Keepin’ it OG: Jimmy’s Datsun 240Z

September 8, 2014September 8, 2014 / jasonhoang / 4 Comments

Back logged on the posts – mainly on purpose because I don’t have much time to shoot this weekend so I gotta make sure I spread them apart… I was also trying to get to the write up on the weekend but we had awesome weather so I was in the garage mudding, sanding, and painting trying to get it finished before winter. Took a little longer than I expected, but I should be done by next week! I’ll post pics – it’s nothing special cause it’s got absolutely nothing in there but it’ll get there.

JC and I got the chance to go out and shoot Jimmy’s 240Z last weekend and what a great shoot it turned out to be. It’s a little different because it’s so old school, yet so modern at the same time. The combination of the classic Japanese body mixed with Work wheels that also have that oldschool JDM flavour makes this a very fun shoot. One thing that stands out about a lot of the classic Japanese tuner cars is that their body design has truly become iconic and timeless. Even in today’s design standards with fancy body kits, GT wings, big and wide wheels, these cars – much like Jimmy’s 240Z – stand the test of time and still really don’t need much to turn heads. Even today, this car is considered a gem and what many people fail to realize is that although it is a car that is older than a majority of the readers (myself included), there is nothing like sitting in a car so simple yet so matured – even by today’s standards – and just driving.

For those of you that have been around for the last year or so – you might remember the shot I took of Jimmy’s 240Z in his garage the day we went out to shoot all his Lexus’s. He had just acquired it at the time and he was working on getting it up and running smoothly and reliably. Fast forward to today and it’s definitely running like a beaut and there are just a few things that Jimmy wants to finish up… But only time will tell.

The best thing about this shoot (from my photography perspective) is that it’s an awesome colour. If you look at most of my shoots, the cars are almost always black, white, or a colour bordering close enough to black or white that it’s not much different. Albeit, this is not the original paint – it was repainted by the previous owner – but even the original orange underneath this would still be an awesome colour to shoot.

But that’s enough talk from me… Onto the pics!

One of my favourites from the shoot… Dem curves. A nice roller as an appetizer!

When we rolled up, Jimmy was just getting the car ready to go.

Out on the sidewalk, Jimmy’s VIP Lexus LS430 sitting on new step-lipped WORK VS-XX’s and gold hardware. Much better than the Work Gnosis HS203’s IMO. These wheels make the car pop way more.

Peep that shoot I did last year here: https://lifewithjson.com/2013/10/17/poorform-jimmys-lexus-ls430/

En route! Typical cockpit in JC’s car that you see from our photoshoots.

First stop was at a construction-type area. The car would truthfully pop anywhere though.

It was when I was shooting the car here that JC and I both said that this car is just so timeless (like mentioned above). The design – although very retro – still has lines and design features that any car lover would have trouble resisting.

A nice shot of the Work Meister CR01’s in the custom finish.

The profile shot shows more of the awesome lines of the 240Z. Because the car has no specific aftermarket coilover option, the suspension has to be put together using a lot of custom work. Jimmy does a lot, if not most of the work himself and like his LS430, the pick and quality of his parts do not get overlooked.

His suspension consists of custom Zeal function T coilovers that were made to fit the 240Z, paired with Whiteline poly bushings, ST suspensions sway bar kit, and TTT Roll center adjusters to get it sitting how you see it today.

PoorForm Car Club that Jimmy founded in 2009.

A few detail shots of the car show a lot of things many of the modern cars don’t have nowadays. It’s the details the matter!

A better shot of the wheels up front and the Fairlady badging. Behind that sits Endless ME20 brake pads and Project Mu brake shoes. And getting everything going is an OS Giken TS2A extreme lightened clutch. No jokes here.

A close up shot of the BRE spoiler adding a little more aggressiveness to the back end.

I wanted to get a closer shot of the wheel’s custom finish. The anodized bronze is amazing in person and it’s really something pictures don’t do justice. Paired with the gold bolt hardware and the silver face, it all just glimmers so perfectly.

Perfection.

That paint!!!

