mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Lol the "real" track event. I've done them before Jacob. I like them. I just like drifting better. There's something about linking up corners in drift... The commitment to initiate at speed, and the feel of sliding with the sound of the wind hitting you in the face as you're sideways that I just havn't replicated at grip events. Grip events are still fun because I get the drive the car. But drifting is it for me at this point in my life

I may upgrade to HP+ pads. Thanks for the input! i'll check those out

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Update!!!

I am Excited to announce my first Official Full Sponsorship in Aftermarket Industries !!! Their fueling components are TOP Notch and I am both humbled and Thankful for the partnership! The Wolf's Fuel system will be re-designed from the Ground up using all of Julian Aftermarket Austin 's "AI" Componets! Limited only to class fuel restrictions in the Justdrift Jd street class/pro-am series. Utilizing my OEM tank...Surge/lines/fittings/pumps/Filters Will all be of julians design. If some of you guys haven't gotten the chance to check out Aftermarket Industries... You should. Julian is VERY knowledgeable, and all of his products represent this. He's also in the works of designing Mad Mike Whiddetts Newest 4 rotor turbo fuel system which will need to provide enough fuel for the 1000HP Rotary Monster!! Expect a full build log and product over view in January when the wolf goes under the knife.

Aftermarket Industries
https://www.facebook.com/aftermarketindustries

RuffRx7

Very cool, keen to see the new fuel system

ArmenMAxx

iTrader: (21)

Congrats on the sponsorship Aaron!!

Get the car on track more and im sure more sponsorships will come your way

RCCAZ 1

iTrader: (10)

Aaron, great finally meeting you face-to-face yesterday at SS-17. For those who've never met Aaron, all I can say is WOW, this dude is incredibly passionate about life and rotary power. Great person with the right attitude! Thanks for taking the time to hang with me for a few minutes to check out my ride!

Jose A.

iTrader: (40)

Congrats getting the sponsorship fool !!!!!

Looked like fun on sunday at the track too :/

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Big Update: “Seven Stock and Just Drift Toy Drift 1”
Before I start…. Let me just say this; In my life…..I have NEVER been this busy over any amount of time, than I was over this 7 day span. It started on Monday the 17th.
I had ordered a set of tires the previous Friday from onlinetiresdirect, but told them I would be coming to pick them up (to avoid shipping costs). Well, that sounds good in theory….but I had no time. I had started Tryouts for this years Boy’s Varsity and Jv soccer teams so Monday through Friday we practice from 4 to 5:30. Well the it takes about an hour and thirty min to get down there to pick them up, but they close at 5:30… So after trying to see if I could work around it.. I eventually called in and asked them to ship the tires. No joke…the tires came in the NEXT day! I had all 4 Federal SS595’s on Saturday. And I made a mistake by not going to get them mounted the minute they came in. It was going to be a busy week. I needed to work my day job 8-4, Do soccer tryouts 4-5:30 and somehow get Everything ready for seven stock on Saturday and the Just Drift event on Sunday. ….and Just to pile up a bit more on my plate… Elliot (Turblown) would be flying in Wednesday and staying at my place. And Abel needed an extra hand to help finish his Semi PPort EFR9180 Rx3. Somewhere in there I needed to reconfigure the Wolf’s Coolant overflow, wash her, check my Fuel socks, and get more E85. It was going to be a long week….and as it came knocking at my door….I had NO clue how everything was going to get done in time. I simply took a deep breath and decided that the only thing that could stop me would be time… and the ONLY place to save time would be to start pulling hours from sleep. So sit back…..grab a drink and enjoy the most hectic time crunching 7 days of my life.


