Kimochi Cruiser Journal

[atlnb]

what everyone else is saying... exquisite work and UPDATES!!

[— artcentermiata —]

Long Overdue

Its been quite a while since Ive checked in with my fellow MR members. I haven't exactly been busy- Truthfully Ive been getting a little bored with this build; so Ive been trying different approaches to modifying the cars aesthetic and driving characteristics.

Every once and a while, the style you've built becomes boring- so its best to make some minor changes to experiment while allowing yourself to easily go back to its previous iteration without a lot of investment.

This was her final look as a classically themed coupe.



-Click to see a small fun clip


Before we move on, Lets take a look at some more behind the scenes of Magnus Walker's bunker.

The Amazing Walker

In the early morning, I met up with the Speedhunters crew at a very unique looking warehouse.



As the gate slowly opened, i gazed upon one of the most beautiful gatherings of overpowered Beetles in SoCal







In the depths of the steel hid some awesome FR porsches as well



The warehouse expanded upstairs into his studio- which had been uniquely furnished. Each corner of this large area had a different theme; Magnus informed us that he rents out the upper area to film makers needing set space.



As i was leaving, i spotted this little corner with a hurt little 911 under a cover, surrounded by potential.



Overall it was an amazing experience getting to browse around his layout. Magnus was genuinely nice and down to earth! We had some great conversations and all got along really well; truly a gathering of like minded enthusiasts.

This Happened

Just after the shoot with Speedhunters, I decided to take another stroll up Highway 2- Seems i overstayed my welcome.

On my way back down, a motorcyclist met me mid-corner on a decreasing radius sweeper. The motorcyclist was slowly inching over the yellow line- in response to my desire not to flatten him, i lifted and tried to move over- unfortunately that caused my car to lift the rear tires weight enough to spin me backwards into a hillside.

Lesson learned





The damage isn't too bad, just skin deep- it will be fixed once i find a nice donor bumper.

RWB Unveil

After all that Magnus hubbub, I found myself in another great opportunity to meet a Porsche builder i admire- The great Nakai-San!

The unveiling of an American RWB car was a veritable amazing car get together.

This Liberty Walk 458 sounded like a flak grenade going off... A little too flashy for me, but i respect the outright rediculopathy!



Since the Skyline is now legal for import, im glad i got to witness such a clean example



This WIP Porsche had everything i loved in RWB builds- Exaggerated, Simple, Class

I prefer this style over his track builds- don't get me wrong, i love the track style- but this looks so beautiful.



A BRZ equipped with the standard Rocket Bunny attire



Inside, Nakai labored away at finishing the newest American RWB! It was fun to watch him screw in one bolt, smoke a cigarette, and stare at that single bolt for perfections sake.



Of course i had to flex what little Japanese i knew, and ask him for a buddy shot!



Afterwards, a few of us headed to the Mighty Car Mods meet to check out the staggering number of cars. I'm not a big "Car Meet" person, so i didn't take many pics- though, this caught my eye.



I absolutely love the Shako style!

Home-made Touches

KINODs 8th year anniversary was around the corner, so i wanted to change up the car a bit' before people were going to gawk at it.

The first of which included these little Zoom Zoom door pulls i crafted from last years MRLS lanyard! More on these later, as i show you my stripped down NB doors.



Second on the list was this Delrin control set. I lathed up a shifter and an E-brake handle- I love this material, it is just fun to work with, and i have always enjoyed the slightly oily feel to it.

This went on top of the new 6-speed transmission i transplanted into the build- I always wanted one- Especially with the 4.3 diff, this car now feels amazing, shift points like a time trials beast!





-Click to see a small clip of the acceleration of the 6sp/4.3 combo


In an effort to be a little less serious this year, i jokingly made these Itasha (Japanese theme of decorating vehicles with your favorite anime) windshield banners.

The Brokesoul is a play on my favorite Touhou character, Hatate Himekaidou. In the fan archetype of this character, Hatate is a lonely and overly-attached stalker to another character in the series; This goes hand in hand with my license plate.

