Lost the Mojo

I haven't posted in a while because of so much that has been going on. A few weeks ago was the all AE86 drift competition in which I participated. Aside from the fact that it was the first event of its kind, and beside the fact that it brang many of my friends together, it was an event I'd almost rather forget. I drove so poorly that day that I'm sure it was difficult for the photographers to find photos of me that were complimentary.

I'm not really sure what happened. Maybe because it was my first competition and I was not used to the environment, or maybe because I didn't have enough time at the balcony to prepare. Either way, I was quite dissappointed with my performance. In a way, I feel like I let some of my "teachers" down.

To move on past the depressing part, we'll get to some more fun stuff.



This guy, JMAC, finished 4th. He clawed his way all the way through the ranks with a stock red top engine. If there ever was a better example of driver over machine, I dare you to find it.

On top of all that, since he doesn't own an AE86 anymore, he was kind enough to offer me the tires he had left over for the next drift event I do.




Seeing as how I didn't do as well as I would have liked, I was kind of down. I had practiced so much and put so much emphasis on drifting for the past few months and I felt like I had made no strides forward in skill. Pancit Alex suggested I do an event to get my "mojo" back, and after some thinking I felt he was right. The way I looked at it, I could either be upset that I drove poorly, or take any opportunity I could to get back on the horse and try again.

This prompted me to head out the following weekend to Inland Drift again. Luckily, Taka and Yoshie were there to give me some kind words and pointers, so I could begin getting some confidence again. The day ended with an interesting conversation with the owner of Inland Drift. Turns out he's an AE86 fan (and owner I think) and he enjoyed watching me run. He asked if I'd come out to one of their Friday events to help put on a show for the locals by doing some tandem runs. I told him that if I could choose who I went with, I'd do it. Its nice to hear that some people appreciate your driving! His kind words were a nice confidence booster.

Above is a video that I found on youtube from that day, with one of my runs.

Anyhow this upcoming weekend has a competition that Pancit Alex, MarkX and a few other friends will be competing in, so I'll be in the 909 again to cheer them on. Sunday's got another practice drift day for me!

Getting back on the horse is better than sitting in the dirt.

Missing Bolts

The competition is still about two weeks away, but I wanted to get a head start on some of the maintenance and problems with my car. A few weeks ago, Steve from SR Motorcars (http://www.srmotorcars.com/) was kind enought o take a look at my tune, touch it up a bit, and actually gave it a few more ponies and also extended the power band another 500 rpm. Thanks Steve!

This weekend I decided to tackle a missing bolt I saw that usually is there to help secure the alternator bracket. I had a problem with this in the past, and I'd say this is what I get for not thoroughly going over the car at least once a month. Anyhow upon closer inspection, I found out that the alternator bracket was only being held on by one bolt.

I got some replacement bolts from Alex V, but ran into some other odd problems. First, there was an older broken bolt stuck in there which I managed to get out once I removed the entire bracket assembly. Then I noticed that a different bolt was broken and stuck inside the block. I figured it wouldn't be too much of a problem if all 3 edges of the bracket were bolted down. Since the broken bolt was in the center, I wasn't too worried. The problem came however when I tried to tighten down the far ouside bolt. It simply wouldn't thread down all the way to touch the bracket. Once it gets to a certain spot, it just keeps spinning.

After Alex making fun of me for not using my inspection mirror to take a look at the bolt hole, I also found that one of the bolts that holds the motor mount bracket to the block was also missing.

The moral of the story is, if you take your engine to 9,000 rpm often, you should probably check to make sure all the bolts are there. I can only image what would have happened if I just went to the competition like this.

Helmets

I've always been a big fan of custom painted race helmets. I'm researching what I'd potentially like to do with mine, and I came across this video of Robert Kubica (BMW Formula 1 Driver) explaining the features of his F1 helmet. After all, they use the highest quality, most technologically advanced gear on the planet. I use the same gloves he does!

Naoki, you crazy

After looking at Drift Day Naoki's blog, I came across this flyer he made. I thought it was pretty cool. What a cool car! Look how sexy it is! That owner/driver must be the sexiest man alive.

Dirty

I like dirty women. I like dirty cars. I drive dirty.

Looking through someones compilation of the Inland Drift event, I found they actually got a shot of one of my funniest runs. Sit through the video or foreword to 3:16 and you'll see:

Driving through the dirt to try and connect the big sweeper.
Showering the course worker standing there with dirt.
My bumper falling off.

Ahhh Corollas.

Korea in the house!

If it weren't for the fact that some of my good friends are drivers in Formula D, sometimes I feel like I wouldn't pay attention to it. With the obsurdity of the vehicles lately and the seemingly blatant favoritism going on (not within the judging) a huge gap looked to be taking place. The winners in motor sports are usually the teams with the biggest budgets, but every so often a smaller team brings the rain and causes the bigger teams lots of pain. This past round of Formula D happened to have their own Braun GP thing going on, with So-Cal's own Joon Maeng taking 4th place!

This was important for a few reasons. First, Joon is one of the people who I think had one of these coming. He's one of the finest examples of a privateer driver who sincerely does do everything he possibly can to make it out to every event. He is certainly a guy who never gives any excuses and drives his heart out at every event. In addition, since he's a privateer, he doesn't have the funds to build a 900hp car, and instead has to rely on driving his car 100% all the time. That seems like something missing these days in drifting. He's also a sincerely nice guy who is always willing to talk to people and be friendly, but most importantly he's Korean!

Most of you probably won't care all that much, but I think its pretty cool that there's Korean representation in drifting. The sport is full of cultural representation, but Koreans haven't really found their way to the professional ranks all that often. John Yim carried the flag alone for a few years, but now that flag belongs to Joon.

Join me in congradulationg Joon on his finish!

Training continues...

My training goes on, and on, and on. I've never driven at the balcony before, and considering I'm planning on participating in a competition there, I figured I'd better learn how to do the course. Thanks to Johnny Mac and the rest of the crew, I started to get what to do and became a little more consistant.

Funny thing, I also tried tandem for the first time. Before you know it, we were doing 3 car tandem. Pretty scary:



I do think though that I may not totally embarass myself now at the competition. I nailed down a few runs that looked pretty good, so I'm a little more confident now. Third gear entry is pretty fun.
Balcony


Can't wait for next month's competition!