The Top Ten Most Viewed Chronicles Posts Of The Year…
With the year quickly winding to an end, it’s good to take a look back at the year and see how 2011 has turned-out. This year, I can proudly say that The Chronicles is as popular as it has ever been in its 3-years of existence. We have eclipsed well-over 3-million hits all-time a couple months back and December will probably close out as the best statistical month we have ever had. Not bad for a site that does zero advertising and has a very devoted audience of mostly Honda-owners, right? I normally do a Top Ten Hondas of the year and that will come in a couple days, but I felt like this time would be good to reflect and take a look back at the most popular posts of the year. This stats are slightly skewed because viewers don’t have to always click on a particular post to see it, but it’s hard to dispute 365 days worth of viewing and clicking time. These are the ten most viewed (clicked) posts of the entire year on The Chronicles. With so much more traffic this year and a flurry of new viewers, it’s cool to see what posts probably attracted many of you to The Chronicles in the first place…
One post that omitted from the list is the link that takes people to The Chronicles Storefront. The storefront link has no bearing on the posts or content on the site so it’s not necessary to include it. I was pretty surprised by some of the results. I mean, the most viewed are usually because they contain some sort of drama or situation that is bigger than the site itself but it’s surprising to see some posts that were completely drama-free and actually dealt with what this site was about in the first place; cars, Hondas in particular…
I’ve attached the links to the original posts as well so you can view them if you missed them during the year, or just weren’t a regular viewer of The Chronicles at that time…
We’re going to start from bottom to top (10-1) with number one being the most clicked on post of 2011…I’m sure some of you can already imagine which post it was, haha…
10. The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2010…#1…
I wasn’t at all surprised by this….If anything, the whole Top Ten Hondas concept has been one of the most popular ideas on this site. I was a little surprised by how the #1 selection ended-up being the least viewed out of the three posts. I guess you can just chalked that up to there being more reading content on the other two posts that contained choices 2-10, and with them being image-heavy, people probably clicked on those to view that post individually. With the number one selection, there wasn’t as much reading content nor images to load so it was easier to view just on the site itself…
It’s good to see that one of the most popular posts also contained two of the most popular builds of 2010…
9. “You Should See This…”
This was popular because it dealt with all automotive enthusiasts in general and not just Honda guys. It was one of the most talked about events during the early part of the year and showed just how incredibly stupid some people can be. The ordeal took place at an M&M Donuts meet down in Anaheim, CA and had to do with a kid who apparently was going after some guy who had stolen his wheels. I know, it sounds like one of those stories where there is going to be a happy ending and the original owner getting his wheels back, but it had absolutely nothing to do with stolen wheels. The whole story went an entirely different direction when the kid decides to drive like a fucking maniac asshole in front of a police officer and then subsequently getting pulled over in the process and getting a thorough reaming from the police. It’s totally understandable that somebody would want to go after the person that may or may not have stolen his wheels, but to rage out in a parking lot full of people in front of the police was a fucking terribly idea. Stupidity and ignorance are two reasons why this post made it into the most viewed of 2011…
“Did I FUCKING stutter??!”….haha…
8. “It’s The Chronicles of a Mastermind Yo!!”…featuring Amy Fay and Chaba…
This particular post makes the list because there are a lot of perverts on the internet…and many of them are fans of The Chronicles…haha. Amy Fay was definitely one of the “it” girls of 2011 in our import automotive community as was Chaba, so it’s not wonder why a post containing images of them ended up being one of the more clicked on posts of the year. I put the emphasis on Amy Fay because I spent a majority of the time at this shoot taking photos of her, while Tony and the It’s JDM Yo!! crew were shooting Chaba. It was a good day because well, it’s always good to try something new like shooting models, but also because I got a chance to see the twin Spirit Rei Odvias in-depth for the first time. I bet many of you didn’t even notice that there were cars there in the post until I mentioned it just now, but yes, there are actually photos of car shit in there. Amy Fay and Chaba are incredibly popular, even before they appeared on this site, so there were a lot of non-car enthusiasts/casual perverts Googling their names and ended-up over here. To this very day I still see the search terms “Amy Fay” and “Chaba” appear on my site. They were both a pleasure to work with so I’m very happy that they were two of the most viewed people on The Chronicles for 2011…
7. The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2011…10-6…
This post ends up on number 7 on the list because it was the post that kicked-off the 2010 Top Ten Hondas list. People were interested in seeing who was on the list, in hopes of trying to figure out who would fill out the rest of the list so there’s no doubt why it was popular. With guys like Ejay Adriano and his DA Integra, DPK David, Phil Robles, RC Chacon, Kane Chan, and Arn Reyes, it should have been an easy choice to be one of the more viewed posts of 2011. Just thinking back now, man, that was quite a list of characters last year with some pretty fucking amazing builds…it’s going to be hard to top that list with all the talent that was on it…
6. The Rywire ITR Build…Part 4…
This was the surprise pick of the list…Man, it just shows you how much anticipation there is for this build and how many enthusiasts have their eyes peeled on the build-up of Rywire’s Integra Type R. I made this post literally 14 days ago and it instantly shot right up to the top of the list at the number 6 position. It took an entire year for a majority of these clicks to be compiled for the rest of this list and this one singular post shot right up to the top in a mere two weeks time…fucking amazing. I had no idea how crazy people were over this build until the post itself broke my single day record at just over 10,300 hits. It’ll be interesting to see how many people stick around to see the completion of this build in 2012…
5. Wekfest 2011 Weekend…Part 5…The Finale…
The winner of the most misleading position on this list easily goes to this post. Now you may be wondering why I am saying this, considering how popular Wekfest is and how it’s one of the most anticipated annual events in our community. I get that, I too am a fan of the Wekfest series and I could understand why a particular post about one of their events I covered would be up at the top of this list. Just wait a second though….because this post is up here for a reason totally unrelated to Hondas, cars, or maybe even Wekfest. Part 5 of the Wekfest SF coverage sits at number 5 on the most viewed posts of the year because of a photo I got of a particular nip-slip from a very popular import model. People have been waiting to see these nips for years now and on that fateful day at Wekfest SF 2011, a unicorn shot out of the sky and in it’s haste, blew Christine Mendoza’s shirt aside and graced The Chronicles audience of something they have longed to see. It’s the sole reason as to why I am linked to Freeones, a very popular pRon forum where people have been hunting down photos of Christine Mendoza forever…You’re welcome perverts!!…
4. Attention!! Help Wanted…
I really wish this post would have helped us out when we needed it to….I’m happy to say that we have some very thoughtful friends and enthusiasts out there who were willing to help us repost this link everywhere during 2011. We had all been hanging out, eating dinner one night when Darryl from DPK’s Diamond Black Volk CE28s were stolen out of the car of DPK Jared’s daily driver. We were in utter shock when we found out what happened when we went back to our cars and I came home and immediately made a post regarding the matter. It was great that it got so much feedback throughout the web and people helped post up the link everywhere, but unfortunately, the wheels were never recovered…Man, it would have been great if I could have come back and had a happy ending to this story but alas, nothing turned-up…
3. The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2010…5-2…
I’m a firm believer that this post trumped the previous two posts consisting of the Top Ten Hondas of 2010 purely due to international influence. Yonas Liu’s Honda Civic show/drag/track car hit the list at number 5 and was more than deserving of the accolade. With him came a lot of fans of his and fellow enthusiasts from Australia that helped bring an international audience to The Chronicles. Since then, even Yonas has become a fan of the site and I speak to him regularly on Facebook about all his adventures. While he deserves a lot of the credit, it’s hard to deny the popularity of ATS Garage and Bisimoto Engineering for casting a bright light on this post, leading it into the 3rd most clicked-on of 2011…
2. Exclusive Content…The Bisimoto Engineering 2012 Honda Civic SEMA Build Revealed…
I expected this to be right at the top because it was the previous owner of the record for single hits in a day on The Chronicles. It’s pretty wild to see how the Rywire build came in and took the record away two months later but as you can see by the seeding, there were more clicks by year’s end for the Bisimoto 2012 Civic build. One of the great things about being friends with Bisi Ezerioha and his wife Hedi is that they always give me first dibs every year on their SEMA builds. Last year, I was lucky enough to get the first public photos of the Bisimoto CR-Z and in 2011, I had the opportunity to provide the build-up of their 2012 Civic Si coupe. This build was more significant for me personally because I was there for a big chunk of the build and even had a chance to help out here and there with the completion of it. There was very little information as to what Bisimoto Engineering had planned for SEMA and in response, there was a lot of feedback when this completed build hit the web in November. I was more than pleased with the results and even more pleased to see that it hit just a broad audience of people that weren’t limited to just viewers of The Chronicles. Hate it or love it, you gotta understand that whatever Bisi is working on, there is always a ton of people waiting to see what he comes up with next…
Now, for the number one most viewed post of 2011 on The Chronicles….
