The Rywire ITR Build…Part 9…
I know everyone has been waiting for this next update on Rywire’s Integra Type R so I’ll just go ahead and dive right into it. Ryan sent me a text over the weekend asking if I was down to make a trip down to ASC Speed Metal on Monday to check out what’s new with the ITR build. Mondays are usually the best times for me to make the trip down there with him so I said I would go without hesitation. Dana and the guys down there have been sending Ryan photos every now and then with updates so he had a pretty good idea how far along the car was, but I hadn’t been over to the Rywire facility in about a week so I really had no idea what to expect. The last time we went down there, we spent a majority of the day there trying to figure out Ryan’s seating position with the floor-mounted pedal set-up. It was quite a process because no one anticipated that the pedals would have to be mounted essentially where the floor was. The angle of the firewall was a problem and being that the pedal assembly was quite large in size, due to the brake reservoirs, there was no way to properly mount them without moving the driving position back. The weeks after we made the trip down to San Diego, Ryan did a lot of thinking and just decided to ditch the idea of having the floor-mounted Tilton brake set-up and acquired a set of hanging pedals to replace them. Ryan notified the guys down at ASC and so they set up a meeting once again to remeasure everything to now suit the hanging pedals. They had a bunch of other cool stuff completed so it would make for a worthwhile trip. Plus, Ryan had a bunch of parts that he wanted to bring down there so that he could get them mounted and the crew down there could move on with the fabrication….
Before we officially get to the build update today, I’m going to post the links to the previous posts on the build so that many of you who are new can catch up. I posted some photos of the build yesterday on Instagram while I was at ASC and noticed that there were more than a couple of people that just had no idea what this build was or what Ryan was working on. It would be a shame if you didn’t catch up with the previous sections covering the build before you read the one below so, please, I invite you to read the links below. If you are already caught up and have been waiting for this update, please proceed to the post below after the links. I may work on a page where I can just consolidate everything into one post but there are just so many photos that it would almost be impossible to get them all loaded in time for you guys to want to wait to read it. I may just add a separate page above with the links in the future but I haven’t decided yet…
PLEASE READ THESE LINKS BELOW IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE SITE AND DO NOT KNOW OF THIS BUILD…
The Rywire ITR Build…Introduction…
Now, on with the updates…
There were some pretty significant progress the last time we went down to ASC and this trip was no different…
As you in our last update, ASC had completed the majority of the bead-rolled sheet metal panels along the inside of the chassis, including the door panels. When we arrived we were greeted with more additional panels that completed the rear trunk section. The panels continue to flow with the design of the rest of the trunk panels and fill out the spare tire area of the Integra Type R’s trunk…It is kind of hard to see but if you take a closer look, you can see that they are in the process of mounting the FCS fuel cell…
There is still much to be done in this area and in the near future, you will see two Bosch fuel pumps mounted to the floor panel along with the two filters (as seen mocked-up in this photo), as well as a custom made surge tank. Dana also mentioned that he planned to cut down the filter mounts because they felt that it was too bulky…
A shot of how the panels are mounted in place within the trunk. Once everything is completed, Ryan will have to add some backing to line the underside of the panels to prevent them from rattling…
Another significant addition is the custom made center console. When you think of custom made dashes and center consoles, you usually expect it to be pretty boxy and simple. Well I do anyways, so Ryan and I were both pretty excited when we saw what Gabe from ASC came up with… He said he was sitting down one night trying to think of what to do for the center console piece and thought of a motor cycle gas tank. He said that he liked how the lines of the gas tanks looked and went to work which resulted in the console you see above… pretty cool stuff. I love how it is anything but simple and how it flows right into the floor bar of the roll cage…
The view of the front half of it on the driver side… The panel that you see next to the Hybrid Racing shifter is the MoTeC PDM16 switch panel that you first saw in Part 8 of this build. It is just laying on top of the console in the shot but room will be made for it so that it is mounted directly into the console…
A view from up top…
A shot of the door panels with the cage and how it looks with the console in place…
Everything that needs to be fabricated in the engine bay will probably be the last task that ASC will be tackling. They did finish the hood cowl though and its design also reflects the rest of the panels inside the car. Careful steps were made so that it also flows with the original lines of the body so it is notched in all the right places…
Golden Eagle recently finished Ryan’s custom intake manifold for the ITR so he brought it down so it could also be mocked-up. With the manifold in place, ASC can eventually get to making the intercooler piping for the turbo system…
Ryan hasn’t made a final decision on which fuel rails to run but your eyes do not deceive you, it is a dual-fuel rail intake manifold… It’s not a matter of what brand because it will probably be a K-Tuned rail, it’s more of a matter of color choice…Here you see Ryan adding the intake manifold gasket…
Our buddy Rom made the trip down with us this time around and Ryan made sure to put him to work…
All mounted-up…
A new problem that we have run into after the manifold install is the lack of hood clearance with the second fuel rail… The manifold is completely one-off so Golden Eagle had no idea that this would be a problem either. The second rail actually sits pretty high because of the angle of the motor so the manifold now will probably have to go back to get re-adjusted. It wasn’t even a matter of it possibly being a tight fit. Just from eyeing it you can easily tell that it would not clear the hood…
Ryan also brought the drive-by-wire throttle body down to mount it to the Golden Eagle intake manifold…
As I stated in Part 8, the battery box that Ryan had fabricated before he had the car painted was chopped off. It was kind of an eye sore where it was mounted and it being a giant box just didn’t flow very well with the car. ASC instead came up with this cool, one-off battery mount to replace it. I personally really like how this came out because it isn’t like anything else you have seen before….It’s still large enough to hold an OEM Honda battery and isn’t as bulky as the old box was…
Dana, Gabe, and Ryan working on various parts of the ITR…
A closer look at the bead-rolled hood cowl…
Dana trying to figure out how the hanging pedal set will be mounted and how it will sit in comparison to the old floor-mounted unit…
A welcome surprise from Dana at ASC were these custom made, spherical lower control arms that he was making for Ryan’s ITR. It wasn’t in the plans for them to create these for Ryan so it was really cool to see. They have made a couple other sets for guys like ATS Anh and Gil from Circuit Hero but they are all made in-house and not mass-produced units…
Another angle…
Dana going over some other suspension components with Ryan… These look like what may end up being front control arms in the future…
While they were going over that stuff, I walked around to capture whatever else I saw…
Another shot of the battery tray…
This is how the interior looks as of now through the rear hatch…
The Golden Eagle intake manifold with fuel rails that have now been masked off so no debris falls inside them…
Around 2:30pm or so, the sun was starting to beat down through the ceiling window at ASC so we took a break to grab a drink… It would be amazing if Red Bull sponsored The Chronicles, haha…
If there is one major portion of this build that people may just love or absolutely hate, it would be the custom made dashboard. I’ll admit, I was a little surprised at first how it looked but it grew on me right away. Ryan wanted the MoTeC display to be mounted off to the center of the dash but he did not expect for them to create it in such a way where it curved out towards the center that aggressively… The dash is going to be two-pieces, but this is how it looks so far…
The driver side of the dash will remain completely empty and the display will be in the center and turned towards the driver. Along the side where it curves downward, the bulk heads for the MoTeC PDM16 unit will be mounted along with the AEM Infinity engine management system… That section will be cut out of course to house these components and everything should be pretty streamlined. The second part of the dash (passenger side) wasn’t completed yet so I can’t really show you how it look all mounted up inside the car…
A view of the center console through the window-less front windshield….
Another shot of the soon-to-be completed control arm…
Precision turbocharger…
Only the best in this bay… Wiggins clamps everywhere…
Ryan looking on as they work on the driver’s side seat brackets…
While they were working on the seat positioning, I took the liberty of taking some quick snaps of Jimmy aka Agesone’s EF project… I don’t want to reveal too much on the car but there was some pretty cool stuff that I thought you guys would like…
Custom made front shock tower bar…
Wild sheet metal headlight cover for the backside of the light…
Dimple-died gusset plates everywhere…
Really liked this shot of the battery tray….
The new hanging pedals sitting on the driver’s floor… Once these are mounted, room will have to be made in the custom dash for the remote brake resevoirs…
Bride bucket seat that is still sitting too far to the right…
Gabe from ASC unbolting the seat
The culprit behind that was the PCI seat bracket which is actually a U.S. passenger side seat bracket. As stated in Part 8 of the build, no one knew that there was any difference in position until the seat was mounted-up…
Can’t wait to see that MoTeC PDM16 mounted in the console and functioning…
Gabe flipping the mounting brackets over to shift the seat back slightly to the left…
With the seat re-installed, Gabe was able to have Ryan seated so they could figure out the driving position once again. Now that the problem with the pedals has been corrected, it will be much easier to move forward with finishing the interior. Here in this shot, Gabe is making note of the exact angle where Ryan wants the steering wheel so that they can fix the custom steering column in place…
Here is a glimpse of how the dash will look when it is mounted… The dash actually curves upwards towards the center but not as high as you see it in the photo. You can see now how close the MoTeC display will be in relation to Ryan’s seating position… I said in Part 8 that the custom steering column would be hidden from view but the way the dash came out, it looks like everything will be pretty visible, which is a good thing since it’s a pretty cool looking column. I know for some of you the dash may be too much or a little too futuristic for your tastes, but it would be great if you held judgement until you saw it in a more completed state with the second half of it…
Ryan discussing with Gabe how the electronics will be laid out in the future and where the brake reservoirs will go. Another essential part of the build that hasn’t been completed yet is the dry-sump oiling system. The dry sump oil tank will end up most likely under the passenger side of the dash but that remains to be seen…
One final shot of the custom fabricated dashboard…
One final thing that Ryan had to do before we left was to take the intercooler off the ITR. He wants a smaller more efficient core and one where the outlets run out the backside of the intercooler instead of how it is now with it running out of the sides. There isn’t really a good way to have this intercooler work because the piping would interfere with the dry sump pump so it has to go…With the intercooler he plans to get later, the piping would not only be out of the way of the dry sump, it would also be a shorter distance to the turbo and intake manifold…
Now the face of the ITR looks as bare as ever…
That concluded our portion of the day at ASC. We spent the majority of the afternoon there but it was time to head back because of the rush hour traffic…
When we got back to Rywire, Ryan wanted me to get a shot of his AP Racing rear brakes…yes, these are the rears…
Supertwinz John’s EA-T is almost ready to go as well…the motor is in and basically just needs to be tuned to run. He had some issues with fuel leaks here and there which kind of stunk up the shop, but it’s fine since everyone is excited to see this thing on the road again…
Another car that I wanted to show you guys that is currently over at Rywire is Rodrez’s S2000. We don’t get to see his S2000 too often so it was nice to see it at the shop with all the new additions…He recently had his Downforce fenders installed and painted and put on his SSR Type-F wheels with some meaty Falken Azenis tires…
The rear wing and front lip are both from JDP Engineering…. He has a hard top usually as well but since it’s summer time, why not cruise around with the top down?…
That pretty much sums it up for Part 9. I hope you guys enjoyed the ongoing coverage of the Rywire ITR build. It’s still crazy to think that even with all this progress, there is still so much more to do… stay tuned…
This is happening…
Not a whole lot of time today to update, but I just wanted to jump in here real quick to let you guys know that Rywire Ryan and I spent the majority of the afternoon down at ASC Speed Metal looking at the new additions to his ITR build. This entire build is just getting better and better… stayed tuned tomorrow for the next major update on the Rywire Integra Type R Build… If you missed any of the previous updates on this build, now would be a good time to reacquaint yourself with this amazing build… Search here for “Rywire ITR Build”… More to come Wednesday!
Exclusive Content…The Import Car Show Scene from ’99 – 2001…
EDIT: This was originally meant to be posted on Thursday 5/10/2012 but it took so long for me to put it together that I didn’t manage to get it posted until Friday. Sorry, but please read through it!
Today we are going to take a special look back for Throwback Thursday. The last couple weeks, I’ve been taking you back a couple years to show you some photos I re-edited from 2009 but today, we are going to go WAY back….13 years to be exact, to take a look at some photos I took when I was just a kid at various car shows I attended. 1999 was a very different time… I had no cell phone, I had a spikey head of hair, and in ’99, I was still a junior in high school. I was already very interested in the import scene and the cars that were a part of it, and so I went to as many car shows as I could. Things were very different back then. You had to be a baller to have a digital camera TV shows like Dawson’s Creek and 90210 were still on the air. Everybody was worried about the whole Y2K scare and President Bill Clinton was busy getting in trouble for getting a blow job from Monica Lewinski. I was already driving by then but I didn’t have a Honda or anything to really modify. My buddy Jose and I would go to car shows and just take photos of whatever we saw and grabbed whatever free shit was being handed out. I guess I wasn’t too different back then, just a lot more naive. I carried a backpack like I do still today but instead of it being packed with camera gear, it was the same backpack I used for school and I used it to carry all the free stuff I would get at shows. Man, if I knew then what I know now, I would have tried to take better photos and more detailed shots of stuff. Back then there was no such thing as blogging and web car forums were limited to a handful or less…
Back in 1999, the bodykit era was just huge in the import community and headlight/taillights conversions were all the rage. People shelled out all kinds of money to do these conversions and though they may be totally ugly and gaudy by today’s standards, that was the trend that was pushing the industry. “JDM” was not a household name yet and there were very few people that had full-on Japanese-spec builds. If they did only a small group of people would recognize the parts that these people had. The show scene was all about being flashy and doing what you could to stand out. The more wilder the conversion, the better. There was no flood of knock-off parts either. Nobody had fake garbage wheels and faux-JDM parts because there was no such thing as a mainstream “JDM” scene. People did whatever they could to acquire quality products and though you will see all kinds of crazy body kits in the photos to come, make note of what wheels these cars were on. Even with the crazy body modifications, basically everybody had real wheels and parts. The closest thing we had to anything that was a replica, knock-off wheel came from Axis and Konig. Thinking back now, I would still take the ridiculously over-the-top body kit era over any of the garbage you see today. Sticker-bombing cars, fake parts, and unused bike racks are a bane to the import community. At least back then people used creativity to stand out and didn’t take short-cuts to make themselves “cool” and subsequently call everyone “haters” if they didn’t agree or called people out for the short-cuts they took to be the next bandwagon trend hopper. The scene was very different back then but that is what people had to work with. They made the most of it and created whatever else didn’t exist then. Now you have an endless variety of options and the enthusiasts of the past have paved a road for the future generations. A lot of people spend more time trying to justify why they rock fake shit these days instead of spending their time building their cars. “I don’t have the money to afford baller stuff” wasn’t an excuse either. There were a majority of people that couldn’t afford shit back then either but they grinded and hustled and did whatever they could to build their idea of a dream car.
I personally am happy that I was able to see all the stuff from back in the day and see how much we as a community have progressed throughout the years. Things are WAY different now and are moving at such a fast pace that major innovations are coming almost every year. Even so, it is cool to take a trip down memory lane to see how things were back then. If you are still new to all of this and are relatively young, check these photos out of some of the cars that paved the way to what you know now as “the import scene”…. Thinking about how things were a decade ago, it is really remarkable to see how quickly the community shifted when the whole “JDM” craze took over. There are a couple cars in these photos that would still be relevant by today’s standards but mostly these cars were specific to that time period. If you think these cars were ridiculous back then, just imagine five years or so from now when you look back and think about how stupid all these overly stanced-out cars look. Yes, if you haven’t noticed, wheel fitment and stance this and that are the new “bodykit era”. People doing whatever it takes to stand out in the crowd, going way overboard with their builds, all the while not realizing that they are just hopping into an overly-crowded bandwagon. Sound familiar? In the group of photos you will look at 5-10 years from now, on a Throwback Thursday in the future, you will see a collection of cars that were way over done and a select few that are just timeless. Again, does that sound familiar to you? I am not “hating” by any means. Like the body kit, head/tail light conversion era, I embraced it, just as I have embraced the current style of modification. I don’t agree with all of it now but I didn’t agree with everything back then either, you just have to have a good understanding of what people were thinking and what they set out to do. There was no “rice” back then but you would consider what you see today possibly as “rice” or uncool by current standards. Hella-stanced-out cars, fitment this and that, are not considered “rice” or uncool by today’s standards. How you will look at the current state of things when you think back in the future….well…Let’s just say that history has a way of repeating itself…As long as you can look back and laugh at yourself like these car guys from the past do now, you can do no wrong…
I just love cars. With over a decade and a half of being apart of this wonderful community, I can honestly say that I have seen and learned quite a bit. Do whatever makes you happy to your car. This is your world, I’m just here to document whatever I can and be a witness to your lives…
The photos are mixed-up but are mostly from old car shows that I attended back in San Diego, CA. These shows include Import Showoff 1999, 2000-’01, as well as Hot Import Nights 2000, and two Extreme Autofest events back when they were still import shows. I have a lot more photos but they are dark and they just don’t come out correctly when scanned. These were all shot on my mom’s old camera and shot completely on 35mm film. I had to take these to a local VONS supermarket by my highschool and have them developed. It wasn’t fast either. I had to drop them off in the morning and then pick them up after school. It took quite a bit of time to scan these too and I did whatever I could to bring out more detail in the photos. With that said, let’s get started…enjoy and look at these photos knowing that things were different back then and not representative of the Honda/import community now in 2012. This was 13 years ago, some of you reading this site probably hadn’t even hit puberty yet, haha….
This car was important to me back then and now because it was the first R34 Skyline that I had ever seen in person. The only thing even remotely close to a Skyline back then were the lights that people were molding into their cars. This is the original Blitz R348 Skyline that was sent over to the states to compete in the Nevada Silver State Challenge. The goal was to hit a record top speed but it failed to do it that year because it ran out of gas… Pretty amazing car for its time and still one of my favorite builds ever… Additionally, Blitz Technospeed Z1 wheels will always be a favorite of mine, even though they weighed like 18-20 pounds each…
I didn’t really know much back then so I didn’t even know what I was looking at other than the fact that it was an R34 Skyline GTR… Make note of the time stamps in these photos because they are all correct. I shot these photos with a crappy camera back in October of 1999….
I used to always see this Civic coupe at shows in my area… He was from a crew known then as “Powerban” and would always park next to that pink Integra in the background… This baby blue coupe was on Racing Hart C5 Evos…
The pink Integra that was with him was owned and built by his girlfriend. I don’t know them personally so I don’t know if they ended up together but back then, they were always parked side by side. I don’t know what kits these were back then because they weren’t used as often as other fiberglass kits. Knowing them they modified them in some way to make them different. Note the Supra headlight conversion and the Volk Racing TE37s….
Signal Auto’s chop-top EK Civic drag car…. This thing was nuts for its time and something that no one had seen before. Signal Auto was still a fairly new name in the U.S. as well. I don’t think they made their way over to America yet where they later opened up a U.S. division. All Signal had back then was this Civic and a very, very fast Skyline drag car. Drifting wouldn’t hit the U.S. for a couple more years so they were known mostly for their drag racing stuff. If I remember correctly, this Civic later had a NSX engine swap as well…
DPK David’s coupe back in 1999…haha, just kidding. If it was it would probably look something like this I am sure… “Goldcrest Autobody” as seen on his windshield was a huge shop at that time that was known for doing wild conversions. They later painted both my cars…. Peep the Volk III wheels on the white coupe in the back..
Does anyone remember Alley Baggett? She was Miss Import Showoff back in ’99 and I remember looking at her old Playboy photos online at night on my crappy dial-up internet connection on my 486DX2 IBM computer… It would take like 5 minutes just to load up a full size nude shot of her and if anyone decided to pick up the telephone, the photo and your internet connection would cut-off… I was all about Alley Bagget back then and she was one of the hottest females I had ever seen… sadly, she didn’t do much after that and is still doing internet modeling today….
How about a shot of Francine Dee back in 1999? She hasn’t really changed much over time and her tittys will never have the ability to sag so we are good…haha…She is still doing her thing as well and having stared at her meat flaps over time, I can tell you that her vag has gone from Flame Broiler, to Yoshinoya, and now to a #1 super bowl at your favorite Vietnamese Pho spot…..No matter what though, Francine Dee will always be a staple in the fabric of our import community and I will always be a huge fan of her and her wizard sleeves. I still remember the days when she had no implants and was rocking the blond hair… I may or may not have fapped to her so many times in my youth that my penis is on some grandfather plan, haha…
Does anyone remember Speed Options and International Allstars? Haha, back in those days, if you had a Speedoptions banner on your car and it was photographed, you would get paid for it… If you remember Speed Options, then you probably remember Rowena Galam and Jynki Cruz… I don’t remember the name of the girl in the middle…. Random but I think Rowena Galam is a dentist or orthodontist these days…
This was shot earlier that year at an Extreme Autofest event, but as I said before, headlight conversions were all the rage…this was an Integra from 935 Wiked Draggers with an Eclipse headlight conversion…Turbo B-series too, as were many of the show cars back then…
This coupe was from Team Techna and had shaved moldings, molded-in sideskirts and an Accord headlight conversion…that wing on this coupe was a “DTM-style” rear wing that was also very popular…
Tucked bays are a standard nowadays but what about back in ’99?….
FD RX-7 from Team Bosozoku with a VeilSide Combat kit…
Random unfinished cars would occasionally show at Import Showoff then, because these shows only came around once a year… This DA Integra had a R33 Skyline taillight conversion that hadn’t been completed yet…
I remember seeing a lot more Accords at shows back then as well…This one had a R33 Skyline front end conversion that honestly didn’t look half bad…Check out the “WWF Attitude” graphics on the car in the back, haha…
Stephan Papadakis’ legendary AEM H22-powered Civic drag car in the Import Showoff booth…
Right hand drive Prelude INX on Racing Hart C5s, chameleon paint, and a retro-fitted DC2 Integra Type R front bumper….
