LP to MP3 plus TORQ

I decided to transfer some vinyl records I had to mp3 so I could put some of the tracks on my Ipod. This is actually quite a task because there's a ton of records to go through. I've had a pair of Technics 1200's for a long time, but I've been lazy in transferring the records to mp3 because you can download most songs. Now that new music more or less sucks ass and I've run out of music to download, I'm starting to dig through the crates. Literally. Anyhow, I started the search for the perfect software to carry out this daunting task of LP to mp3 transfer. The coolest, easiest to use, and fully featured software I found was Cool Edit 2000 v1.1. It's an old version of Adobe's Aud...

Karaoke

I was looking through some pics and I found some pics of the time we were partying at the Tajima house. I rented a Karaoke machine for the night and it has like 20,000 songs in English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, etc. For those of you who don't know, Mike Ferrara the publisher of D-Sport Magazine and my good friend, is a hardcore karaoke enthusiast. I am too, but only when I'm drunk. You guys should try it some time: get hammered and then sing! It's funner than you think. Trust me, I was a non-believer at one time too. Karaoke is like the national past time in Japan. You can't walk a block in the city without passing a karaoke place. If a whole nation digs it, you g...

Mitsu EVO Turbos

I was talking to my friend in Japan today and he was telling me how the development of their EVO line of turbos is going to be available very soon. These are turbos for the EVO 4-9 that all bolt on to their intended application. The reason why I like these turbos is because they are genuine Mitsubishi turbos that have been tested and manufactured by Mitsubishi. The turbos you buy from little turbo shops here in America are basically slap togethers with "custom" made compressor wheels. The turbo on the EVOs are reverse rotation so what these turbo people do is digitize a wheel in some CAD software and then invert them. There is no testing, no development, or anything of the sort. ...

Rotary Power

Having always been a Mazda rotary engine fan and enthusiast, I was pleased to see a story on the 13G 3-rotor powered LMP2 car in Racecar Engineering. Or I should say previously 13G powered. Mazda switched over to the AER 2.0L piston turbo engine earlier this year in an attempt to be more competitive. I'm not sure how a 2.0L inline 4 turbo can be competitive with a highly strung normally aspirated 3.5L V-8 (a la IRL), but whatever floats their boat right? The AER engine is supposed to be a derivative of the Mazda DISI 2.0L engine found in the Mazdaspeed series of turbo cars. The key word here is SUPPOSED to be.

Anyhow, I'm glad that Mazda at least tried the rotary. The car wa...

Mastro's

On my b-day this past weekend, Troy from XS organized a last minute dinner and some friends came out to Mastro's in Costa Mesa. Of course Toshi was present, Gary from Design Fab, and some of my close friends showed up. I didn't even know about it until a couple hours before. Anyhow, the food at Mastro's is REALLY good. You have to check out the sides too because they're ridiculously good. I'd recommend the macaroni and cheese, cream spinach, and the gnocci. Expect to consume about 5,000-8,000 calories in one sitting to absorb the entire Mastro's experience. Expensive and will increase your cholesterol count, but definitely good. Sometimes you gotta say fuck the diet. The atmosp...

The World's Gayest Head

So I was checking out a 2007 Ford Mustang GT heads last week and I must say that they are the The World's Lamest Heads; at least for a "performance" vehicle. I'm sure there are heads that are more lame, but the Mustang GT is supposed to be a muscle car. This is 2007 the last time I checked. Looking at these heads I thought I was in 1984.

W♠hataburger

So during my drive back from San Antonio, Texas a couple weeks ago, I saw many fast food restaurants that don't exist in Southern California. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I didn't get to try them all. I can tell you that the absolute #1 fast food joint in the nation is probably SONIC. It's really a shame that Sonic doesn't exist in socal. Sonic has the roller skating chicks that come out, take your order, and bring you food. Their burgers and drinks ROCK. Anyhow, I went to a spot called Whataburger. I heard it is mainly in the south. I ordered their standard issue cheeseburger. I figure if you can't make a good cheeseburger, then basically you are fucked and the resta...

Infiniti G37 Coupe - VQ37VHR

I was checking out Sean Morris' blog and I ran across some 411 on the new G37 coupe. It's bigger, badder, stronger, and faster. The new VQ37VHR engine is definitely a nice piece of work. I rather like the VQ35DE even in it's basic 287hp form (plus some mods and tuning of course), but the 37VHR rocks the shit out of the 35DE without any work.

Bone stock I think this car will give the BMW 335i twin turbo a run for its money. BMW fucked up by putting a pair of puny bitch turbos on the engine. Sure a turbo car get much faster with a few mods, but there is NOBODY who makes a reliable ECU for the BMW yet. Flash/rom tuning isn't available yet. There are some bullshit piggybac...

Mashups

I've been severely lagging on blog entries. I've been busy with other stuff so I just haven't had much time. Anyhow, so I've been listening to random downloaded mp3s that fall into a category called mashups. I'm sure it's nothing new to the djs and party people out there, but I figured I would introduce some sites anyway. Mashups are basically mixed songs that djs get creative on take a beat from one song, maybe a rhythm or bass line from another, then vocals from another and mix it all up. Some are cool, some are wack, but mostly they are kind of creative. Check'em out:

Party Ben mashups

Toshi is selling his S13 by eric

Toshi is selling his S13

If anybody is interested in buying a pretty dope S13, check it out here. Of course this car is partially dope because it used to be mine's until Toshi decided that he needed a buff ass daily driver and practically forced me to sell it to him. It was my track car and I was having a blast with it, but I'm always down to help out a friend (and make a buck). It really is a good car. Check out the specs here. I think he's asking only $16.5k obo. That's less than what I sold it to him for, but I sold it to Tosh almost 1.5 years ago...