Fantastic Video!

Club4AG Las Vegas drift event!!! from Robert Strohmeyer on Vimeo.

Live and Learn

I've had to put driving on the backburner. With Jesse's wedding and Jason's bachelor party, I didn't have much time to do any events, or any money to do them for that manner. Since those events passed (and were tons of fun!) I was able to concentrate on getting ready for the 4AG drift competition at Primm (stateline Nevada). I told Naoki I'd do it if he towed me, and he agreed.

The car was down for a bit because it simply wouldn't start. Eventually I traced it down to the starter, and luckily I had a spare I bought about 4 years ago. I knew I'd use it someday! Anyhow once I got it running, I changed the engine oil and filer and just loaded the car up.

The event was interesting for several reasons. First, its the second drift competition I'd ever done. Second, it was out of state. Third, I had some friends coming to visit me so it was certainly added pressure to do well.

As usual, we had 3 runs to get it right, and the best of those 3 runs would be our score. I hadn't quite gotten the course down consistently by then, but figured I had nothing to lose. My first two runs were crap, but the third run was okay. I didn't feel too good about any of my runs, but at least I connected the third one. Once the event ended, it turned out that Alex V and white boy Mark took first and second, with another guy I didn't know taking third. Then Taka and John told me I missed third place by a few fractions of a point. I wasn't upset at all, because its still only the 2nd competition I'd ever done.

Really though, how could I be upset? I had a fantastic time in Vegas on Saturday night, I got to hang out with my good friends, and had some amazing visitors as well.

After the comp, John rode with me and helped me work out the course. I ended up with this:


Can't bee too unhappy with the weekend :)

Another in car:

Auto Shows

I dug up this old video I took at the Tokyo Auto Salon a few years ago. They had shows every 30 minutes with cute dancing girls to kickoff the launch of 3 new Mitsubishi vehicles. Yet anothing that that is better in Japan: Auto Shows.

Motorcycle Heaven

So a few weeks ago, I decided to take a trip down to San Diego to visit my good friends, Sid and Desiree. After eating a wonderful Octoberfest lunch, Sid asked me if I'd like to tag along to visit a motorcycle junkyard. While I'm not as familiar with motorcycles as I am with cars, I'm always interested in anything mechanical, so I said I'd love to go! I had no idea what I was in for, but thought it would be an educational experience nevertheless. Here is a brief tour of Stockers!
To say they have exhausts is an understatement.

What's amazing is how well organized everything is. These bins have engine specific parts in them, and there are even some engines lying around, labled and all.

This bin had make and models specific parts in it, but I loved the carbs :)

Sid and his buddy were looking for a gas tank that they could use for a custom project. So, they looked....
....and looked. As you can see, they have a lot of gas tanks. As a matter of fact, they completely line the walls of the entire building.

They also have wheels. I can only imagine if there was an AE86 shop like this somewhere.

More neatly labeled parts bins.

Old school Harley. Maybe someday.

This is more like it!

Where do I begin...

This past month has to be the most stressful time I've had in quite a while. There's a large gap in my posts because I haven't been doing anything really automotive related, or at least motor sport or enhancement related. Instead, I've had crazy other things going on: I recently just moved, been having some lady problems, been trying to purchase a truck, and worst of all my daily driver started to have some issues. The other things aren't automotive related, so we'll just cover the daily driver since its the closest thing automotive I can write about, since I know you guys don't wanna hear about other lame crap going on.

As you can see in the photo above, the pulley is out of my 4-door, thanks to master technician English. Mr. English removed the pulley to find that the keyway is broken, along with the crank key and timing gear. Looks like the pulley bolt came loose at some point and caused havoc, and I've been driving it like this for lord knows how long. This was the biggest snag we ran into with the 4-door while attempting the timing belt change, as there were a few other surprises on the car as well. I guess 175K miles on a car can bring fourth some interesting things.