RJ de Vera’s mom was a huge hit in the import community back then because she drove this turbocharged Honda Odyssey…
All kinds of stuff was done to this Civic coupe that I spotted at Hot Import Nights in 2000… Notable stuff is the Saleen style wing, Acura CL headlight conversion, MR-2 taillight conversion, MR-2 sidevents, shaved moldings, door handles, and Racing Hart C2 Evos…Also had orange and grey two-toned vinyl interior… I think this thing ended up on the cover of an issue of Import Tuner later that year as well…
This BB6 Prelude was the flagship vehicle of Team Techna back in 2000… You probably know the owner of this car now because I believe he is one of the head guys over at Auto Explosion, a body shop here in LA that is still in business today… I couldn’t even name all the things that this car had on it. The amount of bodywork was just insane… He later painted this car yellow and then showed it for a couple more years before selling it…
Elaborate show displays were a standard back then and often rivaled the stuff you would see at Lowrider shows…
Widebody CR-X on Axis Touring Cup wheels and an Integra front end… When was the last time you saw a pair of Momo Corse reclinable seats?…
You won’t see too many first generation Acura CLs these days because enthusiasts in 99-2000 were too busy robbing them of their headlights for conversions. CL headlight swaps were crazy popular then and were referred to as the “Cali Type R” conversions on Integras. Here you see a pretty clean CR-X on OG Racing Hart C2s and a CL headlight conversion…
A couple of young ladies (who are probably moms now in their early 30s) posing in front of a Civic from 935 Wiked Draggers. This one had Feel’s style fenders and a front bumper from a company known as Street Weapon. Strange now to think back because these bumpers were called Street Weapon “Drift” bumpers and drifting hadn’t even hit the U.S. yet… Happy early Mother’s Day to the two ladies up top, haha… Shit, maybe they were already mothers back then…
If there is one thing that is completely different about car shows back then and now is that shows then still had a very “underground” feel to them. There weren’t very many corporate sponsors, if at all, and you had a lot more freedom to do things without worrying about rules and regulations. These days, police presence is heavy at car shows and show promoters are very weary of what they can do at shows because they have to follow strict rules. Nudity is something you will never see in a bikini contest or whatever today, unless it happened by accident. We call them “wardrobe malfunctions” now but back in those days, we just called it “getting naked”…haha. Below are some NWS images of some females from a bikini contest at Extreme Autofest 2000. If you can’t view them, I would suggest scrolling 4-5 images down to get back to the car coverage. These photos are so old now that you probably wouldn’t get in trouble for looking at them, they are just moments in history now….
Today’s car show bikini/”hot body” contests are a lot like this… Girls with clothes on with a little bit of cheek showing… Tame but safe, cops wouldn’t be all over your ass about getting naked because you weren’t doing anything crazy…
Bikini contests back then, were more like this…
…and also like this…
Girls did whatever it took to win back then… fuck a bikini contest, they just wanted some good old fashion attention… Look at the dude’s face holding the video camera, haha…
You didn’t have to worry about offending families and old people or kids because they weren’t present. The demographic wasn’t as wide spread and commercialized as it is now… If you popped a titty out these days, you would get a hefty fine. Back then, showing a titty or two was just fine….haha…
Imagine if somebody knew this chick now and saw her in these photos…haha… if you are in this photo and you are also now a mother, happy early mother’s day. You are a vital part of car show history… You can now officially look back with regret..
Those two girls thought they were going to win by showing their titties…
…and then the white lady comes in and starts doing this type of stuff… Eating her own titty milk and shit… Grand prize was like $500 or something so girls went to work to try and win…
At age 18, these were like, the best titties I had ever seen then..haha… I should also remind you that these were shot on film so a VONS supermarket employee had to develop these. Imagine going through photos and seeing something like this…haha…oh man… I don’t remember who won this but there was also a girl that was doing the splits in a g-string and shit and all kinds of stuff was showing…
Anyways, back to the cars…
This turbocharged Mugen-everything Integra was WAY ahead of its time… Art-n-Motion was the crew to beat back then and they had a bunch of really amazing builds like this. I didn’t know too much about Mugen stuff back in 2000 so I took builds like this for granted. I look at it now wishing I had known better and I would have studied this car inside and out…
Another look at the Supra-headlighted Integra from Powerban… this was taken a year or so later I believe. Fucking car was on clouds and shit with a diamond structure around it…
I remember around 2000-2001 being a time when the Buddy Club front bumper just took over car shows. Every car had it and it didn’t even have to be a Honda. People would just take the bumpers and make them fit onto their cars. This was a pretty clean example with some 5Zigen 5ZR Copse wheels…. I remember I almost bought a set of these a couple years later because I worked with a guy who was friends with someone who worked at the company that was distributing 5Zigen stuff. The company was called ATK or something. The dude would just back door the wheels and make all kinds of money off of it. That’s probably one of the reasons why that distribution company went out of business… I ended up not buying them because I didn’t want that shit to come back to haunt me and I’m glad still that I didn’t…
White vinyl on anything color interior was popular in those days… here you can also see that this guy was super ballin’ because he had a Playstation and a Nintendo 64….
Prelude from SIK with some ghost flames and SSR GP-O wheels… this particular front bumper was very popular among the Prelude crowd. You’ll see another one later that also has this bumper. Like today, there are still random idiots that will bring a completely stock Saturn into a car show (as seen in the background)… This Prelude owner had all white interior, meaning he couldn’t even walk outside without having to wrap himself in trash bags before getting into his car…
This RX-7 from Rotary Xecret 7 has to be one of the best builds EVER… FEED Type II aero on some legit Volk Racing TE37 Mag wheels. I don’t mean “mag blue” color either, I mean these were real magnesium TE37s. Back then, these wheels were the type of stuff you only heard about or saw in the Volk catalog… This build was just incredible and way ahead of its time…
Another sick RX-7 build, this one with a full Mazdaspeed kit on some rare (because nobody wanted them) Volk Racing Daytona Speed wheels…ANother car that I just totally took for granted back then because I didn’t know what I was looking at…
The first strawberry face S15 conversion I ever saw in person from PJ Bonifacio…
Speaking of cars that were ahead of their time, check out this BMW M3 from Techna on Blitz Technospeed Z1s. If this car was still around today with this exact same set-up, it would still be a hit… This M3 also had Sparco Milano seats, which were like, the top of the line seat to have because it had Alcantara leather. Now we hear Alcantara leather and run as fast as we can because it is so often associated with fake Bride seats….
Another car that would just shit on people today… Authentic Blitz Supra aero with gold faced Blitz Technospeed Z1… Just lovely. I look at cars like this and really kick myself now for not paying more attention to them…
I used to run into this del Sol all the time wherever I went. I thought it was ugly as fuck back then too but I always appreciated the work. It was just way too much for me but the quality bodywork was there. Racing Hart C2 wheels, custom gold paint, BB6 Prelude headlights, and Feel’s front bumper…. Also notice the first gen. Eclipse behind it with R33 Skyline taillights… This was around the time when 935 Draggers were a really well-known car crew and they recruited a lot of new members….
While on the topic of Eclipses, this was one of my favorite builds back in 2000 and it was the sole reason for me knowing what “Bride” seats were. I loved the Bride gradation livery on this Eclipse. I remember reading the magazine feature on this car and it wasn’t a GS-T model Eclipse. The owner actually turbocharged it after he bought the car. You should have noticed by now that Racing Hart wheels were the most popular wheels to have during that period of time. This Eclipse is on Racing Hart C5 Evos….
Here is a better shot of the turbocharged Mugen DC2 Integra from earlier… No time stamping on the photo indicates that I took this photo around 2001. I don’t remember how I did it but I managed to turn that feature off….If this car were still around today, it would still be totally relevant…
This car needs no introduction. L.J. Garcia’s FEEL’s Civic was and still is legendary. It was the first to have a complete FEEL’s aero kit and at this stage, Garcia had already repainted it yellow and added all the Ichibahn stuff to it. I think the engine bay had like TVs and shit too. Also one of the rare Civic builds to be on air suspension. I loved it before the makeover when it was still blue and had less stuff on it. One of the greatest things about this build back then was that L.J. actually took wheel fitment into consideration and ordered custom Racing Hart C5 wheels to fit correctly with the widened FEEL’s fenders… This car helped to make L.J. a household name in the car show scene… The Import Tuner issue that it was featured in alongside Francine Dee is probably the most remembered issue in the publication’s history. That issue not only made L.J. and his Civic known to the world, it also made Francine Dee a star in the import auto industry…
Complete legit C-West aero on this Integra… Don’t quote me but I think I remember this Integra being a legit R…I like the front splitter and the Advan AVS Model 7 wheels…Another build that would be pretty relevant now, especially now that body kits (legit Japanese aero) are becoming acceptable again…
Widebody Integra with a R33 Skyline-styled front bumper (Sinsei kit I believe) with kouki S14 240SX headlight conversion…
BB6 Prelude taillight conversion… Wheels were made by Gewalt… By the way, does anyone remember Sprewell Racing? It was a shop that was owned by former NBA basketball player Latrell Sprewell, who was a huge car head. The shop was around until like ’06 or ’07 and I never heard one positive thing about them…
This Lexus IS300 was one of the first heavily-modified ones that I could remember. It was built and owned by a female member of Techna and another build that would be current today. Full C-West aero, Advan AVS Model 5 wheels, Recaro seats…just very well done and great execution… I’m pretty sure May still remembers this car because she was a member of Techna a couple years later with DPK J.P….
Erica Lam’s Accord was the car to put back then… it had an insane amount of work done to it and I always remember her winning top honors at Showoff, HIN, etc… I think this photo was taken before it had air suspension. I actually wrote a small piece on it in 2008 when The Chronicles was just a couple months old… click here if you are interested…
As you may have noticed, baby blue paint was very popular during that time period. The baby blue would then be combined with any sort of flake or pearl tone and people would be all over it….
Widebody Accord with a Lexus IS300/Toyota Altezza headlight conversion…widebody as well with custom magenta paint with red pearl… Again, Racing Hart C5 3-piece wheels…
It wouldn’t be a throwback without a Cali Type R conversion… This was the typical front bumper that usually came with the CL conversion. I never understood the purpose of having that upper grille on this bumper. The CL headlights weren’t supported very well either and they just kind of sat in the bumper. If you hit a bump hard enough the headlight would probably fall off, haha….
Every now and then you would run into a modded Toyota pick-up at a car show… this one had Axis Touring Cup wheels and the Street Weapon “Drift” front bumper that I mentioned earlier…
Autocannon was a huge motorsports clothing line in 2000. The only people you will still see wearing their stuff today is Loi Song from Sportcar Motion. I think this guy bought all of their merchandise before they went out of business. When I used to go to Sportcar to go have dinner with Loi, he would go into the stock room and pull one of these shirts out brand new in the bag and put one on. Probably still has them today… This Civic was one of their sponsored vehicles and had a chameleon paint job, Buddy Club body kit, and Racing Hart Tracer wheels…. Oddly enough, the Autocannon site still works, you just can’t actually go into their online store… www.autocannon.com
Turbocharged Prelude with NOS…NOS bottles were important show pieces to have on your showcar. You didn’t even have to actually have a NOS system installed. As long as you had the bottle laying somewhere on the car that was all that mattered. In the year 2012, NOS is more of an energy drink and at car shows, empty NOS drink cans are just fucking EVERYWHERE….
I remember really liking this 4-door Civic when I spotted it at Extreme Autofest 2000. Probably because it was a rear sight to see a Civic with Civic headlights on it, haha…It was one of the first Civic builds that I saw with a Bomex EK front bumper….
It didn’t have a Bomex rear bumper or side skirts because they didn’t make one for the 4-door sedans… I don’t remember the brand of the mufflers (either Bomz or Hayame or something) but I do remember them being loud as shit…. Racing Hart C2 Evos wheels on this 4-door…
Max Boost!-themed Civic with CD Accord headlights and MR-2 sidevents. Max Boost!, for those unfamiliar, was a monthly short comic that was included in the pages of Import Tuner magazine in its early days…
Crappy photo (aren’t they all?) but this 300ZX is significant because it was the first Z that I ever saw with a legit VeilSide body kit on it (Minus the ugly ass hood, which isn’t from VeilSide). I used to see this car all the time after school. I believe the owner of this car’s name was Lawrence Gayoso. He was one of the founding members of 935 Wiked Draggers and was also one of the first guys to shoot “import models”. He’s the brainchild behind sites like Finestmodels.com, Finestallstars.com, etc. These sites were the first to feature risque, sometimes nude shots of popular import models then. The site actually still works but you can’t access anything. You’d be surprised who is on there and who is still around today…. The guy made a shit ton of money running these sites because no one else was really doing this type of stuff then… Unrelated to naked models but his wheels are from a company called Manaray Sports, which is a Japanese wheel company that is now extinct. Anyways, these dude made all kinds of money charging people to look at “implied nudes” of import models. You could see like the occasional nip slip but everything else was usually strategically covered by hands or bubble bath soap…
If you haven’t caught on yet, the popular trend was Buddy Club kits and Racing Hart wheels. The Racing Hart C5 was probably the first and most popular copied wheel. These were so popular that they were later knocked-off but all kinds of different wheel companies. One of them was a company called Katana and they made a copy and called it the Concept 5…You can probably still buy those motherfuckers too…
Ever seen a EF headlight turned into a fish tank with real gold fish in them? (R.I.P gold fish because they probably died a couple hours later) ….Blatant placement of the neon light too…
CR-X on Racing Hart C2s, ITR headlights, and suicide doors… two of the three companies represented on this car, oddly enough, are still around today… Carcraft is long gone but JT Autobody is still in business as well as Raceline USA. I’m sure Elton from Raceline will be happy to see that his business survived post vinyl interior, suicide doors, and headlight conversions…
In 1999, we didn’t even have Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions yet and the closest thing to having one was purchasing the complete conversion kit from VIS Racing…
I wish I had a better photo of this car but this was fucking bananas in 2000. Turbo monster of an EG on Volk TE37s…
Well, that’s pretty much a wrap. I hope you guys enjoyed this look back because it took me a lot of time to put this together. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for awhile now but I haven’t been able to connect my scanner to my PC until recently. It seems like so long ago and it’ll be interesting to see how things change in another decade or so. I’ll be an old man by then but I hope I’ll be able to look back on this hobby and be proud to tell my kids about it. Thanks for looking, now let’s return to the year 2012….
Exclusive Content: Bisimoto’s 1004HP 2012 Civic from Total Honda Magazine…
I got together with Bisi Ezerioha a couple months back to shoot these shots of his 2012 Civic Si for a U.K.-based Honda publication. They had contacted me about possibly doing this for their magazine in early February and since Bisi is a buddy of mine, I didn’t hesitate to do it. I am very familiar with the car since I was there when he was putting it together for SEMA of last year and I also later wrote the story for it for Super Street magazine. Since we don’t get Total Honda here stateside on our newstands, I’m just going to post up the shots I did here on the site. It’s a bi-monthly publication and this issue has come and gone so you’ll have to contact them if you want to get a hard copy of it. I recently shot DPK David’s coupe for them as well and when a month or so goes by, I’ll go ahead and post those up too. I was pretty happy with how these shots came out because I didn’t have a whole lot of time to work with. Bisi’s Civic was down at Extreme Dimensions getting various things done to it so I shot the car outside of their facility. It was dusty and they literally pushed the car outside since it had been there for awhile and there was no race gas left in the tank. Bisi met up with me down there and when I got to Extreme Dimensions, I found out that they were closing shop at like 6:30pm or so, which meant that I had less than two hours to knock out the shoot. As I stated earlier, I’m pretty familiar with the car so I knew all the little intricacies that had to be captured for the feature. This shoot also marked my first official magazine cover too, so I wanted to really make sure that I did a good job on the photos. The magazine has a completely different audience as well so the people flipping through it probably have no idea who Stickydiljoe is or what The Chronicles is all about. To them it was just another guy shooting for a magazine so I wanted to make a good first impression. The photos, I feel, are some of my best to date and I am very happy to present them to you today…
I apologize for the lack of an update yesterday as I was going through over 500 photos from the recent USDM Jam 9.0 event. I’ll start on the first part of that coverage tomorrow but today, it’s a Bisimoto Tuesday. There are also a stack of online orders that I have to get out tomorrow morning so my time as been occupied with that as well. Same rules apply as usual…click on the links below for larger versions. At the end, I’ve attached a 1080P-sized desktop wallpaper for you guys…
Oh I should also mention that in the past, I’ve noticed that a lot of people who repost my images of Bisimoto stuff tend to crop out my watermark. If you are going to post these images up elsewhere, DO NOT FUCK WITH MY WATERMARK. These images are my copyright property. Despite what you may think about them being on the web, they are not “free game” for you to do whatever you want with them. I don’t care if you save them and post it on Facebook or whatever the fuck, but seriously, leave my watermark on there and don’t alter the image in any way…
Thanks for looking…
Back tomorrow with part 1 of the USDM Jam 9.0 Coverage!
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 8…
Damn, it’s been awhile but now we are finally back with another major update on the ongoing Rywire ITR build. There hasn’t been much news until now because the entire chassis has been down at ASC Speed Metal in east county San Diego. They are pretty busy working on a number of different projects for customers so they haven’t been able to devote 100% of their time to Ryan’s ITR. It’s completely understandable and we aren’t really in a rush to finish the car since we want the guys down at ASC to be able to have creative freedom to do their best work. When it comes to metal fabrication, these guys are at the top of their game so Ryan has been pretty open to any ideas they have for him regarding his ITR and the results have been amazing thus far…
We have an update for you guys today because the guys at ASC gave Ryan a call to go down there to iron out some details on his car. Since the moment the car was brought down to San Diego, we knew that we would have to make a couple trips down there and update from there so Monday was the perfect time to start. We all met up at the Rywire facility around 10am and hopped in his daily Civic coupe and started our trip down to Santee, CA..
Ryan and I were talking on the way down and trying to figure out what had been done to the chassis so far. We really had no idea what condition the car was in so Ryan was pretty excited to see the progress on it. When we arrived, they walked us straight to the car and we started to look through it to see the additions…
Here’s a look at ASC Speed Metal and the portion of the shop where the Rywire ITR sat. It’s a pretty small spot, there’s another side but it’s just another section that’s about the same size… Pretty crazy to think how many crazy projects and products have come out of there with the limited amount of room they have to work with…. I’m sure you’re wondering about the EF to the left just because of the fab work you can spot immediately but that’s a story to be told later. It belongs to our buddy Jimmy and when that thing comes out, man, it’s going to be something you have to see in person…
When Ryan originally had the cage work and paint done, he had no idea the car would ever end up down at ASC. Otherwise, he would have just waited until all the fab work was done before having the chassis painted inside and out. Now that it’s down there, there will be a couple spots that will need to be touched-up but they have taken the proper steps to ensure that the paint remains intact…
Most of the new work is being performed inside the car and they have a giant blanket covering the bay…
Just so you guys are wondering, we aren’t hiding anything from anyone…the bay remains in the same condition it was when it was originally at Rywire. There hasn’t been anything new added yet but when there is progress, we will be sure to let you know…
Ryan getting acquainted with the new additions…
They had sent Ryan a photo of one of the door panels a week ago but we were pleasantly surprised when we saw that they had also made bead-rolled sheet metal panels for the rest of the interior…When looking at these photos, take into consideration that they are in-progress pics and there will be finishing touches to clean them up….
The overall fitment of the panels was great… As you can see, they have masked off portions of the chassis to prevent any possibility of scratching the new paint… The panels are also bolted in place and are easily removable should Ryan ever need to remove them…
I should also mention that the panels are raw aluminum and the orange tone you see is a reflection from the paint. When it’s all said and done, Ryan will most likely keep them this finish. Gabe, one of the main fabricators over at ASC, told us that the panels are shaped in a way to be symmetrical with the cage as well. Pretty cool idea that they came up with and one of the great things about the guys at ASC. These guys just have ideas for days. I was surprised by the amount of ideas being exchanged by everyone there…
The two-piece rear trunk panel…
One major piece that they created that we have to show you guys is the custom steering column that they fabricated completely from scratch. It is also still a work in progress and isn’t connected to the steering rack yet but we just have to show it off. As wild looking as it is, this steering column is one of the components that you won’t even see later on when the dash is completed….
When you’re looking at this ITR in the future in its completed state, remember to let the people around you know that this piece is under the dash. It is almost sort of a shame that you won’t be able to see this later because people won’t even be able to grasp the concept of how this thing looks and functions…
Here is a better look at it up-close…You can see to the right here and in the photo above how it is mounted to the factory bracket location…By the end of the day, the bracket pieces were already cut-off because they had to re-align the column to suit Ryan’s driving position…
Another close-up shot…
Here is a shot of the door panel and how the lines flow with the cage… It’s basically a raw metal panel right now and later on you’ll probably see a door handle find its way on there as well as a power switch for the window…
The door panel is rolled at the ends to go over the top of the door but it will be cut when the window glass is re-installed…
Here is another shot of the panels and how they are shaped in relation to the lines of the gutted interior…
Ryan’s Bride Zeta III bucket seat mounted to PCI seat brackets. He wasn’t sure at first what seat he was going to run when the car was finished but since they made measurements in accordance to his overall seating/driving position that day, he may just stick with the Zeta III…Also in this photo you can see how the steering column is mounted to the cage…
The position and angle of the column was going to have to be adjusted either way since it was a one-off piece. Since it will be set to Ryan’s specific position, the seat height and the size of the steering wheel he is running is also an important factor to consider. You would think that it would be pretty general but since Ryan is utilizing a lot of custom components, it’s basically like re-designing the cockpit from scratch…
Though it’s mounted and connected to the cage, Dana and Gabe made the ends of the column in such a way that it can easily be disconnected and re-aligned. I’ll have more detailed photos of how that whole end link works below after the column was removed…
One portion of the interior, made by the previous fabricator, that was removed was the battery box behind the passenger side of the car. We all agreed that it was sort of an eyesore so Ryan had them cut it off and ASC will be making another battery box…
This Tilton brake set-up is proving to be more of a headache than anything and another major reason why they had to figure out Ryan’s seating position in relation to the steering column and the distance he would be sitting at… Without hanging pedals and with these Tilton units mounted to the floor, everything changes. You would think that they could be mounted to the same general area as hanging pedals but since the Tilton units have resevoirs behind them, you just can’t mount them against the firewall. There are also fittings and brake lines that have to run out the back side of the pedals and that further pushes the pedals forward….
You can see here how the Tilton pedals are mounted to the floorboard…
One other issue that nobody expected was how the seat was positioned. Apparently a passenger seat rail (the one in use) is different than a right hand drive seat rail. The position of the seat is off to the right (closer to the door) compared to where the original steering wheel would be. To alleviate that problem, Ryan will probably have to flip one side of the seat mounts to shift the seat back to the correct position…
Another issue that popped up was the angle of the steering column. While it was initially aimed higher, making the steering wheel an obstruction to Ryan’s view, moving it down lead to the steering wheel hitting Ryan’s legs…
He could move the seat back but then he would have a problem reaching the shifter…The majority of the day we spent at ASC was trying to figure out how to make the pedal set-up work and how to modify the Tilton set-up so that it could be moved further back…
Here’s a better perspective of how close the Tilton pedals are to the length of the steering column…
Gabe from ASC Speed Metal flipping the seat rail inside the ITR while Ryan and Jay from PG+K look on…
While Gabe was working on the seat position, Dana was busy working on the throttle pedal potentiometer…
The potentiometer is from a drive-by-wire vehicle that will need to be mated to the Tilton assembly. This will make his ITR cable-less and the throttle will be controlled electronically. This gives Ryan the ability to tune traction and use his engine management system to its full potential. It’s far more then it being aesthetically-pleasing to the eye, drive-by-wire is new technology that will be seen in many more race-quality builds in the future…
The process involved in getting this to work is attaching the Heim bolt on the gas pedal of the Tilton assembly and attaching it to the potentiometer aka TPS aka silver thing with a spring on it…
Here is another angle…The bracket on the potentiometer is also bent because of the way it will be mounted later on in the car….
