OMG! Gas Price...

OMG, the gas price keeps going up...I thought it was because of the memorial day weekend thingy...and thought it would go down after that...but o well, not really.





And some gas price prediction says it would go up more in a couple of days. So sad. :(




The pic of the day...I took this pic a while ago...but didn't have chance to post.
Hmmmm?!?!




Yoshie

More contributors for Taka Aono! Thank you very much!!

We got more contributors for Taka! Thank you very much everyone for your support!!!!! <3



Lightwire Graphics
Gaylord Garcia

(Order by date received)






Of course, there are the people who were already contributed...

Moto Miwa
Curtis Nguyen
Jonny Mac
DriftLive
Fatlace
H.C.
Huy Le
Ray Oca
Cameron Leslie
Ken Miyoshi
Aaron Losey
Colin Frost
Keith Wong
Binhminh Le
Dori Saru!
Justin Marlow
Patrick Haire
Benjamin Ramos
Vanessa Valenica
Amanda Lam
Trent Stromkins
Sara Kwan
Evan von Borstel x 2
Chris Litonjua
Marvin Ng
Zymond Tan
Adam Szczuka
Geoff Wise
Yoko Ogihara
Sean F.
K.G.
Anthony Abad-Santos
Matt Vigil
Brandon Lee
T. & K. G.
Control Freaks
Joshua B Gumban Jr
Choon Kim
Jayson Pizarro
Alexander Pascual
Arthur Vizcarra
Desmond O'Leary
Meinardo Sampaga
Yasuo Okinishi
Barry Chiang
Raymond Grunch
Stephen Bailey
AC Cao



Thank you very much for your support!! :)



Yoshie

AE86

It is a kinda personal thingy...



I used to drift w/ AE86 @ Formula D event...w/ Taka's car.



Even before, I used to Auto x w/ AE86...w/ Taka's car.



And even even before, I have been owning AE86...haha O, this is mine!!



And this car looked like this before...



Anyway...@ Drift Day...there were a lot of AE86 people came to El Toro for an auto x event organized by AE86 Nights. Pic stolen from Club4AG! hehe




The end of the day, Morgan from AE86 Nights gave me & Taka AE86 Nights goods!
BTW, his hood...has a lot of autographs from a lot of people!! Pic stolen from Club4AG x 2! hehe




It was really nice of him. Thank you very much, Morgan! <3



I mean...I love AE86. ;)




Yoshie

Drift Day @ El Toro today.

Yesterday, I went to Drift Day @ El Toro...it was nice weather for all day. :)


Anyway, I bought the brake pads from Drift Speed called "D1 Spec" from Project Mu for my Drift 102 car a couple of days ago (Thank you, Quoc!). I should have installed these for my competition s14 since I have whatever the used pads on my car!! hahaha




Since we didn't have time to install the pad at that time...we went to El Toro a bit early! We arrived there around 6am, and Taka installed the pads for me. I might be able to install, but it would take forever to finish...(yeah, my excuse...blah. ;)




Originally, my s14 was supposed to be used for Drift 102 student, but unfortunately...he was too tall for the car. :( So, we decided to let him use Taka's Drift 102 car.

It was my first official instruction for Drift 102, so Taka was helping me out.
The student was sooo good that he finished the school session before noon. BTW, he was 6'3" tall!!

(Drift 102 graduate: Jeff! Congratulations!!)

So, my Kouki S14 debuted yesterday! The girls who were driving my Kouki s14...seemed like they loved the car. These girls were repeaters for the rental.
(Girl Drifters: Sara (left) & Lea (middle), and special guest: Stina (right) Sam's beautiful sweet wife!)



We've seen many famous drifters @ Drift Day. Wooow. Well, check it out @ Drift Day!
(Famous Pro Drifters: Justin Pawlak AKA JTP (left), Ken Gushi (middle), and John Russakoff (left) w/ his baby, Levin)




Me and Taka are still recovering from yesterday's event. Yes, we are old. hahaha




Yoshie

A bit of luxury...

Well...me and Taka are trying to save as much for this year...to keep drifting as a privateer.


But today...I did a bit of luxury thingy!! I got non-brush car wash for my Kouki S14 after I pumped the gas. :) Usually, I wash the cars @ home, tho.



Well, I got bored in the car...this car wash machine is kinda beat up so, there were bunch of leaks here and there. haha




After the car wash, me & Taka went to El Toro to drop off my Kouki S14. It was quiet and nice there...and we met a couple of Auto-x time people.