It’s probably what you expected it to be. And it’s also drama-related like I stated in the beginning, that’s why it’s here at number 1…
1. This is awesome…and stupid… aka the “Get Da Fuck Outta My Cahhhh!!!!” girl and the tale of the CR-X that wasn’t her’s…
This was just absolutely mind-numbingly awesome…and also totally and utterly retarded…haha. I don’t think you guys grasp just how noteworthy this post was in our community. The Bisimoto 2012 SEMA reveal is number two on the list, but this post DOUBLED the number of clicks that it generated, just based purely on some stupid kids…haha. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you probably remember this sticker that I made…
Oh man, I fucking cashed-in on that shit so bad…haha. It was just the perfect sticker for that perfect moment in time when this was trending all over the world. You guys can click on the link to see the original story if you missed it, but the basic story behind it is this; a guy shows up to a Honda meet in Washington spots his CR-X that was stolen and decides to hop into the car, with his own keys, and take the CR-X back. Well, the girl that apparently bought it from whoever stole the car, goes completely fucking ape shits and just unloads on the dude verbally, attempting to get the guy out of his car. Her friends come in and start punching the guy through the window, and mayhem ensues… It’s such a crazy story that you can’t even make that kind of shit up. The YouTube videos for it were absolutely hilarious so I just had to make a sticker documenting the event. I don’t know what happened at the end, and I could honestly care less, but it’s proof that stupid bullshit trumps ALL. Haha. I created this site three years ago and I can honestly say that I’ve turned it into something great, but it doesn’t matter, because random ass people from all over the world only come on here to watch a crazy broad scream at some dude while other dudes are punching him to get a beat-up CR-X back….AMAZING.
“GET DA FUCK OUTTTTAAA MAH CAAAAAHHH!!!!!”
Haha, thanks for looking…
On set…
Sorry guys, not much of a heavy update for you all since I spent most of my morning up in the Lancaster, CA area shooting a car for Super Street magazine. I got a bunch of stuff going on that needs to be completed before the holiday break so that it can make it into the issue so I didn’t have time today to put together a solid update. After I got home, I worked on the photos and then knocked out for a couple hours. Now I’m back on the road again to get to a Christmas party with some friends. Here are a couple behind the scenes shots from today’s shoot for Super Street. This car is becoming quite popular since it debuted at Hot Import Nights and I’m proud to say that I was one of the first people to spot it as it was rolling in that Friday night. Since then, Brandon Burke’s S13 has popped up all over the web but he saved the best for last and now he’ll soon grace the pages of one of the best import automotive publications around…Thanks for looking and have a happy holidays everyone…
I absolutely loved how grimy and messy his garage was and considering the fact that he built this entire car inside the garage, I had to get a shot of the car inside. How clean and subtle the car turned out is in stark contrast to the environment that it was built in….Man, I fucking love it… Here’s an outtake from that series of photos…
Just a man alone with his thoughts…
Exclusive Content: A trip to the Philippines…
If you’re here looking for coverage of the annual Norm Reeves Honda Meet, then you might want to come back tomorrow…I’m still busy going through the photos from that day and I also have some work I need to finish up for some magazines. While I’m going over all that stuff, today, we are going to take a very special look at some photos that Patrick Lauder shot while he was in the Philippines. Patrick, for those unfamiliar with the name, is a part of Quickworks Photo. The guys from Quickworks are freelancers like me and shoot for various magazines in the aftermarket automotive industry. They are up in Northern California so if you see a magazine feature pop-up from Norcal, more than likely, it was shot by either Joshua Works or Patrick Lauder. Anyways, Patrick was recently overseas in the Philippines visiting family and while he didn’t plan on it, ended up finding quite a bit of work over there. I have no idea what the tuning scene is like over there. I probably know about as much as you guys. I’ve seen photos and the Philippines is probably most well known for Rota, a company that has spent it’s entire existence stealing the hard work and designs of some of your favorite authentic Japanese wheel companies. While that may leave a bad taste in the collective mouths of the entire industry, we shouldn’t forget that there are guys over there just like us, who enjoy cars, building cars, and are a part of a tuning community. From what Patrick has told me, there are actually some very, very well-built vehicles over there with some quality parts on them. He saved a majority of his best work for magazines like Honda Tuning, but there were some photos leftover that weren’t used and that he shot just for the hell of it, and we are going to take a look at those photos today…
These aren’t in any particular order and I can honestly say that I can’t provide you with any vital information in regards to what is going on in the photos. These were the handy work of Patrick Lauder and he basically shot whatever was in front of him at the moment. While he was over there, he also had a chance to stop by the Manila Auto Salon, which is a small car show that was taking place. Whether you like the content of the photos or not, I remind you to just sit back and take it for what it is. It’s not everyday that you get to see some new cars you’ve never seen before, in a country that you may or may not have ever been to or plan to go to in the future. Thanks go out to Mr. Lauder for these great photos and for allowing me to share them with all of you guys and gals today. Enjoy…
5th generation Honda City…this chassis fits right in the middle of the line-up of Honda vehicles offered in Asian markets between the Honda Jazz (Fit) and Honda Civic…You won’t see these here in the states because honestly, they’re a little unnecessary for the U.S. market and we like big ass cars that don’t fit into normal parking spots…
Rotas were apparently of course, with examples like this where guys are rocking them with their authentic counterpart’s decals…
Another vehicle that you won’t see here in the states…Suzuki Celerior/Alto/Mazda Carol/Nissan Pixo…
Old school Mitsubishi Lancer in pretty remarkable condition for it’s age…
A yellow EG Civic parked along the side of the road on some “TE37s”…I use that last term loosely, haha…
If you are Asian or knew someone who was Asian, then their family at one time probably had a crappy van like this or something similar to it… In the U.S., it was the Toyota Van in 80s, throughout other parts of Asia, Mitsubishi Delicas like the one above served as family haulers or supply haulers…At least the Mitsubishis actually had a name and not like Toyota, that just came up with the creative name “Van”…You can also tell that there wasn’t much time invested in the design of these things….
One car that was available in all markets throughout the world that you hardly ever see anyone modify are these mid 80s-early 90s Ford Festivas…I don’t want to say they were underrated because they were probably one of the crappiest cars of that time and terribly unsafe to drive. You see a “KIA DOHC” banner on the windshield because these cars were sold in some markets as the “Kia Pride”…We know them as Fords here in the states but they were actually developed by Mazda and in some parts, were known as a Mazda 121….There wasn’t anything even remotely Ford about them other than the badging…I’m just filled with useless information…
Modified Honda Jazz passing through the streets…we of course, know this as a Honda Fit…
Another EG, this one more beat-up than the yellow one earlier…
Patrick informed me that Mugen Civic RR conversions/replicas are all the rage in the Philippines right now….Makes sense though because the conversion doesn’t require as much work there seeing as how they already have the Japanese front and rear-ends…
Though it isn’t the genuine article, this Mugen RR replica is about as close as you can get aesthetically…
Here’s a little collage of images Patrick put together…clicky here for a larger version (1400×933)….
Smog and emissions obviously isn’t a real concern over in the PI…here you can see a bus just spewing black smoke…
Next up, we have some photos from the Manila Auto Salon…there were some pretty oddball cars here so I just selected a few to show you guys…The EK above is probably the more visually-appealing example of Hondas at this event…
Purple 4-door on some Carving Head/DAMD Lover Soul wheels…
Clean, restored 1969 VW Beetle…
White R34 Skyline on some bronze Volk TE37s…
1979 Porsche 911 with a Martini Racing livery…
Another Mugen Civic RR replica, this one in a very bright highlighter-like yellow…
Mugen-themed Honda Jazz…
This orange 4-door Civic had a clean, tucked engine bay…also had some legit Volk CE28s with caps and all…
Just from what I’ve seen in photos, it seems as if HKS is quite popular over in the Philippines. You see the logo represented a lot on many cars there…
1st gen. Toyota MR-2 in mint condition…you can see HKS Super Oil represented once again in this photo…
Vorsteiner Porsche 911 on BBS CK wheels…
R35 GT-R representing “Glade Sport”…Glade as in, Glade the air freshener/fragrance company…odd…but not as odd as the random air filter sticking out of the GT-R’s bumper…
While the Mugen Civic RR recreations are on point, the R35 replicas could use a bit of help…
Another modified Honda Jazz…
Neat little trunk set-up…
EVO X…
8th gen. Civic with a JDM Civic Type R conversion…not really understanding why the owner chose to go with a headlight with red housing though…
J’s Racing-themed Honda Jazz…
Another Mugen RR replica, this one with a K20…
…this one on the other hand, does not, and has the stock R18 1.8L motor…
A restoration shop in the Philippines, displaying the type of extensive work they are capable of with a worn-down 1937 Plymouth P3 and a completely restored 1953 Cadillac Limousine…
So that was what the Manila Auto Salon had to offer…. As you can tell, the 8th generation Civic is the most popular platform to build in the Philippines right now. The Mugen RR Civic is the “look” that most are striving but many continue to stick with the stock R18 motors in them. They have the K20a over there as an option but they are different internally and make only about 155bhp. Manual transmission isn’t an option either and the 2.0L models come with a 5-speed automatic with paddle shift. With that said, this 8th generation Civic you’re about to see is probably one of the more “built” 8th gen. Civics over in the Philippines. I posted up a preview shot of it last week but for those that missed it, you are in for a treat…
According to Patrick, he didn’t get to do a full shoot of this car for a magazine because for whatever reason, the owner was upset by the fact that he wasn’t getting full attention and didn’t get a solo-photo shoot. While in most cases I would understand the owner being mildly urked, we all have to understand that Mr. Lauder was only there for a short amount of time so if he was shooting for a feature, chances are there would be other cars lined-up there to shoot. Anyways, the owner cut the shoot short and just took off without allowing Patrick to finish. The good thing about the whole ordeal was that we now get to see the car today here on The Chronicles…
This Civic, according to Patrick, had all kinds of shit done to it but here are the more notable items…
-Custom “RE Amemiya green” paint
-Legit/real deal Volk Racing CE28Ns (Patrick got a good look at them up close and authenticated them)
-AP Racing big brake kit
-J’s Racing front bumper, rear bumper, rear wing
-FD2 Civic Type R sideskirts
-Bride seats
-K20A from a DC5 Integra/RSX
-HKS turbo that was dyno’d and made 400HP on pump gas
Click here for a LARGER VERSION (1400×933)… or click here for a DESKTOP VERSION (1920×1080)…
Click here for a LARGER VERSION (1400×933)…
Pretty wild right? It’s a shame that he had to take off before Patrick could get some more shots of it…
I hope you guys had a entertaining time looking through the photos. Obviously a majority of their cars aren’t comparable to the sheer number of quality builds out here, but it’s always cool to take a look at what’s going on in other countries. It’s good to expand your horizons every now and then…
That’s all for today. Thanks to Patrick Lauder for providing the great pics…
Wild December…
This has to be, by far, the busiest December that I’ve experienced since I started The Chronicles. Not so much so that I’m overloaded with things to do and have no time to finish, but just in terms of things that are going on still. Normally Decembers are a bit easier since Honda Tuning only does one winter issue that spans two months and I’m just doing a couple stories for Super Street. The site tends to slow down as well because there normally just aren’t as many events going on in the winter. This year has been very different though. I thought after SEMA things would slow down already but there continues to be a steady flow of content flowing in. Hot Import Nights was unexpected so we got coverage from that, but since communicating with Yonas from Australia and some other guys from Japan, there’s also content coming from all over the world. I didn’t get a chance to attend Autocon last year because we were busy doing our group BBQ with all our friends but this year I definitely plan on going. Autocon looks to be pretty huge so coverage should be great when I get to go through all of it. I’d probably just be sitting down and contemplating who would make this year’s Top Ten Hondas list for the entire month but all that is going on, I’m now going to have to set some time aside specifically for it.
