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Niatross
Posts: 430
Location: Bangladesh Occupation: topkek Age: V$: yes |
#41 2018-11-16 21:33 |
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The Evo is looking pretty nice and tasteful man!
What say we go for a spin someday? i'll bring my E46  you might just smoke my stock suspension rear wheel drive bratwurst mobile lmao
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 Current owned cars: - Toyota Supra GA-JZA70 Mk3 - BMW E46 M3 - Nissan Skyline ECR33 GTS25t - Nissan 200SX Hatchback - BMW E92 335i - Nazda RX-7 FD3S Type RS - Mazda RX-7 JF1FD (USDM) - Nissan Silvia S14 |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#42 2018-11-17 05:29 |
# Niatross : The Evo is looking pretty nice and tasteful man! Oh sure my man, I'd love to!  Thanks for the kind words to my Evo too! (Also finally page 2 woohoo!) |
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Soju
Posts: 1247
Location: South Korea Occupation: Smuggling Soju Age: 122 V$: Broke |
#43 2018-11-17 09:11 |
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For those who are too lazy to scroll all the way down through page 1.
# BigSmoke : I think that is really nice looking ride  Great progress as always![/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler]
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#44 2018-11-17 12:37 |
# Soju : I think that is really nice looking ride Thanks a lot Soju! Glad to have the Evo finishing the handling department upgrades soon (even though my wallet has another black hole in it now) Also thank you for attaching my update here in page 2!
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MACKAY
Posts: 712
Location: Japan Occupation: Ranter Age: 25 V$: ∞ |
#45 2018-11-17 13:24 |
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Ehm.. Do you really need a billet block for only 400-600hp, don't get me wrong but you will be throwing the cash away for no reason and I am sure that you won't be going for 1xxxhp's anytime soon or ever, not with that type of Evo'. And my suggestion would be to stay away from all those USA specialists, you are in Japan, the land of your Evo, take a proper look around and you will find decent Evo' tuner in no time, ask Marc' here on forums if you need anything, he is our Evo' guy and I am sure he would help or give you some info on stuff if needed.
Anyways, Evo' is taking better and better shape each time I visit your topic, keep it up! And congrats on your Touge run, everyone needs to experience it, maybe one day we will go for a run on touge together, we will see! |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#46 2018-11-17 20:38 |
# MACKAY : Ehm.. Do you really need a billet block for only 400-600hp, don't get me wrong but you will be throwing the cash away for no reason and I am sure that you won't be going for 1xxxhp's anytime soon or ever, not with that type of Evo'. And my suggestion would be to stay away from all those USA specialists, you are in Japan, the land of your Evo, take a proper look around and you will find decent Evo' tuner in no time, ask Marc' here on forums if you need anything, he is our Evo' guy and I am sure he would help or give you some info on stuff if needed. Well indeed I'm not going for 1000+ HP mark, that's too much lol  Ahh yes, speaking of which, there's a promo going on in Nengun where Tomei has offered limited edition 4G63 block+their stroker kit, but then it's even more expensive over either buying the US block or buying their stroker kit alone. Even buying the billet block (without the crankshaft, conrods and pistons)+Tomei stoker is still cheaper!  Tbh I also had a bit of doubt over the cranks etc offered together with the block, as they don't specifically include the final displacement whenever a part change is performed. They do include the stroke, though. But yeah I should take another look, perhaps there's another Japan tuner that could offer me a block. I'm just afraid my stock block won't hold up the Tomei stroker, and I'm not sure if said stock block can be combined with billet head. Come to Tsukuba Fruits Line touge some time, I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot! Ah yes, I don't remember if I linked the billet site, but if I hadn't, here it is EDIT: Damn, it's quite tough to find a proper one. So far all sites that has fresh 4G63 blocks are US sites, and most other sites don't have 4G63S for Evo I-III (if I have to fit ones from Evo IV-IX, I have to modify the subframes, tranny and mounts, which means even more money thrown). Even from the Japanese ones only Tomei that has fresh blocks available, and they're for Evo VIII-IX Here are the ones that I found: -Built Industries, via Built4G63. Starts from V$2500+: *LINK* -Built Industries, via Built Industries/Built EJ. V$1700: *LINK* -Magnus tuned 2.0L block. V$3300: *LINK* -Magnus 2.3L stroker block. V$4900: *LINK* -Modern Auto Performance 2.0L block. V$2600: *LINK* -Modern Auto Performance 2.3L stoker block. V$2600: *LINK* Which one would you guys recommend? Also, wonder why prices at both Built Industries sites can be different This post was edited by BigSmoke (2018-11-17 21:31, ago) |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#47 2018-11-19 17:52 |
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Small Update: Turning Up
Handling Upgrade Complete!
Aaaaaah finally, the piece de resistance of my Evo's handling upgrade has come up!
Here comes the suspension upgrade from NZ! I also did a bit of tuning afterwards. Man I can't wait to tell you guys about it, so let's jump into the update! [18 Nov 2018] Ah, forget to tell you when the suspension parts I ordered would arrive. The answer is at this day! It was around 10 am, and I was streaming the WTCR races at Macau GP when I heard a door knocking. As the opening laps has been passed and the race pack(peloton?) has been spread quickly after an incident at the start, I opened the door to pick up the parts and taking care of the papers. That already fixed my mood which was slightly ruined after the incident since some of my favourite drivers (and also Saturday's race winner) got caught and stuck.
But honestly, it could be worse though. Saturday's race was red flagged for a while due to Gordon Shedden binning his Audi into a tyrewall, blocking other drivers in the process. It's quite a downer to watch, since Gordon was a well-known BTCC alumnus and all, but then again the corner was indeed a difficult one, and I'm relieved that everyone's okay and the damage caused was minimum. The crash was quite identical to last year's GT World Cup incident at exactly the same spot, which sees multi-million dollar cars literally stacking one over the other in the process. But then the crashfest wasn't over that day....... Anyway, moving on. As the race finished, I called Ohira-sensei to check if he's in the Summer Yume garage for the day, since it's raceday. He was, and he was also seeing the Macau races too with the whole crew bar Gary (college stuff, again) and his wife. I told him I got brand new parts to install, as well as something to discuss. With the phone over, I went off to the garage with the parts in the backseat. I arrived some time later, with me missing the Exige Cup race in the process. That's okay tho, that wasn't my main interest (because of the driver roster, not the Exige themselves. Since it's a national championship, I don't really know any of the drivers, compared to other events, even the Macau Touring Car Cup). Kei guided me to go up the working bay. 
 Oh, how I love to see the Evo bathing in the sunlight. It was a hot day BTW.
Afterwards I retrieve the parts and half-unbox them, to the interest of Ohira-sensei and a gleeful response from Mishima and Yuuta. Nato also commented over the quality of the parts, saying that they're one of the top ones he'd eever seen. I also told him it's been race-proven, hence the quality. Then our discussion was ended for a while as we watched the Race 3 of WTCR, as well as the main race of GT World Cup. The crew naturally rooting for Japanese manufacturers and drivers, and Goro also said it is remarkable that Nissan finally joins in the World Cup, being the second Asian manufacturer to did so after Honda last year, and that was with Honda had their NSX GT3 begun it's final development process, compared to Nissan with their GT-R GT3 receiving a relatively effective upgrade this year. The crew cheered on as Esteban Guerreri won the final WTCR race gracefully, but also a bit dissappointed with the fact that Hyundai and Gabriele Tarquini has sealed constructor and driver's title a day before. Then we discussed how Hyundai has moved up to the competition rapidly in WRC and WTCR, as well as lamenting the fact that Honda had lost three of their major touring car drivers this year. Norbert Mischelisz was 'stolen' by HYundai, only to become Tarquini's wingman. Thiago Monteiro suffered a heavy injury at the beginning of this year, causing him to miss the entire season, with his replacement didn't do much better. Meanwhile, Ryo Michigami was moved to the GT division to develop the NSX GT3. This made Honda only had Esteban Guerreri and Yann Erlacher left as their spearhead on the title hunt, with Timo Scheider still on his transition time after his DTM stint while racing in World RallyX in-between the calendar, and Tom Coronel also entered transition time, switching to a Honda after years of driving RML-prepped Chevrolet Cruze. We also lamented at the fact that not only the GT World Cup entrant was drastically decreased compared to last year, Nissan can't do much in the race. But hey, at least they secured a midpack position. Also, the previous day, a Japan-prepped R34 finished 2nd in the Touring Car Cup. The Touring Car Cup itself is roughly an equivalent to Australia's Improved Production races, where you can modify any road car that you want within a set of rules to make it balanced. The rules also serves as some of the basic rules of WTAC's Clubsprint class. With a long time gap between the GT World Cup and Macau F3 GP event, we set to work on the Evo. Nato, Kei and Mishima installed the new suspension parts, while I and Goro refurbished the retained standard parts. I also did some setup with him, with Ohira-sensei's input. Ohira-sensei told me to keep the steering rack ratio as is, which I at first wondered why. He explained that steering angle modification is enough to make a difference, so I and Goro did just that. Meanwhile Yuuta is on stand by over the TV, informing over race preparations. As of the tune I did, what I and Goro did is adding 1 degree to each sides, so now the wheel would turn 36 degrees at max. 10 minutes before the F3 event started, we finished our work. I rolled the car off the work bay and took some photos, then frantically went upstairs as the formation lap started, slipped and fell off the stairs in the progress For now though, let's look at the result!
