Mini Mania

Ever since I came back from Japan, I find myself a bit frustrated with the tuner market. I hate to sound like an elitist prick, but very few cars short of a race car have really made me stoked. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of quality builders out there, building really fast cars. But for every one skilled builder, there are about 10 crappy ones.

But stepping in the shop the other day, I found this sitting in the garage. Austin Mini with a Honda heart. Now don’t get me wrong, this is in no way anything new. Its been out for a couple years now. But it is the first time I got to see it up this close. In our shop in all its glory.

I got to give it up to the guys who thought of this.  AC/ Suspension/ Brake upgrade and the power of B16A.  All in a package a little bigger than a golf cart. This particular mini was built by a company in Georgia and props to them for one clean car. Doing a little more research, I found that there also K-series kit available. Someone has even built a K20A supercharged mini! Can you imagine 300whp on this little chassis!?

Evo Mission

I spent the day at XS doing some testing today. Just so happens that Peter was changing a clutch on a new EVO X.  I have yet to work on this car, so I jumped on the opportunity to help him out. This would give me a little lesson on what to expect if I ever had to work on this car. Ended up being that Peter couldn’t get the throwout bearing to separate from the pull spring.

I have had this same problem before on CT9A Evos. But this new design seemed to be extra hard to get out. Peter ended up calling another person, who already had experience pulling the EVO X tranny, and they said that you had to cut into the casing to get get enough space to get it out. I honestly though that it was a little excessive.  We ended up having no choice but to cut. But instead of trying to pry the spring we decided to unbolt the throwout fork shaft.

A bit of die grinder and here we are with a tranny out… Well there a little more than that. But we got it out. I ended calling Japan and the Boss said that its really no big deal, some cars you got to open up the port to get enough access.  Please let me know if there is a better way to get the bearing to separate.

Sunday = Another no fun day

I didn’t leave my house all day today to work on a proposal. The only thing I left for was to go eat. After all that work, I come to find out that I didn’t have to put it together. Eh, thats how the cookie crumbles sometimes. You can’t win all the battles…

Saturdays

Seems, as of lately, that all my days start to seem the same. Whether it be weekday or weekend, I seem to be working on something. I guess it can’t be that bad because I don’t really work that hard and I just spread it out over a bunch of days. The crappy part of it is that I start to forget what day it is.

I woke up to go shoot some photos with Naoto at Blast. We have since moved the build over there since they have a lot more equipment than what Kevin has. Having access to a band saw, lathe, TIG, sanders and pipes of all sizes makes life a lot easier when most of your parts are fabricated.

I headed over to the shop to work a bit on my own motor.  I am getting closer and closer to finishing up my car,  but it still seems so damn far away. I finally sealed the motor up and got it ready for clutch and tranny. The motor is a LS/VTEC, 82mm piston, WPC bottom end, JDMC ported head, BC Cams and valve train, Blox Intake manifold, Blox 70mm throttle body, Vortech Fuel rail and Blox Header. My target power is about 205whp.

I finished off the day by heading out to the Formula D finals at Irwindale. It was great to see people I haven’t seen in a while. The common question was, “where have you been”?  My answer….”I have been hiding.” Maybe one day I will come out of hiding, but I don’t think anytime soon. Its probably only going to get worse once I start school.

Another Wedding

I was going through my phone and it dawned upon me that pictures from my cousin’s wedding were still in there. I went to his wedding last month at the Montage resort. Of course I forgot my camera in the car. But I did manage to get some shots off with the trusty Blackberry.

The hotel is pretty much set up for rich folks to get away and relax. The rooms overlook the ocean and there is a small private beach to go down to. I got to peek into one of the rooms and all I got to say is damn! I stay in a lot of hotels and can appreciate a nice room. Lets just say if you take a girl back here, its a sure thing.

The wedding was pretty small. But considering how much it cost to have a wedding at the Montage, I don’t blame the guy. I got to give it up to the food though. I think the best wedding meal I have had yet. At $250 a plate, it better be. All in all a good time. Congrats to Ton and Virra.

Handling the business.

Holy Grail

Growing up in America, you can’t help but be attract to white girls. Since childhood the epitome of beauty is always white girls. When I was younger it was all about the “Super Models.” Linda Evangelist and Christy Turlington were the essence of beauty. Sports Illustrated, Victoria Secrets, Playboy. Beauty was all about tall long legged, big boob white girls.

I think it was when I reached high school, I realized that I really like Asian girls. When we reached that age, we found this new sense of pride in being different. You start to segregate yourself to those who are similar to you and have similar interests. So is the nature of things. Your sense of beauty changes.

Ito Misaki

But I have come to realize that the actual holy grail of women is the Asian mix. Ever so rare and even rarer that you have a chance with them. Except maybe in Hawaii or if you grew up on a military base.(I say that because I only know of friends dating them in those positions) Basically you are taking the best of both worlds. The combination isn’t always perfect, but usually ends up in amazing results. Its so great that even Weezer made a song about half Asian girls.

Jaymee Ong

So cheers to you Phoebe Cates, Kristin Kreuek, Lindsay Price. Big ups to Jaymee Ong, Leah Dizon, Vanessa Minnillo. Erika Sawajiri, Kaela Kimura, Beni Arashiro… sigh.

Mike Relm

I met Mike Wong through my brother Todd when I first started working at Ezekiel. He was doing shows back then with DJ Streak(Manny) and doing battles now and again. We figured out that we were into the same things and we all became friends. To this day, I still call on him for advice now and again. We rarely see each other and only chat now and again. But I can honestly say I can call on this guy at anytime for some solid advice. I haven’t talked to Manny in a while. But by far one of the nicest funniest dudes I have ever met.

He sent me a new video that he directed the other day and I have to say it is quite a piece of work. Maybe I am biased because he is my friend, but I have to give it up to the guy. Check it out for yourself.