Well i also thought about a funeral for a moment while we were jumping in that Corolla. Regardless, it was one hell of a good time, i could hardly have that much fun with any of my cars! This proves that you don't need a lot of horsepower or grip to have an epic driving experience. It also reminded me of the times when i did this kind of shit regularly, back then i couldn't get my hands on a car with more than 100hp! You also kinda tempted me to build a rally car, the AE86 would be a good candidate for that...

And you drove the Lambo like a boss, i could see that you got the skills from the time attack events! I wasn't really used to the R33's new setup too so you got me

Added 26 seconds later:

# BigSmoke :

Power Player

(NOTE: Some pics are taken from Side to Side and Franklin's thread)

It's the third week of the USA trip and things went ultra wild over here!
This time, we got ourselves a SEMA-grade build, an impromptu rally stage and another trackday!
I also discovered and experienced two different poles of engine power!
Let's find out what exactly happened by checking out the update below shall we?

[29 Aug 2019]

We were going to get some breakfast, particularly after I discovered the got nothing but beer and cola on their fridge The reason of this is that Benny never do breakfast for almost his entire life, while Ziga(Lagano) usually grab sandwiches from 7-Eleven or similar stores. Not that I'm complaining, you might remember that at times my life simply depends on either onigiri or instant ramen, though lately I do also grab sandwiches from either 7-Eleven or Lawson back in Japan. And because they got guests this time (that is Soju and myself), we decided to go to suburban areas(well, almost rural) of Ardmore and go to a depot that serves cheap foods, since all are on Benny for the day. Benny and Soju were riding on Benny's Aventador, while Ziga and I were riding on Ziga's 997.

We arrived at the place as brunch time(10am, if you're wondering) came close. Benny ordered a cup of coffee. Ziga noticed they got croissant and other kinds of cakes available, so he ordered a croissant and Soju grabbed some of the cakes, plus a cup of tea. Me? I was quite hungry so I ordered two egg omelets, a huge stack of pancake, a large bottle of cola and a cup of coffee. Realizing just how big my order is as the others are returning a surprised look to my face, I clarified this: "What? Well the reast are for lunch and snacks at the garage, so I don't have to go outside twice". Benny responded with quite a jab: "Oh yeah yeah, they don't call you Big Smoke for nothing"

As we enjoy our breakfast menu and Benny smoked a pack of cigs while enjoying his coffee, I asked to Benny what's the gameplan for the day.

"Hey Benny"
"What, you want to order some more?" *puffs cig smoke*
"Nonono, this is a lot already." *sips coffe* "Uh, what's the gameplan for today?"
"Uh, what?"
"What's the plan for today?"
"Ah." *sips coffee* "As you can see our garage is fullfilled to the brim. We gotta move the S2K somewhere"
"Well you're right, but why the S2K?"
"It's....not our priority right now. Gotta finish the G35 first, deadline is running close"
"Ah I see. Oh hey why not have me and Soju helping on both builds?"

Soju interjects, "Hell yeah, we'll be eager to help. We don't come this far for nothing my man." I continued, "Ha you see, Soju's the same wavelength as my mind"

"......right then. Ziga, what's the next step for the S2K?" It looks like Benny accepts our offer to help! Ziga then listed all the damaged parts on the S2K to be fixed later. After we finish our breakfasts Benny brews a plan: Soju and him will go around Ardmore and some of its surroundings for an empty garage to store the S2K, while I and Ziga head back to the garage, get the S2K and tow it using their Ford Raptor to the brand new garage. With that settled, we parted ways.

Back in the garage, we grabbed the keys to the Raptor, connect it to the trailer, and.....push the S2K onto it. Thankfully though it's a light car, but having one axle damaged certainly makes matters a bit difficult. I mean we don't want to make further damages while loading it onto the trailer.......

After we successfully loaded the S2K, Ziga's phone ringed. Benny and Soju has found a small garage where we can store the S2K in. It's a bit far from the HQ, but the rent cost was quite cheap. We headed there to store the car, then went back to the HQ to continue working on the G35. Not gonna lie, the Raptor is soooooo huge, getting inside it felt like a wallclimbing session and riding inside it feels like being a giant

By the way, here's the garage we found and store the S2K in. It's a small garage, formerly owned by a bunch of car enthusiasts. Thankfully some tools were still present as well, making our job slightly easier.

