Original Kings…
I actually overslept for this but Sheepey was pretty persistent in getting me to wake up so after oversleeping 1 1/2 hours, I finally got my ass up to head down to the Source Interlink offices in El Segundo. Sheepey’s newly finished hatchback was getting shot inside their studio for Honda Tuning and it was a great opportunity to see how things work down there. The facility is amazing. Just the whole set-up and sheer amount of equipment was something to behold. The whole room was white and you couldn’t even walk in there without some booties over your shoes. That’s why in the group pic above none of the gentlemen are wearing shoes. There was another car that was apart of the shoot but they ran into some trouble heading down to Socal so it gave us some extra time to screw around and do whatever we wanted…
I can’t really show you the pics because obviously Rodrez was shooting the actual studio shots and those are going to print for HT. Give it a couple months and you will have to see this machine in all its glory. Trust me, it’s worth it. If you know Alex Soto and how he builds cars, then you will definitely be in for a treat when this issue comes out…
Here they are taking bumpers and hoods on and off for the appropriate shots…
Rodrez putting in work…
Then the other car showed up and they did their various tandom shots and what not. Again, make sure to cop the issue to see the final product…
After Sheepey’s portion of the shoot was done, we rolled it out and reassembled everything, took off the bumper and got it ready to go back on the trailer. By “we”, I mean I just stood around and watched…=P
It was actually pretty windy and his bumper almost got blown away. Luckily we got a hold of it before it hit the curb and got damaged…
Back on the trailer and ready to head back to Perris…
Overall it was a productive day. We even managed to find time inbetween to eat at Cozymel’s or something. Shit was the weakest mexican food I’ve ever eaten. Like Taco Bell on a fancy plate with rice and beans…It was cool to experience the studio shoot. I learned a lot about what’s all involved and all the crazy equipment. It’s definitely different…
Make sure to keep an eye out on this issue of Honda Tuning. It’s gonna be a full issue dedicated to true race cars so all you old school drag racers and Honda heads will be happy. Sheepey’s Civic is back and better than ever. Man, it’s been awhile since anyone has seen it but now that it’s res-surfaced, it’s definitely gonna be a beast on the track. Can’t wait until it’s ready for battle…
I’m very happy with that group shot, it was totally random and ended up looking great. I was telling Big Mike that someday we’re gonna look back at pics like these and go; “man, you remember when this happened?”…we’ll have all kinds of cool stories to tell. Also very cool to have two of the most innovative minds in the Honda community together in one place. The amount of detail executed between these two guys is mind-blowing…truly “Original Kings”.
Thanks for looking. Exclusive content brought to you by The Chronicles, all rights reserved, all biters served…PEACE.
New Limited Edition Chronicles Stickers Available For Pre-Order Now!…
The red chrome is on order and should be in within days now. I want to make sure that everyone gets them and that I haven plenty of time to cut and ship them so I will be taking orders on them now. I may have quite a bit of actual work leading up to Eibach 2010 and taking the orders now will give me some time to adjust to demand. They will be similar to the traditional OG Chronicles stickers that you’re all used to but they will have a red chrome backing instead of the regular chrome. The Wek’Fest ones did amazing and even though I still get some requests for them, I won’t cut them anymore because they were only limited to that time period and made specifically for that show. This will be no different. After May16th, the Chronicles stickers in this particular color and finish will not be available anymore. Red chrome ain’t actually cheap either so I have no hesitation in not making them after the event, haha…Anyways, grab them now before it’s too late. First come, first serve people…you know the routine. Thanks for the support!!!
Rendering of what it will look like…
Bid ol’ tiddies…
Oh forgot about some smaller announcements…
All sticker and merchandise orders have been packaged and sent out as of today. So if you guys haven’t received yours yet, it’s definitely coming. I’m all caught up on orders as of yesterday afternoon. If you happen to order late last night or early this morning, your’s will go out with the next upcoming batch. Shirts are still available too but certain sizes are starting to get a bit scarce so if you want a shirt, don’t hesitate and jump on that when you get the chance….
