Prelude "Lucky" Progress!

B21 all ready to be dropped!! 

She's already been in the car for a day, not entirely ready to start up yet, so pictures will be up soon!! 

Old School Porsche Love

My First Love

Since I was a kid, I have always been interested in cars. I remember my parents telling me several years ago when I was around 3-4 I was able to identify makes of cars (i.e. Ford, Dodge, Honda, etc.) so I guess I began my interest in cars around there. I still remember the first car I ever fell in love with, the Dodge Viper when I was around 8 years old. The looks of the car were, and still are, just so stunning and aggressive not a single part of the car looks slow or boring, only sheer American madness dressed up in metal. 

Look at this image from StanceNation.com of this absolutely clean Viper. I am by far a much bigger fanboy of imports, but I still feel the Viper is one of the best modern cars America has ever produced. You'll probably only see me post an American car again on here if I take some shots of a Corvette, Viper, Challenger, or older muscle but I thought I would just a short ode to my first love.

Credit to Stance Nation for the photo. Check out the post on their site!

http://www.canibeat.com/2010/01/usdm-beat/

Lucky Never Dies

Often times in life, we take on projects with certain expectations, but all too quickly are these initial ideals swept away in lieu for a much more grand take on things. Such a project took hold of my life a year ago; my name is Joshua, and this is the ongoing journey of my BA5 Prelude, “lucky”.

Two years ago, I was involved in a car accident on the freeway that left my poor little car crippled with a busted bumper, fenders, hood and radiator. Being 16 years old, I didn't really have the means with which to fix it, so I began to take interest in cars so that I could make the repairs myself. My father never raised me to have things done for me, so I took on this newfound love of cars with a simple ideal, "BUILT not BOUGHT". I had seen the slogan while surfing through a few forums, and it really struck a chord with me. Needless to say, a few junkyard trips and a couple hundred dollars later, I had her back in running condition.

Soon after getting her all in one piece, I began to learn to do various aspects of body work. Losing pretty much any free time I had, and making more mistakes than I would like to admit, this was the product of all of those long nights.


Everything was going great in my life; I had a semi-hot girlfriend, a freshly painted car that I could claim as truly my own. Then murphy's law decided to kick in, as one morning driving down the freeway home, I threw a rod. Befuddled by frustration, I made a hasty decision to do an h22 swap with the car. After months of hard work, saving for parts and slowly piecing the car together, I had a bit of a run in with Johnny law pertaining to the legality of my swap. To shorten that piece of the story, I eventually had to part out the h22 swap this past November to avoid a large fine from the wonderful state of California.

After another crushing setback, pressure from my parents to get the car from behind the house, I had a choice to make. I could either scrap the project, wipe my hands clean and be done with it all for good. After a month of moping I decided I just couldn't let it end like that, so I decided to rebuild and install the original b21a1 motor that the car came with. This final phase of the project  brought about a newfound focus that I had never really found with the car, that being centered around a tucked engine bay, perfect wheel stance and a comfortable interior.

With the project finally coming to a close in the next month or so, its interesting to take a look back on everything that has happened. This car has become a part of me; you may call is stubborn pride, a waste of money and time or anything of that vernacular, but to me, this car is a symbol of everything that I stand for, my pride and joy. This car has been crushed, blown up and outlawed, but friends, lucky never dies.

For the exciting conclusion to this chapter in the saga, stay tuned as Daniel and myself will be installing the motor and finishing up all loose ends in the upcoming weeks.

Keep it real

Joshua

Nick, the owner of 2 02's

Greetings to our reader(s)! My name is Nick, and I am a contributor to this blog as well. I am, as I mentioned, the owner of the 72 Agave and 75 Pastellblau cars that were mentioned previously. Allow me to elaborate on the premise of a BMW "Drive".

Saturday was possibly the most fun I have ever had in a car, or even in life as a whole. I was surrounded by 19 German engineering masterpieces, all of them piloted by true car enthusiasts. The talking was a lot of fun, however the drive was the piece de resistance. I have never driven my car that hard before, and it was possibly the most exhilirating experience I have ever had. My car was working in overdrive, those four cylinders were working their hardest to give me their full 108 horsepower. It was accelerate through second, and then brake hard while heel-and-toeing down into second, and take the corner through the inside, and apply the power smoothly on the exit. Driving a manual and trying to get the most from a car is possibly the most rewarding experience I know of. Of course, my 2nd gear syncro no longer exists on the Agave car, which adds to the fun.  I was a bit outclassed, to say the least.

