Two birds with one Car

I know some of you don't care when and how often we air the YouTube episodes, but I like to make strict schedules and procedures, and follow them to the letter. However, sometimes work and other things pile up, and these YouTube episodes get delayed. This week's episode will have to be delayed till next week. There is just no way I can maintain the quality I had intended for this episode, and air the episode in time.

The coming episode will touch upon the Bridgestone Potenza RE070s Extreme Summer Performance tires, as well as a slight overview of the current state of the STI on our show, our very own Project Impulse.

I'll be trying out some new editing techniques on this episode as well, and if successful we will be using it on many future episodes. All of the above takes time, so please be patient. However, because we aren't airing the episode on time this week, I thought it would be nice to show you guys some screen captures of our work in progress.

Three live cameras, synced together.

Spades doing most of the driving for the episode.

As mentioned earlier, there was an accident during our shoot. One of the GoPro cameras mounted on Puyang's lead camera car, fell off and made a huge tumble on the pavement. Camera C mounted on his car, caught the whole thing on film. Below are a sequence of four images, depicting what happened:

GoPro camera (Camera B) loses suction on the Honda Prelude and falls off. Both the Camera car and Subject car are moving at 40 MPH.

Distance between the two cars are consistent, as seen in the picture sequence. The camera is bouncing off the pavement, and flying towards the STI at an alarming rate. 

Spades behind the wheel, does a quick steering maneuver to avoid it. Not knowing it was the Camera at the time.

After the maneuver, Spades looks up and sees the missing Camera B on Puyang's car.

We actually have the footage from the falling camera as well. I went through that footage frame by frame, and counted the amount of times the Camera did a complete 360 degree tumble. It had done nine complete tumbles before coming to a complete stop on the pavement face down. In the footage, you see the back end of the Honda Prelude, and you see glimpses of the STI's hawkeye headlights coming towards it. There were some glimpses of the sky, trees, and other things as well. The footage was massively distorted, but I think I will include that footage for you guys anyways, lol.

It's just a thought right now, but I might use the footage we have right now for two episodes. Since this week's episode will be delayed, I'd like to make it up to you guys, and possibly give you guys two videos on back to back weeks. I'll see what I can do to keep you guys entertained.

That's it for now! Stay tuned!

Dark and Gloomy

I can't believe how fast time flies, it's already close to mid March, and I'm feeling excited about the upcoming months. However, the weather is still as rainy as ever so shooting videos isn't as convenient as I'd like.

Well, there was a one day window of sun and cloud yesterday, so Puyang and I took this opportunity to wash our cars.

The STI's gold wheels will be swapped on the next time I see a clear day. I can't wait to use those super sticky summer tires again! My friend also stopped by, showing me his new Varis high wing spoiler for his 2010 Subaru Impreza WRX STI. It looks killer!

We are planning on making a video for his car in the near future. Hopefully we will get to it.

Restoring Headlights

Adam's Polishes saves the day again! Of course there are tons of products out there that are just as competitive. However, I choose Adam's for the quality and customer service. That's right, when you order from Adam's you actually get to talk to people, friendly ones at that. I've gotten last minute personal deals from them, whether it was free shipping, or a discount on certain products; there is just that special touch that Adam's Polishes provides that other car care products don't.

Now let's get down to the nitty gritty. Cars that have been driving since the late 90's are suffering from a natural course of their life, headlight pitting. It takes a good eight to ten years for your car to suffer through this, but I see it on the road everyday. Basically particles, debris, weather, and washing causes the headlight plastic to fog up or cloud up over time. This is extremely ugly, and is also very dangerous. As the headlight becomes fogged up, light does not pass through the lens, but instead gets absorbed.

On the market today, there are headlight restoration kits available, they aren't expensive to buy, but it is pretty much a waste since you will never be able to use it all on one car. By the time your headlights need another restoration, your car is either too old for you to care, or you have sold it. We are talking about a car that is now around 20 years old.

However, if you are like me, and you detail your car on a periodic basis, you should have everything you need in your detailing kit to restore those headlights. As seen in the video, all we used is detail spray, clay bar, cutting compound (Adam's Swirl and Haze remover), and a orbital polisher with an orange cutting pad. These things should be in your detailing kit, and you should not have to run to your local Walmart to pick up anything extra.

Puyang's 99 Honda Prelude was bought as a used car. The headlights came home fogged and yellow, it was ugly. After literally ten minutes of work, we restored the Prelude's headlights to showroom quality.