Down N’ Out: Benji’s Bagged & Boosted TSX

June 12, 2015 / jasonhoang / 1 Comment

The time has come!!

Finally getting around to having Benji’s TSX up and I’m pretty stoked on this mainly because I’ve been itching to shoot it since he came to Calgary for Driven a few weeks back. When JC had originally told me that a few guys from Winnipeg were coming and sent me a pic of Benji’s car, I scoffed at the idea in my head mainly because I didn’t believe anyone from Winnipeg would drive 12ish hours to come to Calgary for a car show. Lo and behold – they did, and they were crowd-pleasers at the show, without a doubt.

Benji’s car has an extensive amount of work done to it – inside and out and it’s show car quality, but it doesn’t come without it’s consequences, unfortunately. In Alberta, there are little things that we take for granted that doesn’t go over so well with the police out in Manitoba. To quickly run it down, anything modified from stock is not allowed – plain and simple. Things like HID’s, suspension and clearance, interior pieces missing, etc – all the things that all us racers love to change and remove will net you a ticket (or many of them) and another inspection to make sure you’ve complied.

The night before the shoot, we were talking about getting ready for the shoot – time, place, etc. Late that night, around 10 or 11PM, JC got a text from Benji saying he got pulled over and was getting a bunch of tickets for his modified vehicle. Once this happens, you technically shouldn’t be driving it until you’ve gotten your inspection because you’re risking being pulled over again. Benji decided to take the risk and let me shoot it – which I’m thankful for because I doubt I’d have the same opportunity again. As I was shooting, I asked Benji about the tickets and he mentioned that the funny thing about the tickets and the law is that it says you can’t modify anything from stock, but the cops don’t know what “stock” is to begin with. One of Benji’s tickets ended up being “HID’s”… Well, we all know HID’s come stock on a TSX… How that battle will pan out is unknown to me…

Anyway, we did the shoot with no issues and then rushed off to the wedding to all get drunk together!

We were having lunch at Moxie’s while Benji and Dan came a little later and waited for us. We rolled out shortly after…

On the way to the Forks I tried my best to get as many rolling shots as I could but the streets were busy and there wasn’t much room. There are a few more below.

Benji and JC lined up with us in the Van. We were ready to punch it and smoke him…

A cool shot of one of the buildings at the Forks.

The first location reminded me of Eau Claire back in Calgary. It was super bright out that day and not to mention, busy as hell.

The first thing you’ll probably notice is the awesome colour – Porsche GT3RS grey. Looking real good on his TSX

Up front is a massive Kraftwerks intercooler which hints at something pretty obvious under the hood as well.

My favourite part (if you know me) is the Voltex wing fitted out back. It really carries the aggressiveness through to the back.

Tucked all around are a set of matte black Advan RS-D’s.

One more shot as we were leaving…

One shot that we had to get quickly was on the suspension bridge.

One more with the Forks building in the back.

The next location was at the Investors Group Field – the new football stadium that opened in 2013. A nice spot to hide away from all that sun. But it’s a good shot of all that tuck he’s got going on.

A closer shot of the ProjectMu BBK behind the RS-D’s. The ProjectMu teal really makes the car pop in combination with the GT3RS grey and subtle black tones. You may have noticed that Benji carries that teal colour combo all throughout the car as well.

A few other details that I loved were the little titanium pieces Benji has added. I loved these titanium bolts that hold the endplates to the wing… I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same…

Also replaced the bolts holding the wing stands down to the trunk with titanium.

If you can’t read that – it says “Dannie Riel”. During Driven, Dannie was with the beyond.ca booth and she came over to our end and Benji got her to sign his trunk. Nice little momento – given that they are both from Winnipeg.

Mugen visors – you can never go wrong.

There is no lack of attention to detail on the inside either – a pair of leather Recaro Sportster CS’s and Takata harnesses dominate the cockpit.

