Thursday, September 29, 2011

Moved to Socal.

Well, I made the move to Socal.

My roommates from down here came up to help me move, threw all my junk into an Uhaul, trailer-ed the Corolla down.

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Oh the I-5 South, not digging the gear ratios on the GS-R engine. haha.

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I miss little things about Norcal here and there, but to be completely honest - It's just the people that I really miss. I am looking forward to my new life down here, I'd like to find my potential and utilize it.

We'll see.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Perfection

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Noriyaro is the best yaro.

If you have access to a computer or a bookstore/convenience store/grocery store you know who Alexi is, the writer of the blog www.noriyaro.com and writer of the Noriyaro column in Drift Tengoku. We became friends over the internet (there's no stigma any more!) and met in person at last year's Summer Drift Matsuri.

Noriyaro is definitely in my top five favorite blogs of all time, but it makes me so damn homesick every time i read it. One day I mentioned on my facebook how i feel when i read Noriyaro so Alexi had this banner up for a week or so.

I personally got a kick out of it and a lol so you know i had to take a screenshot.

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Alexi, your blog and column are awesome! Keep up the amazing work!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

S30 Update.

So i have been asked for an update on the S30.

Same old. I was planning on rebuilding it this summer but the arrangement for shop space fell through so I am keeping it together so i can take it down to Socal at the end of this month with the ability to move it around with it's own power if necessary. I am looking forward to building it when i get settled in. So here it is currently, collecting dust in a back yard.

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Might as well post an update on the Corolla as well.

Not running at the moment, Justin just pulled the 4AC out of his TE sedan to make room for the SR so I will be putting that in mine to register and insure it, at which point the 13B goes in. Speaking of which, if anybody has a running S4 13B and transmission in Socal, please let me know.

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Auto-Xing the Civic.

So last weekend I had an enjoyable time Auto-Xing the Civic.

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The suspension felt really good, perfectly neutral and very predictable. If I have any complaints it would be that the RS-3s tend to lose grip when they get hot, although I didn't notice the loss of grip until I did five consecutive runs with maybe three minutes between each run - and cold initial grip is amazing. The Z1 Star Specs felt the same all day long but I'm sure they didn't even get warm considering they were on the rear of a FF.

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Oh and as you can see in the photos, the car sustained a little damage. A few weeks ago, I was driving down I-5 in Stockton when a truck dropped a large steel beam about 4' in length and it struck my vehicle along with six other cars. It's a little unsightly but I'll make sure their insurance will take care of it and in the meantime I am accumulating parts, so far a FRP vented hood (allegedly a very old 5zigen model), and a URAS bumper duct are taking up room here, but more on that later.

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My friend Ngoc was there operating his camera, so now I have these awesome photos, thank you.

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Everybody else I went with was drifting that day, which was kinda bum-inducing but grip is fun too. A couple cars that really stood out to me:

Adam's GS300, this thing is pretty fucking rad.

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And of course, Dino's god damn Corolla.

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"All in all, it's pretty safe to say that fun was had by all that day."

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Civic update.

So I've had this funny project of a Civic going on.

Around the end of last year, I realized that daily driving my S30 was a pain in the dick. I considered the most reasonable of modern sports cars, the Honda S2000, an amazing car to drive - even in stock form. However, there were a few factors that had me second guessing if an S2000 was really what I needed at the moment.

Pros:

Handles like a motherfucker.
Aesthetically appealing.
Handles like a motherfucker.
Something about girls.
Handles like a motherfucker.
Honda reliability and comfort.


Cons:

Insurance would be like $300/month, seriously. (yes, my driving record is not the best)
Interest rates, as i would need to make payments on the vehicle. (And would require full coverage insurance)
Cost of replacement parts from normal wear and tear.
Fuel economy is good but not super-awesome.
There is no fucking room, man.

