damn! i havent seen ju spin in quite a while.

i just figured julian was gonna be on my fender the whole run for my lead, so i wanted to make a good highlight reel if we were being filmed, so i initiated deep.

after initiation i dropped down to 2nd gear and the tranmission was hopping around the entire run, after the tansition i extended, then dumped a clutchkick... something happened. my shift knob flew to the roof of the car, and i popped outta gear. this aint the dude you want to do that with because he will give you a fresh coat of paint, and a good dent... so i frantically tried to get back to second gear, but it just wassnt happening, so i went to first and peg'd it. i kept drifting, but lost sooo much speed it messed julian up a bit, AND he grazed the back of my car. fuck! i messed up a good run, well not me exactly, but you get it... OMT.

i really focused up for the second set, i dont even totally remember what happened, i just knew i couldnt make a mistake because the car was in such bad shape, AND i couldnt afford to make a mistake, or go another round. nothing spectacular happend, just good clean drifting... and i moved on.

my car had been running or idling the entire time.. and we had a lengtly pause waiting on adam swan to get back to the line and handle his battle. my teammate joe was sitting in the car with me, he ask if everything was cool... i told him, it runs fine, but something was telling me if it stopped it wouldnt start... well that hunch was correct. i was low on gas, and i had no more 2 stroke so i couldnt get fuel even if i wanted to. so i shut the car down to save fuel. adam comes up finally, makes his run, and i think fry's 510 had a hardship, so that left adam and i for the 1/2 battle.... i go to start the car, and uh... no bueno. no time to diagnose what the issue was, so joe hopped out and pushed me down the hill, bump start, and we line up.

car popped out of gear again, so i told the flagger to hold on... but it popped in just as easy as it popped out, so i figured fuck it.. lets go. i launch on the lead run, the car was sputtering and breaking up slightly... but i stay floored.

i ran a shallow line off of the second clip due to my newfound lack of power... but it still worked out, but my dumb ass went to continue dori down the straight, the sputtering kept happening and it made me spin, lol. wtf... i'm a ass for that one, because the judges clearly said, "if you continue to drift past the end, if you spin... you get a 0" guess i should have had some damn discipline.... :( arghh... growing pain.

my follow went fine beside the same ass sputtering...

altho i stayed close, it was over.. my lead run did me in, lol.

adam and i have lot of fun driving together at sonoma drift, so we went back infront of the judges stand to do a few celebratory donuts, lol... my car was HELLLLA sputtering by now, i just couldnt figure it out but that didnt keep me from punishing it for a few more rotations.

we pull up to the podium....

we get our trophy's, but julian not only gets his trophy, he gets his FD credentials!!!

now, this comp took really long, due to all the OMT's, and i had no time left to get to my son's first parent teacher night... now the reason i mention this is because... the ceremony always ends up with a nos shower, lol... how could i live with myself walking into a parent teacher night sopping wet in energy drink, so i playfully asked adam not to dowse me in the crap, but once we got up there.. we were all grinning and knew what was going to happen.

look at adam making sure he got me soaked, lol. hey, we only live once, and i could die tomorrow and would not have lived that experience ever again... might as well revel in it while i can. i never would have realized you could get so soaked with those little ass bottles.

needless to say, i missed my sons parent teacher night, but i did video chat with him on my way home and let him know how proud of him i was for being head of his class, and he also let me know i was the coolest for doing good drifting... so as a reward, he now owns my trophy.

just so you get a idea of the crap my car went thru, in my DgAF day... check it out.

OH... and yea, i figured out what the sputtering was...

this explained the weird power cutting that was happening. this shit was arcing on the bottom of the car, no wonder my tach was jumping around and i kept hearing some dragging when i got on the brakes.

now its the off season. i have a solid plan, subtle, but solid... and this should make the car very good looking, AND user friendly. i'm trying to come back with boost, and more ballz in this car.

thankyou to my sponsors, and supporters.

Thanx to:
Hotline Performance
5Zigen
Fatlace
AIT Racing
Performance Options

all my friends and family that rolled with my in my first year in competition drifting... thru the course of the year i dragged yall to 17+ events all over california. guess what tho'.... it aint over!!! we've got a few months to recoupe relax and get ready to hit em harder next year, god willing.

GET READY FOR NEXT YEAR... cause i will be different, and so will the competition i am bringing.

Sonoma Drift is breeding savages.

2011-09-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

Untitled from daren crockett on Vimeo.

better late than never.....

2011-08-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

Alright guys... i've been hella busy, but i gotta get back to everyone and say i definitely appriciate ALL The Love i have been receiving lately. it makes everything a bit easier and lifts spirits when we are dragging ass from comp to comp, and demo to demo.

but lets talk about SONOMA DRIFT..... since we started this project in may, we had no idea we would shake up the northern cali drift scene like this. shit, before we even started sideways wednesday events, or even got a chance to talk about it as if it was happening, we didnt even have any expectations for northern california drifting to get any better.

Fast Forward 3 months and BANG!!! the largest drift event in Norcal since back in the hay days of when drifting first took off. being part of this whole Infineon movement i really want to thank all of our sideways wednesday participants, you guys made this event what it was.... i remember the very first events we did, everyone was spinning out, and we had to clean up cones alll damn day long, we would give some of the guys pointer and they were eager to learn, and from that... you guys ended up learning to drive well enough to kill a technical portion of one of the best racetracks in america. i dunno if you guys realized that, because honestly i could just see you guys having a blast not even tripping off of what was going on, it was just about drifting..... as it should be.... but just to let you guys know, the driving that happened was RAD!!! thankyou, that makes all these Voulunteer hours worth it. from getting in trouble at work (for taking too many days off to run these events) to getting yelled at by our women, and paying madd toll and gas to drive there every week... thankyou , when i saw 7 or more of the homies qualify for the top 20 out of 39 drivers that were there, you guys made me proud.

aiight, so past all that... lets get to it.

i had a dope ass plan, but it all seemed to fall apart the week before summer jam. so i wont let yall in on that, because it will happen, just didnt for this event.... anywho, the morning started... and i was dragging ass. dissapointed again, because i missed work, lol... i woke up late... dragging ass, and unenthusiastic. but rob showed up on time, then joe and jess rolled up with lorenze from carsXhype.com rolled up. i pull the car out the driveway, load up the truck, and we mash out to go meet up with Sam attal from Motormavens. while waiting on same i took a quick flick.

we did get quite a few odd looks while we were diving down to the track... i dont know why, i dont see anything odd here, lol.

it's really a grey ass foggy morning, and if i didnt know what lyed ahead, this weather probably would have kept me in a bad ass mood all morning.

and let me be honest... this is the first time i have seen it sunny in richmond, then foggy everywhere else.... it's usually the other way around.

but either way, we get to the track... i pull in behind matt madrigali and his trailer... he gave a few fistpumps when he noticed us driving our comp cars in the track. we headed up to the top of the hill to use the facility perks to wash the car and just have some calm quiet time before the hecktic day starts.

rob and i roll down the hill... get to the pits and peep joe, jess and lorenze already set pit up, so we just park and get to work.

have a slight talk about a few things, and then we go hit the track. here at SD it's all about track time.. the more were driving, the more excited teh crowd will get, the happier the staff is... and let me say, the crowd was starting to show up hella Early. that was cool.

after getting in a few runs, joe and i continued on our tandem familiarizations. this being joes first time on the track, he did alot of following, opposed to @ t-hill where he did all the leading. this helped me get back in the flow, because the entry speeds for me were averaging around 73-76mph. let me tell yall tho.... i was getting NUTS out there. constant dirt drops, like completely nutty... lol. i was having soo much fun, blasting dirt drops on both sides of the track on my transitions, i even had one hell of an off track eating hella cones, lol.

we assembled for team tandem meeting... and seeing as tho, joe and i haddnt really thought about that since our initial plan fell through, we just added matt madrigali and yee xiong. struggling to come up with a name, the tech guy came up with reverse oreo... lol, wtf? it coulda been a normal oreo, since i got the white car, and both of the other cars were black, or a very dark hue... but it was all good... plus we added yee so, w/e.

practice went ok... due to us all being a different speed level. but we had a good lead with matt, and tail of joe. yee and i circulated between number 2 and 3 position. so we really kept with our dark outters and white innards of an oreo, lol.

we finally found a formula we were good with and we begun battle.. out of the 6 teams that entered... reverse oreo finished 2nd, only to the norcal powerhouse of julian and the supporting cast. these dudes can really drive, and let me tell you... it's not a bad thing to be second to them, and we only assembled that day.

after all that, the crew and i took the time to go up to the stands and hang with the drift fans and play around on the nos stage with the talented Shane payton the MC of sonoma drift. the fans have a really good view of the entire run.

i didnt participate in the final open run... car issues were taking place really tough, so we just chilled, washed cars, and kicked it in town. we get back to the track around night time, all the lights are out, and spotlights were going up in the camping area. now imagine this... no one was here but drifters... lol, even the track was open. we had a ton of fun, and didnt really get terribly out of hand. everyone really respected the area, but we did partake in sliding down hills on blocks of ice, on fold up chairs, coolers, all kinda shit. i whopped heads in GT5, while others got drunk, i streamed live some of the antics, but you had to be there to really understand what was going on.

morning comes, and we wake up to the carshow participants assembling right below our camping area. everyone starts to drag ass out of the tents and heading down towards the pit. we left everything where it was, and didnt have to set up a thing. i took my hood off to help with some of the cooling issues i was having, and let me tell you... it worked Perfectly. i stayed on the track for damn near 11 laps straight. got in some good runs, figured out the line i wanted to run during comp. at this time we assembled for comp drivers meeting, and i made sure all my fluids were cool, and took off.

my first run was cool, but my second run sucked. my throttle was sticking pretty good, and was keeping me WOT at times. i had to keep blipping it from time to time, but that ended up throwing me off a bit on my second run, but What ever...

after qualifying, we meet again. deliberate... and turns out my first run was good enough for 3rd qualifing position. woulda been cool to get #1 qualifier, but hey, i was having fun, it aint for points, just for money, lol.

we lined up infront of the crowd for driver introduction, and this was pretty cool. my first drivers introduction, and i atleast did an ok job at qualifying to get a good announcement.

comp was cool... didnt do well, but nothing happened to the car and i was still happy. julian ended up wraping the weekend up with another win, and atleast this one was for some bread... 1k to the pockets of the tall dude... and really hope this means we will see his own personal car come back soon. his car is usually hella swag, so i cant wait to see it again.

we got all our crap together to roll out and head home... and that was actually pretty cool, because i beat the living shit out of my car this week, and i am getting ready to drive it home in traffic, lol.

we were leaving out the front entrance to a sea of cars on the 37... i tried to let this one dude infront of me, but he was so kinda and insisted on me going ahead... bad move on his part... 100 octane and 2 stroke spitting back out of my exhaust didnt make for a plesant trip for him. he tried to sit staggered of my exhaust for relief, lol... but 4 inches of dump made sure he didnt find any. lol, shit was actually kinda funny... cause when traffic broke, and the road went to 2 lanes he wassnt as plesant as he was when he let me in front of him.

my cousin and i took the opporitunity to have a nice spirited sprint down the roadway. pretty fast pulls happened, lol His Mr2 is pretty quick.

getting closer to home, and finally out of all the traffic on the 80... i'm just enjoying the drive home.

the view is beatiful. but the car is acting up a bit at low RPm's. lol, so i was just hoping getting home was in the cards.

next day i attack the issues with the car... sticky throttle.... oil and dirt gunking up my throttle assembly... fixed. oil shooting out my filter in to my engine bay everywhere... over filled fluids.... fixed. sputtering on boost....

fixed i think.... lol.

engine bay as a whole looks a lot better... but i want it spic and span...

but anyway... here is a little bit of footy complied together of the events this week of august.

enjoi, and stay tuned.

Double Days.

2011-08-12T09:20:00.000-07:00

the crew and i had a brilliant idea, since Thunder Drift was on the same day as Sonoma drift.... we just decided to lay our burden down on both tracks the same day. we coordinated the plans with my new wingman Joe Mcguigan, he was all for it! with the days plans being extremely long, we all packed heavy... we also took this day to basicly introduce our new collaboration efforts with Fatlace and Joe and I as the start of a Fatlace tandem team.

4am rolls around i load up and drag my family out of bed then stuff em in the truck. ray shows up, then joe rolls in shortly after. off we go.

short stop for gas, and i am simply bugging out that Joe has been driving this car on the street like this!

everyone is still trying to wake up, but it's kinda hard. joe lets is lady jess drive while he takes a look at the back of his eye lids. i press on.

We arrive at the track, then begin the setup. our goal for the day was to represent as much as possible.

aside from setting up totally, then being asked to move our pit over to the first awning AFTER we already set everything up... well, setup went without a hitch.

new pit spot.

drivers meeting took place basic stuff nowadays, something kept joes attention tho.

then we took to the track. i want to work on my chasing skills, so i tailed joe all morning. here we are heading out on the track for one of our MANY runs this afternoon.

as the go pro's show, we tried to get as much footage as we could, seeing as this is our first time driving together, so it's kindof like a documentation thing that we can look back on in the next coming months and know where we came from.

a few sessions of tandem both lead and follow runs, i kinda had it figured on what i had to do... ofcourse i had some typical problems... as i always do, but it just gets booring to talk about em since its always the same issue, boost controller woes, little messy leaks, and something really new... tires that looked good when i mounted them, all the sudden had imperfections and bubbles etc. but whatever... boost controller goes off... check, keep checking the dipstick to make sure oil leveles are good... check, fucked up tires mounted on the car.... check. time for qualification.

heres a couple of flicks from teh first qual run... not making any smoke, but once again.. now powah to play with.

since i was way down on power... using stock boost levels. i had far too wide of a tire to try to clutch kick it at this entry, so i did something foreign to my tactics... handbrake entry's. anyone that knows me and watches my drifting, i rarely use handbrake, and damn sho' dont use it on entry's. BUT... i had no choice today. it really wassnt too bad honestly, except for when i didnt chuck the car in hard enough at entry... this happened on one of my qualifying runs, and i ended up dipping one of my wheels over the apron. i did quite a few killer apron rides today, but this one sucked... i pushed in really fast, and dipped a tire. this set me off of my second clip, but i regatherd it and made the hill and last clip. heres a clip of that happening.. Much respect to the judges by understanding what went on in this run, and not totally beating me over the head cause i dipped a tire. oh, and notice.. joe and i were basically back to back all day, as he is right behind me in points, so he has a qualifying run infront of me.

after qualifying run, i rush back to the pit... i heard a rubbing at the rear and instantly knew what it was. that damn tittay my tire developed was rubbing my overfenders. so i rushed to switch wheels to the opposite sides, since we were only loaded up on the right side for a short time.

jaylen was attempting to coach me in my setup, but i really couldnt focus on that at the moment... but the pic my wife captured shows his helpful imputs.

while doing this, i missed the announcement of the qualifying positions. from the points i got for qualifying, i assume it was 9th or so. either way, it placed me agains a fellow rotard, but this would be weird.. never drove against anyone this slow. but i figured i would give him room and just bomb up to his door or something.. the flagger tells me he wants to see me right behind him or they are going to restart the run.. he doesnt want to see too big of a gap. O_o?? huh? you know the power differences and the chassis differences, how the heck am i supposed to do this? oh well, lets just go, i will figure it out.

Run 1. we take off... Aaron is going slow as shit... i mean seriously. school zone speeds. if anyone reading this knows thunder hill, we stage between turn 1 and 2... and then proceed to the entry on 3. i didnt touch 3rd gear until the middle of the straight right before entry. he definitely stratigized suppressing my attributes. i dont know what his entry speeds were during qualifying, but i know for DAMN sure they werent this slow. if i was properly thinking. i would have just stopped and made them reset that crap, because this was completely insane. but my dumb gung-ho self thrusted right up on the initiation, but it just was not fast enough for me to initiate, and i did it anyway. my shitty front tires helped me understeer then correct, and nothing else to say from that point, because it was conklins advantage.
the judges clearly are heard over the commentary on the loudspeakers... "tell them to go faster next time, what was that about??" exactly my thoughts, what the heck was that? i own a NA rx7, and i could have atleast entered that corner @50 on a bad day, and i always compliment this guy on how quickly he moves this NA rx7 around all the sonoma drift events, and i KNOW he is on a 50 shot of NX nitrous, so there was no reason for that, but it was just obvious that he had a strategy. what he did isnt illegal, it was just really annoying, and caught me completely off guard.

