Reading Material…
What’s up everyone, just wanted to drop a quick note for you guys to pick up the latest issue of Super Street magazine. They’ve actually been keeping me pretty busy because I’m currently still trying to knock out some stories for them but the current issue actually features the Powerhouse Amuse S2000 I shot awhile back. 2010 was a busy year so they hadn’t really had the chance to run the story until now but it’s pretty cool…
The story itself is pretty interesting and it takes sort of a different approach then my usual stuff because I rarely ever tell a story (in my magazine features) from a first person point-of-view. I just had to because what unfolded that day was kinda funny. It’s also a cool story because it’s a car that most of the Honda world has never heard of. I think most of the S2K community probably knows of it because they’re a pretty tight-knit group, but in terms of a larger spectrum of Honda guys, this car is relatively unknown. I myself have only seen it pop up at car shows and events a handful of times…
Another interesting fact about the car and owner is that Jay, from JDMEGO, lives right down the street or something from him now ever since he moved and I guess Jay sees him driving this thing around all the time. It’s a pretty nice car. S2000 built to Amuse-spec completely on the outside but he went his own route with the motor and what not. The owner, Bobby Taylor, also tracks that car on occasion as well and the finish on the paint kinda reflects that. I mean, the car is in great shape but the paint itself had some battle scars, which was also kinda cool to see…
Like the story, I also took a different route with the way I processed the photos. As I stated earlier, this was shot awhile back and it was actually the last car that I shot with just pure natural lighting. I shoot with larger flashes nowadays but when I shot this particular car, it was all natural. I had shot DPK Davids car there before at the exact same location so I knew exactly how the natural light would come in and while I wish I had flashes then, I’m pretty happy with the pics. I went for like, this overly dramatic route of editing just because I wanted to experiment with that style and I felt like it matched the car. It had a bunch of rock chips on the front bumper, just from driving and track use, and the sideskirts right behind the front wheel was actually very scarred up as well so the whole aggressively dark “feel” of the photos kinda suites the car. I don’t know, I’m no professional and these pics really represent my work at a very early stage so you will notice a huge difference between this shoot, which was from early summer of 2010, and the shoot I did more recently, which was the orange Hachi-Roku Corolla. I’m actually going to post up the unused photos of the Corolla next week and those are pics that I am really happy with. It was such an easy car to shoot because of the color and everything and the location was perfect. So make sure to keep an eye out for those and while you’re busy waiting for that, go pick up the latest issue of Super Street. If you’re not a fan of the pics of the S2000, I can respect that, it was just something I was trying out. The newer stuff is waaaaayyyy better in comparison and I think you guys will see gradual improvements over time. I think this was the second car I shot for Super Street, right after Bisi’s wagon and I’ve learned so much since then. I’m sure you guys who have followed this site can see that I’m trying to learn more everyday about automotive photography. I went from barely starting this site in 2008 and not even knowing how to use a camera, to now, where I’m doing print work for magazines like Super Street…haha…shit is still pretty crazy to me.
Thanks for your support and thanks for continuing to SUPPORT PRINT. Magazines are one of the best things we have in our community and have been around since the beginning. Please continue to read mags because there might be a day when you’re sitting down with your kids or your grandchildren some time in the future and telling them stories about how you used to read something that wasn’t completely digital.
Thanks for looking, buy and read the latest issue of Super Street magazine. For all intents and purposes, support my ass. Stickydiljoe.com, The Chronicles; always bringing you exclusive content only seen here! None of that bullshit where other sites just post up other people’s pictures of beat up ass cars with aggressive wheels or some shit. I think people are starting to forget that the range of your wheel offset doesn’t disguise how terrible the rest of the car looks. Totally random and a rant for another time…haha.
Anyways, original content heaven right here. Real success comes with hard work…your OWN work.
The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2010…5-2…
Back with picks 5-2 of The Chronicles Top Ten of 2010. I’m happy to see that the feedback overall has been very positive and people are excited to see the list. Let’s get it going because I’m sure many of you are anxious to see who occupies spots 5-2. Like every year, I save the number one spot for it’s own individual post and like last year, the final pick will be revealed on New Year’s day of 2011. Let’s go…
5. JDMYard/Yonas Liu’s “EGK24A”…
Why it made the list: I’ve been quietly following this build for most of the year and and I honestly feel like it deserves to be on the list. Various photos of it have popped up on the net this year but what many may not know is that this Austrailian Civic has been around for quite some time. It comes from outside of the U.S. but it’s a build that many guys over here greatly respect. It covers all aspects and is a very well-rounded build. The most current incarnation of this Civic is definitely the most aesthetically pleasing compared to year’s past and the pictures of it have made it a global sensation. Everybody that sees pictures of it instantly wants to know more about it, but have often times been unable to dig up more information on it simply because it’s from Australia.
The picture above is probably the picture you’re most used to seeing when you think of the JDMYard EG. The gray paint is a popular choice among other Civic owners as is the J’s Racing front lip and aggressive 949 wheels. The car just looks great. It’s a well-balanced and nothing is too over the top. It’s race-inspired look is exactly what guys want nowadays. While it’s appearance has garnered it worldwide attention, the best part of this build is that it performs every bit as well as it looks. To put it in more appropriate terms for everyone to understand: This car fucking moves….
In terms of pure functionality, there may be no other car on this list that is equal to what this build is capable of. It’s an all-motor K24-swapped hatchback that runs 11′s and doubles also as a road race vehicle. The JDMYard Civic does it all and looks amazing while doing it…
People often complain about guys being “hardparkers” and all this other bullshit. This Civic is proof that you can make a car look great and still be completely functional. Being that it’s from Australia really helps open our eyes to the fact that amazing Honda builds can come from all over the world. The JDMYard “EGK24A” has made us Americans look seriously into that country and what builds they have to offer. We tend to be a little narrow minded sometimes and only look to Japan for inspiration so it’s good that a build like this comes around to smack us in the face and force us to look outside our normal scope. If I told you that there would be a build on the list this year that’s not from North America, you would almost certainly think that it’s from Japan, with a very small number of you thinking possibly the U.K.
It’s a great eye opener and if there were only one car from outside our little world of Hondas that I would choose to be on the list, it would have to be this one. Like I stated in the previous post, this community, “scene”, or whatever you want to call it is bigger than us. Enthusiasts from all over the world are setting the bar higher every day and this build is living proof of that…West, east, Australia, United States, Japan, Europe, fucking Narnia, it doesn’t matter—this car is the shit.
4. Chris Sakai’s Civic/Angel Ramos’ S2000 (Tie)
If this pairing seems at all odd to you, it really shouldn’t. Let me explain. The picks are seeded this way for a particular reason. If the number 1 pick didn’t exist, then the number 2 pick would obviously be the best choice. If the number 1 & 2 choices didn’t exist, then the 3rd would be the best choice, and so on and so on. The fact that a tie randomly exists in the line-up shouldn’t matter. If this was the top spot, then both Chris Sakai and Angel would hold the crown equally. That’s how lists like this work. It’s definitely not brain surgery and should be easily understood. There’s no confusion right? Can we move on now?…
Why it made the list: Like Black Pie once told me; “It’s the Lamborghini of Civics”. It terms of pure execution, Sakai’s EK takes the cake. He and Fred Chapman developed a very specific look that they wanted for his rebuild and they pulled it off flawlessly. He went with an entirely new look for 2010 and rebuilt his whole car from the inside out. The K-swap, Rando aero, custom paint, and wrinkle black accents are all a product of careful planning to achieve this exact look. Sakai has had this car for 10 years now and completely tearing it down and starting over in its tenth year shows his dedication to his hobby. Like Arn’s Integra, he’s stuck with the same chassis throughout the years and continued it’s evolution. He’s never struggled to stay relevant because other guys are busy trying to catch up to him. This EK is “the Lamborghini of Civics” because it’s the pinacle of how this chassis should be done.
I had the opportunity to look at this Civic first hand at Wek’Fest earlier this year. It instantly caught my eye because it just has a presence that can’t be ignored. I talked to Chris and he said that there was more stuff that he wanted to finish up on it before the car would be shot for Honda Tuning. The “stuff” that he wanted to finish up on his EK was a custom sound system, something that most guys tend to overlook nowadays. Chris wanted a complete car and he meticulously covered all aspects. In terms of being a show car, he covers every category on the judging sheet and will win every time. If there’s a “Civic Class” at any car show, you might as well stay home because Sakai’s already got that award on lock. The only negative in 2010 for Sakai’s build was when he ran into some motor issues right after the annual Wek’Fest event. It was quickly corrected and he re-emerged by the summer. Fast forward to the end of 2010 and not only has it won awards in multiple events throughout the year, he also landed on the cover of the winter issue of Honda Tuning magazine. Chris has had a great 2010 and that’s why he belongs on this list.
Why it made the list: Because, in my opinion, it’s the best S2000 build of the year. In terms of S2000s making the list, it was down to either Angel or S2KJay’s S2K and I feel that Angels belongs on the list because it is a completely new build, whereas Jay’s was on the list the year before and I don’t think he’s finished yet in it’s current incarnation. So many S2000s look the same now. Everybody else has seemingly fallen in love with ASM aero and many of them look very much alike now because of that. Either that are they go with the Spoon aero and go for the complete catalog car look. It almost seems as if people are afraid to do something different because they think they’ll be looked down upon within that S2000 community. No body is really stepping out of the box like Angel. He’s taken all his favorite parts from many different aftermarket companies, added his own custom touches, and create an S2000 like no other.
Angel’s S2000 has an absolutely menacing appearance. I like the fact that he molded-in the front J’s Racing half bumper and also molded the rear over fenders to the body itself. It’s different and it flows very well. Though he’s pulled different parts from different manufacturers, he’s managed to make everything come together. Whenever it made an appearance at an event in 2010, it captured the attention of everyone there.
I grouped these two together because their year has basically paralleled one another. Whenever you saw Chris Sakai’s EK, you saw Angel’s S2000 so they came hand in hand. Even when we traveled up north to shoot Sakai’s Civic for it’s Honda Tuning feature, Angel’s S2000 sat patiently on the adjoining street. It’s fitting that these two are together because they represent the best in each of their respective classes. ATS Garage has put together some great builds over the years and these two are a excellent example of the quality product that they continue to create. Angel seems to have more planned for his project and from what he’s done so far, it should be something to look forward to. I think a mag feature is in his future as well. He makes the list this year just because it made such a huge presence upon its debut in 2010. 2011 looks to be a journey towards Angel’s continued success within the community.
3. ATS*Anh’s Acura Integra Type R…
Why it made the list: Anh’s ITR was probably one of the biggest debuts of 2010. The ITR itself was nothing new because Anh already had done some work to it previously, but it’s full rebuild and debut caught a lot of people by surprise. The whole build from that point on was kept under wraps and only guys within the crew or who were close to Anh or ATS knew about it. When it debuted at Wek’Fest early in 2010, it surprised a lot of people. I think he even won Best Integra that day. With the type of competition housed inside Wek’Fest, that’s huge and it says a lot about the quality of Anh’s build. I knew about the build personally because Anh randomly emailed me one day to tell me about it. He had said that I took a picture of his Integra at Eibach in 2009 and he wanted to inform me that he was working closely with Fred Chapman and Rywire on a complete rebuild. I didn’t really have any idea who Anh was at the time but I do remember his car and so I looked forward to the build. It’s rare for a build to be a secret of any sort nowadays because everyone wants their own shine so they create build threads, often times to build hype for their own projects. Anh and Fred went a different route and did the car first, and then presented the internet with a reverse build, where they debuted the car at Wek’Fest and then showed the build-up of it after. It was a cool idea actually and something that I most wouldn’t think to do.
