The S2k and the Ant

  Picking up speed in 2024, I hope. By 2026, I’m pretty busy running my shop, 3 Cat Garage, in La Habra. But anyway, back to 2024—I got some ADHD hyperfocus momentum going. The thing about hyperfocus is that it gives as much as it takes, leaving me stuck in task paralysis hell and stopping me dead in my tracks.

 I was working part-time on cars out of my friend Clement’s shop in Orange. Here’s his EK9—I imported this for him a while back.

  I’m not sure if I’ve shown this before, but I picked up this really cool body kit for the EG Civic. I can’t find much info on it, but I found it on Yahoo Auctions and thought it looked awesome. The only reference I can find is a car from “Yellow Factory” running it. I’m looking for a way to increase the fender width since these 15×9 Group B wheels are ridiculously wide. I also installed an LHD spec Cusco bolt-in cage and an Aslan carbon roof—which as of 2026 still hasn’t been finished.

Look familiar? This was featured on NDF.

That Subaru 2.5RS Ken picked up—here I am tearing it apart to get it ready for an STI swap.

 My buddy Chris, who had an EK9 in an earlier post, finally got his R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R into the USA. He’d been waiting on this car for a long time. It’s a 1999 model, and in 2024 it finally became import-ready.

 I stopped by with my JDM Snap-on box and some tools to help him out.

 After helping Chris, I decided to swing by Tokyo Central and saw some rad period-correct cars: an AE86 on TE37s and an FC RX-7 Turbo.

  Mazda RX-7 FC! Toyota AE86!

  He had some brand new R34 headlights waiting to go in. I helped him install them on his car.

 And just like that, his brand new-to-him R34 GT-R is getting torn apart.

 Nothing like fresh new headlights.

 I looked at my S2000 but didn’t actually do anything to it.

 Custom Honda sticker from my friend Andrew Hake—makes this Blaupunkt look completely OEM.

  I think I was getting ready to sell my TOM’S LS430.

 Another shot of the TOM’S LS430.

 So originally, Ken brought me an automatic Subaru 2.5RS in rough condition with rust from Utah. I told him this car wasn’t worth swapping and that he should find a cleaner car—which he did, as shown in an earlier post. The newer Subaru 2.5RS was a manual, but since we’re doing an STI swap, we didn’t need any of those parts. He commissioned me to manual swap his automatic Subaru 2.5RS using the transmission from the car he just bought—so basically, I was doing a triple swap.

 Auto trans out!

 I got some Toda pistons for my latest S2000 engine build.

 I picked up one of the last BRAND NEW OEM F22C fresh empty blocks.

It’s so new it’s not even stamped with F20C or F22C.

 The old TOM’S LS430 looking so good.

 Back to Chris’s house to help him replace the battery on his R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R. It’s quite the ordeal since the entire rear trunk panel has to come off. You definitely don’t experience this in Gran Turismo.

  His old battery.

Tight fit.

 New battery almost in, but it didn’t fit because the terminals were reversed and the positive cable was a bit too short.

 Got a new ASM shift knob—another one for the collection.

 With the old temp bumper.

 The guys from Cooled Collective ran an impromptu swap meet. Here I am selling my stuff.

 I’m pretty sure this was a replica—some Apple Computer Porsche thing.

 Picked this up for my daughter.

 It was being towed by a Unimog. That thing was massive.

  A customer of mine picked up a full dry carbon S2000 ASM dash.

 And by the end of that week, the auto 2.5RS GC8 was swapped to manual. More in the next post!