Run 2. hella mad at what just happened, i'm in beast mode. i didnt even want to give this dude the pace, but i'm not into breaking rules, so i stayed in second gear till the end of turn 2, then started my approach and completely floored it! clip 1.. noice..

then as soon as i hit the first transition, trying to flick it as hard as possible, because i am working for a OMT,i knew i had to give it all i got to get another shot at this... my tire feels like it blows on the rear right... i tried to hold it together and not spin but i go fawking WIDE!!! it's over, but i didnt give up.. i tried to gather the car and stayed planted, and just went for it... i'm thinking, im going to spin cause this tire might come off the rim, i am still loaded all the way sideways on it.. but that didnt happen, it just tossed me straight and then a violent swapping transition up the hill... i almost lost it, but quick handbrake action, some progressive steering, and i held onto it, made the crest, then exploded down the hill... i look up in the mirror and see hella smoke, but something in me just knew it didnt work like i wanted to. in hopes that i might have gotten a omt, i tell ray i need 5 minutes to change wheels... but the inevitable was obviously when i pulled up to Lee-ho. "lex, sorry, you got eleminated..." man, such heart break. i totally hide my anger with a smile, "i brought this on my self", i think. i have this rediculously setup car, and i'm running on used tires..... GRRRRRR. but then i also had no counter strategy against that ultra slow tactic that he used on me.... double fuckin' GgggGRRRRRRRRrrrrrr!!!!!! HELLA MAD. then when i see the footage and this dude stunted on me as if he won a championship throwing his hand up, definitely was the extra burn. i swith up my wheels and see what happened.. so my fender rubbed a hole in the sidewall and what i was feeling was the pressure drop, then at the top of the hill it finally popped.

well that explained the feeling, but it doesnt ease MY feeling of Rage.

peep the full run from the judges booth.

man, i am just so tired of feeling as if i am embarrassing myself.. i know my skill level, and so do my friends family and crew, but what the hell is going on when it matters? i definitely have to figure this crap out... i can be cold as ice during demo's and just having fun, why in the hell am i soo unsure when it comes to this damn competition thing? even on the shitty tires,

the leaky overflows that shoots oil all over my underhood, making throttle cables stickin,

the impropperly operating boost controller, i can still put together a dope run, but what makes it all fall apart during comp??? ME. this is changing NAO, i am completely sick of this shit!

my boy julian ended up completely raping the competition, and gaining his first podium in the pro-am series. congrats to him...

but wait...

the day aint over with. -_-* time to load up, and head over to our home course, Infineon Raceway @ sonoma drft. it was such a damn long ride home to the bay... i kept thinking... what could i have did differently, why didnt i just change back to my practice wheels and tires? why didnt i just excercise my right to stop and make them reset the run, why do i blank out when i catch a hurdle? bahhh.... whatever, cant revel in the past... and oh, what is this??

glad to see Infineon is finally representing us to the masses, cause god know's were working hard for this to be succsessful.

joe and i get parked, and unloaded, and since were late... we begin to fly our flags instantly, soon as we got there.

like i said.. we're representing TUFF from here on out.

after hearing the daily SD news.. joe and i just pick back up where we left off... TANDEMS!!! first run in went out and initiated a failed attempt at a 360, lol, but since it's SD it's our playground, and i still completely linked the entire course, altho i didnt carry as much speed out of it as i thought i could have. but it's always so fun here, and so relaxing.

had a run and adrian caught a few nice flicks of my entry, and exit.

....and then the exit is far more impressive... i actually got the tires hot, and exit with smoke.

we continue running a few tandems, here is one of my lead runs... i got a little under half tank, and with the side force this slide was creating, it sloshed out.. almost had a situation, but joe instantly got comfortable driving with me from this morning, and he's a racer just like me outside of drifting, so he handled it well.

run after run we are getting more comfortable with eachothers styles.. so i am starting to initiate out farther, and gradually gather up the distance thru the runs. here we are coming back to the hot pits.

we're definitely holding it down, and like i said.. our overall goal is to become a good team tandem unit. a few flicks are snapped while i was doing something and joe was getting some solo runs in.

some other drivers wanted to join in... "no Problem" i figure, until it all went bad for the first two cars on initiation. joe avoided impact, but i initiated farther back and before everyone else did, so needless to say, i had less options...

straight graized the back of joes car with my front bumper.. i got the majority of the blemish, but nothing i wassnt prepared for...

quick strips of white masking tape, and we were good as new, D1 style. being completely exhausted, i just figure to heck with it... it's almost 9:30 and i've been sliding since 9am... so, needless to say... my car held up to one hell of a filled day, and i am going to get some sleep today, because SUMMER JAM IS TOMORROW!!!! 48 hours of drifting starts @ 10am saturday!!! MORE TEAM TANDEMS, more mayhem! more of more!!!

Stay tuned.

....and now...

2011-08-11T00:21:00.000-07:00

Really dope stuff...

2011-08-02T22:08:00.000-07:00

i got up fairly early today. had a meeting to attend to.

Drove to the city.

saw something cool following me.

he reved on me a couple times before he decided to totally pull away.

can't help to admire a dope city like this.... it's a shame i dont come hang out here and i live so close.

after admiring my surroundings i arrived at my appointment...

we shook hands... all was well.. and i went home, sat back and smiled.

:)

more to come.

Realization.

2011-07-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

ok, so... we've made a year. we've officially made a year straight, consecutive drifting. this is my first complete full year of driver seat. i really couldnt believe it when i was at asb. but when i have driven at the last few wednesday night events it really dawned on me.... i am out there drifting hard, certain things feel like second nature now and there used to be a time when the things i am doing now were challenging, but somehow... without noticing it, it's now in the play book.

now, by far... i still have a ways to go, and there are things i still need to learn. since i have an outlet now, it is actually giving me time to get these things in order. i kind of wish i had a year like this before i went into pro am, so i could have developed a skill... but at the time, pro-am was the only time i was able to drive, so it was kindof like learning while working... but hitting mid season, and actually realizing i could be a strong competitor now... i have the confidence to end this season off with a bang. i DEFINITELY would like to make a mark, and i definitely would like to be the guy everyone looks out for in the next season. altho' i have done it for fun up till now, i think i now have the backing, and the drive to go one step further... who knows, maybe XDC next year??? we will definitely see.... but for now. stay tuned to the rest of the season... it's time to EXCITE!!!

Sonoma Drift Sideways Wednesdayz.

2011-07-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

Oh Daaaaamn. Huge blog!

2011-07-08T19:38:00.000-07:00

so i really dont know where to start. we've been so damn busy i've tried to keep you guys abreast with whats been going on in current life, but right now i am stuck in a hotel... so what better time than now.

ok, lets start... we will go back to Wednesday night last week.

Sonoma drift. I cannot explain to you guys how importat this event set has been for myself and the multitudes of Norcal hopefulls that have been attending this since it's inception. weekly, people have been getting to see some of the best grassroots drivers in the area become ANIMALS! there has really been some good drifting out here. one of our regulars, that drives a hatchi as agressive as anyone i have ever seen, caught a bad break.

his agressive initiation caught a bad bounce and met the wall..... gave his carolla a very intimate relationship with said wall, and a fork lift. daaaamn.

we got it off the track, and after making sure conner was alright... the drifting started back up.

i had just recently gotten my car setup for ASB so i decided not to bring it, instead i drove justin R's sil80 for some practice...

too bad he pulled his SR out, so i just got to get back to the basics and work on throttle control, and setup.... cause this car definitely doesnt have the power to get thru a course with 255's out back, lol.

i also took the time to give my niece a few ride alongs, she got hooked. she's young enough to not get scared, and old enough to be able to get started driving next year. so i made some full throttle, full speed runs with her riding shotgun.

the track looped around pretty nicely, so i got to spook her and myself buy trying to blow justins front bumper off on all the clipping points, lol. we got pretty damn close on a few.

we end the night on a high note, and thursday is here... time to roll out to the second home. LA and the HOTLINE. the car is loaded up, ready to go way before time.

we still had a TON of NOS energy drink from nascar the weekend before. so we decided to load it on up.

we met up with everyone and rolled out. drove all thru the night to emerge in LA county early in the AM. we decided to stop at a denny's and get some grub.... i took that time to sleep while everyone else ate... boy was i jealous tho', sho' shoulda ate somethin. but i guess Larry and Greg was envious of my nap, so they planked for a coo few minutes.

i took the time out to call jtp, and let him know i was finally there.... good dude, he got up out of bed and rolled down to hotline for us.

such a rad car in person, the new paint is just making it so much better.

man, what a good day this is going to turn out to be. we're getting the car setup, were ahead of schedule, and everyone is in good moods. ryan pops up, and get some of the loose ends on my car situated.. and were good.

theres a few new dope things going on @hotline... should be a sick next few months.

the homie phillip is far from home, but his FD is right where it needs to be.

this FC has the hood i have been wanting for roughly 4 years or more... if anyone has a CF GT300 hood, holla @ me!

looking over one of the Raunchiest builds that will hit the scene in a few, i couldnt help but peep how baller some of these parts are... like seriously... BAWLLIN son!

for the core group, this is their first times to the hotline... we all hung in the alley like thugs, trying to beat the heat honestly.

lol, greg looks misserable in this pic.

justin post up with us and chops it for a few hours, but we had one more sponsor stop to make, so we dip'd out.

a few miles away in carson..... 5Zigen. we tour the facility, look at rad stuff, talk to General manager Tsuyoshi about new product, and our future plans. since this was the first time he has gotten to see my car up close, he had a gander... then took the opporitunity to get the group together for a photo.

i applied the new logos he gave me to the car...

and now its boogie time... ASB XI here we come!

battling traffic and the fucking heat for hours... we finally make it. WSIR for a weekend of tire smoke, heat, and overall radness.... we set up camp, and start hanging.

vehicle swag on one million.... charlies car.

the homies took the RX8 in to town to get some food and necessities.

then ray got it poppin!

alot of bike riding happened at night time... in the paddoc on the track, all over... but just so you can get a idea... it's pretty damn dark here at night.

rob smooth dipped out on us... we couldnt find him anywhere... we did eventually peep his hiding spot. the bed of the truck.

greg and larry hit the lounge chairs...

justin and ray hit up the tents.

morning.

the paddoc is full, people are showing up still, and it's about, to go, down.

more of our hometown crew show'd up... here's the homie, nick napala...

we got the essentials...

the grillz are going, were eating, and just waiting for the days activities to show up.

after the very first session out, the car was getting HELLA hot. so i opted out to sit and chill, take the hood off, and post up with everyone so that i can drive when it gets cooler, and participate in team tandem.

here's some footy from the first session.

just so yall get the idea of how hot it was...

it just got hotter from here... this was about 1:17 in the afternoon. it got so hot, we couldnt even charge our phones, they were fucking overheating... all of them. warning lights were flashing on just about all of our phones from the heat, and the phones that did work... well, there was no signal to be had, so we just basically hung and chilled, with no FB, lol.

i was getting bored and wanted to see if the car would run cooler with the hood off, and since it was only 100 degrees now.. i went out for another run.

BANG... wtf just happened? the car is making a TON of noise right under the shifter, so i immediately knew it was the transmission. i clutchkicked shifting up to 3rd, and hear a huge pow, and basically felt like the clutch slipped. DAMN MANNNNNNN. Team tandem practice was about to start up, and i dunno about yall... but this is the highlight for me! now i cant even participate? HELLA FAIL.... i had a few leads lined up for a trans replacement, but fuck... it was going to take me about 4 hours to get there and back, and by the time i returned i would miss half of the fun, AND be working all night long. i have another trans etc at home... but damn, i sho' do need it here. Frank from boso was hanging with us, and he told me he got a trans, but still... we gotta go back to boso, and mobb all the way back to the track.... :( i'm HELLA unhappy at the moment. i almost decided to go home, but i opted to stay and hang out, i was glad too, because i ended up getting to help out my homie Julian Jacobs... he shreaded his I/C coupler, and i had just the size he needed. him and his crew ended up going "Animal Style" during team tandem, and altho they placed 3rd... the crowd was going completely INSANE!!!

i really wanted to drive, but i was definitely happy that i was atleast still there. while everyone was going to sleep, i was loading up...

had everything ready to go for a early Am departure. 1am, and i'm done.. sleep.

we wake up, clean up camp, and BOUNCE! we get some fuel for the long trek home, and somehow... at a gas station, we see all these random planks...

we finally get on tha road.

were on the road for a few hours, almost home, and we get to a point where we just decided to post up and peep the scenery.

we get to patterson and decide to have a gas stop... lol, i turn the corner to exit the freeway and i see a tire flyin off the trailer, smobbin down the street, lol. good thing ray and greg were behind me in the RX8 and they quickly retrieved it then met me aT THE gas station dying laughing.

we get home to the bay finally!

such a good feeling to be home... but damn it was cold, lol. while at rays house, greg suggest... "lets Do the transmission right now". shit, you aint gotta tell me twice, lets get it!!!

we mob to the house, and greg rob and i get busy. the wife is on her way home from work, and our time is slim. we are working fairly fast paced, and we get the trans out of the spare car... just in time too. wife gets off work, sun is going down.. and i need to go spend some family time at the fire work show.

police are in full effect... and the crowd is pretty big! they are filling the street up...

the sun goes down, and it's showtime!

finaly was dope, and very loud... but we had fun.

monday morning.

8am.

i'm on jackstands.

getting active, cause i need to get to Pro-Am the next day. in the middle of me getting down and dirty... i get called for work. FFFUUUuuuuuuckin A man. what the heck!?

well i go to work, and the job is half done... but the homie greg and ray decided to help me out and come assist in the install at my house while i was at work. them having lives of their own, they couldnt dedicate a ton of time to it... but they did what they could, and left me with minor things to do when i got off... but it seemed as tho i would never get off... being at work for over 13 hours due to massive work, and Raging fires...

my train and my crew were stuck. it cannot get to my car, my time is out the window, and it doesnt look like i can make it to pro-am. i finally get off at 3am, and on a regular competition day, i would be loaded up and leaving at 5am... there is no way for me to get this transmission done on days of no sleep, and after a 13+hr day ANd drive all the way up to willows and try to be competitive at pro am in less than 2 hours.

so i throw the towel in, and i get some MUCH needed sleep.

tuesday.

9:45am.

im up early.. and i am seeing doors getting kicked in, and people getting apprehended. lol.

i figured, hell... might aswell, get started on the completion of this install. only thing on my mind is that everyone is in drivers meetings, and i'm home. hella sad again. either way, im active.

not too much stuff to do, but shit is everywhere, and i definitely need to sort thru it all, and make sure i dont forget or leave anything out.

install is complete, fluids are filled, and car is back on the ground.

i put the car back on, wash her up, and she is ready for the next day. Sonoma drift....

i was just curious, because to me... i still didnt understand what failed on my trans. so i decided to investigate, we found the culprit.

this crap was like.... errywhere. damn, i fragged the transmission pretty good.

sooooo, now it's wednesday. Sonoma Drift day! i got the transmission in, and its in the back of my mind if it is a good install or not, lol... but fuck it, time to test it.

while i was setting up the track, i decided to go for a test run... to test teh track, AND to see if the car would hold up today. heres a short in car view.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1965939585950

here is another run, outside the car, cold tires.

but either way, it was buisness as normal at SD. i'm constantly watching over the drivers... evaluating skill levels, offering pointers, and generally enjoying everyone energy.

a few people were asking for ride alongs from me... so i took some time out to oblige.

i got on a solo run for the first ride along.

showed some good speed too.

but the next few ridealongs... i gave the passengers a taste of tandemz.

needless to say... at this moment, i am drifting more than i ever have in my life.. i am getting to come into my own, develope a sick style, and apparently onlookers and peers are nurturing me to do better. i super dig whats going on. i missed Pro-Am round3. but i couldnt be happier at the moment, i am living what i love... and honestly, competition isnt everything. at this rate, i should be a formidable opponent to someone when i do finally buckle down and completely focus on the competition aspect of drifting. so that has been my current life... from wednesday to wednesday, were still on a roll, but i will have to share that stuff with you later.

but for now, i am totally happy with life the way it is, and hella excited for the future.

if you guys are local in the area... come hang wit' ya boy. drive, experience what it is to partake in grassroots drifting in Norcal... this surge is foreal, and we are going to make a mark.

