The Rywire ITR Build…Part 9…
I know everyone has been waiting for this next update on Rywire’s Integra Type R so I’ll just go ahead and dive right into it. Ryan sent me a text over the weekend asking if I was down to make a trip down to ASC Speed Metal on Monday to check out what’s new with the ITR build. Mondays are usually the best times for me to make the trip down there with him so I said I would go without hesitation. Dana and the guys down there have been sending Ryan photos every now and then with updates so he had a pretty good idea how far along the car was, but I hadn’t been over to the Rywire facility in about a week so I really had no idea what to expect. The last time we went down there, we spent a majority of the day there trying to figure out Ryan’s seating position with the floor-mounted pedal set-up. It was quite a process because no one anticipated that the pedals would have to be mounted essentially where the floor was. The angle of the firewall was a problem and being that the pedal assembly was quite large in size, due to the brake reservoirs, there was no way to properly mount them without moving the driving position back. The weeks after we made the trip down to San Diego, Ryan did a lot of thinking and just decided to ditch the idea of having the floor-mounted Tilton brake set-up and acquired a set of hanging pedals to replace them. Ryan notified the guys down at ASC and so they set up a meeting once again to remeasure everything to now suit the hanging pedals. They had a bunch of other cool stuff completed so it would make for a worthwhile trip. Plus, Ryan had a bunch of parts that he wanted to bring down there so that he could get them mounted and the crew down there could move on with the fabrication….
Before we officially get to the build update today, I’m going to post the links to the previous posts on the build so that many of you who are new can catch up. I posted some photos of the build yesterday on Instagram while I was at ASC and noticed that there were more than a couple of people that just had no idea what this build was or what Ryan was working on. It would be a shame if you didn’t catch up with the previous sections covering the build before you read the one below so, please, I invite you to read the links below. If you are already caught up and have been waiting for this update, please proceed to the post below after the links. I may work on a page where I can just consolidate everything into one post but there are just so many photos that it would almost be impossible to get them all loaded in time for you guys to want to wait to read it. I may just add a separate page above with the links in the future but I haven’t decided yet…
PLEASE READ THESE LINKS BELOW IF YOU ARE NEW TO THE SITE AND DO NOT KNOW OF THIS BUILD…
The Rywire ITR Build…Introduction…
Now, on with the updates…
There were some pretty significant progress the last time we went down to ASC and this trip was no different…
As you in our last update, ASC had completed the majority of the bead-rolled sheet metal panels along the inside of the chassis, including the door panels. When we arrived we were greeted with more additional panels that completed the rear trunk section. The panels continue to flow with the design of the rest of the trunk panels and fill out the spare tire area of the Integra Type R’s trunk…It is kind of hard to see but if you take a closer look, you can see that they are in the process of mounting the FCS fuel cell…
There is still much to be done in this area and in the near future, you will see two Bosch fuel pumps mounted to the floor panel along with the two filters (as seen mocked-up in this photo), as well as a custom made surge tank. Dana also mentioned that he planned to cut down the filter mounts because they felt that it was too bulky…
A shot of how the panels are mounted in place within the trunk. Once everything is completed, Ryan will have to add some backing to line the underside of the panels to prevent them from rattling…
Another significant addition is the custom made center console. When you think of custom made dashes and center consoles, you usually expect it to be pretty boxy and simple. Well I do anyways, so Ryan and I were both pretty excited when we saw what Gabe from ASC came up with… He said he was sitting down one night trying to think of what to do for the center console piece and thought of a motor cycle gas tank. He said that he liked how the lines of the gas tanks looked and went to work which resulted in the console you see above… pretty cool stuff. I love how it is anything but simple and how it flows right into the floor bar of the roll cage…
The view of the front half of it on the driver side… The panel that you see next to the Hybrid Racing shifter is the MoTeC PDM16 switch panel that you first saw in Part 8 of this build. It is just laying on top of the console in the shot but room will be made for it so that it is mounted directly into the console…
A view from up top…
A shot of the door panels with the cage and how it looks with the console in place…
Everything that needs to be fabricated in the engine bay will probably be the last task that ASC will be tackling. They did finish the hood cowl though and its design also reflects the rest of the panels inside the car. Careful steps were made so that it also flows with the original lines of the body so it is notched in all the right places…
Golden Eagle recently finished Ryan’s custom intake manifold for the ITR so he brought it down so it could also be mocked-up. With the manifold in place, ASC can eventually get to making the intercooler piping for the turbo system…
Ryan hasn’t made a final decision on which fuel rails to run but your eyes do not deceive you, it is a dual-fuel rail intake manifold… It’s not a matter of what brand because it will probably be a K-Tuned rail, it’s more of a matter of color choice…Here you see Ryan adding the intake manifold gasket…
Our buddy Rom made the trip down with us this time around and Ryan made sure to put him to work…
All mounted-up…
A new problem that we have run into after the manifold install is the lack of hood clearance with the second fuel rail… The manifold is completely one-off so Golden Eagle had no idea that this would be a problem either. The second rail actually sits pretty high because of the angle of the motor so the manifold now will probably have to go back to get re-adjusted. It wasn’t even a matter of it possibly being a tight fit. Just from eyeing it you can easily tell that it would not clear the hood…
Ryan also brought the drive-by-wire throttle body down to mount it to the Golden Eagle intake manifold…
As I stated in Part 8, the battery box that Ryan had fabricated before he had the car painted was chopped off. It was kind of an eye sore where it was mounted and it being a giant box just didn’t flow very well with the car. ASC instead came up with this cool, one-off battery mount to replace it. I personally really like how this came out because it isn’t like anything else you have seen before….It’s still large enough to hold an OEM Honda battery and isn’t as bulky as the old box was…
Dana, Gabe, and Ryan working on various parts of the ITR…
A closer look at the bead-rolled hood cowl…
Dana trying to figure out how the hanging pedal set will be mounted and how it will sit in comparison to the old floor-mounted unit…
A welcome surprise from Dana at ASC were these custom made, spherical lower control arms that he was making for Ryan’s ITR. It wasn’t in the plans for them to create these for Ryan so it was really cool to see. They have made a couple other sets for guys like ATS Anh and Gil from Circuit Hero but they are all made in-house and not mass-produced units…
Another angle…
Dana going over some other suspension components with Ryan… These look like what may end up being front control arms in the future…
While they were going over that stuff, I walked around to capture whatever else I saw…
Another shot of the battery tray…
This is how the interior looks as of now through the rear hatch…
The Golden Eagle intake manifold with fuel rails that have now been masked off so no debris falls inside them…
Around 2:30pm or so, the sun was starting to beat down through the ceiling window at ASC so we took a break to grab a drink… It would be amazing if Red Bull sponsored The Chronicles, haha…
If there is one major portion of this build that people may just love or absolutely hate, it would be the custom made dashboard. I’ll admit, I was a little surprised at first how it looked but it grew on me right away. Ryan wanted the MoTeC display to be mounted off to the center of the dash but he did not expect for them to create it in such a way where it curved out towards the center that aggressively… The dash is going to be two-pieces, but this is how it looks so far…
The driver side of the dash will remain completely empty and the display will be in the center and turned towards the driver. Along the side where it curves downward, the bulk heads for the MoTeC PDM16 unit will be mounted along with the AEM Infinity engine management system… That section will be cut out of course to house these components and everything should be pretty streamlined. The second part of the dash (passenger side) wasn’t completed yet so I can’t really show you how it look all mounted up inside the car…
A view of the center console through the window-less front windshield….
Another shot of the soon-to-be completed control arm…
Precision turbocharger…
Only the best in this bay… Wiggins clamps everywhere…
Ryan looking on as they work on the driver’s side seat brackets…
While they were working on the seat positioning, I took the liberty of taking some quick snaps of Jimmy aka Agesone’s EF project… I don’t want to reveal too much on the car but there was some pretty cool stuff that I thought you guys would like…
Custom made front shock tower bar…
Wild sheet metal headlight cover for the backside of the light…
Dimple-died gusset plates everywhere…
Really liked this shot of the battery tray….
