Sometimes I’m easily amused. I found this early rendering of the Wald “Black Bison Edition” Prius aero kit and I just had to comment on it. I know the Prius tuning is big business in Japan and judging from the looks of this design, I think Wald took it pretty seriously. The only problem is that I think they took it a little too seriously. It looks like they kept on adding more and more until there was simply one too many things going on with it. Continue reading at the Real JDM…

Our friend Rob sent us some pictures of him doing the unexpected… taking his custom imported widebody kitted Range Rover Sport off-road! As Rob said to me, this is a complete rarity to see a widebodied Range Rover off-roading… and you know what, the car did excellent out there, all while I’m sure pissing off a few purists (which is probably more fun than the off-roading part)!

I think the same can be said for this situation as for those that look at a pretty sports cars and instantly accuse them of being trailer queens. Assumption is a bitch. You just never know when you might see a clean, heavily modified car getting dirty… Continue reading at the Real JDM.

In the world of blogs it seems like everyone takes content from everyone else. Although I try to keep a relatively high percentage of original content here, I’m not too concerned with attempting to be above everyone else…and sometimes I feel the nessesity to “borrow” content when I feel its appropriate. This is one of those times…

I stole this idea from here  who stole it from the OG source Modena Photo found here. All credit is due to the man above from Australia who happens to have some really amazing pictures he’s taken on his Flickr account.

Of all of his photos, this TA22 Celica built by the mysterious “Fonzie” is what caught my eye. This classic Celica is a perfect mix of old school JDM tuning with Bosozoku elements of style. Seeing an exposed oil cooler and hoses out the front of the car always gives me a smile. When I was first learning about JDM tuning in the mid 1990s seeing cars like this always shocked me with their rawness and gangster attitude. It takes a certain kind of swagger to rock a car like this right.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Fonzie’s TA22 Celica" »

This is by far the best Gran Turismo game rig ever. Actually it was already one of my favorite E30 M3 BMWs before I even saw the front of it and realized that it is being used to play video games in! Garage Studie is responsible for this masterpiece. I have a feeling I’m going to need to stop by there during an upcoming trip to Japan. See the full Studie shop tour post here.

Continue reading "The Best Gran Turismo Rig Ever – BMW E30 M3" »

I’ve been on the road a lot lately visiting some amazing people in some equally amazing places. Just this month I’ve jumped from Las Vegas to Dubai to Bahrain to San Francisco with a day or two spurts home in Los Angeles in between travels. Next up I’m off to Arizona, and then Japan (pre-Auto Salon and then again for TAS of course!). I apologize for the lack of my personal posts lately, the traveling has made it impossible to keep my regular blogging pace. I’m going to make it up to you, I promise! Continue reading at the Real JDM.

I’ve said too much about ASI.  And I know I need to calm down and stop blogging about the company, but how could I not share this amazing F430? ASI is just killing everyone.

If only this car had used one of the three super nice ASI Dry Carbon F430 wings, this car would have put people in the hospital. Get me an ASI street version dry carbon wing and some Amuse B type gold ring titan exhaust tips on here and game over.

As a kid, your natural inclination when you see a puddle is to jump in it. Perhaps this same primal desire is the reason I particularly enjoy water crossings in various rally events. I wish there was some deep philosophical insight into life that I could provide here. Instead, I’m just going to share some images of this phenomenon which ranks right up there with jumps, opposite lock and left foot braking on the list of rally’s charms. Continue reading at The Real JDM

LFingA is right…having just returned from SEMA and seeing a production version LF-A in the flesh I am impressed all over again. I’ve seen a couple of LF-As in the flesh leading up to this, there was a nice red concept version at Toyota Megaweb in Japan that I molested, and then there was the Nurburgring race car at Tokyo Auto Salon last year. Yet something was different about seeing this production LF-A at SEMA.

First off, it looks F-R-E-S-H in matte black. As much as I think everyone wants to say matte black has jumped the shark as a color, it still looks damn good and I don’t think its going away anytime soon.

