It was an epic LUCKY day. The weather forecast called for cold and rainy all day, but the drive down was glorious. The moment I pull into the track however, my brake pedal hits the floor and I yank hydro to avoid crashing, my aero package literally 3 hours old. SURPRISE brake leak YAY. *hmmm, maybe it’ll fix itself*
Tech slaps a sticker on my windshield LOL, and I roll onto the pad for the parade lap, solely using the hydro for braking. I got some funny looks pulling out of grid before the first run but the leak had to be addressed. The leak ended up being the passenger side firewall chassis rail tee, right next to my header FML. Flare nuts getting tightened with hilarious blasphemy of tool usage and someone walks up with the old, “everything ok?” Yeah asshat, everything’s rainbowtastic, I’m just paying these event people because I like burning my knuckles in public… but I instead give a friendly wistful reply, even going as far as to point out my brake reservoir is most probably empty. He says, “Oh, well I’ve got some brake fluid in my truck” and proceeds to win my heart with a bottle of DOT3 paint destroyer.
Game on.
This 1JZ single turbo SC300 piloted by Ryan Lemons was glued to my ass most of the day, the taller gears really coming in handy. At one point a clipping cone was hit and dismembered, and the base was laying in the middle of the track, which I drifted right over, nearly taking the face off Ryan’s passenger.
Seriously, watch this:
https://instagram.com/p/zdcct3mGAd/
On the way home I hear and feel something hit and bang around under the car, followed by a faint oil stink. My brother texts asking if the smell is me. He gets in front and confirms that it’s me. We pull into a weigh station and the car is pouring oil from THE DAMN DRAIN HOLE. We take a joy ride for a plug and oil at AutoZone and in 30 minutes i’m back in the road, having avoided a motor destroying catastrophe. The oil pressure never went below 40psi, and it must have been two miles of driving on a missing drain plug. Epic and lucky.
The pic below is my review of the GKTech rear knuckles. Alignment spec'ed at zero rear camber and toe, car had tons of grip and sooo consistent.
Car is a blast to drive with the badass alignment, and for the first time I’m proud of the LOOK of the car.
Lastly, if I can put the busted KA back together with a new timing guide, I’ll have a legit daily.
