Camera Mount Tetris

Since the weather was nice today, I decided to go ahead and figure out a way to mount my tripod on the cargo bar. My first attempt was to put it above the seatbelt height adjusters just like Jason & Steve's 89' Civic Si. I'm guessing that their seats were a lot thinner than mine because with the bar above the seatbelt adjusters, I ran into problems. I almost couldn't extend my legs at all because my knees would hit, I had trouble with accessing the shifter, and I was just way too close to the wheel.

This is a picture with the bar set higher up:
On my second attempt, I put the cargo bar above the slit where the seatbelt feeds through. This worked out extremely well because it gave me so much space that I could put my seat too far away from the pedals and the wheel. So for the next event, I'll know where to put the bar and not have to panic about where to put it.

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This is a picture with the bar set lower which gave me more leg room:

Finally...My Cargo Bar Is In

My cargo bar finally came in. The wait was frustrating since it took about 12 days until I got it. Basically, the problem was that they screwed up my shipping information and never sent me an e-mail or phone call to tell me that. So I had to call UPS to have them fix the shipping information and send it again. Oh well ... as long as I get what I paid for, it's all good. I just hope that I don't run into any more problems with them.

Great Deals @ EdgeRacing.com: Wheels & Tires

My driving ability has improved a lot over the past two years and so did my autox performance. But fortunately and unfortunately, my driving ability was the only thing that improved the most. What was keeping my car from performing at its optimal level were my tires.

Because it snows heavily and frequently in Indiana, I was forced to give up my stock BF Goodrich KDW2's for my current all-season tires, Kumho Ecsta ASX. The change from street to all-season meant a weaker sidewall, so I went with a wider size for more grip to make up it. I went from the stock 205/50/17's and moved up to 215/50/17.

Overall, my current all-season tires were what I was looking for. It has a surprisingly stiff sidewall for an all-season tire, it handles better than my stock street's in the wet, it's capable of matching my old street tire times on the dry and it is a lot less expensive (payed $100ea.) than the other high performance all-season tire competitors. Without the expertise from Jason and his racing team, it would have been really difficult to make the right decision.

Although I successfully overcome the snow problem, my car was still lacking in performance due to the all-seasons. I needed to find some sort of way to get better tires and still have the option to run all-seasons in the winter. So I went to Jason again and talked to him about what I needed to do. He referred me to this website called Edge Racing. They always have great deals on light-weight race wheels/ street tire packages.

Jason and everyone in his team all said that these Falken Azenis Rt615's are the best and least expensive street tires that I could get. With these tires, I should be able to run two to three seconds faster than usual. That means that it will be easier for me to place top 10 out of 100 drivers on pax!
Since the other high-end brand wheels are much more expensive, I will have to go with these no-name brand wheels in the future. I don't really care if they're not the nicest looking wheel. I only care about whether or not they're light. And thanks to ACR for making the ACR model SRT-4 because now I can use 16x7 inch wheels which will ultimately, allow me to buy lighter, wider, and less expensive tires!

Great Deals @ HarborFreight.com: Tools

I've been thinking about how I could mount a camera in my car. I've thought about using velcro on the dash, but it wouldn't give me the view I want. So I went to Jason for advice because I remembered that he has mounted a camera in the center of his car on some sort of bar before. So I talked to him and he told me to use a cargo bar to mount my camera on. I tried searching, but all the vendors charged too much for it ($30-$40 without shipping). So he sent me a link to this website called Harbor Freight. I bought it for $18.98 shipped and probably saved my self $20.00!

Other than the cargo bar, Harbor Freights also has great deals on other tools that I've been wanting to get for a long time:
1) Clicker Torque Wrench: $9.99

2) Jack: $59.99

3) 3-ton Jack Stand: $18.99

Cargo Bar: "Now you can move just about any load securely. Expands from 48'' to 70'' to fit across most truck and station wagon beds; no tools necessary.Pressure keeps the bar from slipping. Padded ends are designed not to mar paint. Rust-resistant powder coating and heavy duty steel construction."
-Harbor Freights

This is what the cargo bar looks like in Jason and Steve's 89' Civic Si STS prepared project car.

Finally ... C O L D AIR!

For the past month or so before I went on vacation to the Philippines on June 17th of 07', I've been driving my car without A/C.

When my A/C broke, it happened about 20 miles before I hit 36,000 miles (coincidence huh? My warranty ends there!). The bad thing was that I was still about 100 miles away from Fort Wayne. Crap. So as soon as I got home, I unloaded all my stuff for the Philippines into the house and went straight to Dodge so that I could hopefully have it fixed for free. I walked in their service department and talked with the guy at the front desk and told him about my situation. As soon as I brought up 36,000 miles, he ignored everything else I said and said that it's not covered, so they won't fix it. Though he WAS glad to tell me about how much it would cost me to fix it. So as soon as he said diagnostic costs one-hundred and ... I cut him off and told him that I'd just go somewhere else. Dodge dealerships suck.

