FF Battle really went off without a hitch this year. Jonathan Wong and the rest of the Super Street magazine staff have been organizing this event for 5 years now so there aren’t very many shocking surprises that present themselves from altering the event in any way. If anything, the years have helped teach the staff to really streamline the event and make things much less confusing for not only the staff, but also for the competitors. You the general public probably didn’t hear or know anything about the event because that was how it was designed to play out. The track event itself has always been open to the public, but it was understood that Willow Springs isn’t exactly the most convenient of drives for many people, especially during the weekday as it was planned out this year. Even in the past when the event was a bit closer, the general attendance has always been relatively small in numbers. People don’t attend track days like they do car shows and meets. When you go to track events, you’re either there to support your friends that are driving or you just have a deep appreciation for motorsports and want to experience it. Many don’t just go to go and there aren’t vendors and models and such so you don’t see a big jump in attendance year-to-year. The dyno portion of the event, where horsepower is measured to include in the overall results of the FF Battle event, is held every year at Raceline Development in Temple City, but is closed to the public. The Raceline lot is pretty small and there are businesses that share the complex with them, so it isn’t exactly the best idea to clog up the lot with spectators. That and any results and data collected aren’t allowed to be released to the public anyway so it would be a bit pointless for people to attend. To avoid any results being leaked, only invited media and competitors are allowed to attend…

In the past, the dyno portion of the competition has always been an all day thing. Competitors are coming from all over the place and because of that, a schedule is set to make sure that everyone had their own allotted time to get their dyno runs in. Because it is an all day affair, I’ve always been able to collect a lot of photos throughout the day because everyone is there either waiting for their turn on the dyno, or they are chatting with the other competitors or waiting for more information from the Super Street staff. The dyno days in the years before have been one of my favorite days because I really get to get a closer look at who is competing and get a more detailed look at the cars. On the actual competition day, it gets a little hectic and even sometimes stressful because everyone wants to do well and have to work on their cars in between sessions. You just don’t want to get in their way, you know what I mean? So the more detailed photos have come from the dyno day. This year however, things were a bit different. Everyone was told just to show up as early as 9 am and the hope was that all the dyno figures for every competitor would be logged by 2 pm. Raceline is a regularly operating business too so Super Street did not want to impose on their time and because there was a smaller field of competitors this year, it would be a lot easier to get every car done in the allotted time…

I thought it would be an all day event like before so I sort of just took my sweet ass time. I didn’t think any of the cars would even be done yet by the time I got there but that was not the case. When I arrived at 10:30 am, many of the cars had already had their dyno pulls logged and weren’t even there any more. Some of the competitors had showed up, did what they had to do, grabbed their competition packets/decals from the SS Staff and went on their way. I don’t recall exactly what time we finished but I believe that it was well before 2 pm that day. Some of us even went to grab lunch together afterwards, which is a rare occurrence because by the end of the day usually, people just want to go home and rest…

Today, we’re going to be taking a look at what I captured that day during the dyno portion of FF Battle 5. The biggest change that you’ll notice, besides the competitors of course, is that Continental Tires is the official tire of FFB5 this year. They stepped up to the plate and provided rubber for every competitor this year. I’ll go over some of the changes to the actual event like the rules and what not tomorrow when we actually get into the track portion of the FFB5 event but today, we’re just going to get a first hand look at some of the cars participating. Enjoy and make sure to come back tomorrow and Wednesday for the rest of the FFB5 coverage…

This Civic coupe belongs to Kristian Wong and represents the only single-cam competitor of this year’s FF Battle event. Wong actually works at SP Engineering and tunes GTRs all day so it is interesting to see him bring his daily driven coupe out for competition. He definitely went into the Battle as the underdog being that he was in a field of K-series cars…

Return competitor Ken Suen chatting with Kristian in front of the Raceline USA dyno…

Another new entry this year was Tony Jackson and his Eibach Springs-themed Civic hatchback. Love the graphical livery on this car and how it sits on the 949Racing wheels. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be running these wheels during the actual competition and used a spare set of 17’s he had for the Continental Tires. This car may looks simple but Tony is quite the experienced driver. It also packs a punch with an ITR motor and Eibach Multi Pro R2 suspension…

Another competitor was Jose Guzman’s DC5 RSX with BackYard Special aero with custom front splitter and front-staggered lightweight SSR Type-C wheels…

I really liked the custom modified rear BYS bumper on Guzman’s RSX. It changes the entire look of the rear and makes the DC5 look very aggressive…

The other DC5 of FF Battle 5 was the Sportcar Motion RSX, piloted by Ken Suen. Being that this car is a little bit more than just a simple street car, it was moved into a separate, new, class that Super Street created for the more race-prepped and more-experienced competitors…

There was a ton of custom aero on the front of the DC5 which required removal before the vehicle could even make it on the dyno…

Front bumper of the RSX, dubbed “The Dark Knight”, removed…

Daniel Herrera’s K-swaped CR-Z on the Raceline dyno…

Guzman’s DC5 and a non-competing DC2 in the distance…

Jason Lee brought out his FD2-converted Civic SI to compete at FFB5 for the first time…

This Integra Type R wasn’t competing, but I took photos of it just for its significance. This is Elton Lo’s ITR from Raceline Development. Though it looks like it has seen better or cleaner days, this R is Elton’s baby. He has quite a history with this R and has done virtually everything you can think of with it, from shows, to circuit racing, to drag, and at one point, it was even a landspeed race car. There is a ton of history behind this build and if it could talk, it would certainly have some interesting stories to tell…

Back to the competitors, here is a shot of another new entry, Pradana Wilianto’s (aka Ping or Ping Ping) legit Canadian Acura CSX with J’s Racing aero and WED’s TC105Ns…

A better look at Herrera’s J’s Racing-styled K20 CR-Z with custom front splitter…

Magnesium Blue Volk Racing TE37s and Buddy Club big brakes in orange…

Jason’s FA5 Civic SI that has seen a full JDM FD2 Type R transformation with custom front splitter and front-staggered Volk RE30s…

Showing up fashionably-late as usual was Jason Katman and his K-swapped Civic, representing FF Squad…

The interior of Katman’s Civic…

Black bumper and lip because race car of course. Katman had a string of bad luck with his K20 motor but everything looked good for him going into competition. He even upgraded the valvetrain on the K and it produced some really strong numbers that day. Katman had been a competitor in previous FF Battle events and this year marked the year where he made the most power…

A parting shot to close the dyno portion of this coverage with a shot of Guzman’s RSX on the dyno and a glimpse at his exposed suspension since the lower half of his rear bumper was cut…

That’s all for today. Like I mentioned, I didn’t get a whole lot from the dyno side of things this year because everything moved so quickly. Tomorrow we will get into the actual competition photos and what I captured at The Streets of Willow. I should also mention that the coverage includes some photos from the Import Tuner FR Challenge, which also happened simultaneously that day. There is some good stuff in there, trust me. Stay tuned and thanks as always for looking…