Chris Hammondhttp://www.chrishammond.comRSS Feed for Chris Hammond120Life at 800 feethttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2065/life-at-800-feetI went for a walk/hike today, taking my Garmin Forerunner 305 and my phone with me running SportsTrackLive.com. It’s definitely overkill to have both the garmin and the phone tracking my trip, but interesting to compare the data to see how the match or differ. Making it home both devices say we live right around 800’, that’s quite a change from Parker Colorado where we were at 6k feet or so, but consider I work at a building that is at or near sea level and it is only a few miles away. There are some downfalls to living up here in the hills, and in the clouds. Sun, 16 Jan 2011 00:26:38 GMT289eccf5-8535-40cd-b864-edb37ac60505Hello World, Welcome to BicycleTips.comhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2236/hello-world-welcome-to-bicycletipscomSo here we go, yet another blog for me, but this time for something a little different than what I usually (<a href="http://www.project240z.com/" target="_blank">project350z.com</a>, <a href="http://www.project240z.com/" target="_blank">project240z.com</a>, <a title="DotNetNuke Tips and Tricks" href="http://www.dnndaily.com/">dnndaily.com</a>, <a href="http://www.solo2.org/">solo2.org</a>) blog about. Bicycles! Read the full post for all the detailsBicycleTips.comMon, 27 Jun 2011 02:30:38 GMTc0d81864-5ee8-435d-abc6-ac6be94fc583Seeing the Nissan Leaf in Person (w/ Photos!)https://www.chrishammond.com/cars/leaf/itemid/1927/seeing-the-nissan-leaf-in-person-w-photos<p><img alt="" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4053/4614059467_972ee98fc9_m.jpg" style="float: left;" />So today my wife and I headed up to Sacramento (110 miles or so from where we live). In case you hadn’t heard there’s this little thing going on in the state this week, called the <a href="http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/" target="_blank">Amgen Tour Of California</a>, only the largest bicycle race in the United States. While I have attended a bike race or two in the past, and taken quite a few photos at them, the race itself was not the reason we headed up there.</p> <p>On Friday we received an email that Nissan would be travelling around with the bike race with a Nissan Leaf in tow, setting up at the finish festivals letting the public see the car. Since I registered for the opportunity to purchase a Leaf on 4/20, I’ve been stoked about this whole process, and I just had to see the car in person. So the wife and I hopped into the <a href="http://www.project350z.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Project350z</a> and drove up to Sacramento for a few hours.</p> <p>We got up there, found a decent parking space and headed off to walk around the various vendors trying to track down the Leaf! We ended up seeing all the vendors and finding the Nissan booth last. I spent probably an hour or so there, taking various photos, looking the car over, and talking to various reps who were there. Unfortunately the car was pretty much on lockdown, you could get close to it, but couldn’t open up any of the fun parts! The windows were up on this sunny beautiful day, and unfortunately that caused for some glare problems with trying to take interior pictures. I took 152 photos, but after trying to filter through some of them <a href="http://www.leafowner.com/Pictures/view/setdisplay/setid/72157623951240207.aspx" target="_blank">we’ve uploaded a large number of them</a>.</p> <p>Hopefully by taking a look at some of these photos you’ll see different things on the Leaf that you might not have seen in other photos that have been published elsewhere. </p> <p>We didn’t learn too much different from the event, but it was nice to see the car in person. The only major thing I learned was that in addition to the $7500 government tax credit, California residents may be able to get a $5000 tax rebate, as well as the rebates for the charger installation. That could really make the Leaf a no brainer!</p> <p>Here are some of the photos, <a href="http://www.leafowner.com/Pictures/view/setdisplay/setid/72157623951240207.aspx" target="_blank">though be sure to check out the full listing of photos from the Amgen Tour Of California Stage 1</a></p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4613965352/in/set-72157623951240207/"><img alt="Control Center" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/4613965352_4d5bbdfee8_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" style="border-width: 0px;border-style: solid;" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4614673178/in/set-72157623951240207/"><img alt="Nissan Leaf Underbody" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3328/4614673178_884af58815_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" style="border-width: 0px;border-style: solid;" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4614673918/in/set-72157623951240207/"><img alt="Nissan Leaf Underbody" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/4614673918_61b95f1726_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" style="border-width: 0px;border-style: solid;" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4613924784/in/set-72157623951240207/"><img alt="Driver's Side Rear of Nissan Leaf" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4613924784_40cf9bcd7c_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" style="border-width: 0px;border-style: solid;" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4613302391/in/set-72157623951240207/"><img alt="Nissan Leaf Roof and Wing" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3402/4613302391_a56aea8e48_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" style="border-width: 0px;border-style: solid;" /></a></p> </blockquote>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 17 May 2010 02:28:35 GMTf4703038-4b3b-4992-81fc-b25293079b1fReaching out to your Nissan Dealer in Regards to a Leafhttps://www.chrishammond.com/cars/leaf/itemid/1937/reaching-out-to-your-nissan-dealer-in-regards-to-a<p>So there has been some discussion here on LeafOwner.com about the potential that dealers will try to price gouge when the Leaf comes out. I recently went to visit a local Nissan Dealer, Boardwalk Nissan in Redwood City and will admit I didn't have the best of experiences, they didn't have ANY info on the Leaf at the time, I am hoping that has changed, so I just reached out to a sales guy who contacted me due to the previous sales guy I was dealing with having left.</p> <p> So here's what I emailed the guy, I'll post back to this thread later when I hear back, assuming I hear back. </p> <blockquote> <p>NAME REMOVED,</p> <p>Thanks for the phone call last night. I do have a few questions that I could use your assistance.</p> <p>I have money down on a Leaf (I paid $99 back on 4/20), I realize they aren't going to be available until December, but was wondering if you had any more info about them?</p> <p>Here's what I currently know. By the end of this month Nissan will be contacting me to give me more info. Sometime this summer they will send out an electrician to the house to see if installing a charger is possible or not, and to give an estimate of what that cost will be. This fall they are going to be doing some driving promotions where you can test drive a Leaf. This fall those who are interested will work with a dealer to purchase the car. Then sometime starting in December a lucky few who preordered the Leaf will get them delivered, I am hoping because we are in the bay area that I have a good shot at getting one of the first, also because I preregistered very early on.</p> <p>I am looking for a dealer who is going to sell me a Leaf at or below MSRP, I am not willing to pay a markup cost for this car, and I will find a dealer that will sell me one at a good price, even if I have to tow the car home to do it. I would hope that Boardwalk Nissan can do this, but I have never purchased a car from you guys so I don't know what to expect yet.</p> <p>I'm a Nissan kind of guy, I have a 350z currently (my second one) and I've owned a 240z and 280z as well. My wife and I were in at Boardwalk looking at Jettas, that was for her as a replacement for the F-250 she drives right now (for that horse trailer we talked about). The Leaf would be my commuter car if I get one.</p> <p>Thanks for your help,</p> <p>Chris</p> </blockquote> <p>Have you reached out to a dealer? Had any luck? </p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondThu, 10 Jun 2010 11:14:47 GMTedefa827-648f-4859-ab58-dd71dcec5f39350z at the Wilmington Summer and Blytheville ProSolohttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2689/350z-at-the-wilmington-summer-and-blytheville-pros<p><a href="http://www.project350z.com/Articles/itemId/571/350z-at-the-Wilmington-Summer-and-Blytheville-ProS"><img alt="P350z-July2016" border="0" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Open-Live-Writer/Wilmin_12D77/P350z-July2016_thumb.jpg" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin-right: auto" title="P350z-July2016" width="100%" /></a></p> <p>So the 2016 ProSolo series is nearing its end, with the final two events of the year being held within 6 hours of the house, I entered both. The Wilmington event turned out to be another disappointing one for me, not because of the location or people, but simply due to my lack of ability to drive this car lately.</p> <p><img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Project350z/~4/9B3r2OzPkVs" width="1" /></p> Project350zSun, 21 Aug 2016 23:18:44 GMT2ad1c169-249b-4474-933c-9e9ddd73d2cdWeekend progress on the 350zhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2681/weekend-progress-on-the-350z<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W_L9OQWg1vE" width="100%"></iframe></p> <p>It was a good weekend on the 350z, I made progress on pretty much everything I needed/wanted to do to start the 2016 season, with only the corner balance and wheel alignment remaining. Those are scheduled for Monday at <a href="http://SoloPerformance.com" target="_blank">Solo Performance</a>.</p> <p><img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Project350z/~4/4fP8C0khvfs" width="1" /></p> Project350zMon, 07 Mar 2016 00:13:53 GMT217d3035-b403-4c19-8b0a-e543545c6235Tracking down no FM reception in a 2003 350z Pioneer avh-x3700bhshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2675/tracking-down-no-fm-reception-in-a-2003-350z-pione<p><img alt="image" border="0" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Open-Live-Writer/Tracking-down-no-FM-reception-in-a-2003-_13A5C/image_thumb.png" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="100%" /></p> <p>When I picked up the 350z in Chattanooga back in November, I figured out that the radio wasn’t great, the sound was weak, and it didn’t appear to pick up any FM signals whatsoever. Over the Xmas weekend I decided it was time to rip into the car to remove the stock Bose amp and subwoofer (behind the driver’s seat) as well as try to tack down why the FM reception was non-existent.</p> <p>The first step was to get into the subwoofer location behind the driver’s seat, a quick screw driver inserted into the panelling to pop the cover off. pry and then pull it off. Once I removed the cover, I quickly found that the stock Bose setup had already been removed, I figured that might be the case, but wasn’t 100% sure until we pulled the cover off. While in there I took the time to clean up some of the stray wiring that was in there, some exposed wires, and some live power wires that simply had electrical tape wrapped around them.</p> <p>After working on the (lack there of) Sub, it was time to rip into the dashboard. I’ve done it so many times on my prior 350zs that it is straightforward and fairly painless to do. The one thing that gave me trouble was disconnecting the wiring harness from the center console where the harness powers the hazard, and seat warmer switches. I ended up pulling the panel up and off of the emergency brake in order to get to the plug for the wiring.</p> <p>Once I pulled the plastic for the console out of place I dug in behind the stereo itself. First thing I checked was to see if the antenna wiring was plugged into the head unit, unfortunatly it was, so that wasn’t going to be an easy fix! I tracked down some wires from the stereo by pulling down the manual from the Pioneer website.One thing I did find was there is the “mic” for the handsfree bluetooth setup was plugged into the “wired remote” port on the back of the head unit. I unplugged that, but unfortunately couldn’t plug it into the proper MIC input as the jack was the wrong size. I plugged the mic back into the W/R port and started playing around with the headunit to see if I could get any stations tuned.</p> <p>While digging in the center console compartment I found a wireless remote for the stereo, thinking that might work with “options” better than the touch screen I try to start using that, with no success. I checked the battery in the remote, and found it was a CR2016, but the remote said it took a CR2025, so I grabbed a spare and popped that in place. Ends up, that didn’t work either, no matter what I tried I couldn’t get the remote to work. Until I once again unplugged the mic from the “wired remote” port, one I did that the remote started working properly. So apparently whomever installed this radio, the wiring was done incorrectly on the MIC, and that was causing problems.</p> <p>I went ahead and left the MIC unplugged and put everything back together in the car. I immediately tried to tune FM, and found that I could actually tune to a specific station, where previously I was only able to scan, and with the lack of signal previously, the scan would continue until manually stopped by switching input sources. I still wasn’t able to get a clear tune on a station, but when I pulled the car out of the garage to reposition where it was parked, I did find that it started to get a signal to a local radio station here.</p> <p>So it looks like the ultimately problem with the radio may just have been the miswired Mic, we’ll see, next time I drive the car, how things play out. It might be a while though before I get back out in the Z, it has turned cold here in Missouri and I don’t plan to drive the car too much in below freezing temps, due to the abuse on the tires.</p> <p><img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Project350z/~4/2v7rHUpA8sc" width="1" /></p> Project350zSun, 03 Jan 2016 23:41:23 GMT4b5d5508-3b04-419b-ad65-891add9d844aWashing, Waxing and then Cleaning 350z Headlightshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2669/washing-waxing-and-then-cleaning-350z-headlights<p><img alt="Headlight-progress" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/1c3584c943ab_12BEC/Headlight-progress_thumb.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto; border-style: solid; background-image: none;" title="Headlight-progress" width="100%" />This weekend, being what is likely the last warm weekend of 2015, I decided it was time to wash/claybar/wax the 350z. The weather was beautiful, I spent most of Saturday afternoon performing the first two steps, washing and clay bar’ng the car. The car was pretty clean, but there were some decent cone marks/residue on the side skirts from the previous owner, most of the time spent with the clay bar was there, though there were various other locations on the car that needed attention as well.</p> <p><img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Project350z/~4/BV7S3Hx51Ps" width="1" /></p> Project350zMon, 16 Nov 2015 00:57:03 GMTce106380-c866-4884-8062-0c0b53a1b8fe350z Setup and Modifications for SCCA Autocross STU classhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2679/350z-setup-and-modifications-for-scca-autocross-st<p>We’ll try to keep this list updated with current modifications, and a list of past modifications as well as we build and compete our 350z in the SCCA STU autocross class.</p> <h3>Vehicle</h3> <ul> <li>Year: 2003</li> <li>Make: Nissan</li> <li>Model: 350z</li> <li>Package: Touring</li> </ul> Project350zMon, 29 Feb 2016 00:00:41 GMT1b564b6e-9758-4795-88c5-a404339c2ff0I purchased and sold a 2011 Nissan Leafhttps://www.chrishammond.com/cars/leaf/itemid/2098/i-purchased-and-sold-a-2011-nissan-leaf<p>So here we go, this post has been a week coming, I just haven't had the time do get it together. About a month ago, perhaps a little more, I did something that seemed to upset quite a few people, even apparently some people at Nissan! I posted the opportunity to buy my Nissan Leaf on Ebay. That lasted all of a few minutes, I’m not even sure how long the auction was up 24 hours before I was asked to (or really it was suggested that I ) remove it. So down it came, along with the posts that I had put up announcing it.</p> <p>What people didn’t know was that I had been posting the Leaf on craigslist here in the bay area for a month or more before it was ever listed on Ebay. I had a few inquiries from the Craigslist ad, though many of those inquiries were just your typical internet trolls complaining. Some even took the time to email me and call me an “Idiot” I appreciate that someone took the time to do that.</p> <p>So back to Ebay, I pulled the ad, I removed the blog/forum posts, I cleared most of my tracks at the threat of losing the right to purchase the Leaf. I even quit posting the ad on Craigslist. After the ad came down from Ebay people started coming out of the wood work asking to buy the car. Fortunately for me I had lined someone up before I even pulled the Ebay ad down. In fact the ad didn’t even have anything to do with getting rid of my car, the Craigslist ad came through.</p> <p><strong>What? I thought you purchased the Leaf last week?</strong></p> <p>Well, technically I did, for a little while anyways. I had a guy fly in from Detroit on Monday of last week, we drove from the airport to the dealer, then the bank, then the dealer again. The dealer wouldn’t take a cashier’s check, so we had to go to the bank and have the money wired from their bank, to the dealer’s bank, which was all of 1 block away. Unfortunately the dealer’s bank became a problem and wouldn’t show the transfer as posting until the following day. So in order for us to drive the car off the lot that day I ended up having to take a loan out on the car as a fall back contract, in case the transfer didn’t go through.</p> <p>After about 4 hours of things we finally left the dealer, I in my 350z and the new owner in the Nissan Leaf. I didn’t even get to drive the thing! Though I did sit in it a few times</p> <p>So there it is, I no longer own a 2011 Nissan Leaf? Why might you ask? Well it really doesn’t matter what I say, people are going to hate on me. But here goes my explanation with a little backstory.</p> <p>Back in April of 2010 I got an email from Nissan announcing the preorder process for the Leaf, I jumped on things and signed up, immediately preordering as soon as I could. Shortly after that I setup <a href="http://www.leafowner.com/" rel="nofollow">www.LeafOwner.com</a> with the thought of creating a website dedicated to the Leaf. I got some good traffic, with the help of some key features on Engadget, AutoBlogGreen and even two different tweets from Lance Armstrong!</p> <p>I was thrilled at the idea of getting a Leaf, I have an 8-9 mile commute, so it was going to work out perfectly for that. I was one of the first people to get the Aerovironment charger inspections, I asked my landlord if we could get an install going. From there things actually started to sour a bit. I got the charger assessment back and it was for $2200, roughly $800 for the charger/shipping, and then the rest for the installation, for about an hour’s worth of labor and maybe $100 worth of equipment.</p> <p>As the summer progressed I kept up with the Leaf, attending events to see the car when I could, and then went through the ordering process, that is when things really went south for me. I went ahead and ordered the car, as a lease option, but when I started thinking about it, the lease was going to be $420 a month. I started thinking, 420 a month could go towards a very nice car payment, rather than “renting” a very expensive Nissan Versa. </p> <p>I’ll take some hits for that, but to me that is what the car ultimately became. It’s an economy sized hatchback, that when fully priced out last week was $38k. While there are lots of cool geeky features in the Leaf, the only real addition above and beyond a Versa was the batteries, the electric aspect. So I decided that the car most likely wasn’t for me.