West Coast Flavor: Two of our Staff Showing off Their “Cali Swag”

Back in 2009 when Canibeat.com was officially born, it was heavily located in the East Coast. Slowly over time though, our staff has grown nationwide and now includes two very skilled photographers out of California – John Zhang and Marcus Cooke. Not only do these guys have a tremendous amount of talent behind a camera but they also have two daily-drivers with some serious style or as John would put it some “Cali Swag”.

When both of these West Coast guys started out their builds, they set out to build something clean, simple but different.  Their blank canvases were two cars that you don’t see much of but the draw-back to this was their limited aftermarket support. In the end you can tell that obviously this didn’t stop them from creating two neck-breaking machines.

First up is John’s 135i. The obvious choice for most when it comes to a BMW platform is the ever popular but common 3 series. That single reason is why John decided that he wanted something that was a little different.  He actually had this car ordered just to his liking from BMW and since the car had just come out it actually took John a year before he had it parked in his driveway. To this day John says that the first night he got the car was his most memorable and best drive ever.

When it came to making this 1-series his own, John has given his BMW a little JDM flair.  John wanted to keep his bimmer tasteful so he has made all of his “JDM-influenced” styling cues subtle and also included some BMW OEM modifications to balance out the overall feel of the car. John is always thinking outside of the box and is always pushing ideas out and helping out fellow enthusiasts to help the scene grow because no one likes to see 20 of the same cars sitting at an event.

John has created a sleek and sexy BMW with a stance that has you right clicking and saving into your secret porn folder (don’t worry I won’t tell) and even with all that has more plans but who am I to spoil the surprise.  Accompanying John’s 1-Series is Marcus’ G35 that takes clean and simple to a whole other level.

Sure you’ve seen a G35 before, hell you’ve probably seen one today but riddle me this; how often do you see a properly modified G35 Sedan? Usually you see the coupes left and right but the sedan has never gotten its due and it shows with the very small amount of aftermarket options. This has led to Marcus creating not only one of the cleanest G35 sedans you’ll come across but also a very unique G35 since Marcus found himself doing a lot of “firsts” or “one of a very few” type mods.

Originally Marcus was planning on going with a coupe but in the end decided that in this stage of his life a sedan was going to be the best fit for him and his family. This decision has worked out well as not only does he have a G35 that is pure sexiness but he also has a sedan that he can actually use for a family vehicle. The family vehicle was originally supposed to be lightly modded but now Marcus says, “There is no such thing as done”.  His saying holds true when you look at his mod list that seems to never end and the funny thing is that he still has even more plans for the car.

So to go along with all those Photography skills that we all get to feast our eyes on each week, John and Marcus have two jaw-dropping cars… some guys have all the luck.

John would like to thank: “LTBMW for all my installs, VMR Wheels for always supporting my photography and wheel needs, United BMW for my OEM supplies, Dan from CCW helping me out when I had CCW’s, Hasback James AKA “Floss” for supporting me with all my wheel finishing needs. Lastly I want to thank everyone and anyone that has supported me.”

Marcus would like to thank: “My sponsors (in alphabetical order): AutoDesign, ledmod.com, Rare JDM, SmartWax, and Tanabe/SSR. I owe a huge thank you to a several few individuals who have put a ton of work on my car in their garages and provided inspiration and guidance during my build: Randy Riggs, Dave Rikimaru, Zack Tscharanyan, Darren Aki, Chris Berry, Sean Chase, Marty Huynh, Viet Nguyen, Chris Leiva, Tim Trank, Shane Rosas, and Grant Plummer. I’d also like to thank the shops/businesses that have supported my build: AutoExplosion Auto Body & Paint, Décor Plating, Kaledescope Polishing, Earl’s Store1, and OC Infiniti. Also shout out to all of my friends at Team RareJDM and Team R-Rydes. Thank you to all of the homies on g35driver.com and wrongfitmentcrew, you all know who you are; way too many to list here.”

Be sure to take a look at the rest of the gallery for downloadable wallpapers thanks to John and Marcus.

John Zhang’s 2009 BMW 135i

Marcus Cooke’s 2005 Infiniti G35 Sedan