The new hanging pedals sitting on the driver’s floor… Once these are mounted, room will have to be made in the custom dash for the remote brake resevoirs…
Bride bucket seat that is still sitting too far to the right…
Gabe from ASC unbolting the seat
The culprit behind that was the PCI seat bracket which is actually a U.S. passenger side seat bracket. As stated in Part 8 of the build, no one knew that there was any difference in position until the seat was mounted-up…
Can’t wait to see that MoTeC PDM16 mounted in the console and functioning…
Gabe flipping the mounting brackets over to shift the seat back slightly to the left…
With the seat re-installed, Gabe was able to have Ryan seated so they could figure out the driving position once again. Now that the problem with the pedals has been corrected, it will be much easier to move forward with finishing the interior. Here in this shot, Gabe is making note of the exact angle where Ryan wants the steering wheel so that they can fix the custom steering column in place…
Here is a glimpse of how the dash will look when it is mounted… The dash actually curves upwards towards the center but not as high as you see it in the photo. You can see now how close the MoTeC display will be in relation to Ryan’s seating position… I said in Part 8 that the custom steering column would be hidden from view but the way the dash came out, it looks like everything will be pretty visible, which is a good thing since it’s a pretty cool looking column. I know for some of you the dash may be too much or a little too futuristic for your tastes, but it would be great if you held judgement until you saw it in a more completed state with the second half of it…
Ryan discussing with Gabe how the electronics will be laid out in the future and where the brake reservoirs will go. Another essential part of the build that hasn’t been completed yet is the dry-sump oiling system. The dry sump oil tank will end up most likely under the passenger side of the dash but that remains to be seen…
One final shot of the custom fabricated dashboard…
One final thing that Ryan had to do before we left was to take the intercooler off the ITR. He wants a smaller more efficient core and one where the outlets run out the backside of the intercooler instead of how it is now with it running out of the sides. There isn’t really a good way to have this intercooler work because the piping would interfere with the dry sump pump so it has to go…With the intercooler he plans to get later, the piping would not only be out of the way of the dry sump, it would also be a shorter distance to the turbo and intake manifold…
Now the face of the ITR looks as bare as ever…
That concluded our portion of the day at ASC. We spent the majority of the afternoon there but it was time to head back because of the rush hour traffic…
When we got back to Rywire, Ryan wanted me to get a shot of his AP Racing rear brakes…yes, these are the rears…
Supertwinz John’s EA-T is almost ready to go as well…the motor is in and basically just needs to be tuned to run. He had some issues with fuel leaks here and there which kind of stunk up the shop, but it’s fine since everyone is excited to see this thing on the road again…
Another car that I wanted to show you guys that is currently over at Rywire is Rodrez’s S2000. We don’t get to see his S2000 too often so it was nice to see it at the shop with all the new additions…He recently had his Downforce fenders installed and painted and put on his SSR Type-F wheels with some meaty Falken Azenis tires…
The rear wing and front lip are both from JDP Engineering…. He has a hard top usually as well but since it’s summer time, why not cruise around with the top down?…
That pretty much sums it up for Part 9. I hope you guys enjoyed the ongoing coverage of the Rywire ITR build. It’s still crazy to think that even with all this progress, there is still so much more to do… stay tuned…
This is happening…
Not a whole lot of time today to update, but I just wanted to jump in here real quick to let you guys know that Rywire Ryan and I spent the majority of the afternoon down at ASC Speed Metal looking at the new additions to his ITR build. This entire build is just getting better and better… stayed tuned tomorrow for the next major update on the Rywire Integra Type R Build… If you missed any of the previous updates on this build, now would be a good time to reacquaint yourself with this amazing build… Search here for “Rywire ITR Build”… More to come Wednesday!
Some recent photos of the M&M Honda Integra…
Those of you who follow M&M Honda on Facebook have probably already seen these but for those without FB, I figured today would be a nice day to toss up these recent photos of M&M Honda’s DC2 Integra race car. This is one of my favorite Integra builds of all-time and I always enjoy seeing new photos of it. It looks like they have switched over to the INGS+1 front bumper now and got rid of the C-West front bumper. I looked at a couple of comments on their Facebook page and the majority seems to like the C-West front better but I honestly like the INGS bumper. It’s not that common and it’s not really all that bad looking. It still flows with the rest of the car and if anything, it has made the overall look of this Integra more aggressive. I don’t have any other news on it because I don’t have specs on the car but I do have these photos of it. Credit all goes to M&M Honda. I love how they constantly update their Facebook page with new stuff and their photos are just HUGE, which is great for me, because I can re-size them and still be able to provide you guys with the originals. Anyways, on with the photos, enjoy…I hope you guys love this Integra as much as I do. Well done M&M Honda….
Oh and one more thing, I love how they’re still down to rock Racing Hart CP-035 wheels (on the rear) too. One of the best wheels ever created I think and one of the lightest. Always liked that wheel and I think a lot of people slept on them when Racing Hart was pushing them back in the day…Look at this ad, haha… So light a white baby and strong-arm one…
Okay, photos…
Such a bad ass car… Larger Version Here…
Thanks for looking…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 8…
Damn, it’s been awhile but now we are finally back with another major update on the ongoing Rywire ITR build. There hasn’t been much news until now because the entire chassis has been down at ASC Speed Metal in east county San Diego. They are pretty busy working on a number of different projects for customers so they haven’t been able to devote 100% of their time to Ryan’s ITR. It’s completely understandable and we aren’t really in a rush to finish the car since we want the guys down at ASC to be able to have creative freedom to do their best work. When it comes to metal fabrication, these guys are at the top of their game so Ryan has been pretty open to any ideas they have for him regarding his ITR and the results have been amazing thus far…
We have an update for you guys today because the guys at ASC gave Ryan a call to go down there to iron out some details on his car. Since the moment the car was brought down to San Diego, we knew that we would have to make a couple trips down there and update from there so Monday was the perfect time to start. We all met up at the Rywire facility around 10am and hopped in his daily Civic coupe and started our trip down to Santee, CA..
Ryan and I were talking on the way down and trying to figure out what had been done to the chassis so far. We really had no idea what condition the car was in so Ryan was pretty excited to see the progress on it. When we arrived, they walked us straight to the car and we started to look through it to see the additions…
Here’s a look at ASC Speed Metal and the portion of the shop where the Rywire ITR sat. It’s a pretty small spot, there’s another side but it’s just another section that’s about the same size… Pretty crazy to think how many crazy projects and products have come out of there with the limited amount of room they have to work with…. I’m sure you’re wondering about the EF to the left just because of the fab work you can spot immediately but that’s a story to be told later. It belongs to our buddy Jimmy and when that thing comes out, man, it’s going to be something you have to see in person…
When Ryan originally had the cage work and paint done, he had no idea the car would ever end up down at ASC. Otherwise, he would have just waited until all the fab work was done before having the chassis painted inside and out. Now that it’s down there, there will be a couple spots that will need to be touched-up but they have taken the proper steps to ensure that the paint remains intact…
Most of the new work is being performed inside the car and they have a giant blanket covering the bay…
Just so you guys are wondering, we aren’t hiding anything from anyone…the bay remains in the same condition it was when it was originally at Rywire. There hasn’t been anything new added yet but when there is progress, we will be sure to let you know…
Ryan getting acquainted with the new additions…
They had sent Ryan a photo of one of the door panels a week ago but we were pleasantly surprised when we saw that they had also made bead-rolled sheet metal panels for the rest of the interior…When looking at these photos, take into consideration that they are in-progress pics and there will be finishing touches to clean them up….
The overall fitment of the panels was great… As you can see, they have masked off portions of the chassis to prevent any possibility of scratching the new paint… The panels are also bolted in place and are easily removable should Ryan ever need to remove them…
I should also mention that the panels are raw aluminum and the orange tone you see is a reflection from the paint. When it’s all said and done, Ryan will most likely keep them this finish. Gabe, one of the main fabricators over at ASC, told us that the panels are shaped in a way to be symmetrical with the cage as well. Pretty cool idea that they came up with and one of the great things about the guys at ASC. These guys just have ideas for days. I was surprised by the amount of ideas being exchanged by everyone there…
The two-piece rear trunk panel…
One major piece that they created that we have to show you guys is the custom steering column that they fabricated completely from scratch. It is also still a work in progress and isn’t connected to the steering rack yet but we just have to show it off. As wild looking as it is, this steering column is one of the components that you won’t even see later on when the dash is completed….
When you’re looking at this ITR in the future in its completed state, remember to let the people around you know that this piece is under the dash. It is almost sort of a shame that you won’t be able to see this later because people won’t even be able to grasp the concept of how this thing looks and functions…
Here is a better look at it up-close…You can see to the right here and in the photo above how it is mounted to the factory bracket location…By the end of the day, the bracket pieces were already cut-off because they had to re-align the column to suit Ryan’s driving position…
Another close-up shot…
Here is a shot of the door panel and how the lines flow with the cage… It’s basically a raw metal panel right now and later on you’ll probably see a door handle find its way on there as well as a power switch for the window…
The door panel is rolled at the ends to go over the top of the door but it will be cut when the window glass is re-installed…
Here is another shot of the panels and how they are shaped in relation to the lines of the gutted interior…
Ryan’s Bride Zeta III bucket seat mounted to PCI seat brackets. He wasn’t sure at first what seat he was going to run when the car was finished but since they made measurements in accordance to his overall seating/driving position that day, he may just stick with the Zeta III…Also in this photo you can see how the steering column is mounted to the cage…
The position and angle of the column was going to have to be adjusted either way since it was a one-off piece. Since it will be set to Ryan’s specific position, the seat height and the size of the steering wheel he is running is also an important factor to consider. You would think that it would be pretty general but since Ryan is utilizing a lot of custom components, it’s basically like re-designing the cockpit from scratch…
Though it’s mounted and connected to the cage, Dana and Gabe made the ends of the column in such a way that it can easily be disconnected and re-aligned. I’ll have more detailed photos of how that whole end link works below after the column was removed…
One portion of the interior, made by the previous fabricator, that was removed was the battery box behind the passenger side of the car. We all agreed that it was sort of an eyesore so Ryan had them cut it off and ASC will be making another battery box…
This Tilton brake set-up is proving to be more of a headache than anything and another major reason why they had to figure out Ryan’s seating position in relation to the steering column and the distance he would be sitting at… Without hanging pedals and with these Tilton units mounted to the floor, everything changes. You would think that they could be mounted to the same general area as hanging pedals but since the Tilton units have resevoirs behind them, you just can’t mount them against the firewall. There are also fittings and brake lines that have to run out the back side of the pedals and that further pushes the pedals forward….
