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11000rpm

kr
Posts: 391

Location: South Korea
Occupation: a human
Age:
V$: idk
#281   2019-04-26 13:05          
Hell yea, watching you running around reminds me of Nikko drift matsuri back to 2017, it is always good to see my VS dudes rushing around Nikko.

Added 35 seconds later:

# BigSmoke :
Away Fixture












It is time to do a grip trackday somewhere other than Tsukuba Circuit!
But that's not only it, the shopping spree has continued.....and I immediately fell victim to it.
And here comes the very first visual mod I've ever done.....that isn't a wheel!
Welp let's see all the shenanigans that has happened below! :D















[15 Apr 2019, later that day]
I kept on thinking about a new missile car....yes I have the HR34 but I don't really want to hurt it. I need something that in my mind would be either bashable or okay to bash. Not that I'm a masochist or a car-wrecker, but I'm sure you know some pro drifters has both a clean drift daily and a missile car, obviously not in a clean state. A good example of this would be Chris Forsberg, who has an Infiniti M35 as a daily and a Onevia as a missile car, both are driftable. Even sometimes Chris used the M35 in place of his Onevia for some events! But then again, he's a pro with a championship title to his name. I'm sure Japanese drifters also follows this method, one that I could remember well are Yasuyuki Kazama, Nob Taniguchi and Max Orido.....well basically everyone that has their own shop and/or uses their personal cars as demo cars. And it's even more awesome in Nob and Max's case since they also do GT and TA racing.

In the end though, I decided to throw away this thought for a while, as I concluded all the money I have for the moment is enough to do some shopping. After all, with all this car shopping and time attack shenanigans, I've slowly neglected the S15 and Tico (and HR34 but at least it's running) build progress. So, with no time attack events to do for the rest of the month, it is time to catch up with the build process and more importantly, time to get the S15 running. I've lost count on how long it has been sitting idle in the garage. Another thing that I prioritize for the moment is getting a trailer to transport it. Mind you, it's not street legal.

Still, I'd like to share my considerations over my options for the missile car candidate.....here it is:


Despite all of this hasn't finalized yet, feel free to tell me your thoughts on my plan! :D
Now let's move on to the shopping spree. First off, grabbing a car trailer. As I found out, towing your car on a trailer isn't really a Japanese auto culture (the norm would be carrying your car on a flatbed), so finding one is extremely difficult. As a result, I have to resort on yet another import, this time from the US of A, where car towing is a common thing. In the end, picked up this Econo trailer for V$2600 since it's the cheapest around and has brakes for every axles. And obviously long and wide enough to at least carry my S15 on it.

Trailer sorted, it's now time to buy parts for the S15. For this one, while shopping, I also video-called Muza(Niatross, works at Nismo) and AJ(RocketBunnyS13, fellow S15 owner) for some pointers over my build (aside from what I originally planned). First off, I bought a short shifter kit for Z33 transmission (remember, my S15 has Z33 transmission) from Collins Performance for V$315. I think it'll make huge difference on your lap time when you use it, after all manual shifting took some time and speed as well. And then I haven't got anything to aid me sitting on my S15, so I grabbed a Recaro Pole PositioN for V$792. Originally I would like to use Bride Zeta III just like what I did on my Silver Queen, but statistically the Pole Position is lighter. And since the S15 is a full-on racer compared to the Silver Queen, I could throw the comfort factor away.

I also purchased a Duracon Shift Knob from Nismo for V$53, given that the S15 has no shift knob after I did the manual swap operation. Muza recommended it as well, seeing as it's the most comfortable and cheap ones. And then there's also hydro handbrake kit from Chase Bays for V$220. Well yes, this isn't a drift car, but when things got awry, I don't think stock handbrake would do the job nicely to stop the car. It works faster as well, so perfect for standing start conditions.

Now comes the main part of the shopping. Muza and AJ both recommends me to replace the OEM ECU with Apexi ones, namely the Power FC D-Jetro Kit variant since both used them on many of their cars, including their respective signature builds. Since the RB26 inside the S15 comes from an R32, the ECU I selected has mappings for R32. The complete ECU kit costed me V$911. And to speed up the wiring process so I can do it myself without causing any harm, I picked up an RB on S-Chassis wiring kit from Wiring Specialities....a good thing I've seen a lot of their ads on the internet lately. With Muza and AJ's pointers, I picked up some extras offered by Wiring Specialities as follows: their grounding kit, Denso/SARD 900cc injectors and Haltech WB1 CAN Wideband Kit to match the Power FC requirements. All of these costed me V$1168. Now here comes a new problem: The rest of the money isn't enough to buy an aftermarket intake, which I opted for the wiring kit. Oh well, next time it would be.

But despite that, I spent the rest of the money for few things for my HR34. Yeah I know, I'm an idiot, but trust me you'd never expect how severe my idiocy was this time. Back to the topic, I bought a front anti-roll bar from Ultra Racing for it which costed me V$230. After the drift day with the HR34 I decided the front roll needs to be reduced in order to add grip in the front so swings can be more precise. And because of this, I didn't opt to buy a rear anti-roll bar as well (though it has yet to be tested). And the final thing in my shopping list is a Mines-style fiberglass small rear wing courtesy of Vacuum Infusion for V$109. They look neat and cool while not looking too obnoxious.

This shopping spree was so severe, at the end of it I was left with only V$4(!!!). I can't sleep that night. Anyways, everything bar the trailer will come in 4 days, while the trailer will arrive at Japan shores the day after. It's time for the Sprinter to shine! Also uh, don't worry, my paycheck is weekly sooooo :)) But then, it might be the time to find a steady job indeed


[19 Apr 2019]
The parts I've ordered has arrived on my doorstep....it's modding time! I've lost count of when the last time I've hold a spanner myself. First off, it's the S15 that receives the mod treatment. I sorted the wiring and the ECU installation for around 1,5 hour. Could be faster, but I was drinking a glass of hot coffee while calibrating the ECU sooooo..........

Moving on to the interior. For this, I fitted the Recaro seat, as well as installing the short shifter kit, the shifter knob and the hydro handbrake, as well as installing the Power FC controller and testing the clutch and short shifter. Fortunately, all goes well so far, though I had to adapt over the short shifter to avoid mis-shifting, which absolutely won't be good even outside competitive events. Also, yes the middle air vent is still removed. Should I keep it as-is to cool myself down on the run or should I replace it with gauges?

With the S15 done, time to move on to the HR34. To install the anti-roll bar hI have to crawl below the car, so it took rather a long time. Almost stabbed my head on suspension parts as well.....definitely need a car lift next time. Also test-fitted the rear wing, which was nice and easy. Problem is, they come unpainted, and it looks like there's no spray can that's available in the body colour of my HR34, so I need to resort to a professional jobbie.

A call to VS Garage reveales they might have the paint in stock, so after ramen lunch and a shower, I went to their garage to have my HR34 paint inspected. Given their reputation, they might have the paint in their palette. Also, the front ARB shows their work nicely since I felt much less severe body roll in the front. But tell me, should I get rear ARB as well?

While I and some of the crew have some chatter about my HR34 and drift setups in general after I parked my HR34 inside the shop, the crew tried to find the correct colour of the HR34. Fortunately, the found it and they could mix some paint in order to resemble it correctly. They said it's quite a rare paint and probably not even in production anymore by Nissan, so they tried to replicate it with their best efforts. And oh, the entire process took roughly a day, from mixing the paint, coating it to let it dry etc. Because of this, I had to leave the HR34 to them for the day and pick it up the next day.

I called Rantaro to pick me up, but sadly he's in a middle of yet another tech meeting in Tokyo, so in the end I went back home with public bus, crammed with high school students going home at the same time. And so, I've met some faces I haven't seen in a long time: The girls I've met with Rantaro back then, namely Asuka, Seiko and Hinako (OORP: it's been 7 pages lmao, except Hinako). They've grown up a bit since the last time I've met them. Hinako cheerfully called me and told me to sit beside the group. At first I wonder if it's actually okay, but because I was rather tired, I decided to do so anyway.
E: "Hey girls, how's it been?"
A: "Quite fun, well apart from all the studying. All these mock exams choked me!"
E: "I know that feel, I was once your age after all. I could help you as well if you-wait hang on Hinako-chan, where's your sister?"
H: "Ah, my sister's in Tokyo for a meeting. This is how we usually go home as well anyways"
E: "I see, thought your sister would pick you up everyday. You're high schoolers after all"
H: "Ah Edo-san, I thought you have a car?"
E: "Well yes, I do. It's being painted current-ah I see, you still remember my car it turns out"
H: "The silver one, am I correct?"
E: "Yup, but that's not the one being painted. You see, since the last time we met, I've bought more cars"
S: "More cars? You must be rich by now, I'm impressed"
E: "Well not really! *laughs* I found them being sold for cheap that is all. Some are imports though!"
A: "Imports? Can we have a look?"
E: "Glad you're asking to be honest, here they are" *shows pics of my cars*
A: *points at Madza Demio pic* "Hey, this one is cute! Is it yours as well?"
E: "Not anymore, sadly. I have to sell it, and by coincidence my friend need a car so we struck a deal"
A: "I see, I like it though! Ah yes Hinako, how do you know he has a car?"
H: "Um, he once helped my sister to be her personal driver for a day"
E: "Yup, I could be one for your families as well. Don't worry, I'm a safe driver"
S: "Interesting, can you teach us how to drive as well?"
E: "Why not? I can provide the car or you can have your family's car to be driven"
..........
A: "Hey, who are these guys? Are they your and Rantaro-san's friends?" *points at the car meet photo*
E: "Oh did I scroll this far? Yes, I'm proud to say they are my friends"
S: "So who are they? And oh, this guy's kinda cute" *points at AJ*
A: "Look, this one's so handsome!" *points at Mack(MACKAY)*
H: "I like this one" *points at Marc(Macaron_moon)
E: "Yep, these are my friends, most of them are from Tokyo. We hanged out some time ago". Do you want to know who drives what?"
S: "Um, okay. Perhaps there's something interesting"
E: *introduces Ryuji, Ryoko, Genzo, Akane, Mihaya, Akechi*.....and then this is Mack, recently moved from Osaka. *shows his 458*
S: "Oh my, a supercar! He must be rich! I'd like to meet him! Can I?
E: "Of course he's rich, he's one of my role models as well. He has already married though"
S: "Aaaaaaah nooooo!"
A: "I'd like to be with a guy like him!"
E: *laughs* "But eh, I think he'd like to hang with you at one time"
S: "Yay!"
E: "This one is AJ, a lawyer in Tokyo, I'm also a fan of him, a good thing I've met him several times"
S: "Ah, a rich guy as well then! His car is cool too!"
E: "I know right? Word on the streets said he already has a GF but I'm not sure. Lots of fangirls as well, actually"
A: "No wonder then, looks like a perfect guy!"
E: "Now this one here is Marc, works for Subaru but also owns a Mitsubishi. Quite a busy guy, he's going to Europe soon"
H: "I see, he must be a successful guy!"
E: "Could be said so. And this one is Muza, AJ's and Marc's friend. Works at Nissan's racing company, also my role model"
S: "I'd be okay with him, he looks strong and genius!"
E: "I know right? I'm glad I'm their friend. One day I and Rantaro might meet them again, and when we do, I'll have you join us"
A: "Yay! Please do Edo-san!"
...........
The talk continued until eventually my stop has arrived. I bid goodbye to the girls and walk home to my crib. I'm surprised they have an interest over my cars as well as the car meet! I wish I could talk again to them, there are a lot of things I want to tell them......I might introduce them to Muza and co. someday, as well as Mackay ;)


[20 Apr 2019]
It's time to pick up the trailer! Because I've got the tool to pick it up, I don't have to call Rantaro as I could pick it myself.....though a GX70 as a tow car would probably look cool :D After yet another instant ramen breakfast and short calls with the importing agent I fired up the Sprinter, tune the radio to the news channel and hit the highway. So far traffic is normal according to the radio, though might fill up even more at peak hours.

