Exclusive Content…The Bisimoto Engineering 2012 Honda Civic SEMA Build Revealed…
As you should all know by now, the annual SEMA show kicks off this week which will serve as the grand unveiling to many of the industry’s latest and greatest automotive projects. It’s probably one of the most anticipated of the year and many aftermarket tuning companies save their best work for this event. One of the companies that brings out their absolute best to Las Vegas every single year is Bisimoto Engineering. Last year, I had the pleasure of unveiling their 400+hp fully-functional hybrid Honda CR-Z project to the world and this year, or today rather, I have the esteemed honor of revealing their 2012 Honda Civic coupe build. This build, in my opinion, is possibly their best yet. During the build-up, I told Bisi Ezerioha that this has to be his best-looking car yet….I was a little premature in my praise of course, because while I still believe this is his best-looking build yet, I had not had a chance to see the dyno numbers and how much power the new K24z7 produced. This car is absolutely insane. I’ll leave you with a bit of suspense until you can see the horsepower numbers for yourself on the Dyna-Pak screenshot below. What he’s been able to squeeze out of this K-motor is pretty crazy…just hearing it start-up was intense enough…
I was lucky enough to be able to cover more of this build than last year’s Bisimoto CR-Z project. In fact, by the time I saw the CR-Z, it was probably at about 85-90% completion. This year, I was able to see the 2012 Civic from the point in which it was completely stripped down, all the way until the final moment of re-assembly and right when it was loaded on to the trailer and sent off to Honda of America. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to cover every single moment of it, but I’ll tell you this, I spent a couple sleepless nights over there snapping away with the camera while also lending a hand wherever I could to help Bisi and crew finish up the car. The time table was definitely tight on this one but I feel that this 2012 Civic will undoubtedly be a hit at the 2011 SEMA show. What I love about this year’s build is that Bisi also touched on the aesthetics of the car, something that isn’t always a focal point of his builds. Overall, it’s just a very aggressive looking build and it definitely has the guts to back it up….
I have to thank Bisimoto Engineering and Rywire.com for giving me the ability to be present during the build process. It’s a great feeling to be able to unveil such a huge project to the world today. For those of you who will be able to participate in the SEMA festivities, please stop by the Honda section in the main hall to check out this build for yourself. For those of you who aren’t able to go to SEMA, you guys are in for a real treat today. I am going to put up photos and video today from the point in which I first saw the car in raw form to the moment it went back to Honda for shipment to Las Vegas….
I would have liked to have been able to do a more traditional “shoot” like I did last year with the Bisimoto CR-Z but we just ran out of time this year. Luckily I was able to cover more of the intricacies of the build and you get a chance to see the process instead of just the final product. With that said, I would like to formally announce the first official photos of the 2012 Bisimoto Honda Civic coupe….enjoy and if you’re new here, I hope you stick around…
Note – There are quite a bit of photos so please allow them to load…I would have separated them into sections but since I am currently away in Las Vegas, I don’t know if I will have the ability to upload different parts throughout the week…
This is the state in which the 2012 Honda Civic was in at around 1am on October 20th, 2011…The only visually complete items on the car were the Stop-Tech big brakes, cut-out hood, and full roll cage…
Ryan Basseri from Rywire creating custom brake lines for the Civic…
Bisi Ezerioha, Supertwinz John from AEM, and Ryan Basseri going over some ideas for the engine bay…
I was thinking that Bisi would go with his signature Bisimoto Fighter Special wheel since a couple of them were either mounted on the car or around it, but that wasn’t the case because he had a new wheel to debut on the Civic…
At this point, the exterior was still basically stock, other than the cut-out on the hood…
A look at the cage that was built by Steen Chassis…
Stop-Tech big brake kit…a small wheel spacer was needed to clear the caliper…
Ryan doing work…
Supertwinz John holding up the Burns Stainless short muffler that will eventually go on the Civic…
Ryan under the car working on the custom lines for the rear brakes…
The lines running to a Wilwood proportioning valve…
Bisi and Ryan going over the brake lines….
Bisi swept a little…
This next batch of photos were captured 3 days later. By this point, the motor had gone back into the car, the vehicle wrap was complete, and re-assembly had begun…
First look at the K24Z7 since going back into the coupe…
One of the most noticeable additions that I spotted right away were the AEM High Output Ignition Coils….Definitely didn’t expect Bisi to go back to using a more conventional, external coil over the O.E. coil-over-plug set-up…
I did however, expect to see this massive Turbonetics turbo…
Custom relay and harness set-up built from scratch by Rywire…
Cool little addition that Bisi had found off of an airplane…I forget what it’s used for now but Ryan actually rewired this thing and made it functional…
Ryan working on the fuse box….
Your first look at the graphical livery and vinyl wrap layout. You can see here that the chute has been installed and the new wheels mounted…
How the engine bay looked before the radiator support and everything was reinstalled…
Your first look at the Bisimoto “Eins Gramm” wheel…
Ryan and Bisi working on the engine harness…
Ryan installing the Odyssey battery beneath the headlight…
The K24Z7 engine coming together…
I didn’t get a chance to stay very long that day… I just wanted to stop by for a bit and check out the progress… The next batch of photos came another 3 days later, on 10/26/2011, just 5 days before SEMA. The car had to go back to Honda of America for press photos and what not, so there was definitely a sense of urgency to finish. The 2012 Civic actually had to be delivered the next morning so Bisi and crew stayed up for a couple days to knock it out…I had pulled an all-nighter for work and other reasons, but I had to make the drive out to Ontario to see this build through to the end…
Random shot of one of Bisi’s Porsche projects sitting outside next to his trailer…
When I got there, Bisi was busy on his laptop configuring the Racepak dash display while two representatives from Extreme Dimensions were busy installing some carbon fiber pieces from their “Carbon Creations” line of products…
In the days that I was away, the car was actually sent out to Bisi’s fabricators for more stuff, including this custom rear wing…
Guys from Extreme Dimensions installing the carbon fiber half-splitter pieces/canards or whatever you call those things…
I forget the exact specs on the wheels right now, but I’m sure wheel fitment and “stance” guys will appreciate it. I think this had to be the first time where Bisi ever had to worry about wheel fitment. There are only so many suspension components out for the 2012 Civics at this point so messing with the camber adjustments and what not was definitely interesting…We eventually where able to get the wheels to fit without that little area of the rear bumper being pushed out slightly…
The “Eins Gramm” logo on the wheel which means, easily enough, “One Gram”…
The engine bay with the radiator, core support, and front mount intercooler re-installed…
At one point in the afternoon, we stopped to eat lunch since Bisi had ordered pizza, and it was great to see a photo of Misa Campo hanging inside the Bisimoto offices after staring at car parts and dudes all day…haha…
After we finished eating and chatting for a bit, it was back to work. I took the time to get some more detail shots of the Bisimoto Civic coupe…
A closer look at the custom vents on his drag wing…
Bisimoto-themed custom graphical livery…
Better look at the AEM High Voltage “Smart” ignition coils mounted to a plate on the Golden Eagle intake manifold…
The massive Turbonetics turbocharger…
Okay, so speaking of the giant turbo, Bisi had tuned the K24Z7 motor earlier on in the day and revealed to us the final numbers from his tune…
There were still some very minor issues that will need to be resolved once SEMA comes to a conclusion but your eyes aren’t deceiving you…the Bisimoto Engineering 2012 Honda Civic produced 1004 horsepower and 623LB-Ft of torque… One-thousand and four horsepower K24!…
A shot of the front bumper…
A shot of the rear of the Civic….
Bisi Ezerioha putting some of his vinyl decals on to support his many sponsors…
Big Mike helped with the rear window decals…
A shot of the cockpit with the custom airplane “launch” switches…
Almost complete…Below is a video of one of the start-ups so you guys can get a chance to hear the motor….
Corner of the front bumper featuring another batch of sponsors….
Vibrant Vanjen clamps…
Golden Eagle Pro Series fuel rail…
All hands on board to help!…
The Turbonetics unit in motion…
Ryan going over some last minute details in the bay…
A final look at the Bisimoto Eins Gramm wheel on Falken Azenis…
Bisi applying the “BISIMOTO.COM” banner to signify it’s completion…
Below is a video of the 2012 Civic making it’s way out of the facility for the first time and getting onto a trailer for SEMA…
See you at SEMA 2011!…
That’s a wrap…if you guys are going to be attending the SEMA 2011 show, make sure to stop by the Honda section and check out the 1000+ horsepower Bisimoto Engineering 2012 Honda Civic. Remember where you guys saw it first….www.stickydiljoe.com!!!
I apologize for not being able to get better shots of the Civic outside of the facility, there just wasn’t any time. Below is a link to a larger sized photo so you can have a better view of what the car looks like…
Thanks for looking, and thank you to Bisimoto Engineering for the opportunity!!
See me in Vegas, I’m outta here!!! I will definitely try to update whenever I get the chance!
Tactical Art Japan…
I absolutely love doing this type of stuff…Normally I would be providing you guys coverage from the latest event that I went to but with the Year.Three meet coming up, I just haven’t had much time to go out and shoot. Which reminds me, if you guys are here to see coverage from the last Formula D event, I apologize because I didn’t have a chance to make it out there. Another reason I decided not to go was because May was participating in the Long Beach Marathon and it was important that I be there to support her. I don’t do much marathon running because I tend to only run when something is chasing me, but May is really into it so I have to support her…
Anyways, when I say…”I absolutely love doing this type of stuff”, I mean I love going to other sites/blogs from different parts of the world to see what is going on in the automotive community outside of the one I am accustomed to being in. I particularly love going to sites in Japan because as long as I’ve been a car guy, I have always looked to Japan for inspiration. Anytime I can see something new and learn more about it, Honda/car-wise, I’m all for it. The Hellaflush Japan 2011 event really sparked my interest because of certain cars I saw there. I mean, I enjoyed the cars at the event so much that I went and asked someone in Japan if I could use his photos just so I could show you guys, you know? I noticed somebody mentioned one day that I must have been tired or whatever because some of the cars he saw me post up were “straight-up JDM rice” or something to that degree. And I think that reader missed the point. For the most part, I did post up builds that I really liked but I also just posted cars that I felt were interesting enough for you guys to see. Some of the tastes in mods may not be to everyone’s liking, including mine, but I really wanted to show you guys what their interpretation of our scene is, especially when it comes to Hondas. Some of those guys take that whole “hellaflush” thing way too far over there, just like the people here, and I wanted to show you guys that…
With that said, one of the Hondas that really did stand out to me was a Honda that I didn’t even see in anyone else’s coverage before I stumbled upon it on the DOHCresearch website. DOHCresearch has long been one of my favorite automotive websites EVER. I would go as far as to say that DOHCresearch was one of the sites that really opened my eyes to Hondas back in the late 90s to early 2000s. The cars that they had on there were, to me, absolutely stunning. I know there are many enthusiasts today who will also say proudly that they looked to DOHCresearch for inspiration, and that site was based on some Hondas from Hawaii. The site itself slowed down quite a bit the last couple years and updates weren’t as prevalent as they were in the early 2000s so I found it interesting that they had coverage of the Hellaflush event in Japan. Sometimes I’ll hop on that site just for nostalgic reasons and to stare at old Honda builds so I was pretty surprised to see they had photos from the event. Now the Honda that I was referring to, that I hadn’t seen on anyone else’s coverage was this EG6…
Photo courtesy of DOHCresearch.com of course…I think with all the hype of it being a “Hellaflush” event based solely on everything stance-related, this Civic track car was overlooked…
This is a photo, also courtesy of DOHCresearch.com, that I posted up on The Chronicles Facebook page the other night…
I tried to find more photos of it online but there just wasn’t much other than the photos above. I decided that I wasn’t satisfied with just those two photos so I used my journalistic detective skills to try to find more. I spent much of the night before trying to dig for more photos of this car but they were just few and far between. The only thing I really had on it was that it was a build from “Tactical Art”. I hopped on Yahoo! Japan and I was finally able to pull up Tactical Art’s website and blog. On a side note, I realized later on that all I really had to do was look at my own site stats because the guys from Tactical Art actually caught wind of my coverage online and they had already linked it on their blog. Crazy how the internet works these days…
The following photos are photos from Tactical Art’s blog….
I couldn’t really read through all the translations because most of it just didn’t make sense, but this is what I gathered from going through their entire web diary…
It turns out that Tactical Art is actually a shop in Japan that deals mainly with audio installations. From the photos, they do other stuff like parts installs and what not but their main foray is doing custom audio set-ups for high-end vehicles like Lambos, Benzs, etc….
From what I saw, their custom audio enclosures and entire automotive set-ups is very impressive. The Civic that you see at the top of this post, is one of the workers or owners at Tactical Art….You can see in the photo above how the Civic looked before it’s recent transformation to it’s current look from the Hellaflush Japan event….
