Super Street FF Battle 2010…An exclusive look at dyno day at Raceline…
Spent the majority of the day in Fontana for the Super Street FF Battle, things are slightly different this year in that the participants are much more evenly matched. It was a cool experience to see. Of course I can’t tell you any of the results or anything, it’s going to publication in a future issue of SS and you guys will get the full run-down of the cars and the people that participated. Today we’re gonna look at a more behind-the-scenes kind of look at the day before, which was the dyno portion of the event at Raceline in Temple City. I have some pics from the event at Fontana as well but I haven’t had a chance to look through them… In the meantime, check this out…
Reminder for those of you who are interested in checking out the final day of the event; there’s a meet today at Autoclub Speedway in Fontana and the cars will be running today as well. If you have the time, make it out there! A bunch of the heavy-hitters from Socal will be out and about checking everything out. It will be from 10am-2pm…come out to the meet!…
Raceline Civic coupe…
The front bumper of one of the best and most detailed builds EVER…
Jonathan Wong himself…
Morgan’s EK9…
Gil from Circuit Hero…
Morgan and Loi from Sportcar Motion bringing in their tires to get mounted…
Dyno results…
You have to see Gil’s Type R in person to truly appreciate the details and all the custom fabrication by ASC…
Nuts…
Will from Circuit Hero, Sean K., and Rhett…
Phil Robles is an older guy from Arizona who just loves to track his car. He built this hatch with all the right combination of J’s Racing and Chargespeed parts and it is all completely functional. This car is the shit and I love it on the Advan RGs…
Even Big Mike was appreciating it…
Ryan Der aka Airbag Club…car is fuckin’ amazing. I’ve seen it a couple times but sometimes it takes events like these where there is no one else around or no showgoers or whatever standing in your way and you can truly appreciate everything that Ryan has done to his car. I wish I could have taken more details shots of it so you guys can see but we were too busy eating and bullshitting with eachother…
Ryan’s Vertex wheel and AIM cluster…
Doin work…
Gil’s K20R sounded ridiculous…
Loi from Sportcar Motion…
The most inappropriate shirt ever at a dyno event….thanks Big Mike…
Will, Ryan Der, and Gil…
Hasport brought out this J32 swapped Civic on nitrous…
Ryan changing out his Volks to his beater track wheels….bronze Mugen MF10s…must.be.nice….
That’s it…there were definitely a couple more cars that I didn’t get because I was dumb and forgot to charge my camera battery…You guys still have a chance to see all the participants if you head out to the FF Battle today. These were just the select few that I was able to capture that I really felt stood-out from the crowd. Thanks for looking…Finally time for some much need sleep…fuckin’ exhausted….
FF Battle 2010…A preview…
I hate teasers, I’m sure you guys do too…but I’m seriously tired as hell and I knocked out while I was processing these pictures and woke up just now to knock out a couple more before I have to wake up again in a couple hours to head out to California Speedway for FF Battle. Today was just the dyno portion of the event and was basically just for Super Street staff guys and what not. I headed out to see how these cars were doing and just to get a quick idea of what cars are actually participating in today’s competition. Here are just a few quick shots to give you guys a general idea of the caliber of cars running out there. If you want to check it out, please come out and show your support. It’s free for everyone, just bring sunscreen and shit so you don’t get burnt because it’s gonna be hot… I have many more pics from the dyno session which I will post later tonight/tomorrow. I’ve got quite a bit to do but enjoy these “teasers” for now…Thanks to General Tires for the grub as well, it is appreciated…oh and Raceline for hosting the dyno session…
Quick hits…
Just a remind to everyone that FF Battle is this Friday and Saturday. The dyno portion is today but that is a private event so you guys won’t be able to see these cars run just yet. I’m actually gonna head out in the morning so I’m actually gonna try to sleep early for a change.
Other than that, just a quick update for you guys. I had a chance after the Stance:Nation shoot to go take some pictures of Linda from Team Praxis’ Toyota Matrix. It’s not a Honda, I know, but it’s definitely a cool build. It’s complete and the paint and bodywork on it is flawless. I didn’t get that many pictures that night because a cop kindly showed up and I wasn’t really in the mood to shoot with him just parked in the lot where we were at, even though he was actually a nice guy. You’ve probably seen some pics that I shot before at the same spot, it would be much nicer if there weren’t so many fuckin lights and shit there. Oh and there was also like some couple in their car that night while I was taking pictures. Must have been two people having some kind of strange illicit affair to be meeting up at a train station to mess around. These two were like mid-20s-30s already, fuck, get a hotel room. Don’t beat the dude off at the train station damn…anyways…pics…just a few…enjoy…
This Matrix is on air, custom kit, TRD supercharged, gold-plated parts, Rywire-equipped, everything…best Matrix ever. And the only modded one in the country that doesn’t have lambo doors and fuckin tribal graphics on it…
IMPORTANT: In regards to Super Street presents…FF Battle 2010…
Well just got word that the 1/8th mile drag has been cancelled and taken out of the event since many of the participants did not receive their tires in time. Instead they will concentrate on getting the tires out for Friday and Saturday events. Just wanted to give you guys a heads up, so again, don’t go to the Irwindale Speedway portion of the event on Thursday night.
Super Street presents…FF Battle 2010…
Last year, I had a chance to go out to the first ever Super Street FF Battle and give you guys a glimpse of a track event where they set out to find the best street/race front wheel drive Honda. It was quite an experience and Sportcar Motion eventually took the crown of being the FF Battle champion. It’s time for the 2nd annual event and the Super Street staff has changed up a couple things this year to make things just a little more interesting…
The competition will be sponsored by General Tire once again but Super Street has really taken to the “street-prepped” side of it and no longer allow full race cars to compete in the event. This makes things a little more competitive and no one single car, in theory, should dominate the rest of the class like Sportcar did last year. They have a whole new roster of guys this year to run and one of the main rules is that the car must be road legal and still be capable of being driven on the street. They also won’t have one designated driver like last year with Andy Hope. This year, you either drive your own car, or you find your own driver. SS has also included a new drag race element to the competition where people who participate in the event will go to Irwindale Speedway for an 1/8 mile run. Scores will be based on overall lap times, drag race E.T., and best dyno run…
The event will start this Thursday (July 29th) and go on until Saturday where it will end with a meet that everyone is welcome to attend at California Speedway. Here is how the schedule will look…
Thursday July 29th -(4pm-10pm) The dyno session will occur during the day time but is a private event and not open to the public. After that has completed, competitors will make their way to Irwindale where the 1/8th mile drag race will occur. This is the only portion of the event that isn’t free and spectators will be responsible for parking fees and getting into the event.
Friday July 30th – (9am-5pm) Friday will be the start of the competition at California Speedway. If you would like to attend, please come out. It is free and you simply drive into California Speedway, park at the designated lot where FF Battle is taking place, and you can enjoy the time attack runs.
