Going fast on a budget

Problem solving 101: many times some of the best ideas and solutions come from wanting something but not wanting to spend the amount of money others have, or not having the money all together.

My hero in the "car world" is a man by the name of Matt, his online user name is denmah. While it is apartent Matt has more than enough money to own what he wants, he spends most of his time building cheap, ugly, and yet incredibly fast cars. He currently owns a gorgeous 2009 Pontiac G8 with alot of performance work done to it. Looks like this:

This car comes packed with a LSX platform based LS2 motor that comes stock with 400hp, and pushes the family sedan rather fast. But this was never enough for matt, thanks to some performance mods he has made the car even faster.

But Matt does not barely even drive this car, rather he prefers his series of incredibly ratty older cars that either by nitrous or turbo he has made into something incredibly fast, and most times unsafe.

He has had many cars like the ford fiesta, crown victorias, and now his current passion is for a 1982 Ford Fairmont. While it may look like your typical grandmas ride, it is built on the same chassis as that year Mustang.

He uses a GM motor the LSX platform based out of one of the GM pickup trucks. These motors have proven extremely strong and react very well to perfomance parts, even in stock form.

Matts goal was to build a cheaply made setup that would perform like a high dollar animal. His original build was roughly costing him $3000 including the purchase of the car. Thanks to his custom work, used parts, and knowledge he was able to make a car that would run 9.95 1/4 mile times. Thats 2 full seconds faster than the $85,000 C6 z06 Chevy Corvette. The car has proved rather reliable and he has been a test dummy for trying to push this motor series and different combinations to create a cheap budget minded race car that has the street manors of a stock daily driven car.


Here are some pictures and videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvt20-HLZrw&feature=plcp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4w0IDUEiG4&feature=plcp

Metal Art

For my senior seminar class I am doing a paper based off of interviews with artist where I am attempting to look at three different artist and see if their is some inter linked tendencies or innate abilities for creativity which they have in common.
Well on Monday I had the privilege of going to the Studio by Christopher and having an interview with the owner and fabricator/artist Christopher. I just wanted to share some of his works which I thought were awesome.

Creative license plates

Lately I have been trying my hardest to think of a cool licence plate for my truck. I want something subtle that only car enthusiast will get. I have been looking at a few lately that others have trying to get ideas. Here are a few that I have seen. I will provide my interpretations with the pictures.


Debt Jet, the owner is talking about the money he had to spend to get this Toyota Supra to the stage it is at for speed and looks.


Sonic Blue is the color of this 03 or 04 Mustang Cobra Svt, hence the plate meaning Sonic Boom.

Another Toyota Supra with a plate about how much money has been put into the car.

This Nissan GTR has a plate standing for the fact that this car can go from 0MPH to 60MPH in 2 seconds, an impressive feat.

This is a Lancer Evolution which comes with a 2.0 liter turboed motor. Clearly it is yellow, and turboed, hense the name turbo taxi.

 

I have many more examples of custom plates, I just wanted to give a general idea.

 

I need to think of what I want, the only ones I have thought of are:

 

TURDGEN - a common funny name for 3rd generation Chevy Camaros

LSXBOOST- LSx is the engine platform and boost is the power adder used

CORN STAR- The fuel used is e85 which is high % ethanol based, comes from corn.

NVR DONE- Story of my life

BILTBYME-  I do all my own work abd modifications

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Costumes

While at my job last Friday night I got to see many Freshman students all dressed up in their costumes to go out to celebrate halloween. My favorite one that I think was simple and creative using everyday products was two girls that dressed up as "fire" and "mild" taco bell sauce packets. The dresses were made out of colored duct tape only. They said it took them six hours total to make them and they had 15$ into the dresses combined.

Cool way to find other uses for everyday products.

Creative Way To Save Porsche From Flood

Hurricane Sandy came and hit the eastern coast of the United Stated this week. Its destruction has left many people without powers or homes, it has ruined billions of dollars worth of property and even taken the life of some people. For that, I would like to send my condolences to all those families who felt the storms rath.

But when I saw this image, being a "car guy" I had to post it.

This person was so worried about his Porsche Carrera that the owner drove it onto an inflateable blob and floated his car so that the flooding could not ruin the owners prized car.

Its awesome!

I love taking photos

Recently I have had a rather serious obsession with taking pictures, so I bought an entry level DSLR Nikon camera. I have been experiment with different settings and trying to pretend that I know what I am doing. But instead of typing a huge explanation ill just share some photos. A mix between landscape from my home town and my passion of cars.

Getting Put in Your Place

This post is not a typical break from my creative topic. This post will focus on the my thoughts and feelings I'm experiencing right now. Two weeks ago I had a very busy week, between visiting my sick grandfather dying with cancer, trying to make a get together I have gone to for years, and school, I slipped. I let other things in life take over the most important thing I have going for me, my college, which is my ticket out of the small town where I grew up.
Well the same week I had all those distractions I had two major test and one major paper due. Between earlier this week and today it is clear, school needs to be my number one priority all the time. I had two teachers explain to the classes I am in how the work being done is not college level work. My important  note was my teacher flat telling us, the people who failed, that we had no future. I believe he was saying this to scare us and to get motivated.
One can take feedback like this in two ways. The first is to admit defeat and think that teacher's right. The second is to prove to the teacher that he is wrong, take those harsh words as motivation to better yourself and your future.
Ill be damned if I let some discouraging words take me down.
It's on.