Dana showing Ryan the bracket that he created for the Heim bolt…
Here is how the bracket looks and how the Heim bolt will be mounted…
The pedal assembly being re-mounted after it was modified slightly to sit further back. The plate on the floor was welded in place before the car was painted and the holes you see on the plate are mounting points to where the pedal assembly can be mounted. Here in the photo they are mounting it to its furthest mounting position…
Ryan getting back into the driver’s seat to see if he likes the changes…
The Tilton Master cylinders were sitting close to the firewall, so the mounting surface had to be reversed to allow more room for the pedals to sit further back…
Dana from ASC taking the master cylinders off to reverse the mounting surface…
While that was going on, I snapped another photo of Ryan’s rear sheet metal panels…These are all just mocked-up at this point and Gabe literally put the trunk panel in after we got there to test fit it…
A quick shot of how the cockpit will look with the seat, cage, and door panel. We are all pretty curious to see how the dashboard is going to look when they get to it. Ryan has given them pretty much all the freedom they want in terms of how creative they want to get with it as long as he is still able to incorporate his switch/relay panel and other electronics…
Speaking of that, here are some photos of new parts he’s gathered since the last update. I wasn’t able to document this stuff because it was all down in San Diego already but Dana had it all in one large box so we pulled it out to get photos of it…
AEM 4-channel UEGO to measure air/fuel ratios…
MoTec CDL3 dash display that will be incorporated into the custom dash that ASC is making…
MoTeC PDM16 that will be responsible for controlling the water pump, cooling fans, the two Bosch fuel pumps, and miscellaneous things like lighting, etc… The part to the right is the 16-channel switch panel associated with the PDM16 unit… They will be labeled once Ryan wires the car up and figures out what button will operate what…
Ryan in the Zeta III once again after the Tilton assembly was re-mounted. With that in place, the next order of business was to figure out the steering column angle…
Dana unbolting the steering column from its mounting points and tilting it lower to where Ryan wants it…
It was pretty cool to see how it unbolted and came apart from the mount…You can see an “L-shaped” groove at each end of the bar…
…and this is how it comes apart. Once the tilt angle is decided, everything will be re-mounted and welded together…
How it looks from the back of the Integra after the column was removed…
Dana cutting down the mounting area so that the steering column can tilt lower…
Ryan testing the angle to see if there is any obstruction…After he was able to get the angle he wanted, they tested it once again with a smaller steering wheel, hoping to fix the problem with the wheel hitting his legs if he were to turn the wheel at full lock. The smaller wheel proved to be the best solution and we now know that any wheel 330mm or smaller will provide the optimal room he needs, with consideration taken to leg room as well as visibility. After that it was pretty much it for our day at ASC Speed Metal. It was quite the learning experience over there and I think we all have a better idea of how much work is involved with completing this project. Now that they know how Ryan is going to be seated in his ITR, they can get to work on the dashboard as well as the rest of the interior. When we got there we were excited with seeing all the progress on the car but it was a good reminder of how much more needs to be done before we can see this thing on the road… If you thought this was mind-numbing, just imagine that this is just the beginning of the build…we still have the motor, wiring, suspension, getting the brakes to fit, as well as what wheels to run. Then after that, there is the electrical side of things and how the car is going to run with the new AEM Infinity engine management system and the custom drive-by-wire set-up. It is going to be a wild ride…I hope you guys stick around to see the final product because it is something that you will have never seen before…
Oh, random, but after that, we had to stop by Lolita’s Taco Shop since we were in San Diego. We were at ASC much longer than we expected and we were starving by the time we left….
Here’s a California Burrito that I got from Lolita’s, which is a carne asada burrito filled with french fries, sour cream, and guacamole…
…and the rest of the guys got carne asada fries…
As for Jimmy Harris’ EF build…it’s pretty mind-blowing the type of stuff they are doing to it. I wish I would have asked Jimmy if I could take photos of it but I don’t want to spill the beans on his build so it’ll be something that we will talk about another time… The sheer amount of custom fabrication on this car is just insane…
That’s all for now. The next time you’re going to see an update on the Rywire ITR it will probably be down at ASC once again. I know it’s a lot of information to process but I appreciate those of you who have taken the time to absorb it all… Thanks for looking…and stay tuned…
Exclusive Content: Unpublished Photos of Brian Arias’ Civic from Import Tuner Nov. ’11…
These batch of photos are actually pretty old considering the amount of work that has come through my desk already. I usually post up the unpublished photos of various shoots I did a month after they have appeared in print. Somehow this had slipped through the cracks and I noticed I hadn’t posted these up when going through my computer last night. I’ve known about Brian Arias and his Civic for quite a while now but never really considered it for a magazine feature. Okay, that sounds bad, but it’s not. You have to sort of look at the wide spectrum of the Honda community these days and there are just so many builds out there that are way more intricate and just full of parts and custom fabrication. There is just so much competition these days and it’s rare to see a Civic as simple as Brian’s in a magazine. Charles Trieu, the head honcho over at Import Tuner, requested that I find this car and do a story on it for his magazine. I already knew Brian so it was pretty easy to get a hold of him. Charles is more of an old school Honda head. He’s built Hondas in his time as well and his EF was pretty well known from back in the early 2000s. Charles has a bit of a unique eye and likes more simplified builds such as this one so it made sense that he wanted this car. You can almost think of this feature as a “throwback” of sorts in comparison to the Hondas you more commonly see today. It’s remarkably clean and very straight to the point. There isn’t anything over the top on the car and almost has a bit of a timeless feel to it because the parts you see on it would be relevant in any era. I personally love the color on this car and it really shows how clean the paint is in the photos…
I normally don’t like shooting in the valley (818 area), but it’s cool to shoot in other locations that aren’t downtown LA. I had to get this shoot finished during the middle of the week too to meet a deadline so it was just easier to shoot it up in a spot where there wasn’t much traffic and cars passing through. The spot I chose to shoot at is a regular spot of mine, though I don’t know why I shoot there because I am never happy with how the photos come out, haha. It’s just a really cramped area and I don’t like shooting in places where it is very compact. Especially for a darker car such as Brian’s where reflections become a huge factor in the outcome of the photos. All in all, I think these photos came out decent in print. It was my first time shooting for Import Tuner and it was a big deal for me to try to make it look good so that I could continue to get work from Charles. These were published back in November of 2011 but if I remember correctly, it was such much earlier than that, possibly around the middle of 2011.
Same rules apply as usual. You know the routine, click the links below each photo for a larger version. I’ve also taken the liberty of including the other photos that were actually published as well since the ones on the IT site are pretty small in size….
Click here for the original story in Import Tuner…
Thanks for looking…
Exclusive Content: Unpublished Photos of Cooper Boudia’s Integra from Super Street’s April ’12 Issue…
Here are a mixed batch of photos from Cooper Boudia’s Super Street story I did for the April 2012 issue. These were shot awhile back and months before I shot Brandon Burke’s S13 (which you can see in the post before this one). I first met Cooper last year when he PMed me on the NWP4Life forums inquiring about a parking spot for The Chronicles Year.Three Anniversary Meet. He had finished his car around that time and was bummed that he didn’t have any events to take his car to in his area. I told him I’d give him a spot if he was willing to make the drive so he made the drive down to California all the way from Olympia, WA. I thought he was crazy for being down to make that kind of drive but I was happy to meet him. He’s a super nice guy and had built himself a very nice Integra. He ended up winning an award at my event and I hit up Super Street magazine to see if they wanted his car. He was still in California a week or so after my event so if they wanted me to do a story on the car, I would meet up with him to shoot it. He was about 3 hours away from me but being that he made the trip down from Washington, I wasn’t about to make him drive south again for the photoshoot. Johnny Wong told me to go ahead and do the story so I set up a day to meet up with Cooper over in the area where he was staying at with a close friend of his. My daily is pretty old and beat up so I rented a car early that morning on the day of the shoot. It was a 6 hour drive round-trip and it was just to risky to take my 4Runner. I also called Big Mike the night before to see if he was down to roll out there with me and help out. He graciously accepted and off we went to San Luis Obispo, CA. Everything was good that morning until I realized that I couldn’t find the power supply to the Alien Bee strobes that I use. I was pretty bummed but time was running out, and we couldn’t exactly re-schedule since Cooper was leaving the next day. There was nothing I could really do so I just grabbed my back-up lighting equipment and took off…
The smaller flashes were fine but when I started shooting, they weren’t exactly working correctly. They wouldn’t fire when I wanted them too and were just working intermittently. I gave up on the lighting and just decided to shoot the car with whatever natural light I had. It was really overcast that day and we met up late so it was almost night fall by the time we started shooting. I think the photos suffered from that and I wasn’t really happy with the shoot after I finished it. I honestly wasn’t even happy with the photos after I submitted them to Super Street but when I saw them in published form, they came out better than I thought. I regret how the photos came out and really wished I could re-shoot Cooper’s Integra, but he’s all the way out in the state of Washington. Overall, I think the photos combined with the story made for a good feature. It’s not my best work and compared to the photos of Brandon Burke’s S13, these photos aren’t anywhere close in quality. I chalked it up as a learning experience and I feel that I’ve gotten better since then. I eventually found the power supply too. It was in the backseat of my Q45 that I had tucked away in storage…
Props to Cooper Boudia for building a really nice, clean Integra. His build thread is one of the best of 2011 and he’s very deserving of a feature because he basically did everything on this car on his own in a garage…
Anyways, enough talking… Check out the photos below. Same rules apply as usual, links to the larger photos appear below each pic. I didn’t have that many unpublished photos since there weren’t that many shots to begin with. Being that the online version of the story is kind of screwy and only half the photos appear in full-size, I’ve gone ahead and included the published photos as well so you guys can see high-res versions of the shots. I don’t know what happened to the online version of the story but I’ve attached the link to that below so you can read the story if you missed it…
Enjoy…
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ONLINE VERSION OF COOPER’S STORY FROM THE APRIL 2012 ISSUE OF SUPER STREET
Thanks for looking…
Exclusive Content: Unpublished Photos of Brandon Burke’s RB-S13 from Super Street’s April ’12 Issue…
Now that the April 2012 issue of Super Street has officially come and gone, I figured now would be as good a time as ever to toss up the rest of the shots that didn’t make the cut. I took a lot of photos of this car that morning of the shoot because it’s a build that I personally really enjoyed. I was the one that spotted this coupe at Hot Import Nights L.A. last year and was the one that pitched this car to Jonathan Wong, the head honcho over at Super Street magazine. Soon after the car debuted, it became quite popular and people left and right wanted to shoot it and do a story on it. Luckily, I was quick with it and Johnny was interested in featuring it in SS. Of all my time shooting and writing story’s for magazines, Brandon Burke’s S13 is right up there as one of my personal favorite shoots. I was very happy with how the photos came out and I had a great experience working with Brandon. He’s a bit of a quirky guy but he’s a nice dude. I had only spoken with him briefly before we met up to shoot his car but I was immediately acquainted with his odd sense of humor. Another reason why I thoroughly enjoyed shooting his car was because I had previously never shot in just a wide open space. I don’t even fucking remember where I shot this car, but it was in the middle of nowhere, and it was cold as fuck. I mean, it was somewhere in the desert but I can’t think of the name at the moment. It was so cold, that the water inside the tire tread marks in the mud were frozen solid. I remember having only one glove that morning too so I had one hand that wasn’t even functioning correctly. On the way to the location of the shoot, I also encountered the musical road for the first time. Do you guys remember seeing that Honda commercial where they drove over a portion of road that created the sound of a song? Well, I found it and apparently it wasn’t the original location. They had moved that musical road over to that area because after hearing the song for 3 or 4 times, it gets pretty damn annoying. I remember Brandon texting me that morning on the way to the location that the musical road was there, I drove over it, and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Than we set up to shoot about a mile or so away from there and after hearing car after car driving over it, it wasn’t so cool anymore. I am still haunted by the song to this very day…
Anyways, it was a great experience for me because I had never shot in a desert environment before. The sun came out unusually early that morning too, which helped to produce some interesting effects. In the photos you’ll see the sun just blazing down, and while it would appear to be hot, it was cold as shit…or should I say shit as cold because it was so cold that morning that if I took a public dump, it would have came out like an icicle spear from Sub Zero in Mortal Kombat. They say the most painful shots turn out to be the best ones, and I have to say that while these aren’t the best, they are defintely some of my favorites. A couple other interesting things to note are that the rolling shots were completely unplanned. I usually have someone roll with me to my shoots and they can drive my car while I take the rolling shot, but nobody wanted to go to the freezing desert with me that morning. I didn’t expect anyone else to come along but Brandon’s friend ended up meeting up with us in the morning. The resulting rolling shots were taken by me, with a complete stranger (at that time) driving me in my car. I didn’t know the guy, I didn’t know if he had insurance, or if he even knew how to drive for that matter, haha. I had to get the shot so I let this dude drive me down some random stretch of road in a completely unfamiliar area. I am still alive so I guess it worked out. That complete stranger turned out to be Gus Rivera, who is also quite a talented photographer. Thank you for not stealing my car and murdering me. Thank you also for driving at a steady pace for me to get the shots I needed. With that said, the same rules apply as normal. Below each photo is a link to a larger version. I liked these photos so much that the larger versions are even larger than normal. Instead of their typical 1400×933 format, I’ve bumped up the resolution to 1600×1067. Fucking neato. I’ve also attached two 1080P desktop-sized images for you guys who like to change your desktop images. You can’t always have a naked broad on your screen. Sometimes mom likes to come over and she’d rather see unpublished images from cars featured in Super Street magazine….
Oh, that other interesting tidbit that I forgot to mention was that I had to use Photoshop to add lug nuts to his car. The man can build the shit out of a car inside his crappy garage, but he can’t for the life of him have a complete set of lug nuts on each wheel. I didn’t even notice until I got home that day from the shoot that a couple of his wheels only had three lug nuts holding them on. I didn’t want the close-ups of the wheels to reveal that so I took the liberty of adding lug nuts to the photos. You probably won’t even notice it with the size of these photos but I thought it was funny. I never had to do that before for a feature and I don’t think anyone would have ever noticed if I didn’t mention it. You can try to take a close look at the photos to see which ones had lug nuts added. If you look at some of the other shots and compare them, I think you’ll start to spot them. In any case, that shouldn’t take away from the car and the owner, it’s still a beauty of a S13…
Enjoy and don’t steal my images. I mean, you can save them and shit but don’t fuck with the watermarks. I made them all gold and fancy this time too…leave them be and whore the photos if you please. If you don’t like them, ehh, fuck off, I don’t know. Go find something else to do but stare at things you don’t like…
Yes, your eyes don’t deceive you, the paint on the bumpers do not match… and no shits were given by Brandon Burke… The man painted the car himself, give him a break… Larger Version (1600×1067)
Look closely… 
Larger Version (1600×1067)
Larger Version (1600×1067) Random, but I thought it was interesting that Burke’s coupe still retained the automatic seatbelts…even more interesting is that they still worked…
If you’re still trying to figure out the lug nut thing, this one is probably easier to spot…. Larger Version (1600×1067)
Larger Version (1600×1067) In some ways, this S13 is still related to this site because the front lip is actually from a Honda Accord, haha…I also love how down Brandon is to just drive at this ride height all the time….shit is just bananas…
According to the “HONDA KILLER” 240SX hatchback from the Formula D tech day coverage a couple days ago, having a RB25 apparently automatically demands respect from everyone else. Brandon just threw his motor in his car because he had it laying around… You don’t see him spray-painting “_______ KILLER” on his intercooler…. Larger Version (1600×1067)
Old school Signal Auto bucket looked like it had been sweated on a couple times and was exposed to copious amounts of sunlight…I’m glad I captured Brandon’s sweaty essence on this seat… While I would have liked to see more attention paid to the engine bay and interior, I almost prefer it to be this way because it reflects the grittiness of the build and how it was built inside his garage with a lot of spare parts…. It gives the car character. The outside is just pure white and so clean that you wouldn’t expect it to be built in a random house garage, the contrasting bay and interior says otherwise… Larger Version (1600×1067)
A pair of unused rolling shots below…
My favorite shots of the day were actually totally unplanned as well. I had met up with Brandon at his house early that morning to shoot, and I noticed how cluttered and trashed it was. Then after hearing him talk about the build, I knew that I had to get a shot of the car inside the garage. The car was so clean and the garage was so filthy that the two contrasting items just seemed to work well together. I shot these at the end when we returned to his house and I watched struggle to drag the low frame of his S13 into the garage. I told him to just act like he was working on the car while I snapped some photos. The sun was glaring down already, harshly onto the front end of the car as it sat in the garage, so I needed no artificial lighting to light the car. It was so bright that the resulting image of the front end almost looked cartoonish and unreal. The garage itself was still dark though so I used one strobe to backlight the car and garage. The shots below were outtakes because I didn’t have a set idea on where to place the strobe since he had stuff laying around everywhere. As it turned out, the random garage shots worked out and the final one I submitted ended up being the opener to the feature in the magazine…Pretty cool…
Of the three different variations I took, this one was probably my favorite, with the strobe directed back at Brandon as he looked at his creation…There was very little processing used for these shots. Just a whole lot of natural light with some backlit artificial lighting… Larger Version (1600×1067)
In this shot, the strobe is aimmed incorrectly because it had fallen over from whatever I had sat it against….the result wasn’t too bad though…And yes, that is a Subaru Boxer engine sitting on two old tires to the left of the shot… Larger Version (1600×1067)
The last two shots are 1080P sized desktop images. I realize now that since the photos above are already pretty large, they could be used as desktop images as well, but the two below are resized correctly to fit a widescreen format….
This was the actual rolling shot used for the Super Street feature… Desktop Version (1920×1080)
Thanks for looking…
Exclusive Content…Tactical Art EG6 Civic Gets Some New Shoes…
One of the many questions I often get asked when I post up photos of the Tactical Art cars is why one of them rolls around on XXR wheels. I too wondered the same thing so I asked Shimomukai-san, the owner, the reasoning behind using the wheel. If he liked them, then that was all good with me. I am not particularly a fan of the brand but to each their own. I enjoy all of the cars from Tactical Art because they are built with style and function in mind. These guys enjoy their cars by cruising around the streets in them, regularly attending small meets, as well as participating in track/circuit racing. I like what these guys are about so I can look past what wheels are on their car. Seeing the XXR wheel on his car was interesting though, considering how the other two cars you’ve come to know as “The Tactical Art Civics” are running SSR and Work wheels. Shimomukai-san’s explanation for his wheel choice was simple; he is a big fan of the American import automotive scene and wanted to bring that style over to Japan. While there are many who have the same idea as him, the sub-culture for USDM style is still rather small in that country. He also told me that he wanted to bring to Japan a more realistic view of the American style of Hondas. Shimo-san also wanted to run American-branded products on his Civic to use them on the track. He felt like it would be a good test to see how the parts held up. I can totally understand that and I have tons of respect for the guy for taking that route…
He asked me awhile back what was a good American-brand of wheel to run. I explained to him that there were a couple wheels that haven’t really been seen yet over in Japan like 949Racing wheels. He said that Japanese wheels are getting really expensive in Japan these days so he wanted to have a wheel from over here that people weren’t accustomed to seeing yet on a Honda in Japan. Shimomukai explained that brands like CCW and Rotiform are starting to appear in Japan now, but they are mostly used for show and haven’t really been used on the track yet. He then went on to tell me that he recently ordered a set of 15-inch Rotiform ROC wheels. While I am unsure if he plans to actually use these when he races, I was delighted to hear that he was going to have a new look that didn’t include anything from a company like XXR. Rotiform, as you all should probably know by now, is a pretty popular wheel company these days that is based out of Westminster, California. Their wheels are starting to show up everywhere in the U.S. so it makes sense that the Japanese enthusiasts have taken a liking to them. Their wheels are custom built out here in the U.S. and represents the latest in American import styling so it was a good choice for Shimomukai. It took a while for them to finally be built and shipped over to Japan but when the wheels arrived, Yasutaka was quick to grab the process on camera for us…
I’m sure he was like a kid on Christmas when these were dropped off at the shop…
Unpacking his gold-faced Rotiform Race ROC wheels…These are a vast improvement over his old wheels because these are actually forged multi-piece wheels and not wheels that are cast-molded to look like they are….
I am not sure on the specs because I forgot to ask Shimomukai-san, but you can clearly see that they are very aggressive…no stagger either, they are the same specs all the way around. When he had his car painted, fender modification was done to be able to house wheels of these sizes and specs….
They have their own tire-mounting machine as well so there is no need to wait around at a tire shop or risk some dim-witted employee damaging the massive lips of those wheels…Look at the stack of R-compounds on the side!…
Getting ready to stretch some 15-inch tires!…
A couple days after he mounted the tires and had them fitted on his EG6, Yasutaka headed out to meet up with his friends from Team Madame to get some new photos…
Here’s a shot finally of the ROCs on his EG6…changes the whole look of the car and while it may be a little over the top, fitment-wise, for many, I think it accomplishes the look that he was going for… Click here for a larger version (1400×933) ….
Shot of the rear-quarter…. Click here for a larger version (1400×933)….
A couple close-ups of the rear…
Here are some photos that they took that night of some of the Team Madame cars…
Beeyan Hamada’s Toyota Wish mini-van on Work Meister S1R…
Kazuya Kawashima’s Honda StepWGN, also on S1Rs…
I am unsure of this gentleman’s name, but he is a regular over at Tactical Art as well… This photo doesn’t really do this Ej1 coupe any justice so click here for a daytime photo… you kind of have to dislocate your neck to get a good look at it though, haha…
Masashi Kameoka’s Toyota Mark X with newly-installed HKS coilovers and Work Meister S1….
Here are a couple shots of Shimomukai’s EG6 during the day so you can see how the Rotiform wheels look…
Posted up in front of Tactical Art… Click here for a larger version (1400×933)….
