K-Tuned Robbed!?

Over the past couple of months I have been attempting to create a prototype for a car part for a business that I want to start.

Ever since I was a little kid I have been into cars and anything mechanical.  I have always been playing with RC cars and model cars and Hot Wheels.  I always took them apart, inspected them, modified them, put them back together, broke them, painted them, showed them off, they were my life for a while.

And when I was 16 I wanted a car more than anything, but it was something I could not afford.  With my family struggling to keep our house and with me and my brother supporting them, it was difficult.  I became a lot stronger, but I never had time to buy a car, let alone the money.  It was a lot of work, but I finally got my first car, an old Lexus that I started fixing up myself.

It was that car that helped inspire this blog.  No, it was nothing special, and neither is my blog-- it's just a Blogger, but it's still my own blog and Lexi was my first car ever.

This brings me to a story that I'd like to share with you.

Recently while on Facebook I saw that K-Tuned had been robbed after their appearance at Honda Day.  Now, I'll be the first to say that the people I met last year at Honda Day representing K-Tuned were some of the nicest, most informative people I have ever met selling parts.  I talked with one of the guys about their shifter setup for a good fifteen minutes, just going over their display k20 engine and shooting the shit in general.

The point of this story is that if someone has a dream or if someone is living their life to the fullest as I imagine these great guys are, don't just take a giant crap on their affairs.  Thieves, take a moment and think before you take something.  It's wrong to take something from someone period, but just because it's a company doesn't make it any better.

To those who want to know more about the story, you can read about it at K-Tuned's Facebook page here.  Give them a "like" and show your support.  Thanks for reading y'all.  Keep the dream alive-- whatever it may be.

Auto X, Racing Hondas, and More

So, while all of you have been chillin' in the familiar old scene, maybe chillin' with the hellaflush heads or battlin' with the track warriors, you have probably not ventured out to a new scene in a while.

Well, I am now stationed in Wisconsin for an engineering job that I'm working as a part of Drexel's Cooperative Learning Experience.  It's quite different out here, but in a good way.

The East Coast is all about stance and car shows and car meets...at least where I'm from, the Philly area.  Like for example: H2O International.  Check out some of the pics below to get a flavor for what my life was like back on the "BEAST COAST" (I did it for teh lulz).

Photo cred to Tiff Erbe of The Daily Werks Crew out of Levittown, PA

Photo cred to the Daily Werks Crew FB Page

Again, photo cred to the Daily Werks Crew FB Page

Well, firstly I must say, that the midwest goes hard too.  Secondly, I must say I am really loving the car culture here as well.  Chicago is more like Philly and the surrounding cities in that there are meets, but I have been involved with the auto crossing crowd since I have gotten here.

Here are a couple of pics of stuff on my way here-- the first is my DC5 and the second is off of Columbus Drive in Chitown, Illinois.

Photo Cred to myself yoo lol

Again with the flix!

One of the first things I did when I got here was reach out to some local car clubs and Facebook Pages who are about the Honda lifestyle.  The first page I liked was Wisconsin Honda Group.  

The admin, Joel, a guy who drives a dope Del Sol, hooked me up with some dudes near me in Rockford, Illinois who were into auto x and they drove Hondas too.  They run a page called Secret Society that posts car scene stuffs from the midwest.  Y'all should check it if you're trying to smell what I'm smellin' if you feel me.

Here are some pics of Secret Society's moderators' cars-- Danny and Mike.

Danny's JDM front-ended Teg with a BBK, Mugen Valve Cover, and other goodies that I haven't seen or asked about.  He was rocking Advans when I saw him at the track, but he changed to a new pair of shoes last I checked.

Danny's clean-ass interior.  Photo by Lexi.Laron

Mike's gutted EK...  Photo cred goes to Joel Zabel of Wisconsin Honda Group.

We went to Madison International Speedway shortly after hooking up and had a blast.  Mike's EK sounded especially beastly coming out of the slalom on the auto x course.  That air horn you see in the headlight (made by PWJDM) definitely makes it louder if it doesn't do anything else, at least.  Hahah, much love to Mike and his EK.

Photo cred to Tahrek of Secret Society

Me and my DC5 coming out of the slalom...

Tahrek of Secret Society

After that I definitely realized that in the East Coast, where I'm from, there is a huge emphasis on parts that definitely outweighs the emphasis on functionality.  After tracking my car, I realized that all of the modifications I made had definitely improved the capability of my RSX infinitely!  However, the only way to be the fastest car is to be the fastest driver...and that is not focused on at all in the car show, stance, hellaflush, form>function scene AT ALL.

So, to improve my driving skills, I hit up another auto x in Milwaukee with the Wisconsin Autocrossers Incorporated guys.  This one was really fun because the track was very high-speed and the cars were much more serious.  I placed pretty well for my second time out, but I definitely need to improve the smoothness of my driving.  I was plowing out of corners and oversteering at times and overshooting because I was not looking two corners ahead at times.

Check out my video of me racing :)

Overall, I can't wait to get deeper into the scene out here.  I hope you guys enjoyed this post!  I'll have much more to come.  Stay true to you!

Best,

--Lexilaron

The New 2016 CR-Z

It seems that after the BRZ and FRS were released the tuner industry exploded.  New parts were being made everywhere and these cars have aftermarket support rivaling traditional Japanese sports cars like the 240sx and the 3000GT VR-4, for example.  As a result, it's not a surprise that rumors of a new, affordable sports car are spouting from Honda enthusiasts' mouths.

 

We all know about the CR-Z.  It was Honda's attempt at a revolutionary sports car that would combine hybrid power with a fun-to-drive chassis.  With a chassis based off of the insight, and with a small weight of about 2,700 pounds this car was supposed to be a success in the tuner community.

 



 

If you follow the chassis or if you're an enthusiast you may be familiar with a few upgrades, like the Jackson Racing Supercharger Kit as shown above, or the full Mugen body kit.  But other than that, this car hasn't been hyped up all that much in terms of aftermarket support.  So what did Honda do?  They tried to make it cooler...and they did.

 

 

The Mugen CR-Z was released at a price tag of around $35,000 USD, however and that may be a little steep for a fancy body kit on a hybrid sports car if you ask me.  Honda also made the Mugen CR-Z RR which was only suppoed to be produced in limited production (about 300 units).  This is cool as well, but I'm uncertain as to whether this went into production or not in Japan.

 

Well, Honda may be trying to remedy ALL of these problems with the NEXT CR-Z.  Do you know what this is?  It's the new Civic Type-R...er well...we'll talk about that.

 



 

 

It's a chassis based off of the Civic Type-R which will supposedly be used for the new CR-Z.  And this would be pretty cool.  With 276 horsepower 2.0 L turbocharged engine, the Civic Type-R is being designed to be a serious competitor with high-performance FWD cars on the Nurburgring, and I'm sure the CR-Z will only come slightly short of that.

 

According to Motortrend Magazine, the new CR-Z which is currently sitting in R&D is sitting on a shortened Type-R platform and is anticipated to come with a turbocharged, 1.5 L engine with a 7-speed dual clutch transmission to transfer the power to the ground.  It is anticipated to still be a hybrid, but this will be no mama car.  This will be a serious competitor for the BRZ and FRS and the price tag is supposed to be below $30,000.

 

Let's see what Honda can come up with!  The ball's in your court now, Honda of America!