One helluva ride

Its one thing to crash in a car. Its another to crash in a convertible. Its a totally different story when you crash in a 1500 pound open top rocket at the Nurburgring. At very least, the owner has this awsome picture to help tell his tale. Makes for some fun beer drinking with friends, when he can lift his arms again.

Mazda USA Showcases Drifting and Time Attack!

Justin Pawlak is featured on Mazda USA's homepage! That's pretty amazing for several reasons. First, because Mazda is possibly one of the only Japanese manufacturers whose stateside branch is acknowledging and promoting the sport of drifting, and secondly because the car is "old" in comparison to newer cars. Usually marketing and features are reserved for newer models so those get a push, but Mazda USA seems to be a company that just loves motorsports, so heritage is going to influence them a lot. Congradulations to Justin and Mazda for showcasing those sado masochistic machines known as rotaries.

Full article is here

After digging around a bit more, I also found this:




It happens to be Matt Andrew's time attack Miata. He is the current "Modified" class points leader in the RedLine time attack series. Baisically, these are the types of machines I'll be up against next year if all goes well. 340 rear wheel horsepower in a car that weighs 2200 pounds. I don't think I've ever been scared of a Miata before now.

Full article here

Hot Rod Chicks

It seems like every car culture has a lifestyle that surrounds it, and one of the oldest has to be the rat rod/hot rod style. Not only do the cars have a very distinctive look to them, but they can influence attire, musical and other interests as well. I am new to the hot rod style (and I do enjoy it quite much) but I particularly like the girls that are associated with the scene! I generally like girls with tatoos and colored hair, so I guess its pretty natural that I dig these attendees of the Billetproof car show that recently happend up in norcal. Unfortunately most of the automotive related events I attend or am associated with dont usually have an abundance of these girls, but I guess that means I'll have to attend more of these events in the future.

Full gallery from Jalopnik here: http://jalopnik.com/5052914/ink-beer-and-bettie-page-hair-the-people-of-billetproof-nor+cal-2008

The Cheating Wife

Taken from TrackHQ.com


"So lately my wife has been working alot of late shifts, and for the past couple of months she has been carpooling with a male co-worker. At first I didnt mind in case she has car trouble or something like that, but it seems they have become a little bit more than friends. You know the scenario, the phone calls that hang up, she starts wearing nice clothes to work and talking about him all the time then abruptly stops leaving an uncomfortable silence.If im out in the garage when she gets home (usually after midnight) he just drops her off and leaves, but if the lights are off in the garage and I'm in the house (they think Im sleeping) they sit out in the car for like twenty minutes.I asked her once what they were doing, and she said"Just talking" ....whatever.

So last night I decided to see whats really going on out there. So I leave the garage door open ,and turn off all the lights.About the time she usually gets home, I go out in the garage and wait.. In a few minutes, his car pulls into my driveway,and Im hiding behind my Lancer. When his headlights shine through my garage and onto the car, I see something that I just couldn't believe. The rear camber is severely wearing my rear tires. Now I have to get an alignment. Should I go with -1.5 with 1/32" toe out or just leave the toe at 0?"

The moral of this story? Women are always lame, so worry about the problems you can change.

The Fake Wheel Debate

For years now there's been a huge debate over buying real wheels and knockoffs. I suppose this exists in every industry, and while there are similarities in the debates between other industries, I'd like to address this specifically to the automotive wheel industry.

I really do see both sides to the equasion, but what I find funny is that the people who are pointing fingers usually really aren't in the position to be doing so. For the most part, from what I've seen is that the group usually against purchasing knockoff wheels are from the lifestyle/show crowd. Their argument usually consists of how companies that created/designed/RnD'ed are losing money from cheap knockoffs, how you get what you pay for, how the wheels are manufactured with a lower quality control tolerance, etc. All of these statements are true to a degree. The opposition, which encompasses everything from financially challenged "must modify something" kids all the way to serious racers on a budget also have their own reasons for purchasing knock off wheels. The legitimate reasons can include low entry cost (which applies to singular sets as well as multiple), decent level of quality control for intended usage (after all, wheels do have a US standard of quality control unlike Taiwanese made turbo manifolds, BOV's, and other items that aren't street legal to begin with), being able to have the "look" without the price, and availability. All of these reasons are very valid as well.

To people who aren't too familiar with me I may come across as a hypocrite. I am a huge proponent of only using quality parts on your car. By quality I don't mean just anything Japanese, I mean something from a company with racing history, its own research and development branch, and proper products that cater to using them in extreme environments. While I do use mostly American race parts on my car, the Japanese products I do use are of the highest quality (things like TRD, SARD, Tein). However, I don't have anything against knock off wheels, and I do think they have a place. I own both types of wheels, both real and knockoffs, and feel that each individual can decide for themselves which they want to use, as long as they don't point fingers at each other.

From most of the debates I've seen, the opponents to knockoff wheels have one thing in common: they don't often race/track their cars, or never do at all. This is interesting because often times, their criticisms of knockoff wheels are performance based. They say such things as "knock off wheels are heavy and aren't strong because they're not forged". In reality, since their vehicles usually sit in a garage or occasionally make it out to assist them in transportation to the weekly meet spot for boba, are they really taking advantage of the performance benefits of the wheels? Absolutely not. People who modify their vehicles with the only intent to see how long of a modification list they can create are elitists under a totally false pretense. Real deal wheels are that price because of their performance benefits, most of which you will never see on the street.

In addition, I think said elitists invest too much of their property as a relfection of their self worth, as they don't feel as if they "stand out" anymore and that they don't have anything special, when most people can mistake what they've spent a small fortune on looks striking similar to the wheels the 17 year old Taco Bell employee has (No offense to Taco Bell employees, your 7 layer burritos make my world go round). In addition, I believe the opposite is true. Having the real deal among a sea of fakes makes yours even more desireable, and to those who understand what the subtle differences are, they are even more special.

My point? The only people who can really have an opinion are racers who fully utilize the technological capabilities of the wheels. Notice however, that those people are usually never to be found making these arguments, or participating on forums because they're too busy racing to care about anything that trivial.

Get over the fake wheel debate. Graduate towards political debates! :)

A Girl I'd like to meet...

Absolutely fantastic combination of stickers. Japanese stickers are so three years ago, Mary Kay cosmetics and Flogging Molly stickers are in.

Flintstone Vitamin Eating Grand Prix Winner

Sebastian Vettel has just become the youngest driver to ever win a Formula 1 grand prix race at the tender age of 21. When I was 21, I was figuring out how to change the oil on my Corolla and doing my best to avoid being tricked into comprimising situations with high school girls.

Needless to say, he won very convincingly and is sure to be a rising star. The big question however, is whether or not his decision to move to Red Bull from Torro Rosso next year is a wise one, since Torro Rosso seem to be performing better than their varsity squad on a consistant basis.

Gotta love the music. Enjoy!

Source:Axis of oversteer

Forza Minardi! from Axis of Oversteer.com Video on Vimeo.