Just Drift Top Drift Battle Finale !

Last weekend, myself and Taka went to the Horse Thief Mile at
the Willow Spring International Raceway to judge the final round
of Just Drift's Top Drift Battle.
The format is tandem battle from the top 8 rounds
and there were many good battles.
We had to go "one more time" several times !

This is our judge's station. The judges were Justin, Henry,
Chris, and us two.
The winner was Forrest, who also took the series
championship ! Awesome job Forrest !!
And the second place was Just Drift's own Team Federal
Tire Mike Bolanos ! Followed by the third place big wind Matt.

The usual ice water shower for the winner !
That's Forrest under that waterfall (^0^;)/

That concludes the Top Drift Series for 2008 and
awesome job to Charlie and all the Just Drift crew !!!

hiro
ps. All Photos courtesy of www.JustDrift.com

more wrenching on my cressida . . . . .

More mods & fab works on my cressida to make it work.
The car actually runs fine, but the clutch engagement
point seems way too low. So, I'm doing some fine tuing
of the clutch pedal stroke in balance with the master
cylinder stroke. Here, I grinded off a small section
on the pedal assy to make the pedal come up a little higher.

Then worked on swapping the rear suspension out
from my Chaser and onto the cressida.
Man..... my Chaser is becoming a parts car !!!The new improved ride height in the rear.
It's the perfect height when you can't stick your
finger between the tire and the fender.
Just right !

And yes, at the last testing, my micky-moused
fab work on my e-brake extension did NOT work.
And broke . . . . . . . . .
So, I had Scott at SPD Metal Works weld the extension.
It feels pretty solid now.
Can't wait for the next test !!

Next week is going to be busy with SEMA, so
I'll try to finish everything I can before then.
I better save some energy to party in Vegas too !!!

hiro

JDM Boso dinner ?!

Last night, we went to a izakaya restaurant called Iccho
in Torrance with the Garage Boso crew and other
gyoukai JDM people! The food was very gooood !!!

Here, Ross is ordering "Mou ippon kudasai !"
(meaning 1 more please !)
Group picture with all of us. Frank is sitting in
a wrong place. His head is so big that it's covering
Keigo's face . . . . . ah well.

Dai and me. See, there's a reason why he's so
happy and I'm a little ticked off . . . .
You'll find out why soon...

It's always fun to go out and get some good food
with your friends !!!

hiro

muddy waters and extension . . . .

Geeez, the inside of the engine must've been very dirty!
Becasuse I've already flushed the radiator a few times
but the radiator fluid is still dirty . . .
It's getting a lot better now though.
Hope the car cools down more efficiently without all
the dirt, grime, and crap inside !

Today I made this extension piece for the e-brake.

The e-brake works awesome on the cressida, but
the location of the handle is terrible.
So, I made my micky-mouse extension with
a section of a sway bar, epoxy, and hose clamps.
I wish I had a welder at my house !!

Let's see if it holds strong this weekend !

hiro

test results & more fixes . . .

The first test run last weekend went surprisingly good.
Nothing really blew up or no major fluid leaks.
But we did have some engine problems...

The engine was running great in the beginning
but began to misfire.
Thanks to Robert, we were able to pinpoint the problems
to the plugs after trying many different remedies.
This dude Robert knows 1JZ real well.
I'm glad he was there !

I put on a new upper radiator hose, because it was
swelling up pretty bad when it got hot !

I told you that I already bent the last turn-down off
the header. So, I decided to make a little better exhaust
this time. This is still temporary, but I'm slowly making
my way to the back of the car (^0^;)//
Hope this is enough clearance to get the car on the trailer
without breaking anything...

At the end of the test day, a small incident happened...
The heatshield protection on the vacuum hose near
the header caught on fire !!
But it was very very small and our staff Tom was able
to blow it out.

That's why I installed this Sparco fire extinguishier.
(Hope I never have to use it (^_^;) )

I'll be testing the car more this weekend again, so
I'm making mods to make sure that nothing goes wrong.

hiro

ready for the first test !!!