Saturday July 31st – (9am-3pm) Day 2 of the competition at Cali Speedway where a meet will also take place from 10am-2pm. The meet, like the event, is free of course, so spread the word and tell everyone to come out. Everybody loves meets so tell your buddies to bring their Hondas out and chill. There will also be HPDE races that day as well as the FF Battle.
The winner of FF Battle will get a feature in Super Street magazine and everyone else will also have a post-event recap featurette in the mag.
I personally will be out there to check it out. From the looks of the cars that are competing this year, it’ll defintely be interesting to see who takes it all. There are quite a few cars on the list that you might think would just be show cars but these guys are out there to run and beat on their Hondas. If you have the time, come out and experience the 2010 FF Battle with us.
Annual WiredonHonda/ProTunerParts Meet Coverage…
I actually wasn’t going to go to this meet because it was all the way out in Riverside and it was quite a drive. I looked up the weather the night before and saw that the high was gonna be like 93 degrees or some shit and I REALLY didn’t want to go. And then I looked up the directions and saw how far it was and I pretty much just got up and walked away from the computer. I’ve never been so reluctant to go to a meet but we’ve had a lot more viewers lately and I wanted to keep the momentum going by giving you guys some good coverage to look at. Plus there’s so much going on in the summer time it’s hard not to go out. I would have just laid in my room all day and not do anything so we decided to go. Big Mike wanted to get together and eat at this one Kebab place too and seeing the homies is always good. We always manage to eat something and share some random laughs so even with the hot weather it would be worth it. By the time I got out there it was like almost 1pm already so there was only about 2 hours left anyway. If it ended up being terrible we would only have to stand around for a little bit. Originally this was going to be two parts since there ended up being so many pictures but I have a couple other things I want to push out this week before the weekend. Okay, enough talking, here we go…
Oh, I decided to give the 10-20mm lens a rest that day so if you have some kind of strange dramatic cloud fetish, you won’t see any of it here. The plus side of using the 70-200 meant that if I was lazy I wouldn’t have to walk far to take pictures. Here’s Big Mike’s car always looking good. He finally got his black braided line for his valve cover to catch can set-up…
A closer look…
DPK David was asked by Falken to come out so he did…
I walked over to the shaded area where he was at and they were fighting off gigantic red ants. Shit was everywhere….only in Riverside…
Lisa Uchida and her timeless award-winning Supra. So happy to see it come back after taking a hiatus for so long…
This meet was at the K&N facility so they had some of their own sponsor vehicles out…
Here’s what the meet looked like…It wasn’t as crowded anymore by the time I got there but the crowd was still decent. Probably had to do with the weather which turned out to not be so bad. It was definitely hot but there was a nice breeze every now and then…
There were som cars parked along the side of the building as well so I walked back there to see what was going on…
Everytime I go out to an event whether it be a show or a meet, and no matter the distance, this guy is always blue taping his front bumper before he leaves and when he shows up. I’m sure the dude has spent enough on blue tape to get a nice clear bra job by now. His bumper is so important to him that I just took a picture of his front bumper…haha…
Ran into Bisi and interrupted his important conversation to say what’s up to him…
Big Mike’s SE37K, NSX brakes, and his $320954.34 lug nuts…
Bisi’s engine bay…
Been seeing this S2K a lot lately and various meets. I’m not really sure what happened but the rear wheels aren’t as aggressive as before. Maybe he adjusted the camber more because the rear wheel doesn’t sit like the way it did…
Saw this S2000 and spotted the Design Craft sticker on the trunk. The hood was closed at the time but I wanted to see if he had the iVTEC kit that Design Craft created and sure enough it did…
Just a quick glance and you probably wouldn’t even notice that the valve cover has been extended. I was actually at Design Craft during the week and got to see their kit first hand. It’s definitely different. They created the kit so that the F20C would have iVTEC like the K-series. The resulting kit gives S2000s something that they were seriously lacking before; Torque….
You can see the extended valve cover closer here as well as the new VTEC solenoid, bracket, and line. I wish I could explain it more indepth to you guys but even I don’t remember all the information. There’s plenty of resources on the web about it and Honda Tuning is also doing a write-up on the whole system…
You can see the dyno of the S2K here. Graph looks a lot smoother through the powerband then stock and with the J’s Racing exhaust, there’s no crazy dip in power from 5750-6500 RPM like on the previous pulls…
Had no idea where Big Mike was until he walked out of the facility a while after we got there. I guess he went on some crazy hour long tour throughout the K&N facility…
Always see this hatch at events. Pretty nice build…the color is similar to Big Mike’s but it’s more like the Falken green and an almost brighter shade…
NOS Energy girls…
The Volkswagon CC that everyone always post pics of online…Great stance and overall look. Nicul who used to be from Supastar owns this car…I say used to because I don’t know if he’s still in the group or whatever…More emphassis on the whatever part…haha…
Another shot of Lisa’s Supra…
David and Big Mike…
One of the cleanest Hondas at the meet…thumbs-up to this guy…
They were handing out NOS drinks all day…
We were right by Sheepey’s hood but someone told me he had left already. He always bugs me about not hanging out with him so I text him to see where he was at, and sure enough, he was still there…
This isn’t him of course, this is his son from the future. He came back on his time machine to tell Sheepey about the future. Here he is carrying his future lady friend. He hit her with that like memory erasing device or something so she doesn’t remember their trip to 2010…
Sheepey was happy to see his future son but hid behind this tree because he would worry that meeting his kid from the future would disrupt the time space continuum…
Anyways…back in reality, here is the skate Mustang that appeared on Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory with the grip tape on the hood and all…
This Integra was pretty nice. I think he’s trying to go with a “period correct” type of theme…
…judging by his vanity plate…
Jared and Big Mike were impressed…
Tony from itsjdmyo wasn’t around so I thought he would appreciate this…
Future son of Sheepey was in deep thought, probably realizing that his calculations were incorrect and he should have traveled back in time to a better meet, like Eibach or something…Something he had done had changed the future though, because the rainbow guitars on his shirt began to melt away…=O…
Meanwhile, DPK David and Jackie were getting their model on…They didn’t intentionally pose for this picture. I just happen to catch them because they may or may not always pose like this at events…
Caught these funk-fakers with some really fake TE37s with stickers…
Hmm…
David grabbed the camera and took pictures of these “models”…
They were with some booth that apparently vinyl wraps cars or something but they didn’t have any car to display. They did bring out helmets though…and the girls posed with them…Because when your company wraps cars you bring helmets to your booth…
Not sure what happened here but Sheepey was probably telling her a dirty joke that had something to do with peanut butter and a wooden toilet brush or something… I don’t know…
This isn’t creepy at all…
It was about 3pm already and the meet was coming to a close so we got in our cars and headed out to go eat…
We ended up at Mr. Kebab and Big Mike couldn’t stop raving about how great the food was here. The Hookah spot on the right however, “sucks dick” according to Big Mike. Whatever that means…8===>….O=…
Thanks to David being the Michael Jordan of indecision…we sat there for quite awhile because he couldn’t figure out if we should do the family meal or not…We ultimately did of course and it was definitely worth it. The food was bomb as hell…
Food was eaten, great times were had, even better conversations…including one on how to make Pruno, which of course, is jail wine…
After we ate, we stood outside while Jared rubbed all his Mugen in our faces…
That’s all folks, hope you enjoyed it and made it all the way to the end without your phones crashing…I’m out…
Special delivery…
So I was talking to Rodrez one day and he told me that someone had sent like some anonymous letter to me to the Source Interlink offices. I’m sure there’s a couple people out there who would love to send a turd or something in the mail for me but he told me he received the same package. He opened it up and inside was a bunch of stickers that I’m sure some of you guys had a chance to encounter at Eibach 2010. They’re the public announcement stickers denouncing the fake/counterfeit shit that exists in our industry. I guess whoever the mysterious “Mr. Thumb” is saw some of my posts regarding my feelings on people who rock counterfeit parts. The letter goes on to say that I’ve been deputized as a member of the NoFakeSh*t Polish, which is kinda interesting…haha…
Here’s all the stickers that came in the envelope. They’re pretty cool and I’ve seen them passed out by various people at events and that’s what the letters asks to do as well. The more we get the word out on this the better. I have a bunch so I’ll probably start handing them out if I remember to bring them to events. For now, I’ll just toss a couple in for people that purchase stuff from The Chronicles Storefront. If you guys see me at events and you want some, just ask. I might have some with me.