[30 Aug 2019]

Soju and Benny took the key to the Raptor to load the S2K again for sandblasting process, leaving me and Ziga in the garage to look for the parts needed to repair the S2K. But instead of going around the town to look for parts shop, we simply cheated a bit by sourcing them around various junkyards, with anything we can't find to be ordered from eBay instead. This way we saved a hell lot of time and energy....all we had to do is sit back behind the PC and sip some cola and beers

But then Ziga's phone ringed. Then he grabbed the keys to the 997, telling me to look for the garage because he had to pick up someone as he tossed the garage keys to my hands. At first I thought he was going to pick up either Benny or Soju...........but then Benny and Soju came back to the garage.

B:"Where's Ziga?"
E:"Going out. Yes, I'm alone here. Don't worry, all safe and sound here"
S:"Oh yah, the Porsche's gone. Is he going to pick the parts?"
E:"Nah, it'll be delivered here later"
B:".....delivered? I thought I told you to go ou-"
E:"That's the power of junkyard and eBay bossman"
B:"......clever boys."

Moments later, Ziga arrived at the HQ.....together with Franklin in the passenger seat! I went off from the PC seat to meet up with Franklin. Of course, fistbumps and brohugs ensues later on. As Ziga and Benny re-introduces the HQ to Franklin, where Franklin can be see fanboying over the Lambo and Porsche as we did back then, Franklin presented a huge box from inside the Porsche's boot and rear seats, which are lots of parts for Benny's Supra! There was a bit of dispute though when Franklin discovered that the Dodge Neon he bought at the last trip had gone, but at least he got a cashback from it.

Franklin then went away to look for a new ride whilst in the US of A, while after all parts has been arrived, Benny went back to the S2K garage to store everything I and Ziga bought earlier.

Later that day, it looks like Franklin has found his new commuter ride. It's a 240SX with 1UZ inside! I know, there are too many S-Chassis in our meals already, but seeing one with 1UZ (or pretty much any Japanese V8) is still arguably a rare sight. It's in nice and clean condition as well, ceratinly worth more than my Greco

[31 Aug 2019]

Benny said he's going to work alone in the meantime with the S2K, so we were tasked to work on the G35. Part of this including finally giving the G35 a new heart. And this being a Side to Side build, it's not just a regular heart they're going to fit inside the G35........

Yes, what you're looking at is the engine of BMW M5 E60, the mighty 5.0L V10 engine! This thing produces circa 500+ BHP in stock form and can easily bring anything to 200 mph, and beyond it when the speed limiter is removed. And of course we did remove it! This engine is a product of all BMW M experts learned from their Formula 1 program, when they were a strong contender in F1. In fact the engine they produced for F1 purposes was the most powerful among the others on that era, recorded at 900 BHP. As a comparison, the one produced by Ferrari and Mercedes that time produced 890 BHP, Renault and Honda ones was recorded around 880 BHP, while the ones made by Toyota and Cosworth made 860 BHP. This, combined with a decent chassis made by Williams, made them a huge force of Formula 1's start of the 21st century, constantly racking podiums and earning several wins in the process.

The engine was quite heavy to lift, but thankfully in the end we can put it inside and fit the G35. Custom engine braces and mounts as well as several other mods were made to ensure the G35 would accept the V10 engine happily. After the engine works were done, we proceeded to other small things, such as lights and wheels spacers.

[02 Sep 2019]

There was almost nothing to do in the garage other than kept on working on the G35. So to relieve myself up I decided to take the Greco for a ride. Before I went off, I decided to tell Franklin the backstory of the Greco, which you can read in the previous update. As I expected, Franklin reacted in disbelief as he laughed and rolling on the garage's floor.

