100,000 views

Honestly, I never expected this blog to pass even 25,000 views. Since the beginning, I’ve maintained that I would never promote my blog (and Flickr) on any other site and I think I’ve held true to that goal because I never wanted to be “that guy” who was always begging people to check out his stuff. I wanted my content to speak for itself and find an audience on its own. I never saw blogging as a competition of who can rack up an astronomical view count the fastest or who could gain a billion “likes” or “followers” in the shortest period of time. I simply started this blog with the intention of sharing photos of cars (and eventfully other off-topic stuff sprinkled in here and there) I thought were pretty cool and worth sharing. Apparently you guys liked my posts enough to visit 100,000 times.

You may have noticed things have slowed down a lot here within the last year or so. As I’ve touched on in previous posts and mentioned by other bloggers, the massive influx of automotive blogs, Tumblrs, and Facebook pages have created a sort of “photo overload” situation. Photos were being shared, reblogged, or reposted hundreds of times, and soon, everyone had seen the same photos several times over. Fresh content was few and far between and with everyone picking up digital cameras, even original content such as event coverage became repetitive and rather lackluster. I found it rather futile trying to compete with all these other media outlets, so I began to stop posting photos and never really posted much event coverage (unless it was a small and/or unique gathering).

Probably the biggest web traffic generators were my strong opinions on the car scene/industry and whatnot. I’ll admit, a lot of what I came across on the Internet got me really worked up a lot of the time and my posts were often written in the heat of the moment. Since then I have realized this and questioned myself as to why I get so bent out of shape over what people do or say on the Internet and why I feel a need to share my views or opinions. Turns out, I wasn’t alone. Jay had been experiencing the exact same thing as I had and I think he explained it quite well in one of his posts (which he ended up deleting shortly afterward).

I still do soul searching on myself as to why I have the need to share any of my views or what I like automotive wise with anyone. I have no idea why I continue to update this blog. I don’t go to events to much anymore or get excited for a car show thats coming up. I don’t go on forums and websites and bitch about [anything] or even share what I think here on this blog. I don’t wanna be heard really. By anyone. Opinions don’t matter much to me as I get older. I fought a long time for acceptance in the so-called “scene,” but thats not important anymore in my world. My world consists of doing things with my car and close friends and sharing my automotive personal moments with them, not internet lurkers and so forth. I turned off comments on this blog a few months back because I was sick of high school shit heads blabbing about whatever they want or never really [understanding] where I was coming from. A lot of posts where I commented on the state of things have long been deleted. Why? Because who cares? Seriously, who gives a fuck? People take car stuff way too serious. Even I do. And I hate it. I hate getting upset when I look at another website that is doing shit that offends me or I think is downright stupid. I have seen so many bad feature cars now on websites I’m totally numb to it now. I still enjoy seeing a great car feature though. Nothing brings a smile to my face faster than seeing a dope ass car that someone has put blood, sweat, and tears into.

What Jay had to say really stood out to me because I was able to identify with every part of it. That realization was mostly responsible for why I have stopped posting regularly. I see no point to sharing the same photos everyone’s already seen and adding my opinion that no one really cares about to all the other junk floating around on the Internet. I still get a little upset when I see some of the stupid things people say and do online, but I try to show restraint, not let insignificant things that I can’t change bother me, and move on. The Internet is a powerful tool that has many great uses, but I think I prefer the days before the digital information revolution. The much simpler times when car enthusiasts hung out with each other, worked on and had fun with their cars, and built them for personal enjoyment. Unfortunately, thanks to the Internet, most “enthusiasts” have lost sight on what it really means to be an automotive enthusiast and many have become arrogant, lazy, cheap, and entitled. Things would probably be a whole lot better if we all just walked away from our computers…

Anyway, that doesn’t leave much left for me to blog about, haha. I’m going to finish out the rest of my FR-S project posts for anyone interested in that, but otherwise, don’t expect many future posts. Ending on at least something positive, I did enjoy my blogging experience overall. The one thing that I really enjoyed the most about running this blog is that it has given me the opportunity to meet a lot of great people, some of whom I now consider good friends. I know I’ve been saying this for a long time, but I still think it’d be neat to do a blogger meet-up sometime.

