04/5/2005 THE 2Gs
Having just celebrated a birthday, I guess I've been a philosophical and introspective mood recently, which brought me to this. I've been thanking everybody so far, EXCEPT the two that make this possible, God and my Glanza V. Without them you'd be reading nothing.

I'm not a church go-er by any means, but religion, the belief in God, or a higher power plays heavily in my life. I know this because I have been driving 96kms back and forth over rather tough conditions for the past several years now to work, and nothing of major negative consequence has happened. A few that I've known have not been so fortunate for lesser periods and distances. My faith in God has no basis in logic, but I have to believe because I know he believes enough in me to get me home safely may nights.

Most nights I get down on my knees and thank him in prayer. Its a simple prayer always, one that is rather staid, but relevant. I first thank him for getting me home safe, then I ask him to keep those close to me safe, and I finish off asking for three things, his strength, love, and wisdom. I ask for his strength to keep me being me, against the odds and my detractors. I ask for his strength to allow me to persevere, when things are beyond my control and to steel me when my faith ebbs low. I ask for his love to increase my capacity for love, and the ability to experience and share in genuine love in all areas of my life. Finally I ask that he grant me the wisdom to properly manage the first two as without it only ruin may come. I can't say if I have been given these qualities. I'll rely on my epitaph to do so for me whenever the end might come.

The second G is my Glanza. I don't personify, its wrong. I don't have a name or a gender for my car. NO cute names, but we do have a relationship, like a carpenter and a piece of wood. I remember hearing an artist talk; he said the carving was always there he just brought it to the surface. That's what's up between my Glanza and me. I was caught by the looks, but it was its essence that has held up over my length of ownership. I looked past the pretty exterior and bought it for what it truly was with all its faults and shortcomings. We've weathered the storms, the critics, the elements, and still it works like no other. No matter how stressed I am at night coming home a flick gear sees the tension disappear down the gear knob, but its an honest relationship. My Glanza doesn't relieve my pressures it causes me to focus. As the road rips by, each blow-off brings the blur in my head into a haunting sharpness. I can see the problems clearly resulting in the ability to address those issues. Many a tough decision has been made in my driver's seat. THAT is the brilliance of my Glanza, an attribute that goes beyond its rapid acceleration and mean cornering ability. I could ask for nothing more from such an object. This clarity also frees my spirit making things that others wouldn't even give a thought I simple blip of the throttle away.

A few nights ago I found myself in my living room sitting in the dark meditating thinking hard about my life, then it hit me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the glint through the window. Trying its best to reflect the full moonlight off its patchwork bonnet I realized that both have always been there, for me. Keeping me honest, free and safe. I thank them with all my heart. With God I'll never part, but when the time comes for the Glanza to go, if it does, I can do so with a personal ease few experience. I hope you have space in your life for God and that your EP imparts as much of itself on you as you do to it.

NEW: The man with the fastest Starlet in Jamaica speaks with us, its been a long time coming. A chat with Noel 'Spi' Rhone. The missing Factory Fighters review from last update. UkStarletClub has been added to the links, and the J's Magazine have been giving problems. It works on my Mac browser, but the PC users seem to be having problems. If you want them, just email me and they're yours, and thank you for visiting my side of the web.

15/08/2005 WHAT HAS CHANGED

Welcome to the new HardcoreEP. Earlier this year I had planned to move to a bigger server as I was quickly running out of space at my present free solution. The plan was to merge with the Toyota Tuners of Jamaica and split the fees with them, but like most things around here it never panned out. As I got ready to move to a bigger paid server I was contacted by a member of one of the forums I frequent. Ivan Dretvic offered to share his space with me in order to dominate the Starlet world. Just kidding, but there is some truth to that statement. Together we'd have a rather huge and central situation for those seeking information. I make no bones about it. I've been surfing the web for a long while and I have to meet another EP site that offers the data and presentation that I do. Looking through the forums I keep seeing the same questions over and over. While I don't claim to be the sultan of all things Starlet, I'm sure if you read through most of what I've put up chances are you'll find what you're looking for or asking about. The important thing isn't that my site is some definitive source, but a proper arena from which real world data can be sourced.

So what has changed?
Well, the shell for the presentation.Rather than just bring over the old site I've had to learn a new program to get this all together. Navigation should be easier with static menus that allow you to go most places without being stuck. The other part is the size. Ivan didn't think my photos were big enough. Considering that I have way more photos than most, not to mention the quality and size. Since I now have broadband at my home I've decided to push that envelope. The original ratio for the projects were 648x480. I've stepped it up to 800x600, so you'll get bigger, better photos of the stuff you want to see. The older stuff has retained their original format as to preserve their quality. That didn't stop me from modifying them. I re-edited several of them, and cleaned up the ones that suffered in the cross-platform designing that I must do on occasion. It should look good regardless of whether you're a Mac or PC user.