Inside is his IG handle. Also a good look at how the interior carries the ProjectMu teal colour like I mentioned earlier – the two tone is money.

Looks like Benji also got Dannie to bend over and sign the inside floor of his car too… (clean thoughts).

A side profile shot – very aggressive.

As you might have guessed, Benji is also on air – he’s got his tank and dual compressor set up mounted to the underside of the rear seat decks.

A custom LED third brake light.

Benji cleaning up the engine bay for some shots – he hadn’t cleaned it since he made the long drive back from Calgary and there were lots of dead bugs lol.

Another titanium bolt.

Inside, Benji brought some Spoon into the mix…

A shot at the Kraftwerks set up… The colours used all throughout the car work surprisingly well when put together.

Another shot of the Recaros and the gutted interior.

One thing that you might have noticed is that he’s rocking a Spoon bumper up front – which is my favourite bumper for the TSX with the J’s Racing bumper following closely behind that. It fits nicely with his build and you don’t see too many Spoon-fitted TSX’s around…

A closer shot out back with the Voltex Type 5 wing… And Dannie’s signature of course.

And to end it off – a nice shot of the Winnipeg duo together.

The week has been crazy busy so I haven’t had time to shoot much more lately, but hopefully I’ll have something up soon! PS – if you’re looking for a shoot, let me know and we can book something! My camera is at your disposal 🙂

Limited Edition: Chris’s Boosted J-Swapped EG

March 27, 2015 / jasonhoang / 4 Comments

At long last! The first of my two photo shoots from my visit to Victoria, and the first one up is Chris’s boosted J-swapped Civic… It’s quite different from the everyday K-swaps that are ever-so-popular in the Honda community. How could I have passed up the opportunity to shoot one of the island’s cleanest and most unique builds? I couldn’t – and the best thing about Chris’s car is that it’s a car that you’ve probably never even heard of unless you’re close to him or his friends.

I’ve seen Chris’s cars through pictures that Jackie has sent in some of our chats and could really only admire through those pictures. It’s one thing to appreciate a well-built car through iPhone pictures, but it’s a totally different feeling to see it up close and admire the work that has been put into it. My trip to Victoria was well worth it and the two cars alone show that the island literally at the end of Western Canada does have something to show, and they aren’t any half-assed builds either.

Chris hasn’t really had a true photoshoot that has been shared on social media or anywhere for that matter, and it’s surprising because a build like this deserves recognition. Chris is a super low-key guy and I get the sense that he really just does what he does because he enjoys it and nothing more. Him and his wife, Tiffany, were super friendly and accommodating while I was there – I’m looking forward to coming back during the summer!

Enough of my chatter… I’m sure you guys are dying to see this as much as I am dying to show you!

We’ll start off with a roller to get this going like always.

The best thing I found out about this build was that it was Chris’s first car that he purchased back in 1997. Great builds take time and patience and this is another great example of exactly that…

The biggest head turner of Chris’s Civic is the massive J-series engine from a TL Type-S bulging from the center of the hood and a Vortech charger connected right beside it…

Part of the LEVEL one family.

Password JDM canards on the front bumper to help make the front end aggressive.

Chargespeed wide fenders

Even from the side, Chris’s EG is mean as hell. You can see the piping from the hood, the canards and First Molding lip flow to the Chargespeed fenders and the lines flow all the way to the rear Spoon wing.

With the hood opened, Chris replaced all of the stock plastic bolts for some better hardware…

And the custom Vortech power plant in all it’s glory.

The J-series straight from the 2003 6-speed Acura TL Type-S.

Another cool tidbit about Chris’s car is that this obviously hasn’t always been the only engine Chris has ran… This is actually his fourth engine. His first engine was a D-series, the second one was an turbo LS, his third was a built B16 turbo, and now a boosted J-series. Quite the progression, if you ask me!

The back has been gutted for room for his Auto Power drag cage.

