Hey if anyone happens to get any of those codes for the every10minutes giveaway and doesnt want them could you please send them to me im trying to win! The codes come on Pepsi and mountain dew products. In the 12 packs and under the caps on the bottles. If u find any could u please hook a brother up?! U can email em to me at <!-- e --><a href="mailto:wilkinrt@jmu.edu">wilkinrt@jmu.edu</a><!-- e --> or IM me at MounDewJunkie also if u have MSN messenger my name on there is <!-- e --><a href="mailto:Ryanxo@hotmail.com">Ryanxo@hotmail.com</a><!-- e -->. THANKS!

I was browsing Kawasaki's website the other day and I noticed their new Ninja 650R. I like the look of the bike (the bottom exhaust is cool too, and lowers the bike's center of gravity), and its numbers look good as well. The strange thing is its only around $6k MSRP, which is considerably less than comparably equipped bikes. What gives?

Here are the stats: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kawasaki.com/product_print.aspx?product=145">http://www.kawasaki.com/product_print.aspx?product=145</a><!-- m -->

My supervisor took me to lunch in his bone stock M3 yesterday, gorgeous looking grey with the SMG package (?). Had the SMG tranny with the tiptronic type thing and the paddle shifting on the wheel. I'll give my overall impression since I'm bored and a little hungover.

THE EXTERIOR.
I've always thought the M class BMWs are sexy as hell. I like how the rims on this car have the M3 logo built into them. The ride height is money, the exhaust looks nice, and the paint appears to be very thick and quality.

THE INTERIOR.
I admittedly don't know much about these cars, so I couldn't tell you whether this interior is the same as all M3s. It's pretty freakin dope though, I must say. M3 door sills, black leather with tan leather seats and inlays on the doors. Everything seems to be in its proper place and you definitely feel one with the car. The exhaust note is surprisingly quiet, but the engine sounds amazingly refined. Maybe I'm just spoiled because of aftermarket exhausts.

PERFORMANCE.
Honestly, I was really surprised at the lack of smoothness of that transmission (and keep in mind that really doesn't mean shit, because I was riding shotgun and not driving). I really think that car would have much better power delivery with a manual tranny, which should be obvious. In automatic mode, the car really hesitated on downshifting and it was no better when using the "tiptronic" thingy or the paddles. I guess I expected it to be on par with the smoothness of the Audi S4 I test drove a while back.

It definitely didn't have neck-snapping torque, but it seemed to have a very very smooth power band and pulled solidly all the way to redline. There was a comforting sense of security at high speed in that car; it seemed to hug the road nicely and enjoyed travelling fast. Again I think I'm a little spoiled right now, but I was expecting a little more power out of that engine. My car when it was at stage 2, just from teh butt dyno comparison, felt like it would have kept up with it in a straight line no problem.

OVERALL.
A gorgeously sexy car. I can see why people fall in love with these. Everything about it is well thought out and comfortable. As much as I'd really like to own a sports car with a tiptronic / clutchless transmission, if I bought this one I'd definitely get it in a manual version. I'd also put a blower on it and make it a monstrosity ***fights back the urge to mod every car I ever own!!!****

Borrowed the G-Tech Pro RR (top 'o the line "road race" version) from the bossman at work. What a cool little device! Although the technology is nothing new, I've never played with one before and I'm quite impressed. It does exactly what it says, is easy to use, and the results are quite useable. I'll go ahead and say that being called the "road race" version is a bit misleading, since I don't know how useful that data will be, but as a tuning device, I think it's pretty neat.

Setup was easy. Enter car weight. I guessed 2600, since I and my trunk full of tools and crap were along for the ride. Then calibrate RPMs. Yes, it magically picks up your tach signal (I guess interference from the ignition) after revving to a few specified RPMs that it asks for. Cool! Make sure the thing is solidly mounted. I skipped the windshield mount, pulled out my ashtray and wedged it in there for a tight fit. It figures out it's own orientation in the car after a first run. Ready to go.