The underlying theme of the car is pretty simple; black ITR with a brightly contrasting candy teal scheme. Like Chris Sakai’s build, it is in the execution of the theme that makes this ITR great. Anh also graced the cover of Super Street’s annual Honda issue, which is a great honor. Being that his car was fairly new and Anh was still relatively unknown, the Super Street cover instantly made him a household name within the community. Now he’s already begun work on the next stage of his build, collecting baller ass parts like his new ASM Recaro seats and J’s Racing hood.
I place him slightly ahead of the other two ATS Garage cars because Anh’s build came out of nowhere, and from the beginning of the year on, it was easily the best Integra of 2010. No other Integra really stood out when in comparison to Anh’s build. Sakai’s Civic was already pretty popular in the Honda community, even before he tore it down and rebuilt it, so people expected great things from him already. Expectations were there for Sakai’s Civic and he easily exceeded them. Both are built with a lot of similarities and if you were to pit the two against one another at a show, it could be a toss up any day of the week as to who would win. Angel’s S2000 came out of nowhere like Anh’s build, but Anh’s was in more of a completed state and when you break it down, his build has many more layers and is more well-rounded. In the end they are all at the top of their class, I just feel that Anh’s was able to have a bigger impact in 2010 while a build like Angel’s has yet to see it’s full potential. Sheepey held the Integra crown in 2009 and this year, it was a landslide for Anh. That’s why it holds the number 3 position on the list.
2. Bisimoto’s Honda Civic Wagon and Honda CR-Z…
Why it made the list: Does this really need to be answered? The question really shouldn’t be why it’s on the list but more to do with why the CR-Z is on the list along with the Wagon. I’ll get into that later but let’s talk about the Civic Wagon first.
Bisi is a super nice guy and too much of a businessman to ever say it, but the Wagon was built as a big “fuck you” to the people that thought he couldn’t build anything but all motor single cams. That’s pretty much the story of how the Wagon came to fruition. Somebody from another well-known tuning company was talking shit one day and Bisi wanted to prove the guy wrong. According to the guy, Bisi only built N/A single cam motors because it was “all he knew”. Instead of doing something on a more popular chassis, he went and decided to build up a wagon because it was the most absurd platform possible to build up his 700+ horsepower boost motor in. As you can see, his gameplan worked out as planned and he quickly quieted his critics. The wagon makes the list and holds the number 2 position because it’s one of the great stories of 2010. Need I remind you that it’s a 700 horsepower Honda Civic Wagon?! You just can’t make up shit like this. Bisi is one of the great minds in our industry and building this wagon proves that he is not only capable of anything, he’s got a sense of humor about it too. For all his professionalism and mechanical knowledge, he’s learned to take things in stride and not take himself too seriously. I’m sure he had a smile on his face the entire time he was busy putting this wagon together.
For all intents and purposes, this wagon is absolutely amazing. There’s simply nothing else like it in our industry. It’s his satirical answer to the biggest question that’s always surrounded him. People have always given him credit for what he’s accomplished but have quickly shoved him into a “niche” so to speak. He’s fast they say, but he’s good at what he does because nobody else wants to do that. Bisi will show you otherwise. The man can build anything, do it all… his wagon and his CR-Z are proof of that. The Bisimoto Civic Wagon has had a great 2010. It’s appeared in Super Street magazine, been all over the web, nominated for Speedhunters “Retro Car of the Year”, and was displayed prominently at the 2010 SEMA show in Las Vegas. The Wagon was everywhere. It may have exceeded even Bisi’s expectations. While many of the cars on the Top Ten list are here because they are at the top of their respective classes, the Bisimoto Civic Wagon is possibly the best Honda build of the year. It is nothing anyone ever expected to be done, and years from now, it’ll still be difficult for people to truly understand and appreciate it. It’s a mind fuck of a Honda build and that’s why it holds such a high position on this list.
The Bisimoto CR-Z is everything I just said about his wagon, multiplied by 13498792. It’s easily one of the greatest things within the Honda community that you will ever see. To put it into perspective, the CR-Z is ahead of your future self’s time. Bisi took a car that was released just this year, that no one had really done anything significant to, and turned it into a 500-horsepower full functional hybrid. It’s on some future shit. In less than a year, he was able to create something that may have taken another man years to develop. When Honda gave him this CR-Z to modify, there was no possible way that they would have forseen this result. They were probably looking at eachother and saying; “He did what with what?….how?” It makes no sense whatsoever. That’s what makes Bisi Ezerioha such a mad scientist. You’re just not going to be able to comprehend how he built this CR-Z in such a short amount of time and produced these types of results.
Some of you may be questioning why it’s on the list, considering the short amount of time it’s been around, but I had to include it because it became a global phenomenon. Since it’s debut at SEMA, it has appeared not only on popular automotive sites, it has also been discussed in the New York Times and been on Attack of the Show on the G4 network. It’s on international websites all over the world and the talk of every automotive forum, no matter what language. Bisimoto has opened the floodgates of possiblities for the CR-Z for years to come and done so in a few months time.
9 down, 1 more to go, and it just so happens that I’ve saved the best for last. Next up, the number one Honda of 2010…
For what it’s worth…
I just want to stop by real quick and say happy holidays to everyone and all the supporters of The Chronicles. We really shouldn’t have to set aside dates on a calender to show our appreciation for one another but it’s still good to have these moments to reunite and to spend time with our families. I want to thank everyone for their continued support throughout these last two years and I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for all of you. I have met so many great people during this time that I hold dear to my heart and I wish I had enough hours in the day to spend even just a quick minute with everybody. Since I can’t because I have yet to perfect the science of teleportation, all I can do is hop on this computer and say happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy new year, etc. etc., to you all and wish for your continued success through life in 2011 and beyond. These last couple weeks have been a bit busy because of all the work I have received lately, which I am very grateful for, but the updates will be coming back next week. One of the biggest updates to end the year as you all know, is The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of the Year. It’s going to be a good one and I also have a couple of other things to close out the year. Stay tuned for those but for now, everyone have a safe and wonderful holidays. Tell all of your mothers I said what’s up, PEACE!!
Giving thanks…
What’s up everyone, I didn’t want to send everyone generic holidays greetings so I figured I’d let you guys come to the site to see the generic holiday greeting instead. I just want to let everyone know that I’m grateful for everything that has come my way this year and the success of the site is made possible only be my supporters and everyone around me. You have all shaped my life in one way or another and have contributed to the direction of this site. 2010 may be coming to a close soon but 2011 looks even more promising as we continue our journey through the life and one of the greatest industries to be a part of. On behalf of the homies who regularly appear on this site, May, and I, I wish you all a safe and plentiful Thanksgiving. People always worry about eating too much or whatever but honestly, who cares. Think of it this way, you should eat as much as you want now and experience these treasured moments with the people you care about because one day, you won’t be able to anymore. It’s better to eat as much as you want now then to think back later on and regret not doing so. Life is a very precious thing, take every moment you have with the ones you love as if it were of the utmost importance. The people in your life are there for a reason, never take them for granted.
Since all this Black Friday business is starting and everyone is going crazy over deals, I thought I’d thank my supporters by doing a Black Friday sale of my own. For those of you who are familiar with QR codes, you take your smart phone, Blackberry, iPhone, Droid, etc., and you get this app that reads barcodes or QR codes. The image below will send you to an image that includes information on the Black Friday deal for The Chronicles storefront. The discount will only last for a couple of days so jump on it before it’s too late. If you guys don’t have smart phone capabilities, just ask your homies to tell you what the QR code says, it’s pretty easy to figure out….
Enjoy and once again, Happy Thanksgiving…
If you need to, you can read more about QR coding here…
Caught up…
It’s the early afternoon now here on the west coast and I’m finally going to bed. My black vinyl finally came in last week so I was able to complete and mail out all of the orders. I’m all caught up now and every order that was placed, even up until this morning, has been mailed out so you guys who haven’t received your merchandise yet will get it this week. The holidays are making everything kinda crazy now and when I went to the post office earlier, it was fucking mayhem over there. I use this automated mailing machine thing and I had like about 15 orders or so with me and people kept coming in and waiting in line to use the machine. I don’t want to be an asshole so I have to pick up all my shit every time somebody comes in and wants to mail out like, one thing. I’m pretty sure I was stuck at the post office for a good 40 minutes before I was finally able to get out of there. All international orders were mailed out too. For you guys who are not in the country and plan to order stuff from the store, I will have to charge you guys additional shipping costs. I know I have a disclaimer in there about international orders but that either goes unseen or untranslated. Who knows…
I might be having a Black Friday kind of sale this week. I wanna unload the shirts so I might do something for the holiday and give you guys a good deal on some stuff. I don’t know, I haven’t figured out all the details yet. I was thinking maybe using like a QR code-based system where you guys can use your smart phones and scan the QR pic thing to get the discount code for the store. Sounds like a good idea but I’m not really sure how many of you are familiar with QR codes and how they work. Either that or you don’t have the technology to get the code because you are without a smart phone. Anyways, I don’t know, just some ideas I’m tossing around. Keep an eye on the store for details. Maybe I’ll throw up some new stuff I’ve been working on too, not sure. Vinyl apparently, is a pain in the ass to weed out in this cold weather because it doesn’t like to adhere to the backing as much as it does normally.
Alright, I’ll be back later today with more coverage for you guys. I’m gonna hit the bed now…
The Pay-off…
Damn, I swear I have been all over the fucking place this past week. Sorry for the lack of updates but it’s going to be worth it, I promise. I’m still trying to recover from the past week at SEMA in Las Vegas and now I’m off again to go help Rodrez out with the Honda Tuning CR-Z. The CR-Z has finally returned from transport and he’s got some more goodies lined-up for that car. I’m currently trying to catch up on ALL the orders. Please don’t email me or ask for refunds if you think I am trying to take your money or whatever. I’ve just been terribly busy and the week of SEMA I left with no black vinyl so it should be here any day now. While that is coming in, I’m pushing out all the orders that are not black vinyl related. So if you guys ordered other merchandise it will be there in your mailbox by this week. With that said, I gotta take off now, but here is what’s coming this week (and probably the subsequent weeks since there are so many pics to post up.) I’m telling you, I haven’t been updating for no reason. I’m currently trying to process 700+ pictures from SEMA, another 260 or so from the annual NSX-PO (which Phaze2 Tony was kind enough to cover for me), and another 100+ pics from yesterday’s Autofashion VIP Festival. If you’re internet is slow or you are on a smartphone or something, you are fucked because it is gonna be a coverage-blitz with all the pics coming…
Coming this week (as early as tonight) in this order…
Autofashion VIP Festival 2010…This will come first so that it doesn’t get lost in the mix…
2010 SEMA Las Vegas Coverage…
2010 NSXPO…so many NSXs, it’ll make you wanna slap your mama…haha…
And of course…catching up on store orders…
The Chronicles, making moves on the daily!!!
What to expect from 2YRS: The Chronicles 2-Year Anniversary Meet…
I’ve had people hitting me up non-stop the last couple days because the rain has been absolutely apeshits around here. They want to know whether the meet will be a rain or shine event and in the event of rain, sure it will go on but rain is highly unlikely. I’ve been keeping track of ther weather myself and everything is good to go for the weekend weather-wise. This is the latest report as of 5 minutes ago before I typed this up…
It will be a nice, cool 70 degrees with partly cloudy skies and a small 20% chance of precipitation. So that should answer all questions about the weather at the meet. If anything crazy occurs like a fucking monsoon or something, I will be sure to let you know. I’m busy working on a couple of other things though so if you guys want to go and head over to Weather.com or something or your own, you too can keep track of the weather. Now can we please move on with other, more pressing issues?…
Things you should know about the meet this Saturday…
What time should the non-VIP cars arrive at the Eibach Springs facility for regular parking and attendance?
