Auto X June 11th

If you read the previous post then you will know that I lost my engine during all this, but the good news was that I managed to pull off my first win! I had the fastest time of the day and the car handled very well! My wife improved a great deal in her S2000 as well, and is really starting to enjoy the sport I think. I believe my weakest point of the event was that I need to work on my concentration level and focus. The day of the event was very hot over 100 degrees, and we all got sun burnt but, it all was worth it! Heres a few photos from this past weekend 

126000 Miles :( RIP 2.0

This past weekend at the Auto X I participated in my engine went. I managed to finish and drive an hour home with a terrible noise like an exhaust leak. During the event I spun the car and tried to start it then heard a loud thunk. As the day went on I noticed the oil pressure progressively dropping. Once home I drained the oil only to find a bronze metallic color in the oil and the viscosity of water. I realized this year I was racing the clock on this but, now was the worst time for it to happen. But all things happen for a reason, and hopefully very soon I will replace it with a 2.2. But I believe really this story shows just how well Honda manufactures engines. I bought the car is 2002, and have really driven the car the whole life as it was meant to be driven, I ran ITB's with no filter for 60000 miles, ran the car super rich on bad tunes, also had numerous terrible tunes on the car and so on so forth, but I always changed the oil and never had any other problem with the engine until now. I must say that I am upset, however it is what it is and I guess 2011 has just been a year of rebuilding, and hopefully the end of year or next year the car will be better and stronger! Ill keep everyone up to date.

Go Pro

I have recently set up an associate account with Go Pro. What that means to you is that if you click a Go Pro link on the page and buy a Go Pro through that link we will receive a small commission from the sale. The commission will go to funding decals,shirts, cameras, and more to help the site improve!

We all know how good the Go Pro video recorders are, and how they have a great price!

Busy Weekend

I know I don't cover any drifting on here but several of my friends are big into this, so I am planning on going to to there Tractional Optional Drift Event Under The lights, heres a copy of the flier if your near the area make sure you try to make it out, it should be a good time!!!!

Then the following morning I will be participating in a local Auto X, hosted by BMWCCA, at the Millington Airport. This will be the first BMWCCA event I have attended so I am looking forward to it! Pictures and coverage will follow! I hope I see some more people in the area attend this as well!

Here is a link for more info http://www.rivercitybimmers.org/

$20 for BMWCCA members
$30 for non members

Registration at 0800
Drivers Meeting at 0930
First car off at 1000

Hind Sight

Most people will agree that no matter how you build your car there is always other cars that you covet, and you might say "If I did it all over again it would look like that". And then there is other instances where you did this and that and may get forced into a situation where you just cant go back and are forced to go forward. Chris Lum's build has always been one of those cars to me. I think his car is one of the best street built cars I have seen. First off his Ti Silver Volks have always been my absolute favorite colored wheel on the market bottom line. Then there is the front of his car with the ASM I.S. bumper and lip to round it all off. I talked to him and his original intentions was to build a track car out of it so where do you start then, suspension. His first mod happened to be some amazing TEIN SRC coilovers, but then opportunities arose for him to turbo his car, then that was out of his system and wanted to go for some aesthetics while his car devalued before he could make his next debut at the track.  So the SRC's were sold for a more friendly Mono Flex and some more parts. Chris had told me that at on point he had a bunch of "style" parts on his car and then realized the importance of the innovators and the research and development that goes into the parts we buy. I always tell people that if you take your time and buy the real parts you will receive so much more satisfaction in the end product. The import world is has been hit buy all the copies from abroad and when you buy the fakes you help take money away from the next new product. Another great point on this car is the Tamon spoiler. This is just a super nice piece, I just absolutely love how well it flows on a car like this and that is still has the third brake light. Chris drives this car every day to work and wherever, and feels that there is no rush in trying to finish the car overnight, I really love hearing that. He recently picked up a Bride Stradia Seat Japan Edition. Once again the patience on the details pay off in the end. His exhaust is a GReddy SE Single, next to HKS I personally believe that this is a great looking and sounding exhaust. Just to round things off more it seems that he has picked up an ASM rear bumper, another addition in the works that I cant wait to see the final product! Keep up the good work and I cant wait to see the rear bumper done!

I have not forgotton

I have been super busy and will be updating the blog soon sorry everyone!