Sonoma Drift & Savemart 350

2011-06-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

Come out this weekend and come hang with me and the other Sonoma Drift Drivers @ infineon, for the nascar weekend.

i will be manning the Nos booth up above turn 8, we have the cars, some chicks, and a few DJ's to keep you entertained.

plus a pretty dope view of the action.

we put the cars away safe and sound to be washed up and pretty for you guys tomorrow. so come on out and see us!

K-Thnx-Bye. :)

Sonoma Drift Powered by NOS = SUMMER JAM!!!

2011-06-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

ladies and gentlemen.... IT's About To Go DOWN!!!!!

We Finally did it!!!! this is such a triumph for northern california....

so for the last few weeks...

2011-06-01T17:06:00.000-07:00

... i've been busy as HELL!

the only week i had to chill was the week right after the ama event, but even that week my wife and cousin had a birthday event i had to attend. my cousin and I face our Daily's off any chance we get, lol.

that Mr2 is definitely punking my vert, lower, faster, cleaner.... i've got alot of work ahead of me to do.

We had a elegant day of wine tasting and good company in the secluded napa valley...

but back to the regularly scheduled program.

Drifting.

TD Round 2. Drivers meeting.

got the car unloaded and ready to rock...

i noticed a few of the homies in the paddoc rocking the cream life...

mad respect!

we did a few practice sessions, and it was kinda different then the last few times... we got to continue to circle around the track and get in the flow. i tried some Rad type entries. had some cool lines and some good runs.

i was having a few issues tho', but it was mainly tire situations. i guess i am ass backwards, because my rear tires arent wide enough, and the fronts are too fuckin big... GRRR.

issue number 1.. front tires have monster truck sidewalls.... in my haste, i purchased them thinking i was gonna be dope shit, but i got 235/45/17's instead of 40 series, or even 35's... shit ended up BLOWIN out my fenders, AND hitting my frame on full angle.

notice the outside shoulder of the tire, and by fucking haggard fenders.

so that agressive style i have been working soo hard to perfect, well all that shit had to end today. the tires were hitting the frame making the car hop around and making the steeringwheel violently pull out of my hands. i spun once on account of that.

issue number 2.. my rear tires weren't wide enough... the 245's were spinning too much and not hooking up like i needed em to. i adjusted to it, but boost climbed too fast and my boost controller retarded my boost back to 6lbs on the strength of safety... good thing for the car... seeing as tho the proper safety equipment works, but it was bad for my lines. lowering the boost made my wheel speed reduce greatly, so i wassnt able to reach the outside clip at the point i anticipated, but whatever... it ended up working out partially.

qualifying happened....

first run, i went hard... tried for big angle, but forgot about the tires... "bounce bounce bounce, spin... ". second run, and last run... i just knew i had to stick it... well, either that, or not be in the show... so i ran a smooth clean line and called it even. good thing it was only 2 runs, cause i was out of tread, and needed to switch wheels.

well after the qualifing meeting, we go thru the bracket of the top 16 and pair up... oh, and i qualified 4th... i wanted to go for the gusto, but since i wassnt in top condition... (and when i say "I" i mean the car and myself since we function as one out there) i could settle for 4th.

we get the tires changed out, and it's off to the grid.

i put on the throwback orange joints for comp.... cause i was feeling solid and planned on doing MASSIVE WORK and needed the look at me now factor! like honestly, i wassnt nervous, and i was fuckin ready.

sitting on the grid, i was behind one of the socal competitors that came to lay the smack down, i noticed a cream sticker on his joint too... its small, and i couldnt zoom in enough, but its there on the bottom. RESPECT!

i was feeling SOOOO serious, i even went out behind lane staging and did some tire warming burnouts and donuts... i wanted NO excuses to not perform, and i have had issues with cold tires before.

i'm lined up agains jason bostrom... since i qualified higher, i get the lead run first. we gotta wait for the pace cone for me to put the hammer down, so i hold back, get to the cone and BLAST OFF... dope initiation, slightly off the clip, but hella smooth.

i have more angle, and actually was closer to the clip than my opponent, so i figured it would be ok. i look in the rearview when the car locks into the line... i dont see bostrom, i just see hella smoke coming off my tires, YAY!!! i rarely make smoke like this so i am happy, then i am coming up to the finish clip, and all the sudden bostrom breaks out the smoke and is right there, with hella dirt in my rearview... wtf? my spotter ray comes over the radio, "solid run, you looked good... bostrom made 2 mistakes, and you got the advantage, good job". i am hella happy with my first run, and i know it's all about the second run. were lined up, and flagged off... i fall back because i know i am a ton faster than him and i didnt want to screw myself with such a long sweeper to get up on his door... we come over the crest, and past the pace cone and i floor it... i am about 2 cars back, and i figure its show time... i wanted to initiate right along with him, being a few cars back so the judges could see i was being agressive and stylish, then i planned to close the gap and get off in his ass (pause), well door... but that failed, i forgot my setup is thwarted with these bigg ass tires... and my angle snapped to understeer when the tires hit. i got back in drift as soon as i could, hit the transition and closed the gap. since i am chasing i see bostrom straighten out, and i have a good amount of angle at this point, so i just drove it up as close as i could to him. i am hella hyped at this point, because i figure, i straightened, and he straightened... this will negate my mistake, and seeing as tho i had the advantage from the first run, i might have this, or it can go one more time...

i've got this huge smile on my face, and on top of that i am wearing a open face helmet, lol... we pull up infront of the crowd, and the course worker is flagging me to the pits and bostrom back to the line...

dude, and believe me when i say this... you know the feeling, when you get hella embarrassed and you feel your heart flutter, and you get the flushed feeling.... OMG, lol. i felt the lowest i have ever in a while... the crowd seemed shocked too. as i am driving into the pits, people were running up yelling WTF happened?!? i could only shrugg my shoulders and say "iono". it was good to see there were a good amount of spectators that was supporting me, i hella felt like i let most of them down.. this shit was hella embarrasing. i decided to stay and watch the rest of the competition, be a good sport about things i figured. after all was said and done, congratulations to the rest of the competitors and their placement.

you can peep all the action from qualifying runs, to top 16 to final here... with a unique soundtrack.

as all the dust settles, at the moment i moved up from 14th to 8th. i grabbed some much needed qualifing points, and i guess i now know i have quite a road to travel to the finish. i really felt as if i could have gotten higher this day, But i guess i just didnt have what the judges were looking for in the battle.... I dont fret, I am going to come back in round 3 Lethal... like seriously, i have such a desire to show my strengths right now it's not funny. i have nothing to prove, but i have a whole lot to leave on the table.

Sunday.

Sonoma drift full track.

this is Serious buisness.... friday was raining like crazy, and saturday didnt look any better.

But sunday is Beautiful!

we show up at the track bright and freakin early, tech inspection goes on then we all board a bus (the short bus), and zoom off to the "Infineon Drivers lounge"

dope shit...

we hold the drivers meeting, i go over a few specific things in the meeting, but for the most part, all of the drivers that were in attendance were mature good drifters, so we kept it light then jumped in the bus to go drive the track. it was soo cool to see the drivers reactions to how steep the elevation changes are, and most of the guys this was the very first time they have been on this track.

we lined up the cars, being the first grassroots group to go hit this thing up.... this is kinda a big deal to us.

Ray is holding down the marshall duties....

....were all lined up and REady to Rock!

the day started out with guys giving the track a good feeler.... so i went out and virtually molested the track and my tires!

when other guys got more comfortable, Rad shit started to happen.

once julian jacobs got fit.... he and i went out for some monster runs, and he also captured this dope piece of footy.

towards the end we were just going wild... neither he nor i had any tread left, and it's impressive that our tires didnt bust chunks off etc... but the crowd was going nuts for the maniac action.

Lino gave us a good amount of freedom to capture footage on the track in unique ways, that i will reveal in a promo video for SD soon, but also.... being an actual fan of drifting, lino wanted us to come out one by one to kill the track and he introduce us by name to the spectators.... i had just gotten some really bad news, so i just took a calm final lap and called it a day.

once back at the pits, everyone was loading up... Lino was giving us all accolades, and letting us know how much he enjoyed this event, and informing us about some new event ideas he has just gotten. this shit will peel your wig back.

such a great event, and such a short drive home... I LOVE IT!!! i'm so glad the drive was short, because i had to go to work a few hours after... good thing it was the port of oakland and there wassnt shit to do, so i did one of my favorite things to do...

go post up and kick it in the middle of the street, in the middle of the night.

sonoma is serious about drifting.

2011-06-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

it just got real.

AMA westcoast jam.

2011-05-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

I was asked to represent Sonoma Drift at a ALL bike event. The 2011 AMA Westcoast Moto Jam at infineon on saturday. this was dope. alot of foot traffic was going thru the vendor area, and guess what was the first thing people saw when coming thru the ticket booth??

....ME.

we had a basic display, got to loop some of our drift footage there on the flatscreen directly behind the car.

as soon as the people started pouring in, CreamTeam and I began our hustle. we instantly took to shaking hands handing out fliers, and gathering interest on our program here at infineon.

the raceway filled up, people were enjoying the vendors area, and luckily we were posted next to an attraction; the bunjee jumper. kids were jumping, and we were informing their parents about what we have going on here @ infineon. sweet deal...

as we grew weiry of approaching people constantly, we sent in the B-team!

needless to say, we no longer had to approach people, we just had to control their attention...

we took the opporitunity to take some promotional shots.

as the day wound down... so did we. i packed up and headed home as the sun finally decided to come out. when i was un attatching the trailer, i saw the infineon girl left a autograph on my hood...

now the car is at Performance options, getting a few pieces repaired from last wednesday night event, and we are gearing up to do what the car does best... DRIFT.

stay tuned.

more partnering with infineon.

2011-05-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

so weve been in really good graces with the good folks over at infineon raceway. there are good talks of great partnering opporitunities with these guys, aswell as the growth of our wednesday night drift venture.

we had a stellar wednesday night on the 4th, our 40 driver cap filled right up, i think i even counted 43 drivers... i was giving a ton of ride-alongs, even had that same busted hose on my oil return from the turbo, but i fixed that in a timely manner and got back out there.

the next day i was asked if i could put my car on display representing "SONOMA DRIFT" in the 4th annual Infineon Raceway Night at Todos Santos Plaza in downtown Concord. there were a TON of different race cars from all race disciplines. Drag cars, Indy cars, nascar, winston cup cars, midgets, etc. etc. etc. i was the ONLY tuner car there representing our scene.

infineon had a quaint little booth... (whole damn side of the street.) i got to hang out with staff, and inform onlookers of our program and help build interest.

i swear i shook like 130 hands, and joked around and spoke with people for countless hours.

a few pics.

there was a TON of people...

alot of people liked the FC...

justin had a bunch of talk time..... since that is his strong point... Talkin

did i say alot??

the food was pretty good too....

the police were pretty damn strict too.... here they are giving "bad news" bear a j-walking ticket....

seriously.

when we shut down, all the race cars took off booking thru the city streets... you know i took the chance to let the turbo whail off on a few "race cars", lmao. this car and i had a pretty good duel to the trailer staging.

there is still a ton to come.... i just have no time to blog lately... but i will definitely keep you guys up to speed somehow.

oh yea, before i forget.

2011-04-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

they finally put up a trailer for the movie 200mph. i have seen it a while back, but the trailer is out now. movie release date is april 26th. netflix, blockbuster, etc.

200 MPH Trailer from Ashley Harris on Vimeo.

Some quick flicks.

2011-04-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

some of the hot pics i found.

HELLA saucy!

2011-04-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

cold tire run, first one of the day... tried to heat those tires up at the exit... but failed hahaha, but it didnt matter i had passed the finish 70 ft. back.

by the end of the night it was crackin! i was just jumping in all the tandems i possibly could. heres one of em.

out with the old.

2011-04-13T00:20:00.000-07:00

in with the new.

more to come, stay tuned.

Infineon practice.

2011-04-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

Sonoma drift is going Down! we finally have a bay area drift spot, real norcal progression can now take place.

last wednesday we went to go basically have a walk thru of what this wednesdays event will possibly look like.

they day started out like all others... loading the truck, etc.

rolled out to vallejo, meet up with the rest of the creamteam and headed out to infineon.

theres this one dope turn when you get off of the long 1 lane hwy. i've always wanted to drift it, but being so close to the track thats a HUGE nono.

we roll into the track and everything is looking good. its sunny, no clouds are in the sky, and infineon staff welcomes us thru the gates at no charge.... thats always WIN!

we all unload and drive down to the new home of drifting in the bay area.... this is a HUGE skid pad type course.... but we will definitely make due.

drifting then commenced.

i had a few runs, just to feel the course out and see how the course feels.

shit was quite fun... not to technical, not too easy. the last two hairpens were kindof misplaced, but you can still get to em if you set yourself up right. i think for the excitement of the demo we change it up for good tandem action... so lance and i ran out there made a minor change and went back out to test it.

you can barely tell anything was changed, but from vantage point in the driver seat the track looked a bit wider, which gave you a better piece of mind.

i parked and let everyone else have at it.

even rode along with a person or two and got some feedback from other drivers perspectives.

it began to get HELLA cold, and the test session ended around 7... just in time for the creamteam meet. we all shot over from the track, to vallejo and once again the meet was successful. all the trucks trailers and racecars were over at the meet, some motorcycle crashing, and some other rad antics were happening.

we left the meet and decided to take a few high quality flicks for www.thecreamlife.com blog, so we got a dops spot and flicked away.

the piece should be up on the blog pretty soon...

so this is what our wednesday consist of from here on out. fun drifting, hangin with the pals, and late summer nights from here on out.

the scene is now back!

everyone rejoice!!!

The dopest week.

2011-04-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

....Has finally ended.

2 things i'm proud of.

1. my big homie. he's got the skill, he's got the tact, and now he has a win to go with it! hella proud of my bro.

was definitely exciting to watch.

2. Infineon practice. justin was being a bitch as usual, his driving always takes too long to get fired up... after having a talk with him, he started rippin!

both my boy's "justin" have made me proud this week. at-a-boy.

TRIUMPH!!!

2011-04-01T16:08:00.000-07:00

we finally did it! infineon has finally agreed to let us slide during wednesday night drags, and not only that, its more than just a single event... this is going to be Weekly! WOW... hmm, lets see... since when has norcal had a weekly drifting venue of this caliber??

uh, is it safe to say never?

Please come see the Drift demo and exhibition put on by my friends and i, about 20 drivers in total... we have quite a suprise set up for you guys... this should be a stellar event.

the bro's and i have practice day, in the next couple of days... then we will try to tear the house down on the 13th...

after that, weds nights will be open to the public.... please come out and take advantage of this, you never know how long it will last, or how long it will be drifter set up and drifter ran. get in on this from day 1, so that we can show we deserve this, and need it.

Pro-am Round 1.

