teeson

then came the fun part; trying to build the rear but keeping the mufflers a mirror image of each other.



but much much much much time (and frustration) later we had 2 of these



brought those to be welded and viola



the completed system, hangers included.



I used slip-band clamps, I like them. They are easy and seal without gaskets, the only downside is they may not go back on exactly the same way each time like bolt together ones would. But when the exhaust is on all the hangers its pretty easy to line them up.



I did 2 rubber hangers (not the donuts that rx7's used) on the back of each muffler, a pair hanging from the subframe and thats all. The X pipe hangs and self aligns from the headers, its just the rear that uses hangers.

final results








compared to how it was with the mustang X pipe in place, this is much better. Everything fits nice, all the bolts are easy to get to, and I gained about 2" of ground clearance (maybe more actually but seeing as how the x pipe was temporary I never bothered measuring. But at current ride height it almost touched the ground.)

now the sad part. I tried to post this video before, but it won't embed. So here it is in link form

(haha lost the passenger mirror glass when I shifted hard into second)

http://vid1191.photobucket.com/album...ps5028644c.mp4

that was with the X pipe hanging and dumping under the car. Was stupid loud but so awesome.

I expected to lose a lot of that scream and overall volume, but I was hoping not to lose this much tone.

here it is in my drive way today

http://vid1191.photobucket.com/album...psstxnzlpi.mp4

in person it sounds a lot different than it used to.. Video may not too it justice.

but according to a very not-accurate-at-all app on my iPhone it maxed out at 93 Db, which probably means ill make the 92 Db on course limit at the local auto cross!

teeson

10/21/2014

So I was debating waiting to post some of this, but screw it

I bought these



18x10 +38 Gram Light 57 Pro's, yes just two.






they fit super awesome with a 3mm spacer, bringing the effective offset to +35. This leaves me with about 2mm from the trailing arm and just a bit more from the coil over. It also gives me just a few mm from the unrolled fender edge.
I'm now looking for a giant spacer but I'll wait until I've bought over fenders for the rear.

They are in decent shape, 4" lip and fairly light for an 18x10. Got a good deal off a local guy, kinda wish I could've found them in a lower offset, but at the price I paid I'm not complaining even a little.

Then I stole the coils, and the steering wheel and the camber bar and swapped them all into the blue car. Which allowed me to experiment some.



I borrowed my buddy Alex's wheels to get an idea of what to expect in the front. And see what they look like lol
17x9.75 +20~ no camber. lock to lock steering clearance and I lowered it another 2" probably. Not sure what height the JIC coil overs drop it to when not preloaded, which is where I had it before lowering it for the test fit. can't remember a tire size, 215/45r17 or similar





they fit good too, even with virgin fenders

also test fit some kid named sean's wheels that he just bought. 16x10 ET0 diamond racing steelies on 205/50r16 neo gens. they are stupid heavy but I really like the way they fit.



around the same amount of lowering, no camber again.

teeson

no theres not a fingers gap



herp derp


also a pro tip:



these come on automatic transmission equipped cars, they make adapting a wilwood master pretty easy. I'll try and post the results when I get around to fitting it on another local 5.0 Rx7

anyway thats all I got. Gonna buckle down for the winter, hopefully stockpile some stuff, help my dad build his CJ, get all the small things done and come out sideways in the spring!

teeson

12/29/2014

Hi everyone. Its been a while.

I've literally not touched the v8 car. Unless it was to steal parts off of it to put on the daily. LOL
I did winterize it, and Santa was good to me this year sooooo



I got my friends a proper passenger seat that fits. everyone is safer this way, and that is just the spirit of christmas



my parents think the same way and bought me a helmet. Its a Gforce Pro Elminator, comes with HANs inserts, MA SNELL 2010. and its pretty cool with that blue visor no?



then Boxing Day (think Canadian black friday type shopping with less people dying)(and its after Christmas for some strange reason)

DEI heat wrap things, I didn't like burning my leg on the floor
the all important in line fill. I should've bought one of these a long time ago. This will be the new highest point in the coolant system and i'll actually be able to bleed and fill it properly now
I also got some boring AN fittings for the fuel filter I haven't bought yet



its party time



took a cute little time lapse of pulling the engine, took about an hour to do solo (i'm happy with that) and about another hour to clean the mess off the floor (less happy with that)





real update soon. I'll have to post some pics of what I did with the DD this fall

teeson

[B]01/18/2015[/B[

update time


so the winter festivities have begun



I'm not sure if this is enough foil, or if its going to work at all. the stuff wouldn't stick so I had to buy a high temp spray glue to help it along.

