To say that the 2013 Eibach Honda Meet was a “monumental success” would almost be an understatement… If you were there at any point of the day from the early morning until the late afternoon, you would definitely agree. By all accounts, this was the biggest and best Eibach Honda Meet to date. The argument by its detractors has always been how great this meet used to be or how it was better in its earlier years and while it is important to appreciate the past, it is also essential to embrace the future. Growth is a vital part of this community and if you do not grow with the changing times, well…you’re just gonna get left behind. The fact is that the Eibach Meet has outgrown itself and it will need to continue to expand.

Do you think that Ryan Hoegner and Rodrez, the original creators of the Eibach Honda Meet, wanted to leave the Eibach facility in Corona? Fuck no. Of course not. In a perfect world, the Eibach facility would have an endless amount of space and could accommodate as many enthusiasts as possible. In this makeshift world, they would never have to leave the Eibach facility where it all started and would hold it every year there. The world, as you should know, is not perfect. With success comes growth, expansion, and unfortunately, more haters and people that would choose to speak ill of Ryan and Rodrez’s efforts. The Eibach Meet has always been by the enthusiasts, for enthusiasts.

Reality presents two very dedicated men who are both fathers and husbands, who have full-time jobs, and who are also automotive enthusiasts like you and I. They put this meet together because they have a great deal of love and appreciation for what this community provides and despite the people who do nothing but spend time behind a computer attempting to tear down their efforts, they have pushed on and continued to make the Eibach Honda Meet better every year. The overall growth was expected. As with every successful endeavor, everyone wants to be involved. I don’t think any of us really expected the Eibach Meet to ever get this big this quickly, but that is just how things worked out.

Last year was a little rough, I’ll admit and I think Ryan and Rodrez would admit to it as well. It was a trial effort and the first time that the Eibach Meet had left its home in Corona, CA. Things could have gone smoother, could have been better, but it had to be done so that they could learn from their mistakes to improve on the event itself. We all thought that the Irwindale Speedway was a good home for Eibach and the event outgrew that place as well. They had to find a venue that could not only hold all the vehicles but also hold the spectators and the crowd coming in and out. Storm Stadium in Lake Elsinore provided that space.

Now, onto the debate between the Eibach Honda Meet being a true “meet” or “car show”. These two words wouldn’t be so significant if money were not involved but any time people complain about money, they like to throw out that notion that meets should all be free. Again, in a perfect world, everything would be free. Car meets would be free, food would be free, gas would be free, everyone could get hand jobs from beautiful strangers, and no one would have to worry about booking a venue for an event. The reality, once again, tells a different story. Reality has revealed to us that car meets are only free if they are relatively small or poorly organized. Holding a meet inside some fucking strip mall in the suburbs is free because whoever organized it has only made a marginal effort to keep it that way. You hold this meet inside of a strip mall with multiple businesses and not only are surrounding businesses affected because their customers can’t come in and park anywhere, they also lose business because people don’t want to deal with some of these enthusiasts acting like fools and doing stupid shit. It’s free for the organizer and meet attendees but the people losing money are the businesses that are losing customers because some poorly planned meet is hurting their business. You could attempt to hold a meet of the caliber of the Eibach Honda Meet inside some parking lot inside a shopping center and you will fail before you even take your second breath. It doesn’t make sense and it is nearly impossible to hold a meet of this size unless money is spent to not only get city permits that authorize them, but also to rent a venue, pay for insurance, hire staff, and hire security. That is only the surface costs that are involved. When you get deeper into it, you really start to see the costs that add-up. You the meet-attendee needs to pay to be a part of this event because the people who organized it are coming out of their own pockets to pay for you to make this possible.

If you want to complain about money, then save money and don’t fucking come. That is always an option but people just love to complain all the fucking time about shit that really can be fixed by you simply removing yourself from the situation. You gotta pay to play folks, that is true with every aspect of life. “Free” is an imaginary word in the automotive industry. You’re reading this site for “free” and guess who is incurring the costs to keep this place running for you to view these photos? Yeah, the same guy that is also typing out a story for you to read for “free” and using equipment that definitely isn’t “free”. The fact that people like to complain about stupid shit like this is utterly ridiculous. “If it’s paid for, then it should be a full-on car show where cars are screened so the quality is better”….Well who the fuck decided that your car was good enough to pass the screening process for YOU to get into this “car show”? And when you don’t get in, then of course the natural reaction is to complain. Just because you don’t agree with the way some people build their cars, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t allowed to be parked next to you. Hell I disagree with peoples’ tastes all the time but that doesn’t give me the right to tell them that they can’t show up. The Eibach Honda Meet has always been a MEET and will continue to carry on that idea. You have to pay now because you were spoiled by the old meets. Everyone was and now we all have to put out some money to keep this event going. There isn’t anything wrong with that. It’s called being a “community” of enthusiasts. And if the organizers take home some extra cash for dedicating their time to organizing this event and taking time away from spending it with their own families, they should be able to because they DESERVE it.

I’ll say it once again…if you don’t like where the Eibach Honda Meet is going, then you simply do not have to show up or participate. It’s that simple.

This is running long so I’ll give my thoughts on the actual event tomorrow in Part 2. For now, let’s all relax a bit and check out the first batch of photos…

I arrived to the venue at around 7:30 am or so and the streets were already packed with people waiting to get in. The event was much more organized this year with one line directing people to the spectator lot, and the other strictly for people who registered to be inside the meet itself. I had a booth to set-up as always so there weren’t too many photos taken until after we had set-up. May and the rest of our group of friends were also involved with helping the roll-in process as well as handling the entrance gate so we were all pretty busy that morning. It wasn’t until around 9:30 am or so when I was finally able to pick up the camera and snap some photos. Below are from the early morning before the gates opened to the public. I tried to get whatever I could in between setting up the display for the booth and running back and forth to see if the Eibach staff needed help with anything…

One of the most talked about builds at the 2013 Eibach Honda Meet had to have been Ryan’s debuting E-AT Civic build. You read about it and saw some snaps of it in the previous post, and at Eibach, everyone got to have a first-hand look at the beautifully-done car in person. There is still much to be done but the project is coming along very nicely…

Since The Chronicles and Rywire have such a great relationship together, it was only appropriate that the Civic debuted at The Chronicles booth at Eibach…

The Mugen NR10Rs are indeed a rare classic, but this particular wheel set-up won’t be the final look for the E-AT as Ryan has other wheels in mind for this E-AT for other events going on in 2013…

Over at the Eibach Springs booth was four of the nicest track-prepped Hondas around. While these vehicles are well-built and well-maintained, they definitely do not do a whole lot of events where they just sit pretty. These cars are assembled to see track days and race events and get thrashed on pretty heavily. Above is Larry Luster’s K-swapped Integra Type R on Volk TE37s…

Tony Jackson’s Civic wearing a full Eibach-themed graphical livery…

On the other side of the Eibach booth were Mike “Donut” Hatten’s Integra and Tom “Tom Attck” Liang’s K-EF…

Donut’s Integra has seen a ton of changes over the last couple of years. It started out as just a daily, then turned into a weekend track toy, and now has been converted to a full-on track car. I’m really digging the current set-up now with the vented hood, Special Projects aero, red 949Racing 6UL wheels, and chalked Nitto tires…

Tom’s EF used to be one of the roughest-looking track Hondas around but now looks much more refined with the white vinyl wrap and JHPUSA theme…

Across the way from the Eibach Springs booth was the Circuit Monster booth, featuring Andy Hope’s Honda CR-X race car…

…and the current Honda Tuning magazine cover car, the Hasport-built K-turbo BB4 Honda Prelude. This thing has to be seen in person. I was shocked when I heard that they were building a BB4 and was completely surprised by the final result. This thing looks amazing and should perform very-well with the turbo K once it is all dialed-in…

One of the cleanest Honda builds among the hundreds and hundreds of Hondas that day had to have been this Civic from RC’s Garage. It looks nearly unrecognizable now but this used to be RC’s Civic that was on the cover of Honda Tuning a while back. He has since sold it to a friend and now it sports a K-swap and immaculately-executed engine bay performed by RC himself…

Jon Fob’s NSX on Takata Green TE37SLs parked at the Toyo Tires booth…

It seems like ages now since I’ve seen this Top Secret-themed Honda S2000 originally built by Bulletproof Automotive. Cool to see that it is still intact…

Michael Mao’s twin-turbo NSX. A build that really needs no introduction at this point as it has been everywhere in the past year…

Luigi Arroyo’s J’s S2000…

Ahmed’s Integra Type R is looking great these days with the Mugen aero and bronze TE37s. I’m a fan in particular of his JUN theme which is rarely seen these days…

He’s recently gone the turbo route and is looking to squeeze some more power out of his motor…

JUN-themed valve cover with JUN spark plug wire cover…

Ahmed’s custom honey-combed carbon Status Racing seats with colors matching his JUN theme. Of course the cage is also coated to match…

Gil Salazar from Circuit Hero’s other Integra Type R project that he’s recently completed, featuring a K-swap like his other R…

The last time we saw this EF was when the motor blew due to a fuel issue at the last FF Battle event in 2012. You’ll be happy to know that it is in perfect running condition again and you should be seeing this thing on the track again very soon…

AP2 S2000 with Voltex front bumper and Enkei NT03…

A very nicely done Integra on black Mugen MF10 wheels prepared by RC’s Garage…

Pretty interesting back story behind this build here. I don’t know if you guys remember HBK Jon’s old EG hatchback (Purple with teal engine bay, CLICK HERE) but this is actually his old car that has since been completely redone. Looks great and man, what a transformation. This chassis has changed hands a couple of times but I’m happy to see that it is now in a good home looking better than ever….

Parked right behind The Chronicles booth was this turbo Civic on custom “Mag Blue” WED’s TC05 wheels…

The Integra Type Rs were out in full force at Eibach 2013. This Phoenix Yellow R was just one of many on hand…

Advan Racing wheels on this black Integra…

Loi Hua from Loi-Spec Garage’s black Integra Type R on Hyper Blue 15×8 Volk TE37s…

It’s almost a rarity these days to see an ITR with the original U.S. bug-eye front end…

Lewis Liang’s Integra Type R with two different red Recaro seats…

Closing out Part 1 of the Eibach 2013 Coverage for now with this beautifully simplistic Integra Type R. Love the wheels and the overall “stance”, if you will, of the entire car with the meaty tire and everything. Just a nearly timeless set-up on this R. Well done…

Stay tuned for much much more!…

The Eibach Honda Meet itself is great in that it brings out a very, VERY, diverse crowd. Many times I found myself scratching my head and wondering why people do such things to their cars but for the most part, I embrace the variety that the meet presents. It sort of helps to open your eyes to a lot more of the community instead of just always having that tunnel vision that directs you to what you like and enjoy. It’s the ultimate realization that there are a ton of different ways to build a Honda and while some may not be to your taste, it may be to others. “To each their own” I guess is the perfect statement for a meet with such variety. There were over 700+ Hondas at this meet  and even if there were a lot of cars that were unfavorable to your eyes, you will more than likely be happy with the others that did catch your eyes in a positive light. One of the best aspects of this being a more grassroots-style “meet” is that it also brings out a lot of Honda builds that you wouldn’t see anywhere else. It’s a reminder that the Honda builds you see regularly aren’t the only ones around. There are a ton of really nice builds that you don’t ever see because some of these enthusiasts don’t do car shows or go to meets. The Eibach Honda Meet has always had that ability to bring out these cars because these enthusiasts have a great deal of respect for the event and its organizers. Every Eibach it seems I find myself standing there asking myself why I hadn’t seen a certain car before that day and that’s one of the reasons to really try to go to this event…

I thought this year’s event was a huge success because many felt that last year’s sort of de-railed the momentum of the Eibach Honda Meet series. This year’s proved otherwise and showed that even though there were some hiccups along the way, the meet is as good as it has ever been. The event is fully staffed with people that help make this event run smoother and I think the trouble-free roll-in process really displayed that this year. Organization is key when putting together an event with over 700 cars and 3-4 four times as many spectators as the previous years. Ryan and Rodrez have it down now. It’s still incredibly hard work but it is easier to withstand that stress with good help and a set game plan. I thoroughly enjoyed the Eibach Honda Meet this year and it gives me a very positive outlook on what the future holds for this event. I keep telling myself that it can’t get any bigger but man, the meet has proved me wrong every year..

Even though I got a good chunk of coverage, I realized that it would be an impossible task to see every single car there. Just from seeing some of the other photos of the meet online, I noticed right away that I had missed out on some really great builds. If you don’t happen to see your car in any portions of my coverage, then I probably just missed your car during the day. Of course, I have a particular taste in what cars I look for so I’m not trying to take a photo of every single car there either. It’s just tough having to manage a booth at the event, walking back and forth to see if the Eibach staff needed any help, and doing coverage all at the same time under some pretty intense heat. I found myself having to take a break after walking through each row because I didn’t want to get burnt-out from being in the sun. By the middle of the day when I really started to walk through the event, I found some people leaving already and couldn’t even get a better look at their cars. I guess the idea here would be to stick around if you want to get captured here on The Chronicles. If you have a great build I’ll find it some day, you just have to be there for me to see it, you know what I mean?

If you missed out on Part 1, please read through it and go through the photos. I know it is a bit long in terms of text but it doesn’t hurt to read. It is also important for the people that hate on the event to read through it because there’s a good message for you in there…

Eibach Honda Meet 2013 Coverage…Part 1…

With that out of the way, let’s get right into Part 2. I don’t know how many parts there are as I am still going through the photos but there is still much more to come…Oh I should also mention that these photos were shot before the gates opened to the public and while cars were still rolling in. That’s why some sections of the venue looked empty because cars were still making their way into the event…

Pristine turbocharged Integra Type R with Mugen aero kit and Gen. II spoiler on bronze Mugen MF10s… Just perfect as it sits, especially with the hood that really completes the package…

White Integra Type R on Team Dynamics wheels. Pretty cool to see these things popping up again. I think I saw like maybe two or three sets of these at the Eibach Meet this year. It makes Yuya Yasunari’s ITR from Japan that much cooler because he themed his build with a USDM style and his car could literally be parked right next to this one and they would almost be matching R’s…

One of the most intriguing builds of the 2013 Eibach Honda Meet was this yellow Civic hatchback. The color on the Mag Blue TE37s is timeless but what makes it interesting is the engine bay…

I don’t ever hardly agree with Derek from ALL-IN Fabrication about anything but I do have to admit that he can come up with some cool shit sometimes. This custom intake plenum that he made is a little odd-looking but cool nonetheless. Nice utilization of the Skunk2 Racing throttle body that center-feeds air into the manifold which has a plexi-glass window that allows you to see the runners inside. Who knows if the thing helps to make any power or not but the center-feed manifolds like the AFI pieces usually help to squeeze some extra power out of the K-motors so it probably helps…

This DC5 RSX is always looking really good with the black nickel pieces in the bay…

This Acura RL on WED’s Sport wheels looked amazing. Rarely do you see these things modded because they are so fucking expensive but this one had people turning their heads all day…

Salem from Phaze2 popped-up at the event in his J’s Racing-themed Acura TSX, now complete with J’s Racing FRP hood that he should be getting painted very soon…

Chivas was pulling double-duty and showed up to both the It’s JDM Yo!! Anniversary Meet and Eibach back-to-back…

Darryl aka Dee Rail from DPK made an appearance as well in his K20A EM1 coupe on Honda Time Attack Edition Volk CE28s….

Carlos’ Honda S2000 CR on white Mugen MF10…

Mike G and his Tank on custom refinished Sprint Hart CP-R…

Jared Aguila’s S2000 on bronze Mugen MF10s rocking the classic (and REAL) Mugen hardtop and Amuse front bumper…

DPK David’s EJ1 coupe with TE37s that are now complete with caps…

PGK Jay finally brought his S2000 out again after moving from Atlanta to Cali a year or so ago…

Speaking of Jay and David, they spent most of their morning as Eibach Meet staff guiding cars into the staging area with Wayne…

Here is just a small sample of the crowd that morning, and this was when the gates had just barely opened at around 11 am…

FD2-converted Civic Si with J’s Racing aero and Volk TE37SL…

David Nguyen’s Integra with JDM ITR front end and First Molding carbon “Flugel Plate” front lip…

K20Kid’s ITR with a completely new look. He ditched the BYS front bumper and Sprint Hart wheels and replaced it with a full-on Mugen theme. Like the black one you saw in the beginning of this post, he too has the Mugen aero kit but unlike that one, he has the Gen. 1 spoiler and no Mugen hood…

DB Integra with JDM front end and Buddy Club wheels…

Meaty wheel/tire set-up on this Civic….

Mark Sutakajana’s DB8 always looking good. Not very many changes lately to it with the exception of removing the retrofitted  Mugen Ferio wing and gutting out the interior for weight savings….

One of my favorite Loi-Spec Garage builds is this LeMans Blue 4-door Integra with Mugen front bumper and Voltex wing. Such a mean-looking sedan that actually sees a lot of track time…

Eddie Gonzales’ Civic also representing Loi-Spec Garage…

Wings of all types were present at Eibach 2013…

Black S2000 on Mercury Silver Volk CE28 wheels from Final Speed…

Christian Ruvalcaba’s track-spec Civic coupe on black Enkei RPF1…

Jay Valle’s 4-door is looking really good these days with the First Molding front lip and 15×8 Volk TE37SL…

Lurking in the midst of the Eibach Honda Meet was Rodrez’s very own daily driven Civic Si sedan. It features a FD2 front end and trunk conversion, BackYard Special front lip and grille, and front-staggered Volk TE37SL…

S2000 with teal Work VS-XX wheels…

Love how this CR-Z looks with the J’s Racing front lip and the silver Enkei NT03s…

Nicely-done del Sol on Mugen MF10L. Clean tuck in the engine bay with air conditioning retained and all…

Turbo Civic hatchback with custom purple Volk CE28s with machined/polished centers that used to belong to Danny from PlusOne…

K-swapped Integra on Sprint Hart CP-Rs. Yellow paint and white CP-Rs always make for a good combo…

Dave Martin’s K-swapped Integra from San Diego on SSR Type-C…

Dave Chik aka DAve decided to keep his timeless DA Integra in its time capsule and brought out his supercharged S2000 project out to play instead…

A couple months ago DAve asked me to redo the artwork for his old car crew logo that he had lost the original artwork for and I gladly obliged. Good to see DAve and his crew still going strong after all these years…

DA Integra on re-barreled Mugen MR-5 wheels that I often see cruising to events to with DAve…

Speaking of time capsules, this red DB2 Integra GS-R on Racing Hart Type Cs looked perfectly period correct…

It wouldn’t be an Eibach event without Alex Colon and Enrique Rosario’s Civics. These guys always roll together and it seems like they’ve been out to every event together the last couple of years…

Enrique is planning on redoing his entire car soon and it will be interesting to see what he comes out with since he’s been rocking this look for so long…

Alex’s Civic looks the best on bronze wheels, I think anyway, and I’m glad he’s decided to go with bronze Volk SE37Ks for Eibach….

Shutting it down here for today with a shot of this red Civic on black Sprint Hart CP-F wheels… There is still so much more to come so make sure to stay tuned!!…

Happy Memorial Day everyone and welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the 2013 Eibach Honda Meet. You’ve already read my thoughts on the event and how the event itself went in the previous two parts so I’ll make it a light-reading type of day since it is everyone’s day off and all. Today we are gonna be taking a look at a couple more familiar builds that you’ve come to know but a majority of the photos will consist of a lot of Honda builds that we really haven’t seen prior to Eibach. These cars have certainly been floating around and have probably shown up to local meets but you don’t really see them at major events other than at the Eibach Honda Meets. Like I said in Part 2, there are always those enthusiasts who don’t really care for the attention that they get from showing up to events and usually just pop-up once a year or so at events like Eibach. That’s what makes this event really great because you get to see some unique builds that you won’t see anywhere else…

Anyways, here are the links to the previous two posts. Catch-up and then move on to today’s photos…

Eibach Honda Meet 2013 Coverage…Part 1…

Eibach Honda Meet 2013 Coverage…Part 2…

And here’s Part 3…

The Rywire E-AT Civic continued to get a ton of attention throughout the day. People stopped to marvel at the entire build and stopped by The Chronicles booth to chat it up with Ryan…

One of the strangest observations that we overhead throughout the day were random people thinking that Ryan’s E-AT had a K-series engine that was flipped around. I don’t know how people come to these conclusions but I’m pretty sure everyone should know by now what a B-series motor looks like….

