Amuse R1 Titan Shift Knob – AKA the Holy Grail

July 15, 2019 / jasonhoang / 4 Comments

Well, it’s the Holy Grail for me at least…

I’ll be honest – the shift knob wasn’t something I was dying to change. I was pretty happy with the stock one and there wasn’t anything out there that I really loved. I’m a sucker for Titanium blue knobs so that narrowed down my options substantially. It was a toss up between ordering another WC Lathewerks one, J’s Racing, ARC, Moonface, or the Amuse R1. I was leaning towards the WC Lathewerks because of the option of being able to customize the whole knob and colour, but I also wanted to try one of the “big name” knobs to see what all the hype is about.

The J’s and ARC are really small in diameter and I don’t see the appeal in them, personally. The Moonface knob proved to be rather difficult to find without either A) getting price gouged or B) being a fake. WC lathewerks is the heaviest of the bunch and has the perfect diameter which is perfect – but the grass is always greener on the other side… So that left the Amuse R1. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking all that hard because, as I mentioned, I wasn’t in a rush to replace the stock one.

But as always, when I get the idea of something, I can’t move on until I get it… Bad habit to have. At the same time, I was talking to Peter about shift knobs and he informed me that Amuse went out of business and any outstanding orders were basically dead in the water. Any other businesses that didn’t know would still take your order and you’d be left without your deposit in some cases. This causes a ripple effect on any existing products that consumers may have – prices go up because they are now a commodity.

So, I put forward my plea on Instagram to see if anyone had a J’s Racing or Amuse knob and as luck would have it, the stars aligned for me once again. Ernyel messaged me on Instagram and told me he had one for me. With the knowledge that Amuse is now out of business and an Amuse R1 titan knob being offered to me – what more convincing did I need? With the transaction completed – Ernyel shipped it out and I had it within a matter of days.

Not many pics because it’s literally just a shift knob but I’ve been writing about it like it’s some big performance mod LOL. I really like the feel of it – it’s not a full sphere but it’s not oval either – it’s got a very slight tear drop pull at the bottom that you don’t see on many knobs. I’ve always been a fan of the spherical knobs because they’re more aesthetically pleasing to look at.

The really cool thing about it is that the colour changes quite drastically depending on which angle you’re looking at it from. From the very top, it’s a very bright and vibrant blue. About a quarter way down, it starts to lighten and turn to a blue/purple.

Then finally when you get down side by side with it, you see almost no blue at all and only purple and gold/yellow. It’s pretty trippy actually especially when I compare it to the WC lathewerks – the burn quality is extremely top notch – I guess something to be expected from Amuse and their signature titanium burns. Not that WC lathewerks is not top notch (cause it also is), but the spectrum of colours on the Amuse knob is impressive.

You can also see the slight teardrop pull down at the very bottom of the knob. Pairs nicely with the J’s Racing shift boot IMO. All that text for a shift knob… LOL

Whatever – Holy Grail acquired!

Rolling Shots: Team Silver

January 20, 2014 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Last night I was editing some pictures of Errol’s S2000 to post up and that’s when Brad reminded me (complained) that I hadn’t posted the other rollers yet. I know I said I was going to, but I honestly forgot… Even after editing Errol’s pic because the rolling shots were in the same folder lol.

Anyways – I *THINK* that I subconsciously neglected to edit these mainly because I’m not 100% happy with them. The main reason being that the backdrop is really not that special and there’s random buildings and stuff that just suck. This would have been awesome if it was on the highway with mountains or something because the lighting was fairly good and it gives it a good night time feel, but maybe I’m just being picky… Perhaps we’ll do another shoot this year with some better planning. In any case, some may look familiar with a slightly different angle, but there are a few other ones that I left till now.

In case you haven’t seen it… Here are the two parts to their shoots:

Brad’s K20 EM1

Errol’s Amuse S2000

These shots were done a little earlier in the evening and you can see the sun setting in the back

I liked all of this shot except for the traffic up front. The rain clouds mixed with the sunset made for a great background.

