Archive for November, 2008

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What’s coming up in December….

November 29, 2008

Image Courtesy of Honda Tuning Magazine.

Well the year is about to come to a close and what a great year it’s been for Hondas in the import/sport compact community. Seems that Hondas are becoming the car of choice once again as well as personal garage build project cars. Drifting and other make cars are beginning to take a backseat now with the reappearance of great Honda builds throughout the nation. What I plan to do is compile like a list of the top 10 builds of 2008. I know some people may be left out and there could be alot of people with something to say about my choices. But the beauty of it is….that’s it’s my own personal list. And if my opinion doesn’t matter to you, than it shouldn’t bother you at all. I’ve been heavily involved with the whole scene for awhile now and this year I have tried to make it out to as many meets and events as possible to catch a glimpse of everyone’s projects. Doing work for Honda Tuning Magazine has also presented me with a new found love for these cars and meeting the great owners behind each prospective car….

…I have met so many great people this year and it would be my pleasure to try to compile a list of my favorites. If at all possible, I would love to hear some feedback from my readers and fans of The Chronicles. This thing has actually only been around for like 2 months or so and it has grown enormously. I had no idea this thing would be so successful and I really thank everyone for logging on and reading all the awful gibberish I put on this site. I would most definitely love to hear some personal opinions in regards to what you felt were the top cars of 2008. I know I know, there are just so many to choose from, and I already have a couple in mind. It may be tough to narrow it down to just 10, but just think hard about projects stuck in your mind and truly have made a dent on the industry this year.

With that said, please feel free to email me or post your ideas in my thread over at NWP. I don’t really go on Honda-Tech anymore and they won’t let me post my shit up over there anyway. Hell you could even talk to me in person and tell me all about it. Even though I have terrible memory and don’t even remember my own phone number, I will try my best to remember the input that you guys give me. Also, if there’s a car that you feel hasn’t gotten enough exposure this year and deserves to be on the list, please let me know.

They can be mag featured, street parked, whatever. If it’s a great build, it’s a great build and it will get it’s recognition. Thanks everyone for reading this thing and keeping up with it, it means the world to me….

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What’s goin on this weekend besides turkey day?…

November 27, 2008

Well with the influx of new members joining up on NWP4Life, the crew over there decided that this Thanksgiving weekend would be the perfect time to throw a new member meet and greet. For those who have been wondering for an eternity what NWP4Life meant, “NWP” stands for Northwood Pizza. This was originally the spot where a couple Honda heads used to hang out at and those heads eventually created NWP4Life…

If you got nothing going on this weekend and are burned out by the madness of Thanksgiving and “Black Friday”, please stop by and come kick it. Meet new people, eat pizza, wings, play games, talk shit, etc…..It’s a chance for people to put faces to the forum usernames and get further acquainted by the laid back atmosphere of NWP. The meet will be on the 30th (A Sunday), and will start from 11am until 3pm.

Of course, don’t be a complete asshat and respect the normal meet rules. Don’t do burnouts, eat and run, general stupid ass behavior, etc. You know how to act like a human being, please be respectful.

Other than that, everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving. Be safe, don’t drink and drive, over shit your toilet, punch relatives, or anything of the sort. Of course the day after, you can go Black Friday shopping. I stood in line for 6 hours last year at Fry’s and I’m still wondering if it was worth it. Of course I got this computer that I’m using now and a 500 gig hard drive for $75 but it was a total pain in the ass standing in line for that long. I would venture to say that it’s about as close to the apocalypse that I’ll hopefully ever have to experience.

Anyways, NWP meet this Sunday! Meets are always good….especially with a long weekend and nothing to do….Oh we highly recommend wearing camo shorts and a black wife beater. And if at all possible, frost your tips please.

NWP4Life

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A Nostalgic Moment…DOHCResearch and TeamRice.org…

November 26, 2008

As far back as I can remember being into all things Honda, one of the first things that pops into my mind was always looking at dohcresearch/dohccorp and teamrice.org…. Back 5-6 years ago, I didn’t even own a Honda and building one was nowhere near realistic. I remember looking at these sites for hours just because they were filled with all kinds of sick pics of the import community in Hawaii….

