Tuner Bash 2004

[AWJ]

It all started with the drive down. Lots of looks from traffic as soon as we hit the streets. I had the halo's on it. Even the locals haven't seen the car with the halo's on much. They look great on there. On out through Kentucky at a leisure pace. Passed a line of 5 cars on certain country like road on my way to I64/75 Lexington. Passed is an understatement. Grabbed 3rd at around 50 mph and completely destroyed a whole line of lolly gaggers. "That was fun." Christy said.

Went on to Tenessee. Enjoyed the winding roads of I75 at a minimal boost level real nice and easy 8 or so psi. Into North Carolina it is now dark. First challenge. I had several cars eyeball the ride as we cruised. But this one Subaru Impreza kept lurking on me. Finally he grabs a gear and jumps it. We line up and I go wide open in 5th and walk him. I figure he had enough but evidently not. I slowed back down to the speed limit and he catches back up. Jumps it again. Christy says, "I think he wants to race." I'm thinking, maybe this guy is not too smart. So I let him line up with me again. We are rolling at about 80mph. I grab fourth and go wide open throttle. It was an instantaneous massacre. 12 cars easy. I never saw him again. Waste of gas.

South Carolina - darker. Silver M3 looked to be the generation just before the most recent design. I saw his angel eyes from way back. Cruising around 75 mph. He came up fast. Passed me at what I would estimate 90 mph. I grab 4th at his rear bumper. Walked him like it didn't matter. To be fair. He did not get on the throttle any more or less. Just kept cruising. This guy wanted no action. So we cruise together for a while. I hit the rest stop. 10 minutes later. He is at the other rest stop north bound looking at us. Never did figure that one out.

Back on the road - uneventful. Ride into Daytona with no more action. Time to sleep. Check into the hotel (don't ask) and kill two days. Over those two days, met a few challengers. The best one was a 1995 Impala. Sounded real mean. Some blonde in the back seat giving me the eye through a halfway lowered limo tinted rear window. This guy was dropping into nuetral and letting me hear his V8 fury. This is on the strip now. Not a good place to be goofin'. But, I give. He hits it hard with open road ahead side by side at about 20mph. I let him have a jump and go wide in second. Reeled him in and past him all in second gear. He didn't rev on me again. Nice spinners though.

The next day was full of honda's turbo and not. A couple dizm's. Took them all on the strip. To be fair; I did see cars out there perfectly capable of beating me. Vipers, ferraris, duece coupes rodded out. These guys don't play though. I didn't even see them cruise the strip very often. I'll have to say, grabbing gears on the strip is not something I will do again. The opportunity for trouble is just too great.

Now for Tuner Bash. We got up at 6 in the morning on Friday. I took the car over and washed her down at a bay. I saw a beautiful BMW 3 series - pearl white, black HRE's, lowered, dinan exhaust - then a black one with very similar style. Trucks on spinners, bags, hondas, dzm's of all generations, vdubs, your standard car show circuit. You've seen the pics before. I know I'm not going to get any points in comparison. But I came for the show. So I'm gonna show.

We get on a list at 9am. We had a spot by 11 am. I met some real cool cats with a shop out of Jersey that I can not remember the name of for the life of me right now. Rev hard turbo GS3, wicked nasty wrx, sick turbo civic and prelude. These guys were running some bar and throwing some fuel. They had the dvd monitors, wheels, and all the stops. Nice work. They got to plug a spot for Speedvison - Pauly was one of the guys names - him and his brother are "CAR CRAZY" LOL. Nice show guys.

I'll post the pics up in the gallery when I get some time. I met some other lexus and supra cats too. Saw lots of hot cars. An M3 convertible - latest generation with 6 sneaky pete's plumbed in the back seat. These guys were the show winners as you might guess. Top dollar paint jobs, CF body panels, Color match wicked fit HRE's, killer sound systems, you name it - they got it. Again, I'll post pictures. I caught a killer snap of one of the m3's purging the nitrous out of his wiper nozzles. I can't even begin to cover all the cars that were there that deserve props. But I won't neglect the Black Skyline from Bristol. This was Leibermans(SP). A shop out of Bristol bought it and changed it around a little. HRE's again. Direct port huge shot. DVD's, chrome pipes, manifolds, hks twins, INSANE. Again, see the pics. I'll try to get them up and have them linked tomorrow evening.

I know I'm forgetting stuff - oh yea - SRT 4 neon (yea) 380 horsepower on the dyno. That's at the wheels folks. I hate to say it. I'd be the loser on that one I think. Didn't get the opportunity though. I thought about throwing her up on the rollers - but I made a couple excuses. Too worried about some problem ocurring to my baby. In order to beat 380, I would have had to turn it all the way up. I had no high octane - to much crowd to drive through to get on the rollers, and my baby was throwing oil to begin with if you guys have kept up on it at all. Anyways, the winner - I think - was SLOSUPRA from supraforums. Props bro. 780 and some horsepower on broken wastegate spring if I recall correctly. Good show. I hear he can put down 1,000 in top order. I would have liked to see the car in action. I met several cool cats from Florida. Thanks for stopping by and chatting fellas. Jeff - SC300TURBO - great to meet ya in person. Thanks for the advice. Best of luck to you in all your endeavors.

