Final preparations were wrapping up on Thursday night. I had finished applying a massive amount of blue painters tape to my front end and mirrors to protect my paint from road debris, Marc had fitted his front bra on, and applied some blue tape to Minna's car as well.
Next morning, at 5 am, we were ready to hit the road. It was 2100 km between us and Long Beach, but we were ready to tackle it.
The three of us blitzed it down I5, and made it across Washington in a few hours. I had suggested that we visit KO Racing in Oregon City, so we made a detour and stopped by the shop famous within the MR2 community.
This place was MR2 heaven. Kris had 3SGTEs piled everywhere, MR2s parked around, and parts laid everywhere. He kindly showed us around the shop, and shared some wisdom with us regarding 3S builds and whatnot. He has an area dedicated to fab work, for the exhausts, downpipes, flanges, you name it. Even just by talking to him, you can tell Kris oozes with compassion for the MR2 chassis, and that he really puts pride in his work. We could have spent much more time in that shop, but before we knew it, two hours had passed, rain started coming down and we reluctantly left to get to our motel in Ashland, Oregon.
One of the mechanics told us the orange car is lovingly nicknamed "Patches".
Minna, Marc, Kris and I. I think I'm holding Miley, one of the shop dogs.
Upon leaving KO Racing, we were greeted with a massive downpour. We slowed down as night fell, and ended up driving through the mountains in south Oregon in pitch darkness, in what seemed like a monsoon. Big rigs and 18 wheelers were passing us! One of the hairiest parts of the drive down, but we made it to the hotel in Ashland, just a few miles north of the Oregon/California border.
Day two, we woke up, partially rested and determined to reach Long Beach.
We traveled down I5 and reached Redding, California. It was then and there I had my first In N Out burger in my life. It was delicious, to say the least! We researched beforehand, and found out this was the first In N Out we'd pass by, so we had to stop for the famous burger joint for lunch. We then continued on, and blasted down the highway at a quick clip.
It was then, that my timing belt snapped. Earlier we had stopped for gas, and when I started my car, the timing cover jumped and made a terrible noise. Once it started though, the sound went away and the car ran like normal. However, we were about 100 miles north of Sacramento, when suddenly I lost all power. Everything just shut off in the car. In my panic, I somehow managed to high-beam Minna and Marc, but I don't think they noticed. I pulled over on to the shoulder, and then they saw me, so they did the same. I coasted to a stop behind them, and collapsed on to my steering wheel, face in my palms. I felt incredibly dejected. I was hundreds of miles from home, my car was broken and I felt like slipping into a hole and hiding. Luckily, Marc and Minna are level headed and helped me determine what was wrong with the car and encouraged me. The car would start, but not turn over. That meant no compression. The ultimate fear of head gasket failure came to mind, but nothing was blown. All the while, the temperature needle in the dash was rising, and just looking at it made me sad. While waiting for the tow truck, Marc and I tore into the engine to see what was wrong. Upon removing the timing belt cover, we found that the timing belt had shredded and snapped. After a lot of thinking and investigating, it turns out one of the bolts that holds down the metal plate between the cam gears and the cylinder head had backed out, and stopped the cam gear. Since the belt had the least resistance, it snapped, so compression was lost and the engine turned off. The cams and everything else are all good, nothing is bent or damaged. Thank goodness for non interference engines.
A highway patrol car spotted us on the side of the road, crossed the median and pulled over to help. He helped us call a tow truck, gave us some advice on what to do, and went on his way. The tow truck arrived, and loaded my poor MR2.
We went back north a few miles to Orland, a tiny town on I5. Luckily, this town had an AutoZone, and other various automotive stores. They even had some small alignment shop! Talk about lucky! We ordered a timing belt from AutoZone, and stayed the night at the motel there since it couldn't arrive till the morning. During the afternoon, we removed the old timing belt (rather, what was left of it) and prepared as best as we could for a quick install of the new timing belt the next day.
Morning came, and we were desperately waiting for the belt to arrive. Of course, it came late, but we managed to install it in record time, with multiple trips to AutoZone, and were back on the road by the afternoon!
At long last, after approximately 20 hours of driving, a snapped timing belt, and a roller coaster of emotions, we arrived at our hotel in Long Beach, California.