  Hmmmm yeah that's lovely.
As for the race itself, it was quite an event, with quite alot of Japanese drivers, from the young stars such as Sho Tsuboi, veterans such as Yuhi Sekiguchi, and even team owner like DRAGON (yes, that's how he was registered. Once you know his real name though, it all made sense. And oh, there's one interesting secret about him that you guys might already know or even love......). Yuuta also complained over the fact that the B-Max team DRAGON owned switched to VW engine units for the event over their usual Nissan units, with I and Kei explaining that that's the more competitive choice. And of course we were also shocked over Sophia Floersch's monstrous crash, involving Sho in the process. Thankfully, everyone involved was safe, though all was hospitalized. Understandably Ohira-sensei and his wife was looking quite worried over them, with Mr. Eikiji's death in mind (turn back to page 1 for their history, if you want to know about it). Before I went back to my crib, I discussed with Ohira-sensei over the 4G63 block offers I found in the previous post. Ohira-sensei said all of them looked decent, but still has some doubt over their work quality and performance. He suggested to me to buy either any of them without the cranks, conrods and pistons, and he also offered to me to do machine work and restoration over mine instead. With him offering a considerably low price (he only said low, but ensures not more than V$2000), I think I'll consider the offer. He also ensured me that the reworked block would fit a billet head and still be able to run as a daily. I went back to my crib and indeed what Ohira-sensei is true over the mods. I can already feel it working, even turning into my crib's gate is easier now thanks to the angle and controla arm mods. Combined with the Hipermax shocks and springs, safe to say the handling upgrade has been a match made in heaven.  [19 Nov 2018] Paycheck time! Another V$470 landed in my account. I also listed the uninstalled standard suspension parts on the local forums after refurbishing them by hand for V$4000 in total. While refurbishing I also stumbled upon my old standard clutch disk. Can't believe I forgot to got rid of them despite being the first part I replaced the first time I had my Evo. After a micro-refurbishment, I listed it at the forums as well for V$500.
After some thinking time, I think I'll accept Ohira-sensei's offer on the engine block rework. The plan is, I'm going to combine it with Tomei 2.2L stroker pack (with 85.5mm crank for safety), and that's why I initially worried the engine won't be able to handle the resulting power. As of the head, I still planned to import it since it's cheap with no cams option, and later combined with Tomei High Lift Procams (most likely 270mm in and 270mm ex, not sure how 280 ones would turn out. The Poncams variant are weirdly more expensive) and TODA head gasket. But if you wondered what are the block offers that I got, here it is again (links at previous post): Here are the ones that I found: No TL;DR since it's quite short to me. Let's jump to the cash instead. That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!
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Alex876
Posts: 356
Location: Jamaica Swift Tune JA Occupation: Putting illegal camber on cars Age: 23 V$: |
#48 2018-11-22 14:28 |
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Nice evo bro
Needs more low,lol |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#49 2018-11-22 16:09 |
# jdmkvng : Nice evo bro Thanks man Um, it's a daily driver and I might bring it on dirt soon, soo.....
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StratoWolf
Posts: 754
Location: Italy , Near Milan Occupation: RPS13 and AE86 Connoiseur Age: 22 V$: 54,860 |
#50 2018-11-23 22:44 |
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OwO
An Evo man! I see you're a man of culture! |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#51 2018-11-24 07:38 |
# StratoWolf : OwO Hey thanks man! Quite lucky to got one for a reasonable price!
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#52 2018-11-24 23:19 |
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Cultural Exchange
CAUTION: PHOTOBOMB AND LONG STORY AHEAD!
Wew boi, not alot of things happened this week, aside of my stuff for sale got sold, and.....
guess what, an impromptu after-work cars n' coffee! This mini car meet went quite well and sound, and I think it represents a small but diverse slice of Japan car culture. Yeah, I'm quite confident after meeting great people in the meet. Let's jump into the update then! [24 Nov 2018] As of Thursday [22 Nov], my stock suspension parts and clutch I mentioned in the previous update has been sold, racking V$4500 in total. But as nothing else interesting happened in that day aside from work stuff, let's skip into Saturday.
11.50 I've finished most of my work and going to go to the kitchen to cook lunch when my phone suddenly rang. I wonder who called me in the weekend like this, since I've sold everything I've put for sale, I haven't ordered anything yet and I don't have anything to install with Ohira-sensei for previous reason. I decided to bring the phone to the kitchen anyway and cook a plate of omurice while answering the phone via hands-free and loudspeaker function.
"Hello, Yuan Edo's residence" "Oh, hello Edo-kun. It's me Ryoji." "Ryoji-san with the orange M3, yes?" "Exactly! You still remember that day at Tsukuba, huh?" "Of coure, Ryoji-san. It's a bit rare of chance to see an european car here, let alone driven in one" "Ahah yeah, I appreciate that. Oh yes, remember when I said I have a sister here?" "Well....yes? What's with that?" "Oh, I guess you still remember that part a bit. Listen up, I'm going to meet her" "Yes, and-HOLY CRAP THE EGG! Sorry, I'm cooking omurice at the moment. Excuse me, but what did you say?" "I'm going to meet my sister. Are you free today?" "After 1 pm, yes I do. What's the matter real-HOOPLA! One flipped egg! What's the matter?" "Alright then, let's meet up. Tsukuba uni south parking lot, at least 3 pm. You in?" "Good idea, I don't have anything to do post-work anyways. And oh, can I have my friend join too?" "Sure thing, the more the merrier. What's your car colour again?" "It's a silver Evo III. Numberplate [my car's numberplate]" "Alright, if I don't show up at 3 yet, my sister will look for your car and wait. Well then, see ya" "See you later Ryoji-san, have a good day. And now add the rice in......" "And oh, have a nice lunch too. I can smell it already" "Hahah sure thing" Well, cooking while answering phone call can be disastrous, it turns out. At least I didn't overcook the eggs, but the workstation was quite a mess nonetheless. I decided to eat first to fix my mood and gain some enrgy for the cleanup.
13.10 After cleaning up the kitchen, I called Rantaro. I'm sure he'll be excited to hear about the meetup........ "Yo, Rantaro-san! I hope I didn't disturb you mate" "No don't worry, my shift will end in around 1 hour, I've got some time to kick back. What's the matter?" "Listen, I'm going to meet someone-no, possibly two guys with legit european cars-" "European cars you said? Sure it's legit?" "Definitely. I've met one of them befo-" "Why don't you have me with you back then?" "You said you were busy man! Anyway, are you free at 3 pm?" "Told ya I'm free in an hour. You want me to meet them too?" "Yea of course mate, it's your fanservice moment, why should you miss it?" "YAY! Man you're the best! Wait where are you going to meet up?" "Tsukuba uni, the parking lot where you showed me your car back then" "Aah perfect! Okay nice info boi, see ya at 3!" "See ya mate, can't wait to see your reaction" With Rantaro confirmed to join us, I prepared my camera and translation papers to be brought to Tsukuba uni. 14.15 I arrived to the uni and quickly secured my place at the south parking lot. Weekend means there weren't any lecture activities, so the parking lot was noticeably quite and vehicle-ridden........except for one Levin coupe at the furthest lot.
 I do remember one of my clients here have some awesome JDM legends, including this Levin. But which one? While I was wondering about who owned said Levin, I packed up my papers and went to the uni to turn it in to my clients. Perhaps I'm going to meet one of them. But before I walked to the uni, I decided to take some pics beforehand. That way I could ask for confirmation over the ownership.
 And indeed I met him inside the uni. The owner of the Levin is Mr. Kitagara (52), a geologist and geography lecturer. Despite I'm not being his student, I like to ponder over his geographical posters, documentation and research papers over his room (after all, I have to translate most of them), so I call him Kitagara-sensei. He also seem to not mind, and thus being friendly to me. After turning in the translated papers and receiving raw softcopy files to be translated in return, Kitagara-sensei talked about his car.
"Ah, Edo-san, I heard you like cars, yes?" He asked in relaxed manner. "Yes sensei, I like cars, be it road cars or race cars" "I drive my old racer today. It's not as sprightly as it's used to be, but you might like it" "May I ask what is it sensei? The model, I mean" "It's an AE86 coupe" "Excuse me sensei, is it the Levin at the south parking lot?" "Yes it is-wait how do you know that?" "Uh, I parked mine beside it, sensei" "I see, what's your car?" "An Evo III, sensei" Then I showed him the pics I took before "Oh my, what a tasteful choice! Anyway, want to join me for a lunch?" "Thank you sensei, but I already had one before coming here so I'll get some snacks instead. Oh yes, one more thing." "I see, what is it?" "I will meet my friends in an hour at the parking lot. Sensei, do you have free time at 3 pm onwards?" "Let's see........it's weekend so it looks like I got a lot of them. What's the matter?" "It would be a honor for me to have your Levin joining our discussion. Well it's a small mee-" "Numbers doesn't matter, tell me what car will going to show up" "At least a Mark II GX70 and an M3 E46" "Oh, interesting line-up. Okay, I'll join after lunch. See ya at the parking lot" "Thank you very much sensei, that's very kind of you" With another person joining the party, I return to the parking lot with snacks and joyful heart. 14.50 I returned to the parking lot, and it turns out Rantaro has arrived with his Merc II-Whoops I mean Mark II, and parked his car beside mine. But where is he? I decided to put my snacks first before searching.  "BOOM GOTCHA!" Rantaro surprised me from behind of his car. That doesn't surprise me, but what surprised me more is the fact that he came quite early.
