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!….
Happy Chinese New Year/Valentines Day…
Hope all you guys and gals had a good Valentine’s Day…It shouldn’t really take a random semi-holiday to make your significant other feel special but if that’s the case, I hope everyone did a good job. Just remember that a day like Valentine’s should be a year-round 365 days kinda of thing. Do what you gotta do…
This weekend also marked the first days of the Chinese/Lunar New Year. What that means for us asians is that we get to eat a bunch of stuff, celebrate with family, and get red envelopes with money; all to bring in the new year on the lunar calender. It usually falls around this time but I can’t say that it’s always on the same weekend as a V-Day, definitely made my weekend schedule full…On top of that, I’m still busy completing orders from the storefront and getting everyone’s stuff out ASAP. I still need to cut some stickers that I sold out of and people have been hitting me up for the original stickers non-stop so expect those to come back in the next couple days. My new shipment of vinyl comes in tomorrow which means I can finally resume cutting the chrome vinyl stuff. Make sure to check out the store to see the updated stuff. Shirts definitely coming very soon…
On another note, Loi and the Sportcar Motion crew brought in the new year at Buttonwillow to test the DC2R. No real times or anything, just set time and experience and Loi was nice enough to send me some shots of the R in action. Car looked really good, and according to Loi, it ran very well too and the new race engine is responding well on the track. It’s good to see the Chronicles Top Honda of 2009 continuing to do big things in 2010…
Here’s a couple pics, you know the drill…
Happy Chinese New year…
It just keeps getting better…
Oh goodness, can you believe this thing once lived a much simpler, non-competitive life in middle-of-nowhere Utah? I’m busy working today but I just thought I’d give you a recent updated shot of The Chronicles’ Top Honda of 2009…
Sportcar Motion DC2R is gonna fuck some shit up this year!!
Back to work I go…later.
Sportcar Motion does it again at Redline Time Attack Las Vegas…
Words -Joey Lee/Photos - Loi Song
With the Civic nearing completion at Robi-Spec and moving on to Unlimited class, Loi Song and the Sportcar Motion guys took out their new Modified FF class ITR out to Vegas and grabbed another win. This marks the first win for the Type R and from what Loi has been telling me, this car is already faster than the EG was before. Just a little more fine-tuning with the suspension and what not and this thing is gonna destroy the competition…
Loi is a close personal friend of mine and I had dinner with him the night before the event and I got a chance to look at the car up close. Man, it sure has come a long way from the first time I saw it. Back then Loi was still hiding it from the public and it was just sitting in the back of the shop all pretty like a show car. To see this thing go through its transformation is pretty cool. When it’s all said and done, there are high expectations for this ITR and it has the potential to break some records…
I actually helped Loi design the new Sportcar logo that’s now on the car. He said he needed something that was easier to read that was straight to the point and I whipped something up a couple days before the event. It came out better than I thought it would even though it took Loi and I like 2 hours just to try to apply it on the car since we sprayed too much water on it….haha…
Tim Kuo was responsible for piloting the ITR to it’s first win and he also brought out his own personal car, which is this silver S2000. It was a busy week for Tim and he managed to place 3rd in the Street RWD class as well…
Here’s another S2k that was at the event. I’m sure you’ve seen the JHP S2000 before at other events and in print…
And of course we have the AFI Turbo S2000 as well with the Chargespeed widebody kit…
Thanks to Billy for always rocking the Chronicles tee, even though it’s hot as shit…haha. Congrats to Sportcar Motion crew and Tim Kuo on yet another win…
Introducing….The Autofashion Integra…
Words/Photos -Joey Lee
So I went down to San Diego last week to go visit my parents and while I was down there I decided to hit up Freddy at Autofashion USA. I haven’t really had a chance to talk to the guy as much as we used to when we did shows together and what not so it was a cool chance to reconnect and also take a closer look at the DC2 that they brought out to NWP a couple weeks ago. For those of you unfamiliar, this is the Integra that I was referring to…
Now when you mention “Autofashion”, Integra, or anything Honda for that matter, is not exactly the first thing you associate with them. They’re known more for their luxury-themed VIP projects and when word got around that Freddy and his crew were getting back into Hondas, alot of people began scratching their heads. “Are you sure you wanna do up Hondas again?” they asked. Well…the truth is, the popularity of Hondas has come back full force and they are once again at the forefront of the industry. And seeing all these greats Hondas around definitely inspires one to go back to their roots.