The Sprinter feels quite eager to run despite it's dimension and weight. I'm curious how much power and torque it produced after the roadside tuning operation I performed with Rantaro after I picked it up, and moreover I feel it could be improved further still. But so far, this is fine. But hands up if you want me to tune the Sprinter as well! :D (both in looks and performance, I don't know any wheels that could suit it though)

Despite not being sold here, the Sprinter somehow feels at home cruising around the Tokyo expressway. And that's without any load to carry with. I feel I could drive it all day long, accompanied with pack of coffe cans and multiple radio shows as the day passing on, evaporated along with every centimeter of tarmac I passed while sipping on diesel......I don't think this kind of life is bad sometimes. Though realistically speaking, I'm not sure if I want to actually live this kind of life, since life could actually be better.

After some time, I arrived at the dockyard. This has felt like a genuine routine but hey, seaside stroll is good. It's not everyday you can see cargo ships as well, particularly if you don't live at coastal area. The people here are nice as well. I mean, as soon as I parked my Sprinter, they offered me a cup of coffee and have a chatter with them, all while waiting for the trailer to arrive.

30 minutes later, the trailer has arrived and opened from it's box. I finished my coffee, rushed to the Sprinter and backe dit up to prepare installing it. Installation process took a while, thankfully some of the crew offered some helping hands. And et viola! Here it is, connected to my Sprinter. At this point the Sprinter looks like a mini version of a racing transporer, with enough room for a car, parts and tools. No need for heavy 18-wheeler ;) It's also very, very long.....might as well nicknaming it Roadtrain now :))

After all the documents has been sorted, it is now time to leave the dockyard and back to Tsukuba.....but not before a self-taught crash course on towing. You see, towing a trailer isn't really an easy job sice you can't really see where the trailer is, they move in a different manner compared to the car, and lots of people would tell you backing a trailer is a nightmare, particularly if you use a car that has no tow assist feature like you'll get in new cars nowadays. After I decided I have enough practice, I headed back to the expressway.

Some time later, I arrived at Tsukuba. I really wonder what people think of the Sprinter and the trailer as I went along. It really is a combo that would look common and normal in europe or perhaps US, but compeletely out of place in Japan. Nevertheless, it's a Swiss Army Kknife for my needs, and a unique one as well. If it works well, it's not weird ;)

Finally, I arrived at my crib, and backing up the Sprinter proven to be a huge hazard now. Not that I wrecked anything in the process, all is safe, but I have to get off the van sometimes just to check where the trailer is positioned. But after a multi-million point turns and anxiety-filled reversing, both the trailer and the Sprinter is parked safe and neatly.

Later that day I got a call from the VS Garage, informing me the HR34 spoiler has been painted. I was quite excited and went there with public bus, but midway I remembered something: I have no money to pay the services. So I hatched a plan........

When I came to the place, while we have pizza and pasta for dinner, I simply come clean that I don't have any money with me at that moment. Fortunately, the crew welcomed my negotiation, and after a pizza-induced long negotiation process, we accepted that I could bring the car home as long as they keep the slips as a guarantee. If somehow I can't pay for a month, they'll permanently seize the HR34. I confidently accepted the deal as I know that my paycheck is coming close, so all I have to do is wait for it to come and drive back to the garage to reclaim the slips. It is a good thing I brought the HR34 slips with me, otherwise they could use the car's key as a guarantee, which means I simply can't bring it home.

Debt deal done, I went back to my crib. I actually want to stop at downtown for a while, but I heard traffic in dowtown is severely crowded, so I decided to head straight back home. After all, I have another plan for the next day. As I blast on the highway, inline 6 orchestra echoing in the background, I simply cruise along and enjoyed the ride while pumping this on the stereo.



I might need a personal accountant for now it seems..........


[21 Apr 2019]
After yet another ramen and onigiri breakfast (it's a good thing I stacked some of them) and a shower, I don my hoodie, denim, racing shoes and gloves, grab my racing helmet, and go for a trackday.......at Nikko! "Hang on Smoke you can't drift an Evo!" well I din't said I'm going to drift my Evo, today's a grip day on Nikko. And if you wonder, as I explained in the previous update, yes, grip days at Nikko is a thing. There's even an endurance championship there, as well as chances to score a time attack record there. So yeah, even though Nikko is largely famous for drifting, you can do more than just drfiting there. As I hit the road, I pumped this on the stereo.

2 hours later, I arrived at the circuit complex. The Silver Queen has joined another server! There are some cars on the track already, ranging from kei cars from Suzuki Cappucino and Alto Works to regular time attack contenders like Civics, RX-7s and a bunch of Evos as well. I took my spot on the simply-bulit paddock. Obviously it's not built to a very high standard like Tsukuba Circuit's paddock complex, but this is fine, and gave me a nice grassroots vibe. You don't have to walk rather far to have a chatter, as everybody's literally beside you at all times.


I decided to have some banters with fellow drivers and locals. I'm surprised they quickly recognized me, and turns out they also attended the day I swing my HR34 here. So cheerfully I told them about my Silver Queen and what I have done with it. It was a sunny, lukewarm day so quite ideal to have a trackday as well. There are a lot of vehicles brought to the track today in a wide range of variety....even some are kind enough to have you joyriding with them. I had a rather long chatter as I watch cars going by to re-learn the track. Yes, I've come here once, but grip and drift days are different things and thus requires a different apporach.

After banter session done, I headed to the stewards office to rent a VBox. Thankfully, compared to Tsukuba, they rent it for free outside competitive events, though I also notified that they would start applying prices if the rent interest is high and sustainable enough. Eh, no problem for that since I usually could pay for it....not now though, so this one's a blessing. Once I went back to the paddock, I whipped out my helmet, install the VBox inside the Silver Queen, and don the helmet.

Once everything has been set, I slowly get off the paddock building and roll into the pitlane. As per usual, I waited for the signal lights to go green, which turned out can turn quickly as cars coming by near the pit exit. Nikko is short after all.


Light went off and I immediately stormed into the first corner. The first three corners felt longer than I experienced at my drift day, feels like a 3/4 roundabout. Connecting them into a turn might need some adjustment. But thanks to this, the 4th one can be taken aggressively.


The rest of the track is surprisingly fast, not as fast as Tsukuba's latter half but good enough to be run in 3rd, 4th or even 5th gear. Even if you're not drifting here it feels like riding a rollercoaster while your hair got pulled sideways. Trust me, this track is really underrated for grip runs and I enjoy it very much even just after seconds in!

And then here comes the fastest stretch of the circuit, that is the backstraight. And obviously this part is much faster while taken without drifting, and trying to put your car as near as possible with the gravel trap is actually a fun test to do as a mesuring tool to see just how fast and aggressive you are on the exit.

After the backstraight comes the corner where I had an impromptu rallycross session in my HR34. You have to brake as deep as possible here, going down from 4th or 5th to 2nd or even 1st. Do it incorrectly and chances are you're going very, very wide or even worse, breaking your transmission.

And finally, that corner automatically links with two last corners that if you can figure out how to take it, slightly cut by using the gigantic kerbs surrounding it. Quite a game changer if you're looking for that time attack record I should say.


With the warm-up lap done, it's time to try scoring some hot laps. And now rushing around the first corner is much easier with more falling rubbers around.



I'm feeling quite confident to take the corners much faster, given that I've got AWD and so far no dust on track. Man, grip days and TA races should be held more often here! I would also like to attend the endurance races here but um, I need some people to join me obviously :))


I was so confident I almost understeered near the backstraight because I was too greedy on the gas at the exit, but fortunately the grip was still enough to move the car away from the gravel trap. Then I planned to take the next corner earlier.......


.....which almost resulted in a disaster as the kerbs were actually high enough to launch my Silver Queen sideways. I was starlted for a while, but quickly recovered.

Not wanting to commit the same mistake again, I refrained from the kerbs for the final corners. That gave me a small amount of heart attack!


That's one hot lap done, and with a clearer view of how I should take the corners, I decided to fully push the Silver Queen and go for more, storming the first corner with even later braking. I could feel the tyres tyring to keep up with the lateral forces. Probably a good indicator of how far I've pushed this thing.




Wwith me seemingly going for the lap record books (though in reality I wasn't. I was simply going fast), crowds started to cheer on me and my Silver Queen. I felt even more pumped to go faster! But obviously I also tried to keep it safe and harmonious

I deeply fall in love with Nikko's 2nd and 3rd sector of the track. You can simply take it with minimum downshifting or even minimum amount of brakes. It does challenge you to be as precise as possible and as brave as possible with your entry and trajectory.

I ended the lap with a small cutting action on the very last corner. That gave me an idea: How deep I can cut it while still keeping the time valid? Drowned in thsi thought, I started the next lap in a rather furious manner.

Everything went fast and tidy just like my previous laps. As I've approached the backstraight, I hatched my plan over the last corner's trajectory.

And then the final section comes in. I tried to push the car hard........

.....but I could swear I didn't intended to take and cut the last corner THIS hard. As my car went sideways and on two wheels, I let out a gasp in shock as I tried to countersteer and keeping my foot on the accelerator to make it stable again. Even at this kind of moment I could faintly hear spectators sreaming in shock as the world seemingly fades and colours fly away quickly. Even a spectator caught a pic of me doing the save!


Thankfully, all my effort was worth it as the car flattens quickly with a bit of a bounce. As the spectator cheers loudly outside, I let out a sigh of relief as I started the next lap and shouted "WOAH! God I can't believe it!". You know those near-death moments? Yeah that was probably one of mine....

Lesson learned, I continue to turn in some more laps more carefully. Despite the huge bump experienced earlier, the Silver Queen was unfazed and continuing to score fast laps. It's born from a breed of rally cars after all :D


Finally, after several more laps, I've had enough and decided to went back to the pits. As I've returned and parked at the paddock building, some crowds started to swarm around the Silver Queen. Lots of the was excited and wondered over the save I pulled earlier, as well as congratulating me over it.