</p> <p>In October I went to the driving events that Nissan was doing, and that pretty much sealed the deal for me. I drove the car, and after driving corvettes, camaros, and 350zs I just couldn’t see myself driving the Leaf, not at the cost.</p> <p>I’m a car guy, I always have been, and the later it got into 2010 the more I had the itch to start racing cars again. I am now actively autocrossing my 350z (<a href="http://www.project350z.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.project350z.com</a>). Heck, for the price that the Leaf ultimately cost I could have purchased a brand new 2010 Nismo 370z! Though I didn’t want to do that either, spending more money just wasn’t in the cars right now. My 350z cost me $12k, and that’s a lot smaller car payment than a new Leaf would be, and the car ultimately becomes more useful to me as I can autocross it.</p> <p>So in the end, to sum things up. The price of the electric car killed it for me. I’m not saying I will never own another Leaf, or an electric car, but right now it just didn’t make sense to me. In the future I do hope to own an electric car, heck maybe I’ll build an electric VB Bug for <a href="http://www.projectvw.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.projectvw.com</a> in the future. But for now, I’ll let the early adopters help to bring the price of the electric car down.</p> <p>For those of you who choose to hate me for that, I am sorry that you feel that way, but that’s the beauty of our wonderful country, everyone gets to have their own opinion.</p> <p>(if you’re interested in purchasing LeafOwner.com let me know!)</p>Chris HammondTue, 15 Feb 2011 00:45:51 GMTd2bde49d-e485-46ab-af3b-576879fabc92STU 2003 Nissan 350z For Sale&ndash;Project350z V3https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2690/stu-2003-nissan-350z-for-salendashproject350z-v3<p>2003 Nissan 350z Touring $9000</p> <p><img align="right" height="274" src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5676/30026894902_955dc0d87a_b.jpg" style="float: right; display: inline" width="274" />Well, the time has come for V3 of Project350z.com to be put up for sale. Before we part it out we will post the car is as, with all the autocross bits installed and attached. If the car doesn’t sell in the next week, we will likely start removing all the autocross bits and putting it back to as close to stock as possible. The car is available in St. Louis (Wildwood) Missouri. If you are interested in seeing it, give me call. (Chris: 650-260-8344)</p> <p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/project350z/" target="_blank">Pictures available on Instagram</a></p> <p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/jd1cameramount/" target="_blank">Videos available on another Instagram account</a></p> <p><img alt="" height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Project350z/~4/fYxN2mPnerI" width="1" /></p> Project350zTue, 15 Nov 2016 00:39:38 GMT17664e3b-a234-4a5e-999e-7f0b54c312b8350Z front end damagehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/26/350z-front-end-damageHere's a photo of some damage I found on the 350Z this morning. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to get it popped back into place, nothing too major, just annoying...Fri, 23 Jul 2004 12:42:00 GMTbebd7dcd-013d-44fd-aac1-f2ed45f3499aTopeka Kansas, 2004https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/92/topeka-kansas-2004For the fifth year in a row I am in Topeka Kansas this week. It's the SCCA Solo II Nationals. The Nationals are broken up into two groups. My group runs on Tuesday and Wednesday. There are only 2 350Zs here this year, 4 drivers. Andy Hohl is driving mine. Hopefully one of us will do decent! We (SoloPerformance.com) showed up Friday and setup the store. We've been selling like mad, doing a lot of custom Vinyl for folks, far more than I expected! Hopefully more posts later this week. Thursday I drive back to St. Louis and fly to Phoenix for Faye's...Sun, 12 Sep 2004 21:52:00 GMT4c8ec501-bb31-4f3f-aea2-e5ee6fe3cb0eReferral logs are funhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/170/referral-logs-are-funI was looking through my site statistics for solo2.org today and came across an incoming link to the site that has brought 30 people to the site in the past couple of days. So I go to check it out. http://350zuk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4904 Harsh! Oh well, I liked the stripe while I had it on the...Chris HammondMon, 06 Dec 2004 15:54:00 GMT81624f24-34f6-4b22-8d5a-8b3899fb50bbTGIF SCCA St. Louis Region Awards Banquet this weekendhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/199/tgif-scca-st-louis-region-awards-banquet-this-weeTomorrow night is the annual St. Louis region of the SCCA's awards banquet. It's almost always guaranteed to be a good time! I'll be picking up my B-Stock Class championship tomorrow, then drinking heavily and heading out to who knows where afterwards. The party usually goes well into the morning hours. See some of the photos of my 2003 Nissan 350Z...Fri, 14 Jan 2005 08:59:00 GMTa948e080-29f1-40ac-822d-88737c1cd8f3Arkansas National Tour was very productive! My first National trophy, and it came with a Win!https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/246/arkansas-national-tour-was-very-productive-my-firA quick (longer than planned) writeup, from a BS perspective The surface was concrete, VERY rough on tires, kinda slick but still not a bad surface over all, a little breakup after day 1, patches before day 2. The weather was pretty windy on Friday, not as much wind on Saturday, by Sunday the wind has switched and was blowing form the east. Not near as strong as Friday though. Both mornings were chilly, saturday was 36 degrees when Heat 1 started at 7:55am. By 1:30 it was ~60 degrees out, Sunny, with a light wind.The event ran very smoothly, great job by the Arkansas Region and SCCA staff. Only two event recommendation I would have, the front gate didn't appear to be staffed very well during the non-heat times (not sure during heats). The other being the choice of Saturday night dinner locations. It was a little too small for the number of folks we had at the event, just a thought for next year There were 185 drivers, I worked first heat in the trailer doing radio, which was nice because I got to stay inside where it was nice and toasty BS ran Second heat both days, there were 10 drivers (2 M3s (4 drivers) 1 RX-8, a Red 350Z, a Brickyard 350Z and my Daytona Blue 350Z with myself and Andy driving). Andy and I were trying out some Kumho 710s, some very large Kumho 710s! We managed to squeeze 275s on all four corners, including the 7.5" front wheels, I ended up installing a spacer up front just to be sure we didn't rub, I don't think it would have been an issue though even without the spacer. After first runs on Saturday I had a mid 46, with Ashir (sp?) running a 46.8 though I thought I had about a 1.5 second lead on the class. Andy, my codriver, I believe had a cone on his first run. Second runs Andy ended up with some car troubles. Just before the big sweeper (turn around) the car died. We're not sure how, or why, but it wouldn't start back up right away. The first though people had (course workers) was that it ran out of gas, which wasn't really an option as it had 1/2 tank of gas. I generally run with little to no gas in the car, but didn't plan so well for this trip and filled up before making the 240 mile drive to Walnut Ridge, which left me with over half a tank. I tried to burn off some gas driving through town, and then hoped to use up some at the practice event on Friday. Andy got the car started back up and came off after his 2nd run with a DNF due to the mechanical difficulties. We looked the car over, revved id, smelled it, looked underneath, nothing appeared out of place or missing/broken. I went out on my second run and the car ran fine, though I was a bit slower, I think due to worrying about how the car would react. Andy went out for his third run and jumped in front of my first run by about .15 seconds. I went out on my third run hoping to best his time, which I was unable to do. I knew this would happen, as I seem to have problems improving runs at big events, I almost always have my best run up front and then I guess over think everything else. Ashir ended up dropping some more time on his third run and finished behind me for the first day by .066 seconds. Sunday brought a new day. I went out on my first run and put about a second on the field, but got a late cone call in the final slolom to put me back into 2nd or 3rd I believe. Andy's first run was one of the fastest in the class, and unfortunately for him was his fastest clean time of the day due to other difficulties. 2nd run he went out and blew the course away, he knocked off 2 seconds from his time and about 1 second from mine, but yet again, a late cone call came into play. Ashir didn't quite seem to be able to get a good handle on the car on Sunday, I believe due to some changes they tried making to the sway bar the night before. My second run I went out, sped up a bit, and cleaned up my run, enough to actually take the class for the day. Andy went out for his third run intent on whiping the floor with me, and he may very well have,...Mon, 21 Mar 2005 06:21:00 GMT6d8baeed-c2a8-4010-91af-5edd3028590eWhy I don't want to go to PDC 05https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/303/why-i-dont-want-to-go-to-pdc-05Well, I was going to do this blog post as my entry in the “blog your way to the PDC” but after doing a bit of research, I actually don't want to go to PDC 05 in LA. Here's why. The PDC is being held September 13-16th 2005, which is exactly the time frame I will be in Topeka Kansas at the SCCA Solo Nationals. Andy and I have a good shot at performing well in the car there this year, so I would hate to miss a trophy (hopefully) at Nationals to go to a developers conference! So, I challenge Microsoft to move the PDC to the following week! Then I will re-enter myself in the “blog your way to the PDC“ with my original intention of using the PDC as an excuse to road trip from St. Louis to California in my 350Z, blogging and taking photo graphs along the way! ...Fri, 15 Jul 2005 08:51:00 GMT44bacd39-704f-4f68-8c2c-fe6ae7380bcdTwas an audio Christmas!https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/405/twas-an-audio-christmasChristmas was good this year! Natalie and I both spoiled each other rotten! I just installer her new car stereo into the F350. The stock stereo was hurting! It only had AM/FM, no CD or Tape! I got her a nice Sony CD Player for the dash, two new kicker speakers for the front doors, and an XM Roady2 for the must have Satellite radio. There's no Sirius in this household, down with Howard Stern and Sirius Radio! I installed the CD player this evening and made sure everything worked. It's a very clean install, you have to love Crutchfield for including everything you could need to install a radio ordered from them. The new CD player went right in the old unit's place courtesy of the Crutchfield mounting hardware. I also picked up some fine jewelery from Krekeler Jewelers for Natalie's Christmas gifts. Thanks to Jeff for all the help picking a few nice things out!  Natalie spoiled me with some new Oakleys, a cool North Face Jacket, and the Klipsch floor speakers I'd been asking for! The new speakers sound amazing in front of the 50" plasma! I've ordered the Klipsh C-3 center channel speaker from Best Buy using some great gift cards I received. Sometime later this year I'll get the new receiver and 4 surround sound speakers to complete my new and improved home theater setup. My parents sent me money to purchase an aircompressor and some tools for the garage, so I was out looking at Sears today. I did realize however, I'm going to need to take the truck next time I go, as the air compressors won't fit in the 350Z! Thanks to everyone for the great Christmas. Natalie and I spent our first of many Christmas' together, hopefully next year we'll be able to see our parents though, it was my first Xmas away from my family :( More to come in...Mon, 26 Dec 2005 23:05:00 GMTc66797b8-68b9-4ff7-bd69-540716639287Autocross Project 350Z Specifications B-Stockhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/461/autocross-project-350z-specifications-bstockSince I seem to post this information on the web over and over I figured I'd solidify it here. The following information is how Andy and I run my 2003 Nissan 350Z Enthusiast model in SCCA Solo Competition in the B Stock Class. ShocksDA Konis available from Nissan USA Motorsports Division(SA Konis in the garage just in case Full Stiff (r)) Front Sway BarHotchkis (full stiff) ExhaustRemoved the stock muffler, drop 35lbs, put a pipe to aim exhaust down and out from under the car. BrakesHawk HP Plus(F) HPS (R) WheelsEnkieSpacers up front TiresKumho 710s, 275 45(or were they 40) 17Tire Pressure 36-37 (f) 31-32 (r) Chris HammondSun, 12 Mar 2006 21:02:00 GMT2a20e448-ff94-49ce-9dd5-6f952db67f7e350Z Seat Bolt Failedhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/465/350z-seat-bolt-failedI spent this morning with Steven at www.tuxedoparkracing.com fixing my 03 Enthusiast Nissan 350Z. Sometime early last year we, Andy and I, had a seat bolt fail, driver's side rear. We had to provide a quick fix and rigged together a drywall anchor to try to get the seat to stay in place, we were out of town with limited tools and only a home depot for parts. That rigging worked alright for a few events, but had to be redone a few months later. The problem caused by a mount bold mount failing is that the seat mounted at only 3 points twists and causes the track to come free and the seat will move forward and back while driving, not a fun experience when competing. Today we found the cause of the bolt mount failing. I removed the carpeting from the driver's side of the car, and underneath this carpet found that the nut that used to fill the hole had broken free of the four spot welds. We ended up welding it back into place, and as I reassembled the car I actually found that the passenger side rear bolt on the drivers seat wouldn't thread. So I had to take the car apart again and found the same thing to have occured. I'm glad it occured right there, and not during a 2006 event. Steven welded the the nut back in place and the seat is amazing now! No more squeeks! How did this all actually occur? I'm going to have to assume that one of the dealers who had worked on the seat in the past didn't properly tighten the bolts down, and the seat was able to move around causing extra stress on the welds. Hopefully for 2006 we've got all of our seat issues squared away! posted from...Chris HammondSun, 19 Mar 2006 21:05:00 GMT82511078-1a51-45d5-ad81-ebace31c1ae0My Driver's School Experience....https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/467/my-drivers-school-experiencePhotos from Sunday I attended the St. Louis Region Club Racing Double Driver’s school this past weekend at Gateway International Raceway in Madison Illinois, just across the Mississippi river from St. Louis. I arranged to rent a Nissan 240SX from PFM Racing (www.pfmracing.com) for the two day school and for the regional race on Sunday. I met Jude and Jennifer from PFM at the shop Thursday evening to head over to the track to get the car and my new racing gear teched, as well as get checked in at registration for the school and for the race. Registration went well, though I hadn’t brought a passport size photo for the novice permit, so I had to have two Polaroids taken, one for my novice logbook, and one for my SCCA Membership card.   I went home Thursday evening and had dinner with my fiancé Natalie and my mother who flew into St. Louis Wednesday evening. Friday morning I got up bright and early and went out to Gateway to check out the Fox2 broadcast from the track in their short spots from 6am to 8am. I took some photos for the St. Louis region website (www.stlscca.org). The driver’s school started at 9am with a two and a half hour classroom session, covering the basics of GIR, and the SCCA basics for safety.   After the classroom session we went out for a stint with instructors on the course, looking at various parts of the track and learning some of their suggested lines for the course. The majority of the rest of Friday consisted of multiple track sessions with the car, progressing from 55mph in the first session up to 90 mph for the last session. What did I learn during these sessions? Quite a few things, the largest one being I’ve been spoiled by ABS in the 350Z I autocross and drive every day. The first time I really hit the brakes in the 240SX I got both fronts locked up and a skating sensation in the car, until of course I realized that I had both wheels locked and released the brake, lucky for me the flatspotting wasn’t too bad (yet). After all of our sessions on Friday we had another quick classroom discussion and overview of the day.   Saturday began at 7am with a quick meeting with all of the students and instructors, followed by our first open passing session; each track session was scheduled for 25 minutes. I went lined up outside the grid waiting for the rest of the group to fill in so I wouldn’t have to go out first. Though I was one of the first ones ready in the group and noticed that those who had already lined up were gone from the grid and were on course. I figured it was as good a time as any to head out there so I threw on my helmet and headed into the grid.   My first session was interesting, I had made myself pretty comfortable on Friday, pushing the car a bit, but not too much as we were always under yellow. This first session on Saturday we were given the green so we could take the track full on and practice our passing. I ended up catching up to a black C5 Corvette on the track. I was able to keep close with him in the turns, but on the front stretch coming out of Nascar 4 he would pull away. I usually caught up to him going into turn 1 but couldn’t work up the nerve to try to pass him anywhere on the course. After a few laps of playing catch with the vette we caught up to a pair of white Porsches. The pair was going at a much slower pace than we were, the C5 took the first Porsche with, and quickly overtook the second with the same ease. Now it was time for me to take my first pass, once I had made it, I was much more comfortable, and passed the next one without a second thought.   