mugen

Life: Chronicles Year 10

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Hey all,

I am still alive…. Life has been busy, my daughter, new job in a new field, house stuff, etc…. adulting really takes a toll on you.  It’s funny when I tell my friends from highschool/college and mention I still have my s2k(partially) and I’m still into it, going to meets, writing blog posts, etc, they look at me like I’m a 30 year old going on 18.

I can’t shake this car thing, especially Honda S2000s, even though the scene is drastically different than when I first started.  Before I couldn’t fathom why the OG S2ks guys sold their cars and went on to different things, I would think why would you leave the greatest car god has ever created (JK not JK), but now as a fully grown man guy (I think), I finally understand, life changes and sometimes you don’t got time to drink boba and smoke cigarettes till 2am in the morning.  This younger crowd does make me think about the s2k as a platform….but I am in this for the long run…. we’ll see if this turns into 911 and the Ant.

Sorry for the long tangent…. I finally had time and approval from my boss, aka wife, to make it down to the Chronicles year 10 meet. In fact we just got off a cruise from Mexico that morning, I even made my wife, daughter, mother-in-law rush off the boat at 7am with all our luggage instead of having it delivered to the dock for us so I could make this meet. Which means our continuously screaming child was under her care for the day, while I bare the heat of beautiful Corona California…..  It was a hot one for sure, in fact every year is hot as fuck, so this year was no different.

Excuse the sensor dust… I tried my best to remove it.


Upon entering the meet, I had to say what’s up to Joe, lowkey one of the best builds out there.  He’s a super humble guy that doesn’t live for the gram like 75% of these owners nowadays.  His Mugen S2k CR is a thing of beauty and has been featured before.  I definitely look up to him, since he’s a great father and has this sick S2k, #lifegoals.


Next to Joe’s Mugen CR is Carlos’s ASM bumper S2000 CR, another S2k CR that has been “ruined” with Voltex rear over fenders and Mugen rims.


Sara Choi’s Voltex’ed S2000 CR.


EK with J’s Fenders


EG Civic with a rad Pocari Sweat livery, Osaka JDM wing, J’s racing fenders, and super jdm mismatching rims.


Jackie made it all the way from Vancouver Canada to make the meet. I’ve been following this build for years, before instagram when he just had a build thread on S2ki.  In fact I remember his car in this video back in the day. He had an 04 ASM bumper before.  Now he’s rocking a Voltex race front bumper, Voltex rear diffuser, spoon hood, craftsquare mirrors, and Voltex wing…. When he was rocking the ASM front bumper, the Voltex kit wasn’t even out yet, that’s how OG this guy is!


I love the Te37 wheels in this color.


Interior shot that shows the stack cluster.  I love the stack cluster, I actually prefer it over the S2k speedo.  Iconic Cusco blue rollcage and momo wheel with NSX-R horn button.


Another guy from Canada came down in this super clean styled Toyota Century.


I don’t even want to say VIP style, because this is the VIP.  When I think of VIP style, I think VIP cars are trying to make their car look and feel like this.


ITRs were plenty.


Sang ‘s  J’s Racing widebody turbo s2k looking good…. car for is for sale btw!


Gotuning tommy, representing Gotuning with his crazy ASM S2000 CR…. the 4th “ruined” S2000 CR at the meet.


For this event, Spoon USA brought out their Super Taikyu S2000 all the way from Japan.


Yep looks race car.


The Spoon Super Taikyu car rocking some Titan7 wheels with some 6 pot Spoon calipers.


Of course this isn’t s2kandtheant without talking about Areen’s S2k….. This is for sale too… My S2k friends’ s2ks are slowly disappearing.


Great deal if you buy it!


Since I am currently working on an EG civic, I was taking notes of all the EG civics there.


EG civic with Mugen lip, Mugen strut bar, and some green TE37.


What amazes me are these small details, like how clean this hood support is!


It is amazing how some of these cars were at wekfest in the bay area a bit prior to this event, and they all made it down to this meet.


Another shot of Jackie’s S2k.


This del sol was exceptionally done.  Mugen front bumper, Te37, K swap with Kinsler ITBs, and S2000 Spoon mirrors.


What impressed me the most are these recently discontinued crazy $$$ Mugen x Recaro MS-R seats.  You could buy many del sols for these price of these two seats.


Simple Amuse R1 front bumper S2000 with CE28n


Modest AP racing big brake kit on the s2k.


This Spoon civic that pops up at every big meet.  Pretty much everything from the Spoon catalogue except the mishimoto radiator.  I think I last saw it at Eibach in 2018.


My buddy Gabe with his Ap2 with an Ap1 front bumper.


Mugen MF10s up front and TE37 in the rear.


Joe popped his hood revealing the Mugen intake, super rare mugen spark plug cover, and ASM strut bar.


ITR with Mugen kit on some TE37.


This is by far my favorite EG Civic at the meet.  Super super clean JDM EG6 SIR.  Here you can see the super clean and rare EG6 Mugen exhaust.


This civic is perfect sitting on white Mugen MF8.


I love how pristine and stock the engine bay is. I love the OEM resonator and OEM airbox.  I find it funny how I’m coming full circle nowadays, where before I would want the most modded car, but now I want the most original car as these cars age.


Everything about this civic is perfect, sunroof visor, window visors, and yellow interior.


TSX wagon on Mugen MF10s with some more Mugen goodies.


Clean Ap1 rocking the Ap2 Mugen kit sitting on Mugen MF10.


Mugen kit goodness.


Clean r32 skyline in an interesting green color.


Pretty good turnout.


Lotus Elise on an APR kit


Front shot of the Super Taikyu Spoon S2000.


Another shot of Gotuning Tommy’s ASM s2k on Titan 7 wheels.


The Evasive booth had this Ap2 with the new Greddy Gen 2 turbo kit


Love the ASM tow hook peeking out of the Amuse R1 bumper.


shot of the Mugen ITR from earlier, The open hood reveals a K swap.


EG Tank Mike was present


Clean NA1 NSX with TE37.


