Cars I drove this year

Working for Megan Racing has given me an opportunity to drive a lot of cars this year.  The company would purchase cars to test fit and produce parts for the vehicle which has given me a chance to drive a number of cars...

Here is a list of cars that I got the opportunity to drive

2012 BMW 328i
2012 Mini Countryman
2012 Toyota Sienna
2012 Honda Civic Coupe
2012 Subaru Wrx
2012 Toyota FR-S
2012 Kia Optima
2012 Hyundai Sonata
2011 BMW 6501
2012 Lexus GS350 F-sport
2012 Scion TC
2012 Mercedes Benz c250


My Favorite car?  None...  I didn't like any of them.  I did like some aspect of every car though.

-Favorite seats-BMW 328i.  Those seats are amazing.  Just enough support for "spirited" drive but sof enough for the long hauls...

-Worst seats-Hands down the Mercedes C250.  Absolute garbage.

-Best Transmission for daily driving-Lexus GS350

-Worst drivetrain-BMW 328

Dynamo: Magician Impossible

 I had an interesting opportunity to work with Dynamo for one of his episodes...

Seattle. Round 5. No time to relax buddy.

Seattle was a tough event to say the least.  We endured quite a bit hoping for great results from our driver Taka Aono. 

Lets start at the beginning.  First off, I asked an old friend of mine Alex Villareal if he wanted to relax and come to Seattle to enjoy a "relaxing" weekend watching a round of Formula Drift.  He agreed and we were set.  The trip seemed straight forward as I planned to take Walker Wilkenson's trailer up since my other trailering plans fell through.  We decided to caravan with Jeff Jones and friends.  What was supposed to be a simple 24 hour drive turned into a 30+ hour drive because of some problems Jeff Jones and Junior were experiencing with their tow vehicles.   Not a problem.  What did become a problem was when I ended up getting no sleep and I had to stay up for an additional 10 hours making plans to help Taka get his car ready for a major overhaul....

While I was on the way up, Taka suffered engine problems during a private test day on Wednesday.  The entire crew (including our chief mechanic) was completely unaware of the situation until we got to the venue.  Taka told us that the car sounded like WRX and he got really worried.  Water was in the number cylinder and things weren't looking great.  We gathered our team and decided to fix the problem as soon as we heard back from our engine builder (Hasselgren).

Thursday rolls along and we got the go ahead to open up the engine and asses the damages.  It was a blown head gasket.  We immediately started a plan of attack to fix the problem.  Although we missed practice, the entire team pulled through and we got the motor running again.  Danny and Alex worked flawlessly together and magical things were happening.

Everything was fixed and Friday was looking great as Taka qualified 20th.  His entry speed on the sweeping back was ridiculous and even though we were going up against Matt Field who was also looking great, we knew we would put on a great show.

Saturday's match up was not what we were expecting as Taka had a tough time slowing down against Matt Field.  We were definately hoping for a better battle but it didn't quite work out that way.  On the plus side of things, we did have great support from the locals and I would like to thank those who showed their support for the team.

On a personal note, I did cut my finger pretty bad and I wanted to thank Dawn and Tina for helping me out with my finger.  I will definately consider wearing gloves when I change tires...  I would also like to thank Alex Villareal for all the help.   If you would to read his version of what happened that weekend, go to http://orangeadvan.blogspot.com/

New Jersey. Round 4

Jersey, was very hot.  Aside from the heat I saw something different from our driver Taka.  Throughout the weekend I noticed a change in how he drove his new car.  It seems as though he was making changes to his driving to match the power of the car.

This change was most noticeable right before top 32 elimination round when he participated in the open practice session on Saturday.  I saw the Megan Racing AE86 run around the course with a certain smoothness that I haven' t seen until that day.  The car looked graceful and I was confident that Taka would make a great show as he went up against Dai.

The picture below shows how fast Taka was as he pulled away from Dai when he was leading.  Everything was looking great until he misshifted into 3rd and he was making his way around the infield. 

