Merry Christmas and Happy Rotoring to all!

Christmas is here, and so is a Titan. A Nissan Titan that is. Now the blueberry can now get to 'The Glen' (aka Watkins Glen in NY), Road America (in Ohio), and any track the Titan can drive to.

A look back...

Here are some older pictures that I seem to have missed in the Images page. Check them out and I can provide higher resolution pictures by request.

Photo Courtesy of Scott Keefer

Who's building a Bridge and where?

Brian at BDC Motorsports and in the near future; to answer the title's question.

I have been teasing this amongst my close friends and my "Rotard" friends for months now. I contacted Brian when Eric Meyer posted on the forums that he was running a Bridgeported RENESIS and had some very interesting results. I have chosen to use my street ported motor to be rebuilt and bridgeported. The side story about my street ported motor was that it failed because it was built improperly, amongst other issues.

The car will go under the knife over the winter and under go a series of custom and crazy mods for the upcoming 2012 season. More to come in the next months so make sure you follow Franeke for build updates and more.

Edit: Plans changed when a group of acquaintances pointed me to Luis Rivera of Wankel Works, however that did not end well as in fact he was learning how to build a Renesis using my car. Thanks to a great friend, the car races today on reman-engine. 

Transmission and Differential Fluid Changes

When I changed my transmission and differential fluid around 30,000 miles ago I had the worst time doing. Why?

SSV Maintenance Revisted

About two years ago I cleaned my SSV before I put my oil catch can in. Recently RE-Zelse was having SSV issues so Stinksauce and myself decided to lend a helping hand.

After removing the battery, draining all of the coolant lines, water pump pulley, thermostat housing, and the SSV...we got started.

Using Intake/CARB cleaner we cleaned the port the SSV sits in and it was encrusted with carbon. This motor has less than 15,000mi on it...imagine how your SSV looks at your current mileage.

After spraying half of the can of cleaner into the SSV port, this was the cleanest I could get it with the tools available.

Now that the port was cleaned to the best of our abilities, time to clean the SSV itself:

However, when the SSV was re-installed...it was still sticking. For some reason the SSV would not move fluidly even though it was cleaned. After trial, error, and plenty of curse words...we turned to White Lithium grease.

**Only coat the portion shown above with white lithium grease**

After using white lithium grease on the SSV as shown above.

If this was helpful for you, TipMe!

DIY Exhaust Repair

Because of rigid my chassis is and how bad the roads can be near me...my exhaust system does not like it too much. I noticed an exhaust leak in my old Exoticspeed Race Pipe, but I did not know it was this bad...

 

In times like these, J B Weld is your best friend!

J B Weld is a cold weld product that can withstand ~500°F which should patch this leak just fine. 

First squeeze out some of the 'Steel' into a small cup or paper towel.

Next squeeze an equal amount of the 'Hardener'.

Mix up the 'Steel' and 'Hardener'

Apply!

I am letting the J B Weld set for about 2 days just to me sure that everything is good and bonded.

Who likes Flames? I do!

Bazooka Photography has created another nasty video of Franeke's Winning Blue RX-8. Check it out:

 

Another Teaser Pic

Bazooka Photography has done it again!

Photo Courtesy of Bazooka Photography

Video was also taken yesterday with my GoPro camera and Bazooka's DSLR. Should be very interesting.

Photoshoot Video

Here is a short clip of all the shenanigans from the photoshoot yesterday:

Nasty photoshoot

Johnny Buzoiu of Bazooka Photography took some sweet shots of my blueberry...check them out!

Photo Courtesy of Bazooka Photography

Photo Courtesy of Bazooka Photography

Photo Courtesy of Bazooka Photography

Photo Courtesy of Bazooka Photography

Photo Courtesy of Bazooka Photography

Photo Courtesy of Bazooka Photography

There are more pictures to come and possibly a video. Stay tuned!

Blast from the Past

Check out these sick track pictures from NJMP. This was back in April of 2010, which was the last time Redline Time Attack was on the East Coast.

Photo by Kyle Crawford

Photo by Kyle Crawford

Photoshoot Meet at Honeymoon Island, FL

Last Saturday I hosted a small meet outside Clearwater. Originally there was supposed to be an army of models, however most of the models flaked on their appearances. How ever, the photographers were able to snap some sick shots of the cars and the girls. These pictures were done by Chase Geiger Photography.

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Alece Smith
Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photo courtesy of Chase Geiger Photography

Photoshoot Meet Teaser

Here is a teaser from a car photoshoot meet that was held yesterday in Honeymoon Island, Florida. More pics will come as the photographers post them...

Photo by Kyle Allen

New bracing, MS stlye

Just slapped on the MazdaSpeed strut tower brace thanks to Brice at Race Roots. This brace is light as all hell and braces the master brace cylinder...which is f'ing awesome!

She is ALIVE!

The motor swap is done and she is running pretty strong. Tomorrow I will upload a pic of the fresh engine bay...but for now see the pic after the trans was successfully bolted to the motor.

Sanz-Motor

Engine is out! Waiting for some exhaust hardware so the newer motor can go in.
The hardware should arrive tomorrow evening, so if all goes well the rx-8 will be back on the road Wednesday morning.

Engine Swap Teaser

I have a back log of blog posts for a series of DIYs. Unfortunately at this time I have a need to swap motors. However I will create a detailed DIY engine swap by the end of this year (hopefully).
Stay tuned for some more exciting developments with Franeke and the Mazda RX-8!

Shenandoah Track Day

On May 14th I drove to Summit Point in West Virginia and raced with TrackDaze. The Shenandoah circuit is freaking awesome. There elevation changes on this 2.2mi course is a blast. However, the first session was while it was raining; which was treacherous.

Session 2 was on a damp track.

Session 3 was on a dry track.

Session 4 was on a hot track.

Here are some pictures from the event:

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Photo Courtesy of Garrett Hoover

Throughout the four sessions I managed to get point by's from a Nissan GTR, BMW 335i, BMW 135i, Nissan 370z, a handful of miatas, and a Mustang GT.