HYPERTRASH Spring 2020 - FULL ISSUE #1

HYPERTRASH

EDITORS NOTE you are probably asking yourself "what the hell am I looking at?"

"what is this trash?"

everyone loves a good car fire, this magazine is essentially that. it represents the dirty underbelly of car culture. the grit. the grime. the pain

and suffering that comes with the sickness of having a car habit.

nothing too serious. nothing too polished. most things you would

not see in mainstream, high-budget, professionaly published magazines.

people and problems that need exposure. regardless of the amount of rust.

the amount of money thrown. the amount of blood shed. the amount

of time spent. the number of relationships lost.

in this issue we are beginning. scrubbing our tires. breaking it in.

join us. let's see where this goes. in the next issue we will be talking racing.

these pages contain mostly trash. trash at the highest level. HYPER TRASH.

CONTENTS

2

10-SECONDS WITH MAGNUS WALKER

ben lamvati 5

Impromptu discussions about nothing

CRUNCHYBLEACH kyle barnes 6 The almost perfect BMW E30

ABANDONMENT ISSUES rhys haydon 12 Who just gives away thier Porsche 924?

THAT OREGANO FLOW nathanael napolitano

14

Interview with Gerald Gaunty about the car problem

THE ONLY TIME MY CAR WAS ON SPEEDHUNTERS james singer 22 Literally, the one and only time

WHAT I LEARNED IN THE DESERT

nathanael napolitano

36

SEMA 2019

#NARDO64 nathanael napolitano

42

Bombing LA streets in a Porsche 964 with Aaron Espino

CARS. COFFEE. COOKIES?

nathanael napolitano

52

Definitely not your average C&C meet up

NEVER ENDING CRUISER steven nereo 60 Three decades of owning one Toyota FJ60

OPINIONS AND EDUCATION



lana thane

66

HYPERTRASH QUARTERLY CARS AND CHAOS SPRING 2020 / VOLUME 1 / ISSUE 1 PUBLISHER / CREATIVE DIRECTOR NATHANAEL NAPOLITANO EDITORS JAMES SINGER STEVEN NEREO RHYS HAYDON SHANE MEHLING NATHANAEL NAPOLITANO CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NATHANAEL NAPOLITANO JAMES SINGER STEVEN NEREO RHYS HAYDON KYLE BARNES LANA THANE BEN LAMVATI CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS NATHANAEL NAPOLITANO SAMUEL FERREIRA GERALD GAUNTY JAMES SINGER AARON ESPINO STEVEN NEREO KYLE BARNES RHYS HAYDON KARISA HAYDON STEVEN HICKS JOEY READY BEN LAMVATI ILLUSTRATIONS JAMES SINGER STEVEN NEREO JORGE SIXTO-SANCHEZ ADVERTISING DIRECTOR GTFO CONTACT OR SUBMISSION HYPERTRASHMAG.COM @HYPERTRASHMAG COVER PHOTO: Samuel Ferreira Ferrari F40 burning bright in Monte Carlo, Monaco on the birthday of Enzo Ferrari. Buon compleanno Commendatore!

BACK COVER: Jorge Sixto-Sanchez 'Crimescene at a Wooded Landscape' 2016 $17 D.I.Y. / SELF FUNDED © 2020 HYPERTRASH MAGAZINE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED



3

W HAT S ORT OF P E R S ON R E A D S H Y P E RT R A SH ?

A discerning, skeptic individual of any age, sex, background, race, or income level—with an eye for bullshit whose interests run a full range of subjects related to automotive nonsense. The HYPERTRASH reader will likely have an affinity for the printed word when paired with visually pleasing imagery. Speculation: Given that there is no collected or published data on our reader demographics (and likely never will be) we assume the HYPERTRASH reader tolerates motor vehicles and possesses a love/hate realtionship with car culture in general, enjoys going fast (or slow) depending which type of vehicle they prefer, appreciates design, colors, and shapes. Our readers will likely have anywhere between two to sixteen vehicles in varying states of repair, disrepair or disassembly, and have fewer parking spaces available than their current Bring-A-Trailer email alert list will accomodate. The HYPERTRASH reader typically has a car problem and knows it, but chooses not to seek help for it—unless that help comes with a long-term, low cost vehicle storage option.

ADV ERTI S I NG: Don’t advertise with us, we are not doing this for the money and we charge ungodly ad rates to put the trash you are selling into the trash we are printing. Contact information located on masthead. Send hatemail, it's motivating.

4

10-SECONDS WITH:

MAGNUS WALKER

impromptu discussions about nothing with a Porsche collector and influencer Being immersed in a few different car communities and seeing the what’s and who’s currently circulating around some of the more non-mainstream magazines, vlogs and online media, you too have probably seen Mr. Magnus Walker–Urban Outlaw–somewhere in the wild. Either on a screen or in person.

A tall, thin, wizardly looking rocker who could easily be mistaken for a band roadie. Or find him in the middle of Venice Beach and you might assume he's not batting on a full wicket.

Mr. Walker is not actually famous-famous. But famous enough in the Porsche community to a degree that strangers cold-approach him and ask to take selfies, which I’ve seen him oblige without pretension. So at a foundational level this qualifies as “fame” as much as the many others we associate the word with.

He gets the kind of recognition similar to when you and your friends orbit a very specific social scene and know exactly who that one person is. A scene celebrity like Ian Mackaye or Henry Rollins, but not like Stifler from American Pie famous (it's funny because no one really knows his name but they know who that is… ) Coincidentally, we ended up at the same event. and I wanted to ask Magnus a question, but he had already been approcahed by someone else, so I waited.

Not being a P-head myself or having an interest in celebrity selfies, I was more curious in find-

ing out what he saw at the event that was of interest to him. Here's the conversation: HT: Hey Magnus! How's it going?

(He slowly looks up at me from his phone and starts to back away) Magnus: Hey. Hi. (He says as he's turning away from me, walking in the opposite direction) HT: So what's your favorite car out here today?

(Now, he is completely turned around with his back facing me) Magnus: Not sure... Gonna go have a look around. Take care.

(And then he's away, off to go take in all the beautiful automotive scenery.)

And that was it. Apparently chatting with me was not on his to-do list for this event, which I understand. He's there to enjoy the cars. He doesn't want to be hassled, which he was by many people.

The interaction got me thinking, what created this scenario of influence? What order of events took place that resulted in a group of strangers approaching this person asking for a photograph? What accomplishments have been made?

I realize this is a larger philosophical question around the nature of the human condition as it



relates to fame and influence. I also understand that by publishing this interaction and these photos we have now become part of the discussion, or problem. But we already got here somehow, didn't we?

I read somewhere that there is a formula for the new paradigm of social web influence, something about earning authority though following your passion, which cannot be begged or bought.

I suppose anyone who collects any one particular object with a single-minded focus will achieve enough notoriety to attract attention.

Which leads to more attention, resulting in “celebrity” and the eventual selfie request.

In hindsight as I'm writing this, I’m realizing the question I’d really love answered is how he feels about his status in this scene. Is he bothered by his critics? Does he ever feel like a Billy-no-mates waking around having random people ask him for a photo?

What actually created his "celecbrity"? Was it his backstory? His interesting path to Porsche social media fame through dreams of success in fashion? Clearly this is all speculation as I was not given the chance to inquire. Though I’m guessing these questions would have caused him to run away from me even faster. So we may never know... Unless given the opportunity to sit down with him and have a chat. 3

5

6



REGRET



7

C RUNCHYBLEACH WORDS K Y L E B A R N E S

PHOTOS K Y L E B A R N E S a n d J O E Y R E A D Y

P

laying in punk bands and being immersed in the perfectly imperfect environment of punk shows since an early teen taught me to see the beauty in unexpected ways.

After a few years of not having a car and just riding a motorcycle as my only mode of transportation, I started thinking about getting a car. Sure I wanted something that was decently reliable, but most importantly, it needed to be fun to drive. I gave it some thought and decided on an E30. The search was on...

I located a 1993 in Alpine white from some junk yard out in Temecula. I loved that it was a “diving board” bumper version, the step child to the sexy euro bumpers. It didn’t stay stock for long, and soon I fell down the rabbit hole of modifications. Wheels turned into coil-overs, intake turned into head swaps. My mechanic ended up getting a deal on a 325IS turbo setup from a drift car that had been reffed in San Diego.