The plan for today is uhhh.....drive the Greco into some backcountry roads, pretend I'm a rally driver and see if the Greco could survive all the torture I and the road throw to him. Well some generations of Corollas, including the AE86 are used for rally racing purposes, so it's time to see if this one has the reputation as well. Ziga told me to head over any rural parts of Ardmore to find these kinds of roads, so I did. It is the very end of summer as well, so temperature is cool enough to roll on and there wasn't any chance of precipitation, so I don't have to worry about muds.

Some time later, I found what looks like a logging track, which I feel wide enough and not too bumpy to have my Greco in, so I decided to swerve off the main roads and go into the deep forest that hosts the logging track.

Or so I thought. I wasn't all smooth sailing obviously, as I discovered the first bump over the road, enough to send the Corolla on air for a while. Landing is a bit harsh but otherwise all is good. I soldiered on on full throttle, keen to see how much power this thing can deliver on dirt. So far everything looks promising despite this thing barely has 100 BHP.

The Greco surprisingly behaved well even when it lost some grip when I slam the accelerator flat out. Well obviously I'm running on dirt and it suffers from understeer, and the aged tyres doesn't help matters either. But damn, I enjoyed every second of it and better still, I don't have to worry about crashes or hurting the car in general. This was a 50 bucks car after all! If I did this in my Silver Queen either I'll do it slowly or not even doing it at all in fear of dents or scratches.

But some time later, I might have to question my driving manner and what I did just said after I sent the Greco jumping on air. Landing wasn't smooth either but amazingly the Greco kept on running without any sort of problems.....well apart from bent front end I guess?

Some time later, having not learned my lesson and thinking the Greco actually still had it, I sent it flying again. This time though, the landing was really harsh to jolt my searts forward and probably ruining the shocks on all sides of the car. And obviously front end might actually bent at this point. Somehow the airbag didn't pop though. Either it wasn't hard enough to pop the airbags, the airbag had popped in the past before I bought it or it doesn't have one after all. Either way reselling this car later could be quite difficult now

After a bit of long driving on compromised shocks and suspensions I found the logging site. It's a bit eerie to see almost everything on the site being empty, but stuff like this are.....inevitable, but also painful at the same time. Nevertheless, gotta move quickly from the site before inviting unwanted attention.

I kept on running on full throttle despite the car being bashed several times. And despite all the tortures I've given it, the Greco somehow survived, particularly with no fallacies on the steering and engine side so far. Eventually I rejoined the main roads later on and head back to Ardmore. Man that's one hell of backcountry rallying I've just did! Not sure if I want to do it again though.....

[07 Sep 2019]

After multiple days of working on the G35, S2K and Benny's Supra, finally we could have a rest. During these times both Benny's R33 and Aventador were rarely used, so I have an initiative to warm it up and take it for a short ride. So as I arrived at the HQ I searched for the R33 keys. The problem was even Ziga didn't know where is it so I had to ask Benny via phone call.

"Morning bossman, it's me Edo"
"Oh hey Edo, morning to you as well. What's the matter?"
"Uh, I've been thinking of taking the R33 for a joyride. Can I?"
"Sure sure, you can take it, just be careful-"
"Sorry to interrput but I can't find the keys to it"
"Ah. I put it inside our key control box"
"Uhhh....where exactly?"
"Ask Ziga where is it, the open it. The leftmost key is the key you needed"
"Okay bossman, thank you for the guide"
"It's all good, see ya later kid"


After the call I went off to the R33 to look for it's keys, and the doors were indeed weren't locked. After a bit of fumbling to search the globebox I found the key exactly where he told me. The only problem was it wasn't a Nissan key......it was a huge Lamborghini key. Yup, that's the key for the Aventador. Did he actualy forgot where is it or what? I was going to grab the correct key but foolishly enough I decided to call Benny once more just to make sure.