Let me mention one thing before I go on. This Integra is actually one of Autofashion’s employee’s. Freddy is working on a Honda of his own but this one belongs to Bobby. It’s still in it’s early stages, JDM ITR front and rear, ITR interior, B&G suspension, and 16×8 Work XSAs with a custom finish. Some minor headwork on the GSR motor and an ITR exhaust. The wheels itself make it shine. It’s hard to find XSAs in this sizing and finish, and even harder now that Phaze2 Sid had his set jacked recently. Anyways, on with the pics….Just some quick exterior shots so you guys can get an idea of what it looks like in the daytime instead of the shitty night pics I took at NWP Summer Nights….Enjoy…
That’s all for today….
Exclusive Content…The Status Sean Build…Part 1…
Well, don’t really know where to begin since this build has been ongoing for awhile now….So I guess this will be part 1. It’s just a glimpse of what’s been going on and some parts that will find its way onto the DC…
Here’s a shot of the gold reflective heat barrier film being applied to the underside of the car…The tunnel had to be wrapped due to 3mm of rubber under the car being stripped off. The film reflects 78% of all radiant heat and can withstand continuous operating temperatures of 675 degrees….
All the sound deadening material has also been completely stripped away from the car as well. If the tunnel was left unwrapped, the cabin probably wouldn’t be the coolest place to sit in…
Here’s a before-shot actually when the car was running a Spec 2. Similar set-up but when the car was stripped and coated again, the gold film had to be reapplied…
New Energy Suspension Hyperflex Performance Polyurethane pieces and bushings set to go back on…
Shitty cell phone pic but it’s basically the inventory of all the bolts that the suspension consists of. Sean was happy with the old bolts so he went out and got all new bolts, each and every piece….
All new grommets and rubber pieces for the engine bay…All OEM Honda of course…
All Earl’s fittings laid out…
Preview of the wheels…
That’s it for now, I’ll get the stuff up to you guys as Sean sends them over to me…Kinda hard for me to go to Washington right now and take pictures haha…
Before we begin…A proper introduction is needed…
With the majority of the show season basically over and done with, I’ve been looking around for inspiration simple because major builds have either been completed or put on hold until the next year. One build however, has been going on for a couple years now. Not because it’s really taken that long but simple because the man behind the build is a busy man, and has had his hand in some of the top Hondas in the Northwest region. The guy I’m referring to is none other than Sean Edwards, or known to most simply as “Status Sean”. There’s been alot of rumbling about this build within our community for a minute now and alot of the hardcore heads have been waiting in anticipation for this car to come out. Some would even go as far as to say that this might be “the best ever”. Like when this Integra comes to life, it will set the new standard. Is it possible? Maybe… Will it be the best ever? Well that can be left to debate…. I’ve known Sean since I began talking to him around the beginning of this year and he’s really a character. Got some strange taste in things and sometimes find the most odd things to be completely hilarious but there’s two things you need to know about him… He’s a grinder and works his ass off on the daily and he really knows his cars. He’s more of an enthusiasts in the automotive world more so than just the Honda community. Being the marketing guy over at Status Racing will do that for you though. He may sound familiar to some of you but for those who absolutely have no idea who or what I’m talking about….this is the DC2 that we’ve all been waiting for…
I remember the first time I saw this car on the net, the color was the first thing that caught my eye because I hadn’t really seen it done before, and it was also the first time I saw polished CPRs. My jaw dropped. It almost made me want to polish the set of CPRs I had but they were so mint that I ultimately just left them alone. I loved this car. So much so that I actually bought the issue of HCI that it was featured in. Back then, I rarely picked up a copy of HCI so seeing this DC2 on the cover caught my attention enough to pick one up. I was honestly kinda upset when I found out that the car was soon taken to pieces and I kinda thought Sean was just one of those guys that builds for features and then cashes in afterward. Knowing Sean now, I understand that I was wrong in assuming so. The guy is a perfectionist and he took it apart to build a better version of it that he was happy with. If you know Status Sean than you probably already know that he’s been blogging for a while now and he’s talked about this car in detail. Again for those of you who don’t know…I’ll let him clue you in on what you’re looking at…
“This was the original idea for the Integra, Aston Martin British Racing Green (Not that new mettalic stuff they use now) CPR’s, and some other stuff. A super simple, clean street car. We ended up painting the car BRG inside and out, only to realize 6 months later when the car saw it’s first ray of sunlight that the color was soooo two thousand and late…….back to the drawing board.” -Status Sean
“We finished* the car in April just in time for a feature article in the March 2007 HCI. We kept the original concept of the car but changed a few things, and finally found a color I was sold on. there were alot of things with the car that I wasn’t super happy about, or as we call them automotive insecurities. I didn’t want to sell the car and have regets on what I should have done, or things I would have done differently. So two weeks after the HCI shoot we tore the car down to a bare shell and started over.”
