Build your car for YOU, not for anyone else

So with all these new wheels landing, I'm having such a dilemma.

My dilemma is I don't know which one to put on the VR4.

It's driving me absolutely insane because we make wheels

and I can't settle in on the exact combination that I actually

want for the car.

It's driving me absolutely nuts.

Well, it's the complexity of choice.

You have too many options now.

I don't think that's what's happening.

OK, so what's happening?

So I'll tell you what's happening.

What's happening is that inherently,

I'm not a guy that likes things like the machine lips,

polished lips.

I can appreciate them on somebody else's car,

but it takes the right build for me

to want to run that in my car.

I want a full painted wheel.

And I generally like stuff that's a little bit darker.

And I generally like stuff that's a little bit more

conservative.

And I generally like stuff that's matte.

So I really want a wheel that's all matte gray.

The problem we have is in the new Hyperspec, which I really

like and think it would look really good on the VR4,

we made it with a machine lip.

I got vetoed when I wanted to make it in matte gray.

And it's all doubts fault that we made it with a machine lip.

Now the machine lip looks good.

Raphael's car had it on there.

It looks fantastic.

If only you were the president of a wheel company

and you could just do whatever you wanted.

I know.

But here's the thing, I've spent my entire career

trying to do what I feel is best decision for the company

and not what I really want.

So ultimately, I was looking at it.

And I'm like, OK, maybe I'll go with the F6SX, the new forged

eight spoke wheel that we did.

Because it is available in this ash silver, which

is a little bit more of a darker.

I'm like, that would look really good in the car.

It has some movement.

But I don't know, have you ever

seen the size of that 3,000 GT VR4 brake?

It's pretty substantial for the time.

For the time?

Well, in general, even now.

It's massive.

It's a larger car.

You need a massive brake to slow down that bus

because that thing has heavy.

It's heavy.

It's like, you know what it is?

It's old casting technology.

You know what I mean?

They're not inherent.

Honestly, you can get a much better brake

that's much more compact nowadays than you can with this thing.

But the problem that we run into is

that inherently trying to keep the car quote unquote OE plus,

the brake is so big.

And it jets out so far down low that everywhere

it just wants to clip.

And we did the F6SX, even if I go to the 189.535,

which is what I'm going to do, it

has some good concave movement.

So right at the bottom, it clips by a millimeter.

And now you know how much I hate spacers

so that there's a lot of problems now.

The internet knows how much we are.

I know.

But I can't help it because it's got the right color

combination that I like.

So now I'm stuck.

So that's where I'm at.

This has been the story of my life

for the greater part of a week.

So now forgive me for this because my first thought

is EVO 8 brakes, EVO 9 brakes, EVO 10 brakes.

Would that be able to allot you a solution

versus keeping the old technology on there and just

upgrading?

So why not do that first and then move on to doing the wheels?

Because I don't think I want to change the brakes.

Even though the technology.

The truth is, I could probably even get an aftermarket

willwood kit and go on there.

And the car would have a much more modern brake.

And it would be one of those four.

They have those forged aluminum brakes,

so the super lights, I think, they call them.

And it would be fine.

And it would be bigger.

And it would stop faster and the whole thing.

But I just didn't really want to do that.

I want to keep the car as OE plus as possible.

I want the original thing that says Mitsubishi

and crude casting.

So when I did the Z, the first thing I did with brakes

was I went with the Aki Bono fronts.

I did keep my Z32 rears.

I just upgraded the rotor hat.

You go with the bigger rotor.

You push the caliper out a little bit more.

It gives you more surface area bite into, quote unquote.

So I went that route.

And that allowed me to do the 18 by 9 and 1 half plus 25s

in the front.

I was able to run the hypergrams in the front on my car.

And now I'm doing the same thing on the G.

But I'm going to wait for the hyperspects to drop.

And I'm doing the Anthracite with the machine lip.

Those should be in at the end of the month.

So you're in luck because they're on the way.

Yep.

Yeah.

Maybe you're soon.

Yeah, yeah.

I think that I think I'm going to bring a set of the F6SX

wheels over in 18.5 to 35.

And if I have to put like a, because it just

clips by like a millimeter.

So if I have to put like a 3-mil spacer on,

use like ET lugs and just do like a hub centric setup

there, I think I might do it in the front.

It's just the front.

You'll be fine.

But I think that I think that wheel in particular though,

with the body lines of the car will work because it has

that curviness to it.

Even the even the first gen VR4s, you know,

they have a good curve to them.

They have the same body style.

They just change lights and well, I think, yeah,

the but those the later generation with the nice

curvy headlight, like that nice curve designers.

Yeah, the bubble headlight like 98, 99s.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I think the problem is I got too many project cars now.

So what is the plan with that car?

Like what's like the over what you've done so far

and what the plan is for it?

So I got the car from a friend that had had the car 15 years.

So I was in a good position because there was a lot of things

that he did already, right?

Like it has that he built the the 6G72.

He went so the earlier years had a two bolt main.

He and the later years had a four bolt main.

So the four bolt main is obviously being a better motor.

So he already had built, I think it's an Eagle Weisko set up.

No, I don't think he has any head work or anything.

Might have mild cams, but nothing really crazy.

So he already had a build engine in there.

He upgraded to basically one of the larger stock frame

turbos that you can get.

He went from the 9Bs up to the 15Gs.

So it has that.

And it's already got like a gesture ECU,

which is like the only thing that you really

can use to tune these cars now that no one, like AEM's gone.

You know what I mean?

There's no place to really get any of these ECUs.

So it's got a tremendous amount of stuff.

And I think the hard part is so I got the car

and the car was sitting for a couple years.

So the first thing I had to do was

I had to go through it and I had to drain all the gas out of it

and change all the fluids and all that stuff.

And then as I've done that, I've started to like,

which I put a short shifter into the car, one that

has the side loaded bearings and stuff.

So it's not like a cheap crappy shifter.

