# BigSmoke :

Relaxation Route

Not much happened in the course of the week so far, as I'm occupied with work (here and IRL).
But this way I can actually think deeper about the Evo. I think I could finalize the remaining build plans for it.
And of course I need a hell lot of bucks.......And oh, I also finally had a chance to go to Tsukuba Fruits Line touge!

[12 Nov 2018]

Paycheck time! I'm still receiving V$470, which isn't that much but surely helpful on continuing reviving my wallet life anyway. Uhh...I guess it's a bit safe now to spend it on something I guess? Time to surf the interwebs again for parts

[14 Nov 2018]

One of the aspects that I like from driving/riding in general is that you can think clearly while driving. And of course, the better the ride, and the more you love your ride, the better and deeper you think. It can be anything, from simple stuff like what do you want to eat later or your plans for tomorrow, to deeper and more complicated thing like your love life (if any), your future, your fate, and other philosophical things that you might like. This could send you on a journey to (sometimes literally) nowhere, as you keep on thinking while concentrating on the ride, even to the point you lost in your own thought and feels like you barely have control to your body but miraculously didn't crash as you go.
Whether you're stuck in traffic jam in the city, cruising the suburbs or going on a mountain pass, almost everywhere is a good place to think when you want it. But I do agree if you prefer the mountain pass: It's quite, not a lot of trafic there, cold wind along the ride that is good for your lungs, skin, blood vessel and engine. The view at most moments is great to the eye too, giving a refreshment to your brain from the dull colours of buildings and work environtments you have to face everyday in your lifetime (except if you genuinely love your job, that is. Just ask garage owners here, I condsider them lucky people). The greenery around you and blue skies injects fresh feelings to the brain, evoking a sense of admiration and sometimes brings memories from your past. I mean, I'm sure there are times you look at such view, then you remember someone you love or admire and thinking "Ah, I wish you're here with me right now", wanting to share the same view to their eyes.

Sadly, that last part didn't happen in my case, since at the time I've done my work for the day, Rantaro was still on his work shift, Ohira-sensei was still serving his customers (I'm glad his business is rolling well!), and the girls that I and Rantaro met some time ago (yes, the thots) were still on their school time. Sorry for ruining the poeticness, boys and girls! I was alone and had nothing to do, and I wasn't in the mood for simply slacking off, having just finished working in my own crib. I need to do something to turn the work mood down slowly.

Then I remembered: Not only the Evo needed fuel after the Tsukuba run at Saturday, it's been almost two years I'm here and not even once I visited another automotive heaven here after the Tsukuba Circuit, that is the Tsukuba Fruits Line touge route. A bit of reminder: If you're a fan of Initial D, this is the home course of the Purple Shadow duo, consisting of Dr. Toshiya Joushima (God Hand) with his purple S2K, and Kozo Hoshino (God Foot) with his Millenium Jade R34 (Fun fact: Kozo is a nod and reference to Kazuyoshi Hoshino, works Nissan driver back in the day, and since then owns the Impul aftermarket corporation).

With my mind set on going there that afternoon, I broke out the maps app in my phone and set myself to the outskirts of Ishioka city, specifically at SHibauchi district where one end of the touge route starts. But beforehand, at the outskirts of Tsukuba, I refuelled my Evo.

At the start of the touge, I was amazed even before I could see the full view of the route. It was narrow, it was quite green and gives off a rugged vibe, a bit like a rally stage perhaps (which is, as everyone knows, Evo's natural habitat). With full excitement, I drove into the route while reminding myself to not deploy my heavy foot so I won't crash and endanger others, despite the traffic noticeably quiet, few and far between.

As I drive along, I decided that the best thing I could do to prevent speeding is to blast my music collection of moderate-paced music. It was opened smoothly with Tatsuro Yamashita's crisp voice on the microphone. If you're a fan of Mariya Takeuchi (the one who sang 'Plastic Love'), I guess you've already know that both of them are married
I wonder if Tatsuro-san sang 'Love Talkin' to her while they're on honeymoon........

A bit long time later, I found a parking lot on the edge of a cliff, giving a great view of the hillside, a small part of the neighbouring Tsuchiura city and some parts of the route. I decided to have a rest there. I wanted to enjoy some more peaceful time here. And coincidentally, this also creates a proper photo opportunity, even if that means I'm almost rolling down the cliff to eternity after taking the second pic

Some moments later, I continued my ride along the touge. Then, the inevitable happened.

Before approaching some sets of sharp corners, this song kicked in. Yep, it was one of the soundtracks of Kaido Racer 2/Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2. I really enjoyed that game in my youth days, since it represents touge racing culture gracefully with a side of rally racing. Pity not a lot of people knew it's existence, and the fact that there is no complete version of the intro until today baffled me a bit. But hey, at the moment I'm living the dream, so I took a deep breath, savour every seconds from it and began dancing in the Evo along the road.

