Went to Road ATL on sunday to check out the Classic Motorsports Mitty. Heard they had some Elises to autocross, and a guy who wanted to buy my Fiero wheels/tires was there. So I took some cool pics, they really had some unique stuff there, and lots going on. Here's most of them, I'll link a few highlights later:

http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictur...2127296671

Anyway, as a big fan of mid-engine cars, the Elise seems pretty awesome. Sure enough, it was! :bow: They had a very small course set up, and you only got 2 runs. But it was enough to get a taste of the car, and the Lotus guys who brought them were knowledgable and pretty much acted like these things were already written off. :wink: Hell, I was surprised they weren't riding along and slapping your hand when you tried to shift hard or something.

So after watching the GRM and Lotus guys take a lap or two, and watching a few people pussy foot them around (you stood in line to do THAT? :roll: ), hoping they'd at least put a little heat in the tires for me, I finally got to hop in. Sure enough, these cars are really stipped down. About 1950lbs I think. Spartan door panels, no carpet, thin cloth racing style seats with only a slider, no recline. Getting in and out was pretty rough since the door sills were wide and higher than the seats and the wheel had no adjustments. But everything felt and looked solid, and it all made a whole lot of sense once in the driver's seat. Very functional and simplistic gauge layout, and the seat was plenty comfortable and put me in a perfect driving position. And I didn't even have to put the seat all the way back. I didn't feel cramped at all (I'm 6'2").

One BIG surprise to me, the pedals were out of control. Honestly, the gas pedal was maybe an inch wide, and there was not even enough space between the right edge of the brake pedal and the center tunnel for me to step on the gas with the sole of my tennis shoe. With an errant stomp, you could probably hit all three pedals at once. hock: For a race car? Sure! Great! For a street car, I thought this an odd choice, basically requiring either tiny feet, racing shoes, or bare feet.

Other than that, no gripes. I'd drive it every day if I could afford one. 8) So I twisted my foot to press the gas with the edge, ran the shifter through the gates a couple times (not Miata smooth, but pretty good and tight), tested my foot setup a little, found out the brake was initially disapointingly squishy, but then suddenly like an on/off switch (I think someone needed to bleed the brakes), and took off.

First dissapeared pretty quickly, short shifted into 2nd before the first left, down a little hill, a little sideways after a wet spot at the apex in the 2nd left, drift up the hill, fast right, 3 cone very tight slalom, I think I took out at least 2, plenty of power out even at mid RPMs, light brake, steer, rotate, dorifto, accel, brake, done. Sweet! I wanna go again! I would have done that all day if they'd let me. My 2nd time out I of course tightened it up a bit, went faster and took it a little easier on the cones.

I can say it's really like a big kart. Super fun and easy to control, great power, super brakes, very nimble, understeer, oversteer, sideways, you want it, just ask. I was really surprised that even on my first run, it inspired enough confidence that I could break it loose and bring it back without a thought. Being smooth would have taken some time, but it would have been so much fun. Of course, I thought.... for only a second... I could drive down this little hill, onto the track, do about a half lap, zoom through and out the pits, paddock, exit, main road, cya around suckers! :twisted: Maybe next time. In the meantime, someone buy me one!!!

And I even think they look awesome too!

The SR20VE from All Japanese in Florida is finally here . I spent nearly 20 hours driving on Sunday, so today I slept in until about 2. I called down to the shipping company (who was supposed to call me when the engine arrived), and they said it was finally there. I picked up my cousin (to help lift the motor) and headed down to Fredericksburg in a borrowed minivan to pick up the engine. Here it is in the back after arriving at home:




Myself, my cousin, and my younger brother loaded it into a wheelbarrow and took it around back.

I like how the TB, vacuum lines, coolant lines, etc. where blocked off with those yellow caps









Here are a few shots of under the valve cover, looks pretty clean to me.





There was actually a slight amount of surface rust spots on a few of the cam lobes, but it doesnt look like anything to worry about. I poured some oil over them before I put the valve cover back on.



Both cam solenoid wiring harnesses still intact. Also notice the hook they attatched to easily lift the motor with. There is another one on the front of the motor that you can see in an earlier picture.




