I was pretty stoked to pick up the November issue of Super Street to find the MotorMavens logo on the All Star Bash coverage that Antonio shot! One of these days I will make it out to California for one of these events. One of these days.
I walked away from Southeast Drift’s Land of the Great at Gresham Motorsports Park unscathed and uneasy.
Newly poured asphalt adorns the raceway, as Gresham itself is a freshly renovated facility. I don’t know if they have some sort of compound additive in the pavement, but the track has an immense amount of grip… making is VERY difficult for a 180hp tank to break loose. I was attempting to initiate faster than I have ever initiated… only to have the car set and hug the bank like I was going for a better lap time. The few occasions I could snap the car loose on the bank, it sucked the power dry from my rear wheels, pulling me right down toward the inner-wall. Fast.
I (somehow) managed to qualify seventh, and was paired up with my buddy Dennis Mertzanis for the tandem comp. I didn’t feel comfortable running solo – let alone tandem, so I told Dennis to steer clear of me… that I was basically going to forfeit the run to him. Dennis went on to take home 2nd place.A fairly big-name in Atlanta’s drift scene approached me at the end of the day, and told me ‘this is the next level for drifting here’, and ‘that drivers are going to have to step it up if they want to participate’. This bothered me for several reasons… the biggest being FOR WHAT? This is grassroots drifting… it is supposed to be about having fun. What fun is wadding your car up into a wall, and having to sit the next season out because you ‘stepped it up’? For the majority of us who actually have an emotional stake in our cars – totaling it out trying to be a g-roots hero would be devastating. DEVASTATING.
I probably will not be back to drive at Gresham. The risk just isn’t worth it to me… especially when I (and the rest of Atlanta, really) have nothing to prove. Drifting already has its superstars. I just want to have fun with my friends.
The final Southeast Drift event of the year goes down this weekend at Gresham Motorsports Park. The practice event “Land of the Great” runs all day, and then once the sun sets… a comp ramps up under the lights. This will be my first time out to Gresham, and I love drifting at night, so I’m definitely stoked! Shouts to BH Design for the flyer work!
I came across some old silk Metallica wall-hangings I had in storage, and decided to have a go at wrapping the back cushions for my Sparco Evos. I wrapped the driver-side cushion with a Pushead piece. It was the only one I didn’t mind slicing up, because I couldn’t stand the (newer sans-serif) Metallica logo on it. Because I didn’t want to cut up any of my other Pushead wall-hangings, the passenger-side wound up with the electric chair from Ride the Lightning.
This logo underwent a TON of revisions. Overall, I’m quite happy with the symmetry and overall balance of the final iteration.
I almost got the e46 impounded this evening while I was following the break-in procedure for the new differential in the empty parking lot across the street from my neighborhood. I guess a black car driving around (NOT DRIFTING) in a figure eight for 30 minutes just seemed down-right illegal to several concerned citizens, who called me in to the police. Thankfully, the officer let me off with a severe warning, and allowed me to go park the car back in my garage… where it stays 99% of the time (the other 1% being when it goes on the trailer to be taken to the track).I was pretty upset that people felt like I was doing something wrong, and called the police about it. I mean… in the grand scheme of things, that car was on its best behavior compared to what it is normally doing. Ol’ girl is capable far worse things that would probably give those ‘concerned citizens’ seizures and heart-attacks. Driving between 5-10mph in a figure eight hardly fits the bill to be worthy of concern.
Such a team effort here. Austin Lawless sourced the new pumpkin via Stricktly German… Matt Foerst got the old unit disassembled, and re-shimmed & installed in the new housing… and David Jones & Wes Pitts dropped by to help get the pumpkin bolted back up to the rear subframe! Mega MEGA thanks to all that helped get this mess sorted out!
It is too awesome to have this diff back in the car!!!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it out to SEMA this year, so I threw a quick business card design together for Antonio since he would be in Vegas for the show. I utilized the same concrete projection technique I used for the Motorsport Nationals collateral, and I think it turned out pretty slick.
I picked up a new wheelset for the Peugeot. In lieu of my envy for the ability to do track stands and pedal backwards, I’ve decided to give the fixed gear a go. I kept finding myself gaffling my friend’s fixed bikes at every stop so I could get my trick on. I went ahead and removed the old brake levers and eliminated the rear caliper. Eugene gave me a new long-reach caliper for the front, so I have a lot more stopping power than before.
All-in-all, I think this wheelset really gives the bike an aggressive look. Kinda like a beefed up street-rod – it keeps its vintage style, but with a bit more muscle to it.
