Rebirth

Lets be clear. This blog was originally produced as a college assigned project. While the content was all mine, the posts had to follow certain formats and required 250 words per post. Thats why they all sucked. Some of them were to promote a fake business that I had to "create", so ignore all of that jazz.

From this point forward, I will use this as a tool to display my various interests. Im a kid that likes anything thats dangerous/cool/illegal/fun/funny. Dont expect much from me, though.

Out playing in my backyard, the (not-so) beautiful downtown Rockford.

Backflash

In honor of all of the strange white stuff falling from the sky as I post this, we are going to take a quick trip back in time to a day in which the weather was slightly more tolerable. White is a staple crop for all things clean. Simple, easy to look at, crispy clean. White is my favorite hue (it’s not really a color, right?) on most things. Cars, shoes, teeth, etc. White is synonymous with pure and fresh. White things are untouched, unblemished, and perfect. Atleast for little while.

Hop back in time and relive this photoshoot. Its not often that I find time in my crazy life to get out with my significant other (my car) and do a one on one photo sesh. This was one of those rare times where I had my camera in the car, had a few moments to spare between the madness, and actually had the desire to document my car forever in time. This spot was sick, a dirty and grimey water tower loomed in the background of a pretty old and historic cottage. This side of town is sketchy to say the least, and I even managed to encounter a few new “friends” as I was shooting. People are weird.

http://flashingrights.blogspot.com/2010/07/white.html

So enjoy, remember when the sun shined for more than a few hours a day. Think back to the time when the ground was covered in, well, nothing but ground. As the snow falls down, and so do the temperatures, hop back and enjoy this cool shoot on a anything but cool day.

Rubberization: Tire Choices

Tires are one of the most important things to choose when building any type of modified car. Many factors must be considered when choosing a performance tire. For my purposes (as well as most of you, our readers) it comes down to a few factors. Grip, life, fitment, and price. If you are like me, then you could give a shit about tire noise, wet traction, gas mileage, all that Car and Drive hoopla. I am lucky if I can hear my music over my straight piped NA engine and have pretty much little to no hope in the rain. Gas mileage? Huh?

Grip, life, fitment, price. Not necessarily in that order. The first tire I am going to review on these three factors is one of my go-to drift tires; the Federal 595SS. These tires are by far some of the cheapest performance tires on the market making them perfect for the drift crowd. The price is on point aka CHEAP as dirt. The grip is mediocre at best. These things are pretty slick compared to many other tires, but again the price is so on point that these are a great option. The life is great, being a harder tire that wears really well. Fitment is straight fat kid status, these run huge. Like a full size huge, so order accordingly.




The next tire that I really like is the good ol’ Falken RT615. These are definitely a lot more dollars than the Feddys so they aren’t for the faint of heart. The run a little wide and square, I would guess about a half size wider than similar performance tires. The sidewalls are meaty, stiff, and square so they don’t stretch really well at all. My god do they grip. They have tremendous traction but do get somewhat slick when they get super hot. Definitely a great tire for the front of any drift car.

Top dog from Aussie

Nigel is a really cool dude from the land across the big pond. His 180sx is absolutely amazing, from both the style aspect as well as homegrown engineering. This dude is so talented when it comes to fabrication that I often sit back and marvel at the little details he posts on his blog. His blog is great for many reasons.

First off, he posts lots of cool action videos, pictures, and stories. Nigel builds amazing drift cars but builds them for abuse. He actually thrashes on these cars at track events and posts cool things about each of his experiences. In car videos, sick photographs, and always a good little story to go along with each.

The next reason his blog rules is because of his engineering. He is a straight G when it comes to hand building drift cars and has the resources and skills to make thing awesome. From a hand fabricated spec legal cage to a sick ass v-mount setup for his intercooler and radiator, this guy does it all. He even spray painted his entire interior and made it look professional.

The final reason that Nigel has one of the top blogs in the drift world is because his cars have style. His coupe is absolutely amazing with the two-tone paint on stock aero and white TE’s. The fabrication within the engine bay is unreal, simply immaculate. The main track bitch is his red 180sx which now sports Type-X aero with wide fenders and chrome wheels. A great combo by any standards, the new wheels are quite a bit flashier than his old bronze TE’s but the change his much welcomed (by me, atleast).