The engine bay is incredibly clean but I hoped that people had a chance to look through the entire car, particularly the interior. It is in such incredible condition for it being an original Japanese RHD 1986 Civic that you would think that it had been completely restored. In reality, this is how the car came direct from Japan and the previous owner had just kept it in remarkable shape. It even has rare Honda Access floor mats…

At the opposite end of The Chronicles booth was my 1998 Honda Odyssey. This is my daily driver but I recently acquired some coilovers and a set of Japanese Barramundi Design Eleven wheels so I decided to put it all together for the Eibach event. The body is not in the greatest shape but it is just my daily so I didn’t plan on turning it into a show car anyway. I was bringing the van in anyway because it had all my booth stuff in it so why not just make it look nice and leave it inside the event? Haha… I’ve been helping the U.S distributor of Barramundi Design wheels out lately with some web stuff so Eibach was also a cool place to show off the new BMD wheels at my booth…

Here are the BMD Snook, Toman, and Eleven wheels on dispaly next to my RA3 Odyssey…You can check out more photos of BMD wheels here at the site I’ve recently put together for them… http://www.BMD-USA.com

A really clean EF hatchback from Split Second Racing parked right next to The Chronicles booth. Shout-out to these guys because my booth actually ran a little big and they were kind enough to move over a bit so I could fit everything…

I’ve always been a huge fan of the DB Integra sedans because I wanted one when I first got into cars years and years ago. Every time I see one, I try to get a closer look at them. This one in particular, really caught my eye because of the red paint and the turbo set-up under the hood…

Nicely-tucked bay that had some minor things that the owner could touch-up but otherwise, it looked great, especially with the sizable snail mounted to the Blueridge Motorsports manifold…

I just had to take some photos of the K20A CR-X from Bridgeport…

One of the highlights of the CR-X build is the ultra rare, incredible mint, CR-X Exclusive interior complete with Mugen woodgrain steering wheel…

This EF Civic also had some eye-catching qualities…It had a look very reminiscent of how Hondas were built more in the early 2000s but is very cool to see now in ’13…

Rare 3-spoke SSR wheels and NSX brakes…

To this very day in 2013, it is still a rare sight to see EP3 Civics in attendance at any Honda-themed event…

K-turbo Civic set-up for drag from Jerry Built…

Right next to it was another Jerry Built Civic, this one an N/A K-swap, more street-tuned vehicle with individual throttle bodies…

Right-hand drive EF8 CR-X SiR on black BBS wheels…

Simple black EG Civic on white 16-inch Regamaster EVOs…

A more “period-friendly” style EF Civic hatchback build with EF9 front end and old school Work Ewing mesh wheels…

DC2 Integra from Loi-Spec Garage on white Advan Racing RCIII wheels…

Phoenix Yellow Integra Type R with Rays Gram Lights wheels…

One more of Loi Hua’s ITR…

…and this incredibly well-done Type R…

Mark Sutakajana’s track-ready DB8 Integra…

Legit Japanese CR-X complete with original ZC motor…

Right-hand drive EG Civic on a set of old Work Ewings with a supercharged H22A swap. Pretty cool build that might have been slept on because the exterior was so simple. With the hood closed, you almost wouldn’t think anything of it besides seeing the Ewings…

H2B Civic that made the trek out from Las Vegas for the 2013 Eibach Meet…

Nice tuck job on this white DC2 Integra from Team “Off-Site” San Diego…

Another really cool DB Integra. This one had a really interesting mural job inside the bay that I could have sworn that I had taken a photo of but I must have accidentally deleted it during the day. The motor also has individual throttle bodies as well…

Gil Salazar’s Integra Type R from Circuit Hero, which you should all remember as the #1 of the 2011 Top Ten Hondas here on stickydiljoe.com…

Really liked the mods on this FA5 Civic with complete JDM FD2 conversion, Hyper Blue Volk TE37s, and rarely seen FEEL’S Twin Cam widened fenders…

AP2 S2000 with ASM front bumper and white Volk RE30s…

BB6 Prelude that you’ve seen numerous times on this site featuring an incredible rare Wise Square/Behrman front bumper…

Kraft Werks supercharged Civic Si coupe with teal and kevlar accents…

Really eye-popping purple/orange Civic hatchback with white Mugen RnR wheels. Under the bright sun you almost couldn’t look away at this build. I’m kind of over the whole two-toned look to be honest but damn, I had to stare at this thing. Once you get past the bright orange, you’ll actually see a really clean bay with a boosted B-motor…

Closing out this beautiful Memorial Day holiday with this EBP EM1 Civic Si slammed on polished Blitz Type 01 wheels….

Thanks for looking and have a good one…stay safe out there guys and make sure to come back tomorrow for much more…

Alright, here we go with the finale of the 2013 Eibach Honda Meet coverage. Hopefully you guys have had a good time looking back at the event and for those of you who missed out on being there, maybe these photos will motivate you to go to the event next year. To kind of sum everything up, I’ve provided a short list of key points about the Eibach event that you should all remember…

1. The Eibach Honda Meet is and will always continue to be a meet.
2. You have to pay to participate because the event organizers have to pay to put on the event. Venues cost money along with additional costs like security, staff, port-o-potties, etc. These things cost money and so you as an enthusiasts have to incur some of the costs because we are a community.
3. The annual Eibach Meet brings out a ton of variety every year. Not all cars are going to be to your liking but that doesn’t mean that they have any less of a right to participate.
4. When you go to an Eibach Honda Meet, you’ll often see builds that you won’t see anywhere else. The Meet brings out enthusiasts past and present and some only come out exclusively for the Eibach meet.
5. The Eibach meet will continue to grow every year and hopefully you continue to support the event by participating. Venues may change but that is only to provide a better location to serve you and your fellow enthusiasts.
6. If for whatever reason you don’t want to go to the meet or don’t care for the meet, that is fine. DON’T FUCKING COME THEN. There is no sense in acting like a bitch and whining about it online. If you don’t want to pay your part to participate, then you are not welcome anyway.

With that out of the way, here are the previous three parts if you missed any of it…

Eibach Honda Meet 2013 Coverage…Part 1…

Eibach Honda Meet 2013 Coverage…Part 2…

Eibach Honda Meet 2013 Coverage…Part 3…

Here is the finale featuring some familiar faces and some Honda builds that you probably haven’t ever seen before…

The Jaimes’ brothers freshly built K20 CR-X that they literally completed in the days leading up to the Eibach Meet. I’m digging the color choice and the swap is pretty clean. All the car really needs now is the SiR front lip and it’ll be set…

Luis Jaimes’ BAR’d K20 Civic hatchback on Mugen MF10L…

Jose Jaimes’ RHD CR-X SiR…

Right-hand drive CB Accord coupe with a prominent Spoon Sports theme. Interesting the owner went that route since Spoon never made anything for that chassis. Cool to see a right-hand drive one though because you really ever see anyone that wants to put forth the effort to do the conversion…

RL1 Odyssey on Auto Couture Magnifiques…

Phoenix Yellow Integra Type R with JDM ITR front end conversion from Karnage car club…

EJ1 Civic coupe on SSR MK1 wheels…

Another EJ1 Civic coupe, this one on Team Dynamics wheels…

Pepper White Civic hatchback with Mugen SS front lip and Regamaster EVOs…

One of my favorite Honda builds from the Eibach Honda Meet was this red Civic coupe. I love how it all comes together with the J’s Racing front fenders, Mugen SS lip, white Regas, and AP Racing front brakes…

DPK Dee Rail’s EM1 Civic SI with K-swap and the complete Rywire treatment under the hood. I honestly miss how the car looks on the bronze MF10s but I’m getting used to the Honda Edition Time Attack CE28s…

RHD Civic with re-barreled Regamaster EVOs on his way out of the Meet as the afternoon came to a close…

Mike G’s Tank looking good as always. He switched it up for a bit by going back to a conventional B-series valve cover that’s been redone in a bright orange tone…

DPK Chuy’s Integra Type R project…

DPK Jared’s S2000 is one of my favorite all-time builds. Just a great selection of parts that is executed in a perfectly timeless fashion…

PGK Jay’s individually-throttled S2000 with ASM front bumper… Always good to see Jay out and about again in his S2K…

EF Civic hatchback on Work Equip 01…

Group photo of some friends that showed up from all over the country to participate in the Eibach festivities…

My RA3 Odyssey on 17×9 Barramundi Elevens…

Another one of my favorites from that day had to be the K-turbo Circuit Monster Prelude…

Here’s an interior shot of the Prelude since I hadn’t really seen any other shots of it in other people’s coverage of Eibach 2013…

Stoked that Andy Hope decided to include my decal on the Prelude…

Andy Hope’s Circuit Monster CR-X race car…

The Autofashion USA booth which provided the music for the event throughout the day…

Big Mike served as the MC at the Autofashion USA booth…

DJ Rampage from Autofashion on the turntables…

Downstairs Frank aka Frankstar brought out his EG6 Civic SiR, now with K-swap. It wasn’t running quite yet but it is quickly coming together…

A detailed look at Frank’s engine bay…

Benjamin Frankstairs’ crazy spiked shifter set-up, ready to go into Farrah from Teen Mom’s butthole at any time…

RCG K-Civic was a Eibach 2013 hit…Glad to see RC’s old hatchback go to a good home…

The Loi-Spec guys decided to call it a day around the time when the raffle winners were being announced at the Autofashion USA booth…

Towards the end of the meet, the environment grew ever more relaxing and we just hung out and watched people take off. Here’s one more shot of Ryan’s E-AT Civic…

Hiro from KC Trading Japan, Freddie from Autofashion USA, and Type_K Takeshi spending some quality time chatting it up…

FG2 Civic coupe on Regamaster EVOs…

Gilbert’s EF hatch reppin’ Circuit Hero…

Gil’s Circuit Hero ITR…

Jorge Sandoval’s Import Tuner-featured Civic from Team Insidious…

Ryan explaining the intricacies of his E-AT build to Oscar Jackson Jr. from Jackson Racing…

That was the last shot from the actual meet itself. After that we started to tear down the booth and got ready to head home. We were all hungry so we dropped off the cars at the shop before heading over to dinner at a local In-N-Out burger spot by Rywire…

Ryan Der and Hiro Ueda chillin’ outside while we waited for our burgers. This particular In-N-Out was small as shit so most of the seating area for dining was outside. Likely there was still some sunlight left so we could chill and watch the sunset…

Tetsuya Yamaguchi from USDM Jam/Yamaz Store, Rywire Ryan, and Takeshi Kobayashi from Type_K Autosource…

DPK David, his buddy Roy, and DPK Chuy…

The food was taking awhile so I was just snapping away with the 24-70MM L Mark II lens that I had rented for the event. This is a shot of my Samsung Galaxy S3 with a phone case that I put a JDMEGO decal on…

The classic #1 combo at In-N-Out. Double-double with fries…

Everybody was pretty hungry by the end of the day so the #1 combo was a popular choice…

Ryan enjoying his burger all by his lonesome…

Epic LEGIT lens flare on this closing shot of Ryan Der enjoying his In-N-Out fries. I always think they taste kind of like cardboard but I guess they are better when you have the sauce packet to dip it in…

That’s a wrap on the Eibach Honda Meet 2013 series. I wanted to thank everyone that participated, those who came by to pass along a kind word, the people that supported The Chronicles by purchasing merchandise from the booth, and everyone who stopped by the site to view the coverage. It’s been an amazing time, stay tuned for Wekfest LA coverage coming up next!..

The Wekfest LA car show has always been a more laid-back event for me. Usually, the Wekfest SF show kicks off the year and then the annual Eibach Honda event hits before the Wekfest LA show. By then, I’m pretty much beat up from all the shows and meets before WFLA and I just want to relax at a show. I typically have a Chronicles booth at both Wekfest SF and Eibach, and since Eibach is so close in proximity to WFLA, I won’t do a booth. While it is fun to make a couple of extra bucks by having a booth, I just prefer to take some time to chill out and enjoy the company of my fellow enthusiasts and friends. Booths are pretty hectic and it leaves both May and I very little time to have time to breathe so the WFLA is more of a social event for me than pure business. This year was no different. Though the Wekfest SF event is happening later in the summer and not in the early part of the year, I still decided to pass on having a booth. Eibach was the week before and was pretty stressful so I just felt like it would be a good idea to just cruise out to the show in my Q45 and display for SSR wheels and Falken Tire. They are two of my biggest supporters so I try to bring my car out to major events like WFLA to give back to them by displaying their product on my build….

What was great about the WFLA event was my late roll-in time, haha…We normally have to be at the event incredibly early to set-up but this time around, my roll-in time wasn’t until 9am, which is pretty late. I even woke up early to head down to Rywire to pick up my car and to watch the DPK guys get together for their caravan. Their roll-in was at 7am so I ended up just going home after I got my car and just hung out for awhile and relaxed until it was time for me to head down to Long Beach. When I arrived at the venue, more than half the show was set-up already and I just cruised right on in and parked. It was probably the most pain-free roll-in I had ever experienced in all my years of doing car shows…

Now the show itself, I think, was pretty great. The shows don’t differentiate too much year to year because the Wekfest staff has it down already and the show runs very smoothly. There aren’t really any major improvements you can make to make this show better because it is pretty good just the way it is. The quality of cars is always there since Wekfest has a rigorous screening process, and vendor support is always there. What I did notice this year was that foot traffic seemed to improve dramatically over the previous years. The line was longer, more people came out, and by the early afternoon, the show was pretty packed. I think the weather really helped with the spectators this year as well because it was a bit cooler than before. In the previous years I remember it being pretty hot but this year was cooler. The cool breeze from the picturesque Long Beach backdrop also helps but there wasn’t anything that was “unbearable” about the weather. The sun was beating down pretty harshly at certain points of the day but that is out of the hands of the event organizers. If you stayed in the shade and took breaks in between your walk around the show, you were probably comfortable throughout the day….

Overall, I had a great time. I just hung out and walked around without a care in the world and chatted with friends and other enthusiasts. The photos I think came out pretty good overall considering the harsh light from the sun. I really wanted to wait until later in the day to take photos but I was worried about running out of time so I just shot whatever I saw throughout the afternoon. I got a pretty good bulk of photos and I hope that you stick around to see all of them. Whenever I have the opportunity, I always try to display a more “personal” feel to these events and I think you will notice in the WFLA photos. Some of the faces you will be familiar with, some you won’t, by it should help you get a different perspective of the show other than just staring at car photos. Thanks to the Wekfest staff as always for throwing on a great event and I am really excited for the Wekfest event in Northern California. That’s always a good one but let’s all sit back and enjoy the photos from WFLA for the rest of the week. Enjoy…

If you are looking for Eibach Honda Meet 2013 coverage, they are in the previous posts prior to this specific posting…

The stunning back drop of Long Beach, CA always provides a great setting for the Wekfest LA event….

When I arrived in the morning, everybody seemed very relaxed and there was no stress at all associated with the set-up process of the event. Here, you can see Wekfest staff member ATS Mike Jones, Big Mike, and Preston from Function/Form having a chat…

After my hectic week trying to get my RA3 Odyssey ready for Eibach 2013, it was a relief just being able to jump into my Q45 and drive it into the event. DPK Jared came through with a mobile detailer the day before and the guy did a wonderful job of cleaning up our cars for the show. WFLA was probably the best my car has ever looked, haha…

Tony from It’s JDM Yo!! came through with my spot in the show so I planned to park with them throughout the show. Here are Karl and David’s Hondas that would be in our group for the day…

Airrunner had a nice display with a couple of bagged vehicles on hand with LBC in the distance…

Ken from Wek’Sos/Wekfest, Hiro Ueda from Japan, and Preston once again…

Rodrez, his wife Tes, and baby Maddox arrived early to check out the WFLA event. Rodrez likes to get coverage of the show before the spectators come in and Maddox loves to run around and stare at cars…

HeyMikeyyyy from Phaze2 decided to bring out his bagged LS430 to WFLA…

HeyMikeyyyy, Tina, and Yogi from Fatlace hung out inside the LS430 with the A/C on full blast…

The sun was blazing so I hopped inside to enjoy some A/C as well…

Even though Maddox is only 17 months old, we already noticed that he has a deep love of cars like his dad. One of his favorite things to do is just walk around and stare at moving cars. He can do it all day and having a wide open area with grass for him to roam around in was perfect…

He also loves his strawberries after running around…

I was parked in a random spot when I first parked but later moved to a better area once all the show cars finished rolling in…

Over at the Autofashion booth not too far away, we see Ojay’s Toyota Previa and Big Steve’s LS400 on display…

Steve and I always joke around about never bringing our cars out to any events, so it was pretty cool (and rare) to finally be at a show where we both had our cars…

Ojay’s Avanzare Previa on staggered Work Meister S1…

The SquadOne LS430 with full custom interior, one-off aero kit, and Leon Hardiritt Ordens…

Seraph (Huntington Cruise) M45 owned by Dennis Kiyan…

Chris Ortez’s Infiniti G35 sedan build just continues to get better and better. It’s cool to see people continue to build their cars after they get their magazine features and not cash-out and part-out like a lot of guys out there…

Ortez was originally a Honda guy and you can definitely see the Honda-influence still in his G sedan build. He recently completed this custom Kurookie front bumper that has a carbon kevlar lower section much like the famed BackYard Special Integra Type R front bumper. It creates a very unique look for the G35 sedan and I also love what he did with the custom opening for his ARC intercooler…

The ARC intercooler is also a new addition because he recently went the forced induction route with Vortech supercharger…

I love the attention to detail in his build, all the way down to minor mods like these Top Secret hood dampers, that you probably wouldn’t notice unless you really paid attention…

His engine bay is one of the best in the G community and the supercharger makes it that much better. He recently had it tuned as well and I believe he said that new set-up makes around 380HP or so. Pretty nice numbers, especially when you take into account that this is his DAILY. Yeah, you read right, he drives this thing to work every day…

Down the same row of show cars was this newly debuting custom widebody Subaru BRZ, featuring an INGS+1 aero kit, SSR Professor MS3s, and custom flares shaped to flow seamlessly with the INGS kit. Danh from SSR/Tanabe stopped to chat with me and told me there there is still some stuff that needs to be corrected but they are pretty happy with the results so far. The rear wheel actually sits under the rear over fenders normally but in that particular area where they parked, the ground is uneven so it makes the BRZ sit kind of weird…

VeilSide Fortune widebody NSX from R-Rydes…

One of the coolest builds from the WFLA event was this FD3S RX-7 with supercharged GM LSx motor swap. I know a lot of purists won’t like the idea of ditching the Rotary engine in favor of an American LS swap but I think it makes for a unique package, especially since it is force-fed…

You guys will remember this Civic build from RC’s Garage in my Eibach 2013 coverage, but RC and crew once again made the trip out to California from Arizona for Wekfest…

Turbocharged DC5 RSX with a host of ALL-IN Fab components that also made an appearance the week prior at Eibach…

Slow Kuruma’s GTR was parked in an area that wasn’t the most favorable for photographs…

Mike Mao brought out his NSX with the addition of a new carbon air scoop…

Tony from It’s JDM Yo!! guiding him into his spot that wasn’t too far from the Wek’Sos booth…

Milt from Low N’ Slow’s 350Z on WED’s Kranze Vishunu…

Ken from Wekfest brought out his Junction Produce LS460 with custom front fenders by 515 Autobody…

In the Accuair booth with Ken’s JP LS460 was this Audi slammed on gold-plated VIP Modular wheels…

Josh from Wek’Sos Lexus IS350…

Prominently on display at the Canibeat booth was Marcus Cooke’s G35 sedan. Like Ortez, he has also recently gone the forced induction route with a supercharger kit…

Phaze2 Mizzark’s BMW M5 sedan on Leon Hardiritt Ordens…

Noel Barnum’s Vertex/Rocket Bunny-equipped Scion FR-S build on Airrex air suspension…

ATS Mike Jones aka Mike Estebar’s EF hatchback from Norcal…

The Rywire E-AT was also in attendance at the WFLA show. In the background behind the fence was the line of spectators who awaited entry into the show…

DPK Dee Rail’s EM1 Civic Si coupe….

Dee Rail’s Honda Edition TA Volk CE28 wheels and Mugen Active Gate brakes…

Under the Fiber Images carbon hood is a K20 swap looking nice and tidy…

DPK David’s EJ1 Civic coupe, which is currently for sale, K-swap and all… If you want more info on the car, CLICK HERE for the for sale thread on NWP4Life…

Chuy from DPK’s new Integra Type R project on Spoon SW388 wheels…

Love how DPK Jared’s S2000 looks on bronze Mugen MF10 wheels. Jared would go on to have a pretty good day at Wekfest LA. You’ll find out why later on in the coverage…

Gonna cut it off here for today with a shot of DPK Carlos’ S2000 CR on white Mugen MF10. So much more to come as I finish going through the photos. Make sure to come back for more and as always, thanks for looking….

This three-week block of shows has created an interesting conundrum….While it’s great that we have so many events to attend to keep us busy, it almost seems to create some over-saturation when it comes time to present coverage online. I mean, it’s bad enough that there are new sites every week that provide show coverage but when you have three shows in three weeks, everything is multiplied tenfold. You see so much coverage online that you almost get tired of looking at the photos and you just want to block all the images out from your brain to retain some sanity. I myself like to provide in-depth coverage of every event I attend, and you should already know that most events I go to require more than one post. Sometimes they range from 2-3 parts, sometimes even more. At times I will go up to seven or eight parts. I just like to be thorough you know? But when you have this three week block, everything just gets moved back because there just aren’t enough days in the week to get through one event with all the different posts. What I’m trying to say is, I hope you guys are worn out from seeing coverage online. I like to think that people prefer to wait to see the coverage I provide first, because I put so much work into covering these events in full detail. The Chronicles isn’t like many of the other sites online that just throw up photos and filler content. I like to describe things to you guys and tell a story, and that just takes time. Hopefully you guys get that and appreciate the work that is involved in providing coverage. The Wekfest coverage is going to ride through into the middle of this week before I can even begin to start on the Autocon LA 2013 coverage, which is an event that has just happened this past weekend. I try to keep things fresh but damn, it’s tough sometimes when you see a lot of the same cars. Even still, I try to provide a different take on each event to give them their own feel…

Today, we are going to be taking a look at the second portion of the 2013 WFLA coverage. I’ve got more car stuff, some personal photos, and even a little bit of model coverage. As I said in Part 1, WFLA has always been one of the more personal events for me and being that I had most of the day free at the event, I tried to capture the more candid side of the show for you. Thanks for looking and I appreciate that you guys continue to come back to view the content here on stickydiljoe.com….

If you missed Part 1, here is the link for you to view it…

Wekfest LA 2013 Coverage…Part 1…

With that out of the way, here is Part 2 of 4…

Ken from Wekfest’s complete Junction Produce LS460…

After seeing so many red and orange Rocket Bunny cars, it’s almost refreshing to see a grey Rocket Bunny FR-S. This particular one was parked over at the ARK Performance booth at WFLA…

David aka Cheeseburger’s Civic coupe has been down for what seems like years now. He’s always been around but he decided to tear his car down while he started to hoard parts for it. I don’t think many people even knew that he was going to bring the car out for WFLA but it was indeed a pleasant surprise. He’s got a nice collection of quality products and executes it in a way where it doesn’t seem overdone. Personally, I am not a fan of Voltex or GT-style wings on the coupes but it fits the direction of his build. Overall, it’s pretty cool. There are little things here and there can be touched-up but I’m sure David still has plans in the works for it…

Airrunner brought out a nice fleet of vehicles to show off their products…

Lexus 3GS on Airrunner suspension and Luxury Abstract wheels…

Samson Mak’s LS430 representing Revision Audio from the island of Hawaii. The car has been over here in California since SEMA 2012 I believe and has been used as Airrunner’s demo car at most events since then…

Jin Ueno’s LS400 from Kyoei USA. I finally had the opportunity to meet Jin at WFLA and we actually chatted in length about all kinds of stuff. He’s a good guy and very knowledgeable…

9th generation Accord coupe on Airrunner suspension…

Skyline Mikey’s turbocharged Hakosuka Skyline on Watanabe Type R wheels parked in the Autofashion USA area…

RB20DET swap inside the Skyline…

The interior is in great shape for its age with only minor upgrades like the Nardi woodgrain steering wheel…

The view of WFLA from the front of the Autofashion USA booth…

Big Steve is such a huge supporter of Autofashion that he even went as far as to have the brand painted onto the body of his LS400…

Featured at the Autofashion USA booth was Julie Mai. She was signing a poster that day that was actually a print from a shoot that I did with her not too long ago. If you missed it, make sure to check it out because it is one of my personal favorite shoots I’ve done to date… PEEP IT HERE…

On display with Autofashion was the SquadOne LS430 from Las Vegas…

Ms. Julie Mai…

Mode Parfume F50 Q45 on SSR Professor MS3….