Tuesday:
My alarm went off on Tuesday November 18th at 6:30 Am.. The first thing I thought about was if I had prepped all of my time dependent “things” so that I wouldn’t have any hang ups when it came to sticking to schedule. I needed a trailer for both Seven Stock on Saturday and the Just Drift Toy drift 1 on Sunday. This issue falls under time dependent because if I don’t plan it correctly…. I can’t go. Another Time dependent issue was tires. I needed these mounted before Friday because I wasn’t sure if there was going to be a tire machine present on Sunday for Toy drift. Both of these issues I had started handling the week before but I still needed to finalize them. Tires were on the way and I had asked my good buddy Micki if I could use his trailer. The tires had come in and the ok was given for the trailer. But I still needed to go pick it up. I had plans to go pick up the trailer on Tuesday and keep it at my GF’s house until we were ready to load the wolf….But the Lack of time quickly made that impossible…. As as I sat and drank my 3 shots of espresso on Tuesday morning….. I knew I was going to have to out hustle time. I set aside My RPF1’s Monday night and loaded two tires into my Prius. On my lunch break, I rushed home and ate food as quickly as possible. Then I rushed to the tire store in QH to drop of my wheels and Tires to be mounted. There was no way I was going to have time to take them home with me so I just told Gary (owner) that I’d be back to pick them up after work around 3:50. Dropped them off and rushed back to work. Worked till 3:35 and booked it to the Tire store. Threw the mounted 595’s/RPF1’s into the back of the prius.. changed into my soccer gear in the parking lot and rushed to QH high school for soccer tryouts at 4. Now when I say tryouts….it’s not just 35 kids out there kicking a ball around. I have a scheduled session to ensure I can take a fair look at each and every player out there. Well guess what…. There were 67 NEW Athletes trying out. And to make things even more Hectic…the JV coach hadn’t been cleared yet so I was managing the entire thing on my own. Each kid needs An athletic clearance card that has been processed by our admin saying that the kid is eligible to play the specific sport. So each kid….whether they’re returning or a new tryout needs to have one of these cards. It’s my duty to make sure that no one touches the soccer pitch until I am physically holding their card…Otherwise they’re ineligible to tryout. This….as you could imagine, is a task all in itself. So I went and picked up the cards and took attendance. The tryout is a long hard process and believe it or not…pretty stressful as well. If you think about it…if I say no to an athlete and have to cut him…. It will in fact…change their life forever. If they make the team….it will change their life forever. These things alter their future… and as much care and heart I put into the Wolf….. goes into each and every athlete to determine whether or not they’ll be part of the program or not. Everything I do with this team is for the best of the program. And so the stressful part is when you have a player that you’ve had for 3 years and you have to let him go because he’s not a positive influence on the team, nor is he coachable. Another, younger athlete may be more coachable, may have more heart, may add to the team in more ways than the older player…therefore the executive decision has to be made in the best interest of the program. ANYWAYS! Back on topic. After practice… I went straight home and organized my tools I was going to be taking to the track. I made a track box that has jack stands, oil, tools, rags, brake cleaner, windex, couplers, clamps, wheel spacers, gloves, toe plates, tape measures and a whole bunch of other things that come in handy at the track while your away from the garage. After that I emptied all my existing E85 into the Wolfs gas tank so that I could take the Gas tanks down with me the following day to lucky 7 racing where Elliot and Abel would be tuning out cars. This way I could fill up at Roxford and not have to worry about not having enough fuel for Sunday….AFTER Saturdays track session. I was trying to plan things out to avoid extra time consuming..because I knew I would be tired Saturday night…. How tired though?.....I had NO idea… I went to sleep on Tuesday night with everything for the track ready to go.
Wed:
I woke up Wednesday morning to a Text Message from Elliot… “Its warm here.” I had so much on my mind all I had replied was that I would see him later on that night around 7:30. Went to work…. Rushed to the tire store on my lunch break and realized that today was the first scrimmage Match Vs Paraclete High school. The games were at 3:00 and 4:30pm. I picked up my Tires and a breakfast burrito from Primo’s across the way. Rushed back to work and ended up finishing ALL the tasks I had for the day….a little early and tried to make a list of things I needed to get finished before Thursday/Friday. I say Thursday because I wanted to give myself a days damper…just incase I forgot something major. I couldn’t quite pin it down..but I knew in my gut that I was forgetting something. Left work at 1:30.....rushed to the tire shop and my stomach dropped when I realized that I had forgotten to put the ***** and Pennies in my car for the game!!!!! I instantly flipped a U-turn and headed back to my house. I had to be at the highschool by 2:00 to warm up JV an hour before the game. I got home….changed quickly and threw the ***** and pennies in the back of the truck. Rushed to QH and made it 2 Min after 2. Warmed up the boys and the game started. JV won vs Paraclete 6-0. Varsity was up next. Our shape needed a LOT more work…and I was un-pleased with our rotation on the field..but we managed a 3-0 Victory as well. Two wins…satisfied in theory…but unsatisfied with the boys translation of what I had taught them previously. Which is my fault….So I needed to take a look at how I was coaching them and refine it to fit their learning needs. After the game, I rushed straight home… changed… took the ***** and pennies out of the car and replaced them with my pre…..premixed gas jugs. Ran to Mi Ranchito on K and 20th street west to grab some grub…..and hopped on the freeway towards Lucky 7 Racing. It was round 6:30ish when I left mi-ranchito. Not bad time management….I was beating time so far…. Laughing at it. Got to Lucky seven and was greeted By Elliot…. Quick high five and he had to jump in a single turbo Fc for some street tuning…. IN the background I heard a familiar drone…. The beautiful note of a 2-rotor on the dyno. Walked over to Lucky 7’s first Bay where Abel was working on a customers single turbo Fd. Tuned on Gasoline at 18Lbs. Abel worked on the car…. A pull here…adjusting…another pull….more boost…adjusting….another pull.. on and on. And the car ended up at 18lbs..making power. The car sounded great. And the customer was VERY happy. And I was happy to be able to put what I’ve learned to use by asking questions and listening/watching Abel do his work. Elliot got back from street tuning the Fd and jumped in next to Abel. It was Cool to see both of the people I’ve learned the most from….both working together. I’m not sure if the customer fully understood…but there were no better situation he could’ve been involved in. He had two of the best rotary minds both sitting in his Fd. I took a step back and watched.

