Productivity…
I normally don’t get more than one or two things done on an average day because I’m too busy doing absolutely nothing, but yesterday was a pretty decent day. I was sent out on assignment to Gearspeed in Rancho Cucamonga for work, spent the majority of the day there, and then I headed over to the Bisimoto facility to check out DPK David’s tune. Bisi was tuning David’s K20 Civic coupe and dropping by Bisimoto Engineering also meant that Bisi was going to give me a first look at some of his latest projects…
So I woke up early Thursday morning and drove an hour from the Orange County area to Rancho Cucamonga, which is in the Inland Empire. I really didn’t have any idea what I was supposed to do out there, as Rodrez only told me to go out there to cover a tech story for Honda Tuning. Big Mike happened to be off work that day and was good friends with James over at Gearspeed so I asked him to come by and hang out while I shot whatever was going down over there. When I arrived at Gearspeed, they gave Big Mike and I a tour of their facility and then we walked over to a work station where I was greet to a pleasant surprise. The tech story I was sent out there to cover that day was actually a tear down and reassembly of a legit Spoon Sports K-series transmission from Japan…
I can’t really get into full details of what actually went down, you’ll have to wait until a future issue of Honda Tuning magazine for that, but here’s a quick shot of the Spoon tranny, assembled by Spoon, straight from one of their race cars…
It’s crazy to see what goes down at a place like Gearspeed because these guys that work there take apart transmissions and rebuild them like it’s a very simple job, when in reality, it is everything but. I mean, these guys can tear down a tranny, throw every single removable piece into a bin, machine-wash it, and put it all back together in about 30 minutes time. Shit was wild man, I’m telling you… Just to think about how intricate each Honda transmission is and how these guys know them like the back of their hands is mind boggling… The Spoon transmission was way more than I expected it to be because I honestly don’t have that much of a favorable view of Spoon Sports stuff, but honestly, I was impressed. They actually did some work on this transmission and didn’t just like, throw a different final drive in there and plaster a Spoon badge on it like every one of their other products. That shit was definitely a learning experience, and I have a ton of respect for guys that work on transmissions on a daily basis. These guys are very systematic and almost robotic in terms of their ability to work on these transmissions. Big props goes out to the guys over at Gearspeed for not only their skill, but also their hospitality. The facility itself is a trip too because it’s a gigantic warehouse filled to the brim with Honda transmissions and parts. The craziest thing about that facility is that they have a full gym next to their lunch area, and one of the offices even has a tanning bed inside of it…haha…I’m serious, you can’t even make that shit up…
I definitely stayed there longer than I expected to though. I got there around 11am and didn’t get out of there until almost 4pm in the afternoon. The time spent there was a productive one, so I can’t really complain…
After that Big Mike and I hopped into our cars and made our way down to the Bisimoto Engineering facility. DPK David’s tuning appointment was at 2pm so they were almost done by the time we got there. Luckily they still had one more final pull left on the dyno and I was able to witness it…
Here’s what it looked like when we pulled up. The coupe was still hooked up to the dyno, but Bisi was taking a little break to have a nice cold drink…
Bisi taking a moment to chat with Big Mike…
As for the tune….the numbers at that point were pretty decent but Bisi felt that there was quite a bit of restriction coming from the intake area…
He recommended to David that they take his filter off and mount a velocity stack to it for the final pull. David removed the filter he had on, mounted the velocity stack and aimed it upward to get maximum air flow…
Here’s a crappy video of the final run…
The filter did prove to be the issue as the final run yielded some pretty good results…
Final horsepower numbers can be seen above…
Both Bisi and David seemed to be pretty happy with the results. 218HP on a internally stock K20 Type-S motor tuned on a AEM EMS Series 2 is not too shabby… There isn’t anything else done to the motor but the basic intake, header, exhaust combination…
By the time they finished taking the car off the Dynapak, it was time to close up shop. The photo above is Bisi and DPK David after they came back from a test drive. David was all smiles because his motor has never run better…
While David and Bisi were busy finalizing the details of David’s tune, Big Mike asked me to take a new photo of his side project, which is a 1996 Honda Accord wagon. He recently put some Work Leadsleds on so he wanted to get a decent photo of it…
Big Mike claims he’s not gonna do anything crazy with this car but we’re all waiting for the day when he let’s us know that he’s doing a full Mil-spec harness and ITBs for it…just wait, it’ll happen…. Overall, the wagon is mint, The interior is like new and everything seems to be working very well mechanically. He’s always wanted a wagon and the perfect opportunity came up to purchase one….