8



Soon Crunchy was making 330hp at 12psi. The external oil cooler was purposeful while being over the top. When someone tells you that’s not the way to do something... You do it and then parade it around in their face.The six pack of Dr. Pepper over the oil catch can was making fun of the beer cans people usually used. The car handled like a go kart and made all the fun noises under boost... Even got the approval of my Pomeranian, Varg.

Unfortunately boosting even a refreshed M20 with stock internals came with baggage. I soon had sticking thermostats and weird heat soak issues at the track. The purpose of the car was always track orientated... Something you could drive to and from the local tracks.

The frustration surmounted and I reluctantly sold it. In hindsight I wish I would’ve stayed naturally aspirated and did an S52 swap. If that happened, I would probably still have The Crunch today. 3

@hamburgerfantasy

"WHEN SOMEONE TELLS YOU

THAT’S NOT THE WAY TO DO SOMETHING...

YOU DO IT AND THEN PARADE IT

AROUND IN THEIR FACE."

HOODLUM

GRAF ORLOCK

VA R G ( D O G - H U M A N )

F O R E I G N O I L

9

10



CRUNCHYBLEACH SPECS Engine Rebuilt 2.5 "i" motor ARP2000 head studs MLS oversized head gasket to lower compression New over-sized Mahle pistons and rings Schrick turbo cam BMP adjustable cam gear Ebay top mount turbo manifold, which Chris rewelded for strength and reliability Garrett T3 60-1 journal bearing turbo: A/R 60, 0.63 exhaust housing 44mm v-banded waste gate HKS blow off valve 38# Lucas injectors eBay intercooler Intercooler piping: 2.5" hot side, 2.75" cold side German Engineering M20 silicone intake tube German Engineering rebuilt and shaved throttle body,

with flipped butterfly and m50 throttle position sensor German Engineering built and fully tuned Megasquirt stand

alone ECU: Microsquirt daughterboard and DIY PNP Castro's custom 2 piece, fiberglass intake box - Turbo Version 3" custom, mandrel bent downpipe 3" custom, mandrel bent oval turbo back exhaust Custom Dr. Pepper 6-pack oil catch can Getrag 260 trans 13 lb lightened flywheel Gripforce stage 2 clutch and pressure plate

Suspension Ground Control coilovers Front adjustable Konis (shortened struts) German Engineering custom extended rear shock mounts Ireland Engineering sway bars (22' front 19' back) Fully reinforced subframe by Castro Motorsport Vorschlag camber plates 95' M3 rack and pinion M3 sway link conversion All polyurethane bushings

A big thanks to Nigel (einstein57) from German Engineering for his awesome products, and for building and fine tuning the Megasquirt system!

None of this would have been possible if it wasn't for Chris and Castro Motorsport's open minded approach to everything.

Rolling ESM 002 16x9 Falken Azenis 215/45/16 Stainless steel brake lines Interior Gutted and tar free NRG steering wheel NRG quick release Momo hub NRG fixed seats Schroth harnesses Castro Motorsport short shifter "Custom" dash Pedals from BMWpedals.com with custom dead pedal AEM analog boost and AFR gauges in German Engineering cluster



11

ABANDONMENT ISSUES W O R D S RHYS HAYDON

P H O T O S RHYS HAYDON and KARISA HAYDON

I

felt bad buying the car after he said he had lived in it, but I also wondered “What makes someone live in their Porsche?” He could tell I had questions and strategically avoided them, instead explaining how the interior had been redone by the previous owner. To me it looked like some work that had been done in the 80’s using the red and black aftermarket sport seats. We avoided the screwdriver laying on the passenger seat, which he would later tell me had functioned as the ignition key. One of the previous times the car had been burglarized, the ignition had been ripped out.

The car was a total heap of shit. A “rest of world” 1976 924 in red.

When I first showed up he had one of those pleasure vans hooked up by jumper cables and was stripping out the air/fuel mixture screw just to get it to idle. I didn’t know it then but he later advised me not to take it out of the parking lot as the brakes didn’t work. The spare parts it came with were all used and mostly no longer viable.

When I asked about the mismatched headlights he sheepishly said the left lamp was actually a salad plate—he had been working as a busboy. Needless to say, I didn’t buy the car.

A few weeks went by and he called to ask if I was still interested, and unfortunately someone had broken out the drivers side window. He really didn’t want to sell the car but he couldn’t afford putting new

12



glass in the window. I had some extra windows from another 924S, so I met him to drop one off. If that was the only thing stopping him from keeping the car I felt that giving him an OEM replacement window would at least bring me some good karma from the Porsche gods.

Again a few weeks went by and I was sitting at the airport ready to get on a flight when I got a call from him again. He said that he was sorry to keep bothering me and let me know he installed the window. His next sentence threw me off. He asked for my address and said that he was going to drop the car off at my condo and I could pay him sometime. He said the car meant so much to him and he felt that he wasn’t able to take proper care of it.

Sure enough when I got home the car had somehow made it the 10 miles from the parking lot I had originally seen it in and the signed title was in the glovebox, and since the doors didn’t have keys the car was sitting unlocked, downtown Seattle, with the signed title in the glovebox and the screwdriver key on the passenger seat. I guess he figured that no one was going take it and even the car thieves could tell this thing was a complete shit-box.

3

@therhys

CHARITY

"He sheepishly said the left lamp was actually a salad plate-he had been working as a busboy."



13

THA OREG FLO HYPERTRASH INTERVIEW A conversation about having the car problem with Gerald Gaunty I N T E R V I E W Nathanael Napolitano

14



P H O T O S Gerald Gaunty

& Nathanael Napolitano

HAT GANO OW



15

[Gerald with Chico]

G

[The Notch ]

erald is an interesting character. He works in finance. He is the Operations Director for Ernst Everything. He’s a licensed barber and cuts hair out of his home barber shop as a side hustle and has lately ventured into shade tree contracting with two awesome craftsmen. I've known him for a little over a decade. In that time he's had about a dozen car projects. Most of which were sold off at varying times after being completed. An ever rotating, merry-go-round of dizzyingly beautiful projects. Like a lot of us, he gets his hand dirty, adjusting, refinishing, tuning, dialing, and tweaking; but he takes it to an obsessive level. His focus is on German engineering and he has owned all types. Within these pages we will expose the root cause of his obsessive compulsion, focusing on just a few specific examples: A)1968 VW Notchback, B)1979 VW Rabbit and C)2010 Porsche GT3.

HYPERTRASH: Why don't you start us off with the Notchback. Where'd you find it, when, and how much?

I got it in 2013 from this firefighter in Glendora for $5K, no motor, basically a shell. It's a 1968 that was originally white. I immediately got to work on it. I back-dated little things like the door for the gas tank, because I didn't like it, turned it into a '62, only real Type3 guys would know that. Dropped a 2110 engine in the rear, added Weber 44's, larger 4:1 header. I took my time and got heavily involved.

Gerald Gaunty:

You spent a lot of time on that car?

Yeah a lot of time. Every bolt I had to buy separately because I wanted all hex head allen bolts.

Because you tore it all the way down right?

Oh yeah, this was to a shell. Full body off restoration, upside down, media 16



blasted, it was all kinds of silly. Then it went to Old Speed here in Paramount for finishing up.

a millimeter of space at the rear wheel well with the fattest tire I could fit under it.

So you put all this time and money

I think for you specifically, that's

into it, why sell it?

what it is, you need a thing to get

The entire project was pretty gnarly, the problem though, part of the reason I sold it was because I couldn’t daily drive it as I intended to. It was too low for LA streets and I’d cringe on driving on unfamiliar streets and highway lanes. I should have put an airbag in the front because I couldn't drive it as low as I wanted to. I'm gonna find that car again, it's out there somewhere. You don't see anything like on the road now, ever, it was so fun driving that thing.

I don't know what I was thinking, I don't know what the fuck was wrong with me.

I guess everybody says that right?