Jimmy was gracious enough to take me for a ride to our next location… I’ve ridden in my fair share of older vehicles, and can now add this one to that list. The interior has a nice feel to it – classic, simple, refined – really all that you need in a car like this. No fancy gadgets, no blinking lights all over the place – just the feel of a raw car.

The 240Z is fitted with a custom 6-2-1 header, custom exhaust system and an A’pexi-i N1 Evolution-R muffler to end it off the back. One of the things that modern day cars will NEVER get back (In my humble opinion) is the raw sound and feel that you get from a car like this. The L24 engine just purrs and growls at the same time – the closest we ever get to that most of the time is a fart can and we can thank cherry bombs and Canadian tire for that.

A classic “Work Wheels” shot from down low… *cough* Work Wheels look here *cough* 🙂

A shot of the interior. Like I said – simple and everything you actually need in a sports car.

A wooden Nardi wheel to go along with the OG theme.

Check out that classic radio. Not even a cassette player.

A closer look at the heart of the 240Z – the L24.

Tomei oil cap. Shiny shiny.

An overhead. Some other details of the engine, for those that are interested:

Dela camshaft

Mikuni 44mm triple carbs

Mikuni intake manifold

Koyo race radiator

Tomei oil pimp

Tomei valve springs

Nismo fuel pump

… All courtesy of Jimmy’s informative text message 🙂

Just looks so mean from the front.

A shot of the rear. Although it’s not as wide as today’s car, it’s just as good. Everybody is about stance and wide shit these days, that it’s nice to see something so simple put together so nicely.

Closer shot of the Meister CR01’s – 16×8 and 16×9.

And one last one to finish it off. That front end is just so elongated giving it a more sporty look and feel. I love it.

Boom! Happy Monday!

Down and Out: Justin Kan’s Acura TSX

May 25, 2014 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

There’s nothing better than a last minute shoot that turns into an excellent set of pictures…

After unsuccessful visits to Subaru and Toyota/Scion this whole week, I’m over trying to trade the LS. Instead, I’ll just sit on it and see if it sells privately. I’ve gotten a few bites here and there but nothing solid yet… But to be fair, I’ve only had the ad up for a week. I’m just an impatient dude trying to get into a new car! A big reason for me not just going to trade it in is because we still got a wedding to pay for and I’d rather not take a huge loss on the car if I can help it. If the car doesn’t sell, I’ll just wait on it until next year and start fresh.

Didn’t have many plans yesterday, but JC messaged me in the morning asking me what I was up to – I only had some errands to run otherwise I was free all day. Next thing you know, we’re shooting Justin’s slammed TSX and we got nothing but good shots. I don’t think I know anyone personally or locally for that matter that rides as low as Justin does without wrecking their shit. Hell, Justin can barely turn his car around a full 180 without doing a 10 point turn but it looks damn good while he’s doing it. He drives straight and still scrapes – I’m not even exaggerating lol!

The weather was perfect yesterday morning for the shoot. Just enough overcast and not too much sun. I thought that this would be a great shot to start off this post – rollers always makes panties wet. I dub this the Windows XP desktop shot. It so closely resembles it with the colours haha

Now we rewind back to the beginning of the shoot. We met in front of Royal Oak Audi. Like always – JC was the chase car and chauffeured us around.

“Can we trade this in for that white A7?”

Justin arrived shortly after. He doesn’t have an exhaust but we knew he was coming because there was that uncanny noise of scraping we are all too familiar with… Except like I said – it’s all the time lol

Justin wiping it down quickly before we headed out.

And we begin… A familiar place from last year.

Love these wheels. I mentioned in my post about the beyond meet that these were originally my wheels from my Civic, which was then passed onto Corey for his Civic, then finally moved onto Justin’s TSX today. Still mint and still one of the best wheels ever.

That roll call.

So timeless looking.

Snapped a quick shot of the crew chillin while I do my thing. They were actually in the way for this shot…

After I got them to move out of the way LOL

The wheels fit so good!!

Diana and JC making a cameo appearance again on the blog. I’m all about the behind the scenes shots… You’ll probably see more of these jabronis during my shoots.

