Monthly Archive for September, 2006

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Supra vs. blown Viper. Jesus loves Vivek

Published on September 18, 2006 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Jesus loves Vivek.
I say that because the odds of some of the things happening…that happen when you are around Viv are just too small to ever happen with out some help from above.
Wavy Wane’s World style lines going to the flash back.
First of all I’ve realized that I never put my frist Supra ride story on my blog. It’s a good story, and I’ve decided that soon I need to write it down and get it published. For those of you who don’t know Vivek or about the Supra I’ll try to sum it up in a sentence or two. Vivek has this car that he has done some work to that has resulted in something that isn’t just fast….it’s crazy fast. I’ve enjoyed going out on rides (and races) with Vivek over the past year or two. As amazing as it sounds, durring this time the car was not running at %100 according to Viv. From what he was telling me, the car would only let him turn the boost (power) up to about %50 of it’s maximum pressure. From what I’m told, that means the car put down a measly 5-600 HP instead of the full power (around 800RWHP) that it can make. For those of you playing along at home the this years Vipers and Z06 Corvette should put down about 450 or so HP stock. I’ve been in the car in the “unfixed” lower power configuration as he has beaten the pants off of just about every sport car you can think of. Not just beaten, but totally smoked. Well, in my last post about the Supra clicky you may remember that we took her down to Austin where Vivek left the car with the guys who helped him build the car Boost Logic. He put it in their loving hands to get her back in top shape such that she would be able to go to full boost again. Effectivly taking the car from crazy fast, to plain stupid fast.

The Supra in front of Health Camp in Waco

Last week Vivek called me as excited as a little boy at Christmas, telling me to swing by so that he could take the car out and test her out at full power for the first time and years. Viv, Novie and I hopped in the car to see what she could do. A few gallons of race gas, a full bottle of NOS, and we were ready to roll out. Viv was wearing a grin from ear to ear, and seemed excited and even a little bit nervous. Being as methodic and logical as always, Viv made several runs with the car on different power settings, having us watch the gauges with him to make sure the engine was handling the different power levels, and wasn’t going to blow-de-funk-up. We started low and worked our way up. Adding the bottle on a few runs to see how things changed. WOW. What a ride!!! We didn’t even get things up to full boost (think 26psi was our max for the day, out of a possible 32 I believe). We were going from 40 to 130 or so in just a few seconds with the rear wheels still breaking loose through 4th gear when he let off! We finished several runs and were headed home when Jesus looked down, and showed Viv the love.

We were about 2 miles from Viv’s house, merging from one highway onto the next. Over the barricade I saw the sleek curved roof of another sports car, followed shortly by Viv saying “ Oh hell yea”. As Viv was scurrying to get the computer set up for the car, I was finally able to see a grey Dodge Viper hard top right next to us as we merged. What are the odds? We didn’t see any other fast cars while we were out, and 1 min from exiting to be at his house, there it is…. a V-10 monster ready to play. Let the games begin!!!!

We ran with the Viper 3 times. The first run was pretty much like most of the races I’ve been with Vivek on. Both cars hit it from about 40 mph or so, and Viv pulled away and kept pulling away. By 120mph or so, the Viper was several lengths back and the race was over. The second run right after that one was pretty similar, but the Viper was able to hang a little longer before falling back. He would later tell us that he had some problems shifting on the first two races. The third race was the best race. Viv was always pulling away from him the whole time, but until well over 100mph, the viper was with in one car length. After that Viv really started to pull away. All thing races were won by high margin by the Supra. It just so happened that after that race the Viper exited on the same exit that takes you to Viv’s house. Viper guy ended up coming to Viv’s place to check out the car and talk for a while. Here is where Viv and I had different feelings:
I was impressed because Viv beat the viper handily on 3 races… the viper never had a chance other than the first few seconds of the last race..and even then he wasn’t doing much more than not losing ground as fast as he was before. Viv did that with 3 people in the car (lots of extra weight)! Viv was worried because he felt like even though he won, he should have won by an even bigger margin against a stock Viper. I think his name was Kevin (Vivek, help me remember!!!), anyway, we talked with him for a while and it was clear that he was surprised that he lost the race. He checked out Viv’s car and all of the modifications that Viv had made… then it occurred to me that we didn’t ask him if his car was stock. When I finally asked he chuckled for a second, and then said “uh..nooooo”. It turns out that this was a pretty bad ass Viper with a monster Roe supercharger, fuel system, headers and the whole works. In theory this car should have beaten the Supra, or at least run right with it even if it was on a lower power setting. So…. We run into a blown Viper just before it’s time to park the car after performance testing it for the first time in years…. Can anyone really argue that Jesus doesn’t love Vivek?