Pretty cool idea to do this, it’s almost like V for Vendetta type of shit. Haha, like there’s a mysterious NoFakesSh*t vigilante out and about trying to rid the world of counterfeit goods…awesome…I don’t whose behind it, and I actually think I might have a pretty good idea who, but it’s definitely a good thing. Props to you “Mr. Thumb”
NoFakeSh*t.org
I’m just gonna leave this here…
A little birdie passed this on to me…and man oh man, it is pretty interesting…
I’m sure many of you who followed the Spocom coverage on other sites saw this immaculate gem of a vehicle. From the paint matched bike rack, to the tv mounted directly over the exhaust, it is quite the “show car”….
Normally I’m pretty outspoken and would have some interesting things to say about it…but I think your own opinions when you see the above picture and the link below will suffice. Anybody that has been involved in the scene since the late 90s will know who Team Hybrid is….*ahem* again, I’m gonna be diplomatic this time and let you guys form your own opinions =D
I’m just gonna leave this here…
Spocom 2010 Long Beach Coverage…The Extra Stuff…
Well the coverage for Spocom Long Beach from me is complete. The pics I’m putting up today were actually shot by May. She has her Canon S90 and likes to take behind-the-scenes random stuff, especially the people shots. There were some car pictures from her but I’m not really gonna include them in here because she was standing right beside me so the car shots look a lot alike. Today is just the extra stuff, just people shots here and there. If you’re looking for Hondas today there isn’t much of it. In any case, here we go….
Big Mike wiping his window so hard the “c” came of his Skunk2 sticker…
Our view at the show…
A shot of Salem’s car because I think I forgot to get one…well, one that didn’t have a girl in front of it…
Arnel again…
May and Tina…
Me and Norman…
When Salem and Doug finally decided to show up…
A good shot of the Sparco display…
=D…
Apparently Tina and May were bored…
Listening to Danny and Big Mike talk about the old school import days with the cotton in the fender wells and shit…aka shit they still do at DUB shows…
Tony getting his model creep on…
Getting a wheel shot…
DPK…
On the prowl…
Everybody got into the spirit of taking booty shots…
The line to look at models and random kids dragging things over Big Mike’s bumper…
Dsport model search area where the lady was laying all over the floor…
They were doing tandem shots with Chuck Liddell…
Kinda used the wrong watermark on some of the pics…oh well…
Tough guys…
It was nice to see her finally off the floor…
Doug doin’ work and getting the model shots that you guys saw in the previous parts of the coverage…
YES…
I finally discovered the reason why I got her the camera…oh man, this Falken model’s reaction is PRICELESS…
Haha…
Another pics for David…
Trying to talk to females and dude doesn’t even have flip flops that fit him…
=D…
Billy talking to the other Auto Concept guys after collecting his 1st place Lexus award…
Arnel finally showed up to the show at the end to pick up his car…
That’s all folks. Hope you guys thoroughly enjoyed The Chronicles’ coverage of Spocom 2010 Long Beach…it was a blast and I can’t wait to get out to the next event…
Spocom 2010 Long Beach Coverage…Part 3…
Back with more…more cars and even more girls…
This Sileighty belongs to Super Street Associate Editor Charles Trieu. I had no idea he owned this thing until Tony told me. Fuckin’ thing is bad ass…oh man, I walked over there on a couple of occassions just to take a look at it again. I must be doing something wrong. I’ve done work for Super Street and I don’t own anything near this nice…haha…props all around cuz this car was probably one of my favorites of the show…
Phaze2 Tony was parked next to him in the Source Interlink booth and he ended up winning 3rd Place Acura class. Not bad for a car that hasn’t changed much this year…
1st place VIP class and with good reason…unbelieavable build…
Custom finish on the LMs…
Japanese Classic Car Show area was nice…
I saw one of these old school Skylines rolling around the streets near the venue…
Maybe I’ll build a set of custom-spec LMs in the near future…
Hmmm…
2nd place VIP class…another amazing VIP build…
Autofashion Freddie’s Yaris. Don’t be thrown off by the glossy front bumper, there’s gonna be gloss black vinyl graphics on the rest of the car when it’s finished…
More of the GS…
Overal Best of Show winner, and definitely no surprise, went to this FX45…This thing took like a year or so off from the show circuit and still came back and won it all…
Donlyson designs some interesting widebody kits…this one is…well…also interesting…
DPK David has a somewhat interesting infatuation with Jenny Chu…as you will begin to notice in later pics…
David waited around all day for her to come out and take pics with his car and she was like 2 feet away from it. When she finally came out, David realized he didn’t even have a camera and called/texted me a shitload of times so I could run over there to get pics. By the time he came and got me, she had to go to the bathroom aka drink more liquor, and we had to wait for her to come back again…
She eventually came back and then a whole mob of pervs came by to take pics of her…
…Tony from itsjdmyo was one of them…
While we waited, I walked off for a bit and got a closer look at the new TE37 limited edition wheel…
I also walked over to the Dsport model search booth where all kinds of shit was going on…
Blanka rolled through recklessly and knocked over this model…
…and then she showed off her triangle choke skills…
Big Mike explained the theory of relativity…no one listened…
Another shot of Danny’s Civic…
Big Mike’s Prelude continued to draw a crowd throughout the day…
I think I started to talk to Freddie from Autofashion at this point or something because I handed off the camera to Doug once again so he could take pictures of models…
Barrage of model pictures coming in….3….2…..1…..(these may be NWS depending on where you work…)
I feel the same way looking at this girl as I did when I saw all the Donlyson cars…=P
….I like the used tissue in the corner…haha…
When you see it…
What’s up PGK BonB…he teleported from IA for…
Okay okay, so Jenny Chu finally decided to come out and take some pictures on David’s car…so here we go…he’s been waiting for days for these pics and I think he even hung out with me the other day to make sure I would post them…haha…
I don’t think David has ever allowed another female to come in contact with his paint like this…this is monumental…
…hopefully she found the random door hangers of herself on his car to be more flattering then somewhat creepy…
After we finally got that out of the way, it was time for awards…
Only winners rock Chronicles tees…haha…Congrats Tony on another win. His garage must be filled with trophies he’ll regret having a couple years later because it’s taking up space…