What hasn't changed?
You'll be getting the same great information that HardcoreEP has always tried to give you, the Starlet owner. Recently on my quest to maximizing the CT9 I was, lets say - derailed, but things are back on track. The information here doesn't reflect the current state of the car which gives me enough lead time between updates. There are still some things to go before you'll catch up with where the car is right now. So as usual I thank you all for waiting so long for this update, but I hope its worth it.

What will change?
Normally I update after my articles are published, but after all this effort I've decided to dig further into my bag. There will be site exclusives, DIY, in-depth analysis of parts, more video clips. This will mean more stuff for you all to see since I just would let it sit on my machine. This should also mean more frequent updates.

Where do we go from here?
Its hard to say. I'm working on a few things. I've had a turbo upgrade sitting in my closet for a while now. My eventual plan is to make an indestructable daily driver and considering the push from the Carribbean into the US market for 4EFTE parts I'm sure it will be a reality. HardcoreEP will eventually make the transition to video as well. I have just purchased a editing system. Now I'm just waiting on a proper camera. Once its all togther its DVD time allowing me to chronicle in even more detail these wonderful little machines. I've gotten my sidekick in these things back on-board with me, as he prepares his own transition into 5E land. So all that will be put up.

As usual I'll be here running off my mouth. One thing will be brought to front here focus. I'll ask for your patience as this is a lot of work. If I don't email you right back, its not that I'm not interested, but chances are the data is here on the site, or going to be put up. There still is a lot of 'opinion' on how to tune an EP, but to quote myself, 'get off your ass and join the universal discourse the internet has facilitated.

8/10/2005 BACK FROM THE EDGE

September 16th will be one of those days I'll never forget. I almost died. Not feeling well from the start of the week I thought that it was just the flu going around. Thursday morning I woke up feeling pretty good thinking I'd crossed over into good health, but by Friday night I found myself in a strange situation. I struggled to get to work and while at work I was rather exhausted. Thinking it was just stress I found myself relaxing in my favorite spot. Slowly I found myself unable to move. Partial immobility was followed by blurred vision. Realizing something was wrong I made a call to a nearby friend. On the way to the doctor I passed out in the car. I was awoken later at a private hospital as my friend realized I was out and took me to the closest emergency room. A nurse revived me and then checked me in to see the doctor. About an hour and a half later I finally saw the doctor. After explaining the situation he told me that I had a viral infection that had been going around. It wasn't the flu. My body temperature had been 108F, for reference normal body temp is between 98 and 100F. 101F is considered a fever. The infection had been slowly raising my body temperature. The symptoms I'd been experiencing earlier was my brain shutting down because it was being cooked, his terms, by my body. A few more degrees and I'd have been dead from something similar to heat exhaustion.

A shot later and seven tablets a day for a week, things have slowly worked themselves out and proper health has returned for the better.

Two things kinda came outta this for me. As I got close to that point, I realized I was about to die if I didn't get help, which I did. However, this is not my first near death experience and the expected 'life flashing before your eyes' didn't happen this time. I guess one can infer nefarious things here, but after a week at home I realized why, there was no reason to flash anything.

You see a few years ago, I made a conscious decision, as I came to the realization that my life was quite frankly a blessing. From then I have understood that everyday I am able to wake up and do the things I need to do that was the gift given to me. Everything on top of that is extra and what you do with that extra is very important. I don't spend huge amounts of my time bitchin', moaning, complaining, and generally having some sort of negative view. Life's been good to me, so I see no reason why I shouldn't be good to it back. I don't spend time wishing I could do this or that, or shortchange myself, because life didn't shortchange me. And that's why HardcoreEP is here, to ensure your EP experience isn't shortchanged.

The other thing is that when life looks the darkest, it's still your choice in many cases. It would have been easy for me to just let it go, say screw this world and pass into the other life. I could do that because I have no regrets. Everyone I interact with knows where I stand with them, as you know on HardcoreEP I speak my mind. It would have been a peaceful death, quiet and without the pain I've witnessed. Frankly it would have been the easy way out of the stress and strife of everyday life. BUT I made that call for help and I'm still here fighting to get you the data that you need, because I believe like a lot of good things in life its not easy to achieve them, but in the end usually its worth it.

Recently there has been a huge upheaval in the Starlet world. Two of the top sites have gone down and become message boards, that would be Suby G's UKStarletClub, and his sister site the AUStarletClub. Several of my friends have grown weary of their EPs and sold them, while even more continue to suffer the trials that come with the search for performance. The bottonline sink or swim its your choice. I guess you'd thought this would be gloomy, from the first couple of lines, but its not. Death is natural, we shouldn't fear it, what we should fear is the personal ineffectiveness that strikes many of us and stops us from reaching the real things we need to make our lives better. You want a better Starlet, start by making that choice, and it just doesn't have to end with your car.