That’s all for today. Make sure you guys click above at the top of the screen to pick up your Year.Three Chronicles Anniversary spots if you haven’t done so already. Spots are moving quickly so it’s a good idea if you jump on them now…
PURCHASE YOUR YEAR.THREE CHRONICLES ANNIVERSARY MEET PARKING SPOT HERE
Stacks…
Well, final prep for Wekfest is in full force. Everyone is scrambling to get their cars ready while on my end, I’ve literally been slaving away on getting merchandise ready for the booth. So far, about 75% of the stickers that I plan to have available at Wekfest are now complete and tonight I will make the final batch before packing my bags. I still have so much to do and the shirts are also coming down to the wire. Hopefully they will be available for me to pick up tomorrow so that I can organize them and get there ready for the show….
The booth at Wekfest will have the most merchandise available that I have ever had at a booth at an event. When I say some of my stickers are limited runs, that definitely isn’t an understatement because I sit up hours upon hours at night cutting, weeding out, and putting the stickers together on my own. I don’t have any outside source that helps me do anything of the decal stuff. I have my computer on an L-shaped desk where the other end is stritcly for putting stickers together. To the right of me I have my TV and my vinyl cutter. Its a full on operation over here, haha. As you can see from the pic above, that is what I have finished so far. There are large stacks of the “Chronicles IV” design along with the Like Button stickers, and smaller quantities of popular stickers that I have had available in the past. I know some of you guys still like the older designs so I always make sure to have those available. I’m crossing my fingers that the shirts will come out great. It’s a little short notice but my normal shirt guy seemingly disappeared and fell off the face of the Earth, and luckily I had a guy available that’s close to where I live that stepped up to get them done. I’ll find out tomorrow how they look and I’ll get pics up as soon as possible with the finished product.
I should give you guys some other stuff to look at though, so here is what I’ve been glancing at on the web inbetween hourly long sticker-cutting sessions….
I can’t say I’m truly appreciative of the Accord CB7-chassis community. Thought I find myself always wondering if I should build another one, I go back to glance at the forums and there hasn’t been much of a change. It’s still the entry-level car that younger guys start out with but never fully go all-out on. Most guys find themselves with more funds as they get older and they just get something else. Sometimes I still have casual conversations with the homies about what my car would be like today if I still had it. I think by now, it would have been K-swapped already and the bay would have been much cleaner but the exterior would most likely be about the same, maybe a couple different sets of wheels, etc…Just the small stuff. Whenever I go back to the CB7Tuner forums though, I always look for a member’s page on there by the name of “aleks77″. This guy has had his car since I had mine and he’s one of those rare guys that has stuck with the car and continues to make it better and better. I’m not really involved within that community anymore so I rarely go on there, but I usually scroll through the member’s page to find his. I thought I’d toss up some pictures of it here because he’s all the way out in Canada so it’s never heard of and it’s definitely deserving of a mention. The car has seen quite the evolution throughout the years and I think in it’s current state, it’s one of the best Accords out right now. It doesn’t have an H22-swap but it is a boosted F-series that makes 357WHP at 19PSI of boost on pump gas, which is really impressive. I would have included some bay shots but I think he was redoing some areas of his bay since it cracked but believe me, it’s not bad. Actually, here’s a pretty decent shot of it…
Not bad right? The car is nice and the guy seems to be a pretty knowledgeable guy. He’s also into photography too which allows me to provide some shots of his car. I think you may have seen pics of it floating around before when it was primered black but now it’s painted and I’m a fan. Boosted, with aggressive Work VS-XX wheels, a simple yet complete lip kit with clean paint. What’s not to like? Just needs some seats and some other minor touches and it would probably make for a nice little feature car. Here are some shots of it, thanks to Aleks77….
I’ve never really been a fan of the 2-door coupe Accords or even the 90-91 front-end/taillights but since the front is all cut up anyway for a huge frontmount intercooler, it doesn’t really matter. Like I said earlier, I’m a fan…here’s a link to his member’s page here.
