Supercars

One of the most fascinating aspects of our slice of automotive culture has been to watch the maturation of the "import tuner". While acknowledging that there are those who have been modifying imports since the cars first arrived in the states, our scene was largely defined in the first half of the 1990's by magazines like Sport Compact Car and Super Street. Cars such as the 5th generation Honda Civic and the 2nd generation DSM twins were kings, as most of the iconic 90's Japanese sports cars heralded today were out of the price range of the average import enthusiast.  These humble starting points, however, created opportunities for truly epic builds. These first generations of our scene built like they had something to prove; because frankly, they did. They were building the economy cars of the time and lacked the acceptance of the mainstream American performance community. Japanese cars were simply rice burners; most true Japanese performance was still out of reach, either economically or geographically. While the Japanese had established performance pedigrees decades prior, those series mostly took place in European or Asian venues.  Our Nascar Nation was not ready to accept that a Honda was anything but an economical way to get from point A to point B. Read More

As the year ends, another season of shows will end with it. To close out 2011, we present our Autocon coverage for you. The event, along with the turn out, was much larger than last year. We were excited to use that opportunity to booth for the first time on the West Coast. Organized as a charity event, the show was a great experience for us, and we enjoyed meeting everyone. We'd like to thank the Royal Origin guys for coming out to show at our booth with their quality cars and hilarious entertainment throughout the day. Four different photographers covered Autocon for us just to make sure we didn't miss anything. Enjoy, and we hope to see you next year! Read More

For those of you who attended SEMA a while back should recognize this photo. If not, then this was just a shoot of some JDM cars from southern California. It's pretty rare to get all these cars to show up all together so we made it happen. From left to right is a Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi Evo X, Acura NSX (Veilside inspired), Mazda Speed3, Nissan 370z. Read More

There's always a reason behind why we love cars and why we modify them. Depending on the person, some will go for show while others will go for a car that can perform. No matter what type of person you are we all share one common interest that brings us together and that is we all love modifying our cars. Ricky, the owner of this GT-R, decided to go the track and performance route for his build. Ricky is not a newbie when it comes to building functional track-ready cars, his whole garage only consists of track-ready cars. You might remember his red BMW M3 that I posted a while back. Yup, this is the same owner. Read More

It's been a while since the guys at LTBMW put on an event so what better way to end the summer by having one right? Plenty of BMW's showed up as usual just like any LTBMW meet. It could be considered one of the largest California or even west coast gatherings of BMW's (the largest being the annual Bimmerfest). This event wasn't just all about Bimmers though as not only did other Euros show up but there was even a strong showing from the JDM and VIP scenes.  It just goes to show that true car enthusiasts can except all kinds of cars and makes. Read More

The Japanese Classic Car Show is one of those annual events you really don't want to miss. It's one of those events that is not subject to a certain age range, style, or enthusiast. Everyone and anyone can enjoy JCCS simply due to the fact that the rare cars, bikes, and "relics" displayed are part of history. If the Natural History Museum was a car show, JCCS would be it. We can really take a look and marvel at how these classic JDM cars have evolved and transformed into their modern day counterparts. All of them have played an extremely crucial part in contributing something to the car industry as we know it. Some technology dating back to the 60's and 70's is still being installed onto the cars we drive today. It's simply amazing being able to appreciate shows like these. Read More

This past weekend I attended Nisei Week Showoff Car Show 2011. The quality of turn was great last year so I knew that it would be just as great if not better this year. What makes the Nisei car show so enticing is the selection of JDM (and a few Euro) cars that show. If you like clean JDM and VIP style cars this is the show to attend. Read More

Last weekend Marcus and I both attended SPOCOM in Anahiem at the Anaheim Convention Center. SPOCOM is not only a car show, but also a model convention too which is why my last post was an all models post. We thought that the quality of cars that attended were phenomenal and wish we could of captured everything . Cars from out of state such as Texas and Nevada came to show too. Quality builds were everywhere in Anaheim last weekend! Read More

Last weekend was the Big Socal Euro Gathering 2011 that was being held in San Diego at the Qualcomm Stadium. It was a 2.5 hour trip for me, but being in a caravan made the trip a little more enjoyable. If I was to sum up the event, the main photo above sums it up pretty well. All Euro makes were in attendance. From timeless classics to modern JDM, a wide variety of cars showed up. Read More

Ryan Deguzman’s 1993 Mazda FD RX7 is one of those cars that I never get tired of looking at. Every time I see it at a show or in his garage I always notice something new that makes me think “wow!” It demands respect of everyone in our community not simply because his mod list is a mile long (you’ll see), but because of the quality of his build and how everything fits together properly. Read More