Here is another badass STI from YimiSport at this past RPM.

Hey, hey, who do we have here?  Brian from Gangsta Original!

Check out his secksee Pinoy curves!

Whiteline… good stuff!

This is a horrible picture but I figured I’d post it still.

I never seen this type of bumper quick release fastener.

Jason passed me this photo today.  It’s of of my car, his car (Tomei Evo X), the AQ Motorsports/Harman Motive STI, and a few other cars.  It was for Performance Auto and Sound’s coverage of ’09 SpoCom.  I don’t think this photo (not this photo exactly, since it was taken on Jason’s iPhone) was ever published.

It was the only show I was rocking Jason’s CE28s w/ r-compounds.  I miss that setup!

SpoCom 2009 is when I first spotted the AQ Motorsports / Harman Motive STI.  After SpoCom, Performance Auto and Sound grabbed a handful of us (Jason w/ the Tomei Evo X, my car, this Subbie, and a handful of other cars) for a quick shoot in a parking lot behind the Long Beach Convention Center.  This car is loud as FAWK!  I also remembered asking JC what “m/P*T” meant and he didn’t even really know, lol.

Here is what it looked like at SEMA 2009.

Well, here is what this Subbie looks like now at this past RPM show.

NACA ducts.

Fire suppression.

AEM standalone.

Some crazy Ground Control camber/caster plate.

Stoptech monoblock trophy brakes.

First and foremost, congratulations to all the winners of Nisei Week Showoff!  Double D Garage entered 5 cars and took home 2 trophies.  We’re pretty proud of that!  Here are some of the winners:

Acura Class – 1st Place – Yours Truly – BYS/Toda RSX
Mitsubishi Class – 2nd Place – Charles Cha – Monster Sport Evo
Lexus Class – 3rd Place – Jon Jon – Air Runner IS350
EXC ??? – ??? – Brian Filoteo – AutoConcept RX-7

I don’t know exactly who-won-what from our friends in AutoFashion and AutoConcept.  But I do want to congratulate them for their wins!

To be honest, I was pretty surprised to win 1st place as there was some pretty heavy competition.  1320 Racing, Stockton brought some pretty badass DC2s.  When I didn’t get called for 3rd or 2nd place, I figured I didn’t win.  It was a pleasant surprise to be called for 1st since I almost always only win 3rd place, lol.

For longest time, I never really cared too much for Nisei.  It is always blistering hot, not that many girls, and comparatively low foot traffic.  The only thing I really look forward to is getting some bomb food (read: Curry House) in Little Tokyo.  Over the years, I’ve realized that Nisei and the other Showoff shows are the only shows that consistently show my car love.  It’s only at the Showoff shows where the judges consistently place me.  When I look back at my Showoff accolades, I feel really honored for the judges and people who appreciate what the mainstream crowd can’t see.

Charles getting his trophy.

Jon Jon picking up his for his IS350.

Kevin from AutoFashion!

Ken won something for his xB.

Brian, who probably had a little bit too much to drink.

Dat chopping it up with Big Mike. Congrats to Big Mike!

Ugh, do not buy Charles a beer.

The HKS Kansai Irishman has been drinking since 7:00 AM while we were staging at Denny’s…  He’s pretty hammered 12 hours later…

A shout out to Falken Tire, Tomei Powered USA, Lot USA, and Toda Racing USA!  See you guys at the next show!

The guy screaming in the background to, “HURRY THE FUCK UP! LET’S GO!” was me. LOL.

Someone linked me this from MotorMavens:

Here’s a snapshot of Beckie Joon sitting in the Infinit Wheels 1969 Toyota Corona. Our quick photo session was cut short because the guy who hired her apparently got upset that she was taking photos with cars that weren’t part of their crew. Oh well… but if you want to see more of Beckie on the site, let us know.

Since a few people were asking us what’s going on, I want to clarify our stance.  Double D Garage hired Beckie for Nisei.  If MotorMavens asked us to borrow Beckie, there would not be an issue.  However, we weren’t extended that courtsey.  We let her shoot with MotorMavens for 15 minutes, then pulled her back because we are paying for her, not them.  We feel a 15 minute photoshoot was more than generous, especially she’s on the clock with us to draw a crowd to our cars and not someone else’s car.  Anyways, I hope we’re not coming across as the bad guys.

At Nisei, we featured Beckie Joon and Dianna Lushus. Here are some pictures of them!

Yeah, I know, the exposure/white balance/brightness looks jacked up because I was trying to make sure the pictures didn’t look over exposed because of the super bright sun.

Yesterday, at Nisei, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Ali of Toda Racing USA and Misano Motorsports. Snapped a few pictures of their demo motor, equipped with the Toda header and ITBs.

One day, I’ll have these ITBs! But in the mean time, I can’t wait to get my Fightex on!

Sorry, the few pictures I took at Nisei will probably have its “brightness/exposure” sorta messed up. You know how it’s hard taking pictures in super bright sunlight? I was fiddling with the exposure settings. They look good but weird the same time.

The end of my 10 day waiting period landed on a Monday.  Naturally, I took Monday off to pick up my AR.  Lynn and Big Alex came along for the ride and we made a pretty fun day of it.  We went to RifleGear in Costa Mesa to pick up my AR, stopped by Wing Nuts for lunch and beer, dropped by Ammo Bros to pick up some cleaning supplies, headed up to Burro for some shooting, and, of course, chilled at Sunday Bistro in the evening.  Here are some of the pictures from Burro.

.22 Long Rifle, .223 Remington, 12 Guage

Putting some lead down range for the first time in the AR!

I need to get a holographic sight.

And I also need a .22 handgun and/or rifle.  Shooting .45 and .223 gets pretty expensive.

Loadin’ up the 10/20 PMag.

Bloop, bloop, bloop…

Notice the shell getting ejected to the right.

Lynn shooting a P22.  She really liked it.

She didn’t like my 1911 so much… lol.

Magnum loads are not fun to shoot…

Oh, this isn’t going to end out well…

LOL

A few weeks ago, I walked into RifleGear in Costa Mesa, looking to buy a $99 lower receiver. Ten days later, I walked out with a Daniel Defense DDM4.

For the non-gun people, it’s the “civilian version” (no full-auto) of the M4, the standard issue rifle in the military and currently protecting our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Its Russian counterpart is the AK-47.

For those interested in purchasing (or building) an AR-15, I highly recommend you visit RifleGear.  They have a wide selection of AR-15s that you can play with as well as knowledgeable staff to make your AR-15 California complaint.  In some future posts, I’ll be discussing California restrictive (read: retarded) gun laws, how it relates to AR-15s, and how to “bypass” these restrictions while still conforming to California law (under current and widely accepted interpretations).