The last driftvalley event of the year went well. I had to load the car onto the trailer alone for the first time, but the nice thing about this whole drifting thing is that you start to get the hang of things after a while and develop a sort of rhythm.. I got the damn thing on there alone in fifteen minutes! Then I headed home and hung out with my friends and good a good nights sleep.
I made it a thing to not fuck around with the car the night before and just have everything ready to go the next morning so I can get in the truck and go. The next morning I woke everyone up, made french toast and off we went! It was my first time with my dad there and it was really nice to have him with me. He has been a big part of the build and has always been out of the country the days of events.
I had kind of a shitty start to the event, two runs in and I blew the coolant line that loops under the intake manifold. First though was, "damn I'm gonna be out the whole event!" Upon further inspection, the line developed a pinhole towards an end. Marc took a knife and hacked away at that shit and I threw it back in! I was somehow able to shove my hand under the intake manifold. After a cut up and burnt forearm, the car ran again!
After this, the car didn't run to well. I would drift, then temps would spike on grid. I think the engine sucked in a hellacious amount of air from the leak when I drove it back to pits from the grid. The event organizers (Fresh Roots) were nice enough to let me park my car up front and wait for my turn with the engine off so it didn't overheat!
Besides that, the car felt pretty good, here are some photos:
Shenandoah, VA is an incredibly beautiful place to drift:
The man himself, Marc Pitts. This dude has been to almost every event and I'm super thankful to have him by my side!
Stock ass KA makin a little smoke!
Aaron also came out for the first time and gave us a big hand on the pits. Thanks for coming dude! The event went well besides the hiccups. I was allowed to do some cageless tandem for the first time because I was putting down some solid runs. This was a little scary, but I definitely wanted to take this next step in. Here's a run with Dylan Wiley:
Definitely wanted to keep my distance for the first time!
The car started overheating a little too quickly towards the end of the event so I called it a day. I definitely did not want to grenade my poor KA. We all got in the truck and headed to chipotle for a family dinner!
Midnight Matsuri was a week away and there was no way in hell I was going to miss that. Drifting under the lights, who would want to miss that!? The next day I started tearing the car apart again:
I tested the thermostat and it was okay. I don't have climate control but I still have the heater core hooked up, so my only theory was a hellacious air pocket in the system. I looped the heater lines and plugged the core. After extensive bleeding, the car held idle at 180 and things were looking good! Thanks to Willis "Killing the Game MEDIA" for these dope shots:
Great! Car is burnout tested. We're good to go for matsuri. Lets bring back the underglow! Mah boy fonz helping drop some vinyl
I bought a chop saw and wanted to play with it, so I wanted to try and make a bash bar out of some old trampoline legs made of 1/8" tubing.
Tubing cut:
Welding:
Mocking up:
Done! Still need to add a reinforcing bar in the corners, though. I'd also like the bar to come out away from the car a little further and wrap around the inside of the fenders a little. All ready for Monster Matsuri tomorrow
