I started taking apart the car last night in preparation for Columbus. We’re replacing the heater core and wiring harness, so the dash and front part of the cage had to come out. That’s about all I got done yesterday. Tomorrow night the engine and tranny is coming out.
Mess:
Cabin:
Current engine. This will be empty tomorrow.
NOPI just added these rules, effective immediately. I really don’t agree with the catch pan, but hey, what can you do. Just spreading the word for all NOPI Drift competitors. I’ll be missing E-Town, but we’ll be out in Columbus!
From nopi.com
08 NOPI DRIFT RULE REVISIONS PAGE
3.35> Engine Containment Device:
Catch Pan Device – Mandatory on all cars competing
3.31> Wheels:
Wheel Spacers – 1 spacer per wheel maximum, no size limit at this time
3.19> Restraint Systems:
Seatbelts – Valid for 3 years from the manufacturers stamped date
3.8> Exhaust:
Mufflers – Mandatory on all cars competing
Now since everyone is probably upset from the above idiocy, I give you this to brighten your day.
How could you not love that?!?!?!? :p
I got a good amount of work done this weekend, and also started making some good changes. Friday, I drove over to John Marsh’s house to pickup the racecar. We’re putting a new engine in the car before NOPI Round 3, rebuilding the supercharger, and making some other changes.
On the way to Marsh’s house: “Who all seen the leprechaun say Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” <- You’re awesome if you get that
Friday night. The racecar and the street car home together.
Saturday we headed to the shop to drop off the car, and do some spring cleaning and organizing.
On the way…. PUNCHEM!
This is our shop, R-Speed. We are a full service Miata Boutique and mail order. Check out www.rspeed.net If something you want is not on the site, just call and ask us!
Front Entrance:
Showroom:
Office Area:
Sonja’s Office upstairs:
Kitchen:
Warehouse:
The bays. We have two lifts and plenty of space.
Well that’s the quick tour, if you’re ever in the area, stop by and check us out!
Sunday, I went to my friend Greg’s house to pickup a new bottom end and spare transmission for the racecar. This block is similar to last year’s setup, so we’ll be making good power again. After getting my haircut and being reminded of how bald I am getting 
, I installed a new Garage Vary lip on my street car. I had one on it before, but it shattered after years of abuse.
New block and spare tranny
New pistons. More compression!!!!!
New lip
And last but not least, I picked these up at Walgreen’s. It’s DEFINITELY time to do this.
Now, I missed out on all the shenanigry this time, as I was beat tired from our crazy road trip and fell asleep in the shower. However, a few of my crews guys went out and reported back to me. 
To save time, I will just bullet point everything I heard:
And that’s about all I have to report. If you guys heard anything else, leave comments!
Saturday:
After our lovely two hour nap, we head over to the track to setup. It’s overcast, and we can feel the rain coming. The rain held out until after the first practice session. The first session was open, no run groups, so we only got three runs. The track was wet and very slick, no way to keep up your speed on this very fast track. The track was four turns, flat-out, no lifting. The speeds were normal, but this was one of the few times where your speed stays constant through the whole lap. No, initiate, brake, gas, transition, gas,brake, brake, hand brake, gas, like last year’s NOPI parking lots. This was initiate, gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssss, run is over. haha. After my first three laps, I was struggling with the very wet conditions. We pull the car in, and some kid comes up, says he’s seen my car on the internet, and asks to see under the hood. We oblige, and open the hood. As soon as the hood opens, we see that the timing belt is splitting and about to snap! Perfect timing. Yancey is out dropping off the Subbie to get fixed, so we call him to go on the hunt for a new timing belt, while I start taking apart the front of the motor. Thankfully, Blake Fuller lent us an EZup to keep us out of the rain. Changing the timing belt made us lose one practice session. We roll out for the next session, and on my 2nd lap, as I’m coming around the last sweeper full-throttle in 3rd gear, I feel my legs and feet start to burn. Then it gets REAL hot! I’m thinking, “great my car is on fire”, and as I reach to pull my fire system, I see that it’s coolant. My heater core had broken and let out all the coolant onto my legs and feet! I limp the car back to the grid, and Yancey loops the heater line and fills the car back up in less than 10 minutes. I swear to God this guy could fix anything. I was telling people I could be out there driving, and the motor could just disappear, and Yancey would somehow fix it for me to continue running. hahaha. The session continues, and I got some good practice in, even though I only had 12 runs total for the day. Night falls, and we pack up for the night, tired, and frazzled at the same time.
Sunday:
The weather is perfect! Sunny and 70 degrees. This is good, but it’s also the 4th different track condition we’ve all experienced for the weekend. After the driver’s meeting, we line up for qualifying. We get one practice lap, then our two qualifying laps. That’s it, crazy I know. I struggled with some grip and wheelspeed, but I think I still managed to make it to the show. It was weird. The judges know I don’t make the horsepower of the 240’s and 350’s, but they wouldn’t take it into consideration. But that’s a whole other story. Anyway, I didn’t qualify. Everyone has their bad days I guess.
The event did go really well. My only complaint (besides not qualifying) was there was no spectator seating. Everyone had to stand along a fence, at ground level and couldn’t really see. Other than that, NOPI definitely stepped up their game. I can’t wait for Columbus, and I WILL be on the podium for sure!