You can see here how the Tilton pedals are mounted to the floorboard…
One other issue that nobody expected was how the seat was positioned. Apparently a passenger seat rail (the one in use) is different than a right hand drive seat rail. The position of the seat is off to the right (closer to the door) compared to where the original steering wheel would be. To alleviate that problem, Ryan will probably have to flip one side of the seat mounts to shift the seat back to the correct position…
Another issue that popped up was the angle of the steering column. While it was initially aimed higher, making the steering wheel an obstruction to Ryan’s view, moving it down lead to the steering wheel hitting Ryan’s legs…
He could move the seat back but then he would have a problem reaching the shifter…The majority of the day we spent at ASC was trying to figure out how to make the pedal set-up work and how to modify the Tilton set-up so that it could be moved further back…
Here’s a better perspective of how close the Tilton pedals are to the length of the steering column…
Gabe from ASC Speed Metal flipping the seat rail inside the ITR while Ryan and Jay from PG+K look on…
While Gabe was working on the seat position, Dana was busy working on the throttle pedal potentiometer…
The potentiometer is from a drive-by-wire vehicle that will need to be mated to the Tilton assembly. This will make his ITR cable-less and the throttle will be controlled electronically. This gives Ryan the ability to tune traction and use his engine management system to its full potential. It’s far more then it being aesthetically-pleasing to the eye, drive-by-wire is new technology that will be seen in many more race-quality builds in the future…
The process involved in getting this to work is attaching the Heim bolt on the gas pedal of the Tilton assembly and attaching it to the potentiometer aka TPS aka silver thing with a spring on it…
Here is another angle…The bracket on the potentiometer is also bent because of the way it will be mounted later on in the car….
Dana showing Ryan the bracket that he created for the Heim bolt…
Here is how the bracket looks and how the Heim bolt will be mounted…
The pedal assembly being re-mounted after it was modified slightly to sit further back. The plate on the floor was welded in place before the car was painted and the holes you see on the plate are mounting points to where the pedal assembly can be mounted. Here in the photo they are mounting it to its furthest mounting position…
Ryan getting back into the driver’s seat to see if he likes the changes…
The Tilton Master cylinders were sitting close to the firewall, so the mounting surface had to be reversed to allow more room for the pedals to sit further back…
Dana from ASC taking the master cylinders off to reverse the mounting surface…
While that was going on, I snapped another photo of Ryan’s rear sheet metal panels…These are all just mocked-up at this point and Gabe literally put the trunk panel in after we got there to test fit it…
A quick shot of how the cockpit will look with the seat, cage, and door panel. We are all pretty curious to see how the dashboard is going to look when they get to it. Ryan has given them pretty much all the freedom they want in terms of how creative they want to get with it as long as he is still able to incorporate his switch/relay panel and other electronics…
Speaking of that, here are some photos of new parts he’s gathered since the last update. I wasn’t able to document this stuff because it was all down in San Diego already but Dana had it all in one large box so we pulled it out to get photos of it…
AEM 4-channel UEGO to measure air/fuel ratios…
MoTec CDL3 dash display that will be incorporated into the custom dash that ASC is making…
MoTeC PDM16 that will be responsible for controlling the water pump, cooling fans, the two Bosch fuel pumps, and miscellaneous things like lighting, etc… The part to the right is the 16-channel switch panel associated with the PDM16 unit… They will be labeled once Ryan wires the car up and figures out what button will operate what…
Ryan in the Zeta III once again after the Tilton assembly was re-mounted. With that in place, the next order of business was to figure out the steering column angle…
Dana unbolting the steering column from its mounting points and tilting it lower to where Ryan wants it…
It was pretty cool to see how it unbolted and came apart from the mount…You can see an “L-shaped” groove at each end of the bar…
…and this is how it comes apart. Once the tilt angle is decided, everything will be re-mounted and welded together…
How it looks from the back of the Integra after the column was removed…
Dana cutting down the mounting area so that the steering column can tilt lower…
Ryan testing the angle to see if there is any obstruction…After he was able to get the angle he wanted, they tested it once again with a smaller steering wheel, hoping to fix the problem with the wheel hitting his legs if he were to turn the wheel at full lock. The smaller wheel proved to be the best solution and we now know that any wheel 330mm or smaller will provide the optimal room he needs, with consideration taken to leg room as well as visibility. After that it was pretty much it for our day at ASC Speed Metal. It was quite the learning experience over there and I think we all have a better idea of how much work is involved with completing this project. Now that they know how Ryan is going to be seated in his ITR, they can get to work on the dashboard as well as the rest of the interior. When we got there we were excited with seeing all the progress on the car but it was a good reminder of how much more needs to be done before we can see this thing on the road… If you thought this was mind-numbing, just imagine that this is just the beginning of the build…we still have the motor, wiring, suspension, getting the brakes to fit, as well as what wheels to run. Then after that, there is the electrical side of things and how the car is going to run with the new AEM Infinity engine management system and the custom drive-by-wire set-up. It is going to be a wild ride…I hope you guys stick around to see the final product because it is something that you will have never seen before…
Oh, random, but after that, we had to stop by Lolita’s Taco Shop since we were in San Diego. We were at ASC much longer than we expected and we were starving by the time we left….
Here’s a California Burrito that I got from Lolita’s, which is a carne asada burrito filled with french fries, sour cream, and guacamole…
…and the rest of the guys got carne asada fries…
As for Jimmy Harris’ EF build…it’s pretty mind-blowing the type of stuff they are doing to it. I wish I would have asked Jimmy if I could take photos of it but I don’t want to spill the beans on his build so it’ll be something that we will talk about another time… The sheer amount of custom fabrication on this car is just insane…
That’s all for now. The next time you’re going to see an update on the Rywire ITR it will probably be down at ASC once again. I know it’s a lot of information to process but I appreciate those of you who have taken the time to absorb it all… Thanks for looking…and stay tuned…
Exclusive Content: Unpublished Photos of Cooper Boudia’s Integra from Super Street’s April ’12 Issue…
Here are a mixed batch of photos from Cooper Boudia’s Super Street story I did for the April 2012 issue. These were shot awhile back and months before I shot Brandon Burke’s S13 (which you can see in the post before this one). I first met Cooper last year when he PMed me on the NWP4Life forums inquiring about a parking spot for The Chronicles Year.Three Anniversary Meet. He had finished his car around that time and was bummed that he didn’t have any events to take his car to in his area. I told him I’d give him a spot if he was willing to make the drive so he made the drive down to California all the way from Olympia, WA. I thought he was crazy for being down to make that kind of drive but I was happy to meet him. He’s a super nice guy and had built himself a very nice Integra. He ended up winning an award at my event and I hit up Super Street magazine to see if they wanted his car. He was still in California a week or so after my event so if they wanted me to do a story on the car, I would meet up with him to shoot it. He was about 3 hours away from me but being that he made the trip down from Washington, I wasn’t about to make him drive south again for the photoshoot. Johnny Wong told me to go ahead and do the story so I set up a day to meet up with Cooper over in the area where he was staying at with a close friend of his. My daily is pretty old and beat up so I rented a car early that morning on the day of the shoot. It was a 6 hour drive round-trip and it was just to risky to take my 4Runner. I also called Big Mike the night before to see if he was down to roll out there with me and help out. He graciously accepted and off we went to San Luis Obispo, CA. Everything was good that morning until I realized that I couldn’t find the power supply to the Alien Bee strobes that I use. I was pretty bummed but time was running out, and we couldn’t exactly re-schedule since Cooper was leaving the next day. There was nothing I could really do so I just grabbed my back-up lighting equipment and took off…
The smaller flashes were fine but when I started shooting, they weren’t exactly working correctly. They wouldn’t fire when I wanted them too and were just working intermittently. I gave up on the lighting and just decided to shoot the car with whatever natural light I had. It was really overcast that day and we met up late so it was almost night fall by the time we started shooting. I think the photos suffered from that and I wasn’t really happy with the shoot after I finished it. I honestly wasn’t even happy with the photos after I submitted them to Super Street but when I saw them in published form, they came out better than I thought. I regret how the photos came out and really wished I could re-shoot Cooper’s Integra, but he’s all the way out in the state of Washington. Overall, I think the photos combined with the story made for a good feature. It’s not my best work and compared to the photos of Brandon Burke’s S13, these photos aren’t anywhere close in quality. I chalked it up as a learning experience and I feel that I’ve gotten better since then. I eventually found the power supply too. It was in the backseat of my Q45 that I had tucked away in storage…
Props to Cooper Boudia for building a really nice, clean Integra. His build thread is one of the best of 2011 and he’s very deserving of a feature because he basically did everything on this car on his own in a garage…
Anyways, enough talking… Check out the photos below. Same rules apply as usual, links to the larger photos appear below each pic. I didn’t have that many unpublished photos since there weren’t that many shots to begin with. Being that the online version of the story is kind of screwy and only half the photos appear in full-size, I’ve gone ahead and included the published photos as well so you guys can see high-res versions of the shots. I don’t know what happened to the online version of the story but I’ve attached the link to that below so you can read the story if you missed it…
Enjoy…
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ONLINE VERSION OF COOPER’S STORY FROM THE APRIL 2012 ISSUE OF SUPER STREET
Thanks for looking…
Throwback Thursday…
Since things have been going at a snail’s pace in present time, I figured today would be as good a time as any to take a look back at some of the great builds of our past. A lot of these guys have moved on to do bigger and better things while some have just left the Honda community altogether. While I would love to give you guys a life update as to what each person is doing nowadays, I don’t really know that many of them personally so I wouldn’t want to act like I knew anything about them. We are just going to take a quick glimpse into the past at some of the great Hondas that helped paved the way into what we see today. Back then, there was no Hellaflush/stanced-out cars, people didn’t want to put unused bike racks on their cars, and sticker-bombing was relegated to only doing an angled roll call on one side of your windshield. Things have certainly changed since those days but that’s just how it is…it’s the natural progression of things and though many fads exist that we may not be particularly fond of, you always have the past to look back to for inspiration…I don’t have a huge collection of photos, just shots I have found over time. DPK David has thousands upon thousands of photos he’s collected throughout the years and if time ever permits, I will raid his hard drive to dig up more photos for you guys. For now, enjoy these blasts from the past….. #throwbackthursday…. Enjoy…
Eddie Hahm’s EG was definitely one of the builds that almost everyone looked up to back in the day. This car went on to see many more different upgrades but this was what almost everyone wanted back when Mike Shin shot this for the famed JTuned.com site back in early 2000….