From JC’s car… I was contemplating cloning out that Saturn but I didn’t feel the need to last night. Now I regret it. lol

Defend Authenticity Part 2 – Errol Tan’s Amuse Honda S2000

October 7, 2013 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

To follow up and finally conclude the “Team Silver” photoshoot is Errol’s Turbo Amuse Honda S2000. Like I mentioned before, I shot both Errol and Brad’s cars on the same night so we were rushing around trying to get as many shots in as we could before the sun went down completely – that was all about an hour.

Just an update to keep you guys in the loop on some of the photoshoots coming up – I’ve got four more sets that I have to edit from last week and the weekend and I’ve also got three coming up this week. So it’s going to be another busy week of shooting and editing. I’m usually pretty good with shooting, coming home and finishing the editing by the end of the same night but now I’m backlogged. It doesn’t change much except for the fact that I’ll probably be getting the shoots up a little later but that’s what I was hoping for anyway. I didn’t want to rush things too much or else I’ll have done all this shooting and still have nothing for the winter months. Some cars to look forward to are a 2JZ GS and a K20 EK… but I’ll leave it at that.

Back to the post… I haven’t really seen Errol’s car much before the shoot. I think I had seen it at the one beyond meet that I went to, but not much before then. When I first heard about Errol getting an Amuse kit from JDM source, I actually didn’t believe it. Mainly because the Amuse widebody kit is rare to see, let alone have anyone get it and install it. Before the kit though, the S2000 remained fairly stock and when Race City was still open, Errol would usually be there whipping it around the way an S2000 should be driven. However, Race City – the place where an S2000 belongs is also the place where the S2000 was almost put out of commission…

Fast forward to today and it is a new car. JDM source found the Amuse widebody kit and Errol took it as a chance to rebuild the car again. The kit is absolute perfection in terms of aggressiveness and detail and it really makes the S2000 look like it’s on steroids.

Errol left the car at the body shop for a long and grueling 8 months before it was completed to what it is now after the crash at Race City. The kit is fitted and painted extremely well.

Lining up for rollers. This was actually at the light right before the dual shot I posted up on the Facebook page a few days ago. You can see Brad peeking through on the other side.

Love seeing this car roll. Much like the NSX – it looks good from most, if not all angles.

Close up of the Amuse front bumper. Aggressive but also very clean.

A fitting license plate paired with ASM bolts to hold it in place. Brad and Errol hold the same type of view when it comes to modifying their cars – they want functional and quality pieces and accept nothing less. They are two of the biggest JDM fanboys I know and it’s no bad thing either. Like I mentioned in Brad’s post – a vision that starts off with high expectations and patience usually delivers high quality and rewarding results.

Errol sits on a fairly aggressive set of Enkei RPF1’s which suit the Amuse kit surprisingly well. It’s a very different choice than the usual TE37 or CE28 option, but it’s great.

A closer shot of the aggressive fender and part of the side skirt. The wheel/tire fits in there perfectly.

A side profile shot of the car with the Amuse kit is also one of my favourite angles. I remember when I finally believed that he got the kit, I asked everyone (except Errol lol) if he had gotten a GT wing for it too. When you think Amuse widebody, you also think big GT wing. At the time, Errol isn’t rocking one but it also looks very good without out it too.

I ask Errol occasionally whether he’s planning on it and he definitely is – so I think it’s only a matter of time before he has one on there. When I was parting out my STI – he inquired about buying my Voltex GT wing but the wing mounting points didn’t match up right unfortunately…

You can just barely see it but he also rocks a Mugen bucket on the driver side along with a Mugen steering wheel.

A head on shot and you’ll see right away that it’s boosted and it’s not just all show. I love the look of it from the front.

Under the hood is of course the turbo set up and the second engine in the S2000.

Good ol’ BOV

And one more roller to end it off right.

Maybe next year we’ll finish off the “official” team silver and add Alex’s Integra into the mix. I don’t doubt that there will be a bunch of changes to all three cars over the winter months…. Thanks to Brad and Errol again for coming out!

