In reply to MrChaos :
berkeleyin A! I don't have instagram, but if I did, it would only be for my builds. Gridlife was AWESOME. What a weekend. I went drag racing, auto-crossing, and car showing with a bunch of other fellow degenerate young gearheads, and got to watch time attack, drifting, and some music in between.
Friday afternoon, I loaded the wagon and slogged 80 miles through rush hour traffic to hit dragstrip test-n-tune. This time armed with a 75 shot of nitrous and a AAA card. Tech was much more thorough this time, but I passed easily.
It's STILL not quite into 12's, but there was much spinning into 2nd this time. I think I can go 12 with this same shot, if I'm more careful with throttle through 1st gear. I was flooring it from launch, then spraying around 4500 and it just let go until 2nd. You can hear the the rev-limiter bouncing for far too long before the gear change. I can't believe how much BS this drivetrain is putting up with. I am still letting the auto shift itself. AFR's seem safe with this jet combo 0.046 N / 0.034 F.
One guy from the crowd came and found me just to let me know my car was shooting flames from the exhaust between shifts. FLAMES. From the EXHAUST. That's all I've ever wanted, life basically complete now.
https://youtu.be/Io8CmsksHfo
Then I put the street tires back on, loaded the wagon back up, and drove over to Road Atlanta for Gridlife South. I camped in my buddy's shuttle bus. Here's our accommodations for the weekend. It was rad.
Saturday morning I put on the Experimental Challenge-Winning Tire Strategy (ECWTS) and hit the Gridlife Autocross over at Turn 7. This was a very tight 30-40 sec course. I think with some pressure adjustments, ECWTS can be successful. This was basically break-in for the tires. I spun once in an epic way and tore up the grass pretty bad while cracking my front air dam from the impact with the edge of the pavement. Datsaniti just puts up with it. I was only about 2.5s off FTD, which was set by an INSANE time attack prepped C6 Vette that spent most of the weekend tearing up Road Atlanta. I feel good.
Here's my fastest run: https://youtu.be/RcGcVGfOWhk
The rest of the weekend Datsaniti was parked in the Showcase pavilion where it got a good bit of attention. This is definitely the crowd for this type of car. I also got to help a 300ZX owner do an emergency radiator swap in the parking lot.
This was also my first time watching drifting, which I gotta say, is wayyy cooler in person than I ever thought it would be. Makes me wonder how Datsaniti would look slideways...
Later that night we saw Soulja Boy perform, which meant I waxed poetic about the good old days, like the first time a girl grinded up on me at the high school homecoming dance to the serenades of Lil Jon, Usher, and of course, Soulja Boy. Certainly not my cup of tea, but enough beer makes anything good.
If you get the chance to go to Gridlife, do it, and do it up big time.
