Kikuchi's Red NB

[Kikuchi]

don't tempt me!

[Kikuchi]

Recently entered the inaugural ozgymkhana event last sunday and it was bloody fantastic fun.

gymkhana is like motorkhana, except higher speeds. the tracks are slightly bigger, and in some corners it's possible to full on smoke drift, it's much more like ken block's stuff, than say, the traditional motorkhana.
there were few slaloms, some very tight s turns, some very very tight hairpins, and then you get some nice long sweepers where you can drift (or grip) at 80kmph+.
It's the first "gymkhana" in aust. Sorta like Ken Block's gymkhana, motorkhana on speed. You have your traditional slaloms, donuts, hair pins, and then nice long sweepers for the drifters too.

I'm quite noob, and was pretty nervous going into a competition, but it turned out great fun, and I didn't do too badly. 44/59 overall, and 6/10 in my class (modified 2000cc-4000cc) don't know why I was put in that class though.
However, on my first run, the first thing was a donut around a barrel, which ended up with me turning only 90deg, tried to power out, but ended up powering straight into the hardshoulder which had a little dip and then a kerb. Ripped my garage vary lip off. However, both lip and bumper survived, so I'll put it back on when i have time. AND THEN right after ripping my front lip off, I went the wrong way, I went straight instead of a tight left hairpin, I had to do a u turn and complete the course correctly so I didn't get a WD, but that plus the front lip accident added around 30-40secs. easy. which means theoretically, I could have been placed around the 30th mark.

Not that it matters, I'm still excited that I did that well in the first place, considering I was up against, sponsored, track machines, about half of the entered cars were evo's and wrx sti's. I beat 2 evo8s and a few wrx sti's, even a saleen mustang =D
And the amazing thing is that, I'm a city slicker, never pushed the car, never handbraked, burnout, donut, or anything like that before. All I did was put more effort into remembering the correct track, and keep everything as consistent as possible. Most of those below me were doing donuts the wrong direction, or entering the slalom on the wrong side, hitting cones, and stopping outside of the garage.

There were 2 other mx5's both NA's, one guy does motorkhana's regularly, and he ranked pretty high. Both of them ended up above me considerably.
Results - I'm Car 20, Phong Vu



This was my last 2 runs, they split the course into 2 sides, and 2 cars race against each other, the tracks were slightly different, so you ran both tracks. Wasn't really a race, as we were in different classes, just a show for spectators I guess. The 180 I was running against ended up 4th overall. The silver evo6 was my mate from touge alliance, his wrx's hydro handbrake was stuffing up, and ended up borrowing a friend's evo, he did pretty well considering it was his first time in that car, he ended up 8th overall.
If someone could embed it that would be nice =]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCoLyRbAw2E

[Kikuchi]

I promised pham from omgpham that I'd post up pics of the shift extender and knob that I had him make for me, so here it is.




Very satisfied with the product. not much to go wrong when making a shift extender, but it was still well made and I know 100% I'll never snap it unlike cheap ebay ones.

I had both the knob and shift extender made in steel, powdercoated satin black. Both nice and heavy, however, the knob is a bit small for my liking. So I'll be ordering another from pham sometime when I have money. If anyone is keen on buying it, I'll let it go for 30-40 bucks.

I can easily say, I'll be buying things from pham in the future.



On a side note, one of my friends from my car club is in the carbon fibre business. The parts are made in china (I know what you're thinking) but they are quality kits from some of the samples I've seen. He's interested in getting into the mx5 scene (since there are a few mx5's in our club) which includes NA's and my NB. He's interested in getting molds for our parts and making them into cf bits. I understand there's a moral backdrop to copying parts, so I'm only offering parts that are currently NOT offered in CF. He's already got nb bonnet and boot molds and a few other bits and pieces and I'm in talk with him in getting some carbon fibre hardtops. So far, price looks to be approximately 1500 if we can get 10 people including the interior brackets from omgpham (i suggested this, as I think they are quality pieces of kit, and at least includes some support for aussie sellers) but I am not sure about the rear mounting brackets as of yet. window will likely be lexan. The hardtop will be vac infused so it will weigh approximately 5kg. These will all be shipped to adelaide, and then will have to be shipped out to everyone else so you'll need to add shipping on top. There are a lot of details I'll still be chasing him up on before I open the group buy, so if you have any questions, send me a pm (don't post here, as I don't want to clutter up my garage), and I'll add it to the list of questions to ask him.

At the moment, I'll be requesting as much photos as I can of the hard top inside and out, as well as whether it will have kevlar as well, whether we can have the option of tinted windows, confirmation of the rear bracket, and also what kind of clear coat it'll have IF it has a clear coat, or the option of having it as dry carbon.

As much as I want to help out a friend I will be chasing quality parts only, so I won't be accepting cheap chinese parts either, which I honestly don't think they are from the samples I've seen.

Other things on the books are cf doors, possibly a shorty console, either the barchetta or jet stream (likely the barchetta cause that's what I like).

What I'm after is to gauge some interest, to see if it is possible to get 10 people into the group buy, so if you are, then send me a pm, and I'll note you down, and send you info as soon as I get it.

[Kikuchi]

Updated my car with new photos.
Long story short, car has been in an incident, can't really be bothered explaining everything so I'll just keep it short: I was u-turning into heavy traffic near an intersection, traffic was jammed, so 2 cars stopped and gave way to me to perform my u-turn, on the 2 lane rd, with bike lane and angled parking. As I was completing my turn, car comes flying up the bike lane and hits my front left side.
Unless you're a lawyer or someone with professional legal advice, please keep the advice to a minimum, I've had enough of the same comments over and over from people.

Pictures in my album which I'll link below as well as a video of a quick run through of the damages on my mx, and then last photos of it before it gets repaired.

Pretty depressed atm. I was supposed to attend a charity show and shine with my club this Sunday which I had just spent 300 bucks to get a bumper respray. Got it resprayed on Friday, got hit on Wed, just about 5 days. Shittiest way to spend 300 bucks.

The photo JUST before the crashed photos, is when my car was entered for a Japanese culture day show and shine. There were only 3 cars from my club, and all were mx5's; 2 NA's and my NB.
My mx's destruction =[

[vrmmmpshhh]

dont worry, you'll get it back in better shape. now they can fix all those small things that were annoying you

[Hjt]

I am glad your okay. shame about the damage, d/w your car will be fine, many of us have had accidents not our fault. Its sucks, but life goes on.

[Kikuchi]

i told him about the bump on the rear passenger wheel guard, but the guy said he's not sure if justcars will let him fix it.

atleast the bumper will be new. but I'll have to dismantle the headlight and repaint it again =_=