Tag: S14

  • Final Bout Low Key Pre Meet | Event Coverage

    Final Bout Low Key Pre Meet | Event Coverage

    3 months into 2020 and we are already going through some shit, World War III scares, Kobe Bryant’s death, and now the corona virus. All of these large events being cancelled because of the spread of the corona virus has been a reality check on the situation at hand. It was disappointing that even Final Bout was cancelled and only the drivers were allowed to attend the event. I really wanted to see some sick tandems and styled up drift cars, but the safety of the public is more important. Auto Factory Realize planned a low key pre meet for Final Bout and I knew that was my chance to see some cool drift cars.

    I finally got a new wing for the SC. This is the Big Country Labs cup cake wing with Aero Wolf end plates.

    Rodney decided to wrap his car purple for Final Bout. It looks pretty good!

    Man this S13 is on point.

     

    Auto Factory Realize

    I think this is my first time seeing Sara’s  S2000 at a meet.

    The highlight of the night was watching Team Beautiful Boy get their cars over speed bumps.

    Pretty cool to see Boso Style in California.

    Wash your hands friends!

    -NGUMINH

  • The Leopard | Suspension

    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.

    046Finding 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 rods

    Rear 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

    DSC01434Some of the main front suspension components.

    DSC01414The beautiful Powered By Max Competition coilovers. These are meant for S13, but with the right pieces and tweaks they should mount to the M30.

    DSC01415The 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.

    DSC01416The stiffness.

    DSC01458The front coilovers maxed out with all the collars still placed at the top. Really short.

    DSC01428Added some paint onto certain items for protection and style.

    DSC01431Common 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.

    DSC01433There was about 200 wires that needed attention after being cut and tucked inside the engine bay.

    DSC01455The biggest cock block for wanting to be low and somewhat functional.

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    DSC01460Tucked inside the engine bay.

    DSC01459Also 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.

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    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.

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    Thanks. @shaviw

  • RO in Australia | Cafe Roman & Photo Hang

    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.

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    DSC00844The menu.

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    DSC00850Art x Food.

    DSC00854Hass x Carl.

    DSC00856The Mediterranean breakfast. Cumin spiced fried eggs, sujuk salsa, labneh, halloumi, eggplant, zaartar bread, olives, and with Lebanese bread.

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    DSC00858Eggs Benedict. English muffin, wilted spinach, smoked salmon, poached eggs, and with hollandaise sauce.

    DSC00860The Roman breakfast. Eggs, sausage, beef rashes, sauteed mushrooms, roasted tomato, hash brown, and sourdough toast.

    DSC00862Posted up in front of Cafe Roman.

    DSC00869Tarik x Nitto x Carl.

    DSC00874After Cafe Roman, we spent the rest of the day light at the Sydney docks. Just hanging out and shooting some nice cars.

    DSC00877Jacob’s Evo was so photogenic in these settings.

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    DSC00886Fitment shot on RSV Forged RS10D wheels.

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    DSC00895I love me some directional wheels.

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    George x Nitto.

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    DSC00909Matthew’s Toyota 86 on RSV Forged Retro Centre R1.

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    DSC00915Group shot.

    DSC00916Diversity. What a spectrum of cars right there.

    DSC00920Jame’s S14 on AG wheels. He didn’t have much fun getting home later as you will see.

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    DSC00931Astra Limousines & Wedding Cars Ferrari California T rolling on RSV Forged RS5Y wheels.

    DSC00932The hard top convertible adds a different look to it.

    DSC00934Mercedes-Benz CLS on RSV Forged RS10.

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    DSC00947That’s about a 6.5 inch lip right there.

    DSC00948And around 5 inchs of lip in the front.

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    DSC00959So due to minor technical difficulties from just moving to the spot you saw above, it had to be towed back home.

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    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.

  • OMWTFYB | Enjoy Sin

    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.

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    Jeff looking mighty dapper this early.

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    Erik and Nimo trying to get dabber themselves.

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    UNDERWATER SQUAD.

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    Ryo’s Q45 rolling static on Koenig Monsters.

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    New member Aron’s M35 on Weds Bazerias.

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    Jaycray’s brand spanking new RC350 with it’s first road trip. Glad that we were apart of it.

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    The biggest surprise on the trip was Adam taking his S13. Glad to see it made the trip without any problems.

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    Kentaro rolling through with the most reliable car here.

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    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.

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    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.

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    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.

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    Another speed demon, Phat and his Cayman S.

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    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.

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    Robros Customs let Vinh drive the STI to the meet. The wrap looked great in the sun.

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    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.

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    Kevin’s S2000 was looking great now that it looks pretty much complete with his hardtop.

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    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.

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    Jimmy did a public service and picked up all the trash on the freeway.

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    The second camera car with Vu in the passenger seat.

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    This year Erik and his EP3 joined us in the caravan to Vegas. His car looks freaking ridiculous when it’s rolling

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    Gas station stop.

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    Jimmy couldn’t make it up the drive way, so he parked in the streets.

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    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.

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    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.

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    EVO booty.

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    Jesus, we made it.

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    Shavi leading the squad.

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    For the first time, we beat the rush for the buffet. Vinh and John excited to stuff their faces.

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    Looks like heaven.

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    Japan x Taiwan x Vietnam.

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    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.

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    Neel is now a Vegas local and met up with us as soon as we arrived.

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    Safe and sound.

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    The house was pretty awesome, large enough for all of us and it had so many activities like this gaming room.

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    Tina excited for some pool.

