Lui's Birthday Meet At Wankel Works

Photo by Kristyn Brophy

A lot of rotaries were revolving their way to Wankel Works this past weekend for Lui's birthday party. It was a great turn-out, as the entire RE-Zelse team was able to show up, along with some of my friends from NEPOC, the Mass RX-8 Club, and some personal rotary friends of Lui. Be prepared for a lot of pictures as various cars came by, such as a fully restored Mazda REPU and some first generation RX-7s!

Photo by Kristyn Brophy

Francesco's "Blueberry"

Photo by Bazooka Photography

Francesco is a friend of mine who is currently building up his RX-8 for NASA Time Trial (National Auto Sport Association). He had sent me some of these great pictures of his RX-8 taken by Bazooka Photography. The picture above was featured on Enkei's Facebook page as an advertisement for the Enkei RPF-1 wheels. These pictures were just too good to not turn into desktop wallpapers!

I definitely enjoy the great angles and excellent backgrounds in the pictures, as it gives the pictures a Gran Turismo 5 "Picture Mode" feel to it. He is planning on having a bridge ported Renesis engine with some other great mods for next season, so keep an eye on his blog for more information on that. In the meantime, be sure to check out the desktops page for more desktop wallpapers of his car.

ProSolo At The New Jersey New Meadowlands Stadium

I just got back from my first ProSolo up in New Jersey over at the New Meadowlands Stadium. The entire event was absolutely amazing, and I wish ProSolo events were held locally more often. The atmosphere, the people, the format of the race, everything. I have plenty of pictures and videos from the event, but they don't give it justice. I highly recommend experiencing this at least once, even if just as a spectator. Check out the following links for some great photos of the event, thanks to AutoX4U, Vlad and Steguis. Below are links to the days posted, and then a description of how ProSolo works.

• Friday - The Road To Jersey
• Saturday - New Meadowlands ProSolo - Day 1
• Sunday - New Meadowlands ProSolo - Day 2
• Final Results
• AutoX4U Photo Gallery
• Vlad Photo Gallery
• Steguis Photo Gallery

Basics
On day 1, you get four runs (two runs each side) in the morning and four runs in the evening. Day 2 you only get four runs in the morning, giving you a total of twelve runs (or six each side) between the two days. Your final time is a total of your fastest run on both sides between the two days. You also get to see your reaction times and 60-ft times, but it does not contribute to your score.

After the morning runs on day 2 then has three challenges at the end of the day. The Gumout Super Challenge, where they take the winners of every class and have them compete against each other. Then they have the Ladies Challenge where they take the fastest female drivers and pit them against each other. Lastly, the Bonus challenge, where eight or sixteen people's names are pulled from a hat to race against each other.


Event Specifics
There are four Heats with two groups per heat. The groups consist of various car classes, going from slowest to fastest, and have to allocate for bump class. It also takes 5 entries to make a class. For example, Heat 3 had Group 5 and Group 6. Group 5 consisted of STU, R1 and R2, and Group 6 consisted of classes BSP and F125.

You have a grid area and then a staging area just before the course. When your heat is coming up to run, you line up in grid, side by side (paired up as they call it) to another car in your class. The grid is numbered and you are given that number at the start of the event, so you know where to grid. As you progress throughout the day, your grid number will change based on your position in your class, so be sure to frequently watch the board for your results and grid position. In grid you can water the tires, check pressures, anything you need to do. Once they are ready for your car class from your group, they bring your entire car class forward to the staging area. If you were in grid on the left, you would go to the left course first, and if you were on the right, then the right course. If you get out of line and lose your pair, your car is done running. You can only take a 10 minute mechanical BEFORE you start running, so if something breaks, you have to either keep running or forfeit the rest of your runs.

In the staging area, you CANNOT get out of your car. If you have a co-driver or a partner, they can check your tire pressures, adjust shocks, turn on/off your camera, but that is it...So it can be helpful to have a partner. As the cars move up in the line, you get your helmet scanned of your name, then move up to the timing lights (known as the "Christmas Tree"). As you're moving up, you have 20 seconds to do a quick burnout to warm up the tires if you want, and then line up with the staging lights.