Aah yes, I had a VBox with me so of course I have to announce the lap time. And the result is.......40.364 seconds, which is only around 3 seconds off of most of the current records! I and the crowds celebrated this with lots of high-fives and fistbumps, and after I returned the VBox to the office I went back for some more chatters and banters about hotlapping as well as my Silver Queen.

After some time has passed, finally I decided to go back home to Tsukuba. Before I enter my Evo, some of us exchanged contacts and shared pics of our respective cars. I really love the atmosphere here, it's like a small but great, warm society of petrolheads :-X

Welp, I should get literally anyone to do a grip day at Nikko, not only limited to just a drift day. Trust me it's worth it! :D














Aaaaah yes finally my update done, topped with bankruptcy and nutty trackday!
Let's see just how broke I am at the moment:















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

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#282   2019-04-26 15:19          
# 11000rpm : Hell yea, watching you running around reminds me of Nikko drift matsuri back to 2017, it is always good to see my VS dudes rushing around Nikko.

I know right, fun grassroot times :D
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#283   2019-04-27 17:43          
Land of the Free
(NOTE: Some pictures are taken from Phonexius's RP)












So, paycheck has come and finally I can free myself from my debts.
But that's not all that happened this week obviously......and it gets better as the days passes by.
I AM GOING TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! But of course I'm not going alone, there are lots of friends as well
So, let's see how I spent my first days in the land of muscle cars right below! :D















[Flashback, circa January-February 2019]
While I was living on my winter holiday at Tokyo with Muza(Niatross), AJ(RocketBunnyS13) and Marc(Macaron_moon), all of us was called and contacted by Ben(Phonexius) via various medias. Ben is one of the owners of Side to Side racing team and garage shop, based in Ardmore, Okahoma, USA. He's also the owner of the Art of Wheels shop that you can access here, where you can buy various kinds of wheels(obviously), stickers, car accessories(including recently ECU and steering wheels) and many more. Feel free to visit and buy something from the shop, as they accept worldwide shipping :D

Currently Ben runs both shops with his close friend and co-owner of Side to Side, Ziga(Lagano). Originally Side to Side was founded by four people, which were Ben, Ziga, Mikingo and 3StyleLTU (I don't know the real name of the latter two). Several people also joined Side to Side at one time, but eventually they also left the team in the end, leaving only Ben and Ziga to run the shop at the moment. Most are still in good terms and in contact with the duo, but some others left the team as well the scene with unknown fate.

Side to Side also has another garage at Los Angeles, CA where they store some of their cars, iirc mostly Ziga's cars. They also toured around the world to various places each year, including Japan and England in the past. Recently they have come back from another european tour to Ben's motherland, Bosnia and Herzegovina to help Ben's cousin establish his garage shop and building cars in between. At times they're also kind enough to source some cars from where they are at the moment to other petrolheads.......just ask AJ and Muza, who got EU-spec Nissan 200SXs from Ben. All in all, they're great and kind people who you'll want to hang and drive, or even live with ;)

Speaking about racing efforts, I don't really know if they race competitively/professionally that often, but all I know is they do attend club and open level events and they mainly focuses on drag racing and drifting discipline. At this point you should hit their RP thread to check their rides :)) Ziga usually take part in drag races with various rides including a Chevelle, Soarer and recently an ex-cartel owned Supra A80. He also owns a 3S-GE swapped AE86 that recently has been made streetlegal. Ben meanwhile owns a lot of track-focused cars, including an R33 and R34 which produces monumental level of power, but we'll get to that later. He also owns a mad drift machine in form of 13B-swapped Merc. Truly one hell of a collection don't you think? With this in mind, this is a chance I couldn't miss to see all of them in my own flesh.

After a deep thinking and consideration for many, many days and weeks, I gave the OK to Ben on visiting the states around early to mid February. Ben was also kind enough to lend me one of his cars, but we'll also get to that later. From that point on, in-between my working days I made some trips to US embassy to get a passport and visa for the visit, as well as arranging online flight ticket from Narita Airport to Dallas-Forth Worth Airport, which is the nearest airport to Ardmore. You already know how I spent the rest of the days.........


[22 Apr 2019]
Before going to the US of A, it is time to sort my debts first. As you've read at the previous update, I ran out of money and had to declare a debt to VS garage for my HR34 spoiler paint, with the consequence of my slips for the car held by them and seizure of the HR34 should I'm unable to pay the debt within a month. Thankfully, my current paycheck of V$940 is more than enough to pay the debt, which was V$250. So what I did this day was obvious.....I went back to the VS garage and reclaimed the slips for the HR34.

While I was inside and sorting my debts, as well as apologizing to them for declaring a debt, I told them about my plans to the USA. They seemed to be excited and curious on what am I going to do there, which will be answered later. And while I was inside their garage I also told my document translation customers that I'm going to USA so I can only accept softcopy translations in the meantime. Of course I also told my friends about it, mainly Rantaro and Ryuji. Both of them are looking forward to the pics of USA's car culture there. I can feel so much expectations for this trip, after all it's not everyday you can have a trip to USA! :))

With everything sorted, done and dusted, I went back to my crib to start my preparations for the trip. I can't wait to have my feet stepping on the land of the free and drive various cars there! And who knows if I can grab home something back to Japan? :D


[24 Apr 2019]
It's the D-day! After a shower, breakfast and some final preparstion, I went to Narita Airport by bus at 7am. It's practically near with Tsukuba, only taking around 1 hour to get to the airport. The plane to DFW airport departs at 10am, so theoritically I have to finish my check-in, luggage processing and departure procedures by 9.30am, thus my decision to take bus earlier. Ah yes, the flight itself is a non-stop 12 hour flight, so I'll arrive at DFW airport at 10pm in the middle of dark night.

After all the check-in and departure procedures are done, I waited at the perron and meet up with Muza and AJ who came up later.

E: "Yo Muza! AJ! C'mere man!"
M: "Yoooooo who's ready to go stateside?"
A: "Stateside car hunting session here we go!"
E: "Aaaah glad y'all so fired up as well. A bit gutted Marc can't jump in as well"
A: "He didn't said back then he would go to Italy though"
E: "Italy? Is he going to buy a Ferrari or something?"
M: "Hell if we know. We only found out some time ago, and looks like Marc is as busy as ever"
E: "Had I know this I'd like him to source me a Fiat Panda Sisley"
M: "Aaaaah yes someone has watched The Grand Tour it seems"
A: "We don't blame you though, it's tiny and simple yet also a great offroader"
E: "See, I know you'd like that thing as well"
A: "Anyways what are goin to drive there?"
E: "Well s**t I'm broke man! *massive laughter* nah I'm not that broke, but I'll borrow Ben's ride"
M: "Which one though? The R33?"
E: "Nonono that thing's too powerful, only he could and may ride it"
A: "Ziga also secured an Evo 6, you might be-"
E: "Yes I want to drive it but no, it's in a rather messy state. Let him restore it first"
*departure annuncement*
E: "Oh it looks like we're ready to go"

We continued talking as we went aboard the plane.
E: "Right uh, the flight is non-stop and takes 12 hours. How could we avoid a massive jet lag? Sleeping mid-air?"
A: "No I don't think that works that well. But then again what could we do mid-air?"
M: "Eh, eventually we'll sleep I guess"
A: "Well s**t just put your phone in airplane mode and set alarms if you're going to sleep"
E: "Good idea. And uh, whoever wakes up first is the one waking up the others. Sounds like a good deal to you?"
A: "Can do that"
M: "I don't mind"

10.15am, our plane took off from Narita and started our flight to DFW. Along the flight AJ and Muza have some chatter, while I simply try to calm myself by pumping some music from my phone. And Muza's call was correct as we felt asleep one hour after lunchtime.

Speaking of flight experience, it's quite nice and the service was fairly recommendable (as we don't know what happened for the rest 6-7 hours). I do really admire commercial pilots, stewards and stewardees in general who would serve various passengers for many hours non-stop on plane. Being a steward and stewardees might look like a simple job but trust me, their training is quite hard and they got to keep and polish their looks everytime as well. As for the pilots and copilots, well, play any flight simulators and tell me how hard is it.

We woke up around 9pm, an hour before the plane lands. We still feel exhausted and dizzy from the turbulence and jet lag even after we slept for a rather long time.......even we can't hear anything for a while. It looks like we're approaching the American soil as we can see lots and lots of night lights below us. It felt surreal but beautiful that after all this time we're going to step our feet on the soil of USA. We're going to live the American dream!

Finally, we landed at DFW at 10.20pm, and after all the arrival procedures completed and all luggages successfully claimed by us, we took a rest for a while at the terminal.....then we saw someone familiar.

"Marc? Marc is that you? Oi Marc is that you?!" I tried to call that person.
"Oh Edo! AJ! Muza! There you are!" He replied, confirming it was indeed Marc!

We have a long banter for a while as we rest, unexpecting him to actually come here by his own. So it turns out he was supposed to come back straight to Japan, but he remembered our plan to come here so he simply went here instead. He also said he'll simply ride shotgun with either AJ or Muza so he could cut cost during the trip. I think he's going to appreciate Ziga's Evo 6........

Aferwards Muza received a call from Ben. It turns out he waited for us at a parking lot tower nearby, so we went there while covering our ears from sonic booms emitted by planes coming and leaving the airport. Ben sent his coordinates to Muza's phone, but he parked at somewhere in the middle floor so it was a lengthy walk.

Finally, with the lengthy walk over, we saw Ben and Ziga chilling beside their cars. Ben was driving his signature, monstrous R33 and Ziga was driving the shop's parts truck, a Chevy Silverado CK 1500. And turns out there are two more of us: There are also Soju(well, Soju) and 11K(11000rpm) there! They come from South Korea, also invited by Ben.

You might already know Soju for being the king of Supra builds here, with all that carbon fiber diet and aggresive track styling. But not only that, Soju is also the current RP king with 891 posts in his RP thread as I write this.....only 109 posts away from 1000 posts! (and nobody has ever reached 1000 posts in VS RP!!). Together with 11K and some other friends, they formed the Seoul Tuners crew and basically owns the crown and throne of SK car tuning scene. 11K recently has also gone competitive too by entering open and club gymkhana events (the Japanese traditional gymkhana, not that obnoxious Ken Block-ish gymkhana) with his SR20-swapped E36. Once or twice a year they also come to Japan to attend events like Ebisu Matsuri or Nikko Drift Matsuri.

As this is the first time we meet each other in flesh, we took some time to introduce ourselves and have some chatter. In the meantime, let's see the cars that has come to pick us up.