I went home and my Mom told me that there's a guy that she knows named George that's good at working on cars. So I took my car in and had him take a look at it. I waited for about a couple hours while he tried to find out what the problem was with my A/C. He checked the entire A/C unit (compressor ... etc.) and they all checked out to be good. Afterwards, he checked the electrical unit. He jumped the A/C through a fuse and all of a sudden, my A/C started blowing out cold air! He told me that the fuse was bad and that I'd need to get a new one. So I went to Dodge Parts Department and got the part. Luckily, they had one left in stock. It cost me about $30. Afterwards, I walked to my car all anxious to see what happens and put it in myself. I started my car ... and still ... no cold air.

Frustrated, I brought my car back to George to have him look at my car one more time. He told me that he couldn't work on my car unless I left my car in his shop. I only had a couple more days left and I still needed to go back to Bloomington to get some more things for the trip, so I decided to just wait until after the trip to bring my car in. Sucks. I didn't even know whether or not I could trust him after wasting $30 already.

After I recovered from the week-long jet-lag from the Philippines, it was Monday. So I decided to bring my car in to George again.

Two days later (Wednesday), he called me and said that the expansion valve was broken and that I'd need to replace it. When he said that, I didn't know whether or not to trust him after he already screwed up once. But I bought the part anyway and it was expensive ... $80. All I could think was that he better be right. I ordered the part at the Glenbrook Dodge Parts Department because they didn't have anymore in stock. They said that it would probably arrive on Monday, but also said that they would call me if it comes in sooner.

Two more days later (Friday), I woke up to a call at around 12pm and was surprised that it was Glenbrook Dodge! So I jumped off my bed and answered the phone before I lost them. They told me that the part just came in and that I could pick it up.

Afterwards, I brought my car back in to George only to hear bad news. He couldn't install the expansion valve because he didn't have the vacuuming machine needed to drain the A/C system's refrigerant. He referred me to another shop where he knows the mechanic (Jim) and also has the machine. I got a quote on my car at the shop and he said that it would cost me $95 or more. Bull. I told him that I had things to do today and that I'd just come back later.

I went home. Then my mom told me to give the Jeep an oil change at Kwik Lube. So I took the Jeep there and while I was waiting, I asked one of the mechanics if they do A/C service like vacuum/ recharge. They said yes, so I got a quote for $49.99 (vacuum/recharge) and whatever it takes for labor. That's way better than George's friend and on top of that, I know the people at Kwik Lube.

So after the oil change, I went back home, switched cars, and went to Kwik Lube to have my A/C repaired. It took them two and a half hours to fix it and they only charged me $30 for labor. I left only paying $82.99 for everything. But the total run-around cost me about $190, so I still had a lot of wasted money. Oh well, at least my A/C is fixed after over two months of it being out of commission! It felt SO good to finally have cold air!

Tire Pressure Tuner: White Shoe Polish

While I waited for my A/C to get fixed, I walked to the local hardware store and picked up my own bottle of white shoe polish. I can't wait to try it out and finally figure out what pressures my tires Love the most. Since I'll be sticking with my Kumho ASX's probably forever (Argh! Stupid winter snow...), this will be a good thing to keep my tire/ driver/ wallet relationship happy in the long run. Haha ...

















The way you use it is exactly the same way it is being used in this picture. You mark a white line over the arrow that points to the spot at which the tires should rollover. You start off at the maximum tire pressure branded on the sidewall. For me, it's 50psi. If the shoe polish marking doesn't scrub off near the arrow, you have to lower your pressure in a recommended 2psi. Continue until the shoe polish scrubs off at the very tip of the arrow. Once it hits the spot, that's the perfect pressure to run.

Surprising D-Stock Info!!!

Because the SRT-4 and the ACR aka "America Club Racer" model are the exact same cars (the ACR is not listed as a separate car in the 2007 SCCA Rulebook and the 2007 Stock Category Classification list), it is technically legal for me to modify up to the same modifications as the ACR model.

ACR model

• Wider, light-weight (18-19lbs) 16x7 BBS RX racing wheels with 40 mm offset
• Wider 225/45/16 BFG KDW2 tires
• Lowered ride height by almost 2 inches (1" through lower spring perches on strut and another .75" to 1" through smaller wheel/tire combo)
• 5-way adjustable performance Tokicko Illumina dampers (gas shocks)
• Thicker rear sway bar (19mm)
• Stronger bushings in the rear tension struts

D-Stock Legal Mod "To Do List":

• 16lbs light-weight Flik Ftd (matt Titanium) 16x7 inch race wheels.
  
• 225/50/16 Falken Azenis Rt615 tires
• Lower spring perches on the strut.
• Adjustable Koni Yellows
• 19 mm ACR rear sway bar.