We’ve all got the same thinking, that we shouldn't have sold that one car. All the work and planning I did, even down to the rear end, shortened the axle then spaced it out perfectly to the tire size and tucked it in, slammed it, with just

into at that level of detail, and then once it's done, you no longer have a need for it.

That could be it. I mean driving it was a thing, but later on it became such a hassle. I feared parking it anywhere.

The other reason I sold it was that I honestly didn’t like the amount of attention it received and I’m not saying that to toot my own. There was literally a conversation every single time I parked it and I’d purposely stall when I came back out and found someone walking around it as to avoid further conversation. Cars would stay just behind me in the next lane or take pics or I’d glance over to stares and camera pics. I wasn’t cut out for that type of attention.

It's not enough though, then you

start looking at what you can get back for it, the value for this car outweighs the value in driving it, so it sits.

That's exactly what happened, so I sold it.

So you need the project aspect. You need something where you can replace all the bolts with hex bolts.

Exactly, and that's relevant because then I went to the Golf R, then the 2017 M3, and the 2010 GT3, and with these modern cars you can only do so much to those and then you’re kind of done. You can do suspension, wheels, and drive it, but it's kind of boring. I kind of went too far with the Porsche because that thing was way too much of a purpose built track car for simple commuting.

I only found myself only really driving it in Angeles Crest which conveniently has its entrance one exit north from my house.

It’s rated one of the best routes in the world and I spent countless hours ripping through it. A close friend miraculously survived a horrific accident of going over the side and I never went up again after that.

You're also not using it as a build for any kind of social marketing or generating revenue from it for projects or shop advertising.

Nah, I’m not really into that type of shit.

I build and drive my cars for me, I don’t cosign with the over-sharing culture. I'll probably still get another one one day tho, I'm trying to tell myself I'll wait until I'm fifty, because you only live once, you can't keep driving these junk cars.

But at the same time, being that I'm using barber money for cars, the account from cutting hair is starting to stack up just from a couple months of not spending it on stupid shit. So it's all in how you balance this stuff out.

I find myself looking at that 992 fairly often but the finance options are just so silly.

You have to put $40K down and then your 

17

OBSESSION

18



payments are $2K per month, or you can lease it for $10K down and $2,500 month. It makes no sense. Who's doing this stuff?! People just have this much money? They're just using it as a business and writing it off that way I assume.

Or they are laundering money and can throw cash around.

Exactly, that's the other thing, I don't have the luxury, so be it.

So when did you sell the Notch?

Everything has a price, right? I sold it in 2015 to this guy who wanted it super bad. He’d seen a photo of it somewhere and proceeded to track me down. I’d lost interest in the car and his timing was just right. He was a much younger kid, I asked where he came up with the funds and he mentioned he took it from his 401k. I mean it's his money, and he wasn't asking me for financial advice... So as I alway say, “Who am I to deny happiness?

The car had a really big motor for the size of the chassis and weight of the car.

It was triple hp over the stock motor so I upgraded the drum brakes to discs all around with braided lines. It had little 135 tires up front sitting under the dead space of an empty trunk. The box had tall gears matched to the motor, the power would come on right before you had to shift so it was a high rev'ing car. It got moving pretty quick and it was basically weightless over the front end. It would lock up instantly.

Driving it demanded your full attention, no cell phones, just drive and pay attention to road undulations.

So after not too long dude is going too fast and not paying attention or whatever, and slams into the back of someone. Killed the car. I saw photos 

19

of the wreck and it didn't look like a lot of damage, but it was enough to total out the car. Then it popped up at auction still wrecked for $8K. I considered buying it back, there was easily $13K under the rear trunk for just the motor and gearbox, and from the wreck photos, it looked like only a front clip could have done it for a rebuild.

But I was remodeling my kitchen at the time so I had cash tied up in that, and I wanted to buy this stove. So I was like, "What do I do? Car or stove?"

I went with the stove because I've got this thing where I don't like to go back to the same project. I already built the Notchback the first time, then this dude who bought it from me crunches it. Do I buy it back and do it all over again? Nah. That’s like getting back with your ex which is the equivalent of taking a shower and putting dirty underwear back on.

I think he had it insured for the full purchase amount so he may have ended up getting all of his money back. Eventually someone scooped it up from the auction. I've been meaning to post up on the Facebook Type 3 enthusiast groups because someone knows where this car is. The car is somewhere and I would love to find it, but it hasn't popped up yet. I think the Notchback is my opus, it was my best build probably ever.

What's the plan for that bombed out Rabbit sitting in your driveway? Is it next? I feel like we'll be covering that project later this year. The amount of sand packed into the engine block deserves its own editorial.

Ha! That's an all original and partially gutted, European model 1979 California diesel title car I found in Hesperia. It sat in the desert for 20 years after blowing a valve until I found it. I’m a bit bummed it was neglected as much as it was, the windows were down the whole time and the entire interior is now trash. I've got a much more reliable later model motor that I’m going to play around with for this project. I think I’ll take the conservative route this time. Most if not all of the parts are already ordered and being shipped, I just need to find some time to excavate all that sand so I can finish stripping it and get it to the body shop. So yeah, that one is on deck for 2020.

More to come. 3 @oreganoflow

20

21

22



FUTILITY

THE ONLY TIME MY CAR WAS ON SPEEDHUNTERS W O R D S + P H O T O S JAME S SINGE R

RIP Lulu 2019



23

The Odd Life of a 2003 Mitsubishi

handle for a car I wanted since back when

smelled of gasoline. The tires were on the

Lancer Evolution.

it was just a dream in Option Magazine.

wear bars and out of date. They felt chalky even starting off from a stop light. The EVO

T

hat is my EVO pictured in the back cor-

When I got the EVO, it was kind of a mess.

seemed like if it had the wrong owner, this

ner of the parking lot at Road Race En-

The car needed attention before it could be

would be it’s last owner.

gineering (RRE) after I got rear ended on

a daily driver or be pushed hard. The day

the eastbound 210 freeway between Lake

I picked it up, the car came with a ton of

Without telling SCM they had done the PPI,

and Hill in Pasadena by a 17-year-old

random parts, both OEM and aftermarket,

I made an appointment with them and went

girl in a full-size Jeep speeding. She was

all packed into the trunk and laid out on

in for an early 60k service. The PPI didn’t

texting. She did not even hit her brakes. I

the back seat. A week earlier, the car had

come up with the service advisor when I

was stopped in traffic letting some grand-

gotten a clean PPI from SouthCoast Mit-

checked in. He drove the car back to the

pa driving in the emergency lane merge

subishi (SCM), the biggest EVO dealer in

service area as I settled into the faux leather

in front of me. When I came to, the Jeep

the US. The seller had also gotten a Cali-

wrapped waiting room of sadness typical to

was on my trunk and the front of my EVO

fornia smog certificate. I felt the EVO was

most dealerships. After 2 hours, the service

was buried in the tow hook of the 4Runner.

safe enough to buy but I wanted to bring

advisor came back sheepishly with some

the car to a baseline myself. Now, I was

grave news. The injectors were leaking. The

I got my EVO in 2008 with 50k miles on

sitting in the car, the back seat full of parts

car needed a major service including belts.

the odometer. It is one of about 4500 EVO

wrapped in old towels sitting on cardboard,

There were also a bunch of parts broken and

VIIIs made in 2003. After seeing an ad

and I was already scraping the expensive

missing. All the fluids needed changing. The

for the car, I drove down to Mission Viejo

Do-Luck carbon fiber lip out of the bank

list was exhaustive. Trying to appear calm, I

to look at it in the middle of the night in a

parking lot.

pulled out their PPI from the previous week

Best Buy parking lot. A week later, I traded

and asked to see the Service Manager. After

a 1997 Honda Civic Coupe and $12,000

In the few months the kid had the car,

a lot of talking to other managers, I was sent

for the EVO. I thought it was a pretty good

he really only bolted on the Do-Luck lip,

off with a loaner car and only charged for the

deal. The EVO was originally owned by a

added some JDM window visors, and an

service I had planned to do regardless. The

friend who comes from a long line of drag

STRi boost gauge. He did an oil change

service advisor had not done the PPI, or he

racers. I knew the car had been launched,

at one of his jobs, which was nice. When

had faked it. I was later told he was fired as

and that it had done all the things For

my friend owned the car, he added HKS

a result.

