Tag Archive for ‘civic’

Abandoned Hondas At Real Company And Collecting Rare Parts In Japan…

Abandoned Hondas At Real Company And Collecting Rare Parts In Japan…

As my adventures in the Kansai region of Japan near an end, I find myself in the countryside of the Nara prefecture where I visit Real Company. This Honda modification shop is about as traditional as it gets, playing host to both Civic race cars as well as many more that have been left behind to be reclaimed by nature. It’s always interesting to see what types of gems Yasu and I stumble upon. There are a surprising amount of cars that have been out of service for years, slowly being overtaken by the elements. After that, I take you back to Exceed where I show you some pretty rare parts that both Yasu, myself, and my good friend Cody have been collecting to send back to the good ol’ USA. I came to Japan for many reasons and one of them was to secure products to send home for business as well as personal use.

VTEC Club USA 2022 Round 2 at Buttonwillow Coverage…

VTEC Club USA 2022 Round 2 at Buttonwillow Coverage…

It’s been a while since I’ve been out and about at a car event. Don’t get me wrong, there are no shortage of events here in Southern California. You can literally drive anywhere in the city on a weekend and come across something car-related. I just haven’t been out because I’ve been busy. If you strictly follow my social accounts you’ll notice the lack of activity, but my days are pretty full of tasks. Since I haven’t been able to go back to Japan, I’ve decided to take the time now to start planning for the rest of the year while also completing my third book. The book took me over a year to finally finish but I’m proud to say that it is some of my best work yet—and also currently available for pre-order. Let’s just say that there are a lot of things going on behind-the-scenes and you’ll realize why I haven’t been as active online when the time comes. I’m planning big things. And I’ll leave it at that. A big part of me has been itching to get out and start doing car things again though. Especially now that the grunt work for the book is done. I feel like I can dedicate more of my time now to covering automotive events and shooting cars for fun. I also want to be a supportive friend so when I found out that Round 2 of VTEC Club was happening, I thought I’d make the trek out to Buttonwillow…

Spoon Sports and The 25 Hours of Thunderhill… Part 2…

Spoon Sports and The 25 Hours of Thunderhill… Part 2…

Most of the photos that I captured at The 25 Hours of Thunderhill were done before the event even happened. It was important to document everything that led up to the race itself. The actual ’25 hours’ would be spent just watching the car go around and around, and around, the track. There wasn’t much I could capture. Of course there would be the occasional pit-in but those shots are going to look the same after the first few. We weren’t allowed to go into the pit lane area either since the rules of engagement were pretty strict, so I spent most of my time just filming when I couldn’t get photos. I actually loved the way the Vlog episodes came out, though the view counts are down because it isn’t something my audience typically gravitates towards, but it was expected. I have more fun putting the videos together than I do uploading them. It’s always been that way, lol. I could really care less about views or the monetary compensation that comes from an extra revenue stream like YouTube. It’s all about the content creation for me and an event as unique as this is one that I made sure to give 1000% to. The return on investment is the experience itself. I had an amazing time…

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…

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

Wekfest Seattle 2021 Coverage… Part 2…

Wekfest Seattle 2021 Coverage… Part 2…

I was really trying to get this post up before I left for SEMA so I could just press the “Publish” button while I was in Vegas but I just simply ran out of time. The night before I left, I actually didn’t even get a chance to sleep. There was so much going on over the weekend that I didn’t even pack my suitcase until 4AM Tuesday morning—and my flight was at 9AM, lol. It’s been a crazy month, I swear. It went from being a 2-year layoff to everything happening all at once. Two Wekfest events, Japanese Classic Car Show, SEMA, all in the span of about four weeks time! And next month I have another Wekfest event in San Jose plus Super Lap Battle…

Wekfest Seattle 2021 Coverage… Part 1…

Wekfest Seattle 2021 Coverage… Part 1…

It feels so good to be back on the road again. With all that has happened the last two years, I couldn’t have been happier to hop back onto a plane to go see some new things in another city. To be honest, it almost felt normal. Getting to the airport and feeling that intensity from the hustle of everyone on the move felt a little intimidating at first, but then that old familiarity came back. I was busy again, but like, a satisfying busy. Where you lay your head on your pillow at night and you feel accomplished. Boy did I need that…

Back On The Road For Wekfest Seattle!!… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #20

Back On The Road For Wekfest Seattle!!… CHRNCLS Vlog 2021 #20

Boy does it feel good to be back on the road again! It seems like forever ago since we’ve traveled for Wekfest but the show series is back now to close-out 2021. This was an interesting one because we go back-to-back for Seattle and Los Angeles for the first-time. We made sure to find some time to relax and just hang-out however, before the madness begins. Like my other visits to the Pacific Northwest, I make a traditional visit over to my friend Terry’s house where they were prepping their cars for the show. There’s plenty to see in this one, enjoy!

Honda Homecoming 2021 Coverage… Part 2…

Honda Homecoming 2021 Coverage… Part 2…

Hmm… I, uhh, kinda don’t have anything else to say about this event. Lol. I think with the previous post and it circulating online as well as through social media, I developed a good understanding of how people feel about it. If you’re on the inside, you’re gonna defend the position of those who were and have always been a part of this event. If you’re not, you either have a good grasp of what I was trying to explain or simply do not care enough about it to give it your time. Some of you are just here to see photos. I wouldn’t say that there was a wrong or a right. It’s just all dependent on perspective. If anything, I saw it as a small social experiment to see how people would react…

Honda Homecoming 2021 Coverage… Part 1…

Honda Homecoming 2021 Coverage… Part 1…

Hopefully many of you have seen the Vlog episode about this event and have heard some of my thoughts on it. I was expecting a more polarizing response but I suppose people are familiar enough with this event, since its been around for some years now, and have already formulated their own thoughts on it. I was never even supposed to go to this event and was brought in last minute as a guest of sorts, so I won’t be too harsh about my criticisms, lol. I’ll actually be very nice about it, okay? Because overall, it’s a good event. Correction: it’s a very VERY good event—if you happen to own an S2000, an NSX, or an FK8. If you don’t own one of those models, you don’t have to give a fuck about this, because they don’t give a fuck about you either. And that’s as blunt as I can put it. I feel like it would have been necessary to call this the “Honda Homecoming” with an asterisk at the end, because it’s not really “Honda” vehicles as a whole. It’s just those three particular platforms I mentioned with a sprinkle of Integra Type Rs and display vehicles brought in by vendors.