Once the awards ceremony ended, they started to clear people out and cars were allowed to leave. I walked May back to her car and then I took some random shots while waiting for Tony to drive over so we could leave together…
The drive wasn’t too bad since Long Beach is only like 10-15 minutes from where I lived. It was nice to cruise on the highway alongside Tony and his NSX again. Haven’t heard that thing scream in awhile. I was still a bit iffy on how my car would drive with the new air set-up but everything was pretty smooth. It rode a lot better than I expected and I’m pretty happy with it…
I got back to the new Midnight Garage to wait for May cuz she went shopping and Matty with the orange xB was there hanging out…
I had left my Q with Ross awhile back and he drove it around and liked it so much, he ended up buying one of his own. You can see it here in the background…
Some of you guys asked for more pics of my car so here they are…
If you guys want a larger pic, here it is…
That’s about it for my end of the coverage. I actually have more behind-the-scenes pics from the show that May took with her Canon S90. I’ll probably throw those up tomorrow. It’s more or less the same stuff but more personal stuff and moments that she caught. it’s pretty cool. Thanks for looking guys. Hope you enjoyed it. Spocom 2010 was a blast, can’t wait for Nisei!…
Spocom 2010 Long Beach Coverage…Part 2…
Okay, back for part 2…this is the section that is a little more car intensive because at this point I actually went around and tried to take pics. We ate of course and this is where we start…
So we decided to head to Island’s again like last year because we were too lazy to walk far and it was still kinda warm out. Of course we had like almost 20 people with us so we had to get separate tables, otherwise we’d be waiting all day to eat…
Everybody decided to wear the same shirts… =P
David took these pics…
Island’s “Rincon” burger…
Food was eaten, shit was talked, etc… The waitress seemed to be irked that Sheepey kept calling her “madam”…but who cares…Anyways, as we were finishing our food, we saw this Lincoln on hydraulics trying to show off as he made a left turn, hopping his shit up and down…
..unfortunately, his rear end was so high he didn’t see the cop that was following him. If you didn’t know, you can’t be hopping your shit while you drive, it’s illegal and this fool got caught up right in front of Island’s for everyone to see…
After we finished, we walked back to the show and I finally decided to start walking around the show and taking pictures of cars…
Tony from itsjdmyo snapping pics…make sure to check out his coverage of the show once it finally goes up…
Billy’s IS300 that eventually won 1st place Lexus class…congrats…
Arnel…
Ejay decided to blow his motor so the H23 w/ITB set-up is gone while he borrowed a B-series swap. Only in the Honda community can you easily borrow motors from people to get your car to a show…haha…
Dancar and HeyMikeyyyy…
Always manage to run into this Phoenix Yellow coupe. Not sure who owns it but it’s super clean…Mugen everything and yellow Recaros too. Very nice…
There were a bunch of nice G35/37s on hand…
Always see this Civic at events too…this one and the one with the crazy valve cover that’s a similar color…
Such a nice EF I took TWO pics of it…
The definition of “DUB”…
Redline Time Attack cars…
Pair of HKS demo cars…
One of the best looking U.S. drift cars…
LOVED this RSX from Florida. I had seen pictures of it a couple times online but had no idea it would be in the west coast for Spocom. It’s a little over the top with the wild color and all but it’s an excellent example of a complete show car. Paint, Mugen everything, boost, it’s the complete package and it was deserving of winning 1st place Acura…
Endless brakes x Mugen wheels = $$$…
Ahh..someday…
Passed by the Turbonetics booth and saw Bisi’s Shuttle in their booth. There were so many people there that you couldn’t really see shit though. Maybe they should put the car in front of the table or some shit…
Next to them was Sheepey and the Skunk2 booth. Big Mike and Sheepey were there talking and Sheepey told me to get a specific picture of these new bolts on his valve cover but of course I suck and the picture didn’t come out so next time you see this car make sure to look at the valve cover…
…you can kinda make it out in this picture. Notice it’s not a conventional nut on stud set-up…
That’s all for today…tomorrow will be the conclusion of the Spocom coverage. A little bit of cars, more models, and random debauchery…stay tuned…
Spocom 2010 Long Beach Coverage…Part 1…
Fiiiiiinally…What a week…From finishing up my own car to getting down to LBC early in the am for roll-in and then the eventual show. I honestly gotta say, this was probably the best Spocom show yet. I just liked how everything was very professional and organized. No bullshit, no drama, nothing…just good times. The roll-in process was really easy, the judging was (for the most part) on par, and the awards ceremony couldn’t have gone any smoother. I like how they have people waiting on hand already to receive their awards. Nobody had to wait around for the winners to hear their names and run up on stage and hold everyone up. The cars were good, but damn, there seriously was more females than show cars. Girls were everywhere…so much so that I kinda just handed the camera off to my boy Doug so he could go on the prowl to get pics of models. Unlike the usual event coverage here, there’s gonna be more girls this time around, whereas in the past, I didn’t do much of the model pictures. There were just so many of them that it was almost more interesting to see them do their thing than to concentrate on the cars around. We weren’t really concerned with winning so it was just a good chill time hanging out with the homies…
I know some of you on here will be wondering how we ended up here instead of going to Nashville for IA. Well the reason behind that is because, well simply put, we were all just too busy. I’ve been loaded up with work, other guys had more important things going on, and some of us were even moving from one place to the other so money and time was just short. It didn’t seem like a good idea to head out there this year. Maybe 2011, who knows. I’ve seen pics from IA and it looked like a good time. Spocom was also fun and without any further discussion about it, here are part 1 of the pics…
The Auto Concept guys couldn’t be more inviting. They had a great display set-up that eventually won “Best Display” at the show and it was cool to park with those guys. They are cool people and I couldn’t have asked for more from them. We had the Phaze2 guys as well as a couple other top Honda heads along hand with us to show with Auto Concept and everything looked great once we put it all together…
Some of the pics came out like ass but I was so busy running around all day trying to catch up with everyone that I didn’t get to stand in one solid place for a long time to get great pictures. I didn’t even get a chance to get a shot of the whole Auto Concept display…yeah I know, I fucked up…