Sale ads say were not done to a car. It

264/272 cams and a manual boost control-

had been modded and put back to (kin-

ler. He had his own 3” turbo back exhaust

While the car was being worked on, I laid

da) stock twice. All the things were done

set up fabbed together but that was long

out all the random parts across the floor in

to this car that makes people not want

gone. He also flashed the ECU back to the

my dining room and looked them over. I sold

to buy a car. However, I also knew that

stock map before selling it. At some point

the HKS Carbon Ti exhaust, the downpipe,

it was meticulously maintained and well

there was an HKS Carbon Ti exhaust on it,

and some of the other bits that came with

under normal asking prices at the time.

and some no-name heat wrapped down-

the car. With the money from selling the

pipe. The car also came with some new in

parts, I bought a set of EVO VIII MR BBS

My friend had sold the EVO to some young

box Denso 660cc injectors and a Walbro

wheels off Scot Gray at RRE. Before putting

kid who did not budget his resources or

255lpf fuel pump. Once I installed every-

them on the car, I had them refinished and

check with his parents before buying. He

thing, with a tune, it would be a really fun

put new 255/40-17 Dunlops on them. I sold

could not afford the car and his parents

car. When I got home, there were 2 wings

the plasti-dipped OEM Enkei wheels when I

refused to help him out. After owning the

in the back seat plus another front lip along

got the car back and put the BBS on. I also

EVO for a summer, he put it up for sale.

with the exhaust and boxes of various

added some JDM EVO VIII MR taillights and

The payments and high cost of maintain-

other parts in the trunk. That seemed like

a clean used JDM EVO IX bumper with volt-

ing an EVO was stretching him to where

a lot of weirdness packed in there. The car

ex carbon fiber burn shield. I sold the OEM

he had 2 jobs to pay for the EVO and to

was also lowered on Tanabe springs. Oth-

bumper, taillights, wing, and other parts

pay for community college. I knew I had

erwise, the wheels and rest of the suspen-

back to the sales manager at SCM. Last, I

to clean up whatever mess he had made

sion was still stock.

traded my trunk with the original wing for a

of the car in a few short months but I also

new wingless trunk.

knew the history of the car before he had

Driving the car to work the first couple days,

gotten it, so I felt it was a project I could

I could tell it was running rich. Everything

24

After a couple weeks, I modded an OEM

diator cap, and catch can. Last, I put on the

ter on the track even though my lap times

S2000 antenna to fit the stock EVO hous-

RRE grill plug cover painted it black.

were gradually coming down. After a cou-

ing. After a couple more weeks, I sold

Around this time, I finally got to the track.

ple more weekends at the track, I added

the clear sidemarkers and went to JDM

After a couple track days at Buttonwillow

an RRE lower intercooler pipe and a big-

EVO VIII side markers that matched the

Raceway Park (BRP) with NASA, I decid-

ger ETS 3.5” intercooler for less heat soak

JDM taillight indicators. At this point, I felt

ed I needed to address the suspension,

since all the tracks around LA are in the

the car was ready to be driven daily and

which was still just OEM Koni shocks sit-

desert. My OEM plastic undertray was

pushed hard without worry. Another month

ting on Tanabe springs.

becoming more zip tie than undertray, so

of driving the car went by smoothly, I went

I also installed a Beatrush undertray to re-

to RRE to have the Walbro fuel pump and

Before I went back to the track, I got some

Denso injectors installed with a tune from

OEM EVO IX MR Bilsteins and Swift

place the beat up plastic piece.

the famous Dr. Scot Gray.

Springs off a guy parting out his car. When

I worked my way from HPDE1 to HPDE3 in

I installed them at RRE, I went with a wh-

NASA to get cleared so I could race in the

When I got to RRE, I found Dr. Gray part-

iteline swaybar kit and upgraded bushings.

Redline Time Attack and the Global Time

ing his 2005 EVO VIII and took some more

This setup was much smoother on the

Attack series. However, after doing a doz-

parts off his hands. I picked up his JDM

street over the Koni shocks and Tanabe

en or so track days, plus daily driving for

EVO IX MR 20g turbo, JDM EVO IX MR

springs but it did not feel significantly bet-

work, I needed to refresh some stuff on my

blow off valve, bigger RRE O2 housing, and all the upgraded custom RRE parts to make it fit. I also picked up an RRE downpipe, High Flow Cat, and Stealth Exhaust so that the turbo back exhaust system was all 3”. Since the car was properly baselined, the installs went smooth. By midnight, Scot was on the Dyno at RRE doing a 91 octane tune.

I drove the car like this for 2 years. In that time I added a Cosworth drop in filter, a Forge waste gate actuator, and an Avid front motor mount along with maintaining and upgrading the other wear and tear items. Every time I would go in to RRE, Mike W. pushed me to work on my own car more. When I would work on my car,

The dyno sheet from Dr. Gray’s tune.

I would try to add one or two things along with doing maintenance. I added an HKS turbo timer to let the turbo cool after a drive. The OEM clutch line failed in traffic on the 101 so I upgraded to a more stout RRE clutch, pressure plate, lightened flywheel, and stainless steel clutch line. Along with the clutch, I upgraded the brakes to Stoptech stainless steel lines plus Stoptech rotors and pads. I upgraded to Motul 600 fluid because I was planning to get on the track. Last, I put OEM EVO MR brake cooling guides on. I also added a little jewelry from ARC like their Titan shift knob, cooling plate, heatshield, oil cap, raBaseline achieved.



25

car. The front bumper was looking rough

sports. Right away, I realized I needed a

under stress keeping your settings intact. I

so I swapped it out for an EVO IX MR SE

suspension guru to set these things up.

also added the Robispec endlink kit, Perrin

bumper. The brakes had also turned from

Since the KW kit was custom designed by

P.S.R.S., Whiteline roll center kit, and Wh-

nice red Brembos to bird poop patinaed

Robert Fuller of Robispec, I decided to go

iteline bump steer kit.

Brownbos, so I decided to have them refin-

pay him a visit in the high desert and made

ished and rebuilt as well.

my way up to Hesperia.

Robi only needed to show me the Auto Gacchiri fender braces to have

While refreshing the bumper and the

It did not take much for Robi to sell me on

me

brakes, I got a chance to upgrade my

his spherical bushing kit. The kit replac-

aligned, and corner balanced the car.

sold.

He

installed

the

parts,

suspension to Robispec KW Clubsport

es the control arm bushings, trailing arm

With this set up all the lean, dive, and

coilovers from another guy parting out

bushings, and toe link bushings—chang-

squat was gone. I could also stand on

his car. I sold the MR Bilsteins and Swift

ing them from soft rubber to inflexible met-

the brakes from over a hundred miles per

springs after swapping in the KW Club-

al. As a result, the suspension cannot flex

hour with one finger on the steering wheel.

The car was leaning in hard on stock suspension and Tanabe springs.

The Robispec setup shaved seconds off my

Unfortunately, as I was getting close to

take his SUV and leave but he insisted and

personal best times with no other changes.

consistently breaking into striking range of

I realized it was the right thing to do.

Right away I got within the 2 minute range

the 2 minute barrier, my car broke going

that is considered a pretty serious time

through the esses in the first session of the

I was not shocked when my engine blew

for Buttonwillow’s CW13 configuration. I

day at BRP. I pulled my car into the garage

but saying I was not bummed would be a

knew I was going to have to upgrade tires

knowing something was very wrong. Mike

lie. I also had a grind going from third gear

if I was going to shave off more time, so I

W. at RRE tried to trouble shoot but after

to fourth gear at redline, so I knew things

planned on stepping up to R comp tires.

trying different stuff, he handed me the

were starting to break loose in my engine

keys to his SUV and said he would tow my

and transmission from over a dozen track

EVO back to RRE. At first, I didn’t want to

events and years of daily LA commuting

26

Having this NASCAR weirdness chase me down in HPDE2 was all kinds of sketchy, especially since I forgot to take off my front plate in the first session as usual.

