My uncle's kickass Honda Civic EK9

this is the rear side of my uncle's ek9.

this is the engine compartment of his car

a close up look at what a DOHC VTEC engine looks like. This engine can totally run...this car shifts within the redline zone (custom shift point at 9300 RPMs and I don't know where the ending is at).

What you guys are seeing here is a Momo Steering Wheel (later you'll see another picture of it up close), a Honda Civic Type R short shifter, an Apexi system monitor, three gauges for Water Temperature, Oil Temperature, and Oil Pressure, and the iPhone USB charger.

Here you guys see two Recaro racing seats he's got in his car, and I also believe that the back row is also Recaro but that I'm not too sure about.

Here is a close up picture of the Civic Type R Short Shifter as well as the three gauges like I mentioned above. Here you also see the iPhone USB car charger once again, the A/C climate controls, as well as the DVD player he's got installed in his car with the electronically controlled DVD monitor right above it.

Here is a close up look at the three gauges that were shown above in the two previous pictures. You can also tell that the three gauges are labeled 'Water temperature', 'oil temperature', and 'oil pressure'.

This is a closeup look of the civic type R short shifter, although you don't see the logo. My uncle explained to me that the reason why he thinks the gear shifter is a bit towards the right side rather than being in the center is because this shifter is from Japan. All cars from Japan are right hand drivers, not left hand drivers.

Here is a close up look of both the speedometer and the RPM gauge. As you can see in this picture, the RPM redline starts at 8500 RPMs and ends at 10,000 RPMs. Thing is, he set his highest shift point at 9300 RPMs. As for the speedometer, you can tell that this speedometer gauge also came from a Civic Type R so it's a pretty special speedometer.

This is the left rear window of his car. It's got the "CVCLUB" label because he does belong to a car club called the CV Club in Taiwan/

Now, I know you guys won't be able to tell where this part of the car was from but this was from the rear window. I just zoomed in on the logo because that is what the main point was about.

Here is a driver's seat view of the steering wheel as well as the instruments of the car. As you know from early on in this post, I mention that this steering wheel is a Momo Steering Wheel. Behind it on the right side is the Apexi system monitor that you can customize to set which car system you want to monitor. To the left of the A/C climate control, you will see a device with the word 'HARO' on it. that is the radio that my uncle uses to communicate with his friends whenever something happens or they just want to talk while driving instead of using their phones as this is a lot more convenient than talking on their phones. Towards the bottom, diagonal from the radio device, you can once again see the three gauges. Below the three gauges, barely making it's appearance into this photo, is the gear shifter knob.

Here is a separate picture of the the Momo steering wheel itself as well as the Apexi system monitor. The main point of this picture was the steering wheel itself but I didn't have enough space to capture the entire steering wheel and the system monitor was just there.

This is the Apexi system monitor up close.

These are all the instruments in the car except this time, in portrait mode.

This picture was more of a test to see how good the lighting would be with the camera flash enabled inside the car. As you can clearly tell, it is a bit better than the pictures with no flash on but there's that reflection of the camera flashing on the gauges themselves. What I like about this picture is that the CD player is also included in this picture.

This was also another camera flash test to see how good the lighting would be. The reason being is because, as you guys would have all seen in the previous pictures, the picture featuring the RPM gauge and the speedometer were dark, therefore you couldn't really see numbers. But in this picture, everything is much clearer and you can easily see the Civic Type R logo on the bottom of the speedometer gauge.

This is the back right side of the car, also showing the CVCLUB logo on the bottom of the window. Except this time, there's a logo of the tuner shop he sends it to for tuning and other additional things.

The main point of this picture isn't the car seat if you guys haven't figured it out already. It is a C pillar brace. Not quite sure what a C pillar brace does so I'll have to do some research on it. This EK9 is extremely light so that's why it needs this. And even the car seat is Recaro haha.

For this picture I'm not quite sure what car parts were from that company (the logo) but the wheels were not stock (nothing from this car is stock, all aftermarket parts.)

In this picture I tried to include both the rear windshield and the top wing-shaped carbon fiber part of the car. I had no idea what the carbon fiber part was for until I asked my uncle. He told me that when he's driving, the wind deflects off of that part of the car which in turn creates more downforce on the back side of the car, I guess to make it more stable. But anyways, That part and the engine hood is carbon fiber which you will see later in the upcoming pictures.

Here is the carbon fiber engine hood that I mentioned in the previous photo. It just looks awesome.