Anyways, here are some random shots of the Sportcar Motion Civic hatchback recently from some test runs at Streets of Willow…New additions include a custom Sportcar Motion front bumper and splitter, plus a Voltex GT2 wing and gurney flap…
Looks fucking mean!…
Back with some updates tomorrow, hopefully with pics of the new shirts!…
VIP-style TL and Accord…
When you normally think of the term “VIP” in the Japanese tuning world, you rarely ever think about Hondas. That scene is usually left for the Toyota/Nissan crowd and it is really rare to see a Honda styled in such a way. Many purists argue that Hondas can’t be “VIP” because they’re not really luxury high-end model vehicles. The term “VIP-Style” was then created and used when associating any vehicle that is themed in such a way, but not meeting the criteria of being a high-end vehicle…
I’ve always loved the way the cars looked in the VIP community. I am very big on the stance of a vehicle and nothing commands more road presence then a big luxury car hammered on some Japanese VIP wheels. I remember I always wanted to try to build a VIP-styled car. I would look at VIP magazines when I was younger at my local Mitsuwa market and would always talk amongst my friends telling them that we would be the first to bring that scene over here. The reality of it was that we were kids at the time and had no idea how hard it was to get a Lexus/Infiniti, etc., let alone afford the parts for it. 10 years later and I’m still trying to afford some of the parts for it. I’m sure everyone knows by now that I sold my Honda so that I could attempt to attain my goal of building a VIP ride. Totally bad timing with the whole economy being in the shithole with me not having a consistent paycheck. I am happy to say that I am on my way though, even though it’s taken me alot longer than I would have ever imagined. But better late than never right?…
The thing that made me miss being apart of the Honda community was the fact that I kinda upped and left the community by selling my car. The only reason I remain is because a large portion of my friends are heavily involved and for work purposes. I definitely still love the community and everyone understands why I sold my car. I mean, I have personal goals and dreams. The people around me are important but I definitely do want to accomplish what I set out for myself. If it was easier for me to find an Acura RL/Legend that was in mint condition with low miles, trust that I would have definitely jumped on it. It just wasn’t plausible. My friend offered me a deal on a car I couldn’t refuse and I took it because I saw it as a golden opportunity to work towards my dream. Believe me when I say I still find myself looking for an RL sometimes when I’m online. When I see one on the street I even take a second look at it because I can see myself doing alot of great things to that platform. I don’t give a shit about it not being a “high-end luxury” car. I trust my own ability enough that the final product won’t leave many people in doubt about “VIP”…Hell if you got an RL with a straight body and under 100k, hit me up, we can talk…
Anyways, I should probably talk about the pic at the top. I’ve seen a couple of TL’s that have been fixed up but the TL pictured above is the first “VIP-styled” TL of that generation. Looks crazy on that air set-up and wheel fitment. I love it. I wish I had a TL like that. My parents do but the hood has a dent on it because my dad decided to argue with some guy on a bicycle one day at a stoplight and that fool straight punched the hood. True story.
The TL is on Air Runner suspension and Work LS wheels. I gotta give some love to Hawaii. Those guys go all out when they build cars. Shits crazy. Makes you wonder how they get all that cool stuff and have the ability to afford all of it. I don’t know shit about living on an island though because I am probably the only asian in the world that cannot swim. So you’ll understand that I generally stay away from water that goes over my waist. Living on an island would be counter productive for me. This TL is sick, props on being one of the first to attempt to build one of these things. They’re really nice cars and a blast to drive. If you’re the owner, sorry but I edited your photos to be more presentable. You’re doing a good job so far building the TL but your photography is horrible…haha…The first pic was so off center that it made me wonder if you actually fell while taking the picture…
On the topic of Hawaii, this VIP-style Accord is also from the 808. I’ve seen a couple of these done in a similar fashion but this one is definitely one of the cleanest…
The grille looks to be a Honda Saber grille and the fogs custom fit, because the fitment isn’t 100%. Front lip is probably a Wings West piece. Altogether with paint you wouldn’t be able to tell it apart. It would probably make you think that everything was one piece. The black-housed headlights add a nice touch also…
Almost there, just need a couple more things. Wheel fitment can be a little more aggressive but thats not absolutely paramount…Needs some chrome door handles and pillar accents. Trunk also needs a couple kilos of nose candy and a beat-up hooker and we’re set….Again props to the 808 state. You guys always come with the creativity…
Man I miss working on cars….Need to get back on the grind so I can get back into it.