Here’s a much older photo of it…
Shot of it here, also an older photo, at the starting grid at a track event…
The aggressive white wheels in the front are actually a 16×9 +13 pair of SSR SP3-Rs… I don’t know too much else about the car because the guys who take care of their blog tend to provide more photos of cars that belong to customers and that show off their audio work…
One interesting thing to point out however, is the custom FRP dashboard that they made…
Kinda hard to see it but in this photo, you can kind of make out the dashboard here….They kept the original color to almost make it unnoticeable that the dashboard is a custom made piece…photo again provided by DOHCresearch…
Another Civic that caught my eye at the Hellaflush Japan event was this EK4…
People have been saying that it looks just like ATS*VEE’s Civic and it is nowhere near the same car. I liken it more to Ryan Der’s EK but whatever…I totally overlooked the fact that it had a “Tactical Art” banner on its windshield and it turns out that Tactical Art was the shop that (re)built this EK…When I was looking for photos of the EG above, I started seeing photos of this Civic pop up on their blog…
There were a couple of photos of this Civic floating around on the web, but leave it to DOHCresearch.com once again for actually walking to the other side of the car and taking a rear shot of it so we can see what’s going on inside…
Here’s a shot of the interior of the EK4…Everybody was taking photos of just the front of the car and you couldn’t even tell that the inside was battleship grey…
Once I started going through the Tactical Art blog, I was hooked…It didn’t have THAT many photos but there was enough photos on there to show the process in which this Civic was put together. I called it a “rebuild” earlier because that’s exactly what it was…a rebuild…
This is what that Civic looked like before it was redone and repainted…It already had the cage and all but the Air Walker (style) front bumper was removed and he had some Shift Sports fenders added in place of his modified stock front fenders. The Work Meister S1s are the same as well. I saw Speedhunters’ story on Hellaflush Japan and they mentioned that they were Work S1Rs but they are actually just the old Work S1s that were redone in all black. I read on there that it was a staggered set-up too with the fronts being 17s and the rears being 16-inch…
With the fenders installed before paint…wheels still original finish…
The interior before the re-spray to grey…
…and after….
Through the translations, I could sort of make out what the owner’s goal was for this EK4….They said that he wanted a full street car that he could also take to the track. That’s why the car still retains all of it’s creature comforts like the OEM JDM climate control, power steering, etc… You can see in the upper left corner that there is a little indicator denoting that the car is equipped with an alarm system. Since Tactical Art is a audio/electronics install shop, they make it a point to always show their alarm installs in their blog. In the build-up photos of both this car and the EG, they have posts showing the installs….I guess they’re worried about getting jacked too…haha…
The wheels after they were refinished in black with original Work Wheels decals reapplied…I remember when I had my S1s polished I had to remember to apply the decal right where the valve stem was as well…
A late night shot of the car after they reassembled it after paint and with the wheels re-installed…
Here’s a shot of the car on the expressway…
This shot of the EK4 was at one of their local track events, from some of the other photos, it looks to be at the Suzuka Circuit….You can see here that there’s nothing really special about the engine bay. It’s still white in fact…
On the owner’s blog, which I also somehow managed to find, is a video of the car during a shakedown run before he ran the car at Suzuka… Hopefully the video displays here, if not click HERE….
Pretty cool…
Okay, so while I was trying to find more info on the car, I stumbled onto this other blog site which of course, I later realized was already linked back to me in my site stats. This blog belonged to a tire/wheel/alignment shop in Japan called “Craft” and was operated by the owner of the EK4 who works there. Originally when I was going through the Tactical Art site, I assumed that both Civics belonged to people that were from that shop but that wasn’t the case. The guy that owns the EK4 worked at Craft and was just a customer over at Tactical Art….
Here’s a photo of it posted up at Craft. I thought I was glued to the screen while looking at Tactical Art’s blog but when I started going through all the photos and info on the Craft blog, man, I was on that shit for hours…
Their whole thing was that they took photos of basically every car that they worked on. That sounds sort of boring but when you see the type of cars that roll through there, damn, it looks like a pretty cool spot to work at…They had a lot of VIP cars, Kei cars, Hondas, Nissans, everything…I’m telling you, I was on this site for HOURS….
Here’s some of the cars that they were working on. There’s a ton more but I include the link at the end of this post….
Here’s a Nissan Stagea on SSR Professor SP3s….
Here’s a shot of an alignment they were doing on a Toyota Crown with Leon Hardiritt Ordens…
Different car, same wheels, this one with a Mode Parfume kit and custom rear fender flares…
Honda S2000 with a Spoon front bumper, ASM fenders, and rear flares on Wedsport SA55M….
Liked this white Toyota Aristo that they posted up…
I don’t want to go too far off topic but yeah, they work on all kinds of cars at the shop…
Gonna close it out today with some track photos that I collected from both the Tactical Art and Craft blogs…
The brown EK4 in action…
White EG that’s totally unrelated to both the Civics I was speaking of…
An EG and an EK…I’m just throwing these in here because I figured you guys would enjoy them…
The Tactical Art EG…
I don’t know whose EK this is and the photo is pretty old, but I like the Manaray wheels on it…
That’s pretty much it…. If you really want to see more and be stuck on the computer for hours and hours staring at car photos, click the links below. It’s all in Japanese so it will be hard to understand and navigate through their sites so be forewarned…
…and of course special thanks to DOHCresearch for showing me the Tactical Art Civic in the first place…
Hope you guys enjoyed it, thanks for looking….
Year.Three is a little over a week away!!!
Hellaflush Japan 2011 Coverage…Part 2…
I’m glad that everyone is enjoying the coverage from Hellaflush Japan. For me personally, it was really cool to be able to see most of the cars represented in these photos because I’ve never seen them before. Today we will take a look at the rest of the photos that I got from the event. Again, special thanks to Mr. Koji Karimata for providing these awesome photos for all of us to see… Enjoy… If you missed part one, it’s directly below this post and probably the reason why these are taking a while to load haha….
This Civic immediately stood out to me while I was browsing through Karimata’s photos… It looks like a mix of Ryan Der’s white EK and another ATS member, ATS Vee’s Civic… You probably remember Ryan’s Civic because you’ve seen it plenty of times on this site but probably not Vee’s. His is a very similar color. With the wheels and brake set-up though, and especially since Ryan has now removed his C-West kit, this car definitely reminds me of his hatchback and that is a VERY good thing…I wonder what the bay looks like and what motor he is running…
Honda Inspire converted to U.S. 2nd. generation Acura TL-spec on some HRE wheels…I like the little details on it like the silver door handle frames to match the wheels and what not…cool build…
Evo 8 slammed on some SSR Professor SP3s…
This was weird/cool/strange… Note the mirrors and the exhaust coming out the rear corner… If Big Mike’s Prelude and his Accord wagon were to have a child and then later they both discovered that they were actually related, this is the inbred child it would produce…
Speaking of random combinations of things, check out this DB8 Integra…It has a Blitz-style front bumper that I haven’t seen in years, 5-Series BMW headlights, E46 BMW M3 side vents, and what looks to be some re-barreled Mugen M7s…Pretty wild look…I think those are also some Bomex sideskirts or something. Style is a little different for sure, but execution doesn’t look all that bad…Interior is a trip also…
S14 Silvia slammed on some 350Z wheels…
Oh man, I fucking love this car! Nissan R30 RS-Turbo Skyline from the 80s aka Tekkamen (鉄仮面) or “Iron Mask”… I don’t know what I love more about this thing, the fact that it has Volk TE37Vs on it, which are probably my favorite wheels at the moment, or the fact that he’s rocking a Chronicles sticker!! That’s fucking awesome…haha….Damn I wish I could see this car in person…
This one is a R31 Skyline sedan, which was the direct precursor to the R32 Skyline and the last Skyline they made before they went back to having GT-Rs….Such cool looking cars fromt he 80s man, I really dig these old Nissans. Stuff like this is what really keeps me interested in the Japanese tuning community because I just love seeing cars like this…They have like, a very distinct look to them so you automatically know what era they are from, you know what I mean? Cars these days all sort of look the same now…
EK Civic on some Hayashi Streets…I remember when HeyMikeyyyy was asking me if he should get a set of these and I was like “fuck no, you’re crazy. That’ll look retarded on your car”….I still stand by those statements today even though I really like the wheel itself…just not so much on Hondas…
Integra that’s on some pretty aggressive SSR MK2 wheels…
Very well done MK5 VW R32 that I always see in photos at various events in Japan…
This new VW Scirocco is also very nice….I like the polished OZ Futuras and the neon green accents expressed throughout the car…
This was another favorite of mine at the Hellaflush Japan event…If you don’t know what you’re looking at, this is the 2nd generation Toyota Soarer (or what we know of here as the SC300/400). This was the Soarer long before Toyota had aspirations of bringing the 3rd gen. over under the Lexus brand. It shared the same chassis with the A70 or Mark III Supra but had similar styling cues from their sedans like the Cressida, Cresta, and Toyota Mark II… This is another car like the R30/R31 Skylines that are still really cool to see modified in our day and age. I love the modern Volk TE37SLs on it as well as the red Recaros and Vertex wheel… DPK David asked me yesterday if I was Puerto Rican since I like old Toyotas and Nissans so much, haha…
This Subaru Forester is pretty sick. You don’t see these things modified very often but they definitely have a unique look to them…This car and a couple others were at the Hellaflush Japan event parked together and were all the same color…pretty cool but I wonder how long it took for them to deliberate what color all their cars were going to be…haha…
Widebody Subaru STI….Love the details like the orange and black accents. Even the Sparco seats have matching trim…
Nissan 180SX Type X on Volk TE37s…
Japanese S2000 showing American folks that you can have aggressive wheel fitment on S2Ks without have fenders that look like the Cookie Monster knawed through it…
S2000 on blue Work VS-XX…Not really sure why this photo is smaller than the other ones on this page, I think I may have been falling asleep while editing this photo…
Nissan S13 Silvia coupe with 180SX/USDM 240SX coupe front end conversion…Most would probably just think this was how the S13 240SX came in Japan but that’s certainly not the case…That’s one thing that I definitely don’t miss about the 80s automobiles though…all those fucking flip lights.. like every 2-door coupe or sportscar in the U.S. had them at the time for some reason…Makes you wonder if it was some sort of mandate made to automobile companies during that time to make cars more “aerodynamic” since the world had just gotten out of the world oil/fuel crisis of the 70s…
I believe this is an 8th generation Toyota Mark II sedan…Cool VIP/drift look to it…
Mazda Eunos Roadster…the Japanese equivalent to our Miata…
R32 Skylines will probably always be one of my favorite Skylines of all time… Doesn’t hurt that this one has TE37SLs on it and AP Racing brakes…That’s a perfect look right there. Just leave it alone and cruise in it…
Nissan Stagea on some AME Tracers and AME-sticker bombed front lip…If you guys don’t know what a Stagea is, just imagine a 4-door Skyline wagon and look up…
I don’t know what type of Toyota van this is but it’s one of the best looking vans I’ve ever seen…I know the Japanese Odyssey, Stream, and other Honda vans were great looking but I had no idea Toyota was pushing out vans like this…oh damn….
