FRS

FS: 2014 Scion FR-S – Own The Black Swan

/ jasonhoang / Leave a comment

My first post of 2019 and it’s to sell my 2014 Scion FR-S…

39,285 KM
Asking price: $31,000. Pretty firm but willing to negotiate if you’re serious. No part out – I am selling as a whole with everything you see and that’s listed – including all stock parts if you ever wanted to revert it back.

Reason for selling: Another kid is on the way and as much as I love what this car has become, it’s not something I can enjoy enough to make it worth keeping and it would be a waste to just have it sit in my garage rather than let someone else enjoy it as I have.

Mod List:

Wheels/Suspension
ST Coilovers
Cusco Rear Control Arms
Volk TE37SL powder coated in gloss black with OG TE37 stickers
Brembo GT Big Brake kit painted yellow
Brembo Slotted Discs
Brembo Front Brake Pads
Endless RF-650 Brake Fluid
Project Mu rear brake pads
TiBurnt Titanium Valve Stem Caps
Project Mu Lug Nuts
Michelin Pilot Super Sport Tires

Engine
T1R Power Header
T1R Dual Sparrow 70mm
T1R Overpipe

Interior
Recaro RS-G bucket seat with black Kamui fabric
Bride Rails
WC Lathewerks Titanium Sphere Shiftknob
WORKS Bell Short Hub
Vertex USA KING of VERTEX Steering Wheel
Gold Vertex Horn Button
TiBurnt Titanium Steering wheel bolts
OEM Black Toyota button set
OEM JDM frameless rear view mirror

Exterior
Voltex Type 7 Swan Neck GT Wing – 1700mm
Titanium bolts for GT wing
Arise Sport Body Kit (Bumper and Side Skirts)
AJRC OEM-type Rear Diffuser
Craft Square Carbon GT Mirrors
TiBurnt Titanium Washer and Bolts for Craft Square Mirrors
TRD Carbon Fiber Fender Fins
TOM’S USDM LED Tail Lights (All Red)
RS1.0/GT86 Headlight conversion with DRL mod and OEM HID’s
OEM JDM Toyota Badges
OEM JDM Clear sidemarkers
Beat Sonic Shark Fin Antenna
TiBurnt License Plate Bolts
Philips License Plate LED’s
Philips Interior LED’s
Reverse Cree LED’s

Some basic info: I bought the car new from South Pointe Toyota and I am the only owner. The car has been babied it’s whole life and only ever driven in the summer. It’s never been on the track (sadly) but that’s where you come in! The engine bay has pretty much been left alone with the exception of the exhaust components. The interior is more or less mint – the carpets are in pristine condition and is shampooed and vacuumed at least once a month during the summer.

The paint condition of the car has been kept up in the best way that I know how – polished, sealed and waxed several times during summer. You won’t see swirls on this black paint if I had anything to do with it. The car gets an oil change every 5000km at Balance Auto Garage with OEM Toyota Synthetic Oil and if it doesn’t hit 5000km before I park it for winter, it gets one after I wake it up the next summer. Both keys are in good working order.

The car – in my opinion – is extremely fun to drive. It’s balanced and feels planted – there’s no rubbing and has almost the perfect setup to drive aggressively without breaking or scraping anything.

The cons: The passenger side sidemarker is loose – a common issue on the first gen FR-S/BR-Z and I’ve done my best to keep it intact. The trunk is the OEM trunk – this is the only piece that you’d either have to get new or re-weld and re-paint if you decide to take the wing off. The sideskirts have some spider-webbing cracks along the bottom but generally not too noticeable.

As stated above – the price is pretty firm and I’m generally open for serious buyers to come see it. No test drives during the winter though for obvious reasons. I know you will have seen/heard this a lot but please only reach out if you’re serious about buying this as a whole and truly want to own a car like this. I will not part the car out and you will need another car to bring all the stock parts home. This includes stock wheels/tires, bumper, headlights, exhaust components, seat, brakes, etc. If you have all the cash in hand, you can drive it or trailer it home whenever you want. I’ve thought about the price for a long time and I think it’s fair given the quality and the price of these parts if you were to build it all from scratch using a used, stock FR-S. I’m not looking to make extra coin on this – simply wanting a good deal for both the buyer and myself. Drive away with a car you literally need to do nothing on or make it better than what I’ve done.

Spotlight: David De Borja (@Deborja) x Lexi x FRS x BRZ

/ jasonhoang / 2 Comments

Well that was a mouthful.

Anyway, David finally sent me all the photos from the photoshoot we did a few weeks ago that I did the BTS shoot for and he gave me his blessing to share on here with everyone else. As you might have already seen/read – the shoot was an amalgamation of a whole bunch of other shoots – Jason Tang’s BRZ, Steve’s GTR, some rolling shots, and some of Lexi with the cars too and the below is the result of all that.

I mentioned many times before as well that it’s interesting to see another photographer work their craft – you only get to see where they’re standing and what they could potentially be taking a picture of, but you’ll never really ever get to see what they see through the viewfinder at that moment in time. When I photograph and when I look through the viewfinder, I try to envision the endgame or the result that I want to end with the photo. Before going into a photoshoot, I like to imagine the location, the car, the colours, the time of day and the lighting and put it all together in my head to know exactly how I’m going to colour-grade the photo, what look I’m going for, what angles will look best and when I finally get to shooting and looking through the viewfinder becomes an easy task – it just comes down to pointing, aiming and shooting. The idea and the way the photoshoot is going to turn out has already solidified in my head and I “know” what it will look like before it’s even done. I know – it sounds like blasphemy and crazy shit – but that’s truly my way of preparing for a photoshoot.

