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So as the story goes, Alex sees, Alex must try. By this time I started to make a little money. Found an AE86 in the paper and knew that was the car I needed. Picked it up and immediately cut the springs. On my next trip back to Hawaii I brought back the suspension off my TE71 that was left behind. Its time to play again. NASA has track events where all you need is your street car and a helmet. I was pleasantly surprised at the difference. The AE86 handled much better than I ever imagined. Problem was it was still the slowest thing on track but that didn’t prevent me from getting around a few people. My roommate took me to our local mountain. Hmm, found my new spot to practice again. This mountain was longer than Tantalus and much bumpier. I had no idea there are so many deer in Northern California. I didn’t get much time to practice with the busy schedule but would go whenever I have a chance. Well I ended up finishing the season with the Racer's Group and quitting at the end of the last race, which was Laguna Seca. One of the part time crew members, Robby offered me a job at his shop not far away in San Rafael, S-Car-Go Racing which was also a Porsche fabrication place but mainly deals with custom fabrication for the club racers along with general Porsche service work._As a coincidence, Mark got tired of the Racer’s Group some time later and moved over to S-Car-Go. Mark has been a key part of my development in teaching me all he knows about fabrication. Robby and the guys are an interesting bunch that can have a good time no matter how bad things are going. After about a year or so there I just couldn’t stand it any longer. All these club events and race weekends and I had nothing to drive. So as the story goes, I buy a 911 because I need something to drive too. It’s a good little car and perfect for its class. First time out to Laguna Seca, Robby sponsors me to run with PCA by paying for my entrance fee. By now they all know my driving style as I get a few warnings from the instructors not to “drift” as it will look bad since this is my rookie run with PCA. “Keep it on the track and keep it strait!” The S-Car-Go crew all laugh while I get scoldings. So I keep my cool and go have some fun. Second day there and I’m running faster times than anyone in my class. I go by start finish and see all the guys on the wall cheering me on as I beat Robby’s fastest lap time. It comes time for the time trial and since im a rookie, my run comes at the end of the day. The guys of S-Car-Go are nice enough to stick around to watch me go for it. I get ready to run, jump in the car, turn the key and hear my starter spinning with nothing but air behind it. Jump out a take a look only to find the starter hanging over the axle. In a furry we tie the starter to the trans up out of the way and they push start me up to the line. I’m off and running. You have a warm up lap and 2 timed laps, so first lap I push the car and get it a little sideways to get some heat in the tires. First timed lap, “I’m doing ok but not going to get it on this one” Hot lap hits 1.48.35. Second timed lap and I mess up going into turn 2. Went in a bit to hot and got the car sideways but managed to stay on the gas. Thought I threw my chance away. Turn 3 and 4 goes perfect. “Wow, I may be back in this one”. Push threw 5 to get a good run up the hill. Now I’m moving. Hit the carousel as fast as I could and ended up dropping the outside wheels, which really scared me since that was the first time I dropped wheels there all weekend. Get threw 9 and 10 without a hitch. Turn 11 and I drop a wheel and managed to miss third gear as I hit the assfault. Now I though I messed it all up. My hot lap says 1.47.14 but I know the time is going to be less than that since I missed the shift and the hot lap was on the exit of 11 but the timer was at start finish. Only shift I missed all weekend and it had to be the one that counted. The record was set by the previous owner of the car at 1.48.38 a few years before and another customer had beaten it earlier that day at 1.48.24. I’m sweating as I come in waiting for someone to tell me my time. Mark runs up to the car “You did it, 1.47.28” and I take my first breath with a sigh of relief. I needed that win. That one was important to me. Not only to boost my confidence in my driving ability but to justify blowing my life savings on a car. I admit to getting nervous before I jump in that car, knowing that one mistake and I could loose it all. Buying that car was hard for me but was something I had to do. Prove to myself again that I may have what it takes.
