Commander McBride

The one big question for me is whether the world goes back to normal after Eva, or whether Shinji and Asuka are truly the only survivors. Personally, I prefer to believe the former theory. There's a great website that has a sort of doujin (non-H) detailing Shinji and Auska's life together after EoE, including having a daughter etc. I'd really like to believe that's possible.

Better yet, rename it "Commander MCBride talks out of his ass about cars." Seriously man, I'm not picking on him, I'm picking on the consistently rdiciulous and inane statements he makes. I bet you can tell how much horsepower a car makes by it's exhaust note too, eh? Actually, if you're familliar enough with the car, it'd probably be possible. However, i doubt there's anyone who could do it. However, tires are a totally different story. Different manufacturers use very differing rubber compounds, creating different smoke characteristics. You can easily tell a Dunlop from a Falken from a Yokohama. Even on my own car, I could smell the difference between my ST115s and my ES100s. Different tires have different attributes, as well. Dunlops tend to wear quickly, and produce copious smoke. Falkens provide a sort of middle ground, with moderate wear but light smoke. The Yokohamas tend to smoke little at all, but last the longest. Even the handling differences can be felt.

You just don't stop, do you? If you're denying it, that's just proof you're full of crap. Anyone who's experienced with drift can easily identify different rubber compsitions by the smell, consitency, and color of the smoke.

Haha, I bet it wasn't hacked at all. More like one of the mods screwed up and accidentally deleted the admin account, too embarassed to admit it, so crashes teh forums and blames it on "hax0rz".

Kenny G and such aren't Jazz, they're glorified easy listening. Interesting note, Kenny G totalled my cousin's car! Popped out of a driveway right into him. Cousin got a new car out of it, though, so not a bad deal.

Why would you talk about great bands, than post a picture of Motorhead You couldn't be implying that Motorhead...........doesn't suck? Seriously, just kidding, they've got a couple songs that I quite like. They remind me quite a bit of a very little-known Japanese group I like a lot, known as 8-Ball. Drift fans will know them, as they perform the official D1 theme, Need For Speed, outside that they're almost unheard of. I'm a big Eurobeat fan. Most know it from the mid-90s era Initial D stuf, however, the ID Eurobeat actually came at a sort of bad time in the genre's history. I've been liking a lot in the past few years, and I actually picked up some VERY old "That's Eurobeat" Albums today, enjoying them quite a bit. These are CDs from 1988 we're talking about it, and yet the songs can hold up quite well even today, although they maintain a very 80s sound in many of them. (I wanted to cruise the streets in a white Ferrari looking for drug dealers to bust, listening to many of them!) I'm a big fan of the SCP label's artists, including Fastway and Ace, and also like Dave Rodgers and his semi-successor Matt Land a lot. J-Pop and J-Rock are up there, although I've moved into being a much bigger eurobeat fan in recent years. Psycho Le Cemu has a few songs I really like. Do As Infinity and Akino Arai are up there on the pop end. I also like the soft J-Rock sound that artists like Galla, and to a slightly harder extent, Seki Tomokazu, have. I also like music from english speaking countries, as well. Leading my list are The Who. I'm also partial to groups like Zeppelin and even Lynrd Skynrd.

Joe's Shanghai. Go to Mott and pell intersection, head west, it's about halfway down the block. Get the dumplings, it's the specialty, and the Pork Chops are also very good. (The ones that come with seasoning or pepper or something on the side) Carnegie Deli is also very worth going to. Personally, I'm also beyond the tourist stage with New York. Anywhere I go, be it around here, NY, or even Rome or London, I try to conduct myself as much like a normal citizen as possible. It's especially important when I'm with my folks, of course, as they're so LA they can hardly hail a cab in the city. I go to New York to eat, and on occasion, buy things. (Wouldn't exactly call it shopping, more like I know exactly what I need and go there to get it) Catch an event or a show or whatever once in a while, too. But the eating's the priority. So I guess that's one policy AgentOne and I have in common.

Tire smoke? smells good? Ack! I've never been partial to it myself. Now racing gas off a car's exhaust--now THAT'S some sweet smelling stuff, baby! "I love the smell of racing gas in the morning." I guess it comes from when I used to groove racing slicks--I was always thinking in the back of my mind how "this sh-t's got to be toxic...can't possibly be good for me." I wouldn't say it's an attractive smell exactly, but, much like the smell of racing gas, it's the kinda thing that really hits home in a racer's heart, or however you want to put it. When you drift, the small of good tires starts to become an integral part of the experience. What I mean, though, is that you can tell a good tire by its smell.

Forget the 1:1, obviously... But I wouldn't mind at all seeing an "H" kit done in this same series.

