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

Happy Feelings Again!!!

Chris: some times as you get older you'll notice having some new feelings

me: in my pants?
Chris: sure
me: about cars?
Chris: um, yes?


So yeah, we took the NeoPandaS14 out for some fun in the rain and sun on Sunday! New suspension all aligned and everything:

The car was on rails. Literally. It went faster than a non-turbocharged 240sx should ever go. I'm wondering if I can get the car aligned like this without heim jointed control arms.... because with some engine work and tweaking this thing would be AWESOME in DSP. Just thinking about how well the car handled makes me feel stupid funny, like I just thought something naughty but I'm not really sure what it is but I daze out and get some silly grin on my face and stare off into nothingness with the epiphany of a handling god.

Yes.

Anyways, congrats to me, Mike, and Wiley! G-Fab season champions for NER in SM, DSP, and FSP!!! YAAAY! Next year we will sweep the region of all classes G-Fab touches. Yes. Beware the wrath of zipties and duct tape and spot welded fender flares.

-PJ
I feel so dreamy.

OMG UPDATES!!

GFab wins DSP again thanks to Mike Shields OMGWTFBBQPWN3Ding the competition. Chris was not too far behind, holding down the 4th spot after placing 6th on Day 1. I'm sure Chris will have some posts when he's SOBER.

Meanwhile, on the homefront, Jenna and I played house:

Yarrrr... off to New Hampshire to make fun of the ricers this weekend. Back soon for more incredible edible updates!

-PJ

Top Ten Things I Learned at RAL 2007

10. Tire tread is for pansies. Real racers leave all their tread on the course.

9. It takes two men over an hour to set up a tent. It takes one man and one woman 20 minutes.
8. Braking before corners is optional.
7. Bourbon, Seagrams, Captain Morgan, several varieties of beer, and 20 drunk adults make good stories.
6. Golf carts all use the same key.
5. One can spend over 8 hours on a phone call to a foreign country for the low, low price of his dignity (plus $10 shipping and handling).

4. Jumping off a moving golf cart while drunk is a bad idea.

3. When climbing into a kart, do not touch the muffler.
2. Photos/video can and will be used for both public ridicule and blackmail.
1. Turn off the tent light.

HIT EM UP GANGSTA'

Because I was too lazy to subtitle:

1. Spot insurance
2. Be assertive in "persuasion"
3. Get paid
4. Get the girl

How Pandas Deal:

Big pimpin' spendin g's. Almost. STILL working it out but they gave a final number which completely BLOWS and I have to do a ton of work just to break even, but oh well.... at least I can get to work on it. MIGHTY MORPHIN WELDING TIME YEA.

-PJ drunk on MS Visual Basic code

Good thing I'm colorblind!!

Work continues on the pirate s14, as the need to go through emissions draws near.

-Fixed EGR problem
-Fixed CAPKS sensor
-Recharged A/C
-Diagnosed Airbag (no clue WHY I bothered)
-PAINTED PINK PRIMER

It screams for a darker primer base (black) but it's better than before. I'll continue work on it later. It's looking as though I may have even gotten my money's worth out of this thing!

-PJ

Semi-new carRRRRRRRRRR!!

So, in the event of crashing the panda, it was time to find a donor chassis to see what I could salvage out of this season and start preparing the little stuff for next year's Street Modified attempt. Thanks to jenna I found an awesome piece of crap S14. It just happened to be a 1995 240sx SE model, complete with the 5 lug hubs and 5spd transmission, not to mention power locks and the SE front lip.

Quirks noted upon buying the car:
-Front end damage
-Rear end damage
-Rear 1/4 panel damage
-Corrosion everywhere, but surprisingly decent frame rails! (rear floor is another story though)
-Bad clutch/ TO bearing
-Windows dont work

Quirks found later:
-Pool cue and ROCK in driver's side door
-Burned out window switches on both doors
-Burned out window relay
-Blown up clutch

Soooooo much work to do on the car. It's not even funny. My first deal is gonna be passing emissions but it was throwing fits over the EGR. I'll clean that and dump some "emissions pass" crap in the tank and see what happens, I guess. Once I have it fully registered, it'll be some suspension swappage time, a more thorough PB Blaster bath, and some widebody overfenders and hopefully a single-color paintjob!!!

Here's progress on it:

Even the piece of crap thumbnail picture won't work. Ah well, it's only a week or two untill I can slamma' jamma' this car to the pavement and hack the rear fenders into submission. I'm sooooo tempted to run ITB's on this thing and go DSP.

Because I can. Bish!!!

-PJ
"Now with 10% less trauma induced sleep!!"