My car was the oldest (1972), but there was a 74 2002 Tii there, but he had a fuel injected engine with 30 more horsepower, and an aftermarket suspension and tires. My car hung in there well, however, it gave a valiant effort. I was inbetween two E46 M3's, which have 300+ horsepower. I was able to keep up however because the M3's weigh about twice as much as my car does. My car weighs ~ 2100 pounds, but the M3's weigh over 3600 easy. New cars are very heavy, in my opinion. The difference is the M3's speed up before the corners, and brake hard to go through them. I simply maintained speed through the corners because I do not have the same power on tap.

Near the beginning, I had to stop because my toolbox was sliding around in the trunk. I pulled over and moved it to the back seat, and in the process the club continued on without me. The other 2002, the blue one with fuel injection, was running "sweeper". This means that he had to wait for me, and make sure all the cars stuck together. The stop was about 2 minutes, so we needed to make up time. I blasted down the road like I never have before, but I ended up cooking the brakes by the time I caught up. There is nothing like the smell of burned brakes, let me tell you. Throughout the whole thing the other guy hung with me like glue, later he said he wasn't trying very hard. I didn't care, however. I managed to keep up with the M3's, although by the end my car needed a rest.

The most surprising thing was there were two african american ladies in the 3 series behind me, and I figured they would be bringing up the rear. But actually, they stuck right behind me the whole way. I was convinced from then on not to judge a book by its cover.

The drive in total was about 180 miles, and took most of the day. My car is the green old looking one, by the way. Now I think it may have blown a head gasket, or had some other calamity, because it started leaking a lot of oil from various points on the engine. I need to look at it here in the next couple days, will keep updated.

BMW 2002

Ever since my mom first pointed out one of these to me when I was in elementary school, I've always had a secret love for these cars. My love for them has recently increased considerably since one of my friends got his first one back in July

This is my friend's 1972 2002 BMW. It's always funny when talking about it when you're talking to someone who doesn't know what the BMW 2002 is, they usually think you're talking about a 2002 BMW of any sort. Personally, I'd rather have one of these than an E46 BMW any day, as long as it's not an E46 M3 I'd definitely take one of those. Just riding in these cars is so exciting. They weigh only roughly 2200 pounds and even with the base model making 108hp, the car is a whole lot of fun to drive.

Back on November 6 of 2010, I had the opportunity to go tag along in my friend's BMW 2002 for a Bay Area BMW 2002 club drive, in memoriam for a member who had passed away that had led the drive several years prior. That was a day I definitely will never forget, definitely the most fun I've had in a car, while being a passenger, ever. I spent most of the drive hanging out of the car taking shots while the car was moving through the backroads in order to get some shots. I'll definitely be posting more shots from the "brisk" morning/afternoon drive.

Pastalblau, one of the handful of colors the BMW 2002 is available. Personally this is my second favorite color for them, first being Inka Orange. I thought I'd just share this shot of my friend's new 1974 BMW 2002 and how pristine this car still is with it's original paint as well as "minor" work, but that's for another day.
Stay tuned for more on this 1974 BMW 2002 and the BMW 2002 drive are soon to come!!

- Daniel

What You'll Be Seeing on Here

I personally am a huge import fanboy, more Japanese than European, so what you can come to expect to be posted on here will be Japanese street and performance cars. Most of the images being used will be my own which I have taken, but those which are not my own shots will mostly be from other sites such as SpeedHunters and Canibeat. Here are a few samples of what you'll be seeing soon.

TD Garage's Subaru Impreza STI Time Attack car

Mercedes SLS at Infineon Raceway

1974 BMW 2002

These are just several examples of what you will see posted on this blog. Usually I come across these cars while going out to either just around where I live, at the track, or when I'm driving. My camera is always with me to make sure I never miss the chance to snap anything rare, exotic, fast, or just clean.

Let's Get Started on Four Wheels

Lamborgini Gallardo LP560-4. I chased this car 4-5 blocks to get the shot below

I think it was definitely worth it.

Anyways, get ready to see a big variety of cars posted here and more writing. I'm feeling way too lazy right now to do much writing.