Random “JDM” stuff….Purple Speed/Doobie Inc….
I don’t know who it was that was asking me if I knew anything about Purple Speed a while back, but I remember that I didn’t really know anything about it. Cuz I’m pretty good at remembering things that I know nothing about. Anyway, I somehow stumbled upon Purple Speed stuff today when I was randomly looking around at stuff online. I’m not sure how it happened exactly because neither the words “purple” nor “speed” was typed-in…they are also known as “Doobie Inc.” and I might have accidently replaced the “k” with a “b” while I was trying to plan my friends sca*ahem*..bachelor party…but who knows…moving on….
This is probably a pic you’ve seen before. If you look up one of those “rare parts” threads on any forum or “where can I get this lip” thread, you’ve probably seen this picture. I know because I myself have seen this pic on numerous occassions. This is Purple Speeds full aero kit for the EG6. The front lip is carbon fiber and the rest is FRP….not a bad looking kit but the rear protudes way too far out. Looks a little strange and Bomex like….
A little weird right? I can almost imagine the rear being white and some kid with an LS/VTEC swap burning oil and the area around the muffler outlet is just all a burnt brownish color…haha. I wasn’t really sure how old the pics were because the website looks somewhat dated and the styling cues resemble that of something that was cool around the earlier 2000′s. The next link I clicked on took me to the Fit page, which tells me that some of this stuff is still pretty recent…
The Fit aerokit doesn’t look bad at all. Very simple but flows well with the stock bodylines. Definitely alot less bulky as some of the other stuff they have (which I will show you as you continue on…).
The rear looks alot like a Buddy Club rear bumper. Not really a bad thing, unless you think about all the Cavaliers and Escorts out there that stole the look..
I did some more looking around and realized that they actually make a plethora of stuff for Hondas. Above is their carbon lip for the EK. This is probably my favorite aero part from Purple Speed. It’s very simple and not too goofy looking. Fitment also looks to be very good…
Might look alot better with some canards. I would say it would look better painted to match the bumper but then it might make the front end really bulky…
I actually cropped this picture from their site cuz the rest of the car is kind of an eyesore with like 18-inch chrome wheels and lifted 4×4 status. I just thought I’d show you the lip cuz it doesn’t look half bad…Oh it was a pic of a coupe also…
I really don’t know what to think of this kit. The lip looks kinda like my old Sigma lip that I had on my old car but more squarish and bland looking….
Here’s the rest of the kit, ehh, I don’t know…
This is the front underchin spoiler for the non 99-2000 front…Something about this particular picture looks like it’s something straight from an Erebuni catalog, wheels and all…=P
I know alot of you guys love CR-X’s so below is a pic of the Purple Speed lip for it…The picture looks very throwback. I actually think that they took pics with like a regular camera and just scanned them…oh well…who am I to say, I don’t even have a camera….
That’s it, feel free to check out their site here.
A Nostalgic Moment…My old Accord, may you rest in peace…someday…
Sit back and let me tell you the story of my Accord and it’s eventual demise. Many of you that have known me since I stepped into the Honda game know my old Accord as well. I absolutely adored this car. I have never dedicated so much of my blood, sweat, and tears into anything (Well other than my relationship with my better half) that I have with this build. When I initially put this car together, I had no idea this car would open so many doors for me…
…Man this car helped get my foot in the door so to speak into the Honda game. I knew absolutely no one in the beginning and I also had no idea the type of reaction I would get initially. The majority of the people I know today that I can call good friends I made while I had this car. I learned so much; from cars to patience, even things about myself I didn’t realize. It all came from me sitting in the garage and slowly piecing this car together. This Accord also helped build a relationship that I hardly had with my father. Throughout my life at that time, him and I always lacked communication and a common ground….building this car with him helped bridge that gap…
With the exception of the paint, everything was done in my garage with the help of friends. I’ve always been proud to say that I built my own car. From the H-swap, to the interior, suspension, NSX brakes, etc….Shit, if I knew how to paint, I probably would have done that on my own too…Minus a few minor things, I never had any problems with this car. And those incidents when something did occur, it was a result of my own carelessness…
When I first found out that Honda Tuning Magazine wanted to feature me, I was so unbelievably happy. Man I will never forget the moment when it happened. The thing with getting a feature though…man…you realize how stupid people can get about it. Call it jealousy or whatever else, the moment you reach any level of success, people love to bring you down. People that had no idea who I was began to talk shit, or make assumptions of who I was or how I got money to build my car. Either that or they’ll try their hardest to point out something wrong with the car. Well you know what they say…”If you’ve never been criticized, you probably haven’t done much with your life.”
