Day 18: the day of parts, sun, and donuts
So the night prior I ended up actually staying at a rest stop in Cali even though I needed to go back to Vegas. So I made my way back, without knowing where my package was. Only the UPS stores were open, and I knew it wasn't at one of them, but I figured they could at least point me in a direction. They sent me to one of two warehouses. Unfortunately, they one sent me to the other one. But once there I picked up the package with no problems and brought it out to my car where I immediately popped my hood and got to working. Replacement bolt, done. I went to do the bushings and billet arms but I realized I'm an idiot and that's all already upgraded by my dieselgeek shifter. So that stuffs getting returned.
But holy shit, the difference was night and day. Before, I would have tons of play, and when you hit the edge of the play, you could keep pushing and feel the shifter sort if bend, like forcing plastic to bend. Because of this plasticky flex, it was sometimes impossible to shift into 2nd. Now, it was crisp, precise, notchy. I haven't felt it like this in almost half a year, before I blew my motor. You knew exactly what gear you were shifting into and you knew exactly when you were in it, with a really satisfying
*CLUNK* with every action.
Shifter fixed, I left for LA, with a really uneventful 4hr drive. Only stopped to get a new intake filter to replace my old one that went on a Weight Watchers diet.
Once in LA I grabbed my package and went to Hermosa Beach. Lovely weather, I finally understand why people always talk about California weather.
I talked to the exhaust guy today, with some upsetting news that I kind of expected but hoped wasn't true. The exhaust (labeled as Blitz Nur Spec Ti) is actually just SS with 4 titanium tips. That was the tipping point. I was already kind of selling with this exhaust for the sole reason it was titanium. With the giant stock-style muffler, I'm just too worried about sound.
However, I decided I'd sleep on it. I'm already fairly happy with the sound, except for the lack of pops, that my stock exhaust has, and this can only be an upgrade. Plus, it's extremely unique, and comes with a custom diffuser. So it's basically $750 for the exhaust and $250 for the diffuser. I think I'll end up snagging it after all.
Decided to just start driving around downtown and this is where things get dicey. Cops EVERYWHERE, armed and blockading roads. Mandatory curfew. I'm not going to get into my opinions on this, because I want to save this thread from more arguing. Just that the response is insane.
Left downtown as fast as possible, I don't need to be caught up in that. Drive over to Mulholland Highway, only to once again be told this road I came here to drive is closed for construction. Really disappointed in that.
So I finally head back to the family friend's apartment, where I picked up my part, to shower before I found a place to sleep, then set off for Angeles Crest. I'd heard that this is where street races and car meets happen, almost exactly like in Initial D. Drive up and down and it was mostly people pulled over to sleep, except for two cars that could hear my blow off valve and were wanting their light for me to come over. This is where the fun begins.
It's two Mustangs, one from 2015+ the other from the generation just before 2005 (I'm pretty sure Gen 6 and 4 respectively IIRC. Used to be a mustang guy). 6 people chilling out. I pull up and we start talking about cars, and my trip. They rip some burnouts and donuts:
This was a 14yo doing his first donut and nearly putting it in a bank.
And uhhhhh... I did some donuts, too
The older mustang was open diff and couldn't do donuts as well, but the newer one's LSD helped it get rowdy fast. Unfortunately I never got footage of the other donuts.
The older mustang also had some overheating issues. Some
serious overheating issues. He lost all the water we put into his car 30 minutes prior and was pulling vacuum through his pipes. There's no puddle but I think there's a pinhole leak that's sending off steam. One of his rubber coolant hoses had so much vacuum in it it looked worse than our pancake pipe. I helped him fix a few things and told him to find the exact spot of that leak (we knew the area but couldn't find the hole) and fix it before he blows his engine, and keep jugs of water on him constantly. I also don't know enough about cooling systems so I couldn't talk for sure about what was wrong.
A few more donuts and I left for bed.
Oh, and I met a dog
I love the diffuser, it's got a Japanese vibe to it. And I'm a JDM boy who wound up with a GTI, my (affordable) dream car is a 1992 Mk3 Supra 2.5GT Turbo R. Only sold in Japan and was the only time the Mk3 came with a TT JZ.
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