I’m sure most of you remember the Wek’Fest Edition Chronicles stickers. They were a custom black lettering on teal background and were only available for a limited time leading up to the actual Wek’Fest 2010 event. I’m gonna get into the habit of doing custom-themed stickers for all the major events of the year. Wek’Fest had the limited teal versions and I’m happy to announce now that Eibach Meet 2010 limited edition Chronicles stickers will also be available. By “limited edition”, I mean that they are different from the normal black and chrome and will be cut in special colors depending on the major event of the year. For the Eibach event, I will be cutting the original style Chronicles stickers in a very limited red chrome. This will be the first time that the OG Chronicles stickers have come in any color other than the original chrome/black.If you’re at all interested in those, keep an eye out at the storefront for those. Should have them up in a week or so. Just waiting on the red chrome to come in. Thanks everybody for your support which helps keep this site going and food in my mouth…I’m very grateful to everyone who has contributed in one way or another.
The annual Eibach Honda meet is actually not too far away. Damn, this year is moving by fast….
Wait…what?…
I was glancing at the Auto Blog site earlier today and was looking through their usual bit of automotive news when I caught something quite bizarre…and super creepy. I’m sure you guys have heard the story of this guy that died and during his wake, his body was like in clubbing clothes and he was standing up and positioned in a way that made him look like he was about to go out. Yeah, it’s true. If you don’t believe me I’m sure you guys can still dig up some stuff on it. Anyways, I mention that because this is the latest creation from the same mortuary company that did that one. This dude was apparently shot and killed and instead of having the usual funeral, his family brought in his Repsol-inspired Honda bike to the wake and the corpse is positioned in such a way that the dead guy looks to be riding it. Yes, it’s very fucking weird, and terribly disturbing. I actually cringed when I saw one pic of it. Shits weird but I’ll include the link for you guys that actually want to see it. The site that got the news of this actually got some pretty detailed pics of the wake and the dude on the bike. I would have looked but that shit is too weird for me. That and funerals kinda generally give me the creeps and I just want to stay away from them….I just kinda put this on here cuz it’s been kinda slow this week. That and I’ve been working a lot lately and finally have a couple days off before I get back on the grind of writing. Super Street Fighter 4 came out as well too so that’s taking up a lot of my extra time…haha. I am supposed to go shoot some pics of Big Mike’s car this week though. Which reminds me, I need to give that guy a call…
Anyways…enjoy I guess….
I wouldn’t really look at the pics if I were you guys, unless you’re into that shit….me? No thanks…I got enough crazy shit going on in my head to remember stuff like that!…
“It’s JDM Yo!!!” presents the Power Preview meet…
On Sunday, I went out to Power Toyota Cerritos for the “It’s JDM Yo!!!” Power Preview meet. The homies put the meet together last minute and it came out really well. It’s not a Honda thing or Honda event at all but it’s still good to go and check out some nice cars. I’m a fan of all things automotive and even though I have a deep appreciation for Hondas, anything that’s built the right way will always catch my eye.
Here is Tony from “It’s JDM Yo!!!” blog’s description of how the meet came about…
“Last Monday my friend from Power Toyota Cerritos approached us about helping them throw a car meet but with only 2 weeks notice. Something we weren’t too thrilled about. Reluctantly we agreed to help them only because depending on how this meet does they’ll let us host the next meet which they want to use as a kick off to what will eventually be a monthly meet. Pretty much how Norm Reeves Honda next door has their monthly Honda meets. Another reason we want to help them is because this location is pretty bomb. They have a 3 story parking structure above the service department and with the popularity with indoor parking structure shows we see great potential here…”
I had already ate earlier in the day because my parents came out to visit but from what everyone was eating, they had some great food at the meet because it was all catered and what not. The meet was a great success and I’m sure the future ones will be better and better. On with the pics…
Walked over to the Midnight Garage booth area and saw Tony’s NSX. If you’re wondering why an NSX is at a Toyota meet, I couldn’t tell you. I guess they invited him out anyway just because they wanted to see his car in person and they gave him a nice spot inside the building…
Then I saw this thing roll up…pretty crazy set-up. I have to say it’s one of the craziest soarer/SC builds I’ve seen…
…after it parked I looked closer at it and the paint could use some work but I think once that’s taken care of, it’ll be a badass car. It has all the right stuff on it and I look forward to seeing more of it in the future…
Freddie and the Auto Fashion guys were out with the Airrunner booth….