took the engine apart, broke a water pump stud in process. had to weld a nut onto it to get it off



cleaned it up



masked it



found some leftover paint from one of my last builds



and



profit. yes I have 2 timing covers, I'll be putting the explorer cover on, it has a crank trigger mount if I ever decide to up my ECM game

the rear main seal and front trans seal are both leaking sooo





bought the first bunch of gaskets, have more on order for the timing cover and such

then I bought something



guy I bought them off was super chill and held onto them for me, they are Parts Shop Max Pro coil overs. they are from back when they were using swift springs (though I thought swift wrote their name on the springs, theres no marking on them...?) but have minimal use and cost me what the comp coil overs would.



so cleaned them up and put anti-seize on the threads, I'm not taking any chances with these. they are not going to seize up on me



then put them on the hover car



sooo much adjustment. love the caster adjustment setup too

teeson

the brake rotors look terrible.

so this winter I stole the coil overs, camber bar and ball joints and steering wheel off the race car and put them on the blue rx7 I daily drive. Then I rolled the fenders a lot and borrowed my buddy's 16x10 et 0 diamonds. He just mounted 205/40 neogens and hadn't even driven on them yet so this was pretty awesome.
We went to the local Paul Walker memorial meet and had a good time. It was cold. but good cars and good people made it better



















needless to say I'm in love with the wheels. I want to buy a set in 5 lug with the same specs. but becauseracecar I'm focusing on getting the drift car ready for drifting. Me and a friend are aiming to have both our cars ready to go for march/april depending on what event we decide on.

teeson

02/03/2015

So got the engine back together and ready to drop in, my camera battery died so I didn't take many progress pics sorry.



lol can you even tell I did anything? Still undecided what exactly to do with that tensioner. Seeing as how I want to go back to power steering i'll probably just leave it for now.



Also bought an adapter and a 45* fitting to put on the sender for oil pressure. The old one was just the stock mustang one and it was a switch really. This is a sender meant for the Faria gauges I have.

I guess I'll list all the changes since the engine was last in:

new water pump gasket
new timing cover gasket
new exhaust manifold gasket
new intake manifold gaskets (the awesome Fel-pro MS93334)
new rear main seal gasket
new trans front retainer seal
engine block painted satin black
oil sender
a lot of cleaning/greasing
heat protection on firewall



Had to solve a re-occuring problem, the rad being brass is weak. The lower inlet was warped and leaking at one point, but basically every time I remove the hose it gets worse. So I made this:



Conveniently the outlet is 1.5" (od tho) and the DOM I have bits leftover from the cage are also 1.5". So with a bit of grinder action, and some hammer time



No more warping or leaking



Also cut in my new coolant fill. This sucker is going to hit the hood, no way around it. I'll have to foam it to prevent rubbing, but I also need to make sure it doesn't kink the hose.

I'll leave you with some "my car is dirty" glamour shots







I like hoodless. And seeing it low again makes me happy.

Next up is that nagging battery box, a custom seat mount for the sparco and the oil temp sender

teeson

03/11/2015

So some time ago now I finished putting the engine and fluids in



I think I forgot to take this pic off my camera but oh well. I like mobil one and OEM filters when I can't get a Wix XP filter in time. From my research the OEM's are pretty good and built by Purolator to Ford's spec. Always have had good experience with Mobil1, the forums say good things about it in these engines as well. For the amount of km before the next oil change i'm not going to sweat over it regardless

Then things got a little scarier



Took the T2 diff I had apart to shim it. I measured its breakaway torque at around 60 ft-lb's and decided to shim it to near spool territory. I want like 150 ft-lb's.

Also drilled the pinion to accept the N/A driveshaft flange on my driveshaft.





Wasn't as bad as I thought to do either. Still had to go buy a 10mm drill bit to get the size right.

Everything looked ok inside





I carefully laid and marked everything as it came out. You want to keep everything on the same side as it came out.

