"Ah, come on farva, man! Same team! Same team! What's Thorny gonna say, Rook?!"
-Super Troopers

Ever since I moved to Des Moines, almost every time I drive to Mount Vernon on a Friday, I am behind a cop. And almost every time it's a cop out of its jurisdiction. Later, I found out that there is some place in Johnston or something that trains Officers... so I'm assuming that the cops I follow are all leaving from this training.

So Anyway, today I was driving to Mount Vernon behind 2 cops: the first from Davenport and the second from Muscatine. We were going about 80 mph for a while and then my radar detector started going off. So I hit the brakes and see an Iowa State Trooper on the side. The cop pulls out and I immediately …

This morning started off awesome when I was getting on the interstate from University to go to work. There were 2 semis and quite a few other cars about 6 feet apart and no one seemed to notice my turn signal (which made it impossible to merge). Naturally, ultra road rage kicked in. At this point I glanced forward and saw that the light was green at the end of the ramp to get back off of the interstate, so I floored it down the ramp and came back up onto the interstate from Hickman.

At this time, I just felt like catching up to everyone that wouldn't let me in so I could cut each and every one of them off, haha, I am a loser. So I'm doing 85-90 weaving through the 3 lanes of traffic that make up Interstate 80/35 in …

This afternoon I installed new upper intercooler piping and a Greddy Type S Blow off valve on the car. It was actually a pretty easy install. I did it in about an hour and a half and it turned out really well. Here is the old version, and here is what it looks like now.

I also helped Nathan install some mirrors on his accord. It needed them pretty badly. The new ones are power and have turn signals in them, which is dope. It was interesting hooking the mirrors to his existing power controls, especially since the box that it came with was from another country and every word was spelled wrong... The turn signal lights were pretty easy once we got a wiring diagram from Grimes Automotive, but routing the wires into the car sucked sooo …

So the first step to any serious engine modifications is to install a means of monitoring what's going on. This is simply to make sure anything you install doesn't cause you're car to die, blow up, etc and also so you can tune it to get the best performance possible. Last night I took the first step in ordering some new gauges.

After days of searching I decided to go with a set of Autometer Phantom gauges. They have a good rep and cost less than $180 per gauge (like Apexi and Greddy). The first gauge that I needed was a Boost/turbo gauge. Most of the time, if your car has a turbo, the stock turbo gauge is crap and doesn't give accurate readings. The second gauge that I wanted was oil pressure, which is a pretty common gauge to get for …

So I'm driving home from work all speed demon, road rage style and I'm in the fast lane of "Interstate 80" doing 85 or so. I come up on this semi doing about 65, with a motor home next to it doing about 70.... the far right lane was open, so I punched the gas to the floor to dart accross 3 lanes in between a motor home and the truck behind it... As soon as I hit the gas my car jumped once (cause the turbo kicked in hard)... and then it jumped right back down, vibrated, and just wanted to coast for the rest of the day. Luckily, I still had enough speed to squeeze through the hole and over to the right lane. I then coasted off the shoulder, parked and started calling for rides.

After I got a hold of my uncle to come pick me up, I got out …

I get so many emails about this and I'm sick of rewriting it, so here is a small tutorial on how to convert your Eagle Talon to use Eclipse body kits. It's actually not too tough. Here's what you will need (parts):

eclipse tail lights

eclipse head lights

eclipse reverse lights

eclipse body kit (of course)

15 feet of 12 guage wire

I think that's pretty much it, however you might have to pick up some bolts here and there.

The front bumper cover is kinda tough because it requires the most customization (if you're keeping the actual bumper on, otherwise it's easy). I decided to keep my front bumper in case I get into a wreck. To do this you'll have to cut the corners off of the actual bumper so your cover will go over it. …

Derek R Brooks: i should have gotten pulled over to the MAX this morning
Derek R Brooks: i will just paste the conversation that i had with jammey
Derek R Brooks: so i dont have to type it again
sofa king kari: k
Derek R Brooks: well, to get to work i have to jump onto the interstate for like 5 minutes... and it's all 3 lane with big wall dividers between eastbound and westbound... so the only way you're gonna get pulled over is if there is a cop right in front of you or right behind you
Derek R Brooks: well this morning, i didn't have my radar detector on and i flew onto the interstate like i normally do... doing about 90
Derek R Brooks: about halfway to work i switched lanes from the far left lane to the far right lane to get around a …