2011-03-18T12:35:00.001-07:00

....was Fresh. it was a day of comrade, excitement... and aggressive driving.

day started kinda late, but we made it and the weather was typical... sunny, go figure.

i had a dope crew with me... Ray Fong, Justin Ruggerio, And my cousin Larry Jones. they really helped the day go by smoothly... we unloaded the car without a issue this time, and still was in 1 piece... justin drove it over to the pits.

there were alot of familiar faces, and a bunch of new guys too...

i started doing a little bit of prep work, filling the car with gas, cleaning windows etc...

but i had to rush to drivers meeting... we were running behind schedule... but since i had a crew with me, they finished up and drove the car over to tech inspection and i didn't have to worry bout it.

the drivers meeting was kinda full... we've never had this many participants, so it was kind of exciting.

we exit out of briefing.. time to drift.

early test sessions i always run with my driving lights on... dunno why, but it looks kinda cool in pics.

this is one of my least favorite parts of the track to grip... so it was definitely one of those things i didn't wanna hear when they informed of the configuration change... but i attacked it full throttle as the judges asked for... but man, it is a weird feeling thrusting into the unknown...

my entries.... well, i was just doing what the judges suggested, where they suggested... so that was flooring it from launch to 3rd gear full throttle initiations... i don't think you could ever say i lifted once from the go.

on my practice runs i tried different things each run, but what remained constant was 3rd gear full throttle initiations. one run i may run the rear clip shallow, another run i may even spin at the exit, no matter what it was... i was just experimenting, plus having a ton of fun... sometimes when i hung it out in all the right places, rear clip final clip etc. i would keep dori'ng all the way to post grid... i am still amazed that the tires i started the day with are still on the car downstairs, and still got HELLA tread left... i guess it's just that hot line perfection on that alignment, cause i sure was trying to give em the business lol.

i even tried to make more smoke by adding in some power.... now all day i had been running with my boost controller off... around 6-8lbs of boost... probably somewhere around 240whp max. i was seeing some of the smoke the guys were making, and before qualify runs, i went to 13.6 lbs. well, in my absent mindedness, i didn't shut the car off after i set the boost controller and went for a few more passes... car still felt the same, actually since i was expecting it to be faster, it still ran the same and felt slow... so i just shrugged it off and said oh well. we get into grid, and i cut the car off... let it cool, and i just post up. my turn is coming up, so i hope in, strap up, and fire the car up... flag calls my name out to the judges etc. and i take off.. i go for a drag launch and realize i am spinning wheels like crazy! i pedal off to catch traction and it feels like a drag car, up shift.... "SHIT this thing is fast as hell now, WTF?" i think to myself, up shift and now I'm in third... still floored, and i look at the rpm's and i am almost on the limiter... "HUH" the cone is still about 80 ft in front of me, how could i be going so fast... i hear my boost controller beeping glace over at the boost gauge... I'm hitting my warning peak that i had set at 14lbs... look back up, "oh shit... i should have already started initiation" i don't even clutch kick, i just yank it towards entry... massive spin out, lol. i forgot, i cut the car off and the settings took place. OK, no biggie right... i got another run, let me try again. so driving back i change the peak warning to higher so i don't hear that beeping. the car is safe tuned up to 16.7 so i am fine, lets just go one more time see what happens.

i launch again, and FACK this thing is ROLLING!!! backing off slightly so i don't shift to 4th gear, i initiate, and i am way off line.

I'm light years from the cone as you can see in the bottom of the pic... i spin again! damn, that was it... my cousin comes over the radio "CALM THE F*^k DOWN LEX, you got one more.. make this shit stick!" i thought we had 2, now i only got 1 chance left to get in the show... 30 participants and they are only taking 16 of em... whoa! HUGE PRESSURE!!! i cut the car off, turn off the boost controller, fire back up and head to the line... i ask Ray how it is looking, and he said just make this one count and drive like you have been all afternoon, lets worry about it later.... so that's what i do.

i put in a hella Conservative run, entry speeds still high, but the rear clipping zone was hella safe, and so was my transition and finishing clipping point....

i come over the radio "I'm sorry guys, i did my best, but i had a blast.... thank you for the help" the crew responds and were all waiting for the other drivers to finish out their runs... oh man this is heavy right now. I'm thinking, i just blew my whole chance playing around, damn... this is harsh reality of competition... sitting in the grid waiting for them to send us to the pits i tried to turn on some music and just calm down... we all get the signal to GTFO, so back to the pits we go. helmet off, hat on, and just bumping' my music, i am smiling.. i honestly had a hell of a day i think. this was a complete blast, and altho it is over, i feel pleased for some reason.

we're in the pits, judges are in deliberation, and I'm just hanging out with my friends shooting the shits when they announce they are informing who made it in the show etc... my homie jhulio jumps in his truck and says "lets go and see whats up... ", not feeling optimistic, i just get in and we ride over to the group meeting... we showed up a tad bit late, and they are already announcing the top 10 qualifiers, oh well.... no biggie.

i am getting ready to get back in the truck and go pack it up when Bohan walks up and says "get ready to rock, it's a orange wheel shoot out..." I'm like "Huh? seriously?" he shows me the bracket, and I'm in there vs my friend virgil. "whoa! wow, i didn't expect that" i think, and we jam over to get shit ready.

@ this point i don't even know what position i qualified in, nor do i care... it's time to drive.

Virgil and I are sitting on the grid, and were talking... I'm like, "lets give the people a show bruh, drag start from the gates... full throttle till initiation, and complete mayhem if anything" and virgil is hella down.

we line up on the start, virgil is revin up, I'm revin up... hella grin's and hang loose are exchanged back and fourth and were off.... i immediately notice my car is faster, and i didn't want to out pace virg, so i let him get some room... we initiate and i have more angle, and i think "oh shit, he's gonna walk on me... I'm going too slow", so i downshift to 2nd and floor it.

man, i closed on this man far too fast... for my skill level at least. next thing that pops into my mind is the transition, and how i dint want to catch a battle swing to the front wheels... so i back off, but i stab the brakes instead of handbrake it... i go wide, blast the clipping cone, and my diffuser at the same time.. the cone gets under me and i spin... "F-word!!!" lol.

at this point, i know virgil is hella consistent and if he doesn't spin he's got this... so i accepted defeat i think... pretty corny.

we line back up, and the flag girl says, "aye, your diffuser is hanging off..." my response, "badly, or just a bit?" she comes back with, "its pretty bad, its on the ground want me to break it off?" i say "nope, lets run it.. i'mma destroy it." she flags us and I'm off!

HELLA HAULING ASS!!! i out paced virgil and went for my initiation, but before i did i looked in the mirror to see where he was so i didn't cut him off, well once again that split second b's put me off my mark and i had a dirt drop entry....

now, no matter how raw this looks... i was way off from where i was consistently at all day... this put me off a few feet, and despite that... i still believe i could have made it, BUT i fixated on the grass and off i went.

as you can see... if i didnt just accept that i was off line, and just floored it like i did all day, i still woulda made it. instead i just gracefully went off, lol. weird thing about footage is you see shit that you wouldnt have thought bout in the driver seat. i had virgil out classed in pace, and even at the point i chose to hop off track and out his way, it woulda only been a 1 wheel dirtdrop at most if i haddn't of gave up. BUT insult to injury... that little cone right there... it made me keep my word about my diffuser, lol.

BLAM!!!! i see Shine auto all in my rearview.

lol, wow...

i still had one hell of a time, and if anything... i just learned alot. the fact is, i know what i can do in the car... i know the car is totally cappable of whatever in the world i throw at it (a little birdy told me so), i just didnt trust myself... not only did i not trust myself, i phyched myself out... all day. this isnt a good trait... do i want to go all season being the driver with something, but never putting it to use? do i want to be the one people give up on because i am ripping in practice, but when it counts i turn to a big softie? is choking even accepted in drifting??? Who even thinks this much??? when i was out at balcony with the get fresh crew i wassnt thinking... i was just drifting.

Just drifting....

the funny thing about it is, i was just talking to briggs the night before and he told me to do exactly that. just hang out, relax, chill and drift... but my mind is so wild, i let it get the best of me.... but this is what i am going to be working on all season. no more of beating myself, i'm over that.

when i was just vibing out i was having so much fun and doing the illest stuff. Aaron conklin took a dope stitch setup for me. seems that my courage on entries was gaining everyones attention.

but from here on out, i am going to be driving as much as possible... no excuses, no bullshit. this might cost me a fortune on gas and tires with the given prices of both these days, but i need training... mental, and physical while in the seat.

but as the series stands... i qualified 12th, and finished 14th... so all points are valuable rightnow if i am going to have a shot.

so until next time... we conclude Formula D Pro-Am.

BeFore Battle.

2011-03-14T22:28:00.000-07:00

one last look at her before she does battle on wednesday.

WET!

Pre Round 1.

2011-03-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

so since i got the car back i have been trying to re-coup on money, lol.

but in despite of that here is what i have been up to.

car has been refreshed... slightly.

the next day i had to load up with as many wheels and tires i could... were off to get rubbers fitted.

we had to get clever on the bed space, but we managed to get 10 wheels & tires stuffed into the confined space of the "sport" trucks gracious bed space & passenger area.

we get to a place my buddy ray had us hooked up for some tire change action.. this would be interesting, due to the fact that between ray, justin, and i.... we all had 0 experience with tire change. this was cool, lol. the owner of the spot was kind enough to take some time aside and show us the simple operation of the equipment... after a few tries on one wheel, and a refreshment on the functions we were now tire change pro's, so to speak. i had my hand at tire change, and justin decided he wanted to take change lead...

well now i wonder why we are at a standstill right now...

because this manly man out muscled the machine...

a very vital part to the operation got broken.

damnit! "YOU DIDNT DO IT RIGHT!!"

feeling hella bad that this happened on my watch, i gave dude a few bucks, and we loaded up all the tires, and wheels and we were off in traffic to our next destination for tire change.

after completion of tire mounting, we took to the house to see how we could stance up Gerald Le-vert.

works out cool for the daily duties. but it was mainly to see how this setup will look on the white car, instead of putting it on the white car... odd.

next day i get a package.

i opened it and wouldnt you know, it exploded with stickers and they all landed on the car like so.

i no longer have yellow "rookie" plates.

...and i rather fancy the new banner over lastyears.

well i decided to put everything up and just wait till show time... but i couldnt be more pleased. still got a few odds and ends to pay for, but for the most part i am pleased.

ZR+ 520's

2011-03-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

Thank you 5Zigen.

Some GT5 horseplay.

2011-03-01T19:26:00.000-08:00

As most of you know, i am heavy on turismo... lately i have really been wanting to go hit the streets with the new setup, but man oh man i would never hear the end of it if i did, plus i know it wouldnt be the most responsible thing to do.... BLAH BLAH BLAH.

so i have been taking my frustrations out on Autumn Ring.

i've done some cool suspension setups that have worked out really well... here is what it has done for my RE-A FD.

in-car view.

outside..

Dope IM convo.

2011-02-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

7:30am.

person: hey lex do you use the same brake pads all around, or better ones to grab harder with the Ebrake?

me: stock back....

person: hmmm, maybe i dont grab that well, cuz im open?

me: has nothing to do with brakes

person: well thats what luke told me, cuz i did adjust the e brake

me: wait.... you were told that your brakes dont grab hard because you are open diff?

person: no cuz my brake pads might be warn, or just dont grab enough

me: ok, but at first you brought up the fact that open diff has something to do with your brake functions

person: ya that tossed in my mind for a bit too

me: uh.
no.
calipers grip brakepads brakepads grip rotors, rotors stop spinning. wheels lock up.
get better brake pads.

person: k, ughhh gotta go to work in a hour

me: also, look to see if your handbrake is a drum, some cars have drum brake inside disk hub.

person: na its the same on all 4s

me: r u sure?

person: when ive changed the pads, its the same as the front

me: are you sure?

person: i guess, ill check

me: http://www.arizonaperformance.com/parts_photos/Brakes_Rear_12.9_inch/CIMG5076_resize.JPG

me: this is what the internet is for.

person: lolololol

me: not just to socialize. its to find stuff out instantly.

person: very true

me: you have a drum handbrake buy brake shoes, change em, voila.

person: ight, well im off lex gotta get to work
thanks

me: knowledge is power young man.

we finally get serious.

2011-02-22T14:57:00.001-08:00

ok, so i know most of yall been riding with me for the last year on this long ongoing project... but now we are finally getting to the meat and substance of this car.

last week i took a trip down to LA, where we were finishing up the last stages of this cars track prep. i get down there late wed afternoon, a quick stop by home base (hotline) and then off to AIT. battling thru the rain and the traffic, i made it there and back with a ton of aero thanx to patrick over at AIT.

we start with replacing my coilovers with the new jic tar's i had just gotten in. thats when i noticed all the dope shit justin had slapped on the car for me!

from there we applied the b-magic overfenders.

then did alignment and cornerbalanced.

the new physique of the car is pretty sexy now.

after everything was done we took a minute to chill and strategize a plan for the next morning. i took the chance to give the car a once over.

after Rad Dan came thru, we all decided to load up. i had the boo-boo ass u-haul trailer, but we made it work

oh, and justin finally graced the vehicle with the shop branding.

we closed up the shop and decided to call it a night... headed down to justins spot, settled in and caught a few winks. 6am and were up getting ready to hit the track...
and wtf.... it's ice all over everything.

we get to the balcony ryan and dan were already unloading and getting ready to be active.

ryans battery was conkin' out so they were trying to see if there was a obvious current draw.

we were gettin' busy, and i was definitely learning... really learning. paying attention to the setup, and actually figuring out how to utilize it to suit me. honestly this car is like day and nights difference.

honestly i cant get over how wide and curvy the car looks now.

about lunch time, tires needed changing and we needed food!

we get back to the balcony... and i am getting low on time cause i gotta beam back to the north.

the car is begging for more activity, so i let justin take several hotlaps in it, i also rocked several of em. shit man, honestly... this car is DOPE. i have more to experience with it, but its far different than i remember.

a couple more laps i load up and go home... honestly, this was a pretty dope midweek event. the view in socal was amazing... cold but amazing. a few more hours left of sunlight...

but hundreds and hundreds of miles of road ahead of me.

but i got my baby on the back, and shes in good spirits.

i had 200 miles left to get home, and i decided to stop for some gas..... apparently the truck gets better range than my rx8, lol... but i just decided to stop for gas anyway. as i am walking back to the gas pump i see something pastel.

wtf?

RAD!!!! 6.0vt.

this dude was from danville, and he decided to go down to pick the car up from San Diego, so he hung next to me for a while... but i was driving to slow and he took off on me, lol.

long trip home, but i finally made it right as it began to rain hard.... so i guess i had a pretty good trip.

to be continued.

My goodies.

2011-02-05T22:34:00.000-08:00

D-Max. 5Zigen. etc.

this vert is definitely going to be pretty ill!

Rotary Related.

2011-02-03T11:58:00.000-08:00

Rotary Related is a company owned and developed by Stephen Sheppard. he sent me over a care package, and it was some electrical goodies.

the first product i had the urge to install was the MAIN Electronic Fuel Injector relays.

this stock item is located behind the left (driver side) strut tower, easily removed and installed.

here are the items side by side, stock to RR product...

the install is really straight forward, beside one small screw... but it goes right in as stock, just a ton smaller.

on initial start up, the car didnt have the stutter, and random idle that it used to have upon starting the car. now the car just fires right up, holds normal idle, then sets down to typical numbers after a few seconds... i haven't driven it yet, but i assume i will see better fuel delivery.

to be continued........

FINALLY 2011 schedule has been posted. sheeesh!

2011-01-31T18:20:00.000-08:00

http://thunderdrift.com/schedule/

2011 ThunderDrift Event Dates

3/30 – Wednesday – TD ProAm Round 1

5/24 – Tuesday – TD ProAm Round 2

7/6 – Wednesday – TD ProAm Round 3

8/10 – Wednesday – TD ProAm Round 4

9/15 – Thursday – TD ProAm round 5 FINALE!

12/18 – Sunday – Open Fulltrack + Team Tandem Battle

Gerald Le-Vert.

2011-01-28T18:26:00.000-08:00

ok, so... i have been riding around in this thing stock for quite a while, about 2 months. i put in a slight sound system, and that kinda made me happy.... and i have been waiting on my aero, but still havent came.

i decided to go ahead and put the coilovers on today... and put my drift spares up on the car and see how they would fair. i couldnt go terribly low, because of the tires and how wide the wheels are... plus, its all stock metal.

ok, so enough with the excuses... i'm monster truckin and i know it, BITe ME. ..But, the ride is soo much better, no more soggy take-offs from the light, no more corners that make you feel like you're tipping over.. just a solid ride i am used to.

honestly, this was the first time i tackled a job like this solo... so it took hella long, lol.

so the wheels cleared the rear coilovers ofcourse... but the fronts were another story. i had to put 6mm spacers on the front to keep em from rubbing the coilovers.

altho all 4 wheels that are mounted up are my rear drift spares... and they all have rear tires mounted on em, 255/40/18. all 4 wheels are also 18x10 +20, but with 6mm on the front makes it a +14 offset.

this is how the car sets on the ground for now... until i get new wheels...

DONKIN' son! maybe with aero i can pull this ride height off, but i want the actual body of the car to be really low before aero.. but atleast i got sounds and it doesnt look too stock.

as far as some more permanent wheels, i think i will be doing 17x9.5 +15 front & 18x10 +20 rears. at that point, i would think that will make the vert SMOOOOOOTH.

so i have named him... "Gerald LE-Vert" he's gonna be a street crooner!

life @ 200mph.