One of the guys we saw was...he is a multi national champion from auto x. Yes, he is a really really great driver!! Funny thing is, he is probably somewhere in his 50's...and always remind us "poko" chan (pic below), the cartoon character from Fujiya in Japan. (The pic taken from the Fujiya Website)



Anyway, Taka (w/ Toyota Corolla) and Hiro (w/ Toyota Cressida) have been instructing for Drift 102 for a while.
I have been helping for Taka's students as an assistant instructor since I didn't have a school car to teach like them.

Now, my Kouki s14 is ready for the Drift 102, and I will be an official Drift 102 instructor! ;)



Today's interesting thingy @ Technosquare:

Front view:
Rear view:





Yoshie

Update on Taka's car @ Technosquare #2

So...Taka's car stayed over-night @ Technosquare since his car needed to have more work.


Good news is...the major problem was fixed! :)



Here is the pix of some unlucky parts (?).

1. Dead starter: the one blew up on Taka yesterday...Did I mention this was the 3rd one? haha




2. Fuel pump: This one was creating the most issues on the AE86. Since it WAS still alive (not totally dead) @ Atlanta, the car was able to start the engine but causing the symptom like losing power, no boosting, shutting off the engine, and so on.
To give more details...since the pump was getting weak, it started creating a lot of electrical noise that affected on the ECU readings. Also when the boost hit around 14psi, the fuel pump couldn't catch up sending enough fuel... So...those made the car run like crap (?) and only giving 220hp-ish @ wheel @ Atlanta. And this pump looks like 1 year old or less...




3. Front member: Found a crack, but it was @ early stage!! Our famous fabricator, Richey added some support for both side.



And...now, Richey is making a foot plate (?) for the passenger side!




This is the inside of the external fuel pump. Never seen before...Pretty interesting!! :)




Yoshie

Update on Taka's car @ Technosquare

Thank you very much for your support for Taka!! ;)


First of all, we are not 100% sure if we can make it to NJ because of both the car and fund issues in this point. :(

Taka could have made a decision to rest well & get recovered from his sickness (AKA please don't give me your sickness!), save up some funds, and make it ready for Rd. 4 @ Las Vegas.


But, Taka has been working on his car every day after he came back from Rd. 2 @ Atlanta even thought he is still sick. Taka is like putting 98+% (haha 2% less cuz he is sick and loosing some energy) effort neither to make any excuses nor to regret what he can do in this point, especially to his supporters; and of course, to himself.


O well, so sad...Taka didn't have a luck to solve the issues yet. :(

Anywayz, Taka came here @ Technosquare for the Dyno Testing & Troubleshooting today.


Taka is making the "Sad & Crying baby (?)" face cuz the 3rd starter (counting from the Atlanta) blew up on him this morning AGAIN. :< (O, BTW...The bar Taka is holding is not meant for spanking his baby, AE86...just in case! HAHAHA)



Taka: "O, my poor baby...what's wrong w/ you?? Talk to me!! Please come back to me!! ;_;"



Here is our famous mechanic; Howard, in the middle of diagnostic works...



I am hoping the car issues get fixed. Will see! ;)




Yoshie

More contributors for Taka Aono! Thank you very much!!

We got more contributors...Thank you very much everyone!!!!! <3

T. & K. G.
Control Freaks
Joshua B Gumban Jr
Choon Kim
Jayson Pizarro
Alexander Pascual
Arthur Vizcarra
Desmond O'Leary
Meinardo Sampaga
Yasuo Okinishi
Barry Chiang
Raymond Grunch
Stephen Bailey
AC Cao

(Order by date received)




Of course, there are the people who were already contributed...

Moto Miwa
Curtis Nguyen
Jonny Mac
DriftLive
Fatlace
H.C.
Huy Le
Ray Oca
Cameron Leslie
Ken Miyoshi
Aaron Losey
Colin Frost
Keith Wong
Binhminh Le
Dori Saru!
Justin Marlow
Patrick Haire
Benjamin Ramos
Vanessa Valenica
Amanda Lam
Trent Stromkins
Sara Kwan
Evan von Borstel x 2
Chris Litonjua
Marvin Ng
Zymond Tan
Adam Szczuka
Geoff Wise
Yoko Ogihara
Sean F.
K.G.
Anthony Abad-Santos
Matt Vigil
Brandon Lee


Thank you very much for your support!! :)



Yoshie

Recap from Atlanta #2...

Yes, we were lagging about Atlanta Formula D thingy. I am sorry everyone!



