It’s already been 4 days since I got home from my trip to Hawaii but today was probably the first day where I actually felt like I was “home”. Since the moment I returned from vacation, I have been on the road driving back and forth throughout Socal trying to get things done. I literally flew back from Hawaii late Thursday night to San Diego, drove back to Orange County, slept 4 hours, drove up to Temple City, then up to Van Nuys, back home again to Orange County, slept two hours, then rode up to Willow Springs Saturday for FF Battle, proceeded to dinner in West L.A., then back again to Van Nuys, back home to Orange County, woke up Sunday and went to Irvine, then back to the OC, and down to San Diego where I picked up DPK David and his wife late Sunday and got back home finally early Monday morning. To say that I’ve logged in some mileage in the last couple days would totally be an understatement. I have been everywhere. After I got home last night, I crashed out for like 10 hours since I wasn’t able to get a good nights sleep since I’ve been back in California. I got up early today and have been working on FF Battle 4 photos ever since and so far, I’ve only been able to get through the first day, which was the dyno portion of the event…

Every year, the format has stayed pretty consistent. If anything, this year’s festivities were a little more compact. Instead of doing the dyno day on a Thursday and then attempting to do a drag race session on Friday night, Super Street consolidated everything and did the dyno day on Friday, followed by the actual race and drag on that Saturday. I think the overall feel for the event this year was very good. It was at a completely new venue this year and instead of taking place at the Autoclub Speedway like year’s past, this year’s FF Battle happened at Willow Springs International Raceway. The course was new for many, familiar to some, but it was a good day. The event also coincided with Import Tuner magazine’s FR Challenge and Raceline USA’s very own track day, which yielded some variety in cars other than the ones that participated in FFB4. Today we are going to take a look at some photos from the first day at Raceline USA. The dyno portion of the event has always taken place at Raceline and this year was no different. Elton at Raceline is a very knowledgeable guy and his dyno is probably one of the most accurate machines in California. The numbers are usually lower than at most other shops but again, he’s one of those guys that calibrates and takes every element into account when setting up his dyno. He and the Super Street staff decided to do things a little differently this year, and made the choice to withhold the numbers from the competitors. This way, nobody could use their knowledge of the horsepower numbers and try to manipulate the competition in any way. This added an element of mystery to the event and everybody who was racing that Saturday raced with the idea that they were all basically on a level playing field. Other than visual observations, there would be nothing else to base the competition on. I think this was a good idea but I, like many others, were itching to know what the cars made on the dyno. I have seen some of these cars plenty of times before so I had a pretty good idea, but you never know. People often change their set-ups leading up to the race so it can drastically change how much power they made compared to numbers they accomplished in the past…

The photos today are from the entire day at Raceline USA. Tomorrow we will look at the first half of the day at Willow Springs, and depending on how many parts follow after (Possibly 1-2 more), we will get through the rest of that Saturday at FFB4. Like previous FF Battle  events, I cannot disclose the results of the event. I actually don’t know them this year so even I am left in the dark as to who won in the end. I didn’t even stay for the drag race portion so I really have no idea what the final standings are. I think I know who won but I wouldn’t bother asking me because I wouldn’t tell you. You guys will all have to wait until the results hit the pages of Super Street in a couple months. For now, enjoy the photos…

When I first arrived at Raceline USA that morning, I was a little shocked to see the transformation that Kane Chan’s EJ1 coupe had taken on. I knew his car was competing this year once again at FF Battle, but I had no idea they had made so many changes to it to make it more competitive. It had done well in the past but they were going for broke this year. Everything was reversible to its original form but for FFB4, they added a custom front splitter, spare gutted trunk, and a 5-lug conversion that made room for 17-inch Work 11R wheels. Andy Hope was going to pilot the car at Willow Springs and this was his preferred set-up… If you guys forgot how immaculate this Civic coupe was in the past, click here to check out photos of it when I shot the car for Super Street….

One car that I was really happy to see in running condition was Supertwinz John’s EA-T hatchback. If you follow The Chronicles closely, then you have seen this Civic numerous times posted up at the Rywire facilities. It had been sitting for a while and was seemingly turning into one of those builds that you would never see finished. Not only was it running, it was also going to compete at FFB4….

John’s EA-T pulling into the dyno at Raceline…

Setting up for its first pull…

Hasport’s J-swapped, flared Honda CR-X was definitely one of the heavy favorites to win…

On the other hand, Simon Pavlick and his Integra had a bit of a hill to climb in terms of running against the more higher-powered Hondas at FFB4…

One Honda that many did not expect to see in an FF Battle competition was Big Mike’s Prelude. It has been known throughout the country as one of the top Honda competitors in the show car community but FFB4 marked its first actual attempt in race form…

Ken Suen’s FA5 to Mugen RR converted Civic was one of my personal favorites to win…His Civic is very lightweight with a pretty stout motor. Add on that he’s logged in a lot of seat time recently on the track and it makes it one of the heavy favorites…

Mike Hatten aka Donut was competing for the first time at an FF Battle competition. He’s had a ton of track days under his belt so it was going to be interesting to see him run out there against the others. What his Integra lacks in power it makes up for in Donut’s experience…

Nick Caster was a part of the competition once again this year. You will probably remember his CR-X  more from earlier this year with the J’s Racing front end but he’s gone back to his other aero package for FFB4…

Nick’s interior is nice and simple… No radio, no A/C, just the necessities of a weekend track warrior…

The CR-X has a front lip and splitter combo but he didn’t have it on for the dyno day since it had to go in and out of the trailer as well as the dyno….

