Category: lifestyle

styling

I’ve always pulled a lot of my styling ideas for my personal cars from other makes and styles. I don’t like to surf any one particular forum for ideas. I feel like the reason why you see a lot of similarly modded cars on the same forums is because that is all people ever look at. If they know A + B is the combo to set up their ride then why take a harder road? My personal style is function always following the looks of the vehicle. Now that doesn’t mean it will be the fastest around the track or have Rcomp tires on it 24/7, but I always set my rides up so that I can hop in them at anytime without worry. My newest project the E90 is a great example. I stretched the tires and have the wheels millimeters away from the fender lip, but at the same time the car rides excellent and doesn’t rub no matter what happens. To me a car is not complete if it only looks a certain way. Making it perform (whether that just be driving on the highway without issue) is just as important. I don’t mind a dedicated car (for performance or looks) either, but for myself I need my cars to be used on or off the track and parked or doing 80. I’ve always liked old school Toyota’s that are drift inspired. They typically look good and are meant to be used also. I feel like you get a bit of that influence by looking at my E30 drift/street car.

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shut up

I am tired of hearing all the whining on the internet. I’ve always felt a real car enthusiast respects all aspects of the car community. I’ve been wanting to write up an article of how I feel about it all. I came across this article on Speedhunters and thought it was pretty on point. There’s people on either side that are just annoying.

http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/01/editorial-a-difference-of-opinion/

vegas 2013

I just sat down back on my couch in LA after what was another great weekend in Vegas. I went out there with some of my best friends and family. The food we had this time was incredible. I managed to break even for the entire weekend after all the money I spent on food, shopping, etc from the little bit of gambling money I won. I am looking forward to staying at the Mirage again. They took awesome care of me! Here’s a quick pic of the view from my room from my cheap pocket camera.

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Ben Sopra

At my last visit to the Fatlace Paddock I as able to spend some time looking around at 2012’s projects they worked on. The only thing that sucked is my camera battery died 5 minutes into the whole thing. I was able to snap off a few of the Ben Sopra Skyline they completed for SEMA.

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911

I love the simplicity of this 911. It’s similar to my style of doing things, especially with cars. I like how he still kept it very original in its styling, but he lightened the car a huge amount to bring out an even better driving experience. I can only hope to own one some day 😉

20D

I was fortunate to be given an old Canon 20d recently. This will help me step up my photo game a little. Even with this being an old camera you can really get the job done well with it still. Once I get things going you’ll be seeing better photos coming up I promise!

the life of a grippy

As always I am going to keep you guys posted on what’s going on over here. It’s been busy lately so my updates have been more spread out, but I figured I put a few things together real quick. I recently took on a 4 month old puppy which takes a chunk of your time in itself. He’s learned so much already, and has turned out to be an awesome dog. His name is Max.

The car stuff will always be my passion. Once the E30 got messed up a bit from my travels up to the Bay Area I figured it was time to just fix it for now and park it. Take it off of daily driver duties and keep it for special purposes.

I quickly ordered up stuff when I got my Fiat 500 to get it low and looking good. There was a few things I didn’t know about the car when getting it. It’s not the easiest vehicle to get low, and then it’s difficult to drive at any height that would be considered that. The rear is a solid beam setup which runs out of travel very quickly, and the front of the cars subframe sits extremely low even at moderate heights. If you want to tuck tire you will certainly lay frame on nearly flat ground. The BC coilovers I ordered have been great, but I felt there was a few things they could improve on. I think they set the suspension up to be safe still at maximum dropped levels, but for guys like myself sometimes you just want to turn down the coilovers to an unreasonable height for a meet or show. The length of the front coilover spring and collar adjustability leaves you wanting a little more. I ordered some new shorter front coilover springs which are just slightly uprated. I wanted to do the same for the rear, but the awkward spring size is making it nearly impossible without spending a ton to have something manufactured. For now I’ll just have to play with the rear collars like I did before.

I decided if I lightened the duties of my E30 I would need something fun but cheap with some potential. I’ve always wanted to mess around with a Cressida. I found a great price on one so I grabbed it before it was too late. It’s turned out to be a good running car so far. It is definitely a beater in the strongest sense. There isn’t hardly a panel, switch, lock, handle, or speaker that hasn’t been destroyed. The paint is faded, but the body is straight. The motor and trans seem to be smooth so that’s good enough for me. I’ll be able to get this sitting low and somewhat fitted on the cheap, and that’s the only real plans for it now.

las vegas

I’m fortunate to be taking another trip tomorrow to Vegas. I’ll be there for 4 days which is a perfect amount of Vegas for me. I kind of planned it around hitting up Formula Drift on Saturday, but I really am going to just do all the fun Vegas things.