Upstate NY is pretty boring

Hi Katie and Scott. Maybe you guys can have a BBQ today since we're only on the way to Topeka (rather than coming back, when your housewarming is).

Pee break only 3 hours into the trip. This will be long. No point in spoiling it now.

-PJ

Tire Lifting Monster Car Fire Sauce: HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED

Mission One: Spit Flames
We had the 2step backfiring like a fat guy that just ate an incredibly well hung baby. Fire = cool. Cool = 8psi of boost at 2300 rpm. The result? TOO MUCH POWER. Wheelspin city, population: us.

Mission Two: Massive Wheel Lifting Grip
We tuned in the shocks a bit, and ended up getting the car well balanced. 16psi of force fed turbocharged fury? NO PROBLEM. Doing so while in a turn? BAD NEWS BEARS. More wheelspin city, and we just moved in downtown.

Anyways, Dave started off by hitting cones left and right (and up but not down). I took the first seat for the 2nd heat and ended up keeping 2nd place, trailing the Chris Travis by a lot. Dave ended up clean in the afternoon and passed me by .114, and Janusz is behind me by .4 (I think).

In other classes:
DSP: Chris and Mike are also in the Failtown bound boat, trailing Alex's car with Eric Campbell the ITR convert leading by lots (last I knew).
FSP: Quag is in 4th (I think?). Neil trails 1st.
DS: Scott's raindance fails and he drops from .8 lead in 1st to about .1 behind in 2nd. Chang and Matt continue to struggle. Chris thinks they need shock therapy. I'd agree.
SM2: Paul drops from 2nd to 3rd, but is pulling the fast raw times. Mike Condict went from conical habit to cleaning out high 50's, giving him the .3 lead over paul (but behind Fineberg by lots).
STX: Scott's friend is in 2nd. I have no idea how or why as Scott has not given me an update on his friend. What kind of friend is that?

Finally, I love food. Seriously. It's so good. 'Bout to get some right now. Finger Fucking Lakes... mmm mmm good.

-PJ

The Journey: Middle Finger Lakes

The Armada, bringing Dave, Paul, Jenna, and I (along with one trophy hungry 240sx) is on the way to Finger Lakes, NY for the 2008 Finger Lakes ProSolo. Clear skies above, hilly mountainous roads beneath. This is way better than sitting in an office filling out the cover sheets for CMM reports (yes, I got the memo).

So, it looks like we'll be on time for practice starts, but it seems as though it won't matter since some shitty weather looms on the horizon (although right now it's fucking beautiful in front of us). Yeah.... dry starts will not give us any setup data for wet.

Anyways, I'll probably report back once we're done with practice starts and grilling by the campfire tonight. All you people that wussed out and didn't come to this oh-so-close-by ProSolo are really missing out regardless of what the weather brings. Beer, racing, and fire. Fuck yeah.

-PJ

I Conely Wanted One...

First off, wtf is up with people hitting brakes on DOWNHILLS. FUCK YOU BITCHES! Drive fast, take chances.

We're on the way home to CoWnnecticut, trophyless, yet conefident. The Car handled well as we made small adjustments to shock rebound and conepression. There's conely one problem: I bitch slapped some orange and threw away the 4th place trophy position. Ah well, the scratch time was hoe-kay.

Final results are up at http://www.scca.com/popup/raceresult.aspx?event=12144&file=311
The jist of it is: Dave and I got beat by some Evos. Chris and Mike experienced technical difficulties, yet Chris gained time by tip-toeing through trying not to flip the car. Who'd have thought that keeping the car off of its roof would give him a 0.061 lead over Mike? Scott went from 2nd place (first non-BS car in DS) to 3rd as an R32 chiseled its AWD way into the 2 spot after a bunch of people gained time on a per-run basis. At least Scott got his cheesy yet metallic license plate place-holder. You wouldn't want to go a ProSolo season without one.

Anyways, 3 weeks untill the next big thing. 2 weeks untill the next NER event. This shit is time-energy consuming!!

-PJ

Bass Ackwards

So, I'm sitting there waiting for the end of practice starts, and I notice that I'm somehow not working on my car. It's running great! No longer does it consume oil, or stall at hot idle. It's launching much better than it did at DC. I just need to drive it.

So... wtf are all the SP guys doing to their cars??




