Expanding Abilities (May Load Slowly)
I recently bought an intervalometer for My dslr. The device allows You to take pictures automatically at regular intervals. Since I was hanging out at a friends house the day it arrived, I set things up on His deck and let it rip until the sun went down. I suppose the best thing to do is make a video with these images, but .gif’s display in much higher quality, take up less storage space and require no external websites to host them. As such, this is an animiated .gif of 820 pictures taken seven seconds apart. The down-side is that such a massive .gif loads pretty slowly, so give it a few seconds!
The next day, I woke up and set My camera to shoot out of the window in My attic and went to My brother’s for the day. Again, every seven seconds was what I set the intervalometer to do. I got home five or six hours later and it was still snapping away. Due to file limitations, I had to make a video out of this set. Which required Me to create an account on Vimeo and link it back to here. It’s a bit of a hassle just for simple time lapse photography, but My traditional .gif methods just aren’t capable of handling so many images. YouTube and Vimeo both have a thirty frame per second limit and only Vimeo allows high definition video clips. Here is two minutes aimed at the southern sky, featuring My roof, chimney and birch tree, dancing to a classic trance song by God’s Groove, called Prayer 3, circa 1993. Maybe I will discover a .gif automator that can handle the amount of files needed for these longer image strings. We shall see, but for now, I will have to get use to making videos… Shooting at more interesting locations will be the name of the game, something had to be done as a test run though! I am learning as I go.
In Shop @ M.A.Performance
I headed south of town to see some friends and have a peak at the drift truck one of them is building. Destination: Modern Automotive Performance, which has a nice shop for doing fabrication and modifications of many varieties. Several drift drivers work here, among other mechanics with different taste in cars and style. Personally, I like walking into shops like this. Older cars, made to be clean, show quality machines. New sports cars being upgraded, custom builds of all kinds, even on motorcycles. About two dozen cars packed into a not so small work space.
There were several incarnations of Evo’s, in various states. While most were street cars, with light modifications. Some were clearly drag cars, parachute brakes and all. The black, carbon fiber laden Mustang was pretty nice looking. As was the old Celica, pictured from the front, with it’s hood up.
Below, is Andrew’s Chevy S10 pickup truck, which is being rebuilt from the frame up. Quite literally, the frame, shock mounts, structure, and wider fenders have all been cut out and made from scratch. Having already gone with a Nissan 240sx with the engine from it’s japanese variant, as well as a v8 fox body Mustang and a 1jz in a Nissan pickup, He has opted to use a turbo-charged Toyota 2j-series engine. I am quite curious to see how this truck does on the track once it is assembled. It will certainly look and sound interesting.
Pattern in the Press
MY FRIEND’S DRILL PRESS HAS A NICE ARRANGEMENT OF MILLING LINES ON IT’S WORKING SURFACE.
Around the Shop
I’ve Missed My friend Ryan. Three years ago He moved to California, but now He has come back to Minnesota. Just bought His first home too, a garage. There is a house next to said garage, but it’s really all about the garage..
I was sad when, just before moving back home, He sold His drift car and started buying cars from the 1960’s. I do love classic cars, but there is a lot less fun involved when compared to drifting. For Me anyways! This guy does seem to enjoy the laboring that brings forth functionality, so fun may be a relative thing in this case. Happily for Me, Ryan suddenly bought a 240sx hatchback. The guy He got it from had it in parts, so there was assembly required. Two days later, everything had been put in place, connected and ready to roll. He re-assembled the suspension, adding the ‘knuckles’ which allow the extreme turning angle that smoke crazed drifters love. But when Ryan started the car up, FAIL. .. … Engine was no good. Viewing under the valve cover revealed a lot of gunk built up and one of the cams had been worn in more than a millimeter.
Naturally, Another engine was found and applied to the car. This time, It worked great. Idling very smoothly, and not blasting a large cloud out of the exhaust like the one it replaced. I guess this car was once owned by Scooter’s brother, so it even came with a classic crew sticker on the back window. It’s not a monster like His last two cars, but who knows what is to come? Things are looking good at Opposition Motors.
Back for More... 