| Author | Message |
BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#155820 2019-05-04 22:05 |
|
The American Job
NOTE:
Some pictures are taken from Phonexius's RP. Also quite busy this week and SLRR crashes with the same frequency as the beat pattern of HALOGEN's 'U Got That' It's the second week of the American trip!
This time, it's time to enjoy some American touge action! The day after, I went on a trip across half of the country to deliver a car to Japan. And we're also welcoming another friend from Japan, going back home to USA! Let's peek at all of this below!  [28 Apr 2019] Ben(Phonexius) has invited all of us for a touge run. "Hang on Smoke, I thought American roads are all straight and huge?" well, mostly, but I'm sure you know that USA isn't simply filled with just hot deserts and green hills......Even it rains on Texas. With some mountain areas spawning around the states, you'd expect there are roads snaking around them, and obviously you'd be right. If you're a fan of hillclimb racing you'd know the current longest (both by timeline, duration and distance) hillclimb racing event in the world is held at the Pike's Peak highway in Colorado, CA. Currently it's the only one that produces stage times over 10 minutes in average (with record times starting to touch the 7 minutes territory thanks to the course being fully paved, as well as VW ID R (which is a modded Norma MXX RD. Originally that car uses Honda K20A engine. The only thing that remains the same are the cage construction, rear wing and the driver) and the presence of electric racecars in general), compared to other hillclimb events around the world that normally produces 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes of stage time. But uh, we're not going there.
We are instead going to the Angeles Crest Highway, a long mountain pass located near Los Angeles,CA. The route pass the mountains and cliffs around the San Gabriel Mountains, passing through San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and the Angeles National Forest. It spans around 106 km, and obviously we don't use the entire stretch....just the mountain ones, omitting the forest section. Ben picked this location because believe it or not, this place has no speed limits! Well granted you won't probably even touch 250 km/h here, but the roads are twisty enough to test you and your car to the limit. And so, that morning we are all gathered for the ride. Ben picked his R34 for the ride and asked me to ride shotgun with him, Ziga(Lagano) picked his 3S-GE swapped AE86 which has been recently made streetlegal, while Soju(um, Soju) and 11K(11000rpm) are going with their respective rides (a Supra and an SR20-swapped E36). Muza(Niatross) jumps into his birthday gift E92, while turns out AJ(RocketBunnyS13) has not only bought Marc(Macaron_moon)'s Impreza GRB, he also brought it stateside as well! We set off at early morning to observe traffic levels and weather condition at the peak. Thankfully, there was almost nothing at the peak..........it feels rather surreal, as if we're inside an American movie flick. Near the peak there's a small cottage depot which serves coffee and light meals, so we decided to have breakfast there while planning for the run. The dish was nice and delicious, there aren't much to eat but actually it's enough to keep you going for almost half a day. Definitely a place I'd recommend to visit, since besides the delicious meal you get to enjoy cool breeze of wind, as well as refreshing mountain view. We're also lucky to enjoy morning skies there. I and Ben finished our meal with a cup of coffee. The coffee was as black as the road's asphalt and strong enough to make me remember something: After the LS7 swap ops for the Silverado, where did the original engine go? And since we're busy on restoring his crashed Merc a day before, why not throw it inside the Merc? "Hey Ben, can I ask you something?" "Sure, go ahead" *sips coffee* "Uh, where did the Silverado engine go? Did you save it or scrap it?" "I still have it near the tools. What's wrong? Do you need it?" "No not really. What I'm saying is, I have an idea with it....." "Tell me, could be interesting" "I'm sure you know Americans are fans of mad swaps. And uh, you've performed one as well" "Which one?" "Well, your Merc. Right so I think you know back then there's a Cummins diesel-swapped Miata" "Um, yes I do remember that one" "Why don't we do the same using the Silverado engine?" "But where are we going to put it?" "Of course the Merc! I think it has enough power and torque to swing it sideways" "......that's considerable I should say. Could yield nice result" "I tell you what, this coffee is strong enough to make you woke and utter ideas like I did" "Nah, it's as bitter as our life, yet as strong as our will to live and drive" "That's a better way to say it" Our discussion was interrupted by Soju. He said he want to do a jump start ahead of us and go downhill first, since probably we won't catch them all. He jumped into the Supra and went off in a glaring, loud soundtrack of 2JZ engine that echoes over the cliff. At first we simply continued our coffee and discussion, but then Ben pat me on my shoulder and said: "I've got an idea....follow me". He grabbed the R34 keys and we're walking towards it. Turns out he wants to test the R34 by having him, me and the car playing catch up with Soju's Supra. Compared to his monstrous R33, the R34 has less than half of it's power, producing around 550 BHP. Definitely more than enough to carve around a mountain pass quickly.....but is it enough to catch up with Soju? We'll see about that........ As I closed the doors of R34, I whipped out my phone and plays this on loop. It was quite a surreal but fun experience......it's not everyday you can get inside an R34 these days, let alone have a speedy shotgun ride! Speaking of which, yes, I have an R34, but it's not a GT-R, not even a 2-door ones. To make things worse(statistically. Personally I don't mind), it's the base spec with RB20DE inside. But eh, I've improved it ever since so no problem for now. Back to the touge run, the road quality is superb, I wish I could bring my Silver Queen or the ER34 here. But then again, at the moment I don't have money to ship them here  Some moments later, I managed to spot Soju's Supra. I told Ben to give chase while I'm giving some directions a la rally co-driver along the way.  But even in the uphill section Ben can't seem to catch Soju. In the end, Soju kept his lead until we come back at the cottage. As Ben went for a cooldown, we had some more chatter.
