minh – Royal Origin

Greddy Pandem E36 | Wekfest Prep

Kevin recently collaborated with his parent company Greddy on his latest project BMW E36. The last build was the red Honda S2000 that we posted here often. The E36 will demonstrate the latest Greddy Performance products that are offered in the automotive market with the finalization of the build at SEMA 2016 in November.

You can always spot these Rocket Bunny Lexus pair at the Greddy Headquarters in Irvine, California.

Formula Drift driver Ken Gushi’s Scion Racing Greddy Racing FRS.

New Toyota Racing livery, which was first demonstrated at NASCAR in Sonoma, Washington.

The heart of Ken Gushi’s FRS is this Greddy powered 2JZ-GTE.

The raw Rocket Bunny Pandem BMW E36 parts ready to be fitted on Kevin’s car.

Enkei 6666 wheels. The standard for Rocket Bunny Pandem built E36s.

Kevin fine tuning the fitment of the kit to the car before cutting and paint.

Spotted a beautiful R32. Pretty common place now in SoCal.

Another day at Greddy HQ, and this time spotted one of two LC500, which is coming from concept to reality.

Looks good from the front, but the rear is quite questionable. Its here at Greddy HQ for some research and development since Greddy has a good relationship with Lexus.

Limited edition Takata x Rocket Bunny street reclinable seats going into Kevin’s E36 build.

Livery and stickers provided by AWstickers.

The awesome Greddy color way.

The Sung Kang x Greddy Racing collaborated 1973 Nissan 240z also makes it home inside the Greddy HQ.

The results of building this in about a month or so, which is pretty incredible. Ready for its first show case at Wekfest San Jose.

Truly love how the Rocket Bunny Pandem kit extenuates all the lines that were already standard to the E36 platform.

Looks good at all angles.

Vertex Racing steering wheel looks at home in there.

Good job to Kevin for working on this build in such a short amount of time. Many late nights went into this, and there are many more nights to come, especially with the next phase of the build being a 2JZ-GTE build. Also, congratulations for getting 2nd place best BMW at Wekfest San Jose 2016.

August 28, 2016

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

July 21, 2016

Vegas for a Day | Road Trips

Did a suicide trip with Shavi to Vegas, so I could surprise the wife. Thanks Shavi for being the real MVP.

The road to Vegas from Orange County.

Met up with Nick and Jeremy for Baby Stacks.

How Shavi looks after driving 4 hours. Check out that bokeh in the back.

Adobo Fried Rice.

Got back to Shavi’s house and checked out what Shavi’s working on for the M30.

Amazing that it can move at this height.

Vertex and camber forever.

-NGUMINH

July 19, 2016

Zion | RO Explore

My favorite thing to do is be out in the wilderness where mass murderers and bears can come out to kill you without any way of calling for help because you know in all movies police or any government aid in the wilderness are pretty much useless. But for my wife’s happiness, I risked my safety and we planned a trip out to Zion National Park with Chivas, Shavi, Nimo, Derek, Polly, Angelo and Bonnie. Most of my photos will be covering the second day of the trip, since I wasn’t able to make it to the first day where everyone went off-roading.

429 miles, 6 hours and going 110 MPH thanks to my wife’s driving.

Crazy how they were able to build these roads through the mountains.

We made it to Zion late, but everyone still had a lot of energy to cook dinner.

Here we have Chivas over cooking a marshmallow.

Omelette.

Julia is the crazy hiker, who hears something scary and goes and check its out.

Me and my wife Julia.

Beautiful waterfalls all over the park.

Shavi getting one for the snappy snaps.

Chivas at peace with himself.

Everywhere is a toilet in the wilderness.

Shout out to Julia for carrying the heaviest backpack known to mankind.

Secret photo shoots with Polly.

Taking it all in.

It literally said “Danger Beyond This Point”, but she wanted to go further out for a better picture..

Couple stuff.

Threesome stuff.