I encourage you to check out the blogs I’ve listed on my blogroll at the bottom of the page. There are still some great people out there posting some great original content such as A Class, AUTOnGRAPHIC, HighTopFade, and The Chronicles.

Well, don’t know exactly what else to say or how to end this, so I’ll just leave at a simple, “Thank you.”

After 3 months of waiting…

…I finally got my goodies from England.

Not much to say about them since they’re not on the car yet, but man, are they pretty.  I almost want to just put the parts on a shelf and display them, haha.  Super light too.  I reckon these shave off about 10+ lbs off the front of the car.  Not bad at all.  Shout out to Essex Parts for getting me these.  Jeff (JRitt) is the go-to guy (but all of them are a very helpful, knowledgable team) if you have any brake related questions or want to order AP Racing kits and/or parts for your car.

EDIT: Apparently there has been a little “oops” on AP Racing’s part and they included the wrong brake lines and not enough shims for installation. Once notified of the issue by another customer (since I still haven’t gotten around to installing them), Essex took immediate action, notifying me of the problem(s) and sending me free replacement brake lines and extra shims. My experience with Essex has been nothing short of the best customer service I can recall ever receiving. I can’t recommend them enough.

Now another 3 month wait begins, this time from Japan. (Hint: more ASM-inspired stuffs! )

Bringing it back to 1993

Yo…

No, I haven’t forgotten about the blog, haha. Nothing on the FR-S has changed. I’m still waiting on the AP Racing kit to be shipped from England. Fortunately, now that F1 is in full swing, AP should be shipping the kits soon since the pre-season rush has passed. Although I haven’t ordered them yet, Öhlins should start shipping within the next few weeks as well. The last piece of the puzzle, wheels, are still yet to be determined. I’ve been tempted to try RPF1s. I still would like a set of CE28s though. We’ll see. I’ve also been on the lookout for wheels on Yahoo Auctions Japan thanks to this informative post. There have been a few gems I’ve found that I actually want, but I have no idea how to get them to the states. Bummer. If anyone has the ability to help me out if I decide to make a purchase, I’ll definitely give you a finder’s fee.

Also, now that I’ve had the Greddy exhaust on for a little over a month, I thought I’d share my thoughts on it.

It’s frikkin’ quiet. While in my car, one of my friends said, “You have an exhaust?” And at a FR-S meet, I gave it a few revs for some other owners who wanted to hear it and they immediately said, “Oh, that’s way too quiet.” I’m quite happy with it regardless. It gives the car a refined growl just driving around, but at higher RPMs, it opens up, but isn’t obnoxious. Also, the best part is I can finally listen to my music while cruising without cranking my stereo volume up to 30, haha. Yeah, I’m old already.

Well, I guess that’s all I have to share. My life is pretty boring. So this post isn’t just a block of text, here’s a cool anime-styled Star Wars clip from the perspective of the Empire pilots. Pretty rad.

Project FR-S – Exhaust

Choosing an exhaust proved to be quite difficult. I evaluated many very nice and very expensive exhausts ranging from Fujitsubo and Arqray to Amuse and Auto Factory. I also considered waiting for Berk to release their catback. I even played with the idea of a bespoke exhaust similar to this one.

However, cars are so efficient these days and as I perused the FT86Club forums, I learned the FR-S is no exception. The days of decent gains with just basic bolt-ons are now gone. So, in regards to the FR-S, aside from marginal gains, sound is the only benefit, if you could call it that, you’ll be getting with an aftermarket exhaust system.

As I researched exhaust options, I developed a set of criteria that had to be fulfilled.

Legal – The exhaust must be emissions legal. Damn California smog nazis…

Sound – The exhaust must meet legal decibel levels (≤ 95 dB). Also, I’m not a 16 year old ricer punk anymore. I don’t want to attract attention from other vehicles and the police. Also, since my dad would be driving the car, we agreed on no stupid loud exhausts. We needed something quiet and refined, but sporty.

OEM-like fit and finish – The exhaust had to have an OEM-like appearance. No stupid canister style mufflers with fancy carbon or titanium tips. It had to be centered in the bumper cut-outs and have a slash-tip design that fit within the lines of the stock diffuser. The STi muffler (here and here) was the point of reference for this particular requirement.