Donut’s Civic was one of the more recent hits in the past couple years…His build was utterly timeless and built with both style and function in mind, as he regularly took this car out on the track and beat the living hell out of it. He’s since sold the car and is now messing around with a DC2 Integra….
You can’t take a look back at the great builds of the past without mentioning Rodrez’s Civic… He, as you all should know, is the head editor now over at Honda Tuning magazine. This photo was taken back in 2005 during a Nisei Showoff car show….
Top Fuel liveries were all the rage back in early 2000 and they were often one of the most replicated looks for Integras….here is one decked out looking almost spot on with a Japanese Top Fuel Type R with Top Fuel lip and all, sporting some Advan RGs…
Kevin Mayuga’s EK was and is still one of my favorite Civic builds of all-time. His Civic is the reason why I love seeing Chargespeed front lips on EKs and also why I later bought a set of Advan RGs for myself….This photo represents one of its later incarnations after it was K-swapped. Unfortunately, it was stolen a couple years ago and stripped….
If you attended or saw photos from last year’s Nisei Showoff event, then you’ll probably recognize this DA Integra. Parnell Navarro built this car almost a decade ago and it still looks identical to what you see in this photograph from 2005-06. It was a little lower back in the day but he was more down to drive the car like that then and now it just sits in his garage….In terms of Integra builds, this one is one of the best of all-time, just because of how it transcends time and fads….
Roy Barba’s EK is another Civic that caught my eye back when Chinatown Showoff events were huge…It’s another car that would still be very relevant if it were around today and his Joustmeister wheels were rare even for that time…I can’t even recall seeing a set of these in the last couple years….
There’s just no way you can take a look back at great builds of yesteryear without mentioning Lee Randle and “Spanky” from 2000. He was years (8-10) ahead of his time and this Civic was cool before people started overusing the word “JDM”… Lee has an Integra now and attends track events regularly….Jonathan Wong, the head editor of Super Street magazine now, was probably like 23-24 at the time this photo was taken in May 2000. He still wears those pants everyday…
Another EG that you have to mention from back then was Randy’s from PlusOne….though he wasn’t the first guy to rock a White Crow front bumper, his car was the most widely recognized in the early days of Honda forums with people following up every photo of his car with a “what front bumper is that?”… That title was later given to Yee Vang and his J*Blood front bumper….Today, people are asking “What the hell is a Yee Vang?”…
Speaking of notable front bumpers, the Honda community was in awe when Leonard Yee aka Lenthrax debuted his K-swapped EK with ITBs back in 2006. The Rando aero was and still isn’t very common but back then, the combination of the kit and the bright magenta paint was a killer….
Here’s a shot from a feature back in 2008 when it appeared in Auto Salon magazine….
Can’t mention “throwback Hondas” without mentioning Jay Smith and his Laguna Seca Blue RHD Integra…
…and you also can’t forget about Charles Trieu and his EF hatchback… This guy is spending his days partying and running Import Tuner magazine these days…
Another great build from PlusOne that appeared in HCI magazine back when that book was still around. You’ll recognize this location as it is still being used often whenever a car is shot in San Francisco today….
This EG in my opinion, and probably many others, is perhaps one of the greatest Civic builds of ALL-TIME. Everything about it was just perfect and years ahead of it’s time. I wish I had more photos of it to really explain to you guys what this build was all about. I think maybe SuperTwinz John or someone might have more photos. I just gotta dig them up from him… I hear this Civic is still around these days as well but hidden in a garage…..
Closing out Throwback Thursday with a couple shots of Hugh’s EK from the early half of 2000. This car rocked the Top Fuel look so well that many people often confused photos of it later with the actual Top Fuel turbo EK9….
He later re-did the car though and eventually sold it for around 20grand or something… This car had everything, looks, great parts, and it was functional as well. The motor made over 600hp and was a consistent low-10 second Honda on the dragstrip….
A shot of the engine bay…
In action….
I even managed to find a video of it from about 4 years ago when it made 675hp on the dyno….
That’s all for tody…hope you enjoyed the flashbacks….
M&M Honda Collection…
I’ve been on a real M&M Honda kick lately on Facebook and since I remembered that many of you aren’t on Facebook, I figured today would be as good of a day as any to just unload a bunch of photos from their Facebook page. I posted up a photo of the M&M FD2 over the weekend and I didn’t even know they followed The Chronicles. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t even know they had a Facebook page for their company so I was surprised when I clicked over and saw so many great shots of their cars on their page. They were full-size too so I took the liberty of downloading them and re-sizing them to fit the format of this page. If you are a member of Facebook and want to “Like” or follow them, I will include a link below of their page. Today, we are going to take a moment to check out their collection of builds produced in-house from their facilities. A lot of their aero components are from various other tuners but they do manufacture their own parts, be it performance or aero-related. I’ve been familiar with their shop for a couple of years now but they aren’t all that well-known worldwide compared to say, Mugen or Spoon Sports so some of you may very well have not heard of them before this. You’ve probably seen some photos of their cars here and there, but didn’t know that they came from this shop. The Japanese Honda scene is very different from our own. The majority of the more “built” Hondas over there are built with track or circuit racing in mind and aren’t driven very much on the streets or taken to local meets. Some of them are just pure-bred race vehicles so the only time you will ever see photos of them are on the track. In any case, check out the pics below. As for specs, I wish I had more information on the cars but I don’t. I am not all that familiar with their stable of cars and some of them I too am seeing for the first time. Many of the photos are also dated as well and pretty old. They are just an assortment of shots that they posted up and range from the early-mid 2000s to now…
This DC2 is probably a build that you have seen once or twice before if you regularly peruse Integra photo threads on your favorite Honda forums…
It’s one of my personal favorite Integras of all-time and I was pretty happy when I stumbled upon more photos of it…
I love how the front fenders are done as well as the rear fender flare. The C-West kit usually looks so bulky but with flares like this, it actually makes the car look more complete…
This thing is just all business…Cool to see Regamaster Evos being utilized too…
A couple shots of a more streetable version of their DC2…
M&M Honda EK9…
C-West aero just like the Integra…
Rocking some Altezza-style Civic taillights, haha….We will let it slide since the rest of the car looks on point…
M&M Honda CL7 is another one of my favorites…
Wish I had a better shot of the bay but it seems these guys have no problems mixing Spoon Sports and Mugen products on their race cars…
AP Racing brakes…
An older shot of it before the graphics and other additions….
Best shot of the bay that I could muster….
Another CL7, not sure if this is one of their customers or one of their other personal demo cars….this one sits on BBS LMs…
M&M DC5R….
Mugen front bumper with custom ventilation…
Some bigger photos, these are like HDR style or something…I didn’t do any of it so if you don’t like it, don’t blame me, haha…
Interior of the DC5R….
Weird how it has individual throttle bodies but the air box is still in place…maybe this was an unfinished shot…
Cool shot of the canards and the SSR Type-C wheels…there is also a glimpse of the AP Racing brakes as well…
Really liked this shot of the brakes and how you can see the wear and battle scars from abuse inside the wheel wells…
One more shot…Notice the front staggered set-up of the wheels…
M&M Honda Beat….
Sitting on Watanabe wheels… Notice the center exhaust even though it’s barely visible…
Drive in comfort with the fuel cell sitting next to you….haha…I like the over fender action too…
M&M FD2 Civic R…I think this one is their flagship vehicle now….Not a huge fan of the front bumper but it seems to flow pretty well with everything else…
One of my favorite parts on this FD2 is the front fenders….
The rear is pretty wild but it all comes together nicely. It’s good that they have these naked shots of it so you can see all the lines of the kit before all the graphics they put on it…
An overhead shot…
Here it is with the M&M graphical livery….
In the two shots above you can see the rear bumper and how the diffuser ties into it….Interesting that each end is vented….
Side profile shot in front of some Mayan temple, haha….
This is a pretty crazy shot…would have been perfect without the Toyota Corolla in the background….
A pair of M&M Honda S2000s…both wearing Spoon front bumpers….
Prodrive wheels…
You can get a sense of how small their shop is in this photo….
Pretty cool stuff right?… If you guys want to check out their official Facebook page for more photos, click on the link below. “Like” their page too….
The Official M&M Honda Facebook Page…
Oh before you go, they also have a collection of some really good videos of their cars in action. It’s mainly of the CL7 and the FD2 but it’s cool to see these things in action…
That’s a wrap…have a good one….