So check out his blog. Read, learn, study, execute. Dude knows whats up.
www.engineeredtoslide.com

Checking it twice

Over the winter I have a whole slew of things that need to be done to my car. This list is somewhat in order of importance, but all things need to be accomplished before this thing hits the streets again.

1. Rewire the drivers-side engine harness
2. Recarpet interior, replace rear panels, redo headliner, Rhino line the trunk
3. Powdercoat roll cage
4. Lower the whole car and get a real alignment
5. Fix a few leaky seals in the engine

First off, since I lowered the car another inch, my front wheel continues to rub on the driver’s side engine harness. I have zip tied a metal plate on the wiring harness for temporary protection, but the problem needs to be fixed the right way. I am going to take out the wire harness completely from the fender and require it through the engine bay. Sounds easy, but it is going to suck.

Next comes the interior. I have some new carpet ordered and will need to take everything out in order to get it in. I also want to recarpet the rear panels that line the trunk and get those put back in. I will cut some panels to fit around the cage, and redo the headliner in some sort of suede. I will be powdercoating my cage bright ass lime green to go along with the entire new interior.

Next up comes some more lowering. I am never happy with any fender gap so I will need to drop the car a few smidges all around. I will play with some camber and attempt to get the wheel fitment as radical as possible. Should look killer!

“Fork in the road, I’m always going right. Nowadays, knowing life, there aint no more road lights.”

It is time to make some changes. My car has been going the direction of clean, simple, and unmolested for a few years now. I have managed to keep the exterior pretty damn clean and the paint has always been fresh. The wheels and stance were about the only things that are really wild on the car, and I was really into that style. Stock metal fenders, OEM bumpers, original styling; the car was pretty tame compared to some of my amigos. After a few battle wounds that is about to change.

I definitely have to switch to fiberglass overfenders in the rear due to the giant craters resembling the moon. This changes the overall direction of the car for a few reasons. I need to space the shit out of the wheels which means the front have to be spaced as well. This brings me to my first fork; pull the metal front fenders or go wide fiberglass fenders. Metal fenders are far more durable but suck when they are pulled. Fiberglass fenders will give me extra clearance but have vents and fit like ass. Hmmmm. Next up is the question of aero or no aero. With wide fenders I am going to want a more aggressive look, plus I will be paying for paint anyways so I might as well go aero.

Type X front with a Group A vent is at the top of my list right now. I might compliment that with a full Sexy Style kit or something very sleek and smooth, nothing crazy. Or maybe a full Type X kit with the kouki wing. Here is some inspiration.

ohhh black betty, bam a lam

So it happened. After years and years and some more years of keeping my car clean and accident free, I finally made a mistake and ruined it. Well, sort of a mistake, sort of a moment of glory. I was working on my car and swapped in some new Hawk brake pads and thought it would be a great idea to lower the front some more. I went about three quarters of an inch lower and it looks killer. I took it for a drive and it definitely rubs more, but that’s the price you have to pay when you want to look cool.

So I am out at one of my favorite drift spots taking a few spirited turns giving the car a little bit of a shakedown. I approach my favorite turn at about 35 mph, and flick the car sideways with a little clutch kick. Womp womp womp all over the rev limiter, perfectly sideways and billowing no smoke (hahaha). I was all over the apex of the turn like white on rice, but had slightly more speed than I usually do in this turn. Having a lower car gave me more false confidence. Or something like that.

I go a tad wide and drop one wheel off the pavement. I know Im running wide and yet I keep the right pedal to the floor. Like a boss. All of the sudden WHACK. A fucking bomb just went off inside my car. I knew there was a road marker on the outside of that turn and my car just kissed it. I held the drift perfectly and drove off like nothing happened. I was scared to look, because it was LOUD. Consistent with my thoughts, the quarter panel is crinkled like some cafeteria fries. Oh well. Overs and aero next year.

With that comes NZNew’s s13 coupe that makes fiberglass look good. Sort of beat, lots of cool. This car makes me feel that fiberglass is OK. Lovin’ it.