Tag: exceed japan

Dave Chik’s Civic featuring the new Exceed V2 front lip…

August 1, 2024 1 comment

A week before Wekfest San Jose, I had Dave’s Civic sitting here at the shop because we needed to install the new Exceed Version 2 front lip to debut at the show. He’ll be the first one to tell you that his Civic isn’t a ‘show car’ but myself and everyone around him thinks otherwise. It’s such an incredibly well-built car with some many nice detail touches. To us, it’s the perfect choice to run the new Exceed front lip. The Version 2 lip comes on the heels of the discontinuation of the original Exceed lip. It goes without saying, and it might be obvious to some, but the relationship between Exceed and Mode Parfume is now non-existent. The two companies parted ways due mainly to a difference in views and ethics so Yasu set-off to create a new variation of the popular Exceed lip…

Read More

Last night with NO GOOD RACING before I go back home…

June 27, 2024 1 comment

Well it’s been fun Japan but it’s time for me to go back home to Los Angeles! Before I leave though, Yasu and I link-up with our friends from NO GOOD RACING for a fun cruise night! Ryuji wanted to have a get-together before I left and it worked out that I had a free weekend open for some fun. I still haven’t packed my suitcase or anything but hell, I can never turn down an evening of car activities in Osaka. You never know what to expect or what will happen but it’s almost always an amazing adventure…

Read More

We brought the EK9 Type R out to one of the best Honda events in Japan…

June 20, 2024 0 comments

Summer is here which means it’s time to put the EK9 away for the season! Haha, yes that sounds strange considering most enthusiasts put their cars away for the winter but if you know Japan, you understand how harsh their summer season can be. It’s just way too humid and hot to be outside which means I’m taking my ass back home to a slightly-less-hot Southern California. I’ve been here way too long so it’s time for me to go back to catch-up on regular life…

With me being gone, there’s no reason really to have my EK9 CTR outside so it’s going to stay in a nice comfy warehouse in Osaka. Before we do that though, Yasu and I decided to load the car up on a tow rig so we could safely transport it 7 hours to the Kanto-side of Japan. If you’ve followed me for the last few years, hopefully long before that, you know that I usually end my spring journey in Japan by attending the Chan-Oka Honda Meet. It’s a smaller event, but the quality definitely exceeds the quantity of Hondas inside this up and coing event. This small lot in Saitama holds some of the best Honda builds in Japan! There’s a particular style that these enthusiasts follow and it’s very much the more ‘USDM’, West Coast style of building Hondas from the early 2000s. These guys get all their inspiration from magazines like Super Street and Honda Tuning from back in the day. They execute the style faithfully and I can honestly say that they do their research. The Hondas here are legit.

Read More

Machine Check!!

June 4, 2024 5 comments

Machine check!!

Now that I’m back home from Japan, it’s time to put the EK9 away for the summer until I go back. I figured now would be a good time though to give you all a breakdown of the entire build. Just to put a nice cap on this project for the time being…

Read More

Plenty of surprises on a trip with Sara Choi and friends…

May 30, 2024 0 comments

Over the past year or so, I’ve been joking around with Sara calling her my ‘manager’ because she’s been trying to convince me to go back to Indonesia with her. I went 7 years ago and though it was a fruitful life experience, I can honestly say that I didn’t have the greatest of times. I don’t think I ever made it a secret either. Whenever people asked me if I would go back, I often said I wouldn’t. Not so much because I was treated poorly or anything, I think the people that invited me last time tried the best they could to give me the most positive of an experience. Circumstances just made it difficult for me to fully enjoy it. When Sara Choi decided that she’d start competing in a drift series down in Indonesia, I was all for it. I’m always gonna root for one of my closest friends. She planned to spend a bulk of her time down there to practice and train to be a better driver but there were definitely times when I think she felt homesick and wanted her friends there. She brought it up a couple times and at first, I wasn’t really trying to go. Just because mainly I’m pretty busy as it is with a loaded travel schedule and I had this preconceived notion that I wouldn’t have much of a different experience if I went back. But some time went by and it seemed like Sara was really enjoying herself down there and wanted me to see it for myself so I told her if she wanted to plan it out for me, I’d bring some of our other friends down there too and we’d make a trip of it…