"Well, if you want to fully enjoy a fanservice, you gotta line up earlier than everyone else. Know what I mean?" Rantaro explained to me. Yeah, quite a great analogy. Moments later, Kitagara-sensei arrived. "So which one is this, Edo-san?" "The Mark II sensei. Yes, this one has been converted into a Merc, even I called it Merc II" I answered, followed by Kitagara-sensei laughing lightly and Rantaro blushing. Then Kitagara-sensei turned his glance towards Rantaro. "Ah, you must be the owner of this Mark II, yes? Quite tasteful colour choice you picked here" complimented Kitagara-sensei. "Yes sir, thank you. All for that european 80s look" Rantaro claimed proudly. "There's this company around this refecture that can do sort of this thing yes? I didn't expect them to do such clean, thorough job. Say, does it also have a Merc engine inside?" Kitagara-sensei asked to Rantaro. "Ah, unfortunately I can't afford the Merc V8 option, sir. But I was lucky enough to replace the stock engien with a 2JZ-GE I found" Rantaro answered humbly. Then we show Rantaro's engine bay, as well as mine's. And then, it was Kitagara-sensei's turn to show his. It was a mechanical heaven.  Ah yes, almost forgot to explain the car in detail. Kitagara-sensei's AE86 is a Levin Kouki coupe model, with not a lot of exterior and interior mods other than Cibie foglights, Nardi steering wheel (not pictured) and these 16' wheels that I don't know which brand and model, although it looks a bit similar to Melber Mesh wheels, wrapped in stretched Dunlop Direzzas. That's because Kitagara-sensei spent most of his money on the engine and handling department, going through several iterations. This one, created at least 2-3 years ago, features a lot of things, including Tokico shocks and springs, Project Miu 4-pot brakes with 275mm rotors, front strut bar to add rigidity along with front and rear anti-roll bars as well as a plethora of Toda-produced parts in the 4A-GE Bluetop engine. Almost all of them, in fact, save for GReddy air filter and TRD oil filter. All thse mods and tuning made this AE86 quite a potent one, Kitagara-sensei claimed it can produce close to 200 BHP.
He is a regular attendee in the Tsukuba's annual Hachiroku Matsuri (yep, an AE86 festival), and in his spare time would come to several trackdays and open drift competitions too. I haven't seen his car from the first time I had a trackday there, so I asked him to join me someday. Obviously, I really want to feel the power of his AE86. Meanwhile, we took some more pics of our car together.......... 
 ......before a girl came up approaching us. She instantly noticed the presence of Kitagara-sensei and my Evo III. With a bit of hestitation and slightly worried face, she apporached Kitagara-sensei.
"Ah, Ryoko-chan, what's the matter?" Asked Kitagara-sensei in friendly tone. "Um, sensei, which one of these two men owns the silver Mitsubishi?" She asked politely. I raised my hand, and answered:"It's mine, anything I can help for you?" "Have you seen an orange BMW around here?" She asked to me. "Welp, I haven't seen one-wait wait wait are you Ryoji-san's sister?" "That is correct, do you know about him?" I suddenly remembered about Ryoji's note to his sister and me('find my Evo III and wait with me'). That girl is Ryoko (26), a staffer at Tsukuba uni at the uni's main building. She has a slender figure and brown, long straight hair, dressed herself in a decent suit and waistcoat. Kitagara-sensei sometimes come to the building for registering researches, so he knows Ryoko quite well. Ryoko graduated from this very uni 2 years ago, as a Bachelor of Business and Administration. I guess she'll bond well with Rantaro over this kind of stuff. But before introducing her to Rantaro and his Merc-uh, Mark II, I told her about how I met Ryoji at Tsukuba. She said the M3 feels nice to her and has a good radio, though she doesn't really like it when her bro goes flat on highways. She also likes the colour, since she likes to eat orange fruit at lunch breaks. 15.22 Whilst talking to Rantaro and Ryoko, an unmistakable sound of an european inline-6 engine echoes slowly to our ears. "Could that be it?" Asked Rantaro in excitement "Well yes it is! It's my bro's BMW!" Ryoko answered gleefully, letting out a bright, warm smile  "Yeaaaa look who's here! Fresh as ever my ma-Wait hang on a minute...." I interupted my own compliment towards Ryoji after spotting another silver car at distance, muffling a loud 4-cylinder tone. Turns out it was the same Clio from that time at Tsukuba! Rantaro looked equally surprised as well, seeing that French cars are quite rare here. All we could mutter was "Oh my god....."
 Ryoji entered the parking lot first. Then he stepped off the M3 and instructed the Clio driver to park beside him.  The Clio driver is Genzo (32), Ryoji's college friend who ended up being his assistant at his real-estate company at Tsukubamirai. Like Ryoji, Genzo also shares interest over european cars, though Genzo is a bit different: Because he likes to watch rally and touring car racing clips, he is interested in french cars, particularly french hatchbacks. He reckon these kind of hatchbacks are superior at handling mountain roads and twisty circuits. From these clips too he also learned rallying skills that proved handy in Tsukuba back then. He's a huge fan of Jean Ragnotti and Didier Auriol (though Didier won his title with a japanese car). Then we moved the topic to his Clio.
 "In all seriousness man, not only you've imported an euro car, you imported a special one!" I complimented, seeing as Genzo imported not just an ordinary Clio, it's a Renaultsport Clio 182. "Yeah, I'm quite lucky to got it under V$20000. It was V$16000 to be exact" Answered Genzo. "And you still tuned it up?" "Of course man, gotta have that rally feeling. And oh, hand-picked tuning, boi" "I just can't imagine how you can tune it like a witchcraft, it just gels very nicely" "I have to admit, I'm scared sometimes when the back swings off, but eventually I can handle it" "That's normal though, even rally drivers don't swing FWD cars that much like you did" "Your car looks cute! I love how it looks angry yet bubbly at the same time!" Ryoko interjected, riveted over the Clio's simple shape. "Uhh, thanks I guess" Answered Genzo, a bit confused. I and Ryoko simply giggled over his response. Meanwhile, Rantaro literally drooled over these two cars, Kitagara-sensei had to snap him back to sense.  We spent the day discussing our cars, as well as checking out the engine bay and interior of each cars. Rantaro looked visibly ecstatic while sitting in Ryoji's M3, while Kitagara-sensei and Genzo complimented the works and crafts done in Rantaro's Mark II. Ryoji was impressed over my Evo III's interior, calling it 'simple but effective', while I and Ryoko had fun pondering inside Genzo's Clio. "It's like sitting inside a capsule!" remarked Ryoko.
With the engine bay comparison, it's quite clear how similar yet different the way Kitagara-sensei, Ryoji and Genzo shows their gratitude in the automotive world: Kitagara-sensei bought a local car and spent his life turning it up to eleven, while Ryoji simply throw his money over an lightly-tuned import car, and Genzo is a combination of both. All for the same goal: Better performance on and off-track, and to show the world how much they love their cars. 
 I also had karaoke and dance session with Ryoko and Rantaro (all the boys couldn't dance well), using these two songs for our routine. It turns out Ryoko likes to watch anime or reading light novels at her spare time. She used to like mangas too, but stopped right after graduating from the uni, since she can't keep up with a lot of series at the same time.
Time passed up so quickly, it felt like the sunset came at a sudden. Everyone decided to capture the sunny, blue and orange skies their own way. Here's mine: 
   We talked up some more until the sun almost compeletely set. It was a tiring, but exhilarating, fun and memorable day. Ryoko and Rantaro looks quite exhausted, but their smiles were emitting genuine happiness. As I rarely had a pic of my car in darkness, I decided to try capturing some more pics before we all leave the spot.
     With all photos taken, the car meet is officially over. It was an awesome experience seeing and talking over a different spectrum of JDM and EUDM culture and sub-culture, as well as gaining new life experience and friends in the world. Each of us exchanged contacts so we might be able to gather like this again at one time. Finally we bid our goodbyes as Ryuji, Ryoko and Genzo went back to Tsukubamirai as darkness envelopes their cars, while I, Rantaro and Kitagara-sensei went back to our respective cribs.
Aaaahh damn it took me 4 hours to write this. It might not look that much, but not when combined with the fact that I started writing this in midight and finished at dawn (almost sunrise, in fact). Despite being a looong update, I don't think TL;DR version is needed since it's just one small car meet, but there's a small update over my wallet tho. I put it directly here since it's only affected by one item: Initial V$ = V$ 1,401
Sold Stock Supension Parts & Clutch = V$ 4,500 V$ at the moment = 1,401 + 4,500 = V$ 5,901 That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!
This post was edited by BigSmoke (2018-11-26 03:41, ago) |
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StratoWolf
Posts: 754
Location: Italy , Near Milan Occupation: RPS13 and AE86 Connoiseur Age: 22 V$: 54,860 |
#53 2018-11-25 11:29 |
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But Renault sold the Clio in Japan as well (called the Lutecia)
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#54 2018-11-25 11:42 |
# StratoWolf : But Renault sold the Clio in Japan as well (called the Lutecia) I see, though I'm still not sure if the Renaultsport 182 models are sold there as well. To be honest, seeing european cars in Japan fels like jumping directly into a Gran Turismo installation
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Smurf
Posts: 326
Location: United States The Pacific Northwest Occupation: Selling Drugs To Kids Age: 27 V$: iNEED$ |
#55 2018-11-25 18:50 |
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Those are some dope cars.