Toyota Soarer from N’s Factory…I read the description under the door and it said “N’s Factory: Total Car Life Consulting”. That’s awesome….I guess you can go to these guys for a consultation on how to build your car. I wish I would have thought of that…then the world would have 5 more crappy cars than usual…haha…
Ignore the crazy camber on this Nissan Cima for a second and take a look at the front end of the car. As you guys all know, I have a Q45 that I’ve had for a couple years and about a year or so ago, there was a huge fire at Midnight Garage and the bumper I had there was torched and destroyed. Well, besides not getting any compensation from the fucking dumb ass kid that accidently caused the fire, seeing this photo makes me especially sad because the bumper on this Nissan Cima was the exact bumper that I was searching for on Yahoo Auctions Japan for over a year. I was finally able to source one and Mastermind helped me bring it over, but then before I even had a chance to put it on, it was lost in the fire…What’s different about this bumper from most other JDM Nissan Cima bumpers is the OEM front lip on it. This lip indicates that this Cima was probably a Grand Touring model, which was a non-V8, turbo 6-cylinder version of the Cima. The owner switched over to a Zenki, non-Touring model Cima front grille, which was also what I have now, so other than the smoked fogs, black paint, and JDM headlights, that’s pretty much what my front end would have looked like. I have a complete Wald kit on my Q now but when I first purchased the bumper, I had plans to ditch the kit altogether and just rock this JDM front bumper and Grand Touring lip. Kinda still upsets me a little bit because I lost what was pretty much a 3-400 dollar bumper and never got to put it on. You guys probably don’t really care since this is a Honda site but that Grand Touring bumper and lip combo is pretty rare to find, especially in good condition…Maybe some day I’ll find another one…oh well, what can you do…it’s not everyday some jack ass starts a fire and runs away afterwards…
On a lighter note, I’m gonna close out the Hellaflush Japan coverage with my favorite Integra from Japan…
Thanks for looking…
Hellaflush Japan 2011 Coverage…Part 1…
One of the great things about being friends with guys like Tetsuya Yamaguchi from USDM Jam/Yamazstore and Takeshi Kobayashi from Type_K on Facebook is that I get to constantly see updates of what is going on in Japan. Though they don’t have as many major events as we do here in the U.S., the Japanese enthusiasts are die-hard car heads and are willing to travel 5-10 hours one-way just to attend a meet. In the last couple years, the connection between the American and Japanese enthusiasts has grown a lot stronger thanks to social media outlets and internet blogging. When I logged onto Facebook over the weekend, I noticed that Mr. Tetsuya had uploaded some photos from an event that had just happened. Upon further research, I discovered that it was the first ever Hellaflush event held in Japan at the Fuji Speedway. I don’t recall if I’ve ever attended a Hellaflush event here in the U.S. but I’ve always been a fan of Mark Arcenal and all his many projects and accomplishments. I didn’t know that there was a Hellaflush event going on in Japan because, well…I don’t live in Japan and don’t have the resources to be there. While looking through Tetsuya’s photos of the event, I did spot some really nice cars there and I really wanted to show you guys some of the builds that Japan has to offer. I mean, you guys always see photos scattered throughout the net but for the most part, you only see the demo vehicles that major aftermarket tuning companies produce in Japan…
So I hit up Tetsuya to see if he would let me post up his photos from the event. It took a couple days for him to reply, but he was more than happy to let me use them. The only problem was, the photos on his Facebook page are a bit small and it’s hard to see some of the details that the cars had. If the event were held here, then it wouldn’t be that big of a deal because you have probably seen the cars before but for an event that’s held in Japan, I really wanted to give you guys the largest photos that fit to the layout of my site. These cars you will probably never have seen before on this site and the ones that you are familiar with are the ones that I’ve posted from some of either Takeshi’s events or Tetsuya’s… Since the photos were a little too small for me to use, I went on a search through Flickr and found some really great photos from a Japanese enthusiast named Koji Karamata or his user “Ka Ry”. He actually has all kinds of photos from events that he has attended and I spent a good couple hours looking through them. The photos that he updated were straight from his camera so it was perfect for me to use…I just needed his permission. So I immediately messaged him through Flickr to ask if he was cool with me using them. On a random side note, he even has photos that he’s taken from last year’s Nisei Showoff event, so there was a chance that we might have crossed paths at one point and just totally didn’t notice because we had no idea who each other was. I was a little anxious because I really loved some of the cars that were at the Hellaflush Japan event. It only took a couple hours late in the early morning hours but he messaged me right back and was more than pleased to allow me to post up his photos…
Since some of his photos were straight from his camera, I took the liberty of going through the ones that I liked and cleaned them up a bit before re-sizing them to fit this site. I hope you guys really enjoy these photos because it’s all completely new and foreign to many of you. VERY BIG THANKS go out to Mr. Koji Karamata for allowing me to use these photos and for giving me the opportunity to bring you guys some new shit all the way from Japan…
Make sure also to check out his blog HERE… Got some pretty cool stuff that you won’t understand at all but there are pictures…. Seriously though, I used the Google translator to try to translate the name of his blog and the translation told me that it was the “Russian Stupidity Downtown Dance” blog…haha
Enjoy…
One of the first cars that really caught my eye from looking at some of Tetsuya’s photos was this Japanese firetruck-inspired Toyota Carina. To us it’s more known as an early 80s model Corolla wagon but I assure you, in it’s original Japanese state, it is a Toyota Carina. From a quick glance through Karamata’s blog, I believe that he’s actually been a part of the build process of this Carina because he has a lot of photos of it during it’s build-up stages…
I absolutely love how this thing looks. One of my dreams is to actually build one of these one day but I don’t have the time or the funds to go out and hunt one down to do all kinds of nutty shit to it…
The outside looks great and I love it when older Japanese cars are built in this fashion but where it really shines is under the hood…
You would never expect an old Toyota to have a bay like this, with the cage running into the shock towers through the firewall and the shave and tuck job. The sickest fucking thing about this is the motor…
…which is a rare (at least in the U.S. anyway) Yamaha-built BEAM’s 3S-GE from a Toyota Altezza… I’m telling you, this Carina is the shit….I can stare at this thing for hours…
I like the old school Advan graphical livery on this car…I’m not going to lie, I really don’t know what this is…Toyota Sprinter? Someone feel free to let me know…
Speaking of cars I am unfamiliar with, this Kei-car was also nice, sitting aggressively on some BBS RS wheels…
Honda TSX with Acura TSX conversion on BBS CH wheels…
Honda Civic Ferio on BBS wheels…
Honda Integra with a Top Fuel front lip, offsetting-colored headlights (?), and original Work Rezax wheels…
The Work Wheels booth at Hellaflush Japan… I was really digging the blue Fairlady and the Skyline in the lower photo but unfortunately he didn’t get any more photos of it…
The van and wagon scene in Japan is ridiculous…Seeing vans built like this make me wish we had a similar following out here in the U.S. Instead we have Dodge Caravans, and fucking Ford Windstars and shit…
Civic on Work CR-01s…
Honda CR-X also on Work CR-01s and a hopefully an authentic Mugen aero kit…
First gen. Honda Odyssey on BBS RS wheels…
Probably unnoticeable at a glance but take note of the left-hand drive and the 97-01 DC2 front end…I wonder if this is a legit Acura Integra that they imported over to Japan…
This guy’s rocking one of my Hellasunk stickers and has a Filipino flag hanging from his rear view mirror…
Ej1 Civic coupe on Work Equip 03s…
This may not seem like anything that special but from what Takeshi has mentioned online, this was just once a regular Civic coupe in Japan that the owner converted to full U.S. EM1-spec. The coupes don’t have sunroofs over there and the owner went as far as to import a sunroof back to Japan from here and then getting the headliner and all necessary pieces to make it look like an OEM EM1 coupe. Pretty cool if you really consider how much effort was used to make it look like a U.S. car…
Civic on some aggressive Buddy Club wheels…I believe he is running wheel spacers though…
Datsun 510 with some modern touches like Volk LE28 wheels and Recaro seats…
Check the fuel set-up and the horns on the carbs…
Not 100% sure, but I believe this is a Nissan Cedric sedan…I’m usually pretty familiar with these cars being a Q45 owner but I guess I didn’t get enough sleep or some shit today…
One of Toyota’s better looking sedans that we never got here in the U.S…. the Toyota Crown Athlete… While they get all these great looking sedans, we are stuck with the Avalon and Camry…
Toyota Aristo with some aggressive body work…
Original U.S. Acura CL imported back to Japan on some Enkei Racing S wheels..
Old school Toyota Cressida…
This is probably my favorite Honda Integra build in Japan right now. I’ve had my eye on it for the last two years now and the owner recently added some BBS LM wheels to his collection. I like how he just has all kind of different LM faces chillin’ on the floor….
Honda Torneo Euro-R on Advan TCII wheels…
I have no idea what the fuck this is but I thought it was interesting enough for me to post up…
Nissan 180SX with some interesting bright green barrels…
Really liked this VW Corrado…there looks to be quite a bit of extensive modifications done to this thing both inside and out…
Gonna close it out today with this Honda Accord wagon on BBS LM wheels…On the side of the wagon it says “InfiniteGBoys”…I have no idea what that means so you can take that and do what you want with it…Wagon is a good look though…
Back with the second half of the photos tomorrow…All kinds of good shit coming up so stay tuned…
Thanks for looking….
The Top 10 Hondas of 2010…A retrospective…Part 2…
Back now with the second half of the Top 10 Hondas of 2010 retrospective…Yesterday we took a look back at spots 10-6 of the Top Ten and today we will be looking at the other 5 spots on the list. One interesting note to consider when I was putting yesterdays and today’s list is that there seems to be less change with the 2010 group in comparison to the Top Ten Hondas of year’s past. I don’t know what it is, maybe because these builds are in more of a completed state than the others but either way, as a whole, you don’t see very much of a difference. There are minor changes here and there but the guys on the 2010 list seem to be the types that hold onto their cars and aren’t in any rush to build something completely new. Of the guys from 2010, there’s just one person who has sold their car and moved on. You can maybe consider RC Chacon’s new project as him moving on, but he actually still has his white EG and I’m sure he’s planning on rebuilding it…
Moving on…
5. JDMYard/Yonas Liu’s “EGK24A”…
What he’s up to now: You’ll be very happier to hear that Yonas is still very active with his Civic build. While he probably has one of the most recognizable Civics in all of the world today, Yonas tends to keep to himself mostly and only posts occasionally on forums like NWP4Life. Thankfully, we have social media outlets that allow us to keep in contact with people like Yonas Liu who are on the other half of the world. I’ve been chatting with Yonas recently on Facebook and he’s been updating me on all the new things he’s been doing to his Civic. It’s good to know that after all these years of him owning his car and all the abuse that he puts it through that he is still excited to try new things with it and making his build better than ever…
He sent me a photo the other day actually of his latest major modification. It was a decent photo from his Blackberry or something and I was going to post it, but I promised him that I would hold off until next week to show everyone, since he’s planning on some major unveiling some time around the 10th of October. It’s a very drastic change from what he’s been running in the last couple years and I think you guys will be just as surprised as I am when you see it. For now, take a look at Speedhunters’ feature on Yonas’ EG which actually dropped today…
“GOLIATH, MEET DAVID” – via Speedhunters.com
4. Chris Sakai’s Civic/Angel Ramos’ S2000 (Tie)
What he’s up to now: Chris Sakai has taken a more subtle approach with the aesthetics of his Civic in 2011. After his cover feature in Honda Tuning and landing on the Top 10 Hondas list, he kicked off 2011 by ditching his wing, hood, and mirrors. OEM Civic Type R pieces make their way back onto Chris’ car now and he also went with a different set of wheels…
I wasn’t sure how the white Regas would look when I found out about the switch but when I saw it, I honestly felt that it was probably one of his Civic’s best looks yet. Other than those aesthetic changes, not much else has changed. Chris has continued to participate in all the major Cali car show events and picked up a couple new sponsors here and there… The car looks so good in it’s current state that there isn’t really any reason for him to have to do anything else to it…
What he’s up to now: In 2011, Angel Ramos has gone with the old adage; “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Other than a new set of brakes and a different set of Volks, Angel’s S2000 has remained exactly the same. There isn’t a whole lot he can do to it without having to tear down and start over. His S2000 has a very unique look and continues to stand out in the deep S2000 community…
I spoke to him for a while at this year’s Nisei Showoff and he does have one more major overhaul coming for his S2000. 2010 was the debut of Angel’s build and there was so much going on that I think he’s taken a step back this year so that he could breathe and just enjoy the fruits of his labor. There are definitely some big things that he plans to do to this thing but the ideas are still very premature. It’ll be interesting to see what actually happens to Angel’s S2000 but all we can do now is wait until next year…
3. ATS*Anh’s Acura Integra Type R…
What he’s up to now: Anh Truong has probably been the most active in the top 5 in terms of adding new stuff to his build… His ITR probably hasn’t even been in his possession much in 2011 because it’s spent a chunk of it’s time either down here in Southern California for events or over at ASC Speed Metal for custom fabrication…
Anh’s car has been down at ASC because they have been hard at work on fabricating some new catch cans and misc. things for his engine bay. They also added a custom roll bar/half cage to the ITR. I think as a whole in 2011, I probably have seen Anh’s ITR more than I have seen Anh himself… The exterior of the ITR has remained basically the same, with the exception of some brand new Almighty Grey Regamaster EVOs…
2. Bisimoto’s Honda Civic Wagon and Honda CR-Z…
What he’s up to now: Bisi currently is hard at work on a brand new 2012 Honda Civic coupe for SEMA. The wagon is exactly the same as it was last year and for the most part, so is the turbo CR-Z. Bisi is a mad man so he’s constantly hard at work on either his own projects or tuning customer vehicles but the spare moments that he’s had, he’s spent it cruising around in the CR-Z. I was just over at the Bisimoto facility last week and he was talking about how often he drives the CR-Z. If you’re wondering, the answer is “yes”, he does drive it around with the chute in the rear and everything, haha…
There are some minor kinks electronically here and there with the hybrid motor but he has taken the car out for test runs at the track. I doubt he really has any major changes planned for this thing because he’ll be busy finishing his 2012 Civic and campaigning it for 2012. Another thing that might prevent him for doing anything else to this CR-Z is all the different Porsche projects he’s working on. I haven’t had a chance to see his Porsche SEMA project but he promises that it’ll be one-of-a-kind. I don’t know how he has enough hours in the day to do as much as he does but I’m very interested to see the debuts of his new projects when the SEMA show rolls around in November…
1. Ryan Der’s Honda Civic and Big Mike’s Honda Prelude (Tie)…
What he’s up to now: Ryan surprised a lot of people in 2011 when he decided to take off his complete C-West aero kit. He usually takes it off to track the Civic anyways and with so many track events to go to this year, I guess it just made sense for him to remove it permanently and go back to a Mugen front lip and splitter. At the Wekfest event that occurred in early 2011, Ryan also debuted a new set of custom refinished Work Meister S1s..
