Check out this sweet Rack

Pun intended.


Just picked up an OEM roof rack (factory EDM). It's pretty weak that Subaru doesn't offer this "load carrier" to the USA. I guess they think the WRX wagon is good enough for us 'Merikuns.

I had to order it from a dealer in the UK - Cheam Motors. It came in about a week, so I was stoked. The only downside is the current state of the dollar. The exchange rate blew, but it's worth it to have a factory rack.

Reason being, all Imprezas have a mount for the factory racks under the black strips on the roof, so the install was super easy. They also allow me to keep the JDM OE rain visors. The racks also just pop off whenever, and they only leave these tiny metal brackets.

It's not too noticeable from a distance, but I can definitely live with it.
To fasten the rack to those brackets, you just use the lever at each base.
You can see in this pic: Fastened:


The base's feet come in contact with the car under the weather strip, so there are no worries about the paint. You can't beat OEM parts for stuff like this. It's so much better when things are meant to worth with one another.

Here is a finished shot after a bath, as the sun was going down:


After the initial install the night before, I didn't have a chance to fit the end caps that go on the cross bars or these little rubber caps that seal off the bottom of the cross bars. The result was a nasty whistle that played in three distinct tones. One pitch at 20mph, the middle pitch at 30mph, and the highest at 40mph. It was hilarious. After completely finishing the install, the whistle was gone, but it was funny while it lasted.

Next thing I need to do is pick up the actual bike/snowboard racks that to attach to these cross bars, and maybe even a fairing. I'll probably get the Yakima High-Roller to hold the bikes, and the Yakima FatCat6 for snowboards, but that can wait until winter. Shit costs money.

K1 Speed - Karting

I took a bunch of my employees to K1 for lunch today, another perk of working in the automotive enthusiast industry. We currently have all of our assistants slaving away at getting all our archive articles up on the web, so we decided to give the project some incentive. Top performers will be rewarded at different stages of the project, the first round being a trip to K1 and lunch on the company.


K1 is pretty sweet. They have 5 locations total, 4 in SoCal and 1 in Seattle. It's not your typical bumper karts/amusement go-kart track. You have your own account (license they call it) and they keep track of all your race times. There is a little print out after each race, raking everyone in your group. They really cater to car people, and the facility is pretty sweet. If you are in the area, it's cool to check out if you care about racing / lap times. If you just want to tool around, go to Boomers or something.

Just for the record, I had the fastest lap time and fastest average time for the whole office.. no big deal.

Here is the track (1 of 2 at the Irvine location).

Link - http://www.k1speed.com/
(pictures jacked from K1's site)

HeroMachine 2.5

Create your own super hero. Awesome.
See what you can come up with.

HeroMachine LINK

I had to give him a light saber to compliment the numb-chucks, haha.
I'm going to spend too much time using this thing.

My New Wheels - One Gear Only

Picked it up this past weekend and I've rode it to work every day so far.

I wanted something cheaper and more simple than my Cannondale roadie bike for commuting purposes, so I decided on a single speed. Specialized has a line of bikes called Langster that are single speed city/commuter bikes, and come in different themes. Each model in the Langster series is named after a city. I went with the 'Chicago' since it's the sickest. Flat black frame, bull horn style bars, black crank, black components, sweet graphics, etc. It even says Gangster instead of Langster, lol, and has a little city scape with Al Capone on the top tube. All it needs is a set of red wheels.

Overall, I'm really stoked on the bike. I'm just going to leave the pedals that it came with on the there since they are just flats with the little straps for sliding regular shoes into. This makes it easier since I'll primarily be commuting and I don't feel like changing my shoes. All the components on the bike are bolted down (no quick releases) so I don't have to worry about locking the bike up outside of the office.

Price wasn't bad either. It was on sale before taking another 15% off for being a VeloSport team member of Rock and Road bike shop. So put it this way, I used my economic stimulus check and still went out to dinner. Thanks for the free bike, US Government. I'll be using it to stop buying gas.

Virtual Reality Head Tracking using Wii Remote

This might be WTLW for some of you ("welcome to last week") but I thought it was pretty incredible.

