Author: Matt Haugness

A couple of weeks ago, I attended The Old School Reunion produced by Happenstance Event Productions. I had a blast and wanted to make sure I attended the rest of their events this summer. Their next event was WaterWerks On the Green 2012 which was held on June 23, 2012 in North Bend, Washington. Dave Meister was in charge with help from a large number of volunteers, vendors, sponsors and show entrants. They all arrived at the base of Mt. Si at sunrise along with a bunch of European car enthusiasts.

As I mentioned in Update 10, the Turbo II rear end was one of the most valuable pieces of the entire parts car. Instead of pulling the differential, axles, brakes and hubs and swapping them over to Project LSX-7, I decided to just use the entire Turbo II subframe. This made installation easier and since the parts car had nearly the same mileage as the shell, I wasn’t too concerned about its structural integrity. Before I bolted the subframe up to the S5 chassis, I wanted to upgrade a few areas that nearly everyone who drag races these cars recommends.

Photos by Nick & Melissa Poirier, Ryan Cutuli, TK Akiyama, Robert Bishop, and Andrew Fukuyama Article by Matt Haugness. One thing that you can never be certain of in Washington is the weather. June is typically a month filled with warmer weather and the occasional heat wave. For June 23rd, many news networks were predicting a 50% chance of rain throughout the day. When we arrived around 8am in the morning, many of us were optimistic. The skies were attempting to clear and it was fairly warm outside.

Photos by Ryan Cutuli and Matt Haugness – Article by Matt Haugness On June 17th, Ryan Cutuli and I were able to attend Evergreen Drift Round 3 at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, WA. Although the clouds above the track looked ominous, it didn't start raining until the end of the day. This was the first dry event this year at Evergreen.

It's not often that an owner knows the full history of the cars they modify. They get a car mid way through its life and that's where the build begins. In Tyler's (mapleleafautobody) case, this Civic has been in his family for the last 20 years. It was bought brand new at Northwest Honda in Bellingham, WA back in 1992 by Tyler's older brother. He drove it for 10 years before contemplating trading it in for something newer. The dealership offered him next to nothing for the car back and instead of trading it in he passed it onto Tyler.

Photos and Article by Ryan Cutuli Most of us are familiar with the types of meets generally hosted in the Pacific Northwest. The restored classics, the VW flashbacks or the ever adventurous Subaru snow runs, to name a few. When it came to our attention that an event would be held for nostalgic imports that have helped shape the foundation of our scene today, we simply had to check it out.

When swapping an LSX engine into an RX-7, the weakest link in the car is the stock differential. As with most manufacturers, Mazda didn’t design their base model components to handle more torque than they would ever be exposed to. However, they did design the differentials in S4 Turbo II models to handle more torque since the engine produced significantly more power. Although some owners have gotten away with using an NA rear in their V8 swapped RX-7’s, they typically don’t last long after they start launching the car. The S4 Turbo II clutch type differential is known for its…

Photos by Nick Poirier and TK Akiyama. Article by Matt Haugness. On May 26, 2012 hundreds of car and motorcycle enthusiasts attended the Support PGP Meet at PGP Motorsports Park in Kent, WA. As you may know, King County recently restricted the use of their track to public and corporate rental karts which severely impacts their business. It has also hurt the motorsports community because PGP was such a affordable and convenient location for people who enjoy drifting, lapping, and Supermoto. The goal for the meet was to bring attention to the issue and show our support for the track…