You can still see the car was leaning heavily but at least I updated my numbers and took off my front plate!

besides whatever abuse the previous own-

in EVOs since their inception. Over the

ed a Wavetrac front differential and a Muel-

ers had put the car though. Once the car

years, I have gotten to see RRE do some

lerized competition rear differential. At the

was back at RRE, we decided to pull the

pretty amazing stuff and I had the oppor-

same time, the turbo was sent to CBRD for

engine and the transmission. RRE towed

tunity to work there for events and small

their ported BBK Full turbo and wastegate

the shell to my house so we could care-

jobs. As a result, I felt confident to sit down

actuator. Meanwhile, the engine was bored

fully map out the rebuild without the guys

with Mike W. from RRE to map out a build.

out and stroked to a 2.3L with all forged

having to push my car in and out of their garage every day.

RRE was building the 4G63T motor found

internals. The head was ported, polished, First, we sent the transmission to Jack’s

and given a five angle valve job with track

Transmissions for a track focused rebuild.

focused parts including GSC 272 cams

Once the transmission was back, we addďťż

Continued on page 30 -

27

Refinished and rebuilt OEM Brembos with BBS MR wheels and Stoptech rotors/pads.

28

ďťż

Before and after sequence of the same corner with the Robispec setup. ďťż

29

and springs with ARP studs. RRE added

got it back on the dyno with Dr. Gray. Af-

days left in them, so I decided to upgrade

thier balance shaft eliminator kit since the

ter a few pulls, Scot decided to cap it con-

to NT01s once the NT05s were done.

motor was now balanced and blueprinted.

servatively at 465hp/465tq on E85 for the

They also beefed up the cooling with their

track until I would need more power. Could

After getting used to the car driving to and

Baja oil cooler, and a bigger radiator with

the engine handle way more? Yeah. Note

from work for a few weeks, I headed out

ARC hard pipe. Once everything was in,

that in the engine pictured opposite page, I

to Willow Springs International Speedway

Scot Gray was called on again for a dual

am still running the stock airbox. This build

for a Redline Time Attack event to properly

map E85/91oct tune.

was a stout and stealthy torque monster,

shake down the car at Streets of Willow.

not a dyno queen. The engine was not

From the first lap out, I beat my personal

After having my motor fail on the track, I

even breaking a sweat to produce over

best time. However, it was clear that the

decided it would be wise to have more data

460 horsepower and torque, so running

brakes and tires were not up to the task

beyond the stock EVO gauges, so we also

20-minute track sessions would not be an

of the added horsepower and torque. The

added a Zeitronix Zt-2. This eliminates the

issue for the motor even with driving to and

car was not balanced as it was before. The

need for a bunch of separate gauges and

from the track plus daily driving.

engine greatly overpowered the brakes

makes it so you just have a single screen

and tires. For example, from turn 12 to turn

in the lower cubby out of sight from author-

Driving home, I realized my new problem

13 CCW at Streets, if I floored it, the car

ities and other undesirables.

was going to be traction and braking. First

would spin tires up the hill. It was fun to

gear at wide open throttle only produced

do a burnout up the hill but going into turn

Once the new motor had been broken

huge smokey burnouts. A lot of second

13, I was sliding sideways and I even end-

in, I headed back to RRE for the first oil

gear was breaking loose at full throttle as

ed up backwards in the dirt one session.

change. We went over the entire car and

well. The tires I was on still had a few track

However, when I’d hit turn 13 properly, I’d

3 0 W. of RRE pondering my shattered piston.  Mike

slide around it and blast past turn 14 down the straight only to slide around the inside of the skid pad through turn 1 and turn 2.

Even with this complete lack of traction under power, with a little throttle modulation, I could effortlessly beat my previous track times.

After the Streets event, I knew I only had a couple track days left on my NT05s maximum. With the added horsepower and torque, I felt like the entire time I was driving on the track at Streets of Willow, the car was at its absolute limit of grip under full boost. I decided to do an event at BRP before changing the tires out for R-Comps.

Lod T. working on the oil pan assembly.

At BRP, I hit the 2 minute mark in my first session but my traction was still clearly limited. However, I had swapped my Stoptech pads for some Project Mu track pads, which helped get things more under control. With the braking now closer in line with the power of the motor, I could focus on trying to modulate the throttle to keep the car at the limit of grip. A couple times in the day I snuck below the 2 minute mark but in both cases, I was on the border of going off track. On one lap, I went into cotton corners too hot and lost traction. I was pretty sure I was going to end up in the dirt but instead of lifting off the throttle, I kept my foot on the throttle and counter steered through it. As I corrected out of the first cor-

New motor waiting to be installed.

ner, the weight shift put me into a slide in the other direction catching the apex of the second corner.

My front tires barely grazed the dirt at the apex, as the rear end came around and slid perfectly through the other corner trying to keep my foot steady on the throttle.

I straightened out and floored it up through the grapevine. I screamed into my helmet going into bus stop. Later my friend John who was behind me said it was the most amazing thing he’d seen at BRP thinking it was skill but it was pure luck. I was positive I was going to be cleaning dirt out of my car for days after that. For each lap I dipped into the 1:59's, I never felt like the

Not the best shot of the new motor but as you can see, if my hood was popped by a cop, “everything is OEM officer.”

31

car was consistently under control. By luck alone, I kept it on the track all day, and drove home on chorded tires.

After the Buttonwillow event, I knew I needed some fresh tires, so I contacted Elton Lo at Raceline in Temple City to order a set of NT01s. On new R Comp NT01s with the Project Mu track pads I should consistently drop below 2 minutes on my way to my new goal of 1:55. After getting the tires put on at Raceline, I drove home carefully having never driven on NT01s before. The next morning on my way to work, I floored it in first and did not feel the car break traction. After work, I did a hard pull in second gear and did not lose traction at all. Driv-

After an oil change, we did another tune. The purple line is 91oct. The green line is E85.

ing to and from work a few more times, I could tell the car was more planted. I just needed to swap out the brake pads and I was ready to get out to BRP and shatter my personal best times On my way home from work between Lake and Hill on the 210 there is a massive choke point. People always get overly aggressive because of this. My exit is Hill, so I wait until after Lake to get over. I try to avoid the first lane next to the shoulder on the freeway as much as possible, so I got in the second lane over to the merge and waited for all the car fighting to calm down.

In LA, when the lanes merge, someone is either in the emergency lane not merging to pass people or someone won’t let

I am really good at forgetting to take my license plates off at the track.

anyone over willing to die before yielding.

Things chilled out, so I got over to get off at my exit. When I got into the lane, I saw a 4Runner in my side mirror struggling to get in from the emergency lane but no one was letting him over. The driver came up on my side and I saw it was a grandpa, so I let him over under the Lake Street bridge.

As he got in front of me, the traffic came to a rolling stop.

I came to looking at the dome light of my EVO. Surprisingly, my foot was on the brake and the clutch. My car was running but the Recaro seat had folded back.

Confused, I sat up. A shock of pain went 32

RRE parking at BRP. ďťż

through my neck, shoulder, and back. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the front end of a Jeep parked on my trunk.

I looked forward and saw my hood taco'd around the tow hook of the 4Runner. Suddenly, I was shoved forward as the Jeep reversed off my trunk. It slammed down onto the concrete hard. I turned my hazards on and staying as still as possible reached for my phone in my briefcase on the passenger seat. I called my wife. She was on a hike out of cell range. Still confused, I called AAA. After some awkward discussion, AAA realized I was confused, and called 911 for

It’s a hot hatch!

me. I could hear the sirens immediately.

I stared at the sky for a long time waiting for the ambulance to fight through traffic.

Still confused, I called in to work to tell them I would not make it to my next class.

It seemed really important to cancel my class. I remember the paramedics asking me some questions and suggesting I go to the hospital. I remember begging them to grab my briefcase as they took me out of the car on a board. I also remember begging them not to put an IV into my arm on the way to the ER. In the ER, the attending physician seemed annoyed that I was there. I had lost consciousness, I was confused, and I was hurt but not gravely. I had a concussion. He wanted to give me some

Luckily I did not remove the crash beam under the bumper skin like some people do.

Advil and get me out of his ER. I finally got a hold of my wife. She had to break off from the hike and take a cab to Huntington Hospital from Topanga. The ER doctor reluctantly let me wait in a bed for a while but they wanted me out. Someone was waiting for the bed. I started to gather my things after filing a police report I would not later remember filling out. I went outside and waited in a taxi area.