This is Ben's R33, with an RB26 inside and kitted with the famous, sleek Nismo 400R bodykit. Ben has hand-tuned this R33 for years, and it does show it results as the RB26 inside it now produces 1300+ BHP.....and despite all THAT power it's still streetlegal! That shows how legendary and masterful Ben is in terms of car tuning. Similar to me over my Silver Queen, Ben uses the R33 as a trackday toy and daily ride.
(NOTE: Phonexius's R33 is a VIP mod, and yes, I've tried to replicate it for this update with absolutely no avail. Don't worry though, you'll see the correct one later courtesy of him)


And here is the shop's Silverado. Bought by Ben two years ago, this is the 1992 RWD model, housing a 5.7 liter V8 engine producing 210 BHP......or at least back then. It was rebuilt many years back and the crew did some maintenance on the engine, but Ben admitted he rarely drive this thing. Despite that, he still had time to refine and do some detailling on the paint and trims, as well as fitting Work Crag T-Grabic offroader wheels in 17 inch size amd fitting a massive tool box in the bed. It looks so handsome and proper for the job.

With the introduction over, we headed to the Side to Side HQ at Ardmore. I decided to jump with Ziga in the Silverado. As I've once said, the pickup truck is one of the most American thing in USA. Normally it works as a commercial and logistics vehicle like my Sprinter van does. The biggest difference would be you can comfortably and confidently daily a pickup truck or even carry people with it, whereas you might be already losing your mind if you try to daily a blind van/box van, well at least if you don't convert it into a campervan first. The Silverado glides and cruises on the highway with smooth and nice ride, it's like riding on a king-size bed :D

Far ahead I can hear the massive, loud baritone and treble sound echoed by Ben's R33. When a car has THAT much power under insdie the engine bay, obviously it's hard not to notice it. And how Ben could keep it streetlegal is yet another witchcraft that I should probably learn from. Along with Ziga's AE86 becoming streetlegal as well, Ben and Ziga really lives the petrolhead dream life here in the USA.

It didn't took long for me to ignite my curiousity over what it feels like to live with a pickup truck everyday, combined with the fact that I stil haven't got anything to drive around at this point. I want to live the American live as well! Thus I asked to Ziga if I could grab the keys of the Silverado during the trip.

"Hey tell me Ziga, since Ben allows us to borrow one of his rides, can I take this?"
"Personally, I would allow you, but since it's Ben's ride you better ask him"
"Ah, okay, thanks for the initial OK sign"
"No probs, my man"
"Should I tell you approved as well?"
"Well if you want to, go ahead"

After a long, long day of trip, we finally reached our destination and took another sleep for the rest of the day. But before Ben goes away to his own crib, I asked if I could borrow his Silverado.

"Uh, Ben, back then you offered me to borrow you rides for the trip"
"Yes I did. So which one you want to have?"
"Can I have the Silverado?"
"Of course you can my boi. We rarely drive that thig so you can give it some workout"
"That's so nice of you, thanks my man"

And so, day 1 of our US trip passed with me securing the keys to the Silverado. Time to live the American life :D


[25 Apr 2019]
Day 2 of the US trip starts with a lively breakfast and another trip together to pick up Soju and 11K's respective rides. Yup, turns out they also brought their own signature rides here! God I could swear this would be a trip of a lifetime! First I've seen Ben's R33 by my own eyes, now Soju's Supra? I feel like I've basejumped into petrolhead heaven head first :D

We arrived at the pick-up point around 9.40am. Mood was truly upbeat since finally all of us can see yet another amazing cars by our own eyes. I, Ziga and 11K were inside the Silverado

After Soju, 11K, Ziga and Ben sorted all the shipping papers, it is time to unveil the curtai-I mean, the cargo and get the cars outside. And the first one to get of the cargo is Soju's very own Supra A80, complete with it's bare carbon diet contrasted with shiny white paint, sitting on Volk TE37SLs (here it is TE37TTA. Don't worry, accurate version also later). It is the JDM Kouki model, tuned to the max for highway and track racing applications, including that JGTC-style headlight and ram air intae combination, which back then used for JGTC Supras in endurance rounds or when rain pours the track. Ridox bodykit with front bumper made from carbon fiber, custom CF front fenders and carbon Top Secret bonnet completes the aggressive track stance. Absolutely a thing to behold and admire :-X


Next up is 11K's SR20-swapped BMW E36. Possibly one of the best 3-series generation in terms of power and chassis balance as well as availability, it is also equipped with half-rollcage and carbon fiber LTW wing and boot as well as GT front lip from the M3 model. It sits on 17 inch Buddy Club P1 wheels. It's also a track toy and daily car, just like my Silver Queen and Ben's R33. Fun fact: This E36 is one of the reason on why I attached stickers to my Silver Queen :)) as I've said previously, 11K recently went competitive with this E36, entering gymkhana events in South Korea.

With all rides reclaimed, we went to a body shop where Ziga and Ben used to paint their cars to held a welcoming BBQ party for us.......which turns out doubles as Muza's birthday party :D But mid-party Ben told Muza to grab his R33 keys and go for a spin with Ziga......what a lucky man! Ben also told me to drive him to the HQ with the Silverado and come back without him. He said he has a secret plan, so I don't really know what's going on at that point. Ben only said he'll come back soon.


So with utter confusion I went back to the party, but nonetheless enjoyed 2-3 plates of tasty BBQ and fries. Around 20 minutes later, an unfamiliar BMW E92 rolls into the place. I was thinking I was fully having an illuminati experience for the rest of the day despite not being drunk, but then I was relieved to see Ziga and Ben is the one inside the BMW. But then again, who's BMW it actually is? My curiosity and confusion was cleared when Ziga and Ben get off the car and shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIATROSS!" in joy. Yup, it's Muza's birthday gift!

We spent the time partying until the sun sets, and of course we can't party forever, so at the end of the day Ben and Ziga made plans for the next day, which you'll see after this one. Meanwhile, here's the full crew pic from the party, featuring correct versions of Ben's R33 and Soju's Supra as I promised! ;) As for the R33 and BMW E92 impression, obviously I'll leave that to Muza.




[26 Apr 2019]
Day 3 of the US trip and work has started! Well, at least for me and Muza. I've been told to bring the Silverado with Muza to the HQ, and Ben said today is the time for some of his biggest operations ever. But what would these be? I wonder.......ah but before all of that, let's see what cars are present in the HQ today!

Ziga stores a lot of cars here, but he usually would put his widebody Miata NA in the main shop room rather than the storage room. This is one of his daily rides, the others are a Nissan 300ZX Z32 and a Mark II X90 which he imported straight from Japan. Both of these cars are stored in Los Angeles rather than Ardmore at the moment, and the Evo 6 needs some treatment as well, so he had to stick with this one. It's not a bad thing though, since it looks as sweet and practical as a college girl with that paint scheme. It also screams proper JDM vibes as well, sitting on RS Watanabe wheels and despite being widened, it's still compact and small enough to slick around downtown Ardmore.

Meanwhile, Ben came to the HQ with his shiny, brand new GT-R R35. Recently he installed airbags on it, courtesy from his Volvo 850 which he recently sold. Yyou might be thinking "Why the hell someone bagged a GT-R?", but trust me, the answer to that question might leave you astonished. Performance-wise it's still fully stock, but eh, a stock GT-R is still awesome as it's pretty fast even in stock form and might be able to literally dislocate or even break your neck, neural system and/or brain if you use the sport mode and launch control many, many, many times.......that's why personally this is one of people's favourite ride despite it's reputation as an, um, PlayStation on wheels. Fun fact: The LCD interface is designed by Polyphony Digital. Yup, the guys behind Gran Turismo! This explains it's similarity with GT4 and GT5 in-game interface.

And then of course there's the Silverado. And it turns out the Silverado is the first one to receive the treatment today. And trust me, I didn't see this coming as Ben told me to pick up the engine hoist as he and Muza pick up a crate...........even Muza said to me, "Holey moley boi you're in for a big surprise!"

And indeed it was a big surprise. Turns out inside that crate resides an LS7 engine! Well I'm quite used to an LS swap, but putting an LS7 inside a Silverado is probably the last thing you'd expect when hearing the word "LS swap". But then again Ben has swapped a 13B engine inside a Merc, so he should be able to get around this one as well. You would usually find an LS7 engine inside the Corvette C6 Z06, though these days you can order them as a crate engine. In Ben's case though, I'm not really sure where did he got his one. You can also find an LS7 inside the 2014-2015 Camaro Z/28, or if you live in Australia you can find it as well inside the HSV W427. You can find one as well powering the Vertical Hummingbird 300LS helicopter! I took my position at the engine hoist as Ben went under the car to do and refine the mounting later. He opted to do the mounting as he's still suffering a bit from his crash involving his Merc.

The LS7 engine has a capacity of 7 liters, and in stock form as Ben used is capable of extracting 505 BHP. That's a hell lot to be thrown inside a pickup truck! But then again, talking about fast truck with big engine, Ford back then used to have the F150 SVT Lightning and Dodge has the RAM SRT10 which uses the Dodge Viper engine. GM used to have one as well, in form of GMC Syclone, and that truck used a V6 instead of V8! These things are rare unicorns since their birth though, so at this point it'll make sense why Ben would like to have a homemade, self-tuned one. And yes, that red engine cover is retained for added shock and awe factor ;)

With the Silverado's change of heart done, it is time to move onto the next one. This time, Ben's GT-R is the subject. And thankfully the operation is much more simple. So turns out at the day we come to USA, at daytime Ben received a set of Liberty Walk V1 bodykit straight from Japan. So its not only us that came from Japan :)) Muza and I delivered the kit to him, which contains the front and rear quarterpanel set as well as the swan neck wing. And yes, this is why Ben bagged his GT-R. As you might realize by now, most of Liberty Walk kitted GT-Rs are riding on bags rather than coilovers. See, Ben is a genius ;) My task for now is simply keeping track of the tools being used, including all the 10mm socket used in the process. I had to get under the car several times, smashing my head twice to the floor in the process :))

With the job done, Ben went off to test the kit, particularly to see if he and Muza set up the spacers correctly, as well as if he did set up the airbags correctly for rolling on the road as well when it's parked. But before he went out, I asked if I could take the Silverado for a ride. Thankfully he allows me to do it, as long as I'm being careful with it. This seems like a mundane response but he actually has a point: Not only this is his ride, the Silverado still runs on stock brakes, which combined with the LS7 would turn into a chocolate biscuit. If I step on the brakes too late or not hard enough I would turn the Silverado into a battering ram, and next thing we know Ben would absolutely murder me for that kind of mishap. Speaking of the GT-R, you can check the result by checking out Ben's RP thread.....go go go! :D

As I hit the streets of Ardmore and blend with downtown traffic, overall impressions are nice but indeed braking is a pain in the back. You have to press the brake much, much earlier to come into a stop, which as you would know happens quite often in city driving conditions. I could swear the stopping process took almost forever. But at least I could still feel it stopping. It felt like a battleship on wheels.

The good news is the ride quality and suspension didn't seem to take effect from the engine swap. What I mean is it's still ride comfortably and actually still dailyable despite all the LS7 soundtrack creeping a bit inside the truck. I could still chill inside, like sitting on a big sofa while driving and I could drive along while blasting and singing along to 'Free Bird' on the radio. It's just as comfortable as I first know it.