Autofashion Umbrella Girl Joolie Mai…

JP 2GS on Junction Produce Scaras…

One more of J. Mai…

With the exception of the sign growing out of my Q45, I had one of the best spots at WFLA. I got Long Beach in the back, beautiful weather, it just didn’t get any better…

Since I didn’t have a booth at WFLA, I brought my car out in support of SSR wheels and Falken Tire…

Karl’s S2000 on custom Work Equip wheels…

Eulises Torres’ S2000 from Forbidden USA…

Sam Ip’s supercharged FA5 Civic SI on his newly fitted Mugen RR style front bumper…

Alex’s Mugen DC2 Integra Type R…

Mauricio’s Toyota pick-up, one of 5,000 cars he buys and owns, haha…dude literally has a different car to drive every day of the week…

Jay Mayuga’s TSX with Mugen rear wing, Spoon Sports brakes, and front-staggered Volk TE37s…

Jason Hutchinson’s S2000 from San Diego…

1JZ-GTE swapped 3rd gen. Toyota Celica coupe…

Chris from SOC’s Rocket Bunny Scion xB on Rotiform NUE…

xB from Alpha Squad on Work Meister CR01…

Random capture of Tony and Gilbert from It’s JDM Yo!!…

Two bagged Subaru WRXs, one on BBS RS, the other on black-faced Work Meister S1…

Super Street cover model Jenn Q…

Jenn Q and Wekfest’s Adam Luong…*chapstick not included, haha…

Michael Mao’s always-recognizable Acura NSX on gold-plated Mugen MF10…

A couple more of Marcus Cooke’s supercharged G35 sedan, which was parked over at the Canibeat booth at WFLA ’13…

Brad Lim from Falken Tire took time off from his busy work schedule to check out Wekfest LA and chat with DPK David…

While that conversation was going on, I snapped this photo of DPK Jared and his girlfriend Leslie…

Robert Kochis’ Rocket Bunny FR-S…

Luigi Arroyo’s J’s Racing S2000 on Takata Green TE37SL from Limitless Society…

Infiniti G coupe on custom Altstadt wheels…

Actually kinda dig the bright green on this G35 coupe on Work VS-XX…

The Mackin Industries booth featured a trio of FR-S builds. One of them was this Rays Gram Lights-themed Rocket Bunny FR-S…

The other was the Project Mu FR-S on matte black Advan Racing TCIII…

…and the third was Kevin’s FR-S from Autofashion USA/Trendy Vape…

Nilo Miranda’s vinyl-wrapped Acura NSX on Airrex air suspension…

Yogi’s recently vinyl-wrapped T&E Vertex 3GS also on Airrex suspension…

Alf Serrato’s Infiniti G35 coupe with Kuruma Z front bumper and SSR Professor SP3 wheels…

His G-coupe engine bay has one of the best engine bays I’ve ever seen for this chassis. I love the yellow accents on the valve covers, all the polished components, and the Cosworth intake manifold with carbon end caps. Just beautiful execution overall…

Speaking of beautifully-done engine bays, I’m gonna close it out for today with a couple photos of Ka Wong’s S2000 F20C-swapped, turbocharged, AE86 Corolla with JDM Corolla Levin front end conversion. This is perhaps one of my favorite builds of all-time and I love seeing the continued progress on the car. I shot it for Super Street magazine a few years ago and its awesome to see how much it has changed since. Love all the fab work by John Russakoff and how well thought-out and well-rounded the whole build is. It touches all bases; custom paint, quality parts, major custom engine work, wheels/suspension, and you can’t see it here, but it also has custom audio work. It’s no wonder that it ended the day as WFLA’s Best of Show…

That’s all for today. Thanks for looking and make sure to come back for more…

Since there is still so much left to update due to all the events going on lately, I’m gonna try something different and try to get these updates on the site in the mornings. I will usually drop an update in the afternoon but I don’t want you guys to miss out on any of the content in any of the posts so a morning update should provide ample time for everyone to see what they need to see…

Today, we’re gonna be looking at the third installment of the WFLA ’13 coverage. In this particular posting, we’re gonna cover a large chunk of the vehicles that were on display in a grass section of the event. If you’ve never been to a Wekfest LA show before, the show is basically divided in half; there is a concrete section that has vehicles on display where most of the vendors are lined-up and another area that is all grass where a bulk of the show cars are parked. The grass section also has the model lounge area and for this year, the Autofashion booth, which you saw yesterday in part 2. This third part will cover a big chunk of the cars that were in the grass section of the show. I wish I could have taken more photos but by this point in the day, the sun was beginning to set and the awards presentation was fast approaching, so I ran through the show and captured as much as I could. In terms of photography, this point of the day would be considered “the golden hour”, where the sun is on its way down and presents a much softer, golden light, in comparison to the harsh sunlight that comes earlier in the day. Around this time is when photographers have the best opportunity to capture the cars in a flattering light…

You’re gonna be looking at strictly car stuff today with no personal shots whatsoever. I saved those for the fourth and final part of our WFLA coverage tomorrow. That will document the rest of the cars that caught my eye at the show along with the awards ceremony and a final wrap-up of the event itself. If you missed any of the two previous posts, here are the links below…

Wekfest LA 2013 Coverage…Part 1…

Wekfest LA 2013 Coverage…Part 2…

Here’s more Wekfest LA coverage…

Kicking off Part 3 with a couple shots of Chris Garay’s EF hatchback on rare SSR Mclaren wheels. Definitely not the most attractive wheels but they have a very specific 80s look to them that fits the chassis…

EJ1 Civic coupe on another set of rarely seen wheels, SSR Hasemi S5…

Carlos Galindo’s RHD Civic with old 3-spoke SSR wheels and NSX front brakes…Cool build with a lot of interesting older parts used…

Check out the rear louvers on the back of this CR-X…

Another red EF, this one on Work Carving Head 40s with a JDM EF9 SiR front bumper…

One of the more unique builds at Wekfest LA was this bagged Acura CL coupe…You hardly ever see these things modified and I really wish that I had taken more time to really look through the build. Apparently it’s pretty well out together seeing as it ended up winning 2nd Place in the Acura Class later that day…

Brian Camacho’s H2B Civic SI hatchback from Las Vegas…

Jay Borcena’s VIP-inspired Acura TL build on gold VIP Modular VX110…

Michael Johnson’s 2nd generation Acura TL bagged on VIP Modular VX310…

Samuel Alarcon’s bagged FA5 Civic Si with JDM FD1 Civic front end conversion…

Jordan Mo’s HKS-kitted Lexus IS300 with step-lipped Work VS-TX…

White Rocket Bunny FR-S representing FAST Autoworks on Volk TE37SL…

Jerald Yutadco aka Jay Cray’s bagged DC5 RSX from Royal Flush…

Ken Suen decided to take a break from the track and brought his Mugen RR-converted Civic Si to WFLA. This thing has changed drastically since I shot it for Honda Tuning magazine awhile back… Crazy to think that this car used to be a daily driver. Now they have to push the car into the show because the custom oval exhaust is so loud that it is almost unbearable…

I’ve always been a fan of Tuan’s Civic coupe but I can’t really say that I like the new front fender flares. It throws the car off now and I think the flares just sit too high on the car. I’d say it would look better lowered but with the way the front lip sits, it almost doesn’t even look possible without instantly destroying the lip….

A duo of 2nd gen. Lexus IS from Lowballers…

AP2 S2000 with J’s Racing Type S front bumper, front fenders, and rear flares…

Loving the paint on this S2000, I just wish that it was on some real Volk CE28 wheels…

Benjamin Cesar Fernandez’s AE71 Toyota Corolla, featuring a Black Top 20-valve 4A-GE swap and rare TRD Tosco wheels. Really well-rounded build and the owner even has California Historical Vehicle plates on this thing…

Noriel Dela Cruz’s KP61 Toyota Starlet also with a 20-valve 4A-GE  and 13-inch ATS Classic wheels. Love how clean the engine bay…

Tovar’s EF looking period perfect on Takechi Project Racing Hart Spinner Spoke wheels…

I didn’t even realize that this BB6 Prelude was a JDM RHD model until I was going through the photos when I got home…

Black Civic hatch from City Stars on BBS mesh wheels…

Really clean Accord Wagon seated on Volk Evolution III wheels…

Eddie Kumchumroon’s 700+HP 2JZ-GTE-swapped S14 on Nutek Forged wheels that is featured in the current issue (July 2013) of Super Street magazine. Story written by your’s truly…

Leon Casino’s widebody S14, a project that is in stark contrast to his previous CR-X builds…

Allan Catap’s SW20 MR-2 Turbo on classic gold Advan Racing RG…

Boosted S13 hatchback with Top Secret front bumper looking great on Touring Gold SSR Professor SP3s…

Purple Nissan Sileighty conversion on polished SSR Professor SP1 wheels complete with center caps…

Eddie Diaz’s Acura TSX…

Jose Jaimes’ Honda CR-X with K20 swap. Really like the color choice and how it looks on Spoon SW388 wheels and brakes…

Luis Jaimes’ K-Civic hatchback on Mugen MF10L…

Teddy Timoteo’s Civic rocking a paint-matched First Molding Flugel Plate front lip, Shift Sports hood, J’s Racing rear wing, and Sergeant rear diffuser…

Mark Sutakajana’s gutted DB8 Integra sedan. Just a week later, Mark had this thing tearing up the track at an HFF Challenge event…

The RHD Civic on custom re-barreled Regamaster EVOs that you’ve probably been seeing a ton of lately…

E39 BMW M5 enjoying some sunlight on the grass at WFLA ’13…

Acura TSX with JDM Euro-R conversion dumped on CCW Classics…The Junction Produce Kitsuna hanging on the rear view mirror is a little misleading though, seeing as how there really isn’t anything remotely Japanese VIP about this TSX… To each their own though…Otherwise it is looking great overall…

Civic coupe from Team Tronics wearing a Mugen aero…

And we are gonna close it off here for today with a shot of Stephanie Flores’ Acura TSX with Mugen front grille, OEM optional A-Spec lip kit, and Enkei NT03s…

Just one more part of WFLA ’13 coverage to go…stay tuned for the conclusion tomorrow!!….

Well, it’s time to officially put a wrap on the Wekfest LA 2013 coverage. It’s been a blast detailing the event for you guys and as always, the Wekfest series never fails to impress. The WFLA continues to grow and get better each and every year and I look forward to its continued growth. The LA show has always been the more laid back of the Cali Wekfest shows and I dig the overall vibe compared to the hectic nature of the Norcal show. Wekfest SF (Now SJ for ‘San Jose’) continues to be the mecca of import automotive events of this generation and I embrace the madness that comes with it. The LA version on the other hand is almost the polar opposite. The crowd is still huge but no where near the level of its Norcal brethren. I am thoroughly behind the Wekfest series and its been great seeing the success that they have garnered over the past 5 years. Now that WFLA is over, I’m looking forward to the trip in July to the brand new venue in San Jose, CA.

Thanks to all of you for looking and to the Wekfest organizers and staff for always being so hospitable. If you missed any of the previous three parts, I’ve provided the links for you below…

Wekfest LA 2013 Coverage…Part 1…

Wekfest LA 2013 Coverage…Part 2…

Wekfest LA 2013 Coverage…Part 3…

Today we will detail the end of the day and the awards ceremony that followed. Enjoy…

The Lexus IS-F has long been a dream car of mine… This one is looking particularly good on Work Meister S1Rs…

WFLA brought out a nice duo of SW20 MR-2s. This red one sat nicely on white-faced Work VS-XX…

While the other looked pretty wild on Dunlop Formula Hart wheels…

White-on-white second generation IS with a really aggressive front bumper and SSR Professor SP1s. The Neo Chrome Endless brakes are the same brakes that were once on JonJon’s supercharged IS350…

Work Meister S1 wheels look great on just about any car, much like the classic Volk TE37. Here are some S1s in different finish combinations on two different Porsches…

Bryant Nguyen’s CT Engineering supercharged TSX with Mugen grille, Mugen front lip, Volk CE28 wheels, and refinished Acura RL brakes up front. It’s been cool seeing the progression of this TSX build and I love this version much better than when he had the car on air suspension and SSR wheels…

Lexus IS dumped on WED’s Kranze LXZ…

Not a bad-looking 7th gen Accord coupe…

Purple/black two-toned AE86 Corolla on some Hayashi Street replicas (Rotas)…

Always been a huge fan of this Nimbus Grey BMW 3-series sedan…I think I liked the BBS LMs when they were a darker color but this is nice change….

My buddy Billy Shea’s S2000 representing his site, Bob’s Your Uncle…

The last car that I took a close look at before the awards ceremony was this completely Spoon’d-out Civic hatchback. This build probably had everything you could think of for this chassis that was made by Spoon Sports. Wheels, brakes, aero, interior, I’m talking EVERYTHING….

Beautifully-executed engine bay that, obviously, is also Spoon-themed…

Spoon Sports front brakes and Desmond-produced Spoon SW388 wheels…

Spoon steering wheel and bucket seats in the interior. You won’t find any Spoon/Mugen crossover here. There is a theme and the owner sticks to it loyally…

…and now, onto the awards…

A look at the crowd of show participants anticipating the announcement of each awards class….

I hung out behind the Its JDM Yo!! lounge where the awards were being announced to see if the Wekfest staff needed help with anything. I didn’t do shit all day so I wanted to take some time to offer my help, haha…

Brian Filoteo rented these BBQ fries that would later violently be returned to a toilet near him…

Junior from Wekfest preparing to announce the awards…

Big Mike, Small Head….

Elissa Alva preparing to present the awards to the winners with the big crowd looking on…

Salem took home an award in the TSX/Integra class for his J’s Racing-themed TSX…

Rywire Ryan’s E-AT Civic build earned him 1st Place honors in the Honda Class…

Jared not only won 1st place in the S2000 class, he also picked-up another award unique to the WFLA series. This plaque he is holding up is presented to the builds specifically chosen by our friends from Japan. In this case, Takeshi Kobayashi from Type_K Autosource selected Jared’s S2000…

Ryan Der and Hiro Ueda from Japan sharing some laughs alongside Ron from ATS Garage…

Takeshi under the sun…

Group shot with Hiro, Tetsuya from USDM Jam, Ryan Der, and Ronald Ibay…Our Japanese friends presented awards while Der and Ron didn’t do much of anything that day, haha…

Phaze2 camo shorts brothers, Mizzark and HeyMikeyyyy…

I was delightfully surprised when they announced the winner of 2nd place in the Infiniti Class, your’s truly for my VIP Infiniti Q45…Pretty awesome feeling to have my car recognized even though I rarely bring it out and am usually on the opposite side of the car show spectrum these days, documenting events and sometimes doing the judging itself…

Jared’s 1st Place S2000 award, my 2nd Place Infiniti award held up by Ryan Der’s Dhalsim-like arm, and Jared’s 3rd Place award, which is larger than the other two because it is considered a more specialized honor…

ATS Mike Jones and Loreto from Darkside Racing posing for a photo for Takeshi…

Thanks to Freddie from Autofashion USA for rocking a Chronicles tee that day. All he ever wears normally are Autofashion shirts so it was cool of him to switch it up in support of the site…

Phaze2 Noel Barnum won the 3rd Place Overall Best of Show award for his Vertex/Rocket Bunny Scion FR-S…

DSR Loreto throwing up the double shaka, why? I don’t know. Dude ain’t even Hawaiian…

This was totally random but I captured this photo of Ken from Wekfest and HeyMikeyyyy together and I couldn’t help but think of this old photo that I got of them together back in 2009….

It’s crazy how these photos were both completely unplanned and how they are both posed exactly the same way, haha. Crazy to think that it has been over 4 years now and how much things have changed. Back then there was no such thing as an LA Wekfest event and Wekfest SF was just “Wekfest” and held inside a parking garage in J-Town San Francisco. Now the show has grown tenfold, Wekfest has a nationwide tour (soon to be worldwide), and both these guys are still good friends. Also obvious is how much my photography has changed over the years, they weren’t even in focus in the ’09 photo haha… and how dark Mikeyyyy used to be…the fuck is going on there? Haha… Anyays, it makes me really proud to see how much we have all grown over the years and how the Wekfest event has been such a big part of our lives…

Had to get a shot of my award next to one of my favorite decals from VIPCAR magazine…

Not bad for a car that I’ve had since late 2007. I’ve just gradually done stuff to it over time and haven’t really tried to keep up with the growing VIP culture that is now big here in the U.S….

After the awards ceremony wrapped, most of the spectators left and it was time to clean-up…

A couple of closing shots since there weren’t very many people left to get in the way of photos being taken…

Ken’s Junction Produce LS460 once again, with a beautiful Long Beach back drop….

The vendors area cleared-out pretty quickly. Here you can see Tony from D2 Racing showing DPK David’s wife Jackie how to twerk…

ATS Mike Jones leaving the building… I think he actually went home the same day because he had a baptism to go to the next morning….

Ryan’s drive-by-wire ITB set-up wasn’t quite ready yet in time for Wekfest so he had to trailer his E-AT out to Wekfest. Hopefully by Wekfest San Jose it’ll be fully-operational…

And that, as they say…is history. Thanks to you all once again for taking the time to look through all the coverage. Up next is Autocon LA 2013 photos so stay tuned!!

I’m not gonna sit here and lie to you… I haven’t really been that heavily in-tuned with what is going on in the Accord community since I left in 2007. To be really honest, I wasn’t always that involved anyway. I kinda just kept to myself, did my own thing, and then moved on. I met a couple of people along the way that I still consider good friends today, but for the most part, the Accord community was always a bit foreign to me. Maybe it was just a different opinion in style choices or how we built our cars. I don’t know, I never fully involved myself in all the going-ons of the Accord crowd. I respect what they do and what some of these guys are able to do with little aftermarket support. I was there at one point and now that I have an RA3 Honda Odyssey, I find myself looking at Accord stuff again because they share so much of the same parts. The main reason I picked up this Odyssey is because I missed my Accord. There is just something about a 90′s Honda that has always been appealing to me and I was excited to get back into modding a Honda again. I told myself I wouldn’t do a whole lot to my Odyssey but of course, here I am months later getting ready to send my van off to get repainted, haha…

I’ve always known about the Cali Accord Meet (CAM). I just haven’t ever been able to go. Last year’s event fell the day before the annual Eibach Honda Meet so there just wasn’t time to check it out. The year prior to that I think I just completely forgot about it. It sounds like some major asshole-type stuff but they’ve even emailed me multiple times in the past and I think I’ve just forgotten to respond. If I was on the other end I’d be fucking pissed about it but they’ve always been super kind to me whenever they’ve approached me and I appreciate that they understand that I am a complete asshole most of the time, haha. This year, once again, I forgot to respond to the email. I totally remember seeing it and thinking that I responded, but of course, I didn’t… It wasn’t until Wekfest LA when one of the CAM event organizers, Ralph approached me to tell me about their meet in person. I felt really bad about forgetting about it so I told him I would make an honest effort to make it out there. We were in a three-week block of consecutive shows so I was going to be worn out from shooting over 1000+ photos but the CAM meet that followed sounded like a chill, laid back time. When I arrived that afternoon, I was surprised by how organized their event was and just how big it had gotten in the short time that CAM has been around. I had a good time chatting with some old friends and familiar faces, and it didn’t hurt that the Dogzilla truck was around. Rodrez from Honda Tuning also made the trek out and I walked around with him for most of the day…

Now, onto the cars themselves…Besides the introduction of the K and J-swaps, I can honestly say that not a whole lot has changed since the mid-2000s. The Accord community just always seems to move a lot slower than the more popular Civic/Integra crowd because competition isn’t as heavy among Accord guys and the aftermarket support has just never been there. Still, it would have been great to see something completely different from the norm, but the typical Accord build just lacks “refinement”. There are a handful that are really cool builds with all the essential elements covered but most of the time, the typical Accord build just lacks the details and overall execution. I expected this because that’s how it has always been. I understand it because Accords are often the entry-level Hondas that younger enthusiasts just starting out get into. They are the hand-me-down cars from parents or family and once you get tired of modding an Accord, you move onto a more popular Honda platform because they have much more to offer in terms of parts and overall support. You’d be hard-pressed to really ever hear a ton of people saying that they want and plan to build an Accord chassis thoroughly. It’s just unrealistic. It is a very relevant point that many Accord guys will try to deny but just being at that meet reiterated that idea. I sold my car over six years ago now and I can still spot all my parts that have circulated throughout the CB Accord crowd. Six years is a long time in the import automotive crowd. Just look at how much the Honda “scene” has shifted as a whole in that time. I like what I see but I always find myself feeling like I’m stuck in time when I see modded Accords. It’s not really fair to compare them to the Civic/Integra crowd but it wouldn’t hurt to see more well thought-out builds from them, even if it’s just one or two more. I don’t think that’s asking for too much. It doesn’t matter if they lack the adequate support from the aftermarket. Sometimes less is more and you can still put together a very nice build, Accord or not, with whatever is available to you. It all comes down to execution…

Below is the first half of the photos from the CAM 3 event last weekend. I didn’t get everything, but trust me when I say that this is the largest Accord gathering in North America. I spent most of my time there just walking around with Rodrez while he covered the meet for Honda Tuning magazine and didn’t really start shooting myself until much later in the day. What was also good about the Cali Accord Meet was the inclusion of RA Odysseys. They are basically Accord wagons that share a similar platform anyways so it made sense for them to be there. Enjoy the photos and thanks to Ralph and the CAM organizers for inviting me to be there that day…

If you want more information on the Cali Accord Meet, please check out their official site HERE…

One of the first Accords that I spotted at the meet was Son’s CD Accord coupe, which is featured currently in the latest issue of Honda Tuning magazine. Son’s build is definitely one of the more complete builds at the meet and features a K24 swap, Wilwood brakes, and Volk TE37s. I am familiar with this coupe because I was also the one who wrote the story for his HT feature…

Parked right next to Son’s coupe was another coupe. This one with a J32A V6-swap and Dunlop Formula Hart wheels…

Right-hand drive CB Accord coupe that wears a familiar Spoon Sports theme. I think the engine bay is a little over the top redone in yellow and would look much cleaner if it flowed well with the rest of the white exterior…

JDM CB Accord front bumper with headlight squirters, parking pole, and intersection lights…

One Accord build that I have become familiar with over the years is this CD Accord sedan, owned by Jay aka Iakona. This Accord has been around since the days when I had mine and it is crazy to see how much it has progressed over time…

Iakona’s Accord sits on air suspension and re-barreled step-lipped Dunlop Formula Hart wheels…

H22A swap with tubing that directs air to the TWM individual throttle bodies…

The interior has seen equal attention too with Sparco seats, re-wrapped rear seats in matching Sparco material, Autopower roll bar, and this minty Mugen FG360 steering wheel…

Nice touch also with the STACK tachometer that has been integrated into the factory instrument cluster…Overall a very high-quality build that was probably the best at CAM 3…

This K-turbo’d CB Accord coupe was interesting. The owner had to trailer the car to the park where the meet was held at and did some parade laps around the parking lot….