Then I copied and cut some pop cans I had around



I'm really a Coke-a-Cola drinker but it was recycling day the day before, I was desperate

2 shims a side measure out to an added 0.210mm each side. I hope thats not too much. My diff seems to be a bit worn (measure all the discs at a few thou under spec) and it also appears to have been rebuilt. It was owned by a bunch of RX7 enthusiasts before me so I'm not very surprised.



Back together, lock tight and torque wrench the whole way. This feels like engine building to me, its really cool but its scary because tight tolerances and its easy to ruin something.

I still have to set bearing pre-load and correct gear mesh. Unsure how to set bearing pre-load without a special tool, so I may cave and take it to a place, just in case.

I had my buddy help me out with a few things I've been putting off



Stainless steel battery box, just needs some welding and a hole or two. NHRA spec as well



Had a slight misunderstanding of sheet metal gauge, so these seat brackets he made me were waaaaaaay overkill haha. But it looks cool, especially the logo he cut in. He works at a place called Metaltropolis, their website is WeldBC.com, hit him up if you're in the local area and need any CNC work or metal order. I've gotten them to do my little CNC projects here and there and me and my dad buy all our metal and welding/grinding supplies from them. Great bunch there.

I painted the inside edge of the logo and clear coated them, I think it looks pretty good



And a terrible photo showing what it looks like in car

teeson

This means my passenger seat is finally installed and ready for the season



Still have a decent list of small stuff to do before doing events (which are starting), like this



Setting up my line lock on a switch and LED. I moved the button into the ashtray as well. No more accidental engaging

teeson

04/15/2015

so finishing what I started:



borrowed a dial indicator and set backlash and mesh. (thanks Steve!)



everything torque'd, lock-tite'd and assembled



out with old



in with new.

took it out for a drive, and wasn't exactly sure what to make of it. Locked up diff is great, and good fun. Still smooth for low speed cornering with little hopping (worse in the rain or gravel) or clicking. But it made a noise like a plane taking off when under full load. So took it out and loosened the backlash a few thou (it was a touch tight) then put it all back in again, noise is still there. So whatever, there was no grindings in the oil or wear so maybe thats how the diff was before I got it. The old was was loud too with no interior and solid everything.

Then I took the n/a LSD that was in it, took it apart and put 3 pop cans (total) in it and reassembled, set backlash and mesh and swapped it with the auto n/a diff in my daily RX7. It's very nice having a LSD in there, makes no noise, breakaway ended at 100 ft-lbs and I need to add some friction modifier to prevent it from clicking.

I went in detail here (West Coast Rotary ? Login) if you're interested in reading more.

Now besides the rust built on the exhaust you may also notice those aren't the same wheels I've had on it, a buddy threw me some freebie 18" tires so i could roll to a meet we had





they pretty. however there wasnt much rubber left to start with, lol there definitely isn't much left now

anyway back to finishing things



got the battery box welded and assembled.



its a tight fit





to the point where I'm going to have to go with a flat lid just to clear the seat. The last pic was during test fitting, i got a little more space than that but not enough to use the lid I have.



took the stock S4 lip and drilled some holes, riveted some rivets and glued some glue to get this. It's cove surround from home depot. I love buying race car parts from home depot. Using things in ways for which they were never intended.

teeson

I'll let you guess where this goes



or not. Still have to put it in, but finally got the parts and made the oil temp sender. We have a Faria temp sender, JB weld and a 2004 WRX drain plug with gasket. m20x1.5 is coincidentally the same thread pitch the WRX uses for a drain plug and that ford used for the oil level sender in the side of the pan.



apologies for the photo. I made a quick gas pedal out of some scrap aluminum. More to have one but also to experiment with shape and size. The little angled part on the side is awesome for rev matching.