The shifter feels really nice.

But every time I go to try to do something on the car,

I feel like I get there and I look first

and it's already been done, which is a weird feeling for me.

But I went through, I wheeled out the car,

especially since it was really faded from sitting

for a few years.

And so I got the paint back up and fixed a lot of little things

and all the switches that he had in the car.

A lot of them, they worked, but you'd

have to hold them down.

So I took them all apart and kind of cleaned them out,

put dielectric grease on a lot of the stuff.

And now, so I think it's just about now getting the car

to the point where it's tuned.

I think the car will do fairly well.

I think it will make north of 400 horsepower all wheel

on pump gas.

That's not the biggest thing I've got.

I mean, for a car that is great.

And the car is inherently like driving a time capsule.

I really like that stuff.

It's kind of like my old DSM days, but it's better.

So the gesture ECU that you're talking about,

is that a standalone or is that like an e-prom

or is that like you're going to go in and flash it over and over

again?

Yeah, so I think it's architecture

is kind of based on the EVO 8, EVO 9 type of ECU

where you can flash them.

And so it is, because it uses EVO flash and EVO scan

to do all the programming.

Yeah, exactly.

But it's cool because it does convert the car to OBD2

because they use a later model, 3000 GT.

It's based on like the 97 through 99 ECU.

OK.

So I don't know, the car is cool.

I mean, he did all the right things.

But I don't know.

And then obviously, it's just a lot of cars now.

It's a lot of cars now?

It's a lot of cars now.

So what are you going to do?

But I don't know.

So what are you doing with your?

Which one?

Because I'm working on the daily

and still have my never-ending project in the garage.

Well, you were just talking about the wheels

you're going to change over and over.

Oh, so the daily is doing a, it's the G37 you guys have

probably seen when we did that little VQ engine short.

So I'm doing a VR30 trans doing that full swap.

I have the drive shafts to put in.

Couple other things, trans cooler, diff bushings.

I think I'm doing control arms.

I picked up a couple miscellaneous parts for the car as well.

So I have that stuff to do.

Big things to VR30 trans swap, like that makes such a difference.

That transmission, I'm up to 183,000 miles

on the original 7RE.

And they start to have problems.

They slip.

You start to have seven gear slip on them.

You'll be going uphill and you'll

feel the car surge a little bit,

because the transmission just starts to decouple.

So the car is automatic now?

Yep.

And I'm still going with another seven speed automatic,

but it's just the upgraded one out of the VR30.

So it takes a little bit more of a beating.

And it engages a lot harder.

You can get, when you go into tuning,

you can actually, you can get it to actually shift

a little bit quicker than you could the older ones.

It still uses the same brain.

So you're getting into limitations of the TCM.

But as far as actually moving the valve body

and actually causing things to happen,

it tends to be a little bit quicker.

That's been the big project right now,

and then I'm building the fuel system for the Z as we speak.

I was talking to Matt about it the other day.

I'm sitting there.

I did radium rails.

I'm doing a ZR1 brushless pump in the tank.

Feed up everything.

So what's the plan power wise for that car

when you think you're done?

Conservatively, I'll probably be at like around 600.

The problem is that I do not want

to have to do rotating assembly on the engine.

So I'm pretty much maxing it out at like 620 crank.

And that's you going to a VQ, right?

VQ37, VHR.

Now, you had an RB in there before?

25?

RB25, yeah.

And that made just over 500 on a 6266.

So why go from an RB to the VQ?

So there's two main factors.

One, RB25, you start to hit the limit

and you have to do that rotating assembly

at the 500 horsepower mark.

I didn't want to draw back to putting the RB into the 300ZX

chassis was I definitely felt the nose get heavier.

Pushing those cylinders out that far into the front,

it did change the way the car felt.

And I did not necessarily like it as much as I thought

I was going to be able to ignore it.

And also, I want the weight savings of the VQ.

It's an aluminum engine with aluminum heads.

I'm going to be able to make the same amount of power

and shave off weight, which is a big thing for me.

And then also, the ability to go ahead and do the 8-speed,

the 8-HP that we're talking about.

LOJ makes the conversion kit.

So I already have that all set up

that I can just get the conversion kit,

get the transmission, and start going down that route

that we spoke with TurboLand about.

Yeah, that's interesting.

I don't know, it's hard.

Some of these things, part of me, when you're speaking,

I'm like, oh, it's a lot of engineering for like,

I feel like there's other ways to get there.

There will be way easier.

Oh, yeah.

But then in the same respect,

I also know what it's like to want specific things.

Yeah.

I mean, don't get me wrong.

I could throw an LS in the car, grab a kit,

drop in, swap kit, and probably make way more power.

And it would be a great car,

but it's not what I want to build.

I want the challenge of making everything work

with the help like I'm looking at doing the Haltech.

So with that, I want to make sure

that I can get the Vivo to work with that.

So my variable electronic lift works

just like it did from the factory

while running a standalone ECU.

So things like that is just the nerd side of me

that I like doing.

Yes.

Matt, with your Civic, was there any pieces,

like when you built your car,

were there any pieces that maybe

weren't the best pieces,

technology wise, speed wise,

but you had to have,

like these were the things that you're like,

man, I need this part or these parts for this car.

You're talking about the Civic that I have currently?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I mean, with that car,

I found it out pretty well before I got started on it.

I think, I took my time on it for sure.

It was still when I was in the editorial world,

so some of the parts that I got

were essentially in trade per edit,

but I was able to kind of pick and choose what I wanted.

I think the only thing that's a little bit iffy now,

it does run EM Infinity,

and I know everybody knows there's no more support for that

because things happen there.

For me right now, as far as the setup goes,

it's an all motor setup, it's fine.

There's no problem with it.

If I have issues in the future,

I might have to consider moving to something different.

If I was gonna do something other than that,

it would be Helltech,

but I mean, for right now,

it works fine.

Why not Hyundai though?