This picture was taken with flash on when the garage was dark. The quality was better than I had expected so I have nothing else to say about the quality. Here you can see both the Recaro racing seats as well as most of the Momo Steering Wheel. You can also see the iPhone Window suction cup mount as well as the roll cage.

This is the front part of my uncle's car. I blurred out the license plate number for privacy reasons. In my own personal opinion, I think the carbon fiber hood goes really well with the rest of the car, in terms of color and appearance. What I also like about this picture is how the flash made the headlights look. The left headlight (facing the car) reflected the flash off but the right side did not.

Here you can see the chin spoiler (or as other people also call it, the front splitter). I'm guessing this car part is to allow the car to cut through the wind, also somehow producing downforce on the front end of the car but not quite sure how that works. I don't study car body kits that much so I'll need to do a bit more research on that.

Here is the back side of the car, the entire body pit was swapped out and lower suspension was also installed so the car looks extremely low although not as low as some of the 'slammed' cars in Japan (some of the cars in Japan are so low that the wheels had to be curved inwards). You can also see the exhaust pipe which connects all the way across the bottom side of the car to the manifolds of the engine.

Here, like I mentioned above, the entire body kit was swapped out so nothing is stock.

Last but not least, one of the main logos of this car. Whatever performance part that was added to this car would most probably have been from a Civic Type R. This is one of the real deals of this car.

this is me in the driver's seat before I take his car for a drive. I didn't do well, I stalled 3 times before I rolled out the first time and stalled another 2 times before I rolled out a second time (my uncle counted). But overall, the ride was a blast. I honestly loved this car ever since I was a child. I basically grew up riding in this car. This car is one of the reasons why I love cars today. Even though I drive an American Muscle car, I also do love import tuners and this is why. People may consider my uncle a ricer after seeing these pictures, but in reality, he's really not. This car packs 240 horsepower, all motor, no turbos or superchargers and I'm not quite sure how much torque it's got but it can beat pretty much any car in the area that's not a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. I went on a street race with him this trip and believe me, the ride was amazing. The first time ever, even I felt the adrenaline rush just from sitting in the passenger's seat, NOT the driver's seat, but the passenger's seat. That's how awesome it was. But the sad thing is, this car was sold about a week after I took these photos. I will always remember this car and will always love it, because it is one hell of a beast. I wish the best for this car and hope that this next owner will not treat it harshly in any way.

something I want someone to know

I know that I don't have much time left...I'm guessing at best six weeks. I know that at least for a few weeks now, I've been the one at fault. I'm really hoping I can just be normal to you but...for now, I still can't. I acknowledge the fact that...over 50% of the time when I see you, regardless of if I know you're behind me or in front of me, I still purposely ignore you. It's like what you have in mind, I don't want it to be like this either. It's just...it's been too long since we've both been near each other and I'm just not used to it. The previous random times we've said hi to each other and managed to carry out a brief conversation, I know after each of those times, it got extremely awkward. I know to you, it may seem like I don't want to talk to you at all still, but I do want to, and it may also seem weird because every time you say hi to me, I always respond back in a ton like as if nothing happened. I'm hoping I'll change some time soon...but if either Sharon or Sara was there you most likely know yourself that I won't go anywhere near them, not even mentioning having them in my eye sight. My bottom statement is...I'm hoping we both can go back to the way things were except altering a few details...

Why do American Muscle fans hate Import Tuners so much?

This is a question that I don't ever get. It might be personal preference but it's extremely public everywhere, especially YouTube. True, Import Tuner drivers might spend more money trying to pimp out their ride by customizing the appearance (add spoilers, lower suspension, colored rims, bigger and louder exhaust) and barely anything on the performance portion, but still does that mean they still should be hated for it? Another term comes to mind when thinking of Import Tuners, and that's Ricers. Technically, 'ricers' isn't a word but people just use the word 'ricers' to describe asian drivers who like to tune and customize their import tuner cars and think they look and cool and stuff. RICE, stands for: Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement, and they add a 'r' to the end because...I actually don't know why, it's just...the rule I guess. I'm guessing overall, in general, American Muscle drivers absolutely HATE Ricers because import tuner drivers tend to just go all out on appearance but barely do anything on the performance part. Like you'll sometimes see, on the road, well probably most the time, a Honda Civic or an Accord and it'll have a spoiler, lowered suspension, body kit, EXTREMELY LOUD exhaust but if you challenge them to a race, you end up smoking them. THAT'S the problem right there. Some ricers think they're cool and show off their 'shit' in the streets just because they catch a lot of attention just based on their car appearance but not actual outstanding performance. For me, I personally think that SOME ricers (I hate using the word ricers but I'm just used to it, or else I would call them import tuner drivers) go way overboard with their cars and don't give a shit about their engines/performance but some people actually DO know how to tune and customize their cars. Lastly, I don't hate ALLricers because my uncle coincidentally also owns a honda civic, fully customized in terms of appearance and performance, so therefore perhaps he is a ricer (haha) but my interest in cars started from getting rides in his civic so yes, I would also settle down for a JDM (modded Japanese cars) car IF I didn't love American Muscle so much.