We had 5 days to experience the cities and life of SoCal, and of course, one of the first things we did was head to a car meet. I met someone a while ago on some online forum, and he drives a slammed 8th gen Honda Civic. His name is Colin. He and I would always talk, and after joking around about meeting up, it finally happened. Minna keeps on insisting he and I are incredibly similar, but I still deny it haha. After a bit of "Hey, where are you?" and unintentional hide-and-seek, we meet up at his school in north LA we headed out to Ontario for a meet hosted by a small crew called FittedTho. On the way there, Marc followed Colin, and I took up the rear. For the entirety of the 40 minutes drive there, Marc was often showered in sparks as various parts of Colin's underbody smacked against the rough freeway. It was a sight you had to see, haha.
The car scene in SoCal is very different, yet quite similar to the scene here. The meet was mostly Hondas, and the main mentality there is going low, on nice wheels and a clean, stock body. None of the cars had rust, and it was weird seeing no cars there with the usual Honda quarter panel rust we've become used to up here in Canada land. Twenty year old Civics looked like they just rolled off the assembly line, and the bodies of these cars were immaculate. There are subtle lip kits and such, but most of the cars retained factory exteriors. The only cancer they have on their cars is clear coat peel, which was quite evident on a lot of cars.
Colin's car and mine, united after more than meeting each other 6+ years ago.
We finished off the night with In N Out, discussing JDM cars in each others' countries, and picking out how we said "About". Aboot? Abowt? Abaaauuut?
The next few days, we went to Universal Studios, did some shopping, and visited the Toyota Museum. It was almost surreal, as we drove by iconic places. Mulholland Drive, Hollywood Blvd, and a bunch of others I can't remember.
Here are the members of BCMR2 that made the trek down, parked outside of the Toyota Museum in Torrance. I didn't get around to editing my pics from the museum yet, maybe I should get on that..
Russ, Duncan and Martin arrived by then, and it was time for the main event: ToyotaFest.
The event was amazing. I had the chance to talk to a few owners, and see all the cars I have plastered all over my Instagram in person. It's just something you have to attend to understand.
After the show, SoCal MR2 held a cruise. I had to get gas, but got lost doing so and they left without me. I tried catching up, but turns out they went on the coast road while I blitzed it on the highway. Finally caught up to them at a Target parking lot, where I talked to more people, and took a few more pictures.
One of which is my car next to Armand's widebody nicknamed the Red Devil. While the stanced style is not for everyone, I'm sure we can all appreciate the work someone puts into their car to make it look the way they want to. I like the look of stanced cars, but can't see myself doing it to my car.
A couple of days after the show, we wrapped up our time in LA, including celebating Duncan's birthday with a BBQ dinner. I think he's 35 now?
The return trip was less exciting. Marc, Minna and I blitzed it back home separately from Russ, Duncan and Martin. We went back on I5 all the way back, while the others took 3 days and enjoyed some canyon roads on the return. We made it to Ashland again, without any trouble. The next morning, we were excited to get home and quickly left the motel at 10 am or so. Half an hour in, however, we got struck again.
There was a dead coyote on the road, and our entire convoy managed to hit it. Marc skimmed over it, Minna's exhaust slightly smacked it, and I plowed into the carcass head on at 140 kmh. The result of the collision was this:
Cracked my 93 lip, and tore off half my splash shield. It's probably on the side of the road still, about 20 miles north of the Oregon/California border on I5. We cleaned off the blood and meat, stuck the remaining half of my splash shield in the trunk and continued home. The rest of the trip went smoothly, and we finally crossed on to Canadian soil at about 10 pm.
ToyotaFest is definitely one of the highlights of my life so far. It was just so fun, and despite all the troubles I had along the way, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Next year, we need more representation from Canada! The scene down there is amazing, and if you have a RHD MR2 and show it at ToyotaFest, you'll probably win something. JDM cars down there are incredibly rare and all the enthusiasts go bonkers over them. I remember seeing an R32 skyline drive by and masses of people ran over to take pictures of it. Up here, R32 skyline, meh, just another drift missile.
I'm really bad at ending these kinds of things, so I'll just leave it there. If you want to see my album of the entire trip (100+ photos), check out my set on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dawtun/se ... 554439252/
Comments and questions are welcome!