Thanks for looking… As the slogan reads.. “Enjoy car life”…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 7…
It’s been awhile since we did one of these so today we are going to take a look at part 7 of the ongoing Rywire Integra Type R build. Ryan has slowly been making progress on the car and it’s getting to the point now where it’s starting to look more like an actual ITR and not just a Integra shell with a cage. As well as the build has been going, it just wouldn’t be realistic if there weren’t some problems or issues along the way. Ryan is just like everyone else and he makes mistakes and miscalculations and as everyone knows, things don’t always go as planned. While the build has progressed, it’s also taken a couple steps back in some ways. I’ll let Ryan dive right into it and tell you what’s going on and then I will take care of the rest with some more detailed photos of the progress…
Before we move any further, I’d like to remind you guys that there are six other parts previous to this one describing Ryan’s ITR build. If you are new to the site and haven’t had a chance to learn more about this wild project yet, please click the attached links below to read all about it and catch up…
Okay with that out of the way, let’s get on with the photos…
As Ryan said, the motor has now been dropped into the car. It is far from running condition so don’t expect anything like that to happen anytime soon. The motor was put into the chassis more for mock-up reasons. Again, as Ryan said, the whole car will be transported down to ASC Speed Metal where they will be doing a grunt of the remaining fabrication work. With the motor mounted, they will be able to fab up whatever else is missing from the bay as well as re-fabricating the intercooler piping since the intake side is now hitting the dry sump unit…
So you guys can get a good idea of what the problem is, here is the pipe in question lightly mounted to show how the dry sump is interfering with its route…
Since that side has to be completely re-done anyway, Ryan decided to just ditch this whole intercooler set-up completely and will have ASC fabricated new piping for this side, shortening the pipe travel. Ryan also plans to run a different intercooler core now as well and is moving onto a more efficient unit…The baller-ass Wiggins clamps will remain…
Here’s a look at the bay from another angle… I know the dump pipes exiting out of the passenger side of the ITR may look a little odd right now, but once everything is finished, those ends of the pipes will be cut and will be flush with the hood (or as close to the hood anyway)…
Kind of a shame to see this intercooler core and piping go considering how it looks pretty good mocked-up at this point…It just looks menacing and it’s not even nearly finished yet…
In the previous portion of this build, I gave you guys a unfinished look at the opposite side of the firewall where the brake lines were ran to the pedal assembly. Well as you can see above, the brake lines are now complete. All it was missing was a bracket to mount the fittings and Louie from L-Con Race Cars came through and created one…
Also in Part 6 of the build, I showed you guys a shot of the Wilwood brakes he had planned to run before plans changed. One reason behind the change was that Ryan picked up a set of lightly-used AP Racing brakes that he felt were more suited for the car….
After Ryan picked them up from Norcal, he was eager to bring them back to the shop for a test fit. Unfortunately, there was a minor issue with the mounting bracket and the positioning of the brake rotor and caliper on the hub. With this set of parts, the brakes actually sit a little too far out and the wheels wouldn’t even have a chance of fitting. Ryan then contacted ATS Garage member Ryan Der, who also has a set of AP Racing brakes, and traded measurements. He found out that the brackets that Ryan was running on his EK Civic are a lot like the brackets he has, just with the right sizing for it to fit onto his suspension and hub so he will have a bracket fabricated to make these things work…
A shot of the Precision turbocharger that Ryan will be running…
Ryan is a very particular guy when it comes to his builds and he’s now decided that he doesn’t like the way one of the dump tubes look so he will have ASC make another one to his satisfaction… I think it looks fine but it’s hard to say how it’ll all come together when the bay is finished and the hood is on the car…
I’m personally very excited to see how this valve cover is going to look once it’s cleaned up and coated. Ryan hasn’t decided on a color for it yet but I just love how it’s all smoothed and streamlined… Though the Deutsch connectors may be very small in nature, I think they will be very noticeable once everything is finished. There are just two plugs exiting out from the custom valve cover so it should be very easy to spot….
The dry sump unit without any piping interfering with it…
The Blueprint Racing K-Series waterpump block-off plate sitting just above the dry sump unit…This plate will probably be a little difficult to see later on when the alternator is mounted in front of it…
Good to see this thing finally on the floor… As you can see, Ryan has decided to put the OEM ITR wheels back on the chassis. He had to do this because the Regamaster Evos that he had planned on using for the build just plain do not fit the car now with the tires mounted on them. Ryan isn’t much for stretching tires so he will just go another route as far as wheels go. I know you guys remember me saying that the front fenders were designed around the Regamasters but that was the wheel itself without the meaty tire that he had planned to use. Ryan has a lot of options though so it won’t be much of a problem getting a wheel with the proper sizing on it. If anything, the AP Racing brakes would have made the Regamasters null anyways because of the sizing and how it is being mounted to the knuckle…
A side profile shot so you guys can see how much wider the front fender is in comparison to the OEM ITR wheel…
…and another angle so you can see how far in the stock wheels fit. I think I’m secretly happy that the Regas didn’t fit on the car…with such a wild build, I almost fell like this car needs a more aggressive wheel. Not in sizing, but in design….While the Regamaster Evo is a classic wheel, it’s just so simple and it would have been difficult to reproduce the original Regamaster decals in orange like how Ryan wanted them… Now there are all kinds of possibilities for wheel choices…
A firewall-side view of how the motor looks with the side-draft turbo manifold…Crazy to think how this bay is going to look when it’s all completed. Note the second Deutsch connector coming from the backside of the valve cover…
Random but I just liked the way the cage looked against the light…Gotta get these types of shots in before the glass and all kinds of other shit goes back into the car….
Funny but while, Ryan, DPK David, and I were hanging out in the back of the shop discussing Ryan’s build, someone came peeking through the door and scared the shit out of us. Tetsuya Yamaguchi from USDM Jam came all the way out to America for Wekfest and stopped by the shop the week after. It was his first opportunity to look at Ryan’s build and he was all smiles….I just love how on any given day, two completely different worlds can unite and it’s all just for something as simple as a car hobby… Good stuff…
That’s all for now. The next time we will be talking about this ITR is when it is down at ASC. I’ll try my best to make it down there when they are working on it to get some progress shots. Until then, we can all just sit back in anticipation….
Thanks for looking…
Exclusive Content: Tactical Art Meets Super Street Magazine…
One of the many great things about meeting the guys over at Tactical Art is that Yasutaka Shimomukai, Atuki Tubouti, and friends are constantly taking photos of whatever they are doing and sending them over to me. They are always up to something so it’s cool to be able to see what goes on over in Japan at their shop. Recently, they opened up their doors to the staff of Super Street magazine when they flew out there for Tokyo Auto Salon 2012. I served as the bridge between the two parties and helped set-up the meeting since Jonathan Wong wanted to shoot a couple of their Hondas for a future feature in Super Street. I asked Yasutaka if he could grab some photos while the Super Street guys were there and he was more than willing to take some pics. Below are photos from that day and you will also see a couple new cars that you hadn’t seen before from some close friends of Tactical Art; a crew by the name of “Team Madame”. They had three cars in particular that aren’t even available in the U.S. so it was even more interesting to see how they looked modified…
The photos aren’t in any particular order. You’ll see the Super Street guys there and then a couple photos from a mini-shoot that they did on their own after the SS guys took off…Enjoy…
The Tactical Art trio…Yasutaka’s EG up front, Atuki’s in the back, and their friend, Taku Kusugami’s EK…
Sean K., Jonathan Wong, and Sam Du checking out the Tactical Art cars…
The Super Street guys setting up the equipment for the shoot…
Wong and their Japanese translator, Tetsuya Ogushi, looking on…
Posted-up outside of the shop was Team Madame’s Toyota Wish mini-van, owned by Beeyan Hamada…
Also outside was Kazuya Kawashima’s Honda StepWGN from Team Madame…
Not familiar with that particular brand of brakes but the StepWGN as well as the Toyota Wish are on Work Meister S1Rs…
Mr. Beeyan Hamada sharing a photographic moment with Bernice Guevarra (art director from Source Interlink), Jonathan Wong, and Sam Du…
The SS staff preparing for some interior shots of Taku’s EK…
Team Madame getting acquainted with Super Street magazine and American import models…
Atuki positioning his EG for the shoot…
One car that I really wished that we had in the U.S. is the GRX133 Toyota Mark X…This is another car from Team Madame and just looks perfect on bronze Work Meister S1 wheels…
The SS staff taking a break to inhale some Japanese coffee in a can…
Taku Kusugami’s EK post-shoot…
Totally coincidental, but during the day of the shoot, I received a text message from Jonathan Wong telling me that the Tactical Art guys received my package of Chronicles merchandise I had sent over a week before. Pretty cool that it arrived on the same day as the shoot…
Masashi Kameoka putting a Chronicles decal on his 2nd gen. Mark X…
After a chunk of time, the Super Street guys finished-up their shoot and headed back to their hotel…
Since they had all the cars at the shop already, Yasutaka Shimomukai decided to get some more photos of the cars in front of the shop…
All you wheel fitment guys will appreciate Kameoka’s Mark X…
A couple more shots of Team Madame’s Toyota Wish…
Interesting to see that in their quest to adapt the U.S. “Hellaflush” style, Pedobear has also made the transition. This rendition is slightly modified though and his pink and rocking gold earrings…
The Wish’s custom side-exit exhaust…
Sticker-bombed Recaro bucket seats in the Wish…
Side view of the Team Madame Mark X…
Team Madame X Tactical Art…
Hamada applying a limited edition Year.Three Chronicles decal onto the windshield of his Toyota Wish…
The guys chillin’ in the shop after the cars were moved back inside…
That’s pretty much it from that day. I don’t know if you guys are at all interested or not but I’ve taken the liberty of creating some 1080P-sized desktop wallpapers for you guys, featuring the Team Madame vehicles. If you like them, go ahead and click the links below for the full-size images…
Masashi Kameoka’s Toyota Mark X…. Desktop Version (1920×1080)…..
Kameoka’s Mark X and Hamada’s Wish… Desktop Version (1920×1080)…
That’s a wrap, thanks for looking…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 6…
I wanted to jump into some event coverage today but I’m not finished yet with the photos from the latest It’sJDMYo.com event. I’m about 95% finished but I’d rather just wait until tomorrow when they are all done before starting on part 1 of the coverage. Today, we are going to jump right into part 6 of the Rywire Integra Type R build. There was a short update last week but Ryan actually found some time over the weekend to work on the car so I stopped by to check it out. These photos are only a couple hours or so old so this is literally how the car sits at this exact moment. There will be more updates coming up soon but I believe the car will be heading down to ASC Speed Metal for some custom fabrication in a couple weeks. We’re going to take a look at Ryan’s Tilton brake set-up that he mocked up over the weekend. There is still a lot to be done before the brake pedal assembly will be operational but I figure now would be a good time to introduce it to you guys before more stuff is going into the car. I’ll let Ryan Basseri himself take over for a quick minute so that he can explain it to you guys, check out the video before you jump into the photos below…
Here are some photos so you guys can get a better idea of what he is referring to…
Here is the Tilton pedal assembly mounted on the car. As he said above, there is still an extra pedal that will need to be retrofitted to the Tilton assembly to make the drive-by wire system operational…
A driver-side view of the pedal assembly. The gas pedal assembly from the Subaru STI is actually kind of far off from where it needs to be so it’ll be interesting how it will look when it’s been modified. Ryan tells me that the brake and clutch pedal will be moved further back as well…
Custom brake hard lines that Ryan started on but has not yet completed…
This is the Tilton brake bias/proportioning valve that will later be run under the exhaust tunnel which will give Ryan the ability to adjust rear his braking…
Ryan also spent some time over the weekend installing his Hybrid Racing shifter assembly…
Here are some other parts that are waiting to go on the car…
I may have already taken a photo of this before but since he had it on hand, I figured I’d show you the intake manifold that he will be running…
Here are pretty much all the pieces for his dry sump oiling system. This dry sump unit is what makes it possible for Ryan to modify his valve cover the way he did with deleting the oil filler, dip stick, and crankcase ventilation…
Blueprint Racing’s K-series alternator bracket…I believe this is used to eliminate the OE K-series water pump and to allow the usage of an older B/D-series alternator. Ryan will be utilizing a electric water pump instead because it reduces drag from the crank and will allow his K to produce more power…
Rywire brake hoses that will be used for Ryan’s ITR…
Remember how I showed you guys his custom valve cover last week? Well, Ryan also spent quite a bit of time over the weekend making the ignition harness that will be going under the modified K-Tuned wire cover. I did an overlay shot above where you can get a good idea of how everything will look once the harness is finished and the cover will be mounted. When the car is finished, I doubt many of you guys will be able to see what’s going on from the ignition coils out to the engine harness so here’s your chance…The dimple dyes in the plate will give you a very small hint but you’ll mostly be seeing the custom made harness only…You can also see in the photo how the Deutsch connectors will look exiting drilled holes in the valve cover…
Here it is without the cover…nothing is mounted yet and is just a basic mock-up of the finished product…
The back side of the valve cover, completely streamlined with just a single connector peaking out…
Most people get excited by sports, girls, drugs, etc….Ryan on the other hand, gets incredibly excited when he creates custom electrical parts like the harness for his camshaft sensor…
He insisted that I take a photo of it even though he has yet to finish it and put a connector on the end… I mean, the guy is a genius when it comes to this kind of stuff and he creates product of only the utmost quality… I’m not going to tell you where you guys need to get your stuff from because you should know very well who to go to…
That wraps it up for today…Make sure to check back for more on this build later. Tomorrow is part one of the “So you think you can STANCE?” event coverage…thanks for looking…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 5…
While I would really like to give you a full in-depth update on Rywire’s Integra Type R, I can’t because the progress on it has been relatively slow. Ryan is brainstorming everyday and the car has already come together in his mind, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day for him to execute his plans. When we followed Big Mike’s Prelude re-build, it went significantly faster because Big Mike had set a target date for it to be complete. With Ryan’s build, there really isn’t a set date for it to debut. Wekfest SF 2012 would have been an amazing place for it to debut but with so many customers and a company to maintain, it just wasn’t feasible to put everything aside to work on a personal project. It’s been pretty busy ever since the chassis arrived back at the Rywire facilities so Ryan and staff have been busy knocking out custom harnesses and other work for customers. His Integra chassis has been sitting in the corner, directly behind the table where he does his everyday work. He’s been itching to work on it and every time he gets out of his seat, the car is right there staring at him waiting to be re-assembled. He hasn’t forgotten the car by any means, the Rywire business just comes first. Many of you should understand that and if you don’t, you need to understand how to manage priorities better in your own life, haha. Today we’re going to be taking a quick look at some small updates just so we keep the flow of this build going. It’s been awhile since we did an update and I felt that it was time to give the public some information on the build… After Wekfest SF, I am sure he will have more time to work on the car, in the mean time, we just have to wait just like Ryan…
As you can see, the chassis itself has not moved since it’s returned to Rywire…There are a couple more things around it though, like a stock engine harness that’s laying on the floor for a customer’s project. A couple days before this, I wouldn’t even have been able to take a shot like this because there were other cars occupying space inside the shop…Click for Larger Version here (1400×933)
Like the outside, the interior remains completely untouched…he’s kept it clean though, haha…
One notable update that’s worth mentioning is Ryan’s custom valve cover. He had Louie from L*Con Race Fabrication shave and smooth out a stock K-series valve cover, removing everything that Ryan deemed unnecessary. The dipstick and mounting area has been deleted and filled as well as the crankcase ventilation area. There’s no need for ventilation because he will be running a dry sump oiling system. There were some areas on the edge of the valve cover that were raised by design from the factory but even those have been shaved for a more streamline look. Unless you are familiar with how a K valve cover looks, you probably won’t really notice what has been changed, which might also be a good thing, because it’s so streamlined that you would think it came that way from the factory. If you take a closer look, even the oil cap and oil filler section has been filled and smoothed out. Once this thing is coated, it’s going to be amazing… Also notice on the K-Tuned spark plug wire cover how dimple dies have been added. I believe the positioning of the holes exist as well so you can see peek inside and see the coils…
On the backside of the valve cover, you’ll also notice that the top corner has been filled in, along with the area where the harness would normally run to the coils. Instead of having all the deviations and square edges, Ryan opted to have the whole area filled with just a hole drilled out to make room for a shell size 8 Autosport connector. All necessary wiring to the coil packs will run through the connector….
His Wilwood brakes recently came in and were ready to go on the car, but Ryan’s ideas are ever evolving and he decided to pick up a set of AP Racing brakes and now this Wilwood kit is up for sale…Once those come in, we will be able to mock them up on the hub and see how the wheels clear in relation to the custom front fenders…
These exact connectors aren’t for Ryan’s ITR but he will be using Deutsch connectors when his harness starts to come together… Not much of an update until we actually start getting all the wiring done but it gives you an idea of what he’s going after electronically…
Meanwhile, moving at an even slower pace, is DPK Darryl’s EM1 coupe….it’s looking much better these days but hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next decade…
That’s pretty much it for now. I know you guys have been waiting on good updates on this build and trust me, I’m right there with you. Every time I go down to the shop I walk over to the car to see if anything’s been added. You can see in this shot that Ryan’s been trying to install his FCS-made fuel cell. I think he had to modify the brackets a bit but the cell should be mounted by the weekend… Click here for a Larger Version (1400×933)…
Thanks for looking… updates will come when Ryan decides to update his car…haha…
The Chronicles’ Choice…Favorite Non-Honda Builds of 2011…
Well this is a first…During the last couple months when I was busy trying to figure out how the order of the Top Ten Hondas of 2011 would go, I came up with an idea to spotlight some of my favorite non-Honda builds of the year. I am after all, an avid automotive enthusiast and I love cars of all types. I don’t even own a Honda anymore personally, and I’ve at one time had a Toyota, Honda, and now a Nissan (Infiniti). I always have my eye out on everything because I can appreciate a great build without brand bias. Another reason why I’m always looking for great builds in general is because I work in the magazine industry. It’s sort of my job to go and seek out new cars to feature so I have to always be aware of new builds that are coming out every year. This list isn’t in any particular order, much like the 2011 Honors list, because I feel all these cars are great in their own right. All are very different builds and from varying parts of the world. Some I have seen in person, some I hope to someday see…either way, it’s my personal list of favorite non-Honda builds from 2011. The Top Ten Hondas list will always trump any other list I make here on The Chronicles but to show my deepest appreciation for their hard work, here are some builds that stood out to me the most and really captured my attention….
Joy Abdalla’s Subaru STI…
This car absolutely took my breath away when I first spotted it at the 2011 SEMA Convention…It’s just a great looking car. I love how aggressive the widebody is on it and how it still flows with the original lines of the STI. Where this build really shines though is under the hood…the bay is very well-done and one of the cleanest Subaru engine bays I have ever seen. Everything just comes together nearly perfectly…the custom paint, aero, engine bay, interior…man, just top-notch… I believe this is going to be in an issue of Import Tuner in the future so make sure to grab a copy of that. I had a chance to meet the owner at one of the industry parties’ during the SEMA weekend in Vegas last year as well and when David Do from MayDay Garage introduced us, I can honestly say that I was very surprised to see that it was a female owner. I’m not saying that I’m surprised that a woman can build a great car, because I’ve seen it plenty of times before…I’m just saying, a lot of STI owners are usually like bro’d-out white dudes or larger gentlemen that seem like they enjoy a good competitive game of Warcraft…haha, okay that’s not totally true but thumbs-up to Joy Abdalla for building herself a wonderful car. A favorite of mine for sure…
Nick Weir’s K20-powered Volkswagen Caddy…
Nick’s Caddy is probably one of the coolest builds of 2011. He wasn’t the first to do a K-swap in a VW Caddy but his is definitely the most well-rounded. When I first heard about this thing, I was really interested in seeing it in person. Luckily for me, I had a chance to fly out to Nashville, TN for the annual summer Import Alliance meet and I did indeed get the opportunity to see it for myself. There are little things here and there that obviously don’t make it “perfect” by any means, but Nick never intended it to be. It’s a little rough around the edges and that adds to the appeal of the truck. For what it is, the quality of work is very good. How often are you going to see a VW caddy with a K-swap and a battleship-greyish bay? It’s a one of a kind build with some unique personal touches to it that leave no question that it’s the work of Nick Weir. He was bummed that he didn’t get the Rotiform wheels that he wanted for it but the Work CR-01s look pretty good on there. This Caddy was one of the highlights for me in 2011 and I’m happy that I got to see it in person to appreciate it. Nick is a bit of a weirdo so his personality reflects his cars..haha. This thing is most certainly an odd-ball build but odd in a very cool way…
Machan’s A60 Toyota Carina wagon…
Speaking of oddball builds, this Toyota Carina wagon is about as outside of the box as it gets. I first spotted this thing at the Hellaflush Japan event and I’ve been looking for more information and photos of this wagon ever since. It has a Japanese Firetruck theme on the outside and apparently, it’s actually used at one of the firestations. I love how it’s a mix of genres and also a mix of old school styling and new technology. The bay is tuck and shaved with the cage running through the firewalls to the shock towers, and the heart of this Carina is a Toyota BEAM’s 3S-GE from the Japanese market Toyota Altezza. It also has individual throttle bodies, a custom header, and a custom semi-trailing arm suspension. If that’s not enough, this Carina also features a Tilton brake system and 14×8.5/9 RS Watanabe wheels…Man, this thing is so sick. I know that the “stance” and “hellaflush” style is just getting completely out of hand but when it comes to a build like this, it works…. Everything is over the top and not meant to be anything taken too seriously… I don’t know about you guys, but I thoroughly enjoy old school Toyotas, Nissans, etc. and it’s cool when you see something like this that has a mix of everything…
Jin Ueno’s Aimgain VIP Lexus LS400…
Jin’s LS from Kyoei USA has to be my favorite VIP build of 2011. I say that because I’ve always preferred the more traditional VIP “look” and Jin has executed it well. When I say “traditional”, I mean, it’s not just all about wheel fitment and modifying fenders. He has taken the time to create a well-round VIP project…he’s paid attention to the interior, which is essential when building a VIP project, and he’s added some one-off touches that make it stand-out in a sea of black and white VIP cars. I love the simplicity of the Aimgain kit and the contrast of the red pinstriping and red exhaust tips. It’s another car that flows every well because the owner has paid great attention to minor details. The red also transfers over to the front fogs, something you never really see, and the black/red them is also found throughout the re-wrapped and custom stitched interior….VIP-style isn’t all about cramming stupid wide wheels into your luxury/non-luxury vehicle and this is a great example of how to build a VIP-style car…
Wilson Tam’s Carlsson 2010 Mercedes Benz E350…
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not all that familar with European vehicles. It’s just not something that I’ve taken an active interest in throughout the years. I just love Japanese cars and Japanese automotive culture, so my attention has been devoted to that. When I ran into Wilson Tam’s E350 at SEMA 2011, it made me want to learn more about a car that I would otherwise overlook normally. It was sitting in the outside display area and it just looked so good sitting on the ground on some custom bronze BBS LMs. I walked up to it and noticed that it also had a full Carlsson aero kit. Everyday that I went to the SEMA show that week, I found myself stopping by to take another look at it. If you have seen my coverage from SEMA and Autocon in 2011, then you most likely have already heard me rambling on about how much I like this build…I’m not that big of a fan of Mercedes Benzs but I love this one…
Ka Wong’s F20C-powered AE86 Toyota Corolla…
I’m a big fan of Ka Wong because he not only built himself an amazing AE86 Corolla, he also happens to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. This car has been around for about two years now but I like the fact that he continues to add new stuff to it. This year, he showed-off his custom audio set-up in his trunk and it just makes his Corolla that much more untouchable at car shows. The guy has been a consistent winner and he’s very much deserving of all the accolades that he receives. It’s just one of those cars that you can’t help but notice, you know? Not only because of the bright orange color but because of the S2000 engine swap and the myriad of other things he’s put into this build. There are very few AE86 Corollas that are built this level of quality and I’m happy that I’ve had plenty of chances to see this Corolla in person.