My EVO was towed to a yard that drags crashed cars off the 210 every day. I coordinated with them to have the car towed to RRE. Mike W. looked at the damage and deemed it easily fixable. Mike is a seasoned body man with tons of rally

At least I have the memories.

ďťż

33

My EVO is now called The HULK EVO owned by Roy Narvaez who is a long time DSM guy.

experience, so I started to feel hopeful. Stuck on the couch recovering from a concussion and thinking the pain in my neck and back would be gone in a few days, I started planning the rebuild. The driver of the Jeep had insurance. Her insurance immediately totaled my car claiming it as a Lancer base model and offered a price lower than what even a Lancer with similar miles would catch. RRE said the adjuster never came out. I contacted my insurance and got them to adjust their claim but the adjuster was hesitant to even go to RRE to look at the car still. After getting lawyers involved, the girl’s insurance offered me a price that an EVO with similar miles would sell for. They also offered to let me buy back the car with all the parts for cheaper than average. I decided to buy the car back and find a donor car to transfer the parts over since only the rear bumper and trunk area was damaged.

After a couple months of looking, I found a solid donor car, and transferred the key parts from my old car to the new car mixing and matching what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to transfer back to the salvaged car. Once the transfer of parts was done, Roy Narvaez bought my EVO and transformed it into a professional race car. In the end, the car has had four owners. Roy has had some adventures in the 34



car, most notably doing a kickflip up the side of the

mountain of Pike’s Peak. In any case, my silver EVO lives on for now.

3

@jamesinger

ďťż

35

W H AT I L E A R N E D I N T H E D E S E RT (sema 2019)

WORDS + PHOTOS

36

Nat hanael Napo litano 

F

SIN

or the last four or five years, my friend Brian has been trying to get me to come out to SEMA.

kits. This was the overarching theme throughout the entire show. I don’t know what I was expecting but I definitely was not expecting all this flex. I was overwhelmed and didn’t even know what to start shooting. Each vehicle was more decorated than the next, but they were surprising almost indistinguishable from each other. Same shit different car, or different shit same car? I was confused.

Every year he heads out to Las Vegas as an exhibitor for his overloading and outfitting company. 2019 was the year it finally all came together. Brian runs Defenders Northwest (DNW) in the upper left corner of the US, near Tacoma. DNW is a long time partner with Autohome, manufacturer of Italian made roof tents.

I bailed on the carnival of pornographic car exposures out front and went inside.

But not before being confronted by a giant light blue monster truck parked on the curb at the badge will-call. Inside the show was slightly less offensive and a little more specialized. There were more lifted low-rider trucks (or “highriders” as the jokes went) in some of the booths. And I even found a matte black wrapped Lamborghini enclosed in a hot pink, external, full roll cage. Complete with police roof lights. There was some way cooler stuff to see though.

DNW and Autohome teamed up on a booth at SEMA and they needed a photographer to cover the show and shoot some ad photography in the desert for a DNW x Autohome collab Land Rover Defender build. So I made myself available.

Flights were booked, bags were packed, camera batteries were charged. I flew out from Seattle to Las Vegas to rendezvous with the DNW and Autohome teams.

The flight was fraught with delays due to a missing knob from some aeronautics instrument in the flight deck, after an hour of looking for this knob, the maintenance crew found a dent in the nosecone which deemed the aircraft not airworthy. Ultimately we had to switch planes causing a three hour delay.

Some highlights were the Bisimoto x RaceService Porsche 935X parked frontand-center in the AEM Filter booth. The RaceService Ferrari 348 Challenge that was built for one of the founders' wives.

ButtonBuilt also had a dropped Ferrari 328 parked atop a resto-mod car carrier. There were lots of incredible classic restorations, thoughtfully purpose built overloading vehicles. well worn DTM racers, and rare one-off imports.

Why am I telling you this? Because it exposes the brutal reality of what living this automotive photography lifestyle is really like. It’s not all just pretty filters and shaky video cuts. And this helps fill the page too. Eventually I landed in Sin City, dumped a few things at the hotel, and hit the show.

The convention center was just a short walk from the hotel. Right at the front of the convention center parking lot I was greeted buy a long row of lifted, chromed, gilded and posturing American brodozers to one side, and on the other was all the pimped out resto-mod super cars. Lambo, McLaren etc.

Ground kits, wraps kits, rim kits, all the



Seeing these types of cars was all well and good and seemed—dare I say—appropriate? That’s probably just my personal bias talking but I could not stop getting distracted by flash and flare of all the eleventh hour bolt-on kit, LED mayhem, half finished builds, wet paint and double sided tape. Apparently this is standard show presentation, but the general consensus was that 2019 seemed especially obscene.

So standard in fact that it’s a thing and there are countless memes and spoofs on social media using the Instagram hashtag #semacrunch. Look it up. Days worth of entertainment.

Continued on page 41 3 7-

38



39

40



The most accurate memes that I’ve seen which sum up the semacrunch phenomenon are these two from turboheaven and motoiq:

to SEMA at least once in your life. There was a lot of great things to see and tons of entertaining subjects to discuss, or "reflect upon".

is—Just because you can build it, does not mean that you should. 3

Overall I had a really good time attending this event. I highly recommend going

I think the single most important lesson that I learned from my first SEMA show

@stateofnathan



41

42



#NARDO64

HYPERTRASH INTERVIEW

H I T C H I N G A R I D E WITH AARON ESPINO IN HIS '89 964

WORDS + PHOTOS

N AT H A N A E L N A P O L I TA N O 

43

A

aron and I were scheduled to meet early on a Saturday morning and head down to Period Correct in Costa Mesa, CA. Their weekend cars and coffee extravaganza was happening that day and we were going to bomb down and give it a look. However, he had an issue late Friday f itting his new one-ofnone, custom BBS wheels on the 964.

He couldn't get the f it exactly right so he aborted the Saturday event in favor of spending that morning trying to source a thin-walled deep socket.

Late Saturday night Aaron texts me with a lead on yet another carcentric event happening Sunday. Turns out he and a group of a half-dozen other cars were heading to DTLA for the Cars, Cookies and Coffee colab celebration with Coffee Hall Arts District for their one year anniversary party. Aaron had shotgun available on his 1989 964, aka Nardo, named after the factory paint color from Audi. I arrived at his house at 0630. He pulled the 964 out of the garage and we broke.

We bombed across town up the 210 over to Panera Bread off Town Center Drive. We had to meet up with Aaron's boy Drew (@cooled.collective), who was going to be shooting video from the back of a Toyota Tacoma on the freeway.

When we arrived at the meet-up, there were a half-dozen other P-Heads parked in the lot waiting. We talked about the route downtown and the car choreography for the video shots, then the caravan was off. Back on the 210 over to the 2 south through Glendale with Drew hanging out the back of the Toyota Tacoma grabbing shots off the Porsches weaving around and in-between each other, rallying up and vying for front row position in front of the lens. From there we dropped down the 5 and dumped off right downtown, then across the fourth street bridge just as the sun rose over the horizon.

I started asking all the hard hitting 44

ďťż

45

COMMUNITY important questions about his car...

J ust so like I’m playing with the

motor, playing with the sound, but I'd rather chill in fourth so I can feel the acceleration, it works for turns. Fourth and third. But when I’m cruising down to OC on the 5, a long straight drive, I’m in 5th the entire way. If I could choose two gears on this freeway though, it would be three and four.

HYPERTRASH: What year is this again?

’89 its 30-plus years old. But it runs, it handles. I’m conf ident you know?

In a lot of older cars, the steering wheel wanders around. Look at my steering wheel…

Aaron Espino:

No hop. Did you have to adjust the box?

I can feel it yeah. This is a fun road.

Yeah you can play with the gears, you can feel the acceleration, you’re in go-kart mode.

No. It’s just what it is? German?

So that’s your crew? How many people are in it?

Yeah. There’s like seven or eight of us.

Is it the crew we were with this morning?

Yeah, some of the them. A couple couldn’t make it out.

Tell me about Bisi.

Bisi is an old Honda head. I’m surprised he wasn’t here today.