Seems like Street Prepared isn't very prepared at all! :P

Anyways, NER spent the day pitting together:

With the "Wider Than Stock" club ready to wtfpwn some peeps, y0:

Anyways, I'm gonna go watch Scott set up his life raft... err... air bed. More updates tomorrow as the day progresses.

-PJ

Toledo: The Undiscovered Arctic

Wtf.... it's cold. 57 degrees!!!

That's about it. I'm crazy tired.

- PJ

CLEVELAND: FOUND TO NOT ROCK

1 AM: Dave resumes driving after discovering the valve stem on one of the trailer tires has gone bad while filling up on gas for the 3rd time today. Keith, we broke the trailer. It's ours now. Kthxbye.

Anyways, we're in Cleveland territory, less than 2 hours away from Toledo. We probably would have been sleeping by now had we left on time and missed all the traffic. Or, if we found a place to eat that wasn't the food court of an Outlet Mall, where the Chinese have taken over White Castle:

White Castle fresh off the wok!

I'm all hyped up on RedBull from my 5 hour driving shift. Nap time yay.

-PJ
(Still just 2 instances of traffic.)

I CAN HAZ GMAPS?!

Google Maps. Your best friend. Your only friend. Soooo awesome having LIVE ACTION TRAFFIC REPORT.

It's 3:01 PM. We're on the tail end of I-95 about to hit NY, leaving towards the later part of our scheduled departure. The car is loaded. We have way too many tools. Way too many drinks. Extra fuel. 5.6L of towing power. 600 miles to go.

-PJ
(Total times hitting traffic: 1)

Holy Toledo! Muffin Tops and Breakfast Sandwiches

Today at work we did a pot luck breakfast before the weekend. I brought in muffins but can only seem to get through the top before discarding the bottom in a wasteful manner which seems to provide some analogy for my life as a whole. Hopefully, I'll have some muffins to eat while possibly stuck in traffic along I-80.

You read that right. Despite the overwhelming mass of people who will be taking the upstate NY route to Toledo, Dave and I are planning on following one of G-Fab's most sacred traditions:

Drive fast. Take chances.

Drive fast? 70mph is fast, right? Maybe Dave will brave 75mph (I aim for 13 mpg). We're definitely taking chances though. There's a chance we'll hit traffic and arrive in Toledo at the same time as everyone else, and there's a chance we'll be scott free all the way to Toledo, where we'll be Scott-full, since he's sharing a room with us at the oh-so-popular Days Inn.

Anyways, before embarking on this journey, I took the liberty of preparing the 240sx for its next conquest. This ordeal involved:

- Oil change. This is only exciting because I'm now using Valvoline VR1 RACING oil. It must be good because it's specifically formulated for RACING, right? I'm hoping the anti-foam properties help in keeping the turbo from foamulating my oil and possibly reducing my oilability. I'm also running straight 60 wt in hopes of reducing oil blow-by, as well as expecting a lot of heat in Toledo. I hope I'm not wrong.

- New old spark plugs. I had some Iridiums already gapped and ready to go. They've been sitting on my desk forever. I pulled the old copper plugs and they were somewhat gritty coming out, but nothing some PB Blaster couldn't fix. I'm really hoping nothing is fucked, but I also hope I didn't lose any compression through the plugs being dirty and not fully seated.

- Compression. Check. While the plugs were out, I had Jenna crank it over. 180 across the board. My rings are good.

- Reworked crankcase breather. My evac check valve is seized shut, so for now I'm just running a breather line. Blow-by seems to be reduced, and hopefully oil consumption will go down. The rings should seat better as well, so I should have more power and less chance of detonation! Win-win!

Also, some newly installed parts since last week that I meant to put up include:
- New rear shocks:

- Lighter rear spindles (7lbs weight reduction per side OMG!):

T-minus 1 hour till Project Kick Ass In Toledo kicks off in a kick ass Armada.

- PJ
(fueled by an overabundance of breakfast)

Swapping Pos's and Made from Real Lightning

DC Late Update:
So it’s like a week later, and it’s still just sinking in that I lost by what should’ve been the difference between a good and bad 60′ for my car. As depressingly upsetting as that could possibly be, I’m still somewhat relatively happy. For the first time ever, I beat the Travis Cibic y0, and I won my first Hoosier. Not a bad haul, eh?
Still, I’m only still now realizing that the class was decided by thousandths of a second. Had Chris not red-lit his best left run, or had I nicked a cone or swayed from the line on either or both of my last runs, the results would have been resoundingly different. At times, the three leaders were within a couple tenths of each other, with Dave not far behind waiting to put an upset on all of us. In the end, it was really anyone’s game, and I’m left with the consolation of knowing exactly where I need to make up my time.

