Archive for ‘Exclusive Content’

Spoon Sports and The 25 Hours of Thunderhill… Part 1…

Spoon Sports and The 25 Hours of Thunderhill… Part 1…

These photos have actually been sitting on my PC desktop for some time now because I’ve been trying to decide on whether or not I should post them up or not. I had this idea that it would be cool to compile some of the best shots and put them into a hard cover book but I’ve been so busy trying to finish Volume 3 that I just haven’t had time. This one wouldn’t be anything intricate, it would just be a small collector’s item type of print and even Aaron from Spoon Sports USA liked the idea. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet and don’t want these photos to go unseen so I figured I’d start putting them up here on the site now. Aaron invited me to come out to the 25 Hours of Thunderhill a few months ago when he started building an FK8 Civic Type R for the endurance competition. I’ve never been to an endurance race before and being a part of anything Spoon Sports-related is usually pretty fun so I agreed to go. I think Aaron has always been appreciative of my work and wanted me out there to capture the behind-the-scenes feel of the event. He told me that it was going to be pretty tiring and most of the time we wouldn’t have much time to sleep at all and it was going to be incredibly cold. All those things occur regularly in my normal life anyway so nothing he told me sounded too daunting, lol. My only condition was that I wanted to bring Der along with me so he could experience the event as well. Aaron had no problem with that and  mentioned that we’d be very well taken care of all weekend. There would be a hotel, multiple RVs for us to chill inside of, and a dedicated staff to make sure everyone was fed. There was even a menu all planned-out and all. It didn’t sound like anything I’d really have to ‘endure’ and I already agreed to go long before any of the good stuff was mentioned, but I liked the fact that he was so thoughtful…
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Rywire House and CR-X Reveal…

Rywire House and CR-X Reveal…

The video was posted last week but I thought now would be a good time to actually get the photos up of the recent private event I was invited to where we got to see Aaron Espino’s CR-X unveiled. Unlike most build debuts, this was actually planned to coincide with somewhat of a housewarming party at Ryan from Rywire’s freshly remodeled home in Huntington Beach, California. I remember once upon a time Ryan had these grand plans for this house. It sounded crazy at the time to build a partition inside his home where he would be able to display a car but Ryan is an unconventional type of dude so we all had faith he’d pull it off. And of course, he did. I don’t have all the details on what was all involved with the overhaul of his house but I know it wasn’t particularly easy—and definitely NOT cheap. There was a point when he wasn’t even able to live in the house because everything was torn down and being built from the ground-up. When he told me he was doing this event with Espino’s CR-X parked inside his house, I just had to see it for myself…
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Ichi’s Farewell At The 25 Hours Of Thunderhill…(Part 2/2) CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #28

Ichi’s Farewell At The 25 Hours Of Thunderhill…(Part 2/2) CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #28

With a majority of the testing taken care of, the team from Spoon Sports makes final preparations for the grueling 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance race. Ultimate Spoon-fan Dan finally gets his opportunity to not only get his dashboard signed by Ichishima from Spoon, he also ends up being a part of the pit crew! Watch as we take you on a journey from pre-grid, to the race itself, all the drama in-between, and the final lap with Tatsuru Ichishima as he bids farewell as the president of Spoon Sports. Also, if you’ve never seen this event before, you must check-out the aggressive driving style of Tarzan Yamada in the dark, foggy night at Thunderhill, it’s incredible!ddd
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Ichi’s Farewell At The 25 Hours Of Thunderhill…(Part 1/2) CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #27

Ichi’s Farewell At The 25 Hours Of Thunderhill…(Part 1/2) CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #27

This was a special one. Normally I wouldn’t even attempt to cover a grueling event like The 25 Hours of Thunderhill but I made an exception when Spoon Sports extended the invitation. Not only was their FK8 Civic Type R competing in this series for the first time, it became a monumental event because Tatsuru Ichishima, founder of Spoon Sports, was retiring. To give him a proper send-off, the entire team decided to compete and hopefully bring home a victory at one of his favorite events! Spoon Sports went all out for this one, bringing over their entire staff from Type ONE to be the pit crew for the race as well as having a full staff on-hand to make sure we had three meals per day! I’ve never experienced anything like it. We were so taken care of that I think this will forever ruin other race events for me, haha. Watch as I document the journey from start to finish before Ichishima says goodbye!
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FEEL’S Civic And The Return Of Wekfest Los Angeles… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #22