You could do a Hyundai, I mean, you could do that.

I prefer a standalone system,

especially with this car because it has a PDM in it.

Yeah, I think with me with the Infinity

and then the digital dash and then all the sensors,

it all just kind of worked together, right?

That kind of that little world.

Everything's just plug and play, it was so easy.

I just did it all at home.

I didn't need any help with it.

So for me, that would probably be the only kind of

iffy thing.

I actually have Infinity in that car,

and then I have Infinity in my Integra also.

Right.

Because at the time they were great,

now people are worried

because there's no more support for it.

Well, I mean, but yeah, but I mean,

I don't know, I mean,

you're talking about if the ECU goes bad,

because it's not about like,

you don't need any more updates, right?

Right, right.

But like, yeah.

And for me, I'm not like you guys,

I'm not trying to make a thousand horsepower

with these cars.

You guys are nuts.

Yeah, Nick is crazy.

But for me, I think with the Civic right now

being all motor, I think if I did jump back

into like a building field right now,

just kind of drive what I'm enjoying.

I'm not doing any building,

I'm not spending any money right now.

The next step would be a supercharger.

So I think the Infinity will work fine with that.

Really a supercharger, why is?

Yeah.

I've never done a supercharger before.

So it's just a bucket list type thing.

Just never did it before, yeah.

Yeah.

And now we're getting into that age

where it's no longer like what everyone else wants.

Well, you know, not that it always was,

but like I like the fact that it's like,

yeah, you want to do the supercharger.

I want to do those trick things

and you want to recapture that car that you looked at.

Like I like that we're at that phase in life

because I know for a long time,

and I'm sure you guys went through this too,

you were just building whatever you could build

because it was an opportunity to build something fun.

Like I can't tell you how many times

when I was building my cars,

like prime example, I had my SRT-4.

There was no reason to actually own an SRT-4

I second that.

It was, but it was a blast.

Okay, yeah, Mr. Honda, don't even.

Nick makes a good point though.

It's like for some people, they'll build a car

based on kind of what's happening around them,

like what's hot right now.

And I totally get that.

I think for me, it's just always been

kind of in sections when I was much younger.

It was about speed.

I wanted to be the fastest.

So whatever I needed to do,

I keep bolting those parts on.

And then there was a phase when I went through

where I was just kind of like building a car,

not really for speed, just to build a car,

just to have fun with it, right?

And now that I'm much older, I really don't care.

So if I put something on the car

and people have a problem with it,

I don't care, what would I care?

And I think I know what you mean.

It's not because you don't care.

You care.

What you're saying is you don't really care

what other people think about it.

Like you're building a car because,

and I find, and that's what, so,

all right, so I, yeah, I mean,

I agree with Matt a thousand percent.

Like I went through phases, right?

And when I was younger, when I first got in the cars,

I literally, all I wanted to do is be the fastest.

I wasn't, but I got to a point where

the car was very quick, made a lot of power.

I definitely didn't do the right thing

by trying to put it through its paces

comparatively to some of my friends

that like were going to the track all the time

to do that stuff.

But I knew what I had and it was very capable

and I don't believe that anybody around me at the time

that knew what I did and how I did it

and how finicky it was

and making sure everything was so particular.

I don't think anybody ever,

like I feel like everybody already,

they always gave me the respect for the car, right?

But then, you know, then it got into,

I wanted to own different cars.

So I can have that car,

but then I pick out some other things,

just some things to play with some different platforms.

And then I ultimately convinced myself

that I was gonna sell my car, like sell all these cars.

So I sold everything and I was really big

into DSMs and EVOs and stuff like that.

I sold all that stuff.

And I was like, I want something totally different.

And I ended up getting, you know, the Z.

You know, Vinny 10 was like,

yo, I got this car, I think you're gonna like it.

And it was like real world drive.

I had never played with real world drive.

You know what I mean?

Like I was just, it just felt like a total

different type of look for me.

So, so I picked that car up and I've been,

I, you know, I've had that car for, oh God.

I guess about over 15 years.

And then.

I mean, you have a great example as the Z guy.

I gotta tell you, like that car is very well done.

Everything's tasteful on it.

Like, you know, as a guy who has been

from both ends of the spectrum,

there are plenty of Z's that are complete crap boxes.

But, and you're, you're, oh, oh.

Never heard that before.

Yet again, the Honda guy in the, in the video

is making noise.

I don't know why.

He's got a clean car.

I like how we have this whole like triangle

of you got the Diamond Star guy,

the Nissan guy, the Honda nerd.

Yeah, yeah.

But, but like, you know, I think, you know,

you go through these periods

and then it became about playing with other things.

And then it was like, I, I got to a point

where I just wanted, I wanted something

that when I went to go drive the car

with as little time as I had,

that it was gonna work.

And like, I could still tinker with the car

when I wanted to.

But like, I wanted to be able to go drive the car.

So then why'd you get a Nissan?

My car, my car drives just fine.

Yours is the one that's on Jackson.

Yeah, mine's always on Jackson's.

But I'm sure there's plenty of Nissan owners

that will agree with me

that they live on Jackson's for a lot of their time.

I understand.

I like, you know, here's my thing.

My thing is that like, I don't inherently like,

have a lot of free time,

especially as, you know, once I start,

once I had the kids, right?

And now my oldest one is gonna be 13.

So like it's, you know, we're right in that window.

I had the Z for maybe, you know, a year or so before,

before we had our first kid.

But I guess the thing is,

is like now when I have that little bit of time,

I either wanna be messing with the car

or I wanna be driving it, right?

And I don't wanna waste my time with like cars are down.

But then I got into this weird stage.

I'm Matt, I don't know if you'll resonate with this

or if you're like, nah, it's just you.

But like, I really struggle with this thing of,

you know, and I don't know, COVID seemed to accelerate it,

but I don't know if it was just because

I was trying to get cars that I couldn't get.

And I just feel like, you know, it's that,

you know, fear of missing out type of thing.