As for the engine, it's much more responsive and eager to move the car, as you might have expected. Previously, the car felt a bit laggy and tired due to the engine literally sirviving the ages and rarely driven before coming here. But now? I feel like I can take it to a track and do either a time attack or drag racing with it (but obviously it needs a better brake first). The V8 soundtrack is motivating as well, up to the point I forgot that this thing now has 505 BHP so when the light turns green, there's always a bit of a tire squirm as I hit the throttle :)) But don't worry, it didn't happen when I use it in normal, sensible condition.

At the end of the day I returned the Silverado to Ben and reported on all of what I experienced that day. In turn, Ben told me that the next move is to repair his Merc and do something on one of Ziga's cars. Hmmmmm, I wonder which car and what it would be?














Weeee boiiii finally I'm in the US of A! :D
Let's see how my wallet has survived so far:














That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by
and see you soon here or one of the boys's updates!
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

NinetySixGT

ca
Posts: 27

Location: Canada Saskatchewan
Occupation: Car Addiction
Age: 23
V$: 2,115
#284   2019-04-27 18:02          
That Silverado is pretty slick
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Cars Owned:
-2003 SN95 Ford Mustang GT
-1995 SN95 Ford Mustang GT

Nightkid

jp
Posts: 818

Location: Japan
Occupation: yesn´t
Age: 23
V$: idk
#285   2019-04-27 18:24          
M U R I C A !

God damn , Soju´s Supra looks fucking amazing !

Soju

kr
Posts: 1247

Location: South Korea
Occupation: Smuggling Soju
Age: 122
V$: Broke
#286   2019-04-27 18:45          
Pretty heavy jet lag is still here and there, but it did worth taking a shot by shipping whole car and meeting you guys :)

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#287   2019-04-27 20:25          
# NinetySixGT : That Silverado is pretty slick

Ben(Phonexius) is really a mastercraft when it comes to planning and tailoring his car mods, I agree with you :D

# Nightrunner : M U R I C A !

God damn , Soju´s Supra looks fucking amazing !

T R U C K Y E A H !

I know right, it's an absolutely iconic, state-of-the-art build. It's literally jaw-dropping, I had mine dropping for 5-10 minutes and had to close it manually with my hands due to the awesomeness it emits :))

# Soju : Pretty heavy jet lag is still here and there, but it did worth taking a shot by shipping whole car and meeting you guys :)

My man I'm so grateful and honoured to meet legends like you, 11K, Ziga and Ben this week :')
And to top of that you and 11K got your signature builds here as well! I'm truly in heaven boiiii :bananajump:
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

EliasFD3S

fr
Posts: 47

Location: France
Occupation: Karting driver
Age: 19
V$:
#288   2019-04-28 01:31          
started to read your RP and i can say that's a very good one ! but i'm wondering , how you can go to trackdays without having a rollcage ?

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
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#289   2019-04-28 06:51          
# EliasFD3S : started to read your RP and i can say that's a very good one ! but i'm wondering , how you can go to trackdays without having a rollcage ?

Some tracks only requires it if you're driving an open-top car :D
And thank you for reading as well :D

(And uh, the mod doesn't have a rollcage soooo.......)

EDIT: So Tsukuba Circuit has four different licenses for trackdays according to their guide page, which is divided by car types and average lap time: Road car over 1:09:xxx, road car over 1:08:xxx, tin-top racers and open-wheel racers.Here's the technical guide for road cars and racecars, and though it's in Japanese you can see they don't (or might not) require rollcages for road cars.

This post was edited by BigSmoke (2019-04-28 07:11, ago)
Still following the damn train since 1992

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RocketBunnyS13

ph
Posts: 418

Location: Philippines MNL
Occupation: Yes I ruin cars
Age: 34
V$: wat
#290   2019-04-28 08:46          
YASSSSS pretty overwhelming update here, but well worth the read!!

The LS7 Silverado was INSANE! And I can say the same for the R33 and R35 of Phonexius haha, the E92 335i was definitely unexpected, and it surprised us all, Muza was jumping all around and screaming HAHAHAH. Soju's and 11K's cars were looking sick, much more beautiful in person!! We finally got to meet the Korean Champs in person too haha. MAN I can't wait to pick up my USA car

s t a y c l a s s y

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#291   2019-04-28 09:18          
# RocketBunnyS13 : YASSSSS pretty overwhelming update here, but well worth the read!!

The LS7 Silverado was INSANE! And I can say the same for the R33 and R35 of Phonexius haha, the E92 335i was definitely unexpected, and it surprised us all, Muza was jumping all around and screaming HAHAHAH. Soju's and 11K's cars were looking sick, much more beautiful in person!! We finally got to meet the Korean Champs in person too haha. MAN I can't wait to pick up my USA car

It's really funny but heartwarming to see Muza being happy like that....I'm sure that's not his usual happy self traits :))
But hey, it's his birthday present so it's absolutely justified :D

Looking forward to your purchase man! ;)
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

Sleepin mOnkey

jp
Posts: 2459

Location: Japan Universe, Milky way ,Solar system, Earth
Occupation: Automotive engineer Student
Age: 32
V$: 14.750
#292   2019-04-28 18:21          
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM the silverado must be hauling ass then
Roleplay: A engine Builder and tuner that lives in Japan and Builds cool stuff.
Cars: Corolla Levin coupe Tog/show car
180SX s13 350hp SR20DET 6MT Babe 1
Supra Sz JZA80 2jz-Gte Vvt-i 2000's Hotboi
240sx Vert HOTBOI 2

CLICCC...

11000rpm

kr
Posts: 391

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#293   2019-04-28 18:34          
Man, I appreciate the effort you put on featuring single dude's car.
You guys are real gold!

Lagano

si
Posts: 1739

Location: Slovenia West side
Occupation: Taking it easy
Age: 24
V$: :$V
#294   2019-04-28 20:47          
Hell yeah i'm glad to have y'all in the States! :D Silverado is definitely more fun after this swap, even if it's just a pickup haha. It really needs a brake and suspension upgrade now, we'll manage to do that with the help from all you guys! Also the 300ZX, R32 and Mark 2 have just arrived in Oklahoma too if someone wants to try them out ;)

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#295   2019-04-29 05:09          
# Sleepin mOnkey : DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMM the silverado must be hauling ass then

I'm quite confident it could haul lots of ass with no sweat now :D
It's also (both literally and in positive way) unstoppable :D

# 11000rpm : Man, I appreciate the effort you put on featuring single dude's car.
You guys are real gold!

Thanks my man, glad you like it! :D
I'm quite honoured to finally be able to meet you and Soju, as well as your cars with my own eyes :D

# Lagano : Hell yeah i'm glad to have y'all in the States! :D Silverado is definitely more fun after this swap, even if it's just a pickup haha. It really needs a brake and suspension upgrade now, we'll manage to do that with the help from all you guys! Also the 300ZX, R32 and Mark 2 have just arrived in Oklahoma too if someone wants to try them out ;)

Thank you very much for inviting all of us to the States, we're really grateful for that! :D

Also WOAH you single-handedly grab them from LA? Dang dude that's quite a noble effort, perhaps I might try one of them :D
Still following the damn train since 1992

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Niatross

bd
Posts: 430

Location: Bangladesh
Occupation: topkek
Age:
V$: yes
#296   2019-04-29 10:43          
'Murica-land sure is a treat compared to narrow japanese alleyways isnt it mate xDDDD
Oh and yeah u seem to fit the silverado just fine style-wise
Look like u and the car were meant for each other :))


Current owned cars:
- Toyota Supra GA-JZA70 Mk3
- BMW E46 M3
- Nissan Skyline ECR33 GTS25t
- Nissan 200SX Hatchback
- BMW E92 335i
- Nazda RX-7 FD3S Type RS
- Mazda RX-7 JF1FD (USDM)
- Nissan Silvia S14

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#297   2019-04-29 13:55          
# Niatross : 'Murica-land sure is a treat compared to narrow japanese alleyways isnt it mate xDDDD
Oh and yeah u seem to fit the silverado just fine style-wise
Look like u and the car were meant for each other :))

Big roads and big cars for Big Smoke :))
Everything grows larger when I step into the soil of the States mate :))

But yeah the Silverado turns out to be so comfy to me :D
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#298   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! :D














[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 :crying:

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! :D 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! :D

















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!
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

Macaron_Moon

jp
Posts: 144
http://cornhub.com
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Occupation: Human Lan Evo, or homeless crackhead. Same thing
Age: 27
V$: 2 cents
#299   2019-05-04 22:18          
Sorry for interrupting your special moment but I had to do it, I was deaf enough to basically dont mind this thing do some spooks. Anyways, enjoy your new truck mate.

Benny

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Location: Bosnia And Herzegovina Lukavac
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#300   2019-05-04 22:38          
Keep the truck safe, don't run over people and don't crash it like I would do xD

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Sleepin mOnkey

jp
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#301   2019-05-05 00:19          
Jusy look at it is beautiful

hey just change the leaf position on that silverado and send it at the skid pad you sill soon realize trucks are amazing to drift
Roleplay: A engine Builder and tuner that lives in Japan and Builds cool stuff.
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Soju

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#302   2019-05-05 02:58          
That’s a nice find! And the Silverado also has a lot of potential :)

BigSmoke

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#303   2019-05-05 11:12          
# Macaron_Moon : Sorry for interrupting your special moment but I had to do it, I was deaf enough to basically dont mind this thing do some spooks. Anyways, enjoy your new truck mate.

I've said it and I'll said it again: YOU ALMOST KILLED ME! :))
But hey, that's a nice Impala you got there, so it kinda justifies it. And thanks! :D

# Phonexius : Keep the truck safe, don't run over people and don't crash it like I would do xD

I will my man, I will. It's a gift after all :D

Though I'm a bit split between improving the biscuit stock brakes or simply keep it as-is. I mean, y'know these car collectors? Some collectors would even keep a dent or scratch (that obviously not made by them) on their collected car if it means something or has a historical value to them. Some racecars also stored this, kept with the last setting and battle scars from their very last race.

# Sleepin mOnkey : Jusy look at it is beautiful

hey just change the leaf position on that silverado and send it at the skid pad you sill soon realize trucks are amazing to drift

I know right? You've bought a gorgeous car indeed :-X

Hmmmm, not sure if it will hold long slides but might worth to try :))

# Soju : That’s a nice find! And the Silverado also has a lot of potential :)

Sleepy's a genius indeed :D

I hope I can enjoy the Silverado to the fullest when I bring it back to Japan ;)
Still following the damn train since 1992

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Benny

ba
Posts: 1143

Location: Bosnia And Herzegovina Lukavac
Occupation: Electrictian
Age: 30
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#304   2019-05-05 11:59          
Well when you go to the traffic lights and apply the brakes and nothing happends I don't think you can call that historical value ;) I would recomand upgrade

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BigSmoke

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#305   2019-05-05 12:47          
# Phonexius : Well when you go to the traffic lights and apply the brakes and nothing happends I don't think you can call that historical value ;) I would recomand upgrade

That's absolutelty correct :))

Glad you've given the green light to upgrade it, will do when I found the proper kit for it :D
Still following the damn train since 1992

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Lagano

si
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#306   2019-05-05 20:20          
# BigSmoke :
With mission completed, I ordered another Uber to LAX to fly back to DFW.

