The True Bavarian Beast: Tommy’s ga”M3″over

June 2, 2015June 3, 2015 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Finally getting to some photo shoots!! I’m pretty stoked about the next few ones that I have coming up for you guys because they are quality, quality, quality. That’s the number one thing that really inspires me to shoot to the best of my ability – someone who puts in the time and let’s not forget money, into their cars because they don’t believe in compromise. Builds that move forward with that mindset naturally gravitate towards being amazing.

It’s truly rare to find a build that reflects the owner – Tommy is the exception – there are no cut corners and no lack of quality in his choice of parts or workmanship when it comes to fitting them. Let me step back a bit… Tommy is Diana’s (second) cousin for what it’s worth, so I’ve known Tommy and his M3 for a few years now and in many ways, I’ve heard and seen about his build but never truly got to take it in or appreciate what it was all worth. I’ve seen his car every year for the past few years in Driven, and every year he walks away with an award – no surprises either, as you’ll see when you start scrolling through the pictures. His car has made significant progress as time goes on and my God, the progress is definitely notable. No amount of words in this post could sum up the details in his M3… But I’ll try my best. Tommy is an extremely modest guy – you wouldn’t really guess that this was his car, but once you start talking to him, the pieces start to fit together.

This photoshoot happened the day after Driven – perfect timing since the cars are as clean as they can be. Tommy and I have been trying to touch base over the last few years to get the photoshoot done but our schedules never really matched up. I *think* I caught it in its prime – unless of course Tommy has more planned. Anyway, this was a super fun shoot – I do regret not taking more shots (lack of engine bay shots – fail on my part)… But Tommy has agreed to lend me any of his BMW’s for a photoshoot anytime… Yes, there are more in his stable. 🙂

Enough chit chat! More M3!

We’ll start it off with a roller…

Upon first look, you might not be able to see everything that I might have alluded to earlier… But it’s coming.

He sits on a set of 19″ BBS FI’s and an upgraded Brembo GT BBK behind them in white. When BBS first released the FI’s, I wanted them so bad. When I saw the price of them, I decided that I didn’t even like them that much anymore. Note: lying to yourself doesn’t make you feel better.

A closer look will show you it’s no regular M3… Those familiar with G-Power will know what I mean.

A somewhat closer look at the wheel and brake kit. Also a good look at the Vorsteiner GTS-V bumper. Beauitful.

Even closer and you’ll see BBS lugnuts

Check that rear… Paired with a Varis rear upper and lower diffuser. I personally love that he brought Varis into the build – they are killing it in the aftermarket game right now.

The majestic beast sits quietly on Ohlins TTX36 coilovers

Inside, the details just keep coming. Afterall, this is where all the fun starts, right? Tommy upgraded the seats to BMW Performance Seats retrofitted with power and a full wrap with Alcantara.

Paired with his BMW Performance seats, Tommy chose Schroth Rallye Cross 4-pt harnesses. Surrounding the interior is BMW Performance carbon trim.

Behind that is a rare BMW OEM GTS roll cage powder coated in white with a BMW OEM GTS rear seat delete.

And below all that sits a Halotron fire extinguisher – a nice finishing touch.

Some more details with the rear include a Vorsteiner double sided carbon trunk. The paint has been faded so you can see that lip of carbon as well.

Another roller 🙂

A closer look at the rear of Tommy’s M3 and you’ll see the matte look to the exhausts… which only means Titanium. Akrapovic Evo exhaust to be clear.

One more look at the wheel/brake combo. Just massive… You can also get a small peak at the carbon side skirts

This view – probably a very quick view if you happen to be in front of him at the track – shows a little more detail… BMW Performance carbon mirror caps. “Something” behind that grill…

Before this all ends, I want to say (as I said earlier) that I fully regret not taking engine bay pics – I don’t know what got over me. So I’ll lay it all out here for all of you wondering…

Tommy has fitted his M3 with a G-Power SKII CS Supercharger – as previously hinted by his replaced badges. Along with all of that, he’s added Vishnu Proceed with Meth injection and WPC treated OEM rod bearings and bolts. The M3 on its own is no slouch – with the help of G-Power… Oh the places you’ll go.

