T2 Films Serious work!

ClubFR.net Drift Day 25 from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

Awesome coverage from DD25 at Gateway International Raceway.

Chicago 240sx BBQ

I went out to the ChicagoArea240sx BBQ yesterday.  Saw some old friends, took some photos of some cars, and did a crazy "cruise" to Lake Shore Dr.

Photo's can be viewed by clicking my picturepush link on the right side of the screen.

Pictures!!!

http://www.wreckedmagazine.com/blog/2009/05/21/grassroots-drift-day-in-the-midwest-gallery/

And just a shot that made the main page of Wrecked Magazine:

And more pictures from Danny Lo (http://www.cornerspeedphoto.com/blog/)

http://www.cornerspeedphoto.com/photography/2009/5-09_USA_International_Raceway

MWC Round 2 US Air DD26

Man... that event was AWESOME!

26 drivers

7 hours of driving

Nice weather

Loads of tires

... it was the perfect day!

So it started out they said if you haven't been to the venue before you had to goto the doughnut pit to prove yourself.  I was first in line at the gate but when Simba went to open it, it was locked.  He told everyone to go around so now I'm last.  But instead, he tells me to goto the intermediate course right off the bat.  Cool.

So my first run I dominated the course minus the last corner, but it's a very tight slow turn after top of second and the fat ass Z just got away a bit.

Second run, second corner I did a little spin going just a bit too fast and the car got high centered on an apron and was sitting on its frame:

So after a truck pulled me off I cruised around the course and parked the car to check it out and since I felt bad for taking up a lot of time, getting the hell out of the way.

So after about 20 min. I went back out and dominated the course again.  On my way back to the start line Keith (event photographer from Kaizo Photo) told me to goto the advanced course.  AWESOME!

So over there I had a lot of troubles.  The elevation changes, blind entries, off camber turns, and decreasing speed corners were a lot to deal with.  Eventually though, I got it down:

So after a while of driving I started getting used to the course.  Along with help from the starters (I can't remember their names), Mike Pollard, and Mike Mattalia riding with me.

The car was doing awesome all day but it was too low.  I was scraping the car in a few different places on the course including the first initiation.  One time going into the first corner I initiated so hard that the rear fender mud guard broke off and flew about 15ft. in the air (from what I heard).

Besides for the frame and the mud guard, the rear bumper nearly got torn off holding a gangster line by the hay bails, the front bumper has a crack in it because of bottoming out on some of the aprons, and the windshield washer reservoir got a crack in it.  Nothing serious.

So qualifying started.  My first run was going alright until I spun.  The second run went really well and I was pretty happy with it.  My final run went awesome until the final corner when I spun.  Allwell, it was sufficient to get me 5th place.

So tandem started.  I had to go against John Johnson (JJ).  He was leading first and had been doing great all day.  I was following him a little far away in sections (mostly due to the power difference) but I felt I was winning until the final corner when I spun out right before the finish.  FUCK!!!

Second run I was leading.  I have no idea what would have happened because I spun on the 3rd corner giving him the easy win.

I'm not that mad about losing though because this is only my 2nd event and I'm getting experience.  I had never run tandem before besides with my good friend Danny.  This time around I was a lot more calm and collective.

Anyway, Mike Pollard ended up getting the win with JJ in a close 2nd and Doug Artus getting 3rd.

So I ended up 5th and now overall I'm sitting in 4th place!  I'm so happy!

Midwest Cup Round 2

Qualification

CODE

Mike Pollard     16 Doug Artus       15 Juan Marquez     14 Jonathan Johnson 13 Brian Vrchoticky 12 Simba Nyemba     11 Kris Hackenson   10 Dustin Doherty   9

Tandem Rounds

CODE

Mike Pollard      100 Jonathan Johnson  90 Doug Artus        81 Juan Marquez      73 Brian Vrchoticky  66 Simba Nyemba      59 Kris Hackenson    54 Dustin Doherty    48

Total Points

CODE

Mike Pollard      116 Jonathan Johnson  103 Doug Artus        96 Juan Marquez      87 Brian Vrchoticky  78 Simba Nyemba      70 Kris Hackenson    64 Dustin Doherty    57

Total Points

CODE

Mike Pollard      222 Juan Marquez      181 Simba Nyemba      141 Brian Vrchoticky  134 Jonathan Johnson  131 Brian Peter       114 Doug Artus        96 Kris Hackenson    89 Mike Ellington    82 Tyler Cox         81 Charles Litterst  65 Dustin Doherty    57 Charlie Quatmann  53 Alex Roto         46 Dan Sommer        41 Mike Omera        36 Leigh Roto        32 Daniel Dondzik    22

More photos from the event:

www.nackers.picturepush.com

www.kaizophoto.com

Handbrake install

Alright, here are a few photos from the install.

First, this is the ring that I made.  I took the factory shift ring off and made a duplicate out of 11ga. steel.

