Hello everyone! Its been a while. Let me update yall.
We left off at taking the 180 to Logan’s….well that didnt work out to well. I jumped too far off into the deep end with stripping the car down to a bare shell so that I could have everything painted Yellow. I was planning on making a pretty vibrant car but motivation slowed down to a stall for both Logan and I. We both got busy with other projects and I had a personal deadline to have this car completed, which I didnt make so I parted it out (yes I know I do this everytime) and moved on.
Do I regret it? No, not at all. My love for 180sx has somewhat died over the course of this year and I’m not one to look back decision that I make, so we will move on. I do love the fact that all of the parts that I have sold have gone to good homes to make other cars great, which is something that makes me smile.
So over the last year and some months, I have driven ALOT. Knuckle Up has taken off and has given me a venue to drift the way I want to. Its been great to see the progression not only in myself, but from all of the drivers that attended KU consistently since we started.
I still have a long way to go but as of right now, I feel that my focus is beginning to shift towards driving and less on the aesthetics. I compare this to many other drivers/teams in the past (C’s Garage in particular). If you look at their history, you can see the path that is to follow.
This change in focus for me is partly due for the fact that for first time, I truly love the way that the R32 looks. I decided to try to simplify the appearance of it for 2021. Swapping from vented front fenders to OEM GTR fenders, removing the Dmax wings and finding a BN Sports roof wing, “chroming” the taillights and adding large Garson wheels. Then I lowered the car as much as I could and repainted the car.
I was so happy with how it came out. It finally felt like a “cool” car to me and helped me get over needing another cool car to feel the void. That lead to me eventually parting out the 180 project.
So the refreshing of the R32 was for the season opener for KU. We named it The Double Cup as a homage to Houston culture. We wanting to have some sort of friendly competition that would help push drivers to improve. It was a great event and really gave me confidence in being able to host a larger event. I even was able to win the competition with Kevin which was a mix of feelings since it was my own event and I believe that there was a mistake in the information between the judges and grid workers. All in all, I think everyone had fun and I can wait to have the next one.
After the Double Cup, the focus on driving really made me think about how I could improve. I made the choice of building another car that was simple. A 350z was the chassis that I choose to accomplish this.
I flew out to El Paso, bought and drove the car back. I ordered a bunch of parts and took it to an event. The car drove fantastic but it did take a while to get use to driving LHD again. Z’s are great cars but after that event, I didn’t like the overall experience of drifting a Z. So I posted it for sale and sold it. Short and sweet experience but I know now what I like about drifting and again, no regret on the decision. It went to a good home and I hope the new owners will be able to use the car for what I built it for.
After selling the Z, Essence was given the opportunity to drive Final Bout 4. Most people wont understand it but Final Bout for me is the holy grail and has been a large part of why I have been drifting and doing things the way I have since I went to FB1. Final Bout was an amazing time and I was finally satisfied with my driving at US Air. I have been 3 other times and always felt that I embarrassed myself so my goal was to not do that a 4th time.
The trip was a great time and probably the best time I have had at a Final Bout so far. I finally feel that I “checked that box off” after this that trip but I will also go back if the opportunity presents itself and if I can make it happen.
After Final Bout, we had another Knuckle Up event which was the first event after taking the summer off. My idea was to not have any events during the summer due to the heat but I think next year, we will do something because I never want to take 3 months off again from driving. This was the event that I did over 100 laps and proved that I did not need another “seat time” or “practice” car and that the R32 was capable of doing anything I asked it to.
So that pretty much wraps up what has been going on for the last year and a half it seems like. It was nice to look back and write this. Only reason I did was that I got an email saying that I paid for my yearly fee to keep this website alive so I figured I should update it lol
Of course, I mainly post on Instagram as its much easier to just upload pictures but it is nice to write down some thoughts in here. If anyone has any questions or want to chat about what I said in this post, feel free to hit me up. Maybe something that I learned in the last year can help someone else.
Until next time…
JY w0rld 