That night we got to see the last show Digital Underground will do courtesy of GM. The Humpty Hump. :D What can I say.

Saturday was more of the same. I didn't show though. Just chilled. Cruised a little checked the show out again. Different cars. I tested my reaction time on a professional tree at the GM tent. I'll link up the times when they post them off there site. The winner gets an XM boom box. My best reaction was .030. Perfect is .000. I didn't see anyone do better. But I checked last years and there were at least 50 spots better than that. My hopes for the XM stereo are gone. Oh well. It is far from the real thing too. By I'm proud of my .030. So I'm stickin' to it.

I got to see BMSports (Matt) project SC in the works. I have to give props on that. We were supposed to hang out a little more but we got seperated in traffic and never had a chance to meet up again. Maybe next time. Good luck with car my man.

The drive home was very exciting. All I can say is BMW drivers like to race. I got to "edumacate" a few of them. There was one tough call. Not sure if I would win or not. Z3 ///M. I need to run another. I'm confident I would win, but I backed out of it due to safety issues. I missed a shift later in South Carolina running a ford lightning. He got me on that. I pulled off to make sure I did not do damage as I had turned the boost up to 15 pounds after Friday. I found that the oil leak on the distributer had become an oil geiser. Not good. Turned the boost down - put a quart of oil in it and went home behaving myself the rest of the way.

Good trip. Not the best I ever had, but I got to test the limits a little, meet some cool people, see some great cars, and catch a tan. Thanks LOC.

[AWJ]

Here is the link to the reaction time results. Turns out the time generated is an average of the two best. That put at .069 - not bad but not great either. So I win nothing. <_< They got the abbreviation for my state wrong. My girl cut a .149 - not too bad I guess considering she cut a 3.2 her first time out at the 1/8th locally. Congrats to the winner. I was browsing their pics - and didn't see any shots of my ride yet. But they have the cars I mentioned. Check it out:

http://www.gmtunertour.com/reaction_times.asp?event=daytona&section=680C6D44C3B44F39AEFBF0D1BEF14237

I wrote that post above late last night. Looks like I need to spell check. Sorry for the rant. Had a lot to say. I'll get some pics up later.

I have to give credit to GM for putting on a decent show. Best one I've ever been too so far. That and they help me pay my bills. So - I'll pass it on. Enjoy.

[VBdenny]

AWJ,

I just wanted you to know that I really enjoyed your story. I was laughing my !Removed! off at a couple of points. The part about the Impala SS was quite interesting, and I though those things were suppose to be wicked? Cool idea putting road trip stories on here. I did a couple little ones, but nothing lately. Since i"m driving up to Jersey this weekend, maybe I'll take notes.

Denny

[AWJ]

Thanks man. Feel free to share your stories as well. That impala had a car load of people in it. I still fear no Impala though (watch that one come back to haunt me). I was spiking to 1.2 kg/cm^2 at that point though wot. That's approximately 14 pounds. That is an easy 345+ or so ponies to the tarmac according to the old high boost dyno chart I have for the car when I bought it. Not many cars make that at the wheels. But there are some that do a lot more than that. I don't know why that link won't show. I'll have to check it tomorrow. Still didn't get to put the pics up yet. I will try again tomorrow night.

[VBdenny]

The Impala probably had a little more horsepower, but the car weighs in at around 8700lbs. if I'm not mistaken. They use the LT-1 Corvette engine.

take car man

time for the land of the zzzzzzzzzz's

[VBdenny]

I meant 3,700lbs on the SS.

[AWJ]

What was that LT1 rated at? 350 maybe if not less. Keep in mind, oem hp ratings are at the crank. Not the wheels. Even then, most oem's exaggerate their hp ratings grossly. Of course his 20" inch spinners and car load of people didn't help him get any faster.

I should go to bed too. Maybe. Got too much on my mind right now.

[VBdenny]

They made a few different versions, but I believe the rated HP is 350. They also have a 375HP version I think. I'll check with my brother, he has the casting book for GM engines and he is a Chevy guy. While the Impala SS (90's only) look awesome, I have never seen anyone really rolling them down the Interstate. Usually, it is some mother with a car full of kids, or someone who doesn't look like a "driver" at the wheel.

I'd love to have one as I know it would be an excellent high-speed Interstate car. I have a 92 Caprice and it is just perfect for cruising in the 75-100 range, but that is all it really has and that is as fast as feel feel comfortable in that car. Now in the LS 400, that is another story. Truely in a upper league.

[Matthew_McNally]

great write up AJ - sounds like a real good time bud

[AWJ]

Picutres are now in the gallery located here .

Thanks Matt.

Enjoy.

[Matthew_McNally]

wow.

gotta give AJ some respect - excellent write up and 187 pictures.

good work fella!

[AWJ]

Wish I could have snapped some pics of the races. Next time. Maybe some video footage. ;)

[VBdenny]

AW

Fantastic slide show. Lot's of very cool pictures. Thanks for sharing it.