For the offset aficionado. 99 Infiniti Q45 from the Aloha state courtesy of Mikey of Like No Other.

A better view to highlight the aggressiveness. Some prefer the tucked stance. Others prefer the lip-barely-past-fender stance. Diamond Cut LX’s this time combined with the latter stance. Definitely a plus for the VIP sector.

I’m more than willing to bet that some of you have seen this already.. but Sara, my hairdresser, showed this to me. In the beginning you think, “wth? why am i watching this?” but trust me, it gets good. I’m talking “laughing hysterically” good.

..that the Koenigsegg CCR comes factory equipped with Endless ME20 brake pads and RF-650 brake fluid?
Some food for thought..

I stopped by to say hello to Brian at 80s Purple and he hooked me up with this tee..they’re literally down the street from us. Dom got a shirt that says “Mr. Happy” to add to his “Mr. ____” series collection.. Brian is trying to get 80’s to pick up our threads..you can do it! They got some ill stuff. Peep por favor.

This cap is Official. Love the houndstooth pattern. Love the Official logo. It’s all about subtlety for me.

New CG design by Antonio Sureshot. Pretty much says it all..

Al & Jay hooked me up w/ this awhile ago. Speaking of shirts, waiting to see what Super Jay has in store next..his designs and his message (smashing on the copies) always deliver. Peep JDMEGO.jp soon.

Random shot of the sky on the way home. I love dusk and colorful, patterned skies and clouds very much. It’s so pleasant to the eye. Sad to say that summer is coming to an end once again..

My beezy contemplating life and what her future holds for her..stay up girl..stay up. Them other beezies ain’t got nuttin’ on you. Don’t quit the daily fight against them! (I need to introduce you to Dom’s dog, Lucky..you 2 would hit it off!)

Tiring weekend with everything that went on, but good nonetheless. On Saturday, my old buddy Paul Nathan Nacu invited me to take a test drive at an engineering open house event. He recently graduated UCI and this Formula SAE car you see here was his senior project.

Here he is standing underneath the infamous Engineering Tower at UCI.

The car itself was pretty cool. Rear mounted 250cc motor. I believe he said it was from a Yamaha motorcycle.

Some pretty trick pieces on the car too. The rear suspension featured remote reservoirs.

This particular piece caught my attention.. Carbon intake manifold. The team member who built this monster made sure to utilize Venturi tubes to increase flow velocity. Impressive to say the least, I think “badass” is more deserving.

Reservoir tank 1 of 2. Haha.

Full suits were required and wisely so since I saw two separate fuel leak incidents during the runs before me. Even so, I still got weird looks from people because I brought my own balaclava..

I was impressed at how well it stuck to the ground in corners and gotta admit that there’s nothing quite like driving a kart with their awesome power to weight ratios. Couldn’t quite come to terms with its throttle or shifter in such a short time though. Overall, it was a lot of fun to drive and I wish I was given more than the 3 lap max.

Later on that night I went to Philly’s Best. Love the atmosphere in the Irvine location. Lots of TV’s and booths filled with people just enjoying good food and whatever game happens to be on.

I haven’t had the pleasure of really being in Philly like Mr. John Choi has, but for someone stuck in Socal, these sure are good..

Be sure to get a bunch of pickled jalapenos too. Perfect complement.

And a side of onion rings too! I love that they’re covered in batter instead of bread crumbs. SO good.

Les Wong came to visit us during Nisei week. Thanks again for the Ed Hardy basketball! He always brings down DVDs and this time around, he let me borrow Hana Yori Dango 2, a teenage Japanese drama series. I noticed that one of the characters, Hanazawa Rui, drove this in it, but I didn’t know what it was. After some googling, I found out how rare this thing really is..

Mmm…look what our coworker Miho-chan brought us back from Japan! So nice of her to bring back omiyage!

Tokyo Banana is the Japanese version of the Hostess brand “Twinky.” Much tastier and they don’t kill you with nasty preservatives and fillers. For some odd reason though, it’s more of a export than an import, and native Tokyo heads don’t eat it on a normal basis.

Mmmm…light and moist cake with banana creme filing. You gotta eat it fresh cause it spoils in a week or so from purchase…so please believe we will kill the box in about 5 minutes. Thanks to Kent and Dom for sharing blog space, but we ain’t sharing no Tokyo Banana. Buhleedat! I mean, we can’t share it because I don’t want it to spoil on the way…mainly just looking out for their well being of course. So I will eat it for them. (Peep game on my AME placemat x mousepad x Tokyo Banana eating station)

Sam from Invision was gracious enough to cruise by and let me shoot his RX-8. Here are some images..

Hyper Silver FS01’s. 18×9.5 +35 all the way around.

R-Magic aero. It’s so low he can plow snow. Peep Invision out here.

This is a bit of a departure from what you normally see on here..

But Fleet Week San Diego is around the corner in September and the Red Bull Air Race will be coming to San Diego!

For those of you unfamiliar with the air race, it’s a worldwide series that Red Bull puts on. Some of the best pilots in the world slalom through giant inflated gates in a particular order and particular orientation. They fly really low to the ground at around 400kph pulling up to 10G’s during certain maneuvers! God, I’m such a speed freak.. Anyway, their entire run is timed and, like all true forms of motorsports, the fastest time wins.