Ryan Deguzman’s FD3S and FC3S RX-7s…
Ryan Deguzman happens to have a pair of two of the finest RX-7s in the west coast. I don’t know how or why he has both these sick ass builds so I’ll just sit back and enjoy the view. His FD RX-7 stands out much more because of the yellow tone but his white FC is not a car that you should just overlook. It’s in mint condition and I believe his FC is also his daily driver. I’ve included links below to take you to some online features of both cars so that you can read more about them if you choose. I’ve never had a chance to meet this guy or speak to him but he has great taste in parts and has a very good sense of style. I really like both of his RX-7s and they are definitely two highlight builds of mine in 2011…
Click here to read more about Ryan Deguzman’s FD3s RX-7…
Must be nice, right? Haha…round of a applause to this guy for having a pair of well-built Mazdas…
Brandon Burke’s S13 Nissan 240SX coupe…
I didn’t get a chance to see Brandon Burke’s S13 until December of 2011 but it immediately became a favorite of mine in 2011. I just love how simple it is and how it can still look really aggressive without having any wild aero. What I like the most about it is that it’s completely garage-built and everything but the paint itself was put together inside his crappy garage. It’s a little rough around the edges here and there but it’s almost a throwback to how cars were put together back in the day. Brandon is completely self-taught and put this whole car together himself without having the help of any shop or anything. I can’t say much more about it because his Super Street feature drops in about a month so just pick up that issue if you want to hear me write more about how great it is…
Mark Arcenal’s Hakosuka Skyline 2000GT…
2011 will probably be remembered as the year that Rauh Welt cemented it’s status in America and that’s largely due to the efforts of Mark Arcenal from Fatlace/Illest. His Rauh Welt Porsche was the talk of the second half of 2011 but my favorite Mark Arcenal automotive build will always be his Nissan Skyline 2000GT. I just feel that the Rauh Welt look is a look that Akira Nakai created and it will always be Nakai’s style. Mark’s Porsche was built to represent Rauh Welt so the car is very much Nakai’s creation and not truly his. His Skyline on the other hand, is more of Mark’s handy work and has more elements to it that are more representative of Arcenal himself. It’s not built off another car that’s already been done before and I love the overall look of it. It’s style in it’s purest form. I also enjoyed how Mark himself described the car in a video that I’ve attached below. Check it out and you’ll understand why I like this build so much more than “Pandora One”. You can tell how big of an enthusiast he is just by listening to him talk about his car…really neat stuff…
If the video link doesn’t work for you, click here to go to the page…
Well, that’s it for today. I promise this is the last of the “Top”-whatever lists. Haha…Time to move on to stuff that’s going on in 2012…Thanks for looking….
Exclusive Content: Tactical Art Japan…Track day at Nakayama Circuit Coverage…
Wouldn’t it have been great if I had actually been in the Okayama Prefecture in Japan, taking all these photos and covering stuff like this for you guys? Haha…some day I’ll make it to Japan and believe me, the coverage will be absolutely amazing. For now, we will just have to play a game of “make believe” and pretend that I was at the Nakayama Circuit covering one of Tactical Art and friends’ track days. It was cold and I probably didn’t get enough sleep the night before for whatever reason, maybe because I was following these guys around….In reality, I really do have coverage of this event though, and it comes courtesy of the guys from Tactical Art. Hopefully this isn’t your first day here on The Chronicles and you’ve become well-acquainted with who and what Tactical Art is. It’s pretty early so I’m not going to try and explain it to you guys so if you would like to find out more, simply search this site or go on Google and type in the search terms “Tactical Art Japan Chronicles” and I guarantee you will find something….
Anyways, this actually took place back in late November, but Mr. Yasutaka Shimomukai wasn’t able to get the photos over to me until just last week. With the new year and consistent business over at Tactical Art, it’s been difficult to keep the lines of communication open. Out of the blue, he emailed me to just to say what’s up and sent me a giant chunk of photos that he had collected from the past two months. I think it’s great that we have been able to keep the lines of communication open because we are both fans of one another and now I have a way of bringing you some pretty cool stuff that’s going on over there that no one else in the U.S. can. What I mean by that is that you may see cool automotive content from Japan, but often times it’s the bigger, more well-known events. The Tactical Art guys tend to do their own thing and attend smaller track events whenever there is one going on so they help to bring us a completely new perspective of the Japanese Honda community. I like their enthusiasm and you can really tell that they want to learn more about how we do things here in America. I mean, the feeling is mutual of course, because we are all very excited to see what is going on in Japan…
This track event that they attended took place at the Nakayama Circuit. It’s a track that isn’t too far away from them and as it turns out, Nakayama Circuit is actually very well-known. It was built in 1970 and was one of the four original racetracks to be approved by the JAF (Japan Automotive Federation) for competition. The other three are tracks that you are probably more familiar with; Suzuka Circuit, Fuji Speedway, and Tsukuba Circuit. If you have played any motorsports-related video games like Forza or Gran Turismo, than you will definitely be familiar with those names. Unlike the three more well-known tracks though, the Nakayama Circuit has aged a lot over time and actually lost it’s JAF approval around 1989. You can tell in the later photos that the track has some age. It’s just used for smaller, private track events now and that’s why you will only see a small grouping of vehicles in the photos. I have to thank 7Tune for providing me with the info on Nakayama Circuit, otherwise I’d just be making up a bunch of bullshit and telling you how speedboats and unicorns race here for gold, or some shit, haha…
Before we begin, I don’t have any actual race footage because it was not provided to me. Maybe they didn’t get a chance to upload them yet, or maybe they just don’t have them. From the photos, I saw that they did have cameras and camera mounts on the cage of some of their cars but again, I didn’t receive anything. If for whatever reason you feel like your day isn’t complete because you didn’t get to see videos of them racing around the track, uhh, I don’t know, how about you just learn to move on and make a sandwich or something. We are lucky enough to have these photos today so we can’t really complain or ask for more. I think it was really nice of them to pack all these photos together in their original formats and upload them to a file-sharing site for me to download. The file was almost 500MB and there were two files, so you can already imagine how long it took for me to download these. After I got them, I went through and picked out what I felt were the best ones too and processed them and sized them correctly to meet the format of this site. They aren’t photographers nor do they claim to be, so I had to discard a lot of the blurry images and what not. They got more than enough photos though and I think they came out pretty good. I don’t know if they took these photos strictly for their own personal blog, because they only use a couple of the images, or if they took them just for me to post up here. From the amount that I got, I can only guess that they intended for me to use them and for that, I have to give them a huge thank you. I love seeing stuff from other parts of the world, especially from Japan, so it is not even a chore for me to get these up for you guys today. Alright, enough with the long intros, let’s get to the photos…
Inside the Tactical Art facility, where they were prepping for the day’s adventure at Nakayama Circuit…
Atuki Tubouti, owner of Tactical Art, making final preparations on his EG6…
A quick look at the rest of the facility…Not too big in size but more than enough room to store their cars and do audio installs, which is what they normally do on a day-to-day basis…
Yasutaka Shimomukai’s EG Civic with the ride height adjusted for track-use…You can see in the background that Atuki’s EG is being loaded onto a trailer…
A look at the outside of the shop…Once the car was loaded-up, Yasutaka hopped into his EG and they headed down to the Nakayama Circuit…
Love the aggressive Volk TE37s on this white Civic…
Atuki-san making adjustments to the suspension…
You can see in the background how the walls and buildings how the age of this track…
The interior and fiberglass dashboard of Atuki’s EG…
One of their buddies brought out his EG for the day as well…
Not much done to this Civic…it has some aftermarket fenders that have been pushed out even further to clear the meaty tires and low offset XXR wheels…
His Civic is bare bones with nothing other than a solo, old racing bucket with Takata harnesses on it…
Atuki’s Civic ready for action…
…as was Yasutaka’s EG…
All the competitors standing in line to get the rules and paperwork for the event…
Another one of their friends helping out and making sure everything is secure…
Tire change on an EJ1 coupe…
Another pair of EG-chassis Civics sitting across from them in the paddock area…
This EG has some pretty aggressive aero and I always see it in photos with them at track days…
Note the mirrors, hood, clear corners, and the fender work required to get those meaty ass TE37s under there…
Schedule for the day…
A look under the hood of the Defunkt Racing Civic reveals massive ducting driving air into the ITBs…
Check out the aggressive front fender treatment necessary to house those 225/45-16 Advan A050 tires and 16×9 SSR SP3 Professors…
Rear shot of Yasutaka’s EG, bumper holes and all…
His interior…
Another glance at Atuki’s interior, notice the cut out doors?…
Check out this wild Integra that was there…The rear fender work is nuts, especially with the gas tank lid and everything being reshaped. The front fenders have been widened and cut towards the bottom, almost resembling a Japanese Super GT type of look…This thing is wild…Looks like it has a non-staggered set of 17×9 TE37SLs too…Plenty of tire and traction all the way around…
An AE86 Corolla Levin coupe with SSR MK2s…
Another EG….check out the orange Recaro seats, might be something that Rywire Ryan might want to look into for his ITR build…
Interesting rear bumper treatment on this EF hatchback…I can’t help it, but everytime I see the graphics on the side of this car, it reminds me of Bruce from Family Guy…
Haha…I’m sure even you casual Family guy fans will understand what I’m saying. The moment you read what the car said you were probably already thinking it…
Center-exit exhaust… Spy the Integra in the back heading out to the track from the paddock area…really wish they would have gotten some photos of that thing out there…
The name of this vehicle escapes me right now...Ohh Nooo….Honda Today 2-door perhaps?…
Stock-body Nissan S15 Silvia with WEDSports…
FD2 Civic Type R on Advan RS…
Yasutaka chucking the deuce…
Peep his canard set-up…
Dialed and ready to go…
Hanging out while they wait their turn…
Shimomukai grabbing some vending machine coffee while waiting…They don’t give us that many options in the U.S. because we as a society are indecisive and would take forever to decide on what we wanted. And judging by how U.S. vending machines work, half the time you would never get your drink anyway because the fucking thing would break…If you’re wondering, 150yen is just under $2.00 U.S…
The FD2 R heading out…
One more shot of Atuki’s EG6 before it heads out for a beating…
I personally liked this shot a lot…
Yasutaka in his EG6…seeing that giant “Tactical Art” decal splashed on the side of his car reminds me that I have to send a batch of Chronicles stickers out to them….He said he wanted to run my site’s URL on the side of his car but my machine can’t cut anything nearly that huge…awesome idea though, haha…that’d be crazy to see…
Lining up in the staging area…
Only “track footage” that was usable…I’ll have to ask them if they got an on-board video…
A couple shots of them returning to the paddock area after they were finished with their session…
That’s pretty much it… I hope you guys enjoyed it. It’s always cool to see something different and to see how other countries do it. Thanks for looking and thanks to the guys from Tactical Art for providing us coverage of their adventures…
The Chronicles 2011 Honors…The Best of the Rest…
I’m glad that everyone was happy with The Chronicles 2011 Top Ten Hondas list. I spent a lot of time deliberating when it came to who would officially be on the list, where they would go, and who would ultimately have the number one spot. If you missed it, feel free to scroll down to check it out or click on the attached links below. Today we will be taking a look at the rest of the pack. These guys were the ones that were also in contention for the Top Ten but just failed to make the cut. They were all great builds but the guys that ended up on the list just had what I was looking for top to bottom. I do an “Honors” list every year after the Top Ten is released because I feel that these guys should still have their time in the spotlight. Just because they didn’t make the ten, it doesn’t mean that they should be forgotten, you know? The list isn’t in any particular order, so don’t take the last guy as the bottom guy or whatever, and the first guy to be “number 11″ so to speak. I just felt that these Hondas made a big impact in 2011, whether their builds were extensive or just simple, and straight to the point…
If your car isn’t on this list, don’t take it as a bad thing…I try to keep a very thorough view on the entire Honda community, but there are times when I will miss a car or two. I mean, honestly, if I didn’t keep an eye on everyone’s builds, would you think that you would be sitting here and looking at 25 Hondas today? I could be taking a nice little break right now…
Anyways, here is the Top Ten f 2011 just in case you missed it…
Now that you’ve seen the Top Ten, here are the 25 other Hondas that just narrowly missed the list…
In no particular order…
Bisimoto Engineering’s 1004HP 2012 Honda Civic Si….
Why it made the list:
There were a lot of you that probably felt that Bisi’s Civic should have been on the list, and I can see why. The guy just produces stellar builds every single year. I couldn’t really include him this year though because he came in so late in the year. His wagon and CR-Z made the list the year before because the wagon had been around for a majority of 2010 and his CR-Z was just nothing anyone had ever seen before. The Civic, while equally as amazing, only came to being in late October of this year. There are still a couple things that I’m sure Bisi would like to change or fix on the Civic as well so everyone should keep an eye on it in 2012…
Taku Kusugami’s Honda Civic from Japan, representing Tactical Art…
Why it made the list:
Taku-san makes the 25 Honors list because his EK was one of the more recognizable builds of 2011 coming out of Japan. The photos of this EK were posted up everywhere after the Hellaflush Japan event and it became quite the popular internet forum topic. I loved how it resembled some of the best Honda builds here stateside and just has a great universal appeal to it. It’s this car that also helped bring my attention to the Tactical Art guys and why many of you recognize the Tactical Art name today…
Yasutaka Shimomukai’s EG6 from Tactical Art Japan…
Why it made the list:
Yasutaka’s EG is another one of the cool builds that come out of Tactical Art. It was the last of the three that I noticed but Yasutaka is also that guy that I communicate with the most from there. I’ve already stated before that I personally am not a fan of the XXR wheels but the Japanese love the USDM-inspired look. After he saw my post, he asked me about XXR and he even told me that he has a set of Rotiform wheels on order and that will be his new lookin 2012. As a whole package though, i love how his EG looks and above all else, it’s built for track-use. He attends road race events regularly and always takes photos and sends them to me, so expect to see a lot more content from Tactical Art in the future. He makes this list because like many of the guys on the Top Ten list this year, he built his car with style and function in mind. He doesn’t make the cut on the Top Ten because I didn’t really meet them until the later part of 2011…
Atuki Tubouti’s EG6 representing Tactical Art Japan…
Why it made the list:
You can’t talk about the guys from Tactical Art without mentioning Atuki’s EG…It is by far the most wild of their roster and Atuki also happens to be the owner of Tactical Art. His build is also built with function in mind but with style as well. This Civic just has a very menacing feel to it and just like our number one car, Gil Salazar’s ITR, it just has a certain presence about it that can’t be ignored. He narrowly misses the Top Ten list for the same reasons as the other two Tactical Art representatives… To read more about Tactical Art, here is a list of all posts tagged with Tactical Art…
Sportcar Motion’s “Little Red Riding Hood” EG Civic…
Why it made the list:
The Sportcar Motion Civic was probably one of the builds that just narrowly missed the Top Ten list, probably by like a hair…it was that close. The reason it didn’t make it, is because I felt that Loi Song and company just weren’t 100% finished with this build yet. It had a good year overall and made various events, I just think that it’s going to have an even better year in 2012 when it’s turbocharged. It’s rare to see Loi build a Honda that isn’t white, so it immediately stood out when it debuted, but there is so much more potential for this build this year….
Cooper Boudia’s Acura Integra from Olympia, WA…
Why it made the list:
Cooper’s Integra is another popular build that many thought would make the 2011 Top Ten list. Many even believed that it should have been number one. I didn’t necessarily agree but I do feel like it should have been included somewhere in that group. My reasoning behind it not being in the Top Ten, is because it was also another one of those builds that many didn’t see or know about until the later part of the year. Cooper’s Integra is definitely one of the better builds that came out 2011 and it’s also one of those builds that you have to see in person to appreciate. Luckily he drove all the way down from Washington to attend my anniversary meet and I was able to see it indepth. I am a huge fan of Cooper’s Integra and I hope to see more of it in 2012… He has one of the most epic build threads of 2011 as well, much like the next guy on the list… Check out his build thread here…
Eric Dabbert aka JDMcivbomb’s K-swapped, Spoon’d-out Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
Eric’s Civic is one of those builds that I just wish I got a chance to see much more of in 2011… I didn’t even know about the car itself until Wekfest Chicago and I had no idea he even had a build thread going on the NWP4Life forums. It’s probably one of the most extensive builds I have ever seen and just the way he restored the car from the ground-up puts him in high contention to make the Top Ten of 2011. I’m not a huge fan of Spoon Sports but I can totally appreciate a thorough, highly extensive build thread and that’s why I like his Civic so much. There is just an insane amount of work on this car and you have to really go through every single page of his build thread to really understand how much effort was involved in getting his EG to this point. He probably would have been in the top five very easily if I was able to see his car more at events and what not…great work nonetheless…Read all about it here…
Tuan Chau’s K-supercharged Integra…
Why it made the list:
Simply because Tuan had one of the best Integra builds of the year. What’s even better than that is that this is supposedly his daily driver. He’s built a Civic in the past as well and that car is also a very well-built car. Both the Civic and Integra were featured in Honda Tuning and both were very deserving. I had a chance to see this thing in person when I flew out to Nashville last year for Import Alliance and it looked every bit as good as it did in print. I love what he did with the valve cover and how he matched it with the blue Recaros and the CCW Classics. It’s a good looking car that’s driven often and you’ll see it at plenty of events out on the east coast. It’s very well done and I’m happy to have been able to see it for myself. It narrowly missed the Top Ten list because there were just so many great Integra builds in 2011…Check out Tuan’s features here… His DC2 and his ’93 Civic CX….
Raul Ramirez’s authentic JDM 1994 Honda Civic VTi…
Why it made the list:
Raul Ramirez’s Civic VTi was probably close enough to making the list where it would have been #10 1/2…Seriously, Great build, authentic Japanese Civic VTi, K-swapped, and built with every intention to be road-raced. He participated in Super Street magazine’s FF Battle 3 in 2011 and did very well, finishing in the Top 5. The reason why it didn’t make the list is because the guys that did were just a little more active than he was and they made it out to more events. When it comes to build quality, it’s right up there with the others. Raul knows his stuff…this is like, his 12th Honda or something, haha…Check out his Honda Tuning feature here…
Harvey Flores’ 4-door Acura Integra from Tronics…
Why it made the list:
Harvey’s 4-door Integra is deserving of a nod on this list because it’s a beautiful car. I’ve been keeping an eye on his build for the last couple years and I loved the way his car looked in 2011 with the Mugen front bumper. The guy has a good sense of style and his DB8 reflects that. It’s not over the top and he’s paid close attention to building himself a well-rounded Honda. The engine bay is clean, as is the interior, and the exterior has always looked good. He doesn’t make the cut because it took me like, a fucking hour to just find one good photo of it that I could use, which probably means that I didn’t see him enough at events. I probably snapped like two photos of it in total the entire year. Compared to the other 4-door DBs on the list, he just wasn’t as active. Really love how this thing looks though…
Will Salazar’s 1993 Honda Civic CX…
Why it made the list:
Will’s Civic is one of my favorite Hondas from back in the mid-2000s. It’s crazy to think now that he still has it and he’s continued to evolve the car in 2011. Gil, who not only happens to hold the number one spot in 2011 but is also Will’s brother, kept me up to date with the rebuild from the moment they stripped it down to the first photos of it after it got out of the bodyshop. I’ll always be a fan of this car but a part of me will always prefer how it looked back when it was red. Don’t get me wrong, I love the evolution of this car and how it currently sits but I somehow feel like there is something missing with this car. I don’t know what it is, to be perfectly honest. Despite that, it would have made the Top Ten list if he was a little more active in 2011. He was supposed to be a part of my “GENERATIONS” display at Nisei Showoff this past year too but he just flaked on me…haha, I guess it wasn’t that important to him. Anyways, the Salazar brothers can build the shit out of a Honda and I always look forward to what they have up their sleeves. I also like how down they are to just take their cars out on the track and beat on them…From what I’ve seen, Will is a pretty good driver too… If you want to read more about Will’s Civic, click here….
Chivas Sotelo’s Honda Civic Si….