I’ll be honest, getting a feature or being recognized for your work does help boost the ego a bit. It kinda makes you think whether or not you could do it again, you know…I was content though, but the itch to build another car was definitely there. As a fan of Japanese tuning culture, I was always interested in VIP and VIP-style cars. Something about them just interested me so much. I always told myself I would try to build a luxury car, I just didn’t have the means to do so. I told myself I would never sell my car…that is, unless I could find one of my dream cars: a Y33 Infiniti Q45. I was bullshitting with one of my homies one night and happened to mention that I wanted one. Then he told me about one that one of the other homies was selling, and I knew he always garaged it and never even drove it. The guy had intentions of building it but he ended up getting an IS300 so the Q was put on the backburner. The thing was mint, it already had coilovers, and the motor itself only had 85k on it. For a 10 year old car, that was pretty damn good. Too good to pass up. So I told myself that if I could get the right price, I would sell it. A decision I would later regret…
I also told myself I would only sell to the right owner. It’s every car-builder’s nightmare to sell their pride and joy to someone else, only for them to later part it out just to make money off of it. There are alot of punk bitches out there that will do that. I wish I wouldn’t have been so naive at the time. I thought I found the right owner, and the price was right. He came at me like he had intentions to keep the car exactly the way it was…boy was I stupid to believe that. I don’t want to fill you with all the details but there were also alot of promises that were made that the new owner never came through on. Shame on me though, for believing it…
…Fast forward a year later and the car is currently up for sale again…for like, the 5th time. It’s a fuckin travesty I tell you. People basically just bought it, got what they wanted off the car, and left it for dead. If I knew it was gonna be that way, I honestly would have never sold the car. I would have just kept it in storage and just rebuilt the entire car from scratch if anything. I just didn’t have the means to do so at the time. Shit, if I had money now, I would buy it back. Just because I feel bad for letting these bitches do what they did to my hardwork…
Let me tell you something….There are two types of builders in this “import scene”….theres people that have ingenuity, who work hard for their shit, and build their cars the right way. And on the other end of the spectrum, you got bitch motherfuckers, that don’t know two shits about building a car and just pay yardsale prices for parts that other people worked their asses off to find. I find it funny when people ask these guys about my old parts and they front like they know everything about it. Tell me, how hard was it to unbolt it from the car and install it into your’s?
Man, the car woulda had a better fate if it had been stolen….instead of getting picked apart by a bunch of vultures and passed around like that. Let it be known that I never sold the car or whored it out to the way it was. I sold the car complete with hopes that someone had enough respect to keep it the way it was. Unfortunately, there are alot of sketchy mofo’s out there in the world….What’s even worse is that some of these people I might have even considered to be “friends” or acquaintances at one time or another. Now they won’t even look me in the eyes…
Here’s the Craigslist ad for the car in it’s current sad state…
http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/976941461.html
Oh yeah, the “92k on the chassis” he’s talking about is total bullshit. It’s “92k” because that’s the mileage that’s listed on the BB6 Prelude cluster I retrofitted. Don’t know about that new tranny though, he probably doesn’t remember if it was new or not when I put it in….And I think the “new HID kit” he has on there are the HID’s the original buyer promised to give back to me when he bought the car. You have to check out that “new paintjob” from 2005 though…
Bitter? Fuck yeah I’m bitter.
The forgotten…whoops, I f’d up…
Sorry guys, while doing my list of honorable mentions, I left out a couple I intended to include…
Elfather’s EK…one of my favorite EK’s of the year. CCW’s look perfect on this car and it’s very complete throughout. K20 swap, full Bride interior, perfect stance….Definitely want to see more of this car. Should have made the list but it’s another one of those cars that I didn’t get a chance to see enough of until the end of the year…
Kid Kombo’s EK….This thing looks so aggressive. Definitely looks track ready. I didn’t see enough of it or have enough information on it for it to make a lasting impression on me in 08….
Nasif’s 4-door…Looks like something you would see in a Hot Version or Best Motoring DVD. To the naked eye, it would seem pretty simple but there’s actually alot of work put into this project. It has all the essentials one would look for in a complete build, just lacks the exposure. I love the concave TE37′s up front. Didn’t make the list because it’s generally seen and not heard. People see it at various places but it’s not really on the net and Nasif really keeps to himself unless you get to know the guy….