WHAT'S NEW
As usual I thank everyone for visiting HardcoreEP. I'll be updating monthly due to commitments until January, but I will try to give you more stuff with each update. New we have the part two to my manifold story, with really nice pictures. Next update I'll take you through a full installation. We review Serious Performance Six. I know its old, but its good and that's the important part. I've added the J's Magazine PDF of the TOM'S EP82 in the PDF section. As usual we've got a lot coming down. There's an incredible story taking place as we speak and I'm gonna deal with it next update. I'm sure the EP82 guys will relate. So enjoy.

9/11/2005 FORCED TO BE FAST

I was supposed to be talking about my friend Squeeze this update, but life has a way of changing that. It kinda started a bit back when I found out my CT9 was going. I'd had just been on the brink of matching the JDM horsepower numbers when it started to smoke. I had been considering a bigger turbo upgrade for a while now and it just sitting in my closet waiting, haunting, calling. I prepped the car with larger injectors and fuel pump when one of my friends decided he was going to upgrade his CT9. So, I bought it off him. My first CT9 lived 3+ years until it was ultimately sacrificed for my hybrid experimentation. The second CT9 when on after the disasterous local attempt at a bigger turbo and served we well until recently. I possibly could have gotten more out of it, but 1 and half years with no turbo timer took its toll in the final stages. Turbo number three lasted three months. It was used and ultimately expected.

Today I was on my way to see a friend in St. Elizabeth. The car had been driving fine, with only one small problem that had been nagging me. Trying to overtake a truck uphill all the little boost light just disappeared followed by major smoke. My first thought was the engine, but the car drove a few more meters to safety. My quick inspection showed no engine damage, but from between the turbo and the downpipe there was oil pouring out. One dead CT9.

My props to the CT9 as it provided more than it was given credit for. Three turbochargers in eight years of ownership isn't too bad and it provided me with the most horsepower to date. The driving experience of a high horespower CT9 is something to be treasured. I was just getting used to the peace and quiet of stock and I will miss it as now I venture into the strange new world of bigger turbo. I will more than likely get another CT9 next year so that when I part with the car it can be returned to stock. However during the interm there is a slight feeling of fear. The last upgrade left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, not necessarily for bigger turbos, but how the local establishment handles such upgrades.

I currently have all the parts needed to make over 200whp as my parts listing is similar to my friend Euhon who peaked at 212whp from his 4E. So the potential is there once tuned, but there is also the potential for things to go wrong. Hopefully I'll make the 160whp I so desired, but honestly it feels like cheating with the td04

WHAT'S NEW
Tons of photos. Its bigger and badder as we do the manifold install from beginning to end in the Engine Room and we top it all off with a monster DIY install of a CT9. Squeeze's td04 monster is in the Car Gallery.-

22-02-2006
LITTLE THINGS
My car's been in a state for a while now. Since the CT9 went I've just been driving. There have been some small issues, actually just one that has been driving crazy. The problem isn't the problems, it's the motivation to fix them. The EP gets me back and forth to work in its current state so it's easy to ignore the odd issue. Even worse I own most of the solutions. Finding the time to deal with them, that's another problem. About two years ago someone broke into my car and stole my radio and my turbo timer. If you're a regular visitor you know I had the Blitz DIN Panel, a part they no longer make. Even worse than the radio they took the entire center console breaking the trim panel. The radio I could replace, the Blitz panel I could hunt for on eBay, the trim panel sitting in my closet, but the factory radio brackets was another thing. It took a while to get them, a long while. My friend Xtreme made some makeshift ones to hold my new radio, but it never looked right, or felt right. I was finally able to locate, at expense, a new set of brackets. For whatever reason went straight to Xtreme and installed them. From there it just cascaded.

After the radio I bought a new DIN panel to fill the ugly space under the radio. The console trim panel was replaced with an undamaged carbon-fibre piece. Next was my passenger side mirror. Some crazy biker got too close and broke it off. The local dealer screwed up my order and got me the wrong one. I sourced one myself and had it lying in my closet for a while, so that went on as well. My fog lamps followed. I had upgraded to the 97+ crystal look fog lamps, but they didn't fit properly as its designed for the newer bumper. Out they went with a new set of 96 fog lamps. My boost solenoid was broken so I fixed it. Honestly, the car felt great, even though it's still to get a paint job. Mechanically, the car is running spotty. Sometimes its brilliant, other times is blaah! Again, the solution is on its way, just for me to deal with it when it comes. We're moving into the big turbo world one step at a time. The truth is I have the chance to start from the ground up and I intend to use it to the best of my knowledge. There isn't only one road to 200whp. The overwhelming Do-It-Yourself feel has put some good stuff in some vacant areas of the site. Now If I could just resist the urge for more carbon-fibre.

NEW: We install a side mirror and clear lens indicator in Exterior. I examine the HKS actuator in parts review, and we look at two DVDs - Intial D the Movie, and the 2003 British Rally Championship.