Private Tuning Hands v3.0

fitted perfectly. after that another problem surfaced: the collar sleeve for the tein camber plate is too short. the space the stock upper perch isnt there anymore that why there is a play. i asked luis if he can make the collar and make it longer. this set me back a week. besides i was hella tired! after a week i had the longer collar (thanks luis!) and everything went smoothly without any glitches. the whiteline swaybar is pretty close to the t3 nrca. i still has some room though, and it gets better when the car is on the ground. the nrg tension rod brace went it as well as the trd 6kg rear spring. once everything is in, i made my ghetto alignment. i put masking tapes on each front tire to measure camber. i used a measuring tape to level the ride height as well. ride height is about 54.0cm front left and right and about 56.0cm rear left and right if that's worth anything. ill got to roger krause for proper alignment and corner-weight once i have the time.

i road tested the car for problems. there were no noise anything from the suspension. first impression of the new suspension is that is more "refined" than my old setup. i dunno, that the word i could think of describing my new suspension. potholes, road cracks, and other road irregularities, the new suspension is about the same as the old ones. i thought i would be worse because of the stiffer rates. but on quick, smooth road attitude changes, you can feel a big difference: the car is stiffer and feels more secure. im so happy with my new suspension! here is a link to more pics of the suspension build

i finally had a chance to install my obx headers in my car. that headers has been sitting in my closet for the longest time. the build of the header is pretty good; welding is excellent. it has provision for use of top heat shield. for about $200, you cant get wrong, especially if you have been wanting to replace your cracked stock exhaust manifold. installation is pretty straight forward. i didn't have to remove the distributor to put it in. i do have to extend the o2 sensor wire because the o2 flange is way down in the intermediate pipe. i really didn't like that the 02 sensor is in the underside of the body but even trd units have this feature as well. as you can see, i've gone egr'less. the engine bay looks more cleaner, and i do not have to bend back the egr pipe every time i put back the stock exhaust manifold. i found some useful diagram from mr2 forums how to cap off the vacuum lines to remove the egr.

Wow, its been a long time since the last time i was in buttonwillow. actually, i didnt intend to join this event. but when luis signed up and told me that its gonna be a long time after another private event, i had this urge to go. and i did go! me, luis, and justin caravaned from brentwood. it sucks because forcast for the day of the event was rain. and it did rain. we arrived at motel 6 in lost hills at around 11pm. as usual, most of the drifters rented out the room there. marc got his keys locked up in his car. good thing some friendly mexicans helped him out. slonie has a big problem: his fornt brake caliper sheared off while he was driving at I-5. good thing gabe and t3 stoped by to help him out. later that day, he got an extra caliper when johnny brought and extra at the track.

private events rented out the whole track which was sweet. first half was counter-clockwise. the track was still slick and wet. i had to adjust my style in wet drifting. for the first time "finesse" is introduced in corolla drifting. i needed to be more sensitive to the controls. though speeds were slower, it was less stress on tires and makes the tires spin more easy. at the back of my head "manji" is telleing to go for it. as much as i have been drifting for years, i never really tried manji-ing. i got the interest when freakin' luis showed how it was done in the 'spot'. anyways, i tried when the rack was still slick. i did a couple of good ones but i went off course bad and deep. apparently, i hit a patch of water thats why i lost it. later that day when the track config. was clockwise, it tried it. onto the last hard left, i started there. pedal to the floor it kept swinging, and swinging, and swinging. i was doing manji! im so happy! i did better after that becasue manji god finally gave me my manji balls. man, i hope i wont forget it! i did realize that is seems to be harder to drift right as oppose to drifting left. when i was doing manji, i had less angle to the right and i had more steering inputs when drifting to the right. is it really becasue the driver (and weight) is in the left? hmmm...i learned a lot from rain drifting. you have to me more sensitive, a lilttle slower, and look ahead! your drifting ~ drifting until you hit a patch of water without anticipation. then you spin out. i realized that my drift style is more conservative than others. also that speedometer is a hindrance for me in drifting. i keep on glancing at the speedometer as i enter a drift. that alone make me more concious of my speed, and slower! next time, ill try to cover my speedometer so ill be more focused on my drifting, not at my speed. i will miss private events! al you better have one gain! well, at least after your formula d campaign. (good luck!) what do you think?

 First round of the scca is here again. Good thing kuya mark was able to smog his civic in order to run this event. our frind vj aslo tried to autocross for the first time using his eclipse. it was frustrating in the morning becasue they were using this new computer-based registration. there were long lines and i was even working the 1st group. hopefully, the succeeding round will be faster. there were a lot of people! well the first round of the championship series is always packed from past experiences. sts group large too. anyways, we were in the two driver lane so wait time isnt as bad. on my first run, i already did good! i hit a 45ish sec. run. i was surprised becasue i usually cannot keep up with kuya mark but this time im up to pace. secound run, i hit a 44 sec. run. nice! finally after these years, im learning how to drive the civic fast. my 3rd run was my best run, clinching a low 45 sec. time. but as you know that sts is ulta-competetive class, with peter thana, cliff fong, and mark lin leading the pack. my time was good for a 10th place for that day; kuya mark was 9th. vj did well for his first autox run. his time was faster than the previous. hopefully he can go out when the next event comes. alas, i was really happy with my driving. civic is a fun car to drive; simple point and shoot you cannot go wrong. if you keep tabs with the raction limit of the azenis and keep your lines tight, it is fast. now i want to campaign my corolla too!!! i wanna nab a novice trophy but i do not have time to commit for a whole season. round 1