After the red fd there was one other car Elliot had lined up to tune….and Abel had to head back out to his shop in Rancho Cucamonga to finish up his E85 Semi Pport EFR9180. I stayed with Elliot at lucky seven and watched him tune one more car and called it a night. We left Lucky 7 around 11:00PM on Wednesday night. Stopped at the Chevron off Roxford on the way home for some Mean green E85…. Filled up 4 Jugs that I had previously Pre-mixed and we were on the road again. Stopped at In and out in Santa clarita to grind out some burgers drove another 35min back to my house in the AV. We got to sleep around 1:30ish Am

Thursday:
Woke up thurday morning not having slept very well and realized it was because of the heat. I must’ve woke up 3 or 4 times during the night. At first I thought I was getting sick but quickly remembered my roommate was preggo and she must’ve turned on the Heater sporadically. I wasn’t able to take the day off work but Elliot still needed to get to Lucky 7 Racing for some cars that were lined up for tuning. One of the guys from lucky 7 picked Elliot up while I took off to work. The plan was to meet Elliot back down at Lucky 7….finish up a couple cars then Head out to Abels shop in Rancho Cucamonga to help him finish the Rx3. The day was cruising along and It finally hit me what I was I was forgetting. I needed the Lock key for my buddies trailer. I called my buddy mike because the trailer was in his back yard…. But he was out of town….and the key was with him. Dead end.. so I called my buddy Micki..He had the key…but he was all the way across town. I looked at my watch and had 40min left on my lunch. Ran to the tire shop and picked up my Baz’s with Fed 595’s mounted…and booked it to Micks house. Got to his house…grabbed the key and sped back to work. Work ends, and I ran straight to QH for Practice 4:00 to 5:30. After Practice….went and dropped my wheels off at home and Jammed out back down the hill (an hour and 20 Min) To Lucky Seven Racing. Got to lucky seven around 7:35 and got to sit and watch Elliot tune 3 cars. One which was un-tunable in its current set up… (Fuel System was configured in some odd non return carb set up…but it was on an EFI car…with an aeromotive pressure reg…. The other car was well sorted aside from it’s turbo manifold/gate set up. We had to stop because boost kept creeping up and up. It was on 91 Pump…We left it at 14 lbs until the creep problem was resolved. And lastly, Fris’s Fc Track car. The car was running on a Haltech for years…But the guys at lucky seven had asked Elliot to take a look at the tune to see if he could resolve a couple issues.

The car had never been over 340-360WHP at 16lbs of boost on Ethanol. And the previous well known tuner had tuned around some Major ecu issues. Therefore the fuel curve had massive dips and valleys and Sky high peaks in order to get the car to drive correctly through a pull. Given the situation..the tuner had actually done a decent job…but the fact is….that it’s not the right way to do it and you can’t expect much from a finished product by patching a major ecu issue. After 2 hours on the dyno trying to figure out the problem, the decision was made by fris and Louie to wire in an adaptronic 440 and hit the dyno the next day. I thought the guys were crazy…because seven stock was literally a day away. But they said they could get it done. So the Haltech would be removed and replaced by the 440 the following day. (The car ended up making 310WHP at 7lbs of boost with NO sign of any hiccup on the Adaptronic Ecu) It Is to my understanding that Lucky seven will be pushing Adaptronic ecu’s much more now that they’ve seen first hand how simple WARI is and how much time you can save with it’s VE tuning capabilities =-).

We left Lucky Seven racing around 11Pm on Thursday night…and I was already feeling pretty beat tired. But we still needed to help Abel get the Semi PPort EFR rx3 started. We booked it 35 min south to Rancho Cucamonga to Abels shop.


We were greeted by a spotless…immaculately clean Drag car and the Rx3 with just a few things left before start.