There's two modes. Road Racer mode and Drag Strip mode. Went over to a neighboring industrial blvd after work for a test of the Drag Strip mode. The flatter the road the better, but you can get some useable data without finding a perfectly flat quarter mile. This little access road was fairly flat for a bit, then hit a little hill, so I figured I'd shut it down before I hit the hill. Turned out to be just enough to get me to ~50MPH. The data recording starts and stops automatically. Graphs can be viewed and analyzed on the unit, but to compare runs, nothing beats DLing it to the computer unsing the decent software and provided serial cable. You can load multiple runs and overlay them onto eachother. Here's 3 of my runs viewed in a few different ways:

HP vs Time


RPM's vs Time


Speed vs Time


It can also simulate a dyno chart, although I did not follow the recommended procedure of short shifting 1st and running 2nd through the whole range. But here's the chart it generated from 2nd gear:



Go ahead and laugh it up. :lol: I know that has to be the saddest dyno plot you've ever seen. :oops: Hey, I could have lied and told it my car weighed 10,000 lbs to make my numbers look glorious!

Like I said, as a tuning device, the output is quite useable. I plan on making some changes to my exhaust soon, and although I don't really expect much change, I think this thing would be able to tell me if there was.

So the Drag Race mode is pretty great I'd say. In fact, it can simulate a little tree graphic and you can hone your reaction time. Also, since it picks up RPMs, it has a multi stage shift light on the unit that you can modify. It shines as a drag racing tool, and although I'm not interested in that, I'd still like to have one to test changes.

Again, on the Road Race mode, I don't think the data collected would be very useful. If I plunked down $300 for this thing, hoping that it would give me some data from the track, I think I'd be rather disapointed. It can basically tell you if you're being smooth or not, if you're using the tires as much as you could, but if you can't figure that out on your own.... well maybe you should buy this thing. :wink: But it can't even function as a lap timer, which I think is a big flaw. I'm surprised they couldn't figure that out. And unlike the Drag Mode where graphs and data can be analyzed on the unit, the Road Race mode pretty much requires downloading to get anything out of it.

Here's an example chart recorded this afternoon from my turn at the light at the end of the on-ramp down the street to my apt. You can see time in seconds on the bottom, lateral G's, longitudinal G's, and RPM. Exciting! :thumbup:



I've taken that screenshot on the particularly exciting light change and turn at almost .6 lateral G's!!!!! wOOt! :lol:

In both this and the Drag Mode, it can playback the run as if it was happening in real time, both on the compy and on the unit. So you can re-live all the glory. I can't say I'd recommend the extra $100 for the RR model, but the SS model for $199 list seems like a nice tuning tool. However, to get the computer software and ability to store multiple car setups on the unit, you've got to get the RR.

I'll update if my removed cat and straight through muffler makes any difference.... 8) Although I think I estimated the weight a little low (my numbers are a little low I think because of this), if I keep it that way, and run on the same patch of street, I think this thing will be able to tell me if the exhaust helped at all.

The S2000 needs some new toys... Tweeter hacked up my Cvic with an alarm install so they are out, Best Buy and Circuit City I just don't trust... Anyone?

Yes yes, I could do it myself, but I just don't feel like it and I'd like a guarantee that it is done right

just wondering what time of the year does H-burg do county registration stuff, as my car is registered down there (primary garage)...

:lol:

Don't know how many of you read Corner-Carvers but this was posted up today. Bunch of articles about brake systems, beding in pads, etc.

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Im home from work this week, so I decided to get some much needed progress on my SM build.

First up, and most importantly, was the suspension.
The car got the SM suspension, which consists of bilstein shocks, ground control coilovers, and Eibach swaybars.
I also installed new blueprinted hubs, tie rod ends, and lower balljoints
its almost a shame to cover up those shiny new hubs with brake rotors


Then came the gutting
well, most of the gutting anyway. The radio is staying in for now, and Im keeping the carpet over the trans tunnel because it gets unbearably hot (enough to burn)
and you can see my stars and strips Sparco if you havent seen it yet :lol:


did a bunch of other little stuff, and got some used RA1s mounted today on my other set of ATS


the car is going in for an alignment tomorrow, and to Piper Motorsports for a cage,window net, kill switch, etc on Oct 10.
I may just make the Oct Nasa race!

Just curious what you guys think
(yes the car is extremely dirty)
Gold:



Gunmetal