Finds: Korean S2ks!

February 24, 2018February 24, 2018 / WhoisAnts / Leave a comment

Another sleepless night… it is currently 4:52am….

I remember when I started this whole S2k ownership thing, Facebook was only for college students and instagram wasn’t invented yet. Now instagram is THE destination for insta automotive e-fame. One night I was digging through all the #s2000 content on Instagram and I came across a super rad S2k from Korea of all places, South Korea, not the North of course. There seems to be a small group of S2k enthusiasts in Korea that utilize real authentic parts and take them to the track, not post pictures of their car on instagram and give bullshit inspirational quotes….

I first found tota1ba1ance who has a pretty clean yellow ap2 with some choice mods, Mugen top, Mugen lip, Mugen Wing, and ZE40s. From him, I saw his boy manminkim who’s car blew my mind running an Amuse GT1 kit with a legit Dry Carbon Mugen hardtop and tracking the hell out of it.

I sent them a DM and they replied saying they have blogs they update frequently with their pictures… here and here

I can’t read Korean, and my google translate doesn’t seem like it wants to translate their page, but they are some awesome shots of their cars on there. Definitely recommend browsing their blogs. I’m going to post more pictures of manminkim since his car is crazy!!!! These are not in any chronological order.

I’m sure this is Korea International Circuit, I don’t think they are many race tracks in Korea.

He’s repping Bro’s R&D, a popular tuner shop in South Korea. Side note, I think the one of the guys that runs Bro’s used to work for the late GTMotoring….

From their instgram, I believe he’s running a Spoon create engine with Toda itbs! Of course in the best setup running the dry carbon intake box running into a Mugen intake!

clean

interesting cluster

Running spoon calipers! Dunno if it’s just me, but I think it’s funny how small spoon calipers look with stock sized rotors when you have a massive wheel like this…. I’m sure for the track it’s great since you’re just utilizing stock sized pads and rotors, keeps disposable parts cost down!

RHD. I wondered if it was imported from Japan mostly in this state or if this is an ex-tuner demo car?

Under the skin, interesting not V, V mounted radiator with a custom cooling duct.

At bros, impressive lineup at their shop.

this is when he got his Toda ITBS! with Dry Carbon trumpets too, which only come in 88mm…. #ITBnerdFact.

Looks like a custom tow hook!

Toda Dry Carbon Surge Tank mounted.

I love how the Amuse GT1 kit looks with a Mugen hardtop and Mugen hood….. I think I like it more than the Amuse Hardtop.

ITB install going down.

Toda ITB drycarbon Surge tank! and someone was brave enough to drill a hole into it to mount the IAT sensor.

Looks like he is running stock injectors.

I wonder if spoon ported the head, or if this is before he got his spoon engine…..

Dry carbon Mugen Hardtop

Before

After

You can see the chassis has been gusseted for rigidity on the shock towers.

The Amuse GT1 kit goes so hard.

Interesting bracket to hold the Mugen intake since the stock cross member is gone. Classic Ichishima-San signature on the valve cover

I would love to pay a visit to this shop next time I’m in Korea. Looks so small goodies in this picture, like the Spoon S-Tai front bumper to the right.

Some shots off of Tota1Ba1ance’s S2k off of his blog. Great clean build. The Volk Ze40s look so right wight on Rio Yellow.

Not many people run Mugen front lips nowadays, probably because they are incredibly easy to get destroyed.

soo good…..

Nice off the shelf Ohlins kit!

Spoon axles! Like what my friend Areen is running.

Interesting J’s front S2k.

Hopefully I’ll have some more updates on my own car soon!

Finds: “Ex-Powerhouse Amuse Car?” the fastest NA?

February 7, 2018February 7, 2018 / WhoisAnts / 5 Comments

Rad Video, I’m not sure if it is the Power House Amuse Touge Monster car, but it sure looks like it, Imola orange exterior, Amuse Spec Brembo Brakes, Amuse HT…..

EDIT: Just got word that this is not the Touge Monster! See Below:
Screen Shot 2018-02-07 at 14.01.32

Finds: 2018 TAS Spoon S2k for Auction!

January 22, 2018January 24, 2018 / WhoisAnts / Leave a comment

Hi all,

Long time no post… It is 2018 and I’m still unemployed, so things are a bit slow for the s2k on my end! Don’t worry me and the S2k are in this till the end! I still gotta post up a picture of what I have left of the S2k….. In other news, my daughter was born this year, oh yeah! I don’t like to post too much non-original content, but I gotta archive this for the future. Links to stuff like this tend to die out. If you like this non-original content, I do love posting S2k news….