Quad tipped Spoon exhaust.


Spoon prototype hardtop.  It’s amazing looking at the hardtop in detail, it is CNC’ed out of one piece of metal.


Super clean EF, I’ve been really interested in EFs lately… something about those boxy looks.


Under the hood of the Spoon Super Taikyu S2000….


Sang’s S2k again.


S2000 with wings out in full force.


Super clean ARC theme BB4 prelude.


Engine shot of the ARC theme’ed prelude.


Youtube famous LATOMMYLA TWM ITB EK civic.


shot of the TWM ITBs.


EK is on green TE37.


At the point I changed lenses that had a super scratched polarizer on it….. I didn’t realize this till later.  That’s why all the picture from here on out seem a bit hazy.


Jackie’s S2000 again showing his AP Racing pro 5000 calipers in detail.


Notched authentic Spoon hood for the turbo.


under the hood of Tommy’s car, showing off the ASM intake and Mugen Spark plug cover, and ASM dry CF hood.


Areen’s ASM hood…. looks familiar :p

Closing out this post with Phil Robles crazy Eg civic.  2019 just started, hopefully we’ll see my S2k get one step closer to a car again!

Life: Eibach 2018 at AutoClub Speedway Part 3

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Final post of Eibach 2018 at autoclub speedway! I’ve noticed something with my pictures I need to take more into account when I’m going over them….  My pictures look drastically different my iPhones (yes mine and my wife) compared to what I see on both my Mac Pro Desktop and Macbook even though I thought I calibrated them….

Check out my previous post here if you pissed it.

On to the pictures!  At this point I was done checking out the cars in S2k row and started to venture out to the vendor area.  An overcast arrived that was greatly welcomed, so being not so hot AF I really took my time…


Always a classic S2k look for me, Powerhouse Amuse R1 bumper and bronze wheels, in this case Mugen MF10 (I do wish they were CE28N) and a black OEM hardtop.  This white car was also rocking spoon aero mirrors…. I still don’t know how I feel about the aero mirrors since I’ve re-fell in love with stock mirrors recently haha.  I’ll probably change my mind about that in a few weeks, as I always do.


I do miss my Amue R1 bumper…..


This new gen NSX came fresh off the drag strip.  It ran a stupid fast time….I just can’t remember what it was…. thrilling I know.  I believe it only has exhaust modifications done to the car.


Not really a looker this one…. It would be a half decent build if it wasn’t for those awful headlights.  Some mods really detract from the car, for example, for me at least, anytime people add these headlights or tail lights I really lose my S2000 boner.  OEM is perfection.


This AP1 is packing an HKS super charger.  Probably spent all of his money on the HKS Super charger so he had to go for the eBay headlights……


It was the first time seeing the Rywire Sema S2000 in person and it is glorious.  It’s amazing how much nicer it is in person compared to in pictures.  I spent a good amount of time looking over the fine details of this build since I’ve worked on a number of stock S2ks over the years and know when I see something not OEM under the hood…..


In pictures it does look strange with the really wide hips…..But in person it doesn’t look too drastic.  Who can say no to the Mugen SS Bumper… especially one that has been widened for extra smileys.


I’ve had numerous ITBs on my personal S2k, so this Kinsler unit with the top feed injectors definitely peaked my interest.  It’s interesting how Ryan integrated the DBW module and basically machined a shaft to match up with the Kinsler linkage.  I’m pretty sure he’s using a Subaru Drive by Wire throttle unit.  The way this was done, it could only be done with the Kinsler ITBs because the linkage is sideways compared to other itb setups….. Not the best explanation I know.


I love how extra plates with gussets were welded to the body to look super OEM.  The bung coming out of the brake master cylinder was interesting.  I really like this brake line look…. super tempted to do an ABS tuck….


really clean and tidy setup.


interior was very simple with a Mugen Gen III Steering wheel and JDM Recaro RSG.  Looks like a pretty beefy rollcage, but lets be honest, this car will never see a race track….


Interesting blend of the Mugen SS rear bumper and Mugen Ap1 rear trunk lip.  For me the side skirts make the car look really boxy and loses one of my favorite S2k lines.


Another SEMA heavy hitter, the Mode Parfume Ap1.  Mode Parfume is mainly known in the VIP crowd.  Mode Parfume brings an interesting look to the S2k, really rounds out the lines of the car.  Besides the kit this car is rocking a J’s Racing hood and Volk TE37.


The blue this car is painted is excellent.


Next to the mode parfum car was this J’s Racing Widebody Turbo’ed S2000, I follow the owner on instragram.  This looks like a very well executed build, with the power to match.  Love those Project Mu calipers and craftsquare mirrors.  Sometimes it drives me insane when there is a crazy widebody S2k, but is running a stock engine….. Wide body needs the power to match the looks!


nice and tidy turbo setup…. big ass turbo at that.


I saw this car for sale recently and it listed Tein Flex suspension on the car, details like this make me cringe, like seriously, you’re gonna spend 30k+ on body work alone and then you’re gonna get the cheapest jdm suspension you can buy…..  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw motons on the car.


Greddy showing off their Gen 2 Turbo Kit.  The only smog legal turbo kit for the s2000.  For the Gen 2 turbo kit, Greddy redesigned the exhaust manifold to make it much stronger, the older generation manifold was known to crack, in addition to the redesigned manifold, Greddy upgraded the turbo to a more modern Garret GTX2867R, oh yeah, Greddy ditched the super outdated eManage and now run Hondata flashpro.


I believe this car is actually owned by one of the owners of Evasive Motorsports.  Super clean build with voltex front end, volk te37, and project mu BBK.


I would love a 2nd s2k and boost the hell out of it.


Another shot of Gotuning tommy’s ASM’ed S2k running Titan7 wheels.


This booth stopped me in my tracks.  Nisin, in addition to making cup noodles (JK), they also make the OEM brake calipers and Spoon calipers!