This video does a much better job at explaining it than I can. Sorry about the random symbols in the middle and the choppy video..

I saw my first Red Bull Air Race a year or two ago via webcast. It took place up in San Francisco during their Fleet Week and I swear it was one of the most exciting and entertaining things I’ve ever watched. That’s why I’m super stoked that it’s coming down to San Diego next month.

Okay, so here’s my predicament.. The tickets I want to get are $190 a piece because I’m opting for the “Race Club” tickets and not just general admission. With the Race Club tickets you sit in a separated area on North Embarcadero Island and the following amenities:
-One of the best views of the entire Air Race
-Plasma screen video walls and sound to follow the race
-Drinks and canapés on arrival
-Buffet lunch
-Soft and hot drinks throughout
-Hosted bar featuring beers, wines and spirits

The problem I have is that certain people don’t wanna fork out $190 for this so I’m left without anyone to go with at the moment. SO, I’m appealing to all of you out there who read this. If anyone wants to go with me, click on my name at the top of the post and send me an E-mail. Females are okay, but I prefer males. Just kidding. As Antonio would say, “What’s up with that?”

Good lord that’s an ugly bodykit… But you know what?

It wins Super Taikyus! Function over form for race right? Kageyama, Fujii and Aoki are my new heroes. Endless is 3 for 3 in ST. 1!

The Sequential EVO placed as well, garnering 3rd in the ST. 2 class. Gotta love glowing rotor shots.

Air jacks being put to good use.

What’s the difference? To me, the term “Spocom” has negative connotations to it. When I think of the term, knock-off, poorly fitted aero kits, APC taillights, bright Skittles body colors and Fast and the Furious sticker schemes come to mind. Why you ask? Because when I flip through Japanese magazines, they use the word “Spocom” for that exact “genre” of car culture. People in Japan have actually mimicked that style. It’s ultra-niche, but so is the Japanese lowrider scene that exists. So why would they copy it?

Because it’s affordable and rooted from America (automatically making it cool for some) which is ironic in itself since it’s initially a failed attempt to mimic the Japanese. The Japanese love trends, and unfortunately, they picked up this trend, regardless of how uber small it may be. Spocom is an abbreviated version of the word Sport Compact. And ironically enough, Sport Compact Car magazine is the most legit magazine out there. The Japanese love to create phrases by shortening words. (The word Karaoke comes from “Kara” which means empty and “Oke” which is short for Orchestra. Empty Orchestra. The word “Dori” is short for Dorifto or Drift. “Famima” is “Family” + “Mart” and so on..) So that’s the difference to me. Spocom refers to that type of car whereas JDM refers to finely tuned in terms of everything: Parts, style and performance. The word “JDM” is used too often, I agree, but car culture in general should all be “JDM” in its mentality. On the flipside, I think us Americans re-flipped the script and saw Japan using the word Spocom, dubbed it cool, and re-coined it again stateside. A re-badging of the original badging, if you will. So to many, there are no negative connotations to the term which is fine by me. Personally, the term creates negative connotations in my head.

Amongst other things, ZEAL coil overs have top notch damping dials. Damping levels can be adjusted from 1 to 6. 1 is the softest ride. As the number increases, the stiffness level increases. You’re looking at the 6-way adjustable dial for a regular monotube system. Notice the dial is made up of 2 parts. The top portion spins and is shown with the ZEAL logo and the toothed sides. The bottom portion is wrapped with a black strip of numbers. The number “5″ is shown here, hence Level 5. This bottom portion stays intact.

The first image was a side view. Notice also, in the first image above that the threaded allen screw is right above the number “5″. In the image you see here to your left, the number “5″ is visible in the window. Yes, it correlates. Notice that the screw is directly across, on the left, from the number “5″. When adjusting the dial, make sure the number is completely visible in the window. If it’s not entirely seen, the piston valves may become closed causing a very hard ride and can potentially result in damage to the suspension components.

Notice now that the two threaded allen screws (one for the top portion of the dial and one for the bottom) are aligned. There’s a reason for this. For those hard to reach (and see) areas, substitute your vision for your sense of touch. When the 2 threaded allen screws are aligned, you’ll know that you are at the softest setting of “1″. From this position, spin the dial clockwise to increase the stiffness and keep a mental note of the number of clicks. (We also offer an extension cable in 2 different standard lengths or customizable at various lengths which would be a secondary option for hard to reach places)
Our 6-way dial is considered a rotary system. The diameter of the orifice gets smaller as the damping level stiffens (increases) allowing less oil to pass through at a given rate of time. Level 1 = Largest diameter orifice and Level 6 = Smallest diameter orifice. You can spin our 6-way dial either direction infinitely.

Here’s our needle-type 30-way adjustable dial which comes standard on our Function-X. (This particular one is located on the bottom of the unit since it’s a reverse monotube system. Don’t worry as this makes no difference in what I am about to explain) This dial does not spin infinitely. You’ll notice that when you turn the dial clockwise (damping becomes stiffer), it will slightly lower and when you turn it counter-clockwise (damping becomes softer), the dial will slightly raise. Level 30 is full hard (at most clockwise position).
Note: Turn all the way until it can no longer click. Then, let it click ONCE to the left. This is Level 30, the hardest position. Consider this the default when you’re unsure and want to start over and reset the damping level. You may notice that you will have a few more clicks than 30. This is normal. Don’t have a cow.