McQueen Racing

I left San Diego last week after a quick job down there, which means I also left my convenient go kart fix at K1 Speed Carlsbad.

I’m still holding a 4th fastest time of the month after posting a 26.10 on February 10th. I was up to 15th overall in the top proscore rankings, but since leaving town I’ve been bumped to 21st.

I wish they had a K1 close to Santa Cruz.

Visited Charles and Alesia in Pasadena on Saturday and got to check in on the ‘29 progress.

Looking good!

Charles’ ‘32 frame was just finished, and he’s already collected a lot of the traditional parts he needs to throw it back together; ‘40 ford rear end and brakes, ’40’s ford steel wheels, dropped front axle, ‘56 ford steering box and steering column, ‘40 ford toploader 3 speed, ford y-block v8, blah, blah, blah…

I lent a hand with a little shop reorganization so we could lay out the chassis and parts together. It’s cool to see the basics together in one place, the beginnings of a car taking shape. Plenty of work ahead that’s for sure!

This thing’s bound to turn out sick with the parts choices going into it. Progress approved.

My new 2007 Nissan Frontier (4×2 NISMO, auto, 45k miles), new tires (Yokohama Geolandar A/T’s), and a newly installed “leveling” lift kit.

Trucks are coming from the factory with a slight forward rake in ride height. I still have to find out the reason they do this, but I figure it doesn’t apply to amateur race car drivers. I wanted to level it out, and get a little more clearance for my tires while I’m at it. My friend Pat and I spent a few hours in his driveway yesterday installing a mini lift kit from PRG products, which raises the front by about 2″ and the rear by about 1″.

I like it! We’re thinking 3″ in the front would be closer to level, but it isn’t recommended to go that high with the stock upper control arms, and I think the stock length brake lines may end up uncomfortably close to stretching.

Thanks for the hospitality Pat and Melissa!

http://www.lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/

I want to be there in my ‘56 sometime in the next several years. I’d like to say the next “few” years, but can’t justify it without being fully committed to getting my car on the road already. It takes a lot of car preparation, logistics work, and scrilla to get ready for that race.

Much respect.

I have to recommend this racing game I downloaded for my iPhone a few days ago, “Real Racing” by Firemint. It’s not the first result that shows up when you search the app store for a racing game, but it’s the one you want to get. I’m playing this way too much, and I’m loving the new muscle car I just unlocked…

Add real tracks Firemint and I’ll pay extra. I want to be able to chalk this time spent up to practice.

265 v8 and a 3 speed pulled out of a stock 56 Chev, just what I was looking for! Cheap too, they were only asking $325 for the whole deal.

I picked it up in Paso Robles on Friday, and am proud to show it all fit very nicely in the villager. Minivans are the shite!

Just hit up a garage sale in SC and picked up this book and a sick brand new full set of Bullet skate wheels for two bucks! Then I sold the skate wheels to a buddies nephew for two dollars, sweet deal all around.

…and we also brought home the “Organizers Choice” award, mostly due to the 16′ doughboy pool set up in our BlancoBasura.com pits, complete with running pumps and filters!

Major props to Ryan for setting up every detail of the weekend. Solid car prep is the reason we were on the top rows of the results page the whole time, and it made for an awesome race. And pool + hot track days = genius.

Now that I’ve done four or five of these races and several track days I’m starting to appreciate LeMons specifically because it’s an endurance event. It’s fun to drive a track flat out for a whole tank of gas, and there aren’t many venues for that, even if you were to have a real racing license. Also nothing as cheap. I’m stoked to see it’s done so well.

‘05 Honda CRF 450x. Now I just need to learn how to ride it.