Author Message

Lagano

si
Posts: 1739

Location: Slovenia West side
Occupation: Taking it easy
Age: 24
V$: :$V
#401   2019-09-09 22:47          
Well i also thought about a funeral for a moment while we were jumping in that Corolla. :)) Regardless, it was one hell of a good time, i could hardly have that much fun with any of my cars! This proves that you don't need a lot of horsepower or grip to have an epic driving experience. It also reminded me of the times when i did this kind of shit regularly, back then i couldn't get my hands on a car with more than 100hp! You also kinda tempted me to build a rally car, the AE86 would be a good candidate for that... :rolleyes:

And you drove the Lambo like a boss, i could see that you got the skills from the time attack events! I wasn't really used to the R33's new setup too so you got me :P

Added 26 seconds later:

# BigSmoke :
Power Player
(NOTE: Some pics are taken from Side to Side and Franklin's thread)












It's the third week of the USA trip and things went ultra wild over here!
This time, we got ourselves a SEMA-grade build, an impromptu rally stage and another trackday!
I also discovered and experienced two different poles of engine power!
Let's find out what exactly happened by checking out the update below shall we?














[29 Aug 2019]
We were going to get some breakfast, particularly after I discovered the got nothing but beer and cola on their fridge :)) The reason of this is that Benny never do breakfast for almost his entire life, while Ziga(Lagano) usually grab sandwiches from 7-Eleven or similar stores. Not that I'm complaining, you might remember that at times my life simply depends on either onigiri or instant ramen, though lately I do also grab sandwiches from either 7-Eleven or Lawson back in Japan. And because they got guests this time (that is Soju and myself), we decided to go to suburban areas(well, almost rural) of Ardmore and go to a depot that serves cheap foods, since all are on Benny for the day. Benny and Soju were riding on Benny's Aventador, while Ziga and I were riding on Ziga's 997.

We arrived at the place as brunch time(10am, if you're wondering) came close. Benny ordered a cup of coffee. Ziga noticed they got croissant and other kinds of cakes available, so he ordered a croissant and Soju grabbed some of the cakes, plus a cup of tea. Me? I was quite hungry so I ordered two egg omelets, a huge stack of pancake, a large bottle of cola and a cup of coffee. Realizing just how big my order is as the others are returning a surprised look to my face, I clarified this: "What? Well the reast are for lunch and snacks at the garage, so I don't have to go outside twice". Benny responded with quite a jab: "Oh yeah yeah, they don't call you Big Smoke for nothing" :))

As we enjoy our breakfast menu and Benny smoked a pack of cigs while enjoying his coffee, I asked to Benny what's the gameplan for the day.

"Hey Benny"
"What, you want to order some more?" *puffs cig smoke*
"Nonono, this is a lot already." *sips coffe* "Uh, what's the gameplan for today?"
"Uh, what?"
"What's the plan for today?"
"Ah." *sips coffee* "As you can see our garage is fullfilled to the brim. We gotta move the S2K somewhere"
"Well you're right, but why the S2K?"
"It's....not our priority right now. Gotta finish the G35 first, deadline is running close"
"Ah I see. Oh hey why not have me and Soju helping on both builds?"

Soju interjects, "Hell yeah, we'll be eager to help. We don't come this far for nothing my man." I continued, "Ha you see, Soju's the same wavelength as my mind"

"......right then. Ziga, what's the next step for the S2K?" It looks like Benny accepts our offer to help! Ziga then listed all the damaged parts on the S2K to be fixed later. After we finish our breakfasts Benny brews a plan: Soju and him will go around Ardmore and some of its surroundings for an empty garage to store the S2K, while I and Ziga head back to the garage, get the S2K and tow it using their Ford Raptor to the brand new garage. With that settled, we parted ways.

Back in the garage, we grabbed the keys to the Raptor, connect it to the trailer, and.....push the S2K onto it. Thankfully though it's a light car, but having one axle damaged certainly makes matters a bit difficult. I mean we don't want to make further damages while loading it onto the trailer.......

After we successfully loaded the S2K, Ziga's phone ringed. Benny and Soju has found a small garage where we can store the S2K in. It's a bit far from the HQ, but the rent cost was quite cheap. We headed there to store the car, then went back to the HQ to continue working on the G35. Not gonna lie, the Raptor is soooooo huge, getting inside it felt like a wallclimbing session and riding inside it feels like being a giant :))

By the way, here's the garage we found and store the S2K in. It's a small garage, formerly owned by a bunch of car enthusiasts. Thankfully some tools were still present as well, making our job slightly easier.



[30 Aug 2019]
Soju and Benny took the key to the Raptor to load the S2K again for sandblasting process, leaving me and Ziga in the garage to look for the parts needed to repair the S2K. But instead of going around the town to look for parts shop, we simply cheated a bit by sourcing them around various junkyards, with anything we can't find to be ordered from eBay instead. This way we saved a hell lot of time and energy....all we had to do is sit back behind the PC and sip some cola and beers :))

But then Ziga's phone ringed. Then he grabbed the keys to the 997, telling me to look for the garage because he had to pick up someone as he tossed the garage keys to my hands. At first I thought he was going to pick up either Benny or Soju...........but then Benny and Soju came back to the garage.

B:"Where's Ziga?"
E:"Going out. Yes, I'm alone here. Don't worry, all safe and sound here"
S:"Oh yah, the Porsche's gone. Is he going to pick the parts?"
E:"Nah, it'll be delivered here later"
B:".....delivered? I thought I told you to go ou-"
E:"That's the power of junkyard and eBay bossman"
B:"......clever boys."

Moments later, Ziga arrived at the HQ.....together with Franklin in the passenger seat! I went off from the PC seat to meet up with Franklin. Of course, fistbumps and brohugs ensues later on. As Ziga and Benny re-introduces the HQ to Franklin, where Franklin can be see fanboying over the Lambo and Porsche as we did back then, Franklin presented a huge box from inside the Porsche's boot and rear seats, which are lots of parts for Benny's Supra! There was a bit of dispute though when Franklin discovered that the Dodge Neon he bought at the last trip had gone, but at least he got a cashback from it.

Franklin then went away to look for a new ride whilst in the US of A, while after all parts has been arrived, Benny went back to the S2K garage to store everything I and Ziga bought earlier.

Later that day, it looks like Franklin has found his new commuter ride. It's a 240SX with 1UZ inside! I know, there are too many S-Chassis in our meals already, but seeing one with 1UZ (or pretty much any Japanese V8) is still arguably a rare sight. It's in nice and clean condition as well, ceratinly worth more than my Greco :))



[31 Aug 2019]
Benny said he's going to work alone in the meantime with the S2K, so we were tasked to work on the G35. Part of this including finally giving the G35 a new heart. And this being a Side to Side build, it's not just a regular heart they're going to fit inside the G35........

Yes, what you're looking at is the engine of BMW M5 E60, the mighty 5.0L V10 engine! This thing produces circa 500+ BHP in stock form and can easily bring anything to 200 mph, and beyond it when the speed limiter is removed. And of course we did remove it! :D This engine is a product of all BMW M experts learned from their Formula 1 program, when they were a strong contender in F1. In fact the engine they produced for F1 purposes was the most powerful among the others on that era, recorded at 900 BHP. As a comparison, the one produced by Ferrari and Mercedes that time produced 890 BHP, Renault and Honda ones was recorded around 880 BHP, while the ones made by Toyota and Cosworth made 860 BHP. This, combined with a decent chassis made by Williams, made them a huge force of Formula 1's start of the 21st century, constantly racking podiums and earning several wins in the process.

The engine was quite heavy to lift, but thankfully in the end we can put it inside and fit the G35. Custom engine braces and mounts as well as several other mods were made to ensure the G35 would accept the V10 engine happily. After the engine works were done, we proceeded to other small things, such as lights and wheels spacers.


[02 Sep 2019]
There was almost nothing to do in the garage other than kept on working on the G35. So to relieve myself up I decided to take the Greco for a ride. Before I went off, I decided to tell Franklin the backstory of the Greco, which you can read in the previous update. As I expected, Franklin reacted in disbelief as he laughed and rolling on the garage's floor.

The plan for today is uhhh.....drive the Greco into some backcountry roads, pretend I'm a rally driver and see if the Greco could survive all the torture I and the road throw to him. Well some generations of Corollas, including the AE86 are used for rally racing purposes, so it's time to see if this one has the reputation as well. Ziga told me to head over any rural parts of Ardmore to find these kinds of roads, so I did. It is the very end of summer as well, so temperature is cool enough to roll on and there wasn't any chance of precipitation, so I don't have to worry about muds.

Some time later, I found what looks like a logging track, which I feel wide enough and not too bumpy to have my Greco in, so I decided to swerve off the main roads and go into the deep forest that hosts the logging track.

Or so I thought. I wasn't all smooth sailing obviously, as I discovered the first bump over the road, enough to send the Corolla on air for a while. Landing is a bit harsh but otherwise all is good. I soldiered on on full throttle, keen to see how much power this thing can deliver on dirt. So far everything looks promising despite this thing barely has 100 BHP.


The Greco surprisingly behaved well even when it lost some grip when I slam the accelerator flat out. Well obviously I'm running on dirt and it suffers from understeer, and the aged tyres doesn't help matters either. But damn, I enjoyed every second of it and better still, I don't have to worry about crashes or hurting the car in general. This was a 50 bucks car after all! If I did this in my Silver Queen either I'll do it slowly or not even doing it at all in fear of dents or scratches.

But some time later, I might have to question my driving manner and what I did just said after I sent the Greco jumping on air. Landing wasn't smooth either but amazingly the Greco kept on running without any sort of problems.....well apart from bent front end I guess?