That’s a wrap for that! It isn’t stopping anytime soon either…

My First 2013 Beyond Meet…

September 5, 2013 / jasonhoang / 2 Comments

Last night was the usual Beyond meet on the upper parkade of Chinook Center and I was bored so I decided to come check it out. It was my first time out in almost a year, and the last time I was out was back when I still had my STI. To be honest, I personally wasn’t a fan of going anymore just because it started to get kind of cliquey. Not that people are trying to do that on purpose or anything, it’s just how meets usually end up being. People gather in circles and it’s tough for newcomers or other people to join in. The turnouts were also pretty small – usually there would be a full line of cars, and now it seems to have doubled!

It was an exceptionally good turnout last night and lots of different varieties of cars. That’s something that I enjoy seeing and I think it’s even more refreshing because it’s been so long since I’ve been to the meets. Met lots of new peeps, saw some others that I haven’t seen in a long time, but overall a pretty good night. I know they hold the super meet every year so I’ll most likely make my way to that one as well since the turnouts are usually pretty big and include a lot of cars you don’t necessarily see all the time.

Moving onto some of the pics that I got that night. I know later on in the night, some other guys showed up but it was pretty dark and I had put my camera away.

Starting off with Rich’s WRX. Not even a week since I shot this and he’s already on different wheels. What a guy.

Ryan O’Hara’s EP3 looking clean as always.

Corey O’Hara’s new project S2000 – you might remember seeing it at the show & shine.

Alex Markovic and his immaculate Integra also showed up last night. Shoot of this coming soon to a lifewithjason near you.

A pretty clean BMW 1-series on WORK M1R’s. A little drop and it’d be set!

Ryan Tsang’s Hyundai Genesis Coupe.

Jackie Tong’s NSX on some good ol’ Advan RS’s – you probably know by now, but if you don’t – he’s the owner of Zero Limit Automotive.

Steve Chan’s Mugen RSX slammed on mag blue TE37’s

A shot of Regina George. Picked the shittiest parking.

A very clean 7-series. All it needed (and it was screaming for it) was air suspension and a better non-BMW park job. It would have easily been the sickest car at the meet last night (for me, anyway) if it was just dumped and sitting on the ground in a proper parking stall. The colour was fantastic as well.

Justin Kan’s dumped and static TSX on Enkei NT03+M’s

Brad Atkin’s K20 EM1 on nicely contrasting orange TE37’s. Brad – give your keys to someone so I can shoot this.

Errol Tan’s Amuse S2000. Errol – take Brad’s keys and get someone to drive your car so I can shoot both of them.

Adrian Perry’s boosted B18 EJ1 on some new shoes! Volk CE28’s. I believe he’s still on the fence about swapping them but I get the feeling it’s going to happen.

Alex’s Integra looking clean as usual. There’s just so much to say about the car… I’ll save it for the shoot.

A GTR that is apparently pushing upwards of 800+ hp? I didn’t confirm it, just what I heard. Still clean though and in great condition.

Ray Dumitrescu’s STI Sedan on WORK M1R’s.

SO CLEAN. Didn’t see the owner though…

Noel Egger’s S14. I think he had an issue with his hood and hasn’t been able to get it fixed yet so he rolls without it. Still looks sick.

Derrek Poyntz’s super clean Integra.

A wild R32 suddenly appeared.

A pretty cool FD RX7. The aero/styling is very 90’s but it still works pretty well today.

A minty convertible S13

Simple Evo X on RPF1’s

John King’s JDM front end conversion CSX. I still love this look.

Kyle Hugo’s EK on Regamasters

A dumped Saturn. This thing is crazy and it might not appeal to everyone, but he did a pretty good job.

Anthony’s special edition Scrion FRS. The “Silver Ignition” colour is probably the nicest colour for the FRS. It’s got a few extra bells and whistles that the regular FRS doesn’t have like the HID headlights and LED DRL’s. Good job Scion.