At the airport.. To go where?, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

To visit our buddy Carl driving the 24 hours of Nurburgring in the Hankook Levin Porsche RSR.

This is how much we love Carl Rydquist., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Long line to check into security.

Ritual CTO flight beer…., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Paul from Hankook Tires doesn’t rest…. Always working.

Looks like we made it.., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Landed in Frankfurt. Now onto customs then hit the Autobahn!

Look who we ran into…, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Charles from Kallusive joined us

The rental, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Audi A5 for autobahn

On the Bahn, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Freeeeeeedom all the way to the “Ring”

Finally made it to Nurburgring., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

At last!

Found the car, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Nice

And found Carl, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Said the car is running great on Hankook tires.

Staple German food, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Brat and beer

Pistenklause Restaurant, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Famous race guys’ restaraunt near Nurburging track.

Dinner is served on stone., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

The steak is served raw to cook on this stone. Delicious!

Home sweet home., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

CTO headquarters for the next couple nights. I’ll take more pics tomorrow night. We had to search for over an hour, we are so tired. and its time to crash.

Good morning Germany, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Our lovely accommodations.

Parking lot???????, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Best looking view from any parking spot I’ve ever had.

Race had started. Carls clocked in 2 hours., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Well deserved rest jumping from 32 to 26th so far with an emergency pit for a leaky tire.

Levin/Hankook Porsche RSR, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

The car we hope wins!

Uh oh!, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Broke a pipe for heat exchanger. Fixing now.

Ready to rock n Roll again., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

This team is so dialed in.. It’s amazing.

Carl’s out doing his thing., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

He progressively getting faster to make up some time from a long pit earlier.
The crew as shown here… Is getting a well deserved rest.
It’s going to be a long night still…
16 hours left.

Carl pulled in from his stint., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Running really fast.. Gained 19 spots!

More brats., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Street vendor style.

Half past 2AM the car retires., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Loss in clutch pressure. Could be repaired in about 30 minutes.. But that would calculate to a finish after the top 20. So the team has called it. Thank you Levin Racing and Hankook tires for a once in a lifetime race to remember. Better luck in 2010.

Wrap party, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Open bar trouble!

After party gathering., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

All the teams here for a post wrapup dinner and party.

I can’t believe its over…, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

And we are heading back to the house. Great times!

On the Bahn.., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Back to the airport.. Paul’s driving and we just hit 240 kmh.. Weeeeeeeeeee!!!

Traffic on the Bahn, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

If this is traffic… Man being back in L.A. is gonna suck.

Road scenery is beautiful everywhere., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Its pretty much like this the entire way.

Pauls so focused, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

He’s turning into Ze German

Stopped by a small shopping center., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Checked it out.

Found a chair for Carl., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

A good chair to fit our giant Swedish driver.

Bye bye Kallusive Charlie., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Poor guy is on a different flight with a 6 hour layover in San Francisco. See ya back at home.

See ya guys back at home., originally uploaded by john@citytire.

Thanks to all for helping us travel to 24 hours of Nurburgring 2009. The most memorable race I’ve ever been.

Stopped by HKS, originally uploaded by john@citytire.

So many goodies.
A great company that has always built and developed quality tested aftermarket parts.
Please inquire about HKS parts via email to sales@citytireonline.com

CTO/Kallusive 350Z and Carl made it out to San Bernardino for a little Demo at the NOS Center after the BBQ. Car was looking beautiful!

A briefing by Naoki to all the drivers on a little competition format they laid out to finish in 15-20 minutes time for all the 909 Fans!

Carl’s Lead lap was laying down the rubber for the NOS Fans, they loved it!

After about 1 run and a half the Tires were gone from the huge plume of smoke Carl was laying around the oval.

We threw a BBQ at the shop inbetween crazy traveling as a big THANK YOU to all that supported us this year thus far!

 Lots of people showed up for the BBQ. All kinds of support that we’ve have been getting for a very long time. People were scheduling stuff to do around this BBQ, so that they can mount some tires and get some food and chill all in 1 day 🙂

 And the food…. A local market here marinated the best Carne Asade around LA. Place is always packed with people dropping by Duranguito Market in Bell Gardens. And this would be our famouse CTO Guacamole. Hand made by Alberto this time. Good stuff!

 A little treat for those that stop by on Saturdays. Many people know about the famous Tostada guy that drops in on Saturdays especially for only $6! On the right is a special beer he also serves. Very refreshing!

 Chris Mendoza aka Flybert (left), Justin Pawlik (middle), and John (right) all enjoying themselves in the waiting room. Our driver Carl Rydquist and fiancee Jen enjoying the Tacos in the back of the TACO-ma.

Got pretty crowded, there was no where to move cars at one point…. but we did spot Logan amonst the crowded cars sporting his Rice Patty hat leaned over to the side. 

Rebecca, Aaron, and Jack chillin in the shade. It was a warm day at CTO but it wasn’t over yet, we had to load the CTO/Kallusive 350Z in the trailer to do a Demo at NOS Center in San Bernardino the same night!

Thanks to all for coming and all our supporters out there for making CTO what it has become!

Came back from Atlanta today, eventful Formula D competition for us this time with a Fri night gearbox change, but also a lot of positives such as a super great Georgia crowd and me getting a OMT in top 32 tandem by outrunning McNamara’s 6,7 litre V8 Saturn Sky.

