Lamborghini Murciélago LP 640 At Nordschleife.

The video featured an Lamborghini Murciélago LP 640 at Nordschleife.

Inland Drift

I went to the place called Inland Drift last week. It's located by the lake Perris. It's an another place like "Adam's Drift". You can drift with your car with reasonable price. I think that those nice practice places are necessary to grow this sport. I wanna thank both Adam's Drift and Inland Drift for giving drifters such a good place!
They have an event every Friday night.
http://www.inlanddrift.com

                                                                   This place is a big skid pad. It's really good for beginner to practice some basic stuff, also it's good for senior to practice tandem drifting.

                                                                  Casper was driving his S14! He was testing some different suspension setup.

                                                           I drove one of their drift car!

Discount Tire IS350 at Adam's Drift

Long time no update! I don't know what to start. 
Well, past couple of weeks, I've been moving and being sick etc...

Other than that, we took the Discount Tire IS350 to Adam's Drift couple weeks ago.  The track was too small for the car has 650HP, however it was fun to drive the narrow course with the monster power car!

THIS MONTH'S COLUMN & LUNCH WITH GRACE

This month's Countersteer deals with kei cars. Most GTChannel readers know what they are, but I wonder how many others?

The August issue just hit newsstands, and this month my column deals with kei cars, or light cars. In Japan, these things are the rage. They're small, fuel efficient and very affordable. By law, they have to be a certain size and have engines that are no more than 660 cc. I think they make a lot of sense in the U.S. Give this column a read and see if you agree with me. You can read Countersteer online by clicking this link. No need to buy the magazine, although it would be appreciated. In other news, I just had lunch with a longtime friend, Grace. I first met her around 10 years ago, and she's been really good about keeping in touch ever since. She used to work for a PR agency, then worked at NBC and is now studying to be an accupuncturist. It was the first time I've seen her in a few years, and she looked exactly the same as she did ten years ago. She wanted to plug her favorite BBQ restaurant called Boneyard Bistro in Sherman Oaks. If you see her there, say hi to her for me. 

My good friend Grace dropped by for lunch the other day. She has a very strong opinion on cars. She's a big 3 Series fan, but isn't too fond of the Mazda Miata. Don't ask why. She's also into broken bicycles...again, don't ask.

Nismo 370Z

Nismo 370Z

Just like the 350Z, Nissan has come out with the Nismo version of the 370Z.  It comes with the Nismo front, diffuser, side skirts and rear wing for a more aerodynamic and aggresive look.  Nissan factory tuned Z has a 3.7L VQ V6 that has 350hp at 7,400rpm.

Check out the Nismo brakes and stiffer suspension for sports driving. Nismo forged alloy 19 inch wheels are a nice addition.  

WRC Rally Poland Pics

We knew that the Ford works team was going to produce some good results after day one when Sebastien Loeb crashed out. Hirvonen drove to the victory and took over the championship points race with a 1 point lead over Loeb.

Unfortunately team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala was not so lucky when he crashed out of 2nd place on the final speed test and was unable to continue. Talk about bad luck. Dani Sordo took 2nd with Henning and Petter Solberg coming in 3rd and 4th respectively. Next stop Rally Finland at the end of the month.

 Read Full Article Here!

I JOINED TWITTER!

I'm not into all this Facebook, My Space and Mixi stuff, but I did join Twitter today. I'm under the name sammitani. I'll be trying to update stuff, but it seemed like a good way to let my firends know what I'm doing if I were doing something speacial, or let people know what I thought of something if it happened right then and there.It'll be interesting to see how all this works. I'll be uploading from abroad too. 

MY NEW TAHOE, GETTING FIXED UP AND READY TO GO

 My new Chevy Tahoe. It's the perfect thing to haul all my junk in. Thanks Masa!

I took possesion of a new vehicle recently. It's this 1997 Chevy Tahoe. Actually, it was previously owned by Masa Kuji of GTChannel. He gave me a sweet deal on it, and now I have a rig that can haul stuff. There's 165,000 miles on the odometer, but the engine is running smoothly. He gave it to me in good shape, all I had to do was get the thing smogged and replace a leak coming from the power steering system. I took it to a great mechanic right down the street. It's the Arco station in Cypress, on the corner of Ball and Moody. The guy there is Alex, and he even went out of his way to flush the whole system, check my brakes all for free. Great guy, and it's great to find a mechanic you can trust. Usually, when you take a car in for service, there's always something else that needs fixing, according to the shop. I'm always skeptical of these guys, and a couple of times, it sounded like such BS that I took my car to another mechanic. Alex was straight up. If you are in the north Orange County, Ca. neighborhood and you need a good mechanic, go to Alex. 

Alex in front of his shop in Cypress. I go here to get my cars worked on. It's on the corner of Ball and Walker in Cypress. 

Why one should re-consider second hand cars

The whole world is searching for the options to save and to earn the most economical and affordable deals. Especially, in the scenario of the Recession, it has become the undisputed need to have the savings in each and every field of life. Even if it is a car buying, there are larger needs to save money in the buying.

The industrial development and the better technically superior qualitative introduction of cars have made it easier to serve the option of buying the Second hand cars. Buying them represent some of the best cost savings options one can find when purchasing any of the cars. People tends to become more conscious at the time of buying of second hand cars and it actually is a beneficial deal as the depreciation factor which affects the newer cars badly is not present in the second hand car buying. Despite of the economical beneficiary points, there are also some of the drawbacks of the buying of second hand cars which can not be over looked at all.

Feel

It's a general human tendency to prefer the newer ones and to smell the second hand items badly. It may not be the case for all, but majority of us are affected by the same tendency. The newer cars give much better feel and a sense of pride for the buyer which may not be the case with the Used cars by owner. Even people see the fresh cars with a great respect, which can not be possible with the second hand cars. Not only the people, but also the buyers can continuously feel the sense that the car is already used by someone else and the feel of enjoyment and sense of prestige is definitely being damaged even after spending some good amount of money.

Threat of defect

In the case of buying the second hand cars, there is always a threat that the actual owner must have faced some problem or could have found some unavoidable defect and that could well be the reason to sell the car. Also, an accident might be the cause for selling the car. But, wisely, the seller can hide the defect or can unreveal the accidents by changing the exteriors or by painting the cars properly to show them almost newer. So, the second hand car buyer is always in the threat of having the defected or accidental car. These causes also make the second hand car buying downside.

Gambling Luck

Buying the used cars is always like gambling the luck as there is no certainty of the quality of the car. The case of newer cars can be different as in those cases, the guarantee and the warranties are sufficient reasons to faith the dealers.

But, in the case of second hand car buying, one has to rely on the dealer and have to stay always in the fear of being cheated by the dealer, which may or may not be the case. So, gambling the luck and trusting the fate is the only option, the second handed car buyer is having while dealing. These reasons can prove as the life time mistakes for the buyer and might not get the worth of his money.

Getting a used car meant that you would not have known what had been done to it previously. The car could have went through an accident (refer to previous paragraph) or used for occasions which may be detrimental to the car's performance or suspension etc. All these uncertainties do play a part in the mind of the consumers.

Having listed the 3 main factors in NOT considering a second hand car, doing a simple cost-benefit analysis may be more useful in deciding to get one or not. So long the cost savings (benefits) outweighs the disadvantages (costs) coming along with it, one should go ahead and make the purchase!