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View Full Version : Trip to Spring Festival of LX's and back.




1bad4dr
03-27-2007, 04:12 PM
Well guys I can say that this years event was even BETTER than last years..... Hands down.

I did enjoy seeing folks that I hadn't seen since last year, meeting new faces from the forums, and of course hanging out, partying, and causing HAVOC with everyone. hehe Even got to hang out with the Brand Managers from DCX. Great guys.

Ok, so me and MRSSRT10 left ABQ on Thursday to meet up with the Houston Clan in Las Cruses. During the drive to LC, I decided to stretch the legs of 1bad4dr. Woof. I got her up to x75mph but had to back off due to a Semi. lol Just didn't feel safe to pass at that speed. But boy does 1bad4dr feel great. We got to that speed within a mile and a half. I figure it would have taken another 2 miles to get to 200+ and I had much left (IMO) to reach that speed. One day I will find out.

Met up with Freebird and clan and head towards Tucson. All was good until the rain hit. UGH. Got me a cracked windshield from the rocks being kicked up by the semi's. Oh well. We had to stop just outside of Tucson to utilize the facilities. hehe Mark couldn't hold it any longer. lol We stopped at a reststop only to find that the bathrooms were closed due to NO water. WTF? As we stand there trying to NOT pee our pants we all noticed a very LARGE boulder off in the landscaping. ding ding ding the light bulbs all went off. hehe Now this boulder is large enough to hide 15 grown men and then some. hehe Yes, it was a mad rush to the boulder. We even captured the audience of some other truck drivers. hehehehehe The invention of the new toilet area was started.

We got to Tucson and checked into our hotel when Johnscharger, Ken, and a couple others showed up. Oh yea, did I mention the hail? Got me a little nervous, but ALL the sleds were undamaged. John, Ken, and the others (Sorry I can't remember the names) chatted for a long while while looking at each others sleds. Sorry it was too dark to really see the paint. NExt time buddy. Took John and Ken for a ride in 1bad4dr (was raining so I couldn't do too much). I can say that I really enjoyed meeting John and Ken (Finally). Great guys.

Friday Morning and we are off to meet up with the 24+ LXers at Firebird raceway in Phoenix. Oh yea, gottas love that kind of convoy. lol Especially with the nutz behind the wheels. hehe. We take off, first stop is Gila Bend to pick up a few more. Enroute to Gila Bend we take a State Road shortcut (has twisties and straights) but it rained that night and made the first part of the journey, well a little nerve racking. You see, this road is kind of waving and collects water and sand. Yup!!! At one point we had to cross a fricken LAKE.... Not good as a few of us have our CAI's mounted at the airdamn. HalV48 was first, then me. Hal made it through just fine, but as I was halfway through a Semi decided he did not want to wait for the 20+ other LX's to cross. Yea, the Semi comes barreling through causing a FRICKEN tidelwave... Man I was PISSED. Good thing the Semi made a right turn. After clearing the washed out roadways it was ALL open roads and fun filled twisties. hehehe Thanks Hal for keeping a great pace.

Picked up our folks in Hila Bend and now off to Yuma. lol Gas stop!!! Since everyone wanted to gas up and eat, I wanted to washoff the dirt and grime from 1bad4dr........ Found a carwash and took off with DCXman. hehehe. I guess everyone decided to NOT get something to eat. oops. Sorry. I kept getting calls from Bobf asking how long I would be..... 5 minutes Bob... lol More like 15. ooooops. Anyway, the convoy was on there way as me and DCXman were just pulling up. Great timing.

Now, we are on I-8 headed to San Diego. All is fine, some spirited sprints with others as we take advantage of the Looooong straight highway before reaching the mountain pass. Yup. Well Me and Meister are up front and are playing on the straights (man is Jim's 5.7 quick). The convoy starts its journey up the pass. Well, Meister (Jim) shoots past everyone at a high rate of speed....... I look in the review and see that noone else is following. Well I cannot let a member go alone. Hehe I am now Jim's "Wingman". I did notice after I took off that Bobf and Greatone61 were coming, but that really did not last too long. I think Bob and Snehal got too late of a start. Before I new it, we were hitting x40............. Now for those of you that are not familiar with I-8 going through the mountain, I can tell you that there are several curves and bends that are posted "60 mph" or less. Man that Meister can drive. Not only is JIm great on the straights, he is even better on the twisties. Jim's sled has the KW V2's with Hotchkis sways (front and back) while 1bad4dr is set up with ONLY the KW V1's.