Now it was time for the Corvette! I caught back up to him without much issue even though he had put a lead on me while I was playing with the 944s. The rest of that session I spent chasing him down, but he must have been getting more comfortable on the track as well because I couldn’t seem to get close enough to make a pass before he would pull away from me. Just prior to the end ...Sun, 26 Mar 2006 23:42:00 GMTb98809bc-5233-47ee-936b-68af25fd23e6Project 350Z, First Autocross of the Seasonhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/469/project-350z-first-autocross-of-the-seasonIn a few short hours we'll be departing St. Louis for our first autocross of the season. Well, it'll be my first autocross, Andy (my codriver) already has a few events under his belt! He's an Evolution instructor, so he's had the luxury of getting plenty of seat time already this year. We're headding to Walnut Ridge this afternoon to be ready for the practice event tomorrow morning, I hope to use it to get all the rust out of my system prior to Saturday and Sunday's runs. The car is all ready to go, trailer is packed with the most tires I've ever taken. We've got 12 tires loaded up ready for Walnut Ridge's rough surface. One set of older tires to use during the practice. One set of Hoosier Rain tires just in case, and our competition set of tires mounted on Enkie RPF-1s. B-Stock has a strong field in Walnut Ridge, we'll see how Andy and I fair! More blogging this weekend with results! posted from...Thu, 30 Mar 2006 10:08:00 GMT146447e7-f031-4952-a3dc-4345d2da61dfThe pain of the Walnut Ridge Prohttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/473/the-pain-of-the-walnut-ridge-proIt's been a long few weeks for me. It all started with the St. Louis region driver's school three weekends ago and culminated today with the Walnut Ridge ProSolo. The driver's school went well, the Walnut Ridge National Tour went even better. The Walnut Ridge ProSolo though was far from good. The event itself was great, organized and run very smoothly. The 350Z's B-Stock performance however was far from desired. It's late, and I have a lot of things to catch up on, but in short the Z's drawbacks were most apparent this past weekend. The two drawbacks being the very flakey ABS, resulting in ice mode too many times to count this weekend, and the lack of a real LSD in the Z. What is Ice Mode? Well, it's hard to describe, but once you hit it you know exactly what it is. Basically if the Z isn't completely level when you hit the brakes the brake peddle gets rock hard and the car doesn't want to stop. It doesn't pulse like ABS, it can be quite disconcerning, luckily for me I've only hit it once or twice on the street, but it's a frequent problem on the non-brembo 350Zs, made prior to the 2006 model year. As for the lack of LSD, the 350Z models above the base model are equiped with an LSD, limited slip differential, which is supposed to limit the amount of wheelspin in the rear tires. The problem the Z has is that on corner exit with the throttle pressed for acceleration the car spins the inside rear tire in a nice smokey haze. A limited slip should actually transfer that force properly to keep the tire from spinning. At least, that is my understanding of how a LSD should work. It would be lovely in the Z had this feature, but it's something we must drive around. As you can see, nothing really good to say about the weekend. Andy finished 4th, myself in 6th, the three trophy positions were all filled by Mazda RX-8s.  I came home from Walnut Ridge this weekend and started looking at RX-8s on the Mazda website to see how much one would lease for..... Not likely that Andy and I will be switching, but I will be looking for an RX-8 at a local event to flog around the course and see what the competition feels like. I'll have some video of our runs up later this week. I've now gotta pack. I'm headed to Boston Monday afternoon for Opening Day at Fenway on Tuesday! posted from...Sun, 09 Apr 2006 23:06:00 GMT3f60e589-cfae-4d00-833f-3f3d263c9220Project 350Z on the Dynohttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/504/project-350z-on-the-dynoAndy took the 350Z out to Tuxedo Park Racing today to put her on the dyno and get a baseline for performance. Will post results of the dyno tonight! Why do we need a baseline? Well we're hoping to see some improvement from the Nismo Ypipe and custom 3" exhaust we'll be putting on later this week. Also need to do a few other things before the DC pro, such as possibly new plugs and wires, and of course an oil change. posted from...Mon, 12 Jun 2006 14:57:00 GMT3aee5d07-9c4c-40cf-bbb4-9a1b6877b233350Z GT-Shttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/526/350z-gtsThis looks pretty darn sweet. 2007 Nissan 350Z GT-S Concept revealed: production possible A small team of Nissan development engineers working in their spare time have transformed a 350Z into a highly tuned 'Saturday Special.' Called the GT-S, the supercharged super coupé is a performance-focused version of Nissan's acclaimed 'Z-'car' and is designed to appeal to enthusiastic 350Z owners who simply want more. Although boasting a power hike and a substantially modified chassis, the GT-S is far from being a stripped out racing car with a rock hard ride and a peaky power delivery. "The GT-S has been created as a real car not an ornament," says Communications Director Wayne Bruce. "We wanted to build a 'Club Special' that could still be used to commute to work during the week but would provide added thrills at the weekend: a weekday workhorse and a weekend warrior in one distinctive package." More info and gallery after the jump…   The project's technical leader Steve Robbins — who during the week is a senior engineer in the new vehicle evaluation team at NTCE — gathered together half a dozen like-minded enthusiasts to work on the project. Working after hours and at the weekend, the team members came from within NTCE and also from outside suppliers and was known internally as the S-Club Seven… Most of the changes center on the car's engine and chassis. Using a supercharger installation from Swiss manufacturers Novidem, power has increased by more than 25 per cent from 300 hp to 382 hp, while torque rises from 353 Nm to a heady 425Nm. Performance gains are expected to include a one second cut in the benchmark 0-60mph time (5.8 seconds for the standard 350Z) with 2.5 seconds slashed from the 0-100 mph time. And it sounds better, too, thanks to an electronically controlled by-pass valve that enriches the exhaust note at a pre-determined engine speed. NTCE engineers — the very men who tuned the original 350Z to suit European roads and our higher speeds — have undertaken the suspension changes. Working closely with specialists from Bilstein, the changes concentrate on optimising road performance, with improvements in both handling ability and ride comfort. Wider wheels and tyres complete the chassis alterations. A wind tunnel developed body/aero kit from German firm Strosek not only gives the all-black GT-S a distinctive look, but also improves the 350Z's aerodynamic performance with increased front and rear downforce at speed. The package is completed by a NVH pack which makes the GT-S even more civilised than the standard 350Z. Steve Robbins said: "We could have produced a balls-out racer with huge power outputs and very little suspension movement. But while this would have created a superb racer, it would have been virtually unusable on the road. Instead we approached the GT-S from an engineering stand-point with a view to creating a 350Z that provides more of everything… performance, handling, looks, comfort and excitement. "We also looked at the possible marketing potential of such a project and have designed the improvements as individual 'packs' — an engine pack, a suspension pack, aero pack and so on — and kept a close eye on costs." So will the GT-S ultimately become more than a weekend project by a group of mavericks? Nissan is saying nothing officially, though insiders point to its appearance at Goodwood as a sign the company is giving the GT-S concept serious consideration. posted from...Fri, 07 Jul 2006 00:45:00 GMT9830426b-92b6-416f-ac80-310a4fd44f68My Denver experiencehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/540/my-denver-experienceWell, I'm finally back from my trip to Denver, it was a long weekend, but lots of fun at the same time. I'll start at the beginning and try to cover all of the events. A few weeks ago a client asked if myself and Brian from Engage Software (my employer) could come out and give them some assistance with DotNetNuke, as well as begin to cover a few large projects they wanted to get started on. I requested that we arrange the meeting around the time of the Denver ProSolo. They were kind enough to fly me out on Friday instead of Sunday, so that I could attend the ProSolo, and then Brian and I could meet with them on Monday. Friday afternoon I flew from St. Louis to Denver on Frontier Airlines, it was a bumpy flight, but direct into Denver and on time. I arrived in Denver and picked up my Hertz rental car, a convertible V6 Mustang. I immediately headed over to the event site, also located on airport grounds. After about 2 hours of walking around talking to folks I found a ride in ASP, in a 04 Z06. Aaron Boltman was kind enough to let me drive his car for the event. I walked the course far more than usual with Chris K. and Matt G (The STL Boys). Friday evening we (Me, Chris and Matt) went out to the little diner near the Airport. They had what looked like the greatest milkshakes ever, but dared not try one, being that when I'm out of town I seem to develop a lactose intollerence. Saturday morning I got out to the event site early, met up with Aaron and then walked the courses a time or two. Come 7:30am I hear an announcement over the PA that BStock is nolonger making a class, they had 7 drivers originally but it appears only 4 showed up. Around 8am, right before the deadline Eric Jones asked me if I'd switch to BStock and drive his RX-8 so that they could have a complete class. With the thought of getting to try an RX-8 and run in BS, my usual class, I jumped at the opportunity. Apologies for Aaron for not driving his car, but I really do appreciate the kind offer. Having never driven an RX-8 I was hoping to see what all the hype was about. Saturday runs weren't all that interesting. Out of the 8 runs I took, 4 were redlights. Dan Pedroza was announcing and was on me about RL'ing all the runs. So my last two runs I managed to not RL and get decent times, after both the morning and afternoon sessions I managed to stay in 4th place, out of 5. I was sort of dissapointed in the RX-8s, I have become addicted to cars with Torque, and the RX-8 definitely lacks that. Though, driving an 8 was, I believe, good experience and hopefully training, as you have to drive them and try to maintain as much speed as possible. I have the bad habit of overbraking and powering out of corners, which a car with torque allows you to do. So hopefully if I got anything from the weekend it was the ability to maintain more speed when I'm driving the 350Z, thus making me faster! Saturday evening the STL boys headed to Denver for dinner at the Wyncoop Microbrewery and then spent a couple hours walking around the downtown bar area. We had a few drinks at a place I believe called the Sports Club. We ended up heading back to the hotels around 11pm Saturday evening to get some rest for Sunday morning. Sunday morning I improved quite a bit, I think I picked up nearly a second overall on the two courses, but not nearly enough to catch Jones who managed to take the win in BS. I barely held onto 4th as Mauro (sp?) got close to me, and I came fairly close to BJ in 3rd position. Brian took second just a few thousands back from Eric if I recall correctly. Late Sunday morning I started trying to figure out what I was going to do Sunday afternoon. I needed to pick up Brian at 7:50pm, so I had from about noon to do whatever I wanted. I was talking to Adam Breakey from www.autocrossforum.com and he mentioned he was in town until he got his flight Monday morning. After deciding I wanted to head to Pike's Peak I asked Adam if he wanted to ride up with me. We...Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:56:00 GMTdf5673f0-9a4d-4866-8082-a0fe71fcac32My 350Z Trailer Hitch is Available!https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/561/my-350z-trailer-hitch-is-availableWell, it's not really "mine", but the company who developed the hitch I use on my car is now selling them to other folks. http://www.tuxedoparkracing.com/350zhitch.html If you've got any questions please feel free to ask, I'll try to answer any that I can. I've towed my 6x8 trailer with this for well over a year now. Even hauled THREE sets of wheels/tires down to Walnut Ridge Arkansas earlier this year. I generally take two sets, tools, chair, cooler, bike, etc on the 6x8. I've hauled some weight with this thing. We've even taken the time to remove the hitch for events, though most of the time I just leave it on the car and run with the extra weight in the back. posted from...Chris HammondTue, 15 Aug 2006 22:52:00 GMT09d71f68-0e5f-44c5-ab84-3eb62669c9f9Time for a change?https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/563/time-for-a-changeSo I've seriously been considering changing vehicles. Now that I have a 73 240Z I don't quite know if I need the 350Z to drive everyday. I've been looking at Tahoe's for a few weeks now, and somehow got it in my head yesterday that a Hummer H2 would be fun... I think I'm going to go out doing some test drives this weekend, see how things work...Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:13:00 GMT5aa5835c-7543-474a-a609-760cab2fd4b9Pontiac St. Louishttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/566/pontiac-st-louisIf you're looking for a Pontiac in St. Louis you've come to the wrong place!If you're looking to buy a Nissan 350Z then you're in the right place! I'm selling a 2003 Nissan 350Z. Stay tuned for more information!Posted from...Fri, 18 Aug 2006 20:51:00 GMT0761fcc5-a7ca-46e9-9e24-0ffc1ddb62a4Why not to buy from Southtown Dodge, AKA Southtown Dodge Suckshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/577/why-not-to-buy-from-southtown-dodge-aka-southtownWell lets begin the story with a little background.The Mad Blogger was in the mood for a new ride. He's been driving a 2003 Nissan 350Z for 3+ years now, and wanted something up off the ground, a bit more visible and much larger. So he began by searching for used Chevrolet Tahoes. Why a Tahoe? Why not, The Mad Blogger can afford gas, even as prices rise, so why bother with trying to be "green", The Mad Blogger is not PC.It didn't take TMB (The Mad Blogger) long to find what he was looking for. A 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe Z71, 4x4, every option on it except for a third row seat, and navigation. The Mad Blogger has no kids, he needs not a third row seat, he's also a man, he can find his way out of a pitchdark room with no doors, navigation is not a necessity.He found his new ride at Southtown Dodge on Lindbergh Blvd in south St. Louis County. Now it was time to deal. The Tahoe had been sitting on the lot for over 90 days when TMB found it, so this meant he should be able to get a good deal. Priced out on KBB.com TMB found it to have a value of roughly $34k, asking price on it was $26,903. First offer to the dealer, Southtown Dodge, salesman was Mike Wall, was 25,500. The dealer wouldn't budge, they said they were at their clearance price and wouldn't come down. $26903, plus a BS fee of $97 dollars for paperwork.The Mad Blogger would have none of this, he came back with another offer of $26,500 a day later, the dealer still wouldn't budge. They did know what the truck was worth, and weren't going to move on it. Fine, The Mad Blogger knows when to jump on a good deal. So he calls the dealer up this morning to tell them he'll be there at 4:30pm to give them his pre-approved loan information, and pick up the vehicle. Good ole Mike Wall comes back and says, sorry, we can't clean it up for delivery till we have a deposit or have started on the paperwork. So The Mad Blogger agrees to go down there over his lunch break and get the paperwork started. TMB doesn't really care if they clean the Tahoe, it's going to rain today, all he wanted was them to put the Brush Bar back on the front which they had removed between the first time TMB looked at it and the second time he went back.TMB arrives at the dealer shortly after 11:30am this morning, good ole Mike Wall is there with the paperwork already started. Mike looks over The Mad Blogger's preapproved loan information and tells him that he won't be able to turn the Tahoe over to TMB for 7-10 days. WTF? Excuse The Mad Blogger, did you just tell him he can't pickup this truck today? TMB comes in with a loan check that he's been told is as good as cash and Southtown Dodge won't let him take the vehicle for 7-10 days? TMB don't think so.After 15-20 minutes of no progress The Mad Blogger decides it's time to leave. The first thing TMB does it call up his lender to verify that the check should be good as gold with a dealer. They confirm this and say that they don't have problems with dealers accepting their checks, they did offer to talk to the dealer and have them a check mailed next day to arrive on Saturday. TMB declines, he's done dealing with Southtown Dodge. TMB decides he'll check for himself and jumps off the highway to stop at another dealer, Sunset Ford. The sales guy at Sunset Ford (sorry TMB didn't get his name to give him props) said they would have no problem accepting the TMB preapproved loan check and selling him a vehicle on the spot. Unfortunately for The Mad Blogger they didn't have a used Tahoe on the lot.So, what's the moral of The Mad Blogger's story? Don't let a dealer like Southtown Dodge jack you around. If the sales guy, Mike Wall, or whomever your sales person is, EVER acts like a *** to you, walk out of there. The Mad Blogger took a little crap from Mike hoping he'd still get a good deal on this truck. He got nothing but a weeks worth of wasted...Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:44:00 GMTdc77914f-f98a-4fa1-bfec-e3cf3a0d7e6dNational B Stock 350Z rides available for rent at Nationals https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/582/national-b-stock-350z-rides-available-for-rent-atDue to the fact that I'm not going to Nationals this year (wedding/honeymoon in december and I'm out of vacation) I'm open to the idea that someone else competes my car at Nationals. My usual codriver has taken an excellent opportunity in a BSP STI, so he won't be driving the Z this year. I believe this car to be the most well prepared 350Z in the country. Not to knock Carter Thompson's car, but I think the 2003 Enthusiast model 350Z is the car to have in BStock if you're going to be driving a 350Z. I've managed to keep up with Carter a few times this year, finished in 10th place last year, and I'll stand up and say I'm not anywhere near the driver that Carter is. With someone who has some skill I'm sure this car could finish at the top of the class, even against the lemmings, err I mean Mazda RX-8s. Stats about the car. 2003 Nissan 350Z Enthusiast ModelTC Kline DA KonisHotchkios FSBEnkei RPF-1sKumho 710sHoosier Wets (for the rain)6 SpeedNismo Titanium Y-Pipe with custom 3" exhaust system This is the only 350Z that has competed at Nationals every year since the model was made eligible for BS, I'd love for someone to keep that statistic going. Rental Price negotiable, also an option to Purchase the vehicle and all my spares is available as well. Delivery to Topeka Kansas is also an option. Contact me for further information. posted from...Mon, 28 Aug 2006 23:58:00 GMT37195a35-dfa9-4cdf-8f5a-a2716fd734a4Lots of Parts for sale, 17&amp;quot; RPF1s Bstock Legal, 240Z Carbshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/594/lots-of-parts-for-sale-17ampquot-rpf1s-bstockI've been putting things on ebay this evening, Here are my 350Z Enkei RPF1s, 17" wheels, BStock legal for 17" 350Zs. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=150032437137 Also listed a dual weber setup off the 1973 240Z. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=005&item=150032411962   posted from...Sun, 10 Sep 2006 23:19:00 GMT8483ec26-04e7-4aaa-a11b-58c0d2013ad82003 Nissan 350Z For Salehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/597/2003-nissan-350z-for-saleI'm selling my 2003 Nissan 350Z. It's currently on Ebay. You can find it by following this link. Details, a 2003 350Z with just under 79k miles on it. I'm selling it in stock form, but have other items I'd consider selling to set it up for BS in Solo if there's interest. Contact me for more information! posted from...Fri, 15 Sep 2006 00:29:00 GMT7eb0ffa1-aef7-45dd-aa71-1a9b75f962cbThe Project 350Z Has Soldhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/603/the-project-350z-has-soldIt went up on Ebay Today for $14500. I owe 14537 or something, so I'll take a $40 loss on the car to get rid of it.I'll miss it. It's been a GREAT car. Here's to hoping I get the 240Z finished! If I can get it done before May of next year I'll get $50 from Seelig, that'll cover my $40 loss. posted from...Fri, 22 Sep 2006 00:27:00 GMT1db6a9f2-248c-46b6-94e1-f422c2e22e14Why hasn't the 350Z sold?https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/604/why-hasnt-the-350z-soldWhy hasn't my car sold? Some of you will get a kick out of this story.link here Summary, don't ever deal with the ebay id Nemofang, or the person by the name of Hsing-Yao Fang!posted from...Sat, 23 Sep 2006 12:06:00 GMT96239a9e-9203-4982-8c3b-597865421e6dTake 3, the Project 350Z is sold yet again!https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/605/take-3-the-project-350z-is-sold-yet-againAlright, my good buddy Dozzle is purchasing the car! Dozzle, otherwise known as Jason (sp?), is one of my fraternity brothers who lives in Kansas City. Dozzle is getting two extra sets of wheels, 1 set of shocks, and a few other goodies to get his Stock class autocross career kickstarted. Thanks again Dozzle! I've got a week left on the car till Dozzle picks it up. posted from...Chris HammondSat, 23 Sep 2006 19:34:00 GMT637ca19e-172c-40a2-93ad-c395d264c8d9Sold, and gone....https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/607/sold-and-goneWell, my 2003 350Z Enthusiast model is officially paid off. It is also no longer my car!My buddy Jasyn "Dozzle" Randazzo took a train from Kansas City to St. Louis last night and drove the car home today. I talked to Dozzle this afternoon, he made it back to KC and was out and about showing the car off to friends.Have fun with her Dozzle! She's a good ride! Now that the 350Z is gone I hope to spend more time on the 240Z to get that going soon. posted from...Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:54:00 GMT30630ae1-2cc4-441c-a204-774b14c81079Thanks for 4wdhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/727/thanks-for-4wdDays like today I'm glad I don't have the 350Z anymore and get to drive around in the Tahoe. I love the...Tue, 13 Feb 2007 01:00:00 GMTfe451b60-2ed4-43a3-9c50-7f4eb8030fdeCleaning out the 350Z Partshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/741/cleaning-out-the-350z-partsIt was time to get rid of all the parts I still have taking up space in the garage from the 350z! They're all on ebay. SA Koni Sports F/R (used) #150097486225 350Evo Front Sway Bar (used) #150097461781 CT-1 Front Sway Bar (new) #150097477452 Hotchkis Rear Sway Bar (new) #150097479242 If anyone wants to buy them off ebay, let me know, I'll make a St. Louis deal for...Thu, 01 Mar 2007 23:39:04 GMT6b37604e-4796-4343-862b-ca275a19a1eaI&rsquo;m selling it, I&rsquo;m not selling it, I&rsquo;m selling it, I&rsquo;m not selling it?https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1703/irsquom-selling-it-irsquom-not-selling-it-i<p>I don’t know what I’m doing with the Datsun just yet. I should sell it, but I couldn’t sleep the other night because I was thinking about what fun it would be to spend a few weekends in March working on the 240Z.</p> <p>Well, I don’t know if it’s a sign or what, but month or two ago when I was trying to put the new motor back together I couldn’t find the bag of bolts for the intake and exhaust manifolds. Well guess what I just found today!</p> <p>Now, I just need to get my book done, and hire my good buddy Terec for a weekend to help me get the motor back together and in the car. I find that if someone is here helping me on the car I get 10x the amount of work done as if I am by myself. So, Terec, what do you think, first or second weekend in March good? If we got it running on 3/15 that would be awesome, as that’s my bday :D</p> <p>Happy Belated Bday to Terec as well, 2/18.</p> <p>So, am I selling the car? I don’t know. I want to buy another 350Z, but it would make a lot more sense to not do that and try to get this datsun running.</p>Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:29:17 GMT99ba3fc7-aacc-49af-967e-1ac55130c99bNo seats! and check out our sister sitehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1856/no-seats-and-check-out-our-sister-site<p>So I don’t know why I didn’t think of this a month ago, would have saved me some money on shipping, but the Corbeau A4s for the 240z are sold. John V, the guy who bought the <a href="http://www.corvettez06.org">Corvette</a> has purchased them for use in his RX-7 that I bought and shipped to him a few weeks ago. Would have made sense to pack the seats in the car then, but I didn’t realize he was going to be interested in them, oh well.</p> <p>On an unrelated note, have you checked out our sister-site, <a href="http://www.project350z.com/">Project350z.com</a>? You might ask, but you don’t even have a 350Z? True, but I will, at least that’s the plan, to get another one in early 2010 so I can have a car to race next year. I’ve spent a few hours over the past few sick evenings sorting through photos of the old car, which just makes me miss not having a 350Z that much more. I posted photos and got a site design together, though I don’t have much other content up there yet, it will take a few months to get it all together, hopefully just in time to get myself a new (used) ride.</p> <p>Dozzle, if you read this, I still want to buy my old car back!!!!</p>Chris HammondThu, 19 Nov 2009 17:10:59 GMT185432ce-8c37-4950-ae66-81f39cafb279350Z Autocross Car Setuphttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1881/350z-autocross-car-setupRunning in BS (B-Stock) for three years I learned a lot about the 350Z and the setup for the car. While I don't currently still have that car, I will go ahead and create a post about the setup of the car for BS.Chris HammondWed, 18 Nov 2009 00:40:01 GMT7e3f93b1-56da-40c1-81a9-a323d6877398Shopping for a 350zhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1883/shopping-for-a-350zSo the 2010 Autocross season is starting up soon, and here in Colorado the winter series is running strong. I had a little incident with the projectquattro a few weeks ago, which also has spurred along the motivation to get a 350z.Chris HammondMon, 18 Jan 2010 01:26:31 GMTb5be0a57-5f2a-4086-80e7-df5344e5cac8And so it begins, Project350z.com now has a projecthttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1884/and-so-it-begins-project350zcom-now-has-a-projecSo begins the latest project, Projectquattro.com has been disposed of, after the incident a few weeks ago, where it took out a light pole, it was time for the car to go. I ended up not getting it repaired, it was actually going to cost just less than we originally paid for it, so instead, we traded it in tonight!Chris HammondSat, 23 Jan 2010 01:20:49 GMT5efb19a1-9c67-4e92-ba83-abe5de31025aPrepping a 350z for STR (SCCA Autocross)https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1886/prepping-a-350z-for-str-scca-autocrossMy initial intentions with this new (to me) 350z is to run in the newly formed STR class. This is a street tire class, meaning 140 treadwear or greater, which differs from the Stock Classes, which technically run “street legal” tires, but are often treadwear 50 or lesshttps://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 23 Jan 2010 21:59:33 GMT4068d77c-78bd-41aa-9c64-d63079ffd171Wheels for a 350z in STRhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1888/wheels-for-a-350z-in-strSo I’m slowly starting to figure out what I need to do to get the car ready for the 2010 Autocross season. I’ve been looking around, reading the 2010 SCCA Solo rules, covering the details of the class. I’ve got some more research to do, but for now I’m starting to figure out which wheels I am going to run on the car.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondWed, 27 Jan 2010 23:45:20 GMT0015923e-aca1-47ed-83f4-1827b0cf78f5Always good after a wash and a waxhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1900/always-good-after-a-wash-and-a-wax<p>It has been quite a while, over a year, since I really spent some time washing a waxing a vehicle. My how time has flown, last year we spent time prepping for, and moving to Colorado, during that time I was without a “fun” car, having sold the <a href="http://www.corvettez06.org">Corvette</a> back in October 2008.</p> <p>Today, for the first time since likely 1995 I spent time washing and waxing a car in California. And the weather was beautiful! I spent the yesterday evening and today up at a friend’s house in Fairfield, the town I went to high school in. We had dinner with friends from HS last night, and then this morning I spent the day cleaning up my the 350z for the first time since picking it up, and boy did it need it, especially after the 1200 mile road trip (on the back of an open trailer last week from Colorado to California).</p> <p>I washed the car, clay barred the various marks and such in the paint, washed it again, and then waxed the car. It looks mucho better now, if I do say so for myself. Here are some pictures of the beauty after her bath.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4416388858/"><img border="0" alt="IMG_2159" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2715/4416388858_f5a350d3ec_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4416379820/"><img border="0" alt="IMG_2158" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2725/4416379820_e0b8e238f7_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" /></a></p> <p>The rest of the afternoon I hung out and had a BBQ with friends, and new friends. I had a great time, but had to head back down here to San Mateo so I can work tomorrow. I made the drive in 1hr and 10 minutes. If only traffic were that nice all the time I might consider buying a house in my old stomping grounds and commuting to work. But I can only imagine that most days that would be a 2+ hr drive during commute times. Some day, perhaps later this week, I’ll get around to blogging about the Project350z’s first autocross which happened a few weeks ago.</p>Chris HammondMon, 08 Mar 2010 01:24:46 GMTe655c682-54fa-49d5-9111-10b9b5f7a864Buying a modded carhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1906/buying-a-modded-car<p>Don’t do it! Unless you buy it from a friend and know exactly what they did!</p> <p>The 350z failed the smog test tonight. Time to find some OEM cats to put on the car and hope that it helps to make it pass!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondThu, 01 Apr 2010 00:27:05 GMTe7a25a57-c6b0-4718-9c44-bd97c3289841On the road again, temporary tag for smoghttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1907/on-the-road-again-temporary-tag-for-smogSo this weekend while my beautiful wife was in town (haven’t seen her for three weeks!) I rented a car for the weekend? Why? Well, to be honest, the 350z wasn’t legal to be driving around on the roads of California! The temporary tags expired on the 1st, and I had planned to hit the DMV up on the 2nd, only to figure out that California had state employees on furlough so the DMV is closed the first three Fridays in April. Welcome to California! So I rented a car for the weekend, a Mid-sized from National (via Hotwire) and we picked out a black New Beetle. It wasn’t a half bad ride for the weekend, the windshield felt like it was 10 miles away, and I would hate to try to sit in the back seat, but for the two of us it worked out fine.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondTue, 06 Apr 2010 09:32:07 GMTaff1041b-537b-491d-a2b7-b4c784344c25Where&rsquo;d the 350z go?https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1934/wherersquod-the-350z-goSo it’s been a while since I’ve done any updates here on Project350z.com, so here’s a quick update. The car has been doing well the past few months but at this point has been relegated to strictly commuter duty, and it will likely be that way for a while now. Though I do hope to hit an event or two here in the coming months, hopefully on towards the end of June and another 2 or 3 in July.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 31 May 2010 02:07:15 GMT408220f8-1020-4482-8592-91a411ff01dfNismo Cold Air Intake for a 350zhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1958/nismo-cold-air-intake-for-a-350z<p>So when the Project350z was purchased in Colorado back in January it had a Nismo Cold Air Intake on it. Shortly thereafter I moved to California, and guess what? The Nismo isn’t CARB legal, which means it isn’t legal for use in the State of California, so off the intake came.</p> <p>And there it sat. and sat. and sat some more. Until today, I finally decided to pull it out of the box and put it up on <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150469355328&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:MOTORS:1123" target="_blank">Ebay. So there it is, sitting on Ebay, have at it</a>!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSun, 18 Jul 2010 23:39:34 GMT19779846-1ce5-45fc-8e4d-479294c10ee3Ingen Super SES Exhaust Leak on Nissan 350zhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1970/ingen-super-ses-exhaust-leak-on-nissan-350zSo I spent the afternoon yesterday trying to repair a leak in the Injen Super SES Exhaust system that was on the 350z when I purchased the car back in January. Sometime in March the exhaust started leaking and it has slowly gotten worse. Normally I would of just scrapped it and put something else on, but with all the life changes (new job, moved to California, trying to sell the house in Colorado, prepping for our first child) we’ve been going through the budget hasn’t allowed for that at this point.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondTue, 10 Aug 2010 00:47:03 GMT6c885267-ee77-4e7d-885b-d8d8b562ee73Injen Exhaust for a 350z, Still Leakinghttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2006/injen-exhaust-for-a-350z-still-leaking<p>So I still have an exhaust leak in the Injen Super SES System on my 2004 Nissan 350z. And I must say, I’m not too happy about it. <a href="http://www.project350z.com/Articles/itemId/473/Ingen-Super-SES-Exhaust-Leak-on-Nissan-350z.aspx" target="_blank">I blogged about this over a month ago</a>, almost two months now. I actually emailed Injen at the time, and I got a fairly quick response inquiring about photos of the system so they could try to figure out what replacement parts I need.</p> <p>Since then there has been radio silence. I emailed them the photos, I’ve emailed them since, and have heard nothing back. At this point in time I’m going to have to suggest, if you’re serious about your ride, stay away from Injen Systems. For cold air intakes, exhaust systems, whatever they sell. If this is the customer service they provide I can’t suggest that anyone ever buys a product from them.</p> <p>*disappointed 350z owner*</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondWed, 29 Sep 2010 01:40:09 GMT562e724b-cf15-4bf7-9a33-45e177dabe52Injen Super SES exhaust removal, OEM 350z exhaust installationhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2034/injen-super-ses-exhaust-removal-oem-350z-exhaustIf you’ve followed my struggles here on Project350z.com you know by now that my 2004 350z came (when I purchased it in January 2010) with an Injen Super SES exhaust system. This system was a true dual exhaust setup from the cats back. Read the full blog post for more details, and the YouTube timelapsehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 06 Dec 2010 02:52:21 GMTf9ccd95b-8806-4709-a876-3cabadb24084Buy a motor to build up?https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2044/buy-a-motor-to-build-up<p>So I am not sure where the 350z is ultimately headed. I think SSM in SCCA Autocross could be fun, though that will take some time and a lot of money to do.</p> <p>I was thinking, perhaps a motor build up would be a place to start. And rather than build up a turbo motor from what I currently have, keep it as is and find another motor to build up.</p> <p>There’s a guy selling one on My350z that is somewhat local, could be an interesting thing to pull into the garage. Though, considering we got rid of the pickup truck last week it might not be a good idea to acquire a new motor just yet <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/Buy-a-motor-to-build-up_14372/wlEmoticon-smile_2.png" /></p> <p><a href="http://my350z.com/forum/norcal-marketplace/467754-fs-rev-up-motor-w-spun-bearing.html">http://my350z.com/forum/norcal-marketplace/467754-fs-rev-up-motor-w-spun-bearing.html</a></p> <p>I may email him and tell him I’ll give him $150, see where that goes.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 27 Dec 2010 02:00:48 GMTbfef5922-c38d-4bd1-a58e-b3c52daeab0cUnable to get any customer service from Injen Systemshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2045/unable-to-get-any-customer-service-from-injen-syst<p>So I’ve been trying for 4+ months now to get some customer service from Injen Systems for the Super SES Exhaust on my Nissan 350z that has a massive leak in it.</p> <p>Back in August I received a response from Injen</p> <blockquote> <p>Hi Chris,</p> <p>Can you send me a picture of your exhaust? I guess we had a few different ones made for that same vehicle and a photo would make it much easier to figure out what part and get you the correct part.</p> <p><strong><b>Thank You,</b></strong></p> <p><strong><b>Natalie Ornelas</b></strong></p> <p><strong><b>Injen Technology </b></strong><strong><b>C</b></strong><strong><b>o., LTD</b></strong></p> <p><a href="http://www.injen.com/"><strong><b>www.INJEN.com</b></strong></a></p> <p><strong><b>(909) 839</b></strong><strong><b>-</b></strong><strong><b>0706 Ext. 214</b></strong></p> <p><strong><b>(909) 839</b></strong><strong><b>-</b></strong><strong><b>0427 Fax</b></strong></p> <p><strong><b>AIM InjenNatalie</b></strong></p> </blockquote> <p>I responded with photos of the exhaust and what I needed. I have heard nothing back. I’ve emailed them multiple times, even emailing their tech and info email addresses, but so far I have not received a single response from them since that email quoted above.</p> <p>I sure wish I could get some help, I actually liked the exhaust on my 350z, but this has to be the worst customer service ever!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 27 Dec 2010 23:48:07 GMTcee897b0-3457-4b72-9d64-36e96e292ad7Look out, Vinyl Boy is backhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2046/look-out-vinyl-boy-is-back<p>So it has been over 2 years since I’ve had vinyl on a car, that will be changing in 2011. Look out for the upcoming transformation of the Project 350z! Early in the year I will be doing a minor overhaul, with the goal of doing a full wrap on the car later in the year.</p> <p>I just need to find someone local who can do the wrap for a reasonable cost, and make sure that they don’t damage the car in the process. I’ve not had anyone apply vinyl to my cars before, I’ve always done it myself, but I don’t have visions of being able to do a full wrap myself. </p> <p>For a refresher, here are some photos of some of my past vinyl experiences (all self applied)</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/2768918509/"><img border="0" alt="The new look" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3182/2768918509_72f218deef_t.jpg" width="100" height="40" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/2291945232/"><img border="0" alt="DotNetNuke Corvette" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2402/2291945232_3f7d42f74a_t.jpg" width="100" height="67" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/1282983712/"><img border="0" alt="My Old 350Z" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1207/1282983712_98de77fd22_t.jpg" width="100" height="67" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/3257269658/"><img border="0" alt="350Z Autocross" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/3257269658_078fbcd902_t.jpg" width="100" height="67" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4116230997/"><img border="0" alt="CRW_8435" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2520/4116230997_ebe11d2719_t.jpg" width="100" height="67" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/2063988267/"><img border="0" alt="My Old Camaro" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2232/2063988267_51055763a0_t.jpg" width="100" height="75" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4142941262/"><img border="0" alt="7G9X4944" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2659/4142941262_30e670dbc7_t.jpg" width="100" height="67" /></a></p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondThu, 30 Dec 2010 14:00:01 GMT76f52368-ce66-405d-b4a9-5e1ee67e6939Decking out the Project350z in DotNetNukehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2068/decking-out-the-project350z-in-dotnetnuke<p>I don’t have an Autocross event coming up for a couple weeks, but I couldn’t wait, I had to do something to the car.</p> <p>So here she is, <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com">DotNetNuke</a> logos on the front and the back of the 350z.</p> <p><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5247/5362427932_1cd99da6c9.jpg" alt="Project 350z"/></p> <p>and</p> <p><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5210/5361818753_2fe8c12a32.jpg" alt="Project 350z"/></p> <p><strong>What is DotNetNuke?