Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas ya'll. And Hannukah, Quanza, etc. for the rest of you. I had a very nice Christmans eve dinner at the Tajima household last night. The Tajima household is my home away from home in Huntington Beach harbor area. Eiji from Tomei, Mike Ferrara from D-Sport, and Frank from Z.Speed (?) were at dinner too.
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Buttonwillow Time Attack 11/06 Video

I finally edited this video. It's Tarzan Yamada kicking ass in the XS BNR32 GT-R. Only 0.3 seconds away from the Cyber EVO. Next time...

American Touge 3

Yesterday was Best Motoring Video's American Touge 3 at the Horse Thief Mile @ Willowsprings Raceway. The drift king and kazama were there to drive American's "best" tuned cars. Greg from XS and I brought out the XS BNR32 since the BNR34 GT-R is now retired. The headlining theme of AT3 was supposed to be the Mine's BNR34 GT-R Japan "Touge Monster" vs the XS Engineering BNR32 USA "Touge Monster". Unfortunately after I warmed up the car and took the car for a quick drive to check the boost, a rod bearing failed. I think it was from the extreme G's at high speed tracks from Time Attacking that led to oil starvation. Anyhow, it ended up being the Cosworth/Dyno-Comp STi which is a mo...

#1 steak in Florida

Last night I went to Charley's the #1 rated steak house in Florida. It's even consistently rated top 10 in the entire country. I think you can check it out at www.charleyssteakhouse.com. Was it good? It was the absolute most tender steak I've had in my life. Actually it was 2 bone-in veal fillet mignons and 1 bone-in veal chop. I also had a giant baked potato, some mashed potato, garlic bread, a house salad, a giant piece of asparagus, a piece of fried green tomato, a bite of key lime pie, and 7 grey goose and sodas. I think I ate 2,000,000 calories....but fuck was it good.....I think the fried green tomato is a southern thing. I probably wouldn't recommend it.

Cool shit at PRI

PRI is pretty dope. There are a lot of real deal race parts here. What I like checking out are the exotic parts. Enter the AP carbon race rotors, pads, and monoblock calipers. You can buy multiple CARS with how much these brakes cost. They are designed for prototypes, ALMS P2 & 675 race cars, LeMans, and other balls out racing. I love this shit.

Kodak EasyShare V705 Dual Lens Camera

Real quick: the Kodak V705 is the bombest ass camera that is commercially available for a point and shoot. ISO and aperature adjustments are some of the cool features. The ultimate feature is the ultrawide angle lens. There are two lens an ultrawide and a 5x zoom. The trend started when Phil and Toshi bought the V570 in Japan when filming JDM Insider. My cheap ass finally forked out for a new digi cam and I must say I love this camera. $289 at buy.com if you use the google checkout feature. It comes in black, silver, and pink for you girls or fags out there. I got the silver one. Check it:

Performance Racing Industry Show

I'm in Orlando, Florida now for the PRI show for Cosworth. BTW, I work at Cosworth now developing performance parts for their street engine department. It's a pretty exciting job working at a true motorsports engine manufacturer. I still help out at XS of course. Anyhow, this is my first time at the PRI show and I can say that it's pretty damn sweet. Especially if you're a hardcore race/car enthusiast. Most of it is NASCAR/circle track hick stuff, but that stuff is pretty buff too. You gotta respect where respect is due. Any car capable of going 200 MPH around Talladega is buffer than shit. Never mind that the good ol' boys build them. Imagine if the same people built an FD...

Super Street Time Attack with XS BNR32 GT-R

Last week the XS GTR finished 2nd overall and 1st in the 4WD Unlimited class at the Super Street Time Attack finals at Buttonwillow Raceway in California. Tarzan Yamada, who by the way is the fucking man at driving high powered Time Attack cars, piloted the XS GTR like the master that he is. What was absolute bullshit, was the World Challenge GT3 Porsche Cup car that won first overall. A $300,000 (without mods), factory built, all carbon, race car was at a tuner industry time attack. If you add up the cost of the track time for development, Moton 3 way adjustable dampers, carbon fiber/magnesium wheels, and the host of other goodies, we're probably talking another $100k. Anyhow, the part ...

Beyond the Dyno - Hawaii

By Eric Hsu

I've been severely lagging on posting so I'm gonna try and catch up here. Last month I went to Hawaii for my friend Dave's wedding. He maried a nice girl who's name is Kaori. I can't think of a better union eventhough I don't really believe in the institution of marriage. This was my 3rd tour of duty as a best man. Anyhow, Hawaii is the BOMB. I try to go at least once every other year because there's nothing like cruising around Hawaii with the tradewind breeze and all. If you can afford it, you want to get married in Hawaii because it's super nice. The wedding party had a ton of drinkers there so I got the fade on too. A little too much because the Hotel got a couple of presents on the ...

JDM Insider in Blockbuster Video

by Eric Hsu

I've been really lagging on blog posts. My bad, I've been super busy. Anyhow, I was cruising Blockbuster online trying to figure out what to rent next and I decided to type in JDM Insider. What do ya know? Yokohama Street Drift pops up. Is that dope or what?

BTW, you gotta check out Toshi's post entitled "Car Memories" from 10/11/06. T...