Why it made the list:
Chivas deserves a mention because he’s been to any and everywhere in 2011. The guy lives in Vegas but you wouldn’t think so because of all the events he’s been to this past year. His car isn’t bad either…It’s wild to think how much he drives this thing considering how low to the ground it is. All those trips from Vegas to Cali and back, you would think his car would look all fucked up but it’s remained in great condition. It’s another build that I’ve been able to see the gradual progression of and it’s a very eye-catching coupe. It doesn’t make the Top Ten of 2011 because the other cars that did make it I just felt were more thorough builds. There are still a couple things I would like to see done on his EM1, but it’s fine the way it is…2012 is looking to be a good year for him, he’s featured in the January 2012 issue of Honda Tuning which is on newstands right now….if you would like to read more about Chivas’ car, go fucking buy a copy of the magazine!…
Gerald “Lowballer” Reyes’ Acura Integra…
Why it made the list:
You can’t really mention Chivas without including Gerald Reyes…these guys are practically attached at the hip. If you saw Chivas Sotelo in 2011, chances are, Gerald’s Integra was parked right next to him. They both hail from Las Vegas, so they usually roll to events together. I am not entirely sure if there is anything done to the bay so that’s why it didn’t make the Top Ten list. It’s a good looking car overall, I just don’t know if it had enough to compete with the other Hondas in 2011. I’m sure it wasn’t his intentions to be competitive in 2011 anyways, because Gerald and his friends just build good looking street cars. There are a lot of people that seem to get his car confused with the other brown DC2 on Work Equips out here in Cali…they aren’t the same car! Anyways, Gerald and Chivas go everywhere together so they might as well be right next to each other on the 2011 Honors list…
RC Chacon’s K-turbo Honda Civic sedan…
Why it made the list:
RC’s Civic makes the 2011 Honors list because it’s really rare to see 4-door Civics done to this caliber these days, and it’s refreshing to see one with a turbocharged K-series. I love how the engine bay looks with all the custom fabricated turbo parts, but I felt like it was a little lacking aeshetically. That’s why it didn’t make the Top Ten in 2011. While it was one of the more anticipated builds in 2011, I just don’t feel like it was ever at a completed state. He did enough events in 2011, I felt, but I wasn’t sure if the car was ever “finished”. Every time I spoke to RC, he would tell me that there was more that he had to do to it…
Michael Mao’s Acura NSX…
Why it made the list:
Michael Mao’s NSX was probably the most “seen” NSX in 2011. He was everywhere…He missed the Top Ten list because it’s another one of those new builds in 2011 that I just wasn’t sure was in a finished state yet. It’s got the aero, wheels, and suspension down, but I think there could be more coming for this NSX. Sure, it’s an NSX, which isn’t as common as Civics and Integras, but in terms of the level of builds that are being produced these days, I have to hold NSXs to the same standards as the rest of the “popular” Hondas…
Bon Senesombath aka BonB’s Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
BonB’s Civic deserves mention on the 2011 Honors list because his build was probably one of the most anticipated of the year. It took a bit of time for the car to get finished but when it appeared in the hotel parking lot during the summer Import Alliance event, people went absolutely nuts over it. Bon is one of those guys that is one of the more recognized enthusiasts down south. His EG was a hit back when it was still blue and thanks to his many trips out to the west coast, he’s become a household name out in these parts. When people caught wind of his Civic re-build, they had their eyes peeled in anticipation for it’s re-emergence. His car is another one that I’ve had a chance to see in person, both when it was still blue and had a B-series as well as it’s current K-swapped, green stage. It would have been a good choice to be on the Top Ten list but he didn’t make enough appearances in 2011 and there were still some loose ends that needed to be tied-up before I think it’s up there with the others who have the more completed Hondas of ’11…
Abe Cruz’s EK9-inspired Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
Abe, better known simply as “EK9abe”, was all over the place in 2011. He hit every event possible in the Socal area last year and did a great job of being seen. His Civic is as close to a legit Japanese CTR as it gets here in the U.S. but with his own personal touches. I didn’t really know enough about the build itself to really consider it for the Top Ten, but I will give him credit for good execution. I just feel that his car is just too simple overall…maybe that’s a good thing, but when it comes to a list with such intricate builds, it needs more to stand out from the rest of the pack…
Mike Trevino’s EG9 Civic sedan…
Why it made the list:
Mike’s 4-door makes the honorable mentions list for a second year in a row. He did a consistent job of making appearances at events alongside his crew-mate, Jeremy Duarte, but there weren’t really any changes on the Civic from the previous year. I’m a big fan of this build and I feel that the best is yet to come for this car. Mike has it taken apart right now and it’s going through a re-build, so we should all keep an eye out for it in 2012. Maybe this year, it’ll finally make it over that wall and end up in the Top Ten Hondas of 2012 list…
Sunny Wong’s 2010 Honda Insight EX…
Why it made the list:
Sunny shocked everyone this year when his Insight re-emerged at SEMA 2011. It was nothing anyone had expected from him nor from a Honda Insight. The only time you really see an Insight with an extensive amount of work done to it is over in Japan, so when Sunny debuted his new look, it had Honda and non-Honda enthusiasts stopping to stare at it on the SEMA show floors. The flared body and aggressive sizing of the TE37s just give this Insight an entirely different look and made for a drastic change over his more VIP-themed look from before. I know an Insight will never be built to a level of say, a build like Gil Salazar’s, but it’s about as invested as an Insight build can get. I was almost on the verge of putting it on the list but it just didn’t re-appear until later on in the year. It’s just a wild-looking car…it’s hard to categorize it with the other builds on the list but it’s well thought out enough for people to accept it. This is an instance where taking a chance and thinking outside of the box really pays off…
Ly Say’s Acura TSX…
Why it made the list:
Ly Say’s TSX is in no way shape or form nearly as “built” as the other Hondas on the list, but I think it would be good to consider it just because of how much attention it brings to the TSX crowd. It just has a Euro-R conversion, suspension, and wheels, but damn, it looks good just the way it is! Anytime I came across someone who was staring at his car at all the events he attended, all they could do was compliment him on his taste in mods. While the chances of him hitting the Top Ten list were slim in 2011, I give him credit for having a great looking car and being so active throughout the year…
Bryant Nguyen’s Acura TSX…
Why it made the list:
Much like Ly Say’s TSX, Bryant is right up there in terms of activity and overall style. He also has a very good-looking TSX and he has a bit more done to his car than Ly does. This year was the debut of his new SSR Professor SP3 wheels as well as a new air-ride set-up. Still not as intensive as the other builds on this list, but I commend him on his efforts for bringing a bright, positive spotlight onto the TSX community….
Moe Drennon’s K-swapped EG Civic…
Why it made the list:
PGK Moe had a great 2011…He was featured in Honda Tuning magazine in July and then around that same time, he brought his Civic out to Import Alliance with a brand new K20-swap. The bay looked good as did the rest of the car, but I just can’t figure out why he never got himself another windshield molding. Little stuff like that bothers me, because the details are what it really comes down to, but I’m sure he has his reasons. He and his brother are always busy tinkering with cars so maybe he was just too busy to really finish up the car. It would have been a really good choice to be in the Top Ten list, but again, it just seems sort of incomplete… I guess you can say it was a molding short of making it…haha…Here’s PGK Moe’s HT feature…
Chris Drnek’s EF Civic hatchback…
Why it made the list:
Chris’ EF is one of those really clean Hondas that instantly caught my eye when I was out at Import Alliance. I was just hanging out in the hotel parking lot when I spotted it. I walked up to take a closer look and I immediately became a fan of it. It’s one of those Hondas that has a very timeless-appeal to it. I was correct in my liking of his EF because a couple months later, he also received a feature in Honda Tuning magazine. It just narrowly misses the mark and doesn’t make the Top Ten because both Jay Powers’ and Jordan McCord’s EFs were more comprehensive builds. That’s no knock on Drnek’s EF though because the chassis was practically perfect as it was when it arrived in his possession. There was no reason to repaint or restore the car because he just didn’t have to….If you want to see Drnek’s Honda Tuning Feature, click here…
Jay Borcena’s VIP-styled Acura TL…
Why it made the list:
In a world full of Civics and Integras built to be “track-inspired”, it’s very hard for a VIP-themed Honda to make the list. Unless it has major engine modifications or a customized bay, it’s not going to be built anywhere near the level of the Hondas that comprised of the Top Ten. While it would be great to see something truly different on the list, it’s very difficult to take one of the Top Ten off of the list to make room for a luxury-based build. I have enjoyed the continued progression of Jay’s TL over time though, and I like the fact that he made a presence in 2011 with all the events he attended. It’s one of those Hondas where even non-VIP fans can appreciate it. I’m also very happy to a see a car with aggressive fitment that doesn’t have chewed-up fenders in 2011. It seems like a simple enough concept but people are all about fucking their fenders up these days….
Yellow Factory EG6 Civic…
Why it made the list:
In a time when most Honda enthusiasts are all about race cars and the “Because Racecar” phenomenon, the Yellow Factory Civic arrived at just the right time. When photos surfaced of it early in 2010, people were all over the wild front end of this Civic where in the past, most would have probably laughed at it and complained about how ridiculous it looked. More dedicated road race guys would have appreciated it though, even before time attack and road racing became the “cool” thing to do. If it were in ’09 or 2010, people would be aiming pitchforks at the front bumper because it’s a “ricey bodykit”. Now that people are more concerned with “function”, everyone is a fan of the Yellow Factory EG. In reality, the Yellow Factory-built Honda is a very capable car on the circuit. It ran the Tsukuba Circuit in 1:01.38 and it’s time puts it right up there with the likes of a Z-Tuned R34 Skyline. If you go and pick up the current issue of Import Tuner, you can read all about it. It is worthy of a mention on this list because it fits the era that we are in currently in. Enthusiasts love track cars and the “track-look” so many are looking to this Civic for inspiration. Hondas with aggressive aero like this that can run great times make it cool again for people to rock parts that might have otherwise been reasons to humiliate someone online a couple years before….
Ryan O’Hara’s EP3 Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
Ryan is not only the only Canadian representative on the Honors list, he also has the only EP3 to make it. I’ll be honest, it’s incredibly difficult to keep track of what is going on in Canada, because there just aren’t enough online media outlets for most of us to see what’s going on up there. Canada has always produced some very good Honda builds and it would be great to see more of them. They have a couple S2000s out there that are just amazing but no one has heard of them before. Ryan’s EP3 makes the list because it’s one of the best EP3 builds I have seen, ever. It was featured in HT a couple years ago and Ryan has continued to work on his Civic. This current look with the Air Walker front bumper and orange SE37Ks is probably his best look yet. There are just a couple photos of it floating around online but being that it’s a rare chassis to build, Ryan’s EP3 is instantly recognizable. There are a couple of other EP3s out that are worthy of a mention, i.e. Cristian Loza’s from Canibeat, but I have to say, this one is my favorite in 2011…
Hmmm….you know what? Fuck it…after some careful consideration at 4:53am, I think I made a mistake by not including his EP3 on the list…
Cristian Canibeat Loza’s EP3 Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
After some thinking, Cristian’s EP3 is one of those cars that I almost failed to mention. He was very active in 2011 and he is also a part of one of the more popular online automotive websites right now; Canibeat. I wasn’t very fond of the site at first but it’s great to see that it’s developed into it’s own brand over time and isn’t piggybacking off of the ideas of other websites like Fatlace/Hellaflush. It’s also been good to see the continued progress of Cristian Loza’s EP3. I developed a much deeper appreciation of this car after I had the opportunity to check it out for myself while I was in Nashville. I like the fact that it’s “stanced-out” but doesn’t have stupid spaceship camber, and his engine is actually really nice for an EP3 chassis. He’s got a couple Mugen goodies in the bay and another really nifty accessory, a K20Z1 swap… It’s a nice, well-rounded Honda, and I almost feel like an asshole for not mentioning it…
Well, that’s the 25…errr 27 noteworthy Honda builds of 2011 that were in contention for the The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas list. Again, all are great in their own way, it’s just really hard to come up with a final ten without excluding some really nice Hondas. I was honestly surprised by how receptive everyone was of the Top Ten and didn’t complain about how they didn’t see so and so’s car, or some other guy who I have never heard of. That’s always a good thing….This year was probably my favorite Top Ten list because not everyone was a lock to be on and it took more time and consideration to finalize it. If it was really that easy, I wouldn’t have almost another 30 Hondas to mention. At the end of the day, I couldn’t be happier with how it all came together. Thank you for your support and I hope you guys come back to see what The Chronicles has to offer in 2012…
The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2011…#1…
…and then there was one…
There’s no doubt that there were a number of great Honda builds in 2011… The last two days we’ve taken a look at 9 (10 with the tie) of what I felt were the best of the best in 2011, but in the end there can only be one. One Honda build that stood above the rest of the pack, well-rounded in every way and built for purpose as well as with the owner’s idea of functionality in mind…
With the number one selection in The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2011, stickydiljoe.com selects….
1. Gil Salazar’s 2001 Acura Integra Type R…
Why it made the list: If there is one particular Honda that should have been on the 2010 Top Ten Honda list last year, it would be Gil Salazar and his 2000 Acura ITR. The car came out of nowhere and simply amazed a lot of his fellow enthusiasts. Everyone that knew of Gil knew that he could build a Honda and he had been doing so for many years now. You may remember he once had a white Integra as well and that car was also one of the better built Hondas of the early-mid 2000s alongside his younger brother’s red EG. His black ITR though, was definitely his best work yet. It not only had all the right parts on it, he also had a K20 that produced very good numbers, and the amount of custom fabrication that was done to his ITR was one of the key factors that set it apart from the rest of the crowd. He didn’t make the cut that year because of the fact that we didn’t see enough of the car….He is a businessman as well as a family man, so those two limiting factors took much of his time away from his ITR, but the main reason why we didn’t see enough of his car was because it was down for much of last year. He had all kinds of issues with it that prevented it from running correctly. There were issues with the motor while they were tuning it, I believe his transmission took a shit at one point, and when it came time for him to participate at last year’s Super Street FF Battle 2, he didn’t even get a chance to make a complete pass because there were electrical issues with the car….
All of the bullshit that he had to deal with was enough to bring down any enthusiast. You can only experience so many issues until you just lose faith in your car. It didn’t mean that his build wasn’t good or anything, it was absolutely stunning….there were just too many issues with it for it to qualify for last year’s list. That and there were all kinds of amazing Hondas last year. I didn’t want to remove someone on the list to place Gil’s ITR in there, when at that time, it wasn’t running at 100%. I honestly didn’t know what would become of the car. His feature in Honda Tuning came out and as you can see from the photos, it looked great. I just wasn’t sure what Gil had planned for it in 2011, but I did leave the window open for him to see if he was willing to get this thing up and running and active during the year…
Where Sheepey and him have faced similar hardships with their builds, i.e. mechanical failure, engine issues, etc., Gil Salazar has proven that he has faced adversity and persevered. In 2011, his ITR was running better than ever. There were still minor things here and there, but every enthusiast faces those issues. He just had to get this thing running, everything else was perfect just the way it was…
I would have liked for it to have shown up to more events last year, but considering the limited amount of time that he had between business operations at Circuit Hero and being a father and husband, he did what he could. He was never much of a car show type of guy either, so it was equally understandable as to why he split his time from doing events like the SEMA show and the annual Eibach Honda meet, and made time to get some testing down at the track as well as competing in the 2011 Super Street FF Battle 3 event…
As far as influence within the community goes, it’s very easy to see how Gil’s ITR made an impact. Anh from ATS Garage has a lot of similar modifications as far as custom fabrication goes because the work on Gil’s ITR served as his inspiration. He has used this car to help him promote the Circuit Hero brand name and now you see all kinds of different builds in our vast community utilizing Circuit Hero products. When he hooked up with ASC Speed Metal, his ITR and his brother’s EG had all kinds of custom fab work and it really opened the eyes of the community to what ASC was capable of doing. They’ve been working closely together ever since and you will see more and more amazing work coming from those guys in the coming years…
When it comes to a functional, well-rounded Honda build, it just doesn’t get any better than this. The K20A motor makes over 250hp, everything that was added to the ITR serves a purpose, and it doesn’t hurt that it has a stylish, menacing, almost evil appearance. We always came to know Gil as a guy who likes his cars to be more understated, simple…this car, is definitely not “subtle” by any means. It has a sort of presence about it that can’t be ignored….
It earns the number one spot on the 2011 Top Ten Hondas list because it encompasses everything that I’m looking for in a Honda build. It doesn’t have to be a monster and make crazy amounts of horsepower and it doesn’t necessarily have to have every rare or expensive Japanese aftermarket product on it. Gil’s ITR is just very well-rounded. He built the car for himself, he had some very unique ideas for it to help it stand-out, and he is a competitive guy and likes to take his car out every now and then for a thrashing. It’s not the fastest ITR on the track, nor does it have to be. The guy built, and drives his own car and that’s what counts. I also love how he was able to work closely with a custom fabrication shop like ASC and really made his car look distinctly different from other Hondas…
There were some moments leading up to the final decision where I might have put another car above Gil’s in the Top Ten but I always went back to giving him the top spot. He’s done everything right, I believe, to earn this position. The fact that he was able to look past all the lingering issues he had with his car and finished what he started is why he’s number one in 2011…
For those of you who don’t have a Facebook account, I recently used The Chronicles FB page to ask what many of you thought would be the number one car of 2011. There were some good cars in there, but guys like Cooper Boudia with the red DC2 and Bisi Ezerioha’s 2012 Civic Si just don’t qualify for this position because they came out so late in the year. Bisi’s didn’t debut until a couple months ago, and Cooper will admit himself that he just recently got his car to the point where he was satisfied with it and didn’t bring it out until the end of the year. Gil Salazar has had his ITR in this state, for over a year now and his build deserves all the credit and recognition in the world….Like I said before, all the Hondas on this list were just about even across the board this year. They were all great in their own way, but there were obvious reasons why they were positioned in this way. I took into consideration everything that this builds had to offer and having Gil at the number one spot just felt right. Everyone seemed to be pretty happy with the selections from 10-2 and I hope you guys see where I am coming from when I say that Gil Salazar’s Acura Integra Type R is the number one Honda on the 2011 Top Ten….
If you want to read more about Gil’s ITR, click here to check out his feature in Honda Tuning magazine….
Congratulations all around…. I look forward to what 2012 has to offer. From what I’ve seen so far, this year might be the most interesting one yet…
Thanks for looking….
The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2011…5-2…
Welcome back to the ongoing countdown to the number one Honda build of 2011. The response to the first half of the list has just been overwhelming and I’m happy to see that so many people have come on to The Chronicles and have taken interest into seeing the breakdown of some of the best in our community today. What is even cooler is how the people who have made the list so far have responded. I love to see how happy they are and how some are surprised and overjoyed to have been a part of the Top Ten. In reality, they shouldn’t be all that surprised because they have put in the man hours and labor into creating such amazing Honda builds. It is good to know that there are people out there who are humble though and truly appreciate the recognition that they have garnered for their hard work. Today we will continue with the top half of the list, which are selections #5-2 and will culminate tomorrow with the announcement of the number one build of 2011. Like I stated yesterday, all the Hondas that made the list this year were pretty even across the board…all were equally great and are of the utmost quality, just other factors presented themselves that put certain cars and their owners ahead of the others. I’ll try to explain to the best of my ability how and where the builds landed where they did… With that said, let’s move on to selection #5….
At the fifth spot on the 2011 Top Ten Hondas list, stickydiljoe.com selects….*by virtual TIE*… Jeremy Duarte’s right-hand drive 1998 Acura Integra sedan and Mark Sutakajana’s 2000 Acura Integra GSR sedan…
5. Mark Sutakajana aka Chalesfoo’s 2000 Acura Integra and Jeremy Duarte’s 1998 Acura Integra….
A tie exists in this scenario because I felt that both of these sedans belonged on the Top Ten list for different reasons. While Jeremy’s DB8 has become one of the most recognizable builds of ’11, Mark has played the underdog role and quietly captured our attention by doing everything that fits the criteria of what I am looking for an a great, overall build. Duarte’s sedan is obviously the more flashier of the two, there’s no doubt about that, but I think that many have simply looked past Mark’s 4-door because of it’s otherwise simple aesthetic appearance. If you just glanced at his Integra, you probably wouldn’t think that it had anything done to it other than some suspension and wheels, but there is just so much more…
Why it made the list: Mark’s Integra makes the list because it is a fully-functional, multi-purpose build. The guy has been everywhere this year, appearing in every major event in Southern California as well as a majority of the smaller meets. You will usually find him on a set of black 949Racing 6UL wheels but there are times when he will put on his Sunday best and throw some polished Sprint Hart CP-Rs on his sedan for a major show. To be perfectly honest, when Mark’s Integra starting appearing on my radar as well as a couple of other close stickydiljoe.com associates, we thought that they were two different Integras. He would show up at one event with the 949s and then at the very next one, he would have his Sprint Harts on and we would be scratching our heads wondering if they were two different vehicles with two different owners…The guy would always pop on a different valve cover as well so it could have easily been mistaken for another car. There are a couple 4-door white DBs floating around in SoCal so there was probably a chance that even you were confused…
The exterior itself is mint and almost as OE-looking as possible. The only indication that there is probably so much more beneath the subtle exterior is the red Bride interior. Above is Mark’s DB on his polished CP-Rs…
…and this is the look that we often times see this Integra in with the 949Racing wheels…
What I absolutely love about this build is that he not only drives this thing everywhere…
…he also likes to beat on the car at road racing events… He built this thing with intentions to have the best of both worlds; an Integra that he can take to car shows and floss but also take out to the Streets of Willow and smash on it. I love the fact that he enjoys every aspect of building a Honda. If anything, I would have placed this build higher on the list but he still remains a relative unknown to many people outside of Socal. Don’t let the simple exterior fool you either, he’s not simply taking a stock B-series and tracking it….the motor is built….
Under the hood is actually a 2.1-liter stroker B-motor with full valvetrain upgrades, Profab header, Spoon N1 exhaust, and Mark also gets the power to the ground via a CTR transmission. The motor was tuned at Church and makes right around 252hp and 180lb-ft tq. The car rides on PIC Select coilovers, has Spoon brakes, just everything you can think of in a very capable street car/weekend track toy. It’s just a very well thought-out build with the best aspects of both function and form combined…it’s not flashy and over the top, and it’s also a sedan, so many people will be quick to glance and walk past it, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t take a closer look at it. Maybe he was the underdog of this entire class of Hondas in 2011, but he’s definitely going to be a recognizable figure now. Well done Mark, you’re every bit as deserving of recogntion as anyone in our community and I applaud you for building a car that you can enjoy in every aspect…
Why it made the list: Jeremy’s right-hand drive DB8 makes the list because from the beginning of the year, up until the very end of it, it was easily one of the most recognized Hondas of 2011. The guy was everywhere….he did a majority of the big shows in California, north and south, attended meets regularly and the car itself is very unique in its own way. Sometimes I think Jeremy is bat-shit crazy but he built the shit out of his 4-door…
The fact that it’s a 4-door definitely makes it stand-out more, because there aren’t many Integra sedans built to this level. The exterior is aggressive with the Chargespeed front lip and bright green Enkei NT03s on the contrasting blue chassis, but the engine bay is where it really catches the attention of the masses…
The neo-chrome accented bay with the big turbo gives Jeremy’s bay a very one-off look. That in combination with it being a not-as-commonly-built sedan is a big reason why it was a staple in our community in 2011. There are a lot of unique little bits on his car too that also help to make it different, like the Porsche brakes…
One of the main reasons why it made the Top Ten list and why it’s at the number 5 spot is because Jeremy has continued the evolution of his build. He still continues to add new things to it and it’s currently going through a makeover as we speak. He’s had the car for a couple years now and it’s been featured in Super Street in the past, but it hasn’t stopped him from working on it. He even got himself a nice little feature on the Wek’Sos blog this year because they liked his car so much…
Whether you’re a fan of Jeremy’s DB8 or not, you have to admit that it’s definitely an attention-grabber. Anytime you see this car online or walk past it at an event, you almost HAVE to look at it because of how much it pops. The quality of work is also right up there too so it’s not like the car isn’t worth looking at. I put Jeremy and Mark’s sedans together at number five but for different reasons…For one, if it came down to me only selecting one sedan out of the two, I just wouldn’t be able to. Jeremy’s been more of the poster child between the two, and it’s definitely a show car, but I like Mark’s because it’s a multi-purpose build that does both shows and road racing. They both enjoy their cars for different reasons so I can’t exclude one of them because they didn’t both accomplish the same goals. In many ways they are similar, but they are also polar opposites of one another. Ones a flashy, turbocharged Integra with neo-chrome everywhere and very loud colorful wheels, while the other is very simply-stated, with nothing to indicate that it’s actually a very capable car with a naturally-aspirated-motor that makes really good power. Both sedans, both different, both deserving of number 5….