Abraham from Infinit Wheels actually placed in the Honda class…congrats dude…
Was a little surprised Arnel didn’t place as well but he wasn’t even around all day when the judges were there so I guess it’s expected. He doesn’t care either way, haha so its all good…
DPK JP showing in his own hometown…
DC5 Brian who might have took home an award as well if he still had his boost set-up. The RSX from Emotion that placed was very similar in many ways to this car, he just had a giant turbo set-up and custom paint…
Anthony from Infinit Wheels with his RHD CR-X…
More Abraham…
His new tucked brake lines and what not…
Quick shot of my Q…
One of the baddest Minis on Earth…
I haven’t seen a girl pose next to a CR-X for a photo since like 1998 haha…
Oh man, Anthony asked me to take pics of Abraham and his car with this young lady for some flyer he was doing but the pictures came out booty as hell. Pictures look good in this size but definitely not for print format…=P
Not the girl up top, this one…
Man…so disappointed…coulda been some great shots…haha…
The model area right across from the Falken booth…
I haven’t seen PlusOne Danny’s Civic coupe since last year at Nisei. Actually, the car hasn’t even been out since then because it’s been at multiple shops awaiting completion. I guess it’s finally starting to come together so Danny brought it out…
As a vinyl guy, I can appreciate some good graphics. This is gold leaf, on chameleon vinyl, with a white base….you think there’s money in this car, imagine how much was in the graphics alone…$$$ haha…shit, that gold leaf is bananas…
Another car I haven’t seen in awhile…Lisa Uchida’s multiple (MULTIPLE) award winning Supra…
The old man in this picture can predict the future. He’s staring at the exact spot where Jenny Chu will later lean all over DPK David’s car…
Big Mike’s Prelude and his new SE37Ks…Came out looking way better than I thought it would, I must admit…
Awesome display that I showed you guys earlier in the preview pics…
“Someone” said… “it’s not supposed to tuck…” which makes me very worried that this whole “flush” thing is getting out of hand….haha…I love wide wheels and stance but fuck it, I’ll lay my car on the floor all fucking day…;)
Dougie takes over here with the girl shots…
I was surprised by the total lack of personal space in this conversation…
…so I joined in…
Then Doug ran off for awhile and got more girl pics…
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..tits…
Novella Nikita…
…titties so big…
…I can see them from the back…haha…
That’s all for today…fuck man, so disappointed in these pics…shoulda used the other lense….More tomorrow guys…thanks for looking…
Soon…
Oh man, was trying to finish up editing these 100+ pics from Spocom but I knocked the hell out…Just woke up now and saw that it was 10am. This isn’t supposed to be a time I’m normally up so I’m going back to sleep…haha…When I get up though, there will be Part 1 of Spocom 2010 Long Beach Coverage…I guarantee!….Lates…
I know DPK David’s been waiting for this pic so here ya go…
Spocom 2010 Preview…
So it’s been a pretty crazy week…Had some mag work to finish up in the beginning of the week and I finally found the time to start piecing my air ride set-up together with Ross from Midnight Garage. The parts came in around Wednesday and we got to work right away on it…
My Q45 finally out of storage and getting the long awaited new suspension…
Ross mocking up the air tank, compressors, and valves to go in the trunk…
It was many sleepless nights the last three days but Ross finished it up 2 hours before it was time to get the car over to Spocom in Long Beach for set-up. I hadn’t slept since that day before but being unsure of how the ride was going to be, the anxiety kept me awake all the way to the LBC. Got there around 10am and most of the guys were already there. Mikeyyyy and Jay from JDMEGO agreed to have the Phaze2 guys and a couple of the best Hondas in Socal show with Auto Concept for Spocom. It’s rare to do these types of things, as Auto Concept is one of the more high end type of car crews with all their multiple award winning cars so it was interesting to be paired with them. They were busy setting up their show display so we waited outside while they finished-up…
Salem, Gary, Doug, Billy with the IS300 and his roommate…
No homo…
Auto Concept Supra…
Mikey finally put on his CCWs…you gotta see these things in person to see just how crazy the fitment is….
Mikeyyyy showing one of the Auto Concept guys Arnel’s engine bay set-up…
DPK JP and Billy’s IS…
Auto Concept G37…
Bobby Taylor’s S2000 that I shot awhile back for Super Street…issue should hit newstands by September I believe…
Once we finally made it inside to park, we caught our first glimpse at Auto Concept’s display…If you guys are heading out there today, stop by and check it out, it’s pretty cool…
Then I met up with Tony and he showed me where the Source Interlink booth was where he was parked…
Big Mike with his new SE37Ks and DPK David at the Falken display…
Walked around with Salem and then we saw one of the coolest displays there, which was this Sparco time attack EVO X sitting on top of 4 Snap-On tool boxes…
Another look at the Falken area…Danny from PlusOne finally finished his Civic coupe and you can kinda spot it next to the Supra. I’ll make sure to get pics of it for you guys tomorrow. I talked to him for a little bit but he was busy finishing-up his cleaning and what not…
Infinit Wheels Civic…
Another look at Mikeyyyy’s CCWs…
That’s it. After I left I went home and slept like 10 hours or something. See you guys tomorrow if you plan on coming out, it looks like it’s gonna be a good one…
Honda Tuning…The Race Issue…
Whadduuuuuupppp…been kinda busy lately gearing up for the busy weekend. Lots and lots of stuff going on this week in the automotive community. There’s Import Alliance of course as well as the annual Spocom car show in Long Beach, CA. I’m sure everyone will be busy looking for coverage of both events online. In the meantime inbetween time, make sure to go cop the latest issue of Honda Tuning, which is dubbed….THE RACE ISSUE… Rodrez and the crew worked really hard on this issue and Rodrez is particularly proud of this one because specially themed issues like this only come arounce once per year. That and anyone that is into cars can appreciate the ones that go fast, whether it be drag, autocross, time attack, etc., etc… Go get this issue, I’m not usually a guy that likes to read or anything and even I would buy this so you know it has to be special…
I still have some extra pictures from the day this cover was shot too so I’ll eventually post those up once everybody buys this issue. I don’t know why you wouldn’t, there’s actually a story in there that Sheepey tells us about how he one time raced somebody blindfolded and whoever won the race got two ice cream sandwiches and a necklace made out of chicken bones…it’s crazy you gotta read it…okay I lied but yeah, go get it, it’s awesome!