He’s an old school LA guy from the 90's Honda scene…

Why didn’t you put a multi point racing harness in?

Did you know Gomi and I almost died on this freeway after an LA Fixed ride. I was giving him a ride home and we were in my Volvo V50 going about 70 through these turns, and there was a stalled car around one of these blind curves and we almost died.

Eh, I don’t know…

Oh man scary!

It's a lot of belts?

It was so scary!

We were die-hard out there every fucking day and night with just cars. Always trying to do something to our cars.

Yeah it’s a lot of belts. I agree. It’s too much like…

[Aaron drops down to third gear and throttles up through a series of quick esses]

He told me you guys were doing insane shit that no one else was doing at that time.

Not bad for an 80's car, yeah?

Haha yeah.

Well… It’s not really an 80's car anymore.

Full on motor swaps when everyone else was doing bolt on mods or headers, exhaust…

Exactly. So just the combination of the struts, the sway bars, the cross bars. I put a new aftermarket transmission mount, it holds the tranny well. It feels nice and tight.

Like it's trying to be a track car?

Yeah for me I built it like its a track car with the big brake kit, roll cage, motorsport wheels, I eliminated the glovebox. I don’t need to put things in there. I kind of built it with a track feel, but you start putting the four point belts in and it becomes overkill—for me—you know? I like the stock belts. It’s still OEM.

Haha, yeah not anymore, but I like to claim it’s an 80's car, I mean on paper… Ha! Have you heard of Radwood?

No.

Radwood is probably one of the best events out here. “Rad” is RAD like the BMX Rad. Like the old movie.

It’s only 80's and 90's car themed, everyone dresses in that style, beer garden, DJ’s, 80's and 90's hip hop, the whole thing has such a fun vibe.

They just had it at the Petersen Museum.

Does the A/C work?

Yea it works. Hot days… I mean it’s not going to be like my Accord! But cool enough to roll the windows up. I did a full brake kit on it too, expensive but, you know I like to stop hard into a cars and coffee. You don’t want to body lean into fucking cars and coffee.

I noticed on your IG you’ve got the hashtag coolfuchs, what is that?

Ha! This is the 110, Arroyo Parkway, a lot of turns. When you’re on the freeway through a section like this, are you in fourth?

46

Coolfuchs is all the guys we roll with. 

Yeah, so he’s pretty well known in the whole car industry.

Singer was telling me about how he remembers all you guys from those days.

Yeah we were doing like full port and polish heads, changing our pistons and cams, f inding the right throttle bodies, doing all the internal work on these old ass Hondas.

Which years were those?

Early 90's.

Which groups of people were out there, which areas?

Mostly LA, Alhambra, Monterey Park, a little bit from Eagle Rock. Mostly eastside though because that’s where Pit Crew Motorsports was located. Another oldschool Honda shop.

And what was the drag strip you would go to?

Legal or illegal?

47

Aaron Espino

Aaron Espino

Aaron Espino

Steven Hicks

Steven Hicks

48



Steven Hicks

All of it.

Legal- Palmdale, Sacto or Terminal Island in Long Beach. But terminal island was only an eighth mile.

Illegal- the OG ones were Sylmar in the valley. Sylmar and Ontario were the biggest for the street scene. But now there’s not a street scene for racing. Now it’s all about just car meets. When we go to the car meets, it’s chill, everyone’s older. We see all the old heads we used to race against a long time ago. They’re all going into classics. Before it was all about “my car is faster than yours” that’s all it was, young and dumb.

But now it’s like if I see a guy on the street I don’t care how fast your car is. It’s about acknowledging every body. Everyone is a lot cooler, it’s drama free.

It’s a combination of our age and what cars we have.

It’s not about the rice-rocket Honda’s anymore where you pass-by and rev each other, like what are you rev’ing for?

It’s more sophisticated?

Especially in the vintage Porsche scene because you can go from a 2018 car to a 1980's car its an older white dude versus a young black dude and it doesn’t matter what race you are, it's more about you’re respecting each other for the car you have. You know what I’m talking about? Not like guys with Cameros and Mustangs and they just want to dog each other out and shit. It’s not like that which is crazy, it’s like a different mindset. To me it’s like a little cult. Ok you’re in the Porsche scene it’s like “Cool, what’s up man?” and we just wave at each other. Kind of like how motorcycle guys respect each other. They always wave at each other. Just because they know they’re both in this dangerous world of riding bikes, “What’s up?—What’s up?” they acknowledge each other as they pass. It’s the same thing in this scene. It doesn’t matter which race, what age, which model you have, we are in the same world. “Ah what year car you got?

Cool”, no one is ever like, “How old are you?”. You know? Nothing like, “Oh I’m not going to talk to a 20 year old! I’m not going to talk to a 50 year old.”

Aaron Espino

With guys like Bruce [Brown] that were out with us today...

Yeah, Bruce is one of the coolest guys. He hangs out with all of us. He’ll call us up “Hey where are you guys going this weekend?” He isn’t talking some shit about how he’s older and can’t hang with us because he’s too cool—or not cool enough—or whatever. We all meet up and just have the best time. No one is hung up. We all hang out, we’re all here for the same reason. We all love the same car. It’s just unity. 3

@a1espino

Steven Hicks



49

50



51

cars cookies coffee WORDS + PHOTOS

52

N AT H A N A E L N A P O L I TA N O



I t was a busy weekend. “Shit was popping” as the kids say. Or maybe they don’t—IDK. Either way there was a lot of car stuff happening over the short time I was home in Los Angeles. Which made it difficult to pick which ones to attend. You have to be discerning these days about how you spend your time. But you already know this. Some days though you just get lucky and this was one of those days.

On this particular Sunday, Coffee Hall Arts District was celebrating their one-year anniversary. They partnered up with Cars Cookies Coffee, Supreme Power Agent and hosted a glorified cars and coffee Sunday social at the Container Yard in DTLA. But if we’re being honest, this was not simply another cars and coffee. Cars and coffee events are fun and we’ve all been to them. I’m even co-hosting one on Sundays where I currently live.

But this wasn’t that. This was a legitimate car show at the highest level. And I’m not talking about high like those concours level car shows. That level of peacocking and polishing should be abhorred. It’s boring. There is no lawn to be found for miles around DTLA. Only concrete and graffiti covered asphalt. Yes, even the literal city streets are being tagged. Unpainted wall space is at a premium in the downtown Los Angeles area.

The kind of car show this became was a display of all the cars you dream about building and driving and owning in your adolescence. Fast. Colorful. Dirty. Loud. Tuned. Dropped.

But above all—very specific and very personal. A delicious buffet of candy colored petrol dreams. All shapes, flavors, sizes and income levels.

That is why CCC stands out. And that is why I appreciated it. It wasn’t a show of unobtanium cars with two owners, a professional frame-off restoration and a purist certificate of authenticity only available to the highest bidder. It was all inclusive. It was real.

Yes, there were some F-cars. Spanning from an early 80’s gated shifter Mondial to whatever the current flappy-paddle-gearbox model is. My favorite was the sinister looking black-over-red 1977 308GTB owned by Steve Bolton, Managing Editor at Petrolicious.

There was a McLaren or two, and an ungodly amount of P-cars (as usual). And a half-million dollar Ford GT40.

Which is all well and good. A Skittles rainbow row of BMW 2002’s. Some kind of mid-century Rat Rod pickup, and all the decades of JDM. Appearances were made by some well-known enthusiasts as well. Brian from Period Correct came through after hosting a very successful event at his retail space in Costa Mesa the day before. Magnus was interested in CCC enough to walk a few blocks over from his compound. Bruce Brown brought down his SCCA 1960-something-I-don’t-know-what-kindof-Porsche-race-car.

What is important here is all the different car clubs and enthusiasts who supported and brought out all the hard work they’ve put in. The labor hours. The toil. The trash. The brake dust and road grime still stuck to the wheel arches from actually blasting their cars across town.

You could feel the heat emanating from the engines and smell the aroma of fuel from having just been driven from Orange County, San Pedro, Compton or Pomona. There’s nothing I could describe here in words that would do justice to what was on display. So I will split that responsibility between the small selection of photographs here and The Internetz for the rest. Search-engine: “cars cookies coffee" or “coffee hall arts district”.

