My stance on "Stance"

I have been in the scene for what I consider to be a decent amount of time, 8 years, however I've been a car enthusiast since a little boy.  In my 8 years of being in the scene, mainly the Japanese and VW/Audi groups, I have seen a number of trends come up over the years, from the body-kitted Fast & Furious days, to the DTM/Euro look, the JDM craze, and the less-is-more Euro look, I have seen enough to know what happens to trends.  The trend that has caught the spotlight as of late is unarguably the stance and Hellalfush trend.  In the last few years, the stance scene has gained a lot of momentum and no one can stop talking about it.

Of course, there are two main groups in every trend like this; those that love it, support and embrace it, and those that absolutely hate it.  I have seen a lot of the trends over the years, but I have yet to see one that has such an adamant group of haters.  It's kind of funny at times to see how passionate these people are about being so negative about a trend that they go out of their way to say their two-cents about it.  Instead of keeping their mouths shut, they speak up about how dumb they think the whole fitment game is and how it is "unsafe" and counter-active to modifying a vehicle.  Some helpful words here:  attention, whether good or bad, is still attention.

Thing is, for all you haters out there, the stance and fitment movement is here to stay.  It's not going anywhere and is only growing stronger each day.  The fact is, with all these trends that have popped up, none have really gone anywhere.  You may say the body-kit era and JDM fads have all gone, but they really haven't, they have just evolved and changed.  Body-kits haven't gone away and neither has tuning cars in the JDM fashion.  Cars are still rocking body-kits and adding JDM touches here and there, just in a different manner now that still captures just as much attention, just in a different way.  The same thing goes for the stance movement.  It will change, most definitely, but it is never going to go away.

More and more sites and groups are popping up that support the movement with the "originators" still leading the way, sites like Hellaflush, Stanceworks, and Stance Nation setting the standards for others to follow, learn from and build upon.  More and more shows and events are being organized which are centered around stance and fitment.  The movement is only growing with more people coming to embrace it and see it as another form of tuning.  Contrary to what most naysayers believe, it's not easy to get a car sitting low with the perfect fitment.  There's a lot of suspension work and calculating wheel offsets and tire sizes.  It's far more difficult than just getting a set of coils, winding them down, bolting up a set of wheels and hoping for the best.

Now, I'm not trying to come off as some know-it-all, or some sort of "prophet" for the stance scene.  I'm just some enthusiast who is taking his experience from being in the game for a good amount of time and voicing my opinion on the movement.  I understand the scene and live within it, love it and embrace it, yet I still appreciate a car that's setup for road-racing or drag racing, and give credit where credit is due.  I guess every successful group will have its share of haters, and we all deal with it.  So, to the haters, keep on hating!  Stance and fitment aren't going anywhere!  Everyone else, keep it low and clean....

Kaien and Howlie

Well, it has been awhile since I have updated anything.  I apologize for that, but there have been a lot of big changes going on mainly centered around a new job and doing a lot of photography work.  I've also been drawn back into organizing events for a few local, automotive groups next year so I do have a lot on my plate.

What I wanted to share here though is some progress on my fursuits.  Yeah, plural, as in two, heh.  My first suit is being made by Syber at Made Fur You which should be done sometime in the month of December.  I'm very excited to see her take on my fursona.  In the interim, I met a wonderful wuffy named Kio.  We sparked it off since we both share an interest in cars to find out that he is a rather talented fursuit builder as well.  He was open for commissions so I had him make me a head.  What he turned out is amazing.  The quality and functionality are superb.  I'm eagerly awaiting my second slot to come up so he can finish the rest of the suit to accompany his head.

Visit Kio's FA here:  Kio Wolf on FA

Another big piece of news is my bf Howlie's new head was finished by Fursuiting.com, so now his fursuit is complete again.  We spent the holiday together and took some pictures together:

i'mSTANCED RHD Civic + Mini-meet

Had a little get-together with some of the i'mSTANCED members on a rainy night to chill and eat some food.  Took a couple pics of member Beni's RHD Civic hatch.  This car used to belong to a good friend of mine as well, so it's been around for a little bit.  Good to see it in good hands still.