2011-01-24T20:58:00.000-08:00

friday night, were on the road to Los Angeles to help out with filming a movie.

once we all met up, we get gas and roll out to hwy5.

i put walkie talkies in each car, and was definitely glad that we had em... because hwy5 was so damn foggy we couldnt see 15ft ahead of us. as the daring individuals we are, the fog didnt slow us down. i was running point, and had a train of nissans behind me. we plowed thru the fog at 75mph while we dodged the tail lights that happened to pop out of the fog mere feet infront of us.

believe it or not... this is ACTUALLY a picture out of the front window into the fog.
this is where the car to car communication helped out totally. i had on a throat mic looking like a navy seal op. but this helped with not fumbling around with the actual unit when trying to call out when i spotted lights. people were so scared driving 35mph and slower, we were coming up on them TERRIBLY fast so when i called out "car" and gave position and i moved, everyone followed suit in a speedy fashion.

we only emerged from the fog, 30 miles from the base of the grapevine... i was far below E on the gas tank so we chose to stop and get fuel.

we take a good amount of time to stretch, try to wake up and take a bite to eat.... at the moment it is about 2am... E has the police scanner going on in his car, and this means were gonna get alot of radio traffic from here till downtown LA of police updates etc. this proves useful around six flags area, where we saw the piggies burst onto the freeway. we all adjust accordingly, and just cruise into town.

we finally get to our destination, and its time for some well deserved sleep... we get our room, and jaylen takes off down the halls carrying his momies stuff.

sleep.........

saturday morning, i dunno if the heater was left on, or what... but shit, it's fairly warm in the room. a quick look out the window shows why.

this aint your bay area gloomy morning, this is sunny southern california LA county goodness!

this is by far the dopest motel 6, until i see another i am convinced, lol.

we group up, go sitdown have a good hearty breakfast at dennys the load up and roll out.

jump on the freeway, and then we head to the filming location for the day.

i'm definitely enjoying this scenery... and its so relaxing to just be somewhere else for a weekend living fantasy for just a moment.

the downtown landscape is pretty fresh.

and this is definitely a city i can get used to.

hella modern looking shit, makes you wanna just stare at it.

we finally roll on set, and it didnt look like much at first... but they were setting everything up still and they were nowhere near ready to film.

some dope cars were rolling in, and we were also picking out cars to use for the extra race scenes.

we first started filming, and it was the squids to start out... alot of rev-limiters, and some burnouts. well, not to mention some teeny-weeny wheelies, lol.

after the bikes were done running a muck... we got down to buisness... we were filming mock races, but this is actually the funnest part of drag racing, the launch, and 1-2 shift. it was pretty fun, and i got to beast on fools, lol. i guess it was all that street racing or something, hahaha.

this fool rolled on deck, and showed vip dudes, how vip is done... cat had over 6" of lips on this joint, and MAJOR big brake kit.

at this point, they were setting up for the "boss" races scenes.

this GTR was wicked.

the 370z held its own too.

still at this point, i was constantly amazed that we were getting down like this in the center of downtown Los Angeles.

justin and i were lined up wating to run after, and we were having a sound off competition.

Eric's system sounded like HELL... bass on hammer, everything else on church mouse.

justin was working on his farmer tan.

this continued for HOURS... many hours.
night time fell, and we were still at it.

0344 am.... and we finally wrapped, i was physically weak at about this time. victor, justin, and gene decided to leave early.... E hung around, and damn i was glad. i cought a few minutes of sleep that was oh so needed in the Z. JTP sent the girls and jaylen to the house early, and we would catch up with them later. when we finally finished on set, we jump in the 370 and smash off to the house for some short sleep.

i'm still so impressed with the road placement thru these mountains of socal, this highway was like a touge with some dope tunnel placement.

the next morning, after a dope breakfast... essa rolls thru in a REALLY clean RHD FD. i gawk for a bit, but then i look up and notice... fuck pasadena is AWESOME!

palm trees everywhere on this block.

we roll out, and have a short sprint to the film spot. today is a FAR different day from the previous. no-one is here, no extras, no drones of cars and bikes... just us. jason was asked back for the last day of filming in his green S14 and so was I, so i guess we were lucky to witness what was about to go down today.

we all load up with the camera crew, and we are now getting LAPD motorcycle escort thru downtown LA.

people are gawking taking pictures, giving thumbs up etc. haha, felt weird i guess.

we rolled up on to the street scene, and immediately stuff started to take place.

camera crew was setting up... and film hands were cleaning the vehicles.

all the sudden... ACTION!

justin is all over the place in this Z... haha, these tires were getting the brutal treatment.

scene change, and justin started to whip jasons car. i was supprised i could catch this on my phone in this way... i figured it would be blurry.

the Z and the FD sitting lookin severly tough!

but as night fell... the action picked up!

crash scenes were filmed....

mike and justin handled the GTR vs. Z34 scenes, but justin and i handled all the rotary situations. i didnt take too many pics as i was behind the wheel, but there was some pretty cool bridge work done in a chase scene with the FC and RX8.

we all came back to some well deserved food! we parked the cars and grubbed...

after chow seased... drifting ensued. STREETS!!!! was far too exciting to take pictures of, so you will see it in a behind the scenes montauge shortly... but trust. what you see in the video is nowhere near the brunt of it.

just a quick portion i will explain, since i think it is pretty interesting. a chase scene was slated to happen between rx8 and fc... but while we were gone at the bridge, we forgot to put back up the "NO PARKING" signs, and someone parked right in the middle of the set. the directors decided to keep it, because it looked real, and believeable. mike and justin were hitting it up and made it look flawless... but when it was time for me to go for it.... a HUGE sense of nervousness struck. reasons why? well no, it wassnt the cameras... and no it wassnt the unfamiliar location, nor killing it infront of the police.... it was the fact that i had to do the scene with justin drifting my fc, and i was in my slow ass RX8... lol. i make sure i have all driver aids dissabled on the R3, and sit and wait. first scene was me chasing, and when i hear "ACTION ACTION ACTION" blair over the radio i tear off. but how can i keep up with the fc, lol? justin hits the first corner DAMN hard. i decided not to drift the first corner, and just try to put my nose in as close as i could to the bumper. we sprint down the short straight to the next corner and i figure fuck it. so i throw the car in when justin initiates, shift lock it... and get a little bit of sideways action. now at this point im HYPED!!! positions are flipped, and we reset to position 1. i go over it in my head, "should i drift, should i grip what the fuck should i do??" i make sure my DSC is shut off once again, and we gotta sit there while we wait for the RED's to reboot.

the radio's blair out "AND ACTIONNNNNN!!!!" and i just rev and dump the clutch at about 7k. the fc is freakin echo'n behind me hella loud off the buildings, and im going into 2nd gear... we are approaching the corner and i was thinking grip, but when i went into the area i would have applied brakes at, i flicked the car in, and handbraked... WTF! i clutch kick, send the car out and glide it... my next thought is DORI, but when i looked at the point i wanted to hit, i realized that damn car was parked there... so i end the drift trying to maintain the speed, and then i just reset for the next corner. by this time justin is right on top of me, and them damn yellow headlighs are illuminating my interior. i didnt throw the car in as confident in the second corner, so as i applied front brakes lightly i was almost immediately loosing angle, so i pulled handbrake and tried a clutchkick, but the rpms were too low... and i only got a slight bit of wheel spin from it, then abruptly caught grip.
long story shot, i sucked... but atleast the shot looked cool.

we continue to film short bits and dialog portions.... till we finally wrapped at 3am. base of the 6th street bridge.

justin and i mash back to the hotline to drop off my fc, then ride back to base camp.

i jump in the RX8 where my wife and kid are already sleeping, and to norcal we go....

yes, i only had 4 hours of sleep in 2 days, and i am now going to embark on a 6 hour drive after 14 hours of filming, and being up since 8am... haha, yeah. cause i'm rad!

i drove in fog for 3 hours straight. i didnt even see a damn thing until i got right outside of patterson. i couldnt stay up any longer, so she had to drive the last 112miles. but we made it home safely....

all in all, pretty successful weekend. i got to do some good networking, and got to kick it with the homies quite a bit.

here is some behind the scenes footage form the weekend.

2011 starts.

2011-01-12T16:45:00.000-08:00

thurday night, i get a phone call... the homie ask me to help him out with a independant film he is a part of, gathering cars etc. to me this seems right up my alley, because i was just telling my wife above all i would like to be a stunt driver in hollywood.... this would give me an opporitunity to ask about the process...

well fastforward to saturday afternoon, another phone call... this time not only is my car needed to show up for filming, he wanted to use my car for a small specific part in the movies. how could i pass that up right? only catch is he needed the car the next day. FFFUUUU, at this point i had just gotten off of work, and this means i need to take off in the morning. the car just had some standin coil overs put on the rear, and they were no where near ready for a 400 mile trip and then some hard drifting. i start tearing the rear end apart, get the coilovers off... set them, add a part that was missing on both (spacer to stop the rattling) so that justin wouldnt clown the hell out of me.

well comes 3am, and i pack spare tire a jack and some small tools that i figure would help me on my journey down. figured i would uncrop my lights, simply because i assume it is going to be foggy as hell AND with so much road ahead of me, i want as little to no reason for a cop to pull me over and give me hassles, as if the car itself isnt enough.

it's time to rock. leaving out of the bay wassnt too bad, it's very clear actually, but as soon as i climbed up thru the altamont... FOG!

you probably cant see the fog from this pic, but goodness... ground was soaked like it was raining, and damn it got cold!

i looked in my rearview, and i saw some headlights coming up HOT, this lead me to believe it was police... so i checked my speed.

wassnt too bad, so i held it there... other traffic was passing me going 3mph or more faster... so there i cruised.

well i caught the cops eye... fucker slammed on his brakes, and stalked me. probably couldnt believe he would see a car like this with full street paperwork, there wassnt much he could do to me beside give me a sitation for my driving habbits which were currently in check because i didnt want any setbacks. i head toward the I5 turnout, and when i got over the cop just decided to blast off. hella relieved, now i am on the 5 cruising along, blasting music to stay up, and trying to keep warm.... and let me tell you this was virtually impossible. no heater, no defrost, no wipers... terrible! i was trying to do everything i could to not fog up my window... i actually was pretty successful with that but it was causing me to have no type of relief from the cold.

car is running fine, and i am about 200 miles away when i definitely felt i should pull over for gas. suprised i got 202miles out of the tank with 2.3 gallons left over, feeling quite good about myself and my car i fill up and jump back on the 5 to finish out the second leg of the trip. the sun is starting to illuminate the clouds overhead, and im hyped!

...well, until i hit a bump on the freeway and all my power dies off.... engine dead, vehicle off, no love, WTF!?

im on the side of the freeway on the phone, and trying to find a remedy and trouble shoot a issue when these two civics pulled over... i was thinking, well thats nice.. but they didnt help me out. lol, they just GAWKED over the car... "woah, this is hella clean" i think, bro.. im not on the side of the road with my hood up because my car is ok, theres something wrong... please, this aint the time, lol. trying not to be rude, but im also on the phone trying to be someones eyes to remedy the problem so i just ignored them till they took off.

i definitely couldnt remedy the issue, nor could i identify it, so i just called for the trailer and jumped in the car to try to stay warm... @ this point it is 30degrees out, FREEZING like mad! i fall asleep and get woken up to chp knocking on my window... FUCK. he simply asks what has me setting on the side of the freeway, and me trying to protect the car and not say something is wrong, or anything that will have him want to check under my hood i just said i was tired and could go no further without crashing. he simply responds, "ok, well just get off the freeway because its not safe." feeling like a asshole, because i know i wont be able to start my car, i stall and act like i am putting up my laptop etc. stalling tactic works, cop pulls off.

just for shits and giggles i crank the motor... she fires up!!! OMG, im outta here!!! god is GOOD!!! at this point tho, i really didnt know what was going on, but shit... as long as it is on the move, i am doing it moving. carpet is all torn up from checking my halteck, shit is all out of place... but, im on the move.

the 5 is no just soo menacing right now, the road is long, and im so small... and theres still a good piece of land to travel with a unknown issue going on with the car, but hey... were rollin!

i begin to climb up the grapevine and the fc is just super cruising! there is a ton of heavy fog lying on the hill and i am STILL freezing... and bad, but determination is forcing me to ignore my situation and just keep driving.

but wait!!! i get to the top of the hill and fog breaks, YESSSSSSS SUNSHINE!!!!

i am so relieved to be released from this cold hell i have been encased in for the past 5 hours, it's also pretty sick to see some snow on the hills and get such a vivid view of awesome!

there are still some portions of fog lying around the surface of the mountain, but atleast i can open my windows and allow some of this warmth in.... albeit still only 47 degrees, but i am getting direct sunlight.

fastforward a hour or two later, i arrive at the hotline... super relief. this place feels like home more and more, i no longer have to use navigation to get here anymore, i even remember the addresse as if it was home. justin and ryan open up to reel my injured car in, just mere minutes before i pulled to the shop when i was at the corner of el segundo and normandie.. i left the light to a huge "CLUNK", but F it... im here.

parked right next to justins missile... i'm thinkin, ha.. this is dope.

when i noticed something... WTF? daaaaamn, demon camber in the front, lol.

this car is just such a brute!!

the wheels camber is killing me soo hard, i completely cant believe he rips like this i wonder how stable it is when sideways.

now if you havent noticed, this car is straight buisness... the car doesnt care what your mother thinks... your teachers, nor you karate instructor... it simply doesnt give a fuck. mirrors are different from side to side, dents, calico colors, ill fitted body panels, no power nothin... this car just lives for one thing, thrashing duty.

interior is nothing but buisness, and nothing but buisness is handled from the cockpit.

i start into the shop to see another car being pieced together.

and if you remember back from the halloween bash, this guy had one of the bigger moments in wrecks from that event....

well he's back.

new chassis for 2011, master crafter ryan is hard at work building something his last chassis lacked. A CAGE.

this car will definitely be out on the track in no time.

i definitely wish i had a rafter filled with awesome....

instead i got a back yard full of bummer... man it would be good to have a tire sponsor, lol...

more wheels and tires mounted up off in the corner.

i believe this might be ryans collection.

we then spent a few minutes removing stickers from justins front window.. for the movie shoot, but this is definitely a looker with stickers on or off.

most of the stickers that we took off found their way on the wall.

also had to remove a couple of mine, just the ones that were brand, or product representations.

dave briggz 2011 chassis...

and let me tell you, i will definitely try to drive in one of the xdc rounds and man, i want to see this thing in action... hopefully i have a issue free season all year that will allow me to be competitive, would be a treat to face this car in battle i mean for an obvious loss on my part, but it would definitely be a highlight for 2011 if so.

i had to jam back home, because i had to get to work... so the homie took me to LAX. this line was relatively short, but for some reason this crap took forever!

waiting in MADD lines i almost missed my flight, eventho i showed up a hour early... damn you Lax.

i finally get onboard and we taxi off, its been some years since i even had the need to fly.. but i definitely was happy i finally had a reason to fly, plus i was stoked i didnt have to drive all the way back!

off the left side of the plane i can see the channel islands national park... i wanna see this place up close, looks dope!

beautiful imagery out there at this time of day.

hella good mood up here man, im definitely recognizing my blessings out here.

30 minutes later, were in my neck of the woods. the bay area....

we land, and i go outside to meet my wife at sfo, and the adventure is finally over. later in the evening justin hits me back and shows me what the drivetrain noise was.

broken diff mount.

he is currently sorting the issues on the car out, but i am definitely thankful for my friends in proper places.

last year was EPIC. seriously one of the best years of my life, but for some reason... i think this year might be on par to stop 2010's lights out, i am definitely excited to proceede thru the year

season starter FEB13th.

2011-01-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

Just Drift 2011

2011-01-07T18:29:00.001-08:00

i smell a summer smackdown ASB.

2011 Thunder Drift scheduling..

2011-01-03T14:28:00.000-08:00

2011 ThunderDrift Event Dates
(Dates that are not yet finalized are shown in BOLD

1/2 – Sunday – Super Am Round 4
1/29 – Saturday – Super Am Round 5 (Final)

2/13 – Sunday – Fulltrack Open Drift + Open Skidpad Drifting

3/26 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
3/27 – Sunday – TD Gymkhana #1 (details coming soon!)

4/23 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
4/24 – Sunday – NCDA Instructional Drift Event + Open Skidpad Drifting

5/14 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
5/15 – Sunday – TD Gymkhana #2

5/24 – Tuesday – Open Fulltrack Drift

5/28 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
5/29 – Sunday – TD Gymkhana #2

6/18 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
6/19 – Sunday – NCDA Instructional + Open Skidpad Drifting
*NOTE: This event takes place during Redline Time Attack!