A closer look at the aggressive front.

A side profile. That hood hump. It’s also a good angle to see just how massive those rear rotors are.

That carbon roof…

Done! Huge thanks to Tommy for giving me the opportunity to shoot his car – he brought along his brother-in-law (Randy) as well who owns a sick Lotus Exige… Coming soon.

50 Shades of M-Power: Jimmy’s BMW M3

May 12, 2015May 13, 2015 / jasonhoang / 1 Comment

The first shoot of the season is here!

This last weekend I shot Jimmy’s new BMW M3 – he slapped quite a few goodies on the car pretty quick which is no surprise. You may also remember his Lexus LS430, and his Datsun that I shot last year. There is no cutting corners on Jimmy’s builds and that is what sets him apart from similar builds. A lot of the M3’s you see are usually beat and under-cared for, and let’s not forget about the fact that most of the drivers are … *cough* douchebags. I know – some of you are probably reading this and you probably drive a BMW and you’re thinking to yourself “Man, I ain’t no douchebag!” and that may very well be true… I just want to say that I wasn’t the one that created that label so don’t hold me to it.

But we’re not here to talk about douchebags and labels, we’re here to talk about Jimmy and his M3 and him not being a douchebag.

Like always, I met up with JC at his place and then we swapped cars to meet downtown. You know how you always love to see your own car rolling but there’s rarely ever a chance for it to happen? Well it’s great!

We started off promptly…

Right away you notice the intercooler in the front opening.

Dat bump doe

Rear fitment of his matte black 57 Motorsport G07EX

Close up

Another shot of the two. Step brothers

A nice shot with the Saddledome in the back…

Better shot of the stance.

Awesome full Dixis Spirt titanium exhaust.

Beautiful

Cool shot I got while we were heading out for rolling shots. Reflections are always awesome when you’re driving past glass windows/doors.

Bridge run!

Done! Overall – a good first shoot in the bag! More to come soon!

Almond’s Brand Spankin’ New BMW M3

October 23, 2014 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

There is something about the high performance and iconic cars that will just never go away. Maybe it’s the craft or the presence, or quite possibly the combination of the two – but you can’t ignore it even if you tried. I’ve shot all of Almond’s cars since I’ve known him – from his Mercedes G500 AKA gangster mobile to his now ex-girlfriend BMW 335i. Almond didn’t do anything horrible by any means, cause he cheated on his 335i with her younger, hotter, and better-dressed sister. Isn’t that what men would call “winning”? In other words, an upgrade from someone who isn’t performing as good as you’d like anymore is reasonable, isn’t it? Sure, Almond dressed his 335 up in fancy shoes, gave her a nice purr, and even got her a nice tune to strut her stuff more confidently, but at the end of the day it’ll never be an M3…

Which brings me to my next point… The M3, like I first mentioned, demands attention when you’re around it. It’s one thing to see it in pictures and in commercials, but you really have to be near one, to hear one, to see it ripping away from you to really appreciate all that it is. Almond posts many pictures of it on Instagram and I would too if I owned one. There is something pictures can’t capture, but I tried my best to at least capture the beauty of it and perhaps even a little of its presence.

Even with this being a last minute photoshoot, the stars aligned for us that day and we got some incredible photos. Thanks again to Almond for coming out on such short notice and to JC for coming all the way out of the hood over our neck of the woods to play.

We’ll start it off with probably one of my favourite photos of that evening. The sun was just setting, the fall colours and the orange sunset in the back made the white pop… And usually (as you may know) I hate shooting black on white, but it didn’t bother me one bit that night. It was an awesome shoot.

Anyway rewind a bit to the meetup – we decided to meet somewhere more central – Symon’s Valley Ranch. A nice secluded and fairly dead area to just chill. It has been a while since I met up with JC, so it was good to get out.

Every line on the M3 is just so thoughtfully crafted. No matter what angle you look at it from, it looks good.

The carbon fiber roof – can’t forget about that…

The front grill and lower fascia especially is my favourite.

The new headlights are also a nice change.

The seats are awesome too. This emblem lights up when the doors open…

And of course the interior tastefully sports a hefty amount of carbon fiber in all the right places.

