Griffith Observatory

The Griffith Observatory reopened it's doors to the public earlier this year. They have some new displays and the old ones too. Interesting stuff, but some of it's really basic so I think it's meant to inspire and educate kids. Anyhow, I had some friends in town from Oakland/San Francisco so we spent the day cruising around LA. Today was a super nice day in southern California. Santa Monica beach is beautiful and the view at the observatory was absolutely awesome. I remember why I love southern California so much on days like this. I've traveled most of this country and some other parts of the world and I have to tell you that Los Angeles is the absolute best place to live.

Tiesto

A couple months ago I went to a Tiesto concert at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Electronic music is alive and well with glow sticks and bottled water. The show was 100% sold out so there were a LOT of people there. Was it good? Yeah when Tiesto played his more popular songs it was cool, but in general I think he's WAY over rated. People go crazy over his music. Some of his songs aren't bad, but Jesus Christ, it's trance - IT ALL SOUNDS THE SAME! The crowd was definitely a little older (no candy ravers) and there was a bit more of the Hollywood crowd than other DJs' concerts. After he ran out of popular songs, he played what any DJ could play. You could call it Junk Trance beca...

Broke Ass Gourmet

I remember when I was 19 back in 1992 and moved out of parents' house to attend Cal State Long Beach, I found myself being strapped for cash living in an apartment. My dad was cool enough to cover my rent, but nothing else. It was either that or I live in the dorms which he agreed to pay for, but I tried that for a semester and found out it wasn't for me. Nobody knew shit about cars or had any interest so I couldn't hang. Regardless, I had this nasty habit called a RX-7 Turbo II (FC3S). It might as well have been a coke habit because all my money went into making 400hp. Keep in mind that back then there were no bolt-on turbo kits or complete lines of turbochargers to choose from ...

Nostalgic Hero #123

If you like classic Japanese cars and especially rotaries, you have to check out Nostalgic Hero #123 with a DVD. It covers all the old rotary cars like the Cosmo sport, RX-3, RX-3, RX-4, etc. There's also a section on the old Skyline GT-Rs. The DVD is really cool and shows driving impressions of all the old rotaries, the old GT-Rs, and they visit a shop in Yokohama that sells restored Sk...

WIRED Magazine Nextfest - 9/16/07

This past Sunday I went to the LA Convention Center to check out NEXTFEST. It's a show that showcases future and upcoming technologies in all fields: consumer, military, entertainment, health, aerospace, robotics, etc. There were a lot of interactive displays for all ages and levels of intelligence. Overall it was an interesting show and very informative. It's definitely worth a visit to NEXTFEST when it comes to your area.

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More Badass Sentra

Last week I was over at M-Workz doing some intake manifold testing Steve's 350Z and I caught Mike Kojima's Sentra all stickered up and in the middle of an alignment. Steve and Mike were going all out on the alignment mapping out the camber curves, bump steer, etc. If you want a bad ass corner weight and alignment and live in LA, you need to call up Steve. Sure there are other good chassis guys in So Cal like Darren @ South Bay and Dave's Frame in Huntington Beach, but Steve is the only one I know that lives and breathes the cars he works with. Anyhow, the sticker scheme on Mike's Sentra is all Nitto, but then again they're payi...

Badass Sentra???

You would normally not catch me saying the word Sentra and badass in the same sentence, but my buddy Mike Kojima (crap, there's Wikipedia page on him!) the Sentra master built a pretty badass Sentra for Time Attack. Sentras are pretty cool to road race and probably an excellent beginner car: cheap, plentiful, and disposable in the case that you find that you suck ass at road racing. At one time I even considered building a Sentra to compete in the NASA SE-R Cup, but time and budget did not allow. I guess I couldn't get myself to build ...

How Differentials Work

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Tuning Advice

Man have I been busy. I've been working on the XS GT-R Time Attack car's dry sump oil system. It's time to bring the car out again and destroy some egos. It's almost alive again.

Anyhow, so I'm getting an overwhelming amount of emails/comments/private messages generally asking, "Can you tell me how I can get into the tuning business somehow?" or "What's the best way to learn about tuning?" or "Do you have any advice on how I can ___________________[fill in blank with desired tuning car job description]?". These questions are OK. The questions I really don't care for are, "I want 500whp for under $5000. What's the best way to do that?" Do I look like 1-800-BUILDUACAR? ...

Sachiko Hanai

While I was up in San Francisco a couple weeks ago, I stopped by the Red Vic Movie House on Haight Street to watch an independent Japanese movie with Phil from 360 video and a friend. This theater is known to play indie films of all genres - some good and some bad. The name of th movie was "The Glamourous Life of Sachiko Hanai" and if any of you have watched some Japanese movies, you'll know that they can be pretty trippy. This movie definitely falls into the pretty trippy category. Sachiko Hanai is a call girl who gets a bullet in the forehead, but doesn't die. The bullet jacks up her brain (this is illustrated with cutting edge CG graphics). This movie is good for a time killer...