After a while I'm back with a fresh start
 

Hey guys its Dane aka rogue.

I know I've pissed some of you guys off in the past with my outspoken attitude and unneeded negative opinions. I've been dealing with chronic pain and chronic pancreatitis for about 5 years now, so often times my mood swings would reflect online.

Anyways I just want to Apologize to both Scott, Steven Rupp and any others I may have offended in the past with my snide comments. I am a lot less negative these days and have cut out a lot of the negatives in my life. If I have nothing nice to say I'll say nothing at all. I've become a much more positive person and have learned to cope, turned over a new leaf so to speak.

Back to cars!:topic:

I've been spending a lot of time up in the canyons lately. Angeles Crest is my main stomping grounds as it is only a few minutes from my house. Its a drivers dream. I put in an Escort Max radar unit along with ZR4 Laser shifting and it has saved my butt quite a few times. Its a great place for a drive and I'd love to meet up with some of you for a good drive up to Mount Wilson, down the back and back down through palmdale on the 14. I also love driving down through Ventura and then up through the Malibu canyons, stop for a soda at the rock store and whatnot.

I had a near death experience on Malibu Canyon road chasing my buddies Audi R8 (which couldn't get away btw! Pro Touring Camaros ftw!). The Control Arm snapped at the ball joint mount on the firewall side and the only thing that kept the wheel from completely collapsing was the front part of the mount. It snapped on a long sweeping left that luckily had a big turn off because I could do nothing but go staight!@#$ UPSIDE DOWN by Dick Guldstrands shop which is now closed. SPC kindly replaced the arms and Savitske Classic & Custom helped me get back on the road with some tall ball joints. The car now pivots like its 50/50 weight distribution and I'm VERY happy with it.
Our route that day:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-0...no/Capture.JPG
The Snap! :goggles:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-h...o/DSC02837.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-i...-no/noname.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...-no/noname.jpg

I've befriended a couple track instructors and race drivers through friends. I have gotten a lot of free instruction but we're looking to do a track day mid January for my 35th birthday. I hope to have the cage done by then and Fuel cell...

I've had some real fun with the camaro lately, doing a photo shoot for UFC heavy weight Josh Barnett in which I did donuts around him in a rooftop parking lot in downtown LA. Never before have I been so close to being beat to a pulp. I saw my life flash before my eyes every time I came a bit too close for his liking :waveflag:

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-R...022_152018.jpg

I told him, stand next to the pole in the center and you'll be safe :knokwood:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9...022_145524.jpg

I'm still waiting for UFC 360 to publish the artical/video footage.

Speaking of which, if anyone in the Socal area wants to get their car some photoshoots and video time, I've been working with a guy named Gabriel at Mr Vintage Machine whos super cool and friendly. He's always calling me asking if I can help him locate certain cars.

If you've got something other than a pro-touring Camaro (hes got 3 already) send me an email with a front angle and back angle and your name/number at daign2002 at gmail.com and I'll forward them to him for his database. They pay anywhere from 250-600 and usually just need you to be on set to move the car around. I believe they will insure the car if any driving is done. Gabriel would know.

On a somewhat offtopic note, I got the interior done on my 61 Continental thats been in my family since I was born. I'm real happy with how it came out, and only have a few small things they need to fix.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-L...o/DSC03412.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1...o/DSC03417.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-d...o/DSC03421.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-A...o/DSC03422.JPG

I got myself a new daily driver a 2013 Mitsubishi Evo (my first import) and the motor blew at 4600 miles. It took 19 days for them to replace it under warranty and they never called me once to give me status. They also tried to get out of replacing it because of aftermarket wheels... I am DONE with modern cars so I am putting it up for sale after xmas.

I think I'm going to either build or buy someones completed Fuel Injected pro-touring/resto-mod early Bronco or a 1965 Buick Riviera. Nail-heads are pretty reliable with a rebuild right? I'm open to suggestions, it just needs to have Fuel Injection and AC, driver quality....

Anyway, enough rambling. I hope everyones doing well, Mary is kicking but at the autocross races, Stielow is building cars GM should produce in mass, and Todd is continuing to always improve his already stunning car.

I hope you guys can forgive me, welcome me back, and let me show that the proof is in the pudding. Happy Holidays all!