As you'll see in the videos, you have two lights you need to light up as you are lining up within the 20 seconds. The lights are pre-stage and stage, and are lit up based on your line-up across the beam of lights from the small metal boxes to each side of the car. The first beam is your pre-stage, followed by your stage beam, and the last beam is your starting beam. You want to make sure that you just barely have the stage light lit on the Christmas Tree, as you only have 17 inches between the stage light and the starting light. They allow you to reverse the car if you need to in order to get lined up properly. If you have small accents in front of the car, beware. The pre-stage light can become unlit since it can see past the accent piece (like my RX-8 because of the rotor accent in the front, so I had to line up at a very slight angle).

From here, the 20 seconds finishes counting down, (unless it is a manual start, where the starter will point to each driver lined up to confirm the driver is ready to race) the lights will begin to go. 3 yellows, and then a green. If you pass the starting beam before the green light is lit, you get a red light and your run does not count. The best reaction time you can get when launching is half a second (.500) as that is exactly the time between the lights illuminating. Some people like to be conservative when launching so they do not lose a run by getting a red light. Most people tend to launch right as they see the third yellow light, that way after a small wheel spin, their car will accelerate forward just as the green light comes on.

Once you go on the course and complete your run, you come off the course and go behind the staging area to crisscross over to the other side of the course. Again, you CANNOT get out of the car when you are in the staging area. Once you are done with your four runs, you pull away from the staging area to the dual driver grid area so that you can have your five minutes to switch drivers. Once he is done, or if you raced alone, you bring your car over to impound. Here, everyone opens their trunk and hood so everyone can make sure that all cars are class legal, and then wait for the class results. If there are no protests and everyone is okay with the results, you then can leave impound and head back to the paddocks.

Interior Touchup

Just wanted to give a couple of quick photos of the interior since I managed to finish it up tonight. I need to figure out how to make the horn work and block out the SRS light, so that will take me a little bit. Once I do though, I'll most likely write up a DIY on doing an aftermarket steering wheel.

Knight Sports Article

Happy New Years everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates, but don't worry, expect to see a lot of positive changes soon; both to the blog and an upcoming project car. In the meantime, check out this really cool article on my favorite Japanese rotary tuners, Knight Sports.

This article was done by ImportTuner and has some really nice photos of the Knight Sports RX-8 that won 1st place in the Macau 2009 GP. Page 2 has all the build information, which I thought was very informative to see all the different things they had done. Building a race car really is a lot more then just gutting a car, putting in a rollcage, and a few bolt ons; and they show that in their work here I believe.

Their RX-8 was a big inspiration for me on my build for my own RX-8. How they handle their research, testing different parts, fabrication, designing functional parts, their clean and sleek look, etc. Just a well balanced, full package deal when you look at their parts and designs, much like Black Halo Racing's approach to products. I look forward to seeing any changes they plan on making to their car come 2011. Maybe going back to a Renesis engine, but adding a nice twin-scroll turbo? Perhaps starting with a series II platform and doing some changes from the ground-up? I guess we'll have to wait and see, so stay tuned.

Cars & Copters 2

It's that time of year again for the gigantic Cars and Copters meet over at the Plymouth Municipal Airport. Last year was a great event, with over 500 cars having had shown up throughout the day. This year had over 800 cars show up throughout the day, with a lot of variety this year. From really nice American Muscle, to new age Japanese Muscle, they variety was there.Posted are some pictures I took of the NEPOC members meeting up before going in together. Then there is some shots of her on display with Domo-Kun in the driver seat, along with some other rotary goodies and some of my favorite cars at the show.Below are the non rotary pictures. This M3 in the beginning here has caught my eye ever since I saw it driving down the road right by my office in Cambridge. I think it's beautifully done, with simple exterior mods that only enhance the look of the stock body; a style that is right up my alley.