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 7…
It’s been awhile since we did one of these so today we are going to take a look at part 7 of the ongoing Rywire Integra Type R build. Ryan has slowly been making progress on the car and it’s getting to the point now where it’s starting to look more like an actual ITR and not just a Integra shell with a cage. As well as the build has been going, it just wouldn’t be realistic if there weren’t some problems or issues along the way. Ryan is just like everyone else and he makes mistakes and miscalculations and as everyone knows, things don’t always go as planned. While the build has progressed, it’s also taken a couple steps back in some ways. I’ll let Ryan dive right into it and tell you what’s going on and then I will take care of the rest with some more detailed photos of the progress…
Before we move any further, I’d like to remind you guys that there are six other parts previous to this one describing Ryan’s ITR build. If you are new to the site and haven’t had a chance to learn more about this wild project yet, please click the attached links below to read all about it and catch up…
Okay with that out of the way, let’s get on with the photos…
As Ryan said, the motor has now been dropped into the car. It is far from running condition so don’t expect anything like that to happen anytime soon. The motor was put into the chassis more for mock-up reasons. Again, as Ryan said, the whole car will be transported down to ASC Speed Metal where they will be doing a grunt of the remaining fabrication work. With the motor mounted, they will be able to fab up whatever else is missing from the bay as well as re-fabricating the intercooler piping since the intake side is now hitting the dry sump unit…
So you guys can get a good idea of what the problem is, here is the pipe in question lightly mounted to show how the dry sump is interfering with its route…
Since that side has to be completely re-done anyway, Ryan decided to just ditch this whole intercooler set-up completely and will have ASC fabricated new piping for this side, shortening the pipe travel. Ryan also plans to run a different intercooler core now as well and is moving onto a more efficient unit…The baller-ass Wiggins clamps will remain…
Here’s a look at the bay from another angle… I know the dump pipes exiting out of the passenger side of the ITR may look a little odd right now, but once everything is finished, those ends of the pipes will be cut and will be flush with the hood (or as close to the hood anyway)…
Kind of a shame to see this intercooler core and piping go considering how it looks pretty good mocked-up at this point…It just looks menacing and it’s not even nearly finished yet…
In the previous portion of this build, I gave you guys a unfinished look at the opposite side of the firewall where the brake lines were ran to the pedal assembly. Well as you can see above, the brake lines are now complete. All it was missing was a bracket to mount the fittings and Louie from L-Con Race Cars came through and created one…
Also in Part 6 of the build, I showed you guys a shot of the Wilwood brakes he had planned to run before plans changed. One reason behind the change was that Ryan picked up a set of lightly-used AP Racing brakes that he felt were more suited for the car….
After Ryan picked them up from Norcal, he was eager to bring them back to the shop for a test fit. Unfortunately, there was a minor issue with the mounting bracket and the positioning of the brake rotor and caliper on the hub. With this set of parts, the brakes actually sit a little too far out and the wheels wouldn’t even have a chance of fitting. Ryan then contacted ATS Garage member Ryan Der, who also has a set of AP Racing brakes, and traded measurements. He found out that the brackets that Ryan was running on his EK Civic are a lot like the brackets he has, just with the right sizing for it to fit onto his suspension and hub so he will have a bracket fabricated to make these things work…
A shot of the Precision turbocharger that Ryan will be running…
Ryan is a very particular guy when it comes to his builds and he’s now decided that he doesn’t like the way one of the dump tubes look so he will have ASC make another one to his satisfaction… I think it looks fine but it’s hard to say how it’ll all come together when the bay is finished and the hood is on the car…
I’m personally very excited to see how this valve cover is going to look once it’s cleaned up and coated. Ryan hasn’t decided on a color for it yet but I just love how it’s all smoothed and streamlined… Though the Deutsch connectors may be very small in nature, I think they will be very noticeable once everything is finished. There are just two plugs exiting out from the custom valve cover so it should be very easy to spot….
The dry sump unit without any piping interfering with it…
The Blueprint Racing K-Series waterpump block-off plate sitting just above the dry sump unit…This plate will probably be a little difficult to see later on when the alternator is mounted in front of it…
Good to see this thing finally on the floor… As you can see, Ryan has decided to put the OEM ITR wheels back on the chassis. He had to do this because the Regamaster Evos that he had planned on using for the build just plain do not fit the car now with the tires mounted on them. Ryan isn’t much for stretching tires so he will just go another route as far as wheels go. I know you guys remember me saying that the front fenders were designed around the Regamasters but that was the wheel itself without the meaty tire that he had planned to use. Ryan has a lot of options though so it won’t be much of a problem getting a wheel with the proper sizing on it. If anything, the AP Racing brakes would have made the Regamasters null anyways because of the sizing and how it is being mounted to the knuckle…
A side profile shot so you guys can see how much wider the front fender is in comparison to the OEM ITR wheel…
…and another angle so you can see how far in the stock wheels fit. I think I’m secretly happy that the Regas didn’t fit on the car…with such a wild build, I almost fell like this car needs a more aggressive wheel. Not in sizing, but in design….While the Regamaster Evo is a classic wheel, it’s just so simple and it would have been difficult to reproduce the original Regamaster decals in orange like how Ryan wanted them… Now there are all kinds of possibilities for wheel choices…
A firewall-side view of how the motor looks with the side-draft turbo manifold…Crazy to think how this bay is going to look when it’s all completed. Note the second Deutsch connector coming from the backside of the valve cover…
Random but I just liked the way the cage looked against the light…Gotta get these types of shots in before the glass and all kinds of other shit goes back into the car….
Funny but while, Ryan, DPK David, and I were hanging out in the back of the shop discussing Ryan’s build, someone came peeking through the door and scared the shit out of us. Tetsuya Yamaguchi from USDM Jam came all the way out to America for Wekfest and stopped by the shop the week after. It was his first opportunity to look at Ryan’s build and he was all smiles….I just love how on any given day, two completely different worlds can unite and it’s all just for something as simple as a car hobby… Good stuff…
That’s all for now. The next time we will be talking about this ITR is when it is down at ASC. I’ll try my best to make it down there when they are working on it to get some progress shots. Until then, we can all just sit back in anticipation….
Thanks for looking…
Weekend Wrap-up…
For any of you who ever wondered what “NWP4LIFE” stood for, it started out as a small internet message board for a small group of Honda enthusiasts that hung out at a pizza place in Irvine, CA. That pizza spot was known as “Northwood Pizza”. When that group of individuals decided to come up with a name for their forum, they decided to name it after the spot that hung out at regularly, thus the name “NWP” aka NorthWood Pizza. It seemed like ages ago but now the forum is one of the most notable Honda enthusiasts forums in the entire world and has more than enough members to consider it the “small group” that it once was. Awhile back, I want to say maybe a two years ago or so, Northwood Pizza was bought out by the owners of the Yogurtland next door and while it remained a pizza place, numerous changes were made. The entire restaurant was re-modeled but what always stayed the same was the pizza…up until last year that is. For whatever reason, the new owners decided to shut down Northwood Pizza and turn it into a seafood/crawfish spot and NWP would be no more. The forum still stuck around of course, but the pizza was GONE. When we found out that it was closing down, we headed down there for one last slice before Northwood Pizza was no more. It was always an important spot to us because the food was great and the location was a landmark for a lot of great times that we had. We even took one last photo outside to commemorate the occasion…
This was back in May of 2011…
Everyone thought that Northwood was done for good until a couple months ago when we heard that the people that worked at Northwood so long would be bringing it back. They got the rights to re-use the name and would re-open Northwood Pizza in the same shopping center, just in another building. This location would be much smaller than in the past, but much easier to manage. It would serve more as a take-out pizza spot, but there was still enough room to accommodate a small gathering. What was best about bringing Northwood Pizza back was well, the great pizza…When we all caught wind that it was returning, we all decided to plan a get-together and have a small meet there like the old days…
Everyone seemed to have very different schedules, but it was finally decided that last weekend would be the weekend that we all went out there to eat Northwood Pizza. It was a bit of an impromptu gathering and wasn’t heavily advertised, so we expected it to be a small and poorly planned. It didn’t matter though and people didn’t even have to bring their cars. It was just more about getting together again and catching up with old friends…
The original sign and all, just in a different location…
Even though it was late notice, the turn-out was still pretty good…
One big difference since the original Northwood closed down is that we have a new addition to our stable of friends…Everybody seems to be getting a little older and progressing on in the journey through life…
Pie eating some yogurt from the Yogurtland next door…
Mike from PlanB Motorsports rolling through in his Evo X…
Larry Le’s pearl white Integra LS with ITR front conversion…
Andy Hope, who is an amazing driver and also previously the head editor of Sport Compact Car magazine, got a chance to enjoy some Northwood Pizza for the first time and brought out his clean EF Civic on Precedeo CST wheels…
Our old pal Jared from DPK, also enjoying some self-serve yogurt after devouring some pizza…
Many of us ordered a pile of meat with a side of pizza…
People made the trek out from all parts of Socal…
…including Bryant Nguyen from San Diego. His TSX on air was a little dirty but nobody cared…we were just happy to see him there…
Collin brought out his BB6 Prelude with a very rare Wisesports/Wisesquare front bumper…
Overall, it was just a nice chill day…no drama, no worries about people doing stupid ricer fly-bys and burn-outs. Just old friends, nice cars, and great food. A lot of guys also donned their NWP4LIFE gear to represent….
That pretty much summed up the weekend. On that Sunday, I woke up bright and early (actually it was still dark) to meet up with Mark Sutakajana and his 4-door DB Integra. As you know, he was the #5 spot on The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2011 so it was just a matter of time until he got his chance to be featured in print on the pages of Honda Tuning magazine. We’ve had our eye on his Integra for quite some time now so it was good to finally be able to get the shoot done for HT. He injured his leg a couple weeks ago so he was unable to drive his car, but luckily for us, he’s got good friends and his buddy was willing to wake up early to drive his car out there with him…
I love being able to capture a moment when an owner stands by his creation, soaking in the moment and realizing that he’s built something great…Congrats to Mark and make sure to keep an eye out for his feature in an upcoming issue of Honda Tuning magazine….