There aren’t any other major changes. Under the hood he’s switched over to a C.O.P. ignition system and different valve cover but that’s mostly it. He spent much of the year attending car shows as well as beating up his Civic on the track at events such as Super Street’s annual FF Battle….
What he’s up to now: Big Mike is always busy running around all over the place but his Prelude is pretty much the same as it was in 2010. There aren’t very many builds that are as in-depth or as detailed as his and it showed in 2011 when he consistently continued to take home awards at shows all over Cali. His Prelude even appeared on the cover of Banzai magazine, which is a U.K.-based publication. There are many that are starting to think that he needs to switch things up because it’s remained the same for the last two years and Big Mike definitely has some cool new things coming for his Prelude.
While he’s busy working and collecting new parts for his Prelude, Big Mike has started on a Honda Accord side-project to keep him occupied for the rest of the year. 2012 looks to be another big year for Big Mike, so stay tuned…
That rounds out the list. Hopefully this has given you some insight as to what these guys are up to these days. All are very much deserving of being on the 2010 list and continue to be a force within the Honda community in 2011…
The only question that remains now is… who is going to make this year’s list?….
Thanks for looking…
The Top 10 Hondas of 2010…A retrospective…Part 1…
Well, it’s probably a little later than I would have liked to have put this together but here we are in October and this is finally happening…As you all know, I usually do a “Top Ten Hondas” at the end of every year to spotlight some of what I feel are the best Honda builds. It started in 2008 and I followed it up the following year with the Top Ten Hondas of 2009 and then again in 2010. During the middle of each year, I did an update on all of those builds and gave you guys some insight as to what they are doing and where the cars are at. It’s always interesting to see what happens to the Hondas on the list because you either see them continue on with their builds, or sell them and start on something else. Today we’re going to take a look at the bottom half of the list and in the days following I will give you guys an update on spots 1-5…
If you guys are new to the site, make sure to check out the original post on The Top Ten Hondas of 2010…
You might want to catch up on the reading before you start on today’s post, otherwise it won’t make much sense to you…
Here is the original follow-up post to the Top Ten Hondas of 2009, so you guys can get a good idea of what the format is like for today…nothing crazy, just a couple new photos compared to how the cars looked when they first made the list…
The Top Ten Hondas of 2009…A Retrospective…Part 1…
The Top Ten Hondas of 2010…A Retrospective…Part 2…
Alright, so now that we are all caught up, let’s get started on a retrospective look at the Top Ten Hondas from 2010…
10. Kane Chan’s Civic Coupe/Arn Reyes’ Acura Integra/Ejay Adriano’s DA via 3-Way Tie…
What he’s up to now: If there is anything that needs to be said about Kane Chan’s Civic, it’s that he and his car have been nothing but a model of consistency. He’s had this coupe since the 90′s so it’s highly unlikely that it would make any drastic changes. He participated in the first two Super Street FF Battles but took off the 2011 event to give the car a break and so that he could just sit back and enjoy the races. He also landed once again in the pages of Super Street magazine and I’m proud to say that I was able to shoot and write the story for it. It’s been a pleasure knowing Kane and it’s because of Super Street and the FF Battle series that I was able to meet him and now call him a friend…
Not much of a change aesthetically… In 2011, he re-installed his Spoon Sports front lip and put the car back on some classic Work RS-Betas…Everything going on under the hood is exactly the same as when it made its appearance on the 2010 Top Ten Hondas list…
What he’s up to now: Arn is another one of those old school cats that has had his Honda for a while and doesn’t have any plans to get rid of it any time soon. He had a baby and is a full-fledged family man but he still finds time to mess around with his Integra. The guy always has a collection of parts that he can always swap on and off but at the 2011 Nisei Showoff event, he brought his DC2 out on a brand new Hershey Brand front bumper, a piece that also debuted in 2011….
Many will argue that the Mugen front bumper is a timeless look that should never replaced but Arn Reyes has always been a guy that’s been willing to try something new and take some chances with his car. That’s why he always has different parts so that he can change up the outside appearance of his Integra at any time…Not much else is new for Arn and his car but don’t be surprised if he comes out in 2012 with some all new shit…
What he’s up to now: Ejay had quite a year in 2010…he brought his DA out to practically every event in California and even found himself with a feature in Honda Tuning magazine. It’s probably one of the most recognizable DA Integras nowadays but in 2011, he’s taken more of a laid back approach with his car…
He wasn’t too please with the power his H-swap was making so he went ahead and swapped back to a B-series motor. Ejay planned to make his car more streetable this year so that he could just simply enjoy the car so the motor just made more sense to have. While I think wholeheartedly that the SSR Super Mesh was the best possible look EVER for his DA, he also took those off and is now rolling on some Volk TE37s. He made the decision because he didn’t want to mess with the aggressive camber and rough ride anymore and chose to go with a more subtle wheel size…I don’t think I’ll ever forgive him for taking the SSRs off but I’m glad that he can enjoy his DA to the fullest now…
9. Phil Robles Honda Civic...
What he’s up to now: Phil Robles’ Civic has been on hiatus in 2011. He did a couple track events with the car, then ran into some unfortunate events which have since been repaired, and now the car sits in his garage awaiting a new power plant. Phil is a great driver but what was holding him back was the limited power he was making compared to some other Hondas he was competing against. He has finally decided to go K and I’m anxious to see how the J’s Racing equipped Civic will look when he reappears in 2012…
Meanwhile, he’s been busy at track events with another Civic hatchback. He’s got big plans for his original one though and you can read a little bit more on it at the projectonethirty site, where I also grabbed this photo from. It’s a cool site with some good shots so peep it…
8. “DPK David” Andrade’s Honda Civic Coupe…
What he’s up to now: David has been on a mad quest to get his coupe ready for some track events next year. While it has served most of it’s existence as a street/show car, he’s finally taking the leap into the motorsports world. His decision comes from just his overall boredom with the car. David wanted to redo the entire car, but with a wedding coming up as well as eyes on some new projects, it just doesn’t make sense to tear it down to start over. It first appeared in Honda Tuning magazine back in 2006, and then after a makeover, appeared in Import Tuner magazine in 2010. There isn’t much more exposure it can get so DPK David is just going to take the car out and beat it up…
He’s recently re-done his exhaust set-up and installed a new Vibrant muffler as well as porting his intake manifold, changing up his fuel set-up and finally getting tuned on AEM EMS Series 2 by none other than Bisi Ezerioha. The tune actually just happened not too long ago and I have video and more information on it HERE….How good he will do on the track remains a mystery but I’ll be sure to keep you updated on his progress…
7. RC Chacon aka “Kingdingaling’s” Honda Civic hatchback…
What he’s up to now: RC’s hatchback is actually sitting in his garage motor-less and untouched. Why? Well, because he’s been busy working on some other Hondas for his clients as well as starting on a brand new project, which is a 4-door Mugen-equipped Civic. I’m not really sure what his plans are for his hatchback but he seems to have shifted all his focus onto his new project…
RC debuted the sedan at the 2011 Nisei Showoff event and the turbo K inside his EG9 turned a lot of heads. There is still quite a bit of miscellaneous things that he would like to finish up on it and I should have some updated photos of it when he brings it out to the Year.Three Chronicles Anniversary event. As for his white hatch that originally made the 2010 Top Ten list, who knows when or if we will ever see it again…
6. Edwin Pagan aka “Midorieking’s” EK…
What he’s up to now: I really couldn’t tell you…because I have no idea. After the Chronicles 2-year anniversary meet, he had big plans to tear down the car and rebuild it for 2011, but half way through it, he abandoned the project and parted the whole car out. He ultimately sold the shell too and now Edwin’s project from 2010 is non-existent. I haven’t really talked to him nor have I seen him active on the forums so all I can assume is that he’s gone M.I.A. He never really explained why he abandoned the project either so it remains a mystery as to why he seemingly fell off the face of the Earth…
When he debut the build in 2010, it was met with a lot of praise and had a pretty good overall reaction from the community, so it’s kind of a shame to see that he hasn’t taken that momentum and done anything else…
Well, that’s about all for today…back with the rest of the list tomorrow or the days following…
Thanks for looking….
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 3…
Welcome back to part 3 of the Rywire Integra Type R build. The chassis is currently still at Franklin Autobody where paint is near completion, so today we will be taking a look at some parts that Ryan has been collecting at the shop. Right now, Ryan is so busy working on various SEMA projects that he really doesn’t have any room for the car anyway…
Some OEM Honda parts that recently came in…K-series ignition coils, steering rack boots w/clamps…
Various ITR chassis components that are set to be cleaned-up and powdercoated…
Two of the Regamaster EVOs that Ryan plans to use. These too will be stripped and re-coated. I believe they are going to be redone in a gloss black finish…
Bisimoto-assembled K24 long block that will go inside Ryan’s R…
The valvetrain and head with the valve cover off…
AFI Turbo intake manifold…
The fuel cell from Fluid Control Solutions (FCS) that Ryan will be running in his Integra…
Wiggins clamps that will be used throughout the build…Ryan actually has a pretty large bag filled with the smaller clamps…
That’s about it for now. Can’t really do much without the car being here. We are all just pretty excited to get the car back because that’s when this build will really take off. There are a bunch of turbo components that have already been collected but we figured it would look better once it was on the motor after it was installed on the car…
Thanks for looking…next update will come when more is available…
Exclusive Content…Unpublished Photos of Henry Mendez’s Corolla from Super Street Sept. ’11…
Got a major announcement coming your way next week regarding the 3-year Chronicles Anniversary Celebration…if you’re a fan of The Chronicles, then you won’t want to miss out on it…
Anyways, for this weekend I thought I’d pass along this photos that were unpublished from the September 2011 issue of Super Street magazine. I had the opportunity to shoot and do the story for this 1971 Toyota Corolla Deluxe a couple months back before the summer started. It’s a very special shoot for me because the people directly involved were not only people that I knew, but the owner of the car is actually a friend of mine. I know, I know, the whole cliche’ of “it’s all about who you know in the industry” immediately jumps into your mind but allow me to explain. I shot Henry Mendez’s ’71 Corolla not because he was a friend of mine, but because of the fact that the car holds a very special meaning in his heart. Our friend Armando Flores Jr. passed away a little over 2 years ago and this Corolla is a rolling dedication to his memory. Henry had always told Mando that he would bring the Corolla around again after he had lost interest in it but Armando never had the opportunity to see it again. Henry is a man of his word and promised him that he would bring the car back out someday and after Flores passed away tragically, he decided to revive the Corolla in his memory. The story explains it all and I’ve attached a link to the original article in Super Street below. While I will never be as close to Armando Flores Jr. as Henry and some of my other friends were, I felt that it was a heart-warming story that had to be told to the world. Often times this whole car “scene” is so deeply entrenched in competition that we take the people in our lives for granted. This is one of those stories that reminds us that the people that we consider our friends are an essential part of our lives and well-being. To me, this story is special because it focuses on the human condition and our ability to devote ourselves to something that is bigger than any material thing. Armando was an amazing friend and person, so it was an incredibly untimely and unexpected event when he was taken away from us. Everyone that knew him dealt with his passing in different ways, and for Henry Mendez, bringing this car back to life was his way of dealing. To him, this was the appropriate way to honor his life. Cars were always a huge part of Armando’s life, so Henry committed himself to a hobby they shared together because he knew how important it was to his friend…
So many times you open the page of a magazine and you get a quick rundown of the parts on the car and a small introduction to the owner. I love to tell a story and it’s a greater feeling when I can tell you a story that means something, you know? It’s very important to remember the people that inspire us everyday. As I stated in the story, the car isn’t the greatest thing ever built, nor is it 100% pristine showroom condition…that’s okay though, because no one ever tried to make you believe that the car was anything more than it was. It’s what the car meant to Henry, and what it meant to Armando. Hopefully I did a good enough job translating that to you guys, who took the time out of your day to read it. Another moment that I thought was important was that Armando’s father was there. I’ve had the chance to spend some time with Armando Flores Sr. and he’s definitely unique in his own right, and every bit as much of a car guy as his son was. One of the things that I admire about Armando Sr. the most was his ability to understand everything that was important to his son, and continue to basically live his life through his son’s eyes. He knew his son was into photography, so he picked up a camera and learned to use it…he knew how important his friends were to him, so he took the time to get to know his friends and they became his friends…he knew how his son had a fascination with Hondas and cars in general, so he hopped in his son’s S2000 and is slowly continuing on with the build and continues to drive the car often. There’s no better way to honor the life of someone, than to live it through their eyes and to see things from a point-of-view other than your own. I have enormous amounts of respect for that and it warms my heart every time I think about it. For him to be at the shoot and be able to be in a photograph with Henry was a big thing for me. We have all lost somebody at one point or another, but I hope no matter what, we have all been able to look back and remember them, and appreciate what they meant to us and smile. I hope that by doing this story, it will be forever be a standing memory of Armando Flores Jr. and I really honestly hope that every time Henry looks at this particular story, he can remember the great times he had with his friend…
With that said, here are some extra shots from the September 2011 issue of Super Street magazine. For the original story and photos, please click below…
“A LIFE REMEMBERED” -Super Street Sept. 2011
At the end, I’ve also attached a 1080P sized desktop wallpaper for you guys…
Henry Mendez and Armando Flores Sr….. Larger Version (1400×933)
This was actually a group shot of all of us that I took just for personal use and just for us so it was never submitted to Super Street mag, I just thought it was a cool shot…(hence the different border and marking)…. Larger Version (1400×933)
Widescreen desktop shot bonus….
