However, I do plan to finish Kandi… eventually. Big plans, no more budget, things will have to wait.

In the mean time, here’s a random gif Ankur found, I love it:

This year, my friend Ankur joined me in the goonery. We left Friday evening from LA in our designated race car, Mrs. Harper, my ’98 Mercedes SL 500.

Tech was still in the Sierra Cafe parking lot, but we didn’t see anyone since we got there pretty late. We didn’t see anyone in the Dow Villa hospitality suite; later, we found out that this year’s hospitality suite was at the Best Western Frontier Motel.

We checked in at the usual Dow Villa Motel in the heart of “downtown” Lone Pine and grabbed a couple beers at Jake’s Saloon. Just as we were about to leave, we ran into Earl, Pat, and Scott. The drinking and talking continued until closing time.

4 hours later, we had to wake up and get ready for a long day of working/running at the Manzanar Airstrip. For Saturday, we left the hard top on & roll bar engaged because off roading last year was something I didn’t want to repeat but wanted to be as prepared for as possible. The course was back to the original awesome high speed & safer (compared to 2009) layout.

The banquet was fun and we won some neat door prizes! I decided to finally helmet ears spread the love this year & gave some cat/dog/fox/whatever they are helmet ears out. The helmet ear invasion will spread across autox parking lots across the state now, haha.

Despite my super conservative driving, I managed to get a 3rd place finish in Street Modified, YAY!

I loved the after party @ Jake’s Saloon on Saturday, it was really nice to unwind and hang out with everyone off the track. I don’t know if it was a good idea to drink so much beer and sleep another 3-4 hours before the Sunday race, but it was definitely worth it!

I finally ran Sunday’s course for the first time this year, and boy it was fast! Can’t wait for the 2011 41st Anniversary Lone Pine Time Trials!

In any case, looks like the orange 240sx convertible will be down for a couple months or so while I sort out all the problems and/or upgrades I’ve been planning for over half a year. In the mean time, I will probably be competing in the daily driver now that I have decent tires on it for the LA region.

Some of you may remember that I competed in SCNAX cup & got to drive a miata, mini cooper, and austin healey sprite. Don, the owner of the sprite, offered me an opportunity to co-drive the sprite with him in San Diego region this year! Driving a competitive and super fun car with 2009′s LA regional champion for CPM (Combined Prep/Mod), how can I refuse!

I expect that I will be learning A LOT about cars and so much more through out the year – I have learned quite a bit from Don already.

That picture was taken at this past weekend’s SD event. I accidently snapped a picture instead of recording a video w/ Don’s Hero HD, LOL!

Don had some time to edit and upload one of the videos:

Thanks for everything Don!

It’s Fat, Yo! And yes, that’s a crotch shot.

The result: crappy tires (many years old yokohama yk420′s) + 4125lb curb weight car (meaning it’s probably more like 4200+ lbs) = VERY HARD TIME for QV to transition, haha.

First run:
- Traction control on (just to see what it was like)
- Top up (just for fun)

Subsequent runs:
- Traction control off (much better, more control & power)
- Top down (let the good times roll).

The car handles like a boat (expected) – pushes everywhere the second you apply power. The traction control cut off WAY TOO MUCH power when it detected any kind of sliding at all. You have to be extra smooth with the inputs since the suspension was so soft & the tires were so crappy. I went from a 78.xxx second first run down to a 74.910 10th run. I had a couple of instructors drive my car; definitely helped, but they both spun the car since they were a little too aggressive – still learned plenty though. Amazingly, with the roll bar down, none of the fishtailing action was enough to get it to pop up (I’m pretty sure it still works properly, haha).

There were also 2 other Mercedes there: a newer SL55 AMG & an SLK 320. The driver of the SL55 was ahead of me for a few runs, and his instructor ran an impressive 75.0xx lap time, but I beat them both in the end, YAY R129!

This car obviously isn’t made for autocrossing, but it can be a force to be reckoned with after some modifications, namely getting a set of nicer tires, shocks/struts, and a front sway bar, which will still keep it in the stock class (all SL’s fall under H Stock, the lowest class available, hee hee). I feel much more in tuned with the car now that I have “broken her in.”

I took out my regular track car (the orange 240sx convertible) for the championship on Sunday, and did much better time wise – estimated at about 5-6 seconds faster than the SL500. I still ended up 4th place out of 5th place in class. The car is definitely capable of at least getting 2nd place, but the driver still needs much improvement.

Some pics from Theo Osifeso from our CSCC autocross group:

And a video of my first run (I’m all over the place) & my best run:

Here is a video of my fastest championship run on Sunday in the 240sx (course is run backwards with some modifications – estimated at about 1.5-2 seconds faster than Saturday’s course):

And for fun, here is a slo mo video capture of my car on Sunday from Mako Koiwai from out CSCC autox group as well – I’m pretty close to the apex cones, could probably get a lil closer:

Q DNCU from Mako Koiwai on Vimeo.

The baffle design is very nice looking, but unfortunately, it’s only attached to the fuel tank with a few spot welds & a plastic clip. Only the plastic clip was still attached when removing it.

Thanks to some tips from the guys at FRSport, I was prepared to remove the baffle – it is irregularly shaped, so you have to do some twisting, bending, and rotating to get it out of the fuel pump slot.

No more metal sliding/rolling noises! YAY!

My coworker saw these over the weekend @ the local Cost Plus World Market & bought me one, lol.

mmmm, eating them right now. It’s more chocolaty than bacony, but you can definitely smell & taste the sweet lil pig.

p.s. I know, I know, LONG TIME no update. Quick recap:

July – August:
- mostly @ the Summer University Program between the US & Switzerland in San Jose.
- gave old daily driver away (white 240sx convertible) to cousin since he needed a car
- got new daily driver, mmm, mmm, luxurious
- did some autoxing
- found a garage to store all my crap
- got facebook & twitter (I’ve been updating those more)
- eat BACONNNNN

Suhweeetttttttt video – I believe this out-does his El Toro vids:

out

My favorite is the first one, Heineken R2D2, lol:

Thanks for sending out the Robot email, Gar .

I bought the materials from DonJer’s Flocking Supplies, as noted in the Zilvia.net article. However, I opted for the spray gun (saves a lot of time) & got orange flocking fibers and undercoat. DonJer’s site also has very nice write-ups and tips on flocking, so I will just list a quick overview & some results.

I decided to start with a test run of the orange flock fibers on my radio bezel/shifter trim.

Basically:
0) Get material & area ready (the undercoat is kinda stinky, so work in a ventilated area)
1) Sand and clean part to be flocked
2) Apply undercoat
3) Spray on flocking material
4) Let sit for at least 15 hours or so
5) Shake, pat, brush excess material off

The Result:
Super smooth funky suede style interior. This shit feels REALLY soft and nice!

I wasn’t super careful with the amount of undercoat I applied (needed to apply more), but it still turned out good overall for a first piece. I’m starting to get the hang of it now. Hopefully the dashboard & center console will be done within the next couple of weeks!

Close-Ups:

YUMMY!