I’d like to thanks everyone this past weekend for all their help and support: Yancey, RayRay, Marsh, James, Struka, Patrick, my lovely wife Sonja, Joey Redmond for the ride back home, and especially NOS Energy Drink for their support this season.
And now the pics!
In the pits:
Struka’s ride:
I hate when Joey uses a flash during the day!
Juan Henao’s car caught fire during tandem. He was killing it!
Best Tandem runs of the day:
Action shots:
So, in the last blog I left off with everyone being on the road, having fun, heading up to St. Louis. Well things did not go exactly as planned. We meet Patrick and Struka in Murfeesboro, TN around 9:00PM. Yancey, James, and Sonja were already there in Yancey’s Subaru Legacy “crew vehicle”. We load up the car, pack the trailer, grab some White Castle, and get back on the road around 10:00PM. Traffic is light, but it starts raining. Around 11:30PM Yancey calls us and says he’s getting a bad vibration from the left front of his car. We pull over and give it a glance, and really don’t see anything. We switch people and luggage around to lessen the weight of the Subbie, and continue on. About 25mins later, he still has the bad vibration. We pull off the highway, in the middle of nowhere Kentucky, and look at the car again. After some Googling, we think it’s either an axle, or the solenoid in the automatic transmission that distributes the power to the four wheels. Either way, the car isn’t going anywhere. So after some brainstorming, we decide to back Struka’s S14 off the trailer and put the Subbie in there. Now here’s the good part. Struka had taken some sleeping pills, and they were just now kicking in. He was in no shape to drive his car, so I jump in Struka’s S14, with Patrick riding shotgun. Since there were 8 people and only one truck now, some people had to ride in the Subbie, IN the trailer! Struka was loopy enough that he didn’t care, he thought Jesus was driving his S14 on the highway So now it’s John Marsh, Ray, Sonja, James in the truck; Yancey and Struka in the trailer; Me and Patrick in the S14. My god Kentucky roads suck. Well, I think driving a fully prepped drift car on any road would suck. Me and Patrick are rolling along, and not paying attention, I roll over the rumble strip on the highway, and BAM! blow the bead on the passenger rear. We get out, and Patrick changes the tire with the quickness, and we’re back on the road. Four hours, and about 8 NOS’ later, we roll into the Pilot across the street from Gateway. We sleep for about two hours and then head over to the track.
Struka: Watch for this kid, he’s going to turn heads this year.
Patrick. His crew chief.
The Subaru, in the trailer.
The Arch!!!
So we have officially started our 2008 drift season, heading up to St. Louis for NOPI Drift Round 2 at Gateway International Raceway. It’s Friday, 5:39PM and we are on the highway, still in Georgia. We should get there in the wee hours in the morning. We have to pickup Struka (Black S14 soon to be featured in Wrecked) in TN, and then continue our trip. Right now, it’s me, Marsh, and RayRay in the rig; Yancey, James, and Sonja are about 2 hours ahead of us in the support vehicle.
OK, so now for the big news everyone has been waiting for! NOS Energy Drinks has been kind enough to sponsor me for the 2008 season!!!! I am extremely happy to be onboard with them and it’s going to be an awesome season!!!!
Now for the pics:
My street Miata at the shop, waiting to load up
GPS…check….WIFI…check….Energy Drink…CHECK!
Captain John Marsh
Big RayRay
My sweet new shirt from Syn @ Drift411.com
AND NOW.. The NOS Energy Drink Mazda Miata!! *these were at the vinyl shop, the lights and wing are on now*
This is Greg. He’s 36. He has a Hello Kitty cake. You don’t.
So I’m one my way home from work, wading in the usual Atlanta traffic, and saw probably one of the most idiotic moves ever. I’m in the far left lane next to the HOV stopped in traffic. There’s a G35 stopped in front of me. I look over to the right and see this black Crown Vic “driver service” car in the 3rd lane trying to get over. He is completley HORIZONTAL to traffic, and looks like he’s trying to get into the HOV lane. The G35 driver has his hands in the air like “WTF?” and the Crown Vic inches past. As soon as he noses into the HOV lane, BAM! a Jeep Cherokee slams right into him at highway speed! Luckily there was no one in front of the Crown Vic, because he did a 180 back into the left lane. Me and the G35 driver pull over and check both cars. Both of them are OK but the couple in Jeep is really shooken up. We try calling ATL 911 and get the answering service, suprise!, but eventually the couple in the Jeep get through. About 10mins later GSP shows up and takes our statements. I’ve seen my share of highway accidents and never stopped, but this one was so idiotic, I had to give a statement. Thing is, now they have my info, so I might get a summons for parking tickets, or street drifting or something 
Here are a couple of pics. I didn’t want to seem too rude
….time for the pollen. Every year, for the whole month of April, the pollen comes out. It covers everything in yellow. It flies through the air. You breathe it, you taste it, it gets in your eyes…. It sucks! Plus it makes it impossible to have a clean car.
I stopped by the shop today for lunch and to order some parts to get ready for St. Louis. The car is getting sent to the vinyl shop at the end of the week, I can’t wait to see her when she’s done! It’s going to be insane!