GG DC. GG.

So, after DC came this past Sunday, which included a fun filled day with NER at Devens, MA. After DC, I added some new rear shocks (replaced? swapped?). The car now sits on double adjustable Koni shocks on all four corners. After screwing around with the alignment for a few hours, we took the car out and Dave and I ended up neck and neck. Just 0.011 seconds seperated us after morning runs, with the two of us sitting in the #4 and #5 PAX slots.
In the afternoon, we made some changes to the car, and gained some time. Unfortunately for Dave, he also gained some cones, and had to depend on his fastest morning run to retain his 2nd place position in the class. I ended up dropping about 0.8 with some added compression adjustment to the rear shocks. In the overall PAX list, I dropped to 5th (I hear Brian Levesque cheated and stole a run from/ got advice from Grant, who I also heard cheated and drove on a computer simulation of the course) and Dave dropped to 9th. Still a decent overall finish for the G-Fab 240sx.

That’s all I have for now, because I’m boring and bored at the same time.

Here’s some video of my best run, with Jenna along for the ride.



-PJ

Got Crabs?

Day 1:
SM:
Chris Travis leads by .122. Competition is tight. 3rd place trails me (in 2nd) by 0.023. Fucking all-wheel-drive puts a half second on me by 60'. Time to start looking into launch control for the 240. Dave overdrove all day and is in 4th, behind me by .15'ish. It's reeaaal close. If it's dry tomorrow, things will be interesting.

DSP:
Mike leads by cleaning up his runs. No clue how the rest follows, but I think Alex is in 2nd.

FSP:
Quag improved by 2.7 seconds going into the afternoon. His position in 3rd did not change as a result.

DS:
I just can't watch it. It's too gruesome. I need a 40 to pour. Perhaps into Dave, which might help him drive tomorrow.


Other than that, it was hot. I'm exhausted. I like showers.

-PJ
Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down. Never gonna run around and desert you.

Uphill Battles

Practice starts were yesterday, with the start line for each course on a major uphill incline. This makes for an interesting launch, with the need to e-brake the car in staging, to hold it as you clutch and gas in while the lights drop. On the green (or 3rd yellow), it's a furious fumbling of frantic e-brake and simultaneous clutch action!

240sx: Too much power. Couldn't get a good start till the 12th or so practice start, resulting in a slightly bogged 1.9 sec 60ft. The 2step isn't working as consistently as we'd like, so it looks like "normal" starts for us! Maybe we'll shoot some fireballs after we're winning going into the 2nd round. Dave, however, managed to win $20 by perfecting his timing, with a .500 R/T (which is 0.000 at the green for you non-prosolo-ers).

BMW: It's a BMW. Mike struggled a bit on launch, but I think it was just to give Chris a false sense of confidence with his 2.0 60' starts.

510: It eventually made it to the 60' (2.4+)!!!!! The uphill is going to be painful for the poor little dime, but what comes up must come down!! The way back on each course should be a good thing for the 510 and its narrow track.

3: It's FWD, but it's boosted. Chances are, the "zippy" nature of the course and the uphilling will give it an advantage over the ITR's. Who knows if it'll keep that momentum on the turnbacks, where both courses can punish an overaggressive approach.

VtEK Cibic y0: Same as it's been for like, a brazillion years.

Smokey the ITR: Not quite as smokey as the 240, at least.

Today is day 1 of competition. We're gonna be late leaving, so I'm gonna post more later.

I need donuts and coffee.

Serious.

-PJ

G-Fab, not Green-Fab.

12.0 MPG

That's right. 12. The dirty dozen of exhaust fumage from the 2004 Nissan Armada leaves a well marked trail for those who dare follow the first of the G-Fab crew on the warpath that is the 2008 ProSolo seaon. Washington D.C., the capitol of our fair nation, will mark the first of four stages of ProSolo conquest.

BEER AND CRABCAKES. THAT'S HOW MARYLAND DOES IT.

