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iTrader: (1)

Now that summer's over and I have a buncha rad photos and videos, I figured I'd post this thread.

The title pretty much sums up the whole summer lol. If you're a weak reader, use the title as cliff's notes and look at the pretty pics. And yes....all those events happened between the months of June and August!! The last track day happened in October.

Started out the season by going to Autobahn Country Club full track for a member day. It worked out really well. It was the ONE sunny day of the week, surrounded by rain. The nice thing is that I made it out to the track with both cars (ITR and S2000). The bad thing was that the edges of the track and all the curbing was wet.

I had crashed into the tire wall at turn 3 a few years back...so I was not ready to do that again. I was definitely going slow. Plus my brake fluid was 2 seasons old. So the brakes were squishy as hell lol. Going slow was the best way to go.


I went to Gingerman a couple of weeks later. We went for WMHM11....but since we got there on Friday, we took part in the Gingerman test and tune. $60 for 2 hours of track time on a virtually empty track? Hell yeah. It gave me a chance to shake down the car before the track time.

The first 15mins, I ended up over revving the car BAD. I went from redline in 3rd to 2nd. I was trying to upshift. Worst. Sounds. Ever.


There was tons of mis-firing and tons of smoke. I drove back to the pits, and tightened up my lugnuts to act like it never happened LOL. I started the car back up and there was a big puff of smoke....and the misfire stopped. SUCCESS! I figured that I probably cracked a few retainers.

So my options were to go home now and get my ITR for the rest of the 3 days. Or...keep partying in my S2000 and hope it didn't blow up. I decided to keep partying in my S2000!

The car was oversteering a ton. Not that I cared. YEEHAW!

I got caught in the rain at one point with the top down:

But did get some clean laps down. I felt good:


The plan was to run the track backwards at the end of the day. But while my car was cooling down from the last session that I ran, something went terribly wrong!


Luckily, a buddy had a spare rotor. So...smooth rollin back home.

A couple days later, I got my retainers swapped out for AP2 parts at ONE6 motorsports.

My retainers were fine!! Oh...well...except for this:



After which, I decided that I must take a trip from Chicago to L.A. and back! I changed nothing about the car. NOT EVEN THE OIL lol. Whoops. Although, I must say that leaving the race pads on was a terrible idea. Everyone crossing the street in several states must have thought that there was a freight train stopping by them!

The trip was a 100% success. I went by myself. But the plan was to meet up with friends and family along the way and back.

Day 1 was from Chicago to Sterling Colorado. The drive between Chicago and Colorado was mostly boring. Iowa and Nebraska really suck. The drivers in Iowa are....really bad.

Plus, their spelling is totally wrong as hell.


Sorry if you live there and I've offended you.

Saw some cool stuff, though:



Home on the plain....



Day 2 was from Sterling Colorado to Las Vegas. BEST SCENERY EVER!! OMG!! I couldn't believe how awesome Colorado was. The stuff I saw was undescribeable. I went thru Vail, too. Nicest looking place. I had to stop every like 5 mins to take pics. Pure insanity.
Colorado:







Utah was pretty cool too.


*Side note: I really LUCKILY saw a small sign before going through seemingly endless mountains and hills in Utah that said "no services for 100 miles". Thank GOD I saw that sign lol. I would have totally run out of gas within that time and it was starting to get dark. Those hills really were in the middle of effing nowhere.

Middle of nowhere, Utah:


Creepy moon pic



Vegas was awesome as always. My friend Dave had moved from Chicago to L.A. a few months back. I wanted to hang out. So we decided to meet up in Vegas. He owns a S2000 too


I spent 3 days there. The original plan was 2 days...but it just so happened that a buncha people from way back in highschool were randomly there. My sister and her boyfriend were also randomly there. Small world.

Vegas was more or less a blur. From what I remember, it was an awesome time. The trip from sterling, Colorado to Vegas was 13.x hours. I got in around 11PM, IIRC.



Started the party right after I got there lol. Didn't take any Vegas party pics

But did snap some pics of the crazy *** amount of bugs on my car.
[sarcasm] I'm so glad that it was like 120 in Vegas and the bugs got baked into my paint. I'm also glad that I had the car detailed for 6 hours by a friend before I went on my trip. Totally worth it! [/sarcasm]




Look how clean the car was before I left lol



Day 6 or 7 was from Vegas to L.A. Never seen traffic like that and I'm from Chicago lol. About 90 miles of bumper to bumper traffic! AARRRGHH!!!

After we broke out of traffic, I did the only sensible thing. I put the speedo into hella JDM KMH mode and snapped this sick pic!


L.A. was awesome too. I only hung there for Sunday night and part of Monday. This is my buddy's place of residence:


durrty durrrtayyy



My other friend had JUST moved from L.A. to San Diego that day. So I went off to San Diego on Monday.