The meet starts at 1pm. So please DO NOT show up any earlier than that. If VIP parking is taken care of by then, the gates will be open for the regular folks to park inside. I can’t stress enough that you should not be there clogging up the streets or blocking cars that have purchased VIP spots from getting into the facility. If we happen to see you there earlier and in the way, trust me, it will just make things that much more difficult and I can’t promise that we’re gonna be all that courteous to you guys…haha. But seriously,please just follow the rules and everything will go smoothly. 1PM NO EARLIER FOR NON-VIP PARKING.
Cool stuff for the guys who purchased VIP up front parking…
Well in the spirit of Halloween, May has taken time out of her busy schedule at work and prepared some goodie bags for those of you who were kind enough to support the site by purchasing VIP spots. Like I have said all along, the money that was made will go back to the meet and a chunk of it went to getting you VIP guys your goodie bags that you will be receiving upon entry into the event. It’s Halloween so the bags are filled with candy. One thing I hop that you guys will do is be adults and keep your trash to a minimum and to put your candy wrappers/trash in trash cans. Please don’t leave trash all over the facility. We’re people too and we would prefer not to have to stay behind 2 hours just picking up trash that you guys left behind. Respect others and be mindful of your trash. That goes for general attendance too, don’t litter and don’t leave trash all over the place. It’s common courtesy.
What merchandise will be available at the meet for purchase?
I didn’t really have the time to create a one-off sticker for this event because I had little time to do so and I was busy filling out all the orders for parking, but I will however, be re-releasing the limited edition stickers from year’s past. I felt that it was only appropriate as this was an anniversary celebration to bring back the limited edition stickers. That means, the Wek’Fest, Eibach, “Championship Edition”, and Nisei Edition stickers will all be available for purchase for this event only. The ever-popular original Chronicles sticker will be available of course as well as Chronicles shirts. I haven’t been able to get a hold of my shirt guy in such a short amount of time so the shirts I have available will be whatever I have left from my inventory. If you guys have your Chronicles shirts, wear them to the event. It would be great to see everyone rocking the shirt. For those of you who want one, pick one up at the booth as soon as you can. I can’t guarantee that I will have your size in stock if you choose to wait.
As for the NWP4LIFE booth, Rodrez has gone and made a limited run of the NWP “run style” WHITE t-shirts. You guys have seen the black ones before at the Eibach meet but he will have special White versions of those shirts available at the NWP booth. He also went and made NWP hoodies just in time for the winter season and those will also be available at the meet. They are a very limited run so if you’re into hoodies, make sure to jump on those. Quantities will definitely be limited on the hoodies. If you wanna know how hard it is to get one, try asking Rywire. He stood in line for like 30 minutes at Eibach only to realize that they weren’t even for sale yet…haha. Also, the original “run style” stickers as well as the og NWP logo stickers will be available for purchase.
Who will be at appearing at the 2-year anniversary meet?
Just going through the guest list, we have a great group of enthusiasts going to the meet, which is a great honor for me. I respect these guys as friends as well as enthusiasts and car builders so it’s cool of them to take time out of their busy schedules to come chill and celebrate.
An example of some of the guys who are going to be there on Saturday…
Big Mike…
Members of ATS*Garage and DPK…
Honda Tuning magazine will be on hand…
Jonathan Wong, head honcho over at Super Street will be out to chill…
The Phaze2 family of course, I wouldn’t be here without these guys…
Norman and AS1, who have been down to rep The Chronicles since day one…
The Tjin brothers, who are gonna make a stop on their nationwide tour to come display their awesome builds for us…
Freddie and Autofashion, who are kind enough to come out and take care of the music portion of the event, much thanks for that…
People from as far as Arizona are even coming out to check out the event…
That’s just to name a few, there will be plenty of Hondas as well as non-Hondas who are close personal friends of mine who are making the trek out to Corona to show their support…
Are any VIP spots still available?
YES, but in VERY LIMITED QUANTITY. It is coming down to the wire and I may cut off the sale of spots as early as tonight. There are just a couple, probably less than 10 spots available and I’m really not trying to oversell to make that extra cash. I don’t need it and I would rather have space for people to display their cars. I don’t want to event to get to the point where people can’t even open their doors. I’ve made appropriate adjustments to the number of spots available and once they are gone, they are gone. Don’t even bother asking me if spots are available after that because I won’t have time to respond. If the spots are up on the storefront, then yes, they are still available. If you don’t see them anymore, it’s dun-dada. Thank you to all of you for showing your support and giving back to the meet.
“I did’t get my sticker yet, what should I do?”
Wait. I’ve sent out 99% of the orders and the only ones that haven’t been sent are the ones that were purchased from early this morning to this point now in the evening. The rest will be sent out early in the morning so everyone should definitely have their stickers for their parking spots. Please follow the directions and place the sticker where the flyer attached with your sticker states. It just makes getting you guys inside th event easier. With the sticker you simply pull up, get your name checked off on the list, grab your goodie bag, and go inside where someone will park you. It’s that easy.
That should be it for today. If anything else comes up I’ll let you guys know. Please show up on time at your designated time. Once the parking is situated, everyone can sit back and chill and enjoy great people and great cars.
10.23.10
See you there.
Where the f*ck is my update??!…
Damn, sorry guys, haven’t been around much these days and I’m sure you are all wondering where the updates have gone. Well the reason I’ve been quiet the last couple days is because of the fact that I’m trying to finish up this Super Street feature. I wanted to knock it out so that I could focus all my time on getting ready for The Chronicles 2-Year Anniversary meet. I can’t believe it’s almost time already. I’m really happy with how the feature came out and I can honestly say that, in terms of photography work, it might be my best work yet. I’m learning day by day and it helps that I had an awesome car to shoot in Ka Wong’s AE86 Corolla. Of course I can’t show you the pics right now but I’m sure many of you remember seeing pictures of it from Nisei Showoff and JCCS. It’s the orange 86 with the TE37Vs and the S2000 F20C swap. The car is amazing. Very simple, with subtle touches, and all the right parts. The color combo cames out great in pictures so it definitely made my job easier. I’ve just been going through the pictures and making sure everything looks good as well as writing the story for it. The guy who owns the car is a pretty cool dude. Very helpful when I was shooting and one of those guys who are like polite to the point where sometimes I don’t know what to say to him because he just has a huge smile on his face, haha. Great car, cool owner, interesting story to go with it as well so make sure to check that out when the story finally hits print. I’ll be sure to let you guys know when it hits newstands…
Anyways, yes the meet is coming up and the registration details as well as the sticker will be mailed out to you most likely by tomorrow. I’ve been super busy over here but trust me, you guys will all get your stuff in time. If by chance it happens to be late, I can also check you guys in at the show and just give you guys the stuff there. I doubt it will happen though because spots are selling quickly and I should have plenty of time to get those to you. If you guys haven’t purchased a spot yet, I highly recommend you guys do that now. I’m gonna have some surprises for you guys at the meet and the people who have purchased VIP parking up front will have some extra goodies to take with you. It’s Halloween time afterall and I think May is putting together some cool stuff for you guys. Thanks to her for all her help of course and I couldn’t do this whole thing without her. Even though I’m sure when it comes to the day of the show it’ll get kind of hectic and we’re gonna yell at eachother, it’s all good…haha. I’m just trying to make this whole meet as stress free as possible. That’s why it really doesn’t matter to me if this meet gets super huge or it stays relatively small. I just want to show the fans of The Chronicles and the friends and family that have supported this site for the last two years the ample amount of appreciation that they deserve. If you guys want to get your spots before they sell out, make sure to get them from The Chronicles Storefront.
On another note, this is pretty interesting. Totally non-Honda related but hey, I always tend to hop the boundaries of car makes. If anything it’s related to Hondas because this Supra makes about the same power as a modded GSR, haha… You guys remember this car right?….I just posted it a couple days before…
The hood was popped and I didn’t even notice that the Supra was N/A and on individual throttle bodies. Guess I should have looked closer at it. Not a bad looking car at all and it’s actually pretty menacing. The craziest part about it is that this car makes only 177RWHP!! Not 1,077 like some Supras can, one-hundred and seventy-seven! Yes, it’s a N/A 2JZ-GE engine that apparently was the Supra that had the lowest horsepower output ever. The owner apparently built the car just to be unique and it definitely is, making those kind of horsepower numbers. It’s a cool build though, you gotta respect the owner for trying something different but damn, imagine going on a Supra cruise where everyone is flying and you’re the last guy at the end struggling to catch up….haha. Shit, my Accord almost made this much power I think. Props for being different though. Check out the dyno video at the bottom…
Okay, back to work….PEACE.
Everything you need to know about The Chronicles 2-Year Anniversary meet…
It’s only a couple weeks away people and this section will cover basically everything you will need to know about the meet. I’ve had people texting me and emailing me left and right about the meet and have even gone and hit up the homies to get information but that won’t be necessary anymore because this will cover it…
What? – This event was organized to celebrate the upcoming 2-year anniversary of The Chronicles/Stickydiljoe.com
When? – This event, deemed “2YRS” will take place on October 23rd, 2010 from 1pm – 7pm
Where? – The meet will take place at the Eibach Springs facility in Corona, California. The address is 264 Mariah Circle, Corona, CA 92879.
What is the parking set-up like? – The lay-out will basically be set up the exact same way that the annual Eibach Honda meet is. Being that it is at the same venue, this works out the best. The front portion of the meet will be the VIP area where people purchase parking spots to guarantee their spots up front. The rest of the meet, taking place along the sides and if necessary, the rear of the building, will be completely free to park. Those spots however, are first come first serve so if you show up late to park along the sides and rear and don’t like your spot, that’s unfortunate but there is nothing we can do to fix that situation.
Why do I have to pay for parking? - The beauty of this idea is that you don’t have to pay if you don’t want to, you just won’t be parked up front. The front is saved for supporters, friends, and family of The Chronicles and they have first priority to park so if you feel like you want to have your spot guaranteed and don’t have to deal with finding spots that aren’t in the front, purchase your spot in advance. Also, it wouldn’t be a totally bad idea to help support the meet and The Chronicles right? The funds will go towards the site and to pay for various things at the meet so you’re helping us help you. 
How much is VIP parking up front? – VIP parking up front will be $5 and you can purchase your parking spot at The Chronicles Official Storefront.
Is this event only for Hondas? – The Chronicles is a Honda-dedicated site, so for the most part, it is mainly catered to Hondas so it is “Honda-Preferred”. But I am also a fan of cars in general and I know there are also many people on this site that follow it closely who don’t own Hondas. If you purchase a VIP parking spot up front, you can bring a non-Honda, that’s fine.
How will the VIP parking work? – Much like Eibach, you will be asked to bring your receipt and confirmation that you indeed purchased a parking spot up front. The only difference is that when you purchase a spot for The Chronicles meet, your registration will also come with a special sticker denoting that you purchased a VIP spot. This will make roll-in easier and smooth out the parking process. I will have instructions as to where to place the sticker so that it is easily identified when you first arrive at the gates. Your name will also be placed on a list but the sticker and receipt will just make things that much easier.
What if I want to park with my crew/team/homies? – Then you better show up at the same time and roll-in at the same time. Many of you will have done shows and events before and this applies as usual. How much more time do you think it would take away from everyone if you held up the line or blocked spots just to wait for your friends/crew members to arrive? Normal event etiquette applies. If you are registering spots up front for your friends, make sure to include their names at the time or purchase or else they will not park inside with you.
What if my homie shows up late? – They are shit outta luck.
