Last weekend was a testament to this when ACT so graciously hosted the 2011 Drifting Pretty Field Trip.  The founder & President Dirk Starkensen, along with Daniel Starkensen & Chris Martin, opened up ACT’s doors on a Saturday afternoon and hosted a private clutch workshop & factory tour for Drifting Pretty.  They don’t get a magazine article or tv feature out of this, they did it simply because they believe in our purpose.  Now tell me if that isn’t authentic!?

We were honored to have this opportunity to come and learn at ACT.  We marketed this field trip to our students as a once-in-a-life time opportunity.  It was.  You can’t get this education from your traditional school.  From the bottom of my heart, again, thank you Dirk, Daniel and Chris.  Your support speaks volumes.

Here are some photos from the exciting field trip:

Background
Two weeks ago I finally made it back to the drift track. Its been shamefully, almost 4 years since my eyes have been hit with tires and dirt. Between getting my life together after having Elise, raising a teenager, working on my accounting career, running Drifting Pretty, buying a new house and keeping the family happy…where is there time for drifting? There isn’t. But as my old buddy Yoshie preached a long time ago, “if its that important to you, you will find a way to find money and make time for driving.”

The biggest hurdle was getting my car to the track. I can’t drive it and I have no truck and trailer. I am very lucky to have friends that will bend over backwards to tow the Drift Queen to the track. Thank you Chris.  He lives near the track and made 2 trips back and forth from Lancaster to Temple City.  THAT is friendship.

The Best Worst Day
We showed up just on time to the JustDrift practice. I unloaded the Drift Queen off the trailer and immediately went to the race gas pumps to fill up. I start pumping the pump stops. I try again…I get one gallon of 110 and it stops again. The gas guy comes to help, only to find that they were out of 110 fuel. Then we try to fill it with 91 and the tank overflows. I find out I miscalculated how much gas was in the tank when I stored the car (no gas gauge). So now I have 1 gallon of 110, 4 gallons of new 91 I pumped at home just to get the car started and another 10 other gallons of old fuel from 3-4 years ago. What a start!

I return to the track pissed about my gas and worried that the car will run crappy. I go to the driver’s meeting…all men..1 other gal driver. Typical. I cringe and they guys all convince me to go out with the advanced group. I’m rusty and nervous and want to go back to kindergarten in the beginners group. They push me and well, I end up in the advanced group. I grab a friend to ride shotgun and grid up on the track. As I was sitting on the grid, I tried to play back in my head how to drift. I finished the sequence only one time in my brain…the rest of the time I was staring into outer space. I used to be able to think about what was for dinner while I was drifting in 3rd gear. I kept anticipating if it would ever be like that again…

I went out for my first run…warning everyone I didn’t know what I was doing anymore. I dump the clutch…do a quick burn out to warm my tires and bust a 180. It felt so natural. I ran the car hard down the track, I hit 3rd gear full boost.  I checked the knock sensor and it was nice and low…the fuel wasn’t hindering me. I approached the main turn quickly (I stayed back in 2nd gear)…I wasn’t thinking I just did whatever felt natural. I found myself in a beautiful slide, flawless.  I yanked the e-brake to keep it going because I initiated so early…it was amazing.  I caught the next part of the track and transitioned the drift like I was possessed.   I was flooring it the tire smoke was billowing into the car. I was back.  You can see this moment captured on the in-car video section of this video feature, thanks to Mondoy.

I made another run and spun. On the final run, I dropped it into 3rd gear just like old times…kicked the clutch and pulled off an even better slide than my first. My tires were spewing out smoke and the engine was just purring away (despite my shitty fuel). I was back.

I took a break and shot some photos of my car at Horse Thief Mile (a neighboring course). I came back for my next run group. I was having a fantastic time…until I went out for my 2nd group of runs. Mentally, I hit a wall (thank god not physically). For that run group and all the other run groups of the day, I didn’t complete another run. I kept spinning out. I was there, just having fun, spinning out. Initiating drifts at all points in the track and not even trying to fix the mistakes I was making.  Benson was giving me pointers but I was Charlie Brown listening to the teacher talk.  I didn’t even hear it.

I walked away that day with mixed feelings. I had a fun time, sliding my car and seeing old friends, but know I could have driven better.  I have unfinished business with you Willow Springs.

The Aftermath
The Drift Queen is safely tucked away again. I have a faulty bleeder valve on the new stop tech calipers, ripped couplers (I went off course and hit the intercooler, which ripped 2 couplers) and for some reason my front bumper doesn’t fit (new wheels threw everything off).  Oh yea, and I’ve got to siphon all that gas out.  I’ve got lots of work to do. I’m returning to Willow Springs in October for my birthday. I think I’m going to rent the track out and throw myself a birthday party.

See you soon.

Each of my students showed up right on time and ready to work.  With the increasing popularity of our twitter account, I tweeted the play-by-play of our tech day.  For you, here are the play-by-plays (taken with my iPhone):

10AM: we take an inventory of the Stop Tech big brake kit we’ll be installing, elect project managers and go over functions of each part

Linda starts off the install by taking off the old brake setup (Z32 [Nissan 300ZX]) calipers/rotors

We split up into 2 groups and start project #2: re-coloring the face of my new AME wheels.  With fine grit sandpaper, we start scuffing up the surface of the wheel face

12:30PM rolls around and we break for lunch (in the ac cooled house)…followed by scoops of ice cream.  This is our most clicked on photo out of all the photos we tweeted!!!  Why??

