In Need of a Stress Reliever

I've come to notice a trend that I believe is going to be never ending.  It involves finding myself in a stressful situation right before upcoming drift events.  Proving Grounds 2013.2 is coming up in just a week and like always I have found myself with a broken down car, but this time it's not just mine, it's Becca's Z32 as well.

There's a lot going on right now, Z32 had to have the engine pulled and some internals needed our attention.  This has turned into a crazy pain.  Working for hours every night to get it running again.  I'll go into details on this later, but as of right now, the car is on stands and it's not running.

It's been a very stressful 2 weeks working on the car and with Proving Grounds being a week away it's only starting to get more stressful.  Right now all I want to do is sleep, and clearly so does Becca.

Then along with the Z32 having issues, my S13 decided it wanted to do something that would piss me off.  All the nuts backed out on the turbo studs holding the turbo elbow on, and one of the studs even decided to break off inside the turbo.  So now I need to deal with drilling that out.  I also decided that since I've had these nuts back out on me a million times it was time to get a different elbow, one where I can actually get a socket on the nuts so I can properly tighten them down rather then using an open ended wrench and praying that it's going to stay tight.

I decided to go with the ISIS 3" turbo elbow and ISIS 3" downpipe to match.  Hopefully this should be easier to work with then what I have.

To add to my joy I discovered my 30mm wheel spacers I ordered turned out to be the wrong thread pitch so I had to order another pair and hope that this return goes through.

Now I'm sitting at a point where money is starting to get tight and things aren't looking good for me.  Then I had one of my brand new tires on my Sequoia blow out.

Things just aren't going all too well, heck even the vending machine pulled a fast one on me.  I must say, I was not satisfied one bit about it!

Oh well, things will get better.  I did find some time the other day during breaks to add a Big Country Labs wing to my pixel car for my forums signature.

Hopefully in a few days I'll be bringing some awesome updates for everyone to look over.  I am going to Shiomi Garage tomorrow so that's definitely something to look forward to!  See you all next update!

Trying New Things

After having dealt with used tire issues for the past 2 years I decided it was finally time to let them go.  In order to become more consistent I need a consistent tire this way the car will be much more predictable and I'll be far more comfortable behind the wheel.

I've been hearing a lot about the Maxxis tires, in particular the MA-Z1 Victra's so I decided to place and order for a pair of 225/45r17 at the local shop Central Imports.  I went on down there with my bead bazooka and some new stems, quickly removed my old burnt up tires and mounted the pair waiting for me...That's when I noticed they had accidentally been delivered a pair of the MA-V1.  This wasn't the shops fault as they had asked for the Z1 like I requested but the company that delivers tires to them either didn't hear them properly or just grabbed the wrong rubber.

At this point I already had them mounted so I said screw it and decided to keep these, then here in the next couple weeks I'll get a pair of the Z1's ordered in.  I think this will actually play out nicely, I would love to experiment with a few different tires that way I know what works best rather then going off of what people say on the interwebs.  So for now, I've got these V1's mounted up, can't wait until Proving Grounds on the 6th - 8th to give these a go!

Big Country Labs Bitch! pt.3

As you all know my BCL wing arrived last week.  Didn't take me very long to get her mounted up on the car either.  I had a few questions as to which way the mounts went but I found some pics of how Stewart had his on his silver s13 so I just did mine the same.

I doubt many of you noticed but there's something else new on my trunk.  I got some aerocatch locking pins, I've got pics of the whole thing and my trip to Shiomi Garage, just haven't had the time to upload my DSLR pics yet, but soon!

Also, not only did I get the manly legs, I also decided it was mandatory to set the wing at it's peak manly downforce setting.

Wing was assembled in no time at all!

Then it was time to hold it up, determine how far back to mount it on the trunk and drill the holes.  Wasn't so bad, plus since my trunk isn't in the greatest shape I didn't mind getting some scratches on it and drilling some holes.

Next after holding the wing in place to see how she looked it was time to open the trunk and bolt her down.  Fucking awesome is all I have to say.  My trunk stays open on it own now!

After that I was finally able to walk around her and get a good look at her on the car without worrying about a gust of wind knocking her off the trunk.

Last up were the end plates.  This was the only part that gave me trouble, and like all fiberglass parts there's always some slight tweaks that need to be made.  I had to fix the holes on the end plates for them to line up and I'll need to shave a little off the wing itself so the driver side one will sit flush.  No big deal that's like a 5 min job with a block sander, unfortunately I didn't have one at Becca's house so it'll have to wait a little while.  For now I've got the end plates on.

I'm in love with this wing, and so is my super awesome girlfriend Becca who bought it for me!

Now I just need to get the tweeks made on it, decide on a colour to paint it, and get a bitchin decal made to put on it.  I can't wait!  Until then, enjoy the views of what I get to look at every time I go to a gas station and look in my mirror.

Big Country Labs Bitch! pt. 2

Yeah, this just happened!  Will be mounted soon!