MISSION PASSED!
RESPECT +

Looks like you enjoyed that Mustang! Can't wait to see it when Sleepy takes it. And have fun with the Silverado, do it justice in Japan ;)

Franklin

00
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#307   2019-05-05 21:01          
DUUUUDE , WHAT A BADASS COBRA!
I envy you dudeeeeeeeeeee
Now we have to mod my SN95 and prepare your car hehehe
Oh shit, that's a spoiler lol

Also CONGRATS with the silverado dude <3
That truck will be such a unique build in Japan, I'm excited!
Such a good day dude!

Also i will need ur help with the THICC FLEET
Preparing the Stang and the THICC VR6 Jetta GLI for this weekend!
And also, your contender hehehe...
THIS WEEKEND WE ARE GOING FULL BLAST!

(oorp : My mustang is a V8, i wanted the V6 for doing a drifter with an underdog, but i found this car for good price and yea *LINK* )

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BigSmoke

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Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#308   2019-05-05 21:59          
# Lagano :
MISSION PASSED!
RESPECT +

Looks like you enjoyed that Mustang! Can't wait to see it when Sleepy takes it. And have fun with the Silverado, do it justice in Japan ;)


I really do, it's quite a great grand tourer for doing almost everything in this kind of country :D
And once again thank you very much for the Silverado, I'll try to keep it pristine in my hands ;)

# Franklin : DUUUUDE , WHAT A BADASS COBRA!
I envy you dudeeeeeeeeeee
Now we have to mod my SN95 and prepare your car hehehe
Oh shit, that's a spoiler lol

Also CONGRATS with the silverado dude <3
That truck will be such a unique build in Japan, I'm excited!
Such a good day dude!

Also i will need ur help with the THICC FLEET
Preparing the Stang and the THICC VR6 Jetta GLI for this weekend!
And also, your contender hehehe...
THIS WEEKEND WE ARE GOING FULL BLAST!

(oorp : My mustang is a V8, i wanted the V6 for doing a drifter with an underdog, but i found this car for good price and yea *LINK* )

Sleepy's quite a clever guy when it comes to slecting car I should say :))
And BOI YOU ALMOST SPILLED IT :))
Let's work together on our cars shall we? I believe we'll have a good time doing so :D

(OORP: Welp, I kept remembering it as a V6, sorry :)) )
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

Franklin

00
Posts: 301

Location: --- Tokyo, Japan
Occupation: Yesn't
Age: 30
V$: 7585
#309   2019-05-05 22:12          
Lmao
Let's get to work dude
In the next update you guys, will be seeing this thing...

Chill Life, Good Life ド陰の越
Hotboi Gang (テヂ椅)

11000rpm

kr
Posts: 391

Location: South Korea
Occupation: a human
Age:
V$: idk
#310   2019-05-06 14:37          
Ohh an upcoming drift event!!!
itd be blast man, maybe i will have to borrow any beater there.

insolivion

ee
Posts: 100

Location: Estonia Finland
Occupation: MAXIMUM STYLE
Age: 25
V$: 6,433
#311   2019-05-06 18:00          
Chevy looking rad man, there's a drift event coming up? damn count me in fam.

YRG_INIM3N3

ee
Posts: 54

Location: Estonia
Occupation: car electrician
Age: 20
V$: 1242
#312   2019-05-06 18:43          
you have some sick cars
rp car(s):bmw e36 touring, bmw e30 m3, bmw e32 730i

my rp

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#313   2019-05-07 12:37          
# insolivion : Chevy looking rad man, there's a drift event coming up? damn count me in fam.

# YRG_INIM3N3 : you have some sick cars

Thanks boys! :D
Didn't expect to secure it in my hands for free, but yeah I love this thing :D

Also if you want to join the event, contact Lagano as he's our leader in the US trip and basically the one who invited us to the event ;)
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

Alex876

jm
Posts: 356

Location: Jamaica Swift Tune JA
Occupation: Putting illegal camber on cars
Age: 23
V$:
#314   2019-05-07 18:19          
sick rides smoke

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#315   2019-05-12 17:37          
# Alex876 : sick rides smoke

Thanks my man :D







------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------







The All-American Projects












It is time to catch up on the 3rd(? I've kinda lost count :)) ) week of the American Tour!
Picking up from last week, it's time to enjoy some sideways shenanigans!
And for this entire week I've hunted and acquired two new rides to the stable.......
Oone is someting you might expect, and the other one might be something you didn't expect!
So what are we waiting for? Let's jump into the update! :D













[04 May 2019]
As I've said at the last update, there was a grassroot-level public drift day and drift competition held by Full Lock Drift drift club, held on an empty lot somewhere in Stroud, OK. Everyone was looking forward to the event, including Franklin(um, Franklin) despite having spent less than 48 hours in USA. It looks like he's unfazed by the jet lag.....perhaps hanging out with friends and driving might be an effective jet lag repellent :)) Nevertheless our lineup for the day consists like this: Ziga(Lagano) will enter both the public drift sesh and the competition with his Chevelle, Ben(Phonexius) whips out his brand new C63 AMG, Franklin has picked up his lightly modded Mustang SN95, Muza(Niatross) has switched to Ziga's AE86 at the last minute, AJ(RocketBunnyS13) and Marc(Macaron_moon) picked up their recently-bought RX7 FD as our crew's spare car, Soju(well, Soju) and 11K(11000rpm) brought their respeotive rides (Supra A80 and E36) and I picked up the Silverado and some of the garage's tools for mechanic and repairs duty.

I, Soju and 11K decided to do the mechanical and repairs duty for the day and would be hanging out from trackside. I mean, despite 11K's E36 being set up properly for drifting(kind of, it's actually for gymkhana), obviously they don't want to lose their rides in any kind of mishaps. Oh well, it could be a great garage garnish and crowd magnet material after all :)) AJ and Marc will switch between driving and helping us on the spanner works. The rest of us obviously would be driving, and Ziga will be competing as well. If you want to see how the event unfolds at the track, jump here into Ziga's update. But hey, that doesn't mean the trackside scene is dry.....I'll show you later what I mean ;)

But first thing first, Franklin asked me to go with him and grab some spare tyres from the nearby junkyard. He also said he's quite curious over the Silverado's hauling capability. Given that I've rarely haul things since I've secured the keys to this thing, this could be a good test for the long haul later. So, at early, cold morning, I and Franklin set off to the junkyard.

"Hey Biggie, you know what? This truck feels so nice to ride on man"
"Aaaaah I know you'll love this thing. Thanks by the way, but I think Ben should be thanked as well"
"Eh?"
"I mean he's the one composing the mods for this thing, after all this was his ride. Well until he gave it to me that is"
"Aaaaah I see. But dang, it really hauls ass with this kind of power"
"Once you get used to the brakes and ride quality, yeah"
"Anyway Biggie, this makes me wanting to get a truck as well I should say"


"What kind of truck would it be? You tell me"
"Um, F-150 Lightning, RAM SRT10, probably GMC Syclone as well"
"Aaaaah the speedy trucks. I see you have great taste on them"
"Yeah. The only problem would be it's hard to find one in clean condition"
"Kinda expected this, I mean they're rare unicorns after all. That's why Ben made his own using this Silverado"
"Well I could see his point"
"But eh, I'm sure you'll get to drive those unicorns some time"


Some time later, with the spares scavenger done, the crew stacks the last of the tools and spares into the truck's bed and we set off to the event. The event starts at 8am, with drivers briefing taking place half an hour later. In the meantime, I and the rest of the crew will set up our workspace for the day. Given this is a public event, we also expected people to stumble upon our place....there's Soju's A80 and 11K's E36 after all to be seen and appreciated ;)

There's an empty storage building near the lot at Stroud, so we and most of the participants used said building to park our cars and set up the workplace and some stands there. It was a hot day as well, and obviously you don't want to roast yourself under the sun. Despite the industrial vibe it has given, it's actually not so dusty and the air inside was cool aswell, giving us a decent environtment to work on our cars inside.

And here are some of our lineup for the day. Here's Ben's C63 AMG and Franklin's Mustang SN95. Ben was quite lucky to be able to purchase this thing for V$8500 thanks to Soju accidentally stumbling over the ad for it some time ago. It was crashed once, but was repaired by the last owner before Ben, and fortunately the raucuous N/A V8 engine was still safe and intact. Top Gear Magazine (not the TV show though) once said this is the engine that can 'tear paint off the walls' with it's ultra loud engine roar. Franklin meanwhile was originally going to use the V6 version instead. But some time before departing to USA he found this Mustang, with the V8 engine and Mach 1 lip. It was much cheaper and in fair condition, so Franklin decided to grab it.

And here's Soju and 11K with their respective cars. Turns out there are a lot of drivers, enthusiasts and fans gathering today, so their cars are quite the perfect material to turn many heads on us and might be able to stop the entire show ;) These cars are quite legendary around here, so probably no further explanation is required to describe these other than being a majestic piece of dynamic arts.

With the drivers briefing over and people starting to jump into track action, including Ziga and Muza, we started our work on prepping Ben and Franklin's cars. People are also started to scramble over our place, mainly interested on Soju and 11K's cars as I predicted. And The crowd was swollen further when we reveal that Franklin is our part of our crew (i.e. the Mustang is part of us) and will be going as well, and then there's the Silverado with the LS7....which surprised almost everyone. Almost nobody believed it can be done, yet here it is in front of their eyes!



This was tainted a bit when someone jeered over Ben's C63 AMG. Granted, you don't see modern Mercs going sideways everyday, particularly outside Europe and in the sea of Japanese and American cars, but what almost made me and Ben seeing red was the fact that he didn't appreciate the fresh stock condition. Ben immediately jumps into the C63 as I said to the crowds: "You lot gotta watch this and stand back in amazement!" Ben then drove the Merc into the start line.

As Ben goes away in a loud echo of V8 orchestra and a copious amount of wheelspin, I decided to make it sound like a Top Gear documentary by citing various infos and trivias about the engine while trying to sound like Jeremy Clarkson to the fans. Apparently some of them are fans of Top Gear as well!

And seconds later, Ben went sideways in complete fury, echoing the V8 orchestra to the open skies and against the spectators. Along with the others that on the track, he was in complete harmony with his C63, shaking the tail-happy Merc as he goes around the lot. Seeing someone seething in rage and venting his anger has never been so.......beautiful.


As he went on drifting and flinging the Merc sideways in resonance with other drifters, crowds are cheering massively over Ben, finally realizing Ben's amazing skills over the course and the potential of the Merc. Ben continued on swinging the Merc and sometimes drifts right in front of us for some bragging rights has he and his Merc won the hearts of the crowds and enthusiasts. People always say this but let me say it again: It's not about what you drive, it's how you drive it! ;)


As Ben went back to our workplace in a flurry of oversteer and smoke, I screamed "Ladies and gentlemen please welcome your new Euro drift hero!" in joy and people started to gather around him and his Merc. We all shared fistbumps and have a lot of banter about Ben's amazing skills and the Merc, in particularly on how did he get it. Ben really has cemented his legendary status at this point :))

After Ben finished shredding rubber in the Merc, it is time for Franklin to shine inside the Mustang. He jokingly shoo away the crowd to make way for him as he made yet another crowd control jokes associated with Mustangs these days, then proceeded to the start line.

