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Doko doko

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

As I say in Japanese “Doko Doko” oh where oh where does the time go?

Taking Kristy Karting
Finally I took my daughter Kristy karting at K1. I threw her into the DP Ladies karting league last week. Its tough love. But hey, you have to learn sometime.

Kristy coming up right along side of me <3

Kristy finished the tiring 14 lap race. She was SO exhausted! I’m so proud of her. I just hope she isn’t too mad at me for not warning her how tiring driving those karts can be!! I’m so used to teaching women how to race that I forget Kristy is only 13 and has never driven a car before. This was the first time she’s controlled a vehicle with her own two feet & hands. And not to mention, the first time she’s driven something on her own and went 40+mph. That’s a lot to take in! I think I’ll take a step back and buy her a kart to practice with. After all, that’s how a lot of racers get their start…on karts! Danica Patrick did!

At first glance, this thing looks silly, but I’ve been doing my research. Its made by Razor and its specifically for drifting. The good news is that its rated for up to 140 lbs…so I can drive it lol! Amazon has it for $250ish. Seeing that I live on a culdesac (no traffic and a perfect space for a jturn or fig 8 layout) and Kristy got on the principal’s honor roll this past semester…I should probably get it right? Drifting 101 in the Hsu Fam culdesac! Step 2 is getting her an S14. I don’t know who is more lucky, me or Kristy.

Posted in Car Entries, Drifting Pretty, Hsu Kids | No Comments »

Praying Small

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Benson’s parents were nice enough to have the kids for a night so we can do date night. So this past weekend Benson & I slid over to North Hollywood’s “NoHo Arts District” and saw a play entitled “Praying Small” at the Noho Arts Center. Our friend Rob Arbogast was one of the actors in the play. It just makes it that much more exciting to see a friend act in a production.

The play tells this guy’s story about his addiction to drugs and alcohol. Sounds depressing right? Totally wasn’t. There was even some scenes that had some comedy, and even a love scene that made you cry. I kept thinking throughout the play, amazed at the talent of all the cast. They all could be huge movie stars or tv stars based on their amazing character portrayals. Rob played 3 different characters who were all alcoholics. He played a redneck father, introverted carpet cleaner guy at his first AA meeting, and the main character’s best friend/enabler “Roman.” He rocked each one of them and totally had me convinced. I saw him after the show and to my surprise he was sober lol. He’s just that good of an actor. The main character played by Clif Morts was amazing too. During his monologue a cell phone was going off for a straight minute and he didn’t flinch one bit. He was so focused and in to his part. It was a truly amazing cast and if you’re looking for something different to do, check out the play!

Its only the third week in running and they already have a review in the LA Times. Here is another review as well.

You can get discounted tickets on GoldStar.com.

Cheers to Praying Small!

Aptera Update
Aptera is nearing the end of their Knockout Qualifier. They have been doing a series of road tests to calculate everything from their emissions, MPGe, braking, acceleration, battery life etc. There is a live stream during the day that shows all the cars on the track. The details of the Competition Events are here. Aptera is in the Alternative (Side-by-Side) class, where winner takes home $2.5 mil! Aptera is looking great out there.

Here are some videos from their competition events for breaking and skid-pad:

XPRIZE Braking Event – 06.28.2010

XPRIZE Skid Pad Event – 06.28.2010

Best of luck to Aptera!

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XPRIZE Telemetry Site

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

XPRIZE released their Telemetry Site so you can view the competing cars’ telemetry like current speed, MPGe, carbon footprint etc. This week they’re at Michigan International Speedway doing a series of runs on the course.

Aptera, (which is my team) is competing tomorrow, Wednesday, 6/23, in the “Knockout – Efficiency Test City” at 3:00pm EDT / 12:00pm PDT.

The schedule is here

and the telemetry site is here (just click on “Live”).

Go Aptera!

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XPRIZE & more GirlDrifting in JP

Friday, May 28th, 2010

So I work at Idealab in their Finance division. Idealab incubates start-up companies. One of the accounts I handle is Aptera. They’re a car manufacturer building an EV (electric vehicle) that will get 250mpg equivalent. They have 4000 people waiting in line to buy one when it comes out. Its a hot new auto manufacturer and I’m lucky enough to work on that account. I’ve been helping their procurement division, which means, I’ve been buying all the stuff they need to make the cars and paying all the bills for them. Being an accountant is boring sometimes, but when you have a fun account like this you learn so much about what goes into building a car from the ground up.

Aptera entered the Progressive Automotive XPRIZE Competition, which boasts a $10mil prize purse. The object of the competition is to build the most fuel efficient vehicle that still is practical enough to mass produce and sell.

Check out Aptera’s interview with Progressive Insurance’s Flo below and check out their profile page on the XPRIZE Site. Good luck to Aptera!

Gal Drifting
You wanted it and you got it. More girl drifting in Japan from NoriYaro.

Here is a pic of Sachiko’s car in Japan. I feel some connection with her because my Japanese name is Sachiko and my car is pink too lol. She wins though on interior…how does she pass tech inspection!? My pink dildo shifter and 3 beanie babies is nothing compared to this insane drift car interior. I’m inspired. Go Team Sachiko!!!!