Widescreen Version (1920×1080)
Thanks for looking…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 2…
For those of you who missed the initial (2) posts involving the Rywire ITR build, I’ve provided links below… Please feel free to catch up before you read this post so that you guys have a good idea of what’s going on in this build because it’s definitely not something you want to miss out on…
Now that you are caught up, here is part 2, which will be a much smaller update compared to the first one. Today we’re going to be taking a look at a couple shots of the man himself, Bisi Ezerioha from Bisimoto Engineering, working on Ryan Basseri’s K24 motor for his Porsche GT3 RS Orange Integra Type R…
The updates will be more spread apart than say, Big Mike’s build, because the chassis itself still resides up in Nortern California where Sunny Wong from Franklin Autobody is finishing up the paint work on it. Once that is completed, Ryan will make his way up there to transport the chassis down to the Rywire facilities where the car will begin to be put back together along with the motor and all of Ryan’s custom electrical work that will run throughout the car…Whenever that happens, I will be sure to update you on the progress on this build. The updates will trickle in every now and then if he has some new parts or something coming in, but for the most part, it’s basically a waiting game right now. We will continue with regular updates as usual and I will incorporate updates on Ryan’s car when they become available…
Here’s a basic rundown of Ryan’s motor set-up (as far as I know)…again, more info will come as it is provided to me…
-K24 engine
-Stock bore and stroke
-GE sleeves
-Arias pistons
-9.0 compression
-Custom Crower connecting rods
-ARP rod bolts
-Widened crankshaft journals
-Balanced and knife-edged crank
-OEM B-series engine bearings
-Portflow cylinder head w/OEM head gasket
-Bisimoto-spec. valvetrain
-Custom turbo camshafts from Web Cams
-Turbo components I am not 100% sure on, I’ll have to find out more from Ryan later….
Now on with some pics…
Arias pistons…
Bisi doing work…
…and now some photos from a completely different point in time. The shots above were from awhile back actually and the photos below are very current. These are cell phone shots of the chassis at Franklin Autobody. You can get a better look at how the interior looks and how the battery box has been incorporated and painted with the body…
I can imagine how bright and blinding the interior is going to be when Ryan is inside of the car…haha…
That’s all for now…stay tuned for more as the content rolls in…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 1…
Welcome to part 1 of the soon-to-be-epic Rywire Integra Type R build. In the introductory posts a couple days back, I unveiled the painted chassis shots and the custom fender work and today in part one, we will actually be taking a couple steps back from that and show you the ITR when it first arrived at Ryan’s doorstep. Basically, Ryan from Rywire never intended to build an ITR. That may be why many of you haven’t heard of this build before. From what I remember telling me, one of the main reasons why he decided to build an R is because he got such a ridiculously good deal on a bare ITR shell. When he told me that it was too good of a deal to pass up, I was pretty excited. I mean, he seemed pretty stoked about it so it must mean that he had gotten a really good deal on an ITR. Looking at the photos now in it’s original state…uhh man…the car was pretty rough around the edges…
This is how it looked when Ryan first picked it up…
You can see from this shot that the original owner had the car done in a two-tone red and yellow….definitely not a good look and a look that Ryan did not intend to reuse…
How the bay looked when it arrived…
The bent radiator core support needed to be repaired…
5-lug suspension…
Since the chassis was so empty, Ryan began collecting ITR parts from everywhere…
Stockpile of parts everywhere at his old place in San Jose…Skunk2 vacuum cleaner not included…
Cleaning up the bay and shaving off unnecessary items…
Ryan had a spare K-series block sitting around on display so he used it to mock up how the engine would look and how to mount his turbo set-up…
Display motor sitting in the ITR’s bay…
Shot of the bay with a radiator support that wasn’t bent and damaged…
Turbo manifold mock-up…
The next couple of the bay were shot with his cell phone so the pics are much smaller in size…
Figuring out where all the charge pipes and assorted turbo accessories would go…
Set for primer…
Bay shaved, cleaned-up and primed…
Really crappy shot of Ryan’s pedal set-up from Tilton…
Here’s a shot of the cage and interior. Note the battery box that’s been created and mounted to the floor of the Integra…
That’s about it for today. Coming up in part 2, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the motor set-up he’ll be running as well as some shots of Bisi Ezerioha putting Ryan’s K24 together…thanks for looking…
Exclusive Content….A first look, and an introduction to the Rywire ITR build…
Damn, I love unveiling new shit…One of the great things about having a great network of guys who work within the industry allows me access to a lot of never-before-seen cars/builds. Last year I was the first to unveil the Bisimoto Engineering Honda CR-Z to the world, and a couple years back, I was able to bring you guys Big Mike’s Prelude rebuild. These two cars went on to reach quite a bit of success and being a part of the whole process is something that I will always remember. I’m always on the look-out for new builds and you guys who follow this site closely get to enjoy the perks of being able to see all this top secret stuff. Just a couple weeks ago I brought you a crazy (unfinished) S2000 and while I would like to see that build through to it’s completion, I highly doubt that I will have the opportunity to…
Today though, is a great day…As you all know, Ryan from Rywire is a good buddy of mine and he’s had this secret project in the works now for quite a bit of time. You may have seen some snippets of it here and there but no one really has anything solid on what he’s up to. Ryan and I talked probably around the beginning of this year when we discussed whether or not we should cover his entire build on The Chronicles. Knowing what that guy was capable of, I was all for it. The only problem was that he was still living in San Jose at the time and the car, motor, etc. was all there with him. It wasn’t until he decided to move his business down to Socal did it finally become a possibility for us to cover the creation of his latest project. There are so, so many details involved in this build; from the custom exterior to the intricacies of his electronics set-up. As we proceed with the build, I think you guys will really be in for a treat because you get to see the car from it’s raw state until the moment he fires the car up. As the title states, Ryan is building a legit Honda Integra Type R. It came into his hands as a right-hand drive ITR shell, with no motor and not much else besides the complete interior. What you guys won’t see, is the removal process of his interior and the fabrication of his roll cage. That happened when the car was in Norcal and long before we thought to cover the build. I’m sure Ryan took photos of the process though so if he can dig up those photos, then I will post those up for you guys. Currently, the shell is still in Northern California at Franklin Auto Body. The Porsche GT3 orange paint has just been applied and the photos that I will be showing you guys today are of the shell itself right after paint. It hasn’t been color-sanded yet and there is still a bit of work to do before Ryan can begin to transport the car back to Socal where we will begin work on reassembly. The photos are merely to show you guys the color, as well as the custom sheet-metal front fenders, fabricated entirely by Sunny from Franklin Auto Body. Please don’t ask me where to get these fenders from, because you won’t find them anywhere else. With that said, here is the official debut and the first batch of photographs of the Rywire Integra Type R build….Stay tuned for the rest. I promise it’ll be a good one…
Enjoy…
Here’s a shot of the custom front fenders. It resembles the style of a Mitsu Evo 8/9 or Subaru STi fender. When Ryan first mentioned that he was going with a widened front end, I don’t think anyone expected it to come out looking this good…There’s a lot of room now for a much more aggressive wheel without having hacked-up, jagged fenders or extreme camber adjustment…
A shot of the engine bay where a turbo K-series set-up will go…
The cockpit where you can get a first glimpse of the cage….
Ryan originally went with a tealish BMW tone but with so many Hondas these days rocking a similar color, he decided to go a completely different direction and chose the bright orange from a Porsche GT3 RS…
We’re all pretty excited to see the chassis when it finally makes it’s way down to Socal. It’s just a crazy build altogether. Ryan showed me some of the electronics he plans to run in this ITR and the stuff he’s created is just bananas. In the shot above you can see Sunny from Franklin walking into the shot. He’s the man that’s responsible for the body and paint on this car as well as many other great Norcal Honda builds today…
Hope you guys enjoyed this first look at Ryan’s ITR. There’s a lot more to come in the future. The coverage of the build will be very thorough, similar to Big Mike’s. Unlike his though, I will actually be there in person for a big portion of it so I will be documenting everything and doing the photos myself. Stay tuned…
Exclusive Content…Unpublished Photos of Peter & Theresa’s LS14 from Super Street Aug. ’11…
Got some unused shots from the August 2011 issue of Super Street for you guys today…I’m sure you guys have seen plenty of this car by now. It’s been at all the major Socal car shows and meets this entire summer and has been a consistent winner of award. It’s a very basic set-up in terms of modifications, with a different mix of styles. The build is unique in that it encompasses style traits from a drift-themed S14, with a touch of Japanese VIP styling, and an all-American GM LS1 motor under the hood. One of the coolest things about it is that the car is driven a majority of the time by it’s female co-owner. Peter and Theresa built this thing together but she’s definitely the one that sees the most seat-time in it….
When I first shot these photos, I was pretty happy with the results. It was a pretty quick shoot at a very quiet location. Since the car had a lot of Earth tones to it, I tried to edit the photos in a way where it had a similar feel. For the story, I wanted to have a little fun with it and went a different direction than what most are used to and I think the story complimented the photos well. Overall, I was really happy with how it came out when it hit the newstands. The owner(s) were easy to talk to and chill, the car was easy to shoot, nobody drove by and bothered me while I was shooting since it was a pretty secluded spot…all in all, I had a good time doing it. It’s one of those shoots that remind me how fun my job really is. When the magazine dropped Peter and Theresa couldn’t have been happier with it so that makes the satisfaction of producing a good story even more gratifying. Below is a link to the original story on the Super Street website. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest you take a couple minutes to read it because it’s a pretty cool story. The published photos are also on their site in a pretty large format as well. The ones I have attached are the shots that weren’t used and at the end I’ve also included a 1080P-sized wallpaper for you guys…
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ORIGINAL STORY FROM SUPER STREET MAGAZINE
Same rules apply as usual, click the links below for higher resolution, larger format images…
Widescreen desktop shot for you guys….
Widescreen Version (1920×1080)
Thanks for looking…
Mad Man…
Today we are going to be taking a minor break from the onslaught of Nisei Showoff 2011 Coverage so that I could present you with a very special look at a very special project. As you all know, I put together this whole “GENERATIONS” line-up for Nisei where I had planned to bring builds from the past, present, and future. The “future” portion of it proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated but one of the main projects that I wanted to be at the show was the S2000 you will see below. This S2000 is by no means finished. It is perhaps in it’s most “raw” state if anything and that’s exactly why I wanted the car there. I really wanted to display the custom metal work on this car and in my opinion, this S2K will probably never look better than it does now in it’s raw state. If you are a fan of metal work and fabrication, then you are in for a treat because this S2000 is a piece of automotive art. I wanted this S2000 to be at Nisei so bad, but we just couldn’t get it out there. Louie from L*Con, who has been the mad man behind the insane amounts of metal work on this S2000, had a prior engagement that he had to attend to and like I always say, your personal life will always be more important than any car shit. It would have been bad ass if we could get it out there because I think it would have shocked a lot of people. For one, nobody would expect to see an unfinished, straight raw metal S2000 chassis at a car show. We were going to throw some Eibach coilovers on it, a brand new set of Mugen MF10s, roll it out to the show, and rope the car off so that no one could put their hands on the raw metal. It would have been absolutely nuts and a great attention-grabber for anybody that was walking towards The Chronicles section. In any case, you get to see the car now and believe me, photographs don’t really do this thing justice…
To start off on a little back story on the car itself, Louie from L*CON was called by a customer on the east coast to build him an S2000 chassis. There weren’t any strict requirements behind what he wanted, he simply wanted an S2000 that would be “bad ass”. A street S2000 that could be tracked if it every needed to be and Louie was not only in charge of doing the cage for it, he also had to find the S2K chassis out here on the west coast. The goal of the owner was to build an S2000 that rivaled and would eventually best a very well-known S2000 in Japan, from a very well-known tuner shop. Louie basically had the freedom to do whatever he wanted to. Louie can basically do any sort of cage, from the simplest to the most intricate, the guy can do it all. But if you give the man the freedom to do whatever he wants, you better believe it’s going to be some shit you’ve never seen before. He originally was supposed to find just a bare shell to start on, but he had trouble finding one that had a clean title so he went with a rolling chassis that he found instead. The S2000 was then taken back to L*CON, completely stripped down to the shell itself, and then sent off to be chemically stripped (or acid-dipped, if you prefer to call it that). Once the stripped-chassis came back, Louie began seam-welding the whole car to strengthen the body before creating the cage for it. Again, he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted to with the cage. The only request he had from the owner was that he had to be able to get in and out of the car easy. Once the cage was done, Louie came up with the idea to remove the upper frame rails behind the front fenders, and remade them so that they were much stronger and a whole lot better looking. The front suspension pick-up points were also strengthened when he gusseted each end. The rear subframe was also reinforced and gusseted, making the entire S2000 body a rigid beast….
