Tag: 240sx
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Throwback to Vinh’s S13 | Royal Origin Member
Thought I make a post of Vinh’s S13 from when I shot it for Stance Nation. These are some of the photos that didn’t make it into the article. Check it out!
Wet.
I miss seeing this car.
Vinh tore this car down to the very shell and made this beautiful creation.
Henry lives up to his name.
It was awesome seeing this car scrape the roads of Orange County.
Work Equip perfection.
The sun set too soon for this car..
Still missing you everyday. Check out this video I made of some old clips of Vinh’s S13.
-NGUMINH
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The Leopard | Suspension
Not too long ago I was looking for a second car to be my fun daily driver since driving the MS3 around was getting a little annoying to take to certain places, and it was limiting the amount customization I could be doing to the car itself. So, my search took me to Craig’s List, where I was looking for anything within my budget of below $2000.00 USD. In the end, I got the most unlikely car I was looking for, a 1991 Infiniti M30 coupe for less than $900.00.
The reason this car stood out to me was the body lines (basically the way it looked), the v6 motor, rear wheel drive, somewhat decent reliability, and the fact that it was compatible with many other Nissan parts from other models. Oh yeah and for the price (way below the budget) of the potential this car has was pretty worth it as well.
This is kind of a rare car being that it was one of the first Infiniti cars in North America, and about only about 6,000 coupes and 6,000 convertibles were made through the production years; 1990-1992. It is basically just a rebadged Nissan Leopard in Japan though, and shares similarities with the Nissan Z-chassis, R-chassis, Y-chasiss, and S-chassis. Because of that, I entered a world of mixing and matching parts.
Finding information was a definite mission with the downfall of forums, and the rise of social media, especially Facebook groups are to blame for that. First up was a 5 lug conversion and S13 coilover conversion. This pretty much meant upgrading most of the front suspension, which is straight forward plug and play, while the rear suspension had more modifications.Front Suspension:
-S13 Powered By Max Competition front coilovers 5″ 30k
-S14 modified knuckles
-S14 stock 5 lug hubs
-S14 Duralast 5 lug brake rotors
-M30 stock brake calipers
-M30 Duralast brake pads
-S14 stock lower control arms
-GKTECH S14/S15 40mm roll center correction kit
-S14 MOOG outer tie rod ends
-Maxima MOOG inner tie rods
-S14 ISIS Pro tension rodsRear Suspension:
-S13 Powered By Max Competition rear coilovers 5″ 22k
-Z31 5 lug rear stub axles
-Z32 Duralast 5 lug brake rotors
-Z32 stock brake calipers
-Z32 Duralast brake pads
Some of the main front suspension components.
The beautiful Powered By Max Competition coilovers. These are meant for S13, but with the right pieces and tweaks they should mount to the M30.
The front will mount with all the arms and knuckles. The rear will only be able to mount with modifying the M30 rear towers to match the S13 mounting points for the S13 top hats.
The stiffness.
The front coilovers maxed out with all the collars still placed at the top. Really short.
Added some paint onto certain items for protection and style.
Common on Nissan/Infiniti models for there to be wiring harness above the wheel well. This wiring harness above the driver side wheel well was labeled, cut, tucked, soldered, sleeved, and reloomed away inside and around the driver side front shock towers.
There was about 200 wires that needed attention after being cut and tucked inside the engine bay.
The biggest cock block for wanting to be low and somewhat functional.
Tucked inside the engine bay.
Also rerouted the hood latch cable inside the engine bay as well. Results are a worry free area to go low and run meatier tires.The front was straight to the point, but required additional modifications to fix the roll center and tracking.
Because I was converting from 4 lug to 5 lug, this also meant that I needed wheels. After some research I found the appropriate wheel sizing I wanted to give the car. I went from the stock 4×114.3 wheels of 15×6.5 +20 to 5×114.3 15×10 +/-0. And of course did all that fender magic.
These are Vision 521 Nitro 15×10 +/- 0 with 205/50/15 tires all around.
The rear required new mounting points for the S13 top hats, Z31 rear 5 lug stub hubs, custom Z31 to M30 axle flanges, Z32 Duralast rear brake rotors, Z32 stock brake calipers, and Z32 Duralast brake pads.
Eventually, the whole rear end will be taken out to be replaced by S14 rear subframe and arms, but that isn’t until a later time.
Thanks. @shaviw
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RO in Australia | Cafe Roman & Photo Hang
Its the next day or so in Sydney, Australia, and the Built To Order guys started out our day by hitting up Cafe Roman for some bombass breakfast/brunch.
The menu.
Art x Food.
Hass x Carl.
The Mediterranean breakfast. Cumin spiced fried eggs, sujuk salsa, labneh, halloumi, eggplant, zaartar bread, olives, and with Lebanese bread.