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#56 2018-11-26 03:32 |
# Smurf : Those are some dope cars. Yeah, I agree with you. Each car has their own flair to me, and that's what turns Tsukuba uni into a small piece of petrolhead heaven that day
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#57 2018-12-09 13:46 |
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Wet Weather & Road Trip Testing
Finally got some time to write again, IRL projects has had me wrecked both physically and mentally for last 2-3 weeks.
I'm glad it's all over! And oh, I've got myself a new laptop, soo starting from next update expect for some slight pic quality upgrade! (no not this one, this one's captured from the old one) Now let's jump into the update! [26 Nov 2018] Paycheck time! Now I'll be receiving V$565/week after all the hard work I've done. Ahh, it's really satisfying seeing your hardship worths in the future. And hopefully this will help me on upgrading the Evo (which, as a reminder, only had to receive engine upgrades to go). For now though, I'm going to save it for a very, very good reason.........
[30 Nov 2018]
......because finally it's raining here! "Wait why rain's good for your wallet, Smoke?" You see, since I haven't installed advanced engine upgrades yet, this means the Evo is still controllable (sort of). I also still use my Potenza RE002 on my WedsSport wheels, which actually doesn't really like wet surface that much, so I'm afraid if I rushed the power upgrade now it'll kill me and my EVo at speed. But this also mean I could pull some cheeky slides everytime I go somewhere and drive back to my crib without worrying about tyre wear Well to be fair I already have a set of all-season tyres (Dunlop SP Sport 5000), but since I order them to fit my steelies instead of the WedsSport wheels, and I haven't bothered (read: I can't be arsed) about changig the wheel at the moment, I'll switch to those when the rain becomes more frequent or it's escalated into a snowfall. I've managed to snap some pics of my Evo in the middle of the rain. It looks fitting and majestic sitting on the wet road, though the picture snapping process is quite challenging because since Tsukuba is located on a hilly area of the Ibaraki Prefecture, this means (a)it's quite cold outside, and (b)higher chance of lighning strikes happening. I still want to live in peace, man. 
 (uh, excuse the craptastic edit please)
I wonder how long is it going to be until the first snowfall here? [03 Dec 2018] Yet another paycheck time! Another V$565 landing into my account. And with end of the year holiday closing in, I hatched a holiday plan. Aaaaaand here it is!
I'm going to Tokyo at around 18 or 19 December 2018, and I intend to stay there until the end of the first week of 2019, so I'll be back to Tsukuba at 5 or 6 January 2019. This way I could also celebrate my birthday at Tokyo (4 January, which is also my IRL birthday. As of the original Big Smoke from GTA SA, idk when is his birthday). I'm going alone with my Evo and some stuff, since Rantaro will be off to Okinawa with his GF for the rest of the year, while Ryuji and his sister is going to go to Australia for their end of the year holiday. As of the accomodation, I'm looking for some info over cheap motels or apartment room for rent at the suburban area. Or I might be as well contacting Muza (Niatross), seeing that he has had two additional crew on his place (Marc and Rifky (Macaron_moon and Shez, respectively)). I wonder if I can stay at their garage......... [07 Dec 2018] While I was finishing my translations at 3pm, someone phoned me. Turns out it was Hinako, one of the girls (I'm not in the mood to address the girls as thots currently) I met back then with Rantaro when Rantaro introduced his Merc II. I still remember giving her a crash course on photography while eating sandwich near a sunset. Though, I wonder why she's calling me at the moment?
"Hello, Yuan Edo's residence" "Oh, Mr. Edo, is that you?" "Yes it's me. Hinako-chan, yes? What's up?" "It's me, Hinako, sir. Can I ask you a favor?" "Uh, yes? What's the matter?" "I and my sister is going to visit our auntie tomorrow, but my sister is not so well right now" "Does she need to be taken to hospital?" I responded with a huge concern "Uh, she said no, but she's afraid it'll affect her driving. Can you drive us?" "Ah, I see. I've got a lot of free time tomorrow so I'll join both of you" "Yay! Thank you Mr. Edo! Can you come at 8am tomorrow?" "Okay-wait, where's your house? I don't think you've told me about that" "Ah yes sorry Mr. Edo, I'll send you the locations of my house and tomorrow's destination after this call" "Okay good. See you tomorrow, Hinako-chan, can't wait to see you tomorrow" "See you tomorrow, Mr. Edo" Post the phone call, I continue my work. At the night time, I prepared some snack and drinks for the following day's trip, as well as getting an early sleep. I think it's going to be a long one. [08 Dec 2018] I woke up at 6am. The early sleep was quite worth it, I've never felt this refreshed. I got myself some breakfast, got a shower afterwards, and dress up while doing a final preparation before going to Hinako's place. It is located at a luxury residence region near the western part of Tsukuba. Originally I was going by bus there, but since I want to go there rather quickly, of course I use the Evo instead. I grabbed my hoodie and backpack, then I set off to Hinako's place.
I arrived at Hinako's place at 7.50am, 10 minutes faster than the intended time. Time attack is life, after all After I stopped at the house, I called Hinako for confirmation and informing my presence.  After the call, I grabbed my backpack which contains snacks, drinks, map, basic tools etc., stepped of my Evo, and walk towards the house while wondering what kind of car I'll have to drive later. Moments later, I arrived at the doorstep and rang the bell. The one opening the door was......looks like it's Hinako's sister.
"Good morning, my name is Edo and I'm ready to serve." I politely introduce myself. "Ah, you must be the driver Hinako talked about, yes? Please come in and let's have a talk for a while." Hinako's sister welcomed me in calm and friendly manner. "Thank you very much, now if you please excuse me." I said, while entering the house. It was huge and wide, with a lot of memorabilias. Ah yes, Hinako's sister name is Sera (26). She works as a high-rank employer at a well-known attorney office here, "Kanzaki & Associates co." which is led by Shinjiro Kanzaki. Sera & Hinako's dad himself is also a law attorney at Tokyo (AJ (RBS13) might have a look for him I guess?), while their mom died when Hinako was in elementary school after a severe tour bus accident, leaving Sera to act as the mom of the house. After Sera has graduated from university and accepted at Kanzaki & Associates, her dad gave the full responsibility to look after Hinako to her so he can fully focused on his job at Tokyo. Even so, at weekends and holidays he's still able to spend his time with them. After I exxplained my own background story, Hinako arrived at the lounge and served us a warm Earl Grey tea. At this point Sera asked me and Hinako (which felt like an interrogation) how we met each other. To avoid suspicions (heheh) I and Hinako had to cover our meetup story like this: I was pointed as a reserve English teacher at her school last year, and Hinako found me friendlier than other teachers due to my age and demeanor, so after I left the school Hinako still came in contact with me. Thankfully this convinced Sera quite well When all preparations has been done, we stepped outside to get in the car. Sera spotted my Evo and asked: "Excuse me, but are you also a street racer? Or do you race either professionally or not somehwere?" "Eh no no, I'm just an enthusiast. But I usually attend track days at Tsukuba circuit and I intend to attend time attack events professionally next year" "I see, I'd say good luck with that" It turns out their dad was a street racer in his younger days. Sera showed me some photos of their dad back in the late 80's and early 90's, where it looks like he drives a 280Z. There are pics of him racing both at Tsukuba circuit and Tsukuba Fruits line touge (how he can race there with a car with such long front end is beyond my capabilities to answer). Sera rode with her dad on the 280Z several times in her childhood, but sadly when Sera enters middle high the 280Z was sold to support their economy condition. As of today, Sera said he drives a Toyota Vellfire. But before the Vellfire, he purchased this Toyota Estima (Tarago for you Aussies, known as Previa back then in the US of A) when Sera enters university, which is handed to Sera at the final year of her university education. 
 The Estima is quite clean, the Bordeaux maroon (purple? Wine?) colour shines calmly to my eyes. Very fitting with Sera's personality, occpation and demeanor too. It's pretty stock too, save for that custom, seemingly cheap wheel. Sera said she learned to drive in the Estima, and one day she accidentally curbed the wheels so hard it created a huge scuff at one wheel. Ultimatey though, the scuffed wheel broke into pieces when Sera drove over a huge pothole 2 years ago. As she can't find a spare wheel for sale, her colleague helped her to find a similar wheel and she landed her choice upon this one while the car's undergo some bodging to its floor.
