My Hawaii car history
07-01-2008, 07:34 PM
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My Hawaii car history
Ok, well.... I'm getting a bit sad about leaving. I've been here 4 years and it feels like home now. My wife and I got married about a month before we got here and only dated a couple months before that. So we've pretty much spent our entire married lives here. My daughter was born at Trippler as well... so she doesn't know anything BUT Hawaii.
Anyway, as far as cars go, I figured I'd post up a little Hawaii history.
I bought my wife a 2000 Audi A4 a few days before we left. We drove this car across country and it was her's when we got here:
Well.... I had an S2000 get stolen right before I moved to Hawaii. I told myself I wasn't going to pump any money in to cars while I was out here... so I bought a car I didn't think I would want to work on... a VW. I bought a brand new 2004 GTI with the 24 valve 2.8L VR6 engine. It was all fine for about a month... and then the mod bug bit me. So I bought an EIP turbo kit for it. Here's a shot with the EIP turbo kit:
The kit was pretty basic and some tuning issues, so of course now that the ball was rolling, it was taking my money with it. Adjusting boost with manual boost controllers sucks, so I put some JDM in my Euro:
Shocker indeed:
Well, even that wasn't good enough. Despite a turbocharged i6 (it's basically an inline 6) in a little hatch, it still wasn't a whole lot of fun to drive. Well VW's suspension design sucks. I threw some KWs on it and a few mm wider tires.... but it still sucked:
So there was only one other thing to do... MORE POWER! I talked to 034EFI and installed their stand alone engine management and cable throttle conversion. let me tell you all.... Don't do this in a VW. I've done this kind of stuff on past Hondas and it was fine. VWs are a different animal.:
Tuned it myself too:
Anyway, it was a lot of work, but I'm glad I did it in the end:
Car never made it on the dyno. I would guess somewhere around 400-450whp though. It was enough to burn the tires on the highway at 80+mph. It made some good torque too.
more to come.....
Anyway, as far as cars go, I figured I'd post up a little Hawaii history.
I bought my wife a 2000 Audi A4 a few days before we left. We drove this car across country and it was her's when we got here:
Well.... I had an S2000 get stolen right before I moved to Hawaii. I told myself I wasn't going to pump any money in to cars while I was out here... so I bought a car I didn't think I would want to work on... a VW. I bought a brand new 2004 GTI with the 24 valve 2.8L VR6 engine. It was all fine for about a month... and then the mod bug bit me. So I bought an EIP turbo kit for it. Here's a shot with the EIP turbo kit:
The kit was pretty basic and some tuning issues, so of course now that the ball was rolling, it was taking my money with it. Adjusting boost with manual boost controllers sucks, so I put some JDM in my Euro:
Shocker indeed:
Well, even that wasn't good enough. Despite a turbocharged i6 (it's basically an inline 6) in a little hatch, it still wasn't a whole lot of fun to drive. Well VW's suspension design sucks. I threw some KWs on it and a few mm wider tires.... but it still sucked:
So there was only one other thing to do... MORE POWER! I talked to 034EFI and installed their stand alone engine management and cable throttle conversion. let me tell you all.... Don't do this in a VW. I've done this kind of stuff on past Hondas and it was fine. VWs are a different animal.:
Tuned it myself too:
Anyway, it was a lot of work, but I'm glad I did it in the end:
Car never made it on the dyno. I would guess somewhere around 400-450whp though. It was enough to burn the tires on the highway at 80+mph. It made some good torque too.
more to come.....
07-01-2008, 07:47 PM
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In the middle of doing that stuff, we had our daughter, Skyler. The A4 had close to 80k miles on it by now and we just wanted something bigger anyway. I had had my fill of German cars at this point, so I bought another Honda. This one more functional than fun.
2006 Honda Pilot EX. Let me tell you, as far as big SUVs go, this thing is hard to beat. My wife gets 21-23mpg in stop and go traffic. My old man liked ours so bad he bought himself one. On a recent cross country trip, he averaged 26mpg on the highway. That's as good as our Audi.. AND IT SEATS 8 PEOPLE!
Buying that thing made me realize how much I missed owning a Honda (I'm sorry, I really do think they're some of the best cars in the world) so I decided to take a hit and sell my VW. My old man told me he had a really big year so he was willing to sell me his S2000 (He bought himself a 911 turbo.... the bastard, haha). So I found a buyer for the VW quicker than I thought and I sold it. While I waited for the S2000 I picked up a little commuter car to last me.
1994 Honda Civic hatchback. 47000 original miles, one owner, clean title and absolutely immaculate inside and out.:
Well.... the mod bug bit again, so I got this one. a '92 Si. I was going to do a few little things to this one...and a few ended up turning in to a lot:
I originally put in Del Sol seats, but I missed the S2000 seats so I bought a set. I modified them by completely swapping out the seat pans with stock EG pans. I even went so far as to media blast the pans and painted them championship white to match the car... silly, I know.
and a limited edition Nardi NOB wheel:
2006 Honda Pilot EX. Let me tell you, as far as big SUVs go, this thing is hard to beat. My wife gets 21-23mpg in stop and go traffic. My old man liked ours so bad he bought himself one. On a recent cross country trip, he averaged 26mpg on the highway. That's as good as our Audi.. AND IT SEATS 8 PEOPLE!