Loi Song and Sportcar Motion’s other hatchback, the “drag eg”…This car is barely making the rounds and was just recently completed. Look for this thing to make alot of noise in 2009….
Sorry for forgetting you guys….keep up the good work…
Honorable mentions….the rest of the pack…
Hope the Top 10 didn’t disappoint you too much. Most of you were probably too wasted from the New Years celebrations to really make much of an argument anyway. I figure with the 10 best listed, I should include some of the major players that were under consideration that didn’t make the cut. Again, this is in no way putting anyone down or saying anyone is better than anyone else. Afterall, this is just a hobby. If you get your feelings hurt over what one person thinks or puts down on a list, you’ve got some serious issues you might want to consider dealing with. When’s it’s all said and done, I hope each and everyone of you are satisfied with what you’ve accomplished for the year and if not, well, that’s the beauty of life….you have another 365 days to make some noise….
On with the list…These are in no specific order…
I have to first off, give a shout-out to my boy Tony Khamly and his widebody NSX. This car alone could make up the entire list. I’m gonna deem Tony the “Mr. Congeniality” of the list. I guarantee you that you do not even know the beginning of the story to this car. Tony, me, and the rest of the Phaze2xDoods clan were set to have such a huge year with this NSX. Tony first got this thing running the night we were set to take off for J’s Gathering in Norcal. By “Get this thing running”, I don’t mean jumping a battery or some shit. I meant Tony and Louie at L-Con literally had the exhaust fabricated that day and the supercharger and water-cooled system operational that night. Defintely not the smartest thing to do but we were down to make the trek up to J’s and it paid off. The pic you see above is of the car in the driveway at my homie’s house up in Walnut Creek that weekend of the show, so we made it. The NSX won two awards that day and was probably one of the biggest hits of the show as it was shown in the next J’s Gathering flyers and even on the Wekfest flyer for this year. Only problem was that it never really ran “perfectly” or the way Tony wanted it so as soon as we made it back to Socal, he shut it down. It would appear at a NWP meet one more time before it went out of commission. Needless to say, we had planned on campaigning the car that entire year but ran into a couple problems that prevented Tony from doing so. It was set to make it’s reappearance at Nisei Import Showoff during the summer but the night before, an unfortunate incident with a car trailer would ultimately put the car out of commission for the rest of the year, along with the fact that the entire front section of the Sorcery widebody kit was destroyed. In life, shit happens. Unfortunately, Tony got shit on alot in 2008. Hopefully he’s an odd numbers guy and this year proves to be a better one…
There are bigger plans for this thing in 2009, but here’s a shot of what was planned before.
Anyways, on with it…
Why didn’t Rudy make the list? Shit cuz he’s been doing it big in 07, 08, fucking 2006 maybe, who knows. 2008 just saw the continuation of his success. I wouldn’t call him going to shows and winning awards anything surprising. It’s like watching a movie the second time, it’s still good, but you already know what happens….Same for J.P. and his Civic also. Once I saw that Ed Hardy sticker on Rudy’s door at HIN, I died a little inside….haha. But you guys know what I mean. His best is yet to come….
…Similar scenario for Ojay and his Element. He’s been doing it big for the last couple years so it wasn’t exactly a shocking development that he was around. 2008 does mark the year that he finally got his feature in Honda Tuning magazine. Definitely deserving….no one in the Element game has yet to catch up with him. Honestly he was gonna make the list…it was down to him or Son’s hatchback. I didn’t want to have too many of my own squad on there or else people might consider my list to be ‘tainted’….
HBK Gabe makes the list just because he has the audacity to steal a parking spot from an elderly woman at the Jtuned meet this year. No really, that’s the reason why. Oh and it’s also a very nice EM1 also….looks good on the BBS wheels and always makes appearances at events. Keep it up…
Phaze2 EG…..Arnel makes the list because this car got raped and was rebuilt in the matter of no time and came back better than ever. Gotta give it up to determination. Often times when something so tragic happens to a car and it’s owner, the owner gives up and tries to move on. It would be a crying shame if that happened to this Civic….I got alot of love for this ride. Slammed to the earth and don’t give a fuck. Gotta love that….
