FAIL!!!

So yeah, on the way to work, coming in a little to hot onto the freeway...this happens. God please let this be fixable.

Just drift or die tryin.

So recently I attened my very first Formula D competition held in Long Beach Ca 4/11/09. It was great. I saw tons of teams competing and witnessed a lot of activity which made me feel left out. So much was occuring, everyone was doing something. It felt good being there and a steady thought kept reoccuring in my head. I asked myself over and over.." How badly do I want to drift?". Seeing Justin Pawlak in his Rx7 and Mike Essa in his FC3S competing on a professional level made me want to be involved so much more. I even remember a remark Justin Pawlak made one day as we were hanging out at his old shop a few years back in East LA...he said something regarding my level of passion for drifting and how Im a dedicated "enthusiast"...and not a driver pursuing the drift motorsport. Wow!!! This thought as painful as it sounded when I initially heard it, still serves as a constant reminder present day. How badly do I want to drift? I recently tried letting go of my 1974 Mazda Rx3. ( Im keeping her though, so it all good) The money from this would help me afford a helmet, extra tires for practice, some shoes for practicing in (mine are totally beat) and finally a much needed camera for capturing my driving. That plan failed and so I stll think about money, what I cant afford to practice and actually compete. Im not going to let go of my vision. I have to keep going. Painful thought's of money wasted in the past on ridiculous things and moments constantly tear away at me. In ending, Im going to drift/drive. Regardless of what Ive been through and how other's might perceive me, Im going to do it.

Driveshaft of destiny.

Man, finding this part was such a pain. The T2 driveshaft was pretty much the last part i needed in completing my rear end swap. Here is my celebration pic.

Radiator Install.

Got really sick of my engine on the verge of blowing up due to overheating, it sucked really bad. Solution? Picking up a Koyo radiator for $80 from a fellow rx7 club member. Issue resolved. Big thanks to my boy jason from San diego for helping with the install, and Santos for the great price on an engine saving part.

Install Overview.

I'll try and keep this blog short, for good reason too. So I ended up not being able to run the kaaz diff. I Found out that it's a viscous type unit which requires 1 long stub axle and the other being shorter in length. Why? I really wish I knew. When trying to run the kaaz, the gears were not catching at all which made me very frustrated and sad.

So, I end up leaving that night with my good friend Jaime to San Diego to meet up at Jasons and pick up a Turbo 2 Rx7 shell with a complete rear end. Jason found a free donor shell. Yes FREE!!! This particular donor car with it's rear end contained the much needed stub axles for my kaaz. The plan was to get the shell back to Jason's house, remove the factory diff, load up and head back to LA. Mission accomplished :)

That night (Sunday) we all get to workin on my FC and taking out my beloved Kaaz diff in exchange for the newly accquired factory T2 diff. I guess it made things a lot easier rather than exchanging parts between both units. It was a sucessful install and my car actually moved forward. Whew. NEXT!!!!

Installing the diff part 1.

So this past Saturday I made a strong effort to get crackin on my FC and finally install the kaaz LSD. The goal was to start at around 8am and be done by noon, adding to that other parts that I wanted to put on. Here's a few pics.

Diff Upgrade.

Woo Hoo : ) My 1.5 KAAZ LSD .....I cant wait to feel the difference on my FC, squirrly town for sure when I get to drifting at an event. It's shown here with a completed cleaning. Thanks to Ray and Chris over at KAAZ hq for the info/diff oil, aaaaand, big big shout out to my boy Ricardo for the re-sealing and cleaning. The lord is truly lookin out for me. Word!