Wait, what happened?

Well this is a week or so late but shit has hit the fan with my cars. Driving the Z back up to Clemson, some electrical gremlin reared it's evil head and it had to limp back home. That left me with the porsche (see previous review) which was less than enjoyable. As good judgement showed, I got the Celica up here as soon as possible, and the porsche decided to eat itself. Something along the lines of the reverse gear in it decided it wanted to play, rough housing within the transmission ensued, and now reverse is dead, the other gears are worse for wear, and the housing is cracked. So Z=in the shop, 944=out like a light. But wait, that leaves me with the Celica. The Celica that leaks water if the thermostat opens. The Celica that has a non functioning fuel pump. The Celica that has more rattles than a desert snake pit. Busted door hinge, leaking oil, and it just keeps going. It has become my daily driver. It's inconvenient and annoying, but it's still carrying me around. Well now a new windshield, new radiator, and new fuel pump are on the way. Not in the works, not the next thing to do, on the way. So that leaves, what, an oil leak? It's miniscule and will be fixed as well. Then what's wrong with it? Rattles? Fixed with an hour and some fire retardant padding. And then... seats? It's shaping up to be a fairly nice car quicker than I imagined. Call it necessity or effort. Call it what you want, but the car is seriously coming to life. The only problem I'm facing is whether or not to continue the pursuit of laughs in favor of building a nice street car. On the one hand, the ironic ricerness of the car is so much fun. "Is that a mini mayonnaise jar? Let's hang it from the bumper!" is just one of the insane and childish things we've said and done. It is unabashedly fun to ride around in it, idling like a boat and cutting a tire loose and generally making a scene. It is the kind of car everyone wants but no one is willing to deal with or be seen in. On the other hand, it is an interesting looking car and is lightweight. I could tone down the stickers, clean everything up, and build a respectably performing classic JDM machine. I'd like to find a nice medium, silly but serious, ricer but respectable. The sad truth is that a balance that contradictory is hard to achieve. I really ought to get a plan and stick to it, but the decision of where to take the car becomes harder every day.

Hearing crickets in here.

It's been, what 5 months since my last post. I had lost interest in this. Nothing really interesting going on, or too caught up in doing. But it's been long enough, I think it's time to get some thoughts down. So here's a recap of what's going on and things to come and whatever the hell else I want. So here goes...

Project Celica is underway: It is currently 6:21pm on day three of the shock install on my 1981 Celica ST project car and it's raining, so I'm spending my time doing this. No homework, no chores left, nothing better to do.

I've found out a lot about the car in doing this, namely, it needs a lot of work. While everything is solid, there are a lot of things left that need improvement. First off, my dad and I took it for a test drive today. When I got the car, it rode like an old caddy. With just the fronts shocks replaced, it rides like a newer cadillac. Still not great, but a huge improvement. It's also gotten a lot flatter over bumps where the nose used to bounce incessantly. Even so, transitions are much, MUCH better. And it's no wonder, the old shocks did nothing for dampening. I actually think they were the original pieces. Another strange thing is that the strut is welded to the brake from the factory, so taking the shock out required moving the brakes around. Someone with muscles is a huge help.

It's also been an awesome bonding experience for my dad and I. Not like we needed another, but he's never done a shock job either. I always wait for him to get home from work, and we've been having a blast working on it and driving it around.

I plan on really building this car. Properly. But I am aiming for fun rather than straight out speed. I want to put in a 1-JZ(280hp 264 tq's), costs running and with transmission for $2300 shipped. I want to weld the diff and put in ground control springs, bucket seats, and rack and pinion steering. It'll run on steelies and look just as junky as it does now. It'll be a sleeper, a ricer with the muscle to back it up. And I want to make a shift lever cover out of drift wood I got from Bull island (get it? DRIFT wood :D). But money is short and Jobs elude me. Working on that.

The 24hr. Karting race: So May 28th, some friends of mine and I entered the Victory Lane Karting 24hr Enduro. It was brutal, tiring, and expensive. But we were the only privateer team and we didn't lose completely. We came in 13th out of 15, which may seem embarrassing, but when you consider that these were the highest ranked karting teams in the country (and some international), We didn't do that bad. Yes the 2 teams we beat withdrew, but part of an enduro is finishing. Things learned: Enduro's are really tiring, we're not nearly as fast as we thought, and Pro karting teams are made almost exclusively out of douche-nozzles. We had so many people be so rude to us that I want to do as much as I can to mess with them next time we go. Next time, We go themed as Mario Kart Characters. YOSHI ALL UP IN THIS BITCH!!! Props to Nate, Kat, Zach, Chris, and Zack. It was fun guys!

Hmm, what else: OH!, I got an offer from Baker Motor Company to drive the new IPL G Coupe when it comes in. I'm really excited, expect a feature on it. The fun part is the camera car we're going to use is a G37 S Sedan. Gonna submit that one to Jalopnik, maybe I could get a freelance job out of it, or at least my name out there. Eh, whatevs.

So I get to teach someone how to drive stick tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it as they always stall it the first time. This'll be the third person I've taught and it has turned out well previously. But being me, I don't just teach them how to start off and change gears, I teach downshifting and weight transfer. It's going to be a hoot!.

EDIT: lol, she backed out. Surprised? nah.

I'm also getting super low on cash. I've gotten to the point that I can either go to Zach's birthday weekend (which Is priority) in Clemson, or I can go to the CMP karting event (which I'm not giving up on, Taking donations now), or I can sell something (Where the hell are my Pokemon cards?!)

More stuff later, I'm kind of getting tired of writing now and I'm running out of stuff to say. So you guys keep the rubber to the road, gas in the tank, and your knuckles white. I'm out!

My Vimeo account: http://vimeo.com/zmankellan