7/30 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
7/31 – Sunday – TD Gymkhana #3

8/13 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
8/14 – Sunday – NCDA Instructional + Open Skidpad Drifting
8/20 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
8/21 – Sunday – NCDA Instructional + Open Skidpad Drifting

9/3 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
9/4 – Sunday – TD SuperAm Round 1
9/15 – Thursday – Open Fulltrack Drift + Open Skidpad Drifting

10/8 – Saturday – Open Skidpad Drifting
10/9 – Sunday – TD SuperAm Round 2
10/25 – Tuesday – SPECIAL EVENT ONE OF THESE DAYS… INFO TBA
10/26 – Wednesday – SPECIAL EVENT ONE OF THESE DAYS… INFO TBA

11/1 – Tuesday – SPECIAL EVENT ONE OF THESE DAYS… INFO TBA
11/2 – Wednesday – SPECIAL EVENT ONE OF THESE DAYS… INFO TBA
11/19 – Saturday – NCDA Instructional + Open Skidpad Drifting
11/20 – Sunday – TD SuperAm Round 3

12/17 – Saturday – Open Fulltrack Drifting + TD SuperAm Round 4
12/18 – Sunday – Open Fulltrack + Team Tandem Battle

**Schedule subject to change – check back often**

2011.

2010-12-31T23:15:00.000-08:00

is here.

Hello.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Fantasy Junction....

2010-12-25T21:42:00.001-08:00

there was a good amount of SUPER rare, and cleanly restored and/or maintained classics in there.

gran turismo fans rejoice!

this is a GT40 "replica" has a 427 windsor, ZF 5-speed, 550 hp, and has a california title... the mind boggling height on this car was something i didnt think a human could fit into. it litterally came to my pockets, AND i'm saggin.

shit... i wish i could make my dreams come true and purchase atleast one thing outta here.

all in the name of drift.

2010-12-19T20:21:00.000-08:00

the rain is coming down in sheets, its like a freaking monsoon out here... the truck is hydroplaining, and i cant even see the car on the trailer from the rooster tail coming from the truck. i'm actually hauling ass at about 70, because i really dont want to be in this weather. all the sudden i see 2 trucks pulling 40 coupes. virgil and crick on the 505 gettin there. we group up and haul ass... and sunlight is starting to try to illuminate the clouds.

the hills to the left have massive clouds & fog looming in the cut..

but supprisingly the rain has let up slightly, but still pretty good amount of water on the ground, so im blasting virgil with a good rooster tail still.

wife is KNOCKED the Fuuuu out... and so is my son... but i'm still wide awake, rockstar'd out.

we get to the track at 7:55am... and the next sequence of events took 1hr & 12min.... and i was farr to upset to take pics of it.

ok, so i always break my front bumper unloading my car.... ALWAYS, so i went to the inclined portion of the paddock by the garages, thinking i would just back my car off and not have to deal with the decline... BUT bOy was i wrong! i get the car back'd off the trailer enough for the diffuser to get stuck on the ground.. and it slightly raises the rear wheels off the ground... (yea i know.. who woulda thunk it'd be that strong) the car is relatively straight, but the rear end is wedged on the slight incline... so i think... hey, easy fix, i just jump in the truck and drag the trailer out fom under the car.... well, this woulda worked, but this exhaust hanger got stuck on the metal trim on the end of the trailer... car is anchored now. WTF!? i am sooo fuckin mad and embarassed, i didnt even think to take a picture of what was happening. so now i gotta move the car and trailer to a point where the middle of the car goes apart from the trailer, but dislodging and doing so helped to bottom out the diffuser again, and the front bumper. FUCKIN FAIL X5. now i just say F it and jack the car up in the air, put it on jack stands... pull the trailer out, and then start reversing the ordeal... at this time i am hella embarassed thinking, "i know these fools are looking over here laughin at me being a looser" and exactly at the end of that thought, Geoff comes on the PA.. "lexis, i dont know what the hell you are doing, BUT it looks Awesome!" ...... HELLA embarassed. get the car down, try to start it... now i flood it... FFFFFUUUUUUU!UUUUU!!UU!U!U!U!U!!!!! i just cant win right now.

anyway... super fast forward... car is fired up, helmet is on... the track is still pretty wet.

virgil crick and i enter the track... BAM... straight killin it! i've never hit the track in the rain... this shit was outlandish! serious angle, major pedaling, and all the sudden later in the session... massive spinouts. WTF? i suck. how am i busting out hella rad at first, now i suck? this doesnt make sense.. well after one of the major spinouts, and all in 1 motion downshift to 2nd and when the spin comes right back around enter into another drift like i meant to do it i see smoke coming up thru the shifter... Uh OH!

i enter the pits, and what do i see.... a rainbow trail of oil stairing back at me.

dude, this shit is seriously dumping oil.... how the heck does stuff like this keep happening?

i thought it was the turbo going, because it was oil allll over the cross member....

hella mad, i just throw caution to the wind and start touchin all over a hot ass turbo. gotta find what the problem is at any cost, because now i am completely pissed. a little bit of pain and short inspection exposes the issue.

a crispidy, crackily, brittle broken oil return line.... fuckin what?

the whole top is missing on it.

well that means the top is still on the turbo. so i get the car up and go for it... wet ground and all...

im under the car removing this shrunken brittle piece, and i see that my whole under carrige is painted oily brown.

i remedy the situation by flipping the hose around, and clamping the shit out of it... but its now a tighter fit than before since missing that inch or more from its original form, but hey atleast i can drive the car now, and get it to the shop, and more immediately up on the trailer. i was just getting ready to go drive the car around and see if it leaked or something when it got to operation temp when virgil offered me a ride along during tandem practice. feeling bumed about cutting my session short, i hop in....

now, i do have footage of all the action, but give me a second to explain it.

the course was a short sprint down a straight... then initiate to the right, 3rd gear. slide it out wide left. then flick the car left and scrub speed to hit this beyond 90 degree access road to the left.

virgil is doing his thing, driving like its a video game... if we slam he's just gonna hit restart or something, lol... but he's entertainin me like a mug. i'm wild'n out while he's having a few close slides with a couple of the guys, and running off in the dirt i made a suggestion in his technique that would bring him closer to the clipping point, and also make it look sick as hell on the run. virg followed instruction and we woulda hit the clip damn near perfect, but i notice were sliding uncontrollably at this point... then we spin out... well, heres the video... it can show you better.

i look up and see a fucking wheel fly past the front of the car.... "dude, is that your fucking wheel!?" .....yes. this fools wheel flew off the car... the brake rotor ripped out of the caliper, and we was tippin on fow fow's.

wow, i never in my life thought i would be sitting in a car that did something like that. only with virgil man, only with virgil.

we got the car up on a jack, then got it hooked and outta there so the drifting can continue.

the wife took a couple of artsy pics of the session before the loss of wheels.

we decided to load up and ship out while it wassnt raining.

but the clouds soon rolled in, and so did the rain. we had a waterless trip for the most part the whole way back. soon as i unload everything out of the truck bed, to the sidewalk and get my car positioned to come off the trailer..... all hell breaks loose! lightning, thunder hail, flashflood(no seriously, flash flood.)wht the hell man?! i dont even care at this point. i am still working diligently, freaking soaked to the bone. shoes and sox... wet. hoodie, and shirts... wet. dickies.... wet as fuck.

i finish. come in, jump out the soggy linens throw em in the washer, and come sit down and have a moment. long day man.... fuck, actually a long year.

i had a chance to realize i have been going all the way turned up from nov last year till now. i add my wrist band to the collection (altho my son threw away 2-3 of em) and look at em.

from the demands of my job, to the demands of a husband and father... the only time i get to be me... like really me, have fun.. chill and be silly, well thats only on the racetrack. this year has be THE most memorable in my life. i've met stellar people. gone to a few epic events. spent THE most money monthly. gotten in more trouble at work. dragged my family and friends all over california with me, all in the name of drifting. i have litterally slid thru the year... from feb to december, this is what i have done.

i came to realize, i didnt really take this thing seriously... but my bank account and my job thinks i did. soooo now the reflection has taken a toll on my outlook.

why take the scars and hard ship, if im just "playing drifter" and not really taking it seriously? why modify my car as such? why hunt for tires? why take off work and miss money and risk getting in trouble for it? why loose sleep and be up 3 days straight hanging out in shops 13 hours after 6 hours driving following 10 hour work days? why sleep in my truck in the middle of a desert? why? why do all this if im just playing??

.... i aint playing no more.

2011.

hunting for the sound of the west.

2010-12-17T21:24:00.000-08:00

i know this is farr different of a post than my previous.... but the other day, listning to some music, i realized.... everything sounds like crap. the fruity-loops or whatever that production program is that everyone has been using, well... that is destroying the game. you got a plethora of snap music, and even the westcoast joints are starting to sound like the rest of that crap. my patnah J has endavoured in alot of music production, and has made a few tracks for local artist that include some names like celly cell, etc.

he knows the exact sound i am going for, and he agree's that the game needs more of that.

so he and i are about to gather all the studio equipment that is commonly known that gives rich acustic sounds, and something that we can really utilize all of the features to modify sounds, and produce something real WestCoast.

here is the first purchase of many that was made from this brainstorm... and it just hit the doorstep via ups today.

YES!!!

its about to go down. next up.... well, i will keep it to my self. but we wanna put a good amount of equipment together that is responsible for all the dope ass sounds we were acustom to back in the 80's - 90's era.

hotel boredome/fun.

2010-12-14T09:18:00.000-08:00

so for some reason i had to go to a hotel lastnight, to be rested for this job in stockton today... heLLA bored at 4 am in the morning, i decided to turn off all the lights and fly my heli around.

flash is major bright on my phone, but the room was pitch black.

the side lights flash red and blue, and it has a super bright led light on front. you can see from the reflection on the laptop.

i call him LAPD ghetto bird. its pretty damn fun when your bored.

set it and forget it.

2010-12-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

so i just finished assembling the kts sc betas... 9/7 spring rate, and it should be pretty awesome.

i will probably be slamming the vert this week and i gotta throw in the diff in the white car after next week... drop the vert on the belly, and testfit my 18x10+20's then slap the diff in the other car and i'll be happy.

No bullshit....

2010-12-05T01:43:00.000-08:00

...this game has consumed my life in a major way. my cousin came across the bp falken D1 machine from 03' so i traded him a gallardo for it. yes. a lambo.

either way it goes... i am quite pleased.

Did work.

i didnt feel like actually capturing this properly, cause its so late right now... but please buhleave... you will be seeing more videos like this.

Eye Toy pleasure..

2010-11-27T09:47:00.000-08:00

so i've thought that the eye toy has been the best communication piece for PS3 for quite a while.... but now it does more than just pickup my voice perfectly in online play.

facial tracking does work.... BUT, my black face was too dark. i needed to turn on the lights for it to work, lol..... no but seriously. HAHAAH.

addicted to you...

2010-11-26T03:47:00.000-08:00

if you are anything like i am... this is your second day in a row up till the untimely hours of dopefeinds and street walkers, and why you ask.....

because your life now has a new direction... and that direction is to fill a cyber garage full of unbeatable cars, to achieve greatness in every race you run.... wether it be in a vitz, or a Lamborghini LP640-4. having 70 tracks at your disposal, you never run out of new configurations to tackle... and with the emergence of the WANGAN... this game will never get old. you wanna build atleast 12 cars just to chase down 200+ on that 14.7 mile stretch they tossed in here just to hook you in.

at this moment, how i feel.... i feel like this post is taking me away from whats important.

DRIVING!!!

you wanna see me? add PSN: Sytfu_Lex

thinkin pink.

2010-11-25T03:24:00.000-08:00

so i decided to get some better visual products for the vert... and the temp warranted pink light...

this isnt purple, it's pink. it's messing up the exposure on the camera, and showing purple... but trust me, pink it be.

it doesnt allow for much lighting... but damn you can see reflection of pink for about a mile!

this isnt purple, it's pink. it's messing up the exposure on the camera, and showing purple... but trust me, pink it be.

monday fun..

2010-11-23T01:48:00.001-08:00

the WORST purchase EVER!

2010-11-23T01:01:00.000-08:00

so while i was driving down to Justins on last monday... i was stuggling to stay awake. i heard that was typical when you are up 2 days straight, and trying to make a 8hr drive at midnight....

but i wanted to stay awake, so i bought a few things.
WORST PURCHASE EVER...

well atleast the pricing of it all was, it definitely kept me awake tho'.

my typical day at work.

2010-11-23T00:57:00.000-08:00

lately theres been alot of speculation as to what i do to accumulate monies to modify, and or by cars... well here is a insiders look as to what i do for moolah.

lately i just look out a window at some rain.

i am a paper pusher... oh, and sunflower seed eater... gotta have that baaahhhh-be-que!

then i look at fools sleeping, while i kick my feet up on my cubicle.

unstoppable.

A day @ the Hotline.

2010-11-16T19:41:00.000-08:00

from the minute i walked in the door... i realized this shop is serious buisness nowadays.

from the first days the hotline opened its doors, this shop was dedicated to designing, and custom fabrication. now it is evident, this shop's potential is now being realized.

from forsberg's latest Acquisition, a FC3s chassis, that will be used for street use and would be shocking if the chassis wassnt competition ready by the time they get through with it.

to this RAD ass S13 vert 14 front end.

it's also fortified with a healthy V8 hidden under cover...

...origin's unknown.

then we have dave briggs 2011 car being assembled and chassis work setup in-house.

so, i am definitely pleased to know when i show up i am getting the best help available. it's also pretty dope to know that it's all about rotary at the core.... i mean, why else would you get this kind of lift?

....and every damn time i show up at the shop, this fool justin always got a new "street car" project.

if he finishes it, this could be pretty ill.

oh yea... i got a retune that was RAD yesterday... more on that later.

s2k?? s5.7k...

2010-11-13T22:26:00.000-08:00

so the gym teacher is now grinnin...

HOndheVy.. LS5.7K.

motormounts fit snug...

here's the problem, he's going auto.

either way it goes, if you come across this dude at the stoplight... chances are, he is going to be grinnin ear to ear, and he is going to give you the jump.

more on the way for this engine.... putting it in is only half the project.

droptop's and pop tops.

2010-11-11T14:49:00.000-08:00

the radiator got jealous of the top's capabilities. so it popped its top off.

KBR corolla

2010-11-09T21:07:00.000-08:00

Henry Van... Super-Am competitor.

henry is hyphee.... yes i used the old term in 2010, HYPHE! this fool gets on the pedal, and unless his car is on fire, or broken... he doesnt let up on the pedal..... AT ALL.

aside his car being loud as shit, it's actually low key visually.

theres some KBR stickers in certain places... but the car is pretty standard, beside the OG kbr camo scheme on the lip.

here is the noise maker itself.

attatched to some smooth headers, and exhaust, this car has been heard sliding from 3+ miles away. just to give you a idea of how loud this is.... train horns are measured at 2 mile ranges... van's AE86 knows how to project to say the least.

currently placed 4th in the newly established ThunderDrift Super-Am, you can catch him fighting for an all expense paid Pro-Am ride in 2011, with the rest of the competition hopefuls in the rest of the preseason Super-Am.

My Homie rolls with OBAMA....

2010-11-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

"The President is black"

Feliciano just got a daily to mob the fam around in.... oh, and he gets it angular too.

LJuba (Jew-Buhh) the snyper.

2010-11-09T18:52:00.000-08:00

so back when this middle east war started, there was a person, or group of snipers named "JUBA"... very skilled sniper(S), that seemed to pick off well trained troops strategically. too bad they were the opposition.

well, seems as tho we got a "juba" on our side... Rob Ljuba that is... a avid scooby tuner, but he also has a drifty side. well, seems as tho' this fool has melded everything together, and created this monster here.

well... front mount on a subie aint much to write home about, but a GC8 makes it a bit fresher, since our offering state side was NA....

...but noooo, that aint what makes this GC special.

this is.

you see it???

....a smooth SR cuz.

yeah. this is gonna be a bastard, but sooo, so sweet!!