Current Armada crew: Dave piloting, Jenna on drunk watch '08, PJ telling the tale of G-Fab road dominance. Behind us follows 350rwhp of Hoosier-shod fury.

-PJ

What the shoes is going on?

The ground beneath the Datsun is dry.

The ground beneath the 240 is dry.
No one is running around with an oil rag.
The tools are organized and stored.
Fuel is burning.

What's wrong with that picture? Other than being the complete opposite of last year's Deven's Tour? Hrmmm.... it's like we have entirely different cars.... made by entirely different people. Both the 510 and the 240 running reliably. Running strong. Most importantly, RUNNING.

Tour came, we all sucked.
PJ: 3rd (SM)
Dave: 4th (SM)
Chris: ..... (DSP)
Mike: 2nd (DSP)
Quag: 3rd (FSP)
Paul: ..... (FSP)
Jenna: 2nd (HSL)
Scott: 3rd (DS)
PZ: 3rd (I think?) (HS)
Wiley: DFL (Dancing)
Dave G.: In his own little world repping 1st place HARD (1.5'ish sec lead?) (DS)

So yeah. My car needs some development, and massive weight loss, but has been running strong and fast. Quag's car has been under the knife for the past 2 weeks, and I'm told it's now an entirely different carburated small woodland-like animal. Mike's car needs... to maybe feel the same from day to day?

Up next is the DC Pro. FUN TIMES.

- PJ

Words fail, buildings crumble, the ground opens wide...

She's actual size but she seems much bigger to me....

or so we thought, but the G kind of makes it seem like we're not pulling a trailer loaded with gear and tires. That's right, we're taking the G down to GA. Why? Because you just read G-A-Y and you didn't even know it.

The short end of the story is that we (I?) just didn't get enough done on the 240sx to make it road worthy. It still needs a lot of minor things, and I've grown to hate my psuedo-fuel-management system which will be replaced promptly when I return because using the maths to calculate the theoretical load correction both to and from the stock ECU is just a pain in the ass. It's wiggity wack. I'll have to get hooked up by the C-Digity mack daddy when I return to the home addy. Siriusly.... like the Backspin channel we've been listening to for the past few hours.

So, our journey began a about 10:30pm last night. Since deciding the 240sx was not the choice car to drive some 1100 miles to and from a racing event, we had to prepare our backup car in true G-Fab fashion... or not, because it's the G, and is balla' like that. The G changes Ghetto to Glamorous like it was Fergie without the pee. I think I'm on drugs right now but I'm not sure... surely. For serious. Chris is driving with his legs crossed.

After installing the warrantied Koni double adjustable shock, we had to mount some race tires. Mike Shields came to our rescue with some take-offs from his stint at the DC Pro last year. I'm hoping the tires want to be more like his end of year performance, rather than what they did in DC. Scott Thursby was lying to us when he said it was 70 in the Carolinas. It's 38 where we are now. Wait.. 39... we're getting there.

So, with the need to mount and balance tires, and re-align the G to make the best of them, I needed some professional help, for a professional car, with professional wannabe drivers. Kyle Bishop at Bishop Motorsports to the rescue! His alignment rack is awesome. I just couldn't help but constantly compliment his beautiful rack.

So... we're now in the Carolinas. I'd post pics but you wouldn't be able to see the car, since it's so white it'd just glare at the camera. People in NJ through VA apparently can't drive in incliment weather, because they salted the un-holy fuck out of the roads. All that salt is now on my car, and Chris' trailer. More updates to come.... but really, things won't be interesting untill we meet up with Scott at the Hooters next to his hotel.

-PJ
(This post created at 1:55 PM Feb 21, 2008 while Chris over-brakes upon Sheriff cop car sighting.....)




SuperMarioPJ Approves of this post

Holy shit I fucking hate bot flies.

I'm never going south of the equator. EVER.

Meanwhile.... the offseason is a bunch of banquet food:

Playing dress up:

Chris peeing in the corner:

Rocking out:

And crying from laughter:

Of course, racing is expensive, so those of us at G-Fab began seeking alternate income sources, such as male modeling:

It's proven to be quite lucrative:

What to do with all this money....?

Somewhere in there, we did some work on the cars:

Season fast approaches! More updates soon.

-PJ of the EmoDeathPandaFail