Random fighter pilot getting food from the catering section…
Kinda wish I woulda jumped on the food so I could have eaten this…
Billy’s IS of course. He’s also one of the guys that runs the “It’s JDM Yo!!!” shindig and he helped put this meet together with Tony Lee…
…here’s Billy doing some coverage…
Goldmember’s new set-up. He completely redid the entire car and it’s all kitted-up now and everything…looks great…
Matty’s xB of course…
Serious business discussion…
The other man behind the meet. This guy right here had been stressing all week over this shit and it all paid off in the end…
Mikeyyyy and some bBSquad guys…
No gold bay, trust me…
Dancar’s JDM everything bB…hopefully I’ll get to take some more indepth pics of this car soon…
Always good to see Emerson…he stopped by because he had to bring his aunt some lumpia…
Nick’s Supra… I think he was drinking somewhere…
This guy ate tacos…
I didn’t take this.
Randoms….
That’s a wrap.
Happy Birthday DPK David…
There’s actually gonna be two updates today. There was a non-Honda meet this past weekend over at the Cerritos Auto Square and I’ll post that up for you guys who want to see car stuff. The first update will be, as the title states, for DPK David’ birthday part on Saturday…It was good times all around and it only seems like yesterday when we celebrated his bday at the park. Man, this year has flown by super quick. Guess with everything that’s been going on lately, time is just flying by…
Anyways, it was good times, bunch of food, music, David DJ’d for a bit, generally just hung out and drank…oh and ate cookies… These pics are mostly for the homies so if you guys aren’t into it, just cruise back later for the car stuff….
Some have the borders and shit on it cuz it came from my camera, the other ones are just from a point and shoot…Not like anyone is gonna jack the pics and shit so oh well…
I don’t know why we had to take a group pic in the most crowded part of the house with a car in front of us but yeah…group shot of the homies…
Apparently this is what goes on at parties nowadays, nobody talks to eachother and shit…
Cookies and beer…
Big Mike and Rywire havin a good time…
Ryan hawkin some girls…
Big Mike, Sheepey, and Rywire…
They’ve never heard of this car before… =P
David providing reasons why his stickers are crooked as shit…
Failed first group pic…
That’s most of it. Be back later today with meet coverage…
A look inside Seeker Japan…
We Americans rarely get a chance to really go inside Japanese tuning shops to see what they’re all about or what goes on within. I hope to some day go back to Japan and do this. I went about 1o years ago and I didn’t really know to much about where all these shops were located so I never got to go on a full fledge tour of all the shops. I’ve heard from a number of people as well as some magazine editors that a lot of shops over there aren’t actually very fond of Americans going through their shops and if they find out you work for an American mag, they’ll quickly turn you away. Whether that’s true or not can be debated but apparently Seeker Japan welcomes tourists with open arms. Recently Shawn from Level 12 somewhere up in Canada paid a visit to Japan and had the opportunity to have a tour within one of Japan’s most well-known Honda tuners. I spotted this on NWP and they were in kind of a smaller section of the forum that not many users go into so I decided to ask him if I could bring these pics over to The Chronicles for all of you. He was kind enough to oblige and here they are. Not much commentary from me because I really wasn’t there so I couldn’t really tell you anything about it….Enjoy though…
Notice the front stagger…looks like modified or aftermarket fenders up front too…
Nice air intake set-up…
Seeker RS seats…
Crazy header…
More Seeker S.E.S exhausts and headers…
Seeker S.A.S dampers…
One of the few Japanese tuning company slogans that make translatable sense…Seeker – “Seek and you shall find”…what you’re looking for, who knows…
Interesting oil container…
I love FD2s…if I were to ever build another Honda, it would either be another CB or a newer Civic with the FD2 conversion…
They crashed the shit outta this one…
Look at that custom cold-air A/C pipe…
That’s all folks…
Special thanks to Level12.ca
Oh what’s this…this ain’t a Honda…
I am pretty fucking tired right now. Terribly tired. I had to knock out some features for Super Street that they needed in a matter of days so I haven’t really had much of an opportunity to sleep. I probably fell asleep like 3 times already as I am typing this. Anyways, I really do have some Honda stuff for you guys but I’m too beat to upload it right now so here are some pics I shot of during SEMA 2009. The xB belongs to Gene from bBSquad. Please don’t leave me any comments telling me that a bbsquad already exists and it’s a Prelude crew. I don’t know, I didn’t think of the name. You guys need to get together and have some kind of knife fight or something to figure out who owns the name.