Nisin had this on display.  It’s a 6 pot caliper they are planning to release soon.  They revealed to me that the new Spoon BBK is going to be based off of this caliper.  I can’t wait.


In addition to the BBK they are planning to release, they have performance brake pads available now!


All types of S2ks were present, including ones like this…..


I saw some random Japanese people at the Pit Garage booth…. later I found out it was the J’s Racing president…. oops, should of got him to sign something.


ICB selling high quality JDM goods in addition to the new Regamasters.  On the table we have a beautiful saclam exhaust.  For people that don’t know, the guy that runs Saclam is an ex-Mugen Engineer.  That’s why if you look at older mugen exhausts for 90’s Hondas, you can see the influence he had on the exhaust tips.


Interesting wrap color on this Type-R.



Pricing for the Regamaster Evos


I walked back to say goodbye to some S2k people.  I couldn’t help to notice Moses’s  Amuse Euro 70mm exhaust with some gold bling bling….


People were leaving, love all around….. refreshing from all the internal hate of car things in my heart (kidding not kidding)


Russan Hammer snapping a few shots for the gram.


Another shot of dimsum Jon’s car.


JDM umbrellas were out in full swing.


Moar of this.  I wish I framed this better.


stopped by to look at the finer details of this new Greddy kit!


Sara Choi’s S2000 CR I used to see rolling around in Monterey Park…. I like the Volk Te37 on this, really flows will the rest of the build’s dark accents.

Life: Eibach 2018 at AutoClub Speedway Part 2

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Welcome to part 2 of my Eibach coverage. I’ve been overwhelmed by the positive response I received in the past few days, you guys are the reason that I keep taking photos, as crappy as they are, and continue to keep writing as horrible as my grammar is…..

I was blown away at the line up of S2ks.  It was like seeing an Instagram feed of S2ks in person.

Let’s start where we left off last post in Part 1


I wasn’t aware who this was in part 1, but my buddy let me know this is JDReyes


Voltex kit with ASM fenders, Spoon Hood, and White Volk CE28N…… all in Cocaine white.


Russian Hammer’s White ASM Ap2 with newly bronzed Volk CE28n again……


If there is one kit I’ve seen take over the S2k scene in the past few years, it’s the Voltex body kit.  It has really taken over in the past few years since Evasive first dropped the sketches to the public on FB years ago….  It’s a great looking kit, but to me it was destroyed by how many rep kits they are nowadays.  I do agree it is probably one of the most functional body kits since voltex did test it all in a wind tunnel.


Another voltex kitted S2k running Volk TE37SL with EVS fenders and an ASM hood with EVS hood vents.  Something about the vents on the fender reminds me of when Z3 fenders were super popular on imports, hell even my Honda Accord with a purple body kit had them back in the day.


Another angle.


Yep, Voltex is very popular.  Note the J’s Kitted S2k by S2Boost parting the sea of voltex


EVS fenders on this white Ap1 with a spoon hood and voltex front bumper by kaotik


side shot showing the red ce28n, voltex front flares, voltex sideskirts, circuit garage rear over fender, and craftsquare mirrors.


Silverstone Ap1 with voltex front bumper, spoon fenders, spoon hood, and craftsquare mirrors.


Hector Lavario’s Voltex kitted Ap2…..


All these S2ks looking super clean….. I’m not sure if it’s because i’m ADHD or jaded, but I miss seeing the variety of tuning styles in S2ks.  There are so many different manufactures of body parts for the S2k, maybe it is the effect of social media, but s2ks now are looking pretty similar following the same cookie cutter mentality, most S2ks run the same type of body kits or parts, like a voltex body kit, voltex wing, Amuse R1 Bumper (I’m guilty of this), CE28 or TE37….  Only 12+ years ago, I remember there was a variety of styles people were trying out, such as Tracy Sports, Amuse Wide body, INGS+1, Cwest, Car Garage Amis, Sorcery……  I can’t remember the last time someone actually brought up INGS+1 in a conversation,  I think it’s a great looking front bumper.


Voltex wings all around.


S2k row.


I think this is the first time I’ve seen car shop glow tail lights in person……. Digging the rear end of the Silverstone Ap1.  Voltex Swan Neck wing + CSG tail lights, K1 Laboratory Duck Tail, and what looks to be a J’s Racing Exahust.


Another shot showing the Volk ZE40.


I just realized that the sebring silver car to the left is rocking Euro headlight washers…. It’s funny how europeans can’t get rid of these fast enough, but on the other side of the ocean people are adding them to their cars.  The Volk TE37 fitment looks so period correct on this Ap1.


Next to the row of S2ks, they were a row of DC2, most of them being type-r…. Phoenix yellow is so good.


And Championship white.


relatively modest ap1….


I wonder if this spoon sticker is the reproduction or an original?  He’s also rocking a Spoon snorkle and J’s Racing cooling plate….


Another shot of Joe’s S2000 CR


I think Kaotik was explaining why he gold wrapped his Mugen intake something something…..


One of the few Turbo’ed S2ks in attendance S2boost.  It must be a SMOG thing, but they don’t have as many Forced Induction (FI) S2ks on the west coast compared to the east coast.  I remember a bunch of guys out east turboing their S2k when I lived there.


Joe’s S2k CR never ceases to amaze me…..

I’ll cut if off here.  I’ll post up part 3 soon which will complete my coverage of Eibach.  Once again, I must iterate that Eibach 2018 was a HUGEEEEE event.  I didn’t even get to see half of the event because of the utterly large amount of cars and decided to focus primarily on what I know, S2000s. Although I did own an EG civic at one point in my life and did preform a B16a swap on my friend’s EG, I will admit my knowledge in other Honda chassis is lacking.

Life: Eibach 2018 at AutoClub Speedway Part 1

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Hey all,

Been a long time since I did a real post.  I’m still slowlyyyy working on my youtube channel.  This was my first real S2k event in a year or 2 since I quit my job.  It was great seeing friends I haven’t seen in awhile and putting faces to the Instagram screen names of people I’ve never met before.  On this particular day it was scorching hot, like really hot as hell. I had to come out, my buddy Gabe, told me that they’re gonna be a very strong S2k showing and since this is S2kandtheAnt, I know I had to come.