H22-swapped Accord coupe on Work Emotion XD9s…

6th gen Accord coupe with H22A swap… This is definitely one of the cleaner 6th gen builds that are still around. I remember how popular this chassis was back in the early 2000s and how heavily-modded they were. Back then things were a bit different though because everyone was doing taillight conversions and crazy widebody mods and all that shit. That’s why you don’t see too many of these anymore….

Accord coupe with old school Racing Hart C5 wheels without caps…

Really liked this bagged Accord wagon owned by Stewart Guillen on re-barreled Volk Racing wheels…

Nice, clean CD sedan on Blitz 01 wheels and Acura RL brakes…

One of the first guys I met when I started bringing my Accord out in early 2005 was Timmy Valbuena. He’s had this coupe as long as I’ve known him and up until this very day, he is still the nicest guy I’ve ever met. One of the truly good guys in the community and it’s always good to see his CB coupe out and about. He doesn’t drive this car a whole lot these days and used to only bring it out for events….

His wheel selection has always been on point as witnessed here with his pristine set of original Racing Hart CP-035s. Still one of the most lightweight wheels that have ever been produced…

9th generation Accord on Airrunner suspension that you’ve seen quite a bit of on this site recently. The new Accords are great-looking cars and you can fit humongous wheels on them…

To be frank, the windshield banner is very lame on this 3rd gen CA Accord sedan but it is kind of unique to see the B-series swap in there…

White 4th gen CB sedan with my old set of 17-inch Work Meister 2-piece S1 wheels that I bought back then for about $900. I had them completely re-polished inside and out and even ordered brand new decals from them direct from Work Wheels Japan. They have gone through a couple different owners since that time but they still look pretty decent. I bet you the owner doesn’t even know the original specs on these wheels since I had the labels removed when they polished the inner barrel. I believe that’s my old JDM front bumper too that has been repainted…Oh and I’m pretty confident that the Autopower roll bar in there was mine too since I hand-painted the bolts on them and you can still see some of the old paint left behind from them being removed a couple times…

I like these newer Accords with the Mugen grille on them. It takes away all that bright chrome trim that all the newer Hondas have and gives it more of a subtle appeal…

This old Accord hatchback was in showroom condition at CAM 3 and I think I heard that it only had like 50K on the odometer or something… pretty cool…

Custom Acura CL coupe that was recently seen in my Wekfest LA coverage. Really well-rounded build with custom interior and everything. Nice job…

Closing it out for today with Ricardo aka Primesniper’s CB Accord sedan. I’ve always been a fan of this build and I’m happy to hear that it will be in a future issue of Honda Tuning magazine. The factory interior in this car is fucking amazing and I like how it sits on the re-barreled Mugen M7 wheels. The wheels are pretty aggressive but he pulls it off really well. It’s not sitting all cambered-out and ridiculous and it flows with the rest of the car… He also has one of the rare early model JDM CB front bumpers with the chrome trim in the bumper molding, as well as the older JDM CB headlights also with the chrome trim around it…

Well, that’s it for today, one more set of CAM 3 photos coming tomorrow…thanks for looking…

What’s up everyone, hope you’re having a good Friday so far. Today we’re gonna look at the second half of the Cali Accord Meet 3 coverage. There isn’t that much more to go through and I actually got some stuff I need to take care of before this Father’s Day weekend so I’m gonna go ahead and dive right into the coverage. Thanks to Ralph and the rest of the Cali Accord Meet organizers for having me. It was a pleasure to be there and I wish them the best in the future…

If you missed Part 1, click the link below…

Cali Accord Meet 3 Coverage…Part 1 of 2…

Here’s the rest…

As mentioned yesterday, the third Cali Accord Meet brought out a pretty sizable crowd of Accord enthusiasts. Here they are all gathered in anticipation for the raffle announcements…

Ralph handling the raffle and chatting with the crowd…

A closer look at Ricardo’s CB7 sedan, which as mentioned, has been confirmed for a feature in an upcoming issue of Honda Tuning magazine…

His re-barreled Mugen M7 wheels…

Classic Nardi woodgrain steering wheel. You know his CB is an early model Accord because it still has the automatic sliding seatbelts, whereas the 92-93 chassis did not…

His H22A swap with wrinkle blue F20B valve cover. I believe that the GReddy oil cap and GReddy/TRUST header on his car were once mine. Cool to see that the parts live on in another CB that will soon be in HT…

Clean Accord coupe on polished Work Emotion CR Kai…

A 6th gen. Accord coupe on AME Tracer wheels…

One more of the VIP-inspired Acura CL coupe…

Ralph’s coupe that I now remember seeing during the Falken Tire advertorial shoot months ago…

Tommy’s RA1 Honda Odyssey from Fast Eddie’s Racing never fails to impress….

The cornerstone of this build is the reverse-head swapped H22A…The head is the easiest thing to spot but there are also a ton of other things done to it. Because of the reversed-head a custom exhaust manifold had to be created, the H-motor also has individual throttle bodies and little things like the VTEC solenoid also had to be relocated because of the flipped head. Another quick observation reveals a AEM C.O.P (coil over plug) set-up…Great build. Check it out in Honda Tuning’s “Odd Swaps” issue…

Henry Pulido’s RA3 Odyssey slammed on Privat wheels. I say “Slammed” because this is about as low as a Odyssey can go. The upper control arms are already resting on the shock towers at this point and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get mine lower without having that issue myself…

Odd combination of parts here with the VIP-styled dish wheels and the Stillen front lip…

Clean CB coupe on Sprint Hart CP-Rs. The owner is a super nice dude and there were so many H-swaps there that it almost felt weird to see an Accord with the stock F22 motor in it, haha…

Tommy and Kevin from Fast Eddie’s Racing chatting with like-minded enthusiasts…

One more of Timmy’s classic CB coupe with Xenon front lip and Racing Hart CP-035…

Before I go I thought I’d give you guys some more shots of Iakona’s Accord. His build is very unique but there are certain styling points about it that would make it a little difficult to be featured in a magazine, like having air suspension and a roll bar, and ITBs and what not, so I thought I’d spend some more time showing the car off here on The Chronicles….

The most eye-catching exterior modification of his Accord sedan has to be the re-barreled Dunlop Formula Hart wheels…

Seated behind the Hart wheels is a big brake kit from VTTR…

Glossy white H22 valve cover and his TWM individual throttle bodies…

A better look at his STACK tachometer…

…and his Mugen FG360 wheel. In the distance inside his glove box you can spot his paddle switches for his air suspension. Also not the blue shift boot that was done…

…to match his Sparco seats and re-wrapped rear seats…

Nice touch swapping out the Accord rear window insert with an “Aska” piece. For those that don’t know, the Aska is actually the Accord that was sold under the Isuzu label overseas, similar to the Honda Odyssey/Isuzu Oasis. Pretty rare to see Aska stuff here in the U.S. as the Isuzu version was never sold here in the U.S. There were subtle differences with the car like the headlights and what not but overall, it was basically a re-badged Accord. Here’s a photo of it for reference…

I didn’t get any photos of my Odyssey since it is in rough shape right now but here’s a back window with some of my favorite sites and companies that I support. Thanks for looking guys. Have a great weekend….

Welcome to a very special holiday edition of THE ARCHIVES Series. Today, we’re going to be doing a little something different and looking at some event coverage instead of remastered magazine features from year’s past. When I got in contact with Gene Tjin about some old photos he had locked away in his vault, not only did he have a collection of photos from old magazine features that he shot, he also had some event coverage that he also did for HCI Magazine. Not all of it was used of course and when I got a hold of them, I was overjoyed to see that he had photos from the 2006 Nisei Showoff event. For me personally, this was one of my favorite events of all-time and one of the best shows that I had ever attended….

I remember this event like it was yesterday. It really stuck out in my mind because this weekend in 2006 was not only the weekend in which Nisei Showoff took place, but Hot Import Nights in Los Angeles also took place the day before. I had never done back to back shows like this so it was pretty interesting. I think back and remember driving up to Los Angeles from San Diego to roll-in for the Hot Import Nights event that Friday evening. I somehow forgot all about the 1/4 tank gas limit that was imposed by the Los Angeles Convention Center and found myself driving all over Downtown L.A. trying to burn gas in my Accord that I was showing during that time. It took over an hour or so before I finally got my gas tank down to the appropriate 1/4 level and parked with my friends from Autofashion USA. I didn’t even have a VIP build at the time but was friends with Freddie and the gang so they let me park with them. HIN was cool but man it was really crowded in those days. I remember even having something stolen from the inside of my car at the show. I was so bummed. After the show ended at midnight or whatever the fuck HIN used to end at, I drove over to my uncle’s place in Temple City to store my car in his driveway because I was worried that my car would get stolen at my sister’s over in Pasadena, CA. I couldn’t really get my car up the driveway of his place though so I did the fucked up thing of going up his neighbors driveway which was slightly wider, and drove across my uncle’s front lawn just to get over to his driveway. It was totally fucked and I ruined his lawn, but he didn’t seem to really mind…at least he didn’t let me know that he was mad. My sister gave me a ride back to her place, I slept for like 3 hours and then she drove me back to my uncle’s place to get my car in the early morning. Seems like a total hassle now but back then, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Either way, I’m thankful for their help and it was great that they understood how important my car was to me. I hopped in the car and headed down to J-town and set-up for the show. Autofashion wasn’t present at Nisei Showoff that year since they had just done HIN the day before but I had some friends to park with that day. During the show, my carbon fiber hood that I had taken off to show off my cluttered engine bay fell over and fucked up a small part of my car and left a giant scratch on my hood…

What I remember the most about Nisei Showoff was the great vibe that it had. Everyone seemed to get along and you really got that sense of camaraderie that you rarely ever feel anymore at shows these days. I don’t know, it’s hard to say but the only word that I can muster up is that things were “different”. The competition factor was always there but I don’t think things are nearly as cut throat as it is today. Everyone seems to try to one-up one another these days and do whatever it takes to win a trophy. Back in 2006, it was important for some people to win, but they never went out of their way to be overly competitive. If you had a quality build, you sort of understood that and people appreciated what you brought to the table. If you weren’t trying to be competitive you just showed up to hang out and to check out the other cars at the show. There were some great builds then too. Some that could even compete today and hold their own. I’ll always think that 05-07 was the best time for the Honda community. The cars were incredibly clean, engine bays were at a whole new level that people hadn’t really seen before, and everyone just got along for the most part. Car crews were car crews because they were friends and not crews that consisted of people who just had nice cars who got together to compete. I’m happy that Gene was able to save these photos because I think they really do a good job of telling the story of what we enjoyed in 2006….

There were two very distinct things that I remember about Nisei Showoff ’06 that really stood out to me;

The first was that Nisei was an important event because it was the first major show after the passing of our friend Randy Gagan. Randy was a great guy and an incredible car builder. He died tragically in an accident on July 4th, 2006 and it really hit the Honda community hard. When Nisei Showoff came around, all of his close friends decided to bring out his unfinished EF build that he had been working on that year for all to see. People signed the chassis and left their thoughts and words for Randy on the car and they even had a life-size cut-out of him next to the car. It was a surreal moment when we all watched his friends push his chassis into the show. It was sort of like, the realization that he was really gone and that we’d never get a chance to see him again or his car completed. I still remember getting a bit choked-up when I saw the whole display with his cut-out by the car’s side….

The second was the official debut of Leonard Yee’s magenta EK Civic build. I remember seeing this thing pull up in a trailer and was awe-struck by it. It had a Rando aero kit which was basically unheard of at that time and it sat on polished Sprint Hart CP-Rs. Many of us had never thought to fully polish CP-Rs at the time because they were always known for having the white faces with the signature red lettering on the face. Eliminating all that just to leave the faces fully polished was a real “what the fuck?” moment for the ones who thought within that proverbial box. If seeing that wasn’t crazy enough, the car was magenta…fucking bright metallic magenta. In an era that was filled with very OEM JDM-looking Hondas, this car broke the mold. It basically opened the floodgates to a new world of possibilities and showed the less-inclined that it was okay to create something unique and wild.

Don’t forget the Endless brake kit too…

I should also mention that the car was K-swapped with full-polished EVERYTHING, with a tucked bay, and it also had individual throttle bodies on it. Let me remind you that it was 2006. The car ran like absolute shit and I remember thinking that it was kind of broken as it rolled off the trailer but you also have to consider that there was no real engine management for a K/ITB set-up back then. Nothing that was easily tune-able anyway. Haltech and MOTEC were around but it was really unheard of to tune on full standalone management systems because you either couldn’t afford it, or couldn’t find someone who knew how to tune a K-series motor with individual throttle bodies. To this day I don’t think that car ever ran right but it was a remarkable build at the time. AM7 was THE premier Honda car club during that time but Leonard Yee’s Civic was like a stick of dynamite that introduced chaos into a Honda community that was getting repetitive with OEM JDM parts and accessories…Many will argue that it wasn’t that big of a deal but try to ask anyone about this build and I guarantee you that they will know what car you’re talking about….

Before I begin the coverage of the 2006 Nisei Showoff event, I just wanted to let you know that if you click on the individual images above or below, they will take you to larger versions of each photo. Save them but if you plan to repost, please don’t alter the photos or watermarks in any way. These are exclusive to this site so remember where they came from…

Photo credit goes to Gene Tjin. Without him, this post wouldn’t be possible. Words are by StickyDilJoe. I’ll do my best to recollect what you see today of photos from almost 8 years ago…Who’s doing coverage of an event from 2006 in 2013 and presenting photos that look like they could have come from a week ago? The Chronicles of course….That’s what THE ARCHIVES Series is all about…

Sorry if the photos look slightly too crisp. Flickr image compression and the fact that I am using that resizing is causing them to look that way. Please click on them to get the better quality photo…

I don’t remember who owned this DA Integra but this set-up on gold Work Equip 03s would still be very relevant today….

Sareth Ros’ Honda Civic from “Down Since Day One” on Rays Garcia Tune Speed Choppy wheels. Really cool coupe build that actually graced the cover of Honda Tuning magazine in May of 2007. CLICK HERE TO SEE A SHOT OF THE COVER….

Clean white Civic hatchback with Spoon Sports accessories on Gram Lights wheels…

Silverstone Metallic S2000 with OEM hardtop and gold Volk Racing GT-U…

Really liked this Spoon Sports-themed Civic coupe back then. Not sure what happened to it but it didn’t stick around for very long. I believe I may have written the story for this build in Honda Tuning back then too but it was soon parted-out after the feature came out. Another example of a car that would still be considered a great build even in 2013…

The engine bay was on-point on this coupe. K20 swap with a nicely done bay and TWM individual throttle bodies…

Loved this Honda del Sol from Team Tronics with Mugen front bumper and Anniversary Edition Mugen MR5s…

Great engine bay that’s been tucked away neatly with a turbocharged B-series motor…

I believe this Integra sedan with Mugen front bumper and red GAB Sport wheels belonged to the girlfriend of the guy who built that del Sol from Tronics…

ARC Induction box and intake arm with a host of purple accents in the bay…

K20-swapped widebody Honda Fit brought for display by N1 Concepts. This Fit eventually landed a cover on Super Street magazine….

R32 Skyline GTR on GTR-faced Regamaster EVOs…

Ryan Ordinario’s bike back in the days when AMSEVEN was in their prime…

Ordinario’s turbocharged EF hatchback that graced the cover of Honda Tuning magazine. Definitely one of the best EF builds of that time….You can still catch his 2005 Honda Tuning Magazine feature online HERE….

Danny Hernandez’s 4-door Civic with K-swap done by RedZone Performance. Danny’s was one of the first Hondas that I remember seeing with a K-swap during that time period. I remember walking into a liquor store across the street from my old job and purchasing the HCI Magazine that it was on the cover of. It was actually the first issue of HCI that I ever picked up. He kept this car mostly in this state for years before redoing the entire car last year. It made its final appearance at this year’s Wekfest San Jose event actually and was parted-out after that. It is currently a bare shell…

Mike G.’s glossy red Acura Integra on white Mugen RnRs. This was his daily/side project during that time and it was later sold to someone from Prostreet, if I remember correctly, and the new owner transformed the car into a full-fledged drag vehicle. The Mugen RnRs live on today on Mike G’s Honda Fit aka “Casper”….

Jeremy Gilman’s Acura Integra Type R was one of my favorite Honda builds back then. I can’t say I was a fan of this look on bronze TE37s. TEs are probably the greatest Japanese tuner wheel of all-time but his ITR was just perfect on GAB Sport wheels. I’ll always remember this car having GABS on it…

Ernie Uy’s Acura Integra literally stands the test of time up until this very day, as it looks essentially identical to how you see it in this photos in 2013. He bought the car brand new, modified it slightly, and then kept the car this way its entire automotive life. He still participates in the Japanese Classic Car Show every year out here in Cali and the only thing you’ll ever see changed on it are the wheels, which are also era-specific….

Integra with JDM front end and full Rando aero from Team Flux on Work Nezart wheels…

Custom widebody Toyota Solara on Fabulous wheels…

Mugen-themed AP2 S2000 with J’s Racing carbon intake and bronze Mugen MF10s…

I might be wrong, but I’m pretty confident that this Subaru Legacy on Volk Racing GT-Vs belonged to Mike Sabounchi. MIke was working for Yokohama Tires at the time but is currently the Social Media Manager at Source Interlink Media (publisher of Super Street, Honda Tuning, Import Tuner, Modified, etc…). I remember meeting Mike back then through mutual friends and was shocked when I encountered him at Source when I was at the office one day since I hadn’t seen the guy probably since this event…

Vertex widebody S13 hatchback on anodized red Volk Racing GT-Vs that was featured in JTUNED online magazine…

It’s nearly impossible to find an R33 Skyline GTR today in California. The U.S. Government did a mass seizure of this vehicles after they started cracking down on them thanks to the guys from Motorex and what not back in the day who brought them into the States with falsified paperwork. Back then, they were still rare but at least it was possible to get a hold of one…

Jonathan Wong from Super Street Magazine’s S13 Sileighty project back in 2006 with SR20DET swap, S13 Silvia front end conversion, and Volk Racing GT-U. This car was later sold to Super Street Associate Editor and now Head Editor of Import Tuner Magazine, Charles Trieu, who transformed this Sileighty into something incredible. To this very day, it is still one of my favorite S-chassis builds of all-time. CLICK HERE TO READ THE FINAL FEATURE ON IT BEFORE IT WAS PARTED/SOLD….

This was my CB7 Accord build on 16×7 Sprint Hart CP-Rs. This was the same year in which I landed my Honda Tuning cover feature, as seen in the plaque in the photo. I loved this build a lot and invested a ton of money and time into it. It is probably the sole reason why I drive an RA3 Odyssey today, because they both drive and share a lot of the same characteristics. I had this car up until late 2007 before I sold it to purchase my Infiniti Q45 that I still have….

I’m sure many of you will recognize this EJ1 Civic coupe. It belongs to none other than DPK David Andrade and he currently still has this car. Back in 2006, there was no “DPK” yet and the coupe was still fresh with a B-series motor and all on Mugen MF10Ls. It even had an unpainted Mugen front lip at the time which he later had color-matched and just recently sold. David will tell you how much he loved this car in this state because of how clean and new everything was but for me personally, THIS was my favorite stage of the car….

Rudy Falcon has one of the most memorable DC5 builds of all-time, but back in 2006, it hadn’t gone through it’s massive makeover yet with all the 24K gold parts that helped to create the “DPK” car crew. CLICK HERE to see the car in the stage in which you probably remember it the most…

Honda S2000 on Prodrive wheels…

Custom widebody Toyota Celica on gold-plated JLine wheels built by Danstoy. This Celica was actually female-owned and featured a built 2ZZ engine with individual throttle bodies…

If there was one build back then that was basically untouchable at major car shows out here, it was this Mitsubishi EVO IX MR owned by Karen Zorrilla. If this car showed up to an event, it was pretty hard to beat. It had it all in terms of rare, high-dollar, Japanese tuning products. It won so much that she eventually just retired the car because you really couldn’t build anything else that could touch it. Karen and Jay from JDMEGO built this car together and she later gave the reigns of the EVO to Jay, who further developed the build and redid the entire car in his own vision. I actually had the pleasure of writing the story on the car after Jay finished the build, which can be seen HERE….It’s one of my personal favorite pieces of work that I ever put together because I think it perfectly captures Jay’s personality and his build…

In 2006, the EVO was in its C-West stage with the only products from Voltex being the front canards. The engine bay was also filled with Abbey Road Company (ARC) products…

The one set of wheels that really helped to collectively shit on everyone’s parade were these legit Volk Racing TE37 Forged Magnesium wheels that NO one else had. You still won’t be able to find a set today either. You know how everyone is all about “Mag Blue” these days? Well, these were “Mag Blue” in color but were also “Mag Blue” because they were made out of Magnesium…

Robbie Perez’s turbocharged AP1 S2000 from OG Team Kosoku…

Reggie Quemuel’s ’95 Integra with JDM ITR front end conversion, better known as “NOOPS” (SPOON backwards). In 2006, Reggie’s car was still rocking a turborcharged B-series motor. It was featured in Import Tuner magazine and later in Honda Tuning magazine after it went through a makeover with K20 Type-S swap, which you can see HERE. The car was later sold to Downstar Frank from Bolt Boys….