Read More

First night drive…

May 23, 2024 4 comments

First night drive down the street was a success. Been busy the last few weeks so the EK9 hasn’t been getting much attention but now that we’re back from Indonesia, Yasu was able to spend some time on the car…

One of the major issues we had with the Civic was when we first acquired it, it was a bare shell which had a fuel tank in it that wasn’t in the greatest condition. That had to be swapped for another cleaner one since it was kind of rusty inside. After we brought the car back from Wekfest Japan, we also noticed the rear main seal was leaking so that also had to be addressed. The car is still running a bit too rich but that’s mainly because the injectors are a bit too big for the B16B when it’s paired with this particular Mugen N1 ECU we are running. After a drive down the street to the local gas station to fill up the new tank, we discovered that VTEC crossover comes at 4,000 RPM which was quite a surprise. The car gets kinda rowdy pretty early in the powerband but eventually we may switch to a different unit, possibly something more modern like a Link ECU. The idea of keeping the Mugen ECU is cool cuz it’s very traditional and goes with the theme of the car but it’s just dumping fuel with the RDX injectors in there…

Read More

What did I just see…

May 12, 2024 2 comments

On the list of “Random things I never expected to see in Japan” was this incredibly-rare Lancia 037 Stradale sitting outside in the rain in Wakayama…

For those that aren’t aware of what an 037 is, don’t worry you’re not alone. The Lancia 037 was a mid-engine sports/rally car built in the 1980s to compete in the FIA Grouo B World Rally Championship. It is notable because it was the last RWD car to win the WRC, which it did in 1983. Because of Homologation requirements in the WRC, Lancia had to create a minimum of 200 street-able production cars to compete. From ‘82-84, a total of 207 are known to have been produced…

Read More

On the hunt for cars from Osaka to Tokyo!!…

March 14, 2024 0 comments

By this point in the trip, I had already been in Japan so long that I felt like I lived there and my friends were just visiting me. Attack Tsukuba was coming up and it was time for us to head back to Tokyo. Before that however, we go model car hunting and stop by one of our favorite shops in Osaka, Car Make Across. It’s always good to see Joe and I was surprised I hadn’t seen him my entire trip. We love seeing all the cool stuff at the shop and I had a gift for him so I really wanted us to go see him before we left Osaka. One we got to Tokyo, I had to take everyone to all the model car shops I had found the previous month to make sure they got to see all the cool collectibles. During an evening, we met up with some friends and I got to see a Civic that I had been wanting to see for a very long time….

Read More

Late night car meet in Osaka before heading to Kyoto to hang with Kei Miura!!…

March 7, 2024 3 comments

During Auto Messe weekend, we always try to host a gathering somewhere in Osaka because there are so many people in town for the show. It just makes sense to bring everyone together for some post-show activities. That way it maximizes the experience for those who come to the Kansai region and it allows them to get a taste of true Osaka car culture. It’s not unlike Tokyo, when the masses all link up at various night meets in the city. This is just on a smaller scale but with a completely different vibe. If you enjoy cars, you already know that Osaka will be thriving that weekend. On this particular evening, we decided to bring our newly-finished Mintia “Cold Smash” EK4 Civic race car out. We had friends in town who hadn’t seen the car in-person yet and even though it is a dedicated race car, we thought it’d be fun to see this thing smashing around the city. A few days after that, we all headed over to Kyoto for a fun evening with Kei Miura from TRA Kyoto. You may know him as the man behind the popular aero parts company(s) Rocket Bunny and Pandem. We all grab dinner and then head back to his shop where he shows us some of his latest projects and goes through the unique process in how each build came together….

Read More

The gang’s all here for Osaka’s BIGGEST Car Show!!…

February 29, 2024 0 comments

It was starting to feel like I had been in Japan forever. I’d say I was missing home but Osaka is basically my second home so they only thing I was really missing were my friends. That is, until they finally showed-up! It was good to see their faces and spend time with them again because Yasu might have been getting tired of just seeing me every single day. Osaka Auto Messe was fast approaching and everyone arrived just days before. Nana showed-up first after visiting some friends in Gunma, then Der and Kristian landed early morning in Osaka. We grabbed some food, walked around the city, and then it was off to the biggest car show in the Kansai region, Osaka Auto Messe!…

Read More