Since I’m busy trying to finalize everything for The Chronicles booth tomorrow at Autocon, I’m just going to give you a preview of what’s to come for the rest of the month…
As I stated, I’ve been working on the annual Top Ten Hondas list of the year and here is the logo that I whipped up for it. I may make some minor changes later on but for the most part, I’m pretty happy with it. This year’s list will be much like year’s past and follow the same criteria. That means there won’t be any repeat cars from before unless they have made significant changes to the entire build. The list will consist of 10 new Hondas and with so many great builds this year, it’s definitely going to be interesting to see who rounds out the entire list. I’m also going to be taking into consideration many different factors such as; event appearances made, impact of build on the community, and total quality of the build itself. It’s going to be a good one for sure. You’ve seen the quality of the Hondas in years past so you should already expect the list to have some really amazing Hondas…
This is a real treat…. Patrick Lauder from Quickworks photo recently made a trip to the Philippines to go visit some family and found the time to go shoot some cars. He didn’t plan on doing it but there are apparently some pretty cool builds out there and he was able to capture them with his amazing photography skills. He’s a freelancer for automotive magazine publications like me but the difference is that he’s actually a good photographer, haha. He had his camera with him everywhere he went while he was in the P.I. and captured everything car-related that he saw. Mr. Lauder was kind enough to share those photos with me and I in turn will be able to give you guys a small glimpse of what the “scene” is like over in the Philippines. Above is just one of a number of cool builds he saw while he was there. The really, really good stuff he saved for print so keep an eye out for that, but in the following week after the Autocon coverage rolls out, I’ll toss these up so you guys can take a look…
Another event that was going on while I was busy staring at DUB trucks at HIN was the annual JDMYard End-of-Year Meet down in Australia. As you guys know, I’ve been in constant contact with Yonas lately on Facebook and he’s been giving me all the details on the changes he’s planning for his Civic. He put this meet together last week and judging from the photos that I’ve seen, the meet was quite a success. He’s got a couple guys that consistently shoot for him and cover events down there and they’ve been kind enough to provide me with some coverage from events there. I brought you photos from their Honda Nationals event last week and I will toss up some photos from the JDMYard meet when the time allows. I was planning on putting them up today but I’ve been too busy running around everywhere that I haven’t had the time to go through the photos…That is also something I plan on putting up in the coming days/weeks…
I’ve also been doing a bit of shooting myself…. I’m constantly trying to shoot so I can continue to get better at my craft so when Tony from It’s JDM Yo!!! hits me up to help him out with some photos, I’m definitely there to give him a hand. He’s constantly trying to expand his brand and I’m happy to see the rapid growth of his site. He’s putting together posters for future events as well as putting together an It’s JDM Yo!!! calender in the near future. A couple weeks back, I headed out to some mansion in Yorba Linda, CA to get some photos of the lovely Miss Holly Lee and Jon Jon Usaha’s supercharged VIP Lexus IS350. It was the perfect combination that day and I’m pretty happy with how the photos came out. I’ll will eventually post those up as well when I find the time but above is a sample of what I got…
If that wasn’t enough, I also recently met up with Tony down at L*CON Race Fabrications to shoot VIP Modular’s 5-Series BMW wagon for another It’s JDM Yo!!! poster/future calender shot featuring newcomer Avery Belle. Ms. Belle is on a fast rise in the import model community so Tony wanted to make sure to shoot her for his site when he had the opportunity to do so. She’s from Arizona but happened to be out here in LA for Hot Import Nights last week so Tony booked a late Sunday night shoot. That matte red wagon is very easy to shoot since the car just looks incredible in any type of setting and having Avery Belle there served as another great combination. She had been busy shooting all day in L.A. for various websites/publications so our shoot didn’t go very long, but I’m happy with what I got that night and I think Tony would agree…
Other than that, I’ve just been busy finishing up orders from Cyber Monday and preparing for The Chronicles booth this Saturday at Autocon. I was done using the Teal/Purple chrome combo after the 2YRS event last year, but since I still had some purple chrome left, I decided to do it once again. Unlike the previous sticker, this is the first time I’ve done this colorway for the original Chronicles decal and it will be available exclusively at Autocon 2011. If there are any left over, then I will toss them up in the online storefront but they are very limited and I expect them to go quickly at the event tomorrow…If you want one of these bad boys, make sure to stop buy and purchase a couple because once they are gone, they are GONE. Chrome purple vinyl isn’t exactly cheap and I don’t plan on buying it ever again…
Autocon 2011 is tomorrow and I feel like it’s going to be one of the better events of 2011. I mean, I didn’t go to last years but seeing how there is so much effort going into the planning of this event, it should be good. I will be there along with It’s JDM Yo!! so please come by and say what’s up and check out what we have to offer. Tony is bringing out every model he can fucking think of and he too has spent a considerable amount of time planning out this event so let’s all go out there and support him and Autocon. It’s a giant car show but it’s also for a good cause. You can bring a toy donation for the toy drive and then enjoy the food trucks, free hot air balloon rides, etc…. I’ll be there bright and early so the coverage for Autocon should be very interesting… click here for the fullsize flyer. It’s fucking huge…
That’s all for today…keep coming back because things don’t look to be slowing down any time soon…
Thanks YouTube…
I really would have enjoyed posting up this update for you guys today but thanks to YouTube, and probably my lack of understanding of how to upload videos correctly, I ran out of time and won’t have this completed for you until early tomorrow. While it would have been easier to just post it up as soon as I was done, I really don’t like to post updates past 8pm because then we’re in some random ass place where it’s not today and not tomorrow… and I like to be organized to some degree…
Anyways, it’s a pretty good update…Got a lot of good photos of the Tactical Art cars that haven never hit the web as well as some videos that they sent me a while back. I don’t want to separate the videos from the photos because then the posts are divided and hard to find later on…seriously, it’s a good update though. Buuutttt, you’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to see it…Thanks YouTube.
Cyber Monday Sale…
Didn’t want to get crazy with all that Black Friday business since my stuff is only available online anyway but I did decide to do a Cyber Monday sale. Just enter the discount code above to get a percentage off your total order. I’ll have this up for two days but if stuff starts going fast, then I’ll end it earlier so if you guys want some Chronicles gear cheap, hit up the store as soon as you can!…
**INTERNATIONAL ORDERS EXCLUDED.
Also, I’ve gotten so much feedback from you guys about the Chronicles x JDMYard stickers that I will also have those up just for Cyber Monday. I didn’t plan on selling these but it seems you guys really like them so pick them up while you can. You got two days and then I’m never selling these again!!
The Official Chronicles Storefront…
The Official Chronicles Storefront…
The Official Chronicles Storefront…
The Chronicles Storefront Re-Opened…
I finally re-opened the store since I had some time to replenish some merchandise. Tactical Art decals available for a limited time as well…
Still here…
Oh okay, just another quick update for you guys. I’m still here in Las Vegas despite the SEMA 2011 show officially coming to a close today. I honestly didn’t even make an attempt to go on the last day because i did so much walking the previous days and I think I have close to 800 or so photos to go through. Plus with all the wild nights at the industry parties, I am just burnt the fuck out from everything. I took the majority of the day just relaxing and had lunch with DPK David and Jared before they headed back to California. The coverage will be good for sure. I tried to get as much as I could of stuff that sparked my interest. Like last year, the coverage will also include some bonus coverage of stuff we did outside of the SEMA show like the industry parties and what not. May had her Canon s95 the whole time so she was snapping away in-between drinks…
That’s not where it ends either. I will be heading back to California tomorrow but the very next day, we will be taking a trip down to San Diego to attend Autofashion USA’s annual VIP Festival. I had really hoped that my wheels would be ready in time for me to bring my Q45 out there but things just didn’t fall in place so that’s just not gonna happen. Oh well, either way it’ll be an exciting event and I am looking forward to being there to see all these great VIP-theme builds.
Anyways, its time to go grab some dinner with the guys that are still around. Thanks for being patient and sorry for not being able to get the photos up right away…..
Oh Damn….
