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!

Poorform: Jimmy’s 2JZ Lexus GS

October 21, 2013 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

OK time to start the week off right! And what better way to do it than to end off the PoorForm triple threat photoshoot with Jimmy’s 2JZ GS!

I was originally supposed to get this up on the weekend but I ended up getting caught up in a bunch of things – my broken phone being one of them. However, this was one of the shoots I really wanted to share the most. Of the three cars I shot that weekend, I got the most shots of Jimmy’s GS. I would also like to add that I didn’t intentionally try to take less shots of the others at all – it just happened that a lot of the spots we went to were more suited for his GS.

There’s just so much to this car that it’s impossible for me to list it all out without it sounding like a magazine feature or article. Ultimately that’s not what my goal is on the blog – it’s just to showcase the cars that are happy to come out and let me point my camera at them and for you guys to see. A lot of the guys that I ask to come shoot with me have put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and most importantly – money, into their cars and I appreciate them giving me that opportunity. I know it’s nothing close to a magazine feature but it’s enough for me to keep doing what I love doing. The best part of it all is that I get the even greater pleasure of shooting cars that don’t come out all that often – some only come out to shows. Some are garage queens that only see the owner to come wipe them every few days. Others get driven hard and are recognized by the community. Whatever the case is, it’s always a great time – Jimmy’s GS is one to go down as one of the crazier builds I’ve been able to shoot.

Let’s see why…

At first glance you’ll see a huge Greddy intercooler sitting up front and rarely seen Rotiform super concave NUE’s for shoes.

Out back is the meatiest tire ever and I absolutely love it. The wheels out back are 13″ wide and even the 325’s look stretched on them. Wait till you see it from the rear…

Shot of his fronts. Jimmy’s got an Endless Race 6 big brake kit with E slit rotors. It’s hard to see in person but the fit and finish of the Rotiforms are amazing. The colour of the centers reflecting onto the lip give it a slightly darker tone and it’s awesome.

Shot of the rear. Here you can kind of see that “slate/grey” tone in the lips.

325’s… Monstrous.

Up close and personal with the Greddy intercooler. Behind it sits a Koyo race radiator that you’ll see in the engine bay pics later.

That shot from the rear. Very minimal camber so that Jimmy can put as much of the 325 tire down as possible under the custom rolled and pulled fenders. Another awesome part of the rear is actually the Junction Produce 3 piece spoiler that’s been molded in. It’s seamless up close. To compliment the JP spoiler, he’s also got the L-Sportline roof spoiler as well.

The view from the front… or your view when you see it coming up in your rear view mirror. Jimmy’s plans for the headlights are to retrofit LS460 projectors in to finish off the front and compliment the TRD grille.

Profile shot of his wheel/brake set up.

Rolling from the rear quarter.

While we’re at another full body shot – a few other plans Jimmy talked about was getting his Vertex aero kit installed paired with an HKS Kansai hood and have it all brought together and repainted using the Lexus LFA 1F2 metallic silver. That should be the creme de la creme for it all once it’s done.

A shot of his engine bay and the monster 2JZ-GTE VVTi. There’s really just way too much to list, but if you’re really interested then you can post in the comments and I’d be happy to share them since Jimmy shared it with me. But in between the plethora of HKS goodies, Jimmy has quality parts left, right and center. I’m sure you can see a bunch just by looking at the picture… HKS T51R Turbo, HKS SQV, Cusco strut bar, a few custom PoorForm parts like his motor mounts and 30-40LS transmission.

Another shot of the wheels. Can’t get enough.

A shot for the ricer in me.

That big ol’ turbo.

Cusco strut bar…

His suspension – a set of Zeal Function PF custom short stroke coilovers have been custom valved to his liking.

On the inside, the HKS goodies don’t stop. He’s got the HKS AFK wideband/knock amp.

Over on the right side, he’s got the HKS EVC 5 boost controller.

Jimmy’s cockpit doesn’t get overlooked either. This GS is more of a sport-VIP look and I can totally dig it. He’s got a Bride Vorga CF seat with a Takata 4 pt harness. Up front is a Nardi steering wheel (Ridox Orido Edition – which is #1/200) mated to a Worksbell hub. His cluster is a TRD Aristo 320K cluster that was wired in by Jimmy.

Up close of the weave. It’s all in the weave, don’t you know?

A closer shot of his customer rolled and pulled rear fenders. Nicely done.

Again, it doesn’t stop at the engine or the wheels or even his interior, Jimmy also made sure to include some audio too. Ranging from Focal, Steg and Pioneer pieces.

The final shot of the shoot was the three PoorForm cars together. The final post to all of this!

Thanks again to Jimmy and Steph for coming out and spending the afternoon with JC, Rich and myself and letting us shoot the cars. It’s not everyday you get to shoot three Lexus’s that are all on point!

Again – there are way too many mods to list, and I missed a bunch so if anyone is interested, post in the comments and I’ll reply back with it.

Poorform: Jimmy’s Lexus LS430

October 17, 2013 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Part 2 of the PoorForm shoot coming at ya! Finally getting around to doing some more editing and getting them up. To be honest, I’ve been trying to hold off from posting all the shoots one after the other or else I’ll just run out by the end of the week. I still have a bunch left to edit from other shoots so I think it’ll last me at least until the end of the month if I keep it up at this pace LOL.