SATC2
I was one of the many hundreds of thousands of women who saw Sex & the City 2 last night (Thursday). Perez is posting that it brought in $14.2mil Thursday alone! It was great for a sequel. The drama wasn’t as insane like the first one, but it was funnier and its awesome that the characters are evolving. They’re like pokemon!

Enjoy your long BBQ weekend!

Posted in Aptera, Car Entries, Car Entries, Drifting Pretty | No Comments »

Japan Ladies League

Friday, May 21st, 2010

D1 Street League just released a ladies drift league called “Venus Challenge.” Pretty cool. Thank Benson for the link. Check out the pics! Yay for Japan Drift Gals. We should do that here. Hmmmmmm….

Posted in Car Entries, Car Entries, Drifting Pretty | 2 Comments »

Kicking the clutch for the first time

Monday, July 28th, 2003

14,005 miles. I’m home from Drift Day! I had so much fun at drift day 7. I got to try out my new coilovers & tire set-up and loved it. At this event I finally got down Krispy Kremes going both ways and figure 8’s. At the J-turn course I finally brought it through using my e-brake.

I kicked the clutch (for those of you who are aliens to drifting, “kicking the clutch” is a way to initiate a drift in your car) for my 1st time at the J-turn (my girl Yoshie was teaching me how). Kicking the clutch is so scary cuz its reallyout of the ordinary. It took me a few tries at it cuz my foot kept wanted to get off the gas pedal when I kicked it. I was so scared the car was going to do something crazy when I kicked it hahaha, but hey I was at THE place to do it, an open course with very few poles in sight. I started using the clutch at the skid pad too. At the other longer courses I practicedmy e-brake technique. I’m happy to say I GET IT NOW. I need to work on bringing the drifts through and ending them smoothly.

I left the event with a happy (finally I got somewhere) feeling. It was hot, but you don’t think about the heat when you’re on the track drifting. The 180SXxy’s temp didn’t budge the whole day. I’m really satisfied with my set-up thus far.I sold my Cusco coilovers (Kyle you’re a sweety), so I’m going to Bride USA today to pick up my new Bride Ergo racing seat. I plan to get one now and the other after I buy my front mount.

My few complaints of the day were: my tranny fluid was leaking on my exhaust piping everytime I did my crazy Krispy Kremes, I’m not sure if its my overflow on the tranny or therez a leak (back to Gushi Auto I go for that), and there were only two girls on the track (me & Yoshie). You don’t know how many girls me & Yoshie drove by, but there were a lot, just sitting there, looking pretty under tents watching their boyfriends. OMG. These girls have no guts, its sad to watch them just sit there the entire day (6 am – 6 pm). If you know any girls that would be willing to comeout to an event and actually DRIVE, have them email me, and I’ll hook it up. Yoshie & I (my only fellow girl drifter)will help them out on the track. You can take a stock car with stock suspension out there! Even an auto! Even a car with no LSD! (I had no LSD when I went to my first drift event) My friend brought his 240SX out with stock suspension and did fine (good Job ED ;)! Anyways, I’m happy with everything, and looking forward for the next drift event.

I just want to say thank you to Richard, Alex, Kyle, Ken, Ernie, Brendan, and Jason for suprising me & Ben with that beautiful plaque of our article from Drifting Magazine. You guys are so thoughtful, we’re so lucky to have friends like you!

Posted in Race Day Experiences, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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.

Posted in Media Coverage, Parts, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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 ;).

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Tire shopping and girls drifting side by side!

Thursday, May 15th, 2003

12,486 miles. Going to school & work everyday is putting a lot of miles on my car!! I finally changed my oil a week or so ago. I finally got my friend to put in my new head unit I’ve had for like months now.

I’ve been tire shopping, because its about that time of the year! Benson might give me his new Falken ST-115’s he won at Drift Showoff, I’m excited about that. If that doesn’t happen thenI’m going to be getting Yokohama ES100’s. Both the ST-115’s & ES100’s I’ve been hearing good things about, and hey, Kouguchi rolls with ST-115s all the way around.~I’ve been eyeing some new Work wheels.

I plan to sell off my Cusco Comp2’s & Work E-wing mesh soon. I’m going 5-lug 17×9 baby. Time for a change. The Cuscos are too soft for me. I hope to be able to wear Benson’sHKS HipermaxII’s. First thing is first, I’ve got to pay for my Bride seats…I ordered the ERGO reclining seats. How cute they are huh! Enough about buying stuff…my drivers-side ball joint is ripped and I’m hearing some clunking noise coming from there when I brake. Uh oh. Time for new ball joints.

Drift Day 5 is next weekend, 5/24 & 5/25. I think I’ll be driving Saturday and staffing Sunday, that is, if I have my ball joint(s) fixed! There are a lot of events coming up in the next few months. I’m excited about it, but also nervous. I want to get better at drifting, and especially in these coming months I’m going to practice way more. Me & my girl Yoshie (fellow girl drifter who drives an AE86) want to one day drift side-by-side. That’s my dream & my goal. Hopefully by the end of the year we’ll almost be there. Practice makes perfect. Take care and I’ll see youat the drift events!

Posted in Car Entries, Race Day Experiences, Shopping | No Comments »

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!

Posted in Media Coverage | No Comments »