Some time later, having not learned my lesson and thinking the Greco actually still had it, I sent it flying again. This time though, the landing was really harsh to jolt my searts forward and probably ruining the shocks on all sides of the car. And obviously front end might actually bent at this point. Somehow the airbag didn't pop though. Either it wasn't hard enough to pop the airbags, the airbag had popped in the past before I bought it or it doesn't have one after all. Either way reselling this car later could be quite difficult now :))


After a bit of long driving on compromised shocks and suspensions I found the logging site. It's a bit eerie to see almost everything on the site being empty, but stuff like this are.....inevitable, but also painful at the same time. Nevertheless, gotta move quickly from the site before inviting unwanted attention.

I kept on running on full throttle despite the car being bashed several times. And despite all the tortures I've given it, the Greco somehow survived, particularly with no fallacies on the steering and engine side so far. Eventually I rejoined the main roads later on and head back to Ardmore. Man that's one hell of backcountry rallying I've just did! Not sure if I want to do it again though.....





[07 Sep 2019]
After multiple days of working on the G35, S2K and Benny's Supra, finally we could have a rest. During these times both Benny's R33 and Aventador were rarely used, so I have an initiative to warm it up and take it for a short ride. So as I arrived at the HQ I searched for the R33 keys. The problem was even Ziga didn't know where is it so I had to ask Benny via phone call.

"Morning bossman, it's me Edo"
"Oh hey Edo, morning to you as well. What's the matter?"
"Uh, I've been thinking of taking the R33 for a joyride. Can I?"
"Sure sure, you can take it, just be careful-"
"Sorry to interrput but I can't find the keys to it"
"Ah. I put it inside our key control box"
"Uhhh....where exactly?"
"Ask Ziga where is it, the open it. The leftmost key is the key you needed"
"Okay bossman, thank you for the guide"
"It's all good, see ya later kid"



After the call I went off to the R33 to look for it's keys, and the doors were indeed weren't locked. After a bit of fumbling to search the globebox I found the key exactly where he told me. The only problem was it wasn't a Nissan key......it was a huge Lamborghini key. Yup, that's the key for the Aventador. Did he actualy forgot where is it or what? I was going to grab the correct key but foolishly enough I decided to call Benny once more just to make sure.

"Yea my boy what's up?"
"Uh, Benny, you sure it's the right location?"
"Yes it is."
"I-it's the Lambo key that I found over there"
"Good, you've picked the correct key"
"What do you mean the correct key-"
"Your first job of the day, get inside the Lambo and pick me up"
"Eh, are you serious?"
"Yes I'm dead serious. Now go pick me up will you?"
"O-okay"
"Right, thanks a bunch"


I didn't believe Benny handed me a much faster car for the day! There are two problems though. Number one, I never drove a supercar before, despite Silver Queen being quite fast enough for races. Number two, I forgot where Benny's house is :)) After asking Ziga for the address and directions to Benny's crib, as well as Ziga ensuring me things will be okay if I put the Lambo on Strada('road' in Italian) driving mode, I rolled out to the streets inside Benny's savage black Aventador.

I opted to take a bit of highway to make things faster. Thankfully traffic wasn't so crowded for the time being, but the Lambo sure to turn a lot of heads, from little kids spending the weekend witht their parent, to a lot of teens and socialites hunting the Lambo for Instagram and Snapchat feeds, and even adult and senior citizens! Lots of cameras and smartphones aimed at the Lambo from various sidewalks and inside almost every single traffic cars. I'd like to enjoy the sudden fame some more, but then again it's not my car and the owner is waiting for both myself and his beloved bull.

Some time later I approached the area where Benny lives. Ah yes, let's talk about the Aventador for a while. This thing has entered it's 9th year of prodcution, beginning back then in 2011. Along this timeline it has span two generations and a lot of special editions. This is the very first one, producing a mighty 690 BHP. Funnily enough it produced less power than Dodge Charger and Challenger Hellcat, which both produces 707 BHP. But then again both cars are ultra heavy, weighing almost 2000 kg in the Charger's case and 1880 kg for the Challenger, whereas the Aventador weighed around 1500 kg and has four wheel drive. So clearly this thing is superior. Per Lambo's tradition, it's named after a bull that fought at matador events. Also a trivia: Ferruccio Lamborghini's zodiac sign is Taurus, which is symbolized with, you guessed it, a bull. Ferruccio himself also enjoys watching matador battles along his lifetime.

The Aventador has three driving modes, which are Strada(road), Sport(self-explanatory), and Corsa(race). In Strada mode, the transmission can shift itself or receiving input from your hands, the exhaust is much calmer(though it's still loud), traction control level is high, and the power distribution is set at 30:70 F:R. At crusing speeds like I did at the moment, half of the cylinders also deactivates, turning the V12 engine into an inline 6 just like a Nissan RB or Toyota JZ series.....or Ford Barra series :)) Sport mode will dial the TC down a bit, throttle is now much responsive and the exhaust became louder, power distribution changes to 10:90 F:R but the transmission still could shift itself. And finally, in Corsa mode, the power distribution reverts back to 20:80 F:R but this time TC will be put at minimum and you have to shift manually, and the gearchange speed is much, much faster. As the name suggests, it's reserved for trackday usage.

Finally I arrived at Benny's crib. Benny, who waited at front while puffing more cigs, gets into the car.

"Great, you did it! How's the trip along the way?"
"Oh it was nice bossman, though the exhaust was quite loud"
*laughing* "That's a sign of true Lambo"
"Oh, and people seem to like it. Cameras and smartphones are everywhere!"
"Oh wait what's this? You put it in Strada?" *flicks the mode selector to Corsa*
"Wait bossman WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"Now, the second part of your mission. Take me to our HQ, and yes, I've put it in Corsa"
"But why?"
"This is your test to see if you can tame my bull"
"Ah.....okay, but with one condition. If I die, you pay for my funeral"
"Nope"
"Okay let me rephrase that. If both of us die, Ziga pays for our funeral"
"That's acceptable" *mass laughter* "Okay now hit it son!"
"Okay here we go!" *slams accelerator hard* "WOAH!"

"Oi not literally! Just drive as you normally do!" Benny scolds and warns me. "Ah okay bossman, I'm sorry for that", I replied. Turns out city driving on Corsa isn't as difficult as I thought. ALl it takes are ultra-sensitive hands to counter the occasional little flick of slides whilst turning, and even more sensitive feet to curb the heavy foot tendency that susually rises from driving thee kind of cars.


As we approach somewhere below a highway pass, Benny told me to go under it, and floor the Lambo for a while, then do several downshifts, so I did. There I discovered why people love Lambos oh so much: The ultra loud and dramatic engine noise felt like a giant monster is going to crush us anytime, emitting a supersonic and devilish aura. Sometimes it's true what enthusiasts say about supercars in general: It's not about aerodynamics, it's about the drama that surounds it.

Speaking of which, back when it's still fully owned by Signor Ferruccio himself, Lamborghini never entered a race, at least as a manufacturer outfit. Feruccio was once actually a race driver himself at his youth. He entered the famous Mille Miglia race with a modded Fiat 500 at 1948. Sadly his effort ended prematurely at 680 mile mark out of 1000 when he crashed into a restaurant. Ever since that incident, Ferruccio has never ever entered any racing activites ever. Lambo's first racing effort came at 1989 under the ownership of Chrysler, when they made a V12 engine for the midpack Larousse team. It was brutally fast but also tragically unreliable. At 1993 they almost made a deal with McLaren for 1994 season, and even the legendary Ayrton Senna liked the engine, but in the end McLaren decided to make a partnership to Peugeot. We know what happened by then: McLaren had a hard time with Peugeot engines, Senna moved to Williams but then tragically died at Imola, and Chrysler sold Lamborghini to Indonesian company called MegaTech.

Under the leadership of MegaTech and eventually Audi AG(which means they're also owned by VW), Lambo produced various race versions of the Lamborghini Diablo at the end of the 20th century, such as the Diablo GT1, Diablo GT2, Diablo SVR and Diablo GTR. Then as the Murcielago came into life, Lambo had a partnership with Reiter Engineering to build race versions of Murcielago, namely the Murcielago RGT, Murcielago RGT-LM and Murcielago RSV. At this point Reiter were also licensed to build race versions of Gallardo for GT3 dan Super Trofeo racing needs. And finally at 2015 Lamborghini established their Squadra Corse, held a partnership with Dallara and built the Huracan GT3 as well as the Huracan Super Trofeo. Reiter still build Lambo racers, but limited to Gallardos, which is now renamed the Gallardo R-EX. Right we've veered wayyy too far from my story, let's catch up now.

Eventually we arrived to the HQ. After lunch and a bit of rest, Benny took us for a trackday to test the R33 again. Benny drive with Ziga inside, while I was ordered to hand the wheel and keys to Soju. Just like our last trip here, we went to Hallett Motor Circuit where my Mustang juggles like a jelly and we saw a three-way battle between Soju, Benny and Lydia(RedCarDriver).

Some time later we arrived at the track. The first thing we did was helping Benny assessing his R33 for track performance, after we did one for street usage some time ago. Benny turned out blazing fast laps, so this should be a great sign of all the Nismo goodies worked.

But then, Benny issued a challenge to me and Soju to test our drving skills and R33's performance even further: "Both of you will drive in pairs inside the Aventador to race Ziga in the R33, each for three laps." He elected to just shotgun ride due to being exhausted after hours and hours of tuning multiple cars.

I asked Soju to go first, since he had much more experience than myself when it comes to taming north of 600 horsepower. His famous and legendary Supra has more power and actually lighter than the Aventador, so this should be a piece of cake for him. Nevertheless, Ziga proven to be able to dish a tight fight against us.