"Damnit, should've brought the R33 I guess" "Hang on isn't that an overkill? It has 1300 BHP-" "Dude it's a track spec car!" "Ah yes sorry, forgot about that" "Anyways, let's throw the Silverado engine inside the Merc tomorrow" "Okay chief, glad you liked the idea" The rest of the day was filled with more races, with Muza and AJ commencing a friendly bet on their race: Whoever loses paid for the winner's meal as well as a full tank of gas for the winner's car. Given they're skillful touge drivers (I had a session with them earlier this year), their cars are basically bone stock engine wise, and AJ has installed coilovers on the GRB, I predicted the race would be a close one. Turns out I was.......wrong, because Muza walked AJ easily with his E92. To be fair, it has 330 BHP in stock form, and that's not even the M model! Meanwhile AJ only has roughly 280 BHP in his GRB.  The final race was between Ziga in his AE86 and 11K in his E36. This race is much more balanced performance-wise, so all of us were following them in the back to watch the race unfold. It was indeed quite a close one, with Ziga and 11K went side by side multiple times. But then at the latter half of the race somehow Zoga made an error and stomped the brakes too early. This results in 11K slipping past him and quickly creating some gap, as well as sealing his victory.
 As we're on our way back to Ardmore, someone was calling me on my phone. I wonder who's this?
"Uh, hello. Who's this if I may ask?" "Oh hey Edo, it's me Enz-I mean, Sleepy(sleepin mOnkey) here" "Sleepy? Sleepy from the forums? The one with turbo from diesel engine?" "Exactly! I see you still remember that build" "Of course I am, nobody has never thought of that idea! You're a mad genius!" "Thanks my man I appreciate that. Anyways, word are you're in USA right now" "Indeed I am. Still here in the land of the free" "Listen, I have a favor" "Uh, what is it?" "Get me a Mustang, and ship it here to Japan" "Uh okay, I could source you one with Lagano and Phonexius late-" "Nonono I've found one, all you had to do is follow the damn trai-nah I mean pick the Mustang up and deliver it for shipping" *chuckles* "You've found one already? You work fast, my man!" "Yup, I'll send you the location after this call" "Please do, I'd like to see the car's condition as well" "Alright man talk to ya later" "Later man" That was Sleepy(sleepin mOnkey), an acquintance who's also living his JDM life in Japan. Specifically, he lives at Fukushima, near the Ebisu circuit. So far all his builds are Wangan builds, with some drifters and daily in between. Rumour has it that sometimes he's chilling with Kazuhiko Nagata, better known as Smokey Nagata. He also owns a fabrication and tuning shop obviously, so if you're in Japan feel free to visit him! And I didn't lie when I mentioned his diesel engine-sourced turbo build(no, he didn't do a turbodiesel build, he did a turbo build which turbo came from a diesel engine), you can read about it here.As we finally arrived at Side to Side HQ, I grabbed my laptop and checked the car Sleepy was talking about. You can see it here. It's one hell of a choice I should say: It's a 2003 Mustang SVT Cobra SN95 in black, with Cobra R front bumper and optional BBS/Ford Racing wheels. Everything else is stock, including the interior, that fancy bonnet and probably the engine as well. The exterior is kinda clean, and probably the engine is healthy as well, given it's on sale for V$17,500. The car itself is located at Calabasas, CA, near Los Angeles. After some discussion with Ziga, Ben, Muza and AJ about the car's condition, we deduce this car is good enough and ready to export. With this agreement, I called Sleepy again. "Yo Sleepy, looks like it's a good nick but I've got no mone" "Nonono don't worry, I'll pay for it. Ii'll transfer the money if you could take it" "Ah okay then, I'll pick it up and ship it at Tuesday" "Great! Thank you very much my man" "Anytime. I'll tell you if Ii've picked and ship it" "Right, talk to ya again sometime man" "Okay, cheers" Time to play the transporter role........I immediately booked a cheap flight from DFW airport to LAX airport. [29 Apr 2019] Paycheck time! V$940 added to my wallet.....definitely something to keep me rolling in the vast lands of USA. This time Ziga happened to stroll over an ad around his favourite Facebook forum. It was posted by a small drifting team, and they're looking for a Merc to drift around. After a bit of discussion with Ben, we decided to speed up the restoration process of his Merc as well as planting the Silverado engine inside it. Apparently Ben has enough of his Merc, so he decided to simply sell it anyway, as well as the Silverado engine since there's nowhere else to put it into.