$75 Air intake from American Muscle

So the air intake (American Muscle brand, not BBK or K&N) arrived at my house on wednesday but I didn't open it until Sunday night. I spent the entire afternoon figuring out how the whole thing fit together and tried to install it but it didn't work. A friend was over watching me try to figure out the whole thing in frustration but I ended up failing. Not only did I fail to put the aftermarket intake into my car, I also could not put the stock intake back in because one of the bolts just didn't want to fit in properly again to the Air Filter Housing. So my car ended up resting in my garage the entire Monday and when Monday afternoon came around, I started working on it again. I also had a friend come along just in case I needed a second hand. This time though, I bought myself a wrench from Home Depot because the guy who helped me told me I needed a wrench to hold the nut at a firm position so that way I could screw the bolt through the nut with my other socket wrench. So having to have taken out the stock intake once already, I took the stock intake out again in about 10 minutes or so (I put it back into the car Sunday night just to be sure) and then started connecting the aftermarket intake. Right when I got to the bolts and nuts, I was wishing I had all the luck I could get because I didn't know if it would work or not. Surprisingly, it did work. So I connected the largest tube with the Mass Air Flow Sensor using the bolts and nuts provided with the kit. After that, I told my friend to try the smaller of the two rubber couplers on (seeing as how much power he used just to try and expand the rubber coupler opening to fit it into the throttle body opening, I didn't have that arm strength to do what he was able to do for me). The entire process took about two hours due to not fitting well, parts getting stuck, etc. so now, here are pictures of the stock intake, the installation process, and the aftermarket intake.

This is the stock intake

This was after the stock intake was taken out. Now just waiting for the aftermarket intake to be installed.

The aftermarket intake has been installed, and this is what it looks like.

GoPro HD Naked Video Camcorder

Hey guys, I bought this camcorder/camera yesterday (03/13/12) and could not wait to use it so I tested it out this morning as well as during my school's lunch period to test out the quality and stability of it. I only have one thing to say about this camcorder: it is THE best camcorder I have used so far in terms of recording my drives. The other camcorders I have used in the past can't even compare to the quality and stability of this GoPro HD Camcorder. I've done a Cell Phone window suction cup mount and put my Sony Cybershot camera through the test and that failed horribly. I've done window suction cup mount and my Sony Bloggie Touch but the suction cup mount didn't even work, even when applying dampness to it. After making the difficult decision of trading in my iPod Touch first gen, my iPod Touch fourth gen, my PSP Phat, AND my iPhone 3G, I got the amount of money required to get the GoPro HD. I even had to add in an extra $40 for the window suction cup mount and a 8GB SD memory card but all the money that was spent on these three items were well worth it. Anyways, as my first video uploaded onto YouTube recording from the GoPro HD, here it is:



I will be uploading two more videos following this first one, stay tuned for them.

Videos of me driving

not much to say but here they are, only have two so far:


this is me driving from my house to Argonaut Center in Saratoga


this is me driving from my house to my local Barnes & Nobles Store

Plan on giving up...

I just plan on giving up...that's it. I have to teach my dad how to be human and how to accept reality. Who the fuck am I to do that? I thought he was the one who was supposed to be my role model, not the opposite way. I'm not wiling to go through with this because I'm not his teacher or anything, I'm his son. If his son knows more than him and needs to teach him, that's just pure sadness. I had to send him a message about respect, something that HE HIMSELF talked to us about for a long time. What else could I do? I can't do this every single time he makes a mistake, I just can't. And then at school, I can't do much either. I want to get things cleared up with this friend but she's got other people who she has to deal with. Sad part is, I'm pretty sure I'm a lot less important than all of them are according to her so she won't want to deal with me right now. I really don't know what to do...what am I still in this school for? I got no one, I honestly got no one. No one is willing to help out, and I can't deal with more than one thing at a time. Both of my good friends, who are also coincidentally my only friends, one of them is one of her closest friends so she can't do anything about it. My other best friend, he won't do anything about it.