Chasing waterfalls.

The people who didn’t bail.

It was suppose to rain all weekend, but lucky for us the rain cleared and the sun came out.

Just beautiful..

Homeless Instagram photos with Nimo.

Homeless Instagram photo with Angelo.

The 4runner did some work yesterday.

How do I even coffee?

Bacon and Eggs burger at MeMe’s Cafe.

Chicken crepe.

BBQ pulled pork and onion rings.

At night, you could really see the stars so clear, so we decided to venture around the park for some star photos.

Ending the night with some smores.

Shavi looking good for a person who slept in the car all night.

Chivas ready for his close up.

Shout out to this crew for cooking, being fun and not bailing. It was a fun time!

Chivas with the photo bomb.

Man this place is beautiful..

Shavi smooth.

Angelo’s face when he sees a nice ass.

Champion.

Nimo all HOODRATstuff out.

Amazing jumping abilities by Nimo and Chivas.

Chivas took us to this mountain where there was a huge crack in it.

RO OFF-ROAD.

We ended this trip on a good note with Baby Stacks!

Definitely one of the most memorable camping trips I’ve been on. Thanks Chivas for planning it and everyone else for the good times. We definitely need to plan the next one soon!

-NGUMINH

July 13, 2016

GMG Racing Open House | Event Coverage

GMG Racing open house is one of the best local events in Orange County, we get to see a crazy amount of super cars at this event and be in presence of cars that would probably cost two of your lifetimes to afford. The morning of the event I met up with Phat and Ashton for breakfast.

One does not belong… The Porsche/Mazda bros. Ashton’s 911 is looking great going back to the grey paint and adding the PNA Design wing.

We were waiting for the Phaze 2 caravan to come through and they brought the heat.

The roll-in was way tight just like Darren’s Porsche. Clean styling with this Porsche on BBS RS. Brendan’s widebody Supra was out and about at the event. These guys were talking about if this car was in the Fast and Furious or not. Roll out like a boss.

Mikey’s Amuse 370z on Volk TE-37 SL.

Mikey’s shiny 997 on Rotiforms. Darren’s GT3 got some prime parking at the event. Mikey with the surprise back rub. Bugatti to greet you before entering the warehouse. The car even had it’s own security to make sure no one leans on it. GMG Racing Audi R8 for sale. It would be a nice addition to my garage, but maybe in another life time. The R8 is pretty clean for a race car. Super cars on super cars. Every automotive photographer’s dreams were in this building. Those carbon fiber wheels tho. This F12 is so beautiful. Medusa RWB. Bugatti roll out.

Ending it with me spotting Devyn’s Itasha style Civic.

-NGUMINH

May 27, 2016

Tokyo Auto Salon 2016 | Event Coverage

Tokyo Auto Salon is a world famous international auto show by Nippon Auto Parts Aftermarket Committee. It is held at Makuhari Messe convention in Chiba, Japan, where they display the latest and greatest in Japanese performance and dress-up display. We started the year off by attending this world famous event, and we were definitely more than impressed. It is quite similar to our famous auto trade event, SEMA, in Las Vegas, Nevada; however, just imagine seeing the awesome Japanese styling just consistently throughout the entire event.

One of about 11 halls filling up fast with media, attendees, and those involved in the Japanese automotive industry.

Over at Rush Motorsports we spotted a familiar face, Sara Choi.

Nissan GT-R R35 on Mikado Hayabusa wheels.

Rush Motorsports Nissan Skyline GT-R R33 on Mikado Hayabusa wheels.

Forgiato x Liberty Walk Audi R8.

Over at the Toyota Gazoo Racing booth you have school kids taking notes, and learning a thing or two about the history of Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Liberty Walk Mini Cooper R56.

Liberty Walk Audi R8.

Liberty Walk Nissan Fairlady Z S30.

Bunch of Liberty Walk merchandise everywhere.

The Subaru BRZ STi.