Turns out our decision to plant the engine inside was a great factor on the deal much later. The drifting team consists of diesel users! I suspect they're a huge fan of Black Smoke Racing (who also uses diesel Mercs to drift) and/or the Cummins Miata build. See, I told you that coffee I and Ben consumed at the Crest was extra strong to make you woke  Later that day I begin the initial steps of the transport mission by contacting the Mustang owner if the Mustang is still available. Thankfully, it still is, and it's ready to pick up anytime. With the deal secured, I told him I'll come to pick it up tomorrow as well as transferring the money Sleepy prepared for me that day, and in the end showed him the transfer proof. [30 Apr 2019] It's time to get rocking and do the transport mission! First off, I have Ziga with me as I drive from Ardmore to DFW airport in the Silverado at early morning. Sun was partly rising as we set off. Ziga was a bit sleepy when we set off, but I guess eventually he'll fully woke when we arrive at DFW. Well yes, I could simply park the car there as I'll be at CA for less than 12 hours, but I think it'll be safer if I have Ziga return the car to Side to Side HQ. If he managed to be fully woke that is, and I hope he remembers that the truck still has the stock brakes, which has stopping power as big as a biscuit......
 Along the way, to get some more information and to keep Ziga awake, I asked him on how to ship cars from US to Japan. Fortunately he's kind enough to point me to one of his trustees at Port of LA, as well as giving me a crash course on the paper and import agreement procedures. With enough infos secured, finally I arrived at LAX and handed the keys to Ziga.
 And so, I departed from DFW to LAX...........  .....and landed an hour later. After I landed and and a cup of coffee at a shop inside the airport, I contacted the Mustang owner and informing that I've just landed and ready to go to his place with an Uber. Not gonna lie, actually there's nothing to be worried about and there's no need to rush along this transport job, but because I'm a time attack addict (and recently attending time attack races as well), everything seems to roll so fast, so I work as fast as possible as well. The need for speed creeps into my daily life it seems
It feels like I've jumped into a action movie involving secret agents and missions.My Uber car was a Toyota Prius, so uhhh....no pics of it the driver would mind of me taking pic of the car as well I guess, so I'd better not take a pic after all. This being a Prius, the ride along the trip to the Mustang owner was quite comfortable, if not a bit mundane. Well at least finally I'm able to see and live the downtown Los Angeles traffic by my own eyes, something I usually can only see via Hollywood movies. Speaking of movies, specifically action movies, I enjoyed a lot of them, in particular anything involving a secret agent, detectives or law forces, as well as lots of driving action and requirement of intelligence (fights are seondary). Some of my favourite series are 007/James Bond series (obviously!), Sherlock Holmes series, Die Hard series and The Transporter. As for The Transporter, I like the main character's stoic, ice-cold yet caring personality as well as his choices of cars.Another hour of the trip and I arrived at the owner's place. As we have a banter about muscle car ownership and my trip from Ardmore to Calabasas, he took the car out from his garage. Trust me, it actually looks better in person......definitely something someone might use in an action movie! 
   After checking the car condition for a while and showing him the transfer proof, as well as waiting for him to check if the transfer indeed succeed, we shook hands and the deal is sealed. The owner then get the papers and slips sorted as we have our last chatter. With everything done and the Mustang in my hands, I left the place and went to the Port of LA via interstate roads for some more testing by myself.