The other is Gamagori themed, a character from Kill la Kill. This banner went to Max's (Heldenzeit) car.

KINOD 8

The night of KINOD 8, a gathering of friends- joining together for 8 years! I still remember my first time attending a few years ago when i moved to California. A lot of the friends Ive made here in Ca have been through KINOD.



MX5unleashed was there to snap this great engine shot!



He also took this impromptu interview with me; a brief overview of my build.
-Excuse some of the misinformation, i was slightly tipsy from eating and drinking before hand. I know i certainly said some wrong numbers or parts in there at some point.



Another fun time to add to this cars history of happenings.

Continued next post-

[— artcentermiata —]

Feel the Energy

Fellow member Heldenzeit being the nice friend that he is, allowed me to donate my car for fitment tests of Energy Suspensions master set. This includes the complete comprehensive polyurethane bushing assemblies needed to make the Miata a smooth and responsive attacker.

On the rack!



Tearing her insides apart



That pretty red slippery filling!



After i got the car back, i got a proper alignment and took it for a few spirited drives as well as a couple daily trips through the streets to see how the non-tensioned and free-rotating components responded.

Overall the car feels like a completely different beast. I'm incredibly surprised at how the chassis now handles abrupt interruptions in the road surface.

Its hard to describe, but the car is now stiffer- but in the same sense, has become a lot more smooth.

The stiffness is in the sense of the car now correcting itself to hitting surface changes much more rapidly- I find myself now more capable of quick directional changes without worrying about the slow swaying and body rollover i used to encounter.

The polyurethane does an amazing job of hiding harsh gaps and road imperfections. What used to jar my car and shutter the fiberglass top now merely sends a smooth bump through the travel and allows me to go on without even a fluster.

I'm really impressed, and would recommend the Energy Suspension system to anyone who wants a much safer reacting car! the install looks a little labor intensive, but the reward is grand.

Cars and Coffee

Ive had a little bit of a break on Saturdays lately, and Ive been able to make it to Cars and Coffee Irvine- the most amazing gathering of rare and exotic vehicles.

Each week turns out a great show, i see something amazing each time.









This is but a 100th of what is to be seen- if you live nearby and have never attended one- go now!

Megasquirt Woes- Again...

I never seem to catch a break when it comes to this ECU

Lately Ive noticed a few sputters and running issues with my car when i start abusing the supercharger.

So i hooked up the cable to see what was up- turns out my AIT sensor and O2 were shorting to the wrong circuits... which inevitably, was giving me a false standard reading (I was getting an average of data, not a current and updating stat).

So i had to get in this vulnerable position and rip out the ECU from under the dash



While i tore it apart, i made a habit of checking every circuit throughout the system- fixing a few hiccups along the way.



I'm really glad i took on this task, it really let me understand how the MS works- its actually quite simple once you understand what circuits control what output.

APR Refurb

I wanted to try something a little more racey than my Zoom Engineering mirrors, so i picked up some beaten APR carbon mirrors

To make them match the build, I polished up the stalks and mounts. To remedy the worn clear on the carbon, i Color matched them.



Not bad for an exchange of old NA mirrors i had sitting in a closet.

Let me see you stripped

Ive been wanting to try this for a while, so Ive finally put the plan into action.

I tore the NB door panels off and removed all of the horrible tar underneath... It took hours, but turned out quite nice. I applied an NA door top to soften the edges.

I tucked the harnesses and removed all the clips and gadgets that set on the outside of the door.

To cover the access holes, I had RyokuRob cut me some aluminum panels. The shapes still need a little work- I'm trying to get them to tuck and match the panel shape closely. It still needs some tweaking.



You can also see the door pulls attached here!



A full interior shot- You can see the car is going a little more towards "Just pay attention to me" sacrificing the normal amenities for a raw and simple stripped look.

This is all just an experiment, I'm not sure if this is permanent yet, but im having fun playing around.