Sorry for the lack of updates everybody….the internet service that I paid good money for here in the hotel apparently isn’t good enough to upload even a single photo. The SEMA show this year has been off the hook though. It just seems busier this year with more companies making a presence at the show. Overall attendance seems to be better this year too. I’ve been taking a shit ton of photos so when I finally get a chance to go through them, you guys will have more than enough coverage. We have just been eating like crazy and going ape shits at the industry parties. We even went to a small VIP meet out here where I got a chance to meet the guys from Tactical Art Japan. They didn’t speak English but luckily they brought a translator with them so we could communicate. They gave me a giant stack of Tactical Art stickers too which was really cool of them. Overall its been a great experience out here in Vegas.
Alright, I’m off to go clean the throw up off the side of my hotel room toilet now…
Very Soon…
Damn…I have to admit, I’m pretty fucking tired…
I’ve been on the grind but I promise Year.Three coverage will come (most likely) later today. I’ve been going through the photos but haven’t had a chance to go through all of them yet. I took Sunday off to recover from the madness of the meet and I was cool for the most part, but on Monday I went on a very special trip to shoot a non-Cali build that was probably a once in a lifetime type of thing. I’m happy I did it but I am fucking beat at this point. Time to get some rest and then back on the grind again in the morning…
Photo from Monday…
Year.Three Coverage Part 1 coming very soon…
On Tap for Year.Three…
Tomorrow is the big day folks!!! Year.Three brought to you by The Chronicles is set to take place tomorrow at the Eibach Springs facility from 1pm-6pm and it’s going to be a good one! Tonight I’m going to give you guys a bit of a heads up as to what will be going on tomorrow at the event but before I do that, I have to stress some very important things to everyone….
-The event STARTS at 1PM!!! That means, don’t come early and wait in the street and block the road!! The surrounding businesses will still be open tomorrow and they definitely will not be happy if you are cluttering up the streets trying to get in when the event hasn’t even started yet….
-We have to get the cars INSIDE the lot. Which means that when you arrive, DO NOT park on the street….If you arrive ON TIME, then you will be able to drive right in and park in the designated free parking area that is throughout the building. Don’t worry about not having parking because there will definitely be parking right up front. I just have to park all the VIP guys first because they have priority…
-Do not hang out outside and bother the neighboring businesses. Why the fuck would you want to hang out outside anyway? Just come inside and hang out. No need to park outside or hang out outside. If there is any bullshit or disturbances going on outside, they will shut us down, so don’t ruin it for everyone!…
-DO NOT SHOW UP EARLY!!!
-Pick up after yourselves if you have food or any other trash. There will be trashcans throughout the parking lot so use them please and clean up after yourselves. It’s a meet that is supposed to be fun for EVERYONE, don’t fuck my night up by making me pick up YOUR trash…
Here is a shitty floorplan I made up just now but it’ll give you a good idea what the event will look like…
As you can see, there is plenty of free parking, so please just come in and park and have a good time. The “red” area is the designated VIP parking spot area where people have purchased and reserved their spots so please don’t try to sneak in and take spots because all spots have been accounted for. If I or anyone helping out sees you trying to steal someone’s spot or parking in the VIP area when you aren’t supposed to, you will be promptly kicked out and removed from the event….
With that said, if everyone follows these very simple rules, then we can all chill and have a good time and we will have nothing to worry about…
Now let’s take a look at what’s on tap for Year.Three….
As you guys know, May is always at events providing baked goods and snacks for everyone who supports The Chronicles but for the Year.Three event, May will be providing specially design baked goodies for a great cause. City of Hope is holding a Cancer Walk known as “Walk for Hope” on November 6th. May is participating in the walk and is raising money for the City of Hope organization that will go to the research and treatment of Cancer. I’m sure everyone has had to deal with Cancer in one way or another in their lifetimes, whether it be with a relative or a close friend, and it’s definitely tough and heart breaking at times to watch someone you care about suffer from this horrible disease. Every cent counts and May has taken her time to work really hard to come up with these very unique treats for you guys, in hopes that you will contribute to the cause and help out people in need…
Instead of working The Chronicles booth this time around, May will have a separate booth strictly dedicated to Walk For Hope. It will be easy to spot and I personally, would be very grateful if you would take a couple minutes out of your time at the meet to take a look at what she has to offer and make a donation to support the cure to women’s cancers. The stuff that May is working on looks pretty amazing and I’ve watched her make them myself and they are definitely worth every charitable penny that you are willing to donate. They taste delicious and it’ll give you something to snack on at the meet, plus, it’s also for a very good cause so please, check it out…
You can find more information on City of Hope’s Walk for Hope here…
Here’s one of her “purple dress” cookies that she had made….
…and one of her Rice Krispy’s treats…
I’d like to thank you guys in advance for helping May out with her cause. It means a lot to me that you guys are willing to do something for a stranger for a very good cause. She will have a couple other things there for you guys so come by and take a look…
Now next on the list of attendees at Year.Three is Bolt Boys aka Downstar Inc….
I give Frank a lot of shit for selling bags of nuts but I’m actually pretty proud of this dude. He jumped into a market that was largely untapped and turned into quite a successful and profitable business. I’ve gotten to know Frank a bit more this year and he’s a nice guys. I enjoy his enthusiasm for the entire import automotive community and I think we need more guys like him or are excited about everything related to cars and he’s also willing to take trips all over the country to attend an event. I didn’t really want vendors at the event, and I’m sure you guys know that by now. Last year, I didn’t have any other vendors there….this year, I opened it up a bit and really wanted to give some of the homies some space to do their thing so I gave Frank a vendor booth so he can sell some bolt kits. If you guys need any hardware for your Honda, make sure to stop by Frank’s booth and buy a couple bags of his nuts….Make sure to ask him what “downstairs inc.” is as well, he loves it when people ask him questions like that….
One of the other vendor spots that I opened up space for, was Autofashion. I’ve known Freddie for quite some time now and throughout the years, he’s always been helpful and he’s always kept me up to date on what he’s working on. Like last year, Freddie and Autofashion will once again be on hand to hang out and provide the musical entertainment for all of you guys and gals at the event. I could have gotten a DJ or one of the car guys who DJs to come out and spin but I’d rather just have everyone chill and not have to worry about all that. Freddie is usually just standing around smoking cigarettes anyways so I asked him to bring his equipment out so he can smoke cigarettes and also have an iPod in his other hand to play music…
Freddie will also be bringing out a couple Honda Ruckus’ as well as some VIP builds for your enjoyment. I love VIP stuff so I was more than willing to make space for them. It’s good to have some variety even though this is mainly a Honda-dedicated site. I love cars man, and I would love to see all kinds of different builds….
Last but most certainly not least, is Tony and the “It’s JDM Yo!!!” crew. I can’t think of very many people in this industry that I have known as long as Tony and I love the fact that he created a blog one day and just fucking ran with it…and that shit blew up. I love it. Another thing I love about Tony is that he’s a gigantic Korean pervert. The guy loves all things related to females, especially when it comes to import models, and his site reflects that. In all seriousness though, Tony is a guy with some great ideas and he’s done a great job making huge names out of up and coming import models. The guy is a great promotional tool for these girls and I can honestly say that he’s made a couple of these girls household names these days, in terms of the automotive industry…
Tony is also one of the most reliable and helpful guys that I know too, so I just had to give him a vendor spot at Year.Three. Earlier this year, at the first ever “It’s JDM Yo!!!” anniversary meet, he dedicated a whole section just to The Chronicles and the homies so it’s only right that he’s representing at my event. He’s bringing a couple of girls along with him as well so you guys will have some eye candy to stare at in an otherwise, gigantic sausage-fest….
Ms. Tracy Linh will be at the “It’s JDM Yo!!!” booth…
…as well as the lovely Ms. Holly Lee…
So all in all, we have a pretty good collection going at Year.Three tomorrow. We got some of the best builds on the west coast, we’re doing something for a wonderful cause, we have a vast variety of different types of builds coming out, and we will also have some pretty ladies for you to gawk at….What more can you ask for? Remember to follow the very simple rules up top and I promise it will be a great time… 10/22/2011 1pm-6pm BE THERE!!!
Meanwhile…
I had this whole thing prepared today where I was going to do a write-up on what the Year.Three Chronicles Anniversary Meet had to offer but I just never got around to making the time for it. I’m fully entrenched in organizing the meet and cutting stickers and what not that it’s taken up much of my days and nights. The plan was to knock out all of the Chronicles stickers last night but around 10pm yesterday, I got a call from Ryan from Rywire asking me if I wanted to make a special trip out to the Bisimoto facility to check out Bisi’s upcoming 2012 Honda Civic SEMA project. The last time I was there, Bisi was telling me about what he had planned for the car but the actual chassis had yet to return from Steen Chassis. He’s got two projects going on and SEMA is fast approaching, so yesterday was just one of those nights where they would get no sleep just to spend every waking moment completing the car. The Civic, to put it simply, is nowhere near completion and we are what? Like two weeks away from the SEMA event itself? Shit is definitely coming down to the wire and the car actually has to go back to Honda corporate on Monday of next week… things are definitely stressful right now. Bisi and Hedi are always down to give me first dibs on whatever they are working on so they told Ryan to give me a call and I stopped whatever I was doing to drove 40 min out to Ontario, CA. When I got there I will admit, even I was a little surprised by the current state of the Civic. Everything is basically ready to go, it’s just a lot of custom wiring and brake lines and what not that Rywire has to complete before everything goes back on the car. I will post up more photos later one when I have time to go through them, but for now, here are a couple shots as a teaser I guess, on what Bisi and Rywire have been working on…
Crazy to imagine just how different this 2012 Civic is going to look in just two weeks…
Bisi, Supertwinz John from AEM, and Ryan going over some plans for the engine bay….