4. Jay Thammavong aka S2KJay’s 2005 Honda S2000…
Why it made the list: Just to throw it out there so that there is no confusion, Jay’s S2000 is the only car on this list that has made the Top Ten list before in previous years. If you read part one, then you will know that I have a rule where I won’t have the same build on twice unless the car has been completely redone, which essentially makes it a whole “new” build. Jay’s S2000 is basically a different build, just on the same chassis. He hit the Top Ten list in 2009 but back then, his S2000 was yellow, turbocharged, and had different aero. He re-did the whole car the following year and repainted it the shade of blue you see now with a whole new arsenal of aero and ditched the forced induction…
This was the S2000 in 2010, after he did the re-spray and brought it out to the west coast for the second time. He also came out in 2009 and drove his turbo S2000 all the way from Georgia to Cali. If there’s one thing to say about Jay, he’s probably an ambassador of sorts to the tuning community outside of the west. The guy has a very good understanding of how the entire community is because he’s been all over the country and has seen how things are through his own eyes…
In 2011, he continued add to his S2000 and also continued to bring it out to events. His F20C gave out after years of boosting so he rebuilt the motor, and now it’s naturally-aspirated with individual throttle bodies. He’s also now on his like 68th different set of wheels. The guy has never been shy of spending money on his car…
One goal that he had set out to accomplish entering 2011 was to finally take his car out to the track and have a little bit of fun with it….He’s had the car since 2005, driven it across the country to attend a meet, so why not thrash on it?
Jay’s S2K makes the Top Ten list easily because he’s another one of those guys that has always held onto his car and never stopped changing things up to keep it fresh. In a time when building a feature car and cashing in is the ‘cool thing to do’, Jay’s S2 is refreshing. It looked absolutely stunning when it was yellow on bronze TE37s, and you wouldn’t even think that it was the same car now from seeing it’s current incarnation. Jay himself belongs on this list because it’s the epitome of a great enthusiast in our community. He’s always been willing to travel across the country to attend events and he’s always been nothing but helpful and welcoming when people travel out to go to events out east or in the south. His S2000 is probably the most nationally recognized Honda build outside of the west coast and it should be. It’s the only S2000 that you’ll see in event coverage from both coasts…if you really think about it, that’s pretty wild. Jay is down, and that’s why he hits the number 4 spot on the Top Ten…Great build, great owner, willing travel….it doesn’t get any better than that when you try to describe a true Honda enthusiast….
Amazing…
3. Jay Powers’ Honda CR-X…
Why it made the list: When it comes to being one of the great Honda builders of our generation, you probably wouldn’t name Jay Powers….not because he doesn’t build great Hondas, because he definitely does, he just isn’t all that often in the public eye. You’ve probably seen the builds he has produced with his wife. He had a 1998 Honda Civic CX and 1994 Acura Integra that he built with his wife Lisa that was featured in Honda Tuning in 2010. Both great cars…the Civic I believe he is rebuilding now, and the Integra is sitting perfect just the way it is after they did some more work to it in 2011. His Honda CR-X is probably the flagship Honda of his collection and is his personal favorite. Jay is probably the only guy that makes the Top Ten Hondas of 2011 list just based purely on build quality alone. His CR-X is just fucking immaculate and almost has a collector’s sense of timelessness to it. It is MINT in every sense of the word…
You don’t really get a grasp of just how anal he is about this car unless you’ve had a chance to see him work on this car or watch him detail it in person. You could eat off of this car if you wanted to but you wouldn’t because of how mint it is. The body is flawless, has all the right parts, and the engine bay looks as if the car has never been turned on before…
There’s no point of deception here….Jay doesn’t drive this car a whole lot, but it runs and was tuned by Bisi Ezerioha from Bisimoto Engineering. Still it’s just one of those Hondas that you wished would just stay in this condition, as if it were placed in a time capsule to show future generations how a great Honda build looked in our time. Jordan McCord, who was number 9 on the list, is also a prime example of a very clean CR-X with a timeless look, Jay’s just happens to be on another level in terms of sheer quality of work and aftermarket parts selection…
In 2011, Jay’s CR-X made appearances at all the major events in California…Wekfest Norcal, Wekfest Long Beach, the annual Eibach meet, and even to other events like the It’s JDM Yo!! Anniversary show. If you were able to attend one of these events, then you can probably vouch for the quality of his CR-X…
As a whole package, it would be safe to say that this was one of the best-assembled CR-X builds of all-time. The exterior has been completely restored, the JDM EF9 SiR conversion looks like it came with the car, and the motor and bay are just flawless. It’s definitely cleaner overall than the number 2 and number 1 picks for the Top Ten of 2011, but it sits at number three because Jay doesn’t really drive the car at all, which allows the car to remain in this state. I mean, it’s literally frozen in time as it sits in a garage under multiple car covers. It’s a show car and he’s never tried to make people think otherwise. If you get a chance to see it in person, appreciate it for what it is, a piece of Honda art built by an artist with an almost O.C.D. like mindset…
2. Alex “Sheepey” Soto’s 2003 Honda S2000…
Why it made the list: …Well, because you probably expected it too…haha. No, I’m just kidding. When I typed up a question regarding who you guys felt should be on the the Top Ten list a couple weeks back on Facebook, a lot of you brought up Alex Soto’s name…and for good reason. His S2000 was one of the more “surprising” builds of 2011. He has a reputation for having a flare for the dramatic, but nobody outside of his circle of friends really knew that he was building an S2000. He popped up during the beginning of the year at Wekfest SF but at that time, it wasn’t much of anything more than a stock AP1 with suspension and aggressive wheels. It wasn’t until Wekfest Long Beach when it re-appeared and had jaws dropping because of the custom turbo set-up under the hood…
To call it a unique turbo set-up for an S2k would be the understatement of the year…Just the amount of fabwork and customization under the hood gave Sheepey’s S2000 a completely different persona…it went from being a stock S2000 to an absolute beast, and the exterior still retained a basically stock appearance…
His S2000 was just another notch on his belt and another great Sheepey-built Honda. For the rest of 2011, it was one of the main attractions at events and in November, it landed on the cover of Honda Tuning magazines winter issue…
If there was one critique about the car, it was that there wasn’t much focus paid to the exterior aesthetics. It had aggressive CCW wheels on it, front lip, and carbon side splitters, but it wasn’t much to look at, compared to the rest of the S2000 community, who places heavy emphasis on aftermarket Japanese-made aero. It didn’t matter though, because people that came to know Sheepey’s builds, knows that the engine bay has always been of the utmost importance to him. His Civic in the past was very simple, as was his Integra, that’s just his style and way of building cars. The way the bay was set-up, you didn’t really concern yourself what what was going on outside, almost as if it didn’t matter. Would it would have been even better with aero? I would be inclined to think so, but that’s not Alex’s prerogative…it stands out in a crowd of S2Ks regardless of it’s lack of aero…
I love how the oil catch and oil breather cans have been fabricated to fit the shape of the engine bay. Everything looks like it “belongs” there, even the dump pipes that exit through the hood…
Sheepey’s S2000 shocked the world in 2011…it made all the important events of the year…and the quality of the build is equal to none…with that said, why isn’t it the number one Honda of 2011 you ask? Well I had to do a lot of thinking when it came to selecting the number one build. Sheepey just didn’t seem like the right choice. From the moment I started to consider everyone for the list, I knew right away that his S2000 belonged here. There was never a point in time when I ever thought that Sheepey would hold the number one spot. Why? Well, because I know Sheepey and I know how he is…I’ve known him for a couple years now, back when he first started becoming a “household name” within our community. Back then he was just a kid and had all the confidence in the world. Over time, he’s grown up a bit, his builds have gotten better, and he’s become a more knowledgeable guy. He’s always been one of those guys who was quick to learn and many times self-taught. You see as time goes on how his builds have grown-up along with Alex. I appreciate what he does because I like his enthusiasm and I’ve learned to like his flare for the dramatics. He shock-value is what makes his cars great, you know? If there’s one criticism that I can make about Alex, being that I’ve watched him grow in our scene, is that he’s never been able to stick with one project and really see it through. Where the other guys on the list have been able to consistently evolve their Hondas over time, Alex has been quick to set aside his cars and forget about them, and build something else. Now you may be thinking that there’s nothing wrong with that because it sounds like he just has the itch to build something new, I question his ability to stick with his cars because I’ve watched him cast his cars aside whenever something happened to them…His Civic, which was his first “baby” of sorts, he rebuilt it, turned it into a drag car, made a couple passes with it, and blew it up. Instead of taking the time to fix it, he got rid of it…nobody ever heard from it again…His Integra was once turbocharged, until he parted it to fund his Civic and S2000…Now that his Integra is up and running again, and there’s been no signs of his S2000, I am pretty confident in saying that the motor on his S2000 has probably seen better days. That’s why he’s turned his focus away from his S2000 and back on his Integra….That’s just his MO, it’s how he works. Is there anything wrong with that? No, absolutely not…but it would be a discredit to the rest of the guys on this list, especially the guy that holds the number one spot, if I were to give Alex the crown. Alex’s ability to build a Honda is something I will never doubt…the guy knows how to build a quality car that makes power and that has the shock value to propel the “Sheepey Built” name straight to the top. I’ve always been a fan of his cars. When the times get tough though, I often find myself wondering if he has the ability to persevere…does he have the proverbial “heart“?…It’s not a criticism per se, more like an observation….that’s why he just falls short of number 1….
That’s the 9 best Hondas of 2011, with only one spot remaining….who holds the crown as the best Honda build of 2011? Stay tuned….
The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2011…10-6…
Welcome and happy new years everyone. I’m sure anticipation has been mounting for the past couple weeks so I’ll jump immediately into the Top Ten Hondas of 2011… I started doing this list right around the time the site began in 2008 and over time, it has become one of the most popular topics on The Chronicles. It was never meant to be taken too seriously…I just wanted to spotlight some of what I feel were the best Honda builds every year because I think that all too often, we take a lot of really well-built Hondas for granted and fail to give them the proper recognition that they deserve. The community is just so vast though that of course, there will be a lot of differing opinions regarding what’s good, what’s better, and who should be where on the list. I have always said and will always stand by the fact that this list is created solely by me and does not reflect the opinions of anyone else but me. My criteria for the list has also been to always consider not only the builds themselves, but also the build’s impact and presence within the Honda community. Functionality is also something I look into but since different people build their cars for different reasons, it’s very hard to make that a determining factor as to whether or not a build should be placed higher than another. Many of you who follow the site closely knows how this whole thing works so if you talk to someone that doesn’t understand, please help me educate them. For those of you who want to find out for yourselves and read more about the previous year’s Top Ten selections, I have attached links below so that you can go through those before jumping head first into the 2011 list. After the first two years, I made a decision to add one essential rule to the list; every year, the list will consist of completely new builds and the Hondas that have won the previous years will not be eligible for contention unless the cars have been completely redone, which essentially makes it a “new build”. This eliminates repeats of previous years and keeps the list fresh. No matter how I try to do things, there will always be some sort “bias”…there’s just no way around it. Some people have met me and spoken to me before, some people I know personally, and some cars I have only seen online. By having a fresh list every year with new builds, I hope to eliminate as much ‘bias” as possible. If you don’t see a particular build on here that you feel deserves to be on the list, either I didn’t feel it qualified to make the list, or I just may have never heard or seen the build before. I try to stay in touch as much as I can, being that I run this site and work for the magazine industry, but there are literally tons of enthusiasts out there and it’s very possible that I may not have encountered these said builds…
This year was a bit of a difficult one to figure out. There were a lot of great builds, but everyone seemed to be on or at about the same level…it was essentially, even across the board. There were some builds that really stood out in my eyes and some cars the previous years that were on the fence, but didn’t do enough back then to really make the cut. If they didn’t make the cut, then there is still potential for them later on to make it onto the Ten Best list. For the most part, I’ve taken everything into consideration for the 2011 year, but like I said, there were some Hondas that I felt were great before and I’ve also taken into consideration what they have done also in 2010-2011. The majority of the list wasn’t too difficult to finalize, it was just where everyone would go that would become an issue. I don’t think I’ve ever been challenged as much in previous years as I’ve had for the 2011 selections. The top five were arranged, re-arranged, and I even slept on it a couple days and moved some of them around to get them just how I wanted the list to go. The top three are a very interesting bunch, and it was so close, that I really had to consider everything these builds have been through over time. When it was all said and done though, I was very content with how the list is from 10 all the way to number 1…
Obviously, there are some builds that you expected to be on the list…and they just aren’t. That’s why it’s my list and not your list. It’s okay to disagree, but allow me to explain when the time comes. Maybe we both had the same cars in mind but these cars were eliminated for specific reasons. Like every year, I will also have a list of noteworthy builds that almost made the list but didn’t aka “The Honors List”. These builds were great, but they just didn’t do enough compared to the ten of 2011. The toughest part of doing a list like this is that many times, some really amazing builds don’t come out until the middle or the end of the year. This is either because the builds just didn’t get done or that they were major projects for SEMA or some other major event. They won’t make the list this year, but I have my eyes on them for the following year. There are also probably a bunch of race cars that you felt should be on here because some car is “hardparked” or whatever the fuck you want to call it. I love the fact that there are a lot of race-bred Hondas out there, but many of them are strictly built for racing, and they could give a shit less about a list like this. Some guys just want to race and online presence and car shows/meets just mean nothing to them, and I respect them for that. I wouldn’t want to waste their time by putting them on a list that is of little importance to them. I just want to see great builds. Top quality builds with great attention to detail. Builds that inspire others to do even better on their own Hondas. If anything, you should look to these list of cars as motivation to make your’s better, you know? It’s not that you can’t do what these guys do, you definitely can. I always see people saying “man, I wish I could build something like that”. Guess what? You fucking can! Set aside a plan and do it. Oh and if you don’t like the Top Ten list, you can fuck off, haha. I don’t care. I’m not running around blasting this on every website or forum. You come to The Chronicles, you better want to read what I have to say, because there’s nobody else here putting shit up on stickydiljoe.com. I don’t go to your site to not want to hear what you have to speak your mind about, that’s ridiculous…Anyways, let’s get crackin’ on this 2011 Top Ten list….I look forward to what 2012 has to offer. From what I’ve seen and heard, 2012 might be the most interesting year yet in terms of high caliber Honda builds…
With the tenth selection in the 2011 Top Ten Hondas list, presented by The Chronicles, stickydiljoe.com selects….
10. Kazu Imai’s 1996 Honda Integra Type R from Okayama, Japan…
Why it made the list: Kazu Imai’s Integra has been on my radar for quite some time now. Much like Yonas Liu’s EG from Australia last year, it’s just one of those international builds that captured my total attention the moment I saw it. The build quality is top notch and it’s a great mix of Japanese tuning style as well as their interpretation of our “USDM” style. The aesthetics are clearly intended to be a representation of something you would see in North America, but the guts are all Japanese….
I can honestly sit here and tell you that when I first saw this DC2 in online coverage of an event in Japan that I had no idea it was an ITR. The fact that it’s a 96-spec Type R makes it even better, in my opinion anyway. I know a lot of you would scoff at the idea of modifying an ITR to this extent, especially with the “Hellaflush”, stanced-out look, but take a look at what these thing has to offer; It’s a 96 R, but with an 98-spec ITR swap, 4.785 final drive, ATS LSD, 5Zigen header, and Mugen exhaust…Not only that, the bay has also been shaved and tucked, and still retains the A/C, where the A/C lines have also been tucked. The execution is on point…
If you’ve been keeping an eye on this R as well, then you probably recognize it more with silver Work Meister S1s on it. It wasn’t until the inaugural Hellaflush Japan event when it debuted with these custom 17×9, non-staggered, BBS LM wheels. The body has been re-painted Red Mica Crystal from a Lexus and as you can tell from the photo above, it also has U.S.-spec Rotora big brakes. I love the way the car looks as a total package. It’s a nice fusion of Japanese style with American influence. I saw this ITR in photos from one of Tetsuya Yamaguchi’s USDM Jam events early last year and have been running around looking for photos of it ever since. Japan doesn’t have too many meets or car shows, especially for US-themed Hondas, so it’s hard to really keep track of builds out there. Events are often times not very close either so Japanese enthusiasts often have to drive hours just to attend a meet/show. From what I’ve seen, Kazu has made the trek out to every event he possibly can and his Integra has a following on the web as well. It appeared on Fatlace’s Hellaflush as a featured vehicle as well as numerous Japanese websites covering events overseas…
Kazu himself has proven to be a little difficult to get a hold of but luckily I was able to contact one of his close friends, Yuya Yasunari, and he’s been able to provide quite a bit of extensive information for me on this R. From what I have seen in terms of build quality and execution, to the amount of events he’s participated in the last couple years, he’s a shoe-in for the 2011 Top Hondas and a perfect build to kick-start the list at number ten…
You can see more of Kazu Imai’s Integra Type R here…
9. Jordan McCord’s Honda CR-X…
Why it made the list: One of the key reasons why Jordan hits the list at number 9, is because I was able to see this build personally at Import Alliance during the summer, and I can attest to the quality of his work…
The build itself is very simple…it has Mugen M7s, a B16A swap, and a JDM EF9 front end conversion. What I liked about it was that it was more of a restoration build than it was say, a crazy track-themed build, which seems to be all the rage these days. The body has been repaired, repainted, and the bay itself is where Jordan’s CR-X really shines…
Again, nothing over the top, it’s just a well-done, very simple, tuck, shave, and swap. Often times, less is more, and Jordan McCord’s CR-X proves just that…
What I liked most about Jordan McCord’s CR-X, is not necessarily the car itself. I had a chance to speak to him a couple times while I was out there in IA, and he’s a nice, well-spoken individual. He also has a great enthusiasm for the automotive community as well. He’s made multiple trips out here himself during the year to attend major events like the annual Eibach Honda Meet, as well as the SEMA Convention. He didn’t bring his CR-X out here, but he did drive his car down from Indiana to Nashville, TN for Import Alliance and also to the Wek’Fest event in Chicago, IL. If anything, he’s the true definition of an “enthusiast” and that definitely matters. He’s built himself a Honda CR-X that doesn’t abide to any of the current popular trends that will eventually fade away and the car would be relevant whether it was around 5 years ago or even 5 years later…
Some of you will argue that Renard Mauricio’s CR-X should be on the list, but I didn’t even see his CR-X in 2011 and have no idea whether or not it’s even around still…Either way, they are both great for different reasons and Jordan McCord’s was definitely a recognized Honda in ’11…
You can check out Jordan McCord’s complete build thread here…
8. Loreto Garcia’s 2000 Honda Civic CX…
Why it made the list: Loreto’s Civic makes the 2011 list because he came out and surprised everyone in the beginning of the year. Many, including myself, had no idea he was even building an EK so when the car popped-up at Wekfest SF in February, it was quite a surprise. The guy has always been known more for his interest in drag racing so it was interesting to see him pop-up at a car show with a very clean, “San Jose Shark” teal EK…
His car was the talk of SF Wek’Fest and it also captured the attention of Super Street magazine, which would later place his Civic on the cover of their annual “Honda Issue”. It’s quite an honor considering how the car was only out a relatively short amount of time and didn’t possess a K-swap, or any forced-induction. The bay, much like the previous two cars on the list, just houses a B-series motor in a community when the K-swap is king….The motor, in this instance, it built, but you wouldn’t even know just by glancing at it…
Little details like the black chrome accents in the bay and black chrome TE37s are a nice touch. The Bomex wing and side mirrors also help to add a little more aggression to an otherwise simple exterior. Loreto just built himself a good-looking car in general…The color itself just makes it pop and stand-out in a sea of black and white EKs….
Making such a huge splash early on and landing on the cover of Super Street is more than enough for it to make the list, but I honestly wanted to place it higher. The only reason I didn’t was because I felt that he had so much momentum and then disappeared for most of the year. He cruised down to Socal to do a spotlight feature over at Skunk2 but then that was about it. Loreto didn’t start making an appearance again until the end of the year. He had a great build and not enough people got to see it in person to appreciate his hard-work. He had one of the better Hondas of 2011 and I don’t even think he realized it…
You can check out Loreto Garcia’s Super Street cover feature here…
7. Mike G’s Honda Civic aka “Tank”….
Why it made the list: Mike G’s car makes the list just based on history and impact on the community. The Top Ten Hondas list isn’t a popularity contest, because if it were, Mike G. would win it. The car broke down like, 6 years ago, and people were still talking about it and posting photos of it like nothing had ever happened to it. It’s an internet legend. I was on the fence about “Tank” making the list because I can honestly say I’m not a fan of it’s current look but based on what Mike and his car have meant to the online Honda community, it almost HAS to make the list. The Tank broke down and literally sat for 6 years and when it re-emerged in 2010, people went absolutely nuts over it…
The fact that he still has the car is pretty cool though, considering how long it has been around. He re-did basically the entire car, minus the paint and interior. The once turbo’d B was re-built and is now naturally-aspirated, and the front half of the Civic has been upgraded with Chargespeed fenders and front lip. The wheels are what kind of throws me off about the car, considering all the great wheels he had on there years ago. The good news is that he’s having some wheels restored and re-barreled so that will just give the car a new look in 2012…
The bay sees a lot more custom fabricated pieces than in year’s past and houses a lot of attention-grabbing components…
Mike also did his fair share of events this year. I was also on the fence about putting him on the 2010 list but at that time, I think he had only made it out to one event, which was the 2010 Eibach Meet. This year, he popped about almost everywhere, including events like Eibach, Motion Auto Show, and Nisei Showoff. At the Nisei show, he was kind enough to park with my gathering of other recognized Honda builds from year’s past. The Tank has always been a well-built car, but it’s online status and what it represents to the younger crop of enthusiasts is why it makes the Top Ten of 2011. It has an almost historical presence whether we want to admit it or not…
6. Matt Tucker’s Honda EK9 Civic Type R…
Why it made the list: Matt Tucker’s CTR is another Honda that I’ve had my eye on for quite some time. It wasn’t until I traveled out to the summer IA show where I was finally able to see it in person and appreciate it. I had seen plenty of photos of it online before when it had Starks on it and was still B-series but had no real idea of how it really looked. When it showed up at IA and I saw it had a K-swap and new wheels, it instantly became one of my favorite Hondas of 2011…
I’ve always had a particular taste for EK9 Rs but even if I wasn’t, I would be a fan of Matt Tucker’s CTR. I loved everything about it, the yellow against the F-Zero blue CE28s, Air Walker front bumper, the engine bay, etc….Very well done. I even like the cut-outs in the rear bumper that everyone seems to complain about, it just works…
I was a fan of it back in ’09 when it was featured in Honda Tuning magazine, but the current look is the best look to date. All the black in the bay works out really well and leaves the bay with a more understate appearance, unlike in the past with ARC induction box, red valve cover and what not. I’ll be perfectly blunt, the engine bay looked kinda shitty before, haha. Now, it’s nice and clean, with a harness that’s neatly tucked-away and the overall package is just how I would want a CTR to look…
I found myself going back to it repeatedly while I was in Nashville and it’s just one of those builds that you see in magazines but appreciate more when you can take a closer look at it for yourself, you know? I didn’t get a chance to talk to him but apparently, he’s a pretty popular guy out there so I’m sure one of his fans will tell him about his spot on the Top Ten Hondas of 2011 list. He was also everywhere in 2011, making appearances at meets and shows in all parts of the east coast and the south. He made a good effort to be seen and I made note of that….
