It seems like there is something going on every weekend these days out here in Southern California. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing, because people seem to be staying safe and what not, but I do find myself just a little bit reluctant at times to be out and about too often, if that makes sense. I think maybe just being a little bit older now I’m just more precautious. When I was young, I’d probably just say ‘fuck it’ and go to everything. The want for content would triumph my own best interests at times and I’ve adjusted my expectations over the years. The only reason I’d go to something now is to either support my friends or other car enthusiasts who have supported friends in the past. It’s more for relationship building and seeing people now than just trying to flood the feed with photos…

Ever since Der got his Civic, he seems to be pretty excited about doing car things so I’ll usually drag him out to a meet as well before we head back to the shop to work on his car. It adds variety to the videos we do and it’s honestly just good for us to be out seeing car things to continue to broaden our perspective. Der has been trying to find a balance between working on his car and shooting photos as well because he’s picked-up photography as a hobby the last few years when he hasn’t been wrenching. I think lately he feels like he hasn’t picked-up a camera at all because he’s been so focused on his Civic. I don’t want to get rusty either from lack of activity with my camera so heading out to a meet or two every now and then is almost a necessity…

One meet that I was looking forward to was the Doghouse Garage Meet in Cypress. These guys are usually out at the Club Racer track events and have always been super nice, so I wanted to return that favor by supporting their event. It seemed like some other friends would be there as well so why not go shoot the shit while shooting some photos? I wasn’t sure how big it would be since I don’t recall the Doghouse Garage guys throwing meets before but it was pretty surprising to see the turnout when I arrived. I showed-up early thinking I’d see some familiar cars and familiar faces here and there but the parking lot was filled to the brim! I think people are just excited to be able to go outside again so most meets will have a solid turnout but this thing was huge. I just some photos and did some video for it, which you’ll see in the next post when the Vlog premieres tonight, but I spent the majority of the time just chatting with fellow car enthusiasts. It was nice. Seems like there are a couple things going on this weekend as well so maybe I’ll try to make an appearance, who knows? For now, enjoy the photos. Vlog drops tonight at 7PM PST!! If you’re seeing this post late, well, it’ll be in the next post after this…

Oh yeah, I also went to a crappy drift event the day before to support my friends but we all just had a shit time so we didn’t even do any real documentation of it. Why? Well, cuz it was shit…

I might as well post these up here since there’s no place else for them to go…

The main reason why we went to Horse Thief Mile for this random drift event was so that Phil and Gary from Auto Factory Realize could see how the S2000 performed at a different track other than AVS…

They didn’t get too much seat time but did manage to go through some tires, as seen here with the shredding and de-beading of the tires on these Kosei wheels Phil had…

We also went to see Jamie drive his JZX100 Mark II since he raved about how much fun he had the last time he drove Horse Thief Mile…

I think we jinxed him by being there however, because the first session he went out, he almost immediately lost his BN Sports front lip and eventually removed his bumper all together to eliminate the risk of losing anymore body parts…

With the front face off I was able to see his nifty oil filter relocation which is quite smart of him being that the JZ engines are so notorious for having a difficult filter location to access…

And that was the coverage from the drift event, lol. We went back to the shop and relaxed after that before waking up early to head down to the city of Cypress for the Doghouse Garage meet…

I figured we’d run into some familiar faces while there and the first guy we encountered was Esteban’s K-swapped Spoon Sports Fit. The car has seen some improvements since we last showcased it on our YouTube channel. The ride height is fully dialed in now and he added some custom camber plates to the car to further help the overall posture of the Fit…

One of the builds that I’ve been wanting to see in-person was Brian Hua’s M&M Honda Hyper Widebody Integra GS-R. I’ve personally been to M&M Honda and have seen their demo cars before so I thought it’d be interesting to see how someone from North America would style it…

Honestly, this kit needs an aggressive wheel/tire combo but maybe the tires are just a little too big? I understand the functionality of it and why Loi and friends would execute the car in this way but the whole thing just looks a little too bulky now. I know these guys don’t really want to slam their cars ever so the ride height is performed with function in mind and this car will hit the track eventually so it all ties together. I just tend to look at things from a perspective of just style, and absolutely no function, lol so please don’t take anything I say personally…

From the rear angle the car looks great, I dig it. It’s just the front and I think the way the front fenders are designed, it’s just a little awkward to work with. That’s why the ITR from Attack Tsukuba last year, built by ASLAN, had the whole front end re-worked and modified to have better overall flow. I think it’s a bit of a task to make this kit look ‘right’ but at the end of the day I’m just happy to see guys running M&M aero here stateside…

So many different angles of this kit work, it’s just the front quarter angle looking from the ground-up that makes it a little awkwardly shaped. It’ll be cool to see this thing ripping through Buttonwillow or CVR eventually. Maybe the aggressive lines will be more suited for a different environment than a parking lot, you know?…

Voltex-equipped AP2 S2000 on bronze Volk CEs, once owned by Matt Rojana but currently in the capable hands of Drew from Doghouse Garage…

This black EM1 Civic SI was hammered to the ground on 15-inch Spoon Sports SW388 wheels paired with Spoon front brakes…

Nice to see more Exceed by Mode Parfume front lips on different Hondas these days at local events…

Juan’s Electron Blue Pearl EM1 coupe on silver 16-inch Desmond EVOs with-said Exceed front lip…

Right next to Juan was Alex Licea’s black EM1 coupe running the Club Edition Volk TE37 wheels…

Seeing a clean CR-X out and about is starting to become a rare sight in 2021. This one looked great with period-correct SSR Takechi Project Racing Hart Spinner Fins….

