One thing I have always loved about motorsports is the paradigm of the sacrifices involved to conquer personal achievements along the way. One achievement that has eluded me for 6 years has been to successfully navigate the drift-course at Road Atlanta… specifically the entry into 10a, and linking the downhill section tracking out of the horseshoe back down to 10b (sans-manji).

Perched at the top of the hill talking to my buddy Joshua Herron… I couldn’t help but ponder all the years of bad luck, broken parts, STUPID limp-mode, ecu problems. I’ve basically been cursed. Seriously.

The duration of practice would unfold in much the same manner as the past… cursed. Even with a fully-functioning hydraulic e-brake – I still wasn’t acclimated to the point of total comfort. I even had another close call with a flat-spin in the narrow patch of grass between the track and the wall. My Yokohamas had SO much grip that they rocketed me right towards the wall. It scared me so bad I threw up in my mouth.When qualifying came around… we cranked the tyre pressures up around 60-65, and with some advice from Eugene, I came flying into 10a without my normal flick to set the car up. To my surprise… IT WORKED.

With the entry checked off my list, all I had to do was get the car back down the hill out of the horseshoe. My buddy Mike Peters had called me a week prior and given me some advice on my line to help me do this. To my surprise… IT ALSO WORKED.

Back down the hill I went, with just enough wheelspeed, momentum, and RPMs to get within reach of 10b. It would take a massive handful of that e-brake… but it would work.

To say that I was excited would be a MASSIVE understatement. Hell… Cloud-9 still doesn’t quite describe it. I had been fighting this track for 6 years… and with the help of all my friends, Matt Foerst, Kieran O’Brien, Eugene Chou and Mike Peters… I was able to finally break my Road Atlanta curse.

I ended up qualifying 8th, and was paired up with Jason Giovanni from Florida for top 16. On my lead-run… Jason straighted out, and on Jason’s lead-run… I straightened out. I think it should have gone OMT, but it didn’t – and Jason moved on. I was still so excited about my qualifying runs… that I didn’t even care that I got knocked out.

I don’t expect everyone to understand what a special moment this was for me. Tons of dudes rip this track every year with little trouble. I never thought this 3300lb car could get it’s 180 horses to push it through the track like this. I had it drilled into my own head that I couldn’t… and with the help of my friends… I did it.

I was able to hang out with all the DriftMechaniks/Team Rowdy dudes and just have a good time. These dudes are the best on the planet, and I dare anyone to attempt to prove otherwise.

This was a day I will NEVER forget.
EVER.

This project started out as a way to help the Forza community in their painting efforts. I have received many requests for high-res graphics to use as reference in the painting process. I then used that as an excuse to get better acclimated with Adobe Illustrator, and create a comprehensive guide to the vehicle’s 2007 livery. I have always enjoyed technical drawings in their precise structure and perfection. One thing led to another, and the next thing I know… I spent an insane amount of countless hours creating this. I learned a lot about Illustrator in the process, and it is my hope that this will help any aspiring Forza painters re-create the car’s likeness.

I have a ton of respect for everyone painting Forza replicas. I (still) don’t have a 360 to be familiar with the process, but as far as I know… the tools available are very crude and difficult to use. This painter’s pack took me FOREVER, and I already had most of the graphics on file! I cannot fathom how long it takes to create some of these replicas. Hats off to all you Forza painters for your hard work and attention to detail!

Click here to download the Painter’s Pack. (7.4mb – 5400x3600px)

12×18″ posters are available on Slide Style™.

Got down and dirty with the foglight reflectors as well.Cracked these things open.

Hit’m with the ol’ 1-2.

Picked up a restoration kit from 3M.

This is what I started with…

This is what I ended up with. It ain’t perfect… but it is a lot better. I think I could have repeated some of the steps and got better results. I can always save that for a rainy day.

Snapped’m back together and got’m back on the car.

The sun went down so I didn’t get a good photo of the car with the fogs on. I’ll post up a full frontal shot of the car once I can source the shattered foglight bezel for the driver side.

FINALLY. A project that doesn’t turn into some kinda of vehicular-disabling, distastrous headache.Popped the ol’ yeller lenses off… removed the trim, and masked errythang off.

This stuff is AWESOME.

Hit ’em, left and right.

The color is hella vibrant… even with one coat. I did two coats for added ocular punch.

I decided to hit the back of the angel eyes that surround the high beam for good measure.

But I didn’t like how the face of the angel eyes stood out against the yellow.

So I hit them from every angle.

MUCH better.

Popped the new clear lenses back into place, along with the corner lenses and lower trim.

Headlights and high-beams on.

It looks INSANELY sick in person. I’m amazed at what a difference this makes on the car. Getting those crusty ol’ beat up yellow lenses off there probably made the biggest difference. I’m super-stoked how this turned out… even if I did just find a thread filled with e46 folks doing the same thing. This paint from Vans definitely made a huge difference, and was worth every cent!