Moments later, the V8 engine inside his Mustang screamed in joy followed by a thick cloud of burnout. Franklin then goes on to swing his Mustang sideways and beyond, followed by lots of cheering particularly by Mustang hardliners. Given that both Camaros and Mustangs are present in the event, the presence of hardline fans of both sides was inevitable. While it might not be as violent and bloody as football/soccer hooligans and can be solved in peace, they still gave a dangerous aura.


Nevertheless, Franklin provided a great entertainment to all sides watching him as he continued to swing and dance at the lot with other drifters that went on. It felt like a huge petrolhead celebration ritual, resulting in a huge cloud of smoke and a strong scent of rubber as everyone gets sideways for a very, very long time. It was so surreal and fun to see! Now if only my Silverado could hold a long slide.......


As the day passed on, it is time for the drift competition to take place. As we only have Ziga and Ben to race on, all of us are united to help him through the competitions. Muza elected to be Ziga's spotter, Soju elected to be Ben's spotter, while the rest of us are going to be their mechanics and observing other drivers. Turns out almost everyone brought heavily modded cars with lots of power for the competition, so Ziga was right to pick the Chevelle as his weapon, given it has 950 BHP and better at holding long slides. Ben meanwhile was quite confident with the stock form of his Merc.....it has produced 500+ BHP from the go after all :D

As for the rules, it works like pro competitions, particularly Formula Drift, where at preliminary rounds you'll run alone, and starting from Top 32 eliminations you'll run twice in tandem with another competitor. All your runs will be judged by 3 judges, and in case if you're tied in score with your rival after the 2nd run on the elimination rounds, an OMT (One More Time) session will be held. OMTs can be held multiple times until judges can determine the winner of the run.

After lots of high-pressure drifts and repairs, and some OMTs, Ziga managed to secure 9th place and Ben was right behind him in 10th....much better than we expected!! :bananajump: And Ziga's just one place off from entering the Top 8 battles! Ziga's last battle was quite intense with no less than three OMTs being called and Ziga dishing an intense battle during his runs. Ultimately though we're all happy we can go this far. We spent the rest of the day watching the rest of the sessions with lots of meals and drinks.


[05 May 2019]
I received the news from Sleepy(Sleepin mOnkey) that the Mustang I delivered to him has almost arrived at the Japan shores. As a thanking gesture, he gave me V$500. I hope he'll be able to enjoy his Mustang very soon, that thing has left a deep and sweet impression to me, even if I was only drove it for a while. And oh, this also reminds me of something........

As I've explained in the last update, my original plan for this US trip goes like this: Get something as cheap as possible that isn't for sale in Japanese market, mend it as far as possible, and use it for a trackday and daily. Then at the end of the trip I'll evaluate if it's worth it to bring back to Japan or simply sell it for profit. But you know what happened so far: I ran out of money, borrowed the Silverado, then unexpectedly handed the keys to the Silverado permanently. Now that I've gathered some money over two weeks, it is time to fullfill this plan.....sort of. And yes, I'm quite insipred by Top Gear back then on their US trip, where they bought a car for $1500 to see if it's easier to buy a car rather than renting it, then went on for a road trip from Florida to New Orleans (and almost died in Alabama).

After I spend some time on the front of my laptop with Franklin and Ziga (since they're US car experts), I found a really, really good candidate I could purchase and mod for track and daily purpose: It's a 1993 Ford Mustang Foxbody LX 2.3 hachback in red, located in Petersburg, VA. You can see the original ad below.

As you can see in the original ad link, it was sold for V$800. Quite cheap for a Mustang, innit? That's because this is the 2.3 liter inline 4 model. As the ad states, the last owner wants to swap it and put a 5.0 V8 from the same-gen Mustang GT inside, but he has two other Mustangs he had to work on. Since he has no time to work on this one, he decided to sell this Mustang. The engine is fairly healthy with normal wear, but the auto transmission is rather worryingly starts to dying. Body-wise you can see it for yourself: Everything bar the bonnet is rust-free, and the front and rear bumper paint has been ruined.

I was planning on simply improving the stock inline 4.....until Franklin pointed out that it has an unbelievably meagre amount of power.

"So here's the plan: Let's look for some performance parts for this thing, I want to keep the engi-"
"Wait Smoke ARE YOU MAD? It only has 80 horsepower!"
"EIGHTY?! ON A MUSTANG?!"
"I'm not kidding! Look it up"
"Well here goes........"

Well turns out he's both right and wrong, and he's not kidding either. He's wrong because by standard it has 105 BHP, but he's also right becuase not only it's still a tiny number of power, that figure stands at least a quarter of century ago, so obviously some of the horses has ran away from the stable. Franklin's prediction of it having only 80 BHP might be true after all.

Fortunately, being familiar with American muscle cars and US engines, Franklin proposed a good idea for the Mustang: Give it a Ford Modular 4.6 SOHC V8 engine, and mate it with 5-speed Tremec T5 transmission usually used in Ford Mustang of the age. Given that the Modular engine is easy to source, cheap and quite bulletproof even with minimum amount of care and maintenance (this is the engine of Ford Crown Victoria taxi and cop cars, mind you), I instantly agreed with the idea. And so, after securing the deal with the Mustang to be picked up next day, we started our shopping list for the Mustang.

First off is the Modular 4.6 engine, taken from 1994 Lincoln Town Car for an unbelievably cheap V$350. It has run around 179,000 miles and the internal is still incredibly healthy. The only problem is, there are some rust here and there, including on the engine cover and the oil pan. The engine cover can be removed anyway, but it's the oil pan that becomes the main problem. So we looked up for a fresh replacement and got one for V$60. Next up Franklin was able to locate a fresh Tremec T5 transmission from the same gen as his Mustang, which he said has the same layout as the Foxbody Mustang and much stronger for V$440. And finally, I sourced a clutch kit from Summit Racing for V$128 and a flywheel from Perfection for V$82 to complete the bucket list. We decided to pick up everything on the way back from picking up the Mustang.

And oh, at this point I was supposed to compete in round 2 of Tsukuba Circuit Trial Championship, but uhh......I'm not even in Japan right now man! :)) That's okay though, I can also have fun with my friends here in USA and moreover I don't have to attend all rounds to be classified in the championship. And that's the only competitive time attack event I can attend this month. Next up would be at June where I could at least attend three races! :D


[06 May 2019]
*loud sax blaring*
*sinister guitar and percussion kicks in*
I think it's time we blow this scene/
Get everybody and the stuff together/
Okay, three, two, one, let's jam.

*epic sax performance ensues*


Well, what's better way to start the week other than receiving my paycheck of V$940 and blasting 'Tank' on my speakers :)) Anyways, it's also the time to pick up the Mustang as well all of the shopping list I and Franklin has bought the day before. And of course that means another ride with Franklin in the Silverado, and since we're heading to VA, that means there's one song appropriate for the occassion! ;) (and yes, I do aware West Virginia isn't actually a part of Virginia). To top it off, I also sang the Japanese version along the trip, while Franklin sang 'Big Iron' to replicate the jokes spreading around the Fallout fandom.

The roads we passed along the trip was so beautiful, feels like something from a distant dream. Swerving away earlier from the Interstate roads felt worth it. It was a pleasant day as well, not too hot, not too cold, but still nice to have your window down and enjoy the view.

Some moments later we arrived at the tow where the Mustang was located. It looks like it's a peaceful town all around, remind me of my hometown where I would spend time either cycling around town or have a football match with my friends. The owner's house is also small but the runway was wide enough to store three Mustangs.

After some cups of coffee and small talks about the trip, here it is.....the Mustang LX, ready to be picked up and driven. And then a self-imposed challenge rises on my head: Can I drive this without breaking anything? Well, there's no way to find it other than trying it out. This is also why I've got Franklin on my side: If something went awry in the way, we could fix it up and if we couldn't, we only need to call a tow truck without having to be stranded in the middle of nowhere for hours.



(yes, that's yet another stock I4 with DSpeed Headcover)

After yet some more coffee, mods discussions and sorting out the slips and papers for the Mustang, the key for it is now officially mine and I can drive it back to Ardmore with Franklin in my back. Will it survive a long haul back home? Here it goes!


I think there's one (and probably only one) good thing with the 2.3 liter inline 4: You can keep your foot all the way down and yet you'll never going to break the speed limit at the interstates. Yes, it is THAT slow! :)) The engine isn't that sprightly either, though surprisingly the transmission still holds up nicely. This reminds me back to the time I picked up my Tico....every single second of the trip back home felt like forever. But at least inside this one I could chill up and enjoy the trip since this is an LHD country. Also the landscape is now only consist of deserts, deserts, hills, and deserts. Nothing's more American than driving a Mustang through an interstate in the middle of a desert.


Along the way we stopped at several places, including an abandoned fuel station and abandoned motel. The result? Probably the most American looking pictures ever. It's just blends perfectly! Sort of stuff that makes you want to wear a rodeo hat and blast country songs along the way :)) And oh, along the trip we also picked up all the stuff we bought for the Mustang and chucked up all inside the Silverado. We put the engine and the transmission in the bed, while the clutch, flywheel and oil pan was enough to be put inside the cab's bench seat.

Many, many, many hours later, we finally arrived back at Ardmore just at the time the sun sets. I don't think the city was prepared for an incoming of a dying, barely rolling Mustang......but on the other hand I don't want the Mustang to break down here. Not only it'll be a shame to have a breakdown at the final miles of the trip, I'll embarrass myself and Franklin if it had a breakdown on a crowded area. We don't want to be a Snapchat or Instagram material for it! :))



Finally though, the Mustang made it back home, and surprisingly it looks like the transmission broke down right inside the garage as I parked it and I felt a very hard jolt as it stopped into a stall. Becuase it's an auto, it looks like something has slipped otherwise stuck inside it. Well yes it's broken after all, but I didn't expect it to make the trip this far, and only breaking down after it's all over. It's okay as well becuase after all it's going to be replaced anyway......


[08 May 2019]
I was supposed to put the engine the day before this, but I ended up having a rest day and helping Franklin modding his Mustang and Jetta a bit. After all it was quite a long journey both of us has faced. The work for the day started by....not directly working on the car, but rather than that clearing and sanding most of the rust that remains on the engine. Thankfully most of them was only on the outside, and the engine cover can be removed easily. And while we're at it we also install the new transmission, oil pan, clutch and flywheel. Because we haven't install them into the car yet, working on them took rather short time and we could work on them like playing with Lego blocks.
When everything was done, we get the engine crane and prepares for the engine swap operation. Here we go! :D

Next up we lifted the 2.3 liter inline 4 engine. Other than it being an NA SOHC engine and it was made for efficiency, as well as being strained by emission rules, I still can't understand why Americans, at least at 70s-90s, can't make a well proportioned and well performing inline 4 engines. 2.3 liter engine making only 105 BHP seems so, so odd to me, at least in modern terms. Still, could be worse: Due to oil crisis in 70s and 80s, V8 engines of that time rarely touches 200 BHP(or 250?) while still being big in dimesion. How odd is that?