The Top 10 Hondas of 2009…A retrospective…Part 2…
4-1…here we go…
4. Big Mike’s Honda Prelude…
What he’s up to now: Big Mike has been out in full force this year. He’s out there almost at every event trying to make his sponsors happy and to talk with people who have questions about his build. The guy has just been doing big things this year. The car is finally dialed in and he’s been able to drive it everywhere and as you can see, he finally decided to put his blinkers on…haha. The new Advan RGs are a great look as well but the last time I talked to him, he’s already got something new up his sleeve and will most likely debut it at this weekend’s Spocom event. I think he’s finally at a point where he’s happy with the car and just trying to enjoy every moment of 2010…
3. Arnel Ortiz and the Phaze2 EG…
What he’s up to now: Arnel’s Civic just continues to evolve. He generally keeps to himself and every time there’s an event, he comes out with some new shit. You just never know what this guy has up his sleeve. Like Steve Kwan and S2kJay, all the accolades and mag features has not changed him in any way and he just continues to work on his car. At Eibach he debuted a sick new tucked radiator set-up, air ride, and ITBs. There are rumors floating around that he’s actually building another Honda so the Socal Honda community has been anxiously waiting to see when he’s gonna bring it out. With his ability to always out do himself, the sky’s the limit for Arnel and we couldn’t be more excited to see him succeed…
2. Alex Soto aka Sheepey’s Acura Integra…
What he’s up to now: Not entirely sure what the Integra is up to these days. Most likely it’s sitting under a car cover in Sheepey’s garage. As you’ve seen on this site and in the upcoming issue of Honda Tuning magazine, Sheepey has been hard at work on his hatchback, which sat under a car cover while he campaigned his Integra last year. Hopefully he brings the DC back but in the meantime, we get to enjoy all 800+ horsepower of his race car. Studio shoots, mag covers, and some seat time at the track in the near future, Alex Soto has the world in the palm of his hands. Everything car this guy touches turns to Honda gold…
1. Sportcar Motion’s Acura Integra Type R and Honda Civic…
What he’s up to now: The Integra that was so dominant in 2009 is now taking a break from the rigors of time attack competition and sits dormant in the garage of Sportcar Motion. The feature for this DC is actually in the same issue that’s upcoming with Sheepey’s so make sure to go check that out. As you can see from the updated picture, it has taken on more of a subtle appearance without all the stickers and sponsor logos. Even so, you would be crazy to think that Loi would take this out and use it on the street as a grocery getter. The Civic is also currently stored away in the shop. That’s because the Sportcar Motion crew has been busy campaigning the KraftWerks supercharged Civic in 2010 and the hatchback recently took home it’s first win in competition. Loi had issues with cooling and minor things here and there that prevented the supercharged K-powered Civic from running correctly but it’s all dialed in now and looks to take home more awards this year. Loi is another one of those guys that continues to evolve in the community and who knows what he’ll build next. Of course the car will be white though because Loi apparently, is color-blind and won’t build anything that isn’t white…=P…
That’s all 10 (11)…hope you guys enjoyed taking a look back at last year’s top Hondas. With so many crazy ass builds coming out in 2010, who knows who will end up on this year’s list. Hell, even I don’t know. I haven’t even had time to even think about it. There are some cars that have caught my eye though but there’s still plenty of time for new builds to appear and impress…
The Top 10 Hondas of 2009…A retrospective…Part 1…
Well, it’s a little over the halfway mark of 2010 and I thought now would be as good a time as any to take a look back at the Top 10 Hondas of 2009 and catch up with them to see where they are at now. I did the same thing last year for the 2008 class of Hondas and the cars that year remained basically the same. This year however is a little different. There’s a bit of change with some of the cars of the 2009 class and I’ve taken the liberty of updating you guys with more current pictures of the cars. We will go over 10-5 today and then 4-1 the following day. It’s always good to get an update so let’s begin…
10. HBK Jon’s Honda Civic hatchback and Mr. Coupe’s Honda Civic coupe…(Tie)
What he’s up to now: Kinda funny that both of these guys ended up tied for the tenth spot because neither of them are active anymore. HBK Jon sold the car awhile back and has moved on. The interesting thing is that his feature finally came out in the current Import Tuner mag that’s on newstands now. It took awhile but Jon’s feature finally made it. You can actually see how long it took because the smaller photo in the above picture was taken the day his car was shot for IT and his feature barely hit the stands this month. Probably would have been cooler to see the mag when he still had that car but oh well, it’s cool to see nonetheless. The feature and pics by Luke came out really well so make sure to go grab a copy and check it out…
What he’s up to now: When I had posted the Top 10 list in December, Mike’s car had already been parted and out of commission. Today, it’s still the same. Just sits there waiting for Mike to rebuild it. He’s working really hard on getting his own shop, Track.One, up and running so his time has been 99% completely devoted to that. The other 1% of course, is devoted to Mike posting Facebook pictures of himself flexing, haha. I swear that’s all I see everytime he updates. His shop is looking good though and was built completely from the ground up with Mike overseeing it. The guy knows what he’s doing and I wish nothing but the best for that guy…
9. Dagreenek aka Steve Kwan’s Honda Civic hatchback…
What he’s up to now: Steve is still at it. The Honda Tuning magazine cover boy is still going at it and his Civic is looking better than ever. It’s great to see guys that continue on with their projects after their features. Nowadays it’s so hard to find an owner who actually keeps their car. Most of the guys I see usually sell their Honda right after they get mag coverage or even go as far as to put the car up for sale before their feature even comes out! The most obvious change at first glance is that rare First Molding front lip. It gives Steve’s Civic such an aggressive look and the new wheel set-up and seats flow much better than the old set-up. Everytime I see pictures of this guy’s car he’s got something different…
8. Phil Anastacio’s J32-powered Civic…
What he’s up to now: Here’s another guy that decided to keep his car and continue on with it. Not only is he not parting his car out, he’s also pushing the envelope even further. Phil now has a blower sticking out on top of his J32 swap. You know this car wouldn’t last 10 min in California without it being impounded but in Canada, I guess it’s all good. There’s even videos online of him driving around with this supercharger sticking way out of his non-existent hood. Phil posted pics up on NWP and he says he’s gonna cut out another hood for it but he might as well just not make one. So much is going on up top that there’s almost no point. This Civic looks crazy. I wonder how much power he’ll be able to make when he gets this thing dialed in…Jesus, there’s a fucking supercharger sticking out of this thing…
7. S2kjay’s Honda S2000…