</strong> DotNetNuke is an open source platform for building web sites based on Microsoft .NET technology.</p> <p><strong>Why would someone put a DotNetNuke logo on their car?</strong> This website runs on DotNetNuke. My personal website runs on DotNetNuke, my wife’s site runs on DotNetNuke, my daughter’s website runs on DotNetNuke, <a href="http://www.SCCAForums.com" target="_blank">SCCAForums.com</a> runs on DotNetNuke. I work for DotNetNuke Corporation. I’ve used DotNetNuke for 8 years now. My life revolves around DotNetNuke, and has for a long time, and hopefully will for a long time as well.</p> <p>So I found it fitting that I should try to help promote the product in any way I can. That includes putting the logo on my car, front and back. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/2291945232/" target="_blank">I’ve done it before, on a different car</a>, so why not on my current car!</p> <p>So what do you think? Am I crazy? </p>Chris HammondWed, 19 Jan 2011 01:48:43 GMTba1acafa-8747-43d3-be71-927ab71152a6Injen Customer Service Update! It rocks!https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2070/injen-customer-service-update-it-rocks<p><a href="http://www.project350z.com/Articles/itemId/483/Unable-to-get-any-customer-service-from-Injen-Syst.aspx" target="_blank">So a while back now I complained</a> that I wasn’t able to get any customer service from Injen Systems on the Super SES exhaust that was on my 350z when I purchased it.</p> <p>Well I am happy to say that I no longer have that problem! Injen contacted me and apologized for the lack of responses previously. I was still somewhat cautious, but they did say that they could help me by sending me the parts I needed to fix the leaking system (at a cost, but I didn’t expect them for free).</p> <p>The parts showed up today! So, to Injen, thank you for your help!</p> <p>I’ll be installing the exhaust this weekend, taking the OEM setup back out. I’ll have to try to weigh everything before I put it in, and then the OEM one when it comes out to compare.</p> <p>On an unrelated note to the exhaust. In the 2011 February Fastrack the SCCA is proposing moving the 350z from BSP to ESP. I’m  going to have to write a letter, or 3, in support of that move!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondFri, 21 Jan 2011 00:40:31 GMTa064d672-ebf2-41d5-8595-b5629acda9d6Injen Super SES Installation on the 350zhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2072/injen-super-ses-installation-on-the-350z<p>If you followed the blog post earlier this week you already know that Injen came through and got me the replacement midpipes for my Super SES Exhaust which I removed late last year. </p><p> Today I took the OEM exhaust off the 350z and put the Injen exhaust back on. The job itself is easy, probably could do it all in about 25 minutes if I really pushed it, but I didn’t. I took my time, cleaned up in the garage a bit, cleaned up the exhaust a bit as well. I also managed to weigh both the Injen exhaust and the OEM exhaust to see what the difference was. I was hoping it would be more! </p><p> Read the full blog post for photos and video!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSun, 23 Jan 2011 01:07:18 GMTe5cba2f5-0cae-4847-964d-aa0097ffc5c9350z Trailer Hitch, Take 2https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2075/350z-trailer-hitch-take-2<p>So for my 2003 350z I had a custom trailer hitch built by a friend in St. Louis. It was hefty, mounting with ubolts through the bottom of the bumper and then a bar running forward to the differential. It weighed quite a bit, but was somewhat easy to remove at autocross events if I was concerned about the weight. </p> <p>I just spent the last hour and a half trying to dig up an old photo of the hitch, but have so far been unable to do so! I’m hoping to get some photos from the company who made the hitch (no longer produced or sold, but we’ll see if they still have them). I did finally locate a photo of when the hitch was being built! Though it really isn’t useful for much, here it is. This is the mount at the rear diff.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/5389655042/"><img border="0" alt="CRW_1674_JFR" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5220/5389655042_505eb6623c_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" /></a></p> <p>Then of course there is the car actually towing at trailer. This photo was taken in the parking lot at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery in Lynchburg Tennessee in April 2005, just a few days after the hitch was constructed. I always loved this photo</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/5389048109/"><img border="0" alt="CRW_1711_JFR" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5260/5389048109_3d9c0c77bd_m.jpg" width="240" height="159" /></a></p> Read morehttps://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondWed, 26 Jan 2011 01:09:16 GMT32ee3690-0071-44e6-a26a-e0763ac95ea9The 350z goes on a Diethttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2080/the-350z-goes-on-a-dietOn Saturday the 350z went on a diet, losing (rough guess here) about 3% of it’s total weight. When I purchased the car in January of 2010 I knew a few things. The stereo in the car was aftermarket, and so were the two 10” subs in the back of the car. Beyond that I also assumed there was an amplifier somewhere powering the subs, but I wasn’t really sure what else there was.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 31 Jan 2011 00:49:00 GMT47d79990-0e7f-4065-b730-b44c504d2096Dropping Weight in the 350z, for STR (now BSP)https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2081/dropping-weight-in-the-350z-for-str-now-bspThis blog post will be gradually updated over time as I figure out how to drop weight in the 350z prepping it for STR in 2010 (now BSP for 2011).https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondWed, 27 Jan 2010 23:53:21 GMTd43e267a-447b-4a1e-8c8f-004cc1e9291f350z BSP Parts Configurationhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2086/350z-bsp-parts-configurationThis post will be a continually updated (on project350z.com) list of parts (to buy) and configuration for the 350z preparation for SCCA Solo’s BSP (B street prepared) Class. If you’re building a 350z for Autocross I hope that this page provides of some great value. Each part will be marked as Planned or Installed depending on the current status. In no particular orderhttps://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondFri, 04 Feb 2011 03:16:23 GMT6e55ada6-ea6c-4171-9bae-2580ebb2d5e6Wheels for a BSP 350z, ARP Studs, Sway Barshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2088/wheels-for-a-bsp-350z-arp-studs-sway-bars<p>So now that wheels and tires (used) are taken care of, at least for part of the season, I need to locate some longer/stronger wheel studs for the 350z. </p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/5419830808/"><img style="display: inline; float: right" border="0" alt="Enkei RPF1 18x10 +38" align="right" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5419830808_08eb37234e_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" /></a></p> <p>On my 2003 350z I had Nismo studs, though they were only on the front, I never got around to putting them on the rear. For this one I could go with the Nismo studs, but it appears a lot of people use ARP studs. So I started looking into what was available there.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 05 Feb 2011 23:07:21 GMT68eac0a1-eb72-41bb-a4c2-2a422713402b350z Tire/Wheel Fitment 18x10 inch 305 V710shttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2092/350z-tirewheel-fitment-18x10-inch-305-v710s<p>This evening after work I came home and cleared out the garage so that I could get the new wheels test fitted to see what all I was going to need to do on Saturday.</p> <p>Here are the details, the wheels are Enkei RPF1 18”x10” +38 (offset). The tires are Kumho Ecsta V710 305/30/18s. The car currently sits on a stock suspension (2004 350z Enthusiast)</p> <p>With that in mind, I wanted to see what I was going to need to do to make them fit on the car so I can run them at the SCCA Autocross this weekend. The good news is that the wheels/tires fit on the rear perfectly, no changes necessary (at least as of right now on the stock suspension).</p> Chris HammondWed, 09 Feb 2011 01:06:57 GMTfe8d33b4-ca83-402f-8615-9af8d7bce02eNope those lug nuts won&rsquo;t fithttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2094/nope-those-lug-nuts-wonrsquot-fit<p>So I ran around Redwood City today over lunch, I needed to find some spacers and lug nuts to go along with the new studs that arrived today from <a href="http://www.soloperformance.com">www.soloperformance.com</a>.</p> <p>I went to Kragen first, they didn’t have any spacers but were kind enough to point me towards <a href="http://www.fivepointtire.com">Five Point Tire</a> in Redwood City. Five Point was great, service was awesome and the guy was very helpful. I picked up 6 spacers, with the intention of only using 2 or 4 of them for now.</p> <p>When I got home I wanted to make sure that the lugs were going to work. They were Gorilla Lug nuts, designed to go through the holes in the wheels to help position them on the hub. Unfortunately when I test fitted them though the wheels they don’t actually fit through the holes <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-sadsmile" alt="Sad smile" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/62ecb0783f7c_127C9/wlEmoticon-sadsmile_2.png" /></p> <p>Looks like I will need to run to Five Point Tire again Friday or Saturday and see what their options are. I will likely take a wheel with me this time to make sure things work out. </p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondFri, 11 Feb 2011 00:08:16 GMT369cf33e-c334-4e3b-b708-1dccb5541d7fPrepping for the 350z Stud Installhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2095/prepping-for-the-350z-stud-instalI was going to do a blog post on ChrisHammond.com tonight with a video embedded that I took at the NASA Ames Research Center tweetup, but unfortunately the video I produced came out at 800mb and between youtube and my connection it doesn’t look like that video is going to be ready for the public to view tonight. So instead I’m going to post here on Project350z.com. Why? Well in last night’s post I mentioned that the Lug Nuts I picked up from Five Point Tire Imports wouldn’t fit in the wheels for the car. So today I went by there again (after the tweetup) and replaced the lug nuts with ones that should fit on the car just fine.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 12 Feb 2011 01:52:45 GMT52f7ccc8-2002-44ff-befe-db86f89a5e94San Francisco Region SCCA Boondoggle 2011 Resultshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2097/san-francisco-region-scca-boondoggle-2011-resultsSo today was the first day for a few things It was my first time running an autocross with the San Francisco Region of the SCCA. I must say things went fairly well, even with of the normal first event hiccups. It was my first time running this 350z on RComps, and any 350z on 18” tires on 10” wide wheels. Overall I was impressed, though I long for 315 Hoosier A6s! Today’s event was held at California’s Great America in Santa Clara, CA. I started out slow, but finally kicked it in gear a bit on my 4th and final run. I realized today that I used to drive balls to the wall all the time at an autocross, I guess in my old age I’m not doing that as much, so it took me a while to turn that switch back on.Chris HammondSun, 13 Feb 2011 23:58:50 GMT0c0ed9cb-692d-4017-8b04-d7562697b222Night before the Project 350z&rsquo;s first divisionalhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2102/night-before-the-project-350zrsquos-first-divisiSo today was a busy day, I had a lot to catch up on at work, training to provide internally, and a final to take this afternoon. After that I ran home and grabbed the set of Falken Azenis RT-615s that were sitting in the garage and ran to Les Schwab (the same place I bitched about a few weeks ago) to get them mounted.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 19 Feb 2011 00:52:11 GMTb932ef62-00f5-4a1f-8e43-2fb8ca8201bdSFRSCCA Divisional 2011 Day 1https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2103/sfrscca-divisional-2011-day-1<p>How was today?</p> <p><font size="7">COLD AND WET!</font></p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/5458127935/"><img style="display: inline; float: right" border="0" alt="Hard to see but there is snow on them thar hills #autocross" align="right" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5293/5458127935_f28fd5c35f_m.jpg" width="240" height="179" /></a>Beyond that? Very cold and very wet. I went to Great America today for the SFRSCCA Divisional Autocross. I got there around 7am and put the Kumho tires on the car, big mistake! I was sort of drying out, the sky was almost clear, but the drive down there was rainy, and there was snow! You can’t see it very well in this picture, but yes, there was snow in the “hills” around the Bay Area.</p> <p>So I installed the wheels/tires and walked the course a few times. The driver’s meeting got delayed, then the start of the event got delayed. Then the rain started back up <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-sadsmile" alt="Sad smile" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/SFRSCCA-Divisional-2011-Day-1_10487/wlEmoticon-sadsmile_2.png" /></p> <p>Let me tell you this, Kumho V710s don’t work well when it is <40 degrees and raining. My first run I went out and it felt horrible, I turned a 66.*, I wasn’t too thrilled about that. Here’s a video of that run.</p> <p><span class="Publish_Video"><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="340" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/WV9E75Gkc-Y&hd=1"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WV9E75Gkc-Y&hd=1" />Flash Not Installed</object></span></p> <p>But I was too lazy to go get my street tires (<a href="http://www.project350z.com/Articles/itemId/502/Night-before-the-Project-350zrsquos-first-divisi.aspx">freshly mounted the previous night mind you</a>). Big mistake, I went out on my second run and decided I would take things slower, expecting to actually go around the course faster. I slowed down and ran a 69.*. That broke this camel’s back, I ran off to get my street wheels, drill, and jack so that I could swap to the Falken Azenis RT-615s.</p> <p>Thankfully Grant (in a Nismo 370z) followed me over and helped me bring 2 of the tires back to my grid spot. I don’t think I would have gotten them changed in time had he not helped! Thanks for the help Grant!</p> <p>The Falkens were MUCH better, not perfect, but way better than the V710s in the rain. I managed to run a 60.*, a big improvement over the first two runs, though I just wish I had put them on before my second run, or even to begin with!</p> <p>Here’s a video of the third run</p> <p><span class="Publish_Video"><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="340" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/cGIZVNTaNbU&hd=1"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cGIZVNTaNbU&hd=1" />Flash Not Installed</object></span></p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 19 Feb 2011 21:42:29 GMT764f040b-36ec-41de-8993-a4e700f13c04Weighing the 350z at the Divisionalhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2104/weighing-the-350z-at-the-divisional<p>So there’s been much debate (or really just many people telling me I am crazy) over on SCCAForums in the thread I started to discuss the proposed move of the 350z from BSP to ESP in SCCA Autocross classing.</p> <p>Ever since the 350z was released I thought it was the perfect F-Stock car, though others have always seemed to think otherwise and it was relegated to B-Stock where all but a few events it became an also ran behind the RX-8. It was also classed in BSP (b street prepared) where it hasn’t faired any better for the last 8 years. Last month the SCCA posted a proposal to move the 350z from BSP to ESP, I’m all for the move, most of the ESP folk apparently aren’t, “A Japanese car in our American Car Class? How dare you!”</p> <p>Alright, so no one has made that complaint, but the way they “defend” their ground they might as well be drawing lines in the soil. There’s much debate about what a 350z will actually weight in SP trim, my car isn’t fully SP prepped yet (and to be honest that will likely take 2-3 years due to budget) but I figured I would go ahead and weigh the car at the divisional event today.</p> <p>First things first, here are the details of the car itself (if it's not mentioned it is stock) <br />2004 Nissan 350z "Enthusiast" package <br />18x10" RPF1s <br />305 V710s <br />No stereo/speakers <br />~2 gallons of gas <br />Injen Super SES dual exhaust (weighed at 15lbs lighter than stock) <br />HFCs <br />K&N CAI <br />Plenum spacer <br />Hotchkis F/R sway bars <br />No spare tire, tools, or rear carpeting/mats(not fastened down from the factory)</p> <p>And what did it weigh in at?</p> <p><strong>3062lbs</strong></p> <p>That matches up fairly closely to my 2003 Enthusiast I had from 03-06 in b-stock trim. A few other mods on this one, though the old one had a lighter exhaust setup. The 2003 weighed 3075lbs.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 21 Feb 2011 00:09:56 GMTfe5168d8-fc61-4030-a25c-1285790cdc02350z Autocross Tire Pressureshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2105/350z-autocross-tire-pressures<p>So with all the blogging I’ve done over the years I have been unable to find any posts where I mentioned tire pressures!</p> <p>So here it is, a thread that I will continually update with tire pressure information for my 350z. As I change configurations I will move settings to an archive down below.</p> <h2>Current Tires</h2> <p>Kumho V710 305/30R18 <br />(as of 2/20/2011)</p> <h2>Current Pressures</h2> <p>Front: 25psi <br />Rear: 23psi <br />(as of 2/20/2011)</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 21 Feb 2011 00:18:38 GMTf63b2446-fe7b-4bc7-96b3-1b8bb87d8170350z Traction Control and Square Tireshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2115/350z-traction-control-and-square-tires<p>So I experienced something while driving the 350z yesterday that I haven’t experienced in quite a while. Typically the 350z comes with a staggered tire setup, meaning that the front tires are usually a smaller size than the rears. A week or two ago I got some new street tires put on the car, the new tires are “square” meaning the fronts are the same size as the rear.</p> <p>This actually gives you the ability to rotate the wheels/tires (assuming the wheels are the same size), which can go a long way in making your tires last longer. The old set I had taken off were actually okay in the front, but the rears were bald, being able to rotate could have helped prevent that.</p> <p>The downfall of having a square setup, at least with a 350z, is that the computer isn’t setup for that, not having the stagger causes the front tires to run at a different speed in relation to the rear tires. This causes the computer to freak out, though most of the time it is fine, where it will freak out is typically when you are accelerating on an onramp.</p> <p>I had this happen for the first time since some time in 2006 (when I sold my first 350z) last night. It wasn’t a huge shocker, but it was a bit of a surprise. You can avoid the computer issue, but it requires turning off the traction control, something you can’t do when it is activated by the differing speeds. So for now, I will continue to turn off the traction control (tcs) when I get in the car.</p> <p>I’m curious to see if there are any ways to disable the TCS by default, and only have it turn on when you press the button. That would be extremely useful in autocross as you NEVER want traction control in a 350z enabled when autocrossing.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondWed, 02 Mar 2011 23:05:49 GMT162be84a-28a6-4756-bd2c-f230b061afd2Excellent customer service from GoProhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2118/excellent-customer-service-from-gopro<p>The night before an autocross, and I’m stoked for tomorrow, even if it rains (as forecasted). I got a replacement GoPro HD camera today in the mail.