Then it was my turn to run, this time I sort of got the hang of it but Ziga kept on dishing even more intense fight against me. But nevertheless it was quite fun and scary at the same time. This is my first time battling for position instead of running against time, and of course because it's not my car and it's not a touring car racer, I don't want to make contact and hurt both the Aventador and R33.

After both races has finished, we found......Benny sleeping like a log inside the R33. At first I was panicked because I thought he passed out due to things like dehydration or heart attack(hey, it's possible you know), but turns out he's just sleeping due to exhaustion from all his works during the week. We decided to bring him back home so he can rest proeperly.














Wew finally update done! Let's see how my wallet runs this time:














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
#402   2019-09-10 17:31          
# Franklin : "Okay let me rephrase that. If both of us die, Ziga pays for our funeral"
I laughed really hard with that dude lmao
Really good times dude!

Really good times indeed, I didn't expect to be able to drive a Lambo! :))

# Lagano : Well i also thought about a funeral for a moment while we were jumping in that Corolla. :)) Regardless, it was one hell of a good time, i could hardly have that much fun with any of my cars! This proves that you don't need a lot of horsepower or grip to have an epic driving experience. It also reminded me of the times when i did this kind of shit regularly, back then i couldn't get my hands on a car with more than 100hp! You also kinda tempted me to build a rally car, the AE86 would be a good candidate for that... :rolleyes:

And you drove the Lambo like a boss, i could see that you got the skills from the time attack events! I wasn't really used to the R33's new setup too so you got me :P

Well please do, a rally car or an offroader would be a great addition to the garage! :D

And thanks for the compliment, I didn't think I could tame the bull but I actually did! Admittably it was a bit sloppy though, at least from my own views :)) :cheers:
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

Nightkid

jp
Posts: 818

Location: Japan
Occupation: yesn´t
Age: 23
V$: idk
#403   2019-09-10 19:05          
Jesus christ poor Greco lmao . But at least you had fun , right ? :)) :))

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#404   2019-09-10 20:20          
# Nightkid : Jesus christ poor Greco lmao . But at least you had fun , right ? :)) :))

Well, poor my back as well :)) But yeah it was fun as hell! I don't really want to do this in my Silver Queen so with the Greco on my side I could throw my guilt out from the window :))
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
#405   2019-09-19 19:54          
Low Power to the People














It's the final week of my second American trip! And there's no better way to spend it than having a trackday innit? ;)
But rather than running high performance cars as people do, this time I and my boys run some otherwise stock and mundane daily cars.
And oh, the track action didn't just end there as I finally experience my first test & tune as well!
Welp without further ado let's jump into the update! :D














[09 Sep 2019]
Wew boi it's paycheck time! V$940 has touched down smoothly into my wallet. And that's not the only thing that comes into the HQ that day......all in a sudden, following my backcountry ventures at the last update, it turns out Franklin and Ziga kinda wanted to do the same and decided to grab themselves cheap cars as well. Ah, I guess I shouldn't have showed him Lemons (no, not Le Mans, Lemons) builds......but they're either darn freaking awesome, outright bonkers and unthinkable, or even both, so I had to. And I'm glad Franklin and Ziga(Lagano) got so riveted on these kinds of builds they wanted to do something similar.

At this point I could hear you asking "What's this Lemons thingy you're talking about?" Well, practically speaking, a lemon or banger or beater is a car that has dropped drastically in value, has been used for a veeeery long time and it's either barely rolling or doesn't at all, with minor to major mechanical issues. A good example of these kinds of cars is, well, my Greco. It's everywhere since it's birth year, worth next to nothing today, had a head gasket problem when I picked it up, but still runs well once I fixed it. People bought these cars as either spare parts source, or in most cases something you would use to commute everyday as opposed to, say, luxury cars. And because maintenance and fixing cost of these cars are cheap as a result of the value skydive, often these cars becomes something you don't have to worry over breaking down or damaging in general.

These days, those kind of cars found a new home in the form of motorsport events. Some are non-competitive events such as banger rallies like Plymouth-Banjul, Budapest-Bamako and Lemons Rally where all you have to do is pass checkpoints without any concern over how you get there. Some are competitive as well such as ChumpCar(now properly named ChampCar as they actually got the license for the name!) and 24 Hours of Lemons....yes that's a pun over the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. Yes, it's a 24-hour race (though not always nonstop, as some track doesn't have sufficient lighting or has a state issued curfew. In this case, race action will be paused as night fall and continued at the next day) with those kind of cars.

The 24 Hours of Lemons is an endurance racing series spaning across USA, Australia and New Zealand, with a budget cap of USD 500, AUD 1000 and NZD 1000 respectively. Said budget cap covers the car cost and mods done to it, except three things: Safety equipments such as rollcages, seats, belts and fire extinguishers, consummables such as wheels, tyres and brakes, and any other mods that doesn't enhance perofrmance at all or made the car slower. A good example of the last point would be uhhh.....fitting a taxi sign, a small billboard or a ricer wing for any reason that you have as long as it's still deemed safe(i.e. it won't easily fall off). Or probably installing a small, low power engine over an otherwise powerful car. What if you somehow overshot the budget limit? That's okay, you still could go racing, but you'll be slapped with a negative lap penalty before the race start, with you starting a lap down for every 10 bucks you spent over the budget. Participating for the race is quite easy as well, all you have to bring is a valid drivers license. If you're interested to see what's this all about, look over here and here.

Back to the topic........

"But I thought you already bought yet another S-Chassis?"
"Well, yeah, but it's too precious to be destroyed as yours does"
"Okay that one is obvious but still. You sure you can maintain and handle them all?"

Franklin bought himself a BMW 318i E36 coupe for V$300. Quite a nice deal, considering it's a coupe and it looks fairly well. That reminds me of the Hoonigan S**car project car as well, as it's also a BMW E36 bought for $350, used as the Hoonigan crew's missile car. Franklin plans to mod and drive it for a while before doing an engine swap. Whether he's going to bring this baby back to Japan or not remains to be seen. He was also going to purchase a Lexus SC400 to grab the 1UZ engine inside it, but Ziga wanted it as well as his drag car's parts source, so the car is now in Ziga's hands. Oh yah, you'll get to see the cars very soon, don't worry.

I was a bit concered over Franklin's shopping spree, particularly if later on he indeed he decided to bring his car back home to Japan. I'm saying this because that's what happened to me at my previous US trip, where I had to bring three cars back home to Japan, with one of them being a gift from Ziga and Benny. Not that I' not grateful, I actually like all of them in fact, but in the end these cars occupied lots of my garage space, which is already occupied with my uhh.....unfinished projects. You might already know that the 240SX vert has become Kaede the Kyusha Vert. The Silverado from the boys is slotted to be a spare truck for hauling needs And as for the Foxbody.....it's just sit in my crib without purpose, so I propose to put the Foxbody for sale with an announcement later on(you can buy it now if you want, just DM me with your best offer!). The Silverado will remain in my crib, though I could move it somewhere later depending on Ziga and Benny's future plans.

Later that day, Franklin announced that we'll go race our cheap cars around a track in a trackday event. A quick search reveals there would be a track day and a test & tune event(basically track day for drag racers) at Heartland Motorsport Park in Topeka,KS at the middle of the week. The track day would be held at day time, and as the sun sets, the road course woud be closed and the drag strip would be opened for use untul late night. Seeing as there are more things to do than if we go to Hallett as usual, almost none of us had visited Topeka before, and the track is only a 6 hours drive away, we agreed to settle the track and drag battle there. After hands are shook and brofists has been bumped, we set on improving our cars.


[10 Sep 2019]
I spent the day working and repairing the Greco after my backcountry shenanigans I've done with it. Most of the work I did involves removing dried dirt from the front end of the car, as well as tuning and improving the stock 100 BHP engine as far as I could without relying to aftermarket parts. Well, I could if I wanted to as I only spent an unbelieveable V$66 so far, but I simply don't want to as I wanted to save some money for later projects in Japan.

"Ah there it is, time to scrape this mud bit off......eyy Soju what're you doing there?"
*typing rather loudly* "Ah, ordering some bits for my Supra while I'm at it"
"That thing's perfect alreayd, what're you gonna do next?"
"Thanks for the compliment, but eh, nothing's perfect in this world, we gotta improve ourselves"
"Wise words from the king of Supras indeed. What kind of improvement though?"
"I can't say a lot, but I can tell you it would still retain the looks while also changing it drastically"
"Hmmm.....I wonder.....elaborate. Ah while you're at it, is there a hammer, ruler and glue near your desk?"
"Yeah those are on the desk near me right now. You want me to pass them all to you?"
"Oh sure sure, just throw them near my head. I'll pretend I'm Thor and catch them as I could. Ah yes elaborate as you throw them"
"Okay, so the highlights are new wheels..." *throws glue* "....new mirrors...." *throws ruler* "....and repaint" *throws hammer*
"Interesting...." *catches glue* "...nice-ow..." *catches ruler* "....and woah mama-OWOWOW! Crap mate!" *failed to catch the hammer*
"Whoops sorry mate, you okay there?"
"Nah nah I'm all good, it's my own fault don't worry. The hammer is heavier than I thought. Anyways what colour would it be?"
"Hmmmm......it's a secret, but I'm sure you'll have the answer very soon before I show it to you"
"Can't wait for it my man. Now, to straighten the underbody......POWEEEEER!"
*hits the underside of the body and bumper so hard that it breaks, followed by Soju rolling on floor laughing*

Soju got a good point, at this point starting my orders for my project back in Japan is a great idea as the parts I needed would arrive at my doorstep after I land home, therefore less waiting time guaranteed. And this time, finally I can afford the one thing i wanted the most since the start of the year: GP Sports G-Sonic Evo kit for the S15! As I've said a long time ago, the S15 is meant to be a time attack racer, and I have absolutely no budget to develop my own aero set for it, so the best alternative to this is get a publicly sold bodykit. After some thoughts and upon seeing 11K(11000rpm)'s S15, I decided that the G-Sonic Evo kit fits my criteria the most. Problem is, they're quite expensive, even almost everyone outside Japan loathed it. The complete bodykit set is officially sold at V$12800 on their site. Thankfully they're also sold at Yahoo Auctions for slightly cheaper at V$11520, so I picked that one instead. But think about it, at this price you can get at least one or two Evos, Imprezas, R32 or R33 GTS-t or any S-Chassis of your choice at once.

