I was reluctant to call this “coverage” of the FF Battle 6 event because, well, it’s not… In the year’s past, I’ve done a pretty in-depth job of covering the FF Battle series and to be perfectly honest, it was kind of a waste of my time. I mean, I like the FF Battle series and have played a pivotal role in keeping it going through the years but there’s really no point for me to do it. I don’t get paid for it, my name isn’t on any of it, and well, I honestly don’t get ANYTHING for doing it. I even did the artwork for it at one point early on and it was just work I was doing for free while everyone else was getting compensated for it. I cover events all the time for fun and I don’t mind doing it as it is a passion of mine to shoot cars and what not but it just isn’t necessary to provide that much detail for an event like this. All the results for the event are withheld until the Super Street staff sends it off to print so I really couldn’t give you any details on it regardless. I know who won, but I’m not going to say anything and spoil it of course. It might be a giveaway if I offer up too much information so I think the coverage for this event would be better suited for print itself. We all know that digital media has taken over our industry and with Super Street being one of the only major titles left, I just think it would be better if we actually saved something that you should actually go out and seek in print. Don’t think of it as a “throwback”, consider it an alternative media source. The whole purpose of doing an event like this is to release photos and a story in print so let’s make an honest effort to keep FF Battle stuff strictly for print…In giving you detailed photos of everything that is going on here on the site, it is kind of detrimental to the final resulting story that is meant for print so I’m just not gonna do that this time around. I mean, I could be telling you the story about this event in print since I have probably been around it as long as anyone has at SS but I digress, let’s let the staff do their jobs. I’m gonna sit here and look at it from the viewpoint of a casual enthusiast who is just there to check it out. Oh, and I captured some photos along the way….

If someone asks for my help with stuff like this, I’m more than willing to lend my expertise. I was contacted to see if there were any particular cars that I thought would be cool for the event and I passed along the information. I believe in the FF Battle event and I think it can be really cool so I tried to suggest some guys who had cars that could give it that injection of “cool” that it really needs. If you look at big events like World Time Attack Challenge, it is the cars that really MAKE the event. It’s great that there are cars out there that are fast as shit and could easily win but what is the fun in that if the cars are not worth looking at? I think style and execution is still important whether or not it is at a car show or a race event so it is essential to make it attractive to even the most casual of car enthusiasts. That’s why cars from Japan have always been so interesting. It doesn’t matter what type of event it is, guys over there still care very much about how a car looks and how it is put together and people appreciate that. To put it simply, you just care more when you have a vested interest in the cars that are involved at any event. With FF Battle, it is actually not difficult to pull this off because there are a ton of great Hondas out there that are both competitive and have the style elements to capture the attention of the public. Your average weekend track event would have simpler cars or plain builds with just the necessary aero installed and that’s fine. You’re not trying to sell an event to people. With FF Battle, there are sponsors involved and so you need to sell this to people to get them to care. You know what I mean? People aren’t organizing FF Battle for no one to look. There are companies involved which help make this event possible so it is incredibly important to be able to sell this in a magazine for everyone to see….

I’m rambling but there’s a point to all this. I’ve worked hard to help get FF Battle to grow and I still see a lot of potential in it. I don’t feel like my input has been appreciated as much as it should have but again, I think maybe I care too much. That’s nothing against anyone, I believe it is my fault and only my own. This year, I covered it in a much more casual way. I took photos of cars that mattered to me, the shit I wanted to see, and well, let’s about it. I spent the time just chatting with friends and getting to know new people because that is worth more to me than investing my time taking photos of cars for the sake of being “detailed”… If for whatever reason you think I am wrong for doing this, please tell me…

The photos you see below are what I captured from the two days of me participating in the FF Battle festivities for 2014. I had some friends who were competing so I spent most of my days documenting what they did and their cars. There is some other stuff in there that you’ll find interesting and I’ll do my best to provide you with the information you need to know what you’re looking at… Thanks for looking and as always, I appreciate the support….

As with every year, the first day at FFB consisted of the dyno portion where horsepower is measured for each competing vehicle….

My buddy Kristian Wong from SP Engineering’s personal Civic track car. He was one of my favorites to win the whole thing until he blew his motor a week or so before FFB6. It didn’t stop him from competing though as he brought the car out with a stock ITR motor borrowed from a good friend…

FFB6 number placard and Kristian’s custom cut front fenders….