</p> <p>For those of you who don’t know, I had a problem with my GoPro camera, which I use a LOT! I use it for <a href="http://www.project350z.com/Videos.aspx">autocross videos, and time lapse videos of working on the car</a>. A few weeks ago I was working on the car doing a standard time lapse, but the camera freaked out. I came to find out that there was a bug in the camera software that would show up with time lapse mode after 10k (I think) photos were taken. It was a known bug though, and there was a firmware update for the camera to fix the bug.</p> <p>So I applied the firmware update, but something during the process failed and the camera ended up “bricking” which basically means it wouldn’t work. You couldn’t power it on, you couldn’t use it, nothing, it was as useful as a brick. Since I got the camera for xmas it was still under warranty so I contacted GoPro about getting it fixed, while it took a bit of back and forth via email with their customer service reps, they provided me with an RMA number to send it in.</p> <p>This was a couple of weeks ago, right before a 2 day autocross and right before we were heading out of town for vacation, so I didn’t get the camera mailed out until Tuesday of this week. On Thursday I got an email from them saying that they had a replacement camera ready to mail out, but I hadn’t included a return address. I replied with our address, and then on Friday I got an email saying it would go out. It is nice that we live about 15 miles from their headquarters because the camera showed up today via USPS.</p> <p>I’m not positive that the firmware fix has been applied to this camera yet, but I’m going to leave it as is for now. I want to use it at the autocross tomorrow, so I don’t want to run the risk of bricking it again!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 05 Mar 2011 23:02:50 GMTeb3d1bab-988b-4953-bc05-f7b3f82d41bfThe suspension is here! Now to fix ithttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2124/the-suspension-is-here-now-to-fix-itMy birthday gift (early) from my wife showed up today (I have the best wife ever!), a new suspension (well new to me) for the 350z. There’s only one problem (and not her fault, as I ordered it) the control arms that came aren’t legal for the class the car is being built for. The problem with them is that the arms use spherical bearings in place of bushings, and the BSP rules read (read the full blog post for all the details, and photos)https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondThu, 10 Mar 2011 02:18:56 GMT5636f5ab-e08a-454c-9622-2fd73953923fLowering the suspension in reversehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2143/lowering-the-suspension-in-reverse<p>So today I went back at the suspension of the car. <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:27f760f4-e264-409c-bf6f-d8050b9351d7" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/l5VsNjtZXKE?hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="448" height="252"></embed><div style="width:448px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">Time lapse of lowering the suspension, in reverse</div></div> </p> <p>The problem with the video is that I did the time lapse in reverse! I mistakenly sorted the photos in descending order instead of ascending. You really can’t tell on the time lapse though, it just looks like another time lapse!</p> See the full post for more photosChris HammondMon, 28 Mar 2011 01:07:14 GMT8fb2393a-e70c-43fc-bf49-a546f659b670Alignment done, at least for the road triphttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2144/alignment-done-at-least-for-the-road-trip<p>So I didn’t figure I was going to have time to do the alignment on the 350z over the next couple of days, and I wasn’t sure that I really wanted to do an alignment myself after just lowering the car. I mean, I want to do it, but driving down to San Diego on Thursday isn’t the time I need to press my alignment skills.</p> <p>So today I took the car to the local Firestone dealer to get an alignment done today. Here’s what I told them.</p> <p>“I want to know what the specs are, and I want the toe to be within factory specifications.”</p> <p>No problem they said, then they upsold me on the lifetime alignment. I told them, oh that won’t work for me, I’m gonna be making lots of changes, you guys won’t honor it. He assured me that they would, and even double checked with the manager. We’ll see how it works out, but I’m hoping they will honor it going forward! Really I will just want to use them here or there to verify that what I do when I make adjustments and try to align it myself.</p> <p>Less than an hour later I got a phone call saying that the car was ready to go. Here are the specs that I came away with.</p> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" width="473"><tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" width="133"> </td> <td valign="top" width="133">Left F/R (in degrees)</td> <td valign="top" width="205">Right F/R(in degrees)</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="133">Camber</td> <td valign="top" width="133">-2.3/-2.4</td> <td valign="top" width="205">-2.5/-2</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="133">Toe</td> <td valign="top" width="133">.05/.12</td> <td valign="top" width="205">.07/.09</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p> </p> <p>Friday I plan to do some adjustment to the Toe, getting some toe out in front and toe in in the rear. We’ll see if I can get that adjustment squared away using my longacre toe plates.</p> <p>If I come up with some additional settings for autocross alignment I’ll create a new blog post for the specs.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondTue, 29 Mar 2011 01:37:22 GMT7bcf4999-12f1-40bc-a47e-217d641ac364GoPro Firmware Upgradehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2146/gopro-firmware-upgrade<p>So if you read my postings a month or two ago you know I had trouble with the GoPro firmware last time around. Ended up bricking the camera and having to send it in.</p> <p>Much better luck tonight! I got V 1.1.5 upgraded without any trouble. I wasn’t sure what the camera had on it that they sent me in exchange for my repair, so I wanted to make sure I was on the latest firmware for the trip to San Diego. I’m hoping to timelapse the drive.</p> <p>We’ll see if the batteries (2 of them) last the trip, I doubt it, but we’ll see. I have the camera set for shooting every 5 seconds and plan to mount it facing out the windshield.</p> <p>Thanks for all of you who “like” <a href="http://facebook.com/project350z" target="_blank">Project350z on Facebook</a>! We’ve seen some good growth the past couple of days!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondThu, 31 Mar 2011 01:07:16 GMT549ea777-64bd-444a-a188-05c0448a85f6San Diego National Tour Practice Dayhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2148/san-diego-national-tour-practice-day<p>Today was a practice day at the San Diego National Tour. This morning I took part in the Evolution School advantage program, basically you get a ton of seat time in the morning before the practice course opens up for the rest of the entrants for the National Tour. My r-comps were on a truck otw to the tour, so I ran my street tires for the morning session. I also had the car set at full soft (bump/rebound), most definitely not the configuration needed, and my evo instructor Brian let me know.</p> <p>He knew me (not to be cocky, a lot of autocrossers do because of my involvement with <a href="http://www.SCCAForums.com" target="_blank">SCCAForums.com</a> and announcing at events throughout the years), but he made the mistake of assuming I knew what I was doing <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-openmouthedsmile" alt="Open-mouthed smile" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/San-Diego-National-Tour-Practice-Day_12E28/wlEmoticon-openmouthedsmile_2.png" />. He assumed I knew about suspension setup, I corrected him, and asked for help! He was very helpful and provided me some guidance to try things out.</p> <p>In the morning sessions on street tires (Azenis 615s, decent tires) I got down to 30.0*, not bad, but nothing near the 27.* that a SS Z06 was running. </p> <p>I also had a horrendous knocking coming front the front end of the car, though that wasn’t new, it was happening all week. When I put the new bushings in I failed to apply any grease to them (other than when they went into the control arms).  My father is here in town to watch me run at the tour, so we headed over to autozone to get some white lithium spray grease to try to help with the knocking. I thought, there was no way that it would help, but geez, it’s amazing how much quieter the car is now.</p> <p>When the tires showed up I got them put on and adjusted the Konis a bit, then went back out and ran a few more practice runs to see how the car felt.</p> <p>I got faster on each run, finishing with a 28.555. Still not up to snuff against that Z06, but definitely better than I had been doing in the morning.</p> <p>I ended up going with the following settings on the Konis</p> <p><strong>Front Double Adjustable Truechoice Coilovers <br />Rebound:</strong> 1 full turn from soft (2.5 turns is full stiff) <br /><strong>Bump:</strong> 6 clicks (12 or 13 clicks is full stiff)</p> <p><strong>Rear Koni Sports (single adjustable) <br />Rebound:</strong> 2.5 clicks (10 clicks available)</p> <p>I’m still trying to get the time lapse video from drive down to San Diego yesterday together. I can’t get Windows Live Movie Maker working very well on my laptop. I’m hoping it finishes up here soon.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 02 Apr 2011 00:49:20 GMTb4a7cb13-f223-4b2f-baad-bd13ae60de4bEl Toro ProSolo Day 1https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2156/el-toro-prosolo-day-1<p>I just don’t have the energy to do a full writeup for the ProSolo today, and to be honest, it won’t happen Sunday, and likely not Monday either <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-openmouthedsmile" alt="Open-mouthed smile" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/086ec53de232_13331/wlEmoticon-openmouthedsmile_2.png" /></p> <p>So what happened? Well, I’m sitting in 5th out of 8, 2nd in the Kumho class. I’m still hoping to get up to first in the K Class <img style="border-bottom-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-left-style: none" class="wlEmoticon wlEmoticon-smile" alt="Smile" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/086ec53de232_13331/wlEmoticon-smile_2.png" /> With the contingency available that would mean a set of tires.</p> <p>Jodi Fordahl is driving with me as well. She’s doing great, I have a feeling she’ll be faster than me on Sunday.</p> <p>Random note: This car really needs a diff!  I am going to try to find the OS Giken guys if they are at the Pro tomorrow and talk to them a bit.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSun, 10 Apr 2011 01:01:13 GMT682b6abf-11d7-494b-9187-efd0746133edNaked and famoushttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2164/naked-and-famous<p>So the car is naked, well about as naked as it can be.</p> <p>Saturday evening I took it to the car wash and removed all of the vinyl. I plan to put it back on, but it’ll be a while before that happens. I figured it was a little too much right now to attract attention. I’d post photos, but there really isn’t much point, right now the car is just a blue 350z that is a little lower than normal.</p> <p>In honor of the occasion here’s some President’s of the United States of America, with Naked and Famous</p> <iframe title="YouTube video player" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GHPkLuVBQ1Y?rel=0&hd=1" frameborder="0" width="425" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSun, 17 Apr 2011 23:52:43 GMTa07a7360-a676-47f0-9f4d-c7ccd40ba2c7What color should I wrap the 350z? You get to decide!https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2174/what-color-should-i-wrap-the-350z-you-get-to-deci<p>So I’ve wanted to do this for a while, and now I’m getting ready to pull the trigger.</p> <p>I am going to wrap the 350z? What does that mean? I am going to take a solid Vinyl color, and wrap it around the entire painted surface of the car. Effectively changing the color of the car, and covering the paint in a protective vinyl coating.</p> <p><strong>Why am I wrapping the car?</strong> Because I can? Or well, because I want to. I don’t know yet that I can. I’ve applied quite a bit of vinyl in my life, but never to an entire car.</p> <p><strong>Why not have someone else wrap it? Why not have a designer wrap done? </strong>Both of those options cost money, and I really would rather spend money elsewhere on the car. That being said, if you own a car wrapping business in the San Francisco Bay Area and you want to sponsor Project350z, fill out the Contact form on the <a href="http://www.project350z.com/About.aspx" target="_blank">About page</a>. </p> <p><strong>What color are you going to wrap it?</strong> That’s where you come in. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=question&id=125772814167499" target="_blank">We’ve setup a "Poll" on our Facebook page</a>, where you get to help us decide. The options are "Matte Black, Matte Green, Don’t Do it!" If you have a Facebook account go ahead and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=question&id=125772814167499" target="_blank">answer the question</a>! The Poll will stay open until 5/4/2011.</p> <p>And while you are at it, don’t forget to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/project350z" target="_blank">"LIKE" our page</a>!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondWed, 27 Apr 2011 02:04:19 GMT691c2317-ecfa-4feb-8ac0-b7897637bc60350z Stereo For Sale, Stealthbox Subwooferhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2185/350z-stereo-for-sale-stealthbox-subwooferI took all of this stuff out of my car a few months ago and am just now getting around to selling. To the best of my knowledge here is what I have, you can find all the pictures from below (and more) at a higher resolution at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157626520108688/with/5628927973/ All equipment is used, but was in working order when removed from the car.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 07 May 2011 03:54:25 GMTfd031572-3cac-4027-9570-d68d6018e369Color for the wrap has been decidedhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2186/color-for-the-wrap-has-been-decided<p>A week ago I posted a “question” on Facebook to see what color we should wrap the 350z in. </p> <p>Well it looks like the final tally is 31/13/13</p> <p>31 for Matte Black <br />13 for Matte Green <br />13 for Don't Do It!</p> <p>So Matte Black it will be! Time to order the vinyl! I would hope to have it done by the end of the month, but realizing we are moving before then, we’ll set a goal of the end of June to have this completed. Of course we’ll have a time lapse video of the process!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 07 May 2011 04:00:29 GMTe7677878-6e16-4801-b578-73c82daf5488Project350z on Hiatus?https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2189/project350z-on-hiatus<p>So things have slowed down for the Project350z, at least for a month or two. After running quite a few events in February, March and April, I haven’t run an event since the El Toro ProSolo on 4/10.</p> <p>I plan to run more events this year, but life has put autocross to the side for a month or two. We’re getting ready to move, so autocross has been the last thing on my mind.</p> <p>This weekend there’s the Dual at DeAnza, last year I was hoping to run this year’s event, but due to everything going on I ended up not registering. It looks like Grant (ShamuZ) has lost his car for the event, due to losing a rear diff (He’s got an OS Giken diff as far as I know, I need to find out what happened as that is the diff I was hoping to put in my car later this year). I’ve asked Grant to see if he can get me into his entry position for the Duel, if he can I will try to run the event.</p> <p>If it doesn’t work out, so be it, but I think it would be cool to run. The next few weeks are going to be extremely busy, so an autocross before all of that would be a good release!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondWed, 11 May 2011 00:51:44 GMT8942cdee-bb94-49d1-9ed4-f70b7716a297Autocross 350z Modifications Listhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2195/autocross-350z-modifications-listI realized recently that I didn’t have an ongoing list of modifications for the 350z. So I figured I should create one. The idea is that this will be continually updated, with the list of current parts. If I end up removing parts I’ll strike them through on the list.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondMon, 16 May 2011 03:04:29 GMT511a1033-2269-474f-bca1-481acdbe4c9fLet there be sound, and I&rsquo;m going to Nationals (not in the 350z)https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2224/let-there-be-sound-and-irsquom-going-to-nationa<p>So I finally had it with listening to my Motorola Droid (Google Music and Pandora) for my commute. Why don’t I have a stereo? Well back in February I ripped it all out. Not exactly the best choice, but hey, I was in the hear of the moment thinking I was prepping the car for a fully competitive 2011 season. That has changed, (more on that later).</p> Chris HammondWed, 15 Jun 2011 00:58:01 GMT9c13ea39-f9e5-4be1-ab20-e2fadadb2784Old Project Z postshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2233/old-project-z-postsI’ve been doing some work on SOLO2.ORG the past two evenings, working on restoring a bunch of my old blog posts from over there from the early days of the site. There was a lot of content that went missing over the various conversions of the site the past 4-5 years. I managed to bring a number of the posts back, and found a lot of old posts about my original 2003 350z (the current one I have is a 2004), at which point in time I just called it Project Z (rather than Project350z).https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondFri, 24 Jun 2011 01:35:12 GMTc46319c7-7f4f-456d-a678-013f2ae50cbdVideos from AAS Round 8https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2247/videos-from-aas-round-8Here are the photos from the American Autocross Series Round 8 from 7/3/2011. The car is of course our 2004 Nissan 350z in half prep for B Street Prepared. Unfortunately I don’t have times, but let’s see if I can recall the order of the runs.https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondWed, 06 Jul 2011 00:49:51 GMT71df4e45-2ea2-490b-9294-df42abd0a1f5Installing the 350z Trailer Hitchhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2265/installing-the-350z-trailer-hitch<p>So the time finally came, or I finally got around to it, the hitch is now on our 2004 Nissan 350z.</p> <p>The hitch is a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BROASA?ie=UTF8&tag=chrishammondc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000BROASA" target="_blank">Curt Hitch for the 350z, available via Amazon</a>. I purchased it quite a while ago, but haven’t taken the time to get the car apart and install it. Today that all changed.</p> <p>To get the hitch on the car, you first have to remove the rear bumper fascia from the car, that’s fairly simple to do, remove the rear tail lights, remove 6 or so screws, 4 clips, and pull. The 350z Service Manual is helpful for this.</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSat, 23 Jul 2011 20:27:15 GMT8ccdadc2-2566-4ac7-a093-f619b3af67deInstalling the Hitch on the 350z, Time Lapsehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2266/installing-the-hitch-on-the-350z-time-lapse<p>If you want to read the details, <a href="http://www.project350z.com/Articles/itemId/544/Installing-the-350z-Trailer-Hitch.aspx" target="_blank">check out yesterday’s post</a>. If you want to see the video, you are in the right place!