Afterwards originally I wanted to continue shopping for a while, but since I need to see how the car actually looks with the kit on, I decided to just get the body kit in the meantime and start the next shopping list that I should fullfill later in Japan. This list would comprises of rear spoiler, suspension kit, spacers, camber kits, suspension arms, and subframes. And if the budget allows, wheels, tyres and brakes will be on the list as well.


[12 Sep 2019]
Showdown time! I, Franklin and Ziga set off from the HQ at 9am in order to let the rush hour pass by and so we could arrive at the track at the right time. Traffic is still crowded as a remnant of the rush hour, but nevertheless spirits was running high and the weather was sunny but cool and calm. Looks like summer has officially ended and autumn is here to stay, at least until the end of the year. No more sauna tortures, then.

Here's Franklin with his E36 Bimmer, not much has been done to it so far. He welded the diff in order to y'know, get it sideways easier, which in this case actually a great idea as it only has 140 BHP at the moment. Whether it's effective for track usage though remains to be seen.

And here's Ziga with his SC400. The SC400 originally came with no front bumper, so Ziga had to use a spare ones from his drag car to compensate. The drag car itself is, as you might have guessed, painted in purple, therefore explaining the mistmatched look on this one.

After some time driving through downtown, we joined the highway that goes to Topeka. Traffic has went down a bit after the rush hour, and it looks like it's going to be sunny all day with some presence of clouds. I cheerfully pumps up Van Halen's 'Panama' as we soldiered on. Gran Turismo 4 players rise up! Frankly speaking, 'Panama' wasn't insipred by the country, but rather a drag racing car called 'Panama Express', hence the heavily automobile-themed lyrics, fitting for the game and our upcoming activity.


After a looooong drive to the north and a fuel & lunch stop somewhere in the Kansas border(somehow they got tuna sandwich and it's good!), our jolly convoy arrived at the Heartland circuit at 3pm. The track day has run for quite a long time, evident by the sonorous and buzzing sounds of various cars running around the track. Thankfully we still got plenty of time to prepare our cars and go into the track.

Obviously at the moment all the pit stalls are full with other cars and drivers, but thankfully there are some giant tents nearby opened as garage extension, so we headed there to set pur base for the day. Additionally, our tent was close enough to one of the track's bar & lounge, so we got ourselves a strategic spot should we need to grab a meal and some cold ones :))


Because all the timer beacons has been rented and using our phone as a stopwatch while driving would be a hassle, we decided that we determine who's the fastest among us the classic way by one of the three conditions: Who turned the most laps before sunset, who overtook the most and/or who got overtaken the least. A bit complicated, I know, but this had to be done. With all preparations done, we made our way to the pitlane and into the track.


Speaking of which, rather unexpectedly we'll be running the full road course that spans around 4 km, around twice and obviously much bigger than the Tsukuba Circuit which is my home turf. Motorsport activities at Heartland mostly comprises of drag racing and autocross racing, but after a huge repaving at 2016, road racing activities at Heartland has slowly revived over recent years. The drag strip usually hosts everything up to NHRA events, while both the autocross lot and road course hosts SCCA and NASA(no, not that NASA who fly rockets to space, this one's different) track days and competitive events.

As we get off the pit lane we rushed into the first corner. And I immediately ran into a problem: Not only said corner turned to be bumpy and deceiving, the Greco understeers rather heavily. Due to the tyres perhaps? Either way Franklin seemed to be able to sail through easily, while Ziga also shows some signs of understeer. Some miliseconds later I was almost missed the entirety of second corner, turning my face red full of shame in the process.



The track had some smooth elevations, which I enjoy very much since I could push the car to the edge to measure its limit quickly. As you can see, the Greco naturally suffers from body roll, but somehow it still able to grip through the corner even with worn tyres.

The Greco and Bimmer felt like home after a few corners, whereas the Lexus still felt a bit out of place. The Greco and Bimmer were touring car heroes of the nineties after all! Well granted they used 2 liter engines (though the Greco Group A still retains the 4A-GE engine, and the Bimmer retains the 318i badge despite the engine bore-up. Also, the Corolla never had duty outside Japan. At least in BTCC the racing duty was bestowed onto Toyots Carina instead) and they produced circa 250-300 BHP, but in the Group A days and early Super Touring days the race versions looked exactly like the road cars, just with stripped interior and rollcages plus fire extinguisher installed. That's one part of the touring car racing appeal to the public....you can easily buy something that looks exactly like how they race at weekends.

Ziga's Lexus meanwhile was originally never meant to go trackside.....rather obviously that duty goes to the Supra. The Supra is plotted as the sports GT car of Toyota, whereas the Soarer was set as a luxury, cruiser GT. This segment is roughly fullfilled by the likes of Bentley Continental and BMW 6 series today. Back then, Toyota launched this car to steal some cake in said segment's market from Mercedes and their SL series. Some of you might know that this car is also known as Toyota Soarer. One thing that sets the Soarer and SC series apart is the engine choice: The Soarer could come with 1JZ-GTE, 2JZ-GE or 1UZ, whereas the Lexus only has the 2JZ and 1UZ variant. Funnily enough the 1UZ in the Soarer was the least powerful among all variants, whereas for the SC series of course it's the most powerful. This one is the early model that boasts 250 BHP.


As the day continues, we happily pushed ourselves, each other and our cars along the track. Along the day pretty much I and Franklin duked it out around the track, while Ziga simply blasted both of us on the straights. But thanks to his car's jelly-welly suspension and heavy overall weight, both of us could catch him back at the straights.





Ziga's Lexus proven to be one hell of a rowdy speedboat. At times Ziga would throw it sideways for showboaty fun........


But sometimes the understeer tendency kicks back severely, to the point where Ziga went off-track. This sight made me burst a huge laughter as I passed him by, somewhat satisfied finally I could get past him. Still, I'm glad he didn't send it to the nearby armco or spun the car. That's gonna be a hell of incident if it did occur.......

As the sun starts to move to the west side, we kept on driving despite basically everyone passing us one by one and we started to get hungry and tired. It's true what they say, with the power of love you can even lift the entire world or probably jump across continents! :)) And it doesn't have to be love in the context of love between a couple of lovers. It can be love between friends, family, or simply love toward what are you doing ;)



Sadly it looks like there's one thing that can stop the power of love at the moment, and that is our increasingly worn tyres. Near the end of the day they're all absolutely cooked, we're all suffering from understeer in the end. Feeling that enough is enough and we have to rest before the test & tune session, we finally decided to go back to the pits.


As we enjoy a huge hot dog and a can of cola at the lounge while waiting for sunset, we tallied our results. Rather obviously Ziga won since he's clearly faster than the rest of us despite going off-track several times. The second place goes to......me! I was lucky to be able to overtake some more cars before we return to the pits, giving a gap of 3 cars ahead of Franklin.

As the sun sets, the road course is closed and the drag strip is opened. After a short discussion of who's going to start first, as well as Ziga giving me a crash course on drag racing start procedure(I never attended a test & tune day before, mind you), we set off to the track. Turns out there are just about everything that attends this kind of event, from full-on modified dragsters, street legal drag cars to showroom stock cars like ours, including even trucks and minivans! As we prepare to line up, Jeff Beck's 'Hot Rod Honeymoon' was blasted through the intercom speakers.

First off was me and my Greco. Because obviously it can't do burnouts, my staging stage consisted of simply checking my pedals and a bit of body stretching inside the car. Well, what else I'm gonna do? :))

With the one on the other lane finished their staging process, it's time to rock on.

Lights went green and here we go!


It might only be a quarter mile strip but it felt like a long time has passed by then, made worse by my rival passing the finish line quicker than me.

Next up is Franklin and his Bimmer, lining up for staging. He did a small bit of burnout before going to the start line.

Lights went green and Franklin goes off in a small flurry of wheelspin.

Eventually Franklin finished his run. It looks like he did it slightly faster than me........

And finally we have Ziga and his Lexus. Because he has done drag runs with exactky the same car(though different engine), this should be very easy for him, as seen later when he did a fat burnout along the staging line. Naturally, crows cheered for him.

Light went green and Ziga goes in a flurry of wheelspin.

Some time later, Ziga crossed the line, clearly being faster than I and Franklin did. Yep, he took this one in his bag onece again.

We took some rest and did some runs again, while enjoying more hot dogs and colas as we continue to improve our times. We had some chatter with a lot of fellow racers as well, and obviously some asked why there's a plucky and peculiar Greco amongst us..... :)) But most of them are quite welcoming such sight, especially after hearing why I bought this car and Ziga telling about my life so far in Japan.

At the end of the day we compared our results once more. Ziga won again, scored 15.895 seconds as his best time. Next one is Franklin, with best time of 18.142 seconds. And finally there's me with a best of 18.658 seconds. Welp, kinda expected that. Nevertheless, our track shenanigans has finished and ended in such a high note.

Before we left the track, I posted the pics of Greco in various social medias and put it on sale. Yep, I never intended to bring this car home to Japan, there are a hell lot of them there after all. And the Greco has served me very well as a commuter, as well as a fun driving machine both on the road and off the road.