I edited these a couple days ago when I was taking a break from writing and I’m pretty happy with the way they came out. I must apologize to Gene and the rest of the squad for taking so long with the pics, after all it’s been a good 6 months since I took them.
Okay, I can’t type anymore I think I’m going blind, enjoy the pics… Oh yeah, man angles are the same because I shot them at different locations thinking that some of them would come out shitty. Luckily, they all came out pretty decent so here you go…
Alright I’m off to bed, hopefully when I wake up the sun will still be around…laters…
Justice strikes again!…
Thanks to Phaze2 Tony for passing this on through the NWP forums. It’s not really Honda-related but for anyone who owns a Honda and has had something stolen from them, this is great. A user fromt he MR2OC and Club Lexus forums discovers one day that his TOM’s C7 wheels were stolen. I don’t have the full story because I’m not a user on the MR2OC forums but from the CL forum, he actually finds his wheels on Craigslist and sets up a meeting with the guy to possibly buy the wheels. TOM’s C7s aren’t exactly the most common wheel and especially with that particular gold finish, he knew that they were his. So he contacts the local authorities and talks to the detectives and they determine that they are in fact his so they work with him to expose this thief. Below are the videos from the owner of the wheels himself. You can see how he pulls it off perfectly and how dumb the thief is with his excuses. Apparently, he found them on an abandoned trailer that his mom owned or something…ahh it’s interesting stuff…check out the videos and watch justice get served as this tool gets arrested for theft and attempting to sell the guy his rare TOM’s wheels for $350….
Thief’s shitty Eclipse getting towed away…
Justice prevails…for once…haha…
Goodbye FD2 Type R…we hardly knew you…
They say all good things must come to an end but this seemingly came out of nowhere. With Honda taking the direction of being environmentally friendly and “green”, they have decided to end production of the 4-door Civic Type R by August 2010. Here in the U.S. we’ve barely started to get used to the idea of the U.S. Civics doing the full R conversions and now with their on the way to the can. What a shame…if there was ever a more attractive incarnation of the Type R, it would probably be the FD2 chassis. I personally loved this bodystyle R and all the new stuff that was coming out for it from J’s Racing and Feel’s, etc., etc…. Sucks that they’re not gonna make them anymore.
Official Press Release…
TOKYO, Japan, April 19, 2010 – Honda Motor Co., Ltd. announced it will discontinue production of the 4-door Civic Type R at the end of August, 2010. A purist’s sports car featuring precisely tuned vehicle dynamics, the Civic Type R creates a unity between car and driver for exceptional driving pleasure. The first-generation model launched in 1997 and was produced at Suzuka Factory. The second-generation model following in 2001, was produced at Honda of the U.K. Manufacturing Ltd.* For the current, third-generation Civic Type R that was released in 2007, the production has returned to Suzuka Factory.
Type R models are specially tuned to take full advantage of the potential of the base model and provide a racing car-like driving feel. First offered on the NSX in 1992, the Type R range was added to the Integra in 1995 and to the Civic in 1997.
Noooooooo…..