What if I don’t have to pay and I want to park in the front? – If that is your perogative, you will be turned away at the gate and will be asked to leave the event altogether. And if you attempt to sneak up to the front you will be ridiculed and humiliated amongst all your peers.
What if I lose my receipt or I lose my sticker for VIP spots? – Really? Are you 5 years old? Let’s use some common sense here and place these items in a safe place where you won’t lose them. Either that or you can put it in your car right away when you get these items so that you don’t lose them. Don’t make things more difficult than it has to be.
What time should I show up for roll-in? – If you have a VIP spot, details will be sent to you to let you know when to arrive at the Eibach Springs facility.
Can I just crowd the front lot and clog up the street just to hang out before I’m supposed to park? – Umm, NO. If you decide to show up early and block the streets or make it a hassle for people to come in a park and what not, the streets will get over crowded and the police will come and shut us down. So please, DO NOT SHOW UP EARLY and crowd the streets outside of Eibach. If anything meet up with your friends earlier and go hang out at the Carl’s Jr. or somewhere away from the event until it is your designated time to arrive to park. Again, let’s not make things more difficult than it has to be.
Will there be music and entertainment? – Generally I ask you to entertain yourself while at an event but yes, Autofashion will be supplying the music for the day.
Will you be selling Chronicles merchandise at the event? – Yes, I will have Chronicles stickers and t-shirts at the event for sale at our booth. We will also have an NWP4LIFE booth at the event as well so you guys will have the opportunity to purchase NWP merchandise.
Will you be doing a special edition Chronicles stickers like you have all year for other major events? – Umm, I’m not entirely sure yet because there is a lot of organizing that needs to be done so I don’t know if I will have time to make a brand new sticker. If I do however, I will make an announcement about it and they will also be available for purchase at the meet.
If I am a vendor, how do I go about contacting you to have a booth at your event? – Unfortunately, I won’t be having other vendors at the event because I want to make more room for parking. I want to be able to get people into the event so I will not be having any vendors.
Will you be having a raffle or giveaways at the event? – Most likely, but I haven’t figured out all the details on that stuff yet. But if I do, think of it as a pleasant surprise or whatever when you get to the meet.
If I can’t make the event and I have purchased a VIP spot, can I give it to someone else? – Hopefully that doesn’t happen but in the event that it does, yes you can, but please make sure you have that situated with me right ASAP because there will be a deadline for changes to the parking list.
When will the VIP parking spots be available for purchase? – Spots will be for sale by the time you read this. There will only be a little over 100 spots available and they are expected to go fast, so purchase as soon as possible. I will not respond to emails later on when you want to purchase a spot after they have sold out.
That should be about it, please don’t bomb my email with questions unless you have something really specific that you feel needs to be answered. I want this event to be as smooth as possible because I too want to enjoy the event. If everyone reads these questions and abides by the lay-out, then everything should be fine. Thank you.
Purchase your VIP parking spots HERE.
It’s Official…
Man, it’s crazy to think back almost 2 years ago when I first started this site. I went in with zero expectations. It was just something I wanted to do out of boredom, you know? I had begun to follow a couple of blogs here and there but the one that really captured my attention was Speedhunters.com, which was already a powerhouse at that time. It covered everything; cars of all makes, from all over the world, and even a bit of lifestyle and car culture here and there. It was a great site but what it lacked was, in my opinion, coverage of Hondas. Drifting was huge in the Speedhunters community so there was little to no room for Hondas. I thought to myself; damn, maybe I could try to put something together about Hondas. Just something that would summarize a lot of what was going on in the Honda community. Something that would give people what they want to see from Honda forums but without all the bullshit and politics. I had some time on my hands then because I wasn’t doing work for Super Street yet and was just freelancing for Honda Tuning. It was steady work but it wasn’t something that had to occupy the majority of my time or anything so starting up a site would be fun.
I ran the idea through a couple of people and the opinions were very different. Some said it would be cool, some were skeptical, and some didn’t even follow any sort of auto blog site so they had no idea what I was talking about. One day, on a random ass night on October 23rd, 2008, I said “fuck it, I’m bored”, and I signed up for an account on WordPress and began working on this site, not really knowing or caring if it would ever be anything or not. It took me awhile to come up with the name. That was probably the hardest part. I went with “The Chronicles” because I wanted to tell a story. Something we could all look back on some day. I had ZERO content to begin with, I didn’t know shit about how to do layouts or how to modifiy them, NOTHING. The first layout, which I’m sure some of you may still remember, was super generic. And the pictures were small as hell. I think the first post I did was on Loi’s Civic hatchback. It wasn’t the racecar it is today and it was just like, something very basic and streetable. It even had a shaved bay and a nice tuck. Look at the crazy thing today. It’s a fucking beast. Other than that, there was nothing to post. I had to scour the internet on different nights just to dig up Honda content.
How “stickydiljoe.com” came to be was simple. Anything that had The Chronicles in it was already taken. Stickydiljoe is a screenname and moniker that I’ve had for years now and it was catchy, and somewhat dirty, which I think helped me get a couple of extra viewers every month just because it sounded like there would either be porn or weed on this site. Neither of which were heavily prominent on The Chronicles. Now we have a little bit of T&A here and there but that’s also done out of sheer boredom. I also had no camera or any idea how to use one back then, so producing my own content was not something that I could easily do. I had to ask people to take pictures for me, or I would drive down to San Diego to go visit my parents and then take my mom’s point and shoot back with me so I could take pictures at meets. I specifically remember one night when Rodrez was talking to me online and we were just talking about random bullshit like MMA or whatever and he brought up to me that he thought the site was a cool idea, but he had also spoken to Aaron Bonk at the time and he was wondering if I would get into trouble for using pictures from other sites and what not. I didn’t want to get in trouble or fuckin sued or something so I had to get a camera to shoot pictures with, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to run anything on this site without having to quote sources or take pictures from people that I didn’t know. Luckily my boy Loi came through big and told me that I could use his old Canon Rebel XT (Like old 1st gen. Rebel status) and I could keep it for a long period of time because he wasn’t using it anymore. It was at that time when the site really started to take on a new direction. I could finally take pictures. The only problem was, I had no idea how to use a fucking camera. It was like a some crazy complicated shit that I had no idea how to comprehend. As you can see from the earlier pics, they were horrible. But I eventually started to pick it up a bit and hell, up until the early/middle part of this year, I was still using that old Canon to take pictures. I didn’t get the camera I’m using now until I started getting more work from Super Street and Honda Tuning where I could actually pay it off.
The site started out rough…I remember I had some of my own friends that were kinda skeptical. They didn’t think it would go anywhere or they didn’t understand the purpose of it. I had some stickers made back then that I would give out to friends and others to help kinda get the name out there, and I’m not gonna lie…I knew those people threw those stickers away. I can’t blame them but hey, it motivated me to make the site better. I think the site started to become more well known when I did the “Indepth look at horrible idea” series of posts. It was just me being an angry fuckn and talking shit about things I didn’t like about the Honda community. It was funny but it also generated some heat, which was really good. The heat and hate made this site bigger because people would post it up elsewhere and for every 10 people that were angry about the site, I picked up one or two that agreed and began to follow the site closely. Other than those posts, I have to credit my homies from my Phaze2 family for really helping this site take off. Whenever we would go places, I would just bring the camera along to document whatever we did, whether it was eating (something we do alot) or just random car shit that we were doing, which kinda brought about the “behind the scenes” feel of the site. Mikeyyyy can promote anything and sell shit to anyone and he really helped me get the word out about the site, which was an amazing help. Then the site started taking on a different direction, where it began to become more of a lifestyle blog than anything. It was still about the cars but hell, people were starting to take interest in what we were doing. Phaze2 was doing really well at that time, we pulled off consecutive magazine features and basically everyone in the crew ended up being in a magazine, it was great times. That brought in more people to view The Chronicels because they wanted to see what we were doing and how the cars came to be what they are.
It had to have been the first Wek’Fest we went to when the hits started to pour in. People wanted to see coverage from shows that they couldn’t attend. The only problem was that the pictures from the show itself came out horrible. I didn’t know how to shoot in low light at that time so the coverage consisted of like 3 white cars that were sharp and crisp and the other pictures looked like I was running or I had a severe case of Vertigo. Another guy that I have to credit for helping this site move along was Big Mike. When he approached me to cover his rebuild of his Prelude, I didn’t think it was going to get that crazy. I don’t think I knew Big Mike that well at the time but covering a major build would be good for the site. I just didn’t know whether or not a Prelude would appeal to many viewers but it actually did really well. He opened up the eyes of the Prelude community and a steady flow of them still come in to view the site today. It worked out perfectly. And hell Big Mike has become a household name now and everybody knows his car and respects his build because they got to see how it was put together and how much work went into it. I have zero regrets about covering that build and I can honestly say that Big Mike is one of my closest homies today.
The Chronicles became much bigger because it became a lifestyle blog. Hondas became a companion more than a necessity for the site. People were just into what we were doing and what car guys did when they weren’t doing car shit. There is such a heavy stigma out there that west coast guys are just a bunch of rich kids that have their cars built in shops and I hope that this site helped to change that view. We’re just regular people. We build cars, go to shows, bullshit with eachother, and have a blast. We’re also really friends. Most of us aren’t friends with eachother because it helps us pursue a bigger goal in life or with cars. Fuck, we hang out because we enjoy eachother’s company, and I also hope that this site shows that. I would like to think that The Chronicles has even helped bring many of us closer together. Guys that knew of us and didn’t really talk to us before because we weren’t on that level of communication began to approach us because they had seen the site and knew that we were just chill people. Some of them obviously wanted to get some shine so they could get on the site, and even some shops pretended to be our homies and took advantage of the exposure but they are long gone. As easy as it is for people to come up and talk to me, it’s much easier for me to disregard them if I feel they have other motives. What I want people to get from this site later on is when they want to look back on what the Honda community was like back in this time, they could look to the The Chronicles and capture the spirit of our generation. I’m proud to say that this site has become pretty well-known in our community of enthusiasts. The hits that we are generating every month continues to grow and we’re setting new records every month. Not bad for something that was started on a whim and with no expectations of ever being anything near what it is today.
I told myself and my homies that if this site ever makes it to the two year mark, I’m gonna put a meet together to celebrate the anniversary of The Chronicles. I’m not the type to throw meets because I generally don’t have much time nowadays to do it but if it’s to celebrate the site, I’m down. I didn’t know what location to do it at and that was the first and probably the only major stepping stone I encountered along the way. Luckily Ryan from Eibach was kind enough to open up the gates to the Eibach facility for me to use. Eibach is one of the landmarks for Hondas out here because it’s the location of the annual Eibach Honda Meet, something that has become a staple in our community. Having the ability to use this spot is only going to make this meet so much better. The date that was eventually set was also significant, because it is also the date when I first started the site, October 23rd.