"Yea my boy what's up?"
"Uh, Benny, you sure it's the right location?"
"Yes it is."
"I-it's the Lambo key that I found over there"
"Good, you've picked the correct key"
"What do you mean the correct key-"
"Your first job of the day, get inside the Lambo and pick me up"
"Eh, are you serious?"
"Yes I'm dead serious. Now go pick me up will you?"
"O-okay"
"Right, thanks a bunch"

I didn't believe Benny handed me a much faster car for the day! There are two problems though. Number one, I never drove a supercar before, despite Silver Queen being quite fast enough for races. Number two, I forgot where Benny's house is After asking Ziga for the address and directions to Benny's crib, as well as Ziga ensuring me things will be okay if I put the Lambo on Strada('road' in Italian) driving mode, I rolled out to the streets inside Benny's savage black Aventador.

I opted to take a bit of highway to make things faster. Thankfully traffic wasn't so crowded for the time being, but the Lambo sure to turn a lot of heads, from little kids spending the weekend witht their parent, to a lot of teens and socialites hunting the Lambo for Instagram and Snapchat feeds, and even adult and senior citizens! Lots of cameras and smartphones aimed at the Lambo from various sidewalks and inside almost every single traffic cars. I'd like to enjoy the sudden fame some more, but then again it's not my car and the owner is waiting for both myself and his beloved bull.

Some time later I approached the area where Benny lives. Ah yes, let's talk about the Aventador for a while. This thing has entered it's 9th year of prodcution, beginning back then in 2011. Along this timeline it has span two generations and a lot of special editions. This is the very first one, producing a mighty 690 BHP. Funnily enough it produced less power than Dodge Charger and Challenger Hellcat, which both produces 707 BHP. But then again both cars are ultra heavy, weighing almost 2000 kg in the Charger's case and 1880 kg for the Challenger, whereas the Aventador weighed around 1500 kg and has four wheel drive. So clearly this thing is superior. Per Lambo's tradition, it's named after a bull that fought at matador events. Also a trivia: Ferruccio Lamborghini's zodiac sign is Taurus, which is symbolized with, you guessed it, a bull. Ferruccio himself also enjoys watching matador battles along his lifetime.

The Aventador has three driving modes, which are Strada(road), Sport(self-explanatory), and Corsa(race). In Strada mode, the transmission can shift itself or receiving input from your hands, the exhaust is much calmer(though it's still loud), traction control level is high, and the power distribution is set at 30:70 F:R. At crusing speeds like I did at the moment, half of the cylinders also deactivates, turning the V12 engine into an inline 6 just like a Nissan RB or Toyota JZ series.....or Ford Barra series Sport mode will dial the TC down a bit, throttle is now much responsive and the exhaust became louder, power distribution changes to 10:90 F:R but the transmission still could shift itself. And finally, in Corsa mode, the power distribution reverts back to 20:80 F:R but this time TC will be put at minimum and you have to shift manually, and the gearchange speed is much, much faster. As the name suggests, it's reserved for trackday usage.

Finally I arrived at Benny's crib. Benny, who waited at front while puffing more cigs, gets into the car.

"Great, you did it! How's the trip along the way?"
"Oh it was nice bossman, though the exhaust was quite loud"
*laughing* "That's a sign of true Lambo"
"Oh, and people seem to like it. Cameras and smartphones are everywhere!"
"Oh wait what's this? You put it in Strada?" *flicks the mode selector to Corsa*

"Wait bossman WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"Now, the second part of your mission. Take me to our HQ, and yes, I've put it in Corsa"
"But why?"
"This is your test to see if you can tame my bull"
"Ah.....okay, but with one condition. If I die, you pay for my funeral"
"Nope"
"Okay let me rephrase that. If both of us die, Ziga pays for our funeral"
"That's acceptable" *mass laughter* "Okay now hit it son!"
"Okay here we go!" *slams accelerator hard* "WOAH!"

"Oi not literally! Just drive as you normally do!" Benny scolds and warns me. "Ah okay bossman, I'm sorry for that", I replied. Turns out city driving on Corsa isn't as difficult as I thought. ALl it takes are ultra-sensitive hands to counter the occasional little flick of slides whilst turning, and even more sensitive feet to curb the heavy foot tendency that susually rises from driving thee kind of cars.