I also had a chance to meet up with another favorite Honda of mine a couple days before that. Sam’s FA5 is coming along nicely and he wanted me to get some quick shots of it before he adds the final touches on his build. He’s got some big surprises in store so keep an eye out for his car. He is also Honda Tuning-bound as well but we all want Sam to be 100% content with his build before we put it in print…
That’s all for today, thanks for looking guys…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 6…
I wanted to jump into some event coverage today but I’m not finished yet with the photos from the latest It’sJDMYo.com event. I’m about 95% finished but I’d rather just wait until tomorrow when they are all done before starting on part 1 of the coverage. Today, we are going to jump right into part 6 of the Rywire Integra Type R build. There was a short update last week but Ryan actually found some time over the weekend to work on the car so I stopped by to check it out. These photos are only a couple hours or so old so this is literally how the car sits at this exact moment. There will be more updates coming up soon but I believe the car will be heading down to ASC Speed Metal for some custom fabrication in a couple weeks. We’re going to take a look at Ryan’s Tilton brake set-up that he mocked up over the weekend. There is still a lot to be done before the brake pedal assembly will be operational but I figure now would be a good time to introduce it to you guys before more stuff is going into the car. I’ll let Ryan Basseri himself take over for a quick minute so that he can explain it to you guys, check out the video before you jump into the photos below…
Here are some photos so you guys can get a better idea of what he is referring to…
Here is the Tilton pedal assembly mounted on the car. As he said above, there is still an extra pedal that will need to be retrofitted to the Tilton assembly to make the drive-by wire system operational…
A driver-side view of the pedal assembly. The gas pedal assembly from the Subaru STI is actually kind of far off from where it needs to be so it’ll be interesting how it will look when it’s been modified. Ryan tells me that the brake and clutch pedal will be moved further back as well…
Custom brake hard lines that Ryan started on but has not yet completed…
This is the Tilton brake bias/proportioning valve that will later be run under the exhaust tunnel which will give Ryan the ability to adjust rear his braking…
Ryan also spent some time over the weekend installing his Hybrid Racing shifter assembly…
Here are some other parts that are waiting to go on the car…
I may have already taken a photo of this before but since he had it on hand, I figured I’d show you the intake manifold that he will be running…
Here are pretty much all the pieces for his dry sump oiling system. This dry sump unit is what makes it possible for Ryan to modify his valve cover the way he did with deleting the oil filler, dip stick, and crankcase ventilation…
Blueprint Racing’s K-series alternator bracket…I believe this is used to eliminate the OE K-series water pump and to allow the usage of an older B/D-series alternator. Ryan will be utilizing a electric water pump instead because it reduces drag from the crank and will allow his K to produce more power…
Rywire brake hoses that will be used for Ryan’s ITR…
Remember how I showed you guys his custom valve cover last week? Well, Ryan also spent quite a bit of time over the weekend making the ignition harness that will be going under the modified K-Tuned wire cover. I did an overlay shot above where you can get a good idea of how everything will look once the harness is finished and the cover will be mounted. When the car is finished, I doubt many of you guys will be able to see what’s going on from the ignition coils out to the engine harness so here’s your chance…The dimple dyes in the plate will give you a very small hint but you’ll mostly be seeing the custom made harness only…You can also see in the photo how the Deutsch connectors will look exiting drilled holes in the valve cover…
Here it is without the cover…nothing is mounted yet and is just a basic mock-up of the finished product…
The back side of the valve cover, completely streamlined with just a single connector peaking out…
Most people get excited by sports, girls, drugs, etc….Ryan on the other hand, gets incredibly excited when he creates custom electrical parts like the harness for his camshaft sensor…
He insisted that I take a photo of it even though he has yet to finish it and put a connector on the end… I mean, the guy is a genius when it comes to this kind of stuff and he creates product of only the utmost quality… I’m not going to tell you where you guys need to get your stuff from because you should know very well who to go to…
That wraps it up for today…Make sure to check back for more on this build later. Tomorrow is part one of the “So you think you can STANCE?” event coverage…thanks for looking…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 5…
While I would really like to give you a full in-depth update on Rywire’s Integra Type R, I can’t because the progress on it has been relatively slow. Ryan is brainstorming everyday and the car has already come together in his mind, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day for him to execute his plans. When we followed Big Mike’s Prelude re-build, it went significantly faster because Big Mike had set a target date for it to be complete. With Ryan’s build, there really isn’t a set date for it to debut. Wekfest SF 2012 would have been an amazing place for it to debut but with so many customers and a company to maintain, it just wasn’t feasible to put everything aside to work on a personal project. It’s been pretty busy ever since the chassis arrived back at the Rywire facilities so Ryan and staff have been busy knocking out custom harnesses and other work for customers. His Integra chassis has been sitting in the corner, directly behind the table where he does his everyday work. He’s been itching to work on it and every time he gets out of his seat, the car is right there staring at him waiting to be re-assembled. He hasn’t forgotten the car by any means, the Rywire business just comes first. Many of you should understand that and if you don’t, you need to understand how to manage priorities better in your own life, haha. Today we’re going to be taking a quick look at some small updates just so we keep the flow of this build going. It’s been awhile since we did an update and I felt that it was time to give the public some information on the build… After Wekfest SF, I am sure he will have more time to work on the car, in the mean time, we just have to wait just like Ryan…
As you can see, the chassis itself has not moved since it’s returned to Rywire…There are a couple more things around it though, like a stock engine harness that’s laying on the floor for a customer’s project. A couple days before this, I wouldn’t even have been able to take a shot like this because there were other cars occupying space inside the shop…Click for Larger Version here (1400×933)
Like the outside, the interior remains completely untouched…he’s kept it clean though, haha…
One notable update that’s worth mentioning is Ryan’s custom valve cover. He had Louie from L*Con Race Fabrication shave and smooth out a stock K-series valve cover, removing everything that Ryan deemed unnecessary. The dipstick and mounting area has been deleted and filled as well as the crankcase ventilation area. There’s no need for ventilation because he will be running a dry sump oiling system. There were some areas on the edge of the valve cover that were raised by design from the factory but even those have been shaved for a more streamline look. Unless you are familiar with how a K valve cover looks, you probably won’t really notice what has been changed, which might also be a good thing, because it’s so streamlined that you would think it came that way from the factory. If you take a closer look, even the oil cap and oil filler section has been filled and smoothed out. Once this thing is coated, it’s going to be amazing… Also notice on the K-Tuned spark plug wire cover how dimple dies have been added. I believe the positioning of the holes exist as well so you can see peek inside and see the coils…
On the backside of the valve cover, you’ll also notice that the top corner has been filled in, along with the area where the harness would normally run to the coils. Instead of having all the deviations and square edges, Ryan opted to have the whole area filled with just a hole drilled out to make room for a shell size 8 Autosport connector. All necessary wiring to the coil packs will run through the connector….
His Wilwood brakes recently came in and were ready to go on the car, but Ryan’s ideas are ever evolving and he decided to pick up a set of AP Racing brakes and now this Wilwood kit is up for sale…Once those come in, we will be able to mock them up on the hub and see how the wheels clear in relation to the custom front fenders…
These exact connectors aren’t for Ryan’s ITR but he will be using Deutsch connectors when his harness starts to come together… Not much of an update until we actually start getting all the wiring done but it gives you an idea of what he’s going after electronically…
Meanwhile, moving at an even slower pace, is DPK Darryl’s EM1 coupe….it’s looking much better these days but hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next decade…
That’s pretty much it for now. I know you guys have been waiting on good updates on this build and trust me, I’m right there with you. Every time I go down to the shop I walk over to the car to see if anything’s been added. You can see in this shot that Ryan’s been trying to install his FCS-made fuel cell. I think he had to modify the brackets a bit but the cell should be mounted by the weekend… Click here for a Larger Version (1400×933)…
Thanks for looking… updates will come when Ryan decides to update his car…haha…
The Rywire ITR Build…Part 4…
I know many of you have come on here today to look for Autocon 2011 coverage and I’ll get to that early tomorrow when I finally finish up the photos. This was just too good to pass up today….
It’s been almost three months since the last update, but late last week, I got word that Ryan had gone up to Norcal to finally pick up his ITR chassis. Sunny from Franklin Autobody had been busy trying to finish it up but with SEMA and so many other projects at his shop, it took a little longer than expected. Everything that we have covered on the build up until this point had been without having the chassis down here in Socal so when we heard that the car was ready, we were all pretty excited to finally see it in person for the first time. Ryan had seen it, as well as a couple other of the Norcal homies, but everyone else down here had seen just as much as all of you had, which was only in photos. There’s a lot going on lately and more than enough content to fill up the rest of this month, but Ryan finally having the chassis at the Rywire facilities was huge news that I just couldn’t pass up. With all the coverage that is coming, it would likely get lost in the mix so it’s better to toss this up today during the beginning of the week….
