Journal

This is a list of the things I did to my car as well as any event that I or my friends attended. Pretty much anything that crosses my mind while I'm driving will end up in here.

| 1/99 | 2/99 | 3/99 | 4/99 | 5/99 | 6/99 |

6/23/99 - Sorry for the lack of updates, but work has been kicking my ass lately. But I did add a picture of my friend Sam's prelude-powered Civic. I hope to have more pictures of my car once it comes out of the shop.
For the thousandth time this off-season, I have changed the look of my car. Gone are the rims and Import Showoff front bumper. Now the car is sporting the stock front bumper, a fiberglass hood (primer gray) and a set of 16" Racing Hart CP-R rims. All my old parts are sold, so please don't email me asking if I want to sell anything. In a few days my engine will be complete and I should have it ready in time for the July 4th event at Englishtown :::crossing my fingers:::
One good thing happened during the "spring break". I sent in pictures of my car to GReddy to try to get some free stickers for the car. Back when I was in cali for the Import Auto Salon, GReddy had a promotion. If you have some GReddy product on your car and you either raced or showed it at events, you could get graphics kit from them. If you get your car in one of the major publications with the sticker on, they'll give you some free stuff. Anyways... a few weeks ago, my car was accepted by GReddy and they sent me a graphic kit for my car. I just hope my car runs well enough to win something this year.
A big thanks to my friend Wayne for picking up an Jordan/Mugen-Damon Hill cap from the Canandian Grand Prix a few weeks ago! I can't wait until Mugen gives them their new engines, they should kick ass!

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5/6/99 - At long last.. race season has arrived. But, due to some setbacks, my car won't be ready for the track for a while. With all the free time on my hands, I, along with 2 other friends, decided to build a new website. We noticed that there was a major void when it came to web (or any other kind) coverage of east coast events. So we came up with the idea for UrbanRacer.Com.
I spent last weekend walking around Englishtown snapping pics for the site, as usual. But this time it was a little different. This time I was given a press pass by the track so I could walk around to alot of places normal people couldn't go. I got to stand right next to the burn out box, or the staging lights...or (the best spot) right by the stage for the bikini contest (can you say hooters? woohoo). One thing I have to remember the next time I shoot at the track is to buy a pair of ear plugs. Those damn rotary cars are insanely loud.
My friend Sam finally got his car up and running (although majorly on the rich side). Sam's "new" ride is a 98 Civic hatch with a H22 VTEC motor running an Accel DFI setup. The outside of the car is completely Spoon'd out. A Spoon carbon hood, front lip and rear wing, 15" Spoon rims and side mirrors, a carbon fiber grill and a genuine Spoon instrument panel (with km readings). Super Street magazine was there and they did a photo shoot on the car. It should be on the stands sometime this fall. I can't wait!

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4/7/99 - This year, I had a chance to check out the Import Auto Salon, held in Pomona, Ca. For those who don't know what it is.. it's a import version of the SEMA show, where all the manufacturers who make parts for the import market show off their products for the coming year. From what my friend told me, this year was twice as big as last years (this was the second annual show). Still it wasn't too bad.
Since I do work for my friend's shop, I was invited to go to the show as a dealer. They let us in a day earlier to check out the cars/displays. After the show, I was invited to attend a dinner held by Mackin Industries, they're the importers of several major brands such as Tanabe and Volk Racing. At the dinner, I had the opportunity to talk to the President of Mackin as well as the main US reps for the company. I also met up with a few other shop owners from around the country. One of the shops being Firm Racing out of Chicago. They are one of the few dealers in the US who sell new and used Skylines! so start saving up now and be the first on your block to own a emissions LEGAL Skyline.
Another highlight of my stay in Ca was a tour of Dazz Motorsport's warehouse. I have never seen so many rims in my life. Literally thousands of rims on premises. From 15" all the way up to 20" and bigger. A big thanks to Rob for the tour as well as lunch.
One night, we headed on over to Speed Zone. It's an amusement park full of arcade style racing games as well as go karts and drag racing. The drag racing was awesome. They had top fuel style dragsters on a track powered by V8 engines. You have to do everything from actually staging the car to shifting into 2nd gear (only 2 speeds). While I was there, I set the track record, at least for a while, of a 3.51 with a reaction time of .004.. not too shabby for not having raced for over 6 months. Ok, back to the show...
As far as the eye could see, there were insanely modified cars... from a right hand drive civic to a wide-bodied NSX. But the car that stole the show for me was the Toyota Altezza (soon to be released as the Lexus IS200). There were a few on hand. One in the Axis booth and one at the Volk Racing booth. I took a shitload of pictures at the show. Since I don't have room under this crappy AOL account, I posted them on the Ultima Performance site under the gallery section. Keep in mind that those were only about half the pictures taken (thank god for digital cameras). In all, I took over 250 shots. Check out the pictures.. I'll let them tell the rest of the story.

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3/3/99 - I just got my car back from the body shop. Over the winter, I picked up the new Import Showoff bumper and a Wings West rear lip spoiler. These pieces give my car a totally new look. The guys over at Rainbow Collision (Port Washington, NY) did a great job painting and installing the nose and the wing. No wonder I keep on going back to them.
I was playing around with this program my brother lent me. I saw a few covers of Turbo and decided I wanted the "see-thru hood" effect as well, so I made my own (see main page).
Now you can't say that I don't have a gsr engine in the car anymore because it's right there in plain sight. I did not steal a picture from another car.. it's really in there. I'll put up more pictures over the next few days of the rest of the car.

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2/16/99 -
I was flipping through the pages of the current (march 99) issue of Sport Compact Car and I saw that they ran an article on my friend's shop, Ultima Performance ! The magazine did the interview a while back... actually, almost 2 years ago. I believe it was at the last ID Drag Wars event of 1997, at Atco Raceway. It was rained out. But it was the rain date where they took the picture which appeared in the magazine (SCC 2/98) I still get people commenting on that picture... I didn't think you could recognize my car through all that smoke hehe.
I just dropped off my car at the body shop to get some stuff painted. What did you get painted, you ask? well, I guess you'll have to wait until you see it at the track (or maybe the cover of Super Street or something hehe)
There are gonna be alot of changes to the car this year. Externally and internally. I've decided to go another route with my car. No more car shows or stuff like that. I'm going strictly race this season (which will probably be the last for me). I just got really bored at the shows. Anyways.. c'ya at the races.

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1/17/99 - I recently received an email (email address and name x'd out, out of respect) in response to an entry I made several months ago regarding dance contests, etc at car shows. Apparently, this person took offense to this (I have no idea why). It's people like this that give this 'sport' a bad name. The statement "...is intended for asians." is so full of shit, it's not even funny. :::flipping through the pages of Super Street::: Hmmm I see quite a few "west coast" cars sporting the same parts you mention, such as supra wings & chrome rims. So before you start mouthing off your lame brain opinions to people, open your eyes. If you hate the cars over here so much... do the rest of us a favor, stay home.

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