What he’s up to now: Of the 10 Hondas on the list, Jay’s S2000 has probably taken the most aggressive transformation since the list was made. He completely re-did the car with a new Spoon front bumper, wheels, and Laguna Seca Blue paint. The bay was tucked also courtesy of another guy that we mentioned early; Mike from Track.One. The yellow was great but the new paint definitely stands out, almost as much as Jay’s air jack set-up. Jay loves Hondas and even came out again for Eibach to hang out with the west coast heads and plans to make another trip out for Nisei Showoff. He’s one of the guys who is always looking to change up his car and I look forward to what else he has up his sleeve…
6. Rywire’s Honda CR-X…
What he’s up to now: Ryan’s CR-X has not changed at all and with good reason. He’s busy putting in work on some of the best cars (not just Hondas) in the West and also putting together his insane K-swapped ITR. With so much work to do, Ryan has had little time to work on his own car. The CR-X is perfect the way it is though so there’s also no reason to mess with it anymore. A couple of progress pictures of his ITR have popped up on the internet and that thing is definitely going to be a sight to see when he finally finishes it…
5. Tony Khamly’s Sorcery NSX…
What he’s up to now: We’ve had two guys that no longer work on their Hondas, three guys that have gone on and made their builds even better, and now with Tony, two guys who really haven’t done much to their cars since then. Tony’s has had some minor changes here and there but it remains mostly the same. He was finally happy enough with the car to have it shot for a feature and deservingly landed the cover of the current issue of Honda Tuning. Tony plans to redo the Phaze2 NSX and when he does, trust me, you will know about it. He’s got some crazy plans for this thing and I’ll keep you updated when he decides to start the major makeover…
That’s it for today, hope you guys are entertained… the rest of the list tomorrow, stay tuned…
Stance:Nation’s First Ever Socal Meet Coverage…
Hmm, well this is probably my first meet that I attended that had anything directly geared towards “stance” or wheel fitment and it was cool. Nothing too crazy or never-before-seen was out there. It was just a chill meet with some nice cars. I just go to these things because of the homies. It’s so close to everyone so a bunch of us decided to go check it out. The “first ever Socal meet and greet” was actually much like the last meet I went to at Island Motorsports. There was some good food, and though it wasn’t a gigantic turn-out, it was still pretty busy. On with the pics shall we?…
Oh a lot of non-Hondas are gonna be included just because Hondas were kinda few and far between and a meet like this…
Milton aka “CamberSC” was the car on the Stance:Nation flyer so of course he was right up front…
There were hot dogs and burgers on hand which is always a good thing…
Clean S2K on some aggressive Work Meister S1 wheels…
My boy Billy and his Laguna Seca Blue IS300…
I believe this Charger belongs to Elvis from Stance:Nation…
DPK David showed up…
…and he proceeded to order the sketchiest/greasiest ear of corn EVER…
The homie Emerson who is also involved with Stance:Nation…
…-35416 camber…
Tony from It’s JDM Yo!! taking pics for his site…
Clean EF. Got to meet the owner and chatted with him real quick…
Widebody S2000…
Q45 owned by “Pancakes”…
I always have a soft spot for these Accord wagons and this one definitely stands out. It shows you can be different without throwing on a bike rack you’ll never use or covering your fender with stickers and shit…
This is definitely different…
I always see this Benz online on the VIPStylecars forum so it was cool to see it in person finally. It’s on a unique hydrolics set-up that almost makes me tempted to get them as well…haha…
Mikeyyyy showed up and we ran into Norman from As1 so we stopped to talk to him for a little bit…
…not really sure what he was talking about because I wasn’t paying attention…
Linda’s Matrix from Team Praxis…
S2K guy had a hell of a time getting out…
More of Elvis’ Dodge…
I’m sure you guys remember this S2000 from the last Island meet…
That was about it for the cars. I didn’t really walk too far down to the other lot where spectators and people who came late parked. It was getting hot as shit and I kinda lost motivation to walk around. There were definitely more cars though. I saw a couple leave as I was coming in…
Doug and Mikeyyyy…
By 2pm, the meet was basically over and people began to take off. We were hungry of course so we ended up at Buffalo Wild Wings down the street…
We ate a bunch of wings, talked shit, and had a good time…
Mikeyyyy had to leave to go pick up his wheels before the shop he had them at closed so we took a group pics without him…
Not really sure why this happened…
…after that we stopped by the new Midnight Garage to chill for a bit and so David could grab his car and then that as pretty much it…
Nothing really exciting after that…I think I napped for a while and didn’t do shit the rest of the day…thanks for looking…
USDM Jammmmmm…
As promised, here are some pics that I found on various interwebz sites that had pics from the most recent USDM Jam 7 event. If you guys follow this site then you’ll know exactly what USDM Jam is all about. If not, go ahead and google it or just search under the tags on this site. It will contain further information on everything you need to know about USDM Jam. In a nutshell, it’s basically the Japanese interpretation of our U.S. style of building Hondas. I guess it’s become quite popular over there and the pics below are a good example of how they’ve been able to translate our style onto their cars…Check it out…it’s cool stuff. Some of the cars over there would probably be huge hits over here in the states….
This I believe, is Tetsuya Yamaguchi’s Integra. Yamaguchi is the guy that runs USDM Jam and I always see him working on new stuff on his Facebook. This DC looks great. Bay is tucked and all and the car has great stance…reminds me of someone’s Integra over here. We might even be able to call him “HeyTetsuyyyya”…
I believe this Civic hatch won an award at the USDM Jam event for “Best of Maniac”…Not really sure what that means because I think Google translator may have fucked up the translation but maybe it was for best of show or something. It’s unique to them because of the complete Acura EL front end conversion. They had the Domani over in Japan but getting an EL conversion that was originally meant only for Canadians probably wasn’t an easy task to accomplish…
More…
This is pic is actually what inspired me to make a post about USDM Jam stuff. Love this Integra, everything flows perfectly. If they wanted to bring our style over there then this Integra is probably the perfect example of U.S. execution…
Wish I had a pic of the DC2 next to it as well…
Integra with Acura RSX Type S conversion and great fitment. I hope aggressive fake ass looking Rotas never make it over there…that is definitely one trend that I would not like to see them execute…
They even have USDM inspired models. These girls have the poses and beat-up knees just like our’s!…
The good thing about their models is that most of them actually look over 18…haha…
Nice touch on the radiator hoses…
Beautifully done bay on this EG…
Alot of the pictures you see actually come from the guy that owns this 4 door DB above. I saw older pics of his car too and I gotta say, it was really clean before he did that graphic scheme to his lip and the trunk…Looked much better before. But thanks for the pics sir…
BBS wheels are popular EVERYWHERE…
Another clean hatch with a great bay…
This isn’t a Honda but I had to toss in the HeyMirageeeee….
This unfortunately is a trend that I could do without, in the U.S. and Japan…=P
I’ll end the day on a pair of badass Civic Wagons…
…oh and this…This duo won “Best of Cool”…
Biggest.Flyer.EVER….