Abel buttoning up the Pport Adaptronic controlled EFR9180

We all dug in on making plug wires and tightening An fuel fittings…and in about 20 min Abel sent me to go purchase Oil and E85. … I was like “Dude, Autozone is closed man.. it’s 11:45!.” Little did I know there is a 24 Hour Autozone in Rancho…Talk about convenient!! It was some 20 min away… I set off and about 5 min in..I started realizing how tired I was. Dozing and dozing… I knew I was wayyyyy past my limit and the drive home was going to be one for the record books. Finally got to Autozone and picked up some 20-50 Synth and ran to the E85 station on the north eastern side of the Airport. Got asked by some guy for money and I politely replied “sorry man, not tonight” and the guy gave me the gnarliest disgusted look of all time. But I lost it…. I replied without thinking to the guy… “Are you F*****ng Kidding me?!!! I’ve been hustling for 4 days to make this weekend Happen and your sitting here begging for money instead of utilizing your time wisely to make a means to survive… and your going to get mad at ME FOR NOT GIVING YOU MY HARD EARNED MONEY.!!!!!” The guy looked down and away. I sat there looking at him for a second or so amazed that I actually put a full sentence together (due to how tired I was) and went inside and paid for fuel. Came out questioning my motives…at whether or not to even give the guy any attention and decided I’d look his way. He wouldn’t look at me. But I didn’t trust the guy… so I filled Abels Gas jugs with one eye on him at all times. I finally got back to the shop and immediately pre-mixed the Fuel and Filled the tank. The car was ready to fire and although we were all tired,…it was time to hear some Pported EFR9180 Goodness. I set up my Go pro Hero 4 My sweet *** girlfriend got me for my birthday and sat back while they double checked everything in Wari (adaptronic software). Car cranked once..twice.. and Fired!!! Videos do no justice to the Aggressively ported Rotary. The soft szhiing of the EFR”s Gamma-Ti exhaust wheel effortlessly whipping up and down as Abel and Elliot sorted out the idle. My job was to watch for leaks under the car… and our first leak had shown itself so I gave the holler and the car was shut off. It was just a small AN fuel line leak..but it had puddled right under the LIM and engine block. It just needed to be tightened a turn or so. Fixed it and the car was fired again… At a constant Battle with the Aggressively Ported engine oxygen hungry engine it took them a bit to get the idle down. I found one more small Radiator Leak which only needed half a turn to stop, but in terms of leaks… that was it.

About 35 Min Later the Adaptronic controlled Pported EFR9180 Rx3 was ready for Seven Stock. Un-tuned…but Idling and Free Revving like a raging Balor. Abel projects this engine will easily be able to max out the EFR before it reaches it’s limit… Shooting for 750-850WHP. Needless to say this car is going to be ridiculous on the street haha..and I can’t wait to get this thing on the dyno.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

“Sleep when your Dead”
After making sure The RX3 and 20B drag car were ready for Seven Stock..I made the grave mistake of looking down at my watch. …Clock said 12:55. Gahh…man, I knew any chance of a nap was gone hours ago but the realization of it stung. Even more of a worry was how on earth we were going to make the Hour and twenty five Min haul back up to the Antelope valley,….Swap my prius for my truck…go hook up the trailer, Load up the truck with Elliots Vendor goods, my track stuff…Load up the wolf…and be back on the road by 4:30Am to make it back down to Seven Stocks Auto Club Speedway by 6:30 for set up. We jumped in the car and my first thought was Coffee… Got to the Gas station. Purchased 2 Starbucks mini double shots, made a medium hot fresh coffee, and a 5 hour energy. Now I’m the kind of guy who really is against all of these artificial energy supplements, but in this situation…the only way I could justify it was it was this or fall asleep driving. I tried the “ease in approach..taking half of the 5 hour energy…sipping on the Hot coffee..and a whole double shot.. but after about 20 min…I was already dozing off. It didn’t help to look over at Elliot either…because every time I thought he was going to speak..I’d look over and it was just him trying to keep his head from falling over. I got all the way to the 15/138 interchange and Had to stop at the Chevron station right before the most dangerous section of the haul. The 138 Is known as the Death-trap Highway…. There’s nothing for some 40+ miles but dips and very little direction changes.. It has a high fatality rate because people simply fall asleep at the wheel. I got out of the car at the gas station and hit a full on 100% sprint to the street and back. Did jumping jacks till my body started protesting…(because it probably thought it was about to hit the hay) …Downed the rest of the 5 hour energy…ran inside and filled my coffe up, slammed the other Starbucks double shot and jumped in the car. Cranked up the driving jams and hit it full force, …I was feeling rejuvenated!! And Awake!! 10 Min later… I was dozing off… caught myself once past the whole “eyes closing stage”…because my eyes never closed at all… I had honeslty just about lost consciousness with my eyes open. I pulled over a total of 3 times over the rest of the trip home…and only really looked down at the clock when I arrived at my sisters house in Lancaster. It was 3:45 and an otherwise hour and twenty minute drive had taken us over 2 hours. I guess when you get really tired… you tend to forget to hit the gas pedal… I looked at the prius’s avg speed for the trip back up and it was 45 mph.. YIKES! No wonder.. Anyways… I let Elliot sleep over the next 20 Min while I swapped everything we’d need to the truck.. Hooked up the trailer.. and loaded a few of the vendor things such as Tables/ eazy-up etc into the truck bed. We were ready to Go pick up the Wolf at my house. I Woke up Elliot… who awoke not sure of where on earth he was.. he zombied over to the Truck got in and passed out. We drove to my house and both Hit our Final gears. Loaded up Everything… Backed the Wolf out and up on to the trailer and we were ready to roll out. I wanted to try and take a quick shower to wake myself up because we were literally driving back down within 5 min of where we just came from… But It was 4:30…and we were behind schedule. I ran inside…took a hobo shower changed my shirt…and ran outside and jumped into the truck, Gave Elliot a confident High five and Hit the road… Back down to Seven Stock 17 At Autoclub Speedway!!!! A quick text verification to Abel confirmed he was on track as well! We were going to make it!