I just made it worse.

But now I kind of feel like there's cars

that when I were younger, I wanted.

Now, they may not be the most desirable cars ever,

but there was cars I wanted.

And now I have the financial means to get them.

And I wanna get them and bring them back

to some sort of condition that doesn't have to be original.

It could be modified to an extent,

but it's got to be period correct.

It's gotta be clean.

It has to be, you know, I want as many

of the OE type of parts on the car,

but I'm not talking about just for power level.

You know what I mean?

Like if I have a seat, I want the right seat.

If I have, you know, I don't want

aftermarket seats in the car, right?

If I'm going to have a car that came

with a factory spoiler, I want the factory spoiler.

I don't want something aluminum

that's bolted on, dangling up in the air.

Sounds like you went through this lately

with a particular car that you're looking at.

Well, I always have things that are going on

in the background, you know,

and one day we'll see where that ends up, but.

I think for me as your therapist,

the fact that you're having these feelings

is pretty normal because I think it's just a matter

you've sort of seen it all and done it all in the past.

So you know how much of a left turn these things can take

when you start putting the parts

that don't really belong on those vehicles

or you put parts that you later regret.

So you're kind of hyper focused

on making it right the first time, this time around.

Anything that comes with, I think that probably comes with age.

You know, I think for me, with the integral that I have

with the 92 integral, I think for me,

I had always sort of promised myself quietly

that one day I would also get one of those cars

because that's what got me into cars in the first place,

that particular model, right?

And so the opportunity came up to get it.

I was in the editorial world.

I figured, you know, why not?

I had the money.

It was very cheap because it was a bucket

and it was one of those things that like I got it.

I started working with Whitfield with full racing

to put together a turbo kit for it.

Yeah, he's great.

And so, you know, I started getting into it

and getting it going.

And then that editorial position ended,

the Honda 10-year went away, right?

And so it was right at the time when I was buying a home,

my first home, and then having our second kid.

So I was like-

Thanks guys.

Yeah, like for easy.

So I had to back away, I had to put it on hold.

The turbo kit had been done.

The engine was in pieces.

The car was ready to go to paint.

Like it was just one of those things

that had to put it on hold for a long time.

And so it was years before it finally like

started getting into it again.

And eventually got it done.

But I think as you get older,

you kind of have to consider those things

because when I was younger, I would have just rushed it

and just like, or even get it done.

At this point, I was just at that point in time,

I was like, you know what?

Let me take a step back, slow down.

Let me kind of reset and then I'll come back to this.

The car is going to still be there.

And it was and I finished it and I love it now.

You know, drive it all the time.

I think I have this thing, you know,

besides the fact that I feel like it's almost my job now

to save some of these Japanese examples, right?

Like as I start getting like, I mean like, listen,

there is nobody, I don't, being a DSM guy,

there was nobody that was like, you know what?

I'm going to get 3000 GT VR4

because this car is super nimble, really cool,

makes a GABA power.

Like they're just a pain in the ass to work on.

They're, you know, whatever.

But what's interesting for me with the car,

and if it wasn't my friend's car

and it wasn't, you know, kind of meticulously built

and he was kind of like doing that OE type plus thing

and the car was an original owner car when he got it.

I don't think I would have been like,

yeah, let me buy that, right?

It wasn't like open the top of my list, but it does.

It gives you all the same feels that the DSMs had.

It brings you back.

Like the tech is clunky, but cool.

Like, you know, I like the active arrow stuff.

I don't believe it does anything,

but I am so happy when I hit 55 miles an hour

and that spoiler comes up.

Like, I mean, it's just stupid things like that.

But you know, I also think in building these cars

because I have a different end game, right?

Before it was, I used to build these cars

because, you know, I liked the idea of the camaraderie

going to these meets and people would open up the hood.

Like, I don't think, for me it was never about like,

hey, let me do this for other people.

It was always about doing it for me, right?

Because I like building the cars

and I know people are not gonna understand this,

but I like building the cars

even more than I like driving them.

I'm with you on that too.

Yep, same here.

We're all on that same bandwidth because that's it.

That also changed for me though over the years.

Like early on, I wanted to just drive and race and all that,

but when I got older, I preferred to hands-on

just the wrenching portion a bit more.

I like the idea that like,

either I can turn my brain off

and do something mindless for me

or I can turn my brain off

and just focus on the thing I'm doing on the car, right?

Making something, fabricating something, welding something,

trying to make something better, all that stuff.

But like in my builds over the years,

I think the one thing that like Matt has said,

like that really changed for me

is I became tremendously more thoughtful.

I was able to take time

and like really plan out what I wanted to do

and I wouldn't cut quarters.

You know, back then like,

there was a lot of parts that I bartered for, right?

Like it wasn't exactly the turbo I wanted

but like it was big enough

and like I feel like whatever.

So like, but I could get it on a deal

because I would, you know,

tune this guy's car for him

and then he would give me this turbo or whatever it was.

And now I'm just like, well, screw it.

I'll just buy what I wanna buy

or I'll save up and then I'll buy what I wanna buy.

You're willing to have the patience now

to like save up if you need to

or just maybe put that big purchase off a little bit

on the same way too.

I think that's just coming to the age of the car guy.

Like that's, as we've gotten older,

we've started to realize that, you know,

you're better off to pay once, you know,

to cry once instead of cutting that corner

and then you end up paying that price multiple times.

I understand what you're saying.

And that's been, you know,

we've, I've heard that resonated

and I have said that even to other people.

I don't think that's what it is for me though.

Okay.

Because I don't think I, at this point,

I would ever buy something that wasn't a quality part.

So I kind of take that away a little bit.

For me it's more about there's something I want

and I'm not prepared to do any less.

Like I'm, when I build a, when I build cars now

or when I put cars together,

I don't like using the build,

the build term gets fuzzy for me.