This one is the 2001 model, has a 2.4L 2AZ-FE I4 engine which produces 156 BHP to the front wheels with a 5-speed manual transmission. Quite a figure for a people-carrier I guess, obviously not an outrageous figures like what you can achieve with a German-built estate, but surprisingly aplenty for a japanese minivan, especially compared to it's luxury siblings, the Alphard and Vellfire. There are a lot of japanese minivans back home at Indonesia, but almost none has that kind of figures, even until now. I don't really like minivans like this due to their abundance on the road (therefore not unique to me), but considering the Estima isn't sold in my homesoil (Alphard and Vellfire do sold though), I'd like to drive one. Because the garage can only fit one car, and I don't want anything bad happens to my Evo, I decided that the best way to solve this is to get the Estima off the driveway first, then back the Evo into the garage. With all the preparations done, Evo has been kept safe and everything has been loaded to the boot, we set off to the destination. Sera & Hinako's auntie house is a place located at the coastal city of Hitachinaka, though said location is rather far from the coastal line. Sera told me to take the highway near Hinako's school where we met the first time so we could travel faster and refuel beforehand near the highway exit. Welp, turns out it runs on a quarter tank and Sera hadn't refuelled it beforehand due to her illness. At the petrol station, I remembered that I'm going to Tokyo soon. While Sera & Hinako bought some meal for the trip, I noted to myself to ask her about the fastest route to Tokyo as well as the cheapest accomodation there.  Refuelling done, we hit the highway again. Weather report says Hitachinaka will only experience cloudy conditions at worst, so I'm quite glad that rain won't likely to happen there, though it might still be raining at other areas. The radio then plays cheerful new J-Pop tunes, some of which I listen to at some times, and some of them....I actually heard for the first time. The mood was lovely and flowing, augmented with the car providing smooth sailing experience with it's quiet engine sound and soft suspensions. No need to rush at the moment......
  At the highway exit there's a roundabout. As I approached it I pumped out this song from my phone. As we turn in, I can feel the roll from the left side so much, but seems like Sera, who sat on my side was concerned. Neither does Hinako who sat on the middle row at the right side. What a quality stuff for daily commuting, though I can feel a bit of understeer at the front.
 As we drive along, we talked about a lot of things, especially my friends, as well as Sera's. I also asked about the Tokyo route, which Sera confirms that the best way to go with car is by the highway too. I only have to take a different turn in the roundabout next time I approach it.
Some hours later, we arrived at the border areas of Hitachinaka, where Sera & Hinako's auntie lives. Sera guided me to drive through the countryside to make the trip easier to navigate. It looks quite peaceful here, and the road quality is better than I thought.  We finally arrived at their auntie's house at 10.30am. The family talked a lot about their own conditions as of the recent, as well as exchanging memorabilias. We also had lunch together, and their auntie is kind enough to have me as well, despite not being a part of their family. It was so delicious, and definitely a nutritional upgrade for my body
Even Sera didn't hestitate to introduce me to her auntie, leading her mistaking me as her lover. Oh come on. we've just met! I also spent some time outside checking the car in more details, as well has another photography course with Hinako at the house backyard. 
 At 4.30 pm, we went home. As I drive the car, I and Sera planned our route while admiring the scenery. 
As Sera was still not feeling well, I suggested her to go to a clinic while we're still on the road. So when we're back in Tsukuba, We went to a clinic at the suburbs so Sera can get some medicine. The air is getting cold at that time.
 After the quick trip at the clinic, finally we arrived at Sera & Hinako's place at 7pm. We got off the car and unload the stuff at the driveway. After all this has been unloaded, I remembered that my Evo was inside the garage. So I have to back the Estima outside, get my Evo off the garage, and return the Estima inside.
 As I've done the tasks, I've closed the garage door. When I turned my back, Sera already appeared in front of me.
"Wait, sorry if this is personal, but how much do you usually get paid?" (as we all know, talking about salary isn't a sensible topic) I answered that I've just got a raise of V$565/week. Then suddenly, she whipped out her purse and gave me V$500. "H-hang on Sera-san, isn't this too much?" "Ah, just say this is a thank-you gesture from me" "I didn't expect anything to be honest, not even getting paid, but thank you very much, I appreciate it" "It's nothing. If I may, can I have your contact please? I'd like you to be our reserve chauffeur, in case things like this happened again" "Oh, it's nice of you for the offer. Sure, why not?" We then exchanged contacts as we walked towards my Evo, and finally I bid her goodbye as I started. I guess you can't reject a gift or blessing, huh? Along the way home, I reflected everything that happened that day while blasting the saxophone instrumental version of 'On Days Llike These'. A perfect way to end days like this, don't you think? (no pun intended) Wew boi, finally done the update after almost 2 week of silence! I don't really think a TL;DR is required, but there's a huge update on my cash: That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon (possibly in Tokyo)!
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#58 2018-12-18 20:56 |
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Small Update: Tokyo Trip Start!
After enduring a long stint of work (both here and IRL), finally I got some time to enjoy winter holiday!
As I've said in the previous update, I decided to spend the rest of the year+the first week of the year at Tokyo. It's time to hit the road and blast through the winter to meet some friends! [10 Dec 2018] Yay paycheck! Another V$565 in my hands. This'll be handful for my trip later. And oh, winter finally comes to Tsukuba as well. The good this is, as long as the road isn't fully covered in snow or ice (thin ice is still okay), I could still run my Potenzas for the winter. Good for even more cheeky low-speed slides on the streets without worrying about tyre wear
In the meantime, I started to notify my clients about my winter break, where I could only receive soft copy works to be done until I come back from Tokyo. And of coure deep in mind I hope there aren't many orders to be done when I'm in Tokyo later [17 Dec 2018] Another paycheck, another V$565 landed in my pocket. With the Tokyo trip coming less in 24 hours, I decided to contact Muza (Niatross) about my visit. To be fair, I should've done this at the middle of the previous week, but there were so many orders to be done I almost forgot about this. But that's okay tho, finally I got the time.
"Hello, Muza here" "Ah hello, it's me Edo. I'm going to Tokyo tomorrow and going to visit you guys aswell" "Oh sure sure, you're welcome to jump in with us" "Should I notify your boys as well?" "No need to, don't worry. I'll tell them later" "Thanks man, I appreciate that. I'm going to pack my stuff for my visit so see ya soon" "See ya man, can't wait to see you" With Muza giving the green light to visit his place, I started to pack my stuff and get an early sleep to ensure I can endure a long trip to Tokyo. I really gotta keep my eyes open in the winter. As of my luggage, they're consisting of clothes, spare jacket, camping-spec sleeping bag that I haven't use for more than a year, bath stuff (soap, toothpaste and brush etc.), towel, two roll of ducktapes, first aid kit, a map in case of my phone being dead, a laptop, phone and laptop chargers, portable electric socket, a camping stove and two of my steelies in case the road is too dangerous to run on the Potenzas. I'd like to bring all of them but turns out two of them can't fit the boot of the Evo, so I have to make do with the rest.
[18 Dec 2018] I woke up to a chilly, snowy morning with blue skies at 7am. After a warm shower, putting on warm clothes and a final preparation, I got off my crib at 9.15am for a long trip to Tokyo. HERE WE GO!
 Thankfully, the road is still considerably dry. The weather report news mentioned a chance of heavy snowfall though. I decided to refuel my Evo first at my favourite gas station and have a breakfast at the cafetaria section. Welp, the food is....okay, but at least it's nutritious and lasts longer compared to if I only take a ramen or cereal back at my crib. Then the inevitable happened: As I enjoyed my meal, the sky darkens
 With the Evo refuelled to the brim and I got refuelled as well, I continued my trip under heavy snow. How does my tyres fare against the damp road under snowy condition? Let's find out......
 Surprisingly the Evo still could hold up in the straights of the highway, though changing lane becomes a bit of a terror in this conditions. I continued my trip, listening to the news while remembering the directions given by Sera (see previous update) from this highway to Tokyo.
 As I continue to roll across the heighway heading to Tokyo, I mumbled to myself: "What should I get for the Evo over the stay? I think I can't waste this chance to get some parts"
 I'll continue the progress when I'm arrived at Tokyo, so stay tuned! But now, the cash management first: That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon at Tokyo!
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#59 2018-12-24 01:27 |
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Hello Tokyo!
Aaaah finally final exam week is over+I've arrived in my IRL hometown!
Uhh, I'd say let's just fast forward to the time I'm finally in Tokyo And here's an announcement: I'm going to meet a crew and stay at their crib until the end of first week of 2019 Without further ado let's jump to the update! [23 Dec 2018] Due to the heavy snow I've encountered at the last update, I have to force myself to get off the highways and find a motel to stay for a while. And the snow had indeed made a huge impact: Most of the highway sections had to be closed due to snow piling pretty much everywhere, causing heavy traffic jams as cars queueing behind snow plows. It's even worse considering the fact that it is currently holiday season. Thankfully though there are only 3 accidents recorded caused by this, and my Evo is still intact (though I nearly rear-ended some cars and trucks due to the Evo still wearing Potenzas).
Anyway, I don't want to waste my time in the motel, so after several hours staying and enjoying cups of hot tea and around two bowls of sukiyaki I asked the receptionist if there's an alternative way to Tokyo. There was, and she said the road goes through the mountains and usually used by tour buses and expedition trucks. After I said I'd take any chances, she shown me the map and I recoordinate my phone maps to it. After the weather got a bit better, I went to said direction. And boy the decision was worth it.  This alternative route feels like a local version of Monte Carlo rally stages. Safer and wider, of course. IIRC similar routes can only be found around Mt. Aso, which is roughly at the west end of Japan, and it's not this safe either. With only a few traffic encountered and dry roads in my hands, I opened the taps a bit and enjoyed the view. And thankfully the end of the route was close to the main highway entrance, so I could quickly rejoin the action afterwards.
 Some hours later, finally......I'M IN TOKYO BOIS!!