I’m proud to announce the 2-year anniversary of The Chronicles aka “2YRS”, which will be held at the Eibach Springs facility on October 23rd, 2010. The event will take place from 1pm-7pm and I will release the complete FAQ for the meet tomorrow, with every question that one might ask regarding this meet. For now, check out the flyer for the event. PLEASE DO NOT POST THIS ELSEWHERE. This is strictly for people that support and follow the site. I don’t want this turning into some random ass meet where like groups of 40 other makes and models of cars show up who have never even heard of the site. That will take up much needed space for people that do follow the site and it is an injustice for you guys who want to actually come out and show your support. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming on here everyday and reading my random ramblings. I never thought this little blog would get anywhere and now we have the opportunity to celebrate two fun-filled, crazy years of The Chronicles. Save the date!…
Careful planning…
Been spending the last couples days working on the parking situation for The Chronicles 2-Year Anniversary. Everything seems to be coming smoothly so far. Once I get the parking situated, then I’ll post up all the details on the event itself. I will have a full FAQ with everything you guys will need to know if you plan on coming to the event. Parking up front, much like Eibach, will be the “VIP” spots and they will be coming in first. I’ll be selling the spots up front for people that want to for sure be up front. Set-up will be very similar to Eibach except I won’t be charging for parking along the sides and the back and spots will be cheaper than the annual Eibach Meet. It just works out easier that way if I can have the front spots spoken for and established. Plus the money from the parking spots up front will help pay for various things at the event like port-a-potties and what not. Just to help cover some costs. I’m sure some of you will be like “why I gotta pay for a meet?” with bad grammar and all. For those I say…no one is forcing you to come. You can park in the back if you want. This is more of a celebration and I want to have a relaxing atmosphere where I don’t have to stand around and park cars all day. I’d like to be able to actually spend time with people and cover the event for the site as well. Anyways, more details to come as I put things together. Thanks everybody for your support. I’d love to have you guys out there.
F*ck The Chronicles!…
I’m actually still working on the pics from Japanese Classic Car Show and so far, they look pretty good. I have a bunch of content on the Datsun 510s that were at the event and that was my main focus every year because I am a huge fan of that chassis. When I finish them I will get them up for you guys to check it out. I was gonna try to finish it and put some up for you guys but I actually have to wake up in a couple of hours to go down to Eibach to talk to Ryan aka vtecvoodoo. I’m working on something huge and if all goes smoothly, I’ll be able to finally make an announcement and give you guys the full details…
So anyways, in one of my random nights of insomnia, I was on youtube and other video sites going through some of those videos that people usually put up with the cartoon-like characters that talk about the import scene or typical stereotypes that they feel need to be addressed. It’s a cool idea but generally they come off kinda wack and totally not funny. I’m not gonna name any videos in particular but I’m sure you have seen them circulated around forums and what not. They just aren’t that great. I found the site that people use to make them and I wanted to see if I could do something that like and possibly make it a little more entertaining and here it is. I just did it for fun, addressing some of the stuff that people would typically say about The Chronicles and the people involved on this site. I had some fun learning how to put videos like that together and I’m happy with the end result. I didn’t think it would be anything big so I posted it on The Chronicles Facebook page as well as my own personal one and it got a great response. Sometimes the best way to deal with things is to be able to laugh at yourself. So take it for what it is and if for whatever reason, some of you actually get offended by it….my bad. Just some light-hearted “humor”…Enjoy. I’ll be back with JCCS coverage later…
Oh, a quick note. Whoever keeps trying to google “Christine Mendoza nipslip” and keeps ending up on The Chronicles, seriously…if and when it happens I will be sure to let you know, okay? Dudes keep trying to search that shit and somehow they end up here. And if you’re wondering why you’re not seeing any of the other posts on the main page, it’s because it’s been adjusted so that only one post at a time appears on the front page now because all the coverage I’m posting is slowing the site down a bit for you guys. Breaking it into single posts will make it easier for the site to load up faster. If you guys want to see the older stuff, I’m sure you know how…Anyways, I’m out…thanks for watching…
From time to time, I will post stuff that is exclusive to the Chronicles’ Facebook page that doesn’t always appear on the main site. If you guys want to see that stuff, make sure to join The Chronicles Facebook Page. I think you just click the “Like” button or whatever it is now….Thanks.
Skunk2 Unmeet 1.0 Coverage…Part 1…
Man, what a weekend. So much to do is what seemed like such a short amount of time. This was the first weekend since the back-t0-back Norcal trips and both days were filled with events to attend. First was the Skunk2 Unmeet and then the next day was JCCS. It was also Ryan Basseri aka Rywire’s birthday so we made it a point to make the most out of the weekend and celebrate his life since he came down to Socal to hang out. The night of the Unmeet was filled with its fair share of debauchery so I’ll include some of the pics from that night in part 2 of this two part coverage of the meet…
Anyways, I made it out to Yorba Linda Regional Park around 11:40 or so with May just in time for the hot dogs to start cooking. The meet had started at 10 but it was still relatively uncrowded at the Unmeet…
I parked next to the DPK guys who had already been there for awhile…
Black Pie…
I brought Yum Yum Donuts because it’s always appropriate to bring donuts to a bbq but everyone seemed to be happy to devour them while the hot dogs were still in its final stages of cooking…
Black Pie realized that I was using my 10mm wide angle lens so he crouched over to meet the angle of the shot. This S2000 belongs to Supertwinz James aka OldManJames aka MacGyNguyen. I call him MacGyNguyen because he can literally take any situation and either turn it into a birthday announcement or online debate…
It was also Travis’ birthday too and he looks oddly uncomfortable here because his girlfriend bought him that gigantic watch which made it impossible for him to get a full extension to put his hand his his pocket…His watch was so big that he could tell the future…
Saturday was also 9/11 so Skunk2 brought out this Osama Bin-ata…ahh, get it…that’s both witty and an obvious play on words….
Ryan, SuperTwinz John, Ryan Der, and SuperTwinz James…May is in the background distributing donuts to Carlos and Jared…
“Hey Jared, who do you think is better looking, me or you? – Me…
Speaking of being better looking than Jared, it was a big day for him. Not because he admitted defeat but because he was getting his DPK sticker that day. Jared became the newest member of DPK that day and we all got together for his inauguration ceremony. There were candles lit on black chrome candle holders, salsa music that was chopped and screwed, 8 pigeon calls, and Black Pie even made a speech….
Sheepey gave an awkward smile of approval…
We all clapped and hugged and wiped tears of joy from our eyes and Jared happily accepted his new brothers and prepared to apply his sticker…
DPK regulation states that the sticker must be applied at exactly 62.38621 degrees of angle so it was important that he got it down correctly…
Congrats to DPK*Jared…
After that it was hot dog time…
Sheepey hooked it up with some foot longs and it made eating them both awkward and delicious…
Skunk2 had a small tent area where people could buy shirts and grab free Unmeet stickers…
Mike from PlanB brought out his Evo X on Enkei NT03s…
Un-intended male sensuality in this picture but I was just trying to get a shot of Jared’s S2000…
A clean DC that was there on Volk GTNs….
OldManJames S2K…
Hasport J32 Civic. Can’t wait to see this thing at Super Lap Battle with the Exospeed front-end on it…
Not bad…
Jose Guzman aka JDM Matter’s DC5…
Morgan’s Skunk2-sponsored K-powered CTR…
Carlos aka Mugen Boy’s S2000 CR…
…and his EK with BYS bumper and SE37Ks…must.be.nice…
DPK*Henry’s RHD hatchback…
Ryan’s CR-X now back to a B-series swap…
DPK*David decided to switch it up and brought his Mugen front lip back and rolled out on some 15-inch RE30s…
Keith aka KeyChain’s Accord. He came out for a good 30 minutes or so to come say what’s up…
Black Pie again…
It was time to break open the Osama Binata so Big Mike assigned birthday boy Ryan to do the job…
…it only took him a couple of swings before he busted it open and a bunch of candy, stickers, and Skunk2 radiator caps fell out…
Brandon doing his video thing for Skunk2…
PlanB Mike’s Evo X…
Jennie, Ejay, and Bolt Boys Frank hanging out…
Nice Ruckus with some copper-plated goods…
DPK*Jared S2000…
Sheeps…
Big Mike MC’ing with the mega phone and Brandon filmed during the push-up competition where the winners won either a Skunk2 radiator cap or t-shirt…
Enrique Rosario doing work. I think he was close to winning it until Rywire came in and did like 78 or something…
Even Pie got involved…he pushed so hard he created a sinkhole and half the spectators at the meet fell in…
That’s about it for today. I got more stuff for you guys tomorrow. Actually with the JCCS stuff and other random pics, there’s gonna be a bunch of content all week…Stay tuned…PEACE…
Another weekend in Norcal…Hella Part 2…
DISCLAIMER: The following post will be mostly non-car/Honda related. This post is more on the lifestyle side of it so if you come on here just to see cars, check back later…
Okay, back with the second half of the Norcal mini-vacation. We didn’t do much on this day but go to the ATS BBQ at Chris Sakai’s place. I gotta say, Dina makes some amazing food. It was a blast and a pleasure to be there. Both the food and the company were excellent…Thanks to the ATS*Family, Chris Sakai and his wife Dina for being such amazing hosts. We all had a great time. I was supposed to shoot Anh’s car that day just so I could do a small write-up on it for The Chronicles but just our luck, as he rolled up, one of his radiator hoses broke and coolant was everywhere. We didn’t want to risk it and drive it anywhere so we just parked it. I guess it wasn’t meant to be, haha!…
Chris and David hanging out…
The Blackest of the Pie…
Jared eating some chicken while Ryan watches on…
Darryl, Jared, and Pie…
The delicious food that we ate all day long…
Assortment of drinks…
Wek’Sos Ken with geniune Honda parts in the back and a drunk Ferd creeping up in the corner…
Norcal dudes hella hanging out and drinking…hella…
The sausage king…dude gobbles up sausage like Pacman…haha…
Ryan and Jared doing their usual 2 hour talks about Seinfeld and how great that show is…Ryan Der randomly got sucked into the conversation…
I’m sure many of you remember this S2000, now rolling on SSR Type-Fs…
ATS*Ron’s hatch…
You know you trust your homies when you allow them to party around your car and have steel chairs inches away from it, haha…and you gotta pop the hood and stunt at the bbq too…
Anh rolled up in his Integra…
…and Ken and David were messing around with it…
…and then the hose blew and Fred had to find another braided hose to fix it…
Intense conversation was had…
Anh stayed for a little bit and then had to go home with a bunch of gifts from everyone for his newborn baby, Charis….
When you see the “Fred Chapman Built” stickers on cars, it’s not really for his contribution to builds. It’s really for his amazing ATS*Miracle Dip that he makes. I don’t know what’s in it because I didn’t want to ruin the magic but that shit was delicious…
Ryan posing while I tried to figure out why one of the flashes weren’t working…
Fred and Jared trying to blame eachother for breaking the toilet…
Group pics even though you can’t see some of their faces…haha…
Fred Chapman and Black Pie…
May and I with the guys in the back…
Pie and Ken…
The Chapman Builts…
After we started cleaning up it was time to head back to the Dolce Hayes Mansion. We didn’t really do anything after because we had to check out early and have lunch with some of the guys before heading back to Socal…
After we checked-out, we headed down the street to Red Robin to grab an early lunch…
Ron, Angel, Chris, Dina, Fred’s kid, and Fred sat at one table while Ryan and us sat at the other…
Ryan drinking a smoothie of some sort…
We all ate, had some laughs and what not then it was back to Socal…
It was a good trip overall. Everything went off without a hitch and it was smooth sailing. Two weeks up in Norcal back to back is definitely not a typical trip I make and it’s probably gonna be the last bit of traveling I do before SEMA in Las Vegas. Thanks to the ATS guys and everyone up in Norcal for being so courtesy and taking care of us. Until next time, I’m out…PEACE.