Here is one of the Judges, Sexy Tony Angelo...He is a good entertainer here and there. hahaha

The Official FD Announcer, J-Rod, was saying Tony got a Pig-Flu thingy...hahaha



Before the qualify started, Taka was extremely tired since he was sick when we left home, in addition to the car issues that happened previous days. Being a privateer is really hard. Taka was a driver, mechanic, and so on by himself.

Anywayz, the qualify started...

The oil leak issue was somehow fixed by the time for the qualify, so he pulled the car into the line and ready to go for first qualified run. After the Formula Doug gave Taka sign to go, he started his car down the straight away... 1st gear...was OK, and 2nd gear...wasn't OK!!! The car shut down the engine by itself when Taka hit rev limiter @ 8500rpm. I was like, "OMG!! What happened?!?!" And the poor corolla came complete stopped @ entry of P section by gravity... haha

Luckily, by using down hill, he was able to start the car again w/out starter. Here was our conversation...

Taka: "Hmmmm....my engine stopped!"
Yoshie: "HA? What do you mean??"

Taka: "I mean...my engine stopped."
Yoshie: "Why??"

Taka: "I don't know..."
Yoshie: "...O..."


Now...he had 1 chance left. I was soooo worried. Even if his car had a problem, or he was sick...I didn't want to disappoint everyone who supported Taka to make it to Atlanta. So did Taka.

On the grid, Taka parked his AE86 next to his truck and went over every electric connections in the car. There is always people who are nice and kind to help others. Of course, in the middle of the grid of Road Atlanta...quite few people helped Taka to make him going.

Thank you very very much for your help!!

Mr. Motec: Nathan
Chris Forsburg Racing Crew: Kevin Wells
Team JTP (?) Crew: Brian Benson
Team Falken Crews: Scott & Gun Ho
Team BOSO Crews: Frank & Keigo
Team MA-Motorsports Crew: Ray

The AE86 somehow became drivable...haha But still had issues w/ higher RPM operations.


The second run, he didn't have the run that he could have cuz of the unknown car issue. The car didn't want to boost, but somehow he managed to complete the course. And he got 25th out 32!! It wasn't greatest, but at least, he could advance to the main day.

I was hoping that the issue would be fixed by the competition day. There was a practice after the qualify, but we spent all time to figuring out the issue. Around 1:30am-ish, we went back to the hotel to rest for next day. :(

The main day...still had issues. Well, we found the loose ground, but it didn't fix all the thingys. :(


Thank you very much for your help x 2!!!

Race Design: Mickey Andrade
Mr. Motec: Nathan

haha, I needed to go to the driver's meeting, so I let them stay w/ AE86 to check it out.


The main event started...

Taka went against JR...and it was most likely "a lion against a puppy" kinda thingy. haha

For the first run, JR was leading...Taka lost the power on the way back and straighten out...so advantage to JR. The second run, Taka was all over...I mean, to the dirt. hahaha
But it looked great! hahaha O well, Taka was done for the weekend.

Even though our pit was the farthest from the main area, we got a lot of people visited!!
J-Rod was nice enough to announce to, "Visit and see Taka's car w/ all contributed names on the roof & rear window!!" Thank you very much, J-Rod!!

It was kinda WOW...that all the people walked to see his car!!

Thank you everyone for your support!!

Till top 16 started, we got a lot of people walking to see Taka's car! And after that, we just relaxed...

---

And we left Atlanta on Sun...and we stopped by @ SouthEast Drift event. We stayed there for a couple of hours, but we got information that the T-storm was coming...so we left.

And...I am really sorry to the drivers who asked Taka to drive. We had to go before T-storm get too crazy... :(

Thank you very much for the invitation!! :)

O, here is one of the interesting cars we'd found @ the event... ;)


On the way go back...we got nice T-storm again. Whenever the T-storm was heavy, Taka was driving. (Or...whenever Taka was driving, T-storm was heavy??) Whenever I was driving, it was no heavy rain. hehe ;)


The result-wise, Taka might disappoint you all, but he will find the problem of the car @ Technosquare and definitely will come back! Will see what happens. ;)


Thank you very much again for your support!!


Yoshie

Spendings from Atlanta...

Here is the breakdown how much we had spent for Formula D RD. 2 @ Atlanta...