If you guys aren’t from SoCal, this event took place in Fontana, Fontana is a good hour + east of Los Angeles.  The thing about LA, the more east you go, the more desert it gets.  I swore it was good 90+ degrees out there.  I rolled with my buddy Peter, who has a pretty sick S2k of his own.  I’ll post up pictures of his car some day,  he has a pretty nice build in the works.

After arriving at Autoclub speedway around 10:20, 20 minutes after the event officially opens to the public, we sat in line to get in for 1 hour and 20 minutes.  Yeah, you heard that right, almost a hour and half we spent waiting in line looking at the best civics the Inland Empire had to offer (take that anyway you wanna look at it).  While waiting in Peter’s S2k, I came to the realization that my S2k will definitely retain it’s AC…. No way in hell I’m deleting that shit, it’s not worth it for scene points.  On the bright side, the Eibach organizers did allow us to get in free of charge, probably because they were trying to move the line as fast as possible, I like how they took accountability! Big ups to Eibach Organizers.

Another thing I wanna add, for some reason this day, I was wearing shorts that had the the crotch blown out, like it was coming apart at the seams…..shorts that are over 14 years old will do that. So I didn’t want to expose myself by crouching for pictures…. So you’ll notice some of the angles I shot aren’t the best…. and also did I mention it was hot as hell…. I was rocking a spoon umbrella in one hand, my camera in the other hand, and hoping that my nuts down get exposed….. tough life.


After we finally parked.  The first thing I saw was this clean PY ITR.  I’m sure the parking lot had a ton of goodies, but I didn’t want to chill in one place after sitting in line for over a hour, I wanted to get to the actual meet!


Familiar faces all around.  My buddy Chris Lum with his super mint Mugen Ap2 with JDM ap1 clear headlights and Mugen MF10.  I don’t think I’ve actually seen his car with MF10s on it in person before this.  I love how King Motorsports is re-releasing mugen goodies for non-rape prices now, like the Mugen B2 Radiator caps.  Small things like this help people like Chris and I really complete our builds without buying outrageously overpriced 2nd hand parts, seriously people were trying to sell those things for $200 a pop.  Now where is the Mugen Spark Plug cover re-release!!!!!


Chris was posted in front of the ICB Motorsports tent and so was this Civic Type R FK8 with Regamasters.  ICBMotorsports dropped their new re-release of the Desmond Regamasters!  I love how people are putting in an effort to release these wheels again, I don’t care if the market becomes “saturated.” It’s helping enthusiasts get their hands on these wheels without trying to find crappy 2nd hand stuff.  Sorry for the pole haha.


ICB selling legit Desmond stickers.  Perfect for your Rotas!


Clean Silverstone Ap2 behind the ICB booth.  Rocking a Back Yard Special (BYS) wing and Spoon SW388 rims!


Better shot of the Spoon SW388 rims!


Simultaneously with the meet, there was also drag races live on the track to give this meet a great atmosphere.  Sportcar motion brought out some badass drag S2ks.  I believe that black one was on hoonigan awhile back.


These Regas are a perfect reproduction.  Spoon is also bringing back the SW388, but are slightly curved outwards for better Big Brake Kit (BBK) compatibility.


Love the Color on this EG civic in front of the ICB booth.


Great front shot of Chris’s Mugen Ap2, stunning people as they walk by.


This M&M Honda widebody DC5 caught my eye.  I don’t see too many of these kits in the USA and with the color it looks absolutely true to the JDM demo car.


Another great EG civic.  I love the Olive Color and blue TE37 contrast.


Gotuning Tommy’s immaculate ASM’ed S2000 CR.


swung by the GoTuning X Spoon USA booth to say hi to Areen


All sorts of Spoon goodies for sale.  Of course due to the intense sun, they sold out of Spoon Umbrellas this day.


Brand new Spoon support brace for the Civic Type-r FK8.  My favorite thing about Spoon is the whole OEM + feeling you get from their parts.  For example, the Spoon S2000 Upper Control arm reinforcement gusset was a piece that was actually created by Honda, or how the B16A Spoon cams feel just like the OEM B16A Cams in material texture.  With that being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if this Spoon brace for the FK8 is actually made by Honda, just look at it, if you work on enough Hondas this screams OEM.


I picked up the Kanpanchi Auto Salon T-shirt for my wife and I.  It came in a sweet Type One bag.  Hopefully I can go some day.


So much want


This is what I came here for, the row of S2ks……  Most are Instagram famous, up front is Hector Lavario’s  Ap2


My buddy Rival Gabe sick Ap2-1 sitting nice on TE37.  I like this look way better than the Mugen MF10s he had before.  This reminds me of that super expensive Pizza in New York City that has like Caviar, Truffles, goldflakes, Fois Gras, and doesn’t really taste all that great.  Each ingredient is a standout by itself, but for some reason together it doesn’t work…… Basically saying MF10s don’t work on every car, it’s about execution and TE37s work much better with the overall execution even though the Mugen MF10 is a more “rare” wheel.


And next to him was Naglas De Fierro’s S2k.  We’ve actually seen his car before here.  His car has definitely come a long way!  His car is rocking an ASM IS Design front bumper, Mugen intake, Car Garage Amis hood cover, Mugen MF10s,  and Mugen MS-Z seats (not pictured, I didn’t want to sweat all over his interior).  Personally it was my first time meeting him in person, and he’s definitely pretty rad!  Of course, I love how all the parts are authentic, that’s how I roll.


Closer look at the engine bay.   He’s rocking an Origin Fab intake arm, science of speed hood dampers,  ASM Oil Catch can, Amuse Header, and  ASM Tower bar!  lots of ASM goodies here.

Finishing off the rear, he has a Mugen SS Rear wing, ASM duckbill, painted of course!, ASM tow hook, with an ASM 04 rear bumper, and Amuse Euro S Exhaust!