Luckily for me, I have great friends. I called around to a lot of my local Corolla brethren only to hear that while at one point they did own a replacement pulley which may have worked, they eventually discarded it. I actually used to have one as well before I threw mine away. One nice fellow, has been a photo contributor on here (Wes Hamachi) was kind enough to bring by a silvertop 20v pulley to see if it will work. Unfortunately, it did not. As you can see, the 4AF pulley on the left is shorter than the pulley on the right, (the 20v). It isn't just the number of grooves for the belt, but the spacing was different as well. I still appreciated the gesture, and took Wes out to eat (I owed him some money too from Vegas. Doesn't everybody?)

After realizing that my deadline was approaching (Mr. English wanted to have the car done by Thursday) I started calling around to local salvage yards that have parts ready to go. They all wanted around $75 for the pulley. While I could have easily driven down there to buy it and not broken a sweat doing it, instead I chose to hit up my local pick your part. The Stanton yard had about 4 different 4AF engines which were the exact ones I could use the pulley from. I also lucked out by finding one that had all of the drive belts already taken off making my job that much easier. After impacting the bolt and prying the pulley off, I left the yard taking some happiness in the fact that i saved about $50 on the pulley over going to the other "ready to go" salvage yard.

So now, the pulley is in Mr. English's hands. I'm moved in, and just bought a can opener today. Life seems to be looking up.

I'd like to try to end my blogs on a happy note, and I think we all know nothing makes me happier than AE86's! (except maybe titties)

Bums!

I'm totally not talking about those souls who've had society turn their back on them. Chances are, they may have not been smart enough to keep themselves clean or make sound financial decisions, but more than likely if they're going sailing in the deep ocean they'd bring a life vest.

I'm talking about the bums at drift events. There's lots of them. The idiots who don't bring tools, spares, or logical things that would more than likely make life easier for them or perhaps get them home.

I used to be all about helping people out, because "drifters" used to be part of a community of people who cared about each other, and who went out of their way to get each other home. You helped someone out when you could, because chances are they'd help you when you needed it. These days, there are more and more people who aren't capable to help anybody, because they can't help themselves. More and more losers who keep asking to borrow my tools. More and more losers to return them no longer functioning, more and more losers to repetitively ask to borrow the same things.

A few weeks ago, I was at a drift event. This kid in an old BMW asks to borrow my air compressor, and I generously let him. I think nothing of it. All I asked is that he return it when he's done. He does (or rather his friend does), then another pit neighbor asks to borrow it as well. He then informers me that its not working. I inspect it, and find that its broken. Seeing as how the second guy to use it couldn't even fire it up, I'm guessing it was the kid with the BMW. Not only were the prongs on the input unit itself bent, but he blew the fuse inside of it.

The reason why guy A sucks:

He broke my compressor and returned it hoping that I wouldn't notice. He left before I could say anything.

The reason why guy B sucks:

He's driving a $35K car but can't afford to bring an air compressor or jack.

Guy A, driving an old E30 BMW (which was basically stock) obviously isn't made of money, but came unprepared. Buy B, who has a lot more money, also came unprepared.

So you see, your financial status has nothing to do with it at all. Bottom line is, if you come to a toga party, bring a f*#@ing TOGA!

It'll never happen to me

I think this photo sort of speaks for itself. For those of you that don't know what this was from, Felipe Massa, a factory Ferrari Formula 1 driver, was recently struck by a stray suspension piece (a spring) during qualifying at the Hungaroring. He was traveling at 150mph. After being struck, he started to lose consciousness but not before applying some pressure to the brakes moments before he crashed into a tire barrier.

This is why I think people who question regulations on safety equipment are morons. Lots of people I run into (unfortunately because I happen to associate with dirty drift people) consistently complain about mandatory SA approved helmets, roll bars, nomex suits, side impact bars, and everything else that could potentially save your life or prevent serious injury. Felipe's incident should convince you that every piece of safety equipment you can use is well worth it. Put up with some discomfort and high cost to give yourself a chance in case something terrible does happen. Remember that most safety equipment isn't there to protect you from common happenings (you don't get hit in the face at 150mph by a spring, do you?), but there to prevent you from uncommon happenings. In cases like these, its always better to have it and never need it, then need it and not have it.

Mind you also, that Felipe Massa is wearing the most advanced, state of the art safety equipment yet it still can't totally prevent catastrophes. If this can happen to him, imagine what would have happened to you if you were wearing your lame helmet?