The drive to San Diego was pretty bad ***. I got passed on the highway by a high speed chase involving border patrol and a white work truck. SO SICK! No pics . They all flew past me.






Enjoying the sun setting over the pacific with my S2000. What could be better.


I was meeting up my friend Mike. He had moved from Chicago to California a few years ago...but again, had just moved to San Diego that day. This is when I finally got to my friend's apartment. Guess what kinda car he has:



Since I'm partially Persian and we had JUST watched The Prince Of Persia...we had to get some motha effin Persian food! There are a ton of Persian food places in the Gas Lamp district.


Since he had just moved in, I had to sleep on a yoga mat on a hardwood floor. This was the night before I had to drive to Albuquerque, NM. In a S2000 with KWs and Recaros. SWEEEEEET.....

We woke up in the morning, got some bagels at some hippie bagel place, and I hit the road to Albuquerque.

Phoenix's sand dunes and 120 degree heat. Good thing my A/C works!



I got to my sister's house in Albuquerque like 9-10 hours or something later. Not a bad drive at all. Since I got there during the week and she's all PHd psychologist spec, I hung out at her house and straight chilled for a day while she saw clients.

We went hiking the next day:




Saw some crazy ABQ storms:



Big ol' ABQ desert house:


Not sure if this is how all Vietnamese people in the desert get down...but I like it!




After a day of R&R (and hiking), we got on the road again for a mini-road trip within a road trip. First stop was Roswell:



WTF kinda theme is this for a store?!!


This is pretty much how to classify immigrants as well:


Second stop was Carlsbad Caverns. Basically it's just a HUUUUUGE network of caves.
Hiked the caves:


Looks like a penix!


We stayed the night there. At a hotel. Not at the batcave. The next morning, we set out for White Sands National Monument. To do so, we had to go thru El Paso and then back up to New Mexico. Saw some really cool old cars on the way. Even saw a dealership that had a S2000 and an ITR sitting on the lot!! It's like they were selling all my ****!

We got real close to Juarez at one point. Wicked scary. We had to check back in thru a U.S. border check point. Apparently, when they ask "where are you coming from?", you can't yell out "NO SE!" and drive off. Pfft!

White sands was awesome.


Driving around was like driving on snow...except it was really fine sand. It would have made an AWESOME race track. The driving path winded it's way thru the whole park!


After that, we headed back to ABQ. Chilled there a few more days. Then....it was time to pack up and go home

I decided that I had to see Colorado one more time. So I went thru Denver on the way to Omaha Nebraska (that's where my La Quinta reservation was). 14+ hours of driving. 4 hours of sleep the night before. That's how I roll.

Approaching a storm in colorado:



Don't know if you can tell...but I couldn't see a god damn thing. The car was on 265/40R17 Direzzas that were pretty much bald. So...lots of squirming around in the rain lol.



The rest of the drive was pretty boring lol. The non-sleep was catching up with me. There were a ton of bugs on my windshield...and I started to hallucinate shapes out of them. I was definitely falling asleep at the wheel a LOT lol.

Saw this thing towing a big *** trailer, though lol


**A TIP: If you're homesick because you've been on the road for 2 weeks straight and you miss your girlfriend....don't send her this type of pic. It'll creep her out!


This was actually HIGH octane for rural nebraska/Iowa. On the way up and on the way back, I had to drive thru gravel roads to get to gas stations that only had 85 or 87 octane lol. Meh...I needed gas. The car was fine.


Dazed and Hallucinating in Nebraska. Snapping gas station pics:



I got to my La Quinta at like 4AM. Got another 4 or so hours of sleep and hit the road again to the Chicago burbs.

This....was about the time that the clutch started to slip LOL. The car made it home just fine, though. It was a trooper.

But...I did roll over 50K miles! Yeah...I ripped 'TEC.



*****As soon as I got home, I DID NOT go in the house lol. I put the car in my driveway, and hopped into my friend's truck. I then made another hour trip to pick up a engine swap for a project car I was gonna be working on. I'm one DURABLE *** motha effer!!

I got the car to a buddy's shop to get the clutch done:


TOASTED!! Ruined a $1200 race clutch in 22k miles LOL. Track time FTL.



Got the clutch fixed. Got an AP2 trans for the shorter gearing and the slickness. Which meant time for more track time. However...since the tires were heat cycled out and it was cold out by the time we hit the track (OCT 15). The car spun 4 times in the first session. Had a track off in the first lap (LOL), and 2 on-track 360 spins. So I spun and just kept going. Sickest maneuver.

The diff and diff mount blew up during one of the sessions. So I decided it was best to just keep running laps with a broken car lol.

This vid shows me finally getting to go backwards at Gingerman with my S2000. Decent lapping...but the blown diff and lack of grip kept me conservative.