Liberty Walk Maserati.

WALD displaying the latest wheel and brake products.

Defi showing off the latest for the newest Mazda 2 Demio.

The latest from Vossen x Work.

This VW has a mixture of USDM and JDM styling.

The AIMGAIN ND Miata. One of the nicest ND builds of Tokyo Auto Salon.

Really love the rear end appearance of the whole AIMGAIN GT kit

The AIMGAIN X STANCENATION Toyota FRS. As you can see this version of the kit includes no rivets at all.

One of a few simulators around TAS.

326POWER suspension essentials.

Crazy 326POWER Toyota Prius.

Vertex was in the house. Quality steering wheels.

Kenda Nissan S15.

These two Nissan GT-R showcasing truly beautiful hand-crafted paint work.

The Kuhl Racing ND Miata.

Y33 Cima tucking ridiculously all around with butterfly doors.

Pandem Rocket Bunny E36 M3.

Microvans and K-cars were amazing. Something you definitely do not see in the US.

Probably our favorite build of Tokyo Auto Salon was this red Spirit Rei 180sx.

The fitment and everything was on point.

Garage RiseUP FD3S RX-7 bringing an update to the whole FD front end.

Car Modify Wonder; loved them all.

Greddy Rocket Bunny ND Miata. Another over fender build.

Got Aero?

BN SPORTS kitted Toyota 86.

COCKPIT TATEBAYASHI Nissan Skyline GT-R.

We highly recommend anyone that is able to head out to Japan to give Tokyo Auto Salon a look, because you surely will be impressed by nearly every car. And if you do, be sure to bring a long a good amount of money, because there are ridiculous deals on car parts for cheapy cheaps.

More photos in the gallery below.

Photos by @shaviw and @nguminh. Please check watermark to give credit to the correct photographer.

January 25, 2016

The Big Apple | RO Explore

H2Oi was the destination, but New York was the first stop. The cheapest flight we could find to get to H2oi in Ocean City, Maryland involved a stop in New York and a 4 hour drive down to Maryland. We start this trip with our flight from LAX to JFK…
I was extremely hungry, so I loaded up at Lemonade with some chicken chili and tuna avocado.
7 hours later and I woke up to a beautiful sunrise in New York.

After checking in, the first thing we did was head to The Halal Guys for their famous rice dishes.
It’s the sauce man, the sauce makes this dish. Coincidentally, Jerald was in New York already with his family and had a day to meet us up. Happy to say this is now available in OC, but the line for it is too ridiculous to wait in.This police station looks like a restaurant.

So much information in Time Square.

Shavi got a shot of me taking photos of Time Square.

A travel tip from us is to get the New York pass if you want to do the major tourist attractions.

The next stop on our New York tour was the Rockefeller Building where we will be visiting the Top of the Rock.

The view from up here is amazing,, hopefully these photos will do it’s justice.

Stand tall.

The famous Radio City Music Hall.\

Right by the Rockefeller Center is the beautiful St. Patrick Cathedral. A must check out if you’re in the area!

Shavi got a photo of me taking in the beauty of the cathedral.

The inside of the cathedral is amazing. and it’s free to come inside.

Next we stopped by 10 Below Ice Cream for some sweets. They roll up the ice cream here and make it right in front of you.

Cookies and cream.

Matcha made in heaven, green tea and strawberry flavor.

Just 15 minutes away was the 9/11 memorial, so we decided to pay our respects and check out the memorial.

The deep and lost feeling from this memorial was so powerful.

New York will bounce back.

October 17, 2015

Southern Worthersee Part Four | Throw Back

Throwing it back to one of the most memorable events/trips to enjoy different automotive culture than what I am used to in Southern California. Also, took me awhile to edit through the pictures as I rarely do take pictures, however, I recently picked up a Sony A7II with the kit lens, and it has motivated me to shoot more pictures as well as video of course.