</p> <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ISWWwr0KpRc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSun, 24 Jul 2011 23:12:02 GMT81cbf17f-b6aa-4086-b855-a1f6a1931651350z with a white stripehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2290/350z-with-a-white-stripe<p>I was looking around at Flickr today and happened to check out my "photo stats". The most viewed photo for the day (having just started according to the Flickr servers) was this photo</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/4116932158/" title="350z with the white stripe by chrishammond, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2660/4116932158_8e616e230c.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="350z with the white stripe"></a></p> <p>I kind of liked the white stripe on my old 350z. I’m still thinking I will wrap this one, but the stripe got me reminiscing.</p> <p>What do you think of the stripe? Yay or nay? Add a comment below and let me know!</p> <p>You can find a number of photos of the car during the striping process at <a href="http://www.project350z.com/Photos/view/setdisplay/setid/72157622833814994.aspx">350z White Stripe</a></p>Chris HammondWed, 14 Sep 2011 01:10:33 GMTcc45c908-18f8-4d7c-93da-339f6bfdf07aUndoing the BSP 350zhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2312/undoing-the-bsp-350z<p><img style="display: inline; float: right" align="right" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7141/6656781633_02f0927064_m.jpg" />This morning I began the process of converting the 350z back to stock, or close to stock. Mike Lane over on the east coast requested the control arms/custom bushings that I have on the car, so he sent me his original OEM set. A couple of months ago I actually tried to remove the arms on my car so I could lube them up and try to get rid of some of the excess noise in the car, but I wasn’t able to. One of the nuts on the upper strut mount was stuck and no matter what I tried I wasn’t able to get the nut removed.</p> <p>I picked up some tools from the local Ace Hardware in Half Moon Bay to get that pesky nut off, and this morning when I got started, things didn’t go well. I managed to  break an extension I was trying to use, then I managed to break the bolt extractor as well! I was not a happy camper, though I decided to try one more thing, a better quality extension and turning it by hand. After that nut was removed replacing the control arms was nice and easy.<img style="display: inline; float: right" align="right" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7005/6656782531_814820e325_m.jpg" /></p> <p>So the first parts of the car are back to stock, I’m shipping out Mike’s new control arms early next week, and hopefully they will see some autocross action soon!</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondSun, 08 Jan 2012 00:04:51 GMT459e8b9e-5854-4811-9594-014bab33aa52Undoing the modifications to the 350z, suspension and exhausthttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2315/undoing-the-modifications-to-the-350z-suspension<p><img style="width: 200px" alt="Project350z Garage Work" align="right" src="http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/C5CMvuvCwac/0.jpg" />So what did you do this weekend? Did you spend two days under your car? I basically did, well more like 1 day, but it was broken up over an afternoon/evening and then the following morning after I ran to get a new “nut” that I needed to finish things up.</p> <p>Why was I under the 350z? Well, removing the fun parts of course. I planned to remove the front and rear Hotchkis sway bars, along with the TrueChoice Phase 4 Konis (front) and the off the shelf Koni Sports (rear) along with springs/perches. Though in order to deal with the rear sway bar I also ended up pulling the Injen Super SES exhaust system off the car as well and put the OEM exhaust back on.</p> <p>Read the whole blog post for the time lapse video</p>https://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/-1Chris HammondThu, 19 Jan 2012 02:00:07 GMT70fb7aee-f385-4daa-9cb1-052e34360092BSP 350z Suspension Parts and Exhaust for Salehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2321/bsp-350z-suspension-parts-and-exhaust-for-sale<p>Alright the time has come to part with the parts. I took some time this evening to take photographs of what I have and what I am trying to sell. Right now I am trying to sell everything locally so prices don’t include any shipping. If I don’t have any interest locally I’m willing to ship the coilovers/springs/shocks but only as a package. </p>Chris HammondSun, 22 Jan 2012 23:59:54 GMT4985e94b-ab80-4112-93b5-9bbb434d312eThanks for 4wdhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2359/thanks-for-4wdDays like today I'm glad I don't have the 350Z anymore and get to drive around in the Tahoe. I love the...Chris HammondTue, 13 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT8b911037-6e84-46f6-930a-9f40e2de57e0Cleaning out the 350Z Partshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2366/cleaning-out-the-350z-partsIt was time to get rid of all the parts I still have taking up space in the garage from the 350z! They're all on ebay. SA Koni Sports F/R (used) #150097486225 350Evo Front Sway Bar (used) #150097461781 CT-1 Front Sway Bar (new) #150097477452 Hotchkis Rear Sway Bar (new) #150097479242 If anyone wants to buy them off ebay, let me know, I'll make a St. Louis deal for...Chris HammondFri, 02 Mar 2007 09:39:04 GMT7d3c90de-a95e-455a-bc41-441ce26b4c132004 Nissan 350z Enthusiast model for sale, Half Moon Bay, CA (SOLD)https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2607/2004-nissan-350z-enthusiast-model-for-sale-half-m<h2>(SOLD)</h2> The time is nearing for when the 350z must be sold, so if you are interested hit me up 2004 350z Enthusiast, <75k miles, currently sits stock other than a K&N CAI and a Plenum spacer, and a grounding kit (installed by previous owner).<br /> <br /> Also has a receiver mounted to the rear bumper that I use for a bike rack.<br /> <br /> The car is well maintained, looks great with lower than usual wear and tear of an 8 year old car.<br /> <br /> I also have the suspension still in boxes, see previous posts for more details, but TrueChoice Koni DAs up front and SA Koni Sports in the rear with springs/perches for the rear. This will be sold separate from the car, unless the buyer wants it for additional $$.<br /> <br /> Car is located in Half Moon Bay, CA, and available for purchase at $9,000, if you want the suspension throw in another grand and you can have it all.<br />Chris HammondFri, 02 Nov 2012 14:24:16 GMT6078a312-c2b2-40c4-b55b-2040111d8951Project350z V3, coming soon?https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2665/project350z-v3-coming-soon<p><img align="right" alt="350z Dealer Sticker" border="0" height="184" src="http://www.chrishammond.com/Portals/0/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/789304ceb116_E280/5892701495_8cf4ea9620_o_thumb_3.jpg" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="350z Sticker" width="244" />So the time has come, I am currently car shopping again. I’ve been threatening it for a while now, but with the 2015 Solo National Championships going on this week, and a few other life things figured out, it is time to make the 2016 autocross season happen!</p> <p>So a few details. I’m once again looking at early 350z’s, this time around I’m not looking for a daily driver, this next car will be built specifically for autocross and a fun weekend toy, with some daily driving here and there (thankful I have a short commute). I am looking for the perfect car, how do you define that? Well, in an ideal world the perfect 350z for me would be</p> Chris HammondSun, 06 Sep 2015 20:52:21 GMT4ef4d1e4-a4c5-4e7e-8709-be4daf09d4c2All in a day's painthttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/870/all-in-a-days-paint<p>After yesterday's fun Eric and I spent some time in the garage today. I was awoken this morning around 8:00am by the doorbell, the Dish Network guy showed up right on time, more on that topic tomorrow on http://TheMadBlogger.org. After I got the Dish guy going I sent Eric an SMS to let him know I was out in the garage working. The first thing I need was to lay some fiberglass in the passenger floorboard. I had missed a few spots on that side earlier in the week, and layed some extra resin in the floor to smooth out the pockmarks from the cleaned up rust.  While I let that dry I pulled the extra rear end that I had in the garage so I could start cleaning it up. As soon as I saw the rear end/suspension sitting in the driveway I immediately noticed a difference from the rear suspension that is on the car currently. The current suspension doesn't have a rear sway bar, the spare does. That's fine and dandy, I'd prefer the rear sway bar, the problem though is that the fuel cell frame that I fabricated fits right where the sway bar goes on this spare suspension. I'm not sure what I'll do with that aspect, but Eric and I spent the rest of the morning taking apart the spare rear suspension. We cleaned a lot of parts, figured out that the shocks (at least on the rear) are KYB's, they do look to be fairly new (or unused as that may be more correct). We got just about everything apart, and came up with plenty of parts to clean and paint (Powdercoat for Rande?) later in the project. Before I can use the rear swaybar I'm going to have to figure out what I'll need to change on the fuel cell bracket to make it work. I might be able to move the mounts for the bar a little higher to allow me to use the cell as currently fabricated. From there Eric and I started to prep for paint the interior. We cleaned up some of the dust that had gathered, drilled some pilot holes for the seat bolts in the floor (to get to the rear brackets for the seat mounts we had to cut a whole for a socket to fit through). We brushed, vacuumed, wiped and scrubbed the interior to try to get it ready for paint. We lowered the car down off the jackstands and spent the rest of the afternoon painting the interior with a nice satin black "Chassis Saver" paint that I had picked up on Saturday morning. I had purchased a gravity fed spray gun back in 2003 when I had the 350Z, previously using it once to spray some waste of money wax on the car, the gun hadn't been used since then. I think the paint this time around turned out great, an easy low cost solution that is WAY cleaner than it was prior to all this work. It was a bit laborious, but I think well worth the effort, Eric agrees. Here are some before pictures   And here are some after shots.     There are more photos in my Flickr set for Project240z.com We ended up painting a few coats over most areas of the interior and then let the car sit for a while to dry. Once dry we rolled the car back into the garage and started running fuel lines. We ran both the feed and return lines for the fuel cell, mounted the pump again after removing it for paint, and fixed the fuel lines to the transmission tunnel. Tomorrow I'll be working on the motor again. I hope to get the intake and exhaust manifolds back on the motor so that we can put it in the car Tuesday or Wednesday night. From there it'll be time to start wiring up the...</p> Chris HammondMon, 16 Jul 2007 01:02:45 GMTb3334ee5-f6be-462c-a294-bc93901a87f5All in a day's painthttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2424/all-in-a-days-paint<p>After yesterday's fun Eric and I spent some time in the garage today. I was awoken this morning around 8:00am by the doorbell, the Dish Network guy showed up right on time, more on that topic tomorrow on http://TheMadBlogger.org. After I got the Dish guy going I sent Eric an SMS to let him know I was out in the garage working. The first thing I need was to lay some fiberglass in the passenger floorboard. I had missed a few spots on that side earlier in the week, and layed some extra resin in the floor to smooth out the pockmarks from the cleaned up rust.  While I let that dry I pulled the extra rear end that I had in the garage so I could start cleaning it up. As soon as I saw the rear end/suspension sitting in the driveway I immediately noticed a difference from the rear suspension that is on the car currently. The current suspension doesn't have a rear sway bar, the spare does. That's fine and dandy, I'd prefer the rear sway bar, the problem though is that the fuel cell frame that I fabricated fits right where the sway bar goes on this spare suspension. I'm not sure what I'll do with that aspect, but Eric and I spent the rest of the morning taking apart the spare rear suspension. We cleaned a lot of parts, figured out that the shocks (at least on the rear) are KYB's, they do look to be fairly new (or unused as that may be more correct). We got just about everything apart, and came up with plenty of parts to clean and paint (Powdercoat for Rande?) later in the project. Before I can use the rear swaybar I'm going to have to figure out what I'll need to change on the fuel cell bracket to make it work. I might be able to move the mounts for the bar a little higher to allow me to use the cell as currently fabricated. From there Eric and I started to prep for paint the interior. We cleaned up some of the dust that had gathered, drilled some pilot holes for the seat bolts in the floor (to get to the rear brackets for the seat mounts we had to cut a whole for a socket to fit through). We brushed, vacuumed, wiped and scrubbed the interior to try to get it ready for paint. We lowered the car down off the jackstands and spent the rest of the afternoon painting the interior with a nice satin black "Chassis Saver" paint that I had picked up on Saturday morning. I had purchased a gravity fed spray gun back in 2003 when I had the 350Z, previously using it once to spray some waste of money wax on the car, the gun hadn't been used since then. I think the paint this time around turned out great, an easy low cost solution that is WAY cleaner than it was prior to all this work. It was a bit laborious, but I think well worth the effort, Eric agrees. Here are some before pictures   And here are some after shots.      There are more photos in my Flickr set for Project240z.com We ended up painting a few coats over most areas of the interior and then let the car sit for a while to dry. Once dry we rolled the car back into the garage and started running fuel lines. We ran both the feed and return lines for the fuel cell, mounted the pump again after removing it for paint, and fixed the fuel lines to the transmission tunnel. Tomorrow I'll be working on the motor again. I hope to get the intake and exhaust manifolds back on the motor so that we can put it in the car Tuesday or Wednesday night. From there it'll be time to start wiring up the...</p> Chris HammondMon, 16 Jul 2007 09:14:37 GMT5426e4b7-dad5-45a2-ad14-8d4d128ff885Corvette Z06 Tinthttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2340/corvette-z06-tint<p>Well it is about that time! I think I'm going to have the Corvette windows tinted shortly after the holidays. I guess this time around I'll make sure to get a legal tint done on the car. The 350Z had illegal tint for over 2 years and I only got questioned about it once by a Rolla cop. It also didn't have a front license plate EVER in the 3+ years I owned it, and only got stopped once for that by a podunk Farmington highway patrol officer. The Corvette didn't have a front plate for a week or two before I was kindly told by an officer that if I didn't put it on he would stop me the next time he saw me (that time he talked to me as I was leaving 7-11).</p> Chris HammondFri, 14 Dec 2007 00:55:47 GMT9688d4f5-90fa-4e0d-8f41-b30b97e217f3Using jQuery in your content to add some flare to your DotNetNuke websitehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2295/using-jquery-in-your-content-to-add-some-flare-to<p>With all of the changes to <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/" target="_blank">DotNetNuke</a> 6, a lot can be lost in the fact that you actually maintain the content of your website, and while the maintenance UI has changed, the content that you present is still up to you. A CMS can only do so much for displaying you content, if you want to do some fancy things, branch out of your standard HTML.</p> <p>I recently wanted to do a couple of things for my <a href="http://www.project350z.com" target="_blank">car website</a> (yes, I’m a car guy, so it is easy to use the website for examples).</p> <ol> <li>I wanted to have a random image loaded in the top portion of the pages of the website, changing, or randomly loading, on each page load (not rotating live on the page).</li> <li>I wanted to display a list of recent photos on the home page, and when you click on one of them I wanted them to open up in a light box.</li> </ol> <p>I could have done this in any number of ways, but I chose to implement some simple jQuery for each, below I will show you how.</p> <p>First things first, the website uses my <a href="http://multifunction.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">free DotNetNuke skin, MultiFunction, available via Codeplex</a>. I have some example documentation on how to customize the CSS for the skin to make your site unique, feel free to check out the <a href="http://multifunction.codeplex.com/documentation" target="_blank">Documentation page</a> for those examples.</p> <p><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dnndaily/~4/qXnz8ogDGXs" width="1" /></p> Chris HammondTue, 18 Oct 2011 00:59:29 GMTcdabed26-9cf0-4519-b9d2-08c9d4ff02f4DotNetNuke Sitemap integration for your moduleshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2199/dotnetnuke-sitemap-integration-for-your-modules<p>I have thought for a while now that I should do some SiteMap integration for a couple of modules, but I honestly never got around to getting it done.</p> <p align="left">Something triggered my need yesterday, and I got rolling with things rather quickly. <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/Blogs/tabid/825/EntryId/2666/Creating-a-Sitemap-Provider-For-Your-Module.aspx" target="_blank">Chris Paterra has a great post on how to implement a sitemap for your modules</a>, I ended up implementing one for the <a href="http://dnnsimplearticle.codeplex.com" target="_blank">DNNSimpleArticle</a> module which powers the homepage of Solo2.org and <a href="http://www.SCCAForums.com" target="_blank">SCCAForums.com</a>. I also implemented it for the module that powers <a href="http://www.chrishammond.com" target="_blank">ChrisHammond.com</a>, <a href="http://www.dnnblogs.com" target="_blank">DNNBlogs.com</a>, <a href="http://www.project350z.com" target="_blank">Project350z.com</a> and <a href="http://www.domoticsblog.com" target="_blank">DomoticsBlog.com</a></p> <p align="left">The basics are pretty straight forward for getting a SiteMap integrated with your custom modules. I won’t recreate Chris’ blog post here, but basically you need to create a new class, and populate a list of SiteMapUrls. Depending on your module, and it’s content, that may or may not be difficult.</p> <p align="left">I think I’m going to implement the sitemap for the next release of the Wiki module, should be fairly straightforward.</p> Chris HammondSat, 21 May 2011 00:36:51 GMTca466626-bc42-4b7f-8eb3-1cb62bee729aWorking on a new skinhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2168/working-on-a-new-skin<p>For the past few days I’ve been working on a new <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com/" target="_blank">DotNetNuke</a> skin for <a href="http://www.nataliehammond.com" target="_blank">Natalie’s website</a>. I’m nearing completion on it!</p> <p>I’m hoping to have it up over the weekend, and if all goes as planned, I’ll be using the layout (with color/graphic modifications) for <a href="http://www.chrishammond.com/" target="_blank">ChrisHammond.com</a> and even an overhaul of <a href="http://www.project350z.com" target="_blank">Project350z.com</a>.</p> Chris HammondFri, 22 Apr 2011 02:34:52 GMT9d105d74-f6bd-4b73-8736-89fffd7a2cc3Upgraded to DotNetNuke 5.6.2https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2145/upgraded-to-dotnetnuke-562<p>Have you upgraded your website to <a href="http://www.dotnetnuke.com">DotNetNuke</a> 5.6.2 yet? I’ve upgraded a few of mine. ChrisHammond.com being one of those.</p> <p>More to come next week, doubtful that I’ll get to them this week with the National Tour in San Diego this weekend!