This year during Tokyo Auto Salon, TAS for short, in parallel with the normal TAS activities, a car auction was held. Many classic JDM cars were presented and sold, such as a Mint Low mileage R34 GTR Nur, or the Spoon NSX, that Ichishima san famously crashed at the Macau street Circuit! But this is S2kandtheAnt! Even though I seem to feature non-S2k material from time to time, my priority is on this 2 door convertible with a 9k redline (sometimes 8200) that we all know and love!

At this years TAS, the Spoon Sports S2000 Racecar was auctioned off. Spoiler Alert, the car did not sell, it did not met the reserved set….. They did however release some juicy images of the spoon racecar. All these people building spoon tribute cars, nothing beats the real deal, nothing! This is a real treat, because it’s damn rare to see up close and super detailed photos of the car. For some reason most JDM tuners tend not to post pictures of their car like this.

Vin # of the racecar shell. Looks like it’s an Ap1, 130 model. This is the 2003 year of the S2k in Japan, which is pretty much like a USDM AP2 minus the f22c engine. With that being said, the designation of Ap2 vs Ap1 in Japan is only relevant with the later years that have a f22c and dbw, kind of like our 06+.

This car was raced in the ST4 class of Super Taikyu (Super Endurance). The rules for the class is basically showroom stock powered cars with minimal mods. The engine bay of the car looks relatively stock with a few bit of spoon dress up items, brake sock, valve cover, radiator hose, radiator, snorkel duck thing. The engine in this car is blue printed and built from spoon. I believe spoon uses OEM parts when they rebuild their engines, but choose parts that are closer in weight to achieve total balance. All of this is controlled by a Motec ECU.

Interior is all racing business, spoon bucket, cool suit, and what’s a JDM car without Takata harnesses.

Aero is allowed in the ST4 class. Version 2 of the Spoon Sports S2000 Rear bumper with an interesting quad Spoon N1 Exhaust looking muffler tips.

Spoon Wing, with the famous mooncraft Spoon hardtop. The rear holes in the trunk are the fuel filler, so racecar!

Under the trunk action. Really made use of the area where the emergency tools are located for a fuel tank!

Side profile showing off the Spoon S2000 widebody kit, but not really wide body kit because it is not running spoon fenders or rear over fenders!

Dunno if it’s just me, but this version 2 kit only works on full liveried out racecars, when it’s on a car with a single color, it looks a bit odd.

Peaking under the Advan TCIII? rims you can see the signature Spoon Calipers. These particular calipers might be a special prototype or the 355 version. The picture is not clear enough to identify.

Maybe not now, but in the future this will be worth something to a generation of enthusiasts.

Finds: Eagle Shop Urawa S2000

September 9, 2017September 9, 2017 / WhoisAnts / Leave a comment

It’s one of those nights were I can’t sleep….. Lately I’ve been transition from one industry to another, so I’m trying to find a job in a different field than what I’ve been working on for the past 6 years. I need to get my mind off of it, when my mind wanders, sometimes I look back to the early days of the s2000, when many things were new, and Japan was a bit further away since we didn’t have sites like speedhunters, or bloggers like Noriyaro (like bringing dajiban knowledge to the mainstream….), or even countless countless youtube videos of people visiting famed S2000 tuning shops while on vacation in Japan now. The world really feels like a smaller place, globalization is real. Back when the S2000 was released and your only glimpse of JDM culture was through Best Motoring Videos you had to buy (cough cough) or though magazines like Option, or my favorite, HyperREV!

Eagle Shop Urawa is just a typical Japanese tuning shop based out of the Saitama prefecture, right outside Tokyo, they specializing in Hondas. They don’t produce their own parts, and seem more into the setup for cars for people that enjoy track days, which is why I’m sure the Eagle Shop Urawa Spec Road & Track Ohlins Dampers are available. Eagle Shop Urawa generally use parts from the typical JDM s2k tuners, like Mugen, Spoon, Powerhouse Amuse, Endless, Voltex, you know the good stuff. What really stood out to me is when I saw their blurb in the first HyperRev magazine they were featured in, the super rad speedster style S2000 caught my eye. The chopped off the windshield, gives the car a super raw look, almost retro-esque of some German or British stuff. No one else had such a crazy S2k at the time, the execution was spot on…. it could of gone bad, like really bad.