CR-X takes a shit…
Oh man, just a quick update for you guys today but it’s an interesting one…haha…. Good thing the flywheel didn’t shoot the other direction or it would have ended up inside the driver…
…And this is the end result …
At least the mount is still cool… =P
San Francisco Japan Town Cherry Blossom Festival Car Show…
Good lord, that’s a long ass title for a car show…hope that isn’t posted on a flyer or something somewhere. Anyways, I wasn’t actually there but the JSJ Brothers guys always come through on the event coverage for all things Norcal. Peep the album, there are some pretty crazy cars that showed up. Only events like these have Civics and other Hondas mixed with Bimmers and Lamborghinis…shits crazy…
That black RSX with the neo-chrome finish supercharger and valve cover is bananas!!
Check out their coverage here…
Photo Source: JSJBrothers.com
NWP4LIFE forum downtime…
For those of you who have been trying to get on NWP for the last couple hours or so, don’t worry, the site is still alive and well. It’s just going through some database maintanence and what not. It was actually supposed to occur during the middle of the week but I guess it’s been busy so they’re working on it now. This is also why the forum has been a tad bit slow the last day or so. I saw a lot of people posting on there wondering why it’s been kinda lagging. It should be back up and running hopefully by the morning to afternoon but we will have to wait and see. Just don’t panic and think that it got hacked or taken down or whatever, these maintanence things happen from time to time…
Some shots from the Modified Magazine Tuner Shoot-out…
Loi Song and The Chronicles Top Honda of 2009 made an appearance at the Modified Magazine Tuner Shoot-out over the past weekend. Here are some pics courtesy of none other than Loi himself. I don’t know the results and who won but even if I did I’m sure I couldn’t reveal it to you guys. They’re probably keeping it a secret until the actual results come out in a future issue of Modified magazine. These pics should hold you over for now though….some Honda and non-Honda content ahead…
Sportcar Motion DC2R…
I’m sure somebody will say something about the front wing in the comments section…
Sportcar Motion Integra parked next to Tage Evanson’s hatchback…
Really like the aero on this NSX…especially the rear diffuser…
HBK No More…
A couple months ago, I got word through the grapevine that HBK Jon had sold his purple hatchback. Last year it was one of the most talked about Hondas out here in Socal and I even had the opportunity to attend his mag shoot in downtown L.A. Not really sure when or if the feature will ever come out but it almost seems unimportant now since he doesn’t even own the car anymore. What usually happens with these well-known builds is that once they’re sold, the owner that buys it takes some parts off of it and then ends up flipping the car again right away. Same thing happen to Mikeyyyy’s as well as a couple other cars that were sold in the last couple years. Kinda sad to see these cars after they’ve switched hands…especially since the look is so recognized. To this day I still have people clicking on the pics that I randomly took the day of his shoot. I don’t really understand why they’re still so popular but I guess international enthusiasts have never seen the car and it’s still very new to them.
As expected, the new owner has already gone and posted up the car for sale once again. To say that it’s a shadow of it’s former self would be an understatement. It’s funny how quickly things change in a year. I guess that’s just the speed of life out here in the west coast import community. The car has switched owners and we (The Phaze2/Doods! family) no longer affliate ourselves with anything related to FAST Autoworks, for both personal and business reasons. I hate to see the cars when they get to this stage. The new owners usually never take care of the cars like the original owners and you can’t blame them. They didn’t build the car and they don’t have any sentimental value for it. When Mikeyyyy and I sold our cars the exact same thing happened. I remember seeing DPK Rudy’s RSX up for sale last year as well and it was basically stock on the outside. When the new owner posted it up for sale again, people were flaming him on the message boards because they thought he was using Rudy’s pics and trying to scam people, when in actuality, it was indeed Rudy’s old ride and the engine bay was perfectly intact…
Here’s the Civic in it’s current state… I’m sure you all can recognize what’s been removed and what’s left of it….