Although he lost to Dai, it was a great match and I strongly believe that Taka will amaze everyone in Seattle if Taka continues to drive he did in New Jersey.  Stay tuned folks because it is going to get awesome.  In the meantime, enjoy some unbelievable shots taken by our own Larry Chen....

Florida. Round 3.

Here is a great image of Taka in Florida.

Atlanta. Round 2

Road Atlanta was a tough event for Team Megan Racing.  Every member of the team was ready to put on a great show for the loyal fans.  However, it didn't turn out that way as the Megan Racing AE86 ran into a mechanical problem which prevented the team to move forward.  

Everything was looking good as we prepared for Thursday's practice.  The car was running fine and we even brought additional parts as back up for the weekend. 

Taka was looking extrememely fast but on his 6th practice run, he heard the car not running right.  He immediatley pulled back into the pits and started diagnosing the problem.  It turned out that the car was only running on 3 cylinders and we had Paul from Hasselgren come to our pit area to help diagnose the situation.  Paul immediately figured out the problem to be a defective part on the valvetrain and to avoid any further damages to the engine, we opted not to participate for the rest of the weekend. 

The team spent most of the day talking to fans that showed support for Taka and the AE86.  We would like to thank everyone that came by.  Taka would also like to apologize to every fan that was not able to see the new car competing that weekend. 

We would like to thank our very understanding sponsors that took the time to help us make the journey to Atlanta.

Megan Racing
Nexen Tires
Turbos by Garrett
Paul and Doug at Hasselgren

Long Beach Round 1

This year we embark on a new journey with Taka Aono, our only driver this year for Team Megan. 

The car is finally finished and I see a lot of potential with the car.  Taka did very well qualifying 16th place on Friday and showing what the car has got going up against Matt Powers in the top 32 elimination round. 

Unfortunately, Matt edged out Taka with a split decision and we move forward to competing in Atlanta in a month. 

I have to thank a few people for their help this year as we could not have done it without them.

Megan Racing
Nexen Tires
Turbos by Garrett
Hasselgren
Battle Version
BC
RS-R
Technosquare
Hiros Auto
HPS
Motec
JSP fabrication
OS Giken
Seibon Carbon
Weir Performance
V-leds
Watanabe wheels
J-blood body kits
K1 speed
9k Racing

Yoshie Shuyama
Danny Anguiano
Alex Villareal

Is this what we can expect from Daigo Saito?

I really hope so...



As most of you know, Daigo Saito will be competing in Formula D this year.  From what I can see, he seems to be a very analytical driver and I hope he will bring some excitement to qualifying this year....

Red Bull RB8 vs McLaren MP4-27 - F1technical.net

The odd vs. the elegant. A very interesting comparison between the two cars.

Red Bull RB8 vs McLaren MP4-27 - F1technical.net

2+101 equals?

I like seeing our 101 cars together. 

2012....

It's been a while...  A long while since I have posted anything on here.  I hoping to change that since I plan to upgrade my methods of communication.

I finally got a new "smart" phone which will allow me to do more updates and I also plan to upgrade my computer as well.

Since I have 2 jobs in Drifting, I will be updating everyone on both ends of the spectrum.  For now, expect more new updates as we start the Formula Drift season!

I'm sure everyone has been reading about Irwindale Speedway closing down.  Well, this place has more meaning to me that is does for most people.  Why?  Because we go as far back as 2001 when I  proposed the idea of doing a drift event on their parking lot.  Many people don't know this but it nearly took us 4-5 months after our first meeting to host our first event.  One reason was because there wasn't a clear definition on how to insure a drifting event.  They actually had to categorize the event as a gymkhana event (strange that they had a category for gymkhana).

The image above best represents what Irwindale meant to me back then.  It was a time when everyone that worked their enjoyed their job and the had fun.  We stayed late at night prior to each event setting up the course and the staff never billed us for "overtime" or complained about the noise.  Doug Stokes posted up "club4ag" one night we were there setting up.  He was one of the few guys that really believed what we were doing back then.  It was a fun time that will never be replicated.