I love how it’s a single seater, the passenger side is blocked off. Rocking some Enkei RPF1s, Powerhouse Amuse R1 front Bumper, Mugen hood, Bride racing Bucket seat, custom looking side skirts and APR mirrors

The car attacking the track with a big ass voltex wing….

The car is insane. The exhaust looks like an Amuse r1 Exhaust and the front bumpers it looks like they added some canards. This car is really built for the track!

That’s it….. I know these pictures have been floating around the net for awhile now. But I really wanted to spotlight one of my favorite JDM S2k builds. If you have any more pictures of this car, please send them my way! I would definitely enjoy it.

Finds: Turbo F20c Swapped Mercedes C200 W202

September 4, 2017September 5, 2017 / WhoisAnts / 3 Comments

I had to share this car… it’s too awesome not too. I have a soft spot for 80s-90s Mercedes Benz for whatever reason….. a dream build would be a f20c Swapped 190e Cosworth with some ITBs, but anything F20c swapped is super rad to me (BMW 2002s are also in this camp)…. I was browsing the net and I stumbled upon this Mercedes C200 with a TURBO F20c SWAP for sale on Yahoo Auctions Japan! how cool is that, what makes it even more cool is that the car looks pretty damn clean dropped on some super clean BBS rims! Excuse me if I drop some incorrect Mercedes knowledge, I will admit I’m not too knowledgeable with non S2000s, I think we never got the C200 in the USA, but the body style looks similar to the C230 we got in the mid to late 90s.

Specs (translated by me from a jpeg):

JZZ30 Soarer TRUST Intercooler
Koyo Radiator
Gluck Original Muffler
Exedy Carbon Clutch
OS Giken LSD 2 way
Electronic Power steering
Full-Type springs? F16kg/mm R:12kg/mm
Original Shocks
BNR34 Brembo Calipers
BNR34 Brake Rotors
JZZ30 Soarer E-brake
BBS RG-R 18″
Defi Racing Meter
Carbon Fiber Hood
AMG type front aero
Carbon fiber Piller Cover
Projector Headlights
LED tail lights
LED side Markers
Widened Fenders
Recaro Seats with Power adjustment
Silver carbon fiber interior trim
interior LEDs
AVIC-HRZ09 HDD with Parking Camera

Pretty clean right? You can tell it’s been lowered with some rims, maybe an aftermarket bumper, headlights, and if you look closely you can see the intercooler peaking out, foreshadowing things to come…..

Like this Turbo-ed F20c out of our beloved Honda S2000! I will admit I’m not a purist when it comes to engine swaps, f20c-all-things sounds great to me…. The engine looks almost factory to me, if you don’t mind the big ass turbo hanging off of it, interesting coolant swirl pot setup, I’m sure this thing goes!

Classic 90s Benz boxy shape, the stance is so right, this car looks like it is the perfect car to go out on a date and hit the track later on. The taillights looked as they have been blessed by the LED gods.

Some interior goodness. The Defi super sports cluser is oh-so JDM on a build like this. I love how the interior isn’t all race-car, the full interior is kept. I can smell that classic old Mercedes Benz Leather smell already….

Of course Brembo calipers, which are borrowed off of another car, being an Nissan R34 GTR and BBS RG-R wheels work so well together.

So how much for all this are you asking? You can own all of this for 1800000yen! around 18k USD.

Finds: ASM Exhaust differences

August 21, 2017August 22, 2017 / WhoisAnts / Leave a comment

I generally try to produce my own content nowadays, but sometimes I find some awesome content I can’t help but to share. I’ve been following the ASM blog for years, probably ever since I got my S2k in 2008. I love how they keep updating it frequently through the years. This post about the differences between the ASM exhausts throughout the years is pretty rad. So with my shitty Japanese and google translate….. This is what I figured out + some of my own personal input.

ASM S-Special

This is the first ASM exhaust for the S2000. This came in 60mm and 70mm diameters, and made with stainless steel and Titanium. The Titanium version only came in the 70mm diameter size. According to ASM blog they went for maximum sound quality, but did not invest too much into material research, so overtime these tend to break down, specifically the the resonator. Around 2010 they did re-release refurbished versions of these exhausts with fixed resonators. Due to the reliability issues with these exhausts, ASM urged the SACLAM President Uno-san to come up with a new exhaust from Scratch…

In my personal opinion the 70mm ASM Titanium Exhaust is the best sounding exhaust ever created for the S2000. My 2nd personal favorite would probably be the AMUSE R1 TITAN EURO S SINGLE TITANIUM EXHAUST…. I got a thing for Titanium Exhausts
ASM IsDesign Silencer Kit 1

The next ASM exhaust is produced by SACLAM (quick note, SACLAM is a company started by an ex-Mugen Engineer). We all know this as the ASM Siren Exhaust, according to the blog, they achieved a more quiet exhaust, with a good flow, and a relatively straight through design. This exhaust does not use any wool packed mufflers or resonators, so overtime this exhaust does not become louder nor degrade internally as with the S-Special. Check out here for a more in depth description.