This grey Ap2 next to him was pretty cool.  According to the license plate it’s a S2000 CR?! Like Naglas, he’s also rocking an ASM IS design front end, but with voltex flares.  In the world of crazy flared fenders and such, voltex flares seem almost conservative.


Out back some remnants of the CR remains, like the rear wing.  I just noticed his burnt Ti finished antenna, interesting…. I wish my ASM antenna never got stolen.  More noticeable un CR like qualities, besides the color, are the M Racing mirrors, and Mugen Hardtop.


Front ASM goodness.


My buddy Joe, aka John JingleHeimer We’ve seen his car a few times.  Like the Grey car next to him, his car is also an Honda S2000 Club Racer except done Mugen.  The Mugen Dry CF hood is looking nice here.


The Apex blue really shines in the sun.  He’s rocking some rare White MF10s, since most people that copped the re-release MF10 have Bronze wheels, so you know he’s really OG since with this white set and blue caps.  More Mugen notables like the Mugen Wing, Hardtop, and Mirrors.  Not pictured is his endless calipers!


Dry carbon glistening in the sun.


Some Instagram people I met in real life….. like DimSum John.  He bought his leather Pole positions from my friend Alvin which used to be owned by a friend of Joe, the guy who he is parked next to.  Throw back to when we installed these pole positions in Alvin’s car….


Car kind reminds me of my old build a bit probably because it’s Silverstone + Amuse R1 bumper,  I believe this is his first authentic Amuse R1 bumper after owning many reps of it.  Hopefully once you go authentic you don’t go back!  Besides the bumper he’s rocking M racing mirrors on custom mounts that some guy on S2ki made awhile back and Volk RE30 wheels.  Don’t see too many RE30s these days on S2000s.


Saw my friend Russian Hammer!  He actually bought my Mugen passenger side rail awhile back and I chatted with him during the ill-fated top down meet 2 years ago.  He’s rocking an Authentic ASM front end with the ASM IS Design front bumper + ASM fenders and ASM rear fender flares.  Mugen top and voltex wing are so necessary.  He recently changed his wheels from Red to Bronze…… I know you can’t see it that well haha.


The voltex front bumper was out in full force!  I think it was the most common front bumper on the S2000s there!  This white car was parked along with the other white s2000s.  I like the look, voltex front bumper + spoon hood and ASM fenders. Loving the white CE28 and voltex wing.  Great execution with a variety of different companies.  I dig how he’s repping 7apple, great body shop, my buddy is getting some parts painted there as I write this.  I’m not sure who this car belongs too.  Man Eibach 2018 was huge, I didn’t even get to walk the entire show because it was so large.  I mainly hung out around the S2ks….

I’ll continue this post in Part II…..

Parts Review: CAR GARAGE AMIS MUGEN AIR CLEANER DUCT COVER – CARBON

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First post of the year 2017!  So…. lots of things have happened.  Long story short, the S2k is gone, I had to sell the car whole, it wasn’t for money reasons, but I had to let it go quick.  I sold it to a friend and the car has been parted out…. I’m sure my parts are floating out there on a bunch of S2ks out there!  No worries, it’s just a car afterall….

Another life change, I quit my job and I’m studying to do a different field of work.  I’ve been doing that for the past 2 months or so….

Let’s get back on topic.  Everyone knows that the Mugen intake for the S2k requires you to cut up your Hood to fit unless you have an ASM, J’s, Mugen, or Spoon hood.  *Sidenote, I hear that the spoon hood still rubs with the Mugen intake…..

The problem is, after you cut up your hood, there is a nasty ugly hole in your hood.  JDM Tuner, Car Garage Amis rectifies this problem with their MUGEN AIR CLEANER DUCT COVER.  I haven’t seen any real pictures of this besides the stock one on the Car Garage Amis website, which happens to be the smallest picture ever!

Luckily my friend Kevin bought a Mugen intake and the Car Garage Amis MUGEN AIR CLEANER DUCT COVER from RHDjapan! I swear they should sponsor me.  He sent me a few pictures of him installing it…..


Kevin already went ahead and installed his new Mugen Intake.  I’ll post a DIY on how to do that in the future….


The most ass clenching moment of the entire install.  The Car Garage Amis instructions they send you give you a rough guideline of where to cut and is entirely in Japanese.  Luckily my friend Kevin has some Japanese colleagues that helped him translate this document to further clarify.  Kevin made a rough guideline on where to cut and made a careful incision with his dremel after blue taping it all up.

After cutting, Kevin made sure the Cover fit.  Here is a rough mockup of it on his car.


Everything is coming back together!

The next day Kevin stopped by my place so I could take a look at everything.  As expected, the fitment was spot on.  I took a couple of snaps…


It’s so beautiful, if I had to cut my hood for a Mugen intake I would definitely get this piece.  It really cleans up the engine bay.


It almost looks factory the way it contours around all the nooks and crannies.


One last look at the MUGEN AIR CLEANER DUCT COVER…


Full frontal shot.  He went with the ASM cooling plate in addition to his Mugen Intake.


Another shot of his Mugen intake…. and his dress up bolts.


One of the few people with the Gotuning/Greddy Spectrum Elite Exhaust for the S2000.  I remember when these first came out years ago…… The single version has been since discontinued.

Life: The Chronicles Year 8

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Hey all,

I’m finally finishing catching up the events I went to a few months ago.  This should be the last of the posts for now…..I wanted to go to the Chronicles Year 8 meet for awhile now.  Reading about them on Joey’s blog when I was living on the East coast, it always painted me a good picture of the SoCal car scene.  I knew I couldn’t miss out this year, it helps to have car friends to go with too.


This meet just so happens to be when I was in the process of moving to my new place.  I had a bunch of stuff to move and only a few days to do it….. My wife was exciting to hear I was going to a car meet instead 🙂


I met up with a few friends in Pasadena before heading out to year 8.  Chilling in front of the infamous rival machine.