It is that time of year again. Where I get the urge to ‘spring clean’ the car and freshen her up with some new parts. Where last year’s parts bonanza was focused on function… this year’s fiesta is looking more towards form.I picked up a fresh set of headlight lenses. 5+ years of running the yellow lamin-x film… and it is time for a change. My ‘old yellers’ are pretty haggard. They have taken beatings from cones and cars alike… have been epoxied back together several times, and the yellow film is looking more like a muddy brown these days. It will be nice to get a clean set on there.

New bulbs for the Xenons from DDM Tuning. The old set were dying, shifting the light output to a brownish green color.

In lieu of going with clear lenses… I want to hit the highbeam reflectors with clear yellow. A popular method is to use Krylon Stained Glass spray paint… but I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE. After reading some positive reviews… I decided to order some Vans paint instead. I felt better about this product… since it is designed for this very purpose.

Used set of fogs so I can finally replace the one I shattered in ’06. I need to polish the lenses up on these, and I may try and hit the reflectors with yellow as well. I still need to find a driver-side foglight bezel.

Picked up a Hamann knockoff window spoiler for an amazing price. I think it is going to look sick once it is all painted. It has way more contact with the car… so I don’t think this one will fly off the car like the last one.

photo c/o Sir Shawn the SmithThe private DM test-session on the road course at Atlanta Motor Speedway was SICK. Insane high-speed entries, and equally as fast course-exits. I remember looking down as I was apexing the last clip and the speedo was at 85mph.

Matt Foerst stopped by and helped me fix my stripped oil pan. He came armed with a HeliCoil set and had it knocked out in no time. Have I ever mentioned how much of a badass this dude is? Well… HE IS. I watched him change a clutch in my car in 45 minutes once… and he wasn’t even rushing. That same task took me and a friend 6 hours to do. Matt did it in 1/8th the time. BAD. ASS.

On a totally unrelated note… I love the HeliCoil logo. It is so stylized in its simplicity. The intersecting elements representative of the thread coils are a great element that really makes it what it is.

My oil pan stripped out tonight while doing a simple oil change. 180º thread segments were coming out with the oil. We couldn’t get the drain plug to thread… and when I finally did – that wrench just kept turning and turning and turning and turning.I’m frustrated because I didn’t HAVE to change the oil. It was probably fine. I just wanted to make sure the car was in top shape before the event at Turner.

No drifting for me this weekend.
Ugh.

I just stumbled on this old Jtuned snap from FD Atlanta in 2005. This was a big day, as it was the first time I would qualify to drive in the professional arena – and what better place to do it, than on my home turf in front of friends and family. It is crazy to think how insanely stock the car was. It has come a LONG way since then. I suppose I have likely evolved as a driver as well.

This was a very memorable day for me. Drifting was fun, and still so pure. The professional element was all new and exciting.

I am behind the times, I know… I still do not have an Xbox 360, which means I am also not privvy all the cool stuff in Forza Motorsport 3. My buddy Marlow showed me this replica of my car in its 2006 livery with Batlground on the door. If you recall, Casey (cobratuner) made an amazing replica of my car in it’s 2007 livery for Forza 2. I think this version of the car was made by “AoG | Kevbo” on the forzamotorsport.net forum.

I’m definitely flattered to see people take the time to make my car’s likeness. It is really, really awesome, so THANK YOU!!!

The electronic complexity that lies beneath my car’s tattered metal has plagued and taunted me since I started drifting it. After a bigger headache than I ever thought possible with this car, I was FINALLY able to completely, 110% without a doubt disable the ABS/DSC without throwing the car into limp-mode. BUT HOW?!

I pulled one teeny tiny li’l wheel speed sensor from the rear of the car. That’s it. I’ve been told that pulling all four sensors works on E36 cars, but the E46 models have a stricter set of electronics, so when the car doesn’t get a speed reading, it declares that as a problem worthy of limp-mode. I encountered the same issue when I pulled both of the rear sensors (leaving the fronts). The trick here, is to only pull one. That way the car still pulls a reading from the other side, and just registers the pulled sensor as a fault… keeping the car revving like a champ.I did hours and hours of research on this subject, and found many people asking how to fully disable ABS/DSC, but never got a straight answer on how to do it. People seemed more content ridiculing those asking the question than pondering a useful solution. Hopefully this trick will help those that need to disable it, but keep in mind – I am not liable for any action taken based on this post. I needed to do this for my track car, and I would not recommend this for ANY street car. In fact, if I could have kept ABS functioning, and still keep use of my hydraulic e-brake, I would have done so. ABS has saved my ass quite a few times – even on the track.This effectively closes the chapter on my lengthy saga on this subject. I can now use my hydraulic e-brake free and clear of limp-mode. The e-brake works AMAZING. It will take some acclimation to driving without ABS, but I’m sure I will get used to it.

One thing is for sure… I can’t wait to use this e-brake at Road Atlanta in the spring!

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.

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.

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!!!