Another weekend in Norcal…Hella Part 1…
DISCLAIMER: The following posts for the next two days will be mostly non-car/Honda related. The posts are more on the lifestyle side of it so if you come on here just to see cars, check back in a day or two…
Okay, finally back in business. I hadn’t really planned on going up to Norcal back to back weekends but I did promise DPK*David that I would go with him to visit the ATS guys whenever he had planned to go. I didn’t know he had his mind set on Labor Day weekend though, which was just one weekend after I came back from going up there with Rodrez. Luckily for me, Anh was able to hook us up big time with a pretty nice room up in San Jose so money wouldn’t be too big of an issue. I had pretty much just planned on using the money for food and little misc. things like gas so May and I told David and his lady Jackie that we were down and we took off for Norcal late Friday night…
We were gonna get to Norcal really late/early in the am so it was just easier to stay at Ryan aka Rywire’s pad. He’s got a pretty big spot and it wasn’t too far from the hotel so it took us little to no time to check-in to our hotel the next day. By the time we arrived, it was probably about 4:30am or so. We were still pretty awake from the drive so we just kinda hung out before we went to bed…
Hanging out in Ryan’s workshop area where all the Rywire-magic goes down…He’s got a couple of other roommates who are also car guys so there were parts everywhere throughout the house. I literally slept next to a set of BBR wheels and a Backyard Special front bumper in the room that I was staying in…
Trash…I’m just sayin’
Like 5 minutes after we finally went to sleep, Darryl from DPK’s Element pulls up and out comes Black Pie, Jared, and Darryl. I guess they randomly decided to make the drive to Norcal to hang out and the couples weekend that the girls were kinda looking forward to went right out the window, haha…
We all slept for about 3-4 hours and woke up to go eat breakfast and check into our hotels at the Dolce Hayes Mansion…
There wasn’t anything really good to eat in the area and we were gonna grab food again down at the Wharf later on that afternoon so we settled for McDonald’s…
After we finished eating our McNuggets, we were off to Dolce Hayes Mansion…
Here’s the view of the outside as soon as we rolled up. It was a pretty sweet spot to stay at. Very classy and had that nostalgic feel to it. Weddings are really popular here probably because of the backdrop and how it is sort of removed from everything else…Anh showed up to make sure that we were all checked-in properly before he went to work…
It was so nice outside that I decided to get everyone together to take a group shot. From left to right you have Jared, Ryan up front, Anh in the back with half his face covered, Black Pie is in the middle taking up all the space, DPK*David, Jackie, Darryl, and May…
Ferd from ATS wanted to go down to Fisherman’s Wharf with us so we headed over to his pad to meet up with him…
I didn’t know any of the Norcal heads actually lived in one of those houses that’s on some crazy hill with a driveway that is pretty much impossible …
Pie doin’ his thing…
I took the liberty of takng out complete shots of Ferd’s project because I wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted it out there or not…
Darry’s Element on TE-37 wheels…
Here we are just getting into downtown San Francisco…
May forgot her hoodie at the hotel and it was pretty fuckin’ cold so she went out and picked-up this “Hella SF” hoodie…
Jared attempting the reach-around on metal chilren…
Another group shot, this time including myself and ATS Ferd…
The girls took a picture together as well…
It was time for food again so I went to the usual spot to grab a shrimp/crab sandwich and calamari…May got the clam chowder and it must have been good because we both look super excited in the picture…
Ryan paperbagging it and looking as miserable as possible…
After we finished eating our seafood, we walked over to the old arcade museum because a couple of the guys that were with us had never seen it before…
Most of the games were old as shit but were still playable. This machine that Black Pie is playing with apparently isn’t used for arm-wrestling and it’s primary purpose now is to eat people’s quarters….
Ryan hand-cranking an old XXX machine…I imagine beating off was quite a task during the era when these machines were in use. I mean, what if you’re about to finish and then you have to insert another quarter or something. Then you have to start hand-cranking the lever again to build momentum and you lose your own momentum on the other arm and you can’t even blow your load on the side of the machine anymore…shits wack…
I’m not entirely sure what they were doing here. Probably a failed attempt at break dancing or something…
On our way to Ghirardelli Square, I saw this cable car operator snapping a picture of something. Not sure what it was since he probably rolls through there on more than one occassion everyday…
Our view on the walk over to Ghirardelli…
We got some free chocolate samples and David hung out with some of the ATS homies while the rest of us went to go do some wine testing. I don’t know shit about wine and I didn’t feel like drinking anyway so I just watched…
Jared, May, and Darryl wine-tasting…
It started to get dark and some of us separated from the rest of the crowd so that we could get ready for dinner with ATS Ferd for his birthday…
I ate at Osha Thai the weekend before with Rodrez so I decided to go back so that David and Jacky could try it. David said he was a big fan of Thai food so we definitely had to go…
May and Jackie after we all had a shot at Osha Thai…
May actually got some video during dinner with her Canon S3…Kinda random but I thought it was cool to capture the moment…
Ferd and David taking a shot of Patron for Ferd’s birthday. DPK David is a trendsetter and does the “lime before the shot” method…haha…it takes them awhile to do the shot because everyone kept trying to take a picture…
Here we are doing the birthday song thing to Ferd…It sounds like there were about 40 people singing the song but it’s just the 5 of us…and the waitress of course who just decided to lip-sync it and wave her arms around…
That’s about it for today. The shot above was actually taken before dinner. Ferd took us to the top where we could get a view of San Francisco. It was an awesome sight but it was also foggy and cold as shit. The shot is actually way clearer than the actual view…Anyways, I’m gonna post up the rest tomorrow of the ATS BBQ at Chris Sakai’s place. I was gonna post it all up in one day but I fell asleep like 4 times just doing the first half of this post…Alright, back tomorrow, peace…
Another weekend over…
Spent the Labor Day weekend up in Norcal with some friends and just got back last night. I’m going through the pictures now and it’s not too much car stuff, if any…stay tuned if you wanna see some hanging out and random ass shit. I’m tired as hell and gonna pass out now…peace. Back later…
Announcement time!…
Oh before we begin, how many of you remember this scene from Under Siege with Steven Segal? This was like one of the big action movies of the time and Erika Eleniak was the star of Baywatch and all that and she had this one scene where she jumped out of a cake and got all naked and shit. Then Steven Segal like rolls up on her and points a gun to her face, killing all boners of men of the early 90s. Of course only people who are 30 and above would probably remember this scene because it was probably the inspiration behind the onset of puberty. The movie overall wasn’t too bad, typical Segal movie where he like, dodges every bullet and does some akido move and kills everyone but it was a pretty successful movie. It lead to the sequel of course where basically the same storyline took place but on a fuckin train and there were no titties involved. This scene with Erika Eleniak jumping out of a cake and showing her goods is special to me because this was probably the first set of titties I seen EVER. Haha…
Yes, I know this is totally random but I bring this up because I was actually looking for a picture of a lady jumping out of a cake so I could post it up on here and tell you guys about the 2-year anniversary celebration meet that I will be throwing in October. October 2010 will mark the 2 year birth date of The Chronicles and I wanted to get everyone together to celebrate. It’ll be a meet with the homies, friends, Hondas of course, and hopefully all of you guys. I’m hoping it’ll be a big thing but even if it isn’t, I don’t really care because it’s celebrating all the work I and many of my friends have done to make this site successful. When I first started this whole thing with The Chronicles, I had no expectations. I didn’t know it was gonna last one year, 2 weeks, 3 years, whatever. I have been delightfully surprised by how big this place has gotten and I think it would be really cool to get everyone together to celebrate. Now the meet is still in it’s infancy so I have not really made any solid plans yet. I know it will be towards the end of October but I am currently looking for a location to have this meet at. When I figure everything out, I will let everyone know. It would be a pleasure to have all of you there so make plans to come party with The Chronicles for it’s 2-year anniversary!
In other news, I have a couple things going on this week so keep an eye out for that. I’m also heading up to Norcal once again this weekend because I told DPK*David I would go with him and hang out with some of the ATS Garage guys. Also, The Chronicles is bigger than it has ever been, thanks to you guys. With just a day or so left in the calender month, we are only a couple hits away from hitting the 100k mark for the first time ever! I think we might even hit it by the end of today. That’s crazy because the all-time best month previously was just a little over 85K. Just goes to show you how busy this place has been and how many new viewers we have garnered since the beginning in 2008. I used to be happy with like 40 hits per day, to hit the 100k mark in one month is amazing and I couldn’t be happier about it. Anyways, thanks everybody for their continued support and look out for details on The 2-year Chronicles Birthday extravaganza!…
A Nostalgic Moment…One of the Worst Shows EVER…
Ah man, I haven’t done one of these in awhile…For those of you who are somewhat new to the site, I used to do these segments quite often when content was kinda slow and I really didn’t even have a camera to shoot with yet. If you guys want to find some of the older posts, just go to the search box on the left and type in “A nostalgic moment” and the other posts should pop up. It’s kinda cool for you older guys who were around during that time and for the newer heads to see what stuff was like a couple years back…
Alright, so in my near decade of doing car shows (besides the ones I just attended when I had no car as a younger teen), I have experienced many different events. Some were great, some were even greater, and some were fucking awful. I remember doing a DUB car show one year and it was probably the worst and definitely the most ghetto car show I have ever attended. I don’t have pictures of that event because I wasn’t taking pictures back then nor did I have a camera. But let me tell you, it was fuckin hell. They had us parked on grass by this fuckin pond where the cars kinda just sank into the ground and then they had a whole concert thing where people just got fuckin wasted. I swear, one guy got so drunk that he was passed out next to the stage…and people were fucking robbing his ass. Like the dude was passed out laying on the floor and people would just walk over to him and took his wallet, ripped his chain off of him, took his watch, shit was terrible! I mean, I wasn’t about to do shit just because I don’t give a shit about the guy and he shouldn’t have been wasted to that point in the first place but shit was crazy…fights were happening, the most unattractive booty hopping contest of all time, you name it, shit went down that day. Females just had no shame at that show. I specifically remember after the show, one of the dudes I used to show followed me to the nearest Denny’s to grab a bite to eat with the rest of the homies and while we were waiting for them to show up in the parking-lot, this black chick just walked right by us, saw us, smiled, and then pulled her top down and showed us her titties. She didn’t say a fuckin word or anything. I mean, it’s always cool to see naked tits in public but that was just bizarre. I wanna say this happened around 2003 or 2004 but man, after that one experience, I told myself I would never do a DUB show again. I also told myself I would never go to one again either but with the random debauchery that I have grown accustomed to over the last year or so, I just might be down to see what kind of crazy shit happens again…
Anyways, I was looking through my hard drive for some older pictures the other day and found these pics from Hot Import Daze in San Diego. This was during the early summer of 2006. Things were very different then. I didn’t even have anyone to show with at the time cuz my old crew had broken up so I just showed my car just to be there because I was living in SD at the time. I had some friends going as well but they were parked with their respective car clubs. This show wasn’t bad in that people got robbed or whatever but what made it so terrible was that it was a Hot Import Daze event, and it fucking rained HARD all weekend. That shit was coming down super hard the night of roll-in the Friday before the show and it was hell. I had just washed my Accord and after I parked, it just started raining and the car looked like shit the next morning. What was even shittier was that I used to know this one guy who I thought was one of my best friends then and he had gave me his word that he would pick me up after I dropped off my car but when I gave him a call to come give me a ride, this motherfucker told me he was in LA shopping with his girlfriend or some shit. So I ended up having to call my mom of all people to come pick me up after she got out of work. So I pretty much stood in the pouring rain for over an hour until she could get out of work to come grab me…shit was brutal. The day of the show, it was actually sunny for like 1-2 hours and then the rain just came down like crazy again. Probably hailed too, who fucking knows…
Here are the only pictures I have from the show that day…It was already late by this time and I had borrowed my friends camera to take some pictures just so I could remember to start a site 2 years later so I could tell you about how fuckin horrible the rain was. Yeah, I’m a prophet and I knew this would come in useful some day…
They shoulda called the show “Hot Import RAINZE”…This was a couple months after my cover feature in Honda Tuning had come out. I was still on the Sprint Hart CP-Rs at the time and I didn’t think I would ever get different wheels because I was such a huge fan of CP-Rs. I had a Stark RC as a spare and I put it on display. It was raining so hard that the current that developed almost dragged it away…Oh and Yokohama Paradas in the rain? Not the business…fuckin car like hydroplaned all the way home…
What was cool about parking by myself that day was that I actually ended up parking in front of these two guys. They probably had no idea who I was back then, nor would they remember parking behind me that day but these two cars belonged to Gil and Wil Salazar of Circuit Hero fame. Back then Circuit Hero didn’t even exist yet…I still remember exactly how Wil’s EG sounded as it drove in and I swear to you, I fell in love with Civics that day. The car was a beast…Gil’s DC2 was sick back then too…if you don’t know who he is, he now had that black Circuit Hero DC2 Type R with the K-swap and all the ASC custom fabrication…
Man, I love this thing. I remember him having his plaque of one of his features that he had on display. It was on this fancy tripod thing and all but it was pouring so hard he put it away…This Civic is still around today actually. He did a K-swap awhile back and now he tracks the car regularly. He did the 2009 Super Street FF Battle and did pretty well…Not sure what he’s been up to lately but this car is also special to me because it was also the second car feature I ever wrote back when I first started out at Honda Tuning a couple years back. It was probably 2008 or so, it seems like it has been ages…
Gil aka Guillotine’s DC2…I almost forgot about this car because of how sick his black R is now. This was a much more mild build compared to that one but it just has a timeless look to it. If he brought this car out today to a meet or something, people would still be all over it. If you put his current car side by side with this one, nothing about either two would be similar at all…
This of course, is the Civic that once used to belong to Rodrez. Man, I can’t believe it’s already been over 4 years since I met this guy…I think I took a picture of his Civic because it was the first time I had seen it in person. I had many encounters with this car later on in the future. I even had to help him push it into a show once during roll-in for another show because he was having an issue with his ITBs, which strangely enough, are now on Phaze2 Arnel’s Civic. There was also another time when he had a fuel leak and I had to take a hose clamp off my car at one of the Nisei Showoffs just so he could get home. He loved this car on the SSRs but my personal favorite are these bronze TE37s. I had only met him one other time before this show and it was when he shot my car for HT in north county SD. Now the guy is not only the dude I answer to at Honda Tuning but also one of my closest personal friends…crazy how things work out in life…
I’m sure many of you remember this car. If not, it’s the R34 that was built by the Tjin brothers, who I have also had the pleasure of meeting. I think Gene sometimes drops in to check out the site and he’s a cool dude. This Skyline was pretty intense, even by today’s crazy standards. It had HREs, the bay was fully tucked, full custom cage, and even had air jacks. It was also unique because 4-door R34 Skylines in the US were unheard of. Shit, I don’t even think I’ve seen another one since this car that is in the states. This build was FUCKING AMAZING. I don’t know of too many cars that could touch it in terms of shear quality and detail…it was on some 2015 shit…
That’s pretty much it for today…just wanted to show you guys a little bit of the scene from a couple years back. Before I leave, here’s a pic of some creepin’ that I did even back in ’06. She wasn’t a famous import model or anything but if there’s anything I want to take away from this picture below, is that I hope she’s over 18 now….haha…just kidding…maybe….=X
I’m looking at this picture now and I am now wondering who decided to hang their fucking purse on my side mirror….