I hear Phil Schmidt from PS Engineering closed up shop, retired and sold the molds to someone. Is this true? I am trying to reach him to thank him! If anyone has a lead I'd appreciate it!

-Dane formerly the abrasive user known as 'rogue':secret:

Some shots from Angeles Crest the week it was paved! MAN it was beautiful!

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-N...918_115320.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-I...o/IMG_3811.JPG

Went and saw RUSH with a bunch of gearheads and Valdez who hosts some show for Motor Trend... Fantastic driver and a great guy. I believe he knows Rupp and a bunch of you guys?

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3...0a1fb01d_7.jpg

Welcome back, Dane. Glad you're still out there and continuing to manage the pain well. I can't imagine being in your shoes. Also glad that broken control arm wasn't any worse.

Did you ever sell your Mini with the R1 motor?

Dane,

Glad to see you back with a nice re-intro. :thumbsup:

How's the dog?

How's your health?

Ever run into Magnus in the canyon?

Thanks bud. Funny you mention Magnus. Do you mean Magnus Walker the Porsche Outlaw builder? I have seen him around downtown, but never up or down the crest, and if I did, I'd turn around and try to keep up or show him what pro-touring is ;)

He's an amazing builder. I wish I had bought 10 1970s 911s back when they were worth nothing just to do the resto-mod outlaw thing to them.

Ralphie is wonderful we just took our Xmas Photo for the year.
https://scontent-b-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/...78765678_n.jpg
Hes still the fastest pup around and leans into turns like a champ! I've taken him up the crest a few times but I can't fashion a dual seatbelt situation that will keep him planted so he doesn't have to lean so I usually feel back and go back down. He hates the daily driver too. (Mitsubishi Evo X) Just hunkers down and prepares to lean like an olympic bobsledder :RunninDog:

My health is MUCH improved in the past year or so. Thanks for askin! Pain management has finally found a combo of meds and I've found some eastern medicine/routines that keep me stable and trucking on day to day. I still have bad days, but I build UAV's, Aerial Video Hexacopters and scale RC vehicles to pass the time at home. I always have about 5 rotating projects to work on.

Finishing up a D90 right now. Lots of time into this gal.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-U...o/DSC03366.JPG

The Evo X engine blew up at 4600 miles with no mods, (go figure, i buy a new car after the mini nightmare for reliability and its motor blows) so I'm thinking about picking up another P71 daily driver, and doing a resto-mod 65 Buick Riviera or Early Bronco with Explorer/Mustang drivetrain. Whatever it is, it has to have AC and a rebuilt motor or swap. It will also be parked outside :(

Yeah thanks I got someone upstairs looking out for me! I did, guy drove down immediately after agreeing on a price, loaded his trailer, drove 11 miles from Northern California and paid me 25k in mixed bills. I was someone confused because I couldn't count it all (there were 5s and 10s in there!) so he actually got it for 24500. No biggie, that just means he couldn't call me to bitch when he couldn't figure something out.

I did eventually get it running properly. It would lay burnouts through 4th gear and was the scariest car I've ever driven. My race driver friend said it was absolutely brilliant but agreed that it was a bit much for the street...

I was very glad to get out of it.

Ralphie's a stud! Maybe a carbon fiber cradle that's elevate so he can enjoy the ride with a decent view. :D

My latest K9 addition is a Great Dane and his high CG's don't work to well with spirited driving. LOL!

Glad to hear the pain management is working!

I spoke with Magnus at SEMA........you need to attempt to hook up with him. I talked with him for over 20 minutes......great person.....period. I got the feeling he's beyond sneaky fast and definitely likes to push the envelope.

Glad to hear things are on track for you. :thumbsup:

Welcome back you prick! LOL







I've always said- speak your mind cause if you don't you might as well be silent.

Welcome back and im glad you are feeling a bit better.

Nice re-intro Dane! Glad you found a bag of maturity in the kitchen!


Always sorry to hear about your 'issues'… you just don't want to make those issues OUR issues. I think you've got that handled now. So welcome back!

Looks like you cruz all my old stomping grounds

Welcome back :hello:
Always did like your car

X2. :thumbsup:

I was actually just wondering where you went a couple days ago - glad to see you back. I always liked seeing pics/videos of that car.

Isn't the community a lot more concerned with why that UCA ball joint plate broke than anything else ?