The Buddy Club Spec 2 that used to be on it has been replaced by some generic muffler…
Here’s a shot of what it used to look like…
Engine bay still has the Chronicles sticker on the intake… =P
Interior is basically the same…
It’s no longer slammed to the ground anymore because the suspension has been replaced with ground control sleeves and stock struts…
Whoever ends up buying this thing will get a pretty good deal. When Jon had it the motor was pretty much fucked so hopefully that’s been fixed but for the 6,500, you’re still getting alot of stuff with the car…
Here’s the link to the for sale thread on NWP…
Not really sure why the new owner said it was featured in Super Street though, because that definitely did not happen. The car was shot for Import Tuner but like I said earlier, no idea when or if that will ever run…Maybe the guy was told it was featured when he bought it though, who knows….
Speaking of which, I actually saw my old Accord on the road a couple weeks ago as well…
I was driving back up to LA from my parents place in SD and drove up next to it in the Vista area. It was the first time I had seen it in person since I sold it back in 2008. Man, it’s probably on it’s 4-5th owner now but the paint still looked pretty minty. Guess the car found its way back to San Diego where it all started. I was kinda sad to see it…just brought back so many memories you know. At least the new owner is enjoying it now. All the parts are long gone and are being whored out by a bunch of other Accord owners but the engine bay should still be intact. I almost wanted to follow the guy and stop him just to see what shape it was in but that would have been kinda strange. That and the dude would probably think I was robbing him or some shit…Oh well…
Golden State of Mind…
Ahh, it’s good to be back…New York was quite an adventure and it was a real good break. I ate everything in sight and got a glimpse at all the landmarks as well as the lifestyle out there. It’s definitely different.
Someone actually got mad at me for leaving on vacation apparently. This guy left a comment and says something along the lines of “We don’t give a fuck about your life, we just come here to look at pictures of cars. I’ll be heading to the JDM EGO blog until things get better over here”….Haha, damn, so angry…I’m happy that you’re following the homie Jay and his JDM EGO blog. Hell, stay over there please. If you come here for pictures than you’re at the wrong place. I honestly could really care if you came back or not…
Anyways, back to business…
Man, car shows/meets inside parking structures have gotten prrrrreeetttyyyy popular lately…Just an observation. Maybe with all the success with Wek’Fest and what not, this is gonna continue to be a trend. The above picture is not from a U.S. event of course but the Civic is pretty interesting. Whatever event that is, that shit is crackin’…
Speaking of which, I hopped on the internet while I was in NY and I noticed that Import Alliance Spring Atlanta Meet occurred this past weekend. They too are trying out this parking structure style meet and from what I’ve seen so far, it was pretty successful. Haven’t really seen that many pictures online yet, possibly due to the poor lighting in the structure but I’m sure more will pop up as the days go by. Check Honda-Tech or some shit, I’m sure they have the usual “Official _____________” thread where they’ll have pictures. I’ve only seen pictures of PG+K Jay’s S2000 so far and that thing is looking good as always. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for pics of the event. If you have some, make sure to pass them along…
The ONE/ONE Formula D event/show was also this past weekend. As you all know, I wasn’t able to attend but here are some links to some pics…
Fatlace ONE/ONE brought to you by DJ Murdock…
Fatlace ONE/ONE brought to you by JDM EGO…
Some guy wearing UGG boots from ONE/ONE…
I also want to tell you guys about the “It’s JDM Yo!!!” blog…it’s brand new and from the minds of my friends Tony Lee and Billy Shea. Billy is of course the owner of the Laguna Seca Blue IS300 that has been seen everywhere. The title may seem kinda iffy to you guys but the site is basically event coverage and car shit as a side dish with the main entree being girls, girls, and well…girls. They love titties and ass and Tony has never been shy about capturing it on a camera. Billy of course, has no resources other than staring at titties and then telling you about them so that’s always good. He’s quite the afficianado of the female equation so this blog they have created is a good outlet for them to express their perverse thoughts, haha. Honestly though, they’re pretty creative about showing you cars and girls so check it out… Don’t really think it’s safe for work so probably wouldn’t be a good idea to look at that around your boss. I mean, the titties are covered but still…
That’s all for now, I’m still getting reacquainted with everything and unpacking so I’m gonna get back to that. Sleep is probably a good idea too….Oh, and I’ll be sending out the rest of the store orders this week so keep an eye out for that if you made a purchase….til next time…
Bye Socal…
Sorry guys, been terribly busy lately…Like the type of busy where I get less sleep then I usually do already. Just a lot of work to catch up on for both mags before I leave Socal for a mini vacation. I’m heading to the Big Apple for the rest of the week to go over there and look at all the daily driven race cars that all deserve features (joking). Haha…in all seriousness though, I got nothing but love for the east and I’m pretty excited about going over there and hitting up all the landmarks that New York has to offer.