 The good news is, the engine looks visually health from outside. But in order to assess it mechanically without having to dissassemble the car, there's only one way to find out.........and that is to hit the gas deeper. Well if you wonder if it's actually okay, Sleepy said I could keep this car for a while and drive it anywhere as long as I didn't get caught by cops or even worse, wrecking it. But since Calabasas to Ardmore takes around two days of trip including rest, and there's a dockyard nearby Calabasas rather than Ardmore, I decided to simply send it immediately.
  The engine is in healthy condition indeed, as it provides that sweet supercharged V8 soundtrack without any side effects or unwanted noises. This thing motivates you to keep on pressing the pedal along the way, and aided with the vastness and also straightness of most American highways. Probably this is why most American performance cars has a very, very long gearbox ratio compared to European and Japanese ones.
 The SN95, frankly speaking, is one of my three favourite Mustang generations, the other ones being the 1967-1968 generation and the 2013 facelifted S197A. And one reason that I like the SN95, other than it looks so 90s and not so boxy is....the existence of the Mustang SVT Cobra R. No, not this one as this is the regular SVT Cobra, but indeed the front bumper is a replice of the R version. Often appearing as a video game racer, the Cobra R is essentially Ford's 90s equivalent of today's Porsche Cayman GT4, Renault Megane 275 Trophy or VW Golf CS: A streetlegal pure track toy machine. The Cobra R has no back seat, no radio and not even an air conditioner.....just like an actual GT racer! Even for the 1995 model you can only obtain a Cobra R if you're either a race driver (of any discipline and level. All you have to do is flash/flex your race license to the dealership) or a racing team owner. You see, it could be said that Ford invented the high-end track day racer market before it was cool and booming like we know it today.
 I had to veer off the interstates and went back to downtown LA because it's lunchtime, I almost forgot to contat Sleepy and all these adrenaline rush made me hungry. But coincidentally this also serves as a test for the Mustang's city driving capability. In this form, complete with that supercharged engine and in thsi colour, it's quite a show-stopper. Literally everyone is looking me at traffic lights and muttering something, either admiring the sharp, savage looks thanks to the Cobra R bumper or complaining about the loud V8 engine and/or the supercharger whine.
 Thankfully, despite I left it for a while for lunch and contact with Sleepy to inform I've secured the Mustang, nobody has tried to vandalize it. Probably because it was a busy day and every single human being was on the street at that time. I'm glad to report that despite the clutch taking some time to get used to, everything is fine in this thing and nice enough for a stroll in the city. Just be prepare to attract sooo many people in the streets. Some are complimenting the car, some dissed it for various reasons, some even encouraged me to rev it up or even do a burnout. I admit that Ii revved up at times, but don't worry, I didn't pull a single burnout on thsi thing. I don't want to be either arrested by the cops or even commiting the crowd control joke and smash something. This isn't really my car after all.
 I went to the Port of LA via a short section of the interstates......which involves tunnel. Time to roll down the window, drop a gear, and play with the throttle as I direct an orchestra of 4.6L liter supercharged V8 inside. Or since it was actually quite loud, make it into a heavy metal concert instead. And I'm sure some people would say muscle cars are best enjoyed while listening to loud and brash music inside. You know, speed metal, death metal, heavy metal, punkcore, etc etc etc......
  Finally, I reached the Port of LA's dockyard. I have to went a bit further around to find the import/exporter company office where they could sort the shipping process to Japan. If I'm not mistaken, either this or Port of Long Beach, which located close to it, was featured in the very first scene of the very first FnF when they load up stuff into a truck in the middle of the night before Dom and his crew in Civics with green neons hijacked said truck. As this is daytime, there's no nee dto worry about such things. Time to deliver an overnight parts-ah I mean, a Mustang to Japan
  Finally, I found the company's office, where I immediately register the Mustang to be exported to Japan. The company's representation said the Mustang will arrive in Japan in 7-10 days, depending on the weather on the ocean. With all the papers and other procedures sorted and completed, here comes the last step of the mission: Parking the Mustang near the cargo ship and giving the keys to the company to be safely delivered with it. I stayed there for a while until the Mustang has landed on the cargo deck. Hopefully it'll be delivered safely to Sleepy's hands
 
 With mission completed, I ordered another Uber to LAX to fly back to DFW. Probably this would be the last time I'll visit LA....or I don't know, probably there would be another chance to visit the downtown again along the US trip. But hey, I'm grateful for that. After another lengthy flight to DFW, I ordered yet another Uber to get me to Ardmore.