The two Hondas that stood out to me and still stick in my memory today, are the two hatchbacks you see above. The green hatch was the epitomy of clean and the orange one had such a menancing persona. The intercooler on that thing was just massive. I remember seeing that Skyline APEXi core and just didn’t believe what I was looking at. The green hatch introduced me to Work RSZ-R’s and to this day, I still want a set, even if I don’t have anything to put them on…

I’m not claiming that these guys did anything first, or came up with any specific look before anyone else, but the cars that were on those sites were incredible. I don’t even remember how I stumbled on dohcresearch back then…I think it was because I caught an image of Kara Navarro somewhere and it linked me over to that site. Whatever the case, it always stuck in my mind and I always checked for updates…I wonder whatever happened to Kara Navarro….probably has some kids now and far from the whole scene….

I still believe the west coast has always run things over on our side of the globe but Hawaii was pretty damn close. Their cars just had a certain style and attitude to them. I mean honestly, the moment I mentioned “teamrice.org“, you immediately thought of one of the cars pictured in the above images right?…

Teamrice is no longer around anymore unfortunately but Dohcresearch still is. In fact, they even have archives of all their stuff from the past. Pretty cool stuff. I don’t know these guys nor do I have any affliation with them. I just decided to mention them cuz I honestly used to be a fan of their work, and just looking at their site now brings back a feeling of nostalgia and the images of the cars on that site are forever burned in my memory….

I remember writing a feature for an RSX from Hawaii a couple months back and it made me think back to the days when I used to look at these cars for inspiration. I don’t know what the owners of these cars are doing nowadays but I can see that the scene has shifted over in Hawaii and you don’t really see stuff like this anymore. Not to say that their cars aren’t great anymore, but I just don’t see anything now that really makes me say “damn, I’m gonna remember that” . Maybe it has more to do with me just being more knowledgeable of the scene now. I’ve seen alot in the last couple of years that’s maybe lead me to have a more selective view of “memorable”.

Here’s a shot of the Dohccorp site as it is today. You can see the archive of their previous layouts too dating back to 2000. Probably alot of kids nowadays that have never even heard of these sites. It’s a shame that Teamrice.org is gone….

Here’s some throwback videos that Teamrice.org used to always include with their photo features….That orange hatch was a fuckin beast!

Dohccorp

Damn, it’s 4:30 am and still no Super Street Fighter II HD Remix!!!

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another one bites the dust…

November 25, 2008

Well, you’ve probably already heard that Turbo Magazine recently bit the dust…and you may also have heard this week that Sport Compact Car got the axe….Guess what? Now Modified: Luxury & Exotics is also donzo. Ben Schaffer over at “The Real JDM” revealed the news yesterday that the mag will cease operation….

Times are bad, like really bad. When title after title is being wiped out of the magazine industry, you know something is up. And it may not be the end of the cuts either. Personally this has me a bit worried. As a writer and someone who wants to pretty much do this as a profession long term, it is very unsettling to know that so many titles are being removed from publication. It’s like a guy trying to break into the NBA or something and teams are folding. Or a prostitute trying to be the big whore but all the john’s are disappearing. It creates fewer job opportunities. Hopefully the more popular titles make it the rest of the way as we try to get out of this economic hole. Turbo I guess was bound to happen, SCC was a bit of a surprise because it still had quite a loyal following, Modified Luxury & Exotics….ehhh, I don’t know. I actually looked at that mag plenty of times and I’m sure it had it’s own niche. But with DUB magazine floating around I guess it just wasn’t necessary for it to be around anymore. The economy is so terrible right now that people don’t care to look at modified super high-end vehicles.

I’m crossing my fingers in hopes that titles like Honda Tuning Magazine, Super Street, and Modified stick around. Those are all titles I follow closely and Honda Tuning of course provides me with the means to eat and pay my bills….

I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t a writer…I guess I could become a doctor, or Spiderman…or play basketball for the Chinese National team…