[14 Sep 2019]
The motorsport shenanigans though didn't just stop there, because at the weekend Formula Drift ran their 7th round at Texas! Specifically, they ran at Texas Motor Speedway, Forth Worth, TX. Because our HQ at Ardmore isn't so far from Fort Worth, we decided to attend the event to spectate the Pro drivers duking it out as the title fight comes closer, and to compare Japanese pro drifting scene with US ones by our own eyes.

The site was sooooo crowded with all kinds of enthusiasts. Lots of great battles as well! Even though I didn't follow competitive drift scene as deep as I do on time attack and endurance racing scene, I still can find myself enjoying the event in general as well as cheering on various drivers and appreaciating the builds brought by various racecars. Yes, some say it's generic or even sanitized compared to past events of FD or even D1GP, but those builds are obviously state-of-the-art ones with quite a lot of craftstmanship and effort behind them.

Before the sun sets that day I received an offer for the Greco.....someone at OK offered V$250 for it! I decided to accept it as I need cash quickly before going to go back home anyways and told him to go to the HQ the next day. Ah yes, I'll hand this one to Ziga as this one's quite a loooong day.


[15 Sep 2019]
Well, the promised day for the Greco has come. The offerer did come that day after lunch, and offered exactly V$250 for it. Given that he looked like a decent guy and he actually fullfill his promise on his side, I handed him the keys and papers to the car without any single doubt. Well, I didn't put that I actually brought it for backcountry ventures and a track day.....but eh, I've fixed it and brought it from a mere dead car into a working, tough one. If I could find a similar backcountry in Japan, no doubt this thing will be on the top of my list.

After the deal was sealed, I and Soju packed our stuff to prepare ourselves for our trip back home to our own homelands.


[16 Sep 2019]
After a month and a bit more in the land of the free, it's time to go back home in Japan, and South Korea in Soju's case. I heard that his R33 has come back to the Korean shores, so he doesn't have to pick it up from Japan first. Well, I might be able to stay onger if I could, but I've got a lot of projects to finish back home. I also have to finish all championship events with my Silver Queen for the rest of the year before I can switch to an Evo V peacefully.

Just like when we arrived here, Ziga drove me and Soju to DFW Airport inside his Porsche. Man I'm gonna miss that sweet, sweet boxer engine sound....thankfully traffic wasn't so crowded, allowing Ziga to open the taps of the Porsche whenever possible.

After some time waiting for checking in as well as some cups of coffee, finally it's time for me to leave, since Soju's plane arrives 30 minutes after mine took off. I shared my final brohugs and brofists with Ziga and Soju before boarding to my plane. It's time to go back home.......and finally, I'd like to thank Ziga and Benny for inviting me once more to USA, as well as Soju and Franklin to join our adventures as well. You guys are simply the best :cheers:














Another update has been completed and I've finally come back to Japan yeaaa!
Meanwhile hhere's how my wallet surviving at the end of the trip:














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

Visit my RP HERE!

ramalhinho07

pt
Posts: 787

Location: Portugal
Occupation: cooldown
Age: 27
V$:
#406   2019-09-19 23:03          
Holy shit!

Track days are always fun, i hope i can join you guys sometime soon :D

Franklin

00
Posts: 301

Location: --- Tokyo, Japan
Occupation: Yesn't
Age: 30
V$: 7585
#407   2019-09-19 23:27          
HOW IN THE HELL ZIGA WON THE TRACK DAY WITH THAT AUTO BOAT WITH BENT CHASSI AND WONKY SUSPENSION?
i can't believe it lol

Aaaaanyway, that was a great week, i enjoyed it a lot!!!!
Guys, you are the best !

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
#408   2019-09-19 23:54          
Yeah i was all over the damn place with it! :)) But i guess i had an advantage on the straightaways. Anyway, that was one hell of a day with you boys! Like i said a few times, sometimes the best fun is with the most cheap and beaten up cars you can get! Good that you found a buyer for the Corolla just before going back home, you even managed to make a bit of profit! Just don't mention the stupid shit we did lmao.

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#409   2019-09-20 17:21          
# ramalhinho07 : Holy shit!

Track days are always fun, i hope i can join you guys sometime soon :D

You're always welcome for a trackday session together, the more the merrier! :cheers:

# Franklin : HOW IN THE HELL ZIGA WON THE TRACK DAY WITH THAT AUTO BOAT WITH BENT CHASSI AND WONKY SUSPENSION?
i can't believe it lol

Aaaaanyway, that was a great week, i enjoyed it a lot!!!!
Guys, you are the best !

He's a pro after all :)) But I swear I didn't know it was bent! :O
It was a great week running with y'all again :cheers:


# Lagano : Yeah i was all over the damn place with it! :)) But i guess i had an advantage on the straightaways. Anyway, that was one hell of a day with you boys! Like i said a few times, sometimes the best fun is with the most cheap and beaten up cars you can get! Good that you found a buyer for the Corolla just before going back home, you even managed to make a bit of profit! Just don't mention the stupid shit we did lmao.

Long live low power! Long live low power! :bananajump:
While it does handle like a battleship, it goes hard like a battleship indeed! And oh, I din't mention it don't worry :))
Thanks for hosting us for a month and a bit bossman, we deeply appreciate it! :cheers:



And a little bit of PSA: My Mustang Foxbody is up for sale! Hit me up here in my thread or here if you're interested! :cheers:

# BigSmoke :
FOR SALE!




Ford Mustang Foxbody LX Hatchback

Originally a 2.3 I4 model
Has been swapped with Ford Modular 4.6 V8 engine and Tremec T5 manual transmission, making circa 250 BHP
Black leather LHD interior, red exterior colour
Driven for a while when it was in USA, never driven since I brought it to Japan, has been cleaned to concours-worthy condition
Everything else is showroom stock
Road legal, taxed and registered, has sha-ken cert (yes!) to drive around Japan. Caution: LHD steering as mentioned above
Great material for cheap RP starter, daily driver, drag racer (both streetlegal and pro), track toy, autocross, cheap endurance racer etc.
Price: V$5000 (+V$100 for shipping outside Japan) OR SUITABLE OFFER, bargains welcome!
Location: Tsukuba, Japan

Pictures:




Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

RocketBunnyS13

ph
Posts: 418

Location: Philippines MNL
Occupation: Yes I ruin cars
Age: 34
V$: wat
#410   2019-09-21 20:32          
Looks like you, Soju, and Franklin enjoyed your USA trips!! NICE

And the sub $500 beater challenge looks fun as fuck haha, track day in Japan lezgo! Kinda wanna do something other than drifting haha

s t a y c l a s s y

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#411   2019-09-22 09:20          
# RocketBunnyS13 : Looks like you, Soju, and Franklin enjoyed your USA trips!! NICE

And the sub $500 beater challenge looks fun as fuck haha, track day in Japan lezgo! Kinda wanna do something other than drifting haha

It was indeed a brilliant way to spend the final days of summer! :D

Track day in Japan lezgooo! Would like to see you gripping around the track for dear life for the first time :)) :cheers:
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

Nightkid

jp
Posts: 818

Location: Japan
Occupation: yesn´t
Age: 23
V$: idk
#412   2019-09-28 22:47          
Jesus christ that poor Greco again .STOP BEING MEAN TO THE GRECO , THE GRECO HAVE FEELINGS TOO !

Leopard13631

jp
Posts: 99

Location: Japan , Utsunomiya
Occupation: Developing s t y l e
Age: 22
V$: TooLow
#413   2019-09-28 23:14          
Ayyyy that beater challange was siiccckkk :D OwO foxbody?

r o l e p l a y

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#414   2019-09-29 02:57          
# Nightkid : Jesus christ that poor Greco again .STOP BEING MEAN TO THE GRECO , THE GRECO HAVE FEELINGS TOO !

But hey at least I didn't abuse it as hard as I did when i brought it to the backcountry roads :))
I didn't expect it to survive a whole day of trackday though :O And now that it's been moving away to another hands, now it can rest in peace :D

# Leopard13631 : Ayyyy that beater challange was siiccckkk :D OwO foxbody?

All thanks to Franklin who raised the idea to do it :)) But not gonna lie it's actually a fun thing to do, a huge refreshment after hundreds of hours of driving performace cars around a racetrack. And yes, I've got myself a Foxbody in Japan! It's quite a long story on how I got it here from USA, but I've did some works on it when it was still in USA. As you've guessed, I never drive this thing as it hit the Japan shores, hence it's never seen ever since.
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
#415   2019-09-29 06:36          
Aerodynamic Building Blocks















Since I've come back to my home sweet home in Japan, it's time to get back to business!
First off, picking up where I left on the S15 project and finally doing the aero works!
And it's also the time to start the final half of my competitive racing schedules this year!
Well let's jump to the update to see all the actions happening shall we? :D















[17 Sep 2019]
After landing in Japan the previous day and having a deep sleep from jet lag and tiredness, i woke up realizing I almost forgot to register for my next competitive event, which is the 4th round of JAF Tsukuba Circuit Trial Series. This round and the final round at November is hosted by Team Magnus Auto Club (TMAC), the same organizer and auto club that hosted the JAF Eastern Kanto Circuit Trial Championship, together with JASC, a subsidiary of JAF. The 1st and 3rd round was hosted by Victory Circle Club (VICIC) and the 2nd round, which I missed due to myself being in USA for the first time, was hosted by Brains Sports Club (B-Sports).

Since it's been a while since I've entered any competitive events since the start of summer, and because surely there are a lot of new readers here, let me explain the format of the competition quickly. Well there's a complete guide and rules for it, which you can download here, but it's in Japanese, and unless you're actually fluent in Japanese you might find difficulty on translating it, even with electronic translation device.

As the event title might suggest, it's a time attack event, with the format of 2x15 minutes of one-shot shootout, where you'll be given 3 laps to run around the track. That means 1 lap to get out from the pits and do a warm-up, 1 lap to score your time, and another 1 lap to get back to the pits. As you can see, this means there are only two chances to set your time in the day. One mistake could mean a great shake-up in the championship standings. Obviously, the best between the two times you've scored will be selected as your final time for the event.