I decided that the best first thing to do is have a rest at Daikoku Futo, despite it's still being afternoon with no bonker cars around as in the night scenes. Originally I also would like to go to Shibuya and Shinjuku as well, but after some thoughts I'd save that for the next day with Muza(Niatross) and co. At this point I also notify Muza that I've come to Tokyo safe and sound. I also noticed that Tokyo's weather is a bit on contrast to other places I passed. There was only chilly fogs ahead, but no snowfalls so far. I almost convinced that I've entered an episode of Nneon Genesis Evangelion (there was barely even a rain along the series!).  Some time later, I've had enough and continue my trip to the western side of Tokyo. It's only some kms and I've fallen in love with the highways and even wished for more power in my car. But I'd reckon I can do a mass highway blast with Muza and co., especially with his Supra or his brand new E46, or perhaps AJ's C-REX......but for now, I'll enjoy it with my Evo. Can't wait to join the big boys later!
 Meanwhile, near a marina at West Tokyo.........
"Great news, chaps. He's here, and he'll be coming in a few hours" "Oh great! It's a perfect timing to be honest, first my DC5 finally come to this soil and now we've got another company!"  "Glad to hear that. I'm sure he'll enjoy his stay here, as well as the view from this marina"  "Finally, a meeting of generations. It's time to unify the different spectrum of Lancer Evos"  "I can't wait to bring him around every edge and blacktops of the city. I'll prepare the acommodations now"  COMING SOON
(Probably in up to 24 hours)
This post was edited by BigSmoke (2018-12-24 02:03, ago) |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#60 2018-12-24 16:50 |
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Welcome to the Family!
"Holy number nines, Smoke! It hasn't been a full day and yet you've updated AGAIN?"
Ah yeah gotta catch up with the timeline Anyway let's jump into the update as I establish my stay with......well would you look at it by yourself! [Yes it's still 23 Dec 2018] After some hours of driving and surviving occasional traffic jams over the Shutokou, finally I arrived at the coastal rads of west Tokyo. As I've mentioned before, Muza (Niatross) and his crew's garage is located on a marina around here, which is seemingly a part of a suburban housing complex. When I arrived at the complex it was close to sunset hours, I'd say around 7pm. The cool sea breeze caressed my cheeks (instead of slapping them, thankfully) and the view is quite peaceful, creating a good first improession to my eyes. With this kind of refreshing view, no wonder Muza and co. can build a lot of inspirational builds.
 A few turns later, I arrived a the front of the garage. It's quite huge, and it has a huge front yard complex as well. If it's located in my (as well as Rifky(Shez)'s) home soil you can play either football/soccer or badminton around here. But obviously, this is the red carpet for Muza and co.'s builds. Here we can see some of their daily rides: There's Rifky's DC5 that recently has been shipped from the albion lands of UK, Muza's brand-new(ish) M3 E46 on Advan RGIIs, and inside the garage there's Marc(Macaron_moon)'s Evo X, currently with lip removed waiting for it's big, big bro to come. I don't know why, but there's nobody around so far.........
 I don't want to clog the road access should somebody else come to the garage after me, so I quickly parked my Evo behind Shez's DC5. While figuring out where's everybody and contacting Mmuza to confirm my presence, I took some pictures of my Evo and the DC5. Here we can also see AJ(RocketBunnyS13)'s brand-new S2000, the first RWD Honda he owned so far as well one of his favourites. I really dig that clean colours (and yes I do aware nothing has been done to it so far).
  Whilst taking pictures and admiring Rifky's DC5 and AJ's S2K, I heard some light footsteps. I quickly turned around and catch a glimpse of someone holding a huge wrench approaching me.
"YOU CAME TO THE WRONG GARAGE FOOL!" I was shocked and tried to run to my Evo, before realizing what's going on. "Nonono-Oi oi Muza! It's me, Big Smoke-I mean Edo, man, chill!" "Ooooooh finally you've come! Haha yeah gimme a hug mate!" he said as he gave me a calming hug. Damn I swear his holler scared the number 6s out of me. Then he called the rest of the crew: "Come on boys, show up, the Smoke has arrived!" Rifky, AJ and Marc came out from the garage, and we shared brofists and brohugs. Then Muza told me to bring my Evo inside to be parked beside Marc's Evo X. Yep, time to start the reunion! By the way, parking inside the garage is quite a faff as I had to do another multi-million turn to get it right. Worse still, there are a lot of objects than can ruin (a)my car or (b)the garage. And of course I want to set a good impression on them. Thankfully though the torture isn't as long and severe as I thought.  Inside, I got off my car and unpacked my stuff as Muza escorts me to the room I'll be staying in until the end of 1st week of 2019. Once all my stuff has been unpacked, we returned to the garage to have some chatter about my trip and my life in Japan so far, as well as of course my Evo and what did I do to it. The boys are also planning what to do for the rest of the year, as well as what should we get for the start of the year. All while we're enjoying cups of hot tea and some more cups of instant ramen.
13-14 years is not a short time to evolve and improving your products, and here we can see a good demonstration of it: There are a lot of things that can be mentioned to distinguish my Evo 3 and Marc's Evo X. But some things remained the same: They're AWD, they're powered by turbo I4 engine and they're made for rallying. Both cars are also a good timeline indicator of car styling: My Evo 3 is dominated by round, compact shapes but also features aggresive styling up front and has rubbers on the doors, as well as one of the cars using rather huge chin lips at the 90s. Marc's Evo X went even more aggressive on the style substance, but also being bulkier to add head and legroom. I'm sure there are more than just that, but so far that's what I can think of. 
 If you're following Muza's and AJ's RPs, I'm sure that you'll know that both of them has a lot of cars,e.g. Muza's Supra A70, AJ's S15 and CRX, as well as an S14 shared by both. If you're wondering where are them here, the answer is they have a huge storage room on the backside of their garage where they save them. Soon Rifky's AE86 will be shipped from UK and continuing its restoration progress here aswell in the storage room.
 After a very lengthy talk through the night, we all taking rests and finally I have my first night at Tokyo. Can't wait to live my life with the boys, even if it's only for a while. [24 Dec 2018] Paycheck time! Another V$565 landed in my account to ensure my survival in Tokyo. But since I'm in Tokyo, I might plan to buy some stuff for my Evo. Or should I? AAAAAH FINALLY I'M ARRIVED AT WEST TOKYOOOOOO Let's check out my finance directly since it's only affected by one item: Initial V$ = V$ 8,811
Paycheck = v$ 565 V$ at the moment = 8,811 + 565 = V$ 9,376 That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!
(either here or one of the boys RPs) |
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Macaron_Moon
Posts: 144
http://cornhub.com Location: Japan Homeless Occupation: Human Lan Evo, or homeless crackhead. Same thing Age: 27 V$: 2 cents |
#61 2018-12-24 21:35 |
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Cup noodles is my speciality, it always has been. Anyways, any idea of what to do tomorrow?
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Soju
Posts: 1247
Location: South Korea Occupation: Smuggling Soju Age: 122 V$: Broke |
#62 2018-12-25 04:22 |
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Those are real nice Evos.
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#63 2018-12-25 08:41 |
# Macaron_Moon : Cup noodles is my speciality, it always has been. Anyways, any idea of what to do tomorrow? Man your cup ramens are so tasty! Idk what to do really, I think Shibuya, Shinjuku, Sangen-Jaya and Akihabara are really crowded at the moment to roll on, and I'm afraid the road is still too icy for Wangan runs # Soju : Those are real nice Evos. WWew thanks Soju! We're glad finally we can unify two different spectrums of Evos right before our eyes |
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Nightkid
Posts: 818
Location: Japan Occupation: yesn´t Age: 23 V$: idk |
#64 2018-12-26 13:02 |
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God damn , your evo looks fucking awesome m8 !
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#65 2018-12-26 16:06 |
# Nightrunner : God damn , your evo looks fucking awesome m8 ! Thanks my man, I really appreciate that
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Benny
Posts: 1143
Location: Bosnia And Herzegovina Lukavac Occupation: Electrictian Age: 30 V$: V$756 |
#66 2018-12-27 16:15 |
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Nice RP man, love your cars, the style, keep up the good work.
If you need help with cars hit me up or lagano if I don't answer I got a lot of contacts in tokyo from my days in Japan so you can get some great % off the price
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#67 2018-12-28 03:03 |
# Phonexius : Nice RP man, love your cars, the style, keep up the good work. Thanks my man, and thanks for the heads-up!  I've been in contact with Lagano for a while so don't worry. He's a great and friendly guy
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#68 2018-12-28 08:14 |
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C I T Y // H U N T E R
Life with Muza and co. here in west Tokyo is very fun!
Tokyo itself is amazing as well, and finally I'm able to visit some of it's famous districts. I also made a micro-adjustment to the Evo as well. Let's jump to the RP then! [27 Dec 2018] Welp, the X-mas party here is quite lovely and lively, with lots of ramen cups, sushis, and onigiris on the table. And of course there are coffee, sake and tea as well, with Marc(Macaron_moon) and AJ(RocketBunnyS13) downing lots of sake, and I somehow got rather high after, like, 12 cups of tea (fortunately it wasn't coffee, otherwise that could've been fatal). Anyway, fast forward to 27 Dec and we resumed our regular activities. As usual we talk about things like cars, girls, games, life in general etc. while tinkering with our cars.
