27 April 2010

DMZ tour

So I have decided that every Saturday that I can I will be taking a tour somewhere if I can help it. I have been here 3 weeks and I have taken a tour every weekend so far. The second tour that I went on was to the D.M.Z. or Demilitarized Zone. This is the 4km wide Corridor between north and south Korea.

This place is something else. It makes you feel like full scale war could break out any minute between the two. Even though I was only visiting you can just feel the tension in the air since it really is a full on stand off. Their weapons are pointed at us and our weapons are pointed at them. Its been this way for more than 60 years, crazy stuff. Well enough talk, on to the pics.

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This was built as a memorial to the years of separation and in hope that in the 21st century the two Koreas can once again be one.
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the bell weighs 21 tons! symbolizing the 21st century.
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as you can the the fortifications are pretty intense
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another shrine to reunification
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This hunk of rust is a train that was attacked in the korean war and was stranded in the DMZ for over 50 years, it was recovered and put on display. This thing is a big symbol of the war to south Korea.
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a pool in the shape of Korea north and south with a barbed wire strip separating them. Normally this would be filled and the fountains would be going if it were summer time.
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A couple Korean biker guys. I thought the Interstate 777 sign on his back was funny.
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another shrine
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a 3d map of just how close to north korea the observatory I was at to north korea.
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Lunch, I wasn't sure what some of this stuff was but it was all pretty good eating.
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I assume another shrine, im not sure.
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this place distracted me for a bit and I am trying to figure out how to get back up there to go Karting.
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A wall with all the names of people who contributed money to open a railway station going to north Korea. Its sad that the north isn't interested.
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This place was built to symbolize the souths intent to unite with the north
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painting of the train I posted farther up. This was inside the station.
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Brand new state of the art station that has never been used.
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President Bush came to the grand opening of the station and signed a railroad tie, They make a really big deal about this.
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hey I know that guy
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this is the sign for the US/ROK army base in just on the edge of the DMZ, you have to pass through this place to get to the JSA.
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In this building you get a briefing about how dangerous the are you are going into is and you have to sign a waiver that you realize that fighting could break out at any time and that they cannot guarantee your safety. I kept my waiver lol.
We were not allowed to take pics on the way to the JSA so I have to skip that part.
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This is a Statue in the JSA, another reunification deal. Its supposed to look like two hands holding each other.... yeah I don't see it.
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this is the stand off that happens everyday. The south watching the north and the north watching their side for defectors.
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those white posts are markers of the actual Demarcation line itself.
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north korean troops were everywhere watching us.
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this is the room where all the armistice talks are held between the north and the south.
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That concrete slab is the Demarcation line and I am actually standing on the north side of the line. :)
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ROK Ready!
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This is a Fake town that the north setup to make it look like everything in north Korea is awesome. But none of the buildings have windows and nobody even lives there.


Annnnd my camera died. So I didn't Get any more photos than that. If you are ever in south Korea you have to go to the DMZ it really is worth the trip.

14 April 2010

Man About town

Yeah so I decided to take a stroll outside the main gate and here is some pics of things I found

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ohh look a JZX90 Mark II
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someone on base owns this thing, I need to find out who.
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Same goes for this guy
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Smallest bimmer dealer ever?
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I sorta thought this place looked cool
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I wonder what kind of food they serve?
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This place is.... uhhh
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Clothes for a Grownass man
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hmm no wonder it's cheaper
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OMG! its the ultra rare Hyundai Tuscani GTR GT turbo!!!
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uhhhhh.... somethings you just shouldn't mix
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Lets just be honest, this makes no sense lol

11 April 2010

Dyno - mite!

So after fixing my half-shaft bolts I decided I should dyno my car as I didn't actually know how much power it was putting down to the ground.

Here's the sheet.

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Yeah thats about what I thought it should be putting down. Notice the weird hicups in the higher rev range. Yeah I don't know what those are. Probably needs a retune or something. Well that was my last friday in the states for a long time so nothing will happen with the car for a while and this will now transition to Piner's South Korean Tourist Blog.

here is video that shows how crappy my car sounds

Piner's E36 dyno run from paul otlewski on Vimeo.

3D! rad bro

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So our first event at the Silver Drag way was a bit unorganized as we were not sure how much time we would have to split between drifting and drag racing. We pretty much ran the dragstrip and the skid pad at the same time.

The course was fairly simple and open ended more gymkhana style than drifting. Heres a video of me testing the course.



The next time around I sheered off 3 of my drivers side half-shaft bolts because the other 3 on the half-shaft backed out.

heres a pic about a week later when I put new bolts in
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So that ended my drifting for the night so I went on to make a fool out of myself