NZDA, Taupo 3 March

Why is it that whenever I go to anything at the Taupo motorsport park I come home sunburned? Usually because the weather hates me. Another sunny but cold windy day for the NZDA event, we headed to Taupo late Sunday morning to see what we could find, the previous days racing had been cancelled so to be honest we were a bit sceptical. But of course there was a decent turn out and a good days drag racing ahead to watch.

Taupo has great facilities, we are so lucky in NZ that things seem to be so casual with the public being able to confidently walk through the pit area and catch up with friends who have entered or go through and get closer looks at the cars. Make the most of it id say cause it will change eventually I could bet on it!

Photos thanks to my boyfriend Michael, Its a team effort he takes the pics, i edit and post them. (Cause i suck with the camera lol). More on the facebook page here:

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Tokoroa Drag Day 19 Feb

Another hot Sunday at the Tokoroa Air Strip. A great turn out made it a fun day with plenty of entertainment, from street cars to full on drag cars it was a great day out.

I got the chance to enter Michaels V8 Commodore - why the hell not! My bestie Sarah jumped in the passenger seat with me, I tested my burnout skills then planted my foot when the light went green and off we went laughing like teenagers all the way to the end. I got a few runs in, practices and somehow I managed to win one and get through to the qualifying round but that was it. My times aren't even really worth mentioning and my burnouts even worse but hey, I had fun—and at the end of the day that’s the main thing.

Heres some photos of the day, 

Michaels dad Wayne entered his WB ute

Aside from a pro like me there were plenty of others that did well, Sarahs dad Ian Metz is a regular at Tok aswell as other tracks with his supercharged monster of a drag car.

These pics make me laugh—the ‘Digger’ dragster is loud! Notice the people all have their ears covered? Check out the cows in the background …. Just munching away like nothings going on. Id say they must be used to sharing their farm with a few loud cars by now!

Photos thanks to my boyfriend Michael Proffitt, NB - the amateur editing, yup - thats all me haha. Find more photos on the facebok page here:

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Purple Garage: P1

Hey! Welcome to my first 'Purple Garage' post! These are for the girls, some of you probably already know the things that will be written in here but a lot wont. So lets go over the basics of what’s going on under the hood of your car in a language we can understand!

We all seem to take our cars for granted these days, we forget that when we get into our car even if it is an old absolute hunk of sh*t we are in fact driving quite a smart piece of machinery and its how we drive and maintain them as to how well they preform for us.

LESSON #1 - The basic bits in your engine...

The Piston 
A sliding piece of metal that moves up and down the cylinder. 

Valves
One side being the Exhaust Valves and the other being the intake Valves.
Intake Valves - The part of the cylinder that allows the air / fuel mix inside the chamber. 
Exhaust Valves - The part of the cylinder that releases the used fumes from the chamber. 


Internal Combustion Chamber 
The enclosed space created when the pistons move down the cylinder, which encloses the explosions created by the ignited fuel. 


The Spark Plug 
Produces the spark which ignites the air/fuel mix. 


The Crankshaft 
The piece that rotates to make the pistons move up and down inside the cylinder.


The Camshaft
Opens the Intake and exhaust valves


Timing belt (Cam Belt)
Connects the Crankshaft to the Camshaft so as the Crankshaft moves the Camshaft opens and closes the valves at the right time.


Alternator 
Works with the battery to power the electrical components of your car.

Distributor 
Spreads electricity to the proper cylinder. Not all cars have these, although most older cars will. 




Like I said - a lot of you probably already know this but for those that don't I'm starting from the beginning. Hope at least one of you out there learnt something. 


Staci <3 


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Info from - Essential Car Care for Girls book, How stuff works website.

Im Baaccck!

Ok so it's been like a month since I posted but what can I say, I'm a busy person hehe, what with getting a tattoo on my butt for charity and all.... (JOKE!)

I hope you all had amazing holidays and are settling back into work just as well as I am. We didn't get up to a lot, went out on the boat a couple of times and generally just laxed out.

