Tag Archive for ‘Exclusive Content’

A Surprise Appearance At An S2000 Car Meet In Mie Japan!…

A Surprise Appearance At An S2000 Car Meet In Mie Japan!…

The day after Wekfest Japan, we jumped out of bed and into our friend Eishi Suzuki’s Voltex S2000 to attend an all-S2K meet at a parking area in Mie. This was a special occasion because Eishi passed away a couple of years ago and he was once the organizer of this particular meet. His close friend still hosts the meet every year in his honor and Yasu thought it would be a great surprise if we brought his car out for it! I don’t think anyone expected it to be there but everyone was stoked when we pulled-up. The car hasn’t been brought out in public since his passing so it was important that the car be there for the gathering he once hosted…

Finishing-Up A DC5 Integra For Wekfest Japan…

Finishing-Up A DC5 Integra For Wekfest Japan…

It’s that time of year again for both the Golden Week holiday and Wekfest Japan! Now that things are starting to get back to normal, everyone can get back to building cars and getting them buttoned-up for the Wekfest event in Nagoya! One of the main reasons I came back to Japan finally was to attend the Wekfest event but before that takes place, we spend an entire day wrapping-up a DC5 Integra build that has been in the works now for the past few months. Parts show-up just in time, good fun was had, we met Yasu’s mom, and more!…

Our Toyota GR86 Gets The Brand NEW APEX’i N1-X Exhaust!!…

Our Toyota GR86 Gets The Brand NEW APEX’i N1-X Exhaust!!…

Didn’t expect to start modifying the GR86 so soon since we are still waiting on so many parts to come in from Japan but this was an offer we couldn’t refuse!! APEX’i recently received their new N1-X Evolution Extreme Muffler system from Japan and provided us with the amazing opportunity to run the first one in North America! As many of you know, we are in the process of building a stateside version of the Exceed Japan demo GR86 and it just so happened that Yasu is also running the same exhaust. I guess you can say this opportunity was a serendipitous one.

A New Year Means New Goals & NEW PROJECTS!!…

A New Year Means New Goals & NEW PROJECTS!!…

If the title and the click-baity cover photo didn’t give it away, we’re unveiling a new build! I’ve been hinting at a new project car since the year started and I guess I must have spoken it into existence because here we are! We introduce you to our new Exceed-supported Battlecraft demo car and give you some updates on what Ryan Der has been up to with his Civic. A guest with a pretty unique build passes by the shop and more!…

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…

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…

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

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!

Wekfest Los Angeles 2021 Coverage… Part 2…

Wekfest Los Angeles 2021 Coverage… Part 2…

Man, time is just FLYING by right now. I can’t believe it’s already mid-November. While I’m getting the rest of these photos up from Wekfest LA, we are just a few days removed from the return of the massive San Jose Wekfest event. It’s gonna be a good one this weekend. There are some cars that are going this year that you’ll definitely want to see if you haven’t been to a car show in awhile. San Jose is the big one, the Super Bowl if you will, of the Wekfest series so you should definitely attend if you were on the fence about being out and about this weekend. Today we take a look at the concluding portion of coverage I have of the Los Angeles stop. These are some stills that I took the morning of the event right before the show opened. I really wanted to shoot more but there is just so much going on and I’m running around all over the place before the show even opens its doors to the public…