FEEL’S Civic And The Return Of Wekfest Los Angeles… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #22

Well, this is it!! All the build-up and all the time invested into getting LJ Garcia’s old FEEL’S widebody Civic ‘more together’ for the Wekfest Los Angeles event is here! I couldn’t have picked a better time to do this because this particular Wekfest event is a special one. Not only is it the first big indoor car show to happen in the last year, it also lands on the anniversary date of The Chronicles. I started this journey 13 years ago and what better way to celebrate that special day than by presenting the world with an icon.
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Bringing Back The FEEL’S Widebody Civic For One-Time Only… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #21

Bringing Back The FEEL’S Widebody Civic For One-Time Only… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #21

After the great response I got from shooting LJ Garcia’s old FEEL’S Widebody Civic for Meguiar’s, I decided that it would be a really cool idea to try to bring it out for an appearance at Wekfest Los Angeles. I had no idea it would garner such a huge public response from the automotive community so what better way to celebrate that than by giving everyone the opportunity to see the Civic themselves? It’s so crazy that this Civic is still mostly complete on the outside and I was even able to source some more of the original pieces for it. Follow along as I prep the car for it’s one -time only, first-ever appearance in the 2020s. I don’t know what will happen to the car after, but I feel great knowing I contributed to helping it come back together, even for a little bit.
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Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2020s-Era Shoot Featuring LJ Garcia’s FEEL’S Civic…

Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2020s-Era Shoot Featuring LJ Garcia’s FEEL’S Civic…

Let me start-off by saying that I am so glad I decided to take on this project for Meguiar’s. When I was first approached about this concept by RJ De Vera, I honestly didn’t know if I wanted to do it or not. He’d never know because I acted so confidently about it but I was very close to saying no. I was going through some personal stuff at the time and wasn’t really motivated to do anything. All my insecurities were boiling over when I was asked to take on such a huge project for such a well-known company. Meguiar’s has literally been around for over 100 years. To produce something that would not be ‘good enough’ in their eyes is mortifying. I didn’t know if I had it in me. But, I told myself that I’d take on new challenges this year and really see how far I could extend myself creatively. I think it was around 2017 when I had a bit of an epiphany. One day I was working next to my-then significant other, I turned to her, and proclaimed that if I’m not producing my best work moving forward, I would stop doing The Chronicles. If I’m not creating and bettering my previous work every year, there’s really no point in me doing this anymore. Because at that point I would know that I wasn’t having fun anymore. It meant that I didn’t have it in me to challenge myself…
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An ICONIC HONDA Build From The Past Is Found… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #19

An ICONIC HONDA Build From The Past Is Found… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #19

I never thought I’d see the day but I’ve been waiting almost two decades to see this car again…

For my final installment for the Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” series, I knew I had to do something big, so I sought out an important Honda from a bygone era to tell not only its story, but to add to mine.

To me, this was the perfect way to cap off a series of creative work covering five different decades. A true pleasure it was to be able to photograph a car that first inspired me to collect automotive tuning magazines as a youth.
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Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2010s-Era Shoot…

Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” 2010s-Era Shoot…

For the fourth installment of the Meguiar’s “Portrait of an Icon” series, we head into “The High-Tech 2010s”. This one was a difficult one for me because I wasn’t able to tap into my ‘nostalgia’ bag since the 2010s were just a few years ago.

I had to consider what were the big trends of that time, be it pop-culture or automotive, and 3 things immediately stood-out to me; bolt-on widebody kits, digital streaming services, and well, not to toot my own horn but—The Chronicles. I thrived in the 2010s and I don’t think many would argue that my work was very pivotal to the growth of Japanese tuning culture during that time.
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