Wow...

I've noticed a couple new car trends going around...

1. ROOF RACKS
Seems every JDM kinda car has to have a roof rack. People on forums seem to blow their load at the sight of a roof rack. "OMFG YaKiM4?!?!"

I have a sneaking suspicion that very few of these people use the rack for outdoor sporting reason (IE what the hell they're made for). I've yet to see a snowboard, skis, whatever, atop some Civic SI with JDM window visors, corner lights, splash guards, door trim, etc whatever other extraneous JDM bullshit etc.

2. FLAT BLACK PAINT

This is fucking ugly:



Why spend something like $300,000 bucks for a Rolls Royce Phantom, and then make it look as if it's been burned in a fire, or repainted in primer?

Then again, I am obviously not a car guy, since I can't appreciate how ugly the goddamn Phantom is to begin with. It looks as if they made the car look good, and then gave the design plans for the headlights to a retard. Rectangles. Cool! That goes well with the rest of the car!

Oh well. Tons of people will still buy it, and rap videos will PROVE to people how COOL it is, just because it's a Rolls or T-Pain has twelve of them or some stupid inconsequential shit.

This is beyond me.

I'm sure I'll piss off a few sheeple-consumers with this post. Too bad, I still think it's fucking retarded.

Go buy more crap, consumers.




-=OTHER NEWS=-

The Station fire in the San Gabriels has been reclassified. It was at 85,000 acres the other day, and it has since moved up to "fucking massive". 125,000 acres last I checked, though it is growing in the southeast, heading towards Cogswell Dam.

A shitload of historical landmarks have been lost to the fire. Vetter Mountain Fire Lookout is gone. That was built in 1935. Sucks. :-(

I do hope it does clear out some of the brush in the southern half of the San Gabriel Wilderness. I don't want the fire to get much larger, but that would help later on down the road. Might as well knock out that insanely thick brush now, than risk it going up later when Fire Fighters aren't ready for it.

I hope everyone is doing OK now with this. To my understanding, few residential structures have been harmed.




-=CAR STUFF=-

1. Selling my 88' FC3S RX7 for $1,500 bucks. Inquire for info.

2. Got a '79.5 TE72 'Rolla. Hope to build it up over a few years with a 20V 4AGE, suspension, simple stereo system, etc. I aim to run it in the Targa Newfoundland, or the new Canada West Targa (or vice versa?) in the future. A lightweight, efficient daily driver. Easy N/A tuning. Car currently handles like a rowboat.

I'd post pics, but I missed the recent Japanese Nostalgic Car meet on the 4th (tonight). Pics later.

Adios

Nothin' goin' on.

School. No money to go out climbing with, or anything. Oi vey.

Random pictures from recent history...

Putting the "new" 88 FC3S N/A through some test driving:





A video of the first time giving the RX7 some room to stretch its legs.





Massive wall map getting some details written in... hours upon hours of putting every single stream, waterfall, route, peak, road, etc into the San Gabriels.







-=RX7=-

88 N/A 13B, RB Header + exhaust (stock cats), HKS intake (stock tubing), that's about it. Previous owner put 18" wheels on it, but the car cannot fit 18's. When I have enough money to waste, I'd like to get rid of these cheap shitty "Team Loco" wheels, and put a set of 17"s on, Toyo or some other affordable rubber.

Needs new suspension bits. KYB's with Tein S-Tech springs and a Ground Control Kit would be nice. Coilovers would be even better, though too expensive. The car is, IMHO, better than the S13 240SX right out of the box. The 13B is already a superior motor to the KA24, turbo or otherwise. The balance is superior, with the only "accidental" oversteer I've done coming from a shift-lock drift on an easy flat corner entry (driving it home for the first time).

Since the suspension needs stiffening very badly, it handles neutrally, but with no real advantage, leaving you frustrated. You can't push it, even if it refuses to oversteer and won't understeer unless you're going too slowly. Single-laning means one can't give the car the line the stock/old suspension can work with, making it awkward.




If I had the money... the "Ultimate" build for fun and daily driving (if you can pay for gas!)

-ENGINE-
*13B Turbo 2 Swap
*Mild streetport
*Front mount intercooler
*Haltech or other ECU etc etc
*Replace turbo, all piping (for FMIC), BOV, everything. New stuff, around stock numbers though.
*A/C removed
*Fuel cell? New pump?
*Goal of around 275-300RWHP. Nothing overly powerful; balanced mountain car.


-SUSPENSION-
*Whiteline or other front and rear sway bars
*Whiteline or other front and rear tower strut bars
*Energy bushing kit (friggin' OEM is 21 years old right now!)
*Tein coilover kit
*17" Enkei, SSR, whatever works. Nothing stands out in my mind. Maybe something old school.