DAY ONE: We arrived in Helen, Georgia very early in the morning, and already got greeted by familiar faces, and a lot of different quality ones.

A lost SoCal tribesmen came to greet us as well.

Through my network over at Mazda Fitment, I recognized Nate’s Miata parked in a random parking lot. Definitely as lovely in person as on the internet.

The new finish on the OZ Turbos was a nice touch to the new vinyl wrap theme.

On this trip, I told Ryo he had to come out to an East Coast event before he went back to Japan. Definitely glad he took my word for it, cause he was blown away. Ryo you will be missed!

This VW stood out amongst the rest. Liked it a lot.

Alex Goldstein’s E92 M3 On BBS RS2 wheels. Got the pleasure of shooting this car, which you can see later on in this post.

Another Mazda that I recognize through my network at Mazda Fitment. Also, got to meet the owner, was pretty cool.

Absolute love the direction Chris has had with this car of recent. Always well done through nearly all the stages of this car.

The south has some amazingly smooth roads and awesome twists. Really wanted a proper car to take it on a nice spirited drive here.

Southern beauty. Found this random pond/lake. Definitely not the nature we are used to in Southern California.

This E46 M3 had an excellent blend of style with the Weds Kranze LXZs.

One of a decent number of Miatas at SOWO. This one on AME made Fatlace FZERO1.

Another euro that blended a different style to the mundane usual stuff you would see on a euro.

This is a husband and wife pair right here. Both into some rad vintage euros; the bug and the bus.

Something I am more used to seeing back home.

Loved the fender to lip of the wheel fitment. On point fife.

DAY TWO: We stayed at Chris’s cabin about a few miles out of Helen, and came back the next day to continue exploring Helen.

Behind that door was bad things.
www.shop.royal-origin.com

I have seen a few pictures of this in the past floating around from Southern Fresh. Finally get to meet Justin and his LS400.

Kyle’s 326power’d out GS300. Got to shoot both of these later on as well.

The Risky Devil yacht. AJ bought this down from Arizona to Chicago to Georgia.

Found an awesome spot to shoot the cars. Here is Alex’s E92 M3.

Loving the southern back drop. A nice different scenery that we are usually used to in SoCal.

Horse friends.

Kyle’s GS300 enjoying that southern air.

It’s Fun To Do Bad Things.
www.shop.royal-origin.com

Love the rear end of this one with all those lines and details. Kyle just needs to insert the tips ;]

Justin’s LS400. Custom wide body.

Love the aggressive boss presence this has.

Those fender cuts. Love it.

Got to enjoy another East Coast trip with Ryan and his WRX. This time around the car has changed quite a lot since then.

Always a pleasure to enjoy Ryan’s southern hospitality.

DAY THREE: On the last day in Helen we were back in town seeing what was left. Still a good number of cars and quality stuff laying around. This Miata was on point with the BBS RFs.

The iconic Walking Dead location. Atlanta, Georgia.

Atlanta, Georgia from the sky.

And back home to SoCal we went. Definitely loved this trip and event. The vibe and feel is different than H2Oi, and is definitely an experience I will continue to try to repeat.

June 11, 2015

#ROINSEATTLE | Meats

We are making a trip out to the Seattle area, and would love to see our Pacific North West friends and lovers. See you guys there!

March 5, 2015

LA Stranger | Sarah Shelton

A couple weeks back, I posted on my Instagram that I wanted more practice shooting models and was looking for anyone who would be down to model for me. Surprisingly, Sarah hit me up to shoot as she was based in LA and wanted to get some cool photos.

Sarah said she has never been to the LA river, so we decided that would be our first location.

The water was low enough for us to walk in the river and made for some cool shots.

Random spider hanging from the bridge.

A cool little background story of Sarah, she’s originally from Massachusetts worked and lived in New York for a couple of years and then recently just moved out here to California hustling her way to success. Gotta admire someone who’s willing to go to unknown places for their career.