1bad4dr was barely able to keep up with Jim through the twisties, but had no problems during the straights. hehe I certainly pushed the envelope with 1bad4dr during this very high spirited run through the canyon. I am now thinking of the V2 upgrade with Sways...... After going through the canyon, Meister and I came to the LAST downhill straight before reaching the Border Patrol Check Point. This is a fairly long downhill run that would get one to speeds very quick. Yes, I decided to pass Meister and strectch the horsies..... duuuuum dum dum dum duuuuuuuuum!!!

As I am passing Meister, I can see towrds the bottom of the hill (to the right) a clump of bushes. Beyond the bushes I notice something "White".... hmmmm I decided to go ahead and start to slow down (I was at x55) a bit. As the white gets closer (pretty damn fast hehe), I start to dismiss that it is CA's finest..... Uh Oooooh! Well, as I clear the the bushes I final get to see exactly what the white IS.... That's right, CHP. Oh ****!!!!!!!! The CHP starts his quest towards me as I am NOW mashing the brakes. I look in my review to see Jim aways back. Well, Jim now surprises the CHP by locking up his brakes, pitching a lil sideways. **** again. As I start to pull over I notice the CHP doing the "S" manouver and pointing to Jim to pull over as well. YIKES!!!!

I can say that the CHP was very very Professional and Curtious. I really expected him to yank me out of 1bad4dr through the window. lol Nope, the CHP was truely a very nice guy. Jim got his ticket first while me and MRSSRT10 (Maureen) wait. UGH, the longest 15 minutes I have encountered in quite some time. lol During all of this, I notice Greatone and Bobf pull in behind Meister. lmao That last all of one minute until the CHP waved the two off.

The CHP now comes to issue me my ticket. Man I really thought I was going to jail. The CHP spent an awful long time talking on his radio..... As I sign my ticket, the officer explains to me that he is giving me a 120+ ticket as anything over 120 is AUTOMATIC jail time. Whew. The officer said he really did not feel like going to San Diego. hehe I then ask him what he clocked me at.... "136" I said, "that was it?" hehe The officer then asked, "What did you say?"... I said, "Oh, I was speeking to my wife". heheh oops. Shut up Ron. lol

I left, saw Jim waiting for me up the road. Now we need to find the rest of the Convoy...... About a mile up was a reststop where Fast56K was waiting at the offramp. Cool. Met up with the other LXers to share our story. hehe Once again I am blamed for keeping the convoying from reaching San Diego on time. lol Sorry guys........ Really was my fault. As we left the reststop Bob decided to film burnouts from everyone. Woot. You will have to wait for that video. Me and Meister went back for seconds on the burnouts. Meister won that prize. hehe.

Got into S.D. and picked up the remaining members. CButler is now in charge of getting us to I-5. Man, I love following Chris as well. hehe Such fun. We are taking back roads to the 5 which have many twists and turns. Me and Chris wait about five minutes behind the Convoy so that we can enjoy the back road experiences. hehehe Thanks Chris.

We make it to the 5 and ALL hell breaks lose. Ricers that think they are something, find themselves getting squashed by a few SRT8's. hehe

We finally reach Irvine, CA. woot. It's now party time. Me, MRSSRT10, Greatone, HalV48, and DCXman meet up with many LXers at the Spectra (this is an outside mall). Dinner and many drinks and stories. hehe Hal is sucking down beers while I am enjoying shots of Patron (Tequila). I make the mistake of giving CButler a shot. lol Chris now makes a toast in my honor. lol Honor of getting a ticket and not having a Radar Detector. lmao.. Thanks buddy.

Saturday is event day....... Fatchance organises some of to attend an Exotic Car Show opposite of the DCX building. Man what a blast. We rolled in 15+ deep to gain complete attention to the LX platform sleds. hehehe Loads of fine rides there that is for sure. We only stay for about an hour as we all have to prep for the big show. A few of us were privilaged enough to attend a private chat session with the folks from DCX. This was a Q&A so that DCX can gain info from the valued owners.... The session went extremely well. I have found that DCX really CARES about their customers and what their needs, concerns, and of course the compliments are floating around. We met with all of the LX platform Brand Managers, an SRT Engineer, and a few others. These guys must have gotten writers cramp during the 2 hour Q&A. Sorry DCX. The guys from DCX are truely car enthusiasts as we are and DO want to make changes.... We shall see.

Witnessed the wedding of Electrofied and his new Bride. WOW!!! Ozzie performed the service (man, Oz continues to amaze me). Oz did a fantastic job at conducting the wedding service. I wish the Bride and Groom many many years of Happiness.




1bad4dr
03-27-2007, 04:13 PM
Since I did not have time in the morning to take 1bad4dr to the detailers, me and MRSSRT10 spent half the day cleaning and waxing her at the show. Sorry guys. I did get to talk to many people while waxing 1bad4dr. I even took one of the DCX guys for a ride. I asked Zoran if he wanted to drive 1bad4dr.... Zoran said no because if he drover her, then he would HAVE to keep her. lmao....