Stay tuned for more…
SOLD OUT.
*There’s an actual site update below this so don’t miss it…
The Chronicles “Year.Three” Anniversary event is this Saturday so I hope everyone is prepared for it. With that said, I would like to formally announce that all VIP parking spots inside the front section of the Eibach Springs facility is completely sold out. What does that mean? That means that you shouldn’t email me asking if there are still spots available because there definitely is not. I’m already going to try to squeeze in as many cars as possible for those who paid so I won’t have room to spare. Where do you park if you don’t have a VIP spot or are just a spectator? Well….there will still be parking available along the side and rear of the Eibach Springs facility. You don’t have to worry about rushing to the event because there is plenty of room along those areas for you to park your car…if you have anymore questions, please refer to the FAQ below…
Year.Three Anniversary Meet FAQ HERE.
See everyone Saturday from 1-6pm!!!
Old school gems…
Any one that really knows me and knows what I’m about understands that while I have a true love for Hondas, I am a very big fan of all Japanese imports and just cars in general. I started out in the Toyota community, jumped into Hondas and just fell in love, and now I own a Nissan/Infiniti. I’ve been involved with all facets in the scene, shot cars for print from all makes and models and one of my favorites parts of my job and being an enthusiasts is seeing the wide variety of modified vehicles that are out there. One particular genre that I am really fascinated with is the old school car community. Man, I just love these things….There’s just something about a slammed, old school Toyota, Nissan, etc., that has a certain appeal to it. When they have crazy swaps and custom engine bays that makes things better of course, but often times, the cars just being in pristine original condition is great to see. I missed out on the Japanese Classic Car Show this year but while I was scrounging through Flickr the other night, I caught a very nice collection of Japanese classics from some classic car gatherings in Japan. As you know, I recently found Koji Karimata’s Flickr gallery when I was looking for photos of the Hellaflush Japan event. Well he is also a huge Japanese car fanatic and goes to all sorts of different events out there. He seems to have a fascination with old school Japanese cars as well and today, I will be showing you guys some of my favorites from his Flickr page. Like the Hellaflush photos, many of these are in their RAW format straight from his camera so I’ve taken the liberty of cleaning them up and re-sizing them to fit the format of this site…I don’t know all the names of all the cars I’m posting up, simply because a majority of these cars never made it over here stateside but I will try my best to give you guys some information about the cars….Enjoy, and I hope you like Japanese classics as much as I do…
This is by far one of my favorites…Second generation Mazda Cosmo AP or outside of Japan, known as the Mazda RX-5…It’s cool to see these because well, you’ve probably never seen one before and also because of the distinct styling cues that are on-point with how a majority of the late 70s-early 80s vehicles looked…It’s crazy how immaculate this one looks and to think that these cars came with the 13B rotary engines that later went on to become world-renowned in the RX-7s…
Not 100% sure what this is but I thought it was a good look with the fender flares and all. I want to say it’s a C210 Skyline but again, not too sure….If anyone knows, feel free to post up…
This is a C110 Skyline or what many call a “Kenmeri” Skyline which nickname is derived from a commercial during those days that featured characters called Ken and Mary, hence the name “Kenmeri“…
A couple of Datsun B210s…one a coupe and the other sedan, both on old school SSR wheels…I find these to be pretty interesting looking even though I think the original B210 chassis in completely stock form is hideously unattractive…
Really wish I knew the name of this car as well…love the interior though and how it’s just planted on the ground…Perhaps it’s a Toyota Crown coupe?
Datsun 510 with a lot of modern day touches…
A couple of “Hakosuka” Skyline GT-Rs…perhaps the most popular and well-known of the older Skylines pre-R32…
Slammed Toyopet Crown sedan…
Unsure of what this is but it’s definitely interesting…
Cool little Subaru R-2…
Another pair of Hakosuka Skyline GT-Rs…first one is on Watanabes and second looks to be on some SSR Longchamp XR4s….
This one is also a C10 Skyline or Hakosuka, but a 2000GT sedan…
This wild looking thing is an old Nissan Laurel SGX coupe… Dual Factory, which you can see represented on multiple cars here, pumps out some fucking, awesome old school builds….
Early 80s-era Corolla on some widened OEM Toyota wheels…
Mazda Carol kei car that was produced from ’62-70…
One of my favorite old school imports of all-time…second generation (E20) Toyota Corolla/Sprinter…It’s always a pleasure when I get to see one of these in person. Love the fender flares and just the overall styling of the Corollas back then…way better than in the late 80s to now Corolla because those things were just plain boring. The ’91 Corolla my dad had was a fucking champ though, he drove and crashed the living shit out of it and it still ran…There were a couple times when he crashed it and came home, tied some rope/chain to the front end, and used a Toyota 4Runner to pull and straighten it out…haha, the guy was a fucking mad man…totally reliable car but nowhere remotely as cool looking as these older Corolla/Sprinters…
Gonna close out this post with a Honda N360 with some aggressive SSR MK2s….looks wild with the flares and what looks to be the header coming through the front grille…
That’s all for today, hope you guys enjoy this trip in history…if not, go start your own blog, haha…
Where I be…
I’ve been going online every night and seeing how many events are going on throughout Socal and I remembered that I haven’t been out in a while. Putting this meet together is taking up a bulk of my time lately but this weekend, I will be making my way to Burbank, CA to support the homie Norman and the show that he’s putting together at “Racer’s Edge”. It’s a indoor carting place but apparently from what I’ve been told, the lot outside is pretty massive and capable of holding a pretty decently-sized car show. Norman has been planning this thing for quite some time now and I feel bad that I haven’t had much time to help him promote his event. It’ll be a good one I’m sure, and as always, it’ll be good to see everyone again. You guys should come out to chill as well. These next couple weeks are gonna be crackin’….Show tomorrow, then the Year.Three event next weekend, and the week after that is SEMA for a week, oh man…I can’t wait….More details on this event below the flyer…see you there…
“Race Day”
Racers Edge Karting
960 Chestnut Street
Burbank, CA 91506October 16, 2011
Without further ado, we would like to introduce you to Racers Edge Karting! A fast pace and intense adrenaline rush, Racers Edge Karting will definitely take your normal driving experience and toss it right out the window. Racecar drivers are only as good as the machines they wield and here at Racers Edge Karting, we are more than confident that our (karts, cars, state of the art machines, etc.) will be the perfect weapon for your track battles. From apex to apex, we guarantee that every turn will only excite your sensation to drive even faster and faster.
The Racers Edge would like to welcome everyone to our first “RACE DAY” car show. Our amazing race track combined with hottest show cars of Southern California, we are sure it’s going to be one amazing day with us. So please bring your family and friends and let’s have one amazing show!!!
***Prizes will also be raffled away by our vendors and sponsors***
Information:
-Vehicle Registration: $25 before October 9th, $30 after October 9th
-For registration, please send your First and Last name, Vehicle Information (Year, Make, Model, Color), Team or Crew Affiliation (please specify for staging purposes)
-Please visit Paypal.com and send registration fees to DarkDRFBaller@yahoo.com along with the information above.
*IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT NORMAN AT DarkDRFBaller@yahoo.com*Categories:
*Every category needs 3 cars for awards to be given. Certain categories might be replaced if there are not enough registrants.*
-Best Honda/ Acura
-Best Subaru
-Best Mitsubishi
-Best Nissan/Infinity
-Best Toyota/Lexus
-Best Euro(VW, BMW, etc)
-Best Stance
-Best VIP
-Best Race Car (Drag, Drift, Grip)
-Best Other
-Best New School
-Best Old School
-Cleanest Car
-Most Dumped (static only)
-Best of the Day
***Defacing of the property or any type of vandalism or any violence WILL NOT BE TOLERATED AT ALL!!! Let’s please all act accordingly so that we may have future events. If you have any questions about the event, please contact Norman at DarkDRFBaller@yahoo.com. If you have any questions about Racer’s Edge Karting, please contact Bryan at Bryan@racersedgekarting.com
MEMBERSHIP SPECIAL IS NOW IN FULL EFFECT!!!! NORMAL MEMBERSHIP IS $50 WITH A FREE RACE, A FREE BIRTHDAY RACE, A RACERS EDGE T-SHIRT, AND MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS.IF YOU SIGN UP FOR A MEMBERSHIP BETWEEN NOW AND THE DAY OF THE EVENT, A MEMBERSHIP IS ONLY $44 AND INSTEAD OF 1 FREE RACE, YOU GET ANOTHER RACE FOR FREE!!!
SO THAT’S $44 ON A MEMBERSHIP, 2 FREE RACES, 1 FREE BIRTHDAY RACE, A RACERS EDGE T-SHIRT, AND ALL THE MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT http://WWW.RACERSEDGEKARTING.COM
Registration Details…
I know some of you have already emailed me about the parking decal and paperwork that comes with your reservation at the Year.Three event so I thought I’d like all of you know that I spent the majority of today and yesterday putting it all together. All of the registration materials will go out early in the morning so you guys should have it well in time for the meet next Saturday. As I stated in the FAQ, you will receive your Paypal receipt, guidelines and information on the meet itself, as well as a special decal that shows that you purchased a spot. Please have these stickers available and place them on the designated location by the time you arrive to the event. It’s okay if you don’t like the decal or whatever but don’t take it off until after the event.