Gabe’s car just came out of the paint a few days prior…. The car is looking minty fresh with the battlecraft hood.


Joe was ready to lead the way.  Those MF10s are looking dangerously close to the curb in this picture… You can remember Joe’s car from this post

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Following Joe to the meet.

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My buddy Alvin snapped some shots on the road…..Endless brakes look so good with the Bronze Mugen MF10 rims.


Mugen hood, CR lip, works surprisingly well.

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Some shots of the Rival Machine.

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Alvin took a shot of me in traffic…..

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We’re almost there…..


Of course, this being S2kandTheAnt….I met up with Areen and Chris….. they don’t need any introductions.


interesting pinstriping on the Enkei NT03 on the Rival Machine


626 Squad.


another angle of the 626 squad.


Spoon’s newly converted center-drive FD2 Honda Civic Type R was in attendance.  I even got to sit in it! In another life, this used to be 5Zigen’s FD2R in Japan.

S2k squad represent.

It was a hot hot hot day, I think it was close to 100 degrees this day, the crazy heat forced me to buy a spoon umbrella……yeah forced……


I thought these 24k gold engine bays have gone out of style, but it looks like it is still around.


Can’t get enough of this lineup…..


Cool styled NSX.


I loved this mugen kited DC2 Type R.


the Bronze Mugen MF10 looks great against the white.


The same Spoon Civic EG that was in my Spoon sports post.  Clean as always, rocking almost the catalog of spoon parts, but that damn Mishimoto radiator always gets me!  Link for the owner if he ever reads this.


I haven’t seen this in years, an Ap1 veilside lip.


Another picture of the S2000 Veilside lip.


This Mugen themed FD2 converted Civic looked great.


the only Evo ix at the show and it was a great example of one.


Rare Mugen FA5.  True story, I remember going to a dealership in 2009 and the salesman tried to sell me this car instead of the 2009 s2k I was looking at, he was working really hard at it, these cars must have been a hard sale at the time, no real power improvements that make a car cost $6k more….but now in hindsight, it might of been a good decision….


CDM as in Canadian Domestic Market Acura CSX…. with a supercharger and Itasha livery.


PY Integra Type R.


Hector Lavario‘s Voltex Theme S2k was looking good!


Either this in an imported car or a very authentic representation of an early D1 drift car.  I love the look, very nostalgic.


Chris popped his hood, and I couldn’t help  but to snap a picture.  Mugen intakes are my favorite…..


behind me was this swan-necked Suzuka blue s2k.


Rocking Voltex Styled Aero!  Overall this was well executed.  The red car next to this car was actually K swapped using Hasport mounts…. Update 4-10-2017….. this car was on a Smoking Tire One Take


A few Porches were in attendance.


ASM styled car with M racing mirrors.

And this closes it, from the garage, back to the garage…

Life: The day I meet Ichishima San! at Spoon Sports USA

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Being in Southern California and being a car enthusiast is awesome! I can’t say that enough, I can see how you can eventually become jaded from the car overload…. I’ve been cutting down on car events to keep things fresh and we just bought a house, so we’ve been busy fixing it up. When I heard Ichishima san, the SPOON Sports CEO was going to be at GoTuning, aka Spoon Sports USA, I knew I couldn’t miss it. I’m not the biggest spoon fan, but I respect their philosophy, a minimal approach to car tuning, just slightly augmenting the factory fundamentals to retain total balance over outright power…..


The event was posted all over social media, Upon arrival at GoTuning, Ichishima was not there yet, but people were still rolling in, like this EK.  I’ve always like the body style of the EK. I remember a few years ago, my dad had an EG, EK, and EF at the same time, all hatchbacks.  He let me choose one for a daily driver, in the end I picked the EG since it was the most raw with a stick shift, hand crank windows, and no moonroof, and the EF was auto 😦


This brought out a lot of Spoon fans.  Like this beautiful Spoon’ed out EG.  He had almost the entire spoon catalogue on his car, but the damn Mishimoto radiator keep bothering me…….I love the blue and black theme.


Beautifully executed.


More cool cars were rolling in, like this Mugen themed EP3 with MF10s…. funny thing about MF10s, KingMotorsports just released a re-run of Mugen MF10 yesterday, everyone and their mother has been trying to sell their used set, probably hoping to buy a brand new in box set.  King lets you buy per wheels so those guys that bought 2 sets of NSX fitment wheels for the rear wheels for over $7k+ definitely got screwed!  I think the group buy is over now……..too rich for my blood.


Hector Lavario’s Voltex themed S2k with quality authentic parts.  I really like the Volk TE37s, beats the NT03s he had before!


Took a closer look at the EP3 running the Mugen kit.  Bronze MF10s on a silver car looks so right.


I like seeing properly modded EP3s, this chassis hasn’t seen too much love over the years compared to the other models.


MF10s with EP3 Type R Calipers.


My S2k…. got all sorts of cracks on my bumper and my hardtop is in horrible shape………Anyone want to sell me a daily?


Beautifully restored EG Civic.  I love color and the red anodizing on the CE28Ns.  I overheard heard the owner talk how almost every piece on the car is new….. like a modern day restomod.


Same ITR I shot at Tech Day awhile back….. He has an instagram too, I can’t remember it off the top of my head right now…….


Some of the GoTuning Featured line up.  Their famous center-drive Super lap battle FD2, full Spoon Ver.2 demo car with prototype Spoon open air concept hardtop, GoTuning Tommy’s ASM s2k, and of course Chris Lum’s famous Mugen Ap2.


Not in the same parking lot in front of GoTuning, I found this BB6 Prelude in the same complex.  The driver’s side door was bashed in.  This car definitely has some goodies though.  JDM full red interior, HID retrofits, JDM fogs, OEM lip kit, and running TL rims!  I used to have a 5th Gen BB6 back in the day.


The Calipers look like they’re off of another model, possibly late gen Accord?


Another angle of the featured GoTuning Lineup.


I know this has been around, but it was my first time seeing this in person. What is insane about the Spoon prototype hardtop is that the entire metal piece is CNC machined out of a single block.