Cause like, I think for me,

when I think about a car build,

like I understand it can be simple,

but I'm thinking of those, you know, race car builds

we used to, like I used to do where like that's a build,

right?

Well, that's like my Z is a build,

like everything's literally everybody.

Everything's cut, wiring, harness, fuel system, everything.

That's a build, right?

But I guess what I'm saying is like when I'm,

when I'm putting a car together that I know,

I'm doing it now with the intention

that I'm never going to sell this car.

I do, I do not, there's been a few, listen,

I still have a few bucket list swaps and builds,

but those are things that like some of them,

it's just to get, cause I wanted to do it,

like the learning process.

I want to be able to do this stuff.

And then after that, there's now cars

that are on my car bucket list.

And I've told myself, if I ever get these cars,

I'm going to do my best to preserve them

into some sort of OE plus type thing.

Doesn't mean they won't make a lot of power

or maybe they may, but like I'll get them into these things.

I'll put the cool factory parts back onto the car.

Like I'll make sure that it's as clean

as I can get the car, right?

And that means everything down

from if I have a switch that's cracked or scratched,

you know, in the years past, I probably would just like

spray it with a little black paint

or try to make it look better.

And now I'll literally go on eBay

or I'll search all over the world

looking for the stupid switch.

Right, right, right.

And it's nothing more than just the fact

that if it's going to be my car forever

and it's on my list of cars I'm going to keep forever,

then I want it to be as perfect as it can be

by my definition.

I have a funny example of, oh, sorry man.

I have a funny example of that.

So when I first got my Zee back in the day,

I took all the interior panels out

because I thought that made a car lighter.

Yeah, we all did the same thing.

We all did the same thing,

but now as I've progressed in age, 15 years later,

I'm putting all those same panels back into the car.

And now I'm having to buy them all again.

Because of course, back then,

I mean, who cares, they're plastic.

You just throw them in the trash.

Yeah, I had no idea that eventually,

15 years down the road, I'd want them back.

See, and I will say I wasn't as bad.

As much as there was some interior

that I took out of the car,

I was the guy that when I put my roll cage in,

wanted it to fit as tight as I could to everything.

And I carefully spent hours meticulously

cutting the interior plastics around the cage

so it would slip perfectly

so there wouldn't be any gaps in it and stuff like that.

Yeah, I mean, but now I'm at a stage

where if I wasn't racing the car,

I wouldn't put a cage in it.

Like honestly, I think first off,

the plan was when I had the cage in that 2G,

it was to race the car.

I did race the car, not a lot,

but inherently, I probably would have kept that car

and not put a cage in it knowing

that I was only gonna go to the track,

probably like four to six times

once I had that car up to that power level

where it needed the cage.

And the amount of times that I had to climb over

a door bar or the amount of times I smacked my head

on the halo probably wasn't worth it.

And I really would have enjoyed the AC more

if I didn't take it out of the car

the first minute I got the car.

Yeah, that's, I mean, Matt,

you ever, did you ever do the typical Honda

power steering removal, AC removal?

What is power steering?

Okay.

For all my stuff, like usually I start with a lower model

that the Civic had as a VX,

it didn't have anything to do with it.

So it was not a big deal.

It had, I think it had like a dealer

installed AC system.

And there was a lot of wood screws in there.

So when I put that car apart and I pulled the dash,

all that stuff came out because it was all garbage.

Yeah.

So that was all bad.

The Integra, the power steering pump was shot,

the rack was shot, pretty much everything was shot.

So yeah, and the ABS that parts terrible.

So that came out.

You can't really have AC with the turbo setup

that we have in there.

So it didn't make any sense.

I do also have an AP-1 and a S2000

that has been on the back burner for quite a while.

Do you?

Yeah, that one has power steering.

So you just have those three cars though, right?

Those are my three project cars, yeah.

Yeah, so the S2000 has like all three run,

the S2000 I just haven't really played with it

for a long time, but it still has the power steering

and still has a radio and all the interior

and all that stuff.

So yeah.

The one thing that I have never had in any of my cars

that always was one of those things

that I didn't care about.

And I almost looked at it as like a write-up passage

for not using it was the air conditioning.

Because it was like, well, why would you do that?

First, you're creating more heat, taking away power,

you know, like, that's not what you get.

Drawing the load on the engine.

All this stuff, yeah.

So when I bought my Z,

the only thing that didn't work on that car was the AC.

And it drove me nuts.

And I let it go for years.

Anyhow, circle back 14 years or 13 years later,

I made it a mission that I was going to fix the AC.

I did everything.

I changed the evaporator core.

I changed everything.

I couldn't find any dye.

I put dye in the system, nowhere.

Couldn't find any.

I looked all over, black light, the whole thing.

Can't find it.

Well, gotta be the compressor, right?

Gotta be the compressor.

I was getting numbers.

We were looking at everything.

I was looking at the compressor.

So I put a new compressor in, wasn't that?

Then I was like, you know what?

One of these lines, because of the twin turbos,

they sit right in places where I'm like,

it's gotta be the line.

I must be underneath all that heat wrap

that I had put on that line to keep it from basically

just melting away above the turbo.

I'm like, it's gotta be that.

So then I take the line off, not the line.

So then I'm like, well, the only thing left

that I can't see is in the dash.

So it's gotta be the evaporator core.

So I go through that whole process.

Change the evaporator core, not the evaporator core.

Turn the thing on.

I'm like, there's only, and I remember,

I remember sitting in front of my car

and saying, there's only one part left

and it's the easiest part.

And I don't know why, I don't know how it could be this.

Pressure.

Condenser.

Oh, I was thinking of the pressure.

I thought I was thinking of the overpressure sensor.

Because, all right, so I don't wanna,

those cars are kind of a pain in the ass

to bleed.

Not a huge thing.

Like I vacuum fill them and usually that's,

that really takes care of it.

But so I decide, I'll go through the front,

not through the back.

I'm gonna leave the coolant stuff intact.