Carbon dash trim.

The odometer is nice and clean as well with a nice little LCD screen down in the middle and digitally lighted gauges.

A nice shot of the front portion of the car. The sedan looks way better than the coupe IMO and the way the rear flares blend with the doors is really nice.

A look at the fitment and stance. Not bad for stock!

Kind of a side shot…

Head on. This looks the best.

The blue big brake kit stands out perfectly behind his wheels and on a white car.

The rear section of the M3 also looks amazing – complimenting lines from the front. The shark fin is also a great touch.

JC not knowing what to do so he just held out the lens. As you can see, it was also an awesome night to shoot. It was a bit chilly, but beautiful nonetheless.

Details come a long way and if you take the time to really look for them, you can appreciate them. Here you can see one of the many cameras mounted on the car to help with parking and get a birds eye view from the inside.

M3 badging in the most obvious places and also in some easily missed spots as well…

A closer shot of the headlights. You can take a closer look at how sharp the details are and no corners are cut. The halos still remain but never look tacky on a BMW…

One final group shot before going our separate ways… JC also back on his stock wheels ready for winter. Me and my stock POS…

Actually I lied – this is my favourite shot and that’s why I decided to put this last… This was actually one of my favourite shoots lately. Everything worked out perfectly… Almond’s already got some plans for the M3 so I don’t doubt we’ll be seeing this again soon. We’ll see!

DTP 2011 Favourites… Part II

April 4, 2013April 4, 2013 / jasonhoang / 5 Comments

Since I saw that one of my top posts was DTP favourites from 2011, I thought I’d revisit it and share some other shots. I catered the original post to be around the cars mainly with GT wings because of my obsession with them. Trust me – if in some weird world, VIP cars existed with GT wings – I would be the first one to have it. However that is not the case, and I don’t foresee it ever being the case, so I have to admire other cars that have them now.

But as I was going through this – 2 years later – I am still at the same conclusion that I came to when I posted part 1 last year. It is that the automotive scene – only a province away – is much more evolved than ours today. Even 2 years after I’ve shot these cars, they were still ahead of the curve that we see here. There’s no cutting corners, everything is done right. You might even find that I’m writing a similar paragraph to the one in part 1, but I swear I didn’t read it again before writing this.

Truthfully, when we attended this show – you could see the differences in our group compared to the rest of the show. Subtle, minor modifications vs. aggressive and all out – which is something that is just catching on locally here IMO. There is a certain aesthetic value in creating a car with great parts in combination with each other and that just doesn’t happen all too often.

Anyway – I think I sound bitter because I’m jealous, not because I hate. Enjoy.

Here’s the first part I posted WAYYY back in April 2012.
DTP 2011 Favourites

CL63 AMG – one of my favourite from Mercedes. I saw one in the lot when we were looking for a GS for Punit and I wanted one so bad. The Ti exhaust on this was bad ass.

I also don’t usually dig the black on black, but this was pulled off nicely.

NSX

Rear scoop

STI Hatch of Wedsports SA-60M’s.

Honda CRZ on Spoon CR93’s. These were pretty new 2 years ago and I was pretty close to buying a set because they were quite affordable but they were too bland for my tastes.

370Z. I still love this.

370Z and 350Z together in the AJ-R booth.

GT G35. Love the look.

Matte black M3 on black Volk G2 wheels. I remember way back when they were rumored to be replacing the original TE37 with these… I was devastated cause I didn’t like them at all lol. Thank god they didn’t.

Speed Syndicate AE86. Love the color

VIP Merc. Now that I have a greater appreciation for VIP style – I can totally dig this. Not that I didn’t back then, but I love this even more now.

Speed Syndicate Matte Red 350Z.

Nice green 350Z

Gangster GS on Bazreia’s. Love these wheels.

Super clean S14 on Meisters

Matt’s yellow Initial D-inspired FD. The white TE’s will look deadly on this.

The internet sensation bagged VIP-style Fit was also there.

M3. I forget the name of the company, but they did a lot of accent styling and cues which was different. Doesn’t work on many cars, but on all the BMW’s they brought out – they were nicely done.

EDIT: The company is MW Designs. Thanks Brad!