That’s all for today folks…thanks for looking…Hoped you guys enjoyed the “JDM angle” pics…fuckin neck hurts now from looking at them…
Summer Weekend in Norcal…
Nisei Showoff 2010 was a blast and I couldn’t be happier with how everything went but one of the things I look forward to during Nisei weekend is the 12+ hours I get to catch up on sleep afterward. The only problem with that was of the ridiculous heatwave that hit the week following. I can’t even sleep comfortably because it’s so fuckin hot. Luckily we had planned a mini-vacation to head up to Norcal awhile back and it was a coincidence that the heatwave hit. It was good to get away from everything for a weekend and see some new spots in Norcal that we didn’t get to see when we were up there for Wek’Fest. The weather was in near-triple digits down in Socal but up where we were staying in San Francisco, it was barely 70 degrees. I didn’t bother bringing a jacket because I just wanted to enjoy the cold but it actually got so cold to the point where I had to borrow a hoodie from Rodrez, which I then decided to spill orange juice all over. Anyway, we left late Thursday night and got to Brisbane around 1am in the morning, got some rest, and then headed out to go eat breakfast…
We headed out in the Honda Tuning project TSX towards downtown SF to try-out this one spot. The girls love going to eat at places they either read about or see on TV so our meals are usually pretty good…
The first spot we hit up was Dottie’s Cafe. It’s a small hole-in-the-wall spot that is very old-fashioned and there was a line waiting outside to be seated. The place probably doesn’t hold more than 25-30 people so the wait was expected…
It was so small inside…the moment I walked inside I think I already tasted someone else’s food. Dottie’s is a real old school spot from the decor, to the style of cooking, to the people inside. There were some old ass people eating there…
The first thing we tried was the grilled corn bread and it was every bit as good as it looks…
May got the chorizo omelette…
…I ordered the 3 egg omelette with avocado and sausage…
…and Rodrez ordered enough to fill the whole table. Tes got pancakes with random stuff inside of it…
I “kilt” it…
After we finished eating, we took off to go look at sideways houses with garages that are impossible to put cars into…
…”Phuket”…
We parked in front of El Balazo mexican food spot and it looked pretty good. We had just finished eating so we actually didn’t make it back to this spot to try it out until the next night…
Parked on Haight St…
Ran across this spot that had some cool collectables…
Stussy store with a crazy white kid running down the street…
Shoe monster inside one of the shoe stores…
After walking up and down Haight St. for a bit, we went up the street to Upper Playground…
Walrus shooting lasers out of his fucking mouth…
Cool sidewalk art…
Tried on this sick japanese partyline/phone jerk/creep asian porn ad jacket inside Upper Playground. Shit was sick but May wouldn’t let me buy it. Fucking thing also smelled a little bit like melting barbies so it was probably a good idea that I didn’t. That and I don’t want to walk around and have random old Japanese men shark me and try to bust a nut on me unsuspectingly…
Crazy cable system they have on the streets of downtown SF…looks pretty sketchy actually…
Ran into this old black dude that came up to me and wanted me to take a picture of him with all his albums he was selling. Not really sure why he posed like that but dude was out of his mind. He told me he was gonna sign the release forms for me to use it or whatever…
Random asian Chevron we stopped at. We actually did a lot more that night and went out to eat and walk around but I didn’t bring my camera and I’m sure most of you are here to see the car shit that we did…
We went home a little bit earlier than usual because we had to be up by 5am to go meet up with Raul who was getting his Civic shot by Rodrez for Honda Tuning. Even though it was a mini vacation, it was also for work. Rodrez had two shoots set-up that weekend and it was important that we got those knocked-out before the trip was over…
It was cold as shit that morning…We were right by the pier so it was expected but damn, it was a complete 180 from the weather down in Socal…
Setting up the equipment…
The girls decided it was a good opportunity to go for a morning run and to go check out the farmer’s market nearby…
Running in 40 degree weather was probably interesting. I wouldn’t know because Black Pie one brain-washed me and told me that only guys with sugar in their tanks run. I don’t know what that means but the only time I run is when a dragon or a hobo with a knife is chasing me so I have no idea how their run went…
It got bright at just the right time and we got started right away as soon as Raul showed up. It was interesting that we shot out by the pier because we came all the way up from Socal and Raul drove out from Lake Tahoe to meet us…
There couldn’t have been a better spot to shoot at. There were no other cars nearby, plenty of space, and the bay bridge in the backdrop was perfect…
Interior shots…
While Rodrez was doing that, I was walking around snapping everything I saw. This of course is the Honda Tuning TSX project that Rodrez is dipping around in. Love the 19-inch Advan RS-D wheels…
The shoot went pretty smoothly and Rodrez knocked it out pretty quick…
Once we cleaned up, Rodrez let me play around with his lighting while we waited for the girls to come back from the work-out…
70-200mm..
10mm wide angle…
We had a couple hours to spare before we had to meet up with the guys from ATS Garage so we stopped by Pier 23 for lunch…By then, the sun had finally decided to show up but it was still pretty cold…
How courteous of them to welcome us with naked asses from the 1940s…
Iced-tea…
May’s clam chowder and garlic bread…
My shrimp and crab sandwich with fries…shit was bomb as hell!…
Fried calamari…
Tes’ seafood sliders with fries…
Rodrez’s fish and chips that he was waiting all week for…
After we finished eating, we decided to hit up Ghirardelli Square. They always give out free chocolate samples there and some of us bought chocolate to bring home for others…
By the time we finished waiting in line to pay for chocolate, it was time to head back to grab Rodrez’s gear and head down to Hayward to meet up with Chris Sakai and the ATS Garage homies…
We got there a little late because of the crazy traffic down by the Wharf but it was all good because all the ATS guys were down at the house just chillin’ anyway. Rodrez was shooting Chris Sakai’s EK that evening but EVERYBODY decided to come out to watch…
We normally don’t really like that many people around because it tends to cause a scene but that’s just how the ATS guys roll. When one of them goes to the ATM, all 40 of them have to come along, haha….It was cool though because they were really familiar with the area and nobody hassled us for being there…
Like I said at the beginning of the year, Chris Sakai and Ryan Der’s EKs are probably the best out there right now and it was good to see Chris finally get his time in the spotlight…These two cars are amazing builds. You really have to see them in person to truly appreciate all the details…
Sunny from Franklin Autobody broughtout his Insight on air…
Angel wasn’t there but Fred and the guys brought his S2000 out to catch some sunlight…
Jay from JDMEGO and I were just having a discussion over AIM about how awesome this S2000 is…everything about it is on point. Just to see it roll down the street with us with its wide stance is crazy…
Ken from Wek’Sos came out to chill…
Rodrez doing what he does best…
Ryan aka Rywire mid-sneeze…
Fred Chapman rockin’ his Chronicles steez…
Ryan Der sharing some laughs with the rest of the ATS guys…
Here’s some larger-sized pics of Angel’s S2000…just because. Click on the link below to see the larger version…
ATS*Ferd…
Ken so he has more facebook pictures…
ATS*Fred…
I don’t know what they were laughing about and I felt left out, so I jumped in and fake laughed to make it not awkward. I even busted out the belly-clincher which I have only had to use 3 times in 28 years…
Sunny and his baby…
Rodrez going over some shots…
Chris’ J’s hood…
Puppy…
Anh talking to Chris about how it feels to be featured…
16 ATS guys putting Chris’ hood back on…
Love the Rando kit…
ATS*PattyCakes…
Finishing it up with some interior shots…
Two more of the S2k just because…
After Rodrez completed the shoot, we cleared out and head back to our area. Then we went down to Haight Street again to go eat at El Balazo. Shit was pretty decent for Norcal mexican food but we went in with no expectations… it was time to go relax in the hotel room and watch TV after that…
We made a shopping run before we headed back to Socal and I spotted this Delorean that was parked right across from us…
…and whatever this was supposed to be…
That’s a wrap…back to Socal…thanks for looking…PEACE.
Nisei Showoff 2010 Coverage…Part 5…The Finale…
Yes, this is it, the final installment of the Nisei Showoff 2010 coverage. It’s been quite a week, filled with coverage from one of the best car shows today. I’m gonna wrap the coverage up today with just a couple more pictures for you guys. I’m actually putting this together as I type in a hotel in Northern California. I decided to take a break and go 6 hours up north to chill for a bit and soak in the nice weather up here. It is hot as shit right now and heat and I just aren’t a very good mix. I wanted to finish this off and not skip a day so even though I’m away, I’m still updating. It’s the least I can do considering how crazy the traffic to this site has been lately. Anyways, enough with that, here are the rest of the pics….