So i presented to myself a compromise. I would choose a reasonable car with cheap ass insurance rates, a real trunk, rear seats, readily available parts, and fuck it - might as well have four doors, and build it to keep up with and maybe even outrun stock S2000s without spending more than what an S2000 would cost me. I decided on a '96 Honda Civic sedan. A car engineered from the ground up to be a efficient, cheap, reliable car to get your average single mother to and from the grocery store after dropping off the kids at school.

I found a clean title, 5 speed, LX model (power everything/no sunroof) in white (has to be white, dude) that had no signs of ever being in an accident for $2500.

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I went ahead and set the budget at $15,000. Which was the cheapest I could reasonably get an AP2 S2000 for even before factoring in the cost of interest and insurance.

First up, suspension.

I bought the car with 183,000 miles on it, needless to say all the bushings were worn to hell. After considering replacing the rubber bushings with polyurethane replacements, I decided to just go with spherical errrrrthaanng. New coilovers were ordered as well as swift springs in +2kg/mm all around (effectively 14k/10k). Threw a few chassis braces in the mix and I had what should be a fairly well set up grip car. The list goes something like this:

ARP extended studs and Muteki Lugnuts
Buddyclub Racing Spec coilovers
Swift springs 14kg/mm front and 10kg/mm rear
DC2 Integra spindles, trailing arms, calipers.
Hawk HP+ pads, ATE rotors all around.
Skunk2 front upper camber arms
Wicked tuning front lower control arms (spherical bearings)
Wicked tuning rear camber arms (spherical bearings)
Wicked tuning rear toe links (spherical bearings)
PCI rear trailing arm bushings (spherical bearings)
Function7 rear lower control arms (spherical bearings)
ASR rear subframe brace.
Neuspeed rear sway bar.
Civic type R front sway bar.
UR front/rear strut bars, room bar.
Buddy club roll center adjusters.

Now for the most important part of the car, the tires. I am currently running 225/45/15 Hankook Ventus RS-3s up front and 205/50/15 Dunlop Z1 Star Spec tires out back on 15x6.5 +38 Volk Racing 5/4S wheels, I went through two sets of Star Specs in the front, enjoyed them thoroughly but decided to try out the RS-3s and was very impressed with their initial grip.

The interior is very stock save for a bucket seat, steering wheel, shift knob, and quick release (from 9K racing) and works well as a daily.

Anyhow the car ended up looking like this:

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Pretty happy with it for now, I'll update as it progresses.

Current total is $8500 (including car).



Friday, September 2, 2011

Moving Sale!

First of all I would like to apologize for not blogging for the past few months, i really would have liked to but I have been ridiculously busy. I have been working on moving to real California, Orange County to be exact, which will be happening during the month of September. I am still working on making sure all the HBforJapan stickers have been received, so please if you haven't yet, bear with me - I promise that I will make sure everybody receives their stickers even if it takes me another year. And yes, I am still accepting donations and will continue to make stickers as long as people are willing to donate. Today, I would like to throw up a few items for sale that I have accumulated over the years that i don't need at the moment. I'm not in a rush to sell any of the parts, however finding them a new home would make moving a little simpler. Please email me at yutaakaishi@gmail.com. Thanks!

Advan RCII (pair) 5x100, 17x8.5 +48 - mint condition - $400.

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5zigen FN01RC (set) 5x100, 17x8 +48 and 255/40/17 RT615s $450

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Advan Model 6, 5x114.3, 18x7.5 +45. Brand new in box, new old stock. $1600

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Advan Model 7, 5x114.3, 18x9 +45. Brand new in box, new old stock. $1600

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Advan Model 7, 5x114.3, 19x9/10 +45. Brand new in box, new old stock. $1900

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C-ONE SR-1, 355mm, brand new discontinued. $350

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S13 180sx chuki sideskirts $220

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S13 "type x" kouki spoiler $220

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Junyan/D-max/whatevers S13 LED taillights, three wires are severed and need to be soldered back on $75.

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5Zigen Cannonball axleback for Honda EG/EK/DC. mint condition. $150

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'06-'10 Civic Si muffler tip $20

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