One of the few cars that caught my eye at Import Alliance. Well from the coverage anyway. Love the Spoon inspired look and the Honda Edition Time Attack wheels. Would love to see it alot lower. This car also popped up alot on internet forums too, unfortunately, I don’t know enough about it for it to make the list…
This wagon wasn’t around for very long but the two times I saw it, everybody had their jaws dropped and tongues hanging out. Yes, in a perverted way. Ralphie pulled some crazy shit and put custom barrels on a set of Mugen M7′s and it blew everyone’s minds! The first time I had the chance to see it was at Eibach this year and he had his favorite SSR wheels on there and it looked amazing….Can’t wait to see what he’s got up his sleeves for this year…
One of my favorite EF’s of all time. It didn’t make the list because unfortunately I didn’t really get a chance to see it until much later on in the year. Love everything about it…but I definitely liked it best when it was on the Work RSZ-R’s…
Dennis Lui’s DB8 Integra….Personally I enjoyed seeing this build. But it is definitely over the top for most. There are alot of little touches here and there that make this a great build. This DB8 didn’t make the list because I just didn’t see or know enough about it. I saw it once when they took pics outside the owner’s house or something and then some coverage from HIN up in Washington, and finally a sneak peek of it in Super Street magazine. Can’t even google it and find anything on it….
FLOSS aka James’ EK…This car was everywhere this year. Anytime you looked at anything on Honda-Tech related to “slammed” or “low offset”, someone would post up pics of this hatch. It didn’t make the list because I don’t think he’s really finished with it yet and honestly, I wish I would see some more ingenuity involved with the build. It’s like a little bit of alot of other people’s car combined into one build. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But some ingenuity would defintely put it over the top…
This S2000 is one bad motherfucker. Oh man…I love it. From the teal BBS wheels to the fenders, everything. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see it enough and I doubt anyone else has either. And despite all the exterior enhancements, I don’t believe there’s any major work in the bay…It’s a beautiful S2000 though, looks perfect….
Well that’s it. Congrats to the Top 10 and to the honorable mentions….I look forward to seeing what kind of stuff catches my eye in the 09′….Keep grindin’…
Top 10 favorites of 2008…Part 3…
I apologize for the lack of an update but I had to bring in the new year with the fam this year and I wasn’t around my materials to get this up….All the more better cuz you have the opportunity to read over the top 9 again and truly embrace each build. I don’t know what’s going on, but apparently I’m doing something right because I’ve had a major influx of viewers lately and now even more people are following the rambling that I’m doing. Almost time for me to bring in the Kool-Aid so we can hop on our spaceship to meet Zoltan…Haha. But in all seriousness, thank you so much for all the people that are taking time out of their day to read this stuff. It’s actually caught on faster than I could have ever expected. Hopefully with the new year, I get a even more devoted reader following.
Without further ado (ado? is that right?…)….There are many MANY great builds in the year of 2008, and this list is definitely not made in an effort to discourage or discount anyone else’s projects…Think of it as motivation to push the envelope even further…..Alas…there can only be one at the top of the heap….THE NUMBER ONE OF 2008 IS……*drumroll*….
…Michael Hatten aka Donut.‘s 1992 Honda Civic. Why? Simply because this guy’s covered all facets of the game in 2008. Donut has made the effort to make an appearance at every Socal meet/gathering in 08, no matter big or small. Despite it’s pristine condition, this hatch isn’t simply a showcar…
…it has made the rounds at track events and been pushed to the limits on more than one occassion. And we certainly can’t discount the fact that Donut’s Civic is the first privately garage-built Honda to land the Super Street cover in a LONG time. Never did anyone imagine such a simple masterpiece would make it on the cover of a magazine that had previously focused purely on high-priced shop builds and Japanese supercars.
I think I read somewhere that Hatten had mentioned that making the cover was the highlight of his year. Man, as an enthusiast and a pure Honda-head. We should all be proud of this accomplishment. This was a big deal. It makes all the trials and perils of building a car worth it. I don’t want to say “underdog” because Hondas are definitely still at the forefront of the import scene, but this gave alot of hope to people out there who build their own cars. You don’t always need corporate backing or major sponsors to get recognized. I’m pretty sure Donut didn’t build this car in hopes of just getting a feature. He built with purpose, ingenuity, and as a dedication to a good friend.
…Or you can look at it this way. It’s just one of those cars….everytime you see it, you just kinda stand there and look at it. You don’t know why, you just do. Even when you know there’s nothing new done to it. You can run into it 10 years from now and do exactly the same thing. It’s almost frozen in time. The outside is simple. White, lowered, a front lip, and always on a nice set of wheels. The inside is a little more complex. Also simple. But the thought process is executed brilliantly with alot of hardwork and creativity.
“At the end of the day, it’s just a Civic,” they say….right…
It’s also The Chronicles’ #1 Honda of 2008.