I have to say it feels a bit strange not having to rush around getting everything ready for the Nats this year, normally id be stressing out major by now. Instead of the nats I plan to enjoy the weekend (always my birthday weekend) not 100% sure on what ill be doing yet, if its a nice weekend might go out on the boat but otherwise I'd like to end up at the drags on the 29th.

Michael and I will be off to Christchurch tomorrow for a bit of sight seeing but mainly to head to their speedway track with the sprint car. I'm a bit nervous of old Christchurch, not been there since the quakes, going to be in for a surprise at what I see no doubt. 

In the mean time my 1st 'Purple Garage' post will be online tonight for you all (just have to get the BF to check I'm not telling you all lies). A garage lesson for the girls, may as well start with the basics so I know whats going on when my lovely Mercedes starts to come apart.

I'll let you know how my trip goes next week and share some pic's I take at the speedway! 

Have a great week!

Staci <3 

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PS,  Running a comp for who can send the most people to like the facebook page if I hit 100 likes at the end of the month ill go shopping at Mad Soundz Tauranga for a wee giveaway for the winner! Will run the comp till 31st Jan.

From the begining

At 16 it was decided my first car, a Nissan Langley brought for $800, had most defiantly done its dash. With my Uncle I went in search of a new car, through the Rotorua car yards we went in the rain until I found it, a 2000 Honda Civic that had 'Staci' written all over it, cheap to run, manual, 4 doors and being a Honda - reliable! We got the car stock standard at 50,000kms 1st NZ owner and with not a mark on it I was stoked! 

Of course the novelty soon wore off and I had to make her mine, then 17 I had saved my pennies and off I went to Mag Warehouse. I purchased a simple set of 17's and some D2 adjusties, I wanted her as low as she could go! A few more add ons and a respray with a pearl to make her shine even more - here is my first money pit ....

The storey behind the number plate I hear you ask? Well its simple really, I absolutly LOVED that car... so fresh and stylish, clean and straight, sly and low .... o yes, she'd have the power to Seduce You. 

However after a year n a half long relationship she was a tad slow on it, and when I met Michael the trips over the Kaimais to Tokoroa to see him, her 1600 soch vetc just didn't cut it. So when a friend offered me a swap for her Altezza, although the decision wasn't easy it was the right one to make.

A 2L 6 Spd Manual was defiantly a step up from the civic and being rear wheel drive I did have a bit of fun getting used to corners in the wet ;). We pulled out the tein super lows and replaced them with some apexi adjusties, added a carbon fibre bonnet and I once again had the look I wanted in a car. But after 12 months I got bord, so on Trade Me she went.

Long story short this is when I got what I have now, my pride and joy and much to Michaels disgust a car I still haven't got bord with, my Mercedes Benz C280.

When I got her, the plan was to tidy her up and flick her on Trade Me - NEVER to keep her, she was rough, a typical bagged merc with over 200kms on the clock and few 'HOE' number plates to her history.

Thankfully the guy before me had had the transmission rebuilt, Michael made a few repairs to the engine then she was painted purple .... it was then after seeing her painted, sitting on the ground low as she could go, straightened out and having that Seductive look about her, I decided she wasn't going anywhere!

So waaaayyyy to much money later here is a bit of a time line of whats been done so far

When I got her, April 2009

A trip to Mad Soundz Tauranga for a sub, an amp, new head unit and a 'general tidy up' of the interior resulted in this ....

To finish it off for the Jan 2010 4 n Rotary Nationals, an awesome surprise birthday present from Michael, a set of 18" Hot Swaps

I had a blast at the Nats, the Jamboree & the supershow that year! I wanted more, so back to mad sounds we went for a few more interior mods before the 2011 season

Picked up an old dive bottle and took it to Class A Kustoms  who painted it to add to my display

 2012 will be the year we get into the serious stuff, so no shows this season. 

I decided after a few daily drivers I'd had including a mazda familliar, a lemon of an MR2 and a Primera, I wanted to spend the money Id saved for the merc on a decent car I could keep forever as a daily. I have no plans to get rid of the merc so there has been no rush to finish her, a car like that is never 'Finished', I am always going to find things to change about it. So I brought a nice little Mazda SP23 and I LOVE it, nice & practical, perfect for what I needed.