I wasn’t there the day it finally arrived…Ryan had gone up to Norcal and came back down with our buddy Nick Caster and his trailer. The rest of us were over at Autocon 2011 and then the next day I had to head out to Santa Barbara for a bit. While I was up there, Ryan was sending me photos with the car unloaded off the trailer and in the shop but I told him right away to stop doing any work he had planned on doing because I wanted to document it. Today I was originally planning on working on my own car but since it was raining like crazy down here, I decided to just grab my camera shit and go to the shop to see the ITR for myself….The pictures obviously do not do the paint work any justice. The Porsche GT3 orange is a great color that just has to be experienced in the sunlight but with all that is left to do, it’s unlikely to see any sunlight in the next couple months. For now, I’ll try to document as much of the progress as I can and try to bring you the build in full detail. Unlike the Big Mike Prelude build, I’ll actually be present for a majority of this build, which means that I can provide as much information and as many photos as possible. This is going to be an amazing, one-of-a-kind build that you definitely do not want to miss…
It’s still pretty crazy to see this car in person finally…I don’t even think it’s hit Ryan yet. Sunny did an amazing job though from what I see, and it was definitely worth the wait. So far, the chassis is almost as bare as can be with the exception with some suspension pieces already installed by Ryan. He got excited and started mocking up how he wanted everything…
It’s hard to tell since it’s been painted black but the exhaust opening on the rear bumper has been smoothed out and streamlined with the rest of the bumper. Ryan’s exhaust isn’t going to be routed out of the rear anymore so that opening just wouldn’t make sense. Sunny worked his magic and now the rear bumper looks like it should have came that way from the factory…
Mugen Gen. 2 rear wing with center section painted black. The base plates were left a raw aluminum finish since they were in such mint condition and Ryan had intentions on matching it a gloss black but liked the contrast of the aluminum finish…
Color-matched interior that has been completely stripped of everything minus the steering column…when it’s all said and done, a majority of it will still be gutted minus the dashboard, seats, and door panels. There’s no rush to re-install anything in here because Ryan still has to wire up the whole car inside and out…
One of the most interesting aspects of the build so far has to be the custom metal fenders fabricated by Sunny from Franklin Autobody…They came out amazing and still accentuates the OEM lines of the chassis. The fenders were also measured and designed specifically with those Regamaster wheels in mind so there will be no issues with wheel fitment down the line….
If you saw part 3 of this build, you will have seen the massive pile of parts that were sent off to be powdercoated. A large chunk of those parts were suspension pieces and you can see here how the parts look after they’ve been cleaned-up and coated a high gloss black…Everything that will go back on this ITR will either be new or restored components. This is a shot of the rear suspension along with some brand new Skunk2 Pro-C coilovers that might be replaced later on when the car is closer to completion. Ryan hasn’t really made a decision on whether or not to keep these or to run something different like JRZ’s…
Everything up front is new as well…even the hub assembly behind the Wilwood brake rotor will be replaced later on with a new unit. You’ll probably noticed the crusty old tie rod end in the photo, which contrasts with the clean, gloss black suspension pieces. That old tie rod end is attached to a spare steering rack that Ryan re-installed on the chassis just to get the car moving from the bodyshop back to his shop…
No glass has been installed on the ITR body yet, except for the rear hatch window…here you can see parts of the cage through the rear window…the paint looks wet still and the whole car still needs to be cut and buffed. Sunny will come down personally later on down the line to clean everything up before it makes it’s official public debut…
Another glimpse of the cage and interior with the rear hatch up…don’t forget the battery box sitting just behind the passenger seat area…
Here’s what the bay looks like, bare minus the coilovers being mounted, as well as the subframe and the spare steering rack…Speaking of the steering rack, there’s a reason why was using a temporary unit…
While I was there, he was still busy putting his modified rack back together. I would like to explain to you exactly what he was doing to it, but I felt it would be more appropriate for Ryan himself to tell you….
That’s pretty much it for now. He’s slowing doing stuff to it and I’ll update you when he does but there are so many customer projects there at that time that he has to concentrate on finishing up those cars first…check back for more soon…
Here are the links to the previous parts of the build that you may have missed…
Thanks for looking…
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 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…
ITR Expo 11 Tentatively Scheduled for Button Willow…
I’m not sure how many of you non-Integra owners out there know about the ITR Expo but it’s a huge annual thing for ITR owners. They are on there 11th year now and while past events have been out in middle America or further east, their committee has decided to do ITR Expo 11 out west in 2011 at Button Willow. I personally don’t follow it very closely because I’ve never attended one or been close enough to even attempt to go but I have written some stuff for Honda Tuning regarding their events in the past. From the pictures I’ve seen and what I’ve read and heard about it, it sounds like an amazing event. I remember my buddy Chris aka CRSFoto shooting the event one year and he had great things to say about it. If it were out here at Button Willow, I would definitely go check it out. Something that has gone on for this many years has to be good and ITR owners seem to be a pretty tight-knit group so it will be interesting to see how the event comes together. It’s not like a one day event either, ITR owners as well as other Integra owners drive out from all over the country to meet at ITR Expo and to meet one another. They then spend the weekend at the Expo tracking their cars, have instructors to help teach inexperienced guys how to drive, and they also hang out and party with one another. It’s probably a huge sausagefest but I don’t really think ITR guys drive out to hook up with girls. It’s all about meeting one another and getting to know other ITR guys…
The person that passed this on to me asked me to pass on the word that the event is tentatively scheduled for Button Willow but if they don’t generate enough interest in a west coast ITR Expo, there’s a chance it could be cancelled and relocated. I’m sure many of the west coast guys would love to attend this event and having it out west would be refreshing for everyone. I guess they attempted to do it out west once before but it was a failure because of lack of interest. I understand that it’s harder for the guys out east to come because it’s no longer at a “central” meeting point so that’s where the dillemma lies. I honestly don’t know enough about it to really speak on it so I’ll provide you guys with the link at the end so you guys can read all about it on the ITR Expo forums. Apparently there’s been quite a bit of controversy because of the announced location at Button Willow. For me personally, I’d be down to go check it out but it’s only a couple hours for me and not 2100 miles or whatever the case may be for some of the actual ITR owners. Now that I know about it, I’ll see it through and keep you guys updated with the details. Hope all goes well and it does end up on the west coast for a change because I hear the guys out here have fought diligently to have an event on the westside…
I don’t really want to say too much more on it because I don’t have enough of an involvement with the event to offer an honest opinion about it. Personally for me, I’d like to see it come out here but my opinion doesn’t mean much in situations like this. I’ve provided a link below to the actual ITR Expo forum where they discuss the plans for Expo 11 and I’ve also provided another link that leads to another site where someone has actually taken the time to document every ITR Expo since the beginning with pictures and all. It’s pretty cool to see if you have the time to go through all of it…Anyways, for you Integra and ITR lovers, you know what you have to do if you want it out here in Button Willow: SIGN UP and SPREAD THE WORD. That’s all I got to say about it….
Click here to read about ITR EXPO 11
Click here to read about all the ITR Expo events of the past w/pictures
Exclusive Content…Unpublished Photos of Ejay Adriano’s Integra…
Have a treat for you guys today. Rodrez was kind enough to pass these along to me so I could post them up on The Chronicles. As you all know, Ejay’s DA is one of the Top Ten Hondas in my annual list of best builds and it was featured in Honda Tuning magazine a couple months back. I was actually there for one of the shoots and the photos came out amazing. I say “one of the shoots” because the car was actually shot twice. The first time (when I was there) was when Rodrez had shot Ejay’s DA on the Racng Hart Type Cs that he had for the early part of 2010. I think it was a week or so later when he popped up at an event with the 16-inch SSR Super Mesh wheels. I was like “shit, this looks so much better than the other wheels” so I hit up Rodrez about it and he agreed and wanted to immediately re-shoot the car and run those photos instead. It was shot at the exact same spot both times so he only had to get new shots of the exterior. What you ended up seeing in the magazine was two shoots combined but you probably wouldn’t have the slightest idea that it all went down that way. Everything worked out perfectly and now I have the shots that weren’t used for your viewing pleasure. The photos represent both shoots and some photos will have the Super Mesh wheels and others will have the original Racing Harts. I’ve made the photos clickable as usual if you guys want to view larger versions of it. Anyways, that’s all for today, enjoy the pics…
Thanks for looking…exclusive content only seen on stickydiljoe.com!!
Exclusive Content: Abunai Racing Integra…
I’ve been meaning to get ahold of Arn and his Integra since I saw it at Wek’Fest earlier this year. He had just debuted his new hydrogen set-up on his K and it was nothing that anyone had seen or done yet. It’s fitting that it worked out that way because Arn has been on the forefront of the Honda community for many years now. He’s one of the guys who has been building Honda longer than the majority of the current generation. He started out as a drag racer but has taken on more of a reserved role now that he’s grown up. Now he usually just keeps to himself and focuses his time mostly on his wife and baby, who he expects to be born in about 3 weeks. I was supposed to go get some shots of the car last week in fact but he had baby stuff to attend to so it was pushed back until this past Tuesday. For me, it’s truly an honor to get a chance to take pictures of this Integra and have it featured on The Chronicles. I’ve been following this DC2 for as long as I’ve been into Hondas and Arn has always had his own way of doing things. He was doing gold-plating on Honda parts long before anyone thought to dip anything, drag racing 600+hp Hondas at the track whether or not drag racing was the “cool” thing to do, and now he’s created a hydrogen-powered K-series before anyone even fathomed the concept. Oh yeah, 24K gold Mugen M7s? That’s all Arn right there. The guy thought to tear M7s apart and customize them when dudes had trouble finding a complete set just to rock on their own cars.
