KING OF FITMENT

Apparently, vipstylecars.com doesn’t work from China. I’ve tried across 3 hotels and a “网吧”, or internet cafe, and it hasn’t worked at any of these points. Too bad, so sad; I can’t get my super-flush fix while I’m here.

I’m in Wuhan right now, a city in the central part of China. I don’t think there’ll be too much updates whilst I’m here — apparently modded cars are few and far between because of heavy-handed policies against such cars. I’ll be in Japan in a few weeks though, so I’ll be able to upload some cool photos when I’m there.

Hooray!

I’m going to be in China/Japan until June 23rd, so don’t expect to see any updates until then! Yatta!

When I’m back, hopefully I’ll have some good photos of car culture abroad. Stay safe!

I’m really excited about attending the Special Import Show at the Tokyo Big Sight this year. I’m going to post some photos of last year’s show, just to whet my own appetite :)

[Show as slideshow]

As you can see, the variety and quality of cars is going to be amazing! I’ll be taking photos of the show; expect some posts mid-June. :)

Man, I’m really disappointed in the service department at Rusnak here in Arcadia. Yesterday, the car was supposed to have been done by early afternoon, but it was 5:30 already and we hadn’t yet received a phone call. I called the dealership and apparently the car was done and just sitting there and that we should come in to pick it up. Two minutes away from the dealership, we get a call from the SA that our car was done. -____-

After paying, I drove the car off, but the steering was really off. The wheel hadn’t been centered when they did an alignment and the car pulled to the right. So the car’s still there, and I guess I’ll be picking it up later today. That is, if the SA calls. Sigh. I knew I should’ve taken the car to Penske. :(

Let me begin with a rant about Riverside: Why must your roads be so horrible? Why must your drivers be so inept!??!?!? ARRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I was waiting at a stoplight and two teenaged kids in a Chevy Silverado truck DO A POWERSLIDE into the lane next to me. They scared the crap out of me when they almost slid into my bumper. Sigh.

But on the the good stuff! My Alpine NVE-P1 (which is the navigation/Bluetooth module for Alpine IVA-Wxxx line of head units) died on me last week. For some reason, it would only display a blank screen — even after I reset it or pulled it out and blew on the connector, SNES cartridge style. I thought I was screwed, ’cause I bought it online through Amazon. After flipping through my purchase history on Amazon, I found out that the vendor who actually sold it to me was an authorized Alpine dealer — Pacific Stereo in Riverside. I called this morning and asked them what I could do, and the guy told me to just “mail it in” and that they would “change it out for me, no questions asked.”

Suspicious of the guy’s claims, I decided I would drop by the store instead, just in case they decided to decline my claim or pull the ol’ switcheroo (or delay the shipment). One can imagine my delight when I walked out after 3 minutes with a brand new, sealed-in-box unit that worked the first time I plugged it in. Score!

So, thanks, guys at Pacific Stereo — now I can rely on my nav instead of my underdeveloped sense of direction! :)

I was flipping through JTuned the other day. Man, what happened to them? They used to have a good amount of original, interesting content and features. It’s now just a blog filled with regurgitated press releases from Falken and Greddy.

That’s understandable, I guess, considering the state of the economy and the fact that I never understood how JTuned made enough money to stay alive (was it a personal pet project of someone’s? School me, please!). What really pissed me off was that I saw they used the phrase “bippu” to describe a current generation Infiniti M35. The word just makes me angry, for some reason — it’s an Americanized bastardization of how the Japanese really describe their VIP cars (i’ve heard they call it “vip”, pronounced like “tip”). I guess it just reminds me of how Americans in general like to bastardize Asian stuff (orange chicken, anyone?).

The other reason it made me mad, other than the fact that the word appeared in print, was that the car doesn’t really fit the VIP mold. Of course, we always see examples of “wild style” VIP tuning from Japan, but this car… If it weren’t for the choice of chassis, we’d be calling it SpoCom. I think the wild paintjob detracts from the car — I don’t want to see color-shifting Maziora (but since we’re in the US, it’s probably HOK or Alsa or something) paint on a stock bodied, non-fender flared/vented/gilled/winged/18×13 ET-30 car. I can recognize the amount of work put in it (color shifting paint is expensive and hard to shoot, apparently) but I think the overall execution is horrible.

Anyway, I’ll be at the Special Import Show in Tokyo this June 19-22 — hopefully I can have some good photos to share with everyone.

FSG Motoring W220 S500

This is actually one of the crazier W220′s I’ve seen thus far — it looks like it has a Job Design-type aerokit, wide fenders, and some white-face Rezax Universals (correct me please, I’m usually pretty wrong about stuff like that) and the stacked IS-F-like exhaust that Job Design’s been pushing recently.

I don’t think it looks too bad; maybe it’s a bit extravagant, but the posts on MBworld about this car are 99% negative. Haha, how did I know that was going to happen? I think I’ll build the S65 I have coming like this just to piss people off :).

EDIT: Found some more photos of the car — it’s built by a shop called FSG Motoring, and according to Google Translate, it has stuff like FSG’s custom double tap coilover setup with 12kg/mm front and 10 kg/mm rear springs, Carrozzeria head unit, 21″ Work Rezax Universals (Yay! I was right!) and 2x headrest LCD monitors.

If you guys want more, here’s the link, run through Google Translate: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdtn.fsgmotoring.com%2Fdemocar.html&sl=ja&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

On another note, I stopped by a friend’s shop today and he told me he’s going to be the new North American distributor for Liberty Walk. Yay! Their mini-Lambo ATVs are really cool. My brother and I also stopped by a shop in Anaheim which does hot rods and such; two of the guys there had Ford Police Interceptors laying frame. Andrew (brother) did a double take when he saw them. They also had an old-school school bus (does that phrase make sense?) sitting there on the ground — apparently it was bagged. And painted camo. Crazy.

Hello and welcome to KING OF FITMENT.

First, a little about me: I’m a big fan of VIP tuning, but I used to be into the whole “drifting” scene, even though I never took my car to the track. I’m a poser, I know. My first car was a S13 hatchback — it had stuff like a redtop SR, Greddy e-manage, Invidia exhaust, Ohlins suspension setup, some SSR Full Reverse mesh, a Defi BF boost gauge (I was too poor to afford the rest of the gauge set), and some other stuff. After going to school in Irvine, though, I got scared of the police scrutiny in the OC and I sold the car. I picked up a 2000 Q45; that one’s now modded with some MAE Crown Jewels, Insurance Group coilovers, Peak Performance multilink and an Alpine W505/P1 combo (the P1 just took a crap on me, btw). Now I roll slow and get beached on driveways and speedbumps. :(

Anyway, this blog is just a way for me to talk about my favorite hobby: cars. I’m also a nerd too, which is why the blog is titled what it is — you’re a video game nerd of the 90′s if you can figure out what the reference is.

I hope y’all enjoy the BS I’m gonna spew here!

Thanks!