Category: Car culture

Garage Days

Words and pics by PVT Ian.

Sometimes, you just need to get shit done.

Been making some plans with Private Runner Mel(Baaambol) to bust out a clutch job on the EK. Since I was about to do all this work, I decided now is the time to switch out the LS trans for something with shorter gears. I struck a deal with Mel (homie hookup fasho) to take the trans off the B16A swap he recently picked up. He’s working on something for his EF and plans to use the funds on a cable trans while I make use out of the hydro one.

The time finally came to get down and do the work. I came up to Mel’s pad, he had cleared some space in his garage so we had some work room. This meant that his immaculate and freshly painted EF hatch had to come out and see the light of day. I brought all my tools that I thought we’d need and laid them all out. Mel’s homie Ozzy came by to join us. He’s rocking Mel’s old white EF on some Mugens. Pretty cool car, I remember admiring it the first time I saw it without even knowing who it belonged to.

The surgery finally begins on the EK. Immediately out the gate we run into issues with the axle nuts. Ended up making a tool run and buying an Impact gun. This impact gun proved to be very helpful through the rest of the process.

We worked til late, or til we were frozen over since it was a cold night. At one point, we lost all power! Circuit breaker decided to call it a night. No light, no heat, we decided to call it a night as well.

Ozzy left not long after everything went AWOL in the garage. He probably didn’t realize what he was in for when he came over. Mel told him to cruise by so he can hear his exhaust lol. One thing led to another and he was under the car hammering out the bitch pin, among other things. Guess you never know how a night can go when you kick it with some runners.

Oh and for the record, after 3 long nights of work, a few homies coming through to lend a hand and one really shitty tow situation, we got that shit done!

Side note, by PVT Runner:

I too put in some work today, which I feel very accomplished. Did an oil change on the PVT Support Vehicle and changed the suspension on the daily Yaris. No pics, I felt like that isn’t exciting nor interesting as Ian and Mel’s experience. But we share the same aftermath of feeling accomplished at the end. As PVT Ian said, sometimes you just need to get shit done.

I want ahi poke

I always want ahi poke… I eat so much ahi poke, I got mercury poisoning. Anyway.

Whenever I eat Hawaiian food I somehow always think of how I used to visit TeamRice and Dohcresearch religiously, back around 2003ish.

That was my first taste of the Hawaiian car culture. Just as their food is a mixture of different cultures, the way they style their cars has a mixture of different cultures as well. It’s like a cross between JDM style to Islander style with a little mainland love somewhere in there.

Even if the car looks mad ghetto to some, it’s still mad fresh.
Like the car seen here that belonged to a member of Team Ultraspeed back in the day:

Whether there was a meaning behind it or if they just did it to do it because “why not?” it’s something that stands out and catches my eye of interest (maybe they did it to be ratchet?). The fact that it’s rugged and boro boro, that’s what makes it appealing to me. It’s something you do to a car that will be used to take abuse on and off track. Kind of like how kanjozoku’s treat their cars.

That was when Hawaii still had a racetrack…

Another thing about Hawaiian style of tuning that will always attracted my attention in photos is the background. The cars are the cherry on top and the background is the icing. It’s almost like seeing these cars in the wild type of feeling.

Team Ultraspeed is a Virginia based team, but they expanded beyond that. To Hawaii for example. I remember a team profile of them on some old 360vm issue back in the day.

A well known Hawaiian member of Team Ultraspeed owns this famous golden EG

Him and his team owned the blue rugged and raw EG seen above as well. The “boro boro” Civic ended up throwing a rod through the side of the block at a track day. I don’t know what happen to it after that, but I do believe some of it’s parts remain floating around…

“In the early 2000s there were almost no social media, no YouTube how to’s, basically no internet. Hawaii basically was blocked off from the world. We got our inspiration from going out there and experiencing other cultures and bringing back home what we thought were cool. A melting pot of ethnicities also became the melting pot of car culture. Also technology wise, it was and still is, expensive to get new things done and what not, just because we’re out in the middle of the Pacific. So if you see something replicated here like let’s say a k swapped MR2, when they became popular, then chances are, that person went far wide to get it done.” – PVT La Rosa

Amen to that homie.

Thank you Hawaii for always and continuing to inspire me.

Peace.