Ask ALEX PFEIFFER Something!

AlexPfeiffer · 07-05-2009, 10:59 PM

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 · 07-06-2009, 12:29 AM

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 · 07-06-2009, 01:40 AM

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

mazdized · 07-06-2009, 07:59 AM

ah U likie big V-8.

Slapshotnerd · 07-06-2009, 08:54 AM

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

Justin Banner · 07-06-2009, 10:02 AM

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 · 07-08-2009, 12:12 AM

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 · 07-08-2009, 12:18 AM

Congratulations Alex, best of luck to you this weekend.

AlexPfeiffer · 07-14-2009, 12:27 PM

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.

blaze1 · 07-14-2009, 01:27 PM

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

Jonnie Fraz · 07-14-2009, 11:10 PM

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!

silviaguy · 07-15-2009, 05:53 AM

Alex, are you looking in to coming out to Chicago this weekend for D1????

AlexPfeiffer · 07-15-2009, 06:38 AM

Going to miss chicago. Its just too far away from me.

silviaguy · 07-15-2009, 07:46 AM

Raod trip dude. hahaha...OK next time.

AlexPfeiffer · 07-16-2009, 10:03 PM

Got the car running today but found some things that need to be worked out. The sandwich adapter thingy for the oil cooler is leaking. The ecu water temp is off by like 30 degree's so the fans didnt turn on and it got hot. Tps wires were wrong. I still need to figure out the alt wires. Got the peak and hold injectors but dont know what value to put in the ecu. Didnt have it running long enough to start working on the tune. Going to put the wide band on it tomarro once the small things are taken care of.

AlexPfeiffer · 07-26-2009, 10:51 AM

With the bullseye turbo she starts to spool at about 3500 and gets full boost at about 4500. Pulls to 7000 and stays pretty flat to 8k. Got the rev limit at 8k right now. Made 630 at 23psi and the oil cooler sprung a leak. Was on 50% 91 and 50% 104.

You could tell once we added the half race gas to it, the motor sounded alot better. Much happier on race gas. The graph smoothed out alot. I have 10gal of c16 waiting for when its ready to go for high boost. 23psi seems like it will be fine to drift on though. Its just spinning the tires once on boost, drove it up and down the road just to see. I need to take the car out to an event and drive it a bit to see what else needs to be worked on. I'll take it back for more boost and tuning after I can make sure everything else is good.

Hubert Young · 07-27-2009, 09:38 AM

Wow, good to hear it's running!!!! Can't wait to see it!

YOitzJDM · 07-27-2009, 12:50 PM

if drift avengers wants to buy your car, how much would you charge?

keep in mind that you should price out all the parts you've put on it, and add about $5k to $10k on top of that.

AlexPfeiffer · 07-27-2009, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YOitzJDM

if drift avengers wants to buy your car, how much would you charge?

keep in mind that you should price out all the parts you've put on it, and add about $5k to $10k on top of that.

Dont know how to answer this. You have to understand that I can't sell this car till I fulfill the obligations made to the sponsors. Building the car is one thing, getting it out to events is another.

I also dont think I could put a value on the car. Just the man hours that have gone into this build is around 500 hours. Times that by what you think you would pay a shop to do the work.

AlexPfeiffer · 08-02-2009, 08:07 AM

Took the SC300 to el toro but the fuel pump decided it didnt want to participate, so the car just didnt run right all day. What a waste.

Jonny Fonseca · 08-02-2009, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexPfeiffer

Took the SC300 to el toro but the fuel pump decided it didnt want to participate, so the car just didnt run right all day. What a waste.

Damn dude! Hope you work out the kinks in that beast!!!

AlexPfeiffer · 08-02-2009, 05:15 PM

I was pretty disapointed after spending so much on that damn fuel pump for it to just give up like that. When I say what a waste, to me its just a waste of money. I dont want another one of those pumps now but to replace it with something else will cost even more to modify the fuel lines and such.

sidewaysrules · 08-02-2009, 05:33 PM

Alex mate, it was fun chatting at Dai,s track event on sat , your car looks awsume!! Good luck with it
Do you know if there were any photographers there on sat that I can get some pictures
I did 1 run in my buddys 350z twin turbo, lots of smoke, lots of fun, so much smoke I got lost and had to stop!!
Leon Styles

AlexPfeiffer · 08-03-2009, 07:20 AM

I know there was people taking pictures but didnt get a chance to talk to anyone. Yeah, I want some pics too.

AlexPfeiffer · 08-12-2009, 07:54 AM

The Vette is a beast. We are still working on the suspension to fit my driving style. I'm so used to driving low hp cars that I like my steering to always be grippy. The Vette is going over to Techno Square and I'm going to start working my magic to it. Have a few things with the rack that we will be changing. Sonoma is pretty close so we dont have much time. I did ok in Seattle, got 24th in qualifying and ran against JR for top 32 and lost the round.

Got to work on the Lexy yesterday and found a bunch of crap in the fuel filter. Cleaned that out and hopefully that will solve the fuel issues. Going to start cleaning up the car, it will be going to the Seibon meet on the 29th. Took some of the flames off and going to redo some of the vinyl.