So I pull off the bumper,

unbolt the rads,

underbolt the front plastic rad core,

get the intercooler out of the way, the whole thing.

I have pictures on my Instagram.

Max can probably end up, he'll find a picture.

And I take the, as soon as I do that,

and I end up unbolting the condenser,

right in the middle of it, on the back,

is this area where one screw somehow rub through

one of the fins.

Oh my gosh, right through the arm.

But even when I look at it from really close up,

you can only see a hint of green.

And I'm like, you son of a, you know?

I replaced everything in the AC system, everything.

I mean, every single thing.

I changed, just so you know,

I put three dryers into the car,

because every time I did it, I was like,

I was like, oh, well, I gotta change the dryer.

It's both the elements, gotta change the dryer.

Anyhow, so I take this condenser off,

put new condenser in.

Anyhow, I've had the AC ever since.

But it's like, the point is the VR4 air conditioning.

Like, now I'm just like, you know what?

Like it's kind of cool to have air conditioning,

because like, when I'm a big guy roasting in the car,

it gets out of the head.

I get it for a daily, but I don't need it

for the sports car.

I really don't.

Which is what I said.

And I think in a few years,

you may have a different feeling on that.

I just, I also need it to be running and driving

for that to actually be a concern.

So let me get there first.

That's fair.

You know, it's not, the AC is more like,

the only thing that bothers me in the AC,

the Z gets very hot, right?

Now I have, I have aluminum radiators.

I have extra, you know, I have spa fans in there.

And like I have, like we've done, you know,

we've done all the stuff to make it cooler.

And it does a good job.

But like on a hot day, a really hot day

with the AC going and stuff, that baby is humming.

BQs are on hot anyway.

They're just inherently hot engines.

Like they put off a lot of heat,

a lot of radiant heat, even the trans tunnels.

Like, well, everything is aluminum.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, even from the, I mean,

from like just the placement of like the exhaust runners

and everything on the car.

Everything gets hot.

And I'm sure the turbos don't help extra.

The extra, you know, I mean,

the thing's got like a four inch thick

inch cooler in the front of it.

You know what I mean?

Like you're not really helping air flow.

There's no air flow.

Yeah, that's true.

The car doesn't have any air flow, nothing.

Anyhow.

I don't know.

As far as like, as far as like current times,

like for me for the last couple of years,

like last two years,

other than just basic maintenance,

bolt checks and driving the cars.

When I have time, I haven't really been building.

I haven't really been like,

like doing anything really hands on with it.

I started to let this dive into adult competitive athletics

and kind of needed some more time for that than cars.

Have you ever taken a break

and not done anything for like a year, six months,

where you just weren't wrenching,

you weren't doing anything with it?

I don't think that I stand a chance

in competitive athletics.

So I'd say in the car thing.

Right, right.

My example, my example.

I understand.

No, you know,

I think there've been periods like ebbs and flows

where maybe, you know,

I wasn't doing stuff on the car

because I was busy with life or, you know, whatever.

But I kind of like that idea.

I think that's why I like having a lot of project cars.

Yeah.

Because, you know, I really liked,

like part of my passion is really like,

I like to fabricate.

I like to weld.

I like to build.

Like I like to have all the tools

and all the equipment and, you know,

give me a mill, give me all that stuff.

I wanna.

You're a maker.

What's that?

You're a maker.

You like to produce things.

You like to make something.

I do.

And so, like the problem is you get done with a car,

you get a car.

Like I got my Z to a certain place.

There's not much left.

To do.

Right, right.

That I can do at this stage.

If I decided like, hey, like, you know what,

let me see if I could do this

and make a thousand horsepower.

Like we'd be on a whole other level

but you'd be ditching everything all over again.

You know what I mean?

Like it's, you'd be stripping the car down

and go all the way back to a different place.

And I don't want that.

Like I like the car that the car,

I like that the car makes,

you know, 460, 480 horsepower,

like on pump gas and just is completely drivable.

Like I like that.

And it's reliable in the sense of

it's not at such a high power level

that things are breaking all the time.

Yeah, and I also don't really drive the car enough

to break them, so.

True, but even if you were driving it at that power level,

that's not enough to really start to hurt those cars.

Like you start to really beat on them

and start to really push it.

That's when you start to see failures.

But the little VQ35s can take a pretty good pounding

especially at that power level.

Yeah, I think the only weak part

becomes really the valve train at that point.

Like you can't, you don't want to like

rev the thing out a whole bunch.

Yeah, I mean it puts 7,200,

you're still fine on those engines.

I don't know, I've kind of always felt like

with the turbos and stuff I keep it a little lower.

But you know.

I'm reckless.

We know this is why, that's why the RV is broken.

That's why I'm always doing project cars.

Cause I will rev them out and break something

and then it's very much that build it, break it,

rebuild it type mentality with me.

I enjoyed the actual process of the build too much.

I mean I guess that's why for years

I worked in the shops and I did enjoy that.

But like it was the same thing.

Like there was never a time where the car wasn't far

from my mind or one of the cars that I was,

my daily wasn't far from my mind of doing something on.

Like there was never a moment where it was like,

oh, let me take a break from cars.

Like it's from sun up to sundown, it's pretty much.

Yeah, I think I was the same,

I was definitely the same way.

And it was like every weekend, every Saturday and Sunday

if we weren't doing something family related

I was in the garage doing something.

That's all I wanted to do.

And I think it wasn't that it got overwhelming

or anything or that I got tired of it.

It's just that I've, you know,

I found something else I wanted to try for a little bit.

And I think the few weeks turned into a few months

turned into now a couple of years,

but, you know, I still sort of kept my finger

on the pulse of what's going on

and what people are doing with car stuff.

And so I think now looking at it, like big picture

I'm a little bit more inclined

to get back out there again and start doing stuff.

Not super pumped at spending money,

but just the fact that like getting back out there

and starting to rent again would be a lot of fun.

I think having some time off maybe miss it a bit,

which is probably good.