Just a few quick things before I head out. I’ll be around because I’m pretty sure I’ll have access to the web but not entirely sure how much time I’ll have to devote to it…
All orders that have been placed within the past week will go out when I get back the beginning of next week. I’ve just been busy and trying to be up with everything. Thanks to all of you who continue to support the site everyday. I will definitely have your orders out to you as soon as possible…
The whole NSX signed hood ordeal is dun-dada…as in, that shit is done and off the car now. Tony was approved for his Seibon sponsorship and his new hood came in. Originally we were gonna repaint the hood and color-match it but the raw look of the carbon on all that red looks very nice. That and it’s a sponsorship and I’m not exactly sure how happy Seibon would be if Tony just had that hood painted…haha….definitely looks good though. I’m sure this statement would have been much more valid had I taken a picture of it, but of course, I’m retarded and failed to have my camera with me every time I dropped by the shop…
Ummm…oh I spent the day with Big Mike while I was shooting a car this week. Things are looking good for the Prelude and it should begin it’s life as an actual, drivable car this week. We figured out what the issue was with the AEM EMS and something with the AEM twin fire ignition. When I say “we” I mean Big Mike and Bisimoto of course. I didn’t do shit. I basically just stood there and listened to Big Mike tell me about it, but “yay” I feel important. It’s getting tuned as I type this actually and we have our fingers crossed on what the actual numbers will be from the Dynapack 4000. I don’t exactly know what type of numbers Big Mike is expecting because the set-up is pretty much unheard of with the Kinslers and the eight injectors so it’ll be interesting when I get that text from him regarding the numbers…
Before I go, I gotta let you guys know that there is the Fatlace ONE/ONE Showcase this weekend in Long Beach. Fatlace recently took over the car show side of Formula D and they have a nice little Car Builders Showcase that is going on. All the homies should be out there so if you guys want to see some nice cars and some of the usual favorites, make sure to head out there. It’s the first of it’s kind so it should be interesting to see how Fatlace does car shows. Mark and the guys have been so successful with everything else they’ve got their hands on so it should be good. I unfortunately will not be there because I will be away but it just so happened to fall on the same week as my vacation. They got drifting, probably some girls, and definitely nice cars. How do I know? Because Mikeyyyy and I helped gather a big lot of the best cars from Socal for the show. Mark is a good dude and we wanted to make sure that we could help make this show a success. Support the industry and support Fatlace and their ONE/ONE showcase series…
That’s about it, I’m heading out to do some non-car related life stuff for the rest of the week. It’s nice to step away for a little bit and is a much needed break. Check back, I’ll try to come on and tell you random stories of my adventures in New York if time permits. I’m out for now people, thanks for everything…. Buy magazines, read them, check out the Chronicles store and purchase some goodies…both would help support my ass. I need it, haha… PEACE.
