The S2k and the Ant

Okay we finally got over 2023 this year. Let’s see if I can catch up. I want to say 2024 and 2025 wasn’t too crazy?

I got back into working on cars for customers. I was software engineer by day and then greasy wrench guy at night….

My customer Ken picked up this 2.5RS to STi swap it.

I checked out my buddy Teddy’s newly opened up shop “MasterCraft” back in the day when they were in El Monte

Joe’s ASM parts for his build were chilling on the ground. I spy ASM dry carbon bumper + lip and ASM 04 wing. A pretty refreshing wing since it seems like everyone goes after the $11k? GT-09 wing combo now. I still remember the days when it was absurd to spend that much money on an S2k, but it’s a more premium car nowadays it seems.

Dry Carbon ASM wing stands

Mugen GPs with some Endless 6 pot Calipers.

I saw this eating with the family. Not sure what mercedes this is, but it looks cool

Met some people in the Subaru space thanks to my GC8. I’ve become friends with trey aka bakemono, who makes WRC parts for the GC8 Chassis. I was checking out this legit Prodrive lower control ARM from an actual WRC GC8. Pretty damn cool stuff.

TBH the ASM bumper fitment is something to be desired. Although I still love it.

The wing more assembled. I used to hang out at mastercraft in 2023 since it was a cool spot and near my place. I’m pretty sure their ex partner Jon hates me haha.

Of course the show car guys gotta add the mugen bolts where ever you can, like on this dry carbon Mugen hood.

The old Tom’s SuperCharged LS430. I think in 2023 I sold it.

In 2023 I was a bit more motivated….. I started the process of mounting my dry sump tank where the battery is on my car…. I used a big ass hole saw for this. I did not like the urge setup i had previously. When I asked them questions about their dry sump tank setup, I asked them if any other people ran this setup and they told me I was the only person with a running car running it…… like come on do some fucking R&D before you release a unit to the public.

I was at this moment I decided to call it quits and have a real fabricator take it on.

And then to Mastercraft it went. The fabricator Arman they had was super skilled. He has since parted was with Mastercraft, but you can still find him out there.

Mastercraft’s old El Monte location was cool with 2 floors….

Arman digging into it.

I went with an ARE dry sump tank since it is proven.

I guess I had this saved to my phone, teddy giving me encouraging messages.

At some point you gotta just pay someone with experience.

Here we are mocking it up.

Things are taking shape.

Around this time I bought the gussets from Opera performance. Yes THE opera performance. Since I already had a fab guy on this car, I figured why not.

reinforcement taking shape since some metal was removed.

Arman working his fucking magic. You can see his years of metal shaping and working on hot rods taking shape.

It’s sitting pretty here.

this is exactly what I imagined. Like a C6 Z06 corvette. This is where I got inspiration from this setup.

Decided to pop on my fake Porsche GT3 rear bumper aka ASM 07 rear bumper.

I was super commited to the ASM look. Like how I said “was”. I got the front and rear diffuser too. Here is Quan holding it up.

Dry sump tank almost in it’s final resting place.

ASM front diffuser in FRP, because i’m poor

I got the ASM brake ducts and installed them on my ASM Carbon Front bumper

You can see how the ASM bumper clears the dry sump and allows proper routing of the lines.

Oh yeah I had ASM dry carbon fenders too….. “had”. Oh yeah you can see the sweet sweet car emblem made by my friend Andrew.

Checking out the brake duct clearance

Arman moving on to the Opera gussets. I’m super thankful he worked on this project.

Lower gusset

ASM brake ducts. I really do like the ASM, for a track package they make a pretty much bolt on kit to go racing that is aerodynamically decent.

Front lower gussets

The Opera Performance gussets taking share all over. I’m sure a company is gonna knock this off, most likely a company that starts with the world “r” and ends with “e”.

Armans welding is ACE. I’m sure this is not easy.

I’m experimenting with where to put this battery……

Arman…..

Finished product. This makes my s2k a bit more special having real opera performance items on it.

Now I have to relocate the DAMN EPS module. Something that I have yet to do in 2026……

maybe here?

side note: If you ever want to upgrade your upgrade your PCI control arms on a honda with proper bearings… here it is

So my car is an Ap1 with an ap2 rear panel grafted onto it……. so the bumper “legs” are too long for the bumper i’m running. Arman is cooking up these.

You can see here the difference of ap2 vs ap1 mounting

The other side.

While we were in there, Arman helped me reinforce my subframe cam bolts.

Final fitment of my ARE dry sump tank. Super reinforced, done properly. I def couldn’t of done this myself. Arman is a super talented fabricator.

Now with the dry carbon ASM hood…. my Entire front end is ASM dry carbon. just like the S2000 of my dreams. We came a long way.

Super reinforced front subframe.

The otherside!

Threw on an ASM Sabelt tow strap I picked up in Japan.

Can’t stop looking at it!

Oh yeah since I have CR steering rack stiffeners, I had arman weld a nut to my subframe to tie it in.

My ASM siren going back on. I got this in Japan, it was one of the few ASM had Zirotec coated .

Clearance.

Back home it goes.

A coat of steel it and I’ll close it out here. Stay tuned for the next part.