Ask ALEX PFEIFFER Something!

[silviaguy]

Looks good...might look even better on the track..

[purpleDrifter]

snap back on throttle lift.

Alex, wil a one way diff cause snap back on throttle lift? Will a spool correct this or make it worse?

[AlexPfeiffer]

By snap back you mean like when your drifting, and you let go the gas, the car wants to straighten out or snap to the other side?

I would think a one way diff would just be anoying. Typicly a 2 way diff tries to keep the car going straight. When you get off the gas with a 2 way, it makes the car tighten up around the corner. A 1.5 way when you get off the gas, the car tends to go wider around the corner. Cant say that I've ever played with a one way diff, I would probably hate felling it lock and unlock every time you touch the throttle.

[purpleDrifter]

I suppose when you say "tighter" you mean looser at the rear end and closer to the apex of the turn. And by saying, "keep the car going straight", I believe you mean, instead of sudden snap back understeer when letting off the throttle, the car will keep drifting in the direction it is going. If this is so, the a spool is what I need. They don't make 2 ways for Camaros. It took me a really long time to figure this one out. Man am I collosally stupid.

[AlexPfeiffer]

Im sorry to everyone that has been following this thread. Not because of the flames, but because I havent really kept up with the updates laitly. Well most of the last couple weeks have been spent on wireing which doesnt include many pics. I did get the exhaust done over the weekend which was one of the last big things missing on this project. Its 98% ready to fire up, still needs some wireing and things like breathers for the valve covers.

Picked up some injectors, thanks to Bob over at Drift Office, he ordered some out of his own pocket and didnt allow me to pay for them. Picked up new connectors and had to reuse alot of the pins off the stock harness. What took alot of my time was taking out and reusing so many of the connectors to make the harnesses. To be honest, I just suck at wireing. I can make it work but I'm really not that good at sitting there soldering and heat shrinking so many things. Here's some pics of the progress.

Got me a tial V44, cut off the original 4 bolt flange and welded on the vband. Fits so nice.



Starting on the down pipe. Goes from 3.5" to 4"



Not a real fan of the cut and weld method but didnt really have much of a choice with how tight the radius needed to be. I feel so JDM for some reason. Splits from 4" to twin 3" next to the gate. Yeah its a tight fit.



Megan racing is up the street from us, and I usually help them out with setting up thier team cars, they help me out when I need stuff. So I went threw thier pile of damaged exhausts and basicly grabbed anything in 3". It took about 12 of thier exhausts to cut appart to make the twin pipes running under my car. I know its not pretty but at least its free.



I hate wires.



More hate on wires. Didnt even take a pic of the finished product.



There is something else that has come up this week. One of the FD teams was looking for a driver and asked if I wanted to come out today for testing (july 5th) at Drift Day and I agreed. Tanaka racing (http://site.tanakaracing.net/Home_Page.html) has a blown 427 with about 700hp and 750 torque vette, how could you not want to. A few of my friends were out there as well and I must say, its nice to have that much power. You really dont need to push the gas more then half way at any time, the 295 nitto's are just spinning. At first we did some open area drifts and the car was nice. Really predictable. With Taka's help we sort of mapped out the track size for Formula D and set up a practice track. Thats when things got a bit hairy, driving in this 800 foot by 350 foot area seemed to bring some problems out in the steering. I felt uneasy and would over shoot the corner. We made some drastic adjustments to the car that changed how the car reacted to inputs while in drift and it started to regain its comfort level.

Well long story short, they asked if I would like to drive it next week in vegas for Formula D, and after talking it over with a few friends, I agreed to drive. I'm really excited to get this chance as a driver to be behind the wheel, not in just any car but one that is already a proven contender.

Dont give up on my project because I havent. Still putting hours of work in and I'm so close to getting her running, then its time for testing.

[GSXRJJordan]

Alex it was rad meeting up with you again this weekend at the Megan invitational (I'm Jeff, was hangin out with Luke and the Blu808 turbo-LS1 S14). Then I saw you Sunday at El Toro!

Is there any news about the Tanaka Z06, maybe a dude named Pfeiffer being their new driver? I know you wouldn't turn down a ride this year I was trying to get BRogers to go over there and get a few laps too, but we had to bounce early.