Pit Work oil filter, what the heck is that?


Apparently its an OEM Nissan filter



NGK BKR6E-N spark plugs, same as come from the factory (possibly the originals?). It also had the OEM nissan plug wires.


Here is a close up of the special -N plug. The electrod is ground differently on the -N. You can see (or maybe not, that pictures is pretty crappy) that it is flat instead of coming to a tip, and it also has a slit that runs down the middle of it.




Im pretty happy with the engine so far. Everything looks to be in order. I'd like to do a leakdown test, but I don't have the equipment. After finals I will get it up onto an engine stand and drop the pan to check out the bottom end. I'll also tap it for the oil temp sensor, and do a few other things in preperation for the actual install. I can't wait to get this bad boy in.

-Mike

got me a 240 project for the summer

Flew home last night after a 12 day vacation in Europe. Flew to Vienna to see a friend of mine, spent a weekend in Bratislava, then flew south to Belgrade, Montenegro, and northern Albania.

Vienna is a nice city, but it's a bit sterile in my opinion. A few photos from the Hapsburg hunting palace called Schonbrun.




Then while walking in the park I noticed an odd looking squirrel with pointy ears. Went for a photo, and the damn this jumped on my leg. LOL



Took the train to Bratislava and the weather could not have been more perfect. We primarily lounged around the city, and took some time to enjoy Zlat├¢ Ba┼¥ant and Budějovick├¢ Budvar.







Mmmm... Krušovice... Perfect ad photo IMO.



Grabbed a flight on JAT airlines to Podgorica in Montenegro. This Russian turboprop plane was in an interesting ride, but I survived. I can't begin to tell you some of the terrain we flew over... still a lot of snow in the mountains.



Went to the old city of Cetinje, which was pretty disappointing. There is an extremely high unemployment rate, so all everybody does is drive around this small town and honk at each other.

Nice.


Next day I hitched a minibus (primary intercity transportation) to Kotor on the coast. Kotor sits in a fjord at the end of a "bay". It's an old walled city with a citidel that rises about 1500 ft. up the mountain and was the one of the only cities not to fall to the Turks in the area. You can really just spend the entire day wandering the area and there are so many picturesque vantages.









My next stop was Ulcinj, the last significant town on the way to Albania. This was a North African slave trading post between the 15th and 18th Centuries...



Some odd fishing huts...



And my trusty Albanian driver Nehail...



Now many people ask why on earth I would want to go to Albania. Well, because it's there and it just opened it's borders to Westerners...

A few cultural observations. Albania is dirt poor, and is extremely dirty. It is the polar opposite of everything I have ever learned in my knowledge of Eastern Europe. Nodding your head means "no", shaking it means "yes". Saying "jo", which in many Slavic languages means "yes", actually means "no". The Albanian language is based off the ancient Illyrian ancestors who populated the area in the 7th century and is completely unique on its own.

Around 3PM, Shkadar goes into "siesta" mode, shops close, and power is shut off in the city. Around 7PM, everybody comes back out and walks around for several hours, or if they're driving, honking their horns. And not once did I see somebody eat in a restaurant. All you saw was men sitting, drinking beer or coffee, and hooting at the passing women. Bizarre place.

This is Razafa, an old Illyrian fortification on the confluence of three rivers at the base of Lake Shkadar (biggest lake in the Balkans). It was eventually taken over by the Ottoman empire in the 15th century and was still used until WWI.



Crumbling Ottoman neighborhoods in Shkadar...




Fishing for dinner at the lake...



I took a day trip to another small city south of Shkadar called Lezha. A view from the castle...



Returned to Montenegro and stopped at Virpazar, a few small town at the top of Lake Shkadar. I stayed with a random family (again), and the mother continued to ask me if I liked her jailbait daughter (who was pretty cute). It was pretty obvious to me that she wanted to marry her off... LOL. Anyways, an early evening view across the lake into the Albanian Alps.



Flew into Belgrade and walked around for a few hours during my break. It was a lot cleaner than I expected, with an awesome military museum that showcased a lot of WWI and WWII artillery.



A few boulevard shots.





