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TL's avatar

So on the topic of first car stories.......

Back in my teenage years I had strong envy for anybody whose parents bought them a car in general. The thought of getting a new car was an utterly foreign concept. My parents were against the whole concept of me having a car. They had huge fears that their car-nut kid would slack off on school or school activities in order to get a job to support any car I could come up with. So I was forbidden to buy a car. My first vehicle didn't happen until my freshman year of college when they gave me dad's 15 year old 1975 Mazda Rotary Engine pickup. The same one he repeatedly would use to get a load of barkdust or manure in the morning when he knew I had a date that evening. Dad has a sense of humor and knows how to get a kid to wash his truck. Conveniently the truck became mine sometime after he had blown the engine in it. Their thought was that I would sell the dead thing and use the money for school. Instead $550 of leftover financial aid money turned into delivery of a used replacement engine. Engine swap took much longer than the weekend I had envisioned, but it ran eventually and was my car for the next three years.... until I blew the replacement engine. Sold it for $350 to a guy who towed it away with a 1977 Mazda Rotary Engine pickup. He apparently installed engine #3 as I passed it on the freeway a couple years later.

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Wyatt LCB's avatar

I do think a Korean car makes sense if you're gonna buy something new off the lot for a 16 year old. They may blow up more than others, but they have the best warranty in the game and they're still pretty cheap to buy and run. The Commander's Honda is cooler though...

Somehow real life keeps getting in the way of watching Formula Drift live streams this year. Previous rounds have overlapped with my own drift days, working on a newly acquired 1964 Imperial Crown 4dr, or in the case of this weekend, cruising around Detroit with a baker’s dozen old cars with about 2 people in each car. I’ve previously mentioned a friend who has an old house on Grand Blvd and recently bought an old filling station on Mack. This weekend was the second cruise he’s organized through the city in what is becoming an annual event. He led the pack in his ‘26 Dodge Bros, which apparently didn’t like the pressure of leading. It vapor locked, leaked fuel, and backfired its tailpipe off all day long (literally, it blew the tailpipe off on Woodward in Campus Martius). The day before and the day after, it ran just fine. I failed to get my Imperial roadworthy in time, so I once again piloted his 1953 Chrysler New Yorker. The NYer is a patinaed tank of a car with manual brakes, manual steering with a gigantic wheel and aggressive self-centering, a 331 hemi under the hood, and a very strange but effective transmission. It’s basically a 2 speed automatic with “low” and “drive” ranges, effectively making it a “four speed,” but it still has a clutch pedal that must be depressed to change ranges and to select reverse. There is no “park” position so you park it in neutral or in gear with the parking brake, which is a band that grabs a drum on the driveshaft. The gear pattern is as follows: R,L,N,D, with those letters. To back the car out, you first apply the brakes, return the parking brake by pulling the T handle out then twisting it counter-clockwise before pushing it back into the dash, push in the clutch, move the shift lever to L, then pull back towards yourself to unlock the gate into R, and continue moving the lever until you feel the reverse dog engage thru the linkage.Then, with your foot STILL ON THE BRAKE, release the clutch. The engine will bog slightly and the car will work against the brakes as the clutch is engaged, but the fluid coupling will then take over and allow the engine to stay running while the car stays stationary. Then you simply lift off the brakes and ease into the throttle. The fluid coupling starts transmitting torque to the wheels, and you begin to roll (which you will need to do before having any steering capability). Once you’ve maneuvered into a place where you can proceed in a forward direction, you stop with the brakes, clutch in once again, pull the shift lever down to D (waiting for the gearbox to sync up which can be felt thru the lever), once again staying on the brakes while letting the clutch out, before finally setting off in normal automatic fashion. Getting the automatic shift to occur however, is another quirk of this transmission; after accelerating to say, 30-35mph, lift off the throttle and wait… until you feel the trans make its way into the next gear. This usually takes about 2-3 seconds - slow ones. Then you may resume acceleration or speed maintenance. Other cars we had in our varied and eclectic group were 2 Model Ts, an absolute stunner of a ‘56 Bel Aire, a sweet custom Dodge B van, an E30, and even a little blue Trabant 601! We were a hilarious and charming sight to behold and be-heard with our honking horns, squeaking suspensions, and modified exhausts. Everyone loved us! I did not see one frown all day from any of our spectators or from any in our group. I’m bummed I didn’t get to drive my own car despite having one now (the E36 was NOT an option for this event), but the lady and I still had a great time with great friends.

With the actually fun and interesting story out of the way, here is your Formula Drift New Jersey (FDNJ) recap! I actually did watch some of ProSpec this time, because it was on Friday. I was mainly watching to see my boy Cory Talaska finally put it all together and make it into the Great 8! He was knocked out by the eventual winner, Connor O’Sullivan, but only after forcing a one-more-time battle. Cory’s lead runs were excellent, and his entry technique and style was absolutely PEAK! I’m very proud of him and all my close friends who work on his team; they did a kick ass job and showed what they can really do this weekend! Runner-up to O-Sully was Amanda Sorenson, putting her name in the history books as FD’s first female podium finisher. I have to say, her driving has come a LONG way and she really did perform well. Little brother Brandon didn’t do so well in Pro however, getting knocked out in Top 16 by insurance defrauder and game-playing Taylor Hull. I’m getting ahead of myself here (partly rushing because I didn’t expect the O/T to come out in the morning hours today), so let’s start our Pro report with their Seeding 16 results. Our machine gun Cadillac driving Kentucky man Jonathan Hurst took 2nd overall here, after a very intense battle against ProSpec champ Dmitriy Brutskiy. To get there, he first retired RTR rookie Ben Hobson (who has yet to make any impression beyond “wow” this year), Brazil’s favorite C7 driving cowboy Joao Barion, and BMW driving, beard wielding Andy Hatley. Brutskiy’s path to the Seeding final was paved by Derek Madison (bummer cause D Mad’s S14 was the first pro level car I got to ride in 4 years ago), Mike Power (who took out FD pensioner Vaughn Gittin Jr), and then Frederico Sceriffo and his Ferrari 599, “Fiorella.”

As I said earlier, I didn’t watch any of the Pro battles. So here is a summary of where all out regular characters ended up:

Hurst beat Alec Robbins in Top 32 before being eliminated himself in Top 16 by Chris Forsberg. Sceriffo and Fiorella earned a losing battle against Backchis in Top 32, but at least they made the show this time. Backchis ended up clearing a path to the finals through Turek and Gushi. Conor Shanahan once again showed his insane chasing and transition skills, but was knocked out by Aasbo in Top 16. YouTube superstar Adam LZ then dispatched the 3 time champ in the Great 8 on his way to the 3rd spot on the podium, proving you can still have a competitive car with a front radiator. James Deane’s battles really were like leveling up thru a video game. Starting with the easily handled Kyle Mohan, followed by Rome CP, then Forsberg, then Dylan Hughes, before finally taking on Odi Backchis for the win; and win Deane did!

We are now at the halfway point in the season. Anything can still happen, but with a 74 point lead over Odi, James really seems to have a comfy shot to become the first 4 time FD champion. Aasbo is in 3rd trailing by 114 points, and Simon Olsen is till holding fourth despite not turning a wheel all weekend.

I think it would be cool to see James win a 4th title, but only because it’s been 5 years since the big man won his 3rd. I’d be really excited by Olsen coming out and upsetting more of the top dogs, and I just feel bad for Ryan Turek because he’s been doing this shit for just as long as Forsberg and Gittin Jr but has still never taken it all. FDSTL (St Louis) is next on July 20th.

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