His office when he isn’t busy tuning 1,000+ horsepower R35 GTRs….

Ken Suen’s daily-driven supercharged Civic Si sedan….

Battle-tested Brembos and polished Advan Racing RGIIs….

Cody Chan’s D-series Civic with full Itasha-styled Neon Genesis Evangelion livery. He was definitely an underdog coming into FFB6 but he’s a hell of a driver and his car just looks so cool…

He recently installed some new Brembos and 17-inch Volk Racing TE37 wheels to house the brakes….

“GOD’S IN HIS HEAVEN ALL’S RIGHT WITH THE WORLD”….

Really dig the classic TE/CE combo, especially with the spaced front fender for added clearance…

The roll bar inside Cody’s hatch coated in a bright orange….

Another angle of the front end of Kristian’s Civic…

Ken busy putting vinyl on his Civic….

Waiting to go on the dyno at Raceline USA….

Mike Sabounchi from Super Street capturing photos while wearing his Fake Rich tee….

Lewis Liang’s K-swapped Integra Type R…

Sportcar Motion’s K-turbo Civic sedan, piloted by Jason Lee. Going into FFB6, this Civic was probably at the very top as a favorite to win. Knowing that, we all kind of expected the motor to blow up because Jason Lee was driving it and he’s never met a motor he couldn’t detonate… You don’t need to know the result of FFB6 to know what happened to this car the day of the competition, haha….

Spaced front fenders and SCM fender flares to fit a wheel and tire combo big enough to harness all that power….

Ping’s Acura CSX wasn’t competing, but he still brought his car out to show support….

A couple more of Cody’s Civic….

I left soon after that. Most of the cars had already done their dyno pulls earlier that morning so I missed out. The following day, I made the drive out to Willow Springs Raceway to check out the competition. Like last year, FF Battle also coincided with the FR Shootout, which consisted of a field of rear-wheel drive, front-engine vehicles. They shared the track that day so I got some photos of some of the cars from that competition as well….

If there was one car that I had to pick to potentially win the whole thing, it would have to be Ryan Hoegner’s K-swapped Integra Type R. Not only did it make good power, it was also being driven by a very experienced driver in Tony Jackson. He not only drove the ITR that day, but was also competing in the FR Shootout in his BMW M3…

On my way to the track, I got word that the ITR was experiencing some engine trouble in the morning. This wasn’t a surprise as the motor was a bit worn and had some issues prior. If there was one thing that would prevent this ITR from winning FFB6, it would be the engine. During a morning session, the motor just popped and poured oil all over the track….

It created quite the smoke show but after Jackson coasted the car back into the pits, they were able to assess the damage. Not only was their oil everywhere….

…but a piece of the connecting rod had snapped and shot out straight through the engine block. It came out with such force that it even snapped the clutch line on the way out. The ITR was definitely done for the day….

Our friend Brandon getting an up close look at the damage…

Nothing like an oil bath on a white engine bay….

Ryan didn’t seemed to bummed about it because I think he had a feeling it was going to happen eventually. Sooner better than later I guess. That’s just what happens sometimes with racing and putting stress on a motor so everyone just had a good laugh about it. After, we loaded the car up and it was officially out of the FF Battle competition….

Bummer because I really liked how the 17-inch Advan Racing RS wheels looked on it….

Oh here are some interior shots of it before we loaded the car up….

The inside of the ITR was super raw…. For those of you who wanted to see the car for yourselves, it’ll be on display at my YearSIX event in a couple weeks. It won’t be running yet but it is all cleaned up now for the event….

Competing at the FR Shootout with Tony Jackson was Amir Bentatou’s E36 M3 sedan. He also regularly competes in the Redline Time Attack series in this same BMW….

Yuta Akaishi and the RAW HEART/STICKYDILJOE.COM-themed Civic sedan competing at FFB6. Not sure if you guys remember, but Yuta competed once before in his other Civic that kinda blew-up. He’s no stranger to FF Battle but we were all hoping for a better result this time around, haha. Yuta is a good buddy of mine and is a great driver so I fully support his racing endeavors. I hope to help him out in the future in making this car more competitive. There are big things in store for 2015 so the plan was just to get out there to see how he would do and aim for better next year….

Gonna stop here for today. I gotta pack and get ready to travel to Texas this weekend for Wekfest TX but I’ll try to get the second half of these photos up for you guys to view tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for looking guys….