What I can say is that if you missed this, you really missed this, and you should be ashamed. Anyway, have a look a some photographs. 3



53

LUST

54



55

56



57

58



@stateofnathan



59

never ending cruiser W O R D S + P H O T O S + I L L U S T R AT I O N S

60



STE VE N NE REO

L O Y A LT Y Owning the same car for thirty years is a strange thing.

I

n that time you get all the original experiences as well as the mid-life nostalgic attempts to recapture the slightest hint of the original feeling, all without buying a new vehicle. In my case, that vehicle happens to be an 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser that I’ve had since 1989. It was my senior year of high school and I was going to be moving to Colorado for school the next fall. I can’t even recall where I had originally seen a Land Cruiser, but as luck would have it, someone put an ad in the back of the New York Times for one in Connecticut.

When I drove it to school, people made fun of it. It drove like a tractor and looked more ready to drop the kids off for soccer than do 140 on the local empty higway, and I loved it for that. I could sleep in the back, fit skis and bikes and not have to worry about the peer pressure of doing 140 on the local empty highway, as even my younger self was a tractor-esque driver at heart.

That fall I took it to college where friends and I would drive it to the mountains every weekend, sleeping in it most of them.

To this day I drive past ski areas and turn-offs with vivid mem-

ories of when I froze my ass off there and who I was with. My closest group of friends I still have from those days I originally met because I was the only one who had a car big enough to all go to the skatepark together.

The furthest I’ve ever driven it at one time was 24 hours straight from Colorado to Pennsylvania with a friend in the front seat who couldn’t drive stick. At hour 23 I had the brilliant idea of taking half a hit of LSD, which is why I only made it another hour.

Luckily friends were in another car following and one of them jumped in to drive the rest of the way home while I tripped out on the intense humidity-popping colors of a Pennsylvania summer.

I couldn’t count the laps of the West Coast I’ve done in that car in the 90s, taking it all over to camp, explore, sleep, bike. It’s been everywhere and never complained once about it, be it city, desert, or mountains. My favorite drive was taken one summer exploring the lost coast of California. My girlfriend at the time and I decided to take a dirt road through the woods instead of the highway and drove for hours, only to re-emerge at the most magical coastal campsite in all of California.

Continued on page 64 -



61

"At hour 23 I had the brilliant idea of taking half a hit of LSD, which is why I only made it another hour."

62

ďťż

63

In all this time, the car has only had to be towed once, and that was partially my fault. I knew the differential was stripping, but I also wanted to go surfing, so I took it anyway the 20 miles to the beach. Unfortunately I only made it 10 miles back before it gave out completely.

It was my only driver until about 2004 when the 11 MPG was killing my wallet. I thought about selling it, but at the time I could have maybe gotten $500 so I decided to keep it. I’ve had three other cars in that time, but the Land Cruiser to this day remains the most faithful.

It’s now in Colorado again being utilized for work it seems most suited for, which ironically isn’t much different than the work a

64



tractor would do. A few years ago I had what some might call a mild mid-life crisis, which manifested as an obsession to put a cassette deck back into the truck and purchase a bunch of the old reggae cassettes I used to listen to.

It only took about four decks, countless hours, and an insane trip to the deep north San Fernando Valley to the one guy who still fixes cassette decks to get one working, but… it is, and it’s glorious.

I now drive around my small Colorado ski town, blasting Burning Spear on the cassette deck with the windows down living the life my 5th grade self dreamt of, and I still can’t imagine anything better. 3

@apehangers

65

"Opinions and Education" WORDS LANA TH A N E

W

ho needs self-driving cars?

Lots of people. Who wants self-driving cars? Most of those same people. Since the onset of vehicle mass production in the earlyt o - m i d 2 0 t h c e n t u r y, c i t i e s s t a r t e d b e i n g b u i l t for cars, not humans.

Driving has become boring. It's not really driving. It's stop-and-go stress that you don't need t o s t a r t a n d f i n i s h y o u r a l r e a d y a w f u l d a y. S o why not spend this time finishing off that series you were binging last night or watching your Ring camera so you know the exact moment your Amazon package was dropped on your doorstep? There’s nothing new to see out of t h a t c a r w i n d o w. I t i s j u s t a s e a o f s a m e n e s s , a c r i m o n y, a n d d e f e a t . Yo u r t i m e i s b e t t e r s p e n t staring at your phone to see what’s trending on T i k To k , o r w h a t t h e " P r e s i d e n t " i s u p t o .

If you consider all recent transit rideshare start-ups in the last decade (I’m talking about entities in addition to legacy modes like buses and taxis), fewer people are taking on the expense of owning cars. The Zebra reported that between 1960 and 2010, households owning zero cars dropped to 8.9% from greater than 20%, and from 2012 to 2019, car ownership decreased by almost 28 million in the U.S. More men reported access to a personal vehicle than women (20% to 15%), and more women reported never using public transportation than men (41% to 35%). Instead they’re using ride-hailing services, shared cars and bikes, e - s c o o t e r s , e t c .

In the future, actually driving a car will be nothing more than a novelty for a majority of the population. An activity that is no longer required for day-to-day living. Instead it’ll be something for enthusiasts to pass the time on the weekend. An activity society doesn't really need to survive but can't seem to let it go.

Similar to hunting, or watching baseball.

P-E

Look at most cities with heavy infrastructure development; the central, inner-city focused corridor was lost to urban sprawl. More people could live in the suburbs and drive into the city for work. Working adults could wake up, make coffee, have breakfast at the table, get the kids ready for school, put in a full day’s work, and be home in time for a family dinn e r. W i t h t h i s l u x u r y c a m e t h e F r e e w a y s a n d the Open Road. Weekends were for family road trips and time spent in the great outdoors.

T h e s e f u n t i m e s a r e d e a d . S o r r y, b u t t h e y a r e .

Modern car ads show thirty-thousand-dollar entry-level cars ripping through town, weaving around road construction, drifting corners in a city with practically empty streets, blasting down the street with The Boys on the way to the club. A few 20-somethings packed in the c a r, h a v i n g a g o o d t i m e o n t h e q u i c k l i t t l e t r i p f r o m t h e Va l l e y t o S a n t a M o n i c a f o r a b e a c h b o n f i r e , w i t h s m i l e s a l l a r o u n d — L i e s .

Advertising and marketing campaigns are still fighting to capture some old-fashioned spirit of driving with a new twist, an emphasis on sporty freedoms and nanny safety features.

It's a bygone era. A more discerning consumer r e a l i z e s t h i s i s n o t h i n g m o r e t h a n a d f a n t a s y.

It reminds me of the opening scene in the film Office Space where Peter is driving in residential stop-and-go traffic, and the pensioner on the sidewalk with the walker is steadily pulling a h e a d o f P e t e r i n t h e c a r. T h a t s c e n a r i o i s t h e reality when driving around town these days.

Te n m i l e s a c r o s s t o w n a t 1 0 p m i n L o s A n g e l e s t a k e s a n h o u r.

From talking to normal people across a range of ages, I get the sense that most of them don't really enjoy driving these days. Who could blame them? And fewer still are skilled a t i t . I t ' s h a r d l y a n e n j o y a b l e a c t i v i t y . To d a y people are just sitting behind the wheel, in traffic, on their phones. Driving is a chore. A remedial, expensive and risky task in getting f r o m A t o B .

As we move closer to the Jetsons lifestyle (with FaceTiming, social apps, online shop-

ping, general scrolling, and whatever else helps to define you as an individual), sitting behind the wheel is shifting from actively controlling the vehicle to becoming a distracted p a s s e n g e r. A n d t h a t i s w h a t m a k e s s e l f - d r i v i n g cars so appealing. Driving modern, run of the mill, egg-shaped, computers on wheels is sterile and lethargic.

66



Therefore, self-driving cars are necessary and welcome, but not for everyone. Just for most people: those drivers who are disinterested, or can’t drive or those who need a little help getting around. I think ultimately this may help to clear the roads for the rest of us, so we can drive like we used to, with freedom, at speed…

L i k e b a c k i n t h e d a y. 3

1950's

1980's

2010's (This is not what we were promised, btw)

67

68