As we approach somewhere below a highway pass, Benny told me to go under it, and floor the Lambo for a while, then do several downshifts, so I did. There I discovered why people love Lambos oh so much: The ultra loud and dramatic engine noise felt like a giant monster is going to crush us anytime, emitting a supersonic and devilish aura. Sometimes it's true what enthusiasts say about supercars in general: It's not about aerodynamics, it's about the drama that surounds it.

Speaking of which, back when it's still fully owned by Signor Ferruccio himself, Lamborghini never entered a race, at least as a manufacturer outfit. Feruccio was once actually a race driver himself at his youth. He entered the famous Mille Miglia race with a modded Fiat 500 at 1948. Sadly his effort ended prematurely at 680 mile mark out of 1000 when he crashed into a restaurant. Ever since that incident, Ferruccio has never ever entered any racing activites ever. Lambo's first racing effort came at 1989 under the ownership of Chrysler, when they made a V12 engine for the midpack Larousse team. It was brutally fast but also tragically unreliable. At 1993 they almost made a deal with McLaren for 1994 season, and even the legendary Ayrton Senna liked the engine, but in the end McLaren decided to make a partnership to Peugeot. We know what happened by then: McLaren had a hard time with Peugeot engines, Senna moved to Williams but then tragically died at Imola, and Chrysler sold Lamborghini to Indonesian company called MegaTech.

Under the leadership of MegaTech and eventually Audi AG(which means they're also owned by VW), Lambo produced various race versions of the Lamborghini Diablo at the end of the 20th century, such as the Diablo GT1, Diablo GT2, Diablo SVR and Diablo GTR. Then as the Murcielago came into life, Lambo had a partnership with Reiter Engineering to build race versions of Murcielago, namely the Murcielago RGT, Murcielago RGT-LM and Murcielago RSV. At this point Reiter were also licensed to build race versions of Gallardo for GT3 dan Super Trofeo racing needs. And finally at 2015 Lamborghini established their Squadra Corse, held a partnership with Dallara and built the Huracan GT3 as well as the Huracan Super Trofeo. Reiter still build Lambo racers, but limited to Gallardos, which is now renamed the Gallardo R-EX. Right we've veered wayyy too far from my story, let's catch up now.

Eventually we arrived to the HQ. After lunch and a bit of rest, Benny took us for a trackday to test the R33 again. Benny drive with Ziga inside, while I was ordered to hand the wheel and keys to Soju. Just like our last trip here, we went to Hallett Motor Circuit where my Mustang juggles like a jelly and we saw a three-way battle between Soju, Benny and Lydia(RedCarDriver).

Some time later we arrived at the track. The first thing we did was helping Benny assessing his R33 for track performance, after we did one for street usage some time ago. Benny turned out blazing fast laps, so this should be a great sign of all the Nismo goodies worked.

But then, Benny issued a challenge to me and Soju to test our drving skills and R33's performance even further: "Both of you will drive in pairs inside the Aventador to race Ziga in the R33, each for three laps." He elected to just shotgun ride due to being exhausted after hours and hours of tuning multiple cars.

I asked Soju to go first, since he had much more experience than myself when it comes to taming north of 600 horsepower. His famous and legendary Supra has more power and actually lighter than the Aventador, so this should be a piece of cake for him. Nevertheless, Ziga proven to be able to dish a tight fight against us.

Then it was my turn to run, this time I sort of got the hang of it but Ziga kept on dishing even more intense fight against me. But nevertheless it was quite fun and scary at the same time. This is my first time battling for position instead of running against time, and of course because it's not my car and it's not a touring car racer, I don't want to make contact and hurt both the Aventador and R33.

After both races has finished, we found......Benny sleeping like a log inside the R33. At first I was panicked because I thought he passed out due to things like dehydration or heart attack(hey, it's possible you know), but turns out he's just sleeping due to exhaustion from all his works during the week. We decided to bring him back home so he can rest proeperly.

Wew finally update done! Let's see how my wallet runs this time:

Initial V$ = V$ 17,079
Paycheck = V$ 940
Mentions x3 = V$ 750 (thanks Benny, Franklin and Ramalhinho!)
V$ at the moment = 17,079 + 940 + 750 = V$ 18,769

That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!