“Once the car was a bare shell we mounted it up on the spit and took it to the good people at Alternative Blasters Corp. in Marysville WA for some media blasting.”
“We got the car back from media blasting in bare metal.”
“We did some spot welding on the chassis. The goal of this car was to take the idea of a street car as far as you could before sacrificing the cars streetability. I want to drive this car to the beach……that’s about it.”
“After the metal work was completed the car was sent to Powder Coating Inc. where the entire underside, wheel wells, and engine bay were powder coated. We used a new company that offers PC in specific color codes. The color ended up matching pretty decent. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have of the car in it’s powder coated state.”
Yeah, the guy put his car on a rotisserie and powdercoated it. Shits crazy…Well all this happened around June and Sean actually hadn’t really told anybody about it since then. Whenever we talked about it online, he would tell me what was going on with it with some pics. When Steve’s EK hit Honda Tuning, alot of people started asking around who’s car it was in the background of one of the pics….
Guess who? He was actually supposed to come out for Nisei Showoff to hang out for a week but ran into some personal stuff at home and was unable to come down. I thought something had happened to the guy because he hadn’t even been online in forever and no-showed the Cali trip. I just barely began hearing from him again recently and while we were talking about Big Mike’s Prelude, I kinda mentioned that it would be cool to cover his build over here on The Chronicles and guess what? Yeah, it’s here.
Photo courtesy of Gene Tjin
There’s been alot of stuff done to it since the last time Sean talked about it in June. And it’s gonna be my job now to bring it to you guys. Tomorrow I’m gonna provide some updates with where it’s at now. From what he’s told me about this car in the last couple months…I’m just as excited as all of you to see the progress.
Everybody…say hello to Status Sean…and welcome to The Chronicles….
Exclusive Content…I shot the Sheepey…
First off, let me remind you guys to please, please, please go out and cop the newest issue of Super Street magazine. It just dropped this week and subscribers should have these in their mailboxes already. It is a great issue, it’s got coverage of Eibach 2009 (Phaze2 reppin’ in that section) , an article about JDM Wong’s EF and Project Car’s CR-X, Tamon Design S2000, and on the cover of course, is Sheepey aka Alex Soto’s Acura Integra. It’s a great cover feature and it does the car justice in every way. Plus you get to hear from Sheepey himself in the article. So please, go to your local retailer and get a copy of the August 2009 issue of Super Street magazine…
GET THIS.
I am super proud of my homie Sheepey for continuing to do big things. Another cover with another sick ass project to come. Go grab that issue and see for yourself. I’ve been sleeping on these pics for about a week now. I wanted to wait until the new issue dropped so that everyone could get a look at it immortalized in print before I got pics of it up. Sheepey asked me to go snap some pics of his new set-up because Peakboost needed some pics of their new manifold and also some other little details that Sheepey wanted snaps of. This isn’t a feature or whatever you wanna call it. I was just helping out a friend and helping him out with his sponsors. Oh and he also needed details shots for his portfolio and what not. Even though he was out in the middle of buttfucking nowhere, I’m always down to help out a friend…haha…
I’m not a photographer. I don’t claim to be one. I definitely don’t think I could do the outside of this car justice like professional photogs can do as seen in print so I really didn’t bother to get any exterior shots. The pics are mainly just of us messing around when Sheepey took DC5*Brian out for a spin. I brought DC5*Brian and HBK Gabe (google it.) out there with me because the drive was kinda far and these two guys are always never doing anything and down to roll out…
It’s really hard to grasp everything that’s been done to this car without seeing it in person. Actually that’s wrong. It’s really hard to grasp everything that’s been done to this car without seeing it in person and having Sheepey be there to point out all the details. The guy’s attention to detail is fucking amazing. Good lord. I’ve personally seen this car 3-4 times upclose and I didn’t even notice a majority of the details until he point them out to me himself. Let me remind you that I’m not exactly new to this stuff either. I’ve seen quite a bit of the best builds in the SoCal import community. After hearing Alex talk about it, I truly have a better understanding of his Integra and feel honored to have him ask me to come out to take pictures of it. He knows quite a few people in the industry and I’m not exactly the guy you call first to take pictures you know? Haha…
Man Perris is farrrrr….It’s so empty out there and quiet. While I was taking pics outside, a cop saw us and he didn’t bother to stop and just went about his business. And we were right in the middle of the road too….Must be nice to never have to worry about the cops getting on your ass….
What Sheepey really wanted me to get was the new turbo manifold he got from Peak Boost. He barely got it so it didn’t get a chance to make it into print. The manifold is a Peak Boost HVS top-mount manifold fully-polished by Peak Boost themselves…
Another angle of the manifold and turbo…
More random shots of the bay….