CarTune Grand Opening…
Super busy this week, but expect to see new items in the storefront soon…
Anyways, I’m not gonna lie to you, I didn’t originally plan on going to this. I was on my way down to San Diego to visit my family and just happen to cruise by the area just to see what it was all about. Rodrez happened to be going down to SD at the same time as well so we figured we’d go take a look. Traffic was kinda shitty that day and we got there around 3:45 or so. I was expecting it to be over but it was actually still crackin’. There was a bunch of people still there but the cars themselves had kinda died down. Didn’t really see anything new or unexpected out there though. I didn’t really take many pics because I had to leave right away. Caught a quick glimpse of the Circuit Hero Hondas inside the bay area but there were random people standing around in front of it so I couldn’t even get a closer look. All in all, it was okay. I can’t really say because I didn’t get there early enough to see what was there and I didn’t stay long enough because I had other plans. Here’s a couple shots…
Didn’t even notice these were CE28 Genesis wheels until I uploaded the pic…=P
Tada…til next time…
Meeting of the minds…
With all this talk of fake shit lately, everyone is starting to come out of the wood work with their encounters. The latest was the Skunk2 intake manifold mess and it was a coincidence that I actually went there the other day. Salem had set-up a meeting with them to talk about some plans to do some work on his TSX and I guess they wanted me out there to talk about some things as well. It went pretty well. We shot the shit for a little bit, talked about old school street racing days, and I even had a chance to take a look at the counterfeit Skunk2 intake manifold…
Funny story behind how they found that. One of their guys was out in Asia and was at a random speed shop out there and saw Skunk2 parts. He asked them how much they were going for and the employees there straight out told them the price for the authentic and for the knock-off copy. Things out there are different, they have fake shit floating around everywhere so a fake Skunk2 manifold ain’t shit to them. Once word got back to Skunk2, they purchased a couple copies and brought them back to investigate. The differences between the real and fake are explained in the post previous to this, so if you haven’t seen it, check that out. I gotta say, just by looking at the outside of it, it looks pretty spot on. But when it comes to engine parts, it’s the guts that matter and if you begin to look at the craftsmanship and overall guts of it, it’s most certainly an inferior product.
Those guys over there are very knowledgeable of the deep inner workings of the industry. Man, some of the stories that were told, I wish I could tell you guys. Let’s just say, a lot of this fake shit that’s floating around…hits pretty close to home. More and more of these counterfeit products are beginning to pop up because companies out here are outsourcing to other manufacturers and these manufacturers overseas don’t give a shit about branding. They’ll sell a companies design in a heartbeat and another company will be all over that shit, making copies over night. That and you got crooked ass employees who will sell out for a couple g’s and shame your name. It’s sad that the industry has come to this but people are driven by greed and the almighty dollar….
Bottom line, if you’re a true enthusiasts who buys legit parts for your ride, know your sources and who to buy from.
Anyways…
Aaron was kind enough to show us around and give us a tour of their facility. I personally have never been there so it was cool to actually see what the place was like…
Dr. Charles hard at work as always…
Then we sat in the board room and talked about plans for Salem’s TSX. Dave, the owner of Skunk2, happened to come down and talk to us for a little bit too. Definitely an interesting guy…
Also caught a glimpse of the new KraftWerks supercharger kit for the newer Civics…
After that, it was time for us to head out. I didn’t really feel like being stuck in traffic and Salem, Doug, and Gary had an hour+ drive back home. Overall it was productive. Just wanted to make sure my boy Salem was taken care of and that all his plans for his car come to fruition. He’s got big plans for that car and it’s gonna be completely different from what you guys were used to seeing Keep an eye out for that as the year progresses…
…And it doesn’t end there…
On the heels of all this discussion of fake ASR subframe braces comes this notice from Skunk2 about their latest ordeal with counterfeits. Apparently now there are fake Skunk2 Pro Series intake manifolds floating around. This shit is getting ridiculous! Seriously, just shows how there are too many profiteers and scavengers in this industry. Not only do you have to worry about fake suspension pieces, now you have to be on the look-out for fake intake manifolds. Walbro even has to deal with fake fuel pumps floating around on Ebay. The good thing is that companies are spotting these right away and are posting notices that reflect what the differences are between the geniune item and the knock-offs. Read all about it in the link below. Be on the look out people, don’t get con’d into buying some bullshit fake product! I’ve seen some linkbacks to other forums where people are saying “who cares? anybody can CNC and produce those (ASR) subframe braces”. That’s not the fucking point. The point is that they’re trying to pass them off as the real deal and it compromises the integrity of their name and their product. I don’t even know why I have to explain it to these guys…
Skunk2 Racing Pro Series Intake Manifold Clones…
The fuck is the world coming to?!!