With that said, being an observer at a photoshoot almost causes me a small level of anxiety – only because I don’t know what’s going to happen, I don’t know what it looks like through the viewfinder and the always-prepared-photographer in me wants to know! And so after bugging David a few times – he finally got around to doing the photos and I know he’s a busy guy – the guy is doing a photoshoot every hour of the day it seems. I’ll be eating lunch and he’ll be shooting one car and when I hope on the gram again, he’ll be shooting another car before I’ve digested my last meal. Anyway, I was stoked when he sent me the photos today and I was stoked to share them with you. I was particularly excited to see the photos with Lexi because my car has never been shot by many people other than myself, let alone with a model. In short – it’s a different perspective for me and it’s refreshing to see my car in a different set up than its usually in. The mood and tone of the photos paired with the colours of Lexi’s outfit turned out great!

Check out David’s instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/deborja/

Video: MDMVisuals x lifewithjson

/ jasonhoang / Leave a comment

At long last (not really – Mike busted that out pretty quick IMO), the video I’ve been teasing through photos for the last little while is done! Mike sent it late last night and boiiiiiiii is it sweet. I can’t do video myself nor do I really want to after seeing how much work it actually is, so watching Mike and Ricky do their craft is something else. Ricky still needs to get some additional clips before he finishes his video, but in the meantime – Mike’s video can help fill that void.

He’s got a really chill vibe going on throughout the video and it’s super relaxed. I’m a fan of it because it doesn’t involve any type of DDR song, it doesn’t require a bass drop or any funky shaky visual effect to present itself well. Mike incorporates a few voice clips, some exhaust sound clips and music in-between. I’m no pro, but the transition of the video from meeting up with him and saying “what’s up” to ending with the take-off and Ricky yelling “am I in your clip?!” ever so faintly makes this a really feel like a homegrown and personal video to me.

Anyway, watch the video and enjoy. Give Mike a follow/like as well. It’s nice “working” side by side with someone who is like-minded in the photography game, so I’m happy he was able to do this for me.

Rooftop Shenanigans?

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I guess every photoshoot that I’m not actually doing is just a shenanigan now cause I don’t know what else to call it lol. Yesterday, David had a few of us come out to do a quick photoshoot downtown. He’s been wanting to do some urban/downtown rollers for a while now and he got his chance! I met up with Steve in his GTR to get our cars washed and we rolled out to the top of the parkade downtown. I’ve never actually driven all the way up to this one before since I’ve never had the need to but it ended up being a really nice spot.

There was a bunch of things going on yesterday afternoon – between Steve getting some shots of his GTR before he sells it, some model pictures, a BRZ and FRS duo shoot, and rollers – we were all just following David’s lead. It’s a weird thing to not be the one coordinating the shoot since that’s what I’m used to.

Being the bystander at a photoshoot is a new thing to me… Like, where do I stand? Am I in the way? Should I talk to the photographer or do I shut up? Is it creepy to watch while the model is posing on the cars? I dunno – me and Steve just ended up talking cars anyway and looking away while awkwardly trying to get out of the way LOL. Personally, while I’m shooting – I enjoy talking about the persons car and what they’ve done to it and what their plans are. It might not look like it, but I’m listening and it helps me add a little flair to the write up that I usually do, or if you talk about a certain aspect of the car a lot, it hints to me that it’s something you probably enjoy and like a lot, so I’ll take pics of it. For me – while shooting – the silence is likely as awkward as it is for you standing there watching me LOL!

Anyway, most of the shots below are just behind the scenes shots and random things I took while we were there. I can’t not bring my camera to a photoshoot and take some pics, even if it’s not my photoshoot…

Since these weren’t really serious photos for me, I ended up getting a chance to try out my new polarizer and played around with some different colour gradings to give a different effect. I typically like to stick to a very natural feel with a very minimal post-processing look but sometimes playing around with sliders to give a different look makes it a bit more interesting. I typically tend to favour the warmer and yellow/orange hues over cool tones like the above, but I tried something a little different today…

Which one is the photographer?! Just kidding – Steve just grabbing some shots on the sidelines while David does his thing.

I was able to snap a quick pic of the GTR as well – one for the books I suppose. I never did get a chance to shoot his GTR while he owned it.

A view from the top of the parkade. A nice overcast day with some sun peeking through here and there – perfect weather for pics.

And then me in my creeper mode… David shooting Lexi with my FRS and Jason Tang’s BRZ.

Focus switch…

Me just snapping randoms of my car while Jason T’s car gets all the attention.

Here is where I started getting a little crazy with the colour grading and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m 50/50 on it because I think it gives a cool feel but I think it’s just “not me” that I can’t fully hop on board yet. Lexi was looking off to the left at David while I shot this and it ended up looking pretty good. What do you guys think? Too much? Looks OK?

Another random shot I took just cause David was off doing something else. Sometimes random shots work and sometimes they don’t… Here is when it doesn’t but I edited it anyway.

Another shot of David doing his thing. I’m really looking forward to seeing these pictures as I’ve never been to a shoot with a model with cars while someone else was doing the shooting. Yesterday was completely new and strange to me because it was so out of my element but interesting to watch. Like I said in my previous posts with Mike and Ricky – it’s crazy to see how different shots can be of the same subject once all is said and done.

Another random that I creeped on to take.

And one last one of David taking shots with Lexi.

And finally – something I’m OK at – a shot of Jason’s BRZ and my FRS together with more blue/cool colour grading. Hopefully when David is done I can share some on here for you guys!