</p> <p>Project350z got enough “likes” on facebook today to get our own URL <a href="http://facebook.com/project350z/">http://facebook.com/project350z/</a> head on over and like us there! Most of the likes actually came through facebook ads. I ran an ad campaign, with a $5 max. I’m rather impressed with the results and the number of impressions the ad saw, and even the click throughs from the page to the site!</p> Chris HammondWed, 30 Mar 2011 00:55:44 GMT0e023a20-1660-456f-8989-01be11e18b362011 So Farhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2084/2011-so-far<p>So what’s gone on so far in 2011? Let’s recap on this 33rd day of the year.</p> <p>So far I’ve kept up with my blogging commitment, every day, You can find a list of all the blogs at <a href="http://www.chrishammond.com/">http://www.chrishammond.com/</a></p> <p>I’ve managed to post 33 photos of myself for <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157625593520079/">#Flickr365</a> and 33 photos of Jacqueline for <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/sets/72157625597966645/">#Baby365</a>. The baby is growing! She’s up to 13lbs 13oz last time she was weighed and in the 95th percentile for height at her age, a jump from her last measurement.</p> <p>I’ve managed to <a href="http://www.project350z.com/Articles/itemId/494/Autocross-Video-from-NorCalUFO-13011.aspx">autocross the 350z</a> once already this year, and have at least 2 more events coming up this month, with a possible 4th as well.</p> <p>The Super Bowl is coming this weekend, I’m ready for it, we’re going to finally get up to Fairfield and see some friends we haven’t seen in probably 8 months!</p> Chris HammondThu, 03 Feb 2011 01:21:11 GMT63cbbf75-6c36-46c6-86e6-1fe1cfda2d49Tis soldhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1887/tis-sold<p>So this won’t be the final post here on Project240z.com, but we are likely coming close to the end. This weekend the car sold, an airman from the local Air Force base in Denver came by and gave me a deposit for the car. I’m going to try to get the title cleaned up this week and hopefully get it to him this weekend if he comes up with the rest of the money.</p> <p>I’ll post again when the car is gone. Thanks for all the interest in the car lately, unfortunately 99% of the interest came after I sold the car, not before, but oh well. For now check out my new toy, <a href="http://www.project350z.com/">http://www.project350z.com/</a></p> Chris HammondWed, 27 Jan 2010 08:55:48 GMTaf4e40a0-8629-47be-9951-7e955c388010Long weekend, and an even longer week coming up!https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/947/long-weekend-and-an-even-longer-week-coming-up<p>Well Friday night I picked up the Vette, so far it's great! You can see pictures of it over on www.corvettez06.org. Don't ask me how I got that domain, I'm not sure, somehow it expired in August and no one else had picked it up, I purchased it Friday morning for $6.99! Saturday I spent the day driving the Z06 out in the rain, yes, I know, I'd probably get kicked out of a Corvette club for driving it in the rain, but lucky me, I'm not in a club! It was probably also good throttle modulation practice. I took the car over to Andy's, and took his wife for the requesit new car ride (she got a ride in the 350Z before Andy as well). Then I picked up good ole NJack (my new name for Nick Jackson) and we cruised around St. Charles for a while. From there I ran down to South County and took Russ for a ride, over to his brother Matt's and showed off the car there as well. On the way home from Russ' I stopped by the carwash and gave her a quick spray down. Sunday morning I got up and hand bathed the car. I put two coats of wax on, Rain-X, and then headed out to Natalie's show. On the way to the show I took some pics, and then on the way home I stopped again and tried to get some cool shots as the sun was going down. I've decided, I really need to take a photography class, I take a billion photos, and 99.9% of them suck! Now, for the rest of the week. Monday night I'm speaking at the St. Louis DotNetNuke User's Group meeting. Thursday night we (9 of us from Engage Software) are headed to the Tulsa Tech Fest in Tulsa Oklahoma. I'll be giving three presentations in Tulsa, and leading a roundtable question/answer session for DotNetNuke topics as well! More on the presentations later this week, if I find time between writing...</p> Chris HammondMon, 15 Oct 2007 02:07:00 GMT270abf9e-0b21-442f-bde8-5bb6b62596ebRollin on Dubs!https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/583/rollin-on-dubs<p>The new ride is now rolling on 20s! Why you might ask? Because they were a great deal at the time of purchase. I have these wheels and the stock set of wheels/tires to put back on when the weather turns for the worse.Between the 5 cars in the driveway/garage there are 20 wheels and tires on the ground, that's in addition to the 12 extra wheels for the 350Z all with tires on them, plus the 7 extra tires for the 350Z and 4 wheels/tires for Tahoe.That makes for a total 36 wheels and 43 tires in my household. Add 2 more to each of those if you count the wheels/tires for the Scooter! posted from...</p> Chris HammondWed, 30 Aug 2006 10:39:00 GMTaa7259d5-7d55-494b-9ea3-eb5c9766b549Window Tint in St. Louis from Wicked Stickershttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2347/window-tint-in-st-louis-from-wicked-stickers<p>This morning I had to head out to St. Peter's Missouri for a doctor's appointment, before the appointment I dropped the Z06 off at Wicked Stickers in St. Peters to get the windows tinted. As usual they did an excellent job! Wicked Stickers has tinted my 350Z and now the Z06, both looked great. When I got back to the office I was happy to see my Hoosier tires showed up! The Koni shocks showed up yesterday.</p> Chris HammondWed, 06 Feb 2008 15:48:03 GMT1f5800f7-a16d-44b0-a29c-898db068b096What is it with me and Koni shocks?https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2350/what-is-it-with-me-and-koni-shocks<p>Dave brought this up today, every car I've put Koni's on I have had problems. The Z28 I had all sorts of issues with the upper shock mount. The 350Z I was unable to get the Konis off the car when I went to sell the car. The Z06 things went on alright, though when we put them all I found one of the shocks hard to adjust. I thought I had fixed that and gotten it to adjust fine. Well today in Georgia at the Dixie tour I was unable to get the left front shock to adjust on the car.</p> Chris HammondFri, 22 Feb 2008 19:56:02 GMT8286e0dc-af46-406a-87f1-bce2f6edb685St. Louis and St. Charles Missouri Window Tinthttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2346/st-louis-and-st-charles-missouri-window-tint<p>The Z06 is headed out to Wicked Stickers in St. Peters Missouri to get Tinted on Wednesday morning. If you're looking for window tint in the St. Louis or St. Charles areas be sure to stop by Wicked Stickers. They also tinted my 350Z a few years back, an awesome job and it held up without any issues whatsoever. If you head out there, be sure to tell them CorvetteZ06.org sent you!</p> Chris HammondMon, 04 Feb 2008 11:19:29 GMTa82cd543-1330-4d70-af45-044286f43cc2The Mazda gets no lovehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2287/the-mazda-gets-no-love<p>I can’t believe it, but tonight after work I came home and washed, rain-x’d and waxed the Mazda CX-7. We’ve owned it since December, and this is the first time I’ve put wax on it.</p> <p>I’m so ashamed, I don’t know if I have ever owned a car (<a href="http://www.project240z.com/">besides the 240z</a>) that ever went that long without getting waxed. Even the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/5389647720/">Turbobird</a> got waxed and it was a huge mess.</p> <p>The CX-7 was a mess, as is the <a href="http://www.project350z.com/">350z</a> right now. One of the downfalls of living in Half Moon Bay, if you don’t park your cars in the garage (we don’t currently have room) they WILL be wet almost every morning.</p> <p>Perhaps this weekend I can get the garage cleaned and come up with room for at least one of the cars.</p> Chris HammondThu, 08 Sep 2011 00:30:50 GMTf44ec332-d6ed-4e9a-84b4-0d6f49210cc3Mazda CX-7 Trailer Hitchhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2202/mazda-cx7-trailer-hitch<p>This evening, after work and taking Pylon to the vet (he’s got a ulcer or something in his eye) I took 40 minutes to put the new hitch on the Mazda CX-7. I ordered a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EP0GTA/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=chrishammondc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399349&creativeASIN=B001EP0GTA" target="_blank">Curt trailer hitch</a> for our 2010 Mazda CX-7 from Amazon on Thursday, it arrived today.</p> <p>Why would we need a trailer hitch on the Mazda? Bicycles of course! A couple of weeks ago we got Natalie a new bike, a hybrid, a Cannondale Quick CX-3. I wanted to get one as well, but we decided to hold off a bit as we planned for the move. Well, my wonderful Auntie Carol sent me a graduation gift! Which I am going to use to buy myself a bike!</p> <p>The problem we have is that the Mazda isn’t big enough to put a bike, at least comfortably inside, much less two of them. Of course we could get a roof rack for the CX-7, but I really didn’t want to stick a rack on top, for the aesthetics and the noise. I also want to be able to take a bike or two behind the 350z, and I sure as hell couldn’t (wouldn’t) put a roof rack on it! So a trailer hitch attachment is our best option.</p> <p>I’ve got a trailer hitch for the 350z (<a href="http://www.project350z.com/Articles/itemId/490/350z-Trailer-Hitch-Take-2.aspx" target="_blank">though it is not installed yet</a>), so it was just a matter of getting the hitch for the Mazda. The installation was super easy, basically the process was to. 1) Remove the 4 rubber hangers for the exhaust to let it move out of the way (resting it up a jack stand as to not put too much pressure up stream. 2) File a frame hole on each side of the car to be side enough for the bolts and spacers to fit into the frame. 3) Fish the bolts and spacers in. 4) Tighten the nuts (75 ft/lbs) 5) Reattach the exhaust.</p> <p>Pretty simple, I didn’t clock myself, but I can’t imaging it took more than 40 minutes. to get on.</p> <p>Tomorrow I’m hoping to go get the bike and a trailer hitch bike rack. I’ll post more when that happens.</p> Chris HammondTue, 24 May 2011 02:03:22 GMT37de4cfa-760f-40c7-9fa7-a9b68ba71fddA year has come and gonehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1834/a-year-has-come-and-gone<p><a href="http://www.corvettez06.org/Blog/itemId/397/The-Corvette-is-Gone.aspx" target="_blank">So today marks a year since the 2004 Corvette Z06 left our stable</a>. In the past year I’ve autocrossed exactly once, back in March or April of this year in St. Louis. We’ve since moved to Colorado, bought a house, and traded/sold most of our vehicles. We are in the process of trying to build up our stable again, lots of changes going on!</p> <p>Yesterday I went up to Boulder Colorado and looked at and RX-7 for John, the buy who bought the Corvette. It looks like I will be heading up there next weekend and picking it up. It may require a tad bit of work to get it ready for shipping, but John is going to arrange to have a truck pick it up for the haul to DC.</p> <p>I hope to start autocrossing again next year with a new ride, probably another 350z. In the mean time be sure to keep track of the progress on the <a href="http://www.project240z.com/" target="_blank">240Z</a> at <a href="http://www.project240z.com">http://www.project240z.com</a></p> Chris HammondSat, 10 Oct 2009 12:18:30 GMT630c655a-fad9-44fb-9a53-5c374d5ee96dAutocross Schedulehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1882/autocross-schedule<p>This post will be updated over time to include the autocross schedule for the Project 350z.</p> Chris HammondSat, 28 Nov 2009 02:17:21 GMT0d44f9f6-a151-498c-97a2-f1749684f4ebDropping Weight in the 350z, for STRhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1889/dropping-weight-in-the-350z-for-str<p>This blog post will be gradually updated over time as I figure out how to drop weight in the 350z prepping it for STR in 2010.</p> Chris HammondWed, 27 Jan 2010 23:53:21 GMTf300f62e-7b14-44fc-81cc-7f6a1edbadabAutomotive ADHD, I sufferhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2040/automotive-adhd-i-suffer<p>For those of you who have known me for a while this won’t come as a surprise. I suffer from Automotive ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder),  and it is just getting worse!</p> <p>oyNatalie and I are in car shopping mode, we’re looking to downsize from our 2008 F250 FX4, while we love the truck, it is just far too big for our lives in California. We recently sold our horse trailer that we had been trying to sell for a while now. Now that the trailer is gone, we are ready to part with the truck.</p> <p>So we’re looking at what to get. Natalie would like a 4 door wagon, with room for a stroller (or the dogs) in the back, the baby in the back seat, and us up front. We’re thinking that we would like to find a used BMW 5 series to fill that role, though figuring out what year/mileage is something we haven’t decided yet.</p> <p>One thought we are having is that perhaps it might be a good idea to trade the Z in on a 4 door car for myself as well. I test drove a 2011 Mitsubishi Evolution today, oh boy, daddy like!</p> <p>I wouldn’t buy a new Evo, they are far too costly, but I would considering getting a used one and then perhaps an  older (2000-2003) 5-series for Natalie. I went to check out a couple of used 2008 Evo’s at a dealer down in San Jose today but immediately noticed that they were both modified, which totally turns me off. I don’t want to get into a modified car again, I’d rather buy something that is completely stock and if I want to modifiy it do it myself.</p> <p>So we’ll see where this bout with my latest batch of AADHD takes us.</p> <p>Don’t believe me that I have a problem? Here’s a list of the cars I and Natalie have owned over the past 5 years.</p> <p>2003 Nissan 350z<br /> 2004 Ford F350<br /> 1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe<br /> 1973 Datsun 240z<br /> 1978 Datsun 280z 2+2<br /> 2005 Chevy Tahoe<br /> 2004 Chevy Corvette Z06<br /> 2005 GMC Yukon<br /> 2008 Ford F250<br /> 1995 Audi A6<br /> 2004 Nissan 350z</p> Chris HammondSun, 12 Dec 2010 22:18:17 GMT489c2425-c45a-4506-9957-83b2372306f5SiriusXM on the Android Phonehttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/1941/siriusxm-on-the-android-phone<p>So I was kind of stoked, Sirius XM finally has an Android Application. I thought cool, now I can listen to Sirius in my 350z which doesn’t have satellite radio at the moment, while our F250 does. So I went to the Android Marketplace, and guess what? It is nowhere to be found, nowhere.</p> <p>So then I thought, okay, I’ll look it up online, found it, and if you want it you can simply go to <a href="http://www.siriusxm.com/android">http://www.siriusxm.com/android</a> but before you visit that URL check out the rest of this blog post and read why I won’t be using SiriusXM on the Android, at least not anytime soon.</p> <p>So I’m a Sirius subscriber, I have been since October when we got the F250, and prior to that I was an XM radio subscriber, since 2003 or possibly earlier. Well, I went to download the Droid app today, and see that you can get a 7 day free trial, I thought, okay, that’s cool, they are trying to get new subscribers, a valid endeavor.</p> <p>But then I started to realize, after digging into SiriusXm.com (and spending 30 minutes trying to get into my account) that my subscription that I have, doesn’t include internet service! Crap, so I went to add it, $3/month! What? I’m already paying $15/month for a car that we barely drive here in California and barely touch the service, and now I have to pay another $3 a month? I’m already paying $15 a month to Zune for the Zune Pass (well worth the investment in my personal opinion).</p> <p>I’m also paying $40/year to Pandora for access to their streaming application for my Droid, and I gotta say, that rocks as well! I drove across the country a couple times this spring using the Pandora app as my source of media in the 350Z and the F250 and it was awesome!</p> <p>So, Sirius, I highly doubt you will see an additional $3/mo from me, a long time subscriber. In fact, when that F250 gets sold or traded in we will likely drop your service all together. I’ll get by just fine with my Verizon 3G service and Pandora, and use my Zunes to fill in the gaps where the service goes away, though being off of AT&T has definitely improved our cell phone coverage!</p> <p>Alright, that’s it, this post probably should of gone to TheMadBlogger, but I posted it here on my personal site nonetheless.</p> Chris HammondThu, 24 Jun 2010 01:53:34 GMT2947b479-4f7e-4379-8846-f624f6a60110Project350z #2 is gone :(https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2606/project350z-2-is-gone-<p>Well, the car was in my hands for almost three years (2 months shy), that is longer than I've owned any car since the first Project350z left my hands in September 2006.</p> <p>One day perhaps I will own another 350z, it isn't in the plans right now, but never say never I suppose.</p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chammond/8212015143/" style="font: inherit;" title="the last car photo of #project350z by chrishammond, on Flickr"><img alt="the last car photo of #project350z" height="375" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8349/8212015143_91b72d00ac.jpg" style="font: inherit;" width="500" /></a></p> Chris HammondFri, 23 Nov 2012 22:34:03 GMT7951af8b-9e87-4142-b291-4b8dd27c6d1bVideo Workflow for GoPro HD Hero2 Time Lapse photoshttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2316/video-workflow-for-gopro-hd-hero2-time-lapse-photo<p>I’ve been one to do a lot of time lapse videos, I’ve actually been doing them since 2006, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgUDgNx-sBg" target="_blank">I think this was my first one, it is at least the oldest one I could find on YouTube</a>. Over the years I have used a number of different cameras, different software and as you can see from my <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/christoc?feature=watch" target="_blank">YouTube Channel</a> different subjects (predominantly cars, though lots of them).</p> Chris HammondThu, 19 Jan 2012 02:47:53 GMTe11796f1-aabf-4302-838d-9edb692bd690350z with XXR 531 18x11https://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2677/350z-with-xxr-531-18x11<p><img alt="350z with XXR 531 18x11 wheels" src="http://www.project350z.com/Portals/4/PublishThumbnails/Windows-Live-Writer/350z-with-XXR-531-18x11_14E16/image_thumb_1.png" width="100%" />Earlier today I took the leaking wheel/tire to Solo Performance Specialties to take the tire off the rim and take a look at the wheel and see what the damage really was. After popping the tire off the wheel we quickly found that the wheel had a repair attempted both inside and outside of the wheel, it actually looked like someone had taken JB Weld to it.</p> Project350zTue, 16 Feb 2016 01:03:51 GMTbeb59464-f05b-4c26-bbc8-8154e63d2395350Z Koni Shock Installhttps://www.chrishammond.com/blog/itemid/2047/350z-koni-shock-instal<p style="margin-top: 0px;"><em>This post was originally posted on Solo2.org in <strong>June of 2004</strong>, but the site has gone away (it'll come back) so the post was lost. I think I’ve corrected all the links and am posting it here. I will be doing the same with other old posts.</em></p> <p style="margin-top: 0px;"><em>Disclaimer: This article is just an example of a task we completed on the Project 350Z. We do not recommend you try this yourself unless you are a trained professional. We can not be held liable for any damage to your vehicle or harm you cause to yourself while working on your vehicle. Please use safety equipment, our work was done on a vehicle lift, if you use a jack, use jack stands for safety.</em></p> <p style="margin-top: 0px;"><em>All images in this article are just thumbnails, click on each image to load a larger version in a new window.</em></p> Chris HammondFri, 31 Dec 2010 03:00:36 GMT131a0957-2f07-4b39-b7d6-01a46a561656