Areen living up the Spoon life.


At this point Ichishima san rolled up in this BMW M5, Areen is hard at work assisting Ichishima San.


Not only does he have a sick Spoon/ASM themed S2k, he’s also really good at carrying stuff.


Ichishima San arrived and got to work.  Here he is signing Hector’s car.


Checking out the Spoon themed EG Civic.


Here is when he shook the steering wheel of the Spoon themed EG civic.  He remarked how loose the steering wheel is!  He mentioned that this is incredibly unsafe.  He went around that entire day shaking everyone’s steering wheel, including mine 🙂

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Chris getting his Spoon Steering wheel signed.

November 19, 2016-IMG_0906Chris’s all Mugen car.  I mentioned the car is all Mugen, and he said,  “he loves all Hondas!”


Checking out the EG civic and showing the owner of pictures of his own personal cars…… Nice Jordan IIIs btw….


People were trying to get everything signed this day.  I saw the most Spoon clusters Brand new in Box I’ve ever seen in my entire life getting signed, it’s crazy how much they go for nowadays…..

Next four pictures are shot by my buddy and talented photographer Nick aka NH512

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Myself, Ichishima, and Areen.

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I requested to sign my Spoon rear view mirror, inside of my hardtop, and an S2k Spoon Spark Plug cover.

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Ichishima san and I…. I didn’t know what to do with my arm here…..

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Closing it out with this picture….here I was getting ready to yell at Ichishima san for leaning on my friend’s car…..

Pick Ups: FEEL’S Radiator + Billion Hoses + Mugen Fan Switch

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Sup internet! Things have been slow recently on the site… We just purchased a house and we’re in the process of getting things finalized. As you know houses in Southern California are crazy expensive! My only requirement is a garage, luckily the house we are looking at has enough room for 3 cars! No more wrenching in my apartment parking garage getting strange looks from my elderly asian neighbors.  This also leaves an empty space for a future daily/project 🙂

I noticed recently that there was a pool of coolant on the ground wherever I parked….. I decided to replace the radiator since I knew the plastic one will end up cracking sooner or later, this has happened to me on numerous cars I’ve owned.


Since the radiator was out, I had to pair my existing Mugen thermostat with this new Mugen fan switch I ordered:)  Overkill, and probably not good for my car since I’m not tracking my car like crazy, and I may be running too cool…… but it says Mugen!


I was holding on to these Billion Hoses for awhile now, waiting for the day I would have to change the radiator.  Billion hoses are extremely popular in Japan, even ASM runs them on their cars.  You don’t see too many of these hoses on S2ks in the USA.

I was able to pick up a FEEL’S Radiator for the S2000 for a good price used….. I wanted to give the radiator a nice polish to freshen it up, but I was in a pinch and driving my friend’s WRX around and wanted to give it back to him ASAP!  I’m not a big fan of driving other’s peoples cars around in case something happens.


First things first, I bolted on the Mugen Fan Switch.  *Pro-tip, if you have a standalone EMS, you can set the temperature when to have the fan kick on.  I knew I was able to do this in the Hondata software when I had KPRO, you can save a few bucks…..


Next, I swapped over the Fans from my stock Radiator.  It was a simple bolt-on affair.  Everything fit perfectly of course being FEEL’s!


My FEEL’S radiator came with a FEEL’S radiator cap.  This is actually a Gen 1 cap since it is green in color and the lettering is Gold.  According to instagram user @all.inclusive.honda
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I reused most of my OEM radiator hose clamps except the bottom one.  It was a bit corroded from years of use, so I swapped the top OEM clamp to the bottom and used a new worm gear unit that was included with my Billion Hoses.

I’m liking the blue accents in my engine bay with the blue Valve cover and Billion hoses.  I promise you I’ll polish up the radiator so it’s more bling bling, I would prefer taking it off again, giving it a quick sand and polish….It looks like my Cusco oil catch can needs some love too.  Unfortunately the coolant problem wasn’t my radiator, it was actually a rubber cap I had on my thermostat housing since I deleted the coolant line that runs through the throttle body and into the IACV…. The caps I use are typically used as vacuum caps, so they’re not exactly rated for coolant, it’s quite difficult to find caps in this size made for coolant.  The cap on the coolant hose on the firewall is about the same size, so I ordered another one and installed it on my thermostat housing, hopefully this will hold up better.

I was able to register for the Chronicles Year 8 meet, my car is definitely not at the same level as those guys, but I was able to buy an early bird ticket.  I will be seeing you guys out there, don’t be afraid to say hi!

Tech: S2000 Variable Intermittent Wipers

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Tech: S2000 Variable Intermittent Wipers

One thing that has always irritated me about the S2000 is that the wipers only work in three settings. A predefined INT, Low, and High, but sometimes that INT setting isn’t enough, especially when you are stuck in that awkward area where it is raining, but is raining too little for Low setting and too much for the INT setting….. Most cars come with a variable INT setting from the factory , my Subaru has it, my Lexus has it, heck even most Hondas have it. I will have to admit, this mod is pretty much useless for me since I live in Southern California now, where it rarely rains, and even when it does rain it lasts around 30 minutes, yep, 30 whole minutes….. this is no Florida.


Being the S2000 Otaku I am, I feel like there is nothing new about the S2000 I could possibly learn, but I was sadly mistaken after I read this FINAL SPEC magazine from Japan. FINAL SPEC is a badass magazine, it is different than Hyperrev because this issue focuses more on restoring S2000 than outright Modifications and in detail!


In the magazine, Spoon featured an article detailing what to look out for with S2ks as they age and what can be done to an AP1 model to modernize it.  I have personally done most of what they recommended in this red box, AP2 headlights, Ap2 Tailights, Ap2 Center console, but what is this?! Honda Access Variable wipers?  I never knew these even existed.  At first, I thought they came standard on Ap2s in Japan, but after looking through a few websites and photos, this was not the case….