A Nostalgic Moment…My old Accord, may you rest in peace…someday…
Sit back and let me tell you the story of my Accord and it’s eventual demise. Many of you that have known me since I stepped into the Honda game know my old Accord as well. I absolutely adored this car. I have never dedicated so much of my blood, sweat, and tears into anything (Well other than my relationship with my better half) that I have with this build. When I initially put this car together, I had no idea this car would open so many doors for me…
…Man this car helped get my foot in the door so to speak into the Honda game. I knew absolutely no one in the beginning and I also had no idea the type of reaction I would get initially. The majority of the people I know today that I can call good friends I made while I had this car. I learned so much; from cars to patience, even things about myself I didn’t realize. It all came from me sitting in the garage and slowly piecing this car together. This Accord also helped build a relationship that I hardly had with my father. Throughout my life at that time, him and I always lacked communication and a common ground….building this car with him helped bridge that gap…
With the exception of the paint, everything was done in my garage with the help of friends. I’ve always been proud to say that I built my own car. From the H-swap, to the interior, suspension, NSX brakes, etc….Shit, if I knew how to paint, I probably would have done that on my own too…Minus a few minor things, I never had any problems with this car. And those incidents when something did occur, it was a result of my own carelessness…
When I first found out that Honda Tuning Magazine wanted to feature me, I was so unbelievably happy. Man I will never forget the moment when it happened. The thing with getting a feature though…man…you realize how stupid people can get about it. Call it jealousy or whatever else, the moment you reach any level of success, people love to bring you down. People that had no idea who I was began to talk shit, or make assumptions of who I was or how I got money to build my car. Either that or they’ll try their hardest to point out something wrong with the car. Well you know what they say…”If you’ve never been criticized, you probably haven’t done much with your life.”
I’ll be honest, getting a feature or being recognized for your work does help boost the ego a bit. It kinda makes you think whether or not you could do it again, you know…I was content though, but the itch to build another car was definitely there. As a fan of Japanese tuning culture, I was always interested in VIP and VIP-style cars. Something about them just interested me so much. I always told myself I would try to build a luxury car, I just didn’t have the means to do so. I told myself I would never sell my car…that is, unless I could find one of my dream cars: a Y33 Infiniti Q45. I was bullshitting with one of my homies one night and happened to mention that I wanted one. Then he told me about one that one of the other homies was selling, and I knew he always garaged it and never even drove it. The guy had intentions of building it but he ended up getting an IS300 so the Q was put on the backburner. The thing was mint, it already had coilovers, and the motor itself only had 85k on it. For a 10 year old car, that was pretty damn good. Too good to pass up. So I told myself that if I could get the right price, I would sell it. A decision I would later regret…
I also told myself I would only sell to the right owner. It’s every car-builder’s nightmare to sell their pride and joy to someone else, only for them to later part it out just to make money off of it. There are alot of punk bitches out there that will do that. I wish I wouldn’t have been so naive at the time. I thought I found the right owner, and the price was right. He came at me like he had intentions to keep the car exactly the way it was…boy was I stupid to believe that. I don’t want to fill you with all the details but there were also alot of promises that were made that the new owner never came through on. Shame on me though, for believing it…
…Fast forward a year later and the car is currently up for sale again…for like, the 5th time. It’s a fuckin travesty I tell you. People basically just bought it, got what they wanted off the car, and left it for dead. If I knew it was gonna be that way, I honestly would have never sold the car. I would have just kept it in storage and just rebuilt the entire car from scratch if anything. I just didn’t have the means to do so at the time. Shit, if I had money now, I would buy it back. Just because I feel bad for letting these bitches do what they did to my hardwork…
Let me tell you something….There are two types of builders in this “import scene”….theres people that have ingenuity, who work hard for their shit, and build their cars the right way. And on the other end of the spectrum, you got bitch motherfuckers, that don’t know two shits about building a car and just pay yardsale prices for parts that other people worked their asses off to find. I find it funny when people ask these guys about my old parts and they front like they know everything about it. Tell me, how hard was it to unbolt it from the car and install it into your’s?
