USDM Stance

I'll let the pictures do the talking on this one. A few months old, but good God...

-Tyler

Beautiful Negativity

Most would never think of a Miata as being a bad ass drift machine with a mind-blowing stance. The uneducated may scoff at the sight of a regular Miata, but the more informed enthusiast will see great potential.

To this day, the Miatas (or MX-5s, as they solely go by, now) are regarded as one of the best driver's cars on the market. Darrin saw the great possibilities and quickly turned this NA into something truly crazy.

It started with a narrower set of the same Diamond Racing wheels, but with the quarters already heavily pulled from the previous owner's wheel setup (15x8" -12), he needed to fill those arches a little more snuggly. Or a lot more snuggly, in this case.

Already having one of the absolute lowest ride heights I've seen on an NA, he threw on some wheels to totally blow the Miata game out of the water. He went for 13x9" -13 offset up front, allowing him to keep his outrageous lowness and have the perfect amount of flushness, but out back...that's a different story. 13x10s with a final offset of -29 are barely contained by the pulled quarters, but with the help of 185/60-13 Sumitomos and some beautiful camber, they fit perfectly.

Most NAs with crazy stances have their faded paint and oxidized clear coat going strong, but Darrin went the extra mile by getting the car resprayed. It looks to be a great job, and it certainly adds to how clean this car truly is.

And what seems to be hardly mobile is actually driven into the ground at drift day events, so this is certainly no hard-parker. Just look at those pinch welds... Hovering mere millimeters off of the pavement. And people say that an 8" +0 is perfect for these cars... Leave that stuff at home and save yourself the embarrassment.

In it's entirety, this car is probably at the top of the heavy hitters list, as far as Miata stance is concerned. The color combo is one that I would never think of, but looks pretty fantastic, in my opinion. It's cars such as this that push me to start putting more money aside for an NA.

-Tyler

The Virgin Tib

There are always those gems in the automotive community that go without the recognition they deserve, and this 2008 Tiburon GT is a prime example. After many ups and downs, and even the thought of parting the car out, Nick Lucido has managed to produce the beautiful example of an F/L2 Tiburon that you see here. It was no easy task, of course, and has taken nearly 2 years to reach its current state. What would that current state be? Damn near perfection.

Most F/L2 Tiburon owners stray away from the factory bumper when it comes time to mod the exterior. Most turn to Hana for their aggressive, somewhat-F/L styled bumper, but not Nick. No, he turned to Kevin at NIA Auto Design to help in designing a custom lip kit and eyelines for the F/L2s. Not only are the resulting pieces of the utmost quality, but they accentuate the factory-bodied car in the best ways possible, leaving you with the menacing supercharged beast depicted in these pictures.

Now, moving onto the highlight-area of this blog: the stance. You'll find no stretch here, but 18x9" Rota Boosts with 235/40 Hankook V12s to put all of the 290 whp of that iced Stage II Sniper supercharger straight to the pavement. With offsets of +20 and +15, dropped all the way down on Tein SS coils, there's certainly nothing to scoff at. The stance has been done right, and it functions.

If there's something that the Tiburon community desperately lacks, it's taste. That is what makes gorgeous examples like this stand out so immensely among all of the others. With such an exotic looking car, all you have to do is keep it simple. And Nick has certainly done that in all of the right ways. This is definitely a Tib to keep an eye on, because you never know what he may have up his sleeve.

-Tyler

One more time...

Well, let's try this again. I used to update this in class, but since I'm no longer in school, I have completely forgotten about it! Haha

Over the past weekend, I headed down to Houston for CupCake Meet #8. I stayed with a friend of mine and cruised up with a group of Korean automobiles (and another Honda), and here's a few pics that have been posted around. Sorry for the lack of coverage. My camera got stolen a couple of months ago, so I have to rely on other people's pics.

-Tyler

Shark Tales

One of my Tiburon fitment brethren from the forums finally got some nice shots of his new setup, and I'm definitely liking how it came out. Looks great and aggressive while still being functional for him, too. Keep up the great work, Marcel!

Perfect Fitment

Here's a quick shot I saw a while back of a Toyota Soarer (SC300) setup to drift like nobody's business. So yes, this is STATIC. It doesn't get much more perfect than that! And the car is owned by a girl. Crazy stuff, no doubt...

First Attempt at Night Shots-Round 1

Just figured that I'd throw up some night shots I got from a week or so ago. I'm still perfecting it all, but they're not too bad! I'll get a few more up later. I'm just getting all of the pics of it I can before its look changes for good. Haha