Archive for the ‘Media Coverage’ Category

Broken Pipes & Sweet Emails

Monday, July 14th, 2003

13,358 miles. So I’ve been driving around with a leaky downpipe for exactly a month now. The stud on my turbo outlet pipe is still broken. I’m going to take my car to Gushi Auto on Wednesday to have them fix it.

I think I might have figured out the problem with my muffler. It seems that my new Trust Downpipe is the culprit. The Trust downpipe is sold to “fit” on both the S13 AND S14. They aren’t the same downpipes though. The S13 one needs an extra bracket to connect to the mount in front of the cat, meow. And its not there!!! How stupid is that. Don’t get a trust downpipe, they’re just trouble.  I’m going to try out a 5Zigen downpipe, which is 70mm and is made especially for the S13.  My Trust is 80mm, but I think I’m missing the bottom end power that the stock downpipe used to give me.

I’ll be driving at Drift Day 7 at California Speedway. Its going to be so hot.  Also, I’m going to Buttonwillow in the beginning of August for a Drift Association event, its a training session for instructors.   I’m going to go there to practice my krispy kremes and racing line.

I’ve decided that I’m going to just replace my stock brake master cylinder with another stock one and rebuild my calipers. I have the Z brakes, but I have no time or money to get lines, rotors, redrill the rotors etc.   I plan to go 5-lug towards the Fall, after my bday (hopefully I’ll have money then to buy my new work wheels). So right now I’m going to concentrate on selling my extra parts (bumper, bov, wing, etc. ~they’re on my bbs if you’d like to check em’ out) so I can go pick up my Bride seats. They’ve been callin’ out to me for months.

I’ve been receiving so many nice emails from people who read me & Benson’s article in Drifting Magazine (presented by Import Racer). Thank you again, your comments are so inspiring and thoughtful~*the emails are what keeps my love for my car & drifting alive.~*Well happy tuning and drifting.

Dyno Results for Power Pages

Sunday, June 22nd, 2003

12,918 miles. Its been a while since I’ve written! I dynoed my car at XS Engineering on the 13th. My car was a “test car” for a Import Tuner’s “Power Pages.” (Big “THANK YOU” to Scott Tsuneishi for the opportunity!!!)  They put my muffler and intake back to stock and dynoed my car. Then they added the parts and kept dynoing after every new part. Results are as follows:

  • Stock Blk Top SR20DET with KA muffler & Airbox =  166 hp
  • Blitz LM Air Filter +2 hp
  • 5Zigen Border Max Exhaust System +17hp (!!!)
  • Trust 80mm Downpipe +3hp
  • Best run at 189.50 hp to the (cute) wheels.

Next week or so I’m going back for some more dyno runs. I’ll let you know when the cute magazine comes out.

I got the Falken ST-115’s (235/40/ZR17), thanks to Ben (he gave me the tires he won at Drift Showoff 🙂 thanks baby). So far they’re gripping really well, considering my road rage and all the rain we’ve been getting these past few days.

One of the screws on myturbo outlet pipe broke AND the bracket on the downpipe so does not line up with my muffler. This is what is so annoying about car stuff!!! So now I have a major exhaust leak and I had to raise my car 3/4″ cuz my mufflerwas hanging way low. Things never seem to fit. I found out that all the clunking noises I was hearingaround my front driver’s side wheel was a combo of my coilover, inner tie-rod, and my brake pads! I got my inner tie-rod fixed, but the brake pad is still moving and the coilover is still mysteriously clunking.Drama Drama.

~*So I’ve run into money money problems, surprised?  My Bride Seats are in, I want to upgrade to 5-lug and get rims already, I want a new paint job, and I want a FMIC. I have a bunch of my stufffor sale to raise money for my new things. I put up my Bomex wing and ebay took it (along with ALL the other auctions of people selling Bomex aero) down and claimed we were selling copies. W T F!!!!Sue me Bomex, my wing is real. The things I’m selling include my 91+ bumper w/JDM turn signals, BOV, Bomex, wing, stock tailights, and some other goodies. They’re on my message board right now, and I’ll have them up on ebay soon.

I’m going to Frisco for the Drift Day 6, but I’m probably not going to be driving up there. Can we say rental? I’ll be staffing at the registration table and instructing crazy boys at the skid pad probably. Well, happy drifting and I’ll see youin a few ;).

The photoshoot

Monday, March 24th, 2003

9,484 miles. The kouki bumper is on ;). My rear bumper still does not fit:(…despite the drama, the photo shoot for Import Racer still went on. We did the shoot for about half the day. We shot right down the street at the Santa Anita Race Track.  The pics turned out sooooo nice. The article is turning out to be 6 pages and its about me & Ben and our cars. I’m so excited.  Big “THANK YOU” to Ed Loh from Import Racer for choosing us for this feature!!

My wiring for my taillights got messed up in the bumper change, so I have NO brake lights hahaha.Good job huh. Hopefully I can get the lights re-wired tonight so I don’t have to keep driving on small streets hoping no one rear-ends me.  So now I can finally see my car with the bumper on, and I’m thinking about getting the kouki 180SX side steps.

I’m going to kick back, relax, and go help my Ben get his engine swap on…its my spring break! See you soon!

Me & B in Import Racer Magazine?!

Friday, March 21st, 2003

9,445 miles. Its been a happy week. I’m done with finals and I’m on my spring break. More importantly, my kouki aero is painted! I picked up a new factory rear bumper as well and took it all to get painted at PJ’s. Me & my boys stayed up all night trying to figure out wtf was wrong with my rear bumper…basically, before I had my car, it was hit really bad in the rear passenger quarter panel and was repaired MickeyMouseStyle, so naturally, my support is bent, my rear sub-frame and inner trunk has some welding, and well, now that I have a new bumper that is not repaired, it doesn’t line up!!! The bumper is on now, but it doesn’t line up yet. We’re going to work on it tomorrow, I’m going to put on a new support, so hopefully it will solve my rear bumper drama.

I’m sure you’re wondering what about the kouki bumper.  I’m going to put it on tomorrow after I fix my rear bumper drama. Me & BensonLove are going to be featured in Import Racer magazine, they’re doing a lil’ 2-page article on our cars, so I’m scrambling to get everything fixed before then. Benson is even trying to put in another SR in his car cuz his old one is dying, omg he’s had that engine for 4 years! I’m excited about the photo shoot for the mag, its this Sunday. I’ve got to wash my engine bay,wax my car, detail the interior, change my cracked dash, and polish my rims.   Guess I’ve got a full day of work ahead of me.

As for the other thangthangs coming up…3/31 private drift event (i’ll be driving), 4/6 RSR drift event (i’ll be staffing), late april…new Brid seats and full interior.  Brace yourself!