If you haven’t reserved your parking spot at the event yet, I invite you to do so now. Spots are going quickly….I believe I have roughly 10 or so spots left before I’m sold out and I shut it down…Get them as soon as you can. If you’re waiting on a homie or something to get spots together, just hook him up for now and have them pay you back, it’s only 10 bucks…If you need any other information about the meet, there’s a full FAQ link up at the top of this page in the menu area…
PURCHASE YOUR VIP PARKING SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE
PURCHASE YOUR VIP PARKING SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE
PURCHASE YOUR VIP PARKING SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE
Other than that, not much news today. I got an email back from the guys over at Tactical Art Japan and they informed me that they saw my post and they really enjoyed it. The guy who owns the shop also says that if I need any additional information on any of those Hondas they have to feel free to ask so I emailed them back with some questions in regards to specs and motor and what not…pretty cool of them to email me and to show appreciation for the post…If you guys haven’t had a chance to see it, scroll down to the post before this and you will know what I’m talking about…
Here’s a post they did on their own web diary in regards to The Chronicles. Internet translator isn’t the best but I got the basics of what they were trying to say…
12 Days!!
Just a little under 2 weeks left until Year.Three, the 3-year anniversary Chronicles celebration!! There are still some spots available so if you or your friends haven’t picked one up, you should probably jump one that as soon as possible. I recently got the awards back from the trophy place and I’m pretty happy with the way they came out. I mean, it’s not really meant to be anything serious but I thought it would be cool to give out some awards at the meet to show that I appreciate what you guys are doing as enthusiasts….
This is the “Best Engine Bay” award…
…and these are for the “Best Honda” and “Best Non-Honda” awards. I have one other one but I’ll wait until the meet to display it, it’s pretty cool…
There’s all kinds of other stuff going on as well. May will be there providing some sweet treats for everyone, plus she will also be selling baked goods for a fund raiser that she is doing. Plus, “It’s JDM Yo!!!” will be on hand with a booth with goods along with a couple girls that he is bringing along with him and Downstar Inc./Bolt Boys will be there as well, providing all your engine bay hardware needs. I’m still putting some other stuff together and I unveil details as they become available to me but trust me, it’ll be a good ass time…
What better way to spend a chill, October afternoon then to go out to the Eibach Springs facility and celebrate the 3-year anniversary of The Chronicles…
RESERVE YOUR SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE!!!
RESERVE YOUR SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE!!!
RESERVE YOUR SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE!!!
Why Year.Three Anniversary Meet? Because Good Time…
Just a little over two weeks remain until the Year.Three Chronicles Anniversary Meet!! There are still spots available but we are at about 60% capacity for parking spots up front. The meet is free to attend as I mentioned in the FAQ but if you want to park up front, you will have to purchase a spot through the official Chronicles storefront. Parking up front entitles you to a better spot of course but it also gives you the opportunity to get some additional perks, like the possibility of winning an award. I know, I know, it’s not a full-blown car show or anything like that but I thought that it would be cool to be able to give out some awards to give credit where credit is due. There are a lot of really great builds out this year that just don’t get the proper spotlight that they deserve. I have created a couple of awards to give out at the show and yesterday afternoon, I received the artwork back from the trophy spot that I ordered the awards through…
I’m not trying to make this an overly serious deal of course, but it’s always good to have the opportunity to get some recognition from your peers for all your hard work. In the Honda community, one of the biggest points of modification that is always a focal point with enthusiasts is what’s under the hood. Engine swaps, tucks, custom fabrication, etc. are equally as important as any other part of the build so I decided to have a “BEST ENGINE BAY” award, which will be judged by a couple of Chronicles regulars who know engine bay customization better than anyone; Ryan “Rywire” Basseri and DPK David. They will help me out in the decision process and I will also have other close friends of the Chronicles help in the judging process for the “BEST HONDA” award. This will be a very difficult decision to make so we will have to brainstorm at the event to determine who has the best Honda of the day. Since I also have a lot of supporters and followers who aren’t Honda owners, I have also gone ahead and created a “Best Non-Honda” award, for those of you who aren’t bringing Hondas to the Year.Three event. If you guys know anything about me, you know that I love all sorts of different makes and models so it will be a lot of fun to present an award to the best non-Honda of the day. The last award of course, will be hand-picked by me personally and is “The Chronicles’ Choice” award. This honor will be given out to my personal favorite vehicle at the meet. The Best Honda/Non-Honda awards will be based on a stricter criteria while The Chronicles choice will just be based on a build that I really enjoy, no matter how many modifications are done or whether or not the car is in a completed state. This was done because I feel that at every event I attend, there is always a certain build that stands out to me above all others and at Year.Three, I will have something to make sure to let the respective owner know that I really love what they are doing to their car.
To be eligible to win one of these awards, you will have to have a VIP parking spot. It’s just one of many perks that you get from just supporting the site and being able to park up front where everyone can enjoy your build… Either you purchase a spot or not, I thank you all for coming out to support The Chronicles at my 3-year anniversary event…
Spots are moving daily so hop on it!…
RESERVE YOUR VIP PARKING SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE!!!
RESERVE YOUR VIP PARKING SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE!!!
RESERVE YOUR VIP PARKING SPOT AT YEAR.THREE HERE!!!
“Take a look at what I’ve done…AMAZING…”
I was really trying to toss up an update yesterday but I’ve been spending a chunk of my time planning out the Year.Three Chronicles Anniversary Meet. I actually just finished up the designs for the trophies that I will be presenting at the meet. It’ll take a couple days for them to be made but I’m pretty anxious to see how they come out. I know, I know, it’s not really a full on car show and I certainly do not want people thinking that it is. It’s just supposed to be a fun little meet where homies and other enthusiasts who are fans of this site can get together to have a good time. I just made a couple awards just for fun and thought that it would be a cool idea to give out some awards at the meet to some really nice builds. At the end of the day, they won’t mean anything and they really shouldn’t, but I like giving recognition to people who really deserve it, you know? And if you’re thinking that I’ll only be giving out the awards to the homies, you need to rethink that…I won’t be the only one judging the cars and I will actually have a lot of the really close friends of the site be the judges that day to help me decide on who should get the awards. It’ll be fun, I promise…and if you somehow end up going home with an award, shit, even better right?…
If you guys haven’t purchased a VIP spot yet for the meet, I suggest you do so as soon as possible. I know I’ve been mentioning it a lot but the spots are legitimately moving at a pretty fast rate. I mean, they are going faster than they did last year and those sold with the quickness. I know some of you are waiting on your friends or whatever but please try to get them to come through so they can get their spots with you before it’s too late. It’s been roughly a week since I announced the event and we are now at a little over 50% capacity. I anticipate some of the people that are close to the site reserving spots this week as well so they will take a chunk of the parking…If you want to reserve your spot, click the link below…
Year.Three Anniversary Meet Registration and VIP Spots HERE
What I was really trying to work on today for the site was a retrospective post on the Top Ten Hondas of 2010. I did the same thing during the middle of last year as well when I had an update on all the Hondas that were on the Top Ten list the previous year. I collected all the photos for it but I just didn’t get around to finish writing it up. If that gets done later today when I wake up, I will definitely post it up for you guys…
Anyways, the thread title was actually made for two reasons, both of which are totally unrelated to what I just spoke of above. I usually think of that line from Mr. Ozwald’s track “Amazin” when I’m taking a dump in the bathroom, or unleashing ground shaking boners, but today, the line popped up for two other very different reasons…
If you’re a true car enthusiasts, who is a fan of all different makes and models, I’m sure some of you guys have heard about some older Porsche owners running newer, Subaru STi engine swaps…well, someone took that idea and did the exact opposite…and the results are “interesting” to say the least. I was surfing the web a couple hours ago, and stumbled upon this Subaru/Porsche abomination…
Uhhh…Whhhaaaattt?! AMAZING….-ly bad….I don’t know why, but when I look at the front end of this Subaru-Porsche bastard child,….
…it instantly reminds me of the “beast” from the 80′s TV show “Beauty and the Beast”…Strange, yes…random, yes..and the show was equally as bad as that car you see above you. It did star Linda Hamilton though, who might possibly have been the first set of titties I had ever seen when I was a young lad, when she got down and dirty in the first Terminator movie, which was also from the 80′s….haha…I can’t say for certain, but it was definitely one of those “cover your eyes” moments that parents will try to get you to do when you’re a kid and watching R-rated movies…Also a random fact, I also believe that the guy that plays the “beast” is not actually that Subaru above, but the guy who later went on to play Hellboy in the Hellboy movies….Look at that, I’m kicking all kinds of knowledge today…
Oh actually, I found the scene that I was talking about…fucking old as shit…I mean, I was 2-years old when this came out and I probably saw this scene when I was like uhh…8? or some shit like that…anyways…titties sure looked different in the 80s, haha…I just like how 80s movies used the same music score throughout the entire duration of the film, no matter what situation it was. In this scene, the Terminator song is still used during the fornication but it’s been slowed down, you know, just to make it “classy”….Who knew that the Terminator would later go on to become the Governor of California and would be having extra-marital affairs with his housekeeper, also to this score, but probably sped up with more Arnold grunting. I imagine the whole ordeal would have sounded like this…
I applaud you if you sat through the entire thing because it’s fucking hilarious haha…
Video of Linda Hamilton I was referring to is here, if you really care to see it…you have to be 18 which I definitely wasn’t at that time…Maybe it’ll give you guys a better appreciation of the wonders of internet pRon in today’s technological age…Just imagine if you wanted to have a Fap-sesh in the 80s…there was no internet, there were no DVDs..if you wanted to fap, you probably had to like rewind the VHS tape in the VCR repeatedly because mainstream sex scenes like this last all but a minute. By the time you finished rewinding and fapping, it probably took you like a good 2 1/2 hours to nut…Also remember that most VCRs didn’t have remote controls back then…you do the math on that one…
Here’s a rear shot of the car…. People that will really think that you’re driving a Porsche – 0 ….People that will really think that you wasted your money doing whatever it is that resulted in this Suba-porsche-ru ST-Carrera-I – 1….I can appreciate the bodywork and the work that was put into this car, but why?…
Alright, onto something that’s more pleasing to the human eye…Do you guys remember a couple weeks back when I posted up this TL? Well the owner caught wind of it and emailed me to introduce himself. The car is located in Florida and is owned by Cass Farrell. He sent me a couple more photos of the car…He hasn’t really had anyone take some super hi-res shots of it yet but these photos will give you a good idea of what the car looks like front and back with the assorted silver pieces color-matched to the body…
Definitely a good looking daily driver…It’s a completely different car with the grille and other pieces color-matched…
A shot of the rear, also color-matched…
And a shot of the exhaust…. I told him to let me know when he gets better shots of the car…
That is all for now. I’m gonna try to finish up the first part of that retrospective write-up and get it up later in the afternoon…Remember to reserve your spots for the meet!!
