KING OF FITMENT

OMG

This is going to be my next car. No lie, haha.

I was bored today, so I put together this quick photochop of the Wald Bentley Flying Spur.

Here’s my modded version:

Here’s the original:

It has potential, don’t you think?

I was reading Bespoke Venture’s The Real JDM blog the other day, and I came across this. Makes me want a Gallardo Superleggera… It’s on Volk G2, sized 20x9F 20x11R. One of the best looking Gallardo’s I’ve seen, although to really be KOF approved, it might need some spacers =X.

My father owns a 2007 Audi A8, Black on Amaretto interior, short wheelbase, etc., etc.

It’s a brilliant car. The interior is pretty, functional, detailed (note the cool solid aluminum pieces, like the brake pedal assembly and the housing behind the display), and well-made, while the exterior (I think, at least) is the best of the current luxo-barge crop (S-class, 7-series, Jaguar XJ, etc.).

It’s too bad it’s had so many little issues. Last week, the front passenger’s side door soft-close feature ceased to work. A few months ago, a clip broke off the ashtray as I was trying to take it out. Before that, a really nicely milled solid piece of aluminum fell off the front center armrest.

There are a few design issues too — the biggest one, I think, might be how the dash glares like crazy when the sun is beaming powerful afternoon rays into the car from behind. If they had moved that little quattro badge to the other side of the dash, I’d be able to drive with my eyes open more often.

Also, why does it take so long to get parts for this car? Does Audi not stock any replacement parts for the A8 in their warehouse? Every item that’s broken on this car so far that’s required a replacement has been a special order part. Sigh.

Anyway, I’m just ranting. It’s still a special car, and I hope Audi does better with the next generation here in the US than it did with this current one.

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!

[Show as slideshow]

1234...151617►

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!

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.