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    Ryan sucks at shuffle board.

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    This will be empty by tomorrow.

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    Current events meeting aka deciding where we’re going to go eat.

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    Angelo, the leader of the RO offroad edition.

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    That’s it for today, the next post will be coverage of the meet!

  • Street Faction Welded Nights

    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.

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    Where the magic happens.

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    A lot of swag points are accumulated when you can weld as nice as Matt.

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    Matt checking out John’s coil over to see what needs to be done.

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    Welding and pipe fun.

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    The necessities to make some cool bash bars.

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    Some Banksys inspiration for when you’re welding.

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    Coilovers which will probably be fully customized too.

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    Feliz Navidad, buy a bash bar from Street Faction for your loved ones.

    http://streetfaction.bigcartel.com/

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    Matt getting to work on John’s coilovers.

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    Cutting half of the coil over mount for extra low.

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    The things we do to go low.

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    That’s a whole lot missing from the shock mount now.

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    All in the prep work.

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    Matt looks more excited to weld than hanging out with Thao.

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    John observing the welding process, even though all you see is a bright light.

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    The light.

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    Finished product.

    ************************************BONUS ROUND************************************

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    Here are some photos I took for Matt’s Speed Hunters feature of his current project.

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    Everything is connected somehow.

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    That side roll cage and his doors and fenders come off fast for quick access or just to make the car look gangster.

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    I am definitely bringing my SC here to get a bash bar made.

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    Dem Cosmis Racing in black chrome…

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    Matt used a piston to hold his steering column. Genius!

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    Dual brake calipers!

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    Make sure you check out his feature on Speed Hunters here…

    http://www.speedhunters.com/2014/11/iamthespeedhunter-the-creators-theme/

    -NGU ASS

     

  • Beach Burger DBAP

    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.

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    Mark was pretty excited to make an Instagram video of Vinh’s car.

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    Vinh’s S13 was very bright and shiny today.

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    Mark in Instgram mode, check out that stance for steady sliding videos.

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    Another Marc came to visit us too. The fucking limo of BMW’s.

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    Jay wanted to see Vinh’s tattoo really bad and couldn’t wait for him to take off his shirt.

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    Our new Set the Sun bumper sticker. You can get it here.. http://shop.royal-origin.com/product/set-the-sun-box-sticker

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    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.

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    After chilling a bit, we decided to roll out to the uselesss meet at Beach Burger.

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    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”.

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    John couldn’t find parking… Yeah that’s three parking spots on the left.

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    Man these cars are TC… (too cool).

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    Jimmy’s car looking good on the Work Equips.

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    O WHALES.

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    Jimmy had a Cosmo mag in his car… He actually reads it for the articles.

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    Elvis singing in a empty room.

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    Royal Origin street racers. Coming soon…….

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    Good night, I had fun with you today.

  • Thursty Thursday.

    Thursty Thursday.

    Water rolled down our faces, and our worst fears became reality when the rainy clouds appeared. All week long, the summer rays were shining bright as ever, but on the night of our meet, nature decided that it was thirsty for some rain. Hours before the meet, we were still debating whether or not we should have the meet or postpone it because at 9pm, the weather forecast predicted thunderstorms. Like all of our previous meets, we decided last minute that the meet would continue and we didn’t really care who came out because we had to get our Peach Me Sweatea fix. I rolled up early and to my surprise, there were already a gang of cars. I didn’t know there were people as down as us to kick it even during thunderstorms.

    Cars were constantly coming through; the Tastea lot was overflowing with rain and cars, so people started parking in the fire lanes and handicap zones.

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  • Wekfest LA 2012 Part 2 (Angelo)

    Wekfest LA 2012 Part 2 (Angelo)

    Wekfest Long Beach was one of the most anticipated car shows that I have been waiting for. One reason was because I was planning to show my car, and another reason was because I  knew it would bring out the best of the best that SoCal has to offer.

    I was hoping to have a lot done on my car for Wekfest, but time was not on my side. I was really busy with school, trying to get ready for finals, and work took up all my time on the weekends, so I ended up not changing anything. I did add one big piece of information, and that is my car is for sale. That was the main reason why I wanted to show my car at Wekfest. I wanted to promote it and let everyone know that it’s for sale. But enough about my car and me, and onto the show. Wekfest was spectacular like always. I felt like it was better organized than last year. We did not have to wait a long time to get our cars into the show, and the parking situation was well-planned and organized. The finest cars came out and displayed what they had. I noticed that the VIP style is very popular this year, and is becoming something very main stream. There were also a lot of nice functional cars on display ranging from Subie track cars  to tracked out Civics. The styles of builds were endless.

    On to the pictures!

    I started off on the asphalt, where all the vendor cars were, and the first thing that caught my eye was this crazy Honda Insight. That is definitely the best-looking hybrid I have ever seen!

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  • The Legend

    The Legend

    Let me introduce to you THE LEGEND, Kyle Ranauro from goodfeeling and Studio. Kyle’s car has been getting a lot of recognition lately, sooner or later he’ll be too cool to let me take pictures of his cars. In San Diego I had the chance to snap some quick photos of his car. I really wanted to get some rolling shots to show you guys how insane this car looks when it’s in motion. I almost drifted into a wall because he broke my neck when we were cruising home from Autofashion. The weather was pretty relentless when we were in SD and the roads fucking suck, so we ended up just doing a small shoot in front of an abandoned Chinese restaurant. Be sure to make it out to AUTOCON because he will be showing with us along with the other goodfeeling guys aka “neck brace givers”.

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