05/07/2015

had my birthday a while back. Got these two little guys



Grip Royal King (suede!)



and a NRG gen 2.0

I was waiting for the QR to come, it was on back order. They apparently discontinued the red with titanium ring ones (which is what we were hoping to get) but the all red is cool. Has the NRG ten year anniversary logo on in which is cool. Seems that they upped their level of quality as this is the nicest NRG product I've ever laid hands on. They made the button removable too which I immediately did. and the horn leads.

money shot



Found a guy parting out an RX7 and nabbed some headlight rods with bushings that aren't broken like one of mine was (one on my daily was broken too) and a passenger mirror. I went to rob the glass off of it and promptly broke it :mad



also got a set of S5s taillights for fairly cheap. Well not that cheap but cheaper than normal cuz one of the corners is chipped but driftcar



So I fit them on





and them took then right off so I can 'modernize' them.

just FYI, I had to cut the top off the S4 license plate plastic frame, and bend (one could cut, but I didn't want to ruin my paint) the area near the reverse light to get them to fit

teeson

Got some aluminum and cut out a foot plate, as I was sick of my clutch foot catching the floor every time I released the clutch





those sunk allen head bolts were hard to find and expensive for some reason....
sorry for the crap picture too

Got a new lid for the battery box from the guys, also cut me some battery holders that don't look crap





So this sunday I'm hoping to drive my first drift event. Have a bunch of prep to do on my car and my buddies s13 before we head down.
Stoked I got the NRG in time, keeping the S5 tails off till after, and got the battery box ready to pass inspection.
Hoping all goes well and I don't hit a wall after the first corner. Plan is to take it slow and not do that lol. Get comfortable and build up speed as I progress. Never been on a track drifting, and never been out of 2nd gear, I try and avoid pushing it


05/13/2015

well my weekend didn't exactly go as planned. Saturday prep went well for me, buddy's 240 was not as co-operative.



got every loaded up and headed down there. had a hiccup at the border (lol we lost each other after crossing) so we got there a little late



got to Evergreen at around 1:00 (full how later than we wanted to...) and set up and started waiting for the open drift part of the day...



which didn't really happen. The comp started late, took too long, and they ran a top 32 which with like 80 cars in attendance (and a lot of us waiting for the open drift) wasn't the best call imo. Should have done top 16.

So the open drift was for an hour, they didn't let us Tech until the comp was over and then they split into 2 groups that got 1/2 each. Then they offered refunds if we wanted it, so very reluctantly we took it. Sucks to have driven all the way down there, but we had a good time and got awesome milk shakes.

but I finished the 'modernizing' of the tail lights, with minor collateral damage. they werent in good shape to begin with (but they were cheap!) so I'm not very broken up about the small chip or two. Feel better prepared for doing it again on mint ones

teeson

07/02/2015


Bought a used MSD Digital 6, was pretty stoked on having a rev limiter and a 2 step



However after messing with it for a few days and trying it out on a co-workers camaro with a work D6, it turned out to be bad. But the guy I bought it from was a champ and gave me my money back.

took it drag racing, pulled a 13.8 @ 100.1 on my first pass, spent the rest of the night chasing that number. Which is pretty typical for a drag night for me haha, my 1st or 2nd pass is always the fastest.

IMG_0544.MOV_zps4bcbxjr8.mp4

Don't mind the Lambo/GTR race before I slayed the rental dodge dart :rofl

Had a real fun time going through tech, I knew it was going to take a minute to check all the tags etc, but the idiot tech-ing me didn't pass english in high school apparently. He started reading the wrong rule set, then after finding the right one he wouldn't read past the 1st sentence regarding battery locations. But after 3 inspectors and the head inspector all had a look they passed me, like 30 min after entering tech.
I got 4 passes in before somebody downed the whole track in synthetic oil.

went camping, I'm very proud of this packing job. Rx7's are so practical





Then on the 21st me and two buddies drove down to Penticton speedway for our first real drift event.



trip didn't go exactly as planned, 240 blew an axle just under 2 hours in. We limped it to a Lordco, pulled the axle and left it. Picked it up on the way home, but it sucked not having him drive.
But we had a good time and it went well otherwise. I think I surprised a few people that thought it was just a janky stock-ish rx7.



Had no problems with tech this time lol, we would run a layout and then change it maybe once an hour or so. Great variety and it was a great learning environment.