I absolutely love the new look of Salem’s TSX…the J’s Racing front is definitely different but it gives the TSX such a menacing look…
The whole car is basically a moving J’s Racing catalog for the TSX…The white on white kind of gives it a much more subtle look but there is so much more lurking within…
Yes, I’m sure you guys have had thoughts that maybe he should go slightly lower and I must agree. I think the lower stance would give the car a much better look. I’ve talked to Salem a bunch of times about it already. The only thing is that it is already corner-weighted and balanced for his specific set-up. If he were to lower it some more he would have to go back and redo everything and that isn’t exactly cheap…
As the day was drawing near the close of the event, we began to take everything down. The award ceremony was going to start soon so we wanted to make sure to get up there and see who won…
While I was putting some stuff away in Salem’s TSX, we spotted this copy of Assparade #25 in his trunk. I guess his “friend” worked at a place that distributes that stuff so he got ahold of some copies…
…he also had this copy of a Brazzers DVD and I was like, “fuck it”, let’s see if anybody wants to buy this shit…What’s better than pornstars? Pornstars that like it big of course, this has to sell…
I walked over to the Praxis guys and they had a group nervous laughter about it, like when you want to buy some porn but your homies are around and everyone is trying to act like they don’t beat…
Then I asked Yee, who came all the way down to visit, and he thought hard about it, HARD….but then he said that it would disgrace his people who are from the “Hmong-tains” as he calls it. They traditionally can’t not beat off to any person who isn’t Asia Carrera and/or “likes it big”. I say Asia Carrera because his people are still stuck in mid-90s era pRon…haha…man that’s fucked up…
So I shouted out to Freddie from Autofashion, who was at the booth next to us, and I was like… “Yo, you want a copy of Pornstars Like it Big??”…
He was like…”What? Nah man…I actually already got that copy right here!” I guess it was a popular DVD…What are the odds?…
Okay, so it was awards time. Antonio from Motor Mavens did his usual routine of announcing the awards and I actually walked back to go make sure my stuff was all there still and to finally go take some pictures of cars. This was actually a perfect time to go because the lighting wasn’t so harsh and most of the people there would be up in the trophy area already…
Saw this Evo there wearing Voltex armor…this thing is dying for a wing. It just looks incomplete with the Voltex aero and no wing…
Another shot of Sam’s Spoon front…
Art’s S2000…
A couple of IS sedans and a Supra from the ItsJDMYo area…
The Autofashion line-up…
Why not another shot of Sam’s wheels and brakes…
Alexisthemovie was helping Antonio get some quick shots for his own personal blog…
Really clean, traditionally done-up DC2…
Really nice Accord wagon I always see…Heard he was getting a swap done soon too and he asked for Rywire for all the details on a harness and what not. Can’t wait to see that when it’s done…
Nice hatch on M7s…
Phil Robles’ track Civic…
This Lotus on Work RSZ-R wheels was badass. He has gunmetal ones on this side and on the other side he has the same Work wheels in white…
ATS*Ferd with his hood back on…
Milton’s 350Z…
LOVE THIS THING!…Oh man, this had to be one of the best cars at the show…Everything thing about it man, I love it…
Gotta give props to some of these guys who have been doing this for longer than any of us can remember…
Billy’s IS300 right before he won his “Showoff Auto” award, which is about the equivalent of a “best of show”…
Danny from Norcal’s Laguna Seca Blue 4-door…
I know one of you guys mentioned in one of the comments that I didn’t take any pictures of Juan Lemus’ del Sol. Well unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to go over to his area to take a good shot, but I did catch the car leaving…
One final shot of that sick ass TL that was in the Autofashion booth…
By this time, everyone was walking back over to their respective areas as awards came to an end. One dude that ran back in total shock was Sam. He was so excited that he won that he was running around hugging everyone. Guy acted like he just won the fucking lottery…haha. Or he won the NBA Championship or something. It was cool as shit to see him so excited. I guess we have all been a part of the culture so long that we’ve almost become kind of numb to the idea of winning. Sure it’s cool to win, but Sam truly appreciated it and took it for everything it was. The dude had his car plowed by a Jeep not too long ago on the street, and then the night before Nisei, someone rear ends him. And he still came out to show support and even won an award. It’s awesome man, congrats Sam. You really did deserve it…
Sam with his Best ES/FG award…
Tony won once again as well. I think he won “Sports Car Showoff” or something to that extent. Rack up another one for Tony, he’s had a great year…
Big Mike didn’t even expect to win anything and he came back with a Best Honda award. If anyone has had a good year, it would have to be Big Mike. Not only did he win Best Honda at Nisei 2010, he also won Best Honda at Wek’Fest. Both very prestigous awards that are terribly hard to win and Big Mike pulled it off. That speaks volumes for his build and the execution of his Prelude. It truly is one of the best around and he totally deserves the best that comes to him…
After that, people began to roll out and some of us stuck around to shoot the shit for a bit. We weren’t in any real rush to get home so we just decided to let all the other cars go first. After I got home, I knocked the fuck out and missed the festivities at DPK David’s house and the birthday party for Armando Flores Jr….
That’s all folks. I just want to thank everyone that has continued to show support for this site and those of you who came by the booth to either purchase some goods, or even just to pass a kind word in my direction. I spoke to so many people that day and it’s good to hear that so many of you enjoy the site. If I didn’t get a picture of your car, don’t take offense or be angry, I just had so much to do that day that I definitely know I missed out on a lot of cars. I would personally like to thank Salem, Big Mike, Tony Khamly, Arnel, Jared, and Sam for being in my booth and helping represent The Chronicles and The Top Ten Hondas of year’s past and present. Also would like to thank May, Doug, Travis, Ejay, Jenny, and everyone else that helped run the booth that day and help me set up and tear down. You guys are amazing and I am honored to have you in my life. Alright, time to go enjoy my mini-vacation in Norcal. Hope you guys enjoyed the coverage, I’m out….PEACE.
Remember…The Chronicles…Nobody does it better!
Store is back, Nisei Edition Chronicles stickers and 2XL T-shirts now available…
What’s up guys, just want to let everyone know that the Chronicles Nisei Edition sticker is now available. These were a huge hit at the Nisei Showoff and I couldn’t be happier with the stunning gold leaf material. They come in both gold leaf with black backing or white backing. Get them while you can because they are in limited supply…
Official Chronicles t-shirts are also now completely restocked and I also have 2XL available now for all you bigger peeps that wanted to rock a shirt but never could. I sold a bunch of these at Nisei so grab these while you can…
NISEI.SHOWOFFxTHE.CHRONICLES revealed…
I’ll be honest, I should have done a better job of getting the word out there maybe a couple weeks ago but both Ken Myoshi and I have been so busy that it’s just been hard to do so. I’m pretty sure I brought this up once or twice before but for those of you who don’t know, Ken hit me up a while back when he announced that it was going to be possible to do Nisei Showoff again. Big Mike had been posting up randomly on the NWP forums about maybe doing something big for The Chronicles for Nisei and Ken liked the idea. It was just a matter of getting a hold of eachother to iron out the details. I was flattered when he hit me up, afterall, this is a rather small operation in the bigger spectrum of what Import Showoff has done the last decade. He told me he wanted to do a spotlight section where I would have a booth and I would highlight the previous Top Ten Hondas of years past. It sounded like a good idea and I told him I was down, we just needed the Hondas. The last two years have presented some great builds to the site but there are maybe half of them that either don’t exist anymore or the cars have been parted or sold. I hit up some of the guys who I knew were still going strong and have even changed their set-ups to make their cars even better. These guys were cool enough to agree to do it and I think I have a pretty solid line-up for you guys, maybe even some surprises…
Of course you will have to wait until Nisei to see them but if you guys could help me spread the word about this, it would be much appreciated. It is only a week away and I’m sure everyone is already excited. Doing the “Top Ten Showoff” would only add to the excitement. I still have a bunch of stuff to figure out before then but here’s a breakdown of what The Chronicles will be offering at Nisei Showoff 2010…
-We’re looking at 4-5 of the Top Ten Hondas from year’s past. Some making a return from hiatus, some with new set-ups to surprise the crowd
-I will have a booth there along with the usual suspects and like Eibach, May might be making some cookies…haha.
-By popular demand, I will finally have XXL Chronicles shirts for the big boys. Everytime I’m at an event someone has been asking me when I’m gonna make some bigger shirts and it’s finally happening. I will also have the usual sizes as well so if you guys want a Chronicles tee, make sure to stop by the booth and grab one while they last.
-A limited Nisei Showoff edition Chronicles decal. Everyone knows I’ve been making limited cuts and colors of the Chronicles stickers for every major event and the tradition will continue. The “Championship Edition” stickers are gonna be taken down soon to make way for the Nisei Showoff Edition sticker. I’m debating on whether or not I want to release these before the show or just make these available to showgoers first before putting them up online.
-Of course I will be providing event coverage as only The Chronicles can provide. I’m sure all of you who are showing will have your best on display and I can’t wait to see it all.
-Possibly some “Special Guests”…you never know
I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty stoked for this event. Nisei Showoff is an event I always get hyped for but being able to do this collaboration with Ken Myoshi and Showoff makes it that much better. I hope to see you guys out there. I know a couple east coast/mid-west peeps will be coming out too so it’s just gonna be a blast. NISEI.SHOWOFFxTHE.CHRONICLES 2010…
Super Street FF Battle 2010…Day 2…
Ahhh, finally caught up on sleep. Now we can finally get to day 2 of the FF Battle. Again, I’m not gonna release any kind of results or who was winning, or generally any numbers because those are kept under wraps until it all goes to print but this is just the stuff I caught from FF Battle. Day 1 was the dyno sessions and 2 was the official race day at Autoclub Speedway…Exclusive shit, only seen on The Chronicles…Let’s roll…
Raceline FA…
Hasport J32 Civic and an FA5 turbo…
This coupe belongs to Kane and was built and stayed in pretty much the exact same condition (aesthetically) long before many of you probably even knew how to drive…
Very simple on the outside but the car made very good power…
Not sure whose car this was but it was clean…good fitment on the Enkeis too…
Big Mike…
The Super Street staff…
Circuit Hero DC2…
Salem came out and we all rolled to Autoclub after breakfast…
I won the award for total opposite of what belongs at the FF Battle…
Loi and Morgan checkin out their General tires…
Airbag Club aka Ryan Der…
Tim Kuo piloted Morgans CTR and here is his S2000…
Gil from Circuit Hero representing The Chronicles…thank you sir…
Generations…
Jonathan Wong…
CR-X on Mugen MR5 Final Versions…
Car and owner…
Checking for tire/wheel clearance…
Off to make a run…
Lining-up to run…
Loi and his Import Alliance shirt…
On the straights…
Randomnessofjade CTR…
Charles Trieu…
Jonathan Wong showing off his Super Street tee…
Back to the pits…
Phil Robles and J’s Racing/Chargespeed equipped Civic…
Making sure everything is cool…
Ryan Der’s custom Snap-On shift knob that’s connected to his C’s shifter…
Big Mike riding around on his bike…
Having an interesting discussion…
Mr. Wong doin’ work…
Brandon, creator of Autolife DVD and now responsible for Skunk2′s vids applying a camera mount to Morgan’s CTR…
Buddy Club seats…
Phil on the track having the time of his life…
Back to the pits again…
After that run, it was getting a little too hot on the track and it was near the end of the day so we took off to Skunk2 for awhile to go hang out…
Salem and Aaron Bonk…possibly talking about plans for Salem to run at next year’s FF Battle…
Random shots of Salem’s ride while I was chillin…
That’s it for today, back with a couple more from Day 3 tomorrow…
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…