Buying that thing made me realize how much I missed owning a Honda (I'm sorry, I really do think they're some of the best cars in the world) so I decided to take a hit and sell my VW. My old man told me he had a really big year so he was willing to sell me his S2000 (He bought himself a 911 turbo.... the bastard, haha). So I found a buyer for the VW quicker than I thought and I sold it. While I waited for the S2000 I picked up a little commuter car to last me.
1994 Honda Civic hatchback. 47000 original miles, one owner, clean title and absolutely immaculate inside and out.:
Well.... the mod bug bit again, so I got this one. a '92 Si. I was going to do a few little things to this one...and a few ended up turning in to a lot:
I originally put in Del Sol seats, but I missed the S2000 seats so I bought a set. I modified them by completely swapping out the seat pans with stock EG pans. I even went so far as to media blast the pans and painted them championship white to match the car... silly, I know.
and a limited edition Nardi NOB wheel:
07-01-2008, 08:02 PM
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AND THEN JOY OF JOYS... THE S2000 GOT HERE... HOORAY! ! !
Here it was next to dad's new porsche:
This is what it looked like when I got it. It was filthy and they scratched the hell out of it in shipping:
So I got into the hardcore detailing thing. I ended up getting it from swirled and scratched:
to.... well... shiney as hell. I'm a wash and wax fanatic now, and I think I've gotten quite good at it thank you very much:
Then I bought a set of 19" HRE 542Rs in black/polished:
Big rims on a car that's not lowered looks funny, so I couldn't wait for my suspension.. KW V3s with custom spring rates:
I liked it, but I didn't love it.... I like the whole "murdered out" thing on other people's cars, but I needed some contrast on my own... so it was time for a wheel refinish.
Took the centers out and completely restored the hoops. Then I media blasted the inners, and had them finished a flat Iron grey Mica OEM Honda color
Here it was next to dad's new porsche:
This is what it looked like when I got it. It was filthy and they scratched the hell out of it in shipping:
So I got into the hardcore detailing thing. I ended up getting it from swirled and scratched:
to.... well... shiney as hell. I'm a wash and wax fanatic now, and I think I've gotten quite good at it thank you very much:
Then I bought a set of 19" HRE 542Rs in black/polished:
Big rims on a car that's not lowered looks funny, so I couldn't wait for my suspension.. KW V3s with custom spring rates:
I liked it, but I didn't love it.... I like the whole "murdered out" thing on other people's cars, but I needed some contrast on my own... so it was time for a wheel refinish.
Took the centers out and completely restored the hoops. Then I media blasted the inners, and had them finished a flat Iron grey Mica OEM Honda color
07-01-2008, 08:09 PM
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And finally, it's sitting how I like it:
And my wife driving it just a day ago:
In between I bought a couple things from Ben:
And some custom interior parts:
And Finally.... I bought a set of beautiful Recaro SP-Gs to replace the Brides. I'm sure you all know the certain Mugen fanatic I bought these from:
And to anybody who buys seats like these... Here's a MUST mod:
And as it sits right now.... almost completely back to stock to get ready for shipping it to the east coast:
It's really been a pleasure guys... I've had a blast out here in Hawaii and can not wait to come back in a few years. I was nice meeting all of those I met and I wish you all the best. Thanks guys
And my wife driving it just a day ago:
In between I bought a couple things from Ben:
And some custom interior parts:
And Finally.... I bought a set of beautiful Recaro SP-Gs to replace the Brides. I'm sure you all know the certain Mugen fanatic I bought these from:
And to anybody who buys seats like these... Here's a MUST mod:
And as it sits right now.... almost completely back to stock to get ready for shipping it to the east coast:
It's really been a pleasure guys... I've had a blast out here in Hawaii and can not wait to come back in a few years. I was nice meeting all of those I met and I wish you all the best. Thanks guys
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07-02-2008, 12:15 AM
#8
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Nice scrapbook indeed!! 
damn, that's a lot of cars/modding for 4 years.
The seats look great in your car.
It was good to know you Chris. Best of luck in NC and those Recaros will serve you well at the dragon.
I miss those seats already, but then again the whole car will be gone in a day or two.
damn, that's a lot of cars/modding for 4 years.
The seats look great in your car.
It was good to know you Chris. Best of luck in NC and those Recaros will serve you well at the dragon.
I miss those seats already, but then again the whole car will be gone in a day or two.
07-02-2008, 02:39 AM
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chris it was good for however short it was knowing you. love the timeline i wish i had the foresight and organizational skills to do that sort of thing. very jealous of the seats. after you left at pearlridge i was sitting in them and immediately fell in love....was hard bringing myself to get out, and could have easily sat there for hours. well, best of luck to you and hawaii isn't so bad as a vacation spot...
adjusting the seats in that car is a bit of a pain 