Productivity…
I normally don’t get more than one or two things done on an average day because I’m too busy doing absolutely nothing, but yesterday was a pretty decent day. I was sent out on assignment to Gearspeed in Rancho Cucamonga for work, spent the majority of the day there, and then I headed over to the Bisimoto facility to check out DPK David’s tune. Bisi was tuning David’s K20 Civic coupe and dropping by Bisimoto Engineering also meant that Bisi was going to give me a first look at some of his latest projects…
So I woke up early Thursday morning and drove an hour from the Orange County area to Rancho Cucamonga, which is in the Inland Empire. I really didn’t have any idea what I was supposed to do out there, as Rodrez only told me to go out there to cover a tech story for Honda Tuning. Big Mike happened to be off work that day and was good friends with James over at Gearspeed so I asked him to come by and hang out while I shot whatever was going down over there. When I arrived at Gearspeed, they gave Big Mike and I a tour of their facility and then we walked over to a work station where I was greet to a pleasant surprise. The tech story I was sent out there to cover that day was actually a tear down and reassembly of a legit Spoon Sports K-series transmission from Japan…
I can’t really get into full details of what actually went down, you’ll have to wait until a future issue of Honda Tuning magazine for that, but here’s a quick shot of the Spoon tranny, assembled by Spoon, straight from one of their race cars…
It’s crazy to see what goes down at a place like Gearspeed because these guys that work there take apart transmissions and rebuild them like it’s a very simple job, when in reality, it is everything but. I mean, these guys can tear down a tranny, throw every single removable piece into a bin, machine-wash it, and put it all back together in about 30 minutes time. Shit was wild man, I’m telling you… Just to think about how intricate each Honda transmission is and how these guys know them like the back of their hands is mind boggling… The Spoon transmission was way more than I expected it to be because I honestly don’t have that much of a favorable view of Spoon Sports stuff, but honestly, I was impressed. They actually did some work on this transmission and didn’t just like, throw a different final drive in there and plaster a Spoon badge on it like every one of their other products. That shit was definitely a learning experience, and I have a ton of respect for guys that work on transmissions on a daily basis. These guys are very systematic and almost robotic in terms of their ability to work on these transmissions. Big props goes out to the guys over at Gearspeed for not only their skill, but also their hospitality. The facility itself is a trip too because it’s a gigantic warehouse filled to the brim with Honda transmissions and parts. The craziest thing about that facility is that they have a full gym next to their lunch area, and one of the offices even has a tanning bed inside of it…haha…I’m serious, you can’t even make that shit up…
I definitely stayed there longer than I expected to though. I got there around 11am and didn’t get out of there until almost 4pm in the afternoon. The time spent there was a productive one, so I can’t really complain…
After that Big Mike and I hopped into our cars and made our way down to the Bisimoto Engineering facility. DPK David’s tuning appointment was at 2pm so they were almost done by the time we got there. Luckily they still had one more final pull left on the dyno and I was able to witness it…
Here’s what it looked like when we pulled up. The coupe was still hooked up to the dyno, but Bisi was taking a little break to have a nice cold drink…
Bisi taking a moment to chat with Big Mike…
As for the tune….the numbers at that point were pretty decent but Bisi felt that there was quite a bit of restriction coming from the intake area…
He recommended to David that they take his filter off and mount a velocity stack to it for the final pull. David removed the filter he had on, mounted the velocity stack and aimed it upward to get maximum air flow…
Here’s a crappy video of the final run…
The filter did prove to be the issue as the final run yielded some pretty good results…
Final horsepower numbers can be seen above…
Both Bisi and David seemed to be pretty happy with the results. 218HP on a internally stock K20 Type-S motor tuned on a AEM EMS Series 2 is not too shabby… There isn’t anything else done to the motor but the basic intake, header, exhaust combination…
By the time they finished taking the car off the Dynapak, it was time to close up shop. The photo above is Bisi and DPK David after they came back from a test drive. David was all smiles because his motor has never run better…
While David and Bisi were busy finalizing the details of David’s tune, Big Mike asked me to take a new photo of his side project, which is a 1996 Honda Accord wagon. He recently put some Work Leadsleds on so he wanted to get a decent photo of it…
Big Mike claims he’s not gonna do anything crazy with this car but we’re all waiting for the day when he let’s us know that he’s doing a full Mil-spec harness and ITBs for it…just wait, it’ll happen…. Overall, the wagon is mint, The interior is like new and everything seems to be working very well mechanically. He’s always wanted a wagon and the perfect opportunity came up to purchase one….
That’s all for today. Make sure you guys click above at the top of the screen to pick up your Year.Three Chronicles Anniversary spots if you haven’t done so already. Spots are moving quickly so it’s a good idea if you jump on them now…
PURCHASE YOUR YEAR.THREE CHRONICLES ANNIVERSARY MEET PARKING SPOT HERE
Japanese Treats…
Got an early update for you guys since I have to be up early in the AM to head out to cover a tech story for work. If you guys are interested in coming to the 3-year Chronicles Anniversary Meet and haven’t taken the time to reserve your parking spots yet, please do so as soon as possible. The post directly before this one as well as the link at the very top of this page will lead you to a link where you can purchase your parking spot at the event. A chunk of the spots have be claimed already so I really suggest you guys get on that if you want to be a part of it…
Anyways, one of the Supertwinz, James Nguyen aka OldManJames, passed this link onto me yesterday and I thought it would be cool to post it up and show you guys some pics. It’s actually from an event that took place in Japan over a year ago but it contains a lot of cool EF Civic builds that you probably have never seen before. If you love Hondas, then chances are very high that you are probably a big fan of the EF chassis. EFs are basically classics now within our community and any time you can find a really clean, cool-looking build, you should definitely take some time to check it out. These photos are from the 2010 East Japan CR-X Meeting that took place in the Tochigi Prefecture. I won’t post all the photos but at the bottom of this post, I have included a link to the site so that you can view their coverage as well as the rest of the content on their site, known as “From JPN”. I just posted some of the EFs that stood out the most to me but there are definitely a lot more photos to be seen. The only CR-X you will probably recognize is the white one from North Latitude 36°. I posted a couple shots of it from an old Japanese Option magazine about a year ago and if you were a viewer from back then, you should be able to remember it. If not then you get to see it today so now you’re just sitting here wasting your time reading this sentence. Let’s just get to the photos…
Really liked the front half of this CR-X, sitting on front-staggered Sprint Hart CP-Rs…notice in the last shot how the wheel weight is mounted on the outside of the lip. Definitely a little odd but I guess whatever works, right?…Taillights are ca-ca but the enthusiasts from this site are both JDM and USDM fans so we are actually to blame for those lights…
Here’s the CR-X that I mentioned early from North Latitude 36°…Very cool looking EF with green TE37s, a red two-tone bay and weird turbo manifold set-up. Its strange in that it has the manifold and intercooler, yet it still has a regular intake….There’s actually another shot of the bay at a different angle that you can see here where you can see the custom radiator hard-lines and it seems to run up top across to the side. I almost think that this car is all motor using the top half of a turbo manifold and the intercooler is some sort of make-shift custom radiator or something because it looks like the cooling lines run directly to it….is it turbo or not? I’m not 100% sure, but it’s definitely interesting to look at and wonder…
Pretty wild fuel set-up…
Cool shot of it with some other CR-Xs in the distance…
I’m not 100% sure if this is from the same CR-X but I like the custom Defi cluster…
Also liked these two CR-Xs…loving the slightly more aggressive 16-inch Wedsport wheels on the front of the white one and the blue one is rolling on what I’m pretty sure are Black Racing wheels, a wheel that you definitely don’t see too often nowadays…
The rear looks like it’s an SSR Competition wheel…
Check out these scale models… the Mugen CR-X Pro is sick…
The Mugen CR-X Pro.2 aero seems to be the kit of choice for CR-X owners over there…
I’m sure someone else can elaborate as to what kit this is because I don’t really know…Note also the vented front fenders…
This isn’t a CR-X but it was also present at this particular event. There’s a full profile of it on their page so you can see all the full specs but at a glance, I can tell you that those are 14-inch SSR MK2 wheels, and the front lip and rear wing are Chargespeed pieces…
If you want to see more from this event, click below and it will take you there to their gallery…
FROM JPN – 2010 EAST JAPAN CR-X MEETING GALLERY
Okay, this isn’t EF-related but I saw this on their site and it’s definitely something you don’t see everyday…
In the U.S., this was known as the first gen. Acura Vigor that nobody gave a shit about AT ALL, but in Japan, the CC2 Honda Inspire was a chassis that people in Japan actually took a chance on. I know that when I was researching parts in Japan for my CB Accord back in the day, I use to always run into CC2 Inspire parts. Companies like Chargespeed made front lips and other stuff for it that actually made them look pretty decent. You can peep more photos of it in the attach links below…
CC2 HONDA INSPIRE AS SEEN ON THE FROM JPN SITE
Interesting right? If you guys want to see more, make sure to visit their site. They have all kinds of interesting older Honda builds including stuff like this Honda Civic Wagon…
Crazy….really dig those Hayashi Racing Streets on there…
Anyways, peep the site here…. FROM JPN – “WE ARE JDM & USDM ‘OTAKU’…”
Thanks for looking!….
