Southeastdrift.com threw their “All You Can Drift Buffet” down at Watermelon Capital Speedway on Friday night. This was the first legal night event that Georgia has seen.This was also my first drift event since I shattered my collarbone in September. With the E46 fully stripped of all her graphics, and all pressure and politics lying in a dumpster somewhere south of Atlanta… this event was single-handedly the MOST FUN I have had at a drift event EVER. Multi-car tandems, enough flashing lights for a year’s supply of seizures, and a leprechaun’s bag of colored lights underneath my car… this event will be tough to top.
Photos by PandamoniumPhoto.com.
We started pulling graphics off tonight. Can’t there be an easier way to get this stuff off? I can’t feel my fingers. Backing all the holographic vinyl with plain black was the best idea EVER. It made removing most of the graphics SO much easier.
I went out and snapped a few shots of the E46 tonight. These are the last few pictures of her all suited up with graphics.
Tomorrow it is all coming off.
These wheels are VERY impossible to find these days. The fitment is meant for E34 5-Series & E38 7-Series BMW’s… but on my E46, the fitment is AMAZING. I managed to snag a staggered set off eBay today… and I’m VERY stoked about it.
Racing Dynamics RGP’s: 17×8.5 ET+13 Fronts, and 17×9.5 ET+20.5 Rear. CHROME.
I cannot even stress how rare these things are… let alone in such great condition. The chrome is refinished… but beyond gorgeous. I have actually had better luck importing these wheels from Japan than finding them here in the states. These wheels were posted on eBay for 30 minutes before I snagged them!
My rim finally made it in this week. I stumbled upon across the wheel on Yahoo Auctions Japan. I couldn’t read anything on the auction, but luckily Nendel had a friend on Velocity that was stationed over there. He was super awesome, and bid on the wheel for me… then shipped it my way.It took a long time to arrive – but it was worth it. This is the 2nd time I have snagged these wheels (or in this case… wheel) from Japan… officially making them easier to find there than here. Seems odd for an Italian-designed wheel fit for a German-designed sportscar. This rim is BRAND NEW… no refinishing here. These things are rare enough to find in bent/curbed shape… so to have one of these wheels in it’s pristine, original condition is just amazing. Work Wheels?
All wrapped and packed up.
Centercap peeking through.
Gorgeous.
Lip.
The second pair of the set of non-staggered RGP’s (17×8.5 ET13) I bought off eBay came in this week. The guy shipped them via the US Postal Service. I can’t really understand why anyone would do that. I barely trust the USPS with my bills… let alone some ultra-rare BMW wheels. Not to mention that shipping these with UPS would have been cheaper anyway.Sure enough… the box was found upside-down on a brick doorstep – with the box ripped, and the wheels scratched.
The wheels don’t even fit inside of the box… and what about some kind of padding?! Newspaper isn’t that expensive.
Close-up of some of the scratches:
I tried to file a claim with the USPS for the cost of repair. The lady got hella attitude with me, said they don’t do that kind of thing, and if they did… they keep the wheels. That would be awesome if I could drive down to Pep Boys and just buy these off the shelf. The moral of the story here is A: Sometimes you get what you pay for on eBay… and B: PURCHASING INSURANCE WITH USPS IS A WORTHLESS SCAM. I would imagine if your item is lost, they would pay out… but otherwise – SCAM.
The 2007 Nopi Nationals was host to the Nopi “World Drift Finals”. Unfortunately… I don’t have much good to say about the weekend. Rather than go into detail… I will just say that this was the worst drift event I’ve competed in to date. I honestly left the speedway on Sunday hating drifting… and left wondering if all of this is even worth it.
Despite a mechanical failure rendering my car useless for the weekend…
I did manage to get some solid face-time with Jason and the crew from Speed TV for an interview!
After breaking a sway bar end-link during tandem competition, I mananged to bring home a 2nd place finish! The track was very high-speed, and incredibly bumpy. Trying to tandem with a broken end-link was interesting to say the least… but overall a great event!