Last but not least, we went to a FK Austria Bundesleague game just for the fussball hooligan experience.



Me a bit buzzed and happy... Yes, it's been shaved off... LOL



That's all for now... I have lots more photos, but don't really feel like uploading anymore.

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=Z06

I'm going to head up there and watch guys blow up their ubertuned motors Anyone else want to join me? I'll probably go early in the morning.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://onelapofamerica.com/">http://onelapofamerica.com/</a><!-- m --> - for the rest of the schedule and details about the event.

Impreza finally makes an appearance into D1 class...*drool*. Maybe this is just new to me.. but there is some amazing innovation incorporated into this machine... and its damn sexy. :lol:



More information: More pictures of Nobushige Kumakubo's car in the act and a quick discussion.
http://www.drifting.com/forums/showthrea...ge=1&pp=15

Need to buy something at Sears now or some day? I can get 15% off on gift cards right now.

Sears $25 Gift Card $21.25
Sears $50 Gift Card $42.50
Sears $100 Gift Card $85.00
Sears $250 Gift Card $212.50
Sears $500 Gift Card $425.00

Shoot me an IM/PM if you want in.

Route: San Diego to New Orleans (all on I-10) to Atlanta to CMP to NoVa
Miles: 3286
Gas: 95 gallons
Oil: 0 (none!)
Tickets: 1
Red Bulls: 1

I wrote up a log of sorts while we were travelling, which made this rather easy to post up. So, here goes....

Prep

Since it was going to be quite a bit of a drive, we definately needed some in car entertainment for this adventure. I picked up a power inverter, we had our 2 laptops, DVD's, Matt's iPod, some books and car mags, camera and cell phones we were all set. I packed up some tools, picked up a spare distributor from Advance Auto and we were ready.

Monday

We flew out of dulles at 6pm, had a short 1-beer layover in st louis and arrived into san diego at 10pm with an uneventful trip and got our shuttle to the hotel in downtown san diego. Ahh.... 70 degree weather. Around 10:30 we checked out the car and then headed out to hit up the bars for a few hours even though the whole town was empty - monday night, go figure. I had been out in San Diego for work at the end of last year, it was definately nice to be back.

Tuesday (note: all times are Pacific time... i have no idea where the hell I am, let alone what time zone I'm in during this trip)

Got a fairly late start on the day, ate some brake fast at the hotel and then headed out downtown for a bit while we had some time to kill. We checked out the classic car dealership for a bit - they had some GT40 replicas, some old british stuff and some modern classics as well - 930 slantnose porsche, ferraris, etc. Very neat place. Did some more tourist stuff walking around the gas lamp district downtown, bought some Hard Rock t-shirts and then we met up with the seller to get the car. Unfortunately, this proved to be a colossal pain in the ass.

We first headed to his bank (bank of america), which was a few blocks from the hotel and I figured we'd be out of there in a few minutes to sign over the title. Wrong! I did not know his OCD mother was in charge of this transaction.... There was first a dispute over the price of the car - over the phone he had agreed to $4500, but this was veto'd by his mother at some point and I ended up a couple hundred over that. I figured, whatever, i've come out here and its not going to break the budget so lets just get this thing over with. Wrong! His mother wouldnt take a cashier's check from my bank. So then we find a Navy Federal Credit Union branch, which was 35 minutes away and drive there. So we get there, and I cash the check on the spot and finally after another 10 minutes of fussing and haggling over the title, the mileage on the car, the bill of sale - my head a splode - we get it sorted out and I'm off.

Head back to san diego and do some driving around - drive through downtown, down the coast, and then back around san diego harbor. Damn this place is nice... still 70 deg and sunny, great scenery and really friendly people. I guess when the temp never gets over 78 with 362 days of sunshine a year.... From there we head to Old Town San Diego where many of the original buildings are preserved as museaums and shops. Grabbed some lunch at a real mexican restaurant in Old Town - fantastic food.

At some point during the day, we decided that this trip was not nearly absurd enough already - so, after looking over the map for possible detours along the way we decided that we'd drive non stop to New Orleans and arrive wednesday afternoon, spend the night there and then head on to atlanta on thursday afternoon after a night out on the town and some sight seeing thursday morning. From there we'd head to CMP for the weekend on friday morning.