That pretty much sums it up. Oh...wait...well...someone had asked me if I would let them film a burnout. My diff was blown. The tires were beat. So I had a choice. Either stop now...or party one more time. I chose to party one more time!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSVOC...ure=plpp_video

H.A.R.T B18C1EG6

iTrader: (1)

Now that's a hell of a road trip!

DCRB

DAMN!! that is one epic trip!! love the pics and videos, I want to get into the kind of racing you're doing so bad

Black S2K

cool beans

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Thanks! I miss driving the car. Its in storage till April

jkuamoo

nice pics! i love the cr lip.

vactor

yeah. chicago blows. ugh. wish i could move. nice post, makes me miss my car (under the cover) even more you jerk

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iTrader: (1)

lol tell me about it man. I'm totally a warm weather person. I grew up in Dubai. Oh well. I think I'll end up moving out west at some point. My ITR and my S2000 are put away. Good thing I have a sorta fun daily....2001 Nova Scotian model Integra. Plus I tend to steal my GF's 4dr GSR (referred to as the GF-R) as much as possible.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Thanks. I was unsure on it when I was ordering it....but now I'm glad I did.

ap1padawan

on the CR lip
on the road trip
on hitting 50k
on the storage till April
because she needs the rest anyway
for documenting this.

p.s. favorite part was the burnout to top it off.

bigmacnfries

epicness

AOBrien

Looking good there man! That was a hell of a trip, nice red EM1 you have there

Boots

totally makes me want to beat up on my car at the track and then take a road trip....then again, just driving the 3 hours to D.C. about killed my back, id have to take plenty of breaks....i think i may getting too old for this car for long trips lol

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Word up. Thanks.


lol. you too, brah.

Sheit. You have no idea how bad I want to get back to the track. As far as road tripping....it seems like no amount of driving ever phases me. Even with the Recaros and KWs. I guess it's because I was built for speed and not for comfort...to match the car.

I will, however, say that I would buy ear plugs for the trip if I did it again lol. I got some crazy silly gumby ear plugs from my sister for the way back that worked amazingly. However, most of the way back was down hill and much less noisy. Going up a mountain at 4k RPM with the cruise and A/C on was SO DAMN LOUD!!

When I'm 50, I'll regret ever driving any of my cars. I'll be 1'' shorter, and a few levels more deaf than I should be.


Speaking of which...I forgot to put in there that colorado has some 1/2 mile long tunnels...SOOOO epic. I shot a video, but for some idiot *** reason, the sound didn't come out. The car felt about as slow as a D series civic at like 9000ft of elevation though lol. Going up hill at 9k feet and approaching 11k feet in 90 degree weather = world's slowest S2000.

apwhat

so much fun, i can't wait for spring. Awesome driving!

Black S2K

a few questions u rock tigers? i noticed the print on the rotor looks like tigers to me.

what pad do u use on the track?

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Samesies!

Lol yeah, you stalker, I rock tigers. I have like a million-something pairs of shoes tho. More shoes than most girls.

I use carbotechs. XP10 front, XP8 rear. I think I might upgrayedd to XP12/XP10. I'm outgrowing the current setup a little bit.

Black S2K

^ lol not a staker i just like tigers/particular about what i wear so i noticed the shoe print.

ChrisStone24

great videos!

dfws2k

great trip! the only semi-similar one I had was from WA to TX. stopped in cali and vegas. I was only in a corrolla, though.

LumpyTheGrumpyCamshaft

ahh you drive the s2000 like its meant to be, great way of working our steering box.


You got ***** man. lol.

DVDr

iTrader: (2)

Awesome coverage of the events. And putting the car through its fun paces !

Paul 631

Regarding the powerslide vid, what tires & alignment are you using?
I've never seen a s2000 slide @ that speed w/o some major drama...

Awesome trip BTW...

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Thanks

The car's on KW V3s, 225/45/17 and 265/40R17 Direzza star specs.

The alignment specs as far as I can remember are:
Front:
Toe 0
Camber -2.5
Caster +6.5

Rear:
Toe I forget. I set it much straighter than stock.
Camber -3.3


The car always oversteers. I think that the whole "snap oversteer" reputation is only semi accurate. After driving it for a while, you should be able to predict when the car is about to oversteer. I have NEVER had an issue with it oversteering at high speed on track. It oversteers to try and kill me. I'm entertained. It's a good relationship. I've had like a million different setups on the car.

The car has always oversteered through all those setups. No problem. Notice I'm relaxed. The easiest way to overcome it is to go with the flow. Steer with the throttle, and let the steering wheel do it's thang. Don't tend to the steering wheel too much and just kinda guide it in the right direction at the right time.

Boom. More pics. IDK why








It looked like an AP1 at one point lol.




Whooops:

Vi3tboy

Bad ***! I read thru the whole thing and bow down to you. S2k's are just too damn uncomfortable for cross country trips like that.