By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

One of the things that has never gotten old or played out for me is my love of titanium exhausts. To me, quality wise Amuse is still king, but there are lots of cool and high quality exhausts out there worth talking about. And I often do…

But today I wanted to talk about custom titanium exhausts. There are some shops in Japan like Heat Magic who are producing some really crazy exhausts in Titanium that are full one-off (custom jobs).

The lead in picture is a 4 exhaust custom setup on a Suzuki B-King. I’ve never seen anything quite like that. Hopefully you like it as much as I do!

Continue reading "Titanium Custom Exhausts – 4 Cannister Sport Bike" »

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

I just returned from my most recent trip to Japan. During these trips I’m often lucky enough to find some really cool stuff because of my network of friends out there in the industry. Usually its new parts and inside news, but this time it was something far different… I was shocked to find a friend of mine who asked for my assistance in selling a very VERY rare BNR34 GT-R Z-Tune by Nismo. This is an authentic Nismo produced car (only 19 were ever made). The car (as expected) is an extremely special collectors car which is unlikely to ever depreciate in value due to the historical significance and legendary status amongst GT-R enthusiasts (plus only 19 exist and no more will ever be produced). Not to mention is runs like a monster on crack for those lucky enough to take it to the streets or circuit. Continue reading at the Real JDM.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

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…

By Ben Schaffer

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.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

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.

By Ben Schaffer

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.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

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

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

You’re looking at an ASM x Recaro SP-X CL100 seat. Gotta love JDM product names! After you look past the horribly distorted GT-RR watermark (I’m sorry, the website does them that way sometimes for the vertical images), you’ll see one of the most desired and sought after seats money can buy. JDM limited edition Recaro, yes. Dry Carbon, yes. Leather and Alcantara finish, yes. The most “baller” seat in the world?! Perhaps, yes.

We ordered up a set of these absolutely amazing seats from our friends at ASM in Japan and they just recently arrived on one of our frequent ocean freight containers. Destined for use in a very special R35 GT-R, this is perhaps the only set in the US and one of very few in the world. Priced at a bit under$20,000 for the pair, there is good reason as to why they are so rare. That Alcantara and leather execution is just flawless.

Although nobody can adequately justify the price Recaro/ASM is charging for these seats and there is not much sense in trying to, the seat just screams “gotta have it.” The details are absolutely nuts. Our resident JDM parts photographer Colin took some killer pictures which I just put up online.

I was drooling over these seats when they came in and I’m glad to share some pics with you now. This is simply perfection right here. Nothing but supermodel booty should touch these seats…nothing else is worthy. Click here for hi-res shots.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

Sometimes I come across things that leave me speechless. I really don’t know what to say about this. But I’ll try… I’ve started this post with the best picture of the car. The 16 year-old in me actually really loves this picture, and I could even say this is pretty bad ass to do on a Lamborghini—despite seeing similar attempts on Honda Civics for the past decade that I’d like to forget. The rear diffuser fin lights are actually pretty damn cool, if nothing else. If the car was all normal and just those fins were illuminated I’d give it a 100% WIN. But it goes downhill from here. Continue reading at the Real JDM.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

When Mana-P and I collaborated on the design of this car’s graphics nearly a year ago, I really wondered what Top Secret Gold Te37s would look like on there. The color combination of gold and chrome foil always matched perfectly for some Top Secret gold rims. Unfortunately Volk did not have any GT-R wheels that I wanted to rock at SEMA 2008 so we ran BBS LM’s instead and the rest is history—or is it? With this GT-R going back to New Jersey where it’s home ultimately will be, we sent it back to its home in style with a set of ultra exclusive Top Secret TE37 wheels in 19″ for alternative use (BBSs will still be the daily rims).

The Top Secret rims looks as amazing on the car as I expected, but I was left wondering just how much better they’d look if there were a proper size for the GT-R (all 19″s look a bit small on the massive GT-R). So what you’re seeing in the introduction picture is a quick photoshop to bump the rim sizes up to something more appropriate for the GT-R. If only Top Secret could convince Volk to make these in a size this large… Continue reading over at the Real JDM.