On our way back down to Rancho Cucamonga…it was quite picturesque to see the sun coming up over the barren desert on the 138. I started to realize that this really is the mecca of my automotive experience… It occurred to me that I’m not just reading and or hearing about someone’s crunch to make an event.. But actually playing a part in it. I was still tired on the drive down there. But I started going over my mental check list to make sure the Wolf was ready for the track. I know I needed an Alignment..and that I needed to keep a watchful eye on my Jank Smart Water Coolant overflow for the time being..But the Wolf was ready to hit the track. We got to Autoclub and headed to the front gates. And was a bit surprised that even A single rig, who had payed the 175 dollar fee to track their car and was a display vehicle at a vendors booth…which we were also.. Had to pay an additional 15 dollars per Head to get into the gates. At first it didn’t really bother me..but the more I thought about it.. the more it erked me the wrong way. I felt taken advantage of for sure because there was no way around it. But I don’t want to get into that much, It was just something I noticed. We unloaded the Wolf and all of the Turblown/Adaptronic displays and Eazy up and started the set up. Landed a sweet spot right next to our friends at Lucky 7 Racing too.


“Seven Stock 17”
This was the first time in my life I had actually pulled a true all nighter. I’ve always managed to get 2-3 hours of sleep in a night… But never stayed up for a full 48hr span before. And by 8Am…needless to say I was definitely feeling pretty funny. I was hungry..right after I just got eating… Thirsty even though I had been drinking water all morning…and I still felt like cloudy. Not as sharp as I would have liked to be. I remember people asking me questions and I would stare at them for a second or so..ask them to repeat the question and then still answer it not even knowing if what I just said made sense haha. So I’d like to apologize to anyone I talked to at the Seven stock who asked me a question that I had given a weird answer too…. I felt like I had been kicked in the head by a horse and the whole day was in a sort of “Haze” if that makes sense.
But the gates opened and in came all rotary enthusiasts! It was great to see quite a few faces and match them to their screen names! I went out onto the track for a couple sessions and took a few people out as passengers but couldn’t really push it as hard as I wanted to due to my front alignment and OEM padded brakes. But I was able to punch it more than a few times and work on my line through the infield and backside coming on the the straight. I wasn’t really going for time… But it would’ve been nice to see any improvement which I’m sure I had. I wanted to pull out my toe plates and see if I could re-align the front end but between all the friends, and people/track sessions/ride-alongs, talking about products/showing people first hand the ECU software in Wari and talking to other vendors it was a very Full day. I can’t even count how many people I was fortunate enough to meet off the forums that I’ve known for years…but never personally seen. I got to give Pandaz FD a ride-along finally, Benny from Bubbletech, and a couple other buddies as well.

If anyone of you guys don’t know pandaz fd… you should check out his build thread in the 3rd gen section… I’ve seen his car a few times in person…and It’s got to be theeee cleanest… most well thought out.. well executed track car built by a privateer I’ve ever seen. I’m talking labels for everything…. Not just here or there.. but where you’ll be able to see them. It’s one thing to label something, but another to make sure that the routing and visualization of the label will be utilized.. It’s beyond me and it makes me sick hahaha. It’s one of those cars that makes you want to tear your car apart because his is so nice. Jkjk… I love my car.. but you guys really should go check out his build thread. He should be getting ready to drop some pretty hefty updates pretty soon here. Anyways!! I also was FINALLY able to see my favorite fd’s ever! I’ve drooled over this Fd since my very first days on the forum. Tim (RCCAZ 1)… What an absolutely beautiful car. Brilliant silky smooth vibrant Yellow… accompanied by thoroughly researched and perfectly executed upgrades…all coming together in in bulk with his mechanically sound, show quality fd. It’s hard to put into words how nice his car is. And I was instantly jealous admiring the perfect fabric, spotless door-panels, un molested dash and spic as ever engine bay. This car was my favorite at seven stock….and remains my favorite here on the forum. It was also great to meet Tim, a good guy and hell of an enthusiast. Glad I finally got to meet the man behind the machine! All the way from AZ as well!


