Brad...how much did you drop for the Ninja? 2 things on wheels I always wanted since I was 10:

1) Evo (Check)
2) Ninja

 

Sorry to go OT for a moment guys. I bought the Ninja for 2.2k after selling my Z for 3.2k a few weeks ago.

2.2k was a steal for the bike. It had 650 miles on it in the perfect color. I came down south of Seattle to buy it and found out upon arriving that the owner had just dropped it while giving it a farewell ride. The left fairing was scraped and a bit cracked, and the turn signal was knocked off. I was ready to buy it for 2.6k until I heard the news, and the owner surprisingly accepted my offer of 2.2k (after surveying the damage). Damage was 100% cosmetic and I have already replaced the turn signal and I bought the $20 fiberglass repair kit to mend the fairing.

Funny thing was, later that night I had the bright idea to go for a quick night ride in my new bike. Well, you can guess what happens next. A garbage bag came out of nowhere in front of me and I panic braked. The rear wheel skidded, and as I came to a sloppy stop I forgot to put my feet down. I banged her down on the left side again and added to the scrape and crack a bit more.

I was really thankful I didn't go for the SV650 I was initially ogling, and also thankful that the previous owner dropped the bike earlier that day and made me feel less bad about doing it all over again. I guess that's why they call them starter bikes, eh?

 

Hope everyone read their High Performance and Driving School Driver Training Manual. I feel like I am going to drivers ed. Should be a little more exiteing. See everyone tomorrow at the driving school. Cant wait tell Sunday.

 

Hey everyone - thanks for coming out, I hope you had as much fun as I did . Best part is now that you did the class we can do this more often at cheap(er) cost. Here are some of the pix I took:

10,000+ HP and 30 lead feet itching to get on the track:


Jeff & Everett ready for some play time:






Kyle's Evo lined up and ready to go:


Waiting my turn:


Why not to park on gravel with hot tires!


Dwayne & his Evo:


Kyle surveying the damage to his (thoroughly cooked) tires:




Jeff & Everett following "graduation":




video clips:

dwayne_driveby.mov
everett_driveby.mov
jeff_driveby.mov
open_header_civic.mov
ralph_driveby.mov




I got some in car video too, but I need to do some trimming before posting it. Also, Matt should have lots of good action shots. Here's a quick lap segment:

in_car_vid.wmv

 

Cool pics, thanks for posting. Nice to finally put some faces to names from the boards.

Bruce, sorry I couldn't help more with the hose. Did you manage to fix it?

 

Greg K determined the head gasket was TU, so I got to listen to the tow truck driver on the way home.

 

Let me know if I can help at all.

 

It was nice to see all the Evo's. I had a blast. Cant wait to do it again.

 

yeah I was sorry to see bruce's day end they way it did. My best guess is a warped head because he was obviously blowing compression into the cooling system. Once we re-fired him the car was rough and there was serious bubbling in the overflow tank. The dipstick, and the oil cap looked good, not white, milky, or foamy (no coolant in the oil) and hopefully it will only take a light flycut of the head, a MLS cometic head gasket and some ARP's to get you back out there Bruce.

thanks for the fun time. I really appreciated all the volunteers that came out to let us have fun, and to watch a gravel guy make a fool of himself on the hardpack stuff. Pounding into 2 and standing on the brakes from 120+ was an eyeopener the first couple of times. Especially after the Viper GTS got it wrong and ate the tire wall. Thanks for the good time and I hope to do it again sometime.

 

Yeah it was great I had a blast . On the way home it felt like everything was moving in slow motion though after being out on the track.

Bruce was my instructor (brave guy). My first run was really bad...it was a lot harder to do that stuff at pace than it was on the 2 and 2 at like 60mph or whatever. When I drove with Bruce it made a lot more sense so my next 2 runs were a little bit better.

I guess the biggest thing was braking late and understanding how deep into the corners to go I was turning way to early in most of them.

Sorry to see his car go like that....I was with him on that run when it started to overheat . Car was moving though

We need to do this again at some point. For all the Evo peeps we saw here that we don't see at the NWE meets come out and hang sometime. It was good to meet all the various different people.

Raplh: That's not me in that driveby! Thats the other Evo VIII that belongs to the son of the Mercedez Benz driver (whose name I have forgotten now and since I don't want another Shawn incident ). I was like wow there's vid of me? And then I see the sun roof I'm like damn it

 

Hey Guys, It was cool to see all of you run, I took quite a bit of pics, I have not managed to go through them all yet, but I do have a couple of pics that I thought you guys might want to see, I will probobly have a page up with most of the others late tomorrow night, Or on Tuesday.

Sorry to hear about the HG Bruce

 

thanks guys.
guess I need to find a shop.

great seeing a bunch of evos on the track. some guys are naturals and some of us have to work up through the ranks. its all fun in the end.

 

Matt - nice pics! I love how the antenna is all bend from the air stream lol

 

the vid posted was of me, thanks. my dad and i had a great time and it was nice to finally meet some fellow evo owners that are mature and knowledgable.

poppoff, i saw you there but didnt get a chance to say hi as you looked busy most of the time. dont hesitate to post up the evo with the sunroof, thats me (Larry)! or the black mercedes.

 

Too bad yours is too short to do that

Don't worry Larry, I got plenty of you, I didint unfortunately get any of the mercedes, You should have told me and I would of! No big deal though, I'm pretty sure I will be out at a couple others in the future, It's fun to see Kyle bake his back bumper