-AERO ETC-
*Seam/stitch-welding
*Full cage
*2x racing seats, passenger side would recline
*Relocate driver's seat rails low and back (I'm 6'4")
*FRP doors
*Fire suppression system maybe...
*RE-Amemiya hood and whatever other expensive bits
*Plexi windows & hatch 'glass'
*Repainted gunmetal grey, dark metallic gray, whatever looks good.
*A friggin' radio! 2-4 speakers, no subs or anything, just bare bones.I hate "systems".

Sorta close to this RE Amemiya time attack FC... did 57 seconds around Tsukuba with Keiichi Tsuchiya at the wheel, some 350RWHP, light weight and overall balance.





Just threw those numbers down off the top of my head. If everything goes as planned, I'd rather just get a clean, mostly-stock FD, and do a similar setup to that. Until then, I'm sick of getting horrid mileage... but rotary engines do kick ass in the mountains. :-)

Smokeman Tohru

This man is my hero, pure and simple:

Airplane Flat and a Desert Trip

SGMDF member AW and I headed up to the Bridge to Nowhere along the East Fork San Gabriel River to start a hike up South Mount Hawkin's loooong east-southeast ridge. We turned back on the lower part of the ridge, but got a chance to check out Airplane Flat, just above the Bridge to Nowhere.

We also found a trail that basically goes from Airplane Flat to Rattlesnake Peak, staying at roughly the same elevation the whole way. Gotta check that out soon.




The trail to Rattlesnake Peak


Chilled near the Bridge the rest of the day, swimming and whatnot.


Maidenhair Fern


Jump in






Some shots from a recent trip to the desert:


Chris setting up in the Rhino


Flying down a desert road


Brian sighting in


Chris sending boolits downrange

(Upon viewing, I noticed how all the pics are center-oriented, so things are a bit off.)

TOP GUN DAY

Please head on over to http://www.topgunday.com/

DO IT NAO

2009 D1GP Round 1 in Anaheim

I'm slow in updating this blog out of pure laziness. My buddy and I went to Angel Stadium last weekend on May 2 for the first round of the D1GP in the USA.

D1GP Homepage

Entry was pricey: $15 for parking, and $25 for general admission. I don't recall how much SEATING was. Not cool.

Walking through the parking lot was pretty interesting. I've never seen so many 240's, Silvias, and any other Japanese FR machinery before. Entry to the event was poorly-marked, which only added stress to the folks who run the events at the Stadium.

We got in, and checked out the car show on the grounds. Lotsa cool stuff, and some stupid DUB's and lowrider BS mixed in, for whatever reason.

I think we found that VIP style Q45 I posted earlier:







I like some of the elements of VIP styling, mostly regarding their cleanliness and the fact that it's just plain different. No doubt, I will get some flak from friends over this. ;-)

Another Infiniti:






~=SUPRAS=~

There were a few real clean Supras in the show. The common JZA70 late 80's Supra looks great when it's done right. There are loads of these in SoCal, typically in crummy condition but with a straight frame. The Wangan calls...

JZA70 Supra with a 2JZ-GTE 3L I6










I really dig this JZA70 with fixed headlamps and a 1JZ (tuned by Weld?). I don't know where the headlights come from (Corona?), but the whole setup is super slick.

JZA70 1JZ-GTE 2.5L I6








And a JZA80 that reminded me of something Smokey Nagata would build in "Bling Bling Gold"...






Some of the other cars in the show...

Twin Turbo VQ powered Z33



Turbo'd S2000 with GT hatch-hardtop








One similar at the USMC booth




Yellow FD 13B






Sweet FC3S with a Cosmo 20B 2L 3 rotor motor in it. 370WHP 400TQ on 5lbs of boost:








Stock-ish S15 with OD paint... reeeeeally wish Nissan would've imported the S15 to finish the Silvia lineup in the USA... and kept the SR in it! There are S15's in SoCal, but AFAIK they're for "offroad use only".




Clean S14 at the booth with the turbo S2K




Random S13 with unusual aero...




Rallycross Hachi




Older Impreza showing some scars






We then walked around to the grandstands... where we couldn't sit, since we didn't pay premium, argh. Shouldn't have to pay for that. The opening ceremony for the last half of the day had the Gumball 3000 cars driving around the track. Two Bugatti Veyrons, and a bunch of other pricey stuff. Some guys would try to drift in the open center of the track (parking lot), but they'd just make loud circles... guess nobody wants to dump the clutch.

Some dude drove up near the end of the line in an R34 4 door sedan and put on what I felt was the BEST part of the show. Doing rodeo drifts, all sorts of tricks, smoking the shit out of his tires, eventually blowing his left rear. Awesome show! Kudos to that dude!




Here are some pics from the actual event. We didn't stick around for the whole thing, as we were both very hungry, and drinks were $5 per bottle, so yeah... booked it out and went to El Tepeyac Cafe in Boyle Heights. I managed to get some great high res shots of a chainlink fence (with some cars drifting beyond it). :-)


Chris Phillips setting some stuff up






Two S15's (can't recall driver's names)




JZX100 Chaser...