Mountain Folk

For the past several years I have been going to the famous Deals Gap to enjoy all the roads and beautiful scenery in the Smokey Mountains. Over the years I have become familiar with the name Killboy. Killboy was always a person on the side of the road every day with an amazing job that allows him to drive these roads every day and chill out in the mountains and be a photographer (I have used a few photos on here that he took of my car as well). He manages to stay busy taking photos and selling them on his website www.killboy.com. But who was he? It wasn't until this year that I was able to put a face with name, and if you had followed the blog, you can recall the first post I made about 'Wake The Dragon' and the video that went with my post. The car that was tearing it up happens to belong to Killboy. It may be hard to tell in the photos, but the car is actually a flat silver color, being repainted from a misfortune that damaged his fender and brought about the Replica Amuse GT1 setup, that turns out to be Killboy's Autobot for tearing up the Dragon everyday. Suspension is simply modded with Buddy Club Race Spec coilovers, AEM intake, and a full exhaust set up. And of coarse all the small mods everyone else finds. The main thing here is how little is really done to the car and how fast he drives it, it's always amazing to see him flying around the corners, but most of the time you will see it parked on the side of the road. Another cool thing is his wife has recently picked up an S2000 as well. It would be easy to go on and on about how he has an awesome job and gets to hang out with his flat silver Autobot all day, but his mountain toys don't stop there. He also has Evo, Mini, sport bikes, god knows what else, pocket bikes, and big wheels (Not Rims). If you check out the link you will see videos. Check them out! It's pretty wild to see these custom big wheel/kids with adult riders big wheel videos. Make sure if you go to Deals Gap that you go to his website and buy a couple of pictures, his awesome photos that most likely he took of you, because he keeps up with all things going on in the mountains and helps clear debris off the road and also if your an IPhone addict, make sure to download his app Killboy from the App Store! The App is pretty cool because he always posts some of  the photos he takes each day that he likes with a short caption, and theres no telling what you will see. Another great feature on the App is all the maps of the best roads to drive in the area.

Sway Bars or Anti Roll Bars

Recently I have been in a few discussions involving sway bar combos. One should know that it's always not necessarily the best solution to run giant sway bars. There is a lot to consider such as tire sizes, width combos, suspension stiffness, and general driving characteristics. Another thing to consider is the price, such as using a combo using an array of OEM bars vs aftermarket. Also, another thing to make sure to check is the condition of bushings for the bar as well as the end-links and proper torque. Recently Eibach has released some sway bars for a great price, and some other brands have developed bars with adjustable end-links so you can really dial in your liking. If you didn't already know a sway bar connects one side of the suspension to the other and sends force from one side to another, the larger the bar, the stiffer the roll will be in a turn making it more difficult for the tire to roll over on its contact path. Changing this will affect over and understeer conditions. Ill try to update this as the thread grows or I find more.

The List (From S2KI The Great Sway Bar Thread http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/351694-the-great-swaybar-thread/page__hl__sway+bar+sizes)


OEM Sway Bars
AP1 2000-2001
F: 28.2x5.0mm (P/N: 51300-S2A-003)
R: 27.2x5.3mm (P/N: 52300-S2A-013)

AP1 2002-2003
F: 26.5x4.5mm (P/N: 51300-S2A-013)
R: 27.2x4.5mm (P/N: 52300-S2A-J01)

AP2 2004-2007
F: 26.5x4.5mm (P/N: 51300-S2A-023)
R: 25.4x4.5mm (P/N: 52300-S2A-J02)


AP2 2008-
F: 27.2mm 
R: 25.4mm 


AP2 CR
F: 28.6mm
R: 26.5mm

Aftermarket
Alex
F: 32.0mm
R: 24.5mm
R: 30.0mm
ASM:
F: 25.4x4.0mm
F: 31.8x3.7mm
R: 25.4x3.0mm
R: 30.2x3.5mm
Comptech:
F: 31.75mm
R: 31.75mm
Cusco:
F: 32mm
R: 30mm
Gendron:
F: 31.75x4.76mm
F:31.75x6.35mm
F: 31.75mm
Mugen:
F: 25.4mm
F: 31.8mm
R: 25.4mm
R: 30.0mm
Saner:
F: 31.75mm 3 position adjustable
Spoon:
F: 27x4.8mm
R: 27x4.3mm
SWIFT:
F: 87% stiffer
R: 116% stiffer
*compared to Early AP1 ('00-'01)
Tanabe:
F: 30.4mm
R: 30.4mm
Whiteline:
F: 30.0mm 
R: 30mm
STsuspensions
F: 28.2mm
R: 27.2mm 
Eibach
F: 32mm
R: 29mm




Stole this photo from MAXREV, But he also has a nice thread here and a review of the Eibach http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/822700-eibach-sway-bars-review/

The Big 1000

The Blog has hit 1000 posts so as long as it continues to increase I will keep updating it. I have now added a Facebook Fan Page, so that you can enjoy my page and help promote it by clicking the "Like" tab. If you are new, Welcome!!, and feel free to take some time and click through some old posts!

Thanks For The Support!

New Shoes

Im not really big into shoes, so therefore I don't wear flat billed hats either, and Im not too color coordinated.  So, on occasions I do end up buying a new pair of shoes, short of buying a full blown driving shoe, I tend to like shoes that compliment driving. I happened to stumble into a local Journey's shoe store and a pair of shoes caught my eyes because they looked nice and simple, and had a price right up my alley ($49.00). Upon closer inspection, I noticed it was a brand I had never heard of, kinda going back to the fact that I don't keep up on trends, Onituska Tiger. Looked them up on the internet and it turned out that it was a Japanese company, that's kinda cool. Don't worry JDM fan boys and girls, the shoes were made in Thailand with the rest of your fake parts. Apparently the sizes are Unisex/Women's, so if you're a man and order some off their website or wherever, order a half size smaller, from what I found trying them on. Here is the run down on these things, they are inexpensive compared to other shoes, light weight, the bottom is smooth, and the heel is made nice for relaxing on the floor, they are fairly comfortable compared to other shoes like this, and most important they look good. Morale here is this was something new to me and think they would be a nice driving shoe, therefore I just wanted to share them.

You can check there website out here http://www.onitsukatiger.com/en-uk