Mechanical difficulties cut the weekend short for me when my clutch went out after 5 runs. I tried making a qualifying pass, but could not put any power down to spin the wheels. We made a frantic dash to try and get a replacement, but apparently there are no parts counters open past noon on a Saturday (if open at all) in Pittsburgh. Fail. I did get a chance to sit down with the Speed TV crew for a good interview. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
After a week of mayhem… we finally made it to our final stop: Trump Marina – Atlantic City, NJ
We had a final dinner at the casino, an awards ceremony in Chris’ suite, and just as fast as the rally began… it ended.
I stickered like… EVERYTHING along the way. The last thing I stickered on the trip… and thus, my last picture as well.
The AKA Rally was an amazing week. A tad on the stressful side for a "vacation"… but it was a riot. I met a lot of super-cool people, and everyone had a BLAST. I was barely able to squeeze enough time between drift events to run it, but it was definitely worth it! I hope I can rock it out with Hooman again next year!!!
Today we went to the ALMS race at Mid-Ohio. It was definitely nice to relax a li’l today, and watch some good racing.
Today we headed east through Chicago to Indianapolis. Trying to operate a Stage 3 clutch in Chicago rush hour was awful. Somehow we got lost in the hood… in a convoy of raced-out Vette’s and 350Z’s. It got hella sketched… and everyone’s GPS was telling different routes. BUT… I guess if I didn’t even have to use my AK…Some pics as we headed East:rn.
This is what best friends look like as they set interstates on fire, and leave cities in rubble:
A piece of plywood came flying up off the road, and lodged itself into Hooman’s intercooler.
Once we hit Indianapolis, we raced at a two-level go-kart track. 9HP karts, on 10-minute heats… it was gnarl. There were two championship heats… I placed 3rd in the 1st heat… but only 1st/2nd advanced to the 2nd heat. I was so exhausted after the race, I was actually glad I didn’t make the cut, lol. It was SO much fun!rn.
Dale (white Vette) got a police radio, and when headed to Columbus he picked up a call about a group of highway racers excessively speeding. We made a fast-break for the hotel in Columbus, and barely made it.
Day 2, we stopped in Billings, Montana… then it was off to Fargo, North Dakota for our 3rd night. The next morning it was a mad dash to Milwaukee. I didn’t do the best job of snapping photos the past few days. I got to do some driving, which was definitely rad. We spent a lot of time on back-roads running parallel to the interstates to avoid law contact.Here are a few random pics from the past few days:
85.5?
This Sunfire was sweet.
Hooman’s windsheild cracked… as did most of the other cars. It’s amazing how these cracks grow so fast.
This was our playbook. All our stops, the entire schedule, and all names/phone numbers. A cop in Idaho confiscated one of these books from a rallier… so they knew exactly where we were headed.
The guy who’s playbook got nabbed, got porn put on his Cayenne.
Today was the official start of the rally. Everyone was gathered outside our hotel in SLC. The entire group was ready to hit the road. We almost stopped traffic out in front of the hotel with all the cars.
After hours of anticipation, we hit the road with force. All the pent up energy waiting to leave showed… because when the rally hit the road, people were running 150mph, passing on the shoulder, passing between lanes, cutting people off… it was MADNESS!We were running in the front with the Infamous crew, and Chris… the founder of AKA (e39 M5).
Apparently, all the ruckus got the entire rally behind us pulled over at once. We managed to elude the stop. Once we crossed the state line into Idaho, we stopped at a gas station. We were soon followed by an Idaho state trooper. He told us he knew what we were doing in Utah… and not to do it in Idaho. He said they would have troopers every 10-15 miles. Sure enough – he was right.
After getting pulled over (sorry… no pix), having the car searched for NOS and drugs, we decided to take a back road that would take us up through Yellowstone Nat’l Park.