Eggs Benedict. English muffin, wilted spinach, smoked salmon, poached eggs, and with hollandaise sauce.
The Roman breakfast. Eggs, sausage, beef rashes, sauteed mushrooms, roasted tomato, hash brown, and sourdough toast.
Posted up in front of Cafe Roman.
Tarik x Nitto x Carl.
After Cafe Roman, we spent the rest of the day light at the Sydney docks. Just hanging out and shooting some nice cars.
Jacob’s Evo was so photogenic in these settings.
Fitment shot on RSV Forged RS10D wheels.
I love me some directional wheels.
George x Nitto.
Matthew’s Toyota 86 on RSV Forged Retro Centre R1.
Group shot.
Diversity. What a spectrum of cars right there.
Jame’s S14 on AG wheels. He didn’t have much fun getting home later as you will see.
Astra Limousines & Wedding Cars Ferrari California T rolling on RSV Forged RS5Y wheels.
The hard top convertible adds a different look to it.
Mercedes-Benz CLS on RSV Forged RS10.
That’s about a 6.5 inch lip right there.
And around 5 inchs of lip in the front.
So due to minor technical difficulties from just moving to the spot you saw above, it had to be towed back home.
Headed back to the suburbs before the sunset, and went back into the city later that night for some night life. More posts on Australia coming.
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OMWTFYB | Enjoy Sin
It was finally here, the weekend of the Enjoy Sin car meet with HNRS. We’ve been counting the days, minutes and seconds to finally spend some good quality time with friends and family. One of my favorite things to take photos of during this event is the caravan to Vegas, it’s just such a thrill to see a bunch of modified cars cruising together on the freeway. This post will be mostly rolling shots of the caravan.
Jeff looking mighty dapper this early.
Erik and Nimo trying to get dabber themselves.
UNDERWATER SQUAD.
Ryo’s Q45 rolling static on Koenig Monsters.
New member Aron’s M35 on Weds Bazerias.
Jaycray’s brand spanking new RC350 with it’s first road trip. Glad that we were apart of it.
The biggest surprise on the trip was Adam taking his S13. Glad to see it made the trip without any problems.
Kentaro rolling through with the most reliable car here.
Marq was hesitant about taking his 7 series to Vegas because of some transmission problems, but he ended up making it there with no problems and he only used half a tank to get from Cali to Vegas. Quite impressive for a big body BMW.
Ryan Gold’s bright ass EVO was fun to shoot for rolling shots. Ryan made the trek with us all the way from Santa Barbara.
This year we had faster cars in this caravan, but we paced it pretty well so Vu and I could get some good rolling shots of the caravan. Thanks Ashton for not going 0 to 130 real quick.
Another speed demon, Phat and his Cayman S.
Jeff’s WRX was my camera car and he did a great job catching up to everyone and pacing the car so I could get the best shots.
Robros Customs let Vinh drive the STI to the meet. The wrap looked great in the sun.
Derek pulled an all nighter to get his car ready for this trip. He spent the whole night wrapping his front end just to look decent for the meet.
Kevin’s S2000 was looking great now that it looks pretty much complete with his hardtop.
One of the lowest cars in the caravan was boss man, Jimmy’s Civic. He was literally scraping his diffuser all the way to Vegas.
Jimmy did a public service and picked up all the trash on the freeway.
The second camera car with Vu in the passenger seat.
This year Erik and his EP3 joined us in the caravan to Vegas. His car looks freaking ridiculous when it’s rolling
Gas station stop.
Jimmy couldn’t make it up the drive way, so he parked in the streets.
We finally made it to our first destination, the M Resort where they have a good deal for lunch at the Studio B buffet. It’s been a tradition that we hit this buffet first before doing anything else in Vegas.
Sparkle’s M3 our Taiwan dealer of Royal Origin and HOODRATstuff also joined us in the caravan. Sucks, we missed his car for a rolling shot.
EVO booty.
Jesus, we made it.
Shavi leading the squad.
For the first time, we beat the rush for the buffet. Vinh and John excited to stuff their faces.
Looks like heaven.
Japan x Taiwan x Vietnam.
After the buffet, we went to check in at the house we rented. The driveway was so large that it could have fit all of our cars, too bad some of us couldn’t make it up the driveway.
Neel is now a Vegas local and met up with us as soon as we arrived.
Safe and sound.
The house was pretty awesome, large enough for all of us and it had so many activities like this gaming room.
Tina excited for some pool.
Ryan sucks at shuffle board.
This will be empty by tomorrow.
Current events meeting aka deciding where we’re going to go eat.
Angelo, the leader of the RO offroad edition.
That’s it for today, the next post will be coverage of the meet!
