pf01 [r]

My wheels came a scant three days after order, in fact three of them arrived on Tuesday. They look good, I might have gotten a darker hue were it an option, but they do their job and show plenty of rotor. The 18s with new rubber ride wayyy smoother than the worn 19s, I'll see how they handle load after break in.

Garage daze [s]

My front and rear strut braces came in. The front is some variation on the 3sx brace. The rear is a Cusco. It was cool to see the 'GTO' labeling on the paperwork, though I couldn't read the strangely extensive install instructions.



Luckily the Cusco bolted right on so I was spared having to learn Japanese. The front brace took an unfortunate amount of extra work. The bolt holes were a few millimeters too narrow and had to be filed out. And my battery tie-down required some modification to jive with the new suspension component.



The rear brace didn't too much in the Celica, other than look cool. But there are a few differences here, namely the vr4 rear wheels drive, bear weight, and steer. Oh well, I don't have enough experience with her to really feel if there's a difference anyway.



Next on the agenda is finishing the fiber replacement panels. The m.o. here is not mangling any stock components, so I'm making new pieces to replace those that the rear brace is obstructing. Also replacing the stock stereo with my good ol' Alpine 9833 has left a sizable gap in the dash that will be paneled over.

Distractions [s]

Scene It
Ty and I cleaned up on Saturday. Three comeback victories in a row against the roomies and their girlfriends.

Mud football
Jon organized a match of mud football. There was much more of the former than the latter; the completion:interception ratio was somewhere around 2:1. Sure the ball was slippery, but the predominant reason had to be that we were running nothing but fly routes on account of not being able to cut. Well, that's not entirely true, Erik and I sported cleats whose advantage declined as the grass turned to mud. Everyone else... well they brought the proverbial knife to the gun fight.

Fantasy football
Next week will be straight out of Genesis. Kevin takes on Brian, and I'm playing Jon. Let's hope the older brothers fare better than they did in the elder vs. younger Wiilympics all those months ago. But what's there to worry about with Wayne against Oakland and Moss against the Jets? That's seven tds right there.

Mass Effect
Bioware did a really good job here. KOTOR was awesome, but comparing it to Mass Effect is like comparing Mario 3 to Mario 64. Both great games in their own right, but the sequel adds so much depth that all you can really say is they're the cream of their respective generation. Elaborating on this would be difficult to put into a reasonable number of words, so let me just say that it's a great game to lost in.

VR4 photo session
I finally got out with the car and camera for a quickie shoot to play with the ever-so-difficult auto photography and hdr. The car is lots of fun and you wouldn't imagine how much free boba I've gotten.


The bottom shot is a single exposure. The top is a hdr merge of several. The most readily noticeable difference is the detail on the overpass.

Drivetrain III [i]

Rotors are here, the Cel can finally go back together. Side by side...


Old: Raybestos STS rotors.
New: Nopi silver cadmium-plated rotors.


Old: Raybestos STS pads.
New: Brembos.


Old: Modern Sniper 15's.
New: Motegi DV5 17's.


Old: Toyo touring tires.
New: Kumho Ecstas.