RWD....

check.

perfectly positioned shifter...

check.

properly stanced on steelies??

eerrr??? lol, new wheels to come...

he's even gone as far to swap out the old dated dash, and slapped in something of the fresher, more recent sti.

this vehicle is fairly close to being finished... and will be seen random places snyping out the opponents in tandem comp.

this kid's style is fresh, so expect to see this shit fitted with some dope ass wheels, and body styling to match. he also had his hand at judging comp events @ stockton99, so it is kinda dope to see the kid playing dual roles.... so he's kinda like our tony angelo, just way fresher shaven, and longer hair. -no hobo-

MORE to come.

so, umm... yeah.

2010-11-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

i come outside this morning, and see there was an attempt on my sweet, sweet.. virgin convertible.

weather stripping is shot!

they even tried to pry it open in the front.

must have been some new random ass out the area feind, cause i have had far fresher shit sitting out on the street.

but alas... i realized what they were after.

do you see it?

that fresh ass bobby brown cassette!! those feinds know they wanted it!

here's mud in your eye!

2010-10-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

so this is what i was mentioning in my fulltrack recap. the pictures explain it far better than i could, but i will walk you thru what i was experiencing in these pics.

turn 2 is actually a bowl, it goes downhill then uphill... as you exit turn 2 it is headed uphill and the proper place to initiate is right at the crest outside... but as i came up the hill i was hesitant if i wanted to drift the corner or not. (i was focused on certain turns and entries that day instead of just drifting the whole track)
so a little late in the straight i dedicated to sliding turn 3. i was running hot, and just did a rush initiation.

i entered in 3rd gear, which would be aiight if i decided to do initiate sooner.. but at the point i commited to it, i was super late!

knowing i was sliding WAY off line... i refused to slide off into the infield. i simply REFUSED!

i came over the hill, initiated.... i think "fuck, i'm going WAY too fast." i downshifted to 2nd gear, floored that shit! the car hooks up like mad, but my momentum kept me heading towards a sea of mud.

i loosened up on some angle hoping to get the car to come in more when i felt my left tire touch dirt... but i stayed floored. i was hitting the limiter, but just decided i wassnt gonna let up. i kept hearing my tires squeeling, so i knew my right rear was still on tarmac, so i kept going for the gusto!

still holding position and approaching the exit of turn 3 i figured i wassnt going to go off... so i set up for turn 4.

upshifted to 3rd, and committed to get on next clipping point.

anyway... here's the pics.

seeing the rooster tail shooting back in my rearview mirror on one side, and smoke in the rearview on the other side... probably one of the funniest things i saw in my rearview of that day.

MAD shouts out to fittedlife.com i was just going to chalk that situation up to a great story to tell, but they captured images of it so i could share with yall.

finally got the R/C driveable.

2010-10-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

mini scaled joint.

still gotta make my roof spoiler, and get the scaled down sticker sets made.... but atleast the car is complete and i can drive it.

out of the ordinary...

2010-10-27T18:19:00.001-07:00

this year i have tried my damndest to not post anything if it doesnt relate to my crew... afterall, i'm not speedhunters or motormavens etc...

but my GOD!

i had been seeing twit's about this, and status updates on facebook mentioning this... i finally got off of work and ran straight to the pc.

i am literally blown AWAY!

view this ASAP.

Street Drift from Laurence Janus on Vimeo.

my goodness 3:40 - 3:46 was just mental... i didnt even see that coming.

fulltrack free reign!

2010-10-26T20:30:00.001-07:00

today was dope.... i adventured into the land of courage, and utilized the track time to try and see how far i could push myself into the realm of really grasping agressive drifting.

man let me tell you... this damn FC is pretty damn cappable. i wassnt doing anything spactacular, or never before seen... but I was actually the one doing the DOPE highspeed entry's, and rockin' sick ass angle, and doing the upshifts in drift, and downshift etc.

i learned alot about exploring thunder hill's rythm, and where i could get super agressive, and where i had to use some tactics to accomplish my prefered line.

all in all..... fUCKIN doPe DaY!!!!

very pleased...

the boys from washington made the 9 hour drive down to get sideways. we were pitted side by side.

i guess we're all a fan of ENKEI's eh?

squad up!

it was a cold damn morning... 39 degrees @ 7am... fucking truck was running under 120 degrees...

but it turned out to be a pretty good damn day!

while i was on track, when i didnt slide turn 1... smoke just billowed out of the front of my car, i was soo scared a oil line had let go, or something trivial like that....

no. my tire is rubbing the frame when i turn in pretty good @ speed.

it wore off quite a BIT of tire... these things are done.

but other than that, those were the only problems i occurred... my trimmed fenders held up nicely... and when i am on full angle, loaded up... you see nice whisp's of smoke off of my fenders.

kinda peppered up my car...

OMG, thats from driftin... lol.

i went out in one last session with the washington crew... fucking agressive session man. i did one of the illest dirt drops that had probably been seen at thunder hill... on the off camber turn 3 i went in too hot... was wayyy off line, had both front wheels on the tarmac, and rear right wheel on the tarmac, rear left was right in the dirt... super rooster tail of mud, and greenery sent flying. i stayed planted and drove that shit over to turn 4-5... it looked funny as shit, smoke on one side, dirt rooster tail on the other side. on the same lap, i was just feeling myself too much and i initiated into turn 9 around 75mph or so, and i didnt trim off the excess speed too good... well that sent me off between 9-10... i hit a rutt, and busted my cars tooth...

ARRRRRGgg..... back to the damn bodyshop. gotta stay lookin minty tho'.

when i was pulling up at home... my dad was pullin up behind me... in my vert.

for yall that didnt know. yesterday i picked up another vert.... i just couldnt get over the fact that i got rid of a perfect convertible.

pretty cool little s4... and for some reason, this thing is a WHOLE LOT GAWD DAMN FASTER THAN MY OLD VERT..... hmmm....

on my way to go drop off the trailer.... i look over at the ocean and realize.... this is the joy god wants us to appriciate.

perfect end to a dope ass day.

thunderhill on tuesday.

2010-10-24T23:53:00.001-07:00

i'll get much needed seat time.

my fenders still rub a little bit, but i refuse to raise the car. actually i want to lower it more, but unfortunately i cant.

clutch is battered and bruised, but i think it could possibly last... maybe not, but who cares, time to have some fun... sort it all out at the track.

other than that, the car currently doesnt have many problems, so i think i should have a pretty chill day.

today was a leisure day..

2010-10-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

... i messed around with the r/c car for a minute.

you peep the orange wheels tho!?

so i went outside and decided to change my sub setup... JL W3 8incher... 250W D class sub, and 2 farrad cap.

this shit hits pretty damn hard, so i decided to mount the external bass control somewhere that is right in reach.

then after coming inside a bit later, i got everything trimmed out on the body of the R/C... just needs the tires, and then the brushless motor and lypo battery.

now just chillin out, with the v-town homies, playin some grid etc.

....and then.....

2010-10-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

i got to go to a spot i wanted to shoot at today. been itching to do something here, didnt get done what i wanted because of the sun positioning... but heres what i got. i will shoot here again, because i got such a vision for this spot... i just need less light so you can see what i see.

plan on doing a bit more, but you will have to stay tuned to witness...

i then came home to find a box that had some stuff that i wanted packed away neatly inside.

The daily

2010-10-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

...grind/driver. had a good brake from work, now im back on the clock. what better car to take me than what i'm ultimately working to fund.

the final bout...

2010-10-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

it all collides here... the pro-am project, and the pro project... everyone sums it all up today starting @ 2pm. pro practice, then 3pm starts pro-am main event. the nationals are going to be crazy! who will get their pro liscense for 2011?

say what??

2010-10-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

the meet, and a little bit of friendly bullshitting.

Lately.

2010-10-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

i've just been out enjoying down time..

latenight drives..

even been enjoying a little bit of mini-moto.

the weather has been getting progressively worse, but thats a good thing.

even been getting a bit of sprinkles at night, to wake up to a wet morning. i think i need to wire in some sort of switch for my front wipers.

ALSO.. something i am very excited about.

10/23 - NCDA

NCDA is a program designed by ThunderDrift for drivers of all backgrounds who are interested in learning to drift. Our head instructor and team of expert drift coaches will guide you through a comprehensive process where you’ll learn the fundamentals of drifting a car in a safe and fun environment.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?e...25282734&ref=mf

10/24 - SUPERAM

This will be a perfect opportunity for newer drivers to get comfortable with the pressures of competition before the 2011 TD Pro-Am series begins. Low-pressure single-run comps for rounds 1-4 will segway into an awesome tandem battle for round 5. The points system works like team-sports, so please read the rules carefully to understand how the system works.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?e...47016686&ref=mf

10/26 - Full Track

they have been listning!!!! were starting to get more track time!!!

plus 11/26 is going to be bobs donuts drift day... black friday style @ buttonwillow.

http://www.laboratory17.com/?page_id=664

i sure hope i can hold up to all this drifting. time to go get some tires.

well this was unexpected...

2010-09-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

...the last time i will see her.

welp... i had a ton of fun in it, too bad i didnt get it to where i wanted it first. really hope i see this car get put to good use.

Pro-Am qualifier...

2010-09-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

Between October 2010 and February 2011, ThunderDrift will be proudly presenting the TD SuperAm series.

This will be a perfect opportunity for newer drivers to get comfortable with the pressures of competition before the 2011 TD Pro-Am series begins. Low-pressure single-run comps for rounds 1-4 will segway into an awesome tandem battle for round 5. The winner of the series will receive a paid entry to the whole 2011 TD ProAm series! Don’t let the opportunity go to waste!

thats a good deal for all you guys that wanna get in on the ground level, because @ $169 x 5 possibly 6 bucks.... you can now focus on buying tires, and maintaining the car.

FD sonoma

2010-09-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

it was pretty sick. got to chill with all the Thunder drift guys, had the car set up in the booth, and got to roam around and network.

met some really interesting people... one of which photo's i will post up here.

his name is lennox, and he is pretty handy with a camera.

from practice to the podium he took some pretty good shots.

sadly roland didnt make the cut during qualifying, but looked damn good doing it.

aasbo was also ripping this place a new one... hard to believe that this is the first time seeing this surface.

really bummed that robbie didnt make the cut. i still think thAt Dynamic auto shoulda went with a 370z this year to be more competitive, but damn this car looks good sideways.

up at the Thunder Drift Pro-Am booth fittedlife.com slid thru and got a few shots of the setup.

pretty dope shot...

this shot shows my yellow #panel.. aka rookie panel, lol.

during the main event there was a TON of people walking around. the foot traffic was pretty impressive.

soo glad my car wassnt setting on display chipped toothed and haggard.

there was a good amount of foot traffic, and i shook alot of hands and spoke with alot of people.

for all of those that were inquiring about my cage and other set up parts... if you want some of these pieces to be your own, run on over to www.justinpawlak.com or jtpdrift.com

gotta go to work, but i will update later.

Thunder drift booth at Formula D

2010-09-07T23:22:00.000-07:00

this weekend at Formula D, thunder drift has a large booth set up to gather attention for our pro-am efforts. be sure to stop by and inquire on how you could potentially become a driver in the series next year, and to meet and examine some of this years Pro-Am drivers and cars.

time to take it to the hood....

2010-09-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

so which one should i get?

finally some wheel clearance.

2010-09-03T13:22:00.000-07:00

so i got up early today to go check on the car. H&H autobody is working really fast to meet the deadline for the deadline for FD sonoma.

i went by there to drop off my key since, i gave them the other fc key on accident.

they trimmed the fenders up a few inches, i've gotten em fixed 2 times now, and obviously fixing isnt the issue, and i refuse to raise the car again.

looks like i might be able to lower it a inch after their done. more pics on this later.

they used to cover the tires a bit...

while i was noticing how good the weather was in oakland... i kinda felt bad i was headed home to the fuckin blanket that envelopes my neck of the bay.

you just get under this shit and frown...

it comes in from the Golden Gate every morning, and every evening.

4theriders.com

2010-09-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

i got the chance to chat with the owner of the site this time around. really nice dude, down to earth. the site covers alot of bike events and you can always find yourself in the photoset if you were at a trackday around the norcal region.

jump over to the site and check it out. you may possibly find yourself in 1 or 2 flicks.

here are a few flicks from me during qualifying session.

here is the second qualifying run... this is the "over rotation". i initiated deep, and since i didnt have enough rev and power to push the line wider i went over the apron and slid to a stop. here's the sequence.

pretty lame huh?

when we threw the 17's on so i could actually get some wheel speed was when i actually made it thru the course, lol.

a shot of me coming out of the clipping zone.

really cool to see some pics of the day. plus they got posted REALLY fast. props to 4theriders.com look for em at your local trackday.

a tuff lesson learned.

2010-08-31T20:58:00.000-07:00

A REALLLLLLLLLLLY LONG READ

so today was the final round of norcal Pro-am. thus marking my very first year attempting to compete... well, let me sum it up. IT WAS HECKTIK!!! now dont take the hecticness as it being a bad experience, because it wassnt. i had a blast this year, litterally. from team drift comp in feb, to round 2 in april, to allstar bash in july, etc. etc.

mind you, i am a road racer turned drifty... but how did i get into drifting some ask, it really isnt too complicated. back when i first got realllly hardcore into roadracing, evo's and sti's just hit our shores, and there was really no way to keep up with them on exit speed. my fc was set up pretty good back then, albeit fast... i had nothing for their exit speeds. what i ended up doing was closing hard on entry, and braking at the last minute. weight would shift forward... car started to slide, i would get on gas early, trying to beat them to the throttle, and try to cling on to them on exit speed and get it done on the straights. now it wassnt a huge countersteer drift, just a nice neutral steer 4 wheel slide. this really worked good on infineon turn 11.

fast forward to now... i finally decided to take my play in the streets to the track and make a effort to stay away from street drifting, which is where i learned what is now known as the modern drift.

so since i knew justin for a while before i actually became his customer, i jumped at the chance to learn from this dude, and get my car setup from him aswell... now, know this... it didnt come easy. altho we are homies, buisness is buisness... he has billz to pay, and i have a demand to have the best work i can get applied to my project.

between justins FD program he would get my car in order, i ended up missing first round of our pro-am this year, but i still had a healty outlook. my car was ready just in time for round 2. one 24hour shooter trip down and back from socal delivered my long awaited car. fully caged, freakin sweet engine, new shoes and rubber, setup suspension, weight reduction, i mean the whole 9. this car was pretty.... pretty fuckin powerful and functional, lol. i couldnt wait till round 2. litterally. my stupid ass took the car out on the street and what would have been a short off track incident ended up being a fucking BLASTED front end, and fucked up suspension. all that hard work, MONEY, and time wasted in 15 minutes, because i was too anxious, and didnt take it to the safest place to experience this new found glory. THE TRACK. so after having my car just 72 hours, now i had to rush to get body work done (thanks to my dad.. driveway work in 3hours got me looking official), then i had to get the crossmember adjusted, and then i also had to get RE-aligned. all this 2 days before the fuckin event.

day of... it's fuckin show time!!! i am loaded up, ready to rock, and in the perfect mindset to dominate. i go to unload the car off of the trailer... no key... WTF?! no key?! how the fuck is that? i dropped it at the gas station back in my home town. no time to tell my dad where it is... but i have the spare at home. 2 hours later, and my dad shows up. practice is now over, and i am just now starting the car for the first time for the day. qualifying is starting, and i am now freaking out! first pass i make... "POW" no boost. in my mind i completely give up. i pull it into the paddoc and say to myself, fuck this. it just aint meant to be. my wife looks at me with the dissapproving eyes, and says "all this and you are just gonna give up, atleast see what the problem is". pop the hood, and it is the I/C piping..... not too bad, so me and the homies get it back in order, and qualifying time is now upon me. i go out for my first qualifying run... initiation... GANGSTER~ clipping zone, im ON it!! transition 1, floor it for smokey effect, "POOOOOOOWWWWW". what the F^@K~? tach falls FLAT. no engine power. clutch in. clutch out, in an attempt to bump start... wheels skid... oh shit! seriously?!?

motor is seized.

wow.

vaccum line from previous build that went no where but cost me 5 grand, plauged my new minty shinny powerful turd. the vaccum line to the boost solenoid and wastegate snapped... my gt35 got mannish, and my seals wassnt havin it. wow. yall dont wanna know how much the shit cost me to get to this point, but just realize..... IT COST!

well, back to square 1.... i dont wanna be out the seat for too long. i am feining! seriously feining, the speed, the power, shit being back in the seat finally.. i had to have it again at ALL cost. back to LA i go. justin wassnt too happy bout it, nor was i.

rebuild and reset. the car was litterally finished the DAY before allstar bash. justin didnt have time to do a full tune, but he definitely made it safe to beat on. underpowered, and low on the rev limiter i went out in the hot desert heat to partake in the fun festival that is allstar bash. i am a mental driver... and shit gets in my head and i bug out about it. i felt the car was solid because i drove it from LA to willowsprings... plus i trust justins word and his work, but i was just shell shocked from the previous time i drove the car. BUT, justin made sure that would NEVER happen again. he redid the IC pipes, and moved the vaccum port.
the car was RIPPIN!!! low power actually made me have more fun, i had to extend my drifts and be precise on my lines because i didnt have the power to just punk the track. this was a blast!! after a few sessions i was on my game! this car was serious, even if it only had 240+- whp. this was dope! ASB ended, i drove the car from LA to the bay... i dailied the car for a month, lol... yes. i DAILY drove this shit. so many years months, weeks of being a trailer queen, i just had to get my jollies off in this car.

justin made me realize that street drifting was not the way, and after a turn of events that relieved my pockets of some much needed money, I AGREED.