...followed by a Texan driver in his AE86




FC3S RX7 eating a cone




The results are here on the D1GP site.

Peak 3702 - Scramblewhack / 2009 Audi A3 Quattro

The editor 'ate' my previous posting, so I'll redo it. I should've used the HTML editor instead of the GUI sorta setup.

~= Peak 3702 - A ScrambleWhack =~

I was just getting over a strange bug I've had since February, which sapped my energy and gave me symptoms similar to Giardia. Now, I got a cold, or the flu (insert joke regarding current flu media craze, 'swine flu'). Took some pills which did nothing but make me tired. I decided not tog et some sleep before heading out at 4 something in the morning, so I had already been up for 18 hours before we left...

SGMDF member AW and I set off to tackle an unnamed peak in the San Gabriel Wilderness. He had been eyeing this particular peak for a long time, and gave it an attempt a while ago, making it up to the South Ridge before turning back. Today, we would try to get this peak and its neighbors to the west.


~Starting out~

We headed out to West Fork of the San Gabriel River in AW's N/A Z31 (the X-Wing). We got to the trailhead a bit after dawn, and started our hike up Lower Bear Creek (LBC). The approach takes you up a few miles before you reach the gully that hits the south ridge of 3702.



Hiking up this gully takes you over loose rock and dirt, and some cool steps made by moss on soft dry ground, which supports your weight. Once up the gully, the view down from the ridge is excellent.



Going up the ridge involves scrambling up mostly class 2 loose ground with thick brush, with some class 3/4 thrown in there for fun.



The ridge eventually ends at the summit, which is unceremoniously covered in thick brush, mostly Scrub Oak and some Buckthorn-like plant. Surprisingly, there is some Manzanita growing up there as well.

We looked west and decided that a flamethrower or Arc-Light strike would be required to clear the intense brush between our peak and the next one over, so we called it a day. The clouds started to clear, and we got a view of our favorite peak in the area, Twin Peaks. We had both dreamed of climbing it from the south, and the views reinforced our position that this would be a tad ambitious from our chosen avenues of approach, as the whole south side is choked with thick brush. One could move through the paths of least resistance, but they would be required so somehow ascend waterfalls up to 50ft tall with little or no options around the falls to bypass.

Peak 6151 in the clouds


East Twin's Southeast Face


After taking a ton of photos of Twin Peaks, we headed down. On descent, I broke my last Black Diamond trekking pole. I was downclimbing a crummy slab, and loosened a rock, which fell on the pole, cracking it. Oh well. RIP pole. Guess I'll be bringing an ice axe along until I can get a replacement.

Got back down and checked out a waterfall along the road. Having been up for 30 some hours while sick had me falling asleep walking back to the car.

Thanks for having me along, AW!






~=2009 Audi A3 Quattro=~

My buddy just picked up a brand new A3 Quattro, and a short ram intake for it. We were happy to find out that no gymnastics were required to install this intake, though it's as complicated at most car are nowadays. Gone are the days where a few screws are turned, and you simply pop a new intake setup on there. At least this intake didn't require tearing anything extra out, and cramming it down by a foglight or some crap like other ones.

Neuspeed 2009 Audi A3 Intake

*Note that we did not require the small breather filter on our 2009 A3.*

Results are positive, as you can hear the turbo spool up, though things are quiet on these 'self-propelled sofas' of today. More info later, as more things are done to the car (coilovers, exhaust, chip/tuning, etc).

Some pics:

Stock intake parts, out of the car


Neuspeed intake components


Installed and ready to go



~=Yamaneko Knives=~

A buddy of mine up north makes his own custom blades, and recently sent one to me to test out. I've not had many opportunities to test this thing out, but I'm happy so far. Big fan of the sheath, moulded to fit the knife with no other retention features present. Very quick on the draw, though I had the knife fall out of the sheath when I jumped down from a rock the other day. I'll work something out with 550 cord.

Took a few pics of the knife using my underwater-capable Olympus 1030 SW:



More later as the season wears on, and shelters are made etc.

New Blog

I've started this amazing blog with a vision... a vision of interesting stuff to write about that people will take some interest in... however, the inevitable has happened: I have nothing to say. I figure this blog will cover whatever mountain activities I can contribute to, such as climbing, hiking, driving, etc. Failing that, this blog will be about penguins.

In an hour and a half, I'm leaving to go explore some peaks in the San Gabriel Wilderness. For all that we know, nobody has been there before, or at least talked about it in any way. A sort of blank spot on the map. Should make for good photos, with views of Twin Peaks from the south.

On a completely unrelated note, I spotted a VIP style Infiniti Q45 (Cima) today... 

Here's a Wiki page on V.I.P. Style from Japan. One can think of it as Japanese interpretation of American Lowriders, sorta. Clean rides with big wheels, stretched tires, tons of camber, and other odds and ends.

Huzzah