Cars & Copters

It's been a while since I've had my car in a car show, let alone go to one. Today was the return of the infamous "Cars and Coffee" meet, only this time with helicopters instead! I'll let the pictures do the talking, but it was a nice event in Plymouth Airport. Thanks to Mike for the awesome pics of the car, awesome movie Josh, and great to see everyone!
NEPOC Cruise to the Show!
Mike's Gallery
YuppieRacing.net Gallery
Another Gallery
Someone from NASIOC Gallery
Another Random Gallery
Banilejo's Gallery

All Mazda Meet At Orange County Choppers

The day finally came for the annual Mazda Meet at OCC! I unfortunately did not have the time to go last year, so I decided to go this year to check out what it's all about! It was great to see some old faces from people in NY, and get together with the usual NEPOC crew.

I had gone to also support my good friend with his business, SleeperModZ, and setup the booth with him and get my car on display, along with Josh. After all the setup, making sure our cars were clean and getting things in gear, we were ready to go! The booth consisted of a large white tent, with the black SleeperModz banner infront. Inside the tent at the back wall was a SleeperModz banner, with all information needed. At the center table, there were items on display, with a large monitor, keyboard and mouse that was connected wirelessly to the Internet. Firefox was set to Kiosk mode so that people could surf only the SleeperModz website and check out what product they have for their car.The day went on with some music, over 150+ different cars, raffles, and mostly hanging out and talking. At the end of the day, we packed up, went to the hotel for a nap to make up for the lost hours of sleep, before hitting up TGI Friday's for celebration dinner!

Day 2 mostly consisted of a few people getting together, saying goodbyes, getting the grand shop tour of OCC, and then heading back out to MA. Was a great time, and was great to see everyone there. Below is a list of all the picture galleries of various people that had gone.
Josh's Gallery
Josh's Car's Infront of OCC Gallery
Josh's Shop Tour Gallery
Anna's Gallery 1
Anna's Gallery 2
Chris's Gallery
Lonecorp's Gallery
Ashley's Gallery
Zach's Gallery
Craig's Gallery
SpeedAddiction's Gallery

Polish Power

(Thanks a million to Oleg for the compounds and goods, and thanks a ton to Josh for the time, effort, garage, and food. Oh and the cruise in Cape Cod after with two good looking cars.)

2 guys + 1 power sander + 3 pads + 3 different compounds + 1 wax = 7 hours of work. This was a task and a half. Me and my girlfriend went up to the Cape to Altspace's (Josh's) house early in the morning to complete a full polish on the car. He told me all about the pains and long hours we would go through, but because of my inexperience I assumed it would be cake walk. Just for a few hours. Boy, was I wrong.

We started off with a quick car wash, making sure we got to every detail: the wheels, the plastic parts, everything. After drying the car, Josh used a vacuum that could be used as a blower to go along the lines of the car and blow out any remaining water. This ensured that the car was as dry as possible. Then, we rolled it into the garage and got ready for the polish.

We started off with a heavy compound to take care of all the small surface area blemishes, going along from top to bottom. As Josh went along with the machine, I followed behind him with the buffing towel to use some serious elbow grease and rub the polish out.

After, we used a heavier compound to go deeper into the clear coat and really work out any smudging. We could already start to see an impressive difference as the smudging was almost gone, and the car had become more like some sort of mirror.

As our fifth hour approached, we finally finished applying the last and heaviest compound to really get deep down and smooth out as much etching as possible from the car. It worked well, and the car literally became a mirror. But, sadly not all the etching that the previous owner left for me had dissipated from the clear coat. I haven't really decided what to do about that, but for now it looks good enough for anyone else who sees my "brilliant black" coat... or the black mirror, whatever works for you.

After we were done, we applied some PoorBoy's wax and wheel wax and headed out to catch some dinner. We cruised around the windy back roads of the Cape, as well as along Main Street.

For more pictures, take a peek here.