A Fine Fairlane From Ford

I love old cars that get driven around on a regular basis.  Probably because my old car hardly ever sees the light of day.  This 62 Fairlane gets a good share of use while the owner Luke works on his other projects.  It tells you a little something about Luke that this is his most dependable car.  Click on the read more link to get on with the story.

Get Involved - PDX / HPDE / Track Days

This entry details the easiest way to get time on a proper race track: Professional Driving Experiences, High Performance Driving Events, and Track Days - all different names for similar activities.

Get Involved is a series of posts detailing a forms of grassroots motorsports on a weekly basis.  I write these posts with one goal:  To get you to bring your car to an entry level motorsport event.  I want you to stop buying parts, stop planning for 'some day,' stop building the perfect car, and register for an event.  It is ridiculously easy to have fun with your car right now, as you're currently driving it.  You don't need a racing license.  You don't need a roll cage, a fire suit, or expensive modifications.  You do need $100, a valid state issued drivers license, and a car in safe driving condition.  I doesn't matter if its a stock Camry, a tuned Civic, or a $75k Corvette, there's a place for you.  There are a number of ways to get started - whether you want to drive on asphalt, dirt, or a race track.

You can see the full list of event types here: Get Involved.  This page will be updated as each installment is posted.

Southrnfresh 3!!!

Finally after a year hiatus SouthrnFresh put on their annual show with Southrn Fresh 3 at Jim R Miller park and it was awesome. Also after a lengthy hiatus, Cory's S2000 was finally painted, slammed, tuned, and sorta legal, so it was the perfect combo to take out in the sun and see some cool rides in. I took a ton of pics at the show so click read more to check them out.

FY Friday: A scary thought.

I dont think Ive ever posted a "tumblr" looking quote photo on here before, but I wanted to share this because it really hit home. I think its totally true, thats when a car is truly fast, when your scared to even drive it, when you know it has the potential to really fuck your day up, when you fire it up and you know its only going to bring you trouble. I know I feel this way about the my LS240, I get the nervous shakes just firing it up, its a monster, I know Phil feels this way about his 5.3 liter 68 Mustang, he almost never even drives the thing and its an awesome car, because lets face it anything 50 years old with 400hp is pretty terrifying. I think its pretty fitting to have the Group B Audi on the Nordschleife, I cant even imagine driving something that insane on the 'ring., that would truly be a fuck yes moment. As an added bonus Ive added a 9min youtube compilation of this rare Audi after the jump wink wink. So hit more and check it out!

Get Involved - Autocross

Get Involved is going to be a series of posts detailing forms of grassroots motorsports on a weekly basis.  I write these posts with one goal:  To get you to bring your car to an entry level motorsport event.  I want you to stop buying parts, stop planning for 'some day,' stop building the perfect car, and register for an event.  It is ridiculously easy to have fun with your car right now, as you're currently driving it.  You don't need a racing license.  You don't need a roll cage, a fire suit, or expensive modifications.  You do need $40, a valid state issued drivers license, and a car in safe driving condition.  It doesn't matter if its a stock Camry, a tuned Civic, or a $75k Corvette, there's a place for you.

There are a number of ways to get started - whether you want to drive on asphalt, dirt, or a race track.  We're kicking the series off with the easiest sport to get into: Autocross.

You can see the full list of event types here: Get Involved.  This page will be updated as each installment is posted.  Read on to find out how you can get some quality seat time in your very own car.

Global Rallycross @ Atlanta Motor Speedway!

The GRC circus finally came to A-town and we got some cheap tickets to go and see how much fun we could have.  GRC had already been to Brazil, Barcelona, Munich X games, New Hampshire, Bristol Motor speedway and the LA X games.  Barcelona had been rained out but I had watched most of the racing from the other events.  Of course I am rooting for the Subaru Puma team who have not had a good start to the season. Their cars still look like mine even if under the skin they have been radically modified.  Their Youtube series called launch control is also highly recommended.  So how did they do?  How about Tanner Foust and Ken Block? Read on for the Saucy details

racefriv Project Car Updates! and a little of whats to come.

I've been a little quiet here lately on the blog but no worries, here at racefriv that just usually means we have been working on our projects and getting things done in general. I have made a few updates to some of our project cars so I went out and took some quick snaps before the rain set in. Click read more to see what we have been up to and a little sneak peak of the future.

Also I know I'm a day late but happy 86 day anyways!

Project: Red Rocket - Judgement Day

The GSX spent a long 2 weeks at the mechanic.  It turns out the oil leak was due to the cam shaft seals that I never installed...woops.  The oil drip was from a hole in the turbo oil drain line.  Both of these were fixed in pretty short order, leaving a week to troubleshoot the reason behind not being able to get into 2nd gear.

Notice how its not in my garage!

Read on to follow the final week of the Eclipse build.

Now for Something Different - Rallycross!

Every now and then we mention our tame racing driver Christian, sometimes we even let him post an article on here.  Christian is an avid autocrosser as well as SCCA member, corner worker and occasional instructor.  We've been bugging him for years about how there is no rallycross program in Georgia, and each time he assures us that Atlanta and middle Georgia SCCA are trying their best to make it happen.  This past weekend, for the first time we got to play in the dirt, it was awesome, we want more, and If we don't get any more we're going to start killing the hostages.