Love the front end of Justin’s TSX. He recently purchased the JDM bumper for that grill and headlights. Worth it.

Back to front…

Another shot of his grill.

Shot of the back.

And a shot of the front. That’s like bagged height. lol

En route to the next spot.

A quick shot from shot gun.

Always gotta get an in-car shot lol

Another one of my favourite angles of Justin’s car. Just too good.

Perfect fitment – not too crazy, but just enough.

Another shot that I ended up loving. The TSX just has such a timeless look to it and it looks good from all angles.

Rear quarter shot. Love it.

This is where the magic starts and happens…

The shot from Instagram – I love the way Justin’s car looks rolling. It’s just way too good.

A side profile shot of him rolling static.

And here we say farewell. This shoot took probably about an hour or less – probably the quickest photoshoot we’ve done in a long time (or ever). And each and every shot turned out great – I needed something to inspire me to shoot again and thanks to JC for pulling us out and for Justin for coming out! Gives me some good content.

I might have some extra shots laying around that I’ll edit during the week if I have time and post those up too.

Throwback: Honda Days

February 20, 2014 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Whoa – been MIA for a long time… Been crazy busy lately. There’s one month left until Diana and I move into the new house and so that also means making sure all our bases are covered – insurance, utilities, services, change of address, etc… It sounds pretty simple, but it can take a long time to contact places and get quoted then decide what you want to do. So that’s been on my plate and mind for the last few weeks while Diana is busy trying to book all the stuff we need for the wedding. It’s hard to find free time as of late… And when we do get free time, it’s to just try and relax because of all the rushing around.

Anyways, it’s also about another month until we get some nice weather finally and cars are going to start coming out slowly. I have literally run out of anything to post because I’ve posted every single behind the scenes shot and unedited shots over this winter. We’re coming up on photoshoot weather again so hopefully I’ll be back up and running with shoots. It also looks like we’re coming into one more week (hopefully) of cold weather and we should be in the clear – this weekend is showing a low of -25C.

Other than that, I happened to stumble upon these pics of when I first got the TE’s on the Civic and I had pretty much converted back to a simpler state – coilovers to springs, basic lip kit… AKA boring.

The day I got the new Toyo T1R’s on… Super sticky and at 245 up front, it was kicking up rocks all over the place.

Did a TE37 photoshoot with Arif that day.

Look at that 4×4 height. T_T

When I sucked at rolling shots…

This was when I decided to put coilovers back in and got it a bit lower…

And finally again a year later – when I got the Meisters, J’s wing and Spoon diffuser.

Loved this look even today.

Alas – that’s my throwback Thursday post for today. Hopefully I’ll get the new Mode Luxe pinstripe decals from Bill this weekend and I can post up!

Unedited Shots: Adam’s Honda Civic

January 16, 2014 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Going back to just last summer when we shot Adam’s (now totaled) Civic (not by him BTW). His Civic was definitely one of my favourites in terms of styling and simplicity. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but I was really digging the wheels, stance and overall look. It wasn’t so much of a functional look but more of a “fuck it, I’m gonna fit the craziest wheels on here and look good doing it” type of look. I’m a fan of anything put together with the right pieces – whether it’s functional or not.

Later, near the end of the summer – Adam ended up parting the Civic and trading it for an LS400 that was also quite slammed and on a set of wheels (I don’t recall what they were). Realizing that’s not the route he wanted to go, he sold that not too long after and is presently looking for a new project car. We always chat about how we miss the one we let go – in our case, my STI and his Civic. There was just something about my STI that I was completely bored of but absolutely loved at the same time and you don’t realize it until you sell it that you made a huge mistake. I’m sure Adam feels the same way, as do many others that may have sold a car to move on and realized it was a bad decision.

Anyways – most of these shots are ones that I don’t remember editing or completing skipping either because I didn’t like the composition or whatever. Either way, I am totally abusing the shit out of this edit right now and I love it. Although, I already see how it can be abused quite easily… I’ll tone it down after this post and get back to my usual edits, I promise haha!