The Event went by in a blur…I just remember Elliot and Abel being happy with my Logs, filling up with Ethanol, and checking tire temps 2 or three times. I wrote them down…but Have NO clue as to where that little piece of paper went. I forgot a Phillips screw driver and barrowed one from Mr Alex Rodrigues who was thankfully Pitted right next door at the Lucky 7 booth. Alex and I go way back and he was one of the first guys I came in contact with here on the forum. Me and him talk quite a bit and it’s ALWAYS a good time seeing him. He beat his personal best time on Autoclub by a full second or so and still had Lots of potential with his underpowered set up. I kept imagining him in the driver’s seat with my power plant…. Probably be ridiculous. His car is beautiful and pulled off a crazy 3-4 month overhaul in record time……with full paint and bodywork, dyno/re-tune and shakedown run all in time for SS17!!! Pretty nuts eh?! It’s funny because sometimes I’d be under my car at like 12:45 and need a break… I’d text this guy and he’d respond instantly because I knew he was doing the same thing on his car hahaha. Props for someone who shares the passion and hustle to make these privately owned track cars running and running well!. Anyways.. I used the Phillips to fasten my Push start button.. I forgot I took it off to check a fuse previously and never fastened it back up. Didn’t want it swinging around out there on the track so…thanks for the tool Alex!!!

The Event swept by before I could even blink and Elliot had to remind me it was time for us to eat about 5-6 times before we actually were able to sit down and re-fuel ourselves. The whole event was great, and I had a blast. Before I knew it the sun was already down and over half of the vendors were gone. We started packing up and I really started feeling tired as I was coming up on 48hours at this point. When we finally pulled out of Autoclub speedway at the end of the day I was questioning just getting a hotel and calling it a night. It was only 6:15ish and the night was young…but I was shot….and Starving as we only ate lunch throughout the day. We Met up with Elliot’s buddies from AZ and all I remember from the dinner is everyone pointing and laughing at me. …I guess I was an eating zombie… half asleep…zero comprehension of anyone talking to me and my replies made no sense. Elliot took my keys and said he’d be driving us home. I was thankful for that. I woke up in what seemed like the middle of the night. We were driving pretty slow and my phone had been vibrating… It awoke me. I looked over at Elliot and he was dozing HAHA.. I was like BRUHHH!!!! Pull over. He pulled over and I took the reins. We switched off another FOUR TIMES!!! Just to get home.

We arrived back at my house at about 10:45 Pm. Not bad eH?!! But we had to be at the track at 7:30 AM the next day for the Just Drift Toy Drift 2 at Horse Thief Mile. We left everything in the truck, I put my car cover on the Wolf just so it wasn’t open… went inside…took a quick shower and passed out.
“Sunday Fun-day Just Drift HTM”
Elliot fastening the Gas jugs