I went from spinning like 4 times in a row, to being able to link the whole course in under a day. Though some of it felt like cheating because I could just power through to extend a drift rather than doing extra manji's.

teeson

Car did great, ended up taking the hood off to deal with the high ambient temps, but pretty much every other car there was hoodless. There was a few guys there practicing for the Drift Union Invitational (aka Canada Bash) so there was some talent mixed in with us newbies. There was also like 2 cars on fire, but no crashes (1 seriously close near miss).

teeson

I love banks, car did very nicely on the bank portions. E brake however, doesn't work worth beans, regardless of what I tried. Thankfully I have enough power that I can work around it, but I'm now looking at building a dual caliper/ hydro setup.



went through 3 sets of tires (1 set in 3 laps of the bank layout) but not from making smoke, they just chunked apart really bad lol. hopefully my next set of burners will wear a little better.

heres 2 vids Sean got from the passenger seat




both are from the same layout, it was a 3rd gear bank entry to what should have been an E brake slide into a hair pin (I just kinda straightened and shift locked 2nd) then back the other way into another hairpin.

First dday was a success, I didn't crash or break anything!

Then I got some gold things in the mail



Toe rods and a solid front diff mount for the v8 car.



and some comp coils and DTSS elim's for the daily. Still letting them break-in but man are they harsh compared to the pros in the v8. Time will tell but at least they will allow some very small wheel gap for when my wheels arrive.
Don't think I mentioned it, but I ordered some diamond steelies for the daily, and I think I may have been the first pre-order for the 1552's. My order was in under 10 min after they sent the email lol.

teeson

07/28/2015

now being busy



put the subframe goodies in. Also hammered out the floor where it had been contacting under full travel and painted it. I'll have to see if I did enough hammering. Note to people looking to put these subframe risers in a street car, there is hammering involved.



then picked up my wheels for the daily, and then tires.



My plan for this last weekend was to go to Formula Drift at Evergreen with the daily car looking good, then have the drift car loaded and on a trailer waiting for me. I would leave FD as soon as it was over then sleep a bit and leave at 5 am for Penticton. With the help of some awesome friends this all happened basically to plan.



So got the tires mounted and balanced (shoutout to Brandon) and bought some preventative maintenance items and such (shoutout to Jesse) (he keeps all the RX7 stuff in stock cuz he has one lol) and proceeded to spend an entire weekend 5 lug swapping and fitting the wheels. I went with a different tire than when I borrowed the wheels before, I'm regretting this. These are just too big looking. Also got those Muteki lugs, which i'm pretty happy with. If you're careful they won't scratch, but they are just painted steel.



so got her looking good for FD, just to have some clown hit it in a parking lot the day after I finished everything



was really choked about that, I would be less choked if it happened after FD, but it didn't. So I tried to make the best of it and mangled the fender so the tire wouldn't rub and wrote "this is why we can't have nice things" where the paint chipped off. Got a lol or two

But, but but but but, finally these things showed up at my door.



after a screw up by Fedex and a delay for hub centric rings they landed on my door with just enough time to get tires on them for dday.
While on the phone with 1552 trying to figure out where the clerical mistake was made I learned I was the first web order for the tarmac "2.0". And possibly the first RX7, he hadn't heard or seen anyone with Tarmacs on an FC or even any gen RX7. Somebody tell me if I'm wrong here but I'm claiming first.

Also take notes ppl *cough* diamondracingsteelies *cough*, that is how you package a wheel



really impressed with the quality of these things, the cnc'd logo on the front is a nice touch too. While they are no RPF1 they are decently light too





they at 17x9 +30 fit with minimal clearance to everything. No more rubbing at full lock

teeson

then got some 215/45r17 Zenna Argus UHP (very chinese but surprisingly a pretty good tire) mounted. Funny thing with these wheels is the rear lip is much bigger than the front, which you can really see in the 2nd pic



made a template for a ball joint spacer bracket, local guy made ones similar out of 1/4" plate with great results so I'm probably going to give these a go.



heres with just the bj spacer





and heres with the 1" spacer I'm running on the fronts that I forgot to take a pic of





will probably get to that one day, but need less camber and overs or something lol.



snagged the last set of Muteki SR48's from Image In Motion, our local cool car parts store



look at all the locks now. Abercrombie rack spacers, 17x9 et +5, 215/45r17

teeson

then gave them a bath









one more, everybody's here for the pics anyway right? we all love pics



then loaded the truck and trailer with too many tires (it rained) and went to bed



completely forgot to take pics when at FD of my car... but oh well.





met some cool new people on friday night while hanging out with some fellow Canadians, then it rained. Had an 'interesting' time with the hotel situation but managed to get a few hours sleep there before being woken up by everyone else getting ready for Offset Kings roll in. But that was cool cuz I joined them and got prime parking in front of the entrance.