Well back to the story, I still had my good old AE86. The car that would never die. Or so I thought. About the time I started at s-car-go, I met Hiro. One of the San Francisco AE86 owners. I always heard that there was a big following for the AE86’s in SF but never actually met anyone. That weekend, I met up with Hiro in the city to meet some of these guys. Get to Ryan’s house and there where corolla’s lined up the street. I was impressed to see all the cars in good shape and well taken care of. A few hours later and we where talking about places to drive. “Sure” I say, “I know a good place to practice” They think I’m full of it so only Hiro follows me up to the mountain. Think they where just stunned to see a white guy with an AE86. So I take Hiro up to the mountain and he jumps in for a ride. Running there is just like running on a tarmac rally you would see in WRC. That is the only way I can explain it. A lot of twists and turns with many good drift corners. Hiro was impressed and the next week Hiro and Ryan show up. The next week comes and more people show up. Before I know it, the corolla community is talking about this white guy with an AE86 that can drift and everyone wants to see this. Week after week and there are more people showing up, all wanting a ride. It reminded me of the old days on Tantalus and soon I was driving everyone else’s car so I wouldn’t waste my tires. One night we are there talking story about some drift contest we saw in a magazine. Alain goes on to tell me that there is a drift event that weekend. “What, you guys didn’t tell me this before I ruined my tires! Where can I find out about this event?” They go on to tell me about this web site, Club4ag.com and these guys called Speedtrial. So I go home that night and look it up. There it was, a real drift event at Buttonwillow on Sunday and me without tires. I call Hiro to see if he wants to go. “Yes” he says with his Japanese accent. “I need tires”, “I have 2 tires” “Can I barrow?” “Yes” “I’ll pick you up at 3, be up” “ok Alrex”. Its 3 in the morning and it takes 5 or more calls to get him out of bed. Hiro comes outside with 2 brand new tires mounted on some Supra’s. Get to the track 4 hours later and there was a group of hachi’s. So I sign up and pay the money. Find out that we have half the track to play on. Wow this is cool, never had the chance to drift a road coarse. We make friends with all the hachi drivers and hang out. Ended up killing Hiro’s brand new tires in about an hour of track time, blowing one right in the middle of a drift. All in all a great day of fun. Get back to the bay and tell everyone about the event. Now everyone wants to go. Next event a few people come along. Eventually we had a group of cars that would caravan from the bay area to the speedtrial events and more than that would show up on the mountain. Its time to start a crew. We are hanging out one night outside Krispy Cream trying to come up with a name for us. Out of nowhere Hiro says “Battle Swing”. Everyone looks at each other and laughs. The name was born. Time for stickers and t-shirts. Next event we all have a Battle Swing sticker on the back window of the cars. We become a team and take care of each other. Making sure every car makes it home. Many track events later and the drift community is still getting stronger. Now with Club4ag, Drift Session, Speedtrial, Battle Version, Hyperfest and other events to run.
Ok back to the story. It’s been some time now since I’ve driven something new, well I mean faster. The last one costed me my life savings and I start to realize after working in this industry that no matter how hard I work, I could only make enough money to go club racing. Club events are not enough for me, I must go further. I decide its time to take things to the next step and become a manufacture. Since the club name was Battle Swing, I decided that Battle Version would be suitable name. So I start off by getting a business license and making things to sell on club4ag. A few small things but it was enough to take a lot of my time. Well enough time that I had to quit S-Car-Go and take a chance. Get a loan and now I’m in dept. Met a guy named Paul Ko, an engineer who also has the same dream of running a manufacturing business and began working together to better both of our product lines. He specialized in Mazda parts while I specialized on Toyota. Now we work together and will become one company when the time comes. The products are getting better with more on the way. In the mean time we run in NASA with a PS1 FC3S to keep us going. All in all it’s been really hard up to this point but worth every minute. I learned you have to take chances in life to get where you want to be. Its never easy but without risks, there wouldn’t be rewards. I still dream of one day being a top driver and will push as hard as I can to make that a reality. Its time to roll the dice again to see what happens next.
This story has been cut short, a couple years short. This was a post put up on club4ag a while back and I will try to bring it closer to this date when there is time.