ASM ISDesign Silencer Kit 2

Due to the success of the ASM ISDesign Silencer Kit 1 (in Japan probably), aka the ASM Siren exhaust. There was a huge demand for a dual muffler version. The ASM ISDesign Silencer Kit 2 was born, designed to be paired with the ASM07 Exhaust manifold. This exhaust according to the ASM blog, was incorporated with the signature SACLAM Muffler tips whether you like it or not! (note how the SACLAM Muffler tips look and then look at a Mugen exhaust for an EF Honda Civic). This exhaust is even more durable than the Silencer Kit 1. This exhaust even comes in Titanium with a slightly different design. You can read more about this on the GoTuning website and the Ti One here.

This exhaust is actually cheaper than the previous version since they have improved the manufacturing process.

ASM blog post

If you see any false information, let me know!

Meet Life: 626 S2k BBQ

April 1, 2016April 1, 2016 / WhoisAnts / Leave a comment

After I got back from Asia, the 626 crew had a small bbq meet. I feel like I post too many meet pictures, let me know if you want to see more of something else. I’m documenting my automotive life on this blog through my eyes and writing down my own thoughts. I am messing around with different editing styles so the same car looks a bit different in each picture, the lighting keep changing from different angles. If anyone has any photo editing tips for me, I’m all ears.

There were some NSXs in attendance.

I’m not really feeling the wheels, I feel like they are too aggressive for this car.

I like well rounded cars and this isn’t one of them…..just having a rear diffuser and nothing else seems off….rocking a Euro plate when the car isn’t remotely European seems really strange to me….

Everyone hanging out and grilling…………………..
This black NA1 NSX is a bit more tasteful. I like the Recaro Pole positions ..
Desmond Regamaster Evo, always a fresh look on Hondas….Now that I think about it I never seem on any other make, maybe it’s a Honda thing.
GT One Exhaust!
Making some Tacos! On a side note, I’m loving the Mexican food on this coast, the east coast doesn’t compare.
Clement Kwong came out in his tracked out S2k. He’s pretty slick on the track nowadays, I’m sure he’s gonna break sub 2 at Button Willow soon! You’ve seen him on this blog before, he’s rocking a rep mugen bumper since he tracks the hell out of this car and legit J’s racing Fenders.
I like the stance of his car, he’s running Nitron Coilovers, Clement swears on his life that these are the best coilovers for the money. I believe him with that laptimes he is putting down.

The black NA1 was rocking a center mounted voltex wing…. I’m not a big fan of center mounted wings on the NSX….. Also his Honda Emblem lights up at night…..I wish it didn’t…….
The guy hosting the meet brought out his Nissan GTR R32. Right now these are coming into the country by the boat loads, it’s still pretty difficult to get one registered in California even with the 25 year rule. The car looked decent from 10 feet away, but as I got closer I noticed some flaws….. I’m pretty sure the door in supposed to be closed in this picture….
The front vent was coming off, it looks like they used some caulk to keep it sticking in. There was the same caulk all around his rear window too.
It is still a GTR after all, I’m sure some things can be fixed.
Not pictured, the side seal is pretty done too…. getting things like seals are probably the most expensive since they are already high cost vehicle specific parts and you have to import them….. My suggestion for anyone getting a R32 GTR, find the cleanest one you can find even if it costs a little bit more. The auction houses in Japan sells cars by different grades depending on the quality and condition. I feel like importers buy the lower quality grade cars and mark them up…..do your homework.

The old school Nismo rims are pretty rad. They were also a bunch of S2ks there, but nothing really caught my eye…..

Finds: RacingMinds’ Track beast

May 30, 2013December 12, 2017 / WhoisAnts / Leave a comment

Singapore is known for extremely high taxes on cars. Cars in Singapore are triple of what we would pay in the US. An S2k would cost upwards of 100k USD! Even though their cars are the price of a Ferrari in the US, Singapore has some of the most devout car fanatics that build their cars up with only the best of the best parts. This car is a great example, “racingminds” on s2ki. I believe her no longer owns this car, since I saw it up for sale a few years back.

Craft Square mirrors…..