FD was great, I disagree with a few judging calls, got to meet some drivers, got to meet some awesome people, missed seeing a local guy to me destroy the back of his red s14 on sunday, got a lot of cool stickers, didn't get a Denofa racing hat, got some compliments on the blue car and just all around had a good time hanging out with the Good Vibes bunch.

But then it was onto business, as I had a lot of driving ahead of me.



went down with 2 buddies who were towing his Skyline, my alarm didn't go off so we left a bit late, but made killer time and what is usually a 4-5 hour drive in the day we made in 3.5 in the morning pulling a trailer no less. We ran into another guy pulling up his car so we all convoyed up together. This pic was at one of many pee breaks when I managed to catch up to the diesels in my apparently wimpy gas 6 litre lol.

now I don't have any pics of the day cuz I was busy driving, but my good buddy was shooting a wedding in Penticton on the saturday, he came buy and had a great time doing ride alongs and taking some pics with his cameras. He's gonna send me some but hasn't had a chance to go through them yet.

teeson

I did do this tho



spun out and slid into a tire barrier thing and gave the rear a little tap. cracked the tailight, wrinkled the corner and ruined paint on the bumper. I don't care really, but I can tell girls now I wall tapped right?
I felt like I drove better on the first event, but I was trying a few new things this time around. Added caster which I think i'll remove until power steering, new wheels could max out lock without any rub which I guess I had been waiting for to tell me where the limit was. But did some tandems (well 'tandems') in the rain with Alex (the multi colour coupe) and had a good time.

heres some shots from stops we made on the way home





got the most of the squad here, and they are filthy

Spoiler: we don't know how to hard pose

teeson

08/11/2015

yup, that was mine. race car was on a trailer waiting for me to get home lol. Got there real early to score some extremely prime parking. Was super convenient actually.

My buddy Isaac Wray (check out his website http://isaacwray.com and his Instagram @isaacwray) sent me some pics he took from the last drift day in Penticton. Makes the turd mobile look kinda interesting.













heres some he got of the rest of the field







My bud Kris in his 4 door R32, we rode 4 deep for 2 laps in the skyline. Great fun.

teeson

10/16/2015



went to a local shop's Dyno day. They were really confused by the switch panel, and really impressed with the torque curve.



topped out at 213 HP and 274 ft-lb. I felt like that number was a bit low, next day I went to Evergreen and found out why.

1st lap in felt fine, maybe a little cold.
2nd lap something felt off,
3rd lap had no power and shut down mid corner.

I knew I had a full tank and it felt/sounded like fuel. went to the pits and sure enough fuel pressure was dropping even in neutral. So went to the local Autozone and got an FD fuel pump. side note, auto zone employees are useless, and even more so on a sunday. The most painful parts store experience of my life probably.
Threw it in there, good to go. Car felt way faster and stronger through the rev's than before. the Walbro was screaming so I really should have dealt with it sooner lol.
Shoutout to Rhys and Zach for helping get her fixed up real quick.
Family came out to watch and get a ride or two, I only crashed once





caught a bit of grip at the top of the bank, I think I initiated at a faster speed than I had been all day and flew off the top onto the gravel. slid down onto a dirt pile they have from a drainage trench they dug. thankfully I didn't end up in the trench. Broke my ghetto tow straps trying to get me out, but other than a debeaded tire car was good to run the rest of the day.



oh and a dent

Which is good because the blue car was scheduled to go in for the repair and I was gonna daily drive the drift car for the week.



doing daily things



parking was easy

got better fuel economy than my daily. I now want a v8 or something in my everyday life.

got the daily back, fixed a coolant leak, then after chasing down a faulty water temp sender for a month or two, causing backfires that blew up 3 mufflers I got a new one





started prepping the car for Evergreen coming up



cut the resonators out of my exhaust, they surprisingly reduced a lot of noise



welded it myself, which means it needed a lot of grinding.



modded the crossmember to fit, I have a few criticisms of the Granny's kit, one being the lack of clearance left for a dual exhaust.

teeson

on the subject of clearance, heres my wheel clearance with 17x9 et 0 and abercrombie rack spacers





not sure where imma get more, maybe the extended ball joints. deal with it when I get or make modded knuckles.

then long time coming, I took some acetone to the overspray after seeing my sister and her boyfriend do it to his matte black beater



turned out decent. paint is still crap but its one colour.

then gave them a bath, and thats all i got for now.



gonna do some maintenance before the next 2 events and then the offseason festivities can begin.