Yay, it's just like the old days again! Who wants to go crash some panels?!

Actually, some drivers do run slicks, but only up front, for the most part. However, one driver with a very powerful car, his name escapes me ATM, runs rear slicks. Chunking is a major problem, but there are vast difference between brands and specific tire models, and drifters have figured out what's good, and what isn't. An interesting thing about drift is that you can tell a good tire by the smell of the smoke. My Falkens, and to a lesser extent, Yokohamas, smell pretty good (comparitively) when they're burning off the car. Cheap tires, on the other hand, are pretty nasty, rangine from relatively neutral Bridgestones to horrible smelling brands like Futura or some of the Chinese / Korean brands. Sidewall stiffness and progressive slip characteristics are the most important factors in tire choice, along with overall tire grip. One thing to remember is that, at competition levels, the tires are pretty much garbage after a few runs. Blistering and such really aren't major issues, as the tires aren't expected to be used very long.

I really hope Sony doesn't make it look like that. The reason being, with space at a premium, as mentioned, it's very important to be able to put things on top of PS3, and to even be able to side stand it. I certainly couldn't have the setup I'm using at the moment if it weren't for the side-stand ability of PS2. This was one of the biggest problems with Xbox, it was the size of a DVD player, but you couldn't put anything on top of it. For the same purposes, a front-loading drawer is important, as well.

Hey, I like MacGuyver. I think, in large part, it's because I'm such an SG-1 fan, and they star the same lead actor. But, aside from that, I think it's a really good show. Also, a little-known fact: I've got MacGuyver's hair! Now, normally I cut it before it gets to that point, but if I go a couple months without a haircut, the resemblance is shocking!

Actually, no, the car was at stock ride height for quite a while, with relatively unagressive suspension settings. It's low now, but not much handling change. I think the subframe must be bent or something, that's all I can think of. Anyway, all I know is that the car works incredibly well for drifting and absolutely horrible for anything else. Tires weren't perfect, but they weren't cheap ones either. Was running Azenis Sports on my 15", then ST115s and ES100s on my 17"s. Honestly, I'd love to get rid of this car and build one from the gound up, but I just can't afford to. I've put so much into this car that I'd be taking a huge loss to start over.

Dude, judging from everything you've said you haven't even autocrossed. "Rough" courses? The two SCCA SoloII regions in southern California (Fresno and San Diego) both race at very smooth venues, so I have no idea what you're talking about. As for narrow courses, once again you're showing that you've had no experience autocrossing. Cars much larger than yours that have much more difficulty turning are commonplace. Off the top of my head I can think of a wide-bodied GT350, numerous Camaros, and at least one or two late-60's Mustang fastbacks. I also fail to see how heavily modified suspension would be a hidnrance racing, as there are plenty of cars that have almost no suspension travel and yet still do fine at the SF region's questionably bumpy courses. You'd have to drive my car to understand. The handling of the car is pretty insane as at is, it's very difficult to keep it under control on even relatively smooth surfaces. I can't understand why my car is the way it is, and I've seen identical ones run, but my grip limits are razor sharp. There's hardly any margin of error, understeer and oversteer are always very close. The car also has a very strong tendency to understeer, then snap into over very quickly. My car always feels like it's skating on ice, even on brand new Azenis. That's a large part of why I put the wing on the car, in the hopes that it'll improve the stablilty of the car at speed. It is true, I haven't been to any of the SCCA events, only to sort of "open track" car club type events. Maybe the setup is sufficiently different that it'll be better at an SCCA event.

Actually, in all truthfulness, I'm planning to go do a bit of AutoX when I get my new car. Don't worry, the 240 isn't going anywhere, but that's the problem! I'm getting myself a daily driver, a Mazda 3s 5-door, and I'm thinking taking it to a few events would actually be fun. I think the real reason I lost interest in Autocross is that, as my car became more and more heavily modified, it got to the point where it couldn't handle properly the rough pavement or narrow courses too often seen in lot autocross. I should be starting soon at Galpin Mazda, so I'll be able to afford my 3 in a few months.

