This past weekend I did a photo shoot for Carboy magazine. Carboy is a Japanese car tuning magazine for those of you who don’t know. They are doing a series on Americans who have been in the tuning industry for a long time. The story is about me and my history I think. We’ll see when it comes out. The series has included people like Toshi Hayama (JDM Insideher), Mike Ferrara (D-Sport mag), and now myself. Yasu, who freelances for Carboy and a host of other Japanese magazines, asked me to dig up some old pictures. It took my hours and I realized that there was a period of time when I was 14-26 years old where I didn’t take many pictures. That sucks because I wish I did. Oh well. Here are some of my findings after digging for hours:
This picture is circa 1996 at the first 1600 square foot XS Engineering building. L to R: Ed Eng, previous Editor of Import Tuner, Mike Ferrara publisher of D-Sport, and Rob Choo current Editor of Turbo Magazine.
Circa 1998 at the Apex headquarters in Sagamihara, Kanegawa, Japan. This car was Mr. Kaneso’s (now head of APR GT Racing Team in Super GT) personal BNR32 and had the original V-Max engine in it. They made me change the injectors down to 1000cc units because the car had to drive on the street. 750whp from twin RX-6’s. In 1998; years before we were doing this shit in the states.
Circa 1998 at the Apex “engine factory” in Fujinomiya on the engine dyno. I was in Japan for 4 months for training at Apex so they made me do all the shit that nobody else wanted to do. The turbo gasket blew out and I had to change it. This engine was a 1100hp V-Max BCNR33 drag engine and it was sitting at 1100hp on the engine dyno for 1 minute at a time. Naturally the exhaust gasket blew out becuase of the 980degC exhaust temperatures. Damn, I was surprised the engine didn’t explode…..
This was at palmdale where the Apex V-Max BCNR33 drag car set the world record (at the time) with Tarzan Yamada at the wheel. 8.47 seconds in the 1999. It blew the doors off the Top Fuel pro stock 300ZX that came in 1998. The “pro stock” Top Fuel drag car ran like low 10’s. The Greddy BNR32 S-ROC ran 9.70’s.
Circa 1999 all drunk: L to R top row Chris Chee now an actor, Jim Liaw the big baller who owns half of Formula D, Toshi Hayama big baller who owns JDM Insideher, Me, Tarzan Yamada the bad ass driver. Bottom row L to R: Elmer Salvador who is a big baller investor now and used to run Apex’s accounting, Nathan Tasukon who was a sales dude at Apex, but now does harness design, track support, and tuning at Motec, and Sean Holloway current general manager of Apex.
Circa 2001 all drunk at a “special” bar: L to R top row: me, Hiro Nanahoshi previously from Motorex, Toshi Hayama, Sean Morris (GT-R nerd 4 life), Ken Takahashi who now runs gymkhanausa.com, and Mike Ferrara.
There’s a ton more pictures, but honestly I’m too busy/lazy and the server isn’t big enough. Old times = good times.