Father's Day with my Dad and the Z

I love working on cars... and so does my dad. Not sure if it would of been his number one choice of fun bonding but we did some work for the Z... not on the Z, but for the Z. What does that mean you might ask... we went to a junkyard and got parts from another Z, that will eventually go on my Z. 

 On Sunday, in between World Cup matches we went to a local auto salvage place where they have a Z with tons of parts I wanted. The main item was some leather seats, which are currently white and in great shape. I hope to turn them into black leather seats and get rid of my ugly brown vinyl and tweed seats in my Z right now. I also scored a ton of other parts. Engine inspection light, glove box door, shift boot clips, extra screws, AFM boot, HVAC ducts, and the best item was a second set of the full taillight panel. I want to paint that black. So now I can paint this second set, get it done and ready and easily just swap them out. Then I sell that set. 

It was a good day... I scored the entire list of parts for just $75 which is about what one seat goes for on my forum. So can't beat this deal on a lot of stuff! 

Thanks to my pop for getting sweaty with me out there and working on cars like we did with my old Camaro when I was just 15 years old... We ended the outing with some KFC and watched the Brazil game. Happy Fathers Day!

Datsun Cologne

For a limited time I have been wearing Datsun Cologne to work... you might ask, what is that and where do I get some?

Well it is only for a limited time (hopefully) but here is why I am wearing it to work. My parents are here visiting from Bolivia, and when they visit I loan them my Altima so they can roll around in style (and so they don't have to rent a car for 6 weeks).

Until this year my back up car was a respectable red 2002 Nissan SpecV that didn't produce any funny smells. Well this year my back up car (back up car = race car) is the Z. As I noted before the Z burns oil, and also leaks a little exhaust, and also has some gaps in the taillights that help the leaked smelly exhaust get into the car...

So that means on long drives in the Z, when I get out I am wearing my Datsun Cologne. I might try to market it at Macy's but I doubt I will be able to throw in a free handbag with $60 purchase so it might never catch on.

First Autocross!

It's Go time. Start Your Engines...


The weekend of June 4-6, 2010 was the Great Lakes Division (GLD) Solo Series Event #1 sponsored by the South Bend Region SCCA (my car club). I work timing and scoring for the club this year so I get to help with all the fun tech stuff for the events. It does mean I have to arrive early and leave late, but I like being involved.

So the first two races of the year I had to borrow a car from other members. The first race I ran in a 1986 Mazda RX-7 which is similar set up to the Z. Then the second race a fellow Z driver let me co-drive a 1990 Nissan 300zx Twin Turbo... that thing was a beast and a lot of fun to try and drive.

Well for this event I was able to get the car ready. It is a two day event that counts for points for our regional trophies and for the divisional series event. It drew cars from all over the midwest so it was a strong field of competitors. The first day we had a lot of rain, and the second day was sunny.

The Z was fun to drive! I have a lot of learning how to balance and handle a rear wheel drive car, and the Z needs more work to be competitive... but for not I am just glad I was able to race my Z. I registered here in STR Class and hope to try and keep her in that class. If not I might move to an SP class but we will see in the future. Here are my results:

Saturday
STR - 1st of 1 car
Overall Pax - 66th of 86

Sunday
STR - 2nd of 2 cars
Overall Pax - 88th of 91 (ouch)

Weekend
STR - 1st of 2
Index - 69th of 97

So overall I did alright, I had fun and I got a trophy both days for my class. I got some fun pictures. More Pics Here: First Autocross