Continued next post-

[— artcentermiata —]

Just Print It

As i advance through my schooling, The need to have access to quick prototyping and mockup model making is getting more and more prevalent.

So I found the time was right to invest in the 3D print market.

I picked up myself this Ultimaker 2- A widely well reviewed machine that is quite well off in the spec department. Its open source, upgradable, and capable of tight resolution.



I synced it and set up the bed for some test prints- Click to see it in action.



After I hit some tests- I tried the first quick model print, a TE37 quickly built in SolidWorks. This is on a fairly conservative resolution and lower print spec to save time. Quality can go up quite a bit from here once i tune it more

Looks Slick

To pay off some of the printer cost- I transferred ownership of the Watanabes back to HeldenZeit. As a token with the funds, he gave me these V2 competition PE37 wheels; a 13x8 lightweight wheel equipped with Hankook Ventus slicks in the super soft C91 compound.

They are quite fun to drive with, the grip level is intense! I like the change of silhouette in the car with these tiny donuts.







I also managed to pick up these spares with plenty of life for a cool hundo

Drifting with G's

Project-G has been hosting RC drift events, and i find myself getting hooked- I don't quite have the funds to get into one currently with my other expenditures, but I really want to be part of this. Click the images to view the action

MRLS Next

Coming up soon is the next big MRLS trip! stay tuned for some updates before then- I planned some maintenance and prep for the next take over!

-Click to see a little parting piece

[— Phatmiata —]

Fantastically cool updates in this thread!!!

Wow that Porsche collection is insane!!

And a photo with Nakai-San too !!!

When are you going RWB style on the Miata ?? Get a NoPro kit and go crazy!!

[— artcentermiata —]

Encounter with a Wooly Devil

I went to Miatas at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca

Me and David Woolery's Pitcrew fought it out.

School is taking over, so this is a short update- Im sorry.

















There is some new things on her- But that is for later.

[—atank—]

Looks like you had a blast!

[— Phatmiata —]

those are some great rolling shots !!!

[pacman 99]

Awesome shots. Looking real good now. The smurf blue interior was bothering me.

[etikoner]

Loving the story line! Your car is really a huge inspiration.. Making me wanna get to work and put something near your attention to detail.

[treeafodo]

Nice shots, looks like a fun event!!

[— artcentermiata —]

Dancin' in the Streets

Im making it a goal to attend quite a few track events this year.

It's time i really learned driving technique and the dynamics of my car.

My first venture was RoadsterCup round 1 at Streets of Willow~ we had our own Miata specific run group, but i quickly got bumped up to Super Advanced red class because i was posting some quick times.

I feel it was partly due to my plethora of power, i know i have a lot to learn- but i really felt im was doing something right, and i was improving by dropping almost a second per session! That still didnt stop me from spinning about 4 times- I now understand the importance of learning your car on non-race tires. By the time my RA1s were giving me any audible feedback i had already reached their grip limit and i was backwards.

My final best time was a 1:28:890, quite good and earned me a 4th place in Mod group.

I have a few improvements to make to my car before the next event; mainly trying to keep the rear wheels on the ground- most likely by returning the rear sway bar to stock or removing it all together. During my more heated laps i could feel the rear inner wheel lifting out of corner and losing traction, costing me precious time.

I need a few more monitoring gauges- Its hard to tell how my engine health is because the stock non-responsive temp and oil aren't giving me what i need. I felt my car getting sluggish at points after bashing it, i know i was getting near an overheat point but i couldn't get a reading.

Id like to get an extended gas pedal; Im getting the hang of heel-toe but i have narrow feet- so reaching the brake while flexing the gas is tough for me.

Here's a few pictures, I'll post more soon! I have to get my Go-Pro working!









Thanks for keeping up to date! Im trying to get back into posting frequently once more

[—tsingson—]

Car is looking great, Jeremy! Those action shots are sweet.

[— kung fu jesus —]

Track days, bro.

[etikoner]

How are you liking the new wheel/tire combo as opposed to the Watanabe's ?

Those snaps are real nice.