The craziest part about this whole build was that the owner never intended for all this work to be seen. Louie tig-welded everything, put hours and hours of labor into the car, and the only reason you see it now is because we convinced him that we should document his body of work, because this is truly something that hasn’t been seen before. Once all this metal work was completed, the whole car was set to be sent off to be powdercoated black and as I am writing this, the chassis is already gone, so I’m happy to have been able to document this build and show it to the world. The car was originally set to make it’s debut at the 2012 Tokyo Auto Salon event, but there’s so much left to be done that we all have our doubts about it being ready. There is just so much more in the works for this thing, and I hope to see it pop up again one day when it’s completed. The exterior aesthetics have yet to be determined, as well as suspension and wheels. The interior will be completely custom, but the cage is made in such a way where the A-pillar bars are tucked away enough so that the OEM dashboard can go back into place without issue. It’s a sick build. The owner has plans also to drop a supercharged GM LS3 motor into it to, so you already know it’s going to be a monster…
When it’s all said and done though, the majority of the work under the body panels will be overlooked. A casual passer-by will see the cage and the bars and think that it’s cool, but they won’t be able to appreciate the amount of metal work involved in this S2K like you will today. There’s so much work that Louie doesn’t even remember everything that he’s done. The night before I started to put this together, Louie sent me a text message with random things that he remembered suddenly, like how the factory hard-top is even gutted because he chopped out the inner structure of it. It’s just a crazy thing to see in person…and I hope you will get a sense of that by looking at the photos today. Everyone that we know that we have shown the car too has had nothing but great things to say about Louie’s work. It’s truly mind-blowing. If and when this S2000 resurfaces in the future, make sure you remember where you saw it first, only on The Chronicles…
Special thanks go out to Louie Contreras and L*CON for making this possible…
The view from outside L*CON Race Fabrications… Larger Version (1400×933)
Just imagine how much custom metal work the casual enthusiast will miss just because this S2000 will have it’s fenders reinstalled… Larger Version (1400×933)
Gusseted front suspension pick-up point…. Larger Version (1400×933)
Dimple-die plates inside the engine bay where the front shock tower is…. Larger Version (1400×933)
A better look at the opposite side… Larger Version (1400×933)
Firewall shot where you can see where it’s been seam-welded… Larger Version (1400×933)
Shot of the A-pillar behind the frame of the windshield… Larger Version (1400×933)
Upper windshield area where the cage has been integrated… Larger Version (1400×933)
Rear section where the soft top once was and where a bulk of the cage resides… Larger Version (1400×933)
Section behind the seats atop where the transmission/driveshaft tunnel is… Larger Version (1400×933)
Section under the dash where the pedals are…the cage is actually designed (not pictured here) to run through the firewall… Larger Version (1400×933)
Back half of the cage… Larger Version (1400×933)
Trunk section/rear shock tower… Larger Version (1400×933)
Another angle of the section behind the seats…. Larger Version (1400×933)
A view of the engine bay, where a supercharged GM LS3 will eventually call it’s “home”… Larger Version (1400×933)
A shot of the entire bare-metal, raw S2000 chassis…. Automotive art in its rawest form… Larger Version (1400×933)
Louie is a man of few words but his skill and imagination are always best expressed through his metal work…. The things that must run through this man’s mind every single day….
Thanks for looking, back with the rest of the Nisei Showoff 2011 Coverage in the coming days…
“GENERATIONS” Presented by Showoff x TheChronicles…
Blast the fuck outta this shit and spread the word because The Chronicles aka stickydiljoe.com aka “Your Favorite Website’s Favorite Website” has knocked out a collaborative effort with Ken Myoshi and Import Showoff to bring you what might be one of the great grouping of Honda builds that anyone has seen in quite some time. I have a little bit of everything from great, great, GREAT builds from the past, amazing builds that are at the forefront of the Honda community today, and a couple of new builds for the future that the world has yet to see. It’s going to be a sick line-up and I’m so happy that I could get everyone and everything together in such a short amount of time. I don’t want to jinx anything, otherwise cars and competitors will start dropping like flies, but the flyer below will give you a a good hint of who will be appearing at Nisei Showoff this Saturday, August 13th. On top of the guys listed below, I will also have a couple guys from Kosoku as well as Mike G. and the TANK. Be sure to come by Nisei Showoff to see what I have on display for all you guys to enjoy. Showoff is one of the true original car shows of the entire import automotive community and I am proud to be such a huge part of it. Below is the flyer, spread the word for me, thanks!….Part 1 of the Spocom coverage is coming soon. I haven’t been in any rush to post up the pics because they fucking suck! So disappointed with the photos but who well, who the fuck cares, I’ll throw those up later…For now…be excited for this…
Import Alliance 2011 Coverage…Part 1…
Man…where do I even begin?…This trip was probably one of the more interesting trips I’ve taken as far as car shit goes, but I don’t think people really understand how close I was to not even making the trip out. I originally planned to go just sort of on a whim…I didn’t really tell anyone I was heading out to Nashville, Tenn. because I wanted to keep the trip low-key. Big Mike is usually the one doing all the promotion for anything huge that we’re all doing but I told everyone that was going that I would rather stay quiet about the trip until I got there. I mentioned last year that a bunch of us were going to head out there but a bunch of random events came about that made it not possible for that to happen and of course, people started talking shit about how we were all talk or how we don’t support the east, etc., etc. You name it, I’ve probably heard it. When it came time for IA 2011 to roll around, it just worked out because I would be out there for both work and for the site. Things, fortunately came together and I was set to head out there to see Nashville….until the days leading up to the trip itself…
I received an email from Frontier Airlines about checking in early for the flight but I didn’t think anything of it. I had purchased a ticket to get on the same plane as DPK David, Rywire Ryan, and Big Mike so it would have just made more sense to check-in all at once so we could get seats near each other. So I go on the Frontier Airlines website and there is a severe storm warning for Denver, Colorado, which was where our first layover was. The flight out from LA to Denver was cool, but from Denver to BNA (Nashville) was cancelled. I wasn’t about to take a chance and sit at the Denver airport for hours on end waiting for a flight out, so I decided to give them a call to rearrange my flight plans. Turns out that almost 75% of their flights going out of Denver was cancelled so there were hundreds of people already on hold trying to move their flights around. No lie, I waited on hold for almost 2.5 hours just to get through to a representative that would help me out. It actually took so long that while I was on hold, I managed to pack and get all my camera shit together. I wanted to go stop by and spend some time with May before I left so I had the phone on speaker while I grabbed my shit and headed out to her area. Apparently there was a hail storm in Denver that unleashed what they said to be “golf ball-sized” hail that damaged many of the planes. Knowing that there was a possibility that I would end up on one of these damaged planes, whether they be repaired correctly or not, I wanted a flight that didn’t even go near Denver. DPK David and Ryan managed to catch another flight out to Fort Worth, TX or something and Big Mike ended up on a different flight out that wasn’t cancelled so I was the only one left. The lady finally gets the chance to help me and I spend another 30+ minutes on the phone while she searched for a flight for me. At that point, I was about to say “fuck it” and not even go…just get a refund you know? But since the return flight wasn’t cancelled I probably wouldn’t be granted any kind of refund and our hotel was already booked, so I had to go forward with the trip. I don’t think I mentioned this yet but we were all set to fly out at 6:30am Friday from LAX. The only flight that they had left that would get me there at a reasonable amount of time was a flight that was heading out at 11:50pm Thursday. Nothing else was available so they had to piece an itinerary for me that consisted of me flying out from LAX to Minneapolis, and then to O’hare in Chicago, and then from Chicago to Nashville… It didn’t sound fun at all but since I was already dealing with all this shit the whole day, I went for it. So I stopped by the salon where May was getting her haircut at, spent a couple minutes with her, gave her a little present I put together and then turned around and head back home to grab my luggage. This was probably around 9-9:30pm in the evening already and my flight was at 11:50pm so I was definitely on a time crunch. May was a good 40-45 minutes away, without traffic, so by the time I got home, it was going to be past 10pm…
When I finally get home, I stopped by a Ralph’s supermarket to grab some last minute travel goods and then give DPK David a call to see if he could take me to the airport. He was packing still but we hopped in his Lexus and sped off to the airport. Of course there was traffic, which helped only to shit on my day further, and we didn’t make it to the airport until 11:15am. With all the security checks and checking-in and what not, I finally boarded the plane at 11:40pm, just ten minutes shy of take-off…
I board this airline that I had never heard of, Sun Country, and the dude sitting across from me was the only other asian person on the plane. I was in the very last row with this asian dude and a large Nigerian family with a bunch of kids who were just screaming and crying the majority of the flight…
The best, and most random, thing about the flight was that they served hot dogs and potato chips as the in-flight snack…I’ve never been on an airline that served hot dogs but I hadn’t eaten anything all day so the microwaved hot dog was a gourmet meal…
The flight from LAX to Minneapolis was the long leg of the entire flight to Nashville so I pulled out May’s Motorola Xoom and got on some Angry Birds for the remainder of the time. I’m on that whole thing where I’m trying to get three stars on every level so the time flew by real quick…
I got to Minneapolis around 5am or so, central time and it was a fucking ghost town… I was also in a rush to get over to the next terminal which was in an entirely different building…
…so I had to get on this thing called a “light rail” or something to get over to board my flight…
While I was on the tram, light rail-thing, I saw a little bit of Honda-influence because there was an unused-bike rack mounted on the wall…
I had some spare time when I got to the other terminal so I bought some Burger King breakfast, sat down and charged my phone. The plane ride to Chi-town was only an hour and a half long so I used to time to finally get some shut-eye… The moment I got to O’Hare I had to immediately jump on a small plane to Nashville and it was so cramped in there that I didn’t even bother pulling my camera out and just continued to sleep…
So I took off from Los Angeles at 11:50pm pacific standard time and finally landed at BNA at 11:25 central time…at that point I was already over the whole flying thing and actually looked forward to being outside in the Nashville heat. Oh I forgot to mention that I called up my homie S2KJay from PGK the night I flew out from LA to see if there was any possibility he could swoop me up from the airport when I got into Tennessee. Everyone else from Cali wasn’t going to be there until a couple hours later and I wasn’t about to just hang out in the airport. Luckily for me, he was going to drive in from Atlanta, Georgia around that time and said he had no problem picking me up. I was a little confused by the whole lay-out of the airport but managed to walk outside and see a blue right-hand drive Integra waiting for me. Jay said there was no possibly way for me to be able to fit in his S2000 with my luggage so he borrowed one of the homies’ cars to get me to the hotel…
For those who have never been to Import Alliance or really heard about it, the La Quinta hotel was apparently THE spot to be at. That’s where everyone stays, the majority of the cars are there, and people just fucking party all night and fuck shit up (More on that later)…The other PGK guys were there chillin’ in the pool with Frank from Bolt Boys and I can’t swim for the life of me so I pulled out my camera and started taking some pics of the cars that were there…
This is Christ’s Civic…no really, his name is Christ. We asked him if that really was his name and he said it indeed was…guess his dad wasn’t the best at English and picked his name out of a bible…so yes, this Civic doesn’t indeed belong to Christ himself…
Really liked this widebody S14…
Subbie from PGK on CCWs…if you’re a fan of CCW wheels then you’re in for a treat because there were A LOT of CCWs out at IA…
S15 Silvia on Volk GT-Us…
This as to be one of my favorite builds at Import Alliance. This Volkswagon truck belongs to Nick Weir from “Seen It” and is K-swapped…
I am a huge fan of Work CR-01 wheels and I think it looks great on this VW, especially with the gold accents and matte face…He said he was originally supposed to have Rotiform wheels on it but I think this set works out perfectly…
This S2000 is also his but was driven out to Nashville by his girl…He made the trip out to the annual Eibach meet here in Cali earlier in the year and on the way home, he hit a raccoon which destroyed his bumper. The impact was so hard that the raccoon was stuck inside the bumper…
They haven’t had time to repair the bumper yet so they have a raccoon plush sitting in the bumper to pay homage to the dead one…
A pair of nice EKs that were chillin at the spot. The second one is track-prepped and the rear shock tower bar on it is fucking massive. I have a picture of it but it’s still in my memory card. I’ll post it up later on in the coverage…
8th generation Civic on some CCWs…
Really liked this Mugen-kitted Accord on CCWs…Guess what wheels are on the TSX next to it?…
…CCWs!…It’s a good look though, I’m not gonna lie. I really wish people would take those “daily-driven” stickers off their cars though…
PGK Jay’s S2000 has to be one of my favorite builds of this particular chassis all time. He’s one of the first dudes I’ve known from out east that has gone all out on his S2K and now he’s tracking the car too…It’s cool to see that he’s still rocking the 2009 Chronicles Top Ten sticker too…
EG Mike from PGK’s freshly finished Civic…I’ve been following the build on his Facebook page since he started it so it was cool to finally see it in person…The paint of the doors is mismatched but I think it’s going to be repainted anyway after this weekend when someone dropped a skateboard on one of the doors…
The guys were hungry at that point so they got out of the pool and we headed to some Thai/Vietnamese/Japanese place to eat. What was my first meal out in all-American Nashville, Tennessee?…Yup, ASIAN food…
EG Mike driving my ass to the restaurant…
I wasn’t really prepared for the heat yet so I ordered a nice cold Thai Tea to cool down… After we finished eating, Big Mike’s flight had just arrived at the airport so once again, Jay headed out to the airport to pick him up. I head back to the hotel with EG Mike and continued to shoot pics of cars that were slowly trickling their way into the La Quinta parking lot…
When I got back, I spotted one of my favorite CTR builds… I don’t know the owners name but I’ve always been a fan of his Civic. A lot of people hate on the cut-outs in the rear bumper but I think it works…It’s different but in a good way…
Love the F-Zero Blue Volk CE28Ns….