Anyways – I was particularly excited to shoot Jimmy’s LS430 because of my infatuation with the VIP style when I first started building me LS460. To be honest, at first when I saw his build thread on beyond, I didn’t really get it. I didn’t get why someone would want to build a car like the LS (or any big body sedan for that matter). I thought it was sick that it was on air and it had big wheels, but everything after that didn’t make much sense. Keep in mind that this was before I knew or understood VIP. I was still in my ricer phase of big wings and loud exhausts – but don’t be mistaken, I still love all that shit… I just love the VIP style a little more now. The first two big body sedans I loved was of course the LS430 and the Toyota Crown. After I started loving the styling more, I started to appreciate the direction that Jimmy was going in his build thread.

It wasn’t until earlier this year that we started talking about different air set ups and such and we actually ended up going the same route for air suspension – a combo of coilovers with UAS bags paired with Accuair. The first time that I had seen Jimmy’s LS430 in person was at Driven 2013 with his newly finished air setup and it went home with a well deserved “Best of Show for VIP”. You’ll see why…

Jimmy’s wheels are now different than the old Work Gnosis HS203’s in gold that he had at the show. Now he’s rolling on Work Varianza V5S in a custom shadow black with a black anodized lip.

An up close of the rear wheel. 20×10.5… and that anodized lip is awesome in person.

The rear is a combination of 5Zigen fireball mega mufflers and custom piping all the way to the front. A perfect look for the rear of the 430 and it gives it an awesome sporty-VIP look.

Side shot of the rear wheel and his exhaust.

Shot of the front wheel.

Laying low. Just a bit further down and you’ll see his trunk set up – but his suspension set up is a combination of the popular Youzealand SS pro kit to get the car just a little lower – 30mm I believe, UAS aerosport bags over a set of Tanabe Z40 coilovers.

Rolling low.

And a rear quarter rolling shot.

The creme de la creme of Jimmy’s car is his trunk. Countless hours were put into this and to someone who hasn’t installed air on their ride, it may look as simple as putting the tank in, running some lines, and bolting everything down – how hard could it be? Well it’s actually extremely time consuming – making sure you have enough space for everything, ensuring lines don’t pinch, tucking all the wires and double checking that everything is easily accessible if you need to get to it. VIP styling is far from just having the car sit on the ground with big wheels. For some people, it’s an art and it’s about showing everything off. It is essentially being as flashy as you can be.

Jimmy’s went the extra mile to upgrade the audio system in the LS430. He’s got two Focal 33WX Utopia subs in the trunk, a Steg K201 and K402 amp to power everything, Steg Masterstroke MSK3000, Audison bitOne with DRC, Focal KRX2 front components with Audison Voce rear coax’s and finally a Pioneer deck up front to control it all.

As for his suspension set up – you can see here and the previous picture that his Accuair VU4 is set up quite nicely and the way the air lines run are extremely unique. Jimmy is running the full Accuair management system with Viair compressors.

An upclose of the hardwood that Jimmy used all throughout the trunk. This is one of the biggest eye-catchers and there is an excellent amount of attention to detail here. The edges are lined so there’s no rough edges showing and it’s laid down and cut perfectly to the contours of his trunk.

Last one to end the set! The last one to end this is of course, Jimmy’s monster 2JZ GS…

PoorForm: Steph’s Lexus GS

October 15, 2013 / jasonhoang / Leave a comment

Finally back to regular broadcasting! Hope all you Canadian friends had a good Thanksgiving! It’s tough to be back at work today after all that turkey and a long weekend, but there’s no choice but to get back to the grind.

This week I’ll finish up the PoorForm shoot we did last weekend – consisting of 3 cars. Jimmy’s 2JZ GS, his LS430 and Steph’s GS.

First up is Steph’s GS – and I’ll admit right off the bat now that I didn’t get as many pictures of her GS as I had hoped. Doing three shoots in a span of a few hours is difficult because you need to find several different locations for each car. We could have technically gone to three locations, shot the cars at different angles and called it a day but I’m a fan of using different locations for different shots. It’s a little more exciting that way… However, I ended up taking a few shots of Steph’s car and somehow we ended up shooting the Jimmy’s GS right after and never had time to get back to Steph’s GS aside from the rollers.

Her GS is done extremely well – starting at the fitment and wheel choice of the Meister S1R’s to the immaculate body and interior condition.

The first thing you notice is how clean the body of her GS is. Clean, simple, and very functional. Peep that rear lip.

Side profile shot of her GS is awesome. It sits static and quite low and Steph drives it very well. I don’t mean to be sexist or anything, but you don’t see too many girls driving lowered cars around that carefully. It’s in great condition.

Another shot of the rear lip. I love – and will always love – meisters.

The first pink combo of Junction Produce Tsuna and Fusa. Suits it well.

Of course – a roller.

And again – the one with Jimmy’s 2JZ GS – which will be the last part to this triple threat shoot.

If I find more shots that I happened to skip over of Steph’s GS, I’ll definitely post it. I’ve gone through literally thousands of pictures over the last 3 weeks and my eyes get to the point where they’ll skip tons of pics and I won’t see it until next year or something.

Anyways – Jimmy’s LS430 will be up in a few days!