Shortly after, the inline 4 engine is cleared from the engine bay. We had a good look at the transmission and yap, it was ruined as hell. And after cleaning and another sanding session to remove rusts, it's time for the Modular V8 engine to get into the bay. Ah yes, this Modular engine, coming from a Lincoln Town Car as I've said before, produces around 210 BHP, at least when it was new. Since it could be pushed further (later versions of the Modular 4.6 engine comes out with at least 250 BHP by standard), I might only need to do ECU and cam tuning without worrying any needs for aftermarket parts. And the Foxbody Mustang is one of the lightest Mustang ever produced, sitting at around 1245 kg, so roughly on-par with Japanese tuner cars of that time, e.g. S13s.

And finally, it is time to repaint the bonnet, front bumper and rear bumper. I did a small test by sanding the rust on the front panel then respraying it. It wasn't the tidiest of paint jobs, but at least it'll do. And don't worry, the bonnet and bumper paints was done professionally. So, for the moment the Mustang is out from the action as it waits for the paint to dry. You'll see it soon for a test drive though, so don't worry! :D


[10 May 2019]
Went for another laptop browsing session again, this time with AJ and Ziga. While I was randomly stumbling over car ads, I saw something interesting: A Nissan 240SX SE Convertible for sale at V$850! It was in decent condition exterior-wise, and the engine was recently refreshed, but the auto transmission was dying as well, just like the Mustang. And being an American 240SX, it has a KA24DE inside. Still, it's a convertible S13, one of the rarest of it's kind, both in Japan and USA. I didn't expect to stumble upon this thing, but I felt the urge to buy it. AJ, being an owner of various S-Chassis, pushed the urge even further......so in the end I purchased it after all.
(NOTE: The original ad was gone sinc ethe car has been sold irl, and I forgot to take a snap of it)

My plans for it? Unlike the Foxbody, I'll definitely going to bring this home to Japan and try to restore it to former glory there, obviously because parts are easier to source there. And most likely I'll mod it into a 90s lowrider (turning Japanese cars into a lowrider was a thing in Japan) or hotboi mobile. Whether if it's still going to be LHD or being converted into RHD remains to be seen, but all I know is I'll keep it on wearing soft tops and most likely either keeping the KA24 insdie with minor mods and no turbo or swap it with CA18 (instead of SR20) and some mods, also still with no turbo. It might would retain most of it's drifting ability, but it's not going to be a drifter. Yes, this one might going to be an opinion splitter.

Anyways, we've secured the deal later that day and planned to pick it up the next day, this time with AJ accompanying me on the Silverado. I picked AJ because his know-how on S-Chassis, and because he'll might appreciate this one as well since it's a rare unicorn among S13s. I can't wait to see this thing rolling on the streets of it's homeland very soon....it could be an automobile embodiment of Sally Amaki! :))

And of course, we've secured some stuff for it as well. Later that day we went back to the local junkyard and secured a manual transmission for KA24 in a fine condition, and we gladly paid V$100 for it. We also order a clutch and flywheel kit from Exedy, costing us V$189 and will arrive in two days. As I said, it's not going to be a drifter, but still, having some aftermarket parts could be a good idea.


[11 May 2019]
It's the weekend and it's also time to pick up the 240SX! But first off, we had a quick breakfast at the local Burger King. I never knew their fish fillet burger and fries tastes so, so great! Definitely something to look for next time I'm going here again. AJ meanwhile opted for the double stack burger since he's quite hungry :)) American lifestyle are almost always associated with something in huge size: Big people, big trucks, big burgers, big highways........

Later on, we proceeded our way to the car location, which is at somewhere in GA. As weeks have passed, I've mastered how to handle the Silverado quite well I should say. As long as I paid attention at least, otherwise it can't do panic braking very well. And that reminds me I still have to buy a brake kit for this truck. It was a rather hot day, and traffic was considerably crowded. Oh well, it's weekend after all

Some hours and one traffic jam later, we arrived at the car's location. It's a small neighbourhood on a cul-de-sac in the heart of a well-sized city in GA. Looks like somewhere I would live in, to be honest, but I'm rather worried about garage space.....there's literally a lack of them. And probably donuts in the center of the cul-de-sac would be frowned upon, and it could be worse if I brought a Mustang here.

We and the owner of the SX enjoyed some cups of coffee for me and some cans of light booze for AJ as we talk about our journey here, the S-Chassis ownership as well as our life at Japan, seeing as we normally live at the birthplace of S-Chassis. Turns out he was an S-Chassis enthusiast and used to be a grassroot drifter. He has an S14, which at the moment undergo some tuning and this S13 convertible. These days he rarely drifts and spend more time on the front of his PC chatting with other S-Chassis owners in various forums due to intense work schedule. And oh, speaking of the 240SX, here it is.


"Uh Smoke, is that a Onevia?" Nonono, it's not a Onevia, it came out from the factory that way.....let me explain a bit. So as we always know 240SX are sold in hatch form in North America, but did you know they were also sold in coupe form just like Japan as well? The main differences are obviously they're fitted with KA24 just like the hatch. Another one is that instead of using the PS13 front end, they still retain the RPS13 front end. So it's quite fair to say Nissan North America already has Onevia from the factory. Sometime in early 90s they decided to employ a company called American Speciality Cars (ASC) to convert some of the coupes into a limited-run convertibles. If you're wondering, the convertible job for Japan was done by Autech. If you don't believe me, read here ;)

With more cups of coffees gulped in and all the slips and papers sorted, it is time to see if I could bring another car with dying transmission back home safely. AJ was so ecstatic to see that I could secure a rare bastion of S-Chassis for a cheap price. And to celebrate all of this, despite the hot condition, I decided to get the roof down and enjoy the breeze along the way.

Sadly, our joy was short-lived this time. With 2/5 way to go from Ardmore, the transmission decided it had enough and stopped working in all of the sudden. Oil and debris was dropping everywhere from the SX, so I and AJ had to pull off the roads. It's a bit of luck this didnt happened in the interstate roads, otherwise pulling over would be very, very difficult and has the potential to cause a huge crash.

In the end, after a call for tow truck and waiting for half an hour the 240SX continues it's trip back to Ardmore on a tow truck bed, while I returned to the Silverado with AJ. Welp, I kinda did see that coming but given the Mustang survived quite well with the same condition, I didn't expect this either.









Welp, I didn't expect to be able to grab 2 cars in a week :))
Now let's see how did my wallet survives after the shopping spree:












That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by
and see you soon here or one of the boys's updates!
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

Franklin

00
Posts: 301

Location: --- Tokyo, Japan
Occupation: Yesn't
Age: 30
V$: 7585
#316   2019-05-12 20:08          
Such a fun week dude!
That foxbody can't do even a one wheel peel lmao, now with the 4.6 will be blastin'
And that vert dude!, I had one with a swapped sr20de and was such a fun car, i loved it!
Now it's your turn, just swap the tranny, put some boltons in the na ka24 and you will be surprised, it got good torque!
Also is very good for boost setups.
Or maybe you can pick up an VG30 from an 300zx, doesn't matter if is the tt or the na
Or an VQ35 from a g35 , s13's are one of the best platforms for swaps so, your mind is the limit
I'm excited!

Chill Life, Good Life ド陰の越
Hotboi Gang (テヂ椅)

Lagano

si
Posts: 1739

Location: Slovenia West side
Occupation: Taking it easy
Age: 24
V$: :$V
#317   2019-05-12 23:18          
# BigSmoke : Big people, big trucks, big burgers, big highways........
Everything real big B)

Yeah the drift day was super fun man! The competition rounds were so intense and i ended up with pretty good results, given that i haven't properly drifted my Chevelle for a while and with all that power it's hard to handle at times. Meanwhile you madman got not one, but two project cars!! You're keeping the boys in the garage quite busy haha. Foxbody was a solid choice, it's very lightweight compared to the other models so it's perfect for a track or drift car. Now that you got the V8 installed it should fly :D i like your idea for the 240 convertible too, after all there's nothing better than cruisin' with the top down. The KA24 should be just fine for that, we just have to sort out the transmission and do a general check-up on the engine, then it's good to go!

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#318   2019-05-13 07:13          
# Franklin : Such a fun week dude!
That foxbody can't do even a one wheel peel lmao, now with the 4.6 will be blastin'
And that vert dude!, I had one with a swapped sr20de and was such a fun car, i loved it!
Now it's your turn, just swap the tranny, put some boltons in the na ka24 and you will be surprised, it got good torque!
Also is very good for boost setups.
Or maybe you can pick up an VG30 from an 300zx, doesn't matter if is the tt or the na
Or an VQ35 from a g35 , s13's are one of the best platforms for swaps so, your mind is the limit
I'm excited!

It was so exciting to see you ripping loose and having fun at the event man, I love it :D
Now since it has an easy-to-tune V8 inside, hopefully the Foxbody would fly better on the blacktop (not literally though :)) )

I think I'd simply retain the NA KA24 to cut costs, it looks like it still could run around for quite a long time.

# Lagano : Everything real big B)

Yeah the drift day was super fun man! The competition rounds were so intense and i ended up with pretty good results, given that i haven't properly drifted my Chevelle for a while and with all that power it's hard to handle at times. Meanwhile you madman got not one, but two project cars!! You're keeping the boys in the garage quite busy haha. Foxbody was a solid choice, it's very lightweight compared to the other models so it's perfect for a track or drift car. Now that you got the V8 installed it should fly :D i like your idea for the 240 convertible too, after all there's nothing better than cruisin' with the top down. The KA24 should be just fine for that, we just have to sort out the transmission and do a general check-up on the engine, then it's good to go!

Obligatory siundtrack time! :))

I didn't expect you and Ben to be able to go THAT far, since the Chevelle looks quite raw and rowdy whilst going sideways :D
Welp the 240SX purchase was something I didn't expect at all, but y'know what, I guess I indeed had to do it :))

Time to grab the spanners once more!
Still following the damn train since 1992

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Benny

ba
Posts: 1143

Location: Bosnia And Herzegovina Lukavac
Occupation: Electrictian
Age: 30
V$: V$756
#319   2019-05-13 08:51          
Biggie thanks for the nice words, I appreciate that, now we need to get you something for a closed track friends drift day :D
How about we retune the R33?

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BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#320   2019-05-13 14:59          
# Phonexius : Biggie thanks for the nice words, I appreciate that, now we need to get you something for a closed track friends drift day :D
How about we retune the R33?

Anytime my man, anytime :D

Tune the R33 you say? Of course I'm in! :bananajump:
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!