TSL Day, Hooray! — Apex Attack

I know, it's been like TWO WEEKS SINCE AN UPDATE?! What the crap Mike? Well, progress/not progress is being made on the car, and I will have an update on that soon. But now, pardon the pun, let's change gears for a minute. (see what I did there?)

I started this site primarily to follow the build of my SW20 MR2 into a lap day race car. But that's not all I started it for. I also wanted to document the automotive events I attend here in the Seattle area. The PNW, in general, has a pretty great car scene. You see lots of cool and exciting cars on a daily basis, from NSX's, Supras, Ferraris, Lambos, millions of mud-flapped Subarus, and even your murdered out Honda with potato cannon. For these events I'll give you my perspective, and my favorite, or not so favorite cars of the day. You might agree or hate my automotive tastes, but then I'm right and you're wrong.

Let's go to the first ever annual TSL day! TSL stands for Toyota Supra, Losers. Sorry, I mean Toyota / Scion (RIP) / Lexus. It's basically a big meet for Toyota enthusiasts at Pacific Raceways, with lead/follows on the track, big show, and afternoon drag racing. Since it was the first event, turnout wasn't crazy like Honda or Nissan events, but I think it will get bigger.

As I was parking way out in the woods (decided not to enter the fiances' TDI Jetta this year), the first thing I spotted was a great looking AE86 coming off the track from a lead/follow session.

I know the picture is blurry. Keep reading and the car will come back in sharper glory.

As the next lead/follow grouping got on track I went up into the stands to get a glimpse of the pack at the fabled "turn" where I crashed a few months ago.

Wow, menacing eh? But, the day I was racing, it looked more like this.

As you can see with this fantastic and realistic artist rendering, conditions were much tougher to navigate this "wiggle" on the main straightaway. Basically, event Senna would have hard a time through there at 55mph.

Ok, back to the show, that's why we came, right!

The first car I saw was this great old Hilux. The paint was rough, but overall the car was in great shape. I have dreams of one day building a super lightweight Mazda B2200 with a rotary powerplant as a drift car. All it takes is time and money, right?

Next was an entire row of rocket bunny FRS'. No joke. Unfortunately some had been a little too "scened" out for my liking, with gigantic fitted wheels, air bag suspension, and no real direction of their builds. This one looked great however. I am a sucker for TE37 wheels, especially in bronze. The car was wrapped, while I much prefer proper paint, but kudos to this build, the interior was well done too.

Next was this Cressida, looking pretty badass and very old school. When I walked up to the engine bay I was surprised.

An NA 1jz (I think?). Cool swap.

Here's the AE86 from the first pic. Not as stupid clean as it looked from 100 feet away, but still a real head turner. My favorite of the 10+ 86s there. I'm a sucker for a proper panda paintjob. The wheels and fitment look great too, maybe a bit more rear camber to help even it out, but maybe he's going for drift grip.

Next was this gorgeous Celica. Another car I'd love to build one day. The paint was better than it looks in this pic, overall really clean car. My only knock was the sweet wheels (more te37s), seemed to be thrown on as an afterthought. The wheels and suspension could use some tuning to lower the car and fit the wheels better.

Apexi boom cannon was a cool mod, very clean. Love the rear window louvers.

Onto Loyd's 93 MR2. I love this car. Probably my favorite stanced car out there. It's not "stupid over the top look at me stanced," it's tastefully "do you have any grey poupon" stanced, if that's a thing. He's done a great job with it, and last year finally swapped to a new drivetrain.

Gen 4 3SGTE. These are becoming all the fashion now in the MR2 world. And rightfully so, an easy bolt in 280-300whp swap, that's not a vacuum hose mess like the gen 3 I have. Loyd has a couple more MR2s and he's trying to decide how to build one into a proper track car too (yes he tracks this one too, but he's sick of changing suspension/wheels every time). Can't wait to see what he comes up with.

This Celica Supra was awesome. If you're going to go full rat rod build, go all out! The license plate splitter, japanese comic fender, and throwback wheels all really come together nicely to pull off a "hella JDM Mad Max" look. Maybe ditch the NOS can coolant overflow for a Sapparo?

Martins AW11. This car is pretty much immaculate. The paint sets it apart in real life. He has another set of track wheels I like more, I generally like things modified to the 9s, but I respect the build he's accomplished. Martin just rebuilt his 20V and the bay speaks for itself.

Repainted bay, ITBs, wire tuck, fresh motor. Must be nice, eh? Martin also was flogging it on the track in the afternoon, it sees redline often.

Russ made it down with his SW20 swapped with a 2gr V6. Another car with immaculate paint, great build vision, and rare parts pulling it all off. He also pulled his motor over the winter to clean up the bay.

Looks like it should have come from the factory, eh? I've ridden in this car and it's a blast. Similar power to my turbo, but with no lag and instant response. The judges liked it too, and Russ took home "best MR2" for the effort.

Ok, one more, we have to cover all three generations of MR2s.

Snoopys' MR-S. 2ZZ swapped, and looking good. If I had an MR-S, I'd have to go widebody, but Snoppy pulled off the look he was going for rather well.

Makes you want to go buy a stupid big wing, doesn't it?

After the show, the drag racing started, and I put the camera away. It was pretty mellow, no cars running 9s or anything like that. Shortly after the rain that had threatened all day finally came. I packed it up and came home to wrench some more. Back to my build soon!