Edit, wow I just read the last post, GRATS on Vegas!! Hope to make it out there to see you work it.

[akuma S14]

go for it Alex!!! Get out there and have some fun in Vegas....

[mazdized]

ah U likie big V-8.

[Slapshotnerd]

sweet! congrats alex! Can't wait to see you behind the wheel of the big red beast!

[Justin Banner]

Yeah, wiring. One of the few things I need to get done on the Hardbody, along with tires, front brakes, more wiring, lowering, exhaust, rear fenders, paint, cage....

[AlexPfeiffer]

This is the dry weight. Did the final alignment today but there are still a bunch of stuff missing from the car like gas, oil, trans fluid, passenger seat, mirrors, and other stuff so this is just the dry weight. To me just having the car under 3000lbs is really good for her. I know if I built the same car again that I could bring the weight down even more but I'm really happy to be in this area right now. Down side is that the car is maxed out on what I can do with the alignment. I have to run it the way she is and see what she feels like before any changes can be made. 53% front weight isnt too bad, usually try to be closer to 52%. For some reason the cars I've driven that was at 52% felt the best.

Just worked on alot of small things mostly. Trying to get the car ready to fire up. Turbo mounted in for the last time, added a power steering cooler, also added a line lock but installed it on the rear brakes so that I can lock out the rear instead of locking in the fronts. They require us to keep moving durring burn outs, need to keep rolling or you end up digging into the track surface, so since the rear brakes are big, added the line lock just to delete the rear brakes, that way they are not dragging while your trying to do rolling burn outs.

Got to still run some hoses and such and need to go pick that up. Dont have much time before vegas so spent some of it getting the scooters up and running, and taking care of orders.

[JBizzle]

Congratulations Alex, best of luck to you this weekend.

[AlexPfeiffer]

This weekend went really well. Tanaka Racing isnt just a team but a big family. Got to meet alot of really nice people and we had a great time. The car itself is a beast and I'm still getting used to it.

Durring the second lap of qualifying she showed me how much of a beast she can be. On the initiation, going about 75, kicked her sideways and just didnt get enough angle, she snapped right back around the other way and I was just looking at the wall thinking to myself how much this may hurt. Luckily I was running parallel with one wall and had enough room to slow down before getting into the tire wall. I basicly locked up the brakes and prayed, still ended up rubbing the front bumper against the wall and it took a chunk out of it. Thank god the damage wasnt worse. That spin kinda got me scared and I lost my confidence.

The first lap of qualifying was clean but not great so we did have a score on the board. We didnt know if it would be enough but we ended up I think in 27th which was enough to make to the tandum rounds and get some points for the series. The team was great about it, they not only jumped right on fixing the car back up to look like it just showed up to the track but also helped talk me back into doing my job of pushing the throttle down. Went out for practice and got some laps in which got me back in the game.

For tandum, we ended up getting paired with Sam in the Viper with NuForms Racing which was good. Similar type cars, both alot of power, but I knew his entry speeds where higher. I was following on the first lap and yeah, he was able to get a gap on me on the entry so I started my drift a little later to carry some extra speed in. That helped get me back closer to him but wasnt able to completely close up. Then when I led, I was trying to keep my speed up and it just made me run a little wide on the apex's which just gave him the room to be ontop of me. Sam took the win and our weekend was done.

The Tanaka's were happy with how the weekend went and asked if I would continue to drive the car and I agreed. The car was sent over to Sam's Auto Land to get the bumper repaired, then its going to Techno Square and we will work on some suspension geometry. I'm a little worried about Seattle just because I havent driven that track yet. Think everyone in drifting can agree its never easy.

[Bebop]

You did a great job, hope this opens up more doors for you so you can get back in championship form!!

[Jonnie Fraz]

This is why I love drifting! Play by play from the man himself.
Alex you did awesome!! It sure did not look like you did not have a lot of seat time in that beast.
Your pit looked more like a picnic than a drift car pit...lol. Every time I passed by you guys had the Q going.
Keep up the great work...good luck in Seattle!