The event splits participants into three classes: B, PN, and AE, with B and PN class separated into several sub-categories as follows:
- B1: <=1600cc road-legal cars, e.g. EK9, EF, EG6, MX-5 NA and NB, Cappucino, Caterham Seven 160, Honda Beat, old Alto Works
- B2: <=1600cc road-legal cars that can be FIA/JAF-certified for racing use, e.g. base MX-5 ND, base Swift, S660, N-ONE, March Nismo, current Alto Works
- B3: 1600-2400cc FF road-legal cars that can be FIA/JAF-certified for racing use, e.g. top-range Swift, current Corolla
- B4: 1600-2400cc FR road-legal cars that can be FIA/JAF-certified for racing use, e.g. 86, BRZ, top-range MX-5 ND
- B5: 1600-3500cc 2WD road-legal cars, e.g. Civic Type-R EP3 upwards, Silvias, Skyline non-GTR, RX-7, RX-8, Z33, Mini JCW, 208 GTi, non-turbo 911, Cayman, non-supercharged Lotus
- B6: Any road-legal cars that doesn't satisfy B1-B5, e.g. WRX STi, Lan Evo, Skyline GT-R, Ferraris, McLarens, Lambos, Golf R, turbo 911.....basically AWDs and supercars
- PN1: <=1600cc FIA/JAF-certified racers, see B2
- PN2: 1600cc-2000cc FIA/JAF-certified racers, see B3 and B4
- AE: Fully electric cars with power output under 40 kWh, e.g. Leaf, e-Golf, i3 without range extender. No Teslas, sadly.

Turbo and supercharged cars capacity are multiplied by 1.7 and rotaries are multiplied by 1.5 to make them easier to be classified and segregated.
Anything not satisfying any of those (e.g. prototypes and open wheel racers) will be classified in Closed class and is not eliglible for championship points.

Based on the classification above, my Silver Queen, which is an Evo 3 with a stroker kit, automatically classified into the B6 class. And oh, to be classified in the final standings and receiving the championship award, you have to at least enter 3 from the 5 rounds held along the year. I've entered 1st and 3rd round and missed the 2nd round as I've said, so to qualify for the final standings I can simply enter the 4th round and miss the final round. But because I'm currently standing in 6th for the B6 classification and 8th for the overall classification, I feel like there's still a chance to bring myself to top 5, so I decided to enter both rounds. Additionally, there's an extra award for those who attended all rounds without skipping any single one, but since I've missed the 2nd round that means I'm not eliglible for said award.

Oh yah, this round is a rather unique one as it's held on Monday at September 23 rather than Sunday at 22. Not only September 23 is a work holiday in Japan (though can't remember why), there are a hell lot of events happening at Sunday in Tsukuba there's simply no room for the Circuit Trial to be included in the same day. Turns out TMAC and JASC had another collab with another auto club and event organizer, SCCN, at Sunday, resulting in a huge swell of race events being held for the day. Alongside the usual Tsukuba Touring Car Championship and Super FJ champhinship that ran together with TCTS before summer, SCCN-sanctioned events are also joining the fun. Specifically there are Fs-Cup, AE86 N2 Cup, Z Challenge, Production FR Cup, March Cup, GT86 Cup, Caterham Super Seven Cup and even Legends Racing, which is usually more prominent in USA and Finland.

After sorting all my personal and car documents needed to register, I register for the race and paid V$205 for it. It's been a long while since I hit my own home turf, so while this might have an effect to my lap times later, I can't wait to return to the track once again. And this might be start of the final events I could attend with Silver Queen........

Later that day, the GP Sports G-Sonic Evo kit I ordered for the S15 has arrived! As you might guess from the last update, this is so far the most costly purchase I've done in my whole life, and yes, it almost made my cry tears of blood, both from the unbelievable price (even for those outside Japan!) and the fact that I've drained my wallet again. But eh, at least finally I could se my car the way I wanted it to be. Time to whip out the duct tapes, glues and rivets!

After several hours of screwing and unscrewing, as well as avoiding gluing and/or riveting my own hands, finally the bodykit has been fitted properly to the car. While it hasn't yet to be graced with fitting wheels and spacers, I can tell you this would worth all the money I've cranked out to get it.

Speaking of which, despite its aggressive looks, this kit was more popular as a drift car kit. GP Sports supplied their bodykit to Team Toyo Tires for some time in D1GP for Masato Kawabata's S15 and his teammate's 180SX, and of course Masato got this very exact kit. It was used for some seasons before Masato and his teammate eventually switched to use Nissan GT-Rs with two different Rocket Bunny bodykit sets. The G-Sonic Evo kit also once appeared in Initial D, driven by Hiroya Okuyama from Team Spiral and coloured in Purple. Yup, he's Ryuji Ikeda's teammate (the one with red 350Z)

With a clear image of how is the car going to look like, I went back to my laptop to order some more things to complete the aero setup and some light cosmetic upgrades, as well as a spacer to widen the wheel track to match the bodykit width, and of course for more grip and drivability, and better exhaust system. As I order some of them, I also did a video call with Soju and 11K(11000rpm) to ask for some aero works insight, since 11K has the exact bodykit installed on his S15, and his S15 is also intended for track use. After hours of video call and browsing, here's what I ended up with.

First off, the rear spoiler, one of the most crucial thing in time attack races. With the guidance of 11K, I picked up the SARD GT Wing Fuji Spec-M with the widest width (1710mm) and medium height. Not only it look sturdy and strong, it's wide enough to match the bodykit and yes, this is that SARD who used to field a Toyota Supra in JGTC(now Super GT as you might already know it).It's cheap too at V$1100, roughly 70-75% cheaper than Voltex wings which I initially looking forward to buy, and of course much cheaper compared if you design that wing yourself :)) 11K also recommended me to grab carbon fiber bonnet from Varis, which shaped exactly like the stock bonnet. He said the stock bonnet is already aerodynamic enough, so no need to go bonkers design-wise. Price is relatively handsome at V$892.

Moving on to the side mirrors, which I'd like to call it an aero upgrade as well. That's because it's the famous Craft Square side mirrors, which is shaped like aero-oriented mirrors in F1 and GT racecars. I'm not going bonkers over the mirror lens itself, so I just bought the base one for a nice V$492. Ah yes, to prevent the bonnet to pop up prematurely as I run my laps, I also ordered Cusco hood locks for V$58. For the spacer itself, I ordered a set of Eibach Type 2 Pro spacers for a grand total of V$286, which can be set to various widths and easy to install.

As for the exhaust, I bought Apexi GT Spec pipe and N1 Evo muffler for V$384 and V$601 respectively, for increased engine power, decreasing back pressure and y'know, augmenting that sweet and sonorous RB26 engine sound ;) And finally, all of this is topped with Momo Mod 69 steering wheel, the same as the one I used in my Silver Queen, for V$183, as well as a set of smoked LED taillights from Behrman for V$384. To be honest, I don't really like the OEM ones, so I think a change is required. And oh, all of these stuffs will arrive in four days.


[21 Sep 2019]
More parts for the S15 has arrived! Completely drowning in excitement, I unpacked everything and installed them one by one. Seeing your vehicle slowly taking shape as you desired is like expecting and watching someone delivering their newborn baby: Unless you hate babies and kids for some inexplicable reasons (well, there are some who actually did), it's always an exciting and dramatic moment as it goes, and when everything is said and done, it turns into a heartwarming moment as you welcome them to the world.

Or if you don't get or for some reason dislike the baby euphemism above, let's say it's like creating a sculpture or similar forms of art: You plan it, design it and build it to show your identity and speak your opinions to the world, and you should be proud of it. Of course at times people would disagree with it or outright just loathe over it, but it's your build in the end, and unless if you actually did something wrong in the process, nothing should stop you from expressing yourself on the blacktop. And in my opinion it's true what some say, and I think I've said it once back then: Cars are a moving, dynamic form of arts that can be enjoyed in various ways.

After hours of hand scuffic, more screwing and unscrewing, assembling and keeping track of nuts, bolts, and my tools, and even more riveting and glueing, as well as accidentally gluing my hand in the process which requires me to dip my hand in soap and then boiling water to unbind the glue, here's the final result! Take note that the new parts aren't painted yet, since I'm going to re-wrap the car when everything has been finished. But for now, look at it, ain't it a handsome boy to you? :-X

After installing everything I also learned how to insulate the car's interior properly and then set up to do so using duct tapes, glues and some pipes lying around in the garage. With my car being stripped to the core inside, this means most of the cables and some other things are left exposed inside the car, and thus there are some possibilities of these electrocuting me, causing fire inside the car, or otherwise harming or injuring me. In road cars this is usually solved with covering the interior with carpets and leathers as you can see everyday, but here obviously all these luxuries has been removed for weight reduction. So the viable solution usually done to solve the problem is to insulate these cables and stuff with basically anything you have that isn't an electricity conductor.


[23 Sep 2019]
It's both paycheck time and RACEDAY! After ensuring that I receive my weekly V$940 as usual, I get myself a cold shower, chenge into my t-shirt, get a quick brekkie, pack my race suit, spare undies, t-shirt and helmet in and set off to Tsukuba Circuit at 7.30am, since even though it's a holiday I'm sure the usual Monday rush hour still exists. The driver's briefing will be held at 9am at the track's conference hall, and the first session runs at 10.30am, with the second session following at 1pm. Weather is rather cold but sunny overall, with a tiny chance of rain according to the weather report I listened to along the trip to the circuit.