Muza(Niatross) spent most of the day at the back of the garage, prepping most of his cars. AJ modded the S14 he and Muza shared together and also finally reviving his S15, as well brought it back on the road later in the day (check it out HERE!). Marc spent his time wrenching and improving his Evo X. Meanwhile Rifky(Shez) was planning over next mods for his DC5, as well as sorting out the delivery of his AE86 project. So I was pretty much having a lot of free time in my hands. Originally I would like to go to downtown Tokyo with everyone for the first time, but finally I decided it'll be helpful if I simply try to recognize it by going there alone for the first visit. After all, I've got maps in my phone and this is also how I familiarize myself with Tsukuba way back then. I locked my room, told Muza and Marc that I'm going downtown, and set off. I hit the Tokyo Expressway again to get into downtown. The weather is cold but mild and there's no signs of snowfall as well. Perfect then to open the taps of the Evo while blasting through the highway. On another note, it looks like I've got used quickly with the Neon Genesis Evangelion-esque weather condition here.  Rolling my Evo here is truly the stuff of dreams, it brought me back over the days I'm playing Tokyo Extreme Racer (TXR) series and Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune (WMMT) arcade games I used to use back in my homeland. I mean, both are mainly set at Tokyo (except TXR Drift series) highways and the roads are exactly looking like this. I don't think I have the urge to go to C1 line yet, so I'll stick to Wangan Line and Yokohane line for a while. The route is also easier to remember anyway. But still, rolling down the highway with the whole crew onboard or tailing is one of the content of my bucket list while I'm here.
 Around 2 hours later, I arrived at the Shibuya district, one of the busiest part of downtown Tokyo. The streets and economy are surely alive here with this lots of people and cars wandering around. I strolled around inside my Evo whilst looking around the scenery. Uh, at this point I should admit one part of the reasons I want to go to Shibuya is it's appearance in games, especially in Persona 5, Race Driver GRID and DiRT 2
the city looks so awesome in these games! An of course, the district's appearance in FnF Tokyo Drift is also one that's unable to be missed.
 I also visited the district's station as well, which is a vital point if you're playing Atlus-released games like aformentioned Persona 5 game and it's extreme, darker brother, the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) series, as well as it's other sibling like the Devil Survivor (DS) series. In SMT and DS the station usually serves as a shelter, while in Persona 5 you can simply meet your friends here and wander around. You'll encounter the station as well in Race Driver GRID, where you'll pass in front of it several times during your race or drift session.
 At this point I also noted some places like all-you-can-eat restaurants and sushi parlors, as well as some convenience store. This will come in handy if I'm going to come back here at one time, either alone again or with the boys. But of course I prefer to come here with the boys
 Later in the afternoon, I moved to the next district that I want to visit, which is Akihabara. Home of Japan's tech market, as well as the main location of anime and tokusatsu culture market, and also home of cosplaying culture and uhhh....errr.....weebs? Anyway, surprisingly it's rather quiet after the holiday craze, to my relief as this means I'll have a lot of open roads here.
 I was going to visit Akihabara UDX parking building as well, which usually filled with itasha cars at night. But sadly, turns out there are none of them at day. Perhaps because they're too flashy even for the owners under the daylight when they're not in groups, and maintaining the paintjob is quite difficult as well.
But that's okay though. Later on I stopped to rest around a section near the Akihabara park that have a vending machine, which is my main reason to park my car there. The specific reason is I want to look for a vending machine that has UCC Coffee on store, which has a special edition cans featuring Neon Genesis Evangelion characters.  And luckily, they have some in stock! Featuring my favourite character as well! In my favourite flavor! I grabbed three of them in excitement. With my objective fullfilled and I've got enough rest, I bought two more of the coffee to be enjoyed in Muza and co.'s place, and head back to the garage. It was sunset when I returned to west Tokyo. I didn't immediately return to the garage, but instead decided to enjoy sunset first from the marina. The view was so, so inspiring and breathtaking. And of course this means another photo opportunity
 The only problem was.....it was cold, so automatically the sea breeze becomes a giant freezer to the people near the marina. Worse, this really tingles my bladder and I eventually can't hold it, so I reluctantly return to the garage to clear it.
After my business with my bladder was done, I had an idea to do with my Evo. But first, I asked Muza if the work bay is free. "Uh, Muza, is anyone going to use the workbay and lift?" "I don't think so, are you gonna use it?" "Yeah, just a quick job" "Go ahead, feel free to use it. Be careful though, it's night already." "Thanks my man" Armed with tools available in the shop, the lift, as well as aformentioned cans of coffee, I set to work. So what I've done is I lowered my Evo a bit more for around 0.13", from 6.90" to 6.77" front and back. The difference might not be visible to the eyes, but I'm sure it'll be a game changer to the ride. Additionally, I also changed the fitting over the rear anti-roll bars.  With the job done, I felt very exhausted. I haven't even touched the coffee yet! I decided to store the coffee in Muza's cooler and get an early sleep. [28 Dec 2018] The early sleep was quite worth it as I woke up quite refreshed. When I walked to the garage I noticed that (a)Either Muza woke up earlier too or he hasn't took a damn sleep, and (b)the Evo looks rather grimy.
"You guys got car shampoo and some polish?" "Well there's plenty of them, are you going to wash the Evo?" "Yeah. Mind if I do?" "No no don't worry, feel free to use the shampoo and polish" "Welp thank you so much" I decided to wash the Evo outside the garage, as well as doing some detailing job on it. The sunrise reveals it indeed needs some shower treatment. An hour later, I finished washing and polishing my Evo, as well as washing the car's carpet. Aaaaand here's the result!  With the Evo done receiving the bath treatment, it is time for the owner to get the shower treatment
Later in the day, AJ called me while I was browsing pictures of Integras with Rifky. Rifky said he went somehwere with his CR-X while I had shower. "Sup yo, it's AJ" "Oh hey AJ, what's up?" "Well, I'd say rather good. Listen, can you pick me up? I'll send you the location after this call" "Ah OK sure man, don't worry. Hold on, Rifky said you brought your CR-X with you, what happen-" "I'll tell ya later about it, don't worry" "OK mate, I'm going now" "Thank you very much" After the call ended, AJ sent his current location to my phone. And so, I'm off to pick up AJ. But what happened to AJ's CR-X? Don't worry, he'll answer it soon on his update. I'll also post the pics of the trip back home in the next update. That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you soon!
(either here or one of the boys RPs) |
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Niatross
Posts: 430
Location: Bangladesh Occupation: topkek Age: V$: yes |
#69 2018-12-28 10:57 |
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GOOD TIMES MATE!
a bit more company around the garage made christmas just that much more fun! Thanks for coming around lmao Touge drive and Supra-shenanigans soon OuO |
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Current owned cars: - Toyota Supra GA-JZA70 Mk3 - BMW E46 M3 - Nissan Skyline ECR33 GTS25t - Nissan 200SX Hatchback - BMW E92 335i - Nazda RX-7 FD3S Type RS - Mazda RX-7 JF1FD (USDM) - Nissan Silvia S14 |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#70 2018-12-28 11:11 |
# Niatross : GOOD TIMES MATE! Welp thank you for accepting my visit to your garage man! This way I can spend the rest of the year with more colours Also can't wait for the touge drive and your Supra man
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Alex876
Posts: 356
Location: Jamaica Swift Tune JA Occupation: Putting illegal camber on cars Age: 23 V$: |
#71 2018-12-28 12:44 |
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Evo looking lit asf
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#72 2018-12-28 14:08 |
# jdmkvng : Evo looking lit asf Thanks man! It's been reunited with its borther and now it's sparkling clean!
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DEADMANE
Posts: 104
Location: United States Los Angeles Occupation: Grim Reaper Age: 30 V$: |
#73 2018-12-28 14:36 |
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Nice evo man! I want to go to Japan so bad... one day.
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#74 2018-12-28 15:12 |
# DEADMANE : Nice evo man! I want to go to Japan so bad... one day. Thank you, and amen for that! The Side to Side boys (Lagano and Phonexius) are usually coming back and forth from US to JP and vice versa, so you might want to get some advices from them if you want to go to Japan someday. They're nice guys, don't worry
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DEADMANE
Posts: 104
Location: United States Los Angeles Occupation: Grim Reaper Age: 30 V$: |
#75 2018-12-28 15:33 |
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No problem! And ooooh thanks for the tip, I'll have to get in touch with them
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RocketBunnyS13
Posts: 418
Location: Philippines MNL Occupation: Yes I ruin cars Age: 34 V$: wat |
#76 2018-12-29 09:52 |
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So glad to have you and Shez stay over at the garage for the holidays, the more the merrier as always. And thanks for helping me out with that thing haha, update should be up soon!
Can't believe how good your Evo runs btw, it might not be as low and aggressive as other Evos around but damn it rides pretty damn well and the feedback from the steering and suspension are solid! |
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s t a y c l a s s y |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#77 2018-12-29 09:59 |
# RocketBunnyS13 : So glad to have you and Shez stay over at the garage for the holidays, the more the merrier as always. And thanks for helping me out with that thing haha, update should be up soon! Oh hey AJ, thanks for accepting my visit to the garage too! The Evo is also a daily driver after all (hence the fat tyres and the not-low stance), and I'm glad all of the suspension upgrades showing it's result pretty well! And I'm quite surprised (in a good way) the Evo itself is still running solid after more than two decades. Top quality stuff! |
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Macaron_Moon
Posts: 144
http://cornhub.com Location: Japan Homeless Occupation: Human Lan Evo, or homeless crackhead. Same thing Age: 27 V$: 2 cents |
#78 2018-12-29 13:05 |
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Human Lan Evo here, all I wanted to say is that my evo isnt going to be ready for the touge sesh so I'll have to ride along.