DA Integra on polished RS Watanabe wheels…

Caged EF Civic hatchback with Chargespeed rear wing and beefy tire/RS Watanabe combo from Hyper 16 Valve….

Another EF build from Hyper 16 Valve. All of their builds carried a very similar style and theme which was pretty cool…

EF Civic hatch on old school Heroes Racing wheels…

Two-toned DA Integra from Hyper 16 Valve…

Civic rocking a J’s Racing rear spoiler and a rare set of Work NR Four Racing wheels…

Issac Marin’s Acura Integra Type R on gold Advan RG back when he was showing with Team Flux…

Not sure how many of you are aware of whose car this is but this was Linda Sy’s Toyota Matrix before it was redone in its metallic rootbeer tone with custom kit and air suspension. This car became a very dominant competitor in the Toyota Class at all major events out here in Socal. You haven’t seen a whole lot of it in 2013 since I believe the car might be retired but HERE is some more photos of it to jog your memory….

Normally I wouldn’t show you very many Scion xAs here on The Chronicles, but this one in particular was pretty cool because it was the first xA with individual throttle bodies. I believe Coi from Team Flux owned it. He also had a pretty elaborate MR2 Spyder build back in the day….

This Civic was one of my favorite Honda builds back then. Crazy how much has changed since ’06 but this was built by Rodrez, now head editor of Honda Tuning Magazine. He was a freelance photographer then and I wasn’t even fathoming the thought of working for Honda Tuning at that time. Now he’s the head guy there and I work for him, haha. I met Rodrez when he originally shot my Accord for Honda Tuning magazine. We became friends after that and I would see him all the time at shows. I remember at this Nisei something broke on his car, maybe a hose clamp busted or something, but I took something off my car to help him get his car running. Man, it’s wild to think back now because it seems like yesterday…

His engine bay was one that I always studied and stared at. In ’06 he was running A-Sport ITBs and was tuned on APEX’i Power FC…

This Integra Type R clone was a build by Eric Dickerson, better known as “Edick” to many. I always loved this car and all of its many set-ups. Bummer that he ended-up being a giant scammer who scammed a lot of good people out of their hard-earned money. There was never a doubt that he knew how to build a great Honda, it was just unfortunate how he went about doing it and how he was exposed later on….Ah, anyways, moving on…At least we can look back and appreciate the build itself….

Roy Barba’s candy red Civic hatchback from PlusOne crew with EK4 SiR bumpers and carbon Spoon Sports Lip on red GAB Sport wheels…

Rootbeer DC2 Integra with JDM ITR front end from PlusOne on white Work RSZ-R…These days, any brown Integra will automatically be associated with Gerald Reyes’ “Rootbeer DC2″… Well, calm down kids, he definitely wasn’t the first, haha. And I say that with the most love possible…

Danny Lee’s Civic coupe in its earlier stages with Mugen SS front lip and bronze Mugen MF10s. This coupe later went through a ton of changes and all sort of turmoil, being sent to various shops because many fell through on their promises. Quite a shame because it was such a cool car after. I don’t think it ever really lived up to its potential because Danny was so burnt from being fucked over by so many people. You can read all about it HERE…

PlusOne Randy Auyeung’s turbocharged Civic with White Crow front bumper and BYS front lip on Mugen MF10L. You’ll see much more of this build in a future installment of THE ARCHIVES…

Nicely done DA Integra from PlusOne on Mugen MF10 Mirror Face wheels…

Sorry for the Shadow People but this was Randy En’s Sunbake Gold JDM EG6 clone with JDM B16A swap…If you want to read more about it, CLICK HERE…

Boosted single cam Civic on polished Mugen RnR wheels. Can’t really tell what front bumper that was since I don’t really recall this build…

Jason Deang’s J’s Racing-themed Civic build also from Norcal’s PlusOne crew. This was another build that was later featured in HCI Magazine (FEB. ’07 issue). I believe Gene has the photos from this shoot as well that I can post up later in THE ARCHIVES but I’ll have to check…

Rodney Auyeung’s 1st gen. Acura Integra on white Mugen CF-48 wheels. Not a whole lot has changed on this build up until this day, though from what I last heard, it was just sitting on jackstands….

One of my all-time favorites and an utterly timeless Civic build was Willy’s yellow hatchback. This was one of those builds that really helped to show me the potential of what a Honda chassis was capable of. I remember when I first saw this build in person and I stared at the engine bay for what seemed like hours trying to study it and to figure out its intricacies. I still am an awe looking at old photos of it now. I guess if there was an archetype of how to build a timeless Honda that also had the juice to back it up, it would be this one…

Going to close it out for today since I’ve been working on this post for the last four-five hours and it is now 6 am Thanksgiving morning with a couple shots of the Tjin Edition ER34 Skyline GTR. On my list of favorite all-time import builds, this Skyline would be one of the cars on that list, albeit in its pastel green stage, because to me, that was when it looked its best. The Tjin brothers had built some pretty cool cars prior to this one, but I think this Skyline build was the one that solidified their presence in the import community and garnered them respect from all of their peers. This was one of the most elaborate Skyline builds stateside and featured a ton of custom fabrication, air jacks, HRE wheels, Stoptech big brakes, a built RB26DETT motor with a fully tucked engine bay…it was just utterly insane…

Well, that’s a wrap for this installment of THE ARCHIVES. Hope you guys enjoyed the leap back in time to the summer of 2006 on this Thanksgiving holiday. It’s been a pleasure. Have a good one!….

On May 29th, 2014, Honda Tuning magazine officially closed its doors and forever changed the landscape of our Honda enthusiasts community…

I don’t think any of us will ever really fully grasp the gravity of this situation until years later, when we look back at what might be the golden age of our community. Even as I type this, I am still struggling with the idea that I will never get an assignment from HT again. Sure, there were strenuous times when deadlines were short and there was much to do, but it was a good kind of stress. It was the kind of stress that reminds you that you’re doing something important, you know? I never let anyone know that it was on my mind this weekend but during the quiet times, it weighed heavily on my mind. So much so that what you’re reading now was typed-out by me on my phone because I just felt like these thoughts had to be documented…

My journey with Honda Tuning magazine started, ironically, on May 29th, 2007. Things were very different back then. There was no Stickydiljoe.com and I was just a guy in his 20′s who had just quit his 5-year job at an auto parts store where I was hating life as an assistant manager. 2007 was a big year for me. I grew up in San Diego and just decided one day that I had outgrown the city. I needed more from life. I made the decision to move up to Los Angeles and was just hanging out with friends that I knew up here. One day, I was perusing NWP4LIFE.com where I saw a post from a guy (who shall remain nameless), that had just been promoted to the head editor position at Honda Tuning. He said he wanted to take the magazine in a new direction and was looking for suggestions from fellow enthusiasts as to how to make the magazine better. I had some interest in doing some work for Honda Tuning so I decided to email him and ask if he needed another writer. Back in ’07, I didn’t even know how to use a camera so photography was not in my scope. I just wanted to write some stories that could possibly help me pay some bills. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life at that point but magazines had always been interesting to me. The editor asked me to send in a writing sample and so I sat in front of a computer all night and wrote a piece for him to check out. He made some suggestions after he looked it over and then he said that he liked my work and wanted to bring me on…. I was stoked. HT was a magazine that was one of my favorites and also a publication that had previously featured my own Honda build a year before. Being able to work for them was a life-changing experience…

As quickly as the opportunity came, it went just as quickly…

A couple weeks after the editor had hired me on, he went and did something ridiculous and got himself fired. I won’t elaborate because it isn’t important to the overall story but let’s just say that he said something to someone that he shouldn’t have and got himself fired. Along with that firing went my hiring, because at that point, no one else had known that he had brought me on to HT. I was bummed. The only other person that I knew had been working for Honda Tuning then was my good friend Matt “Rodrez” Rodriguez. Rodrez had been working for HT for years so I let him know what had happened. Someone from another publication stepped in to take over in the interim and Rodrez passed along the info that I was supposed to get work from HT. It was a long shot but the new editor decided to give me a chance. 7 years and 4 head editors later, I was still an integral part of Honda Tuning….

Eventually, Rodrez took over the reigns as the head editor of Honda Tuning and the magazine was as great as it ever was. These last couple years have been incredible with him at the helm and I’m proud to say that I was a part of the experience. Outside of work Rodrez and I became great friends and there was never anything he could ask of me that was too much. If he needed a story or shoot to get knocked out in a short amount of time, I was the guy to turn to. I could knock out a feature story in less than 24 hours time and within the three magazines that I wrote for, I was the guy to go to if you needed something done immediately. We would go to events or even throw events where we needed shoots done the following day. We were tired, beat up, and worn out but we made it happen. Rodrez poured his heart and soul into Honda Tuning and I always respected his passion. The fact that Honda Tuning magazine shut down is not a result of his efforts. The magazine always did well, exceeded expectations, and the advertising numbers were higher than anyone ever expected. HT died because of a simple business restructuring. It was a swift move that had very little to do with the people involved. As the saying goes, “It’s just business”. Unless you were there with us during those late nights when we had a story to finish or photos to edit that we spent hours shooting, you’ll never understand how much work went into this magazine. A little bit of us died the day we realized that HT was over…

Our generation grew up reading magazines. For enthusiasts like myself, I became a “car guy” because of print magazines. I didn’t have any family members or anything that were into cars that introduced me to it. My love of imports came from a random issue of Turbo magazine that was being passed around my classroom among friends when I was a sophomore in high school. After seeing these cars and how they were put together, I was hooked. I joined the automotive publication industry years later remembering that magazines were an important part of shaping how we as a community came to be. We drew inspiration from magazines and saw things that we never thought could be possible when it came to modifying a vehicle. The internet is this generations’ form of inspiration but we should never forget where we came from. That is why print is and will always be important. I’m not gonna be able to pull something I found off the internet 10 years later and remember every single thing about it because people don’t save the stories that they see online, they just save the photos. The stories are what matters and telling a story was my job. For the Honda community, my job was to tell you about the people behind the Honda builds that you only saw in passing online and seven years to the day when I wrote my first story for print, I fucking lost my job. It was because of HT that I was able to make the leap over to Super Street and eventually Import Tuner and that foundation is now gone. I can’t sit here and tell you to read all about guys like Ejay Adriano who built his car as a tribute to his grand parents after he was shot and nearly died because people stopped caring about the story. The internet has trained us to be careless and only think for the moment. Everyone thinks that the moment someone gives you any measure of spotlight on the internet that it automatically constitutes it being a “feature”. Let me tell you this; no feature will ever be as good as a print feature that you can hold in your hands. You’re not gonna sit here and tell me that 10 years later, you’re going to be able to show your kids what you did by showing them a print-out of some shit you found online. That is why print will always be important and will never be triumphed by something as fleeting as digital media….

We need print. From a business standpoint, you could say otherwise, but as enthusiasts, car magazines were/are every bit as important as the people who shape our community. We drew so much inspiration from what we saw in magazines like Honda Tuning and Import Tuner and now a huge chunk of that is gone. For me, print is a part of my every day livelihood and I honestly don’t even know how much it will affect me until months later. There has been an outpouring of support since the news came to pass that HT and IT are gone but the fact of the matter is, we (as enthusiasts) failed. We’ve been reminded to “support print” for the last couple of years but it apparently just became more of a saying that ultimately didn’t generate enough action. The Honda community took a huge hit last week that I don’t think it will ever recover from. Many of these guys were building their cars with high hopes that one day, they might get a shot at being considered for HT and now that dream is gone. Everyone needs some form of inspiration and something to strive for but that has been taken away from them. It’s scary to think that the only form of motivation and desire to build a Honda now, besides your friends of course, will come from the internet. The same place that floods our social media feed with fight videos, girls throwing shovels at each other, and an endless stream of memes that are created because people no longer have the ability to express how they feel with a correct sentence. This is also the same internet that tries to enforce the idea that trends are the only way to build cars and how everyone is entitled to an opinion, no matter how unfounded or incredibly stupid it is….

What I loved about Honda Tuning and how Rodrez ran the magazine is how uncompromising it was in showcasing only the highest caliber of builds. I guess you can say now that it was uncompromising to a fault. Never did you see any of that wannabe rat rod, sticker-bombed bullshit that floods the internet these days. “Stance” was never a word in Honda Tuning’s vocabulary and Rodrez made every attempt to only showcase the builds that would withstand the test of time. While other magazines had to conform to the current status quo to meet sales figures, Honda Tuning stood proud in its efforts to be above any passing fad….

So what’s next? Well, it’s really hard to say. Both HT and Import Tuner were absorbed into the Super Street brand, which is now my main source of income. SS will become a bigger book with a larger variety of content because of all this and I hope you guys continue to support print. Super Street is all we have left now. Things are changing at a rapid rate but without your support, it might only be a matter of time when we have to say good bye to print as a whole. We all try to reinforce the idea that we need to “support print”, but it is all just words unless we actually go out and make a conscious effort to put action into that idea. Without it, there might not even by a Stickydiljoe.com anymore because working in this industry has allowed me the freedom to maintain this site without asking for much in return from anyone.

I’ll surely miss the paycheck and the workflow I got from Honda Tuning but what I will miss most about the magazine is what it stood for; QUALITY. That’s photo quality, story quality, and the quality of men that participated in making it one of the greatest publications that we as Honda enthusiasts will ever hold in our hands…

As someone who was an avid reader of HT, who still went and purchased copies of it even though I was working for the magazine itself, I’d like to thank Rodrez and all who made the magazine what it was…

As someone who did work for Honda Tuning for seven years, through the ups and down, I’d like to thank everyone who supported the magazine and appreciated the work we put into it monthly. It was an incredible experience and a large part of my life that I will not soon forget. Thank you to all who I met and the relationships that have formed because of our efforts in HT…

Hindsight being 20/20, Honda Tuning deserved a better end than this. There was no goodbye, no swan song, it was just “business as usual”….

We should have done a better job in supporting HT, as well as Import Tuner, when it was around…

We, as enthusiasts, failed.

-Joey Lee, contributor for Honda Tuning (2007-2014)

Let me begin by saying that this was, is, and will probably always be on my top three of least favorites shoots which I’ve ever done. I can honestly admit now that I never liked these photos and I’m kinda happy that they never ended up in print. I’m showing them to you now because I think that the car is legitimately interesting and something that you may not have ever seen before prior to this day. Before we get to the photos though, let me give you some back story on how this print feature never came to be…

In 2011, things were very different. I was shooting for magazines every now and then but I did it sparingly. Super Street seemed to be fully staffed with good photographers and they would only ask me to shoot a car if I had already known the owner and was familiar with the car. Shooting for Honda Tuning was rare because in Socal, Rodrez was the one that did a majority of the shooting for the magazine even though he was already the head editor. He shot the cars because he was a photographer at first and just genuinely enjoyed shooting. I got into the business as a writer and just picked up photography over time because it was easier for me to get work if I did everything. In ’11, I was still just learning the basics and was even shooting with an entry-level Canon Rebel T2i. The camera body was good, but it was nothing compared to the full-frame dSLRs that Canon had to offer. I couldn’t afford anything that nice then so I just worked with what I had. I basically was using it just to shoot events for my own site but then I started getting gigs to shoot cars for magazines and I just ran with it. It is pretty crazy to think back on how far I’ve come in the last couple of years. I still don’t like to consider myself a true “photographer” but I think I’ve gotten the hang of how to use a camera. I’ve even upgraded since then and I have better equipment to work with. Hindsight being 20/20, I think I did the right thing by starting out with a low budget camera because it taught me what I needed to know and I didn’t have to rely on great equipment to make up for the downfalls of my shooting abilities….

Rodrez was busy during this period and so he asked me to shoot a Civic race car over at the Buddy Club facilities. I don’t even remember where it is now but I just remember it being a far drive. I didn’t care of course because it was work so I agreed to do it. It was surprising to hear him ask me shoot a car, especially locally in Socal, so I was excited to do it. I don’t even think I had shot a car for Honda Tuning prior to this assignment so it was going to be my first real photoshoot for HT. There were some interesting circumstances going into this shoot; the car couldn’t really be driven anywhere since it was an import from another country so I would have to shoot the car at Buddy Club. That would have been fine had the the space allotted for the car to be able to moved around freely but the facility was so packed with merchandise, as well as other cars, that it made it nearly impossible to move the car around at all. Another thing worth noting is that there seemed to be a language barrier that existed between myself and the staff at Buddy Club. I don’t know if you guys are aware of this, but Buddy Club USA (this is a common misconception) is NOT a Japanese company. It hasn’t been a true Japanese company in over a decade now in fact, and the Buddy Club brand is actually owned by the Taiwanese. People never ask so they never have to tell anyone, but there is really nothing at all “Japanese” about Buddy Club, other than the fact that they produce parts for Japanese vehicles. Hopefully this isn’t a shocker for any of you guys but I’m sure the newer generation of guys had no idea that this was the case. For a similar comparison, it would be much like the general public believing that Mishimoto is a Japanese company because of its name…

Anyways, the guys at Buddy Club were nice guys, but they didn’t really seem to have any idea what was needed for me to shoot this car in full detail. I don’t even think they started the car at all that day and we just pushed it around back and forth within the small confines of the Buddy Club building. I didn’t want the day to go to waste so I just worked with the space that was available to me. Because of the restrictions that were placed in front of me and the car needing to be pushed back and forth, it took quite some time to shoot this car. To this very day, I still don’t think I’ve ever spent this much time shooting any car. If memory serves correct, I think I was there for almost 6-7 hours. That wasn’t even the worst part either. After I wrapped up the shoot, I wasn’t ever able to complete the story for it because we had absolutely zero information on the car itself. See, the guys at Buddy Club weren’t very proficient in English and the entire shoot was set-up through a third party marketing firm that was doing all their advertising duties for them. To get anything from Buddy Club, you’d have to speak to an “agent” so to speak and would have to rely information through a third party, which was a total pain in the ass. I sent numerous emails trying to get a spec sheet or whatever information I could on the car to no avail. Rodrez then went back and forth with the marketing firm in which they responded by saying that they would produce a spec sheet for us, and it just never came. No information about a car that we had only heard of very sparingly means we had just wasted our time shooting it. If that wasn’t enough to seal this feature’s fate, I should also add that the car went back to Asia just days later. Notice how I didn’t say “Japan”? The whole reason why I had gone over there to shoot the car was because the car had to leave the country so we really didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to do a feature on it. Had we known that there was no information on the car, we probably wouldn’t have bothered…

I held onto these photos for a couple more years in hopes that we would eventually get some sort of info on it, but again, it just never came. Who knows where this car is now or if it is even in the same condition. You can’t even find any other photos of it online or even the slightest bit of information, otherwise I would have just made a story up with whatever little I could find. Now that Honda Tuning is no longer in print, I guess I can toss these photos up here seeing as how there would be no point in holding onto them anymore. Again, I am not very happy with these photos but I do think that it is an interesting car. I guess the fact that we have no information on it makes it that much more intriguing because there is an element of mystery behind it. I still cringe when I look back at these photos because they just aren’t that great. They are not an indication of where I am at now with my photography in 2014 and I hope that is understood…

Click the photos if you care to see larger versions of them. I’ll try to post up whatever I know/saw in the captions below….

Oh and this build was originally dubbed the Buddy Club “Type X” Civic which debuted here in the U.S. alongside the Buddy Club GT-R Spec X….

The Buddy Club FD2-converted Civic “Type X” didn’t really have aggressive aero like you see on the FEEL’s FD2 or other race-prepped vehicles. Hell, it barely had ANY aero at all. If was basically just OEM panels and components that had been redone in lightweight carbon fiber….

Here you can get a good idea of how much room I had to work with that day. Not only was there shelving throughout and a giant lift in the background (which produced terrible shadows by the way), there were also a couple other cars parked behind it….

I tried using some metal drums to block the R35 GTR from view but as you can tell, I didn’t really do a good job of it…

Visible oil cooler mounted behind the carbon FD2 CTR front bumper…

The entire car, including all four doors, were all carbon fiber, minus the rear quarter panels and frame itself…

Nothing makes a better shot than a background filled with shipping boxes and a blue liner filled with Styrofoam packing supplies, haha…

Custom carbon rear spoiler that I’ve only ever seen one of….

Buddy Club F91 wheels with Brembo big brakes…

Buddy Club rear brakes…

Not entirely sure what headlights these were because we had no info on the car, haha….

The coolest part of this build was definitely the interior. You wouldn’t think that the carbon motif would carry over into the cockpit of the car but it definitely did…

Check out he carbon fiber center console…

…and carbon steering column cover…

AIM digital instrument display, which looks like it just belongs in there…

Carbon fiber door cards with the OEM window switches and door lock mounted directly into the panel. You can see the factory CTR white paint in the door jams in this shot….

Another interesting modification to the interior of this Civic was the four Buddy Club P1 racing seats….

Apparently they used this car for press laps too and these two extra seats in the rear allowed for ride-alongs…

Roll bar and harness bar. Not sure if these was an actual Buddy Club piece, a piece that was outsourced from another company, or a custom piece specifically made for this FD2 conversion….

Engine bay shot of the “Type X FD2″, also adorned in lightweight carbon…

Carbon air intake box…

CF engine cover….

Remote reservoirs for the Buddy Club Racing Spec EVO dampers/coilovers….

The rear suspension set-up with the Racing Spec EVO damper and custom Swift springs….

Buddy Club Spec III titanium exhaust system…

Brembo Monobloc front brakes and rotors….

Buddy Club Racing Spec rear brakes and rotors….