Continue reading "LFingA" »

One of my favorite things about well built demo cars is the depth of detail in the design/concept. This is a reoccurring topic that I bring up often on this blog. It comes up often because I really feel that details are what separate good builds from great builds. If you look at the above picture it is easy to be impressed. Sure, a Bentley Continental GT with a Japanese widebody kit and a dry carbon vented race hood is an impressive sight. The car could have been considered a win right there.

Continue reading "Details" »

Another incredible collaboration between Original Runduce and Varis! Much like the Evo collaboration that I blogged about earlier, the two companies are finishing off their Subaru Impreza as well! Again the concept remains to use the Varis complete aero kit (already released) and then to produce a new front spoiler design penned by Original Runduce.

I’m excited to have a look at this and the Evo at Tokyo Auto Salon 2010! Hopefully it will be there!

Continue reading "Varis x Runduce GRB Impreza Sti" »

I’d like to share with you a view of my S2000 that even I had never seen before. Ever since I built the S2000, I had never once taken the top off. All of that changed recently. I’ve been on a bit of a quest to remind myself of why I love the S2000 so much. Keep in mind I started Bulletproof with this same very S2000 almost 10 years ago! As such, I’ve decided to transition from the car being a cool looking car into the car being fun to own and drive around town daily.

The transformation from cool to practical has come with several painful sacrifices. First off the Bride Gias and Stradia seats have been sold off. These photos show them for the last time in the car. Currently I have put the stock seats back in and I’m on a bit of a quest to find the perfect daily driving seats (any suggestions?). Continue reading at The Real JDM

With all of the blog talk on the Tokyo Motor Show lately, I just wanted to share my two cents.

Many sports car purists (myself included) have been disappointed by the massive slowdown of sports cars being produced. This slow down has been timed impeccably with the rise of eco cars, kei cars and overall cars that I would classify as practical and boring when compared to sports cars. As some of you can tell, I’ve been at times worried that sports car tuning is being gradually replaced with more “practical” and “eco” cars and the tuning that comes with them.

The trends have been validating my fears for the past couple of years and seeing my idol tuners like Top Secret switch new R&D to the Prius and Insight only brought that idea home more.

But I get the feeling like we’ve just reached a turning point for the better.

Continue reading "Hooray For Sports Cars!" »

GT-RR’s third signature build has come to a close over the weekend. This car was conceptualized to do only one thing, to make our client “R” as proud of a GT-R owner as possible. Unlike our previous two GT-R signature builds which aimed to be essentially all things to all people (show cars, magazine cover cars, track cars AND to please our clients), this car is a focused and direct ode to “R” and his desire to own his dream GT-R.

As such, I can say already (without hearing any feedback from anyone else) that this project was a success because “R” was happy! As “R” called it “perfect” and “10 out of 10″, I let out a sigh of relief that months of planning and building this car resulted in the very success I envisioned for it. Continue reading at The Real JDM

I’ve kept this topic to myself for a long time. My plan has been to build a car using this color for years now. In fact, it is still my plan (someday).

I take note of various things that impress me and keep a folder on my computer called “Inspiration”. It might be something as simple as a color I like or a material. It could be the shape of a fender, or the way a custom interior is put together. The fact is that certain things inspire me and I like to remember them and integrate into my builds that very essence of where my inspiration started. For example on my S2000 some of the style came from my desire to resurrect the Top Secret gold demo car concept that I loved so much+ my love of Mana-P’s (MS-R) graphics on the Top Secret V8 G35 (version 2 of the graphics). So I told Mana-P what I liked as a starting point for our collaboration on my car and together he and I came up with a design that I felt was even better than what he did on the Top Secret G35 (if you look, it is still similar on the hood and the doors but more style was added).

Continue reading "One of My Favorite Car Colors" »

ASI Japan has released this image of what their Prius aerodynamics package will look. According to ASI, this is the confirmed final version of the design. In other news, ASI has launched a sub brand called ASI Green to release this Prius kit. More at The Real JDM