Since I was so wasted after the Formula D banquet,
it took me a few days to recover and I did not have
time to fabricate a real exhaust, so it's just going to
be this turn-down off the header.

The tranny mount was modified at SPD Metal Works
to make the bolts line up with the existing holes.
It's a perfect fit !

Getting the Cressida on the trailer was the scariest
task today. (Getting the Chaser off the trailer was
also pretty scary, but thanks to Taka-san's help
it was safely done!) I guess because the Cressida
was sitting on my driveway for so long, some air
must've got into the brake system. When I pressed
the brake pedal, it went all the way to the floor.
There was some braking, but very little. Last thing
I wanted to do was to crash this just build Cressida
into my towing Suburban. . . . . .

But I managed to get it on without any carnage.
(Well, the turn-down is already oval for hitting
the trailer lip... WTF!!!)
Test is tomorrow at the DriftDay.
Hope nothing blows up.... We'll see !!!

hiro

Japanese Classic Car Show & RC competition

This weekend I went to the Japanese Classic Car Show
held in Irvine because OS Giken USA had a booth there.
I saw lots of cool looking cars including this race prepped
Celica.

I also saw this famous celebrity, Jay Leno.
I guess that's his car and he always comes out
to this show !
Garage Boso had this black Celica in between the
RiceBoyTV booth and the JDM Options booth.
After the show, I went to Zero1Motors (DriftSpeed)
with Seigo and Jun to be the judge for their drift RC
competition.
All of these guys are real good ! I was amazed to
see how far these RC's can stay drifting.
They can do super chokudori, way more than a
real drift car can !!
After this, I went to the Formula D Banquet party
and caused a lot of trouble . . . . . to many people...

hiro

yay, the I/C is finally on !

It took me all day today to make the intercooler
fit in the car without getting in the way of the
headlight, bumper, oil cooler lines, powersteering
lines, and all the wires...

And cleaned up the engine bay a little bit more...

And test fitted the headlights and the bumper...

It's not completely on yet. I still need to bolt it
down so nothing flies away when I'm drifting !
I found the old school "Seigo" wristband, so
I used it to cover the p/s reservoir tank (^ ^)/

hiro

hiro style ?

Luckily, the jury duty was finished in half day, so
I was able to continue my work on my cressida.
With more interior components put on, it's finally
starting to look like a drivable car.

And with the new steering wheel and the shift knob,
it's really starting to look like MY car !!!

The new shift knob has the lazer etched "Rai Jin",
which is the Japanese lightning god !

hiro

in the court room . . . . .

I'm at the Santa Ana superior

court room. Because I didn't

pay my tax on my million dollars

income !



Just kidding !!!



I'm here for a jury duty.

Sooooooooo much....



WAITING !!!



hiro

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

jury duty !!!

I have to go to court tomorrow to serve a
jury duty task. . .

I have never been to a jury duty, so I don't know
what to expect...
Hope it does not take that long.

hiro

nice combo !!!

This JDM snack and a beer is a perfect match !

And this is not a ordinary JDM snack, but a
rated-R edition !!!
It's a corn puff with mayo flavor and special
wasabi powder. When I had it for the first time,
I sneezed and almost sprayed it all over my laptop...
but I kept it in (^^;),... It's that much "R" rated.
So, be careful when you eat this...
It's available at your local Mitsuwa market !

hiro

this is . . . . .

a Tamago Dofu (Tofu).
Basically a tofu made from eggs.
With the dashi-based sauce, it's very good!!

It looks like a custard pudding, but it's actually salty!

hiro

cleaning up the mess . . . . .

Since the engine did fire up successfully,
I began cleaning up the mess in the engine bay
and inside the car.
Today I installed the 3-Link Defi meter !
(I bought this long long time ago...)

I kept that clear plastic sheet on to keep it from
scratching, but I did already make a small nick
from top of that protection sheet . . . . . wtf !

As we all know, sh*t happens . . .

hiro