Sunday was track event day... Man o Man what a day this was. I did some video taping and actually had to leave because I REALLY wanted to race the sled.... But alas, I did not want to brake anything before the drive home..

GreatOne and DCXMan finally showed up to the Speedway and we decided to hit the road. Well, we git as far as Barstow when I started experience a mild case of overheating (ok not me but 1bad4dr).. lol We had to stop for fuel anyway, so I went to add more coolant..... oops. This apparently made matters worse. Yup. as we got on the freeway, ther temp pegged out to 260*....... YIKES!!! We pulled over to try and problem solve. So I decided to release the pressure from the resevoir with a rag while holding the cap in place. well this did not work out to well. lol I guess I did not hold enough pressure on the cap as it BLEW out of my hand. yup Extremely HOT water and Coolant sprayed everywhere to inlcude onto my face. lol I immediately jumped about 20 feet backwards. Oh when I jumped back I found myself in the slow lane of I-15. Fortunately there was NO traffic at that particular time. Whew! DCXMan jumped back as well. He was on the opposite side so he only jumped into the hill. hehehe Greatone61 went for a gallon of Coolant. Took him forever. refilled the radiator and off we went. Well, for only another mile. Started to overheat again. UGH!! We were able to get the sled to the NAPA store that greatOne found. Yea, A NAPA open on a Sunday. Go figure. We thought that maybe the T-Stat went bad so with some phone assistance from Ozzie, I was able to get a part number. Thanks Oz. Soooooooooo, the T-stat was replaced, water added and still having the smae issue. It then dawned on me that the new resevoir cap that I got must have been faulty and that there must be an air pocket in the system. Ok, so now we are purging the system.......... For an hour. WTF? Still have Old Faithful gushing out. Talked with Scott (GSM) several times to figure out what the hell is going on..... We even went as far as removing the T-stat all together. NO go........ Then it happened, the Blower belt jumped off the pulleys. ACK!!!!!!!!!! Now we have to disassemble the aftercooler to try and figure out how this extremely LONG Serpintine belt goes back on. lol Fortunately we had a 300 and Charger there for a visual. This was not as easy as it seems. Took us 2 hours (lol) to get the belt back on. Yea I know, but after we figured out the belt, we had issues with the tensioner pulley. hehehe Figured that one out (FINALLY) by accident.

We now are checking the temp once again.... NADA.... Now we are thinking that the Water Pump went bad... OH SH!T........ after nearly 6 hours (4 of which were in the dark using a flashlight) I decided to drive around town for 10 minutes just to see what would happen. Luck would have it that the temps dropped to a constant 215*. We decided to go ahead and continue our journey home...... Thanks Sam and Snehal for hanging out with me and Maureen. I owe you.

As luck would now be on my side, the temps actually came down to 180* or less (I still do not have a T-stat in). lol at this point I really did not care. We ALL just wanted to get home. hehe

All went well into NM until we were about 25 miles from Albuquerque City limits. lol Na, nothing like that. hehehe Some RETARD decided they wanted to cut-off DCXMan. I dismissed it at first until I saw the retard trying to get in front of me as we were approching a construction zone. I sped up a bit so that this retard would be behind me. lol Now he is tailgating (could not see his lights). So I drop down to a slow 15mph roll. lol This guy is getting pissed now. He keeps getting as close to my ass as possible, flashing his brights, and so on... lol I watch him carefully, then notice that this IDIOT is going to try a right hand pass through a one lane construction zone and a very small and uneven shoulder. No WAY. He makes his move and so do I. hehehe I think I sprayed him with gravel as I spun the tires. hehehe. So this continues through the duration of the construction zone. I did notice traffic backing up behind us so I sped up to the 35 mph limit.

As we cleared the construction the kid decides he wants to have words with me. lol I roll down the window and Laugh. During this time, Snehal and Sam are now boxing the retard in. hehehehehehehehe The kid then realized that there were three of us so he backed off. We then let him pass never to see the likes of him again. hehehehehehehe Too funny.

arfur
03-27-2007, 05:58 PM
Dude - I am AGOG!!!!!

What a trip!!!

p.s. You coward - even Shelly blatted around the track!! :grin:

p.p.s. Hope you sort out the overheating problem mate.....

1bad4dr
03-27-2007, 06:07 PM
Dude - I am AGOG!!!!!

What a trip!!!

p.s. You coward - even Shelly blatted around the track!! :grin:

p.p.s. Hope you sort out the overheating problem mate.....

lol..... overheating is fixed. I even put in my 170 t-stat today and all is fine.

WANKA. lol