[03 May 2019] After another BBQ party at May 1 (for two occassions: May Day, and apparently Ben replaced his Merc with.....another Merc, a W204 C63 AMG. One of my all-time favourite Mercs, and as Top Gear UK Magazine (no, not the TV show) says it, equipped with stormy, angrily loud V8 engine that "can tear paint off walls"), it is time to continue working on our cars. Also, Ben has secured an unused warehouse near the HQ, and he's going to use it as a storage expansion, mostly for his cars. Except one car.........
"Hey Biggie, come here a second" "Okay, anything I can help?" *walks to Ben* *hands the Silverado key* "This thing is yours now" "Woah really? A-are you serious?" "Yeah. Take it as a gift, and a token of friendship from us. And uh, you'll need something to ride on here" "But isn't this your shop truck?" "Remember what I told you? We rarely drive it" "But you might need it one da-" "Just. Take. It. You can bring it home to Japan if you want" "Oh my....seriously?" "Yup. You might return it here as well anytime you or we have to" Ziga interrupts our talk: "Think of it this way Biggie. You may register it there as well, so we can drive it there next time we're in Japan" Ben continues his talk: "He's right. It's okay, you might need it more than us" I can only respond with "That's so, so kind of you", before bro-hugging and brofisting Ben and Ziga. I was only intended to borrow the Silverado during the trip yet they decided to give it for free to me? And that's also after they gave Muza a E92! (Originally Muza only wants to rent one). God I swear they're some of the kindest guys in the world......I might have to hold back my tears. They're such kind guys, too pure to live in this world probably. But all this heart-touching moments was ruined by a grumbly sound of V8 unbeknowist to us......then a random Impala '67 decides to break into the garage while going sideways. Everyone was shocked by the presence, I tripped myself over some tools and fell off, thinking I'm going to be smashed by the Impala. Well thankfully it stopped right before my feet....... And turns out it's not just a random Impala: It was Marc! Turns out that day he bought a fresh, modded Impala '67 from a family of petrolheads. You might want to visit his RP to see the exact details of that car, but all I know is it has modded running gears as well as these American Racing wheels, and in the engine department lies the engine from the Impala SS '67 (the one Marc bought is a sedan). Definitely something that'll appear in American movies, don't you think? It looks so handsome to me, even if I prefer the '64 one instead of '67. 
   All I had to do now is grab a spanner, pretend to be angry and point it over Marc........
"OI! YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!" "Whoa man sorry! I'm so sorry!" "YOU ALMOST KILLED ME!" "I said I'm sorry!" ".....just kidding mate, nice car" ".....dude you almost gave me heart attack" "Well so did you!" As we're checking out Marc's fresh Impala, another person arrived. It was Franklin! He came all the way to Japan to join us and having fun here in USA. Franklin used to live in USA before deciding to live his JDM dreams in Japan, so he has a lot of knowledge about buying cars and tuning them in USA, just like Ziga and Ben. In fact he alreay grabbed not just one but two cars for the occassion! One is a V6 Mustang SN95 he'll use as a missile drifter, and the other one is a VW Jetta he's going to use as a cheap track car. Speaking of cheap track car, I should admit that's my initial plan for the entire trip! So I was going to get a car as cheap as possible, bring it to a trackday with minimal mods, see how fast I can go with it and if it survives, and then considering if I should bring it back to Japan. Yes, I've secured the keys to the Silverado, and it now has an LS7 inside, but let me tell you this again: The brakes is as strong as biscuit. I don't want to plow this thing into an armco. And uh, at the start of the trip I was literally broke, owning a bit less than V$1000. So with my cash revived, it's time to pick a car as a trackster. I think I'm going to pick one and reveal to y'all next week  In the meantime, Ziga also said we're going for a grassroot/open drift event, hosted by Full Lock Drift drift club. They're going to held a public drift day and a drift competition an empty lot somewhere in Stroud, OK. Almost all of us are going to jump into the event, with Ziga taking his Chevelle for the competition, Muza taking Ben's R34 for the public drift session, Ben taking his R33 to see if he can bring it sideways, and many more. Me? I probabaly will be chilling at the spectator side in the SIlverado, and offering mechanical and medical help to the group. But hey, if you're based in USA and want to join the fun as well, feel free to come! Aaaaaaaaah finally finished updating.....what a blast! So here's how my wallet survives another week in USA: That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by
and see you soon here or one of the boys's updates! |
|