It was very close this time that I moved up to top 16. Even though the City Tire / Kallusive Clothing 350Z is still a little bit the heavy side, it is very competitive thanks to the impressive Hankook tires and our superfast Carbonetic diff. Here is a video just to show how good these products are.

Formula D – Atlanta Carl Vs DMac Run2 from John on Vimeo.

I love the Carbonetic diff btw, I can’t hear it, at low speeds it never makes any fuzz or puts any noticeable strain on bushings and suspension components, I can’t feel any sort of snap when it engages or disengages. It is almost funny, like I can’t feel it is there. But when I go for it, it just does what it is supposed to. I’d say this was the biggest performance boost we added during the winter.

Rundown of our event:

Thu:
Had some struggling with the setup during Thursday practice, car was sort of snappy. Lowered the rear end a bit, it got better but the car was still not responding well to aggressive driving. I was feeling calm for qualifying anyway.

Fri:
During Fri pre-qualifying practice I had a couple decent runs but the gearbox started to give me a hard time going from 2nd to 3rd gear. This was becoming a big problem as it is much needed at this track.

During my first qualifying run I was both conservative and wanted to make a line that would allow using only 3rd gear around the horseshoe, in order to keep some momentum and drive around the gearbox issue. It wasn’t very great but I just had to get a score to get into top 32 and I did. The 2nd run I wanted to try a normal run and bump up a good bit of points, went in with a good entry, hit the clipping points, better line around the horseshoe… But at the upshift 2nd to 3rd the gearbox completely refused and my run was lost.

The team started the hunt for a new gearbox and in the meantime I went to night practice (for top 32 only) to try and make something useful of using only 3rd gear around the horseshoe, I had time to make it work. However, in my second practice run, 3rd gear completely broke though, it was just like neutral.

Sat:
At 5 am Saturday morning, the car had a new gearbox, with the help from a lot of parties, most of all Carey from Team Dynamics for taking the lion part changing the box for us, and Drift Emporium for helping us out with a gearbox. There are not enough ways to say thank you for the help through the blog, but it is being taken care of elsewhere, however huge props for those guys. Also huge props for Michael Essa Tech Trix and Taka Aono for having all tools and lights necessary, so we could do the job. Obvisouly also major props to City Tire John for working it all out with everyone and both him and Charlie Kallusive Clothing for staying as we all worked with Carey on through the night.

We got a few hours of sleep from 6am-10am and just after noon we arrived to the track to fill up gearbox oil. This box felt soooo much better right away.

A side note to the tranny swap, while working on that I also found something that was really off with the rear suspension, compared to how I set the car up during pre-season testing and how I had it for Long Beach. This was not how I wanted it for Road Atlanta. I fixed it and after this, the car was back to Long Beach performance again with much more grip, more smoke, more everything. Here’s a vid from Saturday warm-up.

Formula D – Atlanta Carl’s Practice Run from John on Vimeo.

Did some good practice runs and some crazy ones to see just how far I could push the car, and some different things to vary the entry. I upped the boost in the Technoasquare VQ35 a bit to match the increased grip, Road Atlanta is tough, one needs a lot of power there, and it was hot and humid like crazy thoughout the whole weekend.

TOP32:
Started top 32 against 3rd qualifier McNamara, he wasn’t running at all as fast as rumors were saying. The weight difference between our cars was very obvious though coming into the first turn, man he slows down fast. But my Endless stoppers are wicked and his long e-brake ride only got me closer; knowing the sector times around the track I was feeling very confident. My only miss came later, I was getting too much on the inside around the horseshoe and I had to correct my line, this was completely my own fault.

Leading I created a gap early and I never really felt any presence of another car on the track. Later seeing the video I have no idea what he was doing. The judges voted one more time. Time to go again.

This time my tandem was closer at entry. I had a little wide first turn (I was just pushing it to – and a little past – the limit) but again with my Hankook rubber and the Cabonetic diff I had zero trouble to catch up without sacrificing too much angle.
Coming out of the horseshoe, I was getting closer but unfortunately the transition down at the final turn didn’t work out for me and I spun, which sucked big time (!). I felt I was getting a grip around this match, so this spin-out was a big disappointment.

My next lead run I just ran my line again but since I had spun he really just had to make sure to not get a zero. On the good side, this guy went on to win 2nd overall, losing only to Forsberg, after a One More Time there too.

Overall I am very happy about the outcome of the event. With several problems, we worked around it all and gave a podium winner a good challenge. We have learned a lot and we are making big progress each event. We are also seeing that the small improvements we make on our Hankook-shod City Tire / Kallusive Clothing 350Z each time is moving us forward step by step. And to be honest, in the tandem, there was nothing failing in the car, I was my error. I can make it a little easier for myself now by reducing the weight of the car, to at least be within a couple of hundred pounds to the competitors, but I will also make sure to get more seat time in the car before next event.

Now we are taking a short break to go to the 24 Hours of Nurburgring, where I will be racing the Hankook Levin Racing 996 GT3 RSR. During this break, the City Tire / Kallusive Clothing 350Z will be cleaned up, and as we come back there will be an intense, major weight reduction campaign and we will add some minor aero work. We also have some general stuff to do to tighten the car up. Preparation is everything.

Thanks to all who support the City Tire / Kallusive Clothing team; Hankook, Technosquare, Carbonetic, APR, Zeal, Endless, South Gate Collision, Everitt Boles Motorsports Insurance, all the awesome Georgia fans that came out and the FD and Road Atlanta organisation for another well run event. Congrats also to podium winners Forsberg, McNamara, Tuerck.