Catback vs axleback – Because the gains are so marginal on the FR-S, it really didn’t matter to me if an exhaust was one or the other. The OEM midpipe is actually pretty efficient from the factory, with little restrictive properties. I also had to consider that a catback would probably be slightly louder too, which could oppose my goal of keeping the car on the quiet side.

Single exit vs dual – For aesthetic and performance reasons, the exhaust had to remain a dual system.

Aerodynamics – This is actually the most important criteria. The 86 is extremely aerodynamic and a lot of components you may not consider do play an active role in how the air travels around the car. One of those components is the exhaust. It was absolutely critical that aerodynamics remain undisturbed with the change of the exhaust system. It was been found that when the OEM muffler was removed, rear-end lift occurred. The large stock muffler actually acts as a diffuser of sorts and keeps air moving out the rear of the car instead of collecting behind the rear bumper. Therefore, the aftermarket exhaust had to have a muffler design similar to OEM. (Good threads to read here and here. There are a few more posts scattered around FT86Club, so as I find them, I’ll link them here.)

After many weeks of researching, I settled upon the Greddy SP Elite. The Greddy exhaust checked all the boxes I outlined above.

The first step obviously begins with removing the ugly hunkin’ mess of the OEM system.

The pathetic looking tips that come on the FR-S. The Toyota 86 ones are so much better looking.

Out with the old and in with the new.

2 bolts and 4 exhaust hangers later…

Much better.

Excellent fitment. Perfectly centered and right where I wanted the tips fitting in the rear bumper diffuser.

Here’s a bonus image of the OEM underpanels that come on the highest trim level Toyota 86 in Japan. I got them through JapanParts.com for around $350. They are said to lower the drag coefficient. Plus the underside of the car is now so much nicer even though no one sees it. LOL!

That’s it for now. I’ll be uploading some videos of the exhaust and write up a review in a little while.

Introduction to Project FR-S

Well… I’m not quite how to begin this, so I guess I’ll start from the beginning…

Back in June or so of last year, my father was told to purchase a “fun” car. I won’t get into the specifics behind that, but he was to look for something new and exciting to drive. Being a tC owner living in Southern California at the time, I was heavily involved in the Scion scene down there. I had heard about the concept FT-86 a couple years ago and had been keeping tabs on the car as it progressed through the concept stages. Over time, I was able to network myself into a automotive media position and through the gracious offerings of a friend with high-up connections in Toyota, I found myself at the US unveiling of the FR-S in November 2011.

Seeing the final production version of the FR-S at the exclusive LA party was really a cool experience, but what really attracted me to the car was the philosophy and the heritage behind it. I thought it was great that they threw out the numbers with the 86 and really focused on creating a well-balanced and fun car to drive. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted that car, I knew that there was no way it was going to happen. Until that all changed in June 2012. When my father told me to look for a “fun” car, I knew it was my opportunity to convince him to purchase the FR-S.

Why not the BRZ?

I suppose that my Scion loyalty was kicking in, haha. But realistically, there were a couple factors why we went for the FR-S over the BRZ.

1. We wanted a no hassle experience and Scion’s pure price system couldn’t be beat.
2. It was easier to get a FR-S than BRZ at the time.
3.. The luxury extras on the BRZ are nice, but not really what we wanted and not worth the price difference in my opinion. The BRZ headlights are pretty much all I like on the car…
4. The car would be modified anyway, so a cheaper car would leave money left for parts.
5. As I said above, I was really attracted to the history behind the car and felt the Toyota version was the better choice for that.

After bombarding my father with all kinds of articles and videos about the car, he decided the FR-S was the car we’d get, but being the hot new car it was, dealerships couldn’t keep them on the lots. In fact, people were buying the cars without seeing and driving them first and some dealerships even had a waiting list. In the meantime, my dad decided to sell his old Ford Sport Trac and bought a 2012 Scion xB. He wanted to downsize, and the ability to carry large items things, the low cost of maintenance, and increased MPG were just what he was looking for. After a few weeks of pestering the dealership where we had bought the xB, we received a call that they were receiving a few FR-S in a couple weeks and they wanted us to pre-pay for the car. My father didn’t really like the idea of buying car without even driving it, let alone looking at it, but this would be our only chance of getting one, so the next day we went down to the dealership to put our name down. We arrived early the next morning and when we met with the salesman, he told us they actually had just received a few FR-S which had been pre-purchased already. After a little negotiation, my father was able to convince them to let us quickly test drive one. After the test drive, my father had no hesitation writing the check, and after a few weeks of waiting, we had a Firestorm FR-S sitting in our driveway.