This dude Johnny Lee, aka Magoo, created this software that used the Wii remote and sensor bar to create a VR environment. Watch the whole thing, it's sweet.



It's pretty cool seeing what can be done with the existing technology. Why doesn't Nintendo utilize this?

This reminds me of a class I took on "New Digital Media" at UCI. There was a section on gaming where we explored the history (from the first mmorpgs to Wii, etc) and examined new ways to enter new dimensions of gaming. Needless to say, it was a sweet class, just too much work. The thing that trips me out is that this new dimension can be achieved using existing technology that is already in place. Pretty cool stuff.

This guy created a couple projects using the Wii remote and has them up on his website. I've actually seen the white board mod, our IT guy at work set one up - here is Johnny Lee's Wii project site

Cobb 08 STI - Follow Up

The article went live.

Click for LINK

These pics are a little better than the ones I posted

When a massive, full-size truck or SUV just won't do...

Saw a yuppie douche driving one of these behemoths around Irvine this morning on the way to work...

Same model as this picture, the GMC Topkick I believe. Now why on earth would anyone need something like this. It was basically like a personal use semi truck.

"World gas problems? Who cares.. Hey planet Earth, FUCK YOU!!"

You stay classy Orange County.

Project Cockpit: Part 4 - Basically Done

Part 4: I think I'm almost done?

I haven't really had much time to work on Project Cockpit (lol), aka project 40 year old virgin, but I did get the chance to mount the seat this past Saturday.

My pops helped me out with fabricating the seat brackets since I decided to just go with some inexpensive hardwood from Lowe's, and he's an old school furniture maker, wood worker, Bob Vila, etc. Growing up as a kid, we had a massive wood shop in our basement that would put shop class facilities to shame, so I knew it would be no problem. The only challenge that presented itself was the bottom of the gaming seat being rounded, since it was meant to rock, but it wasn't that big of an issue.

We started on the rear seat mount since we determined the rear mounting surface would remain flat after positioning the seat at the right angle. We used a hardwood horizontal support plank on top of hardwood blocks that would mount to the ABS piping. These blocks determined the height of the seat in relation to the steering wheel position, so it was important to get it right. Too high - it would be like driving a school bus, too low and it would be like an 8 year old trying to see over the dashboard.

Since the seat should be adjustable (front to back) we fabricated the blocks to clamp around the ABS pipe frame as seen here:
You can see how the outer blocks will clamp to the frame using knobs on either side. The inner blocks are screwed/glued to the plank while the outer blocks are held on with the bolts/knobs. The bottoms of the blocks were trimmed a little so that it would allow the cockpit to sit on the ABS when its on the floor. This will also allow the blocks to slide.

With the rear support finished, it was time to move to the front, which proved to be a little tougher. The mounting surface had to be angled in order to mount the curved-bottom, rocking, gaming seat. We used the same concept as the lower rear blocks (drilled in the middle so it can slide on the frame) but we had to get the angle just right. And since there are already 2 knobs to secure the seats location in the rear, the front blocks were just screwed together around the ABS frame, allowing the front to slide freely.


Here is the result (unpainted obviously):


I had to take the gaming chair apart to be able to drill the frame into the wooden brackets, and luckily it went back together without any issues. We just had to make sure the screws for the bottom seat cushion were accessible after mounting to the brackets.

Seating Impressions:
The front of the gaming chair came with a little handle on the front of its lower frame rail, so adjusting the seat is a breeze. Once it's adjusted and locked down by tightening the knobs, it's very secure and sturdy. The height of the seat is perfect, positioning the steering wheel right where it should be. The seat back angle is also where it needs to be. I'm really stoked on how it turned out. I also really like how the gaming seat folds up for better storage.










Only thing left to do is tidy everything up: Paint the seat brackets black, connect the speakers, maybe route the wiring inside of the ABS piping, etc. There is still a little work to be done, but I would say that the next installment (part 5) should wrap it up for Project Cockpit (lol). I will save the gameplay impressions for part 5..

Previous Installments:
Part 1 - The Beginning
Part 2 - The Wheel, Planning/Design
Small Update - Materials Acquired
Part 3 - Big Update - Frame Complete