As you can see from the above pictures, I still retained some of my cautious side and chose to grip along instead of sending my car sideways. There are a lot of blind spots here and I don't want an oncoming traffic interrupted and destroy my Evo, in the worst case dragging me along the way tumbling down the hillside.
But whenever I reached straights or I can see the oncoming lane, I continued to pump the gas anyways. It was a delightful experience, especially with the fact I could still enjoy the view without having to take my eyes off the road. I really wonder how this place looks like in the dark of the nighttime.

Some time later, I reached the middle sector of the route. It was lush on the sides, full of bushes, just like backroads in my homeland. And it looks beautiful to my eyes, reminding to my childhood time where we used to the backroads to another city because at most times highways that connected other cities are full, even outside rush hour. I'd like to take the corners like a rally racer by cutting them or dip my car inside the apex, but as I approach them, I remembered that in rally racing, the most occuring pacenote being read in sections like this is indeed 'DON'T CUT', so I backed off and kept some distance. There are chances I'm going to break the car anyway if I did. The best case is I simply scratched the lower side paint, while the worst it I hit a rock, turned over, and tumbling down the hill.

Some time later, my intuition was proven to be right as at one section the bushes hid a rock wall. Damn, imagine what would happen if I hit those.

Finally, some time later, I reached the end of the route at the outskirts of Tsuchiura city, specifically at the Oshito disctrict. At this point the place was dense with trees, so it was very green and very cool to my eyes and skin. I stopped for a while on a roadside near a temple to take rest, before going home via the southern side of Tsukuba as it's connected to Tsuchiura. This way I could be on my crib before the sunset comes.

To be honest, all this touge driving made me hungry. Man, I knew I should have brought snacks for myself beforehand if I knew I couldn't resist my urge to go fast. Fortunately there's a McDonalds at the suburban side of the southern Tsukuba, quite close to city center. I decided to have a meal there, as well as packing another meal to be taken home so I don't have to slurp on another ramen in the middle of the night.

And of course, cue up the meme.

[spoiler=Say it loudly!]

"I'll have two number nines, a number nine large, a number six with extra dip, a number seven, two number forty-fives, one with cheese, and a large soda"-Melvin "Big Smoke" Harris, circa 1992

[15 Nov 2018]

So, all my used parts has officially sold, netting V$755 in total. I only didn't sell one thing, which is the battery. I guess I'll keep it for a while.
After some thoughts regasrding yesterday's ride and my current financial status, as well as my upgrading progress, I decided to complete the handling upgrade first by revamping most of the suspension parts. Fortunately, there's a NZ company called RaceFab that has race-level suspension parts for Evo III available for reasonable price. They're specializing on Mitsubishi running gear kits and fabrications, but also worked on other brands such as Nissan, Mazda and Subaru on said division. Their product has been race-proven too, especially on time attack events such as WTAC.

Form them I grabbed front control arms+bumpsteer kit for the front part, and lower arms, toe arms and top arms for the rear part. Originally I want to change the subframe too, but they're quite expensive. The grand total for these parts are V$4100.

Then I went to a well-known name in time attack scene, Hardrace. From these guys I grabbed front and rear camber kit as well as front stabilizer kit for a total of V$200. For the camber kit I picked the rubber one to cut cost. I won't do an aggresive camber tune after all.

Also, I was going to replace the steering rack, but I guess I could tune it with Ohira-sensei to give the Evo a quicker ratio.

For the engine department, the bad news is as you can see above my budget has drained again for suspension upgrades. But the good news is, I've found a US Mitsubishi engine specialist company where I could get billet (yes, BILLET!) block and head, with the block itself can be bored up and capable of holding 400-600 BHP. What's even better is the block price includes aftermarket crankshaft, conrods and pistons that can be stroked up to 2.3L capacity, therefore cutting cost significantly rather than buying block and stroker kit separately. As for the head though, I still had to buy camshafts separately, which I planned to get from Tomei.

I prioritize the block and head upgrade first, as I unexpctedly can get them for cheap and I'm afraid if I upgraded other areas first while using stock block, the engine would explode at one time. The next one would be intake, then turbo, and finally complete transmission and LSD set.

Here comes a very long journey.

[spoiler=AAAND HERE]I guess it's time for the TL;DR:
[spoiler=TL;DR]
[14 Nov] I went to the Tsukuba Fruits Line touge for the first time. Was aiming for a relaxing ride, ended up being a speedy speed boy
[15 Nov] I ruined my financial status again not long after I saved myself in order to complete the handling upgrades

And then, my cash, which I ruined again:

Initial V$ = V$ 4,786
Paycheck = V$ 470
Sold the rest of the used parts = V$ 775
Total shopping from RaceFab = V$ 4,100
Total shopping from Hardrace = V$ 200
V$ at the moment = 4,786 +470 + 775 - 4,100 - 200 = V$ 1,731

Hello darkness my old friend........

That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!