But at the same time, you gotta be careful

I don't wanna drop a bunch of money on stuff

I really don't need.

Well, let me ask you a question.

So would you, you know, so from the Civic

to the, you know, to the Integra,

like is there anything there that you wanna do?

Like I said, if I was gonna do anything with the Civic

it would be the supercharger

because I've never done one before.

I would like that experience of installing it,

finding it out, installing it,

and then, you know, tuning it and seeing what it feels like.

Is it a B or a K? Integra?

It's a K.

It's a fully built K24.

Yeah, I mean, it's built to handle boost.

So I could put a considerable amount of boost on it.

The Integra, I think I'm pretty good.

I don't think I wanna do anything else with that car.

Maybe the power steering thing

that like what Nick was mentioning,

that would be kinda cool.

I've never done it before, so that would be interesting.

The S2000, I've never finished it before, so.

What would you, so what's,

so if you, let's say money's not an object, right?

What's the, what's the,

what would be the plan for the, you know, S2000?

Just to finish it up, like right now

I have some wiring issues, the headlights are not working

and I don't know why.

So I've been trying to figure it out,

or I was trying to figure it out before I took this

brake and I was getting a little bit frustrated.

I did reach out to a friend that has a buddy

that kinda specializes in S2000s.

I may actually lean on him to give me a hand with it,

which is weird, because I don't really do that anymore.

I do it all myself, but it's a bit of a headache,

hate wiring, so hopefully you can, you know,

maybe lend me a hand and get that rectified.

Other than that though, it's ready to go.

It's an F20 car, so?

Sort of, it's a K24 crank and then custom rods.

So it's a 2.4 liter.

Wow.

And then it's got a CNC head,

individual throttle bodies, custom plenum.

The radiators laid down on a flat.

Oh, cool.

So, yeah.

When you started talking about it,

I definitely thought it was a very mildly done S2000

from the way you made it sound,

and then all of a sudden he's like,

oh yeah, but it's got all this other stuff in it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, so.

So let me ask you a question.

So with the S2000, what, and I don't know,

I'm not enough of a Honda guy.

Obviously I know, you know, different things

about Ks and put the K20 head on the,

but like, but why go that way

rather than what I think some people do swap-wise,

I don't know if it's a time or period thing,

but a lot of them are doing the, you know,

K24 bottom ends with, you know,

everybody promotes the K20 head

as being the libel, diol, head flowing master.

So for my Civic, that's what I have,

I have a K24 block, K20 head.

Right.

So you kind of get the best of both worlds,

you get the bigger block

and you get the higher flowing head.

Yeah.

So they work well together.

For the S2000, it was just,

it's still the F-Series engine,

but then the crank is from a K

and so you got to do a little bit of

and then we can work.

But why go that route?

What was the, what was the-

I think because, well, the original engine in that car

is, I know everyone loves it

and they rave about how great it is,

but the mid-range is so terrible on that car.

It wasn't that enjoyable to me.

And that puts the mid-range right back.

You just picked up all of this placement.

Yeah.

From a two liter to a 2.4 liter.

So yeah, that plus IPVs.

So.

Yeah, something a little bit different too.

So it's an all motor car?

Yes.

What compression?

Total to one.

Okay.

So, what do you think?

You think that car is gonna be like a 240, 250 horsepower?

Yeah, maybe like 250, something like that.

Which should probably be pretty good for that car, right?

It should feel-

Yeah, good decent.

Yeah, it's not gonna be a powerhouse,

but it'll feel good.

Yeah.

I'm pretty sure the mid-range is gonna be nice.

Right.

For all the response.

So, have you ever driven it with that setup yet,

at all?

Just cruising around the neighborhood.

I just have a very basic, like a base map on it.

I need to finish it up

and then actually get a dyno tuned.

Yeah, it's crazy.

So when you think about,

so when I think about building cars,

I always, I'm a very much from the ground up kind of person.

So for me, it's bushings and tires

and control arms and good quality suspension.

Like when you guys plan out your builds,

where does it start for you?

Do you start that same way

where you're looking at it from that viewpoint

or do you go in from a performance side

and work your way back?

What, how do you approach it?

I mean, I personally,

I think every single car I've ever had,

I think they all start with wheels, tires, suspension brakes.

But that's just me, right?

Then once I clear through that,

because I think like in doing that whole thing,

one, you're shaking apart a lot of the suspension and stuff.

So you're finding anything that's bad, right?

And if it's bad, ball joints or bushings or whatever,

I'm replacing it, right?

But the other thing is like, now I know,

I think like if you put on,

if you do suspension, brakes, wheels and tires,

you immediately have made that car feel way better.

Like it just inherently,

if you're putting the right stuff on.

So I start there and then the next thing I do

is I go straight into like power stuff.

It kind of always been the same way, I think.

Matt, same for you with that?

You know what, with the Civic,

I did not plan on putting that car on the road

until it was completely done, like ready to go.

So for me, it wasn't like,

I'm gonna do suspension and wheels and tires first

and get a feel for it and all that stuff.

I've already built that chassis before,

so there was no surprises for me.

So I think for me, when I did that one,

it was, everything was done in groups.

So I did all of the suspension at once,

any of the cars up on jack stands

and everything's torn out of it.

So a lot of PCI stuff, a lot of very cool stuff.

I did everything suspension related all at once

and then braking all at once and then the engine all.

So it was all done in groups

and interior was a couple months of time as well.

I already knew like the wheel size and tire,

all that stuff well before I even started.

So just a matter of ordering the parts

and then kind of grouping it all up

and then just going at it.

So I kind of refused to move on to another part

until that section was completely done.

Yeah.

I kind of kept a little bit of a schedule,

but I don't have a deadline.

It was just build it, you know?

I liked it.

But it kept me like focused.

So that way it was like, all right,

I'm gonna only be thinking of the suspension

for the next couple of weeks

and figuring out what I'm gonna do

and what I'm gonna do it.

