So recently I worked on the development for a new column mounted drive. It is huge. Our biggest yet. It outputs 8.4 million pounds of torque. I don’t really have any great pictures of it. However, I did find pictures of the cage it connects to. I did nothing with the cage. I just found it very cool due to its shear size. For reference, the 8 main posts are all 8″ pipe. And this one welded structure weighs 65,000 lbs and is just over 50 feet long. Enjoy…
C140 Cage
C140 Cage on truck
It may seem like a silly mod to be my first mod to my new car (other than tint), but the stock Subaru horn is just soooo bad. The stock horn is rated at 97db. It is so pathetic, there was a few times I wanted to honk at someone, but chose not to because I knew they would just laugh at me. So, I bought the Hella Supertone horns, a wiring harness, and the mounting bracket from subimods.com. The Hella horns are rated at 118db. So 21db more than the stock horns. That’s huge!
I like how it looks like a pissed off Decepticon in this picture.
The reason I went for the wiring harness is because I read that less power gets to the horns when you use the factory wiring harness. And I needed those bad boys to be as loud as possible. The reason I went for the mounting bracket, even though it seems a bit over-priced as I know I had similar things made while at COBB for about 1/4 of what they sell these for, is because I wanted the horns to be perfectly centered. I think it turned out very nice.
The horns: They look great, sound great, mount simply, aren’t super heavy, appear plenty robust. I would definitely recommend them to anyone wanting an upgrade.
The harness: When I first pulled it out, I couldn’t believe how long it was. It seemed like a big overkill. Well, after installing it, I was happy to have the length. The extra length made it easy to zip tie out of the way and hide things and make it nice and neat. The quality seems good, it has a 5 post relay which is supposedly the best choice. My only complaint would be the rings that connect to the battery seem like they have a much larger inside diameter than what is necessary. When you lock the car and make the horn honk, it is not much louder than stock. But when you actually press on the horn inside the car, damn, that thing is loud. Which I am attributing to the harness.
The bracket: It has a hole in the middle for mounting, and the 2 holes for the horns. The holes are obviously cut with a laser (run by a user that is not so knowledgeable in laser cutting) as they look a bit sloppy. The top edge (maybe bottom edge) is bent over for stiffness, which I am sure helps a little bit, but in the center where the bracket is its thinnest, there is no lip to keep that section stiff. So as you tighten the one mounting bolt, the bracket smashed down in the middle and bends the ends outward. This is easily fixed by bending it back by hand. But that doesn’t give me a lot of faith in its strength being that easy to manipulate. If it were me designing it, I would have made it from thicker material, or at least a higher quality material, and to keep weight down but stiffness up, I would do some fancy cutouts. The thing is laser cut anyway, might as well have some fun with it. The cost would be essentially the same, but then you can have a company logo in it or something.
Anyway, here is my favorite picture I took of the horn. And really it’s more a picture of the STi logo:
STi logo with Hella Supertone horn in the background
One of the many things going on is my vehicular situation. So I had a pretty sweet ass MazdaSpeed6. It didn’t have a ton of stuff done. But it was done right. It looked good, rode well, and had pretty good power.
My MazdaSpeed6
Well, being me, I decided that was not good enough. It was nice and fast. But it was 7 years old. I like new and shiny. So I decided to order me a 2013 Subaru Impreza WRX STi. I ordered a dark grey metallic one with fog lights, bike rack, STI short shifter, and STi front lip. I ordered it around the middle of August. They told me it was scheduled for delivery sometime in December. OK, time to put my car up for sale. urns out my friend that watched me do the mods to the Mazda wanted the car. So about two weeks after putting it up for sale, it was sold. Now what? I have nothing to drive to work. OK, shop for a beater. Turns out I found a red S13 coupe in Ogden for $1300. Perfect. I loved my old S13 and another project might be fun. That way, me and Cara can co-drive it at autocrosses and beat it up out on the track at Miller.
The beater S13
Well, it turns out this S13 required a bit of work to get it to pass inspection. Including an entire new exhaust from the engine back. After fixing it up and passing inspection, I was out at the track racing my kart, when a friend of mine asked why I don’t just buy my old S13 back from him. I was unaware that he still had it. And I heard nasty rumors of its demise. Turns out the rumors were all false. And since I loved that car so much, I had to have it. So I bought my old S13 as well. So my old black S13 that I did so much to was home again. You can read about it here. But for those too lazy to click that link, here is a picture:
My old, and new again S13
Well, it turns out my old and new again S13 has a rod-knock. However, it also comes with a freshly re-built engine. I just need to swap that baby in. So in the mean time I am still driving the red beater S13. My down payment on the Subaru is dwindling, so I need to stop buying cars. Well, after a few weeks, I get a call from the dealer telling me they have a black STi coming in that has a few different options on it. So wrong options and wrong color. However, black always looks good. And if I get that one, I have a pair of bad-ass black cars. Sounds like it was meant to be. Plus, I can get it in late October rather than December. So the beater is up for sale and I have another fun new car.
Front
Side
3/4 front shot
This black one came with these mods:
And I had them throw in:
So I lost the fog lights and the bike rack. But I figured I wouldn’t use the bike rack enough to justify it looking goofy and messing with my aero and cg. And without fog lights, it opens up the possibility for brake ducting later. Although, I think a skilled person could make the ducting work with fog lights too.