08.30
After a bit of traffic jam, which panicked me a bit, finally I arrived at the entrance gate. I grabbed my race number, which is still the same since it's my favourite number, and the timer beacons. With only half an hour to spare before both the driver's briefing started and parc ferme conditions stated (which means you can't even touch your car for a while), I quickly searched for a parking spot, stick the race numbers, install the beacons and went straight to the locker room to empty my bladder first in the toilet, then change into my race undies and suit. I've said this multiple times but since it's been a while, I'll say it again: Having the nature calling you mid-race isn't a great experience and would seriously affect your driving!

09.00
After some small chatter with fellow competitors and notifying the marshalls that our cars are ready to put into parc ferme condition, we went off to the conference hall for the drivers briefing session. Based on what I gather from our banters, some decided to keep their car as-is, some decided to try improving it a bit, and some might as well switch cars for next year just like what I'm currently planning to do. Y'know, gotta stay competitive after all.

As I've said previously, the format of the day will be 2x1 minute of one-shot shootout. For the running order, I'll start in 9th overall. As per usual, there will be 2-3 cars hitting the track together, and once their hot lap is finished, the next group of cars hits the track as the previous group returns to the pits. There are 30 cars today: 8 from B6 class including myself, 9 from B5 class, 5 from B1 class, 3 from B4 class, 2 from B2 class, and the B3, PN1 and PN2 yields 1 car each. Finally for the first time I can spot a B3 class car here, but unsurprisingly lack of interest means there's still no AE class car entering the competition foray.

The rest of drivers briefing were filled with standard rules over the time attack event as well as flag rules, and ended with optional Q&A session between racers and stewards.

10.00
With the drivers briefing over, parc ferme condition lifted and the track is actually still used for a motorbike trackday, I and fellow racers discussed a lot of things. I also had some banter with those who owns or used to own Evo IV, V and VI for some advices regarding my future car, Turns out everyone supported my decision to switch into Evo V! Despite this though, they also lamented the fact that the Silver Queen would be gone at the next season. At this point I realized that my Silver Queen has took a unique presence and status amongst fellow drivers and enthusiasts.

I didn't expect to make such an impact when I started my foray into track days and time attack racing, but well, look at this now :)) I'm quite proud for myself and Silver Queen. And with our driving session closing in, we headed to our own cars and waiting for the signal to enter the pitlane.

10.35
My turn to run has come, and I headed to the pit lane as I wait for the 'go' signal and the previous group to finish their run.

As the previous group ran past us at T1, pit lights went green and here we go! I quickly headed to T1 and start my warm-up sequence along the track. Weather is nice, wind is calm, lots of rubber on the track and I'm in quite calm and good mood.


As I approach the final corner, I do what I usually do: Take a deep breath, pray, breathe out, regulate my breathe rate and step on it. Let's jump into the competition once more!

START!!

As I did my first run, I tried to memorize how I usually attack every corner on the track. The run felt quite smooth though, so I'm quite confident enough that I could get a great time for the first run. Air and track temperature are also relatively lukewarm, and combined with calm wind, this could mean most of everyone's best times would be scored at the first session. But for now, let's see what fate has in store.



As I approach the back straight, as usual I gave everything I've got. I'm expecting this run to end up in the 59 seconds territory as I usually do.


And across the line! It's been a while since I did a competitive run and I'm glad I'm still able to keep myself in shape, at least from my own view. And of course, it's not over yet since there's one more run to be done later in the day. With this in mind, I went back to the pits quickly to avoid myself interrupting the next group.


10.50
With everyone completing their 1st runs, it's break time. There are still a hell lot of time to be spent, with the track action curently only consisting of regular trackday, this time for cars. I spent the time by going to bathroom to emtpy my bladder and cool my face and hands down, then to the track canteen to catch up with fellow racers, media crew and enthusiasts to enjoy early lunch whilst doing some car spotting from afar. Someone used a Porsche 996 today! It's a bit of pity the owner of said Porsche didn't enter the time attack event, but it's also a blessing at the same time because if he actually did, he'd just stomp over everyone on the track :))

Of course I continued our talks about plans for next year and our regular car life whislt we enjoy our lunch. And to loosen up our muscles, we decided to give massage to each other while we're at it :)) And of course some of the media boys and all the enthusiasts didn't miss this moment, dangit might as well scream 'MOM I'M ON TV!' at this moment :)) Even though I realize I'm slowly creeping into pro racing territory, I'm still an amateur racer at heart and I still love the amateur racing atmosphere: The off-track scene is much more friendly with next to no pressure, and you're pretty much still free to do anything you want. Before we prepare to do the second run I went back to the bathroom to do one more call of nature befor egoing back inside my Silver Queen.

13.05
With the second session starting, I rolled to the pitlane and waiting for the other group to end their run. After lunchtime the wind was getting significantly stronger, strong enough to cool everyone on the track down but fortunatey not strong enough to flew anyone's cap off. Nevertheless this might create a major offset to everyone's lap times.

As the previous group ended their run and went past T1, pit lights went green and it's go time! As I did my warm-up, I realized I didn't know which direction did the wind blow. I can only hope the wind will work on my favor but that might be unlikely. And oh, weather's still sunny thankfully.

As I approach the back straight, what I feared became reality, which in turn became both good and bad news: The wind blows at the opposite direction of the back straight. The good news is this means the wind would do favors to absolutely nobody. The bad news is this also means there could be a huge shakeup at the second run results. And as usual I prayed as I go and regulate my breathing rate.

START!!

Even though the wind didn't directly hit the car's front at anywhere other than the back straight, the effect is quite noticeable as I try to drive around along my run. Well at least it's not strong enough to fly dust into the track.....or so I thought. Nevertheless my entire run is faily smooth so far. Because I know this run would be screwed by nature factors, I just drive as hard as I could.


As I approach the back straight, I kept on pushing the car and just shouting "Push!Push!Push!" as my Silver Queen sails against the blowing wind.


And across the line! I took a deep breath and sighed as I enter T1 again. Even though the result could be screwed up, at least I've had fun after a long time not running competitively. And I'm still sure I could stay in at least Top 8 after the decent lap at the frist run. I quickly return to the pits to avoid lagging the next running group.



13.30
With everyone finished their final runs and returning to paddock, I uninstalled the timer beacons and return it to the stewards,then went to the bathroom to have one last call of nature and a cooling shower, and finally went back to the locker room to change back into my dry undies and grab my dry t-shirt. I still have my race suit worn, just the top being tied to my waist. The rest of the day was filled by watching yet another bike trackday, but not gonna lie, I wanted to join the ranks of those riders at one time. And of course, more massage between fellow racers ensues :))

15.00
After waiting for a while to allow the results to be finalized, let's see how I did in this round!

My guess of everyone's best being scored at first run turned to be true! As for myself, I scored 59.454 seconds at my first run, then down to 59.683 at the second run. That's almost 0.25 seconds off due to the wind at the second run. But the good thing is, the first run time is enough to secure me 5th place in class and also 5th place overall! I'm quite glad after a long time of not running competitively, I'm still being able to hang on Top 5 :D Now I;m stting 5th in the B6 classification with 26 points and in 7th overall with 24 points, tying myself with 6th place.

And not only that, I'm also awarded with two medals and various memorabilias from TMAC and JASC, as well as V$500 for finishing 5th in B6 class and V$800 for finishing 5th overall. i can bring the medals and memorabilias home straigt away, whereas the monetary rewards will be transferred to my account the next day.

With the podium celebration over, I immediately went back to my crib and have a long rest.


[24 Sep 2019]
After receiving all the monetary rewards, I planned to continue shopping for the S15.....only to remember that the shopping list for Kaede the vert is much shorter and it's almost finished anyway. All it needs is a coilover and better brakes, but with all the experience I gained along this year, I figured out that I can replace the coilovers with just a set of springs as I did with the Meme Machine X110. As for the brakes, a quick call with AJ(RocketBunnyS13) reveals that R33 brakes is the cheapest way to go to improve the brakes.

And so the shopping spree continues. I picked the same Cusco springs as the Meme Machine used for a grand total of V$204, and grabbed a full set of R33 brakes, including the handbrake drum, for V$750. It's a bit rusty actually but fortunately it's just surface rust, so sanding them should be a good solution. Everything should come at my doorstep in 4 days.

And oh, for October there's no time attack events held in Tsukuba or Nikko that I could attend. Well there's one event in Nikko, which is TEC-ART'S Circuit Festival at October 13th, but it looks like it's only open for AE85, AE86 and S-Chassis drivers. Nevertheless if you have any of these feel free to come there as they open track day session, time attack session and multiclass drift competition.

As for events in Tsukuba, there's one event that I would like to attend: the K-1 Sports Tsukuba 50 Minutes endurance race at October 14th. As you can see from the title, it's not really long as opposed to other endurance races held in Tsukuba, and there are two options for teams to enter: 2 drivers driving a car each, 2 drivers driving a car in turns, or simply a driver driving a single car. Given that I'm currently broke and severely lacking in crew, I'll pick the last option. The event will see a 2x10 minute qualifying session to determine the grid, then followed by (obviously) 50 minute of racing action. And another reason why I'd like to enter this race is refuelling and tyre change during the race is prohibited, therefore cutting a lot of costs of crew and equipment.

The race itself would be divided into five classes:
- GT1: >=2000cc cars with slick/competition tyres
- GT2: 1400-1999cc cars with slick/competition tyres, or >=2000cc cars with radial/semi-slick tyres
- GT3: <1400cc cars with slick/competition tyres, or 661-1999cc Asian cars with radial/semi-slick tyres
- GT3 Euro: <=1999cc Euro cars with radial/semi-slick tyres
- GTK: 660cc Kei cars

Turbo and supercharged cars capacity are multiplied by 1.5 and rotaries are multiplied by 2 to make them easier to be classified and segregated.