I brought Big Mike along with me to meet up with Arn in the valley because Mike and Arn go waaaayyy back. They don’t exactly live near eachother so it was cool to bring him out so that they could reunite. It also helped me get there faster because I could drive in the car pool lane, haha. Arn was all smiles when we showed up and we took off to go find a spot to shoot. I had a location in mind because I remember the spot that Rodrez shot HeyMikeyyyy’s Integra at but when we got there, it was completely fenced-off because the neighboring business had closed down. So we drove around with Arn close behind to find a spot to shoot at. We found some random ass spot that was a little sketchy but after an hour or so, it cleared up and we were able to do whatever we wanted. I wish I could provide you guys with more information on the hydrogen set-up but I think that there was some interest in doing a tech article on it for publication so I left it alone. With that said, let’s go to the pics. Same routine as usual…pic followed by a link below to a larger, hi-res version…
I present to you…
“Daisy”…
What I really wanted to do was get some updated shots of the engine bay…by the time it came time to do the bay, it was starting to get dark…
Widescreen Version (1920×1080)
Thanks for looking…and thanks to Arn Reyes for supporting The Chronicles and building a great Honda…
Just a preview for now…
I’m kinda busy finishing up some work for Honda Tuning but I haven’t forgot about you guys. Just trying to make time for everything before I take off to Norcal again for the weekend. Here’s something I’ve been working on that will probably be up by tomorrow morning. Big Mike and I headed out to the valley to go visit Arn so I could get some shots of his DC2. No one has really gotten any new shots of it since he put on his hydrogen set-up and put on all his new Skunk2 gear so I went and snapped some pics. Here’s just a quick sneak peek for now. It’s the only image I had time to work on last night. I’ll have larger clickable versions when it’s all done…
The Top 10 Hondas of 2009…A retrospective…Part 2…
4-1…here we go…
4. Big Mike’s Honda Prelude…
What he’s up to now: Big Mike has been out in full force this year. He’s out there almost at every event trying to make his sponsors happy and to talk with people who have questions about his build. The guy has just been doing big things this year. The car is finally dialed in and he’s been able to drive it everywhere and as you can see, he finally decided to put his blinkers on…haha. The new Advan RGs are a great look as well but the last time I talked to him, he’s already got something new up his sleeve and will most likely debut it at this weekend’s Spocom event. I think he’s finally at a point where he’s happy with the car and just trying to enjoy every moment of 2010…
3. Arnel Ortiz and the Phaze2 EG…
What he’s up to now: Arnel’s Civic just continues to evolve. He generally keeps to himself and every time there’s an event, he comes out with some new shit. You just never know what this guy has up his sleeve. Like Steve Kwan and S2kJay, all the accolades and mag features has not changed him in any way and he just continues to work on his car. At Eibach he debuted a sick new tucked radiator set-up, air ride, and ITBs. There are rumors floating around that he’s actually building another Honda so the Socal Honda community has been anxiously waiting to see when he’s gonna bring it out. With his ability to always out do himself, the sky’s the limit for Arnel and we couldn’t be more excited to see him succeed…
2. Alex Soto aka Sheepey’s Acura Integra…
What he’s up to now: Not entirely sure what the Integra is up to these days. Most likely it’s sitting under a car cover in Sheepey’s garage. As you’ve seen on this site and in the upcoming issue of Honda Tuning magazine, Sheepey has been hard at work on his hatchback, which sat under a car cover while he campaigned his Integra last year. Hopefully he brings the DC back but in the meantime, we get to enjoy all 800+ horsepower of his race car. Studio shoots, mag covers, and some seat time at the track in the near future, Alex Soto has the world in the palm of his hands. Everything car this guy touches turns to Honda gold…
1. Sportcar Motion’s Acura Integra Type R and Honda Civic…
What he’s up to now: The Integra that was so dominant in 2009 is now taking a break from the rigors of time attack competition and sits dormant in the garage of Sportcar Motion. The feature for this DC is actually in the same issue that’s upcoming with Sheepey’s so make sure to go check that out. As you can see from the updated picture, it has taken on more of a subtle appearance without all the stickers and sponsor logos. Even so, you would be crazy to think that Loi would take this out and use it on the street as a grocery getter. The Civic is also currently stored away in the shop. That’s because the Sportcar Motion crew has been busy campaigning the KraftWerks supercharged Civic in 2010 and the hatchback recently took home it’s first win in competition. Loi had issues with cooling and minor things here and there that prevented the supercharged K-powered Civic from running correctly but it’s all dialed in now and looks to take home more awards this year. Loi is another one of those guys that continues to evolve in the community and who knows what he’ll build next. Of course the car will be white though because Loi apparently, is color-blind and won’t build anything that isn’t white…=P…
That’s all 10 (11)…hope you guys enjoyed taking a look back at last year’s top Hondas. With so many crazy ass builds coming out in 2010, who knows who will end up on this year’s list. Hell, even I don’t know. I haven’t even had time to even think about it. There are some cars that have caught my eye though but there’s still plenty of time for new builds to appear and impress…
Exclusive Content…A first glance at the August issue of Honda Tuning…
Got some good stuff for you guys today…Rodrez hit me up and wanted to give you guys a teaser of the upcoming issue of Honda Tuning. This particular issue is special because it’s a completely race-dedicated issue. Meaning there are no show cars or daily street driven vehicles. It’s just the fully-dedicated race cars of the community and I think it’s really cool that we get to spotlight these guys in their own genre-specific issue. Of course many of you who follow this site already know that Sheepey’s 800hp Civic hatchback is going to be in this issue but here is the rest of the guys that are featured…
-Civic Type R road race car
-Super budget built CRX (built the entire car for just under $2,009.00 and swept the Grassroots Motorsports competition)
-Sportcar Motion/Loi’s ITR
-Landspeed record-chasing CRX
-All 3 Compass360/Skunk2 Grand AM competition cars
-V6 swapping the 88-91, 92-95, and 96-00 chassis’
as well as…
-Tuners corner with ‘Bisi
-Interviews with a few past and present track stars
Pretty awesome right? Well here’s Rodrez himself telling you more about it…
“I’ve been dying to put this issue together for a few months, but with organizing the Eibach Meet with VtecVoodoo, the NWP “transition” that occurred, and everything in between, it took awhile to get this one sorted out. I’m really happy with the finished product, and I hope all the hours that went into it satisfy a large number of readers.”
Here are a couple teaser pics of two of the guys that will grace the pages of Honda Tuning’s August issue. The hatch is none other than Sheepey and the Integra belongs to CTRparts.com and Lisa Kubo, who will also be piloting the car on race day. Make sure to grab your copy as it hits newstands by no later than next week! Remember to read it of course as your’s truly had the pleasure of writing up Sheepey’s feature and it’s a doozy…If you know or have ever had a chance to speak to Alex Soto, you know this guy always has something interesting to say…haha…Keep an eye out, even you show car guys can appreciate this issue because guys like Alex are doing up complete race cars in “Best of Show” immaculate showcar fashion!…
Today we remember…
Everytime July 4th rolls around, it’s not only a reminder for me that it’s Independence Day but also the anniversary of the passing of one of the (in my opinion) most influential Honda personalities of our generation; Randy Gagan. I can’t believe it’s already been 4 years since his passing. Only seems like yesterday when I met him for the first time at Nisei Import Showoff. The guy was so friendly and always had a positive energy about him. He always answered any questions I had for him and offered his help to me even though we weren’t super tight. The guy was a class act and even 4 years since his passing, the two Hondas that he completed would still be very current and held in high regard even by today’s standards. They were just timeless works of art and his influence is still apparent today. I actually dug through some old photos that I had on my computer and found a couple shots of his DA at Nisei Showoff 2005. I didn’t really take pictures back then nor had any real interest in it. I had borrowed my mom’s camera I think and was just shooting pictures of cars that caught my eye. Randy’s DA of course was one of them. I liked the car so much that I seriously thought about selling my Accord back then and picking up the DA when I found out he was selling it…
Without the time stamp, you wouldn’t think that this was taken 5 years ago. The bay was on point…
Sadly, he passed on July 4th, 2006 and that year for Nisei Showoff, his closest friends brought out his unfinished EF project in memory of Randy. When they pushed his car in, I remember the whole show just being in complete silence. It was a powerful moment to see it and remember the man who never had a chance to complete his project…
I know there are plenty of you who never had a chance to meet him or speak to him, or just weren’t heavy in the Honda community then so I went and dug up his old features from Honda Tuning magazine. The first is of his right hand drive CR-X SiR and the second is of the DA6 from the pics above. Both awesome, timeless builds…
I can’t say enough about the guy…he believed in me when no one else did…
R.I.P. Randy “Questoyz” Gagan 11/23/1980 – 7/4/2006…we miss you man and we will never forget you…
Some shots from the Modified Magazine Tuner Shoot-out…
Loi Song and The Chronicles Top Honda of 2009 made an appearance at the Modified Magazine Tuner Shoot-out over the past weekend. Here are some pics courtesy of none other than Loi himself. I don’t know the results and who won but even if I did I’m sure I couldn’t reveal it to you guys. They’re probably keeping it a secret until the actual results come out in a future issue of Modified magazine. These pics should hold you over for now though….some Honda and non-Honda content ahead…
Sportcar Motion DC2R…
I’m sure somebody will say something about the front wing in the comments section…
Sportcar Motion Integra parked next to Tage Evanson’s hatchback…
Really like the aero on this NSX…especially the rear diffuser…
The ongoing Status of Sean…
Just a quick hit for you guys today…seems like Status Sean has finally got around to working on his Integra again. He’s been so busy moving stuff around and organizing things in his new facility that he just hasn’t had much time to touch the car. You guys should be happy to hear that it’s finally off the rotisserie.
I’m sure you guys have grown pretty accustomed to seeing the car on there but yes, he has finally taken it down and began reassembly. What’s been holding him up a bit is waiting for his complete engine harness to arrive. Once that shows up things should be moving at a much faster pace…
If you guys caught a glimpse of some of the older pics, you may have noticed that he had planned to roll on some Desmond Evo Brites but I guess that’s no longer the plan. He sent me these pics of his new wheels and I have to say, I like these a lot more and can’t wait to see them actually on the car and rolling…
Here’s a pic of one of his buddy giving us a glimpse of how it’ll look. Something about the bronze of the TE37s and the khaki color just seems so right….oh man, can’t wait to see more progress on this build, I am every bit as excited as you guys are….
My goal is to get more information and pics from him as soon as I can to update you guys but it’s really up to Sean to get moving on the build. He’s a busy man as usual so I guess we’ll see!….