Slept till 6:30 AM and awoke in a bit of a haze, but feeling good. Put on some Espresso and made a nice bacon omelet and we were on our way to Willow springs. I remember thinking to myself how awesome it was to have made it. To be where I was and have the drive and hustle to pull off Two big events in one weekend…maintaining a full time job, Coaching a championship worthy High School Soccer program and enjoying all of it. I remember smiling to myself..and I remember saying thank you to my dad for telling me that he’d never been involved in something of his choosing that was over his head. I know I’ve gotten the drive from him, and although he wasn’t around much….I am thankful for what he has given me. We arrived at the Willow Springs International Raceway and drove around to the Funnest Track in the west (HTM) Horse Thief Mile.
Now I’ve talked to a few people about this track and the thing is… it’s all confidence and *****. Lack either of these….and your going off. Yea you may not hit a wall or barrier..but for the most part… everything off track is off camber and makes you feel like you’re going to flip. It’s relatively safe..but it still messes with your mind. With this being my second real drift event my goal was to link turn 3 into the long downhill left (turn 4). And it was going to take some *****. We unloaded the car and attended the drivers meeting…and the track was Hot. The best thing about Just Drift events is how laid back everything is. Everyone obeys the rules and everyone is respectful. You have Formula D drivers out there hanging with street guys, and vise verse.. It’s a great Environment. The morning was Exceptionally cold so Elliot wanted to see how my car reacted to the 40+ degree Temp drop. We took the car out on some abandoned road to do a few hot rips and 4th gear pulls and All was good. Elliot has much more experience with these ecu’s than I do…but I think he really wanted to see just how precise the adaptronic was able to deal with changes in atmosphere etc. The day before we were out there running on the track at Autoclub..full bore.. temp couldn’t have been lower than 75 degrees during our mid-day sessions. This morning out at willow..the temperature was 48 degrees when we got the Wolf off the trailer. We took a couple logs and ALL was SPOT ON. Elliot cracked a half smile, gave me the thumbs up and we headed back to the track. First session was the first time Elliot had ever been in a real Drift car.. I think!.... and It’s safe to say….he had a good time. Smiles from ear to ear!! I try to tell people all the time…that drifting IMO is the funnest thing you could do in a car. Your pretty much doing a controlled sliding burnout as much as possible…all the while going as fast as you can..all the while making as much noise as you can..and being as smooth as possible around the track. So if you’ve never been in a drift car and think the’re stupid… I really wish you would take a moment to get into one with a good driver….and go for a couple laps. It’ll change your life! ..or at least your outlook on it! Oh BTW I’m not that good a driver.. I’m getting better but compared to some of my buddies… I blow. I told Elliot he should go for a ride with my buddy Alex Heilbrunn in his Monster BMW since he was at the track with us and he was like “yea grab your Helmet!” He took Elliot out around the track in an endless Foot to the floor Smoke Show. And I thought Elliot was happy when he got out of my car…. That Must’ve been the icing on the cake for him for the trip..because Alex Linked Horse Thief Mile Non-Stop for 2 Complete Laps.. I remember changing my tires and looking up and just seeing smoke and a Black Vinyl wrapped Screaming Ls Powered G-force shifting Beem Rip by…. Had to tell myself to level up haha.
Elliot in Alex’s Monster BMW

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

It was cool that a couple buddies came out too.. Chris tran and John Vargas. I’m glad I was able to give them ride-alongs but wish we were on an easier track because I drove pretty cautiously. Flat tracks are much easier to drive because they don’t have elevation changes…and at ASB14 It was relatively easy for me to link the back section around the Bank and into the infield. But HTM… is different. Its just going to take more seat time for me to get better. I kept driving and nailed a few sections but never linked the long downhill. Kind of bummed we ran out of time but I’ll get it at the next Toy Drift 2! But I think Chris and John had a good time out there. I’ve always been good at following people…back in my BMX days, I remember pacing people off larger dirt trails. After that, I was usually exponentially better. So at the top of the hill when Martin From Parts shop Max signaled for me to follow him… I was amped. It was the best I had done all day and I can’t wait to get out there and follow drivers like him soon. It’s just easier for me to visualize it on my own when I know what it’s “supposed” to feel like..if that makes sense. Anyways..the day came to an end and we packed everything up. I still needed to drop Elliot off down at LAX and I was worried I would have a hard time driving back on the way home… But truthfully, all I kept thinking of was how Awesome the past 5 days had been. The funniest part about the whole trip was the previous night… about 10 min into our haul home after Seven stock… Abel called me and told me to stop and get some coffee or to call him if I got tired. This guy had just a busy last 5 days..if not even more busy and guess what he says to me?!! As I’m shot dead… 100% exhausted after the past 5 days… hardly aware of anything that had happened in the past hour after our dinner.. he said he’s on his way to the club!!!. Hahaha… I resigned and I admit…that this guy is on a whole other level. He must’ve retained some of his Hustle from his race days traveling around in the rig all over the USA…because he straight up out hustled both Elliot and myself. I couldn’t believe it. Haha. But drive home from Dropping Elliot off was filled with the excellent memories of different situations we’d come across over the past 5 days and I caught myself smiling a handful of times.
It’s in these memories that I’ve come to trust myself, and confide in my decisions. It’s with the wolf that I’ve maxed myself out and pushed myself non-stop until I have finally come across a set up that works, and works well. It’s moving through extremes in which I’ve come to respect life, and truly grasp the magnitude of what these experiences hold for one’s self. To live every single day as full as possible, experience the highest of highs, and learn from the lowest of lows. To develop an un-matched drive that will propel you through any obstacle and to give our passion priority in life….even if just for a limited amount of time. To stretch our minds, walk in the grey area of our physical capacity and learn just how far we can really push ourselves. To inspire others, and give others something to dream about…to look forward to, to love and feel a sense of accomplishment. There was never one moment when I questioned “if” we should go here or there, or “why” we did what we did over the past 5 days.. and I’d say the same for everything I’ve gone through while building the wolf. And it’s with that notion….that I know that I’m on the right path. Stay tuned!!! More updates soon! =-)
Follow me on Instagram at #Aaparkah

-Ap

More Pictures just because….
One of our trips down to lucky 7…. Through Angeles Crest Highway