So you’re probably thinking, “It’s not your car?”

Nope. It’s my father’s. It’s basically a fun weekend car that we share. It will be mine someday though.

But you’re fixing it up?

Of course! Neither of us can stand a stock car and the FR-S is a fantastic platform for improving and personalizing. My father can’t even resist modifying the xB either, haha.

What are your goals for the car?

Just a clean, subtle build. Nothing crazy, that’s for sure. I’m sticking to my tuning philosophy of improvement, where every part should perform better than stock. To accomplish that plan, we have some very nice, high end parts in the pipeline.

I’m approaching the car as ASM might in Japan. Unfortunately, Kanayama-san at ASM actually received a Toyota 86 to drive, but was quite disappointed with it, saying the car design was too low quality for his tastes. He did admit the car is surprisingly well-balanced and that there was nothing he wanted to tune on the car. He felt like the only modifications needed were a Saclam exhaust, AP Racing brakes, Drexler LSD, and some ASM Karo mats. Regardless, I really admire the quality of work ASM does, the parts they use, and their classic approach to Japanese tuning that they are known for, so I’m just going to build this car as they would if they were to do it.

The 86/BRZ/FR-S was built for driving and ours will see some track time, so the car will be modified accordingly.

I guess that’s all for the introduction… For each part that arrives for the car, I’ll be writing up a detailed post examining the part(s) and the reasons why I chose it for our car. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop a comment below.

86 old style~!

Seems I wasn’t the only one thinking of ways to incorporate a little old school flavor into the 86. TRD released this “customize concept” at TAS that I quite like. As one of my friends put it, “It’s not the prettiest, but I can understand and appreciate the mix of vintage and contemporary JDM.”

I agree that it’s not very beautiful, but it’s a lot better than a lot of other 86s at TAS. (Take note of the K.I.S.S. principle here, haha.)

Being that I am obsessed with wheels, particularly classic Japanese wheels, it’s no surprise that I like the one-off 15×7.5 wheels that bear a close resemblance to the old TRD Tosco wheels. It would be interesting if they ever put them into production. I’m not sure if I could rock 15s on my FR-S, but if they made a set in say, 16×8, I’d probably hop on them. Behind the wheels are a TRD circuit spec brake upgrade, which includes new, larger front rotors, pads, and brake lines.

Another interesting add-on is this rear window louvre. I’m not terribly wild about it, but it does fit nicely with the 80s theme.

Overall, I think it’s a great approach to classic tuning on a modern chassis and I’m glad someone did it. It’s a breath of fresh, nostalgic air in an otherwise futuristic Japanese tuning scene.

Photo credit: Speedhunters, BackFromLeave, and TRD Japan.

Zele, Runduce/Varis, Esprit, Revo-Tune, & Auto Factory

All other 86 “tuners” go home.

The 86 doesn’t need a body kit with 8000 vents, contorted lines that make no sense with the rest of the car, 500 pound 23″ bling bling wheels, or 4 exhaust tips that look like an ISF. What happened to simplicity and subtlety? A lot of people need to brush up on the K.I.S.S. principle. Ugh, TAS, you disappoint me.

Also…Yay! Another version of the TE37 wheel! Thanks Rays! /sarcasm

How many versions are we up to now? A dozen? Ugh.

On a side note, forum vendors should be banned from posting outside the marketplace. All they do is clutter up threads with biased, product-pushing stupidity.

I know I said I wouldn’t rant, but I can’t help myself. Hmph. lol

Neat.

I don’t always plug blogs

But when I do, they’re awesome.

Stumbled upon [QR]GARAGE looking for pictures of some old wheels and started reading the posts. Entertaining writing style, interesting technical ramblings, and fantastic taste in classic Japanese wheels; the perfect recipe for a damn good blog. Do yourself a favor and check it out. I just hope he continues to update… haha