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Street Faction Welded Nights
Some of you may know, when working on cars there’s always a bump in the road to complete your project. Those bumps in the roads usually lead to customizing and cutting things that you didn’t expect. Thankfully we have someone like Matt from Street Faction to help us out. He’s an upcoming fabricator and welder that builds pretty sick drift cars and stylish bash bars that replaces your stock crash bar.
Where the magic happens.
A lot of swag points are accumulated when you can weld as nice as Matt.
Matt checking out John’s coil over to see what needs to be done.
Welding and pipe fun.
The necessities to make some cool bash bars.
Some Banksys inspiration for when you’re welding.
Coilovers which will probably be fully customized too.
Feliz Navidad, buy a bash bar from Street Faction for your loved ones.
http://streetfaction.bigcartel.com/
Matt getting to work on John’s coilovers.
Cutting half of the coil over mount for extra low.
The things we do to go low.
That’s a whole lot missing from the shock mount now.
All in the prep work.
Matt looks more excited to weld than hanging out with Thao.
John observing the welding process, even though all you see is a bright light.
The light.
Finished product.
************************************BONUS ROUND************************************
Here are some photos I took for Matt’s Speed Hunters feature of his current project.
Everything is connected somehow.
That side roll cage and his doors and fenders come off fast for quick access or just to make the car look gangster.
I am definitely bringing my SC here to get a bash bar made.
Dem Cosmis Racing in black chrome…
Matt used a piston to hold his steering column. Genius!
Dual brake calipers!
Make sure you check out his feature on Speed Hunters here…
http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/11/iamthespeedhunter-the-creators-theme/
-NGU ASS
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*Offset Kings * Late Night Roll Ins
The Friday night staging for the show area for Formula Drift Long Beach.
IG – NGUASS
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Beach Burger DBAP
As some of you know, I started working for Illest Orange County since June and now Big Vinh works there as well. Mark Arcenal was down here visiting the shop, so we had to show him Big Vinh’s S13.
Mark was pretty excited to make an Instagram video of Vinh’s car.
Vinh’s S13 was very bright and shiny today.
Mark in Instgram mode, check out that stance for steady sliding videos.
Another Marc came to visit us too. The fucking limo of BMW’s.
Jay wanted to see Vinh’s tattoo really bad and couldn’t wait for him to take off his shirt.
Our new Set the Sun bumper sticker. You can get it here.. http://shop.royal-origin.com/product/set-the-sun-box-sticker
Crazy how a set of wheels can change a car so much. Vinh’s car was pretty cool before with the Varrstoens, but with the XD-9’s it totally changes the way you view this car. I don’t know if it’s the design of the wheel or the color, but Vinh has made me fall in love with his S13.
After chilling a bit, we decided to roll out to the uselesss meet at Beach Burger.
Edris is always telling us DBAP and come out to the meet. If you don’t know cool internet lingo, DBAP is “don’t be a pussy”.
John couldn’t find parking… Yeah that’s three parking spots on the left.
Man these cars are TC… (too cool).
Jimmy’s car looking good on the Work Equips.
O WHALES.
Jimmy had a Cosmo mag in his car… He actually reads it for the articles.
Elvis singing in a empty room.
Royal Origin street racers. Coming soon…….
Good night, I had fun with you today.
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Wheel Wednesday
Finally had a day off work and it was spent putting in work on cars. Shavi met up with me early in the morning because we both had to go to Rotiform. I was going to be dropping off my Junction Produce Scaras to get the faces milled down to fit an aftermarket lip and Shavi was going to order some Air Lift products through Jason.
Weird seeing this car more often now, Shavi’s MS3 use to be the rarest unicorn.
As soon as we reach Rotiform, Orbit was there to greet us.
You can always expect some cool rides over at the Rotiform parking lot like Brian’s S4 on Rotiform INDs.
Rotiform INDs look perfect on any big body cars.
Right next to the S4 is Jason’s Mercedes CLS 55 AMG on their new Rotiform WRW.
Very cool design by Rotiform.
After our trip to Rotiform, I drove by the Boss Company garage to see what they were up to.
Jimmy was taking out his Work VS Mesh face and replacing it with a Work Equip face.
Adam had Vinh’s S13 in the garage for a full detail job.
Kevin and Vinh were working on putting in some KW suspension for Kevin’s S2000.
So many parts laying around..
In the midst of it, an ice cream truck was chased down by three grown ass adults.
I regret nothing.
Adam’s lipless Subie.
For the past month, while I wait for my Scara’s to be rebuilt, Vinh has been kind enough to let me rock his Weds Bazerias. 20’s don’t look too bad on my car, but it only fits my rears.
Installing the Mugen front lip.
That mirror finish..
Adam made it look like it just came fresh out of the paint shop.
You can see the details of Vinh’s shelf through his paint. If anyone needs a detail job from Adam you can contact him at Adametayeb@gmail.com.
