… all the fancy cameras
… all the fancy wheels
… all the fancy cars

There was

Congrats to Ken Gushi driving the new FR-S. Still remember his early days at RS*R Drift Festival.

Risky Devil and Friends from Tim Tulov on Vimeo.

.Junkhouse.Risky Devil.Grip Gambler.Waka Flaka.

2011 is coming close to ending. The car season is over, the snowboard season is beginning, and just like the 2011 car season it’s starting slow.

At the beginning of 2011 came in with a half broken car. End of 2010 bent a few valves, left the motor unplugged and ready to be pulled. Car was in about 5 different colors. Wheel room was stocked with wheels and many unused tires from a lackluster year. Decided to finally bring the motor and car to TF Works for some much needed love.

The good people over at TF rebuilt the motor and removed all the gremlis. Finally got a fresh motor, same build as before, just finally plumbed, cleaned, and ready for action.

Now with the motor being ready and break in time, there was the issue of the exterior. To avoid some “legal” issues I had in the past, took the old aero (if you can call it that) off of the TRA Kyoto 6666 Customs Rocket Bunny S13 and took her grocery shopping.

Running the 18×9 -1 18×11 -1 SSR Vienna Courages on stock bumpers, front fender, no side skirts and /50mm Origin rear overfenders actually started growing on me for the week or two I did break in on the motor. But that could only last for a short time. Got all my bumpers painted and put back on just in time for Drift Day 37.

It’s been a few years since the car was one color with matching wheels unbroken aero, cleaned, waxed, and 100% driving.

DD37 was quite enjoyable. Trailered the car to the event so didn’t really hold back much. Was able to do some tandem with Phil and shake off the rust from not driving my car in a while.

The car survived DDay on the new motor, no problems, my abilities were back and ready for more. But with all happy things comes some sad things. It was time to let go of the wheel collection. Eric hit his midlife crisis early and bought a Corvette, so it was time for him to upgrade to new things. The wheels brought happiness to many and envy to others, hopefully the new owners take care of them.

It was also time for me to upgrade to some better things. After not breaking anything, decided to put on some sticky tires. Picked up 265/35/18 RT615s for dirt cheap a year ago, never got around to using them. Decided to put them on for the remainder of the events.

Drift Day 38 time came around, I was worried about spinning the big sticky tires, but to my surprise the car had no problem with these. TF Works had also done an alignment on my car. Was down to 1.2 degrees camber in the rear. Coupled with the massive rear tires it lead to a bit of a smoke show. Drift Day 38 was filled with lots of smoke screens and tandems. We also discovered after 4 or 5 years a new layout for USAIR that was amazing.

DD37 was filled with 1JZs, Keith in his 1JZ Cressida, Dave in his 1JZ S14, and Andrew in his 1JZ Truck/S13. Some video below from that day:

Despite working well at events, there was still something missing. The car had become kind of a trailer queen, depsite being driven when off of it. A lot of people thought I couldn’t hang on the street anymore despite being where it all started for me. After some persuading by Risky Devil and Company the car got loaded with an iPass and set out on the streets for a few days and nights. No pictures and videos yet (coming soon), but it was nice to have the “race car” out on the streets of Chicago again.

Drift Day 39 the last Drift Day of the year. Car still running great, still in one piece, still one color. Tandem was the name of the game for the last event of the year. It was a great closer, filled with carne asada, tandems, crashes, scooters, and more.

Midway thr0ugh the day Keith and I had a little collision. Took out my bumper, dented his rear fender, but that didn’t stop us from continuing on. Both our cars went from being fresh to trashed in a matter of moments. Still no missle cars for those that don’t understand the concept. Both will be back next year for some more rubbing.

So in a full year, the car was rebuilt and beat up, but mechanically it still sits working. For once it is parked in my garage ready to be driven at any moment. The irony behind this is each event it was trailed, it made it back working, yet everyone else’s cars had some hiccups. Dare I say the purple curse is broken **knock on wood**.

Two thousand and twelve is right around the corner and will be filled with more surprises, more tandems, more street, more bashes, and more power.

Stay tuned.

GG was in the house at DDay.

Phil at the RC Expo Drift Demo.