10/25/2015

some pics my sister took from the last event at Monroe. I love open drifts.













had a bunch of non car friends come down and took them all for ride alongs, good times. That was my first day doing real tandem, once I was warmed up and getting comfortable, Nick pushed me to lead and that was the kick I needed. Spent the day in tandem group, had a few close calls but didn't add a single scratch to my car or anyone else's.

My new exhaust however was hitting the front U joint, so after tech I took it out and hammered if flat ish. Then broke an exhaust stud on the header, also found some melted wiring loom. Got to deal with that this week before Pumpkin smash. Also had an incident when the starter heat soaked so bad it wouldn't start the car, bought a heat blanket and some wire covering from DEI to solve those issues.

teeson

11/08/2015

strap in kids, this is gonna be a long update. Sorry it took so long, I was waiting for photo/videos to be posted.

So went down to Monroe for Evergreen Drift Octoberfest open drift.



We ran 3 layouts that day, I tech'd for tandem so I got to run caged tandem layout on the 3/8ths bank layout, did a bit of short track and then we eventually all did careless tandems.



I had a bunch of my non car friends come down for the day, they had seen videos and such and wanted to go for a ride. So i had about 10 passenger rides to give that day lol. When we ran caged tandem we would get 15 min of basically hot lapping and then go back to waiting for an hour plus and get 15 more min. I swapped passengers while letting the car cool so that kinda worked. Nic (red kouki) gave me the kick I needed to start running proper tandems with him and Tyler (grey/purp s13 vert) and man that was fun. got really close a few times, had a few close calls but made it out alive each time.
Short track I spent a bit of time on, could just link it but its so hard with a useless E brake.
Cageless tandems were great though, did a bunch of tandems with nic and Tyler again, then I was able to (and before it started raining) get some good runs in with Rhys (beige s13 coupe) and Alex (multi colour coupe). Loved the layout too.
Car ran pretty good, starter was heat soaking real bad though, got stuck coming off track onto the pit area and had to push it in and let it cool.

before that day though I had put an extinguisher in and 2 tow straps. Lol I didn't forget last time, and this time they had a tire wall up on the top of the bank.



So before Pumpkin Smash I set out to deal with the hot starter issue, and try and get more air through the rad in order to run longer.

so I did some ducting in front of the rad



should have used some thick aluminum on the lower one, as it started to flap around at speed.



but fully seal and rubber insulated around the rad.

tweaked a few other things, I gave myself full control of the Rad fan as the ECU sucked at it. Numerous occasions it shut the fan off in staging. This is a lot to do with the fact I deleted the CCRM from the factory harness, when the ECU doesn't have a communication link it just does its own clueless thing. This is something I could either fix with the Moates chip or have full control with the switch. Went for the switch as I lent out my Moates lol.

Don't have pics but I bought some DEI heat sleeve and a starter blanket, put it on the starter main power and the starter trigger wire. This helped a good bit too.

Took a few days off work to prep (and sleep in lol) and then Friday we rolled down to the ferry and made our way.







Photo cred: Anthony Bell

was good fun rolling down like 15 cars deep, we had rented an airbnb house like 30 second drive from the track.



I've never driven Western before, only watched/passengered. We ran the classic pumpkin smash layout, pumpkins included in the hairpin. Wasn't really my favourite, its very technical and has a decent amount of danger areas.
Tapped the wall spinning out at the last corner, bent the frame quite a bit, wrecked the hood, pushed the rad fan into the crank pulley, wrecked the front bumper and head lights.



I also ripped the main engine ground off, but didn't discover it until much later.
This would start to wreak havoc on my weekend. The engine was still grounding through the mounts I guess, hot start was back in full form. Engine would cut out at 3-4k rpm especially in 3rd gear or under high load in 2nd. My temp gauge wasn't reading right and the fan was crippling the electrical system when i used it.
I thought I was having major cooling issues, so we pulled the car straight ish with Neils truck, pulled the thermostat and carried on drifting.
My mom came out and went for a few rides, took a few other people out as well.

