Ain’t no party like a NO GOOD RACING party, that’s for sure…
Tag Archive for ‘Exclusive Content’
Ghost of Sakai…
How do you tell people that don’t understand cars that there’s something so romantic about being in love with a hobby that makes your heart beat just a little differently?…
The Battlecraft 10-Year Hyper Art Show in photos & video!!…
Happy New Year everybody! No better way to kick off the new year than to give you guys something to watch. I even updated the intro and everything. It seemed like the right time to just update everything so there are some small changes that I’m sure many of you regulars will notice. In the first episode of Season 11, I take you back to a few weeks ago when we were hosting the Battlecraft 10-year anniversary event. I can’t believe it’s been ten years already. Time really does just fly right by. The episode starts with me giving you guys some current updates, a little history on Battlecraft, and what our event is/was all about! Then it’s time to set-up, figure out where everything goes and hope for the best. We also had a special guest with us since we took Terry’s Integra out of Bowls LA to display at the Battlecraft 10-year. He decided to fly down to experience some Socal car culture and then we send both he and his car back to the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy!
The U.S. debut of the first Voltex Widebody GR86 and Exceed Japan FL5 Civic Type R…
After landing back at home in California, Yasu and I show up with a bunch of parts and only a few days to help complete the USA’s first Voltex Street Version II widebody GR86. Kristian and Jay had been hard at work on the GR86 over the last few months but I had been in Asia so even I had no idea how the car would look. Before I left, the car was literally in pieces. I was excited to see how much the car had changed and boy was I surprised but how far along the car was. We had enough time to even work on my FL5 Civic Type R! Since we had brought the brand new Exceed aero kit for the Type R back from Osaka with us, we immediately had to throw it on to see how it looked in completed form. Good thing I already had wheels waiting to be installed and a meaty set of Yokohama ADVAN tires…
What a busy weekend it was at Wekfest San Jose…
It really does feel like car things are happening non-stop now that we’re in the heart of the summer season. Not long after my trip to Seattle, it was time to prep for the San Jose stop of the Wekfest tour—which also happens to be the biggest. Yasu decided to make the trip for this one as well since we were set to debut the first two Exceed Japan V2 front lips in North America at the show. He finished up the new parts and literally had them overnighted to California so we would have the time to get them painted and installed. We carefully selected two of the nicest Civics in the West to debut the new Exceed lip and had a nice booth display right up front at the show! Before the show however, we had some prep work to do and then it was off to San Jose!…
Chan-Oka Honda Meet in Japan 2024 Photos…
For the past two years, I’ve purposely extended my Spring trip to Japan so that I could stay for the Chan-Oka Honda Meet. The name comes off a little weird to us in America but it’s named by and after the guy who hosts it. Chan-Oka is a very-devoted Honda enthusiast who focuses primarily on tuning and styling from the early 2000s era of Hondas from the West Coast (California, Seattle, etc.). His group of friends absolutely love this particular type of style. They study it using whatever resources are available to them online and also by looking through old issues of Honda Tuning and Super Street magazines. Many of these guys have never been to America before but it’s actually pretty surprising how good they’ve become at replicating this specific look. I guess you can say the same thing about Americans or people from other countries and how they try to replicate Japanese car builds while never having set foot in Japan…
Machine Check!!
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…
First night drive…
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…
What did I just see…
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…
The Civic Type R you never knew I had in Japan—and why it’s gone now.
What if I told you that I’ve had an EK9 Civic Type R this whole time? Would you believe it? And what if I told you that it’s long gone now? Pretty crazy right? Well, it’s true. There’s another thing I have to tell you; it was supposed to be in California a long time ago. It’s a series of events, some rather unfortunate, that lead to the ultimate demise of an EK9 I had tucked away…
…and lead me and my friends on a journey to create another.