Lexus GS300 Valve Body

I have been way busy lately spending a lot of time putting my GS300 back to stock. Or at least that was the original plan. I was going to return the drivetrain back to stock and get the car ready to sell, but its a bit too difficult to return the car back to stock. So instead, Peter at XS is putting in a stock block (I had a Supra TT block before), stock head, with an Apexi 2.1mm metal headgasket for a 9.4:1 compression ratio, a fresh transmission (my old one is smoked), and a new higher stall speed torque converter. I wil...

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Saleen

 

Sometime back in the mid 80's before I had a license, I remember checking out a Road & Track magazine where they did a road test of a 1984 or 1985 Saleen Mustang. I remember I used to like it a lot. I thought it was a pretty damn cool car actually. I had nothing against the 5.0's, but then again, I didn't know shit back then either (they suck BIG TIME ass stock). Most of my buddies in high school had 5.0's. In fact, my first hidden nitrous install was in my buddy Ed's 1988 5.0 Mustang GT. We smoked hella fools and made plenty of lunch money street racing that thing. All the black dudes with Mustan...

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Apexi Bergenholtz Drift FD: Converted

A couple weeks ago Masaki from Apexi hit me up via AIM to see if I had time to do a touch up tune on the Apexi Formula D drift FD3S. It went like something like this:

Masaki said, "They converted it to right hand drive."

I said, "Oh you guys brought the old D1 car from Japan?"

"No, they converted it."

"Who converted it?

"Ron [Bergenholtz], Keith [Apex], and Chuck [Apex]."

"What the fuck? No Shit?!?! Did they chop and weld a new front clip?"

"Na, they just uh....converted it. You'll see."

So I went down to Apex to make sure the car was running alright. To be honest, I thought it might have been a bit of a hac...

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SCC Ultimate Street Car Challenge 2008

Last week on Wednesday morning I made it out to K&N for the Ultimate Street Car Challenge as an "engineering guru". The guru panel consists of 3 guys who are supposed to know thier stuff: me, Robert/Robi from Robispec, and Brian from Garrett. Brian was the turbo guru, Robi was the chassis/suspension guru, and I was the engine/fuel system/tuning guru. While I've seen Robi around at all the time attacks, this was the first time I got to talk to him. Both Robi and Brian were cool to work with. We judged 10 cars on their level of "set up" and engineering. This was my first time on the guru panel, but I've competed once officially and have helped campaign cars in previous years. XS won wit...

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Weekend

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Big Brakes

I love big brakes. They can stop a car faster, you can brake later in to a turn, and the car just feels better when you have them. What I think is even better than big brakes are FAKE big brakes! You know the sky is falling when people are making a living off of FAKE big brakes. As a true enthusiast, you can't even imagine the concept, right? I was cruising eBay and I found this crock of shit:

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Nissan Armada

On Monday morning, Troy gave me call and said, "Hey man. Some Nissan dealerships are blowing out Armadas and Titans for 50% off. You should buy one." I said, "Why the hell do I want one? Gas is fucking expensive man. You should buy one." And then I thought about it: my drive to work is 6 minutes even if I hit a couple of red lights. Saya's (gf) drive is only 15 minutes and only because its a local (red lights suck) drive. Hell, maybe I SHOULD buy one. Superior Nissan in Puente Hills and a two other dealerships in San Diego were doing a 50% off sale for Titans and Armadas. Of course, a car dealership is well....a car dealership so you can never really believe what they say. They are all...

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Tech Calls

by Eric Hsu

This post and actually all my posts are of my opinion only and not of my employer, Cosworth LLC or any other company that I've previously worked for.

Having been working at different manufacturers for many years now and being one of the technically inclined personnel in the office, I always seem to have to deal with tech calls from customers no matter where I seem to work. I'm glad to help somebody out if I can save their day. Luckily I don't answer all tech calls as I'm usually busy doing something else, but if I'm sitting at my desk I usually get the serious tech calls. Here's a quick summary of the types of people I've encountered over the years (both dealers and end users):

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XS Power - No, Not XS Engineering

by Eric Hsu

What happens when you buy XS Power, Stone Mountain Racing, or other cheap ass made in China parts from eBay? Look inside for the carnage.

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Buttonwillow Time Attack 11/06 Video

 

I finally edited this video. It's Tarzan Yamada kicking ass in the XS BNR32 GT-R. Only 0.3 seconds away from the Cyber EVO. Next time...

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