Hey, I've heard it from the local SCCA types. Hear it alot online, too. Nobody's really serious. It's like Nissan and Mazda owners. We talk down on each other's cars all the time, but we all know it's just kidding around. How exactly have you heard it from local SCCA autocrossers if you're too big headed to go to autocross events? Seriously man, you're back-pedaling and just making up nonsense at this point. Drop the attitude that you're hot poo with your InitialD/JDM slang and stop trying to impress people online by calling yourself a 'road racer' when you're obviously not. Your nonsense and lies are infuriating. I jumped on you first because you were representing and spreading false ideas about autocross and since then you've done nothing but prove you know even less than I thought you did. I never said I didn't go to autocross events. I said that I don't have as much fun in any kind of lot event as I do at a true track event. Same goes for drifting, I don't go to Drift Day because I don't like lot driving. And I encounter autocrossers other places, too. When I'm down at the shop, it's commone for regular customers who are autoxers to come in, and it's a running thing with the road race guys. There's also a little thing called the internet. And I never once said I was a road racer, just that I hang around with some. By the way, InitialD/JDM is the last thing I go for. I'm long retired from the canyons. I got out before I got myself killed. I saw three cars off the cliff in one night, that was pretty much the end of it.

Hey, I've heard it from the local SCCA types. Hear it alot online, too. Nobody's really serious. It's like Nissan and Mazda owners. We talk down on each other's cars all the time, but we all know it's just kidding around.

Sorry to bring this back up, but I do actually hang out with real road racers. I've spent a lot of time talking to professionals, as I'm highly interested in getting into the sport, and every time I bring up trying to drive AutoX to develop my skills or develop a driving "resume", they laugh in my face. Additionally, the shop that supplies much of my racing gear is run and caters to road racers, and many times I've heard them look down on autocross. In the manager's own words, "autocross isn't racing". Of course, the Autocrossers say the same things about road racers, that we're too slow to handle a lot of corners, no reaction times, that we don't have the skill to run for times, etc. It's just the running thing in racing, down here.

What non-drifters don't realize about drift is that more traction is a better thing. By having more traction, the car is more controllable in a slide, and angle can be increased without losing control. And, yellowlightman, I didn't meant to really insult AutoXers, just say that it doesn't do it for me. I'm just doing the same thing all the road racers do, poking fun at the AutoXers. It's sort of an unwritten rule that we have to do that. By the way, I'm long gone from the mountain scene. I've gotten my car to the point where running hard on narrow, rough, mountain roads is just way too hard. And, honestly, it's just not fun compared to the real track.

No, actually, I just don't find it fun to be alone on the track. I find it much more enjoyable to battle wheel to wheel at the limits of grip. I prefer being in direct competition, which is why I don't like autocross. I learned racing from road racers, and started driving by battling it out in the mountains with my old Benz. After the racing I've done, running SOLO isn't fun anymore.

I'm not saying I'm into drifting because of the flashy rims and aero, just that that's what makes it appeal to a lot of people. The thing about stock classes in AutoX is that they are VERY competitive. Because you can't use better tuning to help, you have to be an incredible driver. Additionally, as I said, few of the drift types are anywhere near stock. I've got adjustible control arms, toe arms, traction rods, tension rods, coilovers, strut bars, and aftermarket differential and clutch, and so on, but no motor mods. If I wanted to compete with this car, I'd have to put a large amount of money into motor. And, when it came down to it, I'd still be driving around cones in a parking lot. Sorry to say it, but after being at the real track, AutoX bores me. It's not much of a track foundation, either. Among road racing circles, Autocrossers are the butt of every joke. And you can tell the autocrossers at a track event because they're the guys taking the narrow line and afraid to get close to other cars or exceed 60MPH.

I forgot to elaborate on the point in my post. The thing with autocross is, the classes are very restrictive. Anything more than a near-stock car requires a large budget and heavy mods to be competitive. Additionally, it's all low-speed cone stuff, no real track driving. The appeal with drifting is that it allows such freedom with modification. Where else can you go that big flashy rims and aero are acceptable in a competition event. By the way, I'm looking for an opinion. Do I replace all my stuff with new stock stuff, go Kouki (97-98) front, or go for a bodykit? The car is going to stay the same color.

Honestly, I didn't quite get it until I tried it. To me, it's the challenge, more than anything, that appeals to me. It's a very difficult thing to do, but it's an awesome experience when you pull it off. As a spectator sport, it lacks somewhat, although it makes for some very good eye candy, and very impressive battles. Still, I go to events to hang out and be part of the grassroots scene that still prevails. I think a large part of drifting's appeal is that it's so easy to get into. It's really all there is in the way of an affordable motorsport than involves things other than straight lines. Road Racing, and even some AutoX, are awesome, but preparing and campaiging a car is too much for most 18-25s. I'm not planning on Kei Office. If I go for anything of the sort, it'll be Kazama. My TEINs are fine for now, though.

Yeah, I've pretty much maxed out the suspension now. Got a good clutch and an 2-way Nismo LSD in there, as well. After I get it looking halfway decent, it's time for engine mods, but those will wait until I've got the skill to handle more power in a slide.