It doesn't look like the weld failed, but possibly the HAZ was the issue ? That's a pretty thick BJ plate, I've seen them sold by Coleman/Howe only 1/8" thick and that looks 3/16" or more. Did you replace it with the same style ? Can you give us a more close up picture of it ? Actually looking at it I think there must be a clevis there not a weld - that makes me even more curious why it broke. Any signs of fatigue from fretting ?

That could have been a very very serious crash. I'd think I'd be taking a good hard look at what happened there. Binding or mechanical issue ?
I couldn't figure out exactly but you were saying it came from Guldstrand ?
How long had it been on the car ?
there is some rust but it looks minor.

Glad to have you back Dane. And that your pain situation is much improved.

:lol:

My guess: metal fatigue due to lack of articulation range as installed. But I'd like to know for sure.

No HAZ in that section, I believe its a 7/16" hole.

There was a discussion about it after it happened and I believe Dickie fixed it no problem. And put the ball joint in the right spot. Marcus pointed out that the arms were installed upside down.

Marcus @ SC&C
" Hi Rogue, bummer about your UCA. I see a number if issues that you may want to attend to before you repair and drive the car again. First off the breakage was caused by vertical binding, flexing the ball joint plate until it fatigued and snapped off. This is the mode of failure that produces those results in destructive testing. The arm was probably contacting the frame in droop long before it reached full travel. There is a small witness mark in photo 1. There are a couple causes for this.
*First off, the arms are installed UPSIDE DOWN*.
The vertically offset pivots that normally add a lot of droop clearance are now dramatically restricting it. Flip the cross shafts over to fix this. Second, we only sell these A arms for configurations using taller ball joints or tall spindles, this also adds more clearance in droop and it zeros out the mounting angle of the ball joints at ride height. It appears you are using stock height ball joints and spindles. There`s no geometry correction like that so it would be a big improvement to upgrade.
To add insult to injury you`re running the Guldstrand mod, which yields another huge reduction in droop travel! The car must have hardly any droop travel at all.
Rogue, I know you didn`t buy the arms from us because they`re in a configuration we don`t sell but please give me a call and I`ll be happy to talk you through the application and work with you and SPC to get the proper setup on your car. I promise you that when they`re configured and installed properly they are extremely durable and work fantastic. "

Welcome back Dane. Glad to hear you are doing better.
This pic is awesome. LOL @ the Grand Theft Auto billboard in the background. Very cool.
Sorry about hear about the 2013 EVO. I was thinking about trading in the truck for a '14 EVO MR at one point, but after reading some of the threads online on the forums and now this,...I'll pass. They seem to all have trouble with the ACD pump as well, which, if goes after warranty is BIG BUCKS. I'll pass. :badidea:

Okay good to know the info on the UCA. Always need to take these failings seriously.

Welcome back! I too was just recently wondering where you'd gone. Always loved reading your snappy posts. hahaha

Dick Guldstrands shop installed the control arm upside down! All the forces generated by chasing that Audi R8 in those canyons roads just snapped it. It wasnt designed like that.

SPC investigated it. I always felt like my left hand turns were a bit off and my aligment specs showed it.

Car handles a hell of a lot better now. Rotates real well, starts to slide, drop the throttle and it squats down.

No worries SPC is all good, after an education in further suspension geometry just make sure to run them with tall ball joints.

-D

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome back.

I know for a fact Mitsubishi had to tune the car specifically for Arizona California and Nevada 91 octane. So with a factory tune, people should be ok, but anything else, even minor, and you should be running E85 or octane booster. I filled up RIGHT before it started detonating.

Cars a bit rough to drive too if you dont have the best roads. But MAN is it a blast to drive awd. It feels like cheating honestly.

I get back in my Camaro and find myself a slower more methodical driver these days, after finding the limite of the evox on street tires. My track buddies put the fear into me, understably. I've always driven like I have nothing to lose, but thats not true, I've got 4 limbs and the rest of my body to keep healthy!!

No more judgement 'snappy' posts.

I still stand by my believe that the best modification to any car is seat time at the track.

Ive been handled some humble pie a couple time by cars MUCH lesser than my own simply due to the drivers skills! But I fully understand the appeal of autocross and lack of risk. You screw up at the track, things can get deadly, at an autocross you get some cone rash.

Happy Holidays everyone!