Also good job on not getting lost, not like me lmao |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#79 2018-12-29 13:20 |
# Macaron_Moon : Human Lan Evo here, all I wanted to say is that my evo isnt going to be ready for the touge sesh so I'll have to ride along. Oh hey Marc! Ahh gutted the Evo X can't make it man  But hey, not only you can be my co-driver (so we can pretend we're rallying lol), what if I say I might let you drive it as well? Y'know, as a comparison and memory lane note Also yah, downtown Tokyo is pretty vast as I expected, but locking my destination to specific areas definitely helps lol Recognizing landmarks from all kinds of medias helps a lot too |
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BigSmoke
Posts: 844
Location: Indonesia Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains Age: V$: Broke |
#80 2018-12-31 09:58 |
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End of The Year Notes
As 2019 is coming upon us, Tokyo is getting crowded everywhere to celebrate it. Despite the cold weather here, everyone seems to be fired up. Well, I also celebrate it....albeit in a different way Let's jump into the update! NOTE: Some pics are taken from AJ's RP [28 Dec 2018, later in the day] The location at AJ pointed to me is located at around east Tokyo, some kms away from downtown. It is a garage shop called Vstanced Garage. AJ also instructed to me to ask for him to the people there regardless of his presence there via text message. The trip itself takes some hours, moving from west to east Tokyo is quite a feat to do. Thankfully though the streets itself isn't so crowded this time, so there are less traffic jams compared to the day I came here. The Neon Genesis Evangelion-esque weather definitely helps too with engine cooling and tyre grip, allowing me to unleash all the power the Evo has on the highway.
Some hours later, I entered the highway exit. The map says the garage shouldn't be far from it.  Several turns later I came to the front of the Vstanced Garage. The gargae itself is located in an old but big building, and the front gate as well as the building itself make the garage a blink-or-miss it spot if you're going past it without being attentive to your surroundings or having a mpa on your side. I proceed to stop for a while on the front of the garage since it looks like nobody's around.
 I decided to call AJ, to make sure whether he's already inside or not.
"Yo AJ, it's me Edo. You there?" "No I haven't but I'll be there" "You sure this is the place? I've seen the sign but I see nobody around" "Yap if you can see the sign then that's it. Hold up let me contact one of the boy there to let you in" "Thanks man, I'll wait inside" So turns out AJ was somewhere else at the moment. Then it looks like somebody told me to go inside the garage from afar, so I decided to follow him in the Evo. "AJ's friend?" "Yup" "Come in, dude" 
 The Vstanced garage crew told me to park my Evo at the respraying bay, since there's nobody using it so far. As we wait for AJ, they told me about their works, including AJ's iconic CR-X and S15 which I'm totally a fan of. They've been creating a lot of legendary liveries for all purposes since a very long time ago. They were also kind enough to treat me for a slice of pizza and a can of soft drink
They also told me that they have a lot of branches around Japan, and recently they opened another one in Tsukuba, specializing in livery designing and wrapping, as well as expert detailing for time attack cars. They've got someone who is regarded "carbon fiber doctor" by them, since said man expertises on carbon fiber detailing and repair, e.g. he can repair and cover cracked carbon fiber parts which is normally quite difficult to do. I wonder if he can do it to, say, Formula 1 cars? The location of the Tsukuba branch is another surprise as well, as it turns out to be close to the school when I and Rantaro once hang out and picked up girls. Perhaps when I've got my own drift car or time attack machine (remember, the Evo is also a daily), I'll pay them a visit for liveries.  Some hours later after the sun sets, AJ came into the garage with his friend, Jack. Man, Jack's Sileighty is so awesome, I actually want to look at it for a longer time! 
 But then comes the saddening news. As you can see at AJ's RP, AJ's C-RX has been sold to someone else. Knowing that it was AJ's first car in Japan and he has gone through a lot of things in it makes it more painful in heart. AJ looks like he's ready to move on though, after all he has three other cars he can drive and work on. But he's right as well, the final result might not give the same vibe and feel as the CR-X when they're finished.
After a long chat with everyone and some more slices of pizza, I and AJ went back to Westkyo garage. We hit the highway again for fast trip home, hoping for lesser traffic. 
As we're cruising on the highway, AJ told me all he had done with the CR-X, as well as his resolve to work on his other cars, mainly his S15. But then suddenly Queen's "I'm in Love with My Car" kicks in over the radio. Before I proceed to sing along, I asked AJ not to be irritated or saddened by the song, or in particular my voice. He said it's okay and I may go on singing. The radio kept on blasting evergreen rock songs as darkness fell upon us.
 After a long drive, I and AJ arrived at Westkyo at 10.45pm, and we decided to go straight to our separate beds. It's quite an eventful day for both of us. [29 Dec 2018] After waking up and had a freezy shower, AJ invited me for breakfast. Since Marc(Macaron_moon) was running out of ramen, and Muza(Niatross) has already one with Rifky(Shez), I accepted his invitation. AJ says we're going to the suburban area near Westkyo. As morning mist clears up, we hit the road. It was so freezy I have to put on my thiccest jacket that I brought.
The suburbs itself is quite fascinating to drive around and surprisingly has a lot of trees. There are also quite a lot of highway exits in case you have an urge for doing expressway runs in a sudden.  But what occupies my eyes most is AJ's Strawberry red S15 that he brought. It is one of my favourite builds here as it reminds me of Nobuteru Taniguchi's personal S15 that has made a lot of appearance in video games, particularly Tokyo Extreme Racer Drift (TXRD) series, usually along with Ridox Supra and RE Amemiya RX7. Makes sense since Nob and Max Orido helped along the game's development process in order to make these games the ultimate touge simulator at that time. Only time can tell if AJ will have a similar role
 The city's view was so enjoyable I can't hold myself to take pics of my Evo. The brekkie menu was delicious as well! AJ really knows the culinary map of the suburban area. Man, if only all the crew can join us.........also, while we have the brekkie AJ compliments the quality of the ride the Evo has. I'm glad all the handling upgrade gives a brilliant result!
   Sadly, our joy was offset on our way back. AJ was suddenly slowing down and the car misfired a lot of times. We decided to stop a while on a bridge to see what's going on.
"What happened?" I asked as I run lightly towards AJ. "I don't know either, let's pop the hood" AJ asnwers, then he opened the bonnet while the engine is still running. "Please don't be something serious, please" I pleaded inside as we look over the engine. As you can see on AJ's RP, it turns out the SR20DET inside proceeds to turn itself into a SR20DE with a blown, non-functional turbo. A moment of silence for the turbo, please. With the turbo dead, AJ's S15 has become asthmatic. I offered to call a tow service, but AJ refuses, and reckoned he can limp it home. I can understand his decision, after all this is his beloved car. Thankfully though we made it back to WestKyo unscathed. We spent the rest of the day removing the remnants of the blown turbo. [31 Dec 2018] It's the final day of 2018 and I've got an info that now I'll be receiving V$655 a week! Clearly this is a blessing for me, as thsi means more money for tuning the Evo. And speaking of tuning the Evo.........
After weeks of hard thinking whether I should get engine or transmission upgrades first, I decided to refresh the stock transmission first. After all, it's the component that transfers the fierce power of the engine to the wheels, so I think it'll be good to prioritize it first while I've got the money for it. The Evo might actually need them as well, after all these years of running on stock components it must have been tired of changing gear multi-million times. So after consulting with Muza, AJ and Marc the Human Lan Evo, I started the shopping spree. TMZ Performance offered transmission rebuild kits, transfer case rebuild kits as well as rear diff rebuild kits. For the transfer case and rear diff I'm going for the standard Stage 1 ones as I'm not going to do ridiculous stuff which requires billet components at the moment, but for the transmission I'm going for the Stage 3 option, which features several race-spec components and center diff modifications including 4-spider gear center diff conversion. Along with it I added additional 1st gear input shaft and 12% taller 1st gearset and competition spec clutch fork as options. With that sorted, the transmission kit costs V$3490, the transfer case kit costs V$615 and the rear diff kit costs V$495, bringing the grand total to V$4600. But the shopping list doesn't stop there. I plan to replace the front and rear LSD as well. Fortunately RHDJapan has a year-end discount promo going on, so I can grab LSDs for cheap. I grabbed Cusco Type RS LSDs, both for front and rear. The front one costed me V$939, while the rear one costed me V$904. But no, the shopping list doesn't end here either. To match the LSDs, I decided to change the clutch set as well to Cusco's. Fortunately, Cusco JP has them for reasonable price at V$532, with no charge for material selection. This allows me to pick the copper ones, hopefully this one will be stronger. But one question still remain: Despite the 4-spider center diff conversion, should I replace it with LSDs? Or can I combine said diff conversion with this? I want to do it since it's quite rare but I'm not sure if it works. Any answers will be appreciated. For now it doesn't seem to matter though. As the day passes, we decided that instead of going downtown for new year's eve, we simply enjoy the fireworks from the marina nearby and bring our own snacks. And luckily for us, the marina is surprisingly not so crowded. We enjoy the night as we see fireworks, fill ourselves on various snacks and watch as the year changes in my Evo and Muza's E46. 
 Happy new year everyone, I hope 2019 will bring all of us more colours, adventures and opportunities, and perhaps new cars in our garage as well Final update of 2018 has been done!  Let's see how my wallet survives the shopping spree....... That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by and see you in 2019!
(either here or one of the WestKyo boys RPs) |
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