Hit the jump to find out just how awesome it was.

Project: Red Rocket - Total Eclipse of the Heart

With race day two weeks away, the GSX is fully assembled, but won't start.  My original goal was to have the car running two weeks before the race so that I could troubleshoot any issues that arose from daily driving.  Well, it looks like the troubleshooting is going to begin before she gets driven anywhere.

An engine needs 3 things to run: air, fuel, and spark.  I'm obviously missing at least 1 of them.  Follow me after the jump as I sort through each one to get this car going.

Project: Red Rocket - Reassembly and 1st Crank

Well, its been a while since the last Red Rocket update.  That's because most of the action has been taking place in the mail, so I haven't had much to talk about.  The biggest delay involved the cylinder head.  The head I had turned out to be bowed, twisted, and decked beyond spec.  This thing had a rough life.

Illustrating the many ways in which the head was unusable.

While I was waiting for a new head to come in, I took the time to clean a few parts and give the interior some TLC.

The Shocking Truth about Supercars

Christain here.  I'm going to start this post with a list of cars I drove this weekend:  F430 Coupe, F430 Spider, and F430 Scuderia, Gallardo LP550-2, and a Gallardo LP560-4.  It was a good weekend.

The backstory is after the jump, along with a regular guy review of the F430 and Gallardo.

FY Friday: Easier Said Than Done.

I heard about this rally documentary a good while ago and I think I even donated a little money to its kick starter back in the day and the trailer is finally out. Basically its a documentary about rallying filmed by a Rally Driver Matthew Johnson. Im not sure if I didnt know the directors name at the time or if it just now hit me, but Ive meet Matt before and Ive actually rode shotgun in a rally stage with him before. Looks to me from the trailer that his filming skills are on par with his driving skills and Im damn excited to see this come out. So a Big fuck yes to this video and super stoked for the full feature. Also If you don't believe me on the whole riding with Matt thing hit the jump and watch me from about 10 years ago drool all over the inside of his WRX on a little rally stage.  I heart rally!

Internet Love: Corey Denomy In Palm Beach

Ive probably seen a billion FD videos over the years now, and usually its the same old same old. This one however really sucks me in. Maybe its the slow mo, maybe its the Blade Runner style sound track or maybe its just the attention to the little details in Formula Drift. Either way give it a watch and prepare to be sucked in to the slo-mo smokey glory that is FD. .



Formula Drift Rd.3 Palm Beach from Corey Denomy on Vimeo.

Racefriv Goes South Pt. 1: The Cars of Ecuador

Hey guys, Parker here.  Recently I had a chance to go on vacation to Ecuador, and having never been to South America before I jumped at the chance.  While I was there I took the chance to check out the driving machines that you might see every day in Ecuador.

Not everybody rides Llamas.  You can't see the Lambo this LLama is

checking out just to the right in this picture.

Technical Corner - Octane - Busting Some Automotive Myths

Hi Phil here again, I promise to keep this short. I'm sure you've seen the meme below or something like it:

Sometimes I feel like that about fuel octane when I read online forums, or bathroom walls or whatever.  So I decided to get to the guts of it for you so you can join the apparently small and exclusive club of people who know something about fuel octane. Go ahead and do it...click read more and find out for yourself what octane ratings are all about, also funny British people are at the end. 

Youtube Show Episode 1: WRX before and after a tune 0-60 runs

Ish and I have been talking about making a nice YouTube show for a while.  It's tough to do it right because you need music that you have a license to use, you need time to plan it out and shoot and you need to edit all of it.  Getting quality audio is tough too.  We hope to drop a new one about once a month, with future shows on subjects like budget mods for your DD and how to get into grassroots action like rallycross and drifting.  Despite the challenges we got ourselves started, if you enjoy the video please subscribe, and share!

The 1st generation: Tinymobile Revealed

Hey guys, Parker here.  I've been away from the site for a while... doing lots of work, traveling, and trying to get my career back in order, but behind the scenes there has been some real progress on Project Tinymobile. Ive taken it from a blupurle beater to something that I could actually pick up a date with (maybe). I got the car in good running order and applied some finishing touches as well so read ahead for all the goodies!

Project: Red Rocket - Down to the Block

The real work started this week on the Red Rocket.  Well, it started again.  I thought the real work was removing the head, but then I found piston damage.  Now the real work is replacing the pistons while leaving the block in frame.  I don't have an engine holder or hoist, so I didn't want to go down the Mitsubishi recommended path of block removal in order to replace the pistons.  I'll just drop the oil pan and push the pistons out from below.

Exposing the cylinders to daylight for what I hope will be the last time.

Project Scrap Metal: Bad Luck and Lessons Learned.

Next up on project scrap metal is a bunch of mods to make it more dependable. At the most recent DSD event I got about three runs in before the car started acting goofy. The scenario was somebody broke down at cordele, a spring fell out of their car (how that happens I have no idea, stupid kids cutting springs), and I let the car idle for a really long time, then shut if off and waited. When I turned the car on I immediately knew something was up, when I went for the run the car started acting crazy and shut off before I could even get moving. Tried to start the car again and nothing...dead as a door knob. We tried all sorts of things but the car was done for. Sad times. The good news is the problem was just something stupid and easily fixed. Click read more to find out what is was and all the other totally awesome fixes I've applied since then.