Engine bay being detailed…
CTR on legit red GAB wheels…
Civic with a Mugen lip on Stark IIs…
S2000 on some green Work Meister S1s…
When Big Mike finally arrived, he was hungry and I didn’t want to stand in the hot ass Nashville heat anymore so we decided to go grab some food. I wasn’t planning on eating so I was just going to grab a seat and have a drink…
Waffle House, I guess, is one of the major chains out there in Nashville…It was right down the street from the hotel so Jay’s cousins gave us a ride over there and ate with us…
The food there looked pretty legit but it did look like it was going to give me the raining shits so I went with my better judgement and just drank a Sweet Tea. I don’t know what it is about Nashville but the people there go fucking ape shits with the sugar. I took a sip of my tea and almost went into diabetic shock…
Big Mike’s grilled chicken sandwich and “smothered and covered” hashburns…This photo is pretty blurry because I had so much sugar in my system that I couldn’t focus on what I was shooting…
I liked the decor in there because it has a typical, classic, American diner feel to it where you can sit at the counter and eat and watch them cook right in front of you…After Big Mike and Jay’s cousins finished eating, it was back to the La Quinta hotel once again where we hung out until Rywire and DPK David arrived…
Danny Dang’s turbo Civic…
Another shot of Jay’s S2…
CTR all cleaned up and ready to roll out to the Nashville Super Speedway…
Really liked this EF…super clean with a nice subtle interior…
That’s all for today… Gonna try to keep each portion of the coverage to around 40 photos or so since the pics are now larger and I want everything to load smoothly…back with WAY more everyday until we get through it all… Thanks for looking…
I Came…I Saw…I Seent it…
Finally got a chance to hop onto a computer since being away in Nashville, Tennessee for the entire weekend. It was definitely an interesting time. I just looked through the photos straight off the memory card from the weekend and I must say, I am very happy with the results. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but damn…toot toot muthfuckas…Tomorrow will begin the first day of the Import Alliance 2011 coverage. I will be bringing you unprecedented coverage of the entire event and for a majority of you on the left coast, you will finally get a good taste of how the entire IA weekend was from the travel, to the parties, to the event itself, and much, much more. I really doubt anybody has managed to cover this event the way I will present it to you and I’m very proud to say that I went out there and did it. So many times people have told me that I never go out there to show them support or why the west doesn’t care about IA…well fuck, I went out there and did it. I saw it and I will tell everyone my thoughts on the event. Whether it be the good, the bad, or the out right odd shit that was going on, I will speak on it, no matter how awkward or uncomfortable it may be. I can honestly say that it was a good time and a VERY interesting look at how the community is out there. Some of you may not like what I have to say but hey, if you don’t like it, you can always just look at the photos and move on with your life. The event itself is pretty crazy, I’ll tell everyone more about it tomorrow. I’ve been catching up on some much needed sleep and reacquainting myself with everyday life back out here in the west…
West, east, south, whatever…Got it covered. The Chronicles IA 2011 coverage coming tomorrow. Later ya’ll….
Summer days…
Got a couple new photos for you guys today…I had some spare time during the day after I finished up a story for Super Street magazine so I decided to head down to the Rywire facilities to see what was going on. Big Mike had also hit me up earlier on in the day and wanted to know if I wanted to hang out so we just met up at Rywire. There’s been a couple of ongoing projects at the shop so I picked up the camera and snapped some photos for you guys. These aren’t like customer cars or anything, just a couple of friends who asked Ryan if they could use his shop space to work on their cars since he had some extra room down there.
Supertwinz John from AEM has his red EA hatchback there while his other project, a white EA, is up in Norcal in preparation for paint. This red one is supposed to be a tad more tame than his white one and this one is supposed to be his weekend track car. He’s going all out on his white one and I’ll update you guys on that build once it comes back from Franklin Autobody. The other car currently there getting worked on is an EM1 coupe owned by DPK Darryl or D-Rail, who works over at JHPUSA. His car has been down for awhile and he’s torn it apart to get a K-swap and tuck…
Here’s a shot of John’s EA…As you can see, the B-series barely fits in there and clearance is at a minimum, especially since the half-radiator is going to have to sit off to the side…
A shot of John’s Kinsler individual throttle bodies…These will eventually go into his other white EA Civic. He just has these on this motor now to see how things look as far as fitment goes…
I thought this was pretty cool, it’s easier to see in the second photo but that anodized gold fitting is actually a fuel line quick disconnect. You don’t really see these used that often and it’s definitely a cool touch…
John’s 15×8 949 wheels just came in recently and are sitting at the shop in boxes. Those will probably go on as the car gets closer to completion but for now, he has a set of Mugen CF48 wheels on and lurking behind the hideous face are Wilwood brakes…I don’t care what you say, those wheels may be classics but they are ugly as fuck. They look like old fan clutches from like, a small block Chevy from the 80′s…
Ryan’s CR-X was sitting on some filthy ass Kosei K1 wheels because he participated in a small track event at Buttonwillow last weekend. The car is pretty dirty but at least you know it’s being used. It ran very well at the track too and did a 2:04.584 when it was driven by Ryan’s friend Charlie…
Ryan and Big Mike going over some details on Darryl’s Civic Si…At the rate this rebuild is going, it should be done right around 2015, and he will be the only Honda left on the road because cars will have the ability to fly by then if you follow the timeline from Back to the Future Part II…
You guys already know whose car this is…not much to report here, just some minor touch-ups that need to be completed…
Exclusive Content: Unpublished Shots of Bisimoto’s CR-Z from Super Street…
Last week, I brought you the unpublished shots of Kane Chan’s Civic coupe from this year’s Super Street Honda Issue. Today we will be taking a quick look at some shots from one of my other features in that issue, which is none other than Bisi Ezerioha’s Honda CR-Z. I was the first one to release shots of the car originally when it was debuted at last year’s SEMA event so I guess it was only fitting that I shoot the car for the mag as well. In feature, you saw more detail shots and more shots of the components in the engine bay because Super Street wanted to take a more technical approach at telling Bisi’s story. Everyone knows what the exterior of this CR-Z looks like but not too many people know exactly how the car functions and how it makes the power that it does. Bisi provided us with a great deal of information on the car and hopefully I did a good job of translating those words onto his feature. The photos today are mostly the exterior shots that weren’t used and random things here and there that either weren’t used, or were different angles. With the new layout of the site, I’m also able to post up larger photos now as well but the links to the 1400px photos will be provided below each shot as usual. Enjoy…
Oh before, I forget, here is the link to the online version of Bisimoto’s feature from the Super Street 2011 Honda Issue…
This was pretty cool and one of the shots I was hoping they would use in the story. It’s a photo of the tool that Bisi had to get from Honda so that he could remove the engine from the CR-Z at the onset of his build. If you read the story, then you will know how difficult and dangerous it was for him to remove what was essentially a gigantic magnet from the engine bay of this car…
Thanks for looking…
Exclusive Content…Unpublished Photos of Kane Chan’s Civic Coupe from Super Street July ’11…
Today we will be taking a look at some shots that I took of Kane Chan’s Civic coupe that was recently featured in Super Street’s annual Honda Issue. Click here for the full story online…
I’m a huge fan of Kane’s and there really isn’t much I really have to say about his coupe that I haven’t already done in the Super Street story as well as here on The Chronicles. The car is a truly rare beast considering how builds these days are fly-by night projects assembled merely for online recognition and fame. Really though, how many people do you know have had their older Hondas since they were brand new from the dealership and still have them today? Fucking.Awesome. Anyways, check out the pics below. I was pretty happy with how this shoot went…it’s always easy to shoot in downtown L.A. because there are so many great backdrops to use when shooting. These were the ones that weren’t used in the Super Street Honda Issue, minus the first shot which ended up being the first page layout for the story. At the end I’ve included a 1920×1080-sized desktop image for you guys like usual…enjoy, and thanks for looking. Props to Kane for building such a timeless ride and go pick up the Super Street Honda Issue if you haven’t done so already. There should be a couple issues left on newstands before they switch over to the next issue, which should drop in the next few weeks. Once they’re gone, they’re gone, so swoop that up before it’s too late…
Widescreen 1080P desktop image for you guys below…
Exclusive Content…Ryan Der and Chris Sakai from Wekfest LA Weekend…
Damn, it’s almost perfect timing to post this up today because it coincides with the debut of the ATS Garage Facebook page… If you’re a Facebook head, go ahead and add them so you can check out more pics of the members in their crew as well as pics from the past that date back to the very early days of ATS. Anyways, I’ve been sitting on these pics for awhile now because I’ve just been having so much fun going through them. The set only contains exterior shots because we didn’t have much time that weekend but these cars have had enough exposure by now where you guys should all be very familiar with how the interior and engine bays look. Ryan Der of course, graced the cover with fellow ATS member Anh Truong in last year’s annual Super Street Honda Issue and Chris Sakai was on the cover of Honda Tuning magazine not too long ago. I met Ryan first when I did the story for his EK but I really got to know him better during last year’s Super Street FF Battle. Big Mike and I were hanging out during the dyno sessions and Ryan was there posted up by himself so we invited him to go eat with us. The rest as they say, is history and we’ve been chillin’ ever since. He even makes random trips down here to Socal sometimes just to BBQ with us or whatever. I met Chris Sakai awhile back, probably at one of the Norcal Wekfest events but it wasn’t until I went on a trip to Norcal with Rodrez that we actually started talking more. Rodrez was shooting Chris’ Civic for the Honda Tuning cover spread and I actually made another trip up there the very next weekend with DPK David just to hang out. Both very cool guys, both unique in their own ways, but both with equally amazing Honda builds. It probably sounds a little biased now because I know them and their cars so well but truthfully, these two Civics probably have to be one of the best EK-themed builds of all time. People can say it’s “cocky” or whatever they want to say but the cars speak for themselves.
During the Wekfest LA weekend a couple weeks back, we were all hanging out at the Rywire facilities and had some extra time so I decided to get some shots of their cars. They had both added some new things since last year so it was the right time to get some new pics of the two cars. I don’t want to talk your head off so here are the pics below… As usual, click on the links below for larger versions and towards the end I’ve included some 1080P sized wallpapers for you guys. Enjoy and thanks for looking. Some of the wallpaper shots are a little different from my usual stuff but I wanted to experiment with a much darker, more artsy “look” I guess you can say. If you don’t like them, oh well, just don’t click on them, haha….