Went home that night and tried to do what i could in the dark, didn't get too far. Went to Lordco the next morning to see if I could get a belt that was smaller, instead i had to get jump started to make it back to the track.

Day 2 was "The Sheldon" layout, and while this was similar, i liked this layout better.



Photo credit: Jaws Photography



Photo credit: Johno Love Media

teeson

Photo credit: Neil Marcus



Photo credit: Ryan Benoit
(Smashing Super Pumpkins on Vancouver Island | DODOlogic0

Car ran like poo, cutting out randomly and still having cooling issues. Then my clutch master started pissing fluid and couldn't find another. But I said "drift it anyway"
that was a mistake.



Photo credit: Anthony Bell

In the weirdest accident ever, I rolled the car.


Thanks to Rod Squad for the vid, don't get the backstreet boys but whatever lol.

came around what should be a big 3rd gear sweeper, I was leading, but because the car didn't want to 3rd gear I had adapted to going in hot and e brake sliding late into the corner and dropping into 2nd and scoot by learning curb. This time however I initiated, started sliding and the car gripped up. I tried to be a hero and save it buy re-initiating, then with one hand on the wheel and one hand on the e brake I hit a bump on the far outside of the track and the wheel jerked out of my hand. Then knowing this wasn't going to end well, grabbed the wheel aimed for grazing the big tire and hit the brakes. Somehow the tire bounced the front end of the car up and on its side which let it roll on its roof.



Photo credit: Anthony Bell



Photo credit: Trevor Ball

As the car was rolling I flicked the shut off. It rolled so slow, like in slow motion. Hung upside down for a few seconds, checked on my passenger Leo and waited for staff to get there before opening the door and getting out. Heard one say "Oh good its the caged rx7". Ran to the back of the car and flicked the main battery cutoff and kinda just took it in for a moment. Gave Jordan the car behind me a hug, lol he couldn't believe what happened in front of him either.
I was 100% fine, didn't even get an adrenaline rush or shock or anything. Leo sacked himself on the harness but he walked it off after a min.
flipped the car over and check for leaks of any kind, found none so I was told to start it up. Fired on like the 3rd turn, good to go. Was told I could drive it out, so I hopped in and then heard "do a cooker" so I proceeded to do a burnout in a car I had just rolled over.
Mixed reviews here, I got applause and in trouble. pushed the car outside after and started to assess more thoroughly.
Hindsight it 20/20, that was a pretty dumb idea, but it felt right in the moment. Apologized to the staff and we're all cool.



Photo credit: Johno Love Media

Car was pretty intact, so the obvious decision was to drive it home.





cracked windshield
no signals
headlights aimed useless
no wipers
noises everywhere

lost one of the mufflers when we were almost at Neil's shop, went back and got it.

teeson

towed it home the next day and took a better look at things in the daylight.











while it doesn't look terrible at first, theres a lot of small things that are tweaked and bent and broken. Fixing this shell would be more work than starting over I think. I also can't know anymore that the cage is 100% like it was before the roll. Was planning to change a lot this winter anyway. Was offered 3 shells at the track and am working on getting one as we speak. Gonna re-use basically everything, but aim for a little more street oriented build. Racecar was what I wanted 3 years ago when I started but I've changed my mind since then.
The next one will have a roll cage, the safety equipment did its job this time around and I want the same level of safety in the next car.

Now that I know what I'm doing, and have made some friends in high places, the new car is gonna be built better, quicker and made easier to drive. I'm seeing this as a chance to start over and I'm ok about it.

Drifting hasn't scared or deterred me. I may not be back driving for a good while, but I can't wait to get back to it.



shoutout to the homies, that was a killer weekend. thanks to everyone for making sure I was ok and that the car made it home. and putting up with that belt squeal, haha it'll be fixed on the next one. 10/10 would do again.

May not hear from me for a while, but you can bet that will be because I'm busy planning/buying/building a new shell.

there is a perk however to wrecking your drift car, the daily gets cool parts





already swapped some stuff over, and I'm working on doing more. need something to do right now haha.

will post more photos and vids as they come up