That was pretty much it from that day, back in 2011. I wish I had more info to pass along like motor specs and what not but we just never got anything from anyone about the car. Its a feature that never came to be, now seen exclusively only on The Chronicles. Thanks for looking and have a good one…

I originally shot these photos during my last visit to the Pacific Northwest. I made the trip up there to shoot some cars for the annual Super Street Honda Issue and I shot this Ruckus just for fun. The idea was to get this thing featured in print eventually but with all the shake-ups in the automotive print industry, it just didn’t look like it was going to happen so I decided to just post them up here for you guys. It would have been awesome if these did end up in a magazine but things happen and well, why let these photos go to waste, right?…

Admittedly, I don’t know a whole lot about the Ruckus community. I’ve always been around them and know of friends who are heavily-involved in modifying them, but I just never took that much of an interest in them other than looking at them in detail at events. I get the basics and the popular modifications but other than that, they are foreign to me. When I first saw Terry Suvonnarith’s Ruckus, I liked it. You don’t see very many of these in yellow and he had a really clean GY6 swap in it. I trust Terry’s tastes because he knows Hondas really well and has built one of my favorite Integras of all-time. If you don’t know which Integra I am referring to, kindly click on the linked tags below to check it out…

http://stickydiljoe.com/tag/terry-suvonnarith-integra/

Terry is one of the rare guys who has held onto his Integra for a long period of time so I knew he would put an equal amount of love into his Ruckus build. We are all surprised when we found out that he was building a Ruckus but I guess it sort of made sense. Every car guy has that itch to build something new every now and then so he decided to put a Ruckus together to fill that need. He has had his Integra for so long that it would have been odd to see him build another car. The Ruckus was a perfect platform because tt was completely different but still a Honda…

While I was shooting in Seattle, I was with the rest of the Trik Speed guys and they had nothing but good things to say about Terry’s build. They said that he was going to trailer the thing down to the location where I was supposed to shoot it and out of nowhere, this guy came blasting down the road in this thing! He said he doesn’t ride it too often, but everything does function on it and he can ride it for long stretches of time without having to worry about it. I’ve attached a mod list below in full detail. Those of you who are into Ruckus’ will probably enjoy it and guys like me who don’t know a lot about them will be totally confused by some of the mods but will like it just because it’s yellow and has Advan A048s on it, haha….

Thanks for looking and thanks to Terry for bringing this thing out for me to shoot it. I really love how the photos came out and I apologize to Terry and the Trik guys for not getting this thing into print like I had originally planned. Click on the photos for larger versions but again, please don’t alter my photos in any way or crop out my watermark. I flew to Seattle on my own dime and worked really hard on these photos so I would appreciate it if you left my work untouched. Have a good weekend everyone and enjoy the snaps….

Tuning Menu
Honda Ruckus
Owner Name: Terry Suvonnarith (Spriggan380)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Occupation: I think he’s a drug dealer (Just kidding, maybe)

Engine:
170cc GY6 Dorbyworks-built motor
Dorbyworks racecam
Composimo billet mount
Rucksters custom exhaust pipe
Akrapovic muffler
Mikuni TM28 carb (tuned by niels at 2wheeldyno)
NCY carb neck
Composimo angle clock flange
Composimo extended spacer
Stage6 air filter
Custom catch can
Earls fittings
RRGS titanium EGR block off
RRGS titanium oil cap
Composimo coil/fuel pump bracket (custom fitted to fit OEM fuel pump)
Composimo stainless steel start cover
NCY speed fan
Rucksters harness
Custom wire harness/fuel line/throttle cable tuck
Stage6 fuel gauge

Transmission:
NCY Ultralight overdrive variator
NCY Ultralight front outer drive face
NCY Ultralight outer drive face
NCY Ultralight large shoe racing clutch
NCY Ulltraight drilled & vented clutch bell
NCY Dual range secondary slider
NCY 18×14 10g roller weights
NCY 1000 Compression spring
NCY Ball bearing compression spring seat
Composimo CVT cover

Wheels & tires:
Dorbyworks mesh wheels 12×4 front 12×7 rear
Kenda tire front (100/60/12)
Advan A048 tire rear (160/55/12)

Footwork & chassis:
Dorbyworks front hub
RRGS titanium front axle bolt
RRGS lowdown drop forks
Composimo drop fork lowering springs
NCY billet triple tree
RPRO chin bone
RPRO foot bar
RPRO kick stand
RPRO handle bars
Stage6 throttle control
ATR rear coil over

Brakes:
RRGS front and rear 4 piston calipers
RRGS front (220mm) and rear (220mm)disc
RRGS front and rear titanium rotor bolts
Rear disc brake conversion
Braided lines
CNC disc/disc brake levers
Motul dot4 brake fluid

Exterior:
RPRO signature washer kit
RPRO side markers
RPRO gas cap
RPRO frame gussets
RPRO frame end caps
Composimo inter frame caps
RPRO battery box badge
Drowsports carbon fiber key guard
Steady garage switches
BSC rear view mirror
Composimo headlight lowering tabs
Composimo headlight bracket cover
Bride custom wrap w/ suede seat
Mnnthbx billet Dr. Dre beats holder
Mnnthbx rear led taillight
RPRO license plate holder

RRGS brake kit and rear disc conversion…

12-inch Dorbyworks Mesh and Advan A048 rubber….

Dorbyworks-built GY6 engine swap…

Mikuni TM28 carburetor and Stage6 filter…

All the fuel lines, engine harness, and throttle cable are tucked into the frame via these -AN fittings and black hoses…

RPRO frame gusset…

Custom seat wrapped in Bride material and suede….

Stage6 Throttle Control Kit…

Akrapovic exhaust set-up…

Stage6 Fuel Meter mounted on the floor…

If you were wondering why Yokohama Advan offers a 12-inch A048, I believe they were produced for the old Mini Coopers…

A couple of rolling shots to close out the set…

That’s a wrap. Have a great weekend guys and thanks to Terry and the rest of the Trik Speed guys for bringing this thing out and helping with the shoot. Peace.

It was a great year for the Honda community. Not the greatest by any means, but 2014 produced some awesome builds. I think this year really helped to remind the rest of the tuner community that Hondas are still at the forefront when it comes to true, timeless, execution. Every year, putting together this list is a near impossible task. I only do it still because everyone seems to enjoy it. As always, there is a list of criteria that I have created for certain builds to qualify for the list. Those of you who have followed the list before know what I am looking for, so I hope you can help explain to the new viewers if this list happens to be brought up in conversation. The rest of you can read below for a better explanation. I know that the Honda community in 2015 is thriving because there are builds that are mentioned repeatedly whenever there is a discussion of what is viewed as the best current builds in the country (and now, the rest of the world, of course). If things were slowing down and the community was dying, people wouldn’t even care to discuss what builds are great and there would be no talk or conversation. There are Hondas that are clearly ahead of the pack and there appears to be an understanding among the community as to who did really big things in 2014. Obviously, there are some cars on your list that don’t appear on this list. Allow me to explain. One of the keys in determining this list is who was able to make an impact throughout the year. Sure there were some cars that came in late and really stole the proverbial show but I can’t fault the guys who have already been out and about doing great things in 2014. With that said….oh boy am I excited for this year. There are SO MANY great cars that appeared towards the end of ’14 and many more that are coming out very soon for the calendar year. I think as long as I have been doing The Chronicles, I have never been so excited about what is to come for the Honda community. Builds are continually getting better and there are guys who haven’t built a car in a long time that are making a comeback this year. It is going to be a good one…

But first, we must concentrate on the great builds of 2014. I have to pack for my trip to Japan in a couple of days so please allow Joey from the past to tell you more about what qualifies the builds for this list in 2015, and well, every year beyond that…

“In the past, I really put a heavy emphasis on the builds being out for the world to see for an entire year’s time. Meaning that you really have to have a complete car from the beginning of the year until the end of the calendar year to really be considered for the list. While this makes sense, I feel that this puts some builds at a disadvantage because many regions and parts of the world just don’t have as many events as the West Coast does. Without events, you’re relegated to only seeing the cars on the web and that is also an unfair way of judging the quality of a build because photos really alter reality at times. Instead of putting so much emphasis on the cars being complete and out for a whole year, I’ve been more liberal with the rule and have considered some cars that may not have been ready from the start of the year, and instead have taken other factors into consideration, like their impact on the community, and how much response they get from the build-up of their cars. It just doesn’t make sense to compare a build from, say, the West Coast, and somewhere like the Pacific Northwest or something because they never have events and their weather is so unpredictable that you are unlikely to see many of their builds throughout the season….

Other than that, the same rules applies as always, I take EVERYTHING into consideration. That means, build quality, overall execution of style, overall execution of the build and how it relates to what the owner is trying to present to the rest of the community. Trends are not that important because I feel that if you really have a car that is legitimately considered one of the ten best in the world, it should really transcend the limits of popular trends and should have somewhat of a timeless appeal to it. Many, if not all, of the cars that you will see on this list in the next few days should be a contender for the list every year, whether it be from the past or in the yet-to-be-determined future. An important factor that I really like to look at with these builds is the type of impact is has on other enthusiasts within the community. Inspiration is a huge motivating factor when building a great car and these builds are all inspirational in their own ways. The list gets harder to put together every year because there are a lot of amazing cars getting put together every year so I really have to look at how the cars impact everyone else and possibly how they would change the way another person would put their car together. There are quite a bit of other things that I really look at, especially when it comes down to it being such a close race. I could talk your head off about it but I think the cars will speak for themselves. If you have been following this Top Ten List the last couple of years, you should have a good understanding of how the list works. At the end of the day, if you don’t agree with my selections, that is perfectly fine. I will not lose any sleep on it. This is The Chronicles’ list, meaning, it is MY list and MY list alone. If you don’t like what I have to say or the cars that I choose, you can go ahead and start your own list. I am not here to satisfy you or quench your thirst in any way. If you feel your car should have been on the list, that is okay too. I probably have your car on my radar but it just wasn’t what I was looking for. Keep building your car and doing your thing. Don’t let the list change your perspective on how you build your own car. As much as I would love to make everyone happy and give everyone credit for their builds, it just doesn’t work that way. This is the “Top Ten” list, not the “hey everyone, you did a great job list”. If you for whatever reason get butthurt about not being on The Chronicles’ Top Ten list, I think that says more about you and your character than how you build your car. You should be happy and congratulatory to others instead of worrying about why you aren’t one of them…

Anyways, no matter what I say, someone is going to have their feelings hurt over it. That’s fine. I’m glad I am generating at least some form of emotion from any of you guys. That means I’m doing my job because you took the time to read through this.”

Before you begin to type the words “what about ____________” in the replies or on various social media outlets in response to builds you don’t see here, what if you just really thought “what about the cars that made the list”? And why they are here. It might change your way of thinking if you made the decision to understand instead of telling me about how you don’t agree. I apologize if a car isn’t on here that you felt was better than any of these Hondas. There is always next year so please be considerate. Our hobby isn’t going anywhere. There is always time to make an effort in the future.

As stated, time present is one of the determining factors. There are two builds in particular that I’m sure most of you are assuming will be on this list but they literally just appeared like, less than two months ago so I really can’t include them. Actually, there is another build from Texas that debuted and is just fucking amazing but he too will have to make a strong showing this year. That makes three. They are the front runners in 2015 though so all they really have to do is show up and continue to do their thing. Imagine now that three spots are already being held so now the rest of the community has 7 spots to compete for, with probably more than seven great ones debuting this year. I guess those guys will have to compete to hold their place and not get bumped by another debuting build. It is going to be exciting for sure but until that day comes a year later, let us appreciate all that was great in 2014. Ladies and gentlemen, The Chronicles Top Ten, 10-6, in all of their glory…

Thank you to those of you who create great cars and push the envelope. You are an inspiration to all even if you don’t know it…

“Strength in brotherhood…”

Luis and Jose Jaimes were a couple of guys that I had long considered putting on the list since the beginning of the year. They hold the number ten spot but they didn’t exactly “squeek in”, this was their spot to lose. I had them on my radar because I value them for being high-character guys. Their builds are great individually but to be honest, they make the list because of who they are and what they do more so than for their cars. There is nothing “ground-breaking” about their builds. In fact, they have Hondas that pretty much anyone with a good eye and the ability to wrench can build. Their cars are almost a throwback of sorts to my favorite period of Hondas, which was between 2004-2008. Both are similar in their own ways but like Luis and Jose, are also quite different . Each car speaks to their own personalities even though they each wrench on one another’s cars. You can place these two cars during that time period or any time period before that and they fit right in. The timeless practicality of their cars allows them to just be relevant at any point in time. I put them on the list together because they do pretty much everything else car-related together. I got to know them as brothers, shot their cars together for a spread in Super Street magazine together, and now they get to share this. It was an easy decision for them to be on the 2014 Top Ten because they fill every criteria that I look for; the Jaimes brothers were out all year at practically every event, they quietly won multiple awards without ever being braggadocios about it, and their Hondas are a prime example of how to build with quality parts, which is only made better by how they execute both individually with their own flair.

They never got caught up in any of the notoriety or hoopla and just continued to do things to their cars because that is what they loved to do. And that’s perfect. That is how it should be. You see their love for the hobby by seeing how dedicated they are and other enthusiasts know them for all the right reasons. They are also the same guys that would be down to help you if you ever needed anything and don’t try very hard to keep secrets from anyone else. You may never know these guys but if you did, you should appreciate them. They are the enthusiasts that make this hobby fun because they love it probably more than you do and that’s a great thing. The fact that they are brothers just makes it even better because it is not only a hobby for them, it is about family as well. If you had to choose two guys to represent the Honda community to serve as an example for others, Luis and Jose are the ones. That is why they kick off the list here at number ten with their CR-X and Civic.

Two timeless Hondas built entirely at home, multiple awards at events, a magazine feature between the two of them, and they were just about everywhere in 2014. What more could you ask for?

To see more of their builds and to read the full feature on the Jaimes brothers’ Hondas, click the link below to see their digital feature in Super Street magazine…

The Jaimes Boys from the 2014 Super Street Honda Issue

For the 9th spot, we have a tie between two S2000 builds….

“The catalog car re-imagined…”

Hanzel Tango not only has one of the coolest names ever, he also has one of the most notable S2000 builds in the country. You don’t hear too much about it, as he isn’t the type to have a heavy personality online, but his S2000 is one that definitely needs to be appreciated. It is yet another great homegrown-build from California that is a great example of a well-rounded, high-quality, Honda build going into 2015. There are no shortcuts taken on this build. Everything is authentic Mugen from the Mugen SS line with a twist. For the most part, it is a complete Mugen SS build but he’s taken it further than the more typical S2000 build by putting a ton of work into the engine bay as well. The S2000 chassis isn’t quite there yet when it comes to engine bay customization like you see with the Civic and Integra platforms but there are guys like Hanzel Tango and Jared Aguila (Who was on this list last year) who have really taken S2000 engine bays to the next level. One of my favorite ways to put a Honda together is using quality Japanese aftermarket parts and aero, which creates that traditional look, and then customizing other areas of it to make it unique to its own. Tango’s build is done exactly in that way. It is a catalog-car themed build but he’s re-imagined it to differentiate it from the rest.

2014 marked the culmination of his 4+ years building this S2000. In that time, he’s quickly transformed his AP2 into one of the best Honda builds in the country. He’s chosen to stick with the Mugen theme, which makes his car a little more subtle compared to the wilder Voltex and ASM-themed builds currently out, but the fact that you know he owns a host of authentic Mugen SS components makes you want to take a closer look at what his build has to offer. If you’re in S2000 guy, you know it isn’t easy or cheap to acquire legit Mugen stuff and his car speaks to other Honda guys/gals because they understand the Mugen brand and its history. The details make the car stand-out. For much of the year, he even had a set of custom-built Mugen MF10 wheels which were done to resemble an original Mugen Mirror Face wheel with an aggressive step-lip that Mugen never offered. Those wheels in itself already kind of represent Hanzel’s S2 in a nutshell; it’s authentic Mugen, but it’s not at the same time. It’s traditional and very non-traditional because he made it his own. Those wheels are now long gone, to the delight of the true purists, but you can’t help but appreciate his body of work. There’s a print feature coming in his future and in the last two years, he’s claimed the Best S2000 award at Wekfest San Jose and also placed in the ever-competitive Honda category the following year at the same event. If you can get an award at that event, with a house full of some of the best of the best, you know you’ve got a note-worthy build in 2014. And that is why he lands on the Top Ten at #9….

Photo: Fatlace.com

To check out his full build thread with more photos, click the link below…

Hanzel’s MUGEN Build on S2Ki

“The ultimate catalog Honda build…”

Photos: JZNSN2U Photography

Felipe Madamba has one of the best Honda builds in Hawaii. I say that with extreme confidence. I’m even more confident in saying that it is probably one of the best S2000 builds in America.

When I was hired last year to go be a guest judge at the Spocom Hawaii ’14 event, I spotted this build and knew instantly that it was the best in the building. When it comes to building a catalog-perfect vehicle, it just doesn’t get any better. On top of that, it is also 100% homegrown and built by a privateer without the help of any major shops or sponsors. This is a special car for me because it, along with a handful of other great Honda builds in HI in 2014, helped to restore my faith in the Hawaiian tuner community. Growing up, Hawaii used to be one of the premier destinations to draw inspiration from. It was about as close to Japan as it would get for many of us at that time and it just seemed like the enthusiasts there had a closer touch to Japan, almost more so than California and the rest of the West. If you were around during that time, then you know of DOHC Research, Team Rice, and other sites that showcased some of Hawaii’s best. The Hondas they produced were incredible but around the mid-2000s, it seemed like their Honda community just sort of fell off. Those great builds that we looked up to were being sold or parted-out and there was a little bit of a gap there where Hawaii sort of lost touch while the rest of the country grew. The builds nationwide got better and the new generation seemingly forgot about Hawaii. They don’t have nearly as many events or the same type of media exposure as many of the states here on the mainland so it almost was a little too easy to forget that Hawaii knew how to put a car together. Felipe’s S2000 blows that idea out of the water. All of a sudden, not only was I looking at a full (and I mean FULL) ASM-themed S2000, I felt like I unearthed a gem that the rest of the world had not had the opportunity to witness yet. I personally had not seen an S2000 with this much ASM goodness that wasn’t a shop car or properly sponsored to serve as a demo car for a business. It looked like the tuning shop ASM in Japan had built the car themselves.

I had a chance to chat with Felipe briefly and he seemed like a kind, humble guy which made his build that much better. He’s one of those guys that doesn’t expect anything and when he won that day at Spocom Hawaii, he didn’t even pick up his award because he didn’t think he would win anything. In an era where people with high expectations and an overly aggressive sense of entitlement exists, it’s refreshing to meet guys like him who are genuinely happy to just be at an event with their car. It isn’t about winning but more for the love of the build. If you appreciate their car, they are surprised and humbled, never expecting anyone to bow at their feet to worship their work. I think it almost helps that Hawaii is a bit removed from the rest of the country so that they don’t see the type of craziness that we do here on the mainland. Their enthusiasts stay tight knit and are sort of protected from the rest of the world. Things don’t progress nearly as fast as they do here, but that is almost a good thing because when you see their cars, you get that sense of tradition and understanding that was learned from the previous generation.

Everything in this build is high-quality stuff. There isn’t a part on this S2000 that would make you want to ask Felipe why he chose that particular part over another. When I say it is ASM-themed, I don’t mean it’s “ASM-style” like all the other S2000s around which are 75-90% running replica/fake ASM aero. Felipe’s S2000 is legit. The only thing I would really change about it is the fact that the engine bay isn’t color-matched but there is so much good in this build that it triumphs that. The guy just seems to understand quality and choose the right components for his car. Add to that a killer color combo and you have execution at its finest. The engine bay isn’t tucked or shaved in any way but Hawaii just hasn’t yet gotten involved with engine bay customization to that level yet. I guess if he has one thing to work on in the future, that would be it, but honestly, his S2000 is nearly perfect the way it is. While Hanzel Tango’s build is a re-imagination of a catalog car, Felipe’s is an example of exactly why we love catalog builds. Its proof that you can stay traditional without being boring. You get a glimpse of his S2000 and you just want to see more, and that is why it is one of my ten favorites of the year.

To see Felipe’s ASM build from the very beginning, click the link below to see his build thread…

Bouford’s ASM Build on S2Ki

“Expect the unexpected…”

The best thing about having such a diverse community is seeing all the unique ideas that people come up with in an effort to re-invent a classic platform. When it comes to building Hondas, the EG/EH Civic chassis is by far the most popular of all-time. There is just something so perfect about this 90s Honda that keeps people going back to it. There are many ways you can build the 92-95 Civic. In 2014, the popular thing was to K-swap them, run a nice set of wheels with a meaty tire, and give it that classic appeal by running a front lip from various Japanese tuning shops. The B-series used to reign king of the Honda community but when K-swaps started to get really popular, it brought an even bigger influx of tuners who returned to the Honda community. When you see Cory Shifflett’s Civic above, appearance-wise, it is quite traditional. It has Chargespeed aero, Spoon mirrors, authentic wheels, and is even repainted an OEM color. The intercooler gives you an indication that there is something going on under the hood but you would never expect to see what rests in the engine bay of his hatchback.

I had heard about this car going into my trip to New Jersey for the annual Wekfest East event, but it wasn’t until I got to see this car in person when I developed a real appreciation for it. I mentioned that I was going out East and numerous people told me to check out Cory’s build. They said to “make sure to check out Cory_Real_Nice’s (his IG name) F2K Civic”. I was like, “F2K, huh? That sounds interesting. Yeah I’ll check it out.” And then I remembered that there was a green Civic that was on the upper corner of Honda Tuning magazine a few months before that had an S2000 engine swap in it. That alone was enough for me to want to see it in person but it totally skipped my mind that it was no only F20C-swapped, it was also fitted with a Rotrex supercharger. That’s crazy. Cory went way outside the box and pulled off a swap that is already unconventional as is and took it even further by boosting it. No it isn’t rear-wheel drive if you’re wondering, the motor is mounted to a K-series transmission and actually looks much like a K-swap at a glance. I think most people assume it is a K-swap when they see it at events and don’t even bother to understand all the nuances of the swap. K-EGs are common so people tend to just glance and move on. What makes Cory’s build interesting is that you have to look closer to understand it. It is catered to real Honda guys that care. There is nothing trendy about it that gets all the scene kids staring. If that is what you’re into, trends that is, you won’t care about his car, and that is fine.