About 3:30 we finally hit the road out of san diego and start hauling ass. We elected to take the most southern route (I-10) - the scenery through southern california is breathtaking. By 11pm we're a good ways into New Mexico (over 600 miles by now) with a few stops for gas.

3 am... almost 12 hrs in, we're somewhere in the heart of texas with 900 miles covered. w00t!

6:30am... deeper and deeper into Texas.... I had been hauling ass ever since the sun came and got busted by the fuzz for littering and... littering and... speeding! I think I was doing about 95, but he wrote me a citation for 85 in a 75 without any hassle. First time i've had a speeding ticket in over 4 years - oh well, hopefully I wont get points in Va for it.

8:00 am... been in texas for over 6 hours and 500 miles now, and I havent seen chit. Nothing. Some trees.... some other cars. A few rest stops. Thats it. No civilization other than a gas station every 50 miles. This place most definately blows. At least we're not too far from san antonio now.

400 miles of texas to go, 400 miles of texas.... take one down, pass it around 399 miles of texas to go....

11:00 am... Finally got into San Antonio, and decided to take a break from being in the car for 17 hours and 1400 miles straight and stretch out a bit before I lose my sanity... well, whats left of it. Since we were here, we headed downtown to see the Alamo, take some pics and get something to eat. After a nice break for an hour we're back onto I-10 East, 300 miles left before we get out of this state.

4 pm - we're finally into Louisiana after driving for nearly 900 miles in texas.

8 pm - Arrive in New Orleans! We drove around a bit, and after about an hour of getting lost we find a crappy hotel that isnt too expensive thats a short drive down to the french quarter. After getting cleaned up we headed down to Bourbon street for some fun. It wasnt too busy but it was definitely a good time and Matt was completely shitfaced after downing two irresponsibly strong 32oz Hurricanes.

Thursday

After we crawled out of the dump that we stayed in we headed back down to the french quarter to see the city some more. We had some brake fast at cafe du monde - some coffee and the beneits were excellent. Then on through the tourist shops, the french market and back down through bourbon street and the surrounding area before we grabbed some lunch on bourbon street and headed out of New Orleans for Atlanta. Thursday evening we get to my apartment.

Friday

Head off to CMP in the afternoon after sleeping in and then changing the oil in the car

Saturday/Sunday

NASA-VA weekend at CMP, awesome time as always. Around 5pm we pack up and head back to Nova.....

Ok, well now that the Car Show has reached its awesome conclusion, it is time now to focus on GRM $2006 challenge and our entry into it.

Now, first things are first. I know that everyone has some fantastic ideas for cars, and we've heard some of these ideas and they're really great. The problem, however, is simple: We have no funds.

Now, we only need to raise 2006 dollars, because we can't spend any more than that on the car. We CAN, however, sell up to $1003 dollars in parts off of any parts cars we purchase, giving us a total possible budget of 3009 dollars. But before we can do that, we need to actually raise the $2006.

So, we need some fundraising ideas. Carwash, mowing old ladies lawns, bake sales, anything. The GRM committee needs suggestions! We are allowed sponsors, and we are allowed parts donations. However, parts donations will be assigned a "fair market value" and that amount will be deducted from the $2006 budget. This is not to deter anyone from soliciting parts or labor donations, but just to let everyone know that the local Subaru dealership can't donate an STi. (Not that they would, but you get my meaning)

Also there has been some questions about what will happen with the car after we have participated in the Challenge. One of the ideas was to auction the car off and giving the money to an as-yet-undetermined charity, that the group would vote on. So that is what the poll above is for. Not having this vote in a meeting allows the entire club to vote, including Alumni, because everyones input and support is crucial to this project. So vote "Yes" if you think that MM should auction the GRM car off after the challenge and donate the money to charity, and list a charity you think would be good. Vote "No" if you think that the car is better used for another purpose, such as future GRM challenges. (The cars can be re-used, but your previous expenditures remain in place. Additionally, if we could sell the car for 2007 dollars, we'd have the budget for next year.)

So, let a GRM commitee member know what YOU think, because your input is important.