Meet Red, I've had him just over 12 months he's a bit lower than in this photo now as me being me had to add a set of adjusties but for now thats all he'll need.

Thanks for reading! Keep an eye out for new posts as we start to pull the merc apart, it will definatly be an interesting one, spesh with the new engine Ive finally settled on ;)

Staci <3

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Something to think about ....

The silly season has snuck up on us all this year and as usual everyone is rushing around, this post is a bit different than what I would normally talk about but after the events of my weekend its time to stress about how important it is to watch out on the road these holidays.

Sunday night I happened to be one of the first on the scene of a major accident, it was pouring with rain when I saw a car crushed on its roof and its contents strewn all over the road. A car before me had stopped. One of the men was on the phone to 111 while the other was pulling a woman from the passenger side window. I hit the hazard lights and ran to see what I could do.

The driver was her husband, he was stuck, not moving or responding, I sat with the woman who I put into the recovery position, put my jacket over her and held a towel to where she had hit her head while the two men tried to get a response from the man who they dared not move before the ambulance came. She became so hysterical she started vomiting.

What I saw didn’t hit me until I got home and the adrenaline had worn off after having a hot shower and getting into some dry clothes. The screams from the lady, the feeling of being helpless and the sight of all the blood will be in my mind forever. I am embarrassed to say that I am glad I didn’t fully see the man as it may have been a bit much for me to handle. I kept the womans mind busy by talking to her and trying to calm her.
Reassuring her was hard especially when I was told her husband no longer had a pulse.

It seemed like forever before the police arrived and in that time only one other car stopped. I was shocked at how many drove past without offering a hand. Once the police all arrived and took over I was able to go home, I actually passed the ambulance on my way home at least 40 minutes since they were called.

I got a phone call from the ladies sister this morning - thanking me for my help and also letting me know that as we suspected the husband had not made it. A simple swerve in the wet to miss a possum on the road had resulted in the car flipping fully once and finally landing on its roof.

I now have a new found respect for the boys in blue and all emergency service workers, seeing things like that on a regular basis cannot be easy. Next time they give you a ticket for speeding or not having a WOF, blame yourself, not for getting caught but for being irresponsible, you never know – that ticket could of saved your life. And also – don’t swerve or hit the brakes when you see a possum, rabbit or any other animal on the road, your lifes not worth the risk.

Something to think about... if you have some free time during the year from work – do a first aid course, you just don’t know when you might need it. Although I have to say, knowing what your doing makes no difference to how your mind reacts when put into a situation.

So be safe out their guys,

Staci <3  
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Tokoroa Drags December 2011

The weekend when the airstrips far from suitable for planes ;)

First weekend of December every year and followed in March the Tokoroa Drag day is never short of surprises. From standard daily drivers and motorbikes to full on drag cars it is defiantly a good day out and this one was no different.

What makes it exciting is that anyone can enter, its not expensive and you can do as many runs down the drag strip as you like. At the beginning of the day they take times to put the cars into their class and from there its all about having a go! And afterwards they do fun races for those that want to have a little challenge against a mate.

This time Michaels dad, Wayne entered the ute and while the weather was good managed to get 5 runs in before the rain started at about 3pm. If the rain hadn't come along when it did we probably would have been there a lot longer than we were! But here are a few pic’s from the day that we took-

Gotta love the matt black drag car, my friend Sarahs parents own this, her dad Ian is a regular at the Tok drags as well as Meremere with her mum Wendy following along in the tow car or on the side line with the camera.

I did of course find a favourite of the day, love the old school style of this HQ, nicely done with the interior in black and white leather and of course female driven. She could do a pretty good burnout too!

This bad boy was LOUD when it started up but I tell ya, when it took off I just about shat myself -  it got even LOUDER.

Michaels friend Richard who was also in my last post from powercruise was there as well….

Check these out, driven by kids! Couldn’t of been much older than 12. They went pretty quick to I might add, no burnouts from these guys yet though.

‘Wasted Wages’ I think most car enthusiasts can relate lol

So that was the Tokoroa Drag Day. Fun for the whole family, come to the next one in March and have a go— and tell your friends the more people we get to come the bigger the success of the day.

Staci <3

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