Shifflett’s Civic is everything that was great about building a Honda in the 90s-early 2000s but is powered by a set-up that no one would ever think to do back then. Hell, people still wouldn’t really think to do it now. The F20C engine just isn’t that popular or nearly as cheap as a K-swap so guys don’t even bother with the idea of it, let alone supercharging it to make nearly 400 horsepower. It isn’t cheap, anything but normal, and is a shot in the arm for the true Honda aficionados who were losing faith in a community pumped with trends and shortcuts. What I like most about his F2K Civic is that he actually went and finished the rest of the car. Many times when you find Hondas with uncommon swaps, they are usually just the swap and nothing more. Everything else is just kinda shitty, if you know what I mean. The exterior is not done, there’s no effort put into the appearance of the car, and people just expect others to love their car because of the swap itself. That’s not how you build a quality, well-rounded car. Cory has done it all and has shown the rest of the country that you can actually invest time and money into an unorthodox swap while also putting a nice car together around it. Thank you for that. If I see another primered Honda with a J-swap and cut springs I’m going to throw my computer monitor against the wall. Cheers to the guys who “get it”, Cory is here to represent the risk-takers.

Read more about Cory Shifflett’s F2K Civic below…

Cory Shifflett’s digital Honda Tuning feature

“The prototype…”

If there was a book that defined how certain cars in our community was built to compete and win at car shows in North America, Joe Cooper’s DC5 would be the definition. Okay, let me correct that. If you were to build a mold of a competitive, award-winning Honda in the East Coast, Cooper’s would be it. On paper, this RSX is everything you would want or need to see in a show car. It literally has it all. EMOTION car club has been holding it down for that side of the country for years now. As long as I have been fucking around with cars, EMOTION has been around and winning award after award as well as getting magazine features for almost every car in their fleet. This DC5 is one of their flagship cars in their stable and is worth the praise. It started out as a black RSX actually with a Comptech supercharger and a host of BackYard Special parts. The car was nice but it didn’t have that special something that made it stand out. A couple years ago, Cooper decided to tear the whole car down and start from scratch. He did some searching and was able to acquire the only two brand new Max Racing front bumpers left in the entire world (They are now out of business) and used it as the centerpiece of his build. The white makes the car appear a little too subtle but like the other builds on this list, you really have to take a closer look to understand what is going on. The DC5 features J’s Racing front fenders, hood, rear spoiler, and rear diffuser, but you probably don’t see the Chargespeed widened rear quarters. They have been grafted seamlessly into the body of his RSX and the body appears to be stock to the naked eye.

Under the hood is a supercharged K20 fused with both Japanese and American tuning products. Surrounding the motor is a fully-shaved engine bay that has been streamlined and reshaped. Additionally, his RSX has also been converted to right-hand drive, which is still quite popular to do in the East. Inside is everything you’d expect to see in an award-winning Honda/Acura build as it houses a myriad of quality Japanese parts and accessories. What I really like about it is that it is a strong visual representation of a high-key build from that side of the country. You could look at it and instantly recognize that it isn’t a car from this side. I think the difference is in the idea that West Coast Honda builds represent a look that is very unique to the West. It is a look being replicated now by many of the Japanese building USDM-themed cars in their country. The East still builds as they would if they were envisioning a Japanese demo car that they’ve seen in photos. Both are good but very independent of one another.

Being that I’ve been to both coasts multiple times, Cooper can be comfortable knowing that his car would do very well out here if it were to compete with the best in the West, and that is why I have it here on the list. If you know me and have talked to me while I was at a Wekfest event judging, you know that I don’t judge merely on a points system like most other shows. I base a car on quality of parts, execution, and style. It is of utmost importance how you put a car together as a whole. This matches the criteria of something I would expect to see if I were to pick among a host of Honda/Acura builds who were built to win. I think Joe might be a little too competitive but I can’t knock the guy for his passion. I call it “the prototype” because well, for those looking to build an award-winning show car in the future, this is what you’ll be competing against. This is what you’d want to build towards and eventually exceed if you want to win.

Click below to read more about Joe Cooper’s RSX in his Super Street digital feature…

Joe Cooper’s RSX from the Jan. 2014 Issue of SS

“The Wonder Civic born of two continents…”

This AT Civic is a special one. It places high on the list for both its back story as well as its cultural significance. Hiro’s Civic is one of the first cars to be built in both America and Japan to compete in Japan. The car was originally shipped over here to the U.S. so that RedZone Performance could help do the K-swap into the E-AT chassis. All modifications to the bay to have the engine to fit were all done here, along with the work to get the car running and drivable. Once the swap was completed, the car was shipped back to Japan where the rest of it was put back together. Tachibana’s AT now plays a significant role in Japan’s growing USDM-influenced scene because it is one of the few K-swapped Hondas in Japan and the first swap of its kind into a highly-revered chassis in Osaka, Japan. The “Wonder Civic” as it has been dubbed by the Japanese, is legendary to many Osaka Honda enthusiasts. It was the car that changed it all for them when it was introduced in the 1980s and helped to create a cult-like following for Hondas in the Kansai region that eventually became what you now know as the birthplace of “JDM” Honda culture. Now, three decades later, this AT is revolutionizing USDM Honda tuning culture in Japan. I guess you can say that things have come “full circle”.

American, West Coast car culture in particular, has exploded into new lengths of popularity in Japan. USDM style has become so popular that you now even see it in publications such as Option and (the now defunct) Option2. These magazines were once the bibles for us enthusiasts here in the U.S. because it taught us everything we wanted to know about what was the latest and greatest in Japan. Now they are showcasing American car builds and USDM-themed cars in Japan. Let’s sit back and put that into perspective. Not only is that a bit ironic, it speaks volumes for what we have been able to do here in the last ten years. Our builds, which were modeled after what we saw growing up in Japan, is now the basis for inspiration for many in the land where we once only wished we could be. This E-AT is important because it is a place-marker in the bigger scheme of things to come in the future. As both worlds continue to intertwine, we will be able to look back later at this build and appreciate it for what it did for the USDM enthusiasts in Japan. But better way to introduce the amalgamation of the two then to literally bring a car into Japan that has been worked on by American Honda enthusiasts? Sure a K-swapped AT is cool enough as it is but think about the cultural significance of this car. It is a physical representation of two ideas that were once thought to be very different than one another.

Mutual inspiration and the sharing of ideas is what will push our worldwide car community forward. This is one of the Hondas that will light the way, and that my friends, is why it is here on the 2014 Top Ten.

That’s all for today folks. Hope you enjoyed the first five. Stay tuned for the rest. Thanks for looking!

Hopefully you guys enjoyed the first half of the 2014 Top Ten Hondas list. It only gets better from there as we count down to number one right now. Huge thanks to everyone here on the list for their efforts and the time invested in building these cars year after year. You are an inspiration and are much appreciated. It is your passion and devotion which drives others like you and the future generation of enthusiasts to come…

Now, I got a plane to catch so sit back, get ready to do some reading, and have at it…

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“A Honda without borders…”

Like Hiro’s E-AT Civic, Motoki’s EK3 Civic sits high on the list because of its cultural significance. As crazy as it sounds, USDM-style has grown at such a rapid rate in the last few years that you’d imagine they would pass us at some point! Sure enough, in 2014, the guys from Tactical Art debuted a build that was essentially the perfect interpretation of a U.S.-themed build. Leave it to the Japanese to take our styling cues and execute them better than we do. Atsuki and Yasutaka from TA have long been known for their ability to build race cars and the occasional street cruiser, but it was a big surprise to be able to see them put this build together and be a witness to just how well-executed it is. It was almost as if they studied us, took all the best elements of what was great about how we built our cars, and were surgical in recreating the look from the ground-up.

Again, like many of the other builds that you’ve had a chance to see on this list, they are quite simple and built with a minimalist approach, but are much more than meets the eye when you study the details. The Civic started out as a mildly beat-up shell that was stripped down and rebuilt completely. The exterior was done to resemble a ’00-spec EK9 CTR-look, since it is a popular look here in the States but contrary to popular belief, this isn’t a typical Champ White or OEM Honda white. It is actually gray. The color comes fromAudi and is a very light-shade that could easily be mistaken for a white hue. The fenders have been reshaped but only slightly to house the square 16×8.5-inch CCW wheels. CCW has a great relationship with the guys from Tactical Art and they are actually responsible for bringing many sets of American-made CCW wheels into Japan’s tuning scene…

Under the hood is where you see the most U.S.-influence. If I didn’t tell you whose car this was and who built it, you’d think that the image I was showing you was from a K-swapped Honda here. It is everything that is great about a modern Honda build in 2014-15. A K20A sits in the bay that has been redone like the rest of the chassis, but they keep it traditional with the two-toned battleship-like gray tone. The firewall and shock towers aren’t over-done and shaved too smooth but anything deemed unnecessary has been removed. The interior is probably where this car stands-out the most. Instead of gutting the interior and just having a pair of bucket seats and a roll bar in there, they have gone and had the entire interior reupholstered. Suede covers every panel of the inside, down to the rear hatch panel and trunk liner. They wanted to really make an effort to differentiate from their previous race-themed builds and put together a car that no one would expect them to build. You’d almost think that they would be willing to do a left-hand drive conversion to REALLY make it USDM. You have to really sit back and think about how much our community has grown over the years. Seriously. The cars we build now serve as inspiration to the rest of the world! Try to really put that into perspective. We started doing this just for fun, not thinking anything of what we did. We just wanted to build cool cars and enjoy the time with our friends. Now we’re building cool cars and enjoying the time with friends from other parts of the world. The idea remains the same, our network has just broadened. This is a Honda that could easily compete with the top-tier Hondas on this side of the Earth and could pull up at an event and you wouldn’t even question where it came from. That is almost the deepest respect of all; that someone would go to these lengths to put a Honda together almost as an ode and homage to North American Honda culture.

Read more on Motoki’s EK Civic build below…

The Tactical Art EK Civic as seen in Super Street Oct. ’14 issue

“A small town build with big city dreams…”

Tom’s S2000 hits the #4 spot because of how quickly his build evolved over the last year and his willingness to bring his car out to compete in the West. When I first met Tom at a Wekfest Texas event a couple years ago, his S2000 was pretty nice but far from what it is today. He originally comes from a small town in Texas where there aren’t very many modified imports so he didn’t have that community of enthusiasts to surround himself. Tom had a couple friends who were also into cars and they just sort of did their own thing. This is probably not true but he’s from a town like the one in Footloose but instead of them not being allowed to dance, they weren’t allowed to build cars. Okay, that’s completely false but he’s from a town where the only loud exhaust notes are from old beat-up pick-up trucks. Anything that he learned about the tuner community came from what he saw online or whenever he would attend local events in Houston. He always had aspirations to do big things to his car, he just needed the proper motivation. When the Wekfest Tour started coming around annually, it lit that competitive fire inside him and he really wanted to make a push to make his Honda S2000 one of the best that Texas had to offer.

I remember in late 2013, at WFTX, Tom mentioned to me that he wanted to bring his car out to California. I guess he wanted to see how his car would do with some of the best out here so I told him it was a good idea. Why not bring your car out to Cali to see how it does? If anything it would serve as a learning experience to see what else he needs to do to continue to make his build better. I wasn’t sure if he was actually going to do it or not, because a lot of people say they want to bring their cars out and never do, but Tom actually went and did it. At Wekfest LA 2014, the S2000 from a small town in Texas that no one has ever heard of was on display next to some of the best that Cali had to offer. It fit right in too.

I think that trip might have been a turning point for him. There’s nothing more motivating than traveling and seeing new things. To be able to see some of these builds in person that you’d only seen previously in photos really changes your perspective. Take it from someone who travels quite often, there’s nothing more rewarding than being able to go to new places and speak to new people. Tom not only brought his car out to a place completely foreign to him, he also ended up taking home an award that day, which is pretty awesome to be able to be recognized among your peers. After the L.A. event, he took his car home and immediately began to work on it again. Towards the end of the year, at the annual Houston, Texas event, Tom re-emerged with a new look. Syhachack makes this list easily because he not only knows how to build a Honda, he’s also always looking to make it better. The execution overall is very good and you gotta give him credit for being down to bring his car out to an entirely different state. He didn’t start off with the same advantages that many of us had when it comes to being in a flourishing, heavily-competitive, community but he now has one of the most recognizable S2000 builds in the country. The crew that he represents, Team 5Star, is one of the best all-Honda car clubs in North America and I say with a lot of confidence that Tom’s won’t be the last to hit this list in the next few years. These guys got some heaters on their hands, just wait…

Check out the story below to read more about Tom’s S2000 in one of its previous stages…

Tom Syhachack’s AP2 S2000 as seen in Import Tuner magazine June 2014

“The Best of the (Mid)West…”

Hindsight being 20/20, isn’t it crazy to think that in 2014, there is a full carbon widebody J’s Racing GT S2000 from Nashville, Tennessee? It doesn’t even sound real when you read that last sentence out loud. I mean, if you are just a casual enthusiast that doesn’t care or think about that kind of stuff, then it doesn’t matter to you but for guys who are passionate about this hobby and understand the history, it is pretty remarkable. If you were to tell me that there was a full J’s Racing-anything from Nashville, I’d probably laugh and think you were joking. Stuff like this just didn’t come from the Midwest. Oh how much we have grown over the years. In the years since, Nashville has actually become a pretty well-known city in the import community thanks to events like Import Alliance and we have enthusiasts there that most certainly know how to build cars. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anything less of that area in any way but to be perfectly honest, no one expected the Midwest to have an impact back then. You guys had shows like NOPI, we had Import Showoff, Hot Import Nights, etc, etc. Thanks to the power of the internet, social media, and some forward-thinking minds, you get to see builds like Bradley Lafayette’s out and about at almost every event.

What I like about Bradley is his effort and his willingness to go just about anywhere. Other than another certain build that you’ll hear more about below, I don’t believe there was another guy out going from city to city as often as Lafayette and his S2000. I felt like I saw this guy and his car more often than I did some of my close friends in 2014. And you know how they say your car is an extension of your own personality? Well, not in this case, and that is why it is so unique. Bradley does not resemble anything remotely close to his car. Figuratively speaking of course. If the man looked like a carbon widebody thing, he would just be a crazy fucking mutant or something. I’m speaking in terms of who he is in the brief moments when I’ve had a chance to chat with him. The guy is very, very, low key, doesn’t say a whole lot and is genuinely just a nice humble guy from Nashville. His car is almost everything he is not. It’s wild, very aggressive, and is instantly recognizable anywhere you see it. You just don’t expect it from a guy like him. Also take into consideration that this S2000, which is also a legit RHD Japanese Type V, was already a really nice build before. Oh, and also that he has K24-swapped Integra Type R too that is also incredibly nice. I sometimes wish he would bring that car around more but I can’t really knock the guy for bringing his J’s Racing GT widebody S2K out. He enjoys this car so much that the ITR is now for sale even.

I’m not gonna lie, I give Bradley a hard time. I just feel like you really need to live up to the physical appearance that this car has. Like, if you’re going to build a J’s Racing S2000 that is full carbon and so uncommon, you have to build around it and make sure that everything else lives up to the imagery. Some have lauded his S2000 as the best in the country but I don’t see it that way. It has the potential to be that but it was missing some stuff here and there. What really stood out in my mind was that he understood where I was coming from and even made the effort to ask me what I thought and how the car could improve. I appreciate the fact that he valued my opinion and wanted to continue to make his car better.

The fact is that his car makes this Top Ten list pretty easily. It’s a great build that has everything this list requires; It’s a rare RHD S2000 Type V, from a town you wouldn’t really expect to see it from, wearing a crazy full-body carbon aero kit, and it was one of the most notable builds of the year because the car was everywhere. The build overall is well-rounded with interior, custom engine bay, forced induction, and anything else that he was missing he was still adding to the car before it appeared at a different stop in ’14. Lafayette and his S2000 had a big year and that is why he’s sitting at #3 on the 2014 Top Ten.

See below to read a feature on Lafayette’s S2000 Type V before it went full carbon…

Bradley Lafayette’s “S2K Anomaly” in Super Street Feb, 2014

“A proper introduction to the restoration-era…”

The winner of the most ground-breaking Honda build of 2014 belonged to a guy who was probably building Hondas back when many of the current generation hadn’t even learned how to drive yet. Jason Haradon is responsible for putting together one of the best DA Integra builds of all-time and last year, he emerged with another instant classic. Back early last year, I was hanging out at Rywire and David mentioned that Jason was coming by to talk to them about building an engine harness. He wasn’t looking for a Mil-spec harness or anything, he actually wanted them to build him a brand new OEM-style harness with new parts. It was going to be tucked away so the engine bay looked a little cleaner, but he wanted it to be very much like an OEM engine harness. It sounds odd to want to build a one-off factory engine harness but that was just the lengths Jason was willing to take to put his car together. The guys then told me that he had been building this Civic hatchback for awhile now and I was intrigued. If you know him, you understand how meticulous he is, almost in a bizarre way because he is THAT detailed. I was interested to see the result because he hadn’t really built anything major since his timeless DA Integra. I, and many others, are always curious to see how the older guys would stack up in comparison to the current crop of Honda guys. Things have changed a lot over the years, especially when it comes to building a Honda, so internally, we were all waiting in anticipation to see his Civic because he has such a great amount of respect in the community. What came to be was nothing anyone really expected…To the casual enthusiast, this was just a simple EG/EH with wheels on it. “Basic” as the kids say it today. To the diehards however, this was a masterpiece. Jaw-dropping even. Allow me to explain….

You really need to be a Honda “nerd” to understand why he went about building this car the way he did. It seems very minimalist but it is actually the exact opposite. The Civic was restored inside and out, piece by piece, with brand new OEM parts being sought after from all over the world. He basically tried to build a brand new 92-95 Civic on his own just using whatever new parts he could find. The shell is obviously not brand new but a bulk of the parts are. Jason added aftermarket parts and began modding the car lightly after he restored the car, so I guess you can say it is a Honda “resto-mod” build. Restoration-type builds are no where near as popular in the Honda community as it is with the domestic hot rod crowd, but I believe it is the next wave of Honda tuning to come, especially for the enthusiasts who are older and just want to have a timeless Honda in their garage built to their own satisfaction. It’s true that restoring a Honda is nothing new but it takes a type of guy like Jason to really show how it should be done. You can speak to the guy for a few minutes and he’ll already overload you with information. Guys like him have a very honest and unique perspective that make them vital figures in this scene. He’s just a knowledgeable guy with a ton of experience and has nothing to hide. We need enthusiasts like him to push tradition and make sure that we don’t lose touch with the older generations. He serves as a connection to both the past and a glimpse of what is to come in the future. Jason makes the list quite easily because he basically built a Civic bolt by new bolt as if it were a kit car that was pieced together. And the fit and finish is just superb. Hell, it might be better than how it was delivered from Honda. Pour some quality on top of that with some Mugen goodies and you have a timeless piece of Japanese automotive art.

Details folks, details. It is all in the details.

There is a tie at the number two spot, since both Jason’s build as well as the one below was extremely close to being THE Honda build of 2014. While the Civic above was very much an OEM-themed car that was as close to factory as possible, the build that shares the #2 spot with it is anything but that. It is actually the direct opposite, although they share a similar platform…

“The Rookie of the Year…”

I love it when someone just comes out on nowhere and surprises everyone. That’s exactly what Angel Torres did. He shocked the world with his Civic in 2014. Aethetically, it may seem similar in appearance to Jason Haradon’s Civic, since both share similar parts at times, but Angel’s is very different. I remember seeing this build towards the end of 2013 at the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas. It didn’t look like this though. The wheels were different and the exterior was basically stock-ish in appearance other than the orange tone. What stood out to me at that time was the supercharged K-series swap. Honda Civics aren’t all that common at the SEMA Show so whenever you saw one, you’d likely go up to look at it just to see why it was at the show. I spotted the supercharger from afar so I walked up to check the car out. It was interesting because of the supercharger and the engine bay was put together very well. I began to look at the rest of the car and then I noticed the interior, which was nothing I expected…

It had a DC5 RSX dashboard in it…but it didn’t look like shit. You know what I mean? Most of the time when guys try to shove dashboards from other platforms into their cars, it just looks fucking weird. They kinda do a shitty job of it and it just sticks out like a sore thumb. The rest of the interior doesn’t flow and it just ends up being a terrible idea. Angel’s wasn’t like that at all because he actually put in the work to line everything up. Not only did it have the full dashboard, which was fully-functional by the way, it also had the match center console which was modified to fit and the door panels were fiberglassed and re-wrapped to flow seamlessly. The result is pretty spectacular. So the engine bay was set-up nicely and the interior was awesome, it just needed some exterior work. in 2014, Angel completed the car. He added a J’s Racing rear wing, a carbon fiber First Molding front lip, and the 15×8 Volk Racing TE37SL set-up with the meaty Toyo tire was just perfect. Some people still don’t understand how important a wheel/tire set-up is and how much it changes the overall look of the car. The new set-up made Angel’s Civic look like a completely new car. If you don’t believe me, CLICK HERE to see the car in 2013. Now, do you understand?….

2014 was the coming out party for Angel Torres. Everything about the car was just on point throughout the year and it left everyone wondering where this guy came from. When I finally had a chance to meet him, he was actually just a humble, polite dude from the Inland Empire. He had an RSX before this but it was nowhere near as modified as this Civic. This was his first in-depth Honda build. I guess it makes sense why he has the RSX dash and the K-swap because he was so used to owning a DC5 before. He was rewarded for his efforts and won at basically every event, big or small, that he attended with his Honda in 2014. He drove it as much as possible too which is something we all can appreciate. I was assigned to shoot the car for Super Street magazine towards the end of 2014 but he had an unfortunate accident and the car has been in the body shop since for a slight makeover. Had it not been for that mishap, he’d probably have a print feature to add to his numerous awards in ’14.

The motor in his Civic is tuned and makes power. It isn’t just a show piece. There just happens to be a beautiful car built around it. He even has another K-swapped Honda that he takes to the track often so he is involved in more than just the show car aspect of the community. Torres is a Honda enthusiast through and through. I say he’s the “Rookie of the Year” because the guy just decided to pop up out of nowhere one day and kill everything.

If you want to see more photos of this build in detail, check the link below…

More photos of Angel’s Civic build from the 2014 Norm Reeve Honda Event

“The Undisputed.”