If seeing one CR-X is rare than how about two? Parked right next to it was this red one on classic Mugen M7 wheels…

Civic hatchbacks always look the best without side moldings and sans sunroof, as evidence by this clean example sitting on bronze Mugen MF8…

I have this strange fascination with the Infiniti M30/Nissan Leopard platform, so I almost always take a photo every time I come across a modified one. Perhaps it reminds me how I wished my ’90 Camry looked back when I had my first car…

Brandon’s black EK running an unpainted Exceed front lip and bronze Volk CEs…

Don Vo’s Civic was one of the better-executed Honda builds at the Doghouse meet, utilizing a Spoon Sports-heavy theme with other components like a BackYard Special front bumper and Mugen wheels…

CTR cluster residing in the dash paired with a Spoon Sports shift knob and an Ichishima-autographed Spoon steering wheel mounted with titanium hardware…

Bronze 16-inch Mugen MF10 wheels, these the re-released variations by King Motorsports, sporting anodized blue caps and titanium lug nuts….

Cory’s got himself a pretty raw, track-prepped and caged Civic hatchback rocking mismatched wheels…

Ollie’s incredibly clean DB2 Integra GS-R with paint-matched JDP front lip and white SSR EX-C Fins…

Any time there’s a Honda-catered meet in Southern California, you can be sure you’ll likely see Shawn and the rest of the Milestone Collective guys there with their Integras…

Gabe from Rival Machine brought his S2000 out with his new front wheel/tire/brake set-up…

A quick look inside the S2000 featuring a MOMO Prototipo wheel with custom Rival Machine horn button…

I absolutely love Advan RGs especially in GTR-face with all the concavity. The only thing that can make that wheel look better is a good set of big brakes, and Gabe pulls it off just right with the Alcon brakes and rotors with the contrasting orange brake hats…

Angel’s CT Engineering supercharged TSX looks fantastic with the Euro-R conversion and Volk ZE40 wheels…

Daniel Hurtado’s BNR32 Skyline GTR running staggered, custom refinished, Nismo LMGT4 wheels…

It’s always nice to run into the Palafox brothers to see what they’ve been up to lately. Carlos has been messing around with this AP1 S2000 that he purchased from Arizona, slowly bringing it back to prominence by restoring what he can and adding aftermarket goodies…

The engine bay is coming along nicely with a Mugen intake box, ASM cooling plate, and J’s Racing valve cover…

Another angle of Carlos’ bay…

Not much in terms of exterior mods just yet. The AP1 just sits nicely on a set of silver Volk Racing CE28Ns…

Not too far away from Carlos’ S2000 was his old project, this beautifully simplistic Civic hatchback on Mugen RnR wheels, now under the care of Edgar Tapia…

Under the hood of the Civic is a B18C swap that looks practically stock other than the signature OEM wrinkle red valve cover and Carbing strut tower bar…

I always wanted to get a closer look at Pyng Thai’s Civic build, but he’s always either blowing up engines or not around at events. He’s had this Civic for what seems like an eternity now and he’s never stopped tinkering with it since he acquired it…

Inside currently is a B18C swap converted to coil-on-plug and utilizing a custom tucked radiator set-up, which he plans on removing soon so that he can go back to a more traditional full-sized radiator core…

There’s some classic parts on this Civic since he’s come to acquire a lot of stuff over the years, like the Mugen strut bar, which he purchased brand new originally as well as a Comptech intake box…

The interior remains pretty timeless in appearance, with a Mugen steering wheel, Hybrid shifter, an AEM display which has been integrated into the center of the dashboard, and a STACK tachometer retrofitted into the cluster…

Pyng Thai is this many years old, if you were wondering…

Here’s a more ‘artsy’ angle of Pyng’s interior and a better look at how the STACK tachometer sits in the cluster…

Glad to see that in 2021 the B18C is still thriving…

One more of the Loi-Spec Garage M&M Hyperwidebody Integra with its beefy Volk TE37V Mark II wheels…

Masked interactions with fellow automotive enthusiasts…

A F80 M3 appeared…

And then we went back to the shop so that Der could work on his Civic some more.

That’s a wrap on this one. Thanks for looking everyone!!…