Private Tuning Hands v3.0
racing slow since '03
Dec. 30, 2005 - Autometer gauges
i hope everyone had a great christmas. i got my autometer gauges as a present from clarice: vacuum, volts, oil pressure plus the water temperature kuya mark gave me. i installed the vacuum and volt meter first since they are the easiest. im sure i will have withdrawal symptoms with the cigarette lighter gone because i used it occasionally for lighting cig. or as a charger for the phone. anyways, the install went ok. i used a dremel to trim the plastic and i used the wiriing of the cig. lighter for both gauges. also, i have been sitting on my sparco sprint for the past week. feels very good but weird because i sit lower. guess i have to get used to it. next week is ncda at thunderhill. hopefully, ill be able to prep. the car for some drift action!
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Dec. 17, 2005 - D1 USA vs Japan @ Irwindale
this is the second time me and my friends went down to socal to watch d1 usa vs japan exhibition match. 8 friends, including my gf clarice were able to make the event. i was really nice just having fun  with friends and getting away from the usual routine. a few of my friends never seen pro drifter tearing up the track. by the end of the event, they were really stoked and now really liked drifting. even my gf finally got how drifting really is! as usual, the japanese driveres were tearing it. but to everyone's surprise, jr gittin piloted his falken mustang to the top podium! yes! us driver won! he was consistent throughout the day. from practice to the finals, he was just doing his pace and i think that clinched it for him. also notable is yoshioka and his ae86. man, he was really tearing it out. the corolla gains against everyone on the sweeping turn. he is the only one i can hear that is WOT throughout the course. while it la, i also picked up a set of whitelile swaybars from long (xxRidgeracerxx at club4ag). he was really cool. he kept the his word and kept the swaybars until i came. he has some cool 86's also, 3 to boot! overall, the trip was very nice, mainly becasue i was able to hang out, relax, and have fun with my friends and clarice. | ||||||||||||
Dec. 11, 2005 - SCCA slush Rd.6 @ Oakland
this is the last scca autox of the season held at oakland coliseum. so far, my car hasn't belched white smoke at initial startup. me and mark are glad or else that a lot more headache. thanks to cliff fong for lending me his set of azenis and mert solis for sponsoring me into the event. the course had some fast sweepers with tight turns in the end. i did alright, the car is good, the motor pulls good. its funny because in the end there is a tight left after the timing light. i always enter overspeeding and stopped the car thru drifting, what a photo-finish. tommy's evo with ray's rims are sick! slush rd. 6
Dec. 10, 2005 - Dormant site
| well there is nothing to talk about really. i have been busy with senior design in college so i do not have nuch time for drifting or autocrossing. anyways, i finally got to doing smog, and i passed!!! thanks to tommy bond for lending me his stock exhaust manifold. i replaced the cracked exhaust manifold with a good one, retard timing to about 8 deg. BTDC, put 91 octane plus additive, put higher psi in the rear wheel, and drove around for about 30 mins. before arriving to the smog center. i barely passed nox at 15mph, i think only by 2 points! alas, my car is now registed with insurance and is ready for the open roads. i was concerned though when i saw white smoke for a few seconds after havent staring it for the longest time. could it be a bad headgasket? well i googled "white smoke at startup" and i saw some interesting results. that white smoke could probably normal beacuse sometimes, environment (cold, humidity, plus that fact that my car was under a car cover) could casue a white smoke at startup. when that smoke stays even at operating temp., then thats trouble. i will observe the car's behavior at startup since i can drive it alrerady. earlier when i was on my way to work early in the moring, there was no white smoke, well only smoke casued by condensation but thats it. oh yeah, i bought some LED lights from ebay to replace my cluster, THEY SUCKED! just buy polarg if you wanna change your cluster lights. | ||||||||||
Nov. 3, 2005 - Bought used tranny
| since after driftshowoff, i have been looking for a used tranny for my car. im really tired of flip-flopping into 2nd gear. luckily, i fould a used tranny at craigslist for only $75. he was located in stockton so i drove all the way there from brentwood. the guy was nice. tony used to have a gts but he sold it in favor of an rb20 powered s13. (looks nice!) he told me that he was suppose to use the tranny in his gts. it only had about 115k miles and it came out from an sr5 with is good too. right now, i cant drive my car because my tags are expired and my smog is freakin' due for the longest time now. one club4ag'er was cool and told me i could borrow his stock exhaust manifold. hopefully ill have time next week to pick it up from south city, thanks don! | ||||||||
Oct. 15, 2005 - Falken Drift Showoff @ GGF
this is my car's first drift outing since its engine swap over the summer. me and clarice arrived at golden gate fields very early. the course isn't even set up yet. as usual, i found the usual nor cal drifters plus a considerable amount of socal drifters. its good to see roy in his drift ready ae86. i haven't seen him since thunderhill ncda about 2 years ago. i also saw reza, an fd driver that is a local autox regular. he was hoping to get into the event. (which he did later on) i asked him if i can co-drive his rx7 sometime soon, he said sure no problem. wohoo! anyways, kuya mark was running late and i desperately need air for the tires that my car currently wore. mad props to brian from T3 for letting me borrow his compressor. man, that thing pumps air hella fast. there were two run groups, each having 2 sessions before the actuall competition. taka implicitly said that everyone need to be on the throttle until the 1st initiation point. he and the rest of the judges also pointed out that we have to clip the apex as close as possible. during the practice runs, i really hated that my tranny sucks! my trick when downshifting into 2nd isnt working no more, popping out most of the time. this really messed me up when i am downshifting to 2nd at the 1st apex. as the session progressed, i figured out that i can stay at 3rd gear a little longer. my new 4age can do it! this helps a little with my 2nd gear problem. after a couple of runs, i kinna had a rhythm with the course: open thottle acceleration till the 1st initiation, clutch kick and WOT on the big sweeper at 3rd gear, ease throtthle and aim the car to the 1st apex while 'gently' downshifit to 2nd, and perform the s-turn clipping the cone apex at each corner. during my sessions, i religiously check my tire pressures to see if they are up to spec. i do not want to have a bad day (like the last buttonwillow) just becasue i didnt check my pressures. | ||||||