Seriously though, out of the thousands of cars at IA, easily, this CTR is right up there as one of my favorite Hondas in the country. I’m also very happy to see that he wasn’t one of those guys that just got his feature and cashed-in on his car and walked away. He continued to work on it, and made it better. He sits a couple spots higher on the Top Ten than Mike G. and Loreto because he drove his car everywhere, attended events regularly, and also because he’s one of the more recognized Honda enthusiasts outside of the west coast. He sits higher than Jordan McCord on the list simply because his build has been around longer, been published, and his build is more intensive in terms of modification. The guys been doing it big for a couple years so it’s good to finally recognize his accomplishments here on The Chronicles Ten of 2011…
Exclusive Content…Unpublished Photos From Import Alliance Summer 2011…
Misleading title is misleading…to be perfectly honest. These photos are actually a mix of published/unpublished shots from Import Alliance 2011 that I shot while I was out in Nashville, TN for Honda Tuning and Super Street magazine. I thought it would be a good time to finally release these since we are nearing year’s end and I’ve been looking back at 2011 while thinking about which moments were my favorites. I can honestly sit here and say that the Import Alliance meet was one of the highlights of my 2011. Just to be able to see a completely new selection of builds and visiting a new place made for a great experience. Today we get the opportunity to look back with some never-before-seen photos that I shot while there. I want to say maybe 50% of these actually made it to print while the rest didn’t make the cut. They didn’t make the cut because the cars weren’t interesting or anything, we were just limited in the amount of space we could use for event coverage and that’s why you will see these images for the first time today. While I was out there, I took almost 1000 photos and hopefully you had a chance to see the coverage that I did from that event. If not, I suggest you head down to the bottom of this page and search for the IA 2011 mini-series of coverage. If you find that too difficult, simply go to Google or whatever fucking search engine you prefer and type in “import alliance 2011 chronicles” and it’ll probably pop up. Since I spent so much time earlier in the year typing up the coverage, I won’t provide captions for these photos today. If you want to know who or what appears in these photos, check out my coverage because there are similar shots, albeit from different angles, of what you are looking for. I went ahead and included the shots that were published because I honestly feel that many of you sometimes just overlook the event coverage section in the magazines and skip right to the main features. If that’s the case, then all of these will be viewed for the first time for you guys/gals. There were also a couple cars that I maybe took one shot of, and then I ended up sending it in for publishing so the cars might not have made it into The Chronicles coverage of the event. So if you were looking for your car in my coverage and thought I was an asshole for ignoring your car or overlooking it, then there is a small chance you may see it here today. Even if you do, I am still an asshole, so everybody wins. Anyways, on with the photos…you guys should have seen enough coverage of this event this year to know what cars these are so captions probably aren’t necessary. I got a shit ton of work to finish up before New Year’s so I am off to take a fucking nap now before I get back to work. Enjoy… shout-out to everyone outside the west coast, I haven’t forgotten about you guys…
Click here to view the original story on Import Alliance Summer 2011 from Honda Tuning magazine…
Click here to view the original story on Import Alliance Summer 2011 from Super Street magazine…
Photos below…
Thanks for looking…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 4…
I know many of you have come on here today to look for Autocon 2011 coverage and I’ll get to that early tomorrow when I finally finish up the photos. This was just too good to pass up today….
It’s been almost three months since the last update, but late last week, I got word that Ryan had gone up to Norcal to finally pick up his ITR chassis. Sunny from Franklin Autobody had been busy trying to finish it up but with SEMA and so many other projects at his shop, it took a little longer than expected. Everything that we have covered on the build up until this point had been without having the chassis down here in Socal so when we heard that the car was ready, we were all pretty excited to finally see it in person for the first time. Ryan had seen it, as well as a couple other of the Norcal homies, but everyone else down here had seen just as much as all of you had, which was only in photos. There’s a lot going on lately and more than enough content to fill up the rest of this month, but Ryan finally having the chassis at the Rywire facilities was huge news that I just couldn’t pass up. With all the coverage that is coming, it would likely get lost in the mix so it’s better to toss this up today during the beginning of the week….
I wasn’t there the day it finally arrived…Ryan had gone up to Norcal and came back down with our buddy Nick Caster and his trailer. The rest of us were over at Autocon 2011 and then the next day I had to head out to Santa Barbara for a bit. While I was up there, Ryan was sending me photos with the car unloaded off the trailer and in the shop but I told him right away to stop doing any work he had planned on doing because I wanted to document it. Today I was originally planning on working on my own car but since it was raining like crazy down here, I decided to just grab my camera shit and go to the shop to see the ITR for myself….The pictures obviously do not do the paint work any justice. The Porsche GT3 orange is a great color that just has to be experienced in the sunlight but with all that is left to do, it’s unlikely to see any sunlight in the next couple months. For now, I’ll try to document as much of the progress as I can and try to bring you the build in full detail. Unlike the Big Mike Prelude build, I’ll actually be present for a majority of this build, which means that I can provide as much information and as many photos as possible. This is going to be an amazing, one-of-a-kind build that you definitely do not want to miss…
It’s still pretty crazy to see this car in person finally…I don’t even think it’s hit Ryan yet. Sunny did an amazing job though from what I see, and it was definitely worth the wait. So far, the chassis is almost as bare as can be with the exception with some suspension pieces already installed by Ryan. He got excited and started mocking up how he wanted everything…
It’s hard to tell since it’s been painted black but the exhaust opening on the rear bumper has been smoothed out and streamlined with the rest of the bumper. Ryan’s exhaust isn’t going to be routed out of the rear anymore so that opening just wouldn’t make sense. Sunny worked his magic and now the rear bumper looks like it should have came that way from the factory…
Mugen Gen. 2 rear wing with center section painted black. The base plates were left a raw aluminum finish since they were in such mint condition and Ryan had intentions on matching it a gloss black but liked the contrast of the aluminum finish…
Color-matched interior that has been completely stripped of everything minus the steering column…when it’s all said and done, a majority of it will still be gutted minus the dashboard, seats, and door panels. There’s no rush to re-install anything in here because Ryan still has to wire up the whole car inside and out…
One of the most interesting aspects of the build so far has to be the custom metal fenders fabricated by Sunny from Franklin Autobody…They came out amazing and still accentuates the OEM lines of the chassis. The fenders were also measured and designed specifically with those Regamaster wheels in mind so there will be no issues with wheel fitment down the line….
If you saw part 3 of this build, you will have seen the massive pile of parts that were sent off to be powdercoated. A large chunk of those parts were suspension pieces and you can see here how the parts look after they’ve been cleaned-up and coated a high gloss black…Everything that will go back on this ITR will either be new or restored components. This is a shot of the rear suspension along with some brand new Skunk2 Pro-C coilovers that might be replaced later on when the car is closer to completion. Ryan hasn’t really made a decision on whether or not to keep these or to run something different like JRZ’s…
Everything up front is new as well…even the hub assembly behind the Wilwood brake rotor will be replaced later on with a new unit. You’ll probably noticed the crusty old tie rod end in the photo, which contrasts with the clean, gloss black suspension pieces. That old tie rod end is attached to a spare steering rack that Ryan re-installed on the chassis just to get the car moving from the bodyshop back to his shop…
No glass has been installed on the ITR body yet, except for the rear hatch window…here you can see parts of the cage through the rear window…the paint looks wet still and the whole car still needs to be cut and buffed. Sunny will come down personally later on down the line to clean everything up before it makes it’s official public debut…
Another glimpse of the cage and interior with the rear hatch up…don’t forget the battery box sitting just behind the passenger seat area…
Here’s what the bay looks like, bare minus the coilovers being mounted, as well as the subframe and the spare steering rack…Speaking of the steering rack, there’s a reason why was using a temporary unit…
While I was there, he was still busy putting his modified rack back together. I would like to explain to you exactly what he was doing to it, but I felt it would be more appropriate for Ryan himself to tell you….
That’s pretty much it for now. He’s slowing doing stuff to it and I’ll update you when he does but there are so many customer projects there at that time that he has to concentrate on finishing up those cars first…check back for more soon…
Here are the links to the previous parts of the build that you may have missed…
Thanks for looking…
Exclusive Content…Unpublished Photos of Dennis K.’s Subaru STI from Super Street Oct. ’11…
I had never heard of Dennis or his Subaru STI before I did this story. I’ll be perfectly candid with you guys…as much as I try to keep up with everything car-related around me, I don’t really invest too much time into the Subaru-community. I’ve never owned one and the only ones I’m exposed to are the ones that I see either at car shows or on the interwebz. I only know of a couple guys personally that have them, and Dennis wasn’t one of those guys. We had exchanged texts back and forth when I was trying to get a hold of him to do a story on his car for Super Street, but that was about it. The only thing I knew about the guy was that he was from Team Hybrid. I’ve been familiar with Hybrid since the early 2000s and I’ve also done a couple of other stories on some Hybrid cars for Super Street. When Jonathan Wong hit me up to do this story, he told me that it was for the “stance” issue and I was honestly a little puzzled as to why I’d be shooting an STI for it. The only Subaru STIs that I had seen at that point with aggressive wheel fitment were usually rolling on some fake, knock-off wheels and their fenders were (as expected) fucked-up. I went in with no expectations and when I saw Dennis Kongvongsai’s STI, I was plesantly surprised. The build itself was pretty well-rounded and it looked great sitting on some Mag Blue Volk RE30s. His fenders also weren’t haggered to shit and that’s always a plus.
We met in San Diego over at Autofashion USA because Dennis is from there and I didn’t want him to have to drive up to LA, especially considering the fact that I too was originally from San Diego and I was pretty familiar with the area. I headed down to Autofashion early that day of the shoot so that I could spent a couple minutes hanging out with Freddie. I’ve known Freddie for quite some time now so it was good to see him and catch-up. Dennis arrived a little while later and I took him to a spot down the street to set-up for the shoot. Everything went smoothly for the most part. The only real issue I ran into was that the surrounding areas produced a lot of dust, so Dennis’ STI got dirty right away. He had his cleaning supplies and white cars are usually easy to shoot anyway so we quickly eliminated the problem. I met up with Dennis late so the sun also set quicker than I wanted but we made it work. When you shoot in the late afternoon, you’re always chasing the sunset and that’s why you’ll notice that some of the shots, like the interior and engine bay, look like they were shot in the evening….that’s because they were. By the time we found a spot and started shooting, it was already late in the afternoon. I mean, it wasn’t pitch black or anything but it was getting late. Dennis was a real trooper though and stuck it out with me until we finished. He’s a cool dude. Pretty quiet, not much to say, and just an overall chill attitude. I still run into him at various events and he’s definitely not one of those dudes that you’ve met before, but walk by and act like they don’t see you, if you catch my drift…I remember him saying that he had plans of selling this STI, even before we featured it in Super Street, and the feature just happened at the right time. I believe he already parted it out or was in the process of doing that now so maybe he’ll get choked up seeing these photos, haha, I don’t know. Today, we are going to take a look at some of the unpublished photos from the story as well as some that were used. I normally don’t put up the ones that were published already but I noticed that the ones used on the Super Street website were cropped and parts of the car were cut off in the process. I’ve provided a link to the original story, so please check that out if you haven’t already. The story itself is based around the whole “stance” topic since it was, well, the “stance” issue. I was pretty happy with how everything came together. Dennis is a huge fan of the “hellaflush” and “stance” scene so it works out that I was able to discuss that as well as the build-up and history of his STI. There aren’t too many extra photos from the shoot. Space was pretty tight that day and I knew what shots I wanted already so I didn’t bother with shooting any and every angle. I’ve provided some bonus 1080P-sized wallpapers below, as usual. I’m sure you guys know the routine by now….I did try something new this time around though; I consolidated the interior shots so you guys don’t have to click on each individual photo…Enjoy…
A shot of the Mature rear diffuser, a part that I hadn’t heard of or seen until that day… Larger Version (1400×933)
A couple bonus desktop images for you guys…
Thanks for looking…
Exclusive Content…More Tactical Art Goodness…
Mr. Yasutaka Shimomukai sent me these awhile back when we first started communicating through email, but like I said last week, I’ve had a back log of stuff that I need to get posted. SEMA 2011 coverage really pushed us a couple weeks back, but luckily there are a few free weeks here and there between the upcoming events in December that allow me to get this stuff up before it’s too late. Youtube is being a real cow today so hopefully the videos I uploaded from them get up in time, otherwise this update would just be incomplete. For the photos, they are just random images that he sent me of his car and of Atuki’s EG6, which is the one with the crazy front diffuser set-up. I have full specs of the two cars that I’m posting up today, and Atuki’s should be the one you are familiar with. The other EG is Yasutaka’s but I didn’t post any last time because I didn’t know it was his car, and also because I was hesitant to post up shots of his car because he’s rolling on some Sportmax/XXR wheels. I haven’t figured out an appropriate way to tell him in English that I believe that XXR wheels are utter garbage because I think it would get lost in translation. I’m not particularly mad that he’s on these wheels, they are afterall, Honda enthusiasts like us with a special taste for American Honda-styling, which results in him being exposed to XXR wheels. We like what they have and they like what we have. Unfortunately, what we have is an over abundance of replica/knock-off wheels and it’s also unfortuante that it’s become attached to the image of what people outside of the U.S. see as “USDM style”. Sad right? In any case, I like Yasutaka and the Tactical Art crew and I really appreciate the fact that they made the effort to meet me and the other homies when they made the trip out to America for SEMA. I can’t hate on the fact that he has XXR wheels because I don’t expect him to know what we all know about XXR. I am happy however, to see that he beats on his car at track events and those wheels haven’t exploded into a thousand pieces yet…
Big up’s to the Tactical Art guys for being pure Honda guys that are willing to share their videos and photos with us… They recently attended a track event as well and I am hoping that he sends more videos and photos my way. Today, enjoy these random shots and the videos posted below…
Here are the specs for Atuki’s EG6, I don’t recall if I posted up the specs on this car last time so here they are again (if I posted them last time)…
B18C block
B16A head
0.25 overbore
Baffled oil pan
Ported cylinder head
Knife-edged processing
TODA Racing Spec B cams
TODA Racing timing belt
Nagai Electron twin-fire ignition system
Adjustable fuel pressure regulator
Larger throttle body
J’s Racing Tsuchinoko intake
Mugen 4-1 header
Tactical Art original exhaust system
Koyo radiator
Tuned on APEX’i Power FC
Exedy Hyper single clutch
ATS mechanical limited-slip differential
ATS 3, 4, 5 Cross Gear
ATS 4.929 Final Drive
CRUX suspension
Swift 22K front/18K rear springs
16×9 +13 SSR SP3R (front)
16×8 +42 Volk Racing TE37
Atuki welding-up his cage…
Atuki’s EG6 before the wild front canard and splitter set-up…
Note the cut-out headlight on the driver side that helps direct airflow into the engine bay…mesh insert installed on the headlight casing also…
His front diffuser set-up, front lip, and canards, all made of carbon fiber…
Chopped rear bumper…
A shot of his custom fiberglass dashboard…
Here’s a quick video of Atuki’s EG6 at Nakayama Circuit…
This next EG is the one that I was talking about earlier on XXR wheels. I wish I had the full specs on it like the EG above, but this one belongs to Yasutaka, who is the shop manager over at Tactical Art. He has been my main contact over there and has sent me some photos of his car even before it was painted. In all honesty, the car doesn’t even look bad on those crappy XXR wheels, but that’s probably due to the meaty Advan tires on them. I’m done talking about the wheels, haha, I’m just saying, it would look better on some other wheels because I love everything else about it…I just don’t want anything happening to his car because of the wheels…Anyways…
Here’s how the EG looked before it was repainted to it’s current olive tone…The car was already caged but everything on the outside looked basically stock. Shimomukai was also on some SSR Type-Xs back then…
You can see here how hard he drove his Civic. The bumpers are gone and even the front support has been bent a little, probably from seeing some off-road action…I believe the damage is what ultimately lead him to repair and repaint everything…
Another shot of it before it was bashed-up from track action…
Fresh out of paint here with new carbon fiber hood…These Tactical Art guys must have all kinds of wheels laying around. The front set here looks to be some old Volk GR-Ns…
You can tell that he’s a big fan of the U.S. “Hellaflush” movement…
Function7 subframe brace and rear lower control arms….
Unlike the U.S., owning a Civic can still get you girls in Japan…haha…
A couple of recent exterior shots from the Hellaflush Japan event…I like the overall ride height of the EG as well as the canards, hood, and safety net on the window…
A couple rolling shots of Yasutaka’s EG6 on the expressway…
Interior shots…Note the gauge set-up, roll cage, and how the interior has been re-sprayed a grey tone, while the entire interior of Atuki’s EG6 is white…
I wish I had more details on the motor set-up, but I believe it has a very similar B18C set-up like Atuki’s. We can all say what we want about his wheel choice, and the fact that it’s “hellaflush” but what it comes down to is that this Civic is still functional and is tracked quite often. I couldn’t really tell you if he was fast or not but I don’t think they’re out to set and record-breaking lap times. They just do it for fun and from watching the videos, they’re pretty good at what they do…It’s Honda guys enjoying their Hondas, that transcends any borders and any language barrier…
Tactical Art headquarters…
…and the inside, back wall of Tactical Art…It’s filled with Hondas even though they are a high-end car audio install and fabrication shop…
Here is an 11-minute long video of Yasutaka Shimomukai on the track… In this video you’ll see him chasing down an EK9 Type R as well as almost hitting an FD3s RX-7 that had just spun out…
This one is a quick drive-by video of his Civic on the way to the Hellaflush Japan event…
Here is a bonus video that they sent me as well. This is Taku Kusugami, having some fun on the highway. If you guys aren’t familiar with Taku’s EK, please look at my previous Tactical Art post….
That’s pretty much it. I’m hoping I hear from them soon regarding their most recent track event. For now, I hope you guys enjoyed another look into Tactical Art and their Hondas…
Exclusive Content…Unpublished Photos of Cody Chan’s Miata from Super Street Oct. ’11…
I really wanted to post these up awhile back after the October issue of Super Street dropped but I’ve had so much other stuff to post up lately that I didn’t want this to get lost in the mix. One of the reasons why I wanted to get this up sooner was because I was really happy with these photos, and also because the owner, Cody Chan, has been asking to see the rest of the photos. We took a lot of photos that day and I told him early on that there would be a lot that wouldn’t be used when it was published. He understood and I told him that after the issue drops, I’ll get the unused ones up for him to see. He doesn’t follow this site at all but I’ve known Cody for quite some time now. We used to have a similar group of mutual friends but Cody was much younger than so we didn’t really hang out that much…
One day, while I was looking through some event coverage at some random event, I spotted this Miata and I really liked it. I don’t really see Miatas that often because the community seems to be relatively reserved and tight, meaning that they don’t really mix with other crowds. I loved the way this particular Miata looked because of it’s raw aggression. It’s a Miata and they get a bad wrap, but this one just looked fucking beefy, you know? You’ll see in the pics that follow if you didn’t catch the story in Super Street. The car has it’s flaws but one of the reasons why this car works well as a total package is because it’s raw and rough around the edges. Cody takes it to the canyons and beats the shit out of it and the aesthetics and functionality of the car work very well together. When I saw this car earlier in the year, I had no idea it was Cody’s because I haven’t seen him in such a long time and didn’t know that his car had seen such a drastic transformation. I’ll be perfectly honest, when I first met Cody, I wasn’t a big fan of his Miata…he was young and was still trying to figure out what direction he wanted to go with the car so there were just a lot of different things going on with the car that just didn’t work together. He’s grown up along with his car and it’s good to see that he’s finally gotten the grasp of what he likes. After I saw the photo online of this Miata, I knew that I wanted to do a story on it for one of the magazines, whether it be for Super Street or Import Tuner. I hit up Cody after I found out it was his and left the decision up to him as to which magazine he wanted to be in, because they were both interested in doing something on the car. He ended up going with Super Street and I’m happy to say that I got to shoot it and do the story on it because this is one of my favorite personal shoots that I’ve done since I started shooting. Ironically, my top personal favorite car that I’ve shot was Ka Wong’s orange AE86 Corolla, and he too was on Volk TE37Vs….Maybe I’m just a huge fan of the wheels and the cars they go on, who knows…haha…This shoot also marks the first time I’ve ever shot out in the canyons. I don’t know my way around those parts but Cody was pretty familiar so he navigated us to the appropriate areas to shoot. I wanted to shoot in the canyons and not a more public place like downtown L.A. because it fits the theme of the vehicle better. Anyways, it’s a very unique car and I’m glad to bring these photos to you guys today. There are little details that I think are easily overlooked in print, so you get to see them today…
Basically all the shots that you are seeing today were unpublished and not used in the Super Street story, so go to the link above to see the original images that were used. The ones that are repeated are just a couple of the interior shots that are hard to see on the SS online page because they don’t resize correctly and come out really small when you click on them. I’ve also attached two 1080P-sized desktop images for you guys, if you want to switch up your desktop…Enjoy, and thanks to Cody Chan and Super Street magazine for making all this possible…
Links to larger versions of each photo are provided under each image like usual…
OH, AND PLEASE DON’T BE A LOWLIFE PIECE OF SHIT AND STEAL MY CONTENT AND POST THEM AS YOUR OWN…
Love this stencil of the iconic “Great Wave Off Kanagawa” on the end of the wing… Larger Version (1400×933)
A couple of bonus desktop images for you guys…
Thanks for looking….