Ken discussing front aero with Mike Ostby…

Ostby is the owner and driver of this 03 RSX…

John pulling his car out after his dyno pull… He had a bit of a coolant leak that needed to be repaired but it didn’t affect his final numbers in any way…

Here is the only video I got that day and it is of John’s session…You can hear me saying “fuck you John” at the end because his car was so loud that it was ripping my ears apart…haha. Everyone else was covering their ears but since I was holding the camera, I couldn’t do shit…

Here’s a look at John’s engine bay… you should be pretty familiar with is since the majority of the photos from the past of his car have all been centered around his bay… The intake is a new addition and in pretty raw form…

You also will remember the car more sitting on some mint BBR Competition wheels. They were in such good condition that John didn’t want to risk damaging them so he put on some white Mugen CF-48 wheels, one of many other sets of wheels that he owns…

Nick’s CR-X was next up for the dyno…

Two different generations of Hondas… Crazy to think how big cars have gotten over the years and how the FA5 chassis almost dwarfs the DC2 Integra…

Two very interesting participants at FFB4 were a duo of K-swapped CR-Zs… Eibach’s was one and the other was from Sportcar Motion…

Donut chillin in the Raceline USA parking lot…

Salem’s J’s Racing-equipped TSX was competing once again at FF Battle. Last year it surprised everyone by how well it did so people weren’t going to doubt its ability this time around…

Nick’s CR-X locked and loaded on the trailer, ready for battle the following day…

Ken putting on his General Tire decal…

Donut’s custom brake ducts on his DC2…

Big Mike and Rywire in a discussion…

The two Johns probably chatting about good food spots in the SGV…

You know your front splitter is solid when you can stand on it and apply sponsor decals on your windshield…

Tom Attack is a favorite any time he comes out to compete and it was certainly one of the favorites at FFB4…

Salem pulling his TSX out after his dyno session…

A photo op of a photo op…

Sean Klingelhoefer and his Civic was an alternate who ended up entering the competition after a participant was unable to attend…

Katman and his K-swapped Civic pulling up to Raceline…

Salem’s TSX…

Katman’s Civic rocking some bright green accents on his 949Racing 6ULs…

Another one of the Eibach K24 CR-Z…

The face of Donut’s Integra with P1-Spec front splitter…

Ken’s Civic looking battle ready…

Kane was down to just spray paint his front splitter in the parking lot…

Katman’s custom FF Squad decal…

Getting some love on the official FF Battle 4 video…

Though the day was filled with Hondas, there were also some non-Hondas present, like this E46 M3 on Mag Blue TE37s…

Alex Peng’s S2000…

Two of the oldest Hondas competing in FFB4…

Katman post-dyno sesh…

Elton Lo and friends hanging out at Raceline, waiting for Loi to arrive with the Sportcar Motion KR-Z…

John and Sean K…

John’s EA-T had been sitting so long that his front bumper ended up not fitting. We didn’t really know why, maybe because it warped from being out in the sun over time… Either way, he was front bumper-less. Luckily, Elton had an extra EA-T parts car sitting around that he was planning to get rid of and it had a bumper on it. John pulled it off the car and test-fitted it on his Civic and it fit nearly perfect….

One more of Tom’s EF hatch, wrapped in white vinyl…

An ITR that wasn’t participating in FF Battle 4, but would run the next day at Raceline’s track day…

While everyone stood around and waited for Loi to show up, Kane backed his coupe into Raceline so that they could get the rear wing mounted….

John took the time to fix his coolant leak…

The leak was coming from the heater core, which had to be looped…

Jonathan Wong from Super Street taking a seat inside John’s EA-T…

OldManJames helping out his twin brother John…

Kane popped his carbon hood to tighten a bracket on his motor that had come loose…

Kane’s B16B set-up that hasn’t seen much change in the last decade…

Elton drilling holes for the J’s Racing wing in Kane’s spare trunk…

Random but I decided to take my Q out for a cruise to Raceline that day and ended up spending $120 bucks on a battery at a Autozone down the street. Guess my battery had seen better days and decided to no longer hold a charge. We had jump started it and I was going to hold off on getting a battery until later, but my car was so low on gas that I was going to have to turn my car off at some point to refuel. I didn’t want to get stranded so I just forked out the cash for a battery and installed it in the parking lot…

On that note, we are going to stop there for today… Back tomorrow with Day 2: Race Day… Stay tuned!..