Elliot driving The Wolf after all these years!
Last time he saw it was with a gt40R, 91 pump, and a bunch of G-rigged powertrain mods


Behren bros at the event

Dirty beat up Wolf


Back of the truck after Sunday clean up

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Dammit. I'm jealous about the event. You get to finally meet all these people you only talk to over the internet. Our guys from C Springs are talking about going next year, so maybe I'll finally get to meet you and all the other guys haha.

jacobcartmill

iTrader: (6)

i thought the same thing.

i went to "rotary revolution" in indianapolis about 10 years ago and met the famous Aaron Cake, who drove down from BFE canada in his honda insight. the weather ended up being TERRIBLE, but it was really cool to meet some people that i'd always talked to on rx7club only.

i really would like to go to sevenstock event, but i really can't drive across the country for it. i'm probably going to deal's gap at least, this year.


aaron, i always appreciate your robust updates. and LOL at elliot. i need to meet him. he's another guy i've talked to countless times (phone, facebook, rx7club, etc.) and i've never actually met.

Turblown

iTrader: (12)

Lol Aaron putting me on blast right there... I had 4 hours of sleep when I arrived and spent something like 28 hours tuning cars over 3 days. We had a great time though ! I am looking forward to coming back down Aaron ! Next time I will bring my wife and kids... And sleep !

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

I never made it to Rotary Revolution. Is that event still going on or is it kaput?

Oh you can make it to SS lol. I drove to Deal's Gap last year from Colorado haha. I'll make it to DG 2015 (or maybe 2016 if my car isn't ready soon enough) if you make it to SS next year lol.

Yeah it would be cool to meet Elliot too finally.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

Eric...I've been waiting for you for 3 years man!! haha...jkjk. You've got to make it out, and we'll have to do dinner after or something! We can share stories of how were always late to dinner dates with our gf's because our cars

Bruhhhhh.... there were people here from NY.... if they can make it... SUCK IT UP! get out here! I'd love for it to be more of a dedicated Mazda meet/More Affordable track day vendors..with the big track,..auto X, and a drift course set up. That would be sick. Ps....that white fd is looking reaaaaaallll clean Jacob.. keep it up!


haha...I thought long and hard about that pic... but I had to!! haha.. Your 5 days was actually a full week of prep before... granted... so I can't really give you crap for sleeping. And you did tune more cars than I could really even keep track of over the 3 days prior... 5-6 hours on the dyno with the Rotary Drone....and my body was feeling a bit weird ...un-settled. haha. The vibration from the dyno...the Screaming rip pull after pull... definitely gets to you. And hardly any car is ready to dyno at strap up. There are always issues. You Nailed it brotha, and this trip was one that will go down in history for me. Used up just about all the hustle I could muster up to get through it.... It really was Epic man. I had a Hell of a time Until Next time!

Bigger..and better...

TwinCharged RX7

iTrader: (14)

Looking good. Question about your garage floor, can you use a jack on it or do you put something down first?

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

I dont worry about it... Jacks leave no dents. Even JACK STANDS after 2 weeks leave no dents or even a mark with the cars full weight on 4x jacks and 2 jacks just for the front as well. Zero Damage. Best damn flooring there is.

silverTRD

iTrader: (37)

It was good to meet you in person Aaron! The man behind my harness!,lol. I hope to be out on track with you guys next year at Sevenstock and Mazdafest for that matter. Car looked killer bro

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Yeah I know lol. Someday...someday. Hopefully next year. I'm just hoping I can get everything done by then. I'm down for dinner after or whatever. My GF isn't around anymore lol. This car has gone through about three girlfriends, maybe four. lol

RuffRx7

EPIC dude, you should become a writer, some mad stories there.
Yeah all nighters are hectic and play with your mind big time, done a few to many all nighters but worth it in the end. Glad the Wolf is running like a wolf should!

RENESISFD

iTrader: (13)

^ Except his formatting sucks and he does not seem to know what a paragraph is.

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

It's free writing...it's not graded nor do I have rules... and formatting would take away from each sentence I put out. I know what a paragraph is...I just choose not to worry about it. If I wanted to impress a bunch of professors I'd write about something boring that someone else has already researched and make sure it was grammatically correct/cited or in some stupid format. I didn't spell check, I don't read over my posts.. I simply write and submit.

silverTRD

iTrader: (37)

Everybody is a cridic? Did I spell that right? Hmm....

mannykiller

iTrader: (93)

^haha Guess sooo..

Update:

Check it out! made a quick little edit of our adventure! ...loving this go pro...

Johnny Kommavongsa

iTrader: (13)

That focus during driving... good stuff.

Samito Built

iTrader: (38)

Nice video!