I love my car. In fact, I love my car so much that even though it almost has 130,000 miles on it, I've decided that I'm going to restore it rather than buy a new car. The only problem is, stupid things keep happening to it! For instance, last fall (shortly after I got my new body kit on) I went and bought a new cell phone (you probably saw the article about it on this site). Anyway, I was so caught up in my cell phone that when I went back out to my car I was only paying attention to the phone. I backed up, and "CRACK!" I backed right into a truck. It wasn't that hard but it was definitly hard enough to put a 6 inch crack in my bumper cover. It was completely my fault, but the truck was not there when I pulled in, so in a matter …

Well, after hours of work by my dad and I, the kit is finally on... well most of it. We got the headlights, tail lights, and both bumpers on, but we couldn't get the side skirts. See the sideskirts will look best if we actually mold them into the car instead of just bolt them on, so I'm going to wait until I decide it's time to get the entire car repainted. I also put some new 6x9s in, finally. I needed them so bad. My buddy, Brandon, talked me into getting the Polk 369s, they sound so good.

If you want to see a couple pictures of my car, check out the front, and the back. I know it looks pretty dumb right now, but I get the bumpers painted this friday.

Today I'm leaving work at 12:30 to go home and put all my new stuff on my car! It's going to be a ton of fun, but it's not going to be anything easy... I have to take my front and rear bumpers off, my sideskirts off, my headlights off, and tail lights off. Then I have to cut, mold, and fit a bunch of stuff in order to get my new kit on. I also have to put on the new headlights and tail lights. The tail lights will need rewired to work correctly, ack. Also... the kit isn't getting painted until next weekend, so I'll probably be driving around with half of my car being teal blue, hah. If you live near me, stop over tonight. I'll be in the garage all night.

I got pulled over again for the blue lights on my hood last night... that brings the tally up to 12. I also got pulled over a couple months ago for not having a front license plate and having my windows tinted too dark. I talked my way out of the license plate one, but he still ticketed me for the windows, and then tried to say I wasn't wearing my seatbelt, which as stupid, cause I always wear it.

Sooo, I guess 2 tickets out of 12 stops isn't bad. And one wasn't even a moving violation.

I've started ordering parts for my car lately. First of all I ordered a new body kit, which will totally change the look of it. Both of my bumpers and the sides of the car will be different. The kit I ordered is called the blitz kit. You can see it on a red eclipse here and here. My car will look just like that except I won't have the giant spoiler (because they're pointless) and my car will still be black.

I also ordered some new taillights, which you can see here. I still have to get new headlights for my body kit to fit right, and then I have to get a paint job... but after all that, it will show no visible sign of what kind of car it is on the outside. It should be all done by the end of the summer. I'll have pictures as I go.

Up…

My buddy, Aaron, liked my Nova video so much that he wanted one of his own. Aaron drives a Mustang GT (so fast)... and we thought we could do a couple cool things in a video. The only problem was, I live about 2 hours from Aaron, and have no video of his car. But, something worked out...

My other buddy, Zach, is also getting into video editing and had to make a "how to" video for a class he was in. So he filmed Aaron and made a really good 3 minute video on how to drive a stick shift car. In Zach's version he explains how everything works and stuff like that. I used some of the clips from Zach's video to make a video similar to my Nova video, but since Zach got some great shots... Aaron's video is a little cooler than mine. The …

There is a good chance that I blew the engine of my Talon last Friday... which sucks, but i'll find out the verdict soon. Yesterday, I put together a little video in remembrance of my first car. Yes, I miss that thing, heh. It was a 1963 Chevy II Nova. I bought it when I was 15 years old, worked on it for a year, and had it done by my 16th birthday. Then I drove it for about 10 months and got creamed by a lady in a honda. The car was totaled. But I made this little 30 second video just to remember it. Check it out here.

I got pulled over tonight for the little blue lights on my hood, hehe. apparently they're really not street legal. This makes the 10th time I've gotten pulled over... and I still have only 1 ticket on my record.

My car got put into the garage for the winter :-(. i took my system out and it's setting in my room, not getting used, poor thing. i guess it's better though because it can't get stolen, and i won't risk ruining my car in the snow.

One good thing... I got a new snowboard this weekend and I'm ready for the season! I just bought a 99 salomon 154, it came with some really nice salomon freestyle bindings... but I don't have freestyle boots so I stuck my switch bindings on it for now. I can't wait to bust it out this winter! so, I guess it sucks that I have to put my car away... but at the same time, I get to pull out my board. eh, lose one thing and gain another.

my board n boots

Ok, so I've come to the conclusion that the little LED lights on my hood are not legal. Pictured here.

Here's the story... Tonight I was driving out of Subway with my buddy Jeff with my LEDs on. There was a car in front of me who slowed way down, signaled, and pulled off the side of the road... My buddy Jeff starts crackin up and yells Dude! You just pulled someone over!, and then i shut my lights off and drove away...