.........so in an attempt to not boor you guys too much longer.

fast forward to a week ago.

my car started to bug out. i thought it was the plugs, because it started with becoming increasingly harder to start. it would kill my battery, and forced me to keep a charger on my battery all night to make sure i had full power in the morning for cold starts. then all the sudden, the car would go lean then rich, and then stopped reving smoothly past 6 rpm.

few days ago, it stopped gaining power past 5. it feels, and sounds like a boost leak tho... really weird. i checked all ic pipes as suggested... not the problem. i am still getting full boost, the car just feels like it is blowing spark out. so i get some new plugs, and was hoping that hotter weather would help cure this problem... as i was told it could be because it is getting down to 50 degrees in my city.

well fast forward again to today... comp day. everything is working good... but i still cant rev it out. oh well, i wanna get down to buisness... haha, boy was i wrong. first problem of the day. getting used to a welded diff... OH NO. do. not. wanting.... my inexperience with this newfound posi-traction made it suck... PLUS, with me not being able to rev it out positively past 4.7 rpm now made my 265's useless for me. i just kept getting grip, AND without the power to make this shit spin... i spun. lol. and spun, and spun, and spun some more.... i fuckin blew DICK!!! it was a complete 180 from asb. i only dirt dropped 1 tire off the track only because i blew alll the fuckin tread off of the tire and lost grip during that event, other than that i was ON. today... not so much. i was OFF!!!! way off, like batteries out off.

first ofall, the format was changed, and instead of us doing laps of half track that included our judged portion, we were really doing it Formula D style. run the route... stop. grid. wait. 15 minutes later, go back to the starting line. it was something i personally was not used to. not saying it was bad, just saying it didnt work out for me... because i never got a chance to figure out what i could and couldnt do with my beat up car.

so... personally i was embarrased with my level of performance. i RARELY ever spin. for whatever reasons it may be... i dont like spinning. i spun twice at asb, during tandem practice only because i was trying different entry's because i never tandemed before in a comp setting. so i was kinda leary on being close to drivers i had never driven with right off the bat, but as everyone saw i was SOLID when competition came around. thats pretty much my strong point....

.....not today, lol. i fuckin SPUN fiddy-leven times, lol. we only got 2 qualifying runs oddly, where as we used to get 3. the first run i ran the whole course, just to catch a misshift upshift 2-3, and caught grip and spun. FAIL... run #2, i initiated way to deep and over rotated... didnt actually spin, but i stopped the drift, and had to uturn like a buster.... so with that being said, i feel i didnt deserve to get the easy in qualify that we were all given today due to the low attendance. i know it's corny, but i felt it was a dishonorable position. but then again i felt it was my chance to reintroduce myself to some of the people that may not be familiar with me.... so i definitely tried to focus up, and do my best... altho honestly, today.. i was trying, and hard. but for some reason, my efforts just werent turning a good result. well, when i found out i was going to get a pass into 16 comp... i just figured, fuck trying to be wild, just run safely.

i get paired up with luke from blu808... gotdizzamn. definitely didnt wanna do that, lol. i wassnt scared by any means, but since my car wassnt producing good power and revs i knew i was at a dissadvantage. but something weird i noticed... luke didnt have the the typical raspy, ls1 sound like normal... fuckin A. he got a new setup, and it's all motor. WTF? plus, it didnt sound healthy, and it would barely start... he was on the same level as me i think, lol. he asked me a few feeler questions about our runs, prior to us lining up. i told him to just go for it, and if i pull away from the line its like street racing rules, if i chase its a race... BUT on the follow, i told him to space me out on the first turn, only because i was spinning soooooooo dang much, i didnt want him to be right on my ass and i get plowed into. that was the only reasoning for it, just because i knew i sucked today... that was all.

so, here we go, first run... he DUSTs me in a massive fashion off the line... expected, but still i had to short shift... one, two, now three... all under 5rpm... fuckin gay! if yall know rotaries, you know i maybe had 40% of my power if that. i initiated probably the fastest i had all day. 1st transition i gained a good amount of ground, and we were approaching 2nd transition and clip and he scrubbed a TON of speed. i was only 1-2 cars back, and to me.. it felt like i was closing too fast, or he scrubbed to much speed. so i got scared, and instead of grabbing handbrake, i stab frnt brakes... this backed my car off of the line tremendously... i was rocking some pretty good angle, and this really threw me off. so i downshift to 2nd gear, and tip toe'd the apron, where i finally touched rear right in the dirt only 1 foot before the seam to the next pavement, and bounced right back on track, but never the less... dirtdrop, and wide line... basically i threw the run away on the second half.

so i kinda felt salty about it, not as if i got brakechecked, but yea... kinda. i just think this guy has sooo much speed and angle cappabilities, i dont understand how he would have to go so slow right here. but whatever, thats "racing" in a nutshell. so my lead run, i am thinking damn... i'm at a deficit. i gotta ROCK, and ROCK HARD! i say fuck the tuning problem i'm flooring it, so i did. still couldnt shift too far in the rpm's, (5k) but i picked up alot of speed... initiated really deep, and just clutchkicked as soon as i dropped the handbrake down. fawkin' BLASTED thru the course... fast transition 1, 2, then tried to fuckin drive it as wide as i could to the clip zone... but i still didnt have the rpm and power to do that. but hey... why dont i hear this loud ass ls1? after the straight i look in the rearview, no 808... what happened? i look over at my wife in the paddock givin me fist pumps, and i'm still confused. did i fuck him up? was i too slow? i just figured it had to be me.

well on the radio in the aft-staging part of the track, i hear them say luke spins, send lex back... he's off track and needs a tow. tell lex dont stop at the car just come back up the hill he moves on. i am thinking, wooooooooow(flavor flav) what just happened? i get up top and i still dont know what's going on. ron gives me the thumbs up, you move on, you move on he says... fuck, wow. i take off my helmet... unharness, then i sit there for about 5 minutes. well, little did i know.. altho he over rotated, and went off track, and/or had engine failure.... they are allowing him to get in another car, and were going 1 more time.... WHAT?! holy crap, how is this happening. i honestly wanted it to be over, because my car needed to cool down, and i didnt wanna hotlap the car like that. then ron says, wait what? a spin is a zero... i'm thinking, yeah huh? come to think of it... when i blew my motor in round 2... my shit seized up too... i just pushed the clutch in and finished my run without spinning. i understand and i feel the pain of blowing a motor, BUT if you spin... aint that a done deal? hmm... well whatever the logistics, we are lining up to go again... luke in a fresh car... me in my 110*c(230*F) engine temps. i'm caught soo off guard, i am wound down, and i am trying to think wtf is going on. either way, we're lined up and getting ready to rock. this time i ask for the pace cone rule... because my motor is soo hot, i really didnt wanna start off soo hard. kinda corny, but like i said, i realllllllly didnt wanna hotlap the car like this. BUT... i didnt get my wish... this dude drag starts on my ass, rapidly pullin on me... shit dejavu'. so here i go playing catchup again, and then here we go again! major scrubbage! i now understand he didnt do that to me on purpose the first run, this is just how he drives. my lack of tandem experience had me closing in soo fast, i did the same shit as the first run... but this time i ended up spinning off of the track. fuck. oh,well.. i know i am going to get my lead lap, but damn my car is hot... my warning lights are flashing, temp is 115*c(239*F), and if yall dont know this is DANGEROUS for the motor. so i pull off hellla slow. trying to get some air to the motor, and prolong the time i have to get the car cool. we end stage, then head back, and i am driving hellla slow again. still trying to cool the car... i get to the top of the hill, the car is finally down to 105*c(220*F). here we go, boogie time... my lead. i fuckin drag start again... still limping my car in short shifts, but still had a GREAT initiation... this time i see helllla tire smoke coming over my fender and hood, i dont really think too much about it, i just think the fender is touchin, and i am rockin my ass off.... transition and i hear a "THUNK" noise. i spin...... again... how the fuck did that happen? i was rockin it. well fastforward 30 mnutes later. i am talking to my spotter, he said my right front wheel was fully locked up like i was on the brake and thats what the smoke was from. how is that happenening?? this shit aint right? well, when we loaded the car up at the end of the day... i am strapping it down and securing it... i strap the wheels. when i ratchet them forward... why the fuck does the whole wheel move forward?

turns out. my from crossmember is now loose. my wheel moves forward and back 2 inches almost. FUCK, what the hell happened? my theory is that when i got the front end fixed from my crash, either they didnt tourqe the bolts down well enough, and it is now loose or fell off, or they broke.

but now this is starting to make sense. every time the car rotated fully to the right, wheels turned left, well any time it went full lock honestly. the wheel would cast forward or backward, and hit the frame and skid. wow... now see.. if i had of went and got my alignment like i planned to... this woulda been caught prior to it getting this bad. coulda been tightened up, remedied etc. BUT, since i was lagging, and having to go to work until this day.... well. this is the result.

BUT, this is not the excuse... because, even with this happening, the first set of runs prior to our 1 more time i was solid.

so... like i said, i sucked today. it just sucks more than i have to now probably fix a major problem, lol. oh well... this is motorsports, and as much as it does me wrong i still love it.

but this is what makes great experiences, and a seasoned driver. this made me feel human, because prior to this... i didnt have any publicly seen bad runs. this now made me just like everyone else, a human being. now i dont want anyone to "runtelldat' like i am saying i am better than anyone... no i am not. i am learning to be far more humble than i ever have been in my life, and i actually enjoyed all the fuckups today. as i said i honestly gave it my best shot, but no matter what i tried i couldnt overcome what was becoming... A BAD DAY. we all have em.

what to do now? well move forward, and improve on my program. i am probably going to try to work closer with justin, and actually practice this coming season. this means weekends in socal, just to rent balcony or other tracks at the springs. this also means more education, on car setup and maintinance, i will also be focusing more on mental downloads of my driving time... and taking more away from it then dope ass story's to tell friends and family. i actually want to take the experience from it, and have it in my mind to go over, and over again and again. so that i can basically mentally clean up my runs, so that i dont get that "rusty" feeling everytime i jump back in the seat.

oh well, i am tired now.... probably could speak on more, but damn... i bore myself, so i know yall bored already, lol.

-LEx.

today.

2010-08-30T19:11:00.000-07:00

i was busy.

and i saw something dope.

.....envy.

then when i went home, i did this.

..eh.

oh, and yesterday.

this.

for the last two days.

2010-08-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

i've been busy... really busy.

but... long story short.

got my twins back...

mongoose's from back in the di-day! i used to ride these to school, chicks houses, to the mall etc. i remember first buying these shits. then 11 years later, i get em refurbished. two different design frames, but got em done indenticly. i will go in depth on em in another post.

while i was in oakland going to pick up another FC chassis, i saw this.

someone in west oakland decided to relieve this bus of its wheel works.

so i loaded up the trailer with the rolling chassi and smashed to the house.

then i had to rush up to LEn's to get a last minute thing done to the fc... i always love looking at my car from this angle. it kinda looks like a race car from here.

end yesterday.

so this morning i get up early to get these body parts swapped over to the vert.

i got the hood off, primed up. took off the fenders and primed, then painted, let everything dry, and slapped it all on. no more bent and beat up fenders, and the front bumper even fits alot better.

then something that has been bugging me for quite a while. since the vert doesnt have tilt wheel i had been wanting to get a smaller diameter wheel.

but lo and behold the shell has the OEM MOMO wheel... WIN!!! took off the bohemouth called airbag wheel:

slapped on the sleek momo.

also popped in some other small trinkets that i have been wanting to get off ebay etc. now it is all together and solid, and clean.

for the white car, i really didnt need much cause i keep it pretty clean with interior pieces etc. but i did swap in the new shift bezzel and boot. the trany heat etc, made my last boot crispy, so this new supple piece is perfect.

i also slapped in a center console, this was the first center console that didnt have any cracks etc in it. pretty dope.

found that some of my spark plugs were kinda loose, and hopefully this will fix a problem that occured lastnight with the car kindof breaking up at higher RPm's.

i will be hitting the skatepark up this weekend... or maybe i should wait till after tuesday. i dont wanna break bones before a event.

las vegas formula d. night event live right here.

2010-08-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

the event should get underway @ 5pm.

here's your drivers list as follows from lastnights qualifying session...

1. Sam Hubinette 93.5
2. Kyle Mohan 91.2
3. Conrad Grunewald 89.4
4. Chris Forsberg 88.9
5. Vaughn Gittin Jr. 88.2
6. Tyler McQuarrie 87.1
7. Michihiro Takatori 86.3
8. Dai Yoshihara 86.2
9. Mad Mike Whiddet 86
10. Justin Pawlak 83.8
11. Darren McNamara 82.6
12. Ryan Tuerck 81.1
13. Charles Ng 80.9
14. Joon Maeng 79.8
15. Ryuji Miki 79
16. Tanner Foust 77.4
17. Eric O’Sullivan 75.9
18. Alex Pfeiffer 75.6
19. Jeff Jones 74.5
20. Fredric Aasbo 73.2
21. Ross Petty 72.7
22. Matt Field 72.2
23. Matt Powers 71.6
24. James Deane 71.3
25. Taka Aono 69.7
26. Tony Brakohiapa 68.6
27. Michael Essa 68.3
28. Brian Wilkerson 67.3
29. Rhys Millen 67.1
30. Patrick Mordaunt 65
31. Nicoli Konstantinov 63.7
32. Jeff Abbott 59.6

via wrecked magazine...

FatLace classic

2010-08-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

long string of days.

2010-08-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

so lastnight i go to work... the street races were going on, which i kinda knew of ahead of time so i took the slowest thing on the planet to work. i sat and watched for a while but eventually took off, since nothing good was runnin. worked all night, and into this afternoon. when i got off i decided to do some shit to stay busy till time to get my kid.

started with getting the fix it ticket from asb signed off... fail. only the registration could be signed off, so i guess i gotta go down to La this week to clear a fuckin ticket.

then i hop in the white fc, try to fire it up.. FAIL. so i go to kragens, get some plugs....

i looked at the old ones and they were pretty whooped.

the other 2 were worse than these, but whatever everything is good now. fires up fairly quick when cold too.

went to go get my kid from daycare, and i saw this thing following me...

he had some odd body lines for a g35, so i slowed down to get a better look @ it.

dunno if you can see the body lines, but it was a bit much. i've seen this guy before, and i liked it better before the wide body.

then i had to rush home to get on the all important CARTOWN... had to collect from some jobs that were done. then my cousin showed me his superior cartownage from his phone.

i know i need to upgrade now to be a true nerd.

then we went to go check out this spot we sorta got permission to slide on...

looks cool, but not big enough to do anything on... which is kinda cool if you think about it, because last year we woulda been all over this place. at this point in time we know we go too fast to utilize this area.

all i gotta do now is change oil tomorrow, and get my diff fluid changed, and mount some tires... i should be ready for round 4 after that.

oh yeah, and i changed the brakes on my truck the other day..... finally. when we left willowsprings the brakes were making a WEIRD ass noise, i knew something was wrong, but it just didnt sound right. truck stopped fine so i figured fuck it, lets get home. i kinda neglected the truck since that weekend, so when we got down to changing the brake pads we discovered the source of the strange ass noise.

now aint that a bitch......

anyway, i gotta try to get a hour or two of sleep before i end up on day 3 no sleep. L8a.