KING OF FITMENT

This absolutely made my day:

I wonder how it got past the hard-working clerks at DMV? Hmm…

Again, these photos really suck. I’m not responsible for feelings of disgust or nausea when you look at them!

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Oh yeah, you guys can do whatever you want to these photos if it’s for non-commercial use. Sounds good?

So I’m back from Tokyo and I just managed to get some photos sorted out. Let me apologize in advance for the horrible image quality — I was hoping to pick up a Sigma DP2 or something or other while I was in China, but news about the new Olympus E-P1 have put my camera purchasing plans on hold, so all I had to use was a cheapy Panasonic point-and-shoot, which didn’t handle the weird lighting conditions in the exhibition hall very well.

There were a LOT of donks at the show; I think the LA DUB style is a huge influence over there (kinda like how they took the SoCal import scene and made it into SpoCom. Hmm. I guess there’s more to tuning than JDM, huh?). I met a LOT of cool people, but big thanks to Ted @ Montage, Tetsu at T2DF, and Kazumi and Ray at Speedworx. Thanks also to Dave (I didn’t get the company you worked for, sorry! If you ever read this, we’ll go grab a drink when you’re next in SoCal). EDIT! It was also nice meeting Norihide at Special Cars magazine – thanks for keeping me company and good luck on your Boxster! END EDIT!

Anyway, enjoy the photos!

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I got hella pwnt last night, cause I was lame and didn’t look at the Google map correctly.

I was trying to get to the Super Autobacs near here (Daiba) and I ended up seeing the Tokyo Tower instead. Talk about a detour, haha!

The SIS ended today, but I didn’t have time to go check it out (and take photos of the cars leaving — I’m regretting this) but that’s OK, ’cause I got some good photos yesterday of some of the weird machinery parked outside (El Camino with a wood grill? INSANE). I’ll post my photos when I get back home on Tuesday!

By the way, have a safe and happy Father’s Day!

I’m in Tokyo right now. I missed the last bus from Narita to my hotel, so I got pwnt and had to take a bus to the Tokyo City Air Terminal and then a cab to the hotel. My wallet hurts right now :(.

But today, after breakfast, I went to the Tokyo Special Import Show for the press showing day with my friend, Ted. All I have to say is… damn. The level of detail and theme in some of these cars is insane.

I’ll just channel my inner James Joyce and put some stream-of-consciousness thoughts here: RWB’s Nakai-san had his personal Porsche 930 sitting outside, next to a huge crowd of other track-prepped Porsches. That Idlers Club logo is really cool. Saw the hottest, lowest Lotus Exige I have ever seen. There was a really hot modified Audi S8 there, with excellent fitment. I met the owner of Liberty Walk (OMG *faints*), the Japanese distributor of Giovanna/WTW Corp. stuff, and a guy who apparently races NASCAR. Didn’t get his name, though. *EDIT* His name is Takuma Koga, last active in NASCAR in 2002. *END EDIT* Fortissimo had a really nice current-gen GS on display – Bold World suspension, carbon fiber aerokit (on a black car – the contrast is so hot). There weren’t as many booth girls as photos of other events would suggest, but there were a few. Some were wearing hella weird outfits. I’m in love with the alumite gray finish of the top-of-line Endless brake caliper. Wish I could afford a set. Giovanna edition bicycles? This eclair is really good, haha, and it was only 105 yen!

Anyway, there was a lot of stuff I forgot — I’ll post up photos and more observations when I get back to the US. Yodobashi Camera tomorrow, maybe?

I saw two hot cars in BBS wheels today – one was a VW Bora (Jetta for us North American-folk) on BBS CH, lowered, with a subtle aero kit. I got photos of this one; I’ll post ‘em when I get back to the US. The other was a E90 3-series (wait, E90 is the chassis designation for the sedan, right?), lowered quite a bit, with BBS LM. I spotted both right around Wangfujing in Beijing. I loves it (BBS wheels, that is)!

Honestly though, I think the meshy BBS wheels fit BMW’s perfectly. They’re really sporty, which is fitting for something the marketing department calls “The Ultimate Driving Machine”. I don’t think I would be able to pull it off on my Q45, nor on the forthcoming W220, but damn did that E90 look hot rolling down the street. The best part is if you didn’t know what you were looking it, you’d think it was stock — that silver polish finish looks OEM. Good job, anonymous BBS wheel owners!

I finally got off my lazy ass and found a proxy server. That means I can access VSC now! Hooray!