Actually, we usually stop @ hotels on the way back, but we decided to keep going to save some money. ;)

Also, we brought a rice cooker & pot (that can boil water) to save breakfast & lunch. ;)


So...here is the breakdown, just rounded up. (like if it is $158.94 (the red letter rounded up), it will show like $160)

Registration Fee: $300
Practice Fee: $150
Towing Expenses (Gas, Truck & Trailer Supplies Included): $1800
Race Gas: $260
Hotel for 2 Nights: $120
**Atlanta hotel Wed. night – Sun. morning were covered by J-Brad @ Falken Tire. <3
Food & Drinks: $360
Tires: $1050
Misc. (Car Parts): $190

Total Spending: $4230




And, the contributions helped us really really A LOT!!

Thank you very much, everyone!! <3

And, I will get back to the recap thingy later...hehe ;)



Yoshie

Recap for the Formula D RD 2 #1

So...I guess I will post some recap for the Formula D RD 2 thingy.


Taka was helping an event on Sun, so we left @ LA on Sun night...we barely prepared our packing. haha

We stopped every 200-250 miles to fill up the gas. Darng...our pick up eats gas too much! :(

Anywayz, we took I-20...

We drove about 1200 miles into Texas for the first day. Then, another 700 miles on the second day. And left overz on the third day of around 1pm EST., we arrived @ Road Atlanta! Yay.


And...weather in between, we got nice T-storm and...this was the pic from the car. **I am not good @ taking pix, so this is not a cracked window! HAHAHA Or 2nd pic looks better?



And I tried to take a pic of state line...and came up like this...Yes, I am not good @ taking pix #2!!


And...I tried to take a pic of down town...and came up like this...YES, I am horrible @ taking pix!! :( I couldn't believe the stupid green state highway sings were somehow in the middle of the pic.


And...I guess this is the Atlanta Olympic left over...(?)



Anyhow @ venue...

First thing we did was looking for Andy Luk, AKA Dirty Panda, to secure our pit space!

Then, we found out the storm that was following us was on the way to Road Atlanta...Only thing we could do was unload the car and secure everything so that things wouldn't fly away! hahaha

While we were securing things, Taka found that one of the leaf springs on the trailer was broken. :o One of the tires was almost bold because of it...and we were lucky it didn't blow out! 1st unlucky thing.

Since the storm didn't last long, we decided to go look for the leaf spring and misc parts after that. By 8pm, everything was fixed. So we went to the hotel that "Thank you very much, J-Brad AKA Falken Team Manager" booked for us...and we passed out.

Day 2: Practice day...

The practice started around 12 noon. While Taka was preparing for it, I was doing the sticker thingy for the people who contributed for Taka.



Anywayz, Taka looked great @ the practice runs until the starter died. Darng!! 2nd unlucky thing.

After the practice was done, we searched the parts shop...and finally we found 1 place that had the starter for his car. So we were able to fix the issue at that night.

Day 3: Qualify day...

While Taka was waiting in the grid for the first practice run, the mechanic of RMR and Mr. Millen were pointing Taka's car and doing some kinda weird gesture...?!?! Well, sounded like they meant AE86 was leaking the oil. And I guess Taka understood their body language (?), and found out there was a crack on the oil cooler!! Darng x 2, 3rd unlucky thingy.

First of all, Taka was an idiot enough not only forgot to bring the starter, but also forgot to bring oil cooler bypass (dash 10 male-male adaptor)!!

But there were a lot of super wonderful, kind, nice, and cool people in the pit that looked for the adaptor (thank you soooo much for team Apexi, team Falken, and team BOSO) .

O, btw...here is the recommendation from Taka, if you are driving AE86, carry a spare starter or 2! haha And if your car has an oil cooler, carry bypass line just in case. (I guess, everyone needs spare parts anywayz, tho...HAHAHA)

Practice went very well other than Taka killed the starter again the one we just bought last night!!!!!! Darng it! :< 4th unlucky thingy...how much more unlucky thingys continue?!?!




To Be Continued...HAHAHA


Have a nice dream, people! ;)


Yoshie

Thank you for your support!! Taka Aono made it to Atlanta!!

Thank you very very much for your support for Taka Aono!


Just a quick recap for now, and I will post more later.


Thank you very much to Ryan Sage from Formula D posted on their blog!
Ryan also helped to push Taka's car when the starter was dead!!
Below was the video before he helped Taka. ;)

Taka Makes it To ATL!! from Formula DRIFT on Vimeo.

Funny thing was Kenji Yamanaka, AKA Yamaken, helped to push Taka's car, too...then, his car became "need to push"! hahaha


And special thanks to J-Rod, Official Announcer of Formula D!
It was really nice of him saying "Taka Aono" million times! We felt his love!! <3


Anywayz, I didn't expect we would get that much help/support from a lot of people.
And thank you very much again for your support!!



Yoshie