For you diehard Civic fans out there, you might have noticed by looking at his front bumper that it’s not a typical EG front bumper… Any guesses? Look carefully – if you scroll down, you can confirm your guess or find out if you’re stumped…

The answer is – the vents are from a 99-00 EK bumper. Chris actually does body work and molded those in himself and they look seamless as you can see from the above two pictures. You’ll also probably notice the Vision type DC mirrors swapped in too.

Another look at how aggressive and beastly this car looks from afar…

Jackie and Chris swapped cars to get to the next spot so he could give me a ride in it. The car is currently pushing about 400whp and in a light and small chassis like the EG, that’s no joke. Jackie mentioned that it was difficult to get traction in the lower gears but once it gets going, it goes…

Side note – you can see the JDM EG6 cluster as well.

The Spoon SW388 wheels suit any classic Honda perfectly and this is no exception.

Here you can see a perfect shot of how massive this engine is in the EG chassis.

We ended up finding a nice spot near the entrance to the area after the Ferry that made for good spot lighting.

Some behind the scenes shots… The group is trying to find the best dual lane road to take rolling shots on. Turns out Victoria doesn’t have many dual lanes but we ended up finding some good stretches of road! Sneak peak at my next subject… 🙂

The chariot for the day was Jackie’s lowered TL on some spacers that even rubbed! LOL… Jackie is notorious for just dumping everything.

A pit stop and another preview shot of the second photo shoot to come…

These rolling shots were next to a nice and peaceful lake. Suited these shoots perfectly.

One last shot to end it for Chris’s car. I will admit that I do have a few more, but I will have to revisit those later and repost them up when I get the chance. I know Chris and Ben have been itching to see the shots… The other shots will serve as a good refresher later!

All Gold Everything!!

February 4, 2015 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Another (and last) piece to add to the steering wheel is the Gold Vertex horn button to match the gold stitching around the wheel. This was another pick up from TAS that Galen was kind enough to bring back for me! To my knowledge, the gold is not available online (through any vendor/site that I could find) and the only other person I know that has it is Galen! Galen obviously has it because he visits TAS every year and I didn’t sleep on the chance to have one as well. It’s another nice addition to bring out the details.

Quick snaps!

The horn itself is the same, it just doesn’t have the sticker on it. So I popped the old one off and put the new one on.

The almighty gold sticker.

Voila! Matches the Ti bolts quite nicely.

And the stitch.

My favourite part of the wheel is the back. Anywho – I think that’s all the parts I’ll be getting for now… And according to the groundhog (bogus hype), we’re getting spring early. Let’s hope that mother f*cker is right.

GT86 Lighting Pr0n

January 28, 2015 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

OK I promise this should be the last headlight-type post that I post for a while. I’m still trying to get over how sick they are… I mean, they’re no BMW laser lights or anything, but they are a huge upgrade over stock lights for sure and the fact that they don’t come on every FR-S makes it a little more special.

I know in my last post, it was difficult to tell what it looked like when the LED’s or HID’s were on because it was so bright out so I decided to fire them up one more time at night to try and get some shots and see how bright they were. The LED’s are pretty damn bright on their own – not enough to light up the road at night, but enough to be quite noticeable. The HID’s are nothing surprising… Although I am looking forward to changing them out to Osram CBI’s as per Alex’s recommendation. Alex and I share the same type of unhealthy obsession for the perfect lighting set up… We’ve tried everything from Morimotos, probably had our fair share of cheapo no-name ones, and the somewhat exclusive Philips Ultinons… Alex got his hands on a bunch of Osram CBI’s for all his cars and loves them, so that’s the next step!

But I digress… Here are just some lighting shots for you guys to see a little more closely.

Covers off again

Here are the lights with the HID’s powered up.

And the creme de la creme of the headlights – the LED DRL’s!

A close up… It’s hard to get a good picture that depicts how it really looks. The color of the LED’s are actually a pure white with no blue or yellow tinge at all.