Below are the desktop shots…
Widescreen Version (1920×1080)
Widescreen Version (1920×1080)
Widescreen Version (1920×1080)
Widescreen Version (1920×1080)
Wekfest Los Angeles 2011 Coverage…Part 1…
It’s times like this when I wish I could just cue a Jamaican horn on contact. Since I can’t just imagine that you clicked on the bookmarked link of The Chronicles that’s on your browser and hearing a Jamaican horn blare through your computer speakers three times repeatedly….Anyways, Wekfest LA 2011 coverage coming at your in full force. I took A LOT of photos this weekend, many at the show but also a bunch before the event. Since I had extra time on my hands from not having to set up for a booth at the event, I was able to chill with the homies more and just do dumb shit (You will see what I mean later). Overall, it was a very interesting weekend, to say the least. It was also a first glimpse at how the Wekfest series will do outside of Northern California. They plan to take a nationwide tour and what better place to start than Los Angeles. Today we will be looking at the days leading up to Wekfest as well as a small bit of coverage from the event itself. As you all know, I like to cover everything, before the show and after because it provides a better look at the behind the scenes stuff and you guys get to see what we do when we’re not just standing around at a show looking tired and irritable….
Our journey started out late Friday afternoon…I was lacking sleep like usual and had store orders to work on the night before so I slept in for most of the day. David and some of the ATS guys had planned to go to a shooting range early in the morning but I just didn’t feel up to it so I met up with them when they got back to David’s house…
When I walked inside the house, I saw ATS Jason’s CR-X with newly mounted Kosei wheels and ATS Fred and Ben were busy cleaning their guns…
I had no idea they were such huge gun aficionados but being that Ben is a U.S. Marine, I can kind of tell where the love of guns comes from. Fred of course always has to do it big with whatever hobby he is into so he has quite a collection of firearms…
Seeing all their toys was a bit overwhelming at first because I had no idea they were that serious about their gun hobby. I recall seeing an image online of a VIP Benz from overseas that was filthy and had two guys that looked like Russian mafia holding two pistols out of the car and I had an idea….Since we had the guns laying around already as well as my Q45 outside, why not do a similar shot? Haha…totally random and probably not a good idea but we were bored so we went for it…
I would have really liked to do the shot with a better backdrop but I really wasn’t trying to drive around in my car filled with all that hardware, so we just did it outside. Definitely not as “gangster” per se than the photo I was talking about but hey, our guns are bigger, haha….
After that we went out to dinner with everyone at BJ’s and called it a night. The next day, I hung out with May for a bit, had lunch and went shopping and then went back over to David’s to meet up with everyone…
Fred and Ryan were busying playing with Ben’s freshly Bisimoto-tuned S2000…
Jason drove his wife’s Integra down from Norcal..
They also had all their cleaning supplies out to detail the cars before the Wekfest event the next day…
DPK David’s freshly washed coupe and Ben’s S2K…
The rear end of Ben’s S2000 was riding a little high so Fred made the proper adjustments and brought the car down a little bit to even things out…Second shot is kinda random but I thought it was a good look…
Low Fat Pie and Ryan Der chatting it up on the porch…
May was taking a nap in the car while we waited for a couple of other people to show up. Once everyone met up, we headed down to the Rywire facilities to go check on the progress of DPK Jared’s S2000 and we had some extra time so I wanted to get some shots of Chris and Ryan’s EKs before they returned home to Norcal…
Jared, Ryan and the others were hard at work trying to reassemble the S2000 and get it cleaned for the show…
The S2 has been at Rywire’s because Ryan was doing a complete wire tuck and custom harness for the car. He got it running a couple days before and while there were still some loose ends to tie up, the car was basically ready to go for the show…
Outside of the shop, Chris was busy cleaning up his engine bay…
…while Ryan was busy doing touch-ups to his Civic…
…and adding his Alberto’s taco shop sticker. Normally Ryan is all about keeping things clean but his love for carne asada fries triumphs everything else so he had to throw a sticker on his car to support mexican food. He really does love carne asada fries though, almost to the point where it’s a little scary and borderline obsessive. We would be more concerned with the mass consumption of carne asada but the guy doesn’t seem to gain any weight so we just leave him alone…
Back in business for the first time in a couple months…good to see this car with fenders on it for a change…
Okay, so at this point I set up all my equipment to shoot Ryan Der and Chris Sakai’s cars. I don’t want to post them up as part of the coverage because it will further clutter things up here, since there is so much going on already, so I’ll save those until after we finish up the Wekfest pics…
I’ve never mentioned it before but outside of Ryan’s shop is this old ass Sea Doo boat that has been there ever since he moved in and no one has ever claimed it. We were joking around about doing a photo on it with everyone and since I already had all my equipment out, we decided to just do it. Everyone hopped on and the boat mysteriously started up and it took all of us on a magical boat ride to…
…SAN DIEGO!!!! It was amazing…for whatever reason, there was a huge party going on and there were fireworks and everything. Shit was fucking MAGICAL. The boat was from the late 90s but for some reason, it had some MAGICAL force field around it that allowed all of us to ride on it standing up and still go 90+mph…It even had scuba gear inside and I threw it on, jumped in the water and snapped this photo just as the magenta hot fireworks were firing in the night sky of beautiful downtown San Diego. Man it was great…It was probably the most fun 16 dudes will ever have together while crammed in a 90′s-era Sea Doo Speedster…FUCKING AMAZING…
Oh shit, I’m actually out of time for today…I’ll have to cut it short for now because I have to go to a shoot for work and it’s pretty important. Back with part 1 1/2 of the Wekfest Los Angeles 2011 weekend coverage later tonight or super early in the AM. If you’re up and an insomniac than you will probably catch it, if not, then you’ll get a double update for tomorrow..Okay, back on the Sea Doo Speedster I gooooooooooooooooo…………….
Wekfest Los Angeles Prep…
Damn, it’s hard to believe that Wekfest LA is already happening this weekend. With so much going on lately, I almost lost track of everything that was going on. From Eibach to Tony’s meet and now Wekfest LA, things have been pretty crazy around here. I decided not to do a booth this time around at Wekfest though because I honestly have just been kind of burned out by having to prepare everything event after event. It would be much easier if my vinyl cutter was working correctly but it had some issues and just basically threw everything off course. It’s fixed now though but I just figured I’d take a break from doing a booth and selling merchandise so that I could just sit back and enjoy an event for once without having to worry about stuff. Not having to slave away on stickers every night has also presented me with more free time to spend with the homies, especially since so many of them are out here in Socal for Wekfest. Yesterday I headed down to the Rywire facility so that I could work on my car and hung out there for a bit to hang out with DPK David, Ryan, and a couple of the ATS Garage guys…
We were running around getting various things and going to the post office to mail out some Rywire product but this was how the shop looked after we got back and settled in. Jared’s S2000 is almost finished so Ryan was hard at work trying to knock that out and had Supertwinz John and ATS Ben there to lend a helping hand…
I brought my Q45 down to the shop because I had to do some detailing on it as well as taking off my old stickers that had become faded from being out in the sun over time…
Chris Sakai’s Civic sitting at Ryan’s shop awaiting his return…It’s been down here since Eibach 2011 and sitting nice and comfortably at the shop…
John, Ben, and Ryan working on Jared’s S2000… Best black paint ever by the way, it’s got 7 coats of dust on it and still glossy as fuck…
When I first got there, I saw ATS Ben in front of the shop, which was a bit of a surprise since I wasn’t really expecting anyone to be around yet. He had just gotten back from getting his S2000 tuned at Bisimoto Engineering and was all smiles. He’s been pretty frustrated with his car lately but after a trip to Bisi’s, the guy couldn’t be happier with the results…
He was telling us that he had to fill up his tank like 3 times before he got down here from Norcal and wasn’t really happy with how he drove. After his tune, he sat in traffic coming over from Bisi’s to Ryan’s shop and the car ran smoothly and only took a little bit of gas to get over there. If you guys don’t know where Bisi’s shop is in relation to Ryan’s, it’s not very close at all and is a bit of a drive. As far as power numbers go, I don’t remember the exact numbers but Ben said they turned it down to about 15PSI of boost and made around 460whp or so and 300lb-ft tq…awesome numbers for an S2000. As Low Fat Pie said when he was checking out Ben’s S2K; “You’re basically driving a Porsche…” … All it needs now is a nice wash and it’s ready to go for Wekfest LA…
Ryan and the guys still hard at work on Jared’s S2…
It was around 7pm by this time so I had to head out of the area to drive over to May’s place. I always hang out with her on Thursdays so I hopped in the Q and drove from Westminster to the valley to spend some time with her. She was baking as usual and I was watching the NBA Finals when Salem hit me up to see if I wanted to go bowling. If you want to know what happened to Phaze2 as a crew, everyone other than me has apparently become obsessed with BOWLING. When Mikeyyyy says he’s doing big things nowadays, he’s not building magazine featured Hondas or coming out with crazy Dipped-Parts.com products, he had a good game of BOWLING. They fucking love that shit. Some of the other guys drive up to the valley just to bowl with them. I’m just always there because I’m with May and we’re not too far away. I do a little bit of bowling myself of course, when you’re nickname is “Hand of God”, you can bowl a little bit. When I say “a little bit” that means I can bowl a consistent 70….haha… But yeah, these guys are all about bowling these days. It’s cool though, because it means that we can always just hang out and not do car shit all the time…
Norman from As1 stopped by to hang out for a bit and here he is with Murdock…
Dougie and Haze chillin…I asked Haze to show me his reaction when a girl sticks a finger in his butthole and Doug vouched for the reaction…
Salem in action…
That was pretty much it for the day. We didn’t really have to do much prep work because we’re ready to go. I’m just ready for Sunday because I can actually just walk around and take pictures. It’s a welcome break from the norm…See everyone this weekend at Wekfest LA…it’s gonna be a good one!
Hurt Feelings…and Eibach 2011 Edition Chronicles Stickers NOW AVAILABLE!!
Hurt Feelings tees are now available in the storefront along with the Eibach 2011 Edition Chronicles stickers…get them while they last, shirts are very limited in quantity. When I say “Limited” I mean I wanna keep them for myself but my body doesn’t morph into different sizes and I can’t just fit into every single sized shirt! Haha…
The Official Chronicles Storefront
Catch Part 1 of the Eibach 2011 Coverage Below!…
Exclusive Content…Phaze2 TSX…
Finally, an update…haha…I apologize in advance for my absence the last couple days. The Need For Speed Shift 2 event was this past weekend and I’ve been busy going through a couple hundred photos from that, as well as some personal photography work for a family member, and the update you’re about to see. The coverage of the NFS Shift 2 event is pretty good actually, even though it was a small event. I had to go snap some pics for Honda Tuning to cover that event for them so I was all about taking pictures that day.
Anyways, for today, we’re going to take a look at a car that you should all be familiar with by now. The owner is also a very close and dear friend of mine and that guy is known to many of you as Salem from Phaze2. His TSX graced the cover of Honda Tuning a couple years back and unlike many of the enthusiasts these days, he’s actually held onto his car and continued it’s evolution. I know the car well because Salem and I constantly talk about it and he brings the car out to almost every event. When it received it’s feature in Honda Tuning it was actually still in it’s beginning stages. Since then the car has taken on quite the transformation. It still carries the J’s Racing theme when it comes to engine modifications but now it also has the rare J’s Racing front fascia for the Accord Euro-R. It’s also seen a number of different sets of wheels because Salem has yet to find a wheel that he is truly satisfied with. The photos below show the TSX on polished BBS LM’s that were borrowed from our friend Sam from AS1, since Salem recently sold his white TE37s and was in need of a set of wheels to roll on for the Need For Speed Shift 2 event. Salem’s been looking for new wheels for a couple weeks now and we’ve been going through different sets and calling different places to see what is available. What’s made things increasingly difficult has been the tragic events that have happened in Japan. The earthquake and tsunami has really affected things coming in and out of Japan so we’re looking at much longer wait times if he decides to order something from overseas. When he finally decides on a new set of wheels we will go out and get some new photos for you guys but today, you guys will see the Phaze2 TSX on BBS LMs. It’s not a bad look, definitely different from what we’re used to seeing on his car but hey, it’s nice to switch things up every now and then to see what works and what doesn’t….
It was kind of an impromptu shoot since we didn’t really plan it out and shot it near an area by some random strip club by Salem’s place. It was also dark as shit too and basically pitch black when we shot so it was pretty sketchy. There aren’t too many shots because we didn’t spend too much time there being that it was an area we weren’t too familiar with…Enjoy. Same rules apply, click the links below for larger versions of the images…
A “behind-the-scenes” shot I guess you can say…
Mikeyyyy is holding his iPhone up because that was pretty much the only source of light that we had since we shot late at night in complete darkness…