Peep the mil-spec distributor harness plug…so sick…
If you look closer, you’ll notice that all original bolts on the engine have been replaced with socket-head stainless steel bolts…
Even the nuts for something as simple as the shock tower have been replaced with titanium nuts and washers…
Sheepey also recently picked up his custom Status Ring FRP seats. Custom because the stitching is blue and the entire backside of the seat has been painted to match the exterior….
Brian offering his opinion of the seats…
…he liked the AIM Sports MXL Strada cluster even more….
It started to get dark after a little bit so we headed back to Sheepey’s house and his big ass garage to get the rest of the pics…
Mil-spec firewall plug. It’s not really about the tucks anymore guys, the community is moving towards clean and very visible mil-spec harnesses…
Fuel is never an issue for this Integra…
This is what I’m referring to when I say that every single bolt has been replaced with socket head stainless steel bolts…
All stock rubber hoses and clamps are now gone and replaced with Russell Proclassic nylon hoses. The fittings are black with custom re-anodized blue sleeves…
Nice touch with the dipstick… 
The snail is a Bullseye S366 extended-tip turbo. Sheepey told me that it’s the “latest and greatest turbo technology to hit the market.”
The rest are kinda random…
Money shot?
Sheepey also picked up some new Skunk2 Pro Series Pro C coilovers…
Thanks for looking….Remember to go grab the mag. Hope you guys enjoyed the images…
Own a piece of history…
Okay, not really. But the homie Jeremy is selling his ITR and it’s pretty uncommon to see Milano Red Integra Type Rs. Yes, it’s real too. All the way from Japan…I hope someone buys it so they can finish it unlike Jeremy, who decided he wanted to never finish his car….I’ll let him tell you more about it…
When he isn’t busy working out or smashing on chicks at Pho restaurants, he’s actually one of the best Honda builders around. His previous ITR was really nice and this one would have been even better if he had decided to finish it. Block-quote time…
As some of you know, it is now time to part with my Integra Type R. I am sad that I didn’t finish this build like I wanted to, but I have higher priorities right now to take care of. I am in no rush to sell this car.I haven’t even drivin this car since last November and just sits in my garage collecting dust…I’ve put less then 1000 miles on this car since I bought it in March 2007…..and after the swap with brand new parts such as the header/intake/exhaust/clutch,radiator//suspension/fuel setup…maybe 200 miles???
Here is the original thread to my car:
http://nwp4life.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=99581998 Honda Integra Type R
Milano Red
163,XXX Kilometers
Registered under original 10 digit VIN – CLEAN Title (title in hand)Motor/Transmisson:
- 2001 JDM K20A Motor
- 2001 JDM K20A Transmission
- Hasport Mounts
- RSX Type S Axles
- RBC Intake Manifold (Shaved)
- DTR 4-2-1 Header
- Custom 3″ Exhaust/Vibrant Resonator/Vibrant Steatlh Muffer (3″ in/out)
- Custom Cold Air Intake w/filter
- Karcepts T/B Adapter
- Karcepts Shifter Plate
- RSX Type S Shifter
- BDL Fuel Rail
- Aeromotive FPR and gauge
- Excedy Stage 2 Sprung Clutch
- EP3 Idler
- Koyo DC5 Radiator
- Kpro
- Sparks racing K-swap conversion harness
- Semi Wire tuckExterior/Interior:
- Body is in decent shape, I was orginally going to give it a exterior refresh. Couple dings/dents here and there and milano pink fading on hood/roof/trunk, and top of the wing.
- Minor missing plastic pieces I have to dig up, vision seat rail on the passenger seat (I don’t know why, the car came shipped here like that). Small minor hold on the driver side bolter seat.
- OG Plastic Vision MC
- Personal Neogrinta Black Suede Red Stitchig 330mm Steering Wheel
- MOMO Steering Wheel HubSuspension/Rims:
- Pic Select R3 (12/14kg) Coilovers (200 miles on them)
- 16″ 5×114 Volk CE28N Time Attacks (Black/Red lip) with 215/45/16 Falken Azenis (Brand new still, just put on the car)Work done by Plan B Motorsports and Sportcarmotion.
I am willing to lower the price by taking off parts. You can add parts from my for sale thread (http://nwp4life.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=32580) that aren’t sold for a discounted price.
Definitely not a bad price for the amount of work put into it…the swap is on point and done by Plan:B Motorsports, body is in pretty good shape, probably just needs a fresh coat of paint and you’re ready to go…
Here’s some shots of the swap…
Here is how it sits as of today…
BUY BUY BUY! For more pics, please visit the original NWP thread listed above. Thanks for lookings guys….