Based on the explanation above, my Silver Queen would most likely eliglible to enter GT2 class in this race. Now tell me, should I get a crew to help me out, and should I enter the event after all?


[28 Sep 2019]
The parts I've ordered for Kaede has arrived! But before I go on to install everything, I noticed I still have some sticker papers laying around, so I decided it's the perfect time to slap another sticker to another of my car, and quickly fire up the printer. You'll see the result in a minute. After printing the sticker, I went off to install the new brakes and springs.

After yet another hours of scuffing my hands and knuckles, sanding rusts from the brakes, almost trapping my fingers in the suspension setup, and almost failed to bleed the brakes properly (don't worry, I did it in the end), finally Kaede's list of upgrades has been completed. And during the spring instalation I also re-adjusted the cambers to suit the now-lower ride height. I need to re-asses Kaede sometime, but for now, enjoy the final result! :cheers:


And yes, the sticker features someone named Kaede. Here's the sticker design if you can't see it properly. And oh, you can grab it for free if you like it, and check out more sticker designs I've made over here!

And finally, a bit of reminder, my Foxbody is still for sale over here. And actually lots of my stuff as well. I'm not sure if anyone would buy them but I'll just list them anyways:
- S15 stock front bumper, V$300
- S15 stock rear bumper, V$300
- S15 stock front fenders set, V$150
- S15 stock bonnet, V$200
- S15 stock side skirts set, V$150
- S15 stock side mirrors, V$100
- S15 stock steering wheel, V$100
- MS13 stock brakes and handbrake drum set, V$ 500
- MS13 stock springs set, V$200
Drop a comment here if you're interested on one or more of these! :cheers:
















Whew boi finally another update done and dusted!
Let's see how much cash I've still got in my wallet:














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

Visit my RP HERE!

Buzzsaw

uk
Posts: 192

Location: United Kingdom
Occupation: Supermarket Store
Age:
V$: 375/w
#416   2019-09-29 07:32          
Look like, you having great time at track and I like that stickers.
Click here for to my RP thread.

RocketBunnyS13

ph
Posts: 418

Location: Philippines MNL
Occupation: Yes I ruin cars
Age: 34
V$: wat
#417   2019-09-29 09:04          
Congrats on bagging 5th in Class B6, and 5th overall!! All of the R&D and fine tuning on your Silver Queen is finally paying off it looks like! And Kaede is looking L O V E L Y . S13 shoot soon? HMMMM HIHE

Can't wait to see the S15 all painted up as well haha, damn I wanna go widebody on my strawberry now :O

Also thank you for inviting us to Ebisu Summer Drift Matsuri!! And thanks for going to the BBQ at WestKyo, some super super fun times, we should do it again!

s t a y c l a s s y

Soju

kr
Posts: 1247

Location: South Korea
Occupation: Smuggling Soju
Age: 122
V$: Broke
#418   2019-09-29 10:46          
I can see that the Evo and your driving skills are waaay better than me! Also the vert and S15 looking so fine too!

Leopard13631

jp
Posts: 99

Location: Japan , Utsunomiya
Occupation: Developing s t y l e
Age: 22
V$: TooLow
#419   2019-09-29 10:51          
Oh wow 5th? Daammnnn gj biggie :D I love how s15 looks with this kit so far ahh and the vert uwu

r o l e p l a y

Lagano

si
Posts: 1739

Location: Slovenia West side
Occupation: Taking it easy
Age: 24
V$: :$V
#420   2019-09-29 18:02          
Great job on the track once again, my man! I wonder if the S15 will surpass your Queen's performance, but looking at that mean bodykit i know you'll make it a proper contender eventually. And the vert is really a harmonious machine now that you dropped it a little, you'll look like a boss driving that thing. B)

Added 56 seconds later:

Also post 420 YEET :bananajump:

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#421   2019-09-29 18:05          
# Buzzsaw : Look like, you having great time at track and I like that stickers.

Great times indeed! (Both literally and figuratively) :D
I'm glad you're approving those stickers as well! :cheers:

# RocketBunnyS13 : Congrats on bagging 5th in Class B6, and 5th overall!! All of the R&D and fine tuning on your Silver Queen is finally paying off it looks like! And Kaede is looking L O V E L Y . S13 shoot soon? HMMMM HIHE

Can't wait to see the S15 all painted up as well haha, damn I wanna go widebody on my strawberry now :O

Also thank you for inviting us to Ebisu Summer Drift Matsuri!! And thanks for going to the BBQ at WestKyo, some super super fun times, we should do it again!

It has paid off handsomely indeed, definitely money well spent! :D
And I'm sooo glad you liked Kaede......yapin photoshoot should be a great idea! :))

Your Ichigo is already perfect that way man :)) But would be interesting as well to see if any wide bodykits could suit it.

And of course I'm glad you can attend the Ebisu Matsuri with me and the boys, and hey, the BBQ was sooo delicious! Definitely would come again :cheers:

# Soju : I can see that the Evo and your driving skills are waaay better than me! Also the vert and S15 looking so fine too!

Oh come on, you've handled a Lambo better than me and your Supra is still an absolute king! :)) And I'm glad you liked the S15 as well :cheers:

# Leopard13631 : Oh wow 5th? Daammnnn gj biggie :D I love how s15 looks with this kit so far ahh and the vert uwu

Thanks my man, glad I ended up in Top 5! Also glad you liked the S15 and Kaede :cheers:

# Lagano : Great job on the track once again, my man! I wonder if the S15 will surpass your Queen's performance, but looking at that mean bodykit i know you'll make it a proper contender eventually. And the vert is really a harmonious machine now that you dropped it a little, you'll look like a boss driving that thing. B)

Added 56 seconds later:

Also post 420 YEET :bananajump:

That's what I'm looking forward for the S15....since it has much better aero and engine, I'm looking forward to surpass the Silver Queen with the S15. And who knows, it could be a proper Tsukuba challenger in general :D

I already could picture myself driving on seaside at sunset inside Kaede, bumping synthwave and G-funk hits from the audio system.......

Ooh it's 420th post already? Obligatory video to blaze it up:
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

Nick Shovkin

jp
Posts: 62

Location: Japan
Occupation: Mechanic
Age: 28
V$: Low
#422   2019-09-30 05:06          
The fact that you took 5th place is cool!
These parts look good on the S15. And I’ll probably print a couple of stickers for myself!
Look at my rp HERE!

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#423   2019-09-30 07:32          
# Nick Shovkin : The fact that you took 5th place is cool!
These parts look good on the S15. And I’ll probably print a couple of stickers for myself!

Thank you so much! Feel free to print those stickers, I'm glad you like those! :cheers:

This post was edited by BigSmoke (2019-09-30 07:38, ago)
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!

MACKAY

jp
Posts: 712

Location: Japan
Occupation: Ranter
Age: 25
V$: ∞
#424   2019-09-30 14:46          
You are seriously one of my track day heroes as I would say it, even though I have lost track of many events you attended and stuff I can see that you are doing better than ever, still remember your first days at the track with the Evo, come up.

Oh, I also didn't knew that you went GPSports route with your S15 as I only found out about it now, but nonetheless will try to keep a track of your build from now on because it brings me so much nostalgia and memories for my first TA s-chassis.. Anyways, S15 is just Awesome man.

As for that Endurance race which will be held on October 14th.. I heard you are looking for co-driver or teammate? You know me that I could do that good enough and we could do it either with your car, mine or both as I would like to put my E36' to test against other cars in GT1 class, money ain't the problem either, we could work something out. :thumbsup:

BigSmoke

id
Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
Age:
V$: Broke
#425   2019-09-30 16:34          
# MACKAY : You are seriously one of my track day heroes as I would say it, even though I have lost track of many events you attended and stuff I can see that you are doing better than ever, still remember your first days at the track with the Evo, come up.

Oh, I also didn't knew that you went GPSports route with your S15 as I only found out about it now, but nonetheless will try to keep a track of your build from now on because it brings me so much nostalgia and memories for my first TA s-chassis.. Anyways, S15 is just Awesome man.

As for that Endurance race which will be held on October 14th.. I heard you are looking for co-driver or teammate? You know me that I could do that good enough and we could do it either with your car, mine or both as I would like to put my E36' to test against other cars in GT1 class, money ain't the problem either, we could work something out. :thumbsup:

It's been a long while since I decided to go competitive.....what started as a means to test my Evo turned to be my main source of living now :)) But I'm glad to be able to jump into the competitive scene as well, my eyes were opened widely as time goes because of it. What I thought was a distant dream is now just within my grasp :O

The decision to go GP Sports was planned a bit long ago, but I can only afford it now thanks to my short summer hiatus to allow myself save some cash :)) With the aero department complete it's now time to focus to the handling department before returning to the engine. I mean the engine fitting and wiring has been done, but as of now still running on near-stock RB with aftermarket intake. Glad you like it! :cheers:

As for the endurance race, for me running alone is enough, and I could probably get some of my friends as pit crew, since refuelling and tyre change is prohibited anyways as opposed to regular endurance races. But of course I appreciate your offer to help, and if you actually would like to you can join as well as the second driver with your E36....so far nobody has entered GT1 class yet and I guess my AD08Rs would send me to GT2 class anyways (it's not categorized as competition tyres in most of Japanese race events, and it's obviously not slicks) so all you gotta do is get there :cheers:

And oh, speaking of summer, I had a hell lot of things I wanted to tell you, lots of things has happened ever since the last time we met, including running at Nikko for the first and second time, having some hell of holidays at spring and summer, and attending Ebisu Summer Matsuri with a lot of the boys in the forums! Go back to page 7 to catch up what's been happening ever since, though personally I'd like to highlight three of my summer shenanigans since they were the sweetest summer memories in my whole life (and the third one is the Ebisu Summer Matsuri update, the longest update I've ever created so far) :))
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!