Was there really ever a doubt?…. The RCG-built Acura Integra had an incredible run in 2014 and not since Michael Mao’s NSX build has there been a Honda that was this obvious of a choice for the #1 spot. I feel like I don’t even need to explain this because I’m sure many of you saw with your own eyes how great of a year Jay and RC’s Garage had. The car was EVERYWHERE. It went back and forth from Arizona to Southern California like 4-5 times if I remember correctly, Northern California for Wekfest San Jose, made the trek out to Houston, Texas, and closed the year out in Las Vegas for the 2014 SEMA Show. The list of accolades is pretty long considering how many events it attended and won at but the RCG Integra is the first and only Honda build (To be accurate, the first of any make) currently to have won “Best of Show” honors at three different Wekfest events in three different cities. Along with the awards came a Honda Tuning magazine cover feature. Want to see what else it did? Check out the RCG Instagram account HERE…

You could imagine that having done so much in such a short amount of time would leave many doubting why this build is THAT good but I don’t really see very many people arguing with it. It really is that good. The RCG DC2 is a fusion of classic Mugen ITR aeshetics and everything that is great about a West Coast Honda build in this era. RC knows how to build a Honda. His own builds have been on previous Top Ten lists of mine in the past but this was his best work yet. RCG has always been known for its ability to put a great engine bay together but the rest of the car is where this Integra shines. The detail touches are all there, with even the most minute pieces like the steering hub and seat rails done in a matching gold. They even found the time to take the shifter box assembly apart to have it all plated. The interior is gutted but it has been massaged and refined to match the engine bay; all the unnecessary holes in the trunk area have been shaved clean and the red paint inside matches the glossy appearance of the exterior.

All the gold may have detracted from the finer elements of the car that were probably overlooked like the Mugen Advanced Complete Brake System from an FD2 Civic Type R that was adapted to fit on the RCG DC2. Again the details are what elevates a regular build into a great one and this is THE example of how to build an award-winning Honda currently. It almost makes you wonder what they will come out with next because this Integra seems pretty difficult to top.

It was a pleasure seeing this car everywhere last year but it was not without its trials. RC and the guys would often run into issues when transporting the car back and forth from city to city and in Texas, they were even held up in a holding cell for over 5 hours while the car was left outside! Luckily nothing happened to it but there were some hairy situations for sure with this car. On the way to Autocon LA early in 2014, a rainstorm hit while they were coming into Los Angeles and the interior was drenched. No one really noticed but throughout the show, the seats inside the car were actually still wet! You can’t even call it bad luck with RC because random shit like this just happens to him all the time. It just seems to go with the territory and he just continues to bring the car out and not let it deter them in any way. He’s always got some kind of interesting story to tell during his journeys with Jay Calderon and the guys.

What else is left to say? The body of work speaks for itself. If Angel Torres Civic killed everything, Jay Calderon’s Integra fucking annihilated EVERYTHING, whether it be Hondas or whatever make of car you can think of. I didn’t even bother to save the #1 Honda for a separate post like I usually do because it was already so obvious whose car it was, haha. There is just no better example of a great Honda build heading into 2015.

To see this build from the very beginning, check the link below…

Jay Calderon’s RCG Integra Build Thread on NWP4LIFE

This year looks VERY interesting. There are some builds waiting to kick of the year already with some more on the way. ATS Garage is coming back in a big way, there is a certain EF Civic from out here in L.A. that is already keeping his seat warm on the list, and I should also mention that RCG has a CR-X build coming soon. Other states like Texas are coming on real strong too. There is a Mugen EK4 from Team 5Star that is knocking on the door, waiting to claim its spot. The Top Ten of 2015 might just be the best EVER. Things are looking really promising for Hondas this year and with fingers-crossed that all goes well for everyone, let’s all sit back and watch it unfold. Good luck folks and happy building. Thank you for taking the time to view the 2014 Top Ten Honda list. ≠

I couldn’t even begin to tell you how difficult it was to get these two guys together for a photo, with them being so busy and all, but somehow, some way, they were in Orange County on this particular day. I decided to have them meet me at Rywire so I could get some photos of them to go with the latest story on The Epilogues. These are two die-hard Honda guys who grew up messing with cars in the ’90s and were the two who later created the now famed Eibach Honda Meet. Read a little bit about them and their journey now on www.peoplewillreadagain.com…

Photos by StickyDilJoe, Words by StickyDilJoe, Rodrez, and Ryan Hoegner.

Next-up on my list of “Photos I should have posted a long time ago” is a good one. Last year, I extended my Spring trip to Japan a few extra days just so I could attend the Chan-Oka Honda Meet in Saitama. I didn’t know much about the event at the time other than it was an all-Honda gathering being hosted at a private compound. To me, it sounded like the early beginnings of the Eibach Honda Meet back at home, just on a much smaller scale. After I attended, I realized that was exactly what it was supposed to be. Like it wasn’t supposed to be a Japanese Eibach Honda Meet but more-so a (smaller) Eibach Honda Meet in Japan, if that makes sense. The latter is important because the Hondas that would be exhibiting at the Chan-Oka Meet were catered to those that enjoy Honda tuning in North America. The cars represented there were an homage to the 2000s-2010s era of Honda builds you’d see here at home. To me, that’s probably the best era when it comes to Honda modification and I’m glad so many in Japan seem to agree with. A lot of their inspiration comes from looking through magazines like Honda Tuning and Super Street, which I also did quite a bit of work for, so it made sense for me to attend. I don’t think that I am the end-all and be-all of information when it comes to this particular genre by any means—but I’d like to believe that I am pretty knowledgeable and have enough experience to help them curate this sub-community of Honda enthusiasts…

This year I actually planned my trip with this event in mind. I decided I might as well make this an annual visit. There’s a good vibe at the event and Yasu just seems to know everyone so there’s automatically a feeling of familiarity that exists. Many of the Hondas were the same as last year but they all seemed to make some changes. Some new builds showed-up too which is exciting and I’m always on the look-out for cars I’ve never seen before. If you saw the Kday coverage I posted last week, you’ll probably recognize some of the Hondas here. The two events were about 6 months apart and even in that time many of these guys made changes…

(As a side note, if you guys want 16×20 prints of any of these photos, I’m making it a possibility for the month of December! Head over to the storefront to purchase a custom 16×20 of any of these photos!…)

This Integra Type R is one of the more interesting Honda builds I encountered this year. I posted about it before on my Instagram shortly after Wekfest Japan earlier in the year but this event was the first time that I got to see it outside in the daylight. While it may look familiar at a glance, with a Spoon Sports front lip, bronze TEs, and all, what’s in the engine bay is what makes it stand-out…

The engine bay has been resprayed in gray, a full-sized Koyo radiator is mounted up-front, the signature Type R wrinkle red valve cover has been recoated in a green wrinkle finish, but what might appear to be individual throttle bodies actually are not…

From this angle, you get a better look at the four individual Keihin FCR carburetors which have been coated a matching wrinkle green…

This B18C can be paired with the FCR carbs using a kit from famed tuned SS Works. At one point, the SS Works CR-X running the same carburetor set-up was one of the fastest FF cars in Japan. Why carburetors? Well, back in the day before larger aftermarket intake manifolds or individual throttle body kits were available, carburetors were the best option for tuning. Obviously it is outdated technology by today’s standards but it’s unique to see and more importantly, sounds amazing…

The interior of this Honda Integra Type R is also impressive, re-dressed with custom Bride door panels, a pair of Bride seats, Bride floormats, and matching rear seats…

Ryo’s Integra Si-VTEC with a rare Mugen front lip, Mugen sides, Mugen Gen. II wing, and black Volk SE37K…

What makes this Integra so good other than the aero selection? Ride height, tire choice, and mud flaps. People that tell you that Hondas shouldn’t run OE mud flaps when they have the option to on OEM bumpers is lying to you…

Also one of the most slept-on pieces from the Mugen catalog is the Mugen lip for the bug-eye front-end Integras. It’s such a good look and so subtle yet aggressive…

Hiroto Takada’s Integra Si-VTEC with ITR front face, OEM ITR sides, rear valance, and polished Mugen M7 wheels. From what I heard, this is actually my friend Takeshi Kobayashi’s old Integra…

Look at that minimal clearance between the spokes of the M7 wheels and the Spoon Sports brakes…

Shoma Saito’s Frost White EK4 Civic SiR that I just showed you guys recently in the Kday coverage. This event actually took place months before that one took place so this was my first time seeing this new set-up on Saito’s EK4. He’s got a Spoon Sports lip up front, 15-inch TEs in black, Spoon Sports brakes, Spoon mirrors, and rare Honda Access headlight covers…

Full Spoon Sports-themed B16A under the hood. Saito’s Civic retains all the creature comforts like air conditioning and power-steering…

Like Takada’s set-up, these Spoon brakes are also just millimeters away from the spokes of these TEs…

Paint-matched Spoon wing, OEM mid-wing, and VTi rear lip which has been painted two-tone to match the black/white motif throughout the build…

A close-up of the rare headlight covers on Saito’s EK4…

Shunichi Sato’s imported USDM EP3 which you also saw recently in the Kday coverage. The hood is not open here because I don’t believe he had his TODA Racing ITBs installed yet…

Sato’s left-hand drive interior with the completed floor-mounted Hybrid Racing shifter conversion…

Yoshiyuki Kubo’s Zenki EK Civic hatchback with a B18C swap, Spoon Sports front lip, Spoon mirrors, 8-spoke Volk CEs and, if you look closely, you might be able to see his full roll cage…

Refinished Spoon brakes, Volk CE28N, and Yokohama ADVAN A052…

Favorite front lip for AP1 S2000?… Easy choice…

…Back Yard Special of course. What makes them even cooler? The fact that they come in two different sizes. The Type-1, on this particular AP1, is 30mm. The Type-2 is smaller in size and comes in 15mm…

An FG2 Civic SI coupe might seem commonplace for us to see back at home, but these were never available in Japan. They had the FD-series sedans but never the 2-door coupe. There are a few that do exist however, but are all imported. This one is a very clean example with a complete HFP (Honda Factory Performance) lip kit featuring some custom bumper ducts, Bride seats, a color-matched roll bar, Mag Blue Volk RE30. and a Voltex GT wing…

This Civic coupe also features a Kraftwerks supercharger kit, something else that you don’t see often in Japan…

Another rare sight in Japan is Aki’s Mugen-complete FK2 Civic Type R. I for one, have never seen one before until I came across his. I honestly didn’t even know Mugen made so much stuff for this platform. Not only do they offer a full kit, it actually makes these somewhat awkward-looking FK2Rs look pretty cool. These are actually considered quite rare in Japan in general, as only 750 units were imported from the UK for the Japanese market…

These Regamaster EVO II wheels also suit this Civic well…

I wonder if the Mugen wing for the FK2 has ever been retrofitted to anything else…

Kenzy Kenji’s Honda Jade Green Metallic (G523M) EK hatchback running a First Molding front lip and custom blue Enkei NT-03 wheels…

Yoshiki Sato’s DC5 Integra with a complete Mugen aero kit and black Desmond Regamaster EVO II wheels…

Full shaved engine bay inside Sato’s DC5 with a Skunk2 intake manifold, tucked radiator with -AN plumbing, custom breather set-up and bright red Downstar hardware…

My favorite build of this year’s Chan-Oka Honda Meet? It’d be this CR-X PRO.2 right here. Very classically-styled with the full Mugen aero kit, modern TEs, AP Racing brakes, and lots of good details throughout…

B16B Type R swap inside the EF8 utilizing a coil-on-plug ignition set-up, some Skunk2 stuff like the radiator and intake manifold, paired with the ever-popular Maxim Works header…

If I remember correctly I believe this CR-X is also running a Link engine management system…

Classic Vision Technica front strut tower bar, coilovers are from SPIRIT which is a popular brand over in Japan used often by the guys from ASLAN…

205/50 Bridgestone Potenza RE71RS wrapped around 15×8 Volk TE37SL and front AP Racing big brake upgrades…

Inside is a leather Mugen steering wheel to match the Mugen S1R bucket seats and pedal set. The floor carpet has been removed with a full cage bolted-in and the factory shifter has been upgraded with a Hybrid Racing unit…

The rear features the Mugen PRO.2 rear wing and rear bumper…

…and underneath is a brand new exhaust set-up made by Saclam, the original creator of the Mugen exhausts for most of the Hondas from this era. These are actually new exhausts made by request since there was so much demand for them here in North America. They’re not cheap though and I can’t even say I’ve seen one in the U.S. since these have been released but the MSRP on them is ¥346,500 ($2433 USD with the current exchange rate)...

Chihiro Miyawaki’s ’99 EK9 Civic Type R wearing a C-West front, C-West sides, OEM Type R rear lip, Volk CEs, J’s Type-T vented FRP hood, and Magical Racing mirrors…

Chan-Oka’s USDM Integra GSR with JDM ITR face-swap. This was actually the event where he first debuted this custom one-off FEEL’S-inspired front lip. He had a basic concept for the lip and then his friend helped him make it a reality…

The engine bay set-up is very “West Coast” I guess you can say, with the K-series swap taking some cues from some U.S. builds like Ferd’s DC2 from ATS Garage with the splatter-paint valve cover. A Mugen air intake has been retrofitted to the car to give it a more OEM+ look and at the very top is a Carbing 3-point strut brace…

Full USDM GS-R interior is intact with the addition of a MOMO steering wheel, and blue DC5 Recaro seats…

This custom Porsche Shark Blue-painted AP2 S2000 on Fikse forged wheels with a Mugen front lip is also equipped with an HKS GT Supercharger that bumps power up to a dyno-tuned 318-horsepower…

Junpei Shibasaki went with the full late ’90s-era Socal Honda-look slamming his EG6 on some narrow Mugen MR5 wheels which tuck tightly under the chassis…

Mori Hirai’s Exceed-built EK9 Civic Type R which you’ve likely seen plenty of since I’m always somewhere around this thing…

Not much has changed on it the last couple of years as it still retains the turbocharged B16B set-up from when the car first debuted…

Takuya Horiuchi Civic coupe slammed on Regamaster EVO wheels with USDM headlights and even the massive USDM side mirrors…

This Honda Insight on Enkei Sport RC-T5 wheels was definitely the most interesting build of the day…

Long-gone is the factory ECA1 1-liter electric motor which has been replaced by a gas-powered K20A swap that utilizes a custom drive-by-wire throttle. With the hood closed you wouldn’t think anything of it but this Insight is probably pretty quick considering it’s just a little over 1,800lbs stock to begin with…

The interior of the Insight is just as quirky as the outside with a really flat-faced dashboard. Even with the aftermarket hub and MOMO wheel the steering club still looks very short. Two Bride seats fill-up the front cockpit area and you can see the modified shifter set-up through the console…

This 96-spec Integra Type R was once one of the first Integra builds to come out of Exceed when the shop first opened years ago. Back then the shop was barely even set-up to do anything but Yasu was still able to get this build together for a customer. I think the car has changed owners since then but it still looks close to the original finished product…

The K20 remains with a polished RBC intake manifold, polished valve cover and tucked radiator…

Masafumi Eto’s ’97-spec Integra Type R on iForce wheels and basically a complete OEM Type R exterior…

As previously mentioned Eto’s ITR is a very USDM-inspired build with even a USDM B18C5 Type R engine swap in place…

But even his engine is different than the rest as the whole engine has been torn down and refreshed by Spoon Sports Type ONE…

Eto even has the OEM Acura steering wheel inside his Type R…

Not only that, he also managed to acquire the incredibly-rare Canadian Type R interior…

Every time I see this Integra I still think its an Accord since it has this unique combination of a JDM ITR upper-half with USDM 98-01 Integra lower-half and Exceed front lip…

Takahiro Furuta’s Midnight Pearl NA1 NSX Type-T on Regamaster EVO wheels…

Rare to see an NSX like this with a two-toned tan/black interior. It’s paired nicely with the addition of this Honda Access MOMO Zagato Design steering wheel…

Tatsu’s EP3 Civic Type R with Mugen aero kit INGS N-Spec vented hood, Desmond wheels and an added Top1 Motors front splitter…

Kenta’s is the more traditionally Mugen-themed EP3 CTR featuring a Mugen front lip, grille, radiator duct, and bronze MF10 wheels…

I saw this NSX the year before at the Chan-Oka event. It’s an imported LHD NSX which featured mostly Marga Hills aero but it seems the front end has changed this year. Not sure which front spoiler that is but it looks like the lower half of an NA2…

If I had to choose another favorite from this year’s Chan-Oka event, it would be this ’98 Civic Type R. I enjoy it because it’s very thoroughly built. Everything has been addressed. The exterior is simple, with just a Tactical Art front lip, J’s Racing fenders, and Volk CE28SL wheels…

The B16B has an upgraded ignition set-up with coil-on-plug but retains the factory air conditioning and power steering…

A heat-wrapped Mugen air box attached to a Samco Sport silicone hose…

TODA Racing 4-2-1 header for the B16B…

T.M. Works Hyper Direct ignition coils mounted to a Speedfactory Racing coil plate…

Rarely seen Autobacs Limited Bride Zeta III seats with yellow stitching and yellow Bride logos…

Nardi steering wheel with NSX-R horn button…

Yellow spoke decals to match the yellow stitching in the interior, very nice touch…

Black EF8 CR-X with Mugen aero kit and custom front fenders that allow for a much more aggressive front wheel set-up…

B-series swap inside the EF8…

Yellow EG6 Civic running a Mugen front lip, Mugen sides, custom black Mugen MF10 wheels, and a Mugen twin-loop exhaust…

Black EG2 CR-X del Sol on Sprint Hart CP-R with ARC winglets under the front bumper, and Vision Type-DC mirrors…

Mori’s Civic SiR-II on silver SE37K wheels with the Back Yard Special front lip and OEM side skirts paint-matched to the silver of the SiR-II silver side moldings…

Naoto from Upstart’s USDM EJ1 Civic coupe with color-matched Spoon Sports front lip…

Polished Mugen RnR wheels paired with Spoon Sports brakes…

I decided to eventually walk out to the parking lot to see what I could find and there were definitely some gems there, even though the lot wasn’t very big…

Shunya Ikarashi’s slammed FD2 Civic Type R on Regamaster EVOs…

Spoon-themed EK9 Civic Type R…

Koichi’s Zenki EK9 Type R slammed on Regamaster EVO wheels…

Kohei Miyata from Level One Japan’s AP2 S2000 with Spoon aero,  Mugen hood, and Voltex wing was spotted in the parking lot…

Yamada’s FD2 Civic Type R with an aggressive front-staggered set of TE37 Saga wheels and complete Mugen aero…

Yuta Saito once had a really nice yellow EP3, which I think he still might own, but in the last couple of years he’s upgraded to this yellow NA1 NSX on bronze Advan Model 5 wheels…

This Zenki EK9 was a little rugged, slammed on Spoon SW388 wheels, and had an interesting custom intake duct on the front bumper…

Takahiro Tachibana’s 500-horsepower turbocharged F22B Honda Odyssey with a USDM Isuzu Oasis exterior conversion and Volk CE28Ns…

Norifumi Kobayashi took center-stage at the Chan-Oka Honda Meet perched-high on Race Ramps so spectators could see the immaculate underside of his Porsche Sapphire Blue Mettalic USDM Integra GS-R build…

It’s not every day you see an Integra on HRE Classic Series 301 forged 3-piece wheels…

A K20Z3 engine from an ’08 Civic SI no resides in the engine bay of Kobayashi’s GS-R…

The K20 hosts a CT Engineering supercharger, RCrew header, QuikVent Scavenger oil breather set-up, Hasport mounts, a 6-speed manual from an CL7 Euro-R, and Rywire Mil-spec engine harness…

Kiyotaka Nakajima’s PP1 Honda Beat rocking a Gulf-inspired livery and full Mugen aero kit…

The 660cc E07A engine remains in the trunk but with some upgrades inside and out. The head has been ported and polished before being fitted with titanium valve retainers from RS Machine. A Power Service Imazu high compression 11:1 piston kit is being used to beef-up the tiny engine paired with their 272° camshaft. It’s not visible from this angle but there’s also a Back Yard Special 3-1 header mated to a Mugen exhaust…

The interior of Nakajima’s Beat has been stripped bare, with just a single bucket seat remaining. The roll cage that’s mounted to the chassis is actually an original Mugen cage, as is the shift knob and steering wheel. At the very center of the steering column is a retrofitted Pivot tachometer…

There’s a set of Pivot gauges mounted to the top of the dashboard and in the radio DIN pocket is a custom switch panel that includes controls for the air suspension system…

Why does a Honda Kei car need air suspension you ask? Well, to look cooler when its parked of course and also to protect the full Mugen aero kit…

The 13-inch Volk TE37 wheels really set it off wrapped with tiny 165/60 Bridgestone Potenza RE71RS…

The young lady that owns this FK8 Civic Type R was kind enough to present me with a gift when I first arrived at the Chan-Oka Meet. I didn’t deserve a gift by any means, and I felt even worse about it when I later found out that she still uses an iPhone 7 because she’d rather build her FK8 than get a phone with working apps and emojis…

Some more of Chihiro Miyawaki’s VSM EK9 CTR with the J’s Racing Type-T hood propped-open…

The original B16B engine remains inside the cleaned-up engine bay. You can’t see the radiator anymore because it’s been tucked under the core support but it provides more room to see the 5Zigen header and the relocated air conditioning hoses…

Custom painted blue valve cover, Spoon plug wires, oil cap, and an old school AEM fuel rail…

Another angle of the custom front lip on Chan-Oka’s Integra…

Plus a glimpse at his AP Racing front brakes…

I guess I wasn’t the only one that was interested in the details of this EF8 CR-X…

I thoroughly enjoyed how this DC2 sat nice and low with full Mugen aero…

I climbed on top of a metal container turned storage unit to get a nice photo of this FK8 Type R with EVS Tuning aero package and silver Regamaster EVO wheels…

The Function7 rear subframe brace and lower control arms on Miyawaki’s EK9…

I thought this shot of Yasu smoking on the roof was a cool parting shot, lol.

Also, here’s the Vlog episode of this event if you guys missed it 6 months ago…

And on that note, that’s it for the Chan-Oka Honda Meet coverage. Sorry it took so long but I hope you enjoyed it!!…