From there, we added 1"x3/16" flat bar's to bolt the handbrake to the shift ring, then threw in another 1" flat bar to triangulate the brackets together.

Once all that was done it was time to hook up the lines and run them.  Opposed to drilling holes through he chassis we cut the factory shift ring and rubber dust boot to make room for the lines to come out.  Using rubber vacuum line for protection of the lines, they come straight out of the shifter and go down along the passenger side of the transmission tunnel and under a factory plastic cover.

After coming out of the plastic cover, they tie into the factory mounting locations and run down the passenger side of the car. (This photo was before the lines got mounted under the holder bracket.

From there, the lines go up into the fender where the 350z has a factory junction block.  4 lines meet up here and was the perfect place to put the new lines.  Adding 2 "T" blocks made tied everything together.

So this is how the system is run:

1.  Brake master cylinder

2.  2 lines out of BMC

3.  2 lines run into ABS module

4.  4 lines come out of ABS (2 front and 2 rear)

5.  2 rear lines go into a junction block in the passenger fender under the liner and 2 leave this block

6.  The 2 lines going into the junction block get "Teed" together and a new line runs into the handbrake "feed"

7.  Another new line runs from the handbrake back to the fender and gets "Teed" into the 2 lines that leave the junction block

That's it.  It may sound hard, but its really pretty simple.  The problem is bleeding the system.  In order to do this, you have to disconnect the battery.  It's wayyy better to use a pneumatic vacuum bleeder but and standard hand pump bleeder will work.  It just takes a lot of time.

Here is my parts list

25ft. 3/16" brake line

8 3/16" brake line fittings 

2 3/16" "T" blocks

Double flairing tool

DOT 3 brake fluid

(though if you can get 2 10mm "T" blocks, 4 10mm brake line fittings and 2 10mm to 3/16" adapters would make a nicer install because you wouldn't have to cut the 4 factory lines to put on 3/16" fittings)

I also had access to a welder to make the brackets and a drill press to make the holes.

Sliding?

So with DD26 only 3 days away my mind has been going absolutely crazy!  I've been trying to stay calm by watching video's online, but for some reason I can't stop the urge to jump in the Z and go play.

I got a call from my friend Danny and apparently we are going to be doing some driving tonight.  Danny apparently in his 87 Nissan 200sx (with the VG30DE), my friend Terry in his 95 Nissan 240sx (with the SR20DET) and me in the Z.  I haven't heard if anyone else was going to come out or not, but as long as they are driving, it's all good with me.

But since I'm posting I might as well let you know whats going on in the next 2 days.

Friday is going to be really busy.  I have to have Stef's 09 Scion XD at the dealership by 9am for her 5,000mi. maintenance.  After that hour long deal, I have to goto the Credit Union and make my car payment, shoot over to my parents house to load up the XD with wheels, probably slip into the garage for at least a few to play the drums, goto Terry's and get his low profile jack, over to Rich's house to get some lumber so I can get the car high enough to jack it up, then get back to the mall to pick Stef up by 4pm.  After that, I'm just chillin as far as I know.

Saturday I'm going to be doing any last min. maintenance on the Z.  Probably go over to Fanboy Motorsports and shoot the shit with big Jon.  Maybe work out some details about some things we have been talking about.  Then drive 4.5 hours to Shawano, WI to our hotel.

Sunday, we drive!

I don't work on Monday because I requested it off so I should have time to maybe upload some pictures (if I take any) and hopefully take in car video.

Should be fun!

Lock em' up

Yesterday I started the task of installing my CNC staging brake in the Z.  I took the car over to Rich's house and we tore into it.

Everything went pretty smoothly up until it was time to bleed the system.  It turns out that in my car with ABS and VDC you have to remove the negative battery terminal in order to bleed the system.  Also with both rear brake lines being tied into one single line not to mention the added 20 ft. of brake line and another master cylinder.

After buying a pneumatic vacuum bleeder everything went really smoothly and now at 55mph with less effort than pulling the factory handbrake the wheels lock instantly.

I took pictures of the install and bracket's we made with Rich's camera and hopefully I can get them from him soon, but for now, here is the finished product.

If and when I get the pictures from Rich I'll make another post about the install and what happened with it.  Basically it took a bit over 13 hours to do.  Granted we did eat twice, goof off, chat, etc. during the time period and probably 3 hours was just trying to figure out bleeding the brakes.  Like I said, after we found that the negative terminal needed to be removed and using the pneumatic bleeder, it went quick as hell.

Zlammed!

Sunday I installed a set of stance coilovers on the Z.

Then after about 15min trying to get the car off of the lift...

Then shortly after taking this photo, I took the car for a drive and realized I couldn't go over tiny cracks without hearing metal hit the ground.  I returned to the garage and raised the front 1" and the rear 1/2".  It's really nice now.

Now I need to get some camber adjustment arms and some wheel spacers then get the car aligned properly.

Next thing on the list though is my hydraulic handbrake.  I'm hoping to install that this weekend.