Auto Otaku: Car and Life

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I made one...

I'll try to post some sweet stuff. BTW, I'm going go to be heading back to Japan for a few weeks next month. Should be fun.

Posted at 09:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

The other day we had a freak rain storm and the Roadster got covered in ugly brown water spots. This evening I pulled it out and gave it a much needed wash. Once it was clean, I decided to rice it out with a couple stickers I picked up at the JCCA New Year Meeting in Tokyo back in January.

Roadster guys and/or vintage JDM fans should know about this...

Another old Japanese throwback. The words say it all.

Sooo not slammed.

I thought this was kind of cool...

A couple more pics + higher res versions here .

Posted at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)

I Want...

An RB-chassis Honda Odyssey. I think I'm gonna turn this into a vanning blog now..

Cool?

Posted at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

Finally Introducing the Roadster

Alright, here's a post that's been a long time coming - a proper introduction of my Miata "project". I put project in quotations because I don't have very high aspirations for this car. I simply I want to have a car that looks cool and is fun to drive.

I've actually had the car since I got back from Japan a couple months ago, but I wanted to wait until I got my wheels on it to take proper photos.

Here's the basics on the car-

1997 Mazda Miata

White on black cloth interior.

90K miles, two owners before me.

The car came with the original window sticker and an incredible amount of factory accessories, dozens of Miata club magazines from the '90s, hard top rack, etc. etc.

For not being a special edition car, it's quite loaded. Power windows, factory CD player, OEM hardtop, and best of all the Torsen LSD.

The previous owner had added a few things to the car including Tein SS coilovers, Flyin' Miata sway bars and a set of replica wheels.

I wasn't a big fan of the wheels, but that wasn't a problem because I already had a set of wheels waiting for it. It wasn't until yesterday that I finally had a chance to get some new tires and throw them on.

They are SSR Mark III's 15x7.5 +6 all around with 195/50 Dunlop DZ101's. It's nowhere near the crazy wheel combos people have been doing on Miatas recently, but I'm very happy with the fitment.

Surprisingly it doesn't rub at all on this setup with rolled fenders. I might drop it a bit more when I have time, but I'm happy with it now.

So yeah, it's basically stock with wheels and suspension and I plan to keep it that way for the most part.

A few things I am planning to add-

OEM R-package front spoiler

Steering Wheel

Some bitchin' shift knob

Retro style chrome mirrors

Maybe an air filter or something

Yep, so that's it. More updates as I make progress.

Posted at 06:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

Enter the Wagonist

You might have seen a few of the crappy photos I posted of my NA8CE Miata project which I'll be posting more details on later, but right now I want to introduce the latest addition to the fleet and the first "new car" I've ever owned.

For the past several months I've been spending countless hours researching possible choices for a daily driver/road trip mobile that will be used to get me to events all over the place. Kaori and I considered several different models, and for a while we were heavily leaning towards the Honda Fit after having a good experience owning one in Japan.

I love the Fit, but in my opinion the price of the Fit on the US market was a bit high for what you get. Another car I've always liked is the Mazda5, which is sold as the Mazda Premacy in Japan. We went and test drove one about a week ago and basically fell in love.

We ended up finding a lightly used '08 Touring model in the bay area, and last Friday we got up early and drove up to San Jose to pick it up. After a road trip down to LA on Saturday for the Formula D tech day, we couldn't be more happy with it.

In the end the 5 turned out being the same price or even a bit cheaper than a Fit for what is in my opinion a bit more "substantial" and roomier machine.

Even before leaving for Japan, I'd always had a strange to attraction to station wagons and vans, dating back to my first car which was a '72 Ford Torino wagon. Seeing all of the customized minivans and hatchbacks in Japan just made my addiction even worse...

Every Japanese automaker makes several of these "mini-minivans" for the Japanese market, but Mazda is the only one that said "hey, what the hell" and decided to import one to the United States. Fortunately it's built on the same chassis as the Mazda3, so it's actually pretty entertaining to drive (for a six-seat minivan of course).

Inside there's room for six or you can fold the seats down and fill it with car parts or camera gear...

Yep, that's a five-speed auto. The wife wasn't down with using a clutch and to be totally honest I actually prefer an automatic in this type of car. I still have the Roadster for when I want to be fully involved in the driving experience. (Don't mind the pink Ipod cable there)

On this car there were just a lot of little things that really appealed to me. For example, projector headlights. (HID's are one of the first things on my to-do list for this thing.)

LED taillights...

I have no intention of turning this thing into some "VIP show car", but I do plan on doing the basics. Luckily there are no shortage of modified examples to be found on sites like Minkara or in the Style Wagon and Wagonist magazines I've acquired.

My goal is to have a stylish highway hauler that is comfortable, good on gas and can be built on a budget. I have a few ideas in mind that I'm really looking forward to trying out, and I plan to document my progress on this blog, along with my Miata project which will be "started" soon.