When life throws you lemons...Race Them!

The LeMons is a race which you take beat up, good for nothing old cars and race them in a 24hr race. My team and I are planning on attending the October 24-25, 2009 MSR Houston road course race. Our car of choice is a stripped out Nissan S13 coupe with a stock KA24. More updates to come as the race gets closer!

The solution to our problems

A few weeks ago in early Feb 2009 some friends, my boyfriend (Ian) and I got together to look for some shop/storage space. Things were getting critical around here; Ian has a G20, Miata, 240Z, 280Z and a Tacoma truck, I have 2 S13s and we both have part in another S13 coupe rolling chassis - all of them (except the Zs), plus the F250 towing truck, stay at our house. Our driveway is steep and we have to park cars everywhere. Our friend's HOA limits households to 2 visible cars and I think they have over 4 visible cars at any given time. We all needed something to be done and we started a search for a storage facility/shop.

Lots of searching on craigslist and driving around Austin with no avail. Either places were too expensive or too small. One day I found a post on craigslist about a 2000sqft warehouse in Pflugerville. A few days later we met up with the landlord and took a look at the place. Long story short - we signed the lease for the facility Friday Feb 20th 2009. I am very excited to see where this goes...and it will be wonderful to get all these cars out of our hair and have a flat place to work! Move in date is March 1st!

OMG, more cars?!

Ian thought having a drift Miata wasn't enough headache so he decided to pick up an old Z project. He is planning on building it for the street and keep it clean, not for racing. As some of you know, old Zs are quite rusty. Ian managed to find a 240Z up north of Dallas for under 1K with minimal rust (c'mon, its a Z, they just do not exhist without rust). It has an engine that supposedly should run, but it hasn't been started in years and the cam has rust. I have my doubts.



BUT the car was bought for the shell only, everything else is extra in his mind. Ian plans on doing all custom suspension and body work. He also chose to put a RB25det in it (a fine choice I might say, I love mine). Picked up this engine and the 240Z before the Mineral Wells drift event Feb 21st 2009.



And if one Z wasn't enough, Ian finds a 280Z shell available for free (about to be cut to pieces if nobody came and picked it up) in Waco. Off to the rescue we go. We picked it up today, Feb 28, 2009.

Vinyl!!

Picked up a vinyl cutter from a friend of ours a few weeks ago and are now cutting vinyl. So far we have a few designs and are constantly working on more. Keep checking in for updates on new designs. Text, designs, you name it we can do it.



One of my own designs


Yes, a chrome Aaron head ftw! It will take over Mineral Wells


Our moving billboard


And there was this cute cat that decided to hang out with us while we were applying the vinyl on the truck that night. We named him Awesomesauce!

New shell

On February 7th 2009 my boyfriend and I drove down to Houston to pick up my newly bought caged 240sx shell among other things. It cost less than the price of an uninstalled cage and came with cage, 30/50mm overfenders, bushinged steering rack, and a straight body. Was planning on installing a cage in my black 240sx, but with this I will prep this shell and then swap everything from my black car into this shell.

Blown Turbo 1/25/09

1/25/09 - went to the first drift event of the new year, backed the car off the trailer and setup the kit, went out to drive it later and it had no boost. Worked on the car for a bit and opened up the intercooler piping to find an oil slick. Looked like the HKS 2835 pro s turbo had blown its oil seals and welded together. Aww damn, that put a kink in my plans for 2009....

Body lines

After the swap I needed a body kit. Picked up some used/damaged parts and went to work. One overfender needed glass work since it was cracked in half and the front bumper needed a hole fixed.







Bought 5Zigen FN01RCs 17X10 +12 offset for the rear so needed overfenders. Yay for cutting apart the car! Also mounted the kit for the drift event, but was pressed for time so didn't get to polish it.

Engine upgrade

About the 8th or 9th drift event the KA24 engine in the 240sx kept running on 3 cylinders because of an injector o-ring problem. A friend of ours was selling his modified RB25 setup, we discussed it over dinner and decided to wing it and get the engine. Picked it up around August 2008. HKS Turbo, Greddy intake mani, 740cc injectors ~ 400whp.



Pulled the KA in about 1.5hrs

The car that started it all

It was either the day of or the day after Thanksgiving 2007 that my boyfriend and I bought a '91 240sx w/ stock KA24 and KYB AGX suspension to start drifting in. It was hicas and ABS equipped, which is all gone now thankfully.



When the Fall semester ended that year in December we retired to the family shop in Waller, Texas to go over the car after its first drift event Dec 9th 2007. Changed clutch, cleaned up engine bay, Koyo radiator, long wheel studs, braided brake lines, welded diff, cf/lexan hatch, racing seat, etc.







Drifted it at a few events in Mineral Wells, Texas before doing some more changes. Traded a friend my KYB suspension for his Koni-psudo coilovers.