Impressions so far:
The stereo sucks balls compared to the MazdaSpeed6. The power band is in dire need of some AccessPort love as it kind of surges a bit, like all factory Subaru tunes. Handling is of course awesome. I think it is night and day better than the 2008′s. I hate that Subaru switched to the chrome headlights. The 2010-2011 headlights look way better. The new ones are definitely old lady and ghetto hood rat approved. 35% tint all around is not dark enough. The sound of the SPT exhaust is great. I just wish the tips weren’t hidden so far under the bumper. SI Drive is the most pointless, useless turd of a feature I have ever had on a car. On S#, the throttle feels fine. Auto or the default setting feel like someone stuck a cork in it’s ass and plugged the exhaust, or just disconnected the throttle plate motor. And not only is it completely pointless, but it requires that this big ugly knob be stuck on the center console. It’s like they wanted a knob to try and be as cool as BMW or something but didn’t know what the knob should do, so they made it turn off your throttle plate just to test it, then forgot to actually think of a use for it before going into production, so they were stuck with this stupid stupid idea that was really just to test placement of a knob or something.
I love the way the car looks (especially once some chrome is deleted off the car) and I am excited to turn it into my own with some simple mods that will make it even more gorgeous. Already got the tint. Also, I ordered some horns because the stock ones are as craptastic as they were on my 1998 Subaru. Turns out they are only rated at 97db. I think I can fart louder than that. The new horns are rated at 118db. And every 3db is double the sound pressure. So yeah, you do the math. New ones will be WAY better.
Yes, it has been over a month since I updated. Much has been happening, and unfortunately, I keep forgetting to have my camera with me.
Odie my sweet Great Dane mix is sweeter than ever. He is up to 48 weeks old. He is right under 100 lbs still. Poor guy still has all his ribs showing. Seems like no matter how much we feed him, he doesn’t fill out. I guess he has time. Both puppies have been to the vet and were given high praise for health (even with a recurrence of Giardia). Heidi is a plumper. She is only 18 weeks now, but up to about 30 lbs. We have been taking them to the dog park again. We held off for a while while Heidi was still young and without shots.
Here they are at Tanner Park:
I think Odie likes his backpack
Hurry up Heidi
I got a call a few days before the event from my friend Erik asking me if I wanted to head to Vegas for the Formula D event. Usually short notice is a no-go thanks to kids, but now that the kids are staying with their mom during school, it gives me a bit more freedom to do fun stuff like this. And man was it fun. I highly recommend attending a Formula D event. I have watched it on TV and even watched demos at places like SEMA. But none of it was near as cool as being there. The noise, the smoke, the carnage, the atmosphere…
I drove down to Vegas with Erik Seo. He is an awesome photographer with a bunch of magazine shoots under his belt. I brought my D3100 with the crappy 18-55 lens, and due to the thick safety fence around the entire course, I was unable to get any good pictures. So really I didn’t even try after a few. Instead I spent my time enjoying the show or being body guard to Erik’s equipment bag. So rather than post pics here I will just send you to Erik’s blog http://www.erikseo.com/blog/2012/10/formula-drift-las-vegas-motor-speedway-after-dark/
BTW, I also picked up an awesome souvenir while there. It’s an HPI E10 Falken Ford Mustang Drift car. And it was signed at the event by Justin Pawlak who is the guy that drives the real one and is currently sitting in 4th place going into the final event of the year.
This weekend we took Odie and Heidi with us to the track pretty much all weekend. Saturday we had garage owner appreciation day along with the American Rock Sports Challenge race. Sunday was karting test & tune. The Porsche shop a few garages down had their dog with them. IIRC, his name is Jax. And I believe they said he is about a year and a half old is all. So about twice Odie’s age, but not an old dog at all. We all gave them some time to get to know each other and play around without any adult intervention. I got a few cool pictures of them playing
Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports
Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports
Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports
Odie at Miller Motorsports
Heidi (I just noticed she doesn’t have her own tag on here yet) was sleeping while Odie and Jax were having their fun. She was all tuckered out from watching the ARSC earlier. Here she is trying to come down those big ‘ol bleachers on her own:
Heidi on the bleachers
Heidi is up to 23 lbs. Odie is the same height and weight as he has been the last few weeks. Heidi is now 12 weeks old, and Odie is 42 weeks.
They are super sweet together. I am so glad we got Heidi. They both love each other so much. They eat together, sleep together, play together. They even pee together. #2 is still on separate schedules though 
One perfect example of how sweet Odie is to Heidi: I was playing frisbee with Odie. He could see Heidi watching and wanting to be part of it, but not having the courage to get in his lane of traffic. So Odie catches the frisbee, carries it over to Heidi bends down and hold it by her mouth so she can hold on. Then he brought it over to me like a good boy. And did the same thing on the next few throws. It’s like he was not only trying to let her participate, but also trying to teach her how to play. It was soooo cute.
Odie and Heidi sleeping
Every now and then I have to lock Odie up in the house just so I can get pictures of her playing by herself. Otherwise she won’t leave his side long enough to get good pictures.
Heidi on the prowl
That innocent face
Heidi has no idea Timber is mad
Just a quick photo post here. This is my friend’s Datsun 510. He is one of the guys I share a garage with out at Miller Motorsports. He wanted me to take a couple quick shots of it on cantilevered slicks. Silly car with silly tires
Datsun 510 at Miller Motorsports