After some intense searching, I found out that they are in fact a Honda Optional item, from their Honda Access line.  Intrigued, I found a part number and put an order in…..


A few weeks later this item arrived at my doorstep. The box came with the wipers, a harness plug, and a sheet of black stickers….. I’ll explain more on that towards the end of the post.


Obviously, there is one major hurdle preventing me from using this out of the box.  The Wipers in Japan are on the left-hand side, while in the USA our cars have the wiper on the right side.  The pinout looks the same but mirrored compared to the US version, I verified this with my Multimeter using the US factory service manual tests.  So what made the Variable Intermittent function tick?


It seems like the circuitry that controls the variable delay is on this board.  Prior to purchasing this unit, I researched day and night for other Honda models that have similar looking Wiper stalks with variable delay thinking I could possibly retrofit it for my S2k.  Most US honda models that use a direct input for the wipers, not via CANbus, have a central multiplexer that controls the variable delay……


One thing I noticed about the JDM Variable Intermittent Wipers is that the wiper stalk has a two pin wire.


After opening up the unit, you can see how there is a circuit board integrated and that the wiper contacts are on the opposite side.


Even the pins are flip-flopped upside down.


The US S2k wiper connections on the left and the JDM unit on the right.  You can see how it is different due to the orientation of where the wiper stalk sits.


After some desoldering, I was able to remove the JDM Variable Intermittent Wiper control board from the housing.


After even more research, I found that the 2003-2005 Honda Civic EX came with a Variable Intermittent Wiper stalk that looks identical to the JDM unit, but on the correct right hand side.  The pinout on this civic unit is identical to an S2k, but has 2 extra pins for the Variable intermittent wiper circuit.

I don’t have any pictures of the process of me wiring the JDM Wiper control board to the 2003 EX civic unit, but it is self-explanatory once you look the jdm unit over with a multimeter.  After days of cursing and inhaling enough solder for a lifetime, I finally merged the JDM control board with a USDM S2000 Wiper Housing using 2003 Honda Civic EX Wiper Stalk….. Did you know the windows and the wipers run on the same 20A fuse?  I found that out the hard way.


This is from a Japanese website I found online.  Remember that sheet of black sticker that came with the wipers.



According to the Japanese instructions, after installation of the JDM Variable Intermittent Wipers unit, you have to remove the 7.5A Fuse “FR WIPER AUTO STOP SIGNAL” since the control board is taking this function now.



And now it’s gone!


This is what I love about JDM tuning.  The Meticulous attention to detail, since the fuse is not in use anymore, they provide you this black tape block it out the description on the fuse panel.


No more!


This is what it looks like after I got everything buttoned up and tested.  Everything works perfectly.


The wiper sits slightly higher than the turn signal stalk.

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This is expected. In the JDM Modulo catalogue it mentions that after you install the Honda Access Variable Intermittent Wipers, the wipers will sit higher than the turn signal stalks.  I suspect that the Wiper Stalk Arm is also from the Honda Parts Bin….


With the steering wheel on…..

You guys might be wondering why I have a hole in my center console where the roof button used to be.  I recently sold my harddog roll bar and put my interior back in.  I used to have my accessory power socket here, but it has since been moved back to the glove box. …. I’ll figure out a way to fill it soon. 

 

Life/Pick Ups: CraftSquare Mirrors with Blue Tint + Random Toda Pulleys! + More!

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Woah, I haven’t updated this blog in awhile. Life is kicking into high gear again. I’ve been studying to do a possible career change. Working in infrastructure IT is kicking my ass and is starting to feel like a burden on my soul….

Luckily for my birthday, my most beautiful and caring wife bought me an item I’ve been eyeing for a long time now, something I imagined that would be part of my build years ago….Craftsquare mirrors…… Not any Craftsquare mirrors, but the spec with the anti-glare blue tint.   My birthday was in May, and these have been on order since then!  They arrived from Japan late July to my surprise. I finally got around to installing them during a tech day my first hosted a few weeks ago…..


 Areen was present and was installing some ricey parts, like this Billion coolant adapter to run a coolant temp sensor and this ASM Oil stopper bracket to make sure his oil filter doesn’t come off when he’s bombing up and down the TOUGE to deliver tofu.


Why did he need to install the coolant adapter?  because he was installing the Defi Link Meter Advance ZD to keep an eye on his car’s vitals….


My mirrors out of the packaging…. I love getting new parts from Japan.  I love even more when they are gifts from my wife…..



Areen getting his car on the lift.

After a few minutes of cursing, we finally got one side on!  It was in the 90’s this day, I was sweating my ass off…..  You can see how the Craft Square Mirrors look compared to the stock elephant mirrors.  I’ve never liked the look of the OEM mirrors, they always seemed so bulky.  I do miss my power mirrors though…..

Both Mirrors on…. My car has been repainted on the driver’s side… the shitty shop that repainted my car on that side didn’t take my mirror off…..so I have a big ass circle where the mirror used to be..

Areen got got his Trust Oil filter adapter installed with his ASM Oil Filter stopper…..


🙂  I feel like I need a single exit exhaust cap for this car….

Must be nice to be rich and cut into $200 Spoon hoses to install an adapter….


Areen modeling theDefi Link Meter Advance ZD….
Oh yeah he got Toda Pulleys too…. see the end of the post for more info….


Areen giving the thumbs up!


Carlos stopped by in his CRX with brand new Volk TE37.  They look perfect on this car.


Mark stopped by with his factory fresh Mitsubishi Evo X Final Edition!


This only has a few thousand miles on it…..still has the factory Panasonic battery.

Final shot of my craft square mirror… .you can see the ring on my door in this picture….

I took a few shots of  Areen’s Toda Pulleys a month earlier…..

Of course he got the optional ASM Idler pulleys too!

Mike giving the water pump pulley a closer inspection

Can this build get any better?





I’m loving the Project Mu Rotors!

I’m closing out this post with AE86 Ron’s S2k.  This thing is mint with some choice mods…. I’m loving how his car sits with Advan Wheels and Spoon Calipers!