Thanks to JDM Chemicals for their awesome products!
I love bokeh even if there isn’t a subject to focus on.
Jimmy’s final product.
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Formula D 2013 Tech Day
Unfortunately for me I wasn’t able to join everyone in Vegas this past weekend. It seemed like everyone was out in the desert cruising the strip, sipping on drinks, and rolling the dice. Instead I stayed back in Irvine and set my plans to go to the Formula D Tech Day at the Source Interlink Media office.
The day started nice and early for me. The event was scheduled to start at 10AM but I decided to arrive early with my cousin to help the organizers with the parking arrangements. We pulled into the lot at 8AM and there were already people arriving to get their desired parking spots. I’ve always thought that if people are showing up 2 hours early to an event, it’s pretty safe to assume that it’s going to be a pretty good turnout. I definitely wasn’t disappointed.
Amir’s Porsche 911 – As the pictures depict, this car is no joke. Real aero, real chassis enhancements, and real sticky tires. One day I’ll have something like this to beat around the track.
Before barrage of cars started to arrive I was able to spot a nice red DC2 Integra on Rotiforms rocking a HOODRATstuff sticker. It was great to catch up with a supporter especially when I figured everyone would have been in Vegas. Turns out that he had attended the Royal Origin Vegas meet the night before and then headed down to Orange County right after it was over.
As the morning ticked away a lot more cars started to pull in to take over the empty parking lot. GTR’s definitely showed a great presence at the meet.
A couple of Fatlace cars also showed up. One of which was Yogi’s GS that was only put together the night before. Excuse my crappy picture taking skills. It doesn’t do this car any justice.
Spotted this clean G35 sedan on some Rotiform SNA’s. Something like this has always been my dream daily driver.
Awesome sticker on the fender-fucked fender as well ;).
Regular CSL styling and stock sizing fenders wasn’t enough for the owner of this car. He took the “whale-tail” and widebody styling to a whole ‘nother level.
There were a lot of nice EVO’s in attendance as well.
Kenny Chieu’s awesome looking MR-S. Catch this car getting sideways in the Top Drift competition this year.
Another awesome looking MR-S parked right next to it, this one looking more grip inspired.
The popularity of the FR-S chassis has spread like wildfire. A reasonable priced car, well developed chassis and big aftermarket support has appealed to a lot of people and it showed at this event. Although most of them are either performance inspired or rocking played out Rocket Bunny kits this car gave off a very different style. Slightly wider wheel fitment and a little more drop would make it looking clean and perfect.
The whole point of the event was for this year’s Formula D contestants to have their cars inspected to follow the championship regulations. Time for some drift car porn!
Mike Essa’s new E46 . Brand new build for the 2013 season. I can’t wait to see it complete and competing at the first round in Long Beach.
Taka Aono’s refreshed Corolla. Although some cars arrived incomplete, it was good to see some of the new changes in livery and modifications done to the other cars.
Joon Maeng’s and his team were also there with their competition car for the 2013 season. One thing that I would like to point out is that Joon was there nice and early, and even after the car was finished with the inspection, his team set up a tent and stayed all day answering questions and hanging out with the fans. Now that’s an awesome guy!
Defending champion Daigo Saito’s car. I can’t wait to see this thing go at it again this year.
I noticed a line forming towards the front of the event so I went over to check out what was going on…
Sandra Wong had arrived.
Throughout the whole day cars were leaving and more cars were pouring in so I decided to do a few more strolls through the aisles.
Then I spotted this. A HAKOSUKA GTR! YES!
These days, it’s not a good car meet without some food trucks. Dos Chinos, Dogzilla, Sexy Burger and Tropical Shave Ice were there to provide food for the hungry.
Whether it be one an apex eating track car or a VIP styled ride, TE37SL’s look good anywhere, anytime, on anything.
Towards the end of the event this R34 arrived. I had spotted him out of the street and wanted to take a snap of it. He cheekily flipped his license plate as I pulled up my camera.Despite my sunburnt face and getting a “no-front-plate” ticket while leaving the event, it was a pretty good day. I tend to grow tired of car events when I see the same old cars over and over again but the Formula D Tech Day always had something going on to entertain me.
To the idiots who thought it was a 0-40mph competition or who wanted to show off that their piece of shit cars had an exhaust, I’d like to thank you for ruining the meet by gaining the Irvine PD’s attention. Although the police allowed the event to continue, they weren’t shy about pulling people over towards the end of the meet. I’ve been around long enough to know that this will always happen at large gatherings but I had always hoped that people would grow the fuck up. It’s amusing because the cars that are properly built and that are actually impressive tend to leave events in a proper manner, whereas the piece-of-crap jank cars always leave like they have something to prove.