We get back to work and the passenger side is finally finished.

Rena heads up the other team and finishes masking the wheels.  The painting starts.  Yes, we’re using spray paint.  High temp engine paint to be exact.  We spray a semi-gloss…which comes out as a nice satin finish (which is exactly what I was hoping for!!).  See the detail pics towards the end of the post!

We let the wheels dry and the gals are let loose to go at the other side with no instruction.  They do a fantastic job working as a team.  Chanting out names of tools that they need and the “righty tidy, lefty loosey” quote.  I could barely get in to undo a bolt…they were so fast to change it all out themselves!

with a short time in the sun, the wheels dry enough to be slipped on to the car.  Here is the finished product

Success!  (Linda had to leave before we could snap this photo)  after 8 hours of work/laughing/eating and lots of learning. my car was done and hooked up, courtesy of Julie, Samantha, Linda, Rena and Sarah.  I can’t thank you enough for hooking my car up ladies!  Big thank you goes out to Marc, Benson & Steve for leading the morning training session!!!

Photog
Out of all the photos I take, I’ve taken ZERO of my race car.  After we ended I pulled the DSLR out and started taking well-deserved photos of my race car.

Close-up of the finished wheel faces

The ol’ gal tucked neatly back into the garage

My ricey tailights.  They’re genuine from Japan with LED filaments.  No china stuff here.

For now that’s all the photos.  I think I’ll take the rest of the photos when she’s at the track later this month!!!  Back to work I go.  Still have to buy a battery, install the new rear brake system and get new intercooler piping.  That’s all.  HA!

Sad sight in my garage

Dear Diary,
I write you today to take note that the car revival starts tomorrow.  The pink dusty drift machine in the garage needs some attention and it starts tomorrow.

Week 1 To Do List:

Step 1 – Order a new battery! – Do this tomorrow

Step 2 – Order the rest of the parts for the ebrake upgrade – Do this by Friday

Step 3 – Open up StopTech brakes and make sure you have all the parts. – Do this by Monday

The start of my official “to do” list.  I’m drifting again in May.  I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed drifting.  My heart hurts…that’s how much.  Finally the days return where I can think about what’s for dinner while I’m kicking the clutch in 3rd gear.

The DP gals are coming to help set up my car next month.  This is so exciting!!!

Stay tuned.  Drift Queen Revival!!!!

As I work my full-time accounting job, run Drifting Pretty, be a mommy to my gals, be a wife, enjoy my hobbies, help take care of both my grandmas who are having health issues and somehow find time to write blogs and brush my teeth…I realize time is so scarce and so valuable.  Its been so difficult choosing what to spend my time on.  Right now its everything!  I think something has to give.  It certainly won’t be easy.  Maybe I’ll just stop brushing my teeth or doing laundry?!

One of the loves in my life…Drifting Pretty kicked off its 8th year of operation this past weekend.  Its truly amazing.   Tons of gals rumbling in with their noisy cars,  running around my culdesac screaming, laughing, flipping photos while carrying textbooks on car racing…all joining together for a good cause: learning how to race.  Its a pretty magical sight!  Congratulations to our 2011 students.  Can’t wait to race with you this year!!!

She Drifts Again…
I finally have plans to take my 240 back to the drift track.  Oh how I have missed you pink drift car.  As I slated up the 2011 Drifting Pretty schedule, I committed to driving a drift event with the DP gals.  My deadline will be May 1st to get the car back to working condition.  There aren’t major problems with the car, just faulty intercooler pipes that I warped when I drove last and ran over my own front bumper.   I’m going to have Elton @ Raceline fab me some new piping.  The only challenge is to get my car there…she has no tags or intercooler pipes.  So she needs to be towed.

After that, I need to work on the brakes.  I’m hosting a Drifting Pretty tech day to finally put on some StopTech brakes and Z32 rear calipers.  That feeling of having brand new parts sitting around un-installed is depressing!  I hope I can do that job in a day.  I also got a beautiful new Veilside hood (thank you to Benson, I love you :), so I need to install the hoodpins for that.  And I need a new battery and a fluid change and I ::hope:: that is all I’ll need to be ready for the track.  That’s all?!  Wow that list sure got long.   Here we go!!!

Photog
All the time I usually spend blogging has been dedicated to my new hobby of photography.  Benson & my friends got together and got me an SLR for my birthday last October.  I got a Canon T2i.  Friends have been so generous to lend me all sorts of lenses.  6,000 shots in, I’m possibly getting the hang of it!  This weekend when it was about to rain, I took Elise out for a quick Birthday photo shoot in the backyard with a borrowed 50mm 1.4 lens.   There is this beautiful magnolia tree in my backyard just covered in flowers!!!  Talk about photo opp.

Elise turns 3 later this month.  There are a few more fantastic photos, but you’ll see those if you’re lucky enough to be on her guestlist haha.

Happy Girl Scout cookie month and Happy Chinese New Year this Saturday.

See you soon!

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.

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!