Red Hot

Some people can just turn out feature cars like it's a habit, nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary, they just get a car and wave a magic wand, and VOILA, feature slot in a magazine or blog.  Minnesota resident Dana Nguyen is one of those people that car turn out neck-snapping cars at an alarming rate.  Since I have known Dana, he's had an ultra-clean GSR Integra, a ground scraping AR IS300 (our cars were confused for one another's a lot!), and now his current NFR S2000.

Dana bought the car in late 2009 and not even a year later, this is what he has produced.  Talk about turn-around time!  Most people spend years on a project to get it to this level, but not for this veteran tuner.  However, this time he took a little bit different route than his previous cars.  While his GSR and IS300 certainly had the show areas down, the first plan of attack on the S2K was the engine.  To address this area, he chose to go to the local Honda maestros over at Full Blown Motorsports.  You see, the owner LJ has been working on his own personal S2K, building it into a mind-boggling street monster.  While Dana's goals weren't as lofty, Full Blown still came up with a nice turbo kit consisting of a custom exhaust manifold, Garrett 60-1 turbo, Ultimate Racing FMIC, FBM intercooler piping, FBM 3" down-pipe, and 3" dual exhaust.  A Tial 38mm waste-gate coupled with a FBM boost controller keep the boost in check, while a FBM oil-catch tank helps keep the crank ventilated.  The head is held down with ARP head-studs, while an ACT clutch ensures that the 400 ponies get to the ground easily.  A walbro 255 fuel pump supply 725cc Injector Dynamics injectors while an AEM EMS coordinates everything.  An APR CF coil-pack cover, S2Carbon CF cooling plate and CF strut tower bar add to the under-hood bling, while a wire-tuck from Renown Performance really cleans up the engine bay.

With the engine bay all sorted, it was time for Dana to address the other areas of the car.  He kept the mods simple and subtle, a trend these days, but with these results, it's easy to see why.  The front bumper was exchanged for a newer, OEM, AP2 item and fitted with an OEM AP2 front lip.  Out back, Dana swapped the AP1 tails for OEM AP2 items as well, another subtle touch that usually goes unnoticed.  A Seibon carbon hood and carbon trunk break up the red and compliment the custom Blitz Type 01 wheels nicely.  The 17x8/9 Blitz wheels were split and refinished in black with red bolts before being bolted up and fitted with Falken Azenis tires..  The ride height issues were addressed with the ubiquitous Koni/Ground Control setup that is commonly found on many Hondas.  Hey, when something works, why change it?  The setup rides great and performs awesome.  The clean and simple theme carries onto the interior as well.  The dash houses a 6.5" screen fed by an Alpine head-unit.  Alpine Type R speakers and tweeters provide the tunes while an AEM wide-band, and Pro Sport gauges provide the engine vitals.

After only a year, Dana has build a winning setup, receiving a lot of local praise and attention, having taken the car to many local shows and events as well as HIN Chicago.  Of course, like a lot of projects, the road doesn't stop here.  Over the winter Dana has a lot of changes planned to take the car up another level for next year.  I won't say much, but "wide" and "fast" are two key words.  I certainly am looking forward to seeing it next year and will probably be taking some more photos and writing another feature.  All I know is, it's certainly going to be Red Hot.

Gallery:  Photos by Kaien

A Pair of GTIs

Was hanging out at one of the local spots the other night when a rather well-known MKIV GTI owned by the one-and-only Tattoo Mike showed up.  He and I have known each other for a few years, but had an interesting way of meeting.  All that is in the past now, and he's one of the coolest guys out there and can build quite the car to boot.  We're working on scheduling a full shoot soon, so stay tuned!

One of his friends/customers showed up with his gorgeous, white MKIV 1.8t.  The paint was immaculate.

i'mSTANCED MN

That's right, we're doing it big.  Kaien (PS117) and Jared (Jared Levine Photography) are organizing a group of MN's finest, stanced cars.  Look out for big things for 2011

i'mSTANCED on Facebook!

A Volvo and a Lexus

Rolled around with my friend Ivan this weekend and his super clean, Volvo C30R.  Such a great car with very little done to it, but certainly enough to create a large impact.

Such a great stance, and this is just on springs.  Coils are coming after the winter.

Parked up with my LS400

And just a couple of the LS pretty much sitting where it will be for the rest of the year.  2011 will be a lot lower.