Man, the car woulda had a better fate if it had been stolen….instead of getting picked apart by a bunch of vultures and passed around like that. Let it be known that I never sold the car or whored it out to the way it was. I sold the car complete with hopes that someone had enough respect to keep it the way it was. Unfortunately, there are alot of sketchy mofo’s out there in the world….What’s even worse is that some of these people I might have even considered to be “friends” or acquaintances at one time or another. Now they won’t even look me in the eyes…
Here’s the Craigslist ad for the car in it’s current sad state…
http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/976941461.html
Oh yeah, the “92k on the chassis” he’s talking about is total bullshit. It’s “92k” because that’s the mileage that’s listed on the BB6 Prelude cluster I retrofitted. Don’t know about that new tranny though, he probably doesn’t remember if it was new or not when I put it in….And I think the “new HID kit” he has on there are the HID’s the original buyer promised to give back to me when he bought the car. You have to check out that “new paintjob” from 2005 though…
Bitter? Fuck yeah I’m bitter.
A Nostalgic Moment….Kash Singh’s Widebody Accord…
Does anyone out there actually remember this car? Man I tell ya, I used to be such a huge fan of Accords back in the day cuz I always wanted one and this car was one of the ones that always caught my eye. I remember back in 99-2000, this was one of the wildest Hondas around in the show scene and it used to win all kinds of awards. As much as I looked at it I was looking through my old photo album and was only able to find one pic that I took. I didn’t feel like scanning it so I took a pic of a pic with my cell phone and this was Singh’s Accord when it was in it’s polk-a-dot stage. I think he went with this look after his car was featured in Import Tuner magazine….
..Excuse the terrible pic. Sorry but you can not imagine how difficult it was to find anything on this Accord nowadays on the internet. It was harder to find then Erica Lam’s Accord. Anyways, I remember a bit of the back story on this car. It was done by Kash Singh and his brother and I remember his brother also had a showcar. All the bodywork was done by the two in the backyard or something and it was all completely sheetmetal. They also were able to paint the car all the time and change the look because their family owned a chain of One Day Paint businesses. This thing always stood out because it was so damn wide and people at that time had never seen an Accord with so much bodywork done to it. What was really cool was that it Singh was one of the first guys to have custom-sized/fit wheels at the time. Those wheels may be hard to recognize but they’re actually the first generation 5Zigen Heidfeld’s. Not the current ones that look like shit but the ones that were made back in the day and were 3-piece wheels. I also remember that their wasn’t much engine work done to it and I don’t even recall ever seeing the bay. I think when it was featured it still had a F22 engine that was dressed up with chrome and wire looms or some junk. Still though, it was a show car and never meant for any kind of serious speed so whatever. I can just imagine how heavy it would be though with all that sheetmetal and that gigantic ass APR wing in the back. Yikes. Also note the USDM Integra front-end conversion….definitely a unique choice for a conversion.
I thought about this car because I was glancing at Jspek.com the other day and remembered that I saw this car pop up somewhere in Texas around 2006. From what I remember the car was originally from Socal. Guess Singh packed up his Accord and moved down there. Mind you the car was featured in the early 2000′s and even the pic you see up top that I took was from Oct. 2000. So for the car to still exist and actually still be in one-piece was pretty crazy. Here are the images that I saw when I was looking at some HIN coverage from ’06…
..Pretty wild ain’t it? Most of the showcars you see from back in the day are long gone and parted out or left for dead somewhere in their parents driveway. This guy was still driving his Accord around 5 years after! I don’t know if it’s still around nowadays but if you know the guy personally or have seen it, definitely let me know. I’m interested to find out what happened to this thing. It’s funny to see that it was relatively unchanged too besides the color. Same wheels, same bodywork, same exhaust, everything. That’s crazy. Only significant change looks to be the removal of that huge ass wing with what looks like a Bomex wing or Prelude Mugen-style wing. Who knows, maybe this car is still around and tucked away in some garage in pristine condition like LJ Garcia’s Feel’s hatchback. Yeah, that car still exists too…