Alex Pfeiffer
Well back to the story, I still had my good old AE86. The car that would never die. Or so I thought. About the time I started at s-car-go, I met Hiro. One of the San Francisco AE86 owners. I always heard that there was a big following for the AE86’s in SF but never actually met anyone. That weekend, I met up with Hiro in the city to meet some of these guys. Get to Ryan’s house and there where corolla’s lined up the street. I was impressed to see all the cars in good shape and well taken care of. A few hours later and we where talking about places to drive. “Sure” I say, “I know a good place to practice” They think I’m full of it so only Hiro follows me up to the mountain. Think they where just stunned to see a white guy with an AE86. So I take Hiro up to the mountain and he jumps in for a ride. Running there is just like running on a tarmac rally you would see in WRC. That is the only way I can explain it. A lot of twists and turns with many good drift corners. Hiro was impressed and the next week Hiro and Ryan show up. The next week comes and more people show up. Before I know it, the corolla community is talking about this white guy with an AE86 that can drift and everyone wants to see this. Week after week and there are more people showing up, all wanting a ride. It reminded me of the old days on Tantalus and soon I was driving everyone else’s car so I wouldn’t waste my tires. One night we are there talking story about some drift contest we saw in a magazine. Alain goes on to tell me that there is a drift event that weekend. “What, you guys didn’t tell me this before I ruined my tires! Where can I find out about this event?” They go on to tell me about this web site, Club4ag.com and these guys called Speedtrial. So I go home that night and look it up. There it was, a real drift event at Buttonwillow on Sunday and me without tires. I call Hiro to see if he wants to go. “Yes” he says with his Japanese accent. “I need tires”, “I have 2 tires” “Can I barrow?” “Yes” “I’ll pick you up at 3, be up” “ok Alrex”. Its 3 in the morning and it takes 5 or more calls to get him out of bed. Hiro comes outside with 2 brand new tires mounted on some Supra’s. Get to the track 4 hours later and there was a group of hachi’s. So I sign up and pay the money. Find out that we have half the track to play on. Wow this is cool, never had the chance to drift a road coarse. We make friends with all the hachi drivers and hang out. Ended up killing Hiro’s brand new tires in about an hour of track time, blowing one right in the middle of a drift. All in all a great day of fun. Get back to the bay and tell everyone about the event. Now everyone wants to go. Next event a few people come along. Eventually we had a group of cars that would caravan from the bay area to the speedtrial events and more than that would show up on the mountain. Its time to start a crew. We are hanging out one night outside Krispy Cream trying to come up with a name for us. Out of nowhere Hiro says “Battle Swing”. Everyone looks at each other and laughs. The name was born. Time for stickers and t-shirts. Next event we all have a Battle Swing sticker on the back window of the cars. We become a team and take care of each other. Making sure every car makes it home. Many track events later and the drift community is still getting stronger. Now with Club4ag, Drift Session, Speedtrial, Battle Version, Hyperfest and other events to run.
Ok back to the story. It’s been some time now since I’ve driven something new, well I mean faster. The last one costed me my life savings and I start to realize after working in this industry that no matter how hard I work, I could only make enough money to go club racing. Club events are not enough for me, I must go further. I decide its time to take things to the next step and become a manufacture. Since the club name was Battle Swing, I decided that Battle Version would be suitable name. So I start off by getting a business license and making things to sell on club4ag. A few small things but it was enough to take a lot of my time. Well enough time that I had to quit S-Car-Go and take a chance. Get a loan and now I’m in dept. Met a guy named Paul Ko, an engineer who also has the same dream of running a manufacturing business and began working together to better both of our product lines. He specialized in Mazda parts while I specialized on Toyota. Now we work together and will become one company when the time comes. The products are getting better with more on the way. In the mean time we run in NASA with a PS1 FC3S to keep us going. All in all it’s been really hard up to this point but worth every minute. I learned you have to take chances in life to get where you want to be. Its never easy but without risks, there wouldn’t be rewards. I still dream of one day being a top driver and will push as hard as I can to make that a reality. Its time to roll the dice again to see what happens next.
This story has been cut short, a couple years short. This was a post put up on club4ag a while back and I will try to bring it closer to this date when there is time.
Alex Pfeiffer
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