For more about Viv’s car with data/video and all sorts of good stuff, visit LilViv.com

Novie’s page clicky

Hunting

Published on September 12, 2006 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Me and Greg Webb

“Sometimes the best fishing holes don’t have any fish in them.” I wish I could say that my grandfather, or some other epic figure told me that when I was a young lad, but in all honesty I can’t remember who told me that. Hell, I might have come up with it myself. Regardless, there is a lot of truth in that statement and I was reminded of that this weekend when I went hunting with my Uncle Greg.

When I was young I learned to hunt and fish from my father and from my Uncles. I was lucky enough to go on some great hunts in several states and see some beautiful country. I was able to see the beautiful elegance of well trained hunting dogs doing what they do best. I loved being out in the country. I loved the connection I had with the people I hunted with, and have lasting memories of so many of these times. Last weekend my Uncle Greg invited me to go along with him and some friends to hunt on his ranch in Coleman, Texas. It had been at least a decade since I’ve hunted with him, and I think it has been at least 3 or 4 years since I’ve been hunting at all. So I was very excited to have the chance to go out into the country with him and get back to doing something I used to enjoy so much.

We had a great time! I got to meet some nice new people, see others that I hadn’t seen in years, see some beautiful land, and our hunt was very successful by all standards. However, I think I enjoyed just being out in mother nature even more than I enjoyed the successful hunt. It had been too long since I sat in a field and watched and listened as the sun rose. Too long since I’ve heard a deer snort at me as she made her way though the pasture. It had just been too long since I got outside and really enjoyed Mother Nature. That is what I mean by sometimes the best fishing holes don’t have any fish in them. It’s not so much about the size or quantity of the fish; it is just about getting outside. It is about getting out of your home, away from the office, TV, computer, cell phone, highways and everyday life. It’s about finding a reason to spend a few hours outside to just listen and watch. Hunting/fishing/camping can be the avenue or the catalyst that gets you off your duff and out of town. Thus your trip can be successful even if you come home empty handed. I’d rather not catch a fish, or shoot any game for a whole weekend than sit on my couch and watch TV.

Keni, am I back in your good graces now?

Ties, Cuff Links, and Restaurant Week

Published on September 4, 2006 in Reviews. 0 Comments

what the hell am I doing in this stuff

Ties….I used to have to wear the damn things for work every single day of the week, but I don’t think I’ve worn one in the last two years. This week all of that nonsense had to change. I wore a tie not once, but twice. Not only that, I even wore cuff links once!

Restaurant week (which traditionally becomes restaurant month ) ended this week, but not before we went to three different meals for the event. Restaurant week is a charity that a lot of the high end places in Dallas participate in. Basically you get a 3 course meal at a high end place for $35. Something like 7 bucks of that goes to charity. Regardless it is a great chance to give a little back while also going out to places that you would probably never otherwise go. We went to the Capitol Grille, Nobu, and Arthur’s.

Monday night we went to the Capitol Grill. Of the three places I have to say this was my favorite. The service was top notch and the food was fantastic. The atmosphere was pretty formal I would say. There were lots of guys seated in their suit jackets who looked like they were doing some type of power play deals. I blew through the $35 price line with two vodka tonics and a glass of wine…but it was very well worth it. Great food, great service, and great friends.

Thursday night we made our way to Nobu, the new age high end sushi restaurant . Rob was over the bird flu by this point, and was able to join. He even brought little miss Liliana along. I was just in a dress shirt and slacks, but when I went over to Rob’s house he had a tie on….so I made him give me a tie just for the hell of it. Nobu was interesting. I felt like I was in Vegas. The decor was very new age with black rock walls mad of golf ball sized rocks, aspen (or birch?) trees in the middle of the isles and all around. Dance/techno type music plying pretty loud in the background. The service was just so-so. To me it was pretty slow at times. I would call the food was very good, but not fantastic. That was a perfect restaurant week place to eat. I probably would have been disappointed if I spent $100 a person going there on my own, but I’m glad that I was able to check it out for $35.

Vivek and Novie decided they were not done with the $35 goodness just yet. Saturday night we went to Arthur’s in Addison and had steak again. Novie was asking the week before about how cuff links work, so I wore my cuff’s to show her. Well…you can’t very well wear cuff links and not also wear a tie. So… I had to wear both and broke my dry spell. Arthur’s was very nice, but not as formal as the Capitol Grill. I really liked all of the fish tanks (they probably have 20 of them with beautiful fish). We had a nice bottle of wine and enjoyed our 3 course meal. The food was wonderful, and I would recommend their cuisine to anyone…..but the service we got was pretty crappy. It was a least 20 mins between dropping off the menus and taking our drink orders and ever seeing the waiter again. The first round of drinks never made it. From there drink glasses were often empty, and over all the service was just really slow.

Capiltol Grill

Nobu

Arthur’s