THE CHRONICLES 3-YEAR ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION FAQ
*NOTE – This page can always be found at the top right corner of this site.
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 3-year anniversary of The Chronicles/Stickydiljoe.com
When? – This event, deemed “Year.Three” will take place on October 22nd, 2011 from 1pm – 6pm
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 $10 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. If for whatever reason you didn’t receive your registration materials in the mail, we will have a list of paid attendees on hand but it will slow down the roll-in process. Please keep these items in a safe place where you remember to grab it.
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, there will be music provided by a DJ.
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. There will also be a handful of vendors personally selected by me to be at the event and they too will have merchandise available for purchase.
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 any 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 other vendors than the ones I have chosen.
Will you be having a raffle or giveaways at the event? – Possibly? Not sure yet…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. For anything that is pressing and needs to be addressed, please email me at stickydiljoe@yahoo.com
PURCHASE AND RESERVE YOUR SPOTS HERE
PURCHASE AND RESERVE YOUR SPOTS HERE
PURCHASE AND RESERVE YOUR SPOTS HERE
Pardon Me…
Don’t worry, I’m actually doing stuff for the site. As you can clearly see here, I can’t even go through some photos without my stupid cat climbing on my desk and blocking my view. Apparently she thinks my monitor is a window or something and just stares at it all day. Anyways, I just got back from the Rywire facilities so I will have the next installment of the Rywire ITR Build coming your way tomorrow. In the meantime, if you are on Facebook, become a fan of The Chronicles if you haven’t already and RSVP for the Year.Three Chronicles Anniversary Meet on October 22, 2011 so that I can have somewhat of a headcount of how many people I am expecting. I’m sure people won’t RSVP because they just don’t want to or don’t want to go near Facebook. It’s really up to you, but it would do me a huge favor if you let me know that you were coming. RSVP here below…
Year.Three… A Chronicles Anniversary Celebration (Official Facebook Event Page)
Stupid cat.
Reading is Fuel for the Soul…
Ahh, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t spend a couple moments out of my week to bombard you guys with some self-promotion…haha…In reality though, I love what I do and I hope you all appreciate the efforts that I put forth every month in your favorite import automotive magazine. Despite all this internet craziness with the blogs these days and car forums, and other social media sites, there still is no better feeling than looking in your mail box or going to your local convenience store and spotting the newest issue of Super Street, Honda Tuning, and Import Tuner. It’s just a cool feeling you know…I mean, it’s not like touching a hot girl’s titties or anything, but shit, you get the warm sensation inside of you (probably excitement) when you first flip through that new publication and I certainly hope you have an even better feeling when you take it up to the cash register to pay for it. That’s why I always say “SUPPORT PRINT”. We all work very hard on these magazines every single month to bring you what we feel is an amazing product. Every month I try to give you guys a good introduction to the latest issue as well as give you guys a bit of a preview of what’s inside….
With that said, I am proud to say that I can now put down “Import Tuner Magazine” on my list of publications that I have done work for. Charles Trieu, who was once a vital part of the Super Street magazine staff, has since moved onto become the head editor of Import Tuner and I guess he liked the work that I did previously, because he asked me to jump on board and do some work for IT. It’s a pretty cool feeling to say that I have written and shot for Super Street, Honda Tuning, and now Import Tuner. This month’s issue (on newstands now) marks my official debut over at Import Tuner and I’m proud to say that I am very happy with how my first two stories over at IT came out. I’ll fill you in on what exactly it is that I did further below…
On another note though, I was contacted by Jereon Willemsen (You know him from SPEEDHUNTERS) via Facebook early yesterday morning with a very pleasant surprise. He’s over in the Netherlands so it’s probably easier for him to get a hold of the mag but he let me know that The Chronicles is in the newest issue of Performance VW magazine as “The Site of The Month”. What I’m doing in a publication solely dedicated to Volkswagons is beyond me but apparently the editors over there found my site one day and enjoyed it so much that they decided give me that honor. It’s pretty crazy to think that not only is this a VW mag, but it’s also a publication that’s not even from the United States. It’s wild…I gotta say though, it is quite an honor for them to even mention me in their magazine. Jereon even sent me a couple photos of what the spread looks like…
They ran a couple of the photos from my event coverage on the page as you can see…. It’s so random but pretty amazing that they would give me that kind of recognition so I have to thank the guys over at Performance VW… They also emailed me too that same day that Jereon did and let me know that they were going to send me a copy of the magazine. If you’re from Performance VW and you’re reading this…thank you very much, I truly appreciate it….
Now, onto this month’s reading material…
If you haven’t already done so, make sure to pick up the October 2011 issue of Super Street magazine. Not only is it “The Stance” issue, which I’m sure many of you will love, it also marks the 15-year anniversary of Super Street magazine. They have a story inside with some of the more notable import models from the last 15 years and it’s a pretty good read. Also there are some pretty good shots in there so some of you guys can re-live your younger years and beat off to some classics…haha…it’s like reuniting with an old friend with your penis…
In this particular issue of SS, I shot Dennis Kongvongsai’s Subaru STi from Team Hybrid. I’m sure you guys have heard me mention his name a couple times in my coverage of events. I actually had never met the guy until that day I cruised down to San Diego to shoot his car but he is a pretty chill guy. The car looks good on those mag blue Volk RE30s and the car has a whole is a different look from most usual Subarus that you see on the road nowadays with some fucking Rotas on them and shit… The story is pretty good too where I talk about the current “state of stance” and sort of give some good insight on the whole “stance” movement…
While Super Street’s current issue deals with all style and wheel fitment, Honda Tuning this month has devoted an entire issue to all things race-related. Just like last year, Rodrez has put together “The Race Issue”. I’m sure there are those of you out there who have absolutely no idea about how to make a car go fast and only care about how your car looks but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pick up this issue. It’s a very informative look at some of the top Honda/Acura race cars in our industry today. I did a story on a FG2 Civic race car from Segs Motorsports and even I managed to learn something during the process and I usually have zero ability to learn shit…
One of the coolest stories in this issue is about Tony Palo and Chris Miller, who today are at the top of their game in the drag racing world. They fill you in on their thoughts on drag racing and their rivalry in an interview from Rodrez himself. The cover features an Amuse widebody turbo S2000 and a K-swapped Civic hatchback, both owned by Ryan Novak. Also in the issue is a cool story about the Spoon Sports Civic Euro R democar…
My debut in Import Tuner magazine actually features a two stories, one of which I also did the photos for. Charles is always trying to feature Hondas so he hit me up to shoot a very clean Honda Civic that belongs to Brian Jacobe Arias from the AS1 crew…
Nothing crazy, just a very simple, street-spec Civic. I know there are a lot of you out there who aren’t into the track-themed builds these days or the cars with the crazy tucked bays and this is the Civic for you guys. There’s nothing trendy about this car and it’s a Civic that will probably be relevant in any era. Brian is also one of those very quiet, humble guys and he was super stoked when he found out that his car was going to be featured. He’s the type that actually appreciates stuff like this and doesn’t go out of his way to constantly ask for a feature or expect it, which is also VERY refreshing to see, especially considering how a lot of enthusiasts are these days….
The other story I did for Import Tuner was on this Lamborghini Giallo Orion Yellow widebody Amuse S2000…I personally have never seen or heard of this particular build before so when I first saw photos of it, I was pretty blown away. I mean, you see a couple Amuse S2Ks floating around these days but the thing that really impressed me about this car was the engine bay…that shit is CLEAN. You expect S2000s to always be supercharged these days with a half cluttered engine bay but this one is definitely not one of those. It’s turbocharged and the bay itself is completely shaved and tucked. I would go as far as to say that it’s probably one of the best S2000 engine bays I have ever seen. I’ll give props to Sheepey all day for having an AMAZING bay, with the crazy dump tube set-up and all, but you guys have to see the bay on this yellow S2000, it’s fucking clean. Both are very different cars but if you were to compare the engine bays…ehhh, it definitely makes things interesting. It’s not really a competition though but I’m just saying, people are going to compare… Also, there is some fucking money in this car…every aspect of this S2000 has been touched-upon; motor, aesthetics, custom audio….EVERYTHING. It’s a sick S2000 build….I would have gone a different route with the wheels but fuck it, it’s not my car…my opinion isn’t important, but seriously… If there were some bronze Volk CE28s on this car, I would spontaneously combust, haha…
***oh also, let me add this…ATS Ben brought it to my attention that the horsepower and torque numbers on this S2000 in the story are incorrect….that is not MY fault. It was an error on their part and there was a mix-up when they were doing the numbers for the Auto Select Skyline on the cover and this car…It is in no way a claim made by me or the owner of the car that it makes 800HP and 650lb-ft of torque. If that were the case with this S2000, I think the owner would either by Tony Stark aka Iron Man or Jesus…haha. Just don’t come complaining to me and thinking I’m an asshole for making up some wild numbers for this car…
Anyways, make sure to go pick up these magazines and give them a good thorough reading. It doesn’t even matter if you don’t have to shit at that particular moment, just sit on the fucking toilet and read the shit outta these magazines…SUPPORT PRINT ALWAYS!!…
Thanks also for supporting my ass…