Gotdamn this thing is huge. I think they could have gotten away with something that maybe doesn’t make me have to scroll down for further information about a meet…haha. I can appreciate a car with some nice wheel fitment and stance and being that this meet is so close to my area, I’m gonna cruise by and do some coverage of this. It’ll be nice to get out again and do car stuff. 2 major events are coming up this month and in August so it’s nice to get back into the swing of things. I don’t know too much about Stance Nation other than the fact that my buddy Emerson is apart of it and they make gigantic ass flyers but this looks interesting. I would normally be very interested in going out to a HellaFlush meet but those things are usually so early and I just don’t operate very well between the times of 8am to around noon….because I am sleeping. Anyways, come by and check this meet out, there should be some “unique” cars out with some crazy ass wheel fitment… Oh make sure to check back later in the afternoon. I spent like a couple hours earlier just digging through some pics from the USDM Jam 7.0 event in Japan. There are some awesome Hondas over there with American influence that I want you guys to take a look at…trust me, it’s cool as shit to see our style of Hondas over there…
Exclusive Content…A first glance at the August issue of Honda Tuning…
Got some good stuff for you guys today…Rodrez hit me up and wanted to give you guys a teaser of the upcoming issue of Honda Tuning. This particular issue is special because it’s a completely race-dedicated issue. Meaning there are no show cars or daily street driven vehicles. It’s just the fully-dedicated race cars of the community and I think it’s really cool that we get to spotlight these guys in their own genre-specific issue. Of course many of you who follow this site already know that Sheepey’s 800hp Civic hatchback is going to be in this issue but here is the rest of the guys that are featured…
-Civic Type R road race car
-Super budget built CRX (built the entire car for just under $2,009.00 and swept the Grassroots Motorsports competition)
-Sportcar Motion/Loi’s ITR
-Landspeed record-chasing CRX
-All 3 Compass360/Skunk2 Grand AM competition cars
-V6 swapping the 88-91, 92-95, and 96-00 chassis’
as well as…
-Tuners corner with ‘Bisi
-Interviews with a few past and present track stars
Pretty awesome right? Well here’s Rodrez himself telling you more about it…
“I’ve been dying to put this issue together for a few months, but with organizing the Eibach Meet with VtecVoodoo, the NWP “transition” that occurred, and everything in between, it took awhile to get this one sorted out. I’m really happy with the finished product, and I hope all the hours that went into it satisfy a large number of readers.”
Here are a couple teaser pics of two of the guys that will grace the pages of Honda Tuning’s August issue. The hatch is none other than Sheepey and the Integra belongs to CTRparts.com and Lisa Kubo, who will also be piloting the car on race day. Make sure to grab your copy as it hits newstands by no later than next week! Remember to read it of course as your’s truly had the pleasure of writing up Sheepey’s feature and it’s a doozy…If you know or have ever had a chance to speak to Alex Soto, you know this guy always has something interesting to say…haha…Keep an eye out, even you show car guys can appreciate this issue because guys like Alex are doing up complete race cars in “Best of Show” immaculate showcar fashion!…
Today we remember…
Everytime July 4th rolls around, it’s not only a reminder for me that it’s Independence Day but also the anniversary of the passing of one of the (in my opinion) most influential Honda personalities of our generation; Randy Gagan. I can’t believe it’s already been 4 years since his passing. Only seems like yesterday when I met him for the first time at Nisei Import Showoff. The guy was so friendly and always had a positive energy about him. He always answered any questions I had for him and offered his help to me even though we weren’t super tight. The guy was a class act and even 4 years since his passing, the two Hondas that he completed would still be very current and held in high regard even by today’s standards. They were just timeless works of art and his influence is still apparent today. I actually dug through some old photos that I had on my computer and found a couple shots of his DA at Nisei Showoff 2005. I didn’t really take pictures back then nor had any real interest in it. I had borrowed my mom’s camera I think and was just shooting pictures of cars that caught my eye. Randy’s DA of course was one of them. I liked the car so much that I seriously thought about selling my Accord back then and picking up the DA when I found out he was selling it…
Without the time stamp, you wouldn’t think that this was taken 5 years ago. The bay was on point…
Sadly, he passed on July 4th, 2006 and that year for Nisei Showoff, his closest friends brought out his unfinished EF project in memory of Randy. When they pushed his car in, I remember the whole show just being in complete silence. It was a powerful moment to see it and remember the man who never had a chance to complete his project…
I know there are plenty of you who never had a chance to meet him or speak to him, or just weren’t heavy in the Honda community then so I went and dug up his old features from Honda Tuning magazine. The first is of his right hand drive CR-X SiR and the second is of the DA6 from the pics above. Both awesome, timeless builds…
I can’t say enough about the guy…he believed in me when no one else did…
R.I.P. Randy “Questoyz” Gagan 11/23/1980 – 7/4/2006…we miss you man and we will never forget you…
Sportcar Motion at it again…
This time it was the first win for the KraftWerks supercharged Sportcar Motion Civic. Nice to see this thing finally dialed in and ready for battle. Loi and the crew spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the perfect formula to get this thing going on the track and it definitely paid off as Sportcar Motion won 1st place Modified FF class at Redline Time Attack this past weekend. The KraftWerks-powered Civic ran a best lap time of 1:32.884, four seconds ahead of it’s next closest competitor, Inline4. Congrats to Loi, driver Renzo Marsano, and the rest of the Sportcar Motion crew for their continued success in the Redline Time Attack series! Here’s some snaps from Loi…
Oh and happy 4th of July…
Doin’ Work…
While I must admit that a big part of me likes how this site was way back in the beginning when I actually had no content and scrambled every night for something to write about, these days there are times when I am literally just to busy to update. I had a lot of fun back then when I had to create and write random ass stuff but as the site grew, so did the content. I no longer had to grab stuff from other sites or from forums and I kinda got the hang of how to operate a camera which helped me a great deal. As time went on, the audience grew as well and to a much larger spectrum. It wasn’t just my homies checking it out anymore and people from all over the world started to check it out. Daily updates became harder to pull off but hopefully the quality of the content has exceeded that of the quantity and you guys no longer care if I throw up random shit that may or may not have anything to do with cars. The sites growth has also opened up many doors for me and whether it has anything to do with me doing work at Super Street or not, I’d like to think that this site was directly involved in Jonathan Wong’s decision to use me. With gigs at both Honda Tuning and Super Street now, I can honestly say that I’ve never been happier working for these mags. They present challenges and cars that I have never even seen before. Writing may seem tedious for some but I geniunely enjoy it. If you guys come on here and one or two days out of the week this site goes updateless, trust me, it’s with good cause…my ass is working. I’m still writing about car stuff for you guys, you just don’t happen to see it until a month or so later. With that said, I just want to let you guys know that the latest issue of Super Street is out on newstands now and I put in a lot of work in it. I’m honored to be a major part of it and I think the features came out great…
It doesn’t really have any Honda content in it, I’m not gonna lie, but if you’re a fan of cars in general, it is definitely the issue to pick up. The cover car alone is worth the 6 bucks. I had a lot of fun putting the written portions of the features together and when Jonathan Wong joked and told me it was the “Joey” issue, I laughed it off and didn’t think that he would mention it in the contributors section of the mag…
Definitely cool to see my hard work recognized and appreciated. I gotta thank Mr. Wong and the rest of the Super Street staff for the opportunity. The dude pictured is definitely not me of course. They already have too many models in the mag. Haha… That and if it were truly the “Joey Issue”, I’m sure my wang would be on the cover. Go out and pick it up so they can make back the money they paid me to stay up all night and write that shit. Like Jay from JDMEGO said…“Support Print”…
