Jun-san’s Garage Advance NSX circa 2016
Coverage: The Chronicles Year 7 Anniversary Event
A few weeks ago, I planned a trip to SEMA. Unfortunately, that plan kinda failed so the next best thing to do was to have our local automotive master tech, Andy Soun, help us out with coverage photos. If you’re not sure who Andy Soun is, he’s a badass mechanic for hire around the country. From working on classic Porsche 356’s to FormulaD spec FRS’s, he’s worked on almost everything. This includes Tom Syachack’s infamous S2000… but we’ll go into detail about their history another time.
Tom had to take a leak so Andy took this chance to get a snap of their trip…
Mayday Garage Year in Review 2014: Part 5a
So now you know about our brief adventures with 1013mm, QuickWorks Photo, our Ricer Wednesday and Coffee and Rice meets, and even our history with Japanese Tuner, Car Shop GLOW, so to finish off the Year in Review series, we wanted to end it with our return to specialized meets, specifically, our Japanese Nostalgic Car Meet and the WekFest TX PreMeet but due to the sheer amount of photos, we had to split this one into part 5a and 5b!
CLICK HERE FOR PART 5b!!
So 3 years prior, we had an idea that maybe we could gather all the really cool Japanese vintage cars from the southern region of the US to one location right here in Houston. With our friend Linhbergh Nguyen, we dubbed it, “Japanese Nostalgic Car Meet” or JNCM. We didn’t know what to expect from this open call, but it was one of the most fun meets I had ever attended. Cars from all over Texas showed up in their unique rides to enjoy a beer and a hotdog with other like minded vintage car enthusiasts.
Every year afterwards, we had people ask us when the next one would be. After much procrastination, it was time to make the public call for all owners of these JDM classic machines to gather once more. To prepare and give an idea of what exactly we were looking for, we had asked our good friends Peck and Bruce to let us photograph their very unique classic cars. One would represent the old, old school, and the other would represent the old school with a modern twist.
First was Peck’s ahhhhhhhmazing authentic JDM AE86 Levin hatchback. This thing oozed JDM race car from yesteryear, from the ITB’d 4AGE motor down to the N2 wide body fender flares swallowing the SSR reverse mesh mesh wheels. Peck has been a Mayday Garage supporter from the beginning, and his knowledge of old school Japanese tuning parts and cars is something that should be documented in a book as he is a huge parts collector/hoarder. The car hadn’t seen the streets in many years so it was such a cool thing to see in person as Khiem was taking epic photos of the car.
To show that we are not only into JDM everything, we asked for now-e-famous Bruce Lareto to let us capture his stunningly clean, bagged S130 Datsun 280zx. We’ve watched Bruce’s car evolve from just a bone stock 280 to what you see now. Bruce had big plans from the get-go and was able to realize his goals through hard work, trial and error, and never giving up on that vision. His car is ever evolving, and he currently is breaking in his new motor and will be test fitting a rear diffuser on his car, so that will be exciting to watch.
Now that we established what we were looking for, we anticipated a good showing for this meet where the weather wasn’t scorching hot, and it wasn’t cold outside. Located at the same place as 3 years prior, Moon Tower Inn in East Downtown Houston made much sense as the atmosphere is very relaxed and there was plenty of potential parking.
We also had to establish a few ground rules. 1- Vintage cars were to have priority parking because, you know, it’s a vintage car meet. 2- to be qualified as a vintage car, it had to be made in Japan, and have a model year before 1990.
The turnout was absolutely beautiful. There were so many cars that were vintage, that we ended up cramming a ton of them in the designated areas and the streets were soon filled with all makes and models as everyone had a thing for classic Japanese cars. We saw all kinds of people from all walks of life, aging from 1-92, it was truly a sight to see, and the general consensus tells us that we need to have more of these types of meets in the future.
Click on the next post to see part 5b!
-Team Mayday Garage-
Bradley Lafayette’s RHD J’s Racing S2000!
We love our Hondas here at Mayday Garage, and it’s no secret that we do in fact love most all RWD cars, so when we first heard of Brad’s all carbon fiber widebody J’s Racing RHD S2000, we knew we would have to see it in person. It was brought to our attention that Bradley wanted to have a set of the now infamous Car Shop GLOW LED S2K tail lights some months ago when we first introduced them to the world, but being a handmade, bespoke Japanese part, we couldn’t get a set of the tails in his hands in time for Import Alliance but last month, we had the pleasure of meeting up with Brad, a friend of Danny Barber, from good ol’ Alabama during our WekFest Pre Meet. We had him up front and center, and his eyegasmic delight of carbon fiber tickled everyone from the insides at Moon Tower Inn. When we finally got a chance to see the car without a million people crowded around it during the actual WekFest TX show, we noticed it really did look weird with the OEM AP2 tails adorning the rear of the very very wild S2000. It was missing something. Something we all knew would complete the exterior of this wild beast, and that something was CSG’s LED tails.
Although we couldn’t get the tails on in time for WFTX, this past weekend, Brad had teamed up with a very talented Ryan Lopez of RL Photography fame, and Ryan was able to take some breathtaking photos to show off Brad’s new derriere. As Ryan himself states, the lights “completely changed the look of the car; they set it off just right. I love the AP2 tails, but the CSG tails just fits the car better”. And we agree.
As we have said time and time again, the lights are a finishing piece. It is “that last touch” that a complete car build needs, and as the case with both Tom and Brad’s S2000’s, it’s the touch that separates them as some of the best from the USA.
Huge thanks to RL Photography, check out his Facebook page and Flickr page!
Keep Tuning,
Ricer X
Announcement! CSG x MG S2K LED tails price drop!
We are so proud to announce to everyone that through many negotiations with Honda Co. Japan and through streamlining the LED conversion process, Car Shop GLOW is now able to manufacture the now famous S2000 LED tail lights $150 USD cheaper than we originally sold the lights for! This is GREAT news, and we have passed down the savings to all, including our first customers that have already purchased the lights.
Here are a few photos from one of our first customers, Red Lufty, on his beautiful Honda S2K, photos by Jake Owens.
We strive to provide the best customer service around, and we are just a bunch of car guys just like you.
Keep Tuning,
Ricer X
New CSG x MG S2000 LED Product photos!
As we have finally received the final production version of the infamous Car Shop GLOW (CSG) x Mayday Garage S2000/AP2 LED tail lights, we had the chance to capture the lights for our product showcase. Although hard to see in the following photos, the lights are slightly less tinted than what you’ve seen on Tom’s S2K, but still look just as stunning.
A few notes about the lights-
The lights are brand new, but you will need to reuse the foam piece that normally rests between the actual tail light housing and the S2000 chassis.
The lights will come with detailed instructions on how to re-install the lights with step-by-step photos (don’t worry, it’s still 100% plug-and-play).
Buy them here! http://maydaygarage.com/product/car-shop-glow-honda-s2000-ap2-led-tail-lights/
If you run into any issues, please email us ASAP at MaydayGarage@MaydayGarage.com
We also do international orders! Please email us for any quotes!
–Team Mayday Garage–