That way I kind of kept everything in order

and then for me, it felt really smooth that way.

And when it was done, I was like, it was easy.

It was pretty straightforward.

There was no big surprises.

I'm finding myself falling into a little bit of bolt.

So on like my daily, I'm doing,

I did tires with a good tread wear.

Obviously I'm running the hypergrams on there right now.

I did sway bars, control arms,

lowered the car on fortune autos.

Everything has been done as far as suspension wise

and just a little bolt on stuff.

But then with the Z, I pulled the whole subframe out,

did all that all at once,

put all polyurethanes in,

did the control arms all at once,

put that all back in.

Very much that modular mindset

of similar to what Matt is discussing.

So it's funny that I guess depending on usage

or like the project,

it's kind of how you're gonna have to approach it.

Because if you plan on using the car the next weekend,

you can't really have it completely disassembled.

It's a lot different than when I was younger

and I had to use the car to go to work

or go to school or whatever.

I didn't have the option to like put it up on Jacksense

for six months or whatever.

You know what I mean?

So it's a lot different.

I did notice that,

I did the Civic later than the Integra.

With the Integra,

I ended up going backward a little bit

because it's probably what I did.

I think I broke an ax or something.

And I was up in there and I was like,

man, these bushings don't look great on this side.

So I'm also do the bushings on both sides.

And then I did all the bushings throughout the whole car.

And then the car was down for a little while

I was doing that.

And then I had to go back and get alignment again.

So I found myself sort of going backward.

And I think that sort of taught me a lesson

like with the Civic,

just do it all straight forward

from the very beginning,

do it right.

Don't put the car on the ground until you're ready to drive it.

And that's basically what I did.

So yeah.

That's interesting.

So, all right.

So before we wrap up here,

just kind of go around the virtual room here.

If you can,

if you're at the point now where

you have a couple of cars left

that you want to own for your stable,

let's pretend that,

we're not going to do the money, no object thing.

Let's be realistic here, right?

Right.

And then in addition to that,

let's also not do,

take away the variable of,

I don't know where I would keep it

because that's my struggle.

But like, so Matt,

what kind of, you go in first.

What kind of cars do you think?

I think if I was going to do another Honda build,

I've never built a DC2.

So I would like to do one of those,

not necessarily a Type R,

but I really like that chassis I always have.

So that would probably be a Honda one.

If it was going to be something non-Honda

and I wanted to learn from,

I'd really like to do a rotary and a MX-5.

Really?

It'd be fun.

Yeah.

I really like that idea.

I like the idea,

but I'll tell you,

I don't know that,

you know, the rotary world to me

is a very, very different place.

Yeah.

That's why I like it.

It's like the opposite.

I get it.

I will tell you that if you know anybody,

have you played with those Winkle engines at all?

I am so anti-rotor.

It's terrible.

I have a very close friend who loves them,

but I cannot do it.

So I will tell you that I was very,

I think the mystique of the whole thing

petrified me,

but then I have a friend that actually knows them

pretty well and I helped them assemble a three rotor.

Now, let me tell you something.

Well, it sounds like that.

But when this dude straight up started

gobbling Vaseline and it just all bolted together

in a matter of like,

you know, I mean,

I feel like it only took him like maybe an hour

to put the whole thing together.

And I was like,

like when they know,

when people know what they're doing with those things.

It's crazy.

But it does.

It makes it look like Legos.

The thing just bolts together so fast.

And I'm like,

I'm like, that's it.

And he's like, that's it.

I was like,

boom, boom, boom.

I've seen those guys that have like

all the pieces like in a bucket,

they take it all out,

they sum the bucket and they put it all together right there.

And it's like, it's crazy how good they are.

Oh, it's, it's wired.

I remember thinking like,

that's cool.

Like, and the fact that you can pick the engine up

and bring it over to your car.

And there's always so much room in the engine bay.

And you're like,

so there are some real big draws to it.

I get it.

It's pretty interesting.

I just,

I've never been able to get into the rotary thing.

So what's, what's your other,

what's your other bucket list cars, man?

So I would, I don't know.

I'm kind of leaning towards,

I really want to put a VK 56 in something,

probably in the white Z that I have at the house.

I would love to do a manual spot VK 56.

And I just drive that around.

A lot of people are starting to come around

some of that stuff.

You know, it's just,

it's such a good sounding engine

and the architecture is very nice on the engine.

So I like that.

And then I, as like a family car,

I would love to just do a newer Coyote supercharged

F-150 would be.

Yeah, I get you.

It would be nice to just drive around

through the kids in the back,

go to Home Depot if I have to

and you know, have fun with it.

Yeah, I get that.

That's interesting.

I don't know.

There's a different projects for sure.

Two Polar Answers.

Cause I got the kids that I gotta worry about too.

So it's like, might as well have something fun with them.

Yeah, I get it.

Ah, that's crazy.

So, so what's your, if you,

I think we all know the R33 is high on that list,

but what would be the R,

the dream, let's say the dream R33 build,

like what color and what would you do to it?

I think the color thing is tricky.

For some reason I still kind of lost after having one in white,

which I don't think is super unique,

but I just, I think that there's,

you know, just something about that period.

Throwing you wrong, there's like some of the,

like, you know, the red ones and stuff like that

that I would, you know, be very partial to, but,

but yeah, like I really,

I really want like, you know,

you know, one of the, you know,

V-spec, Nismo edition, you know, R33s,

which will never, that will never happen.

If I can get an R33 GTR, that would be great.

I think, you know, right up there,

I think that's pretty much kind of on the top

of my list as far as that goes.

I mean, obviously there's,

there's other, you know, JDM cars

and there's other, you know,

cars of that period that I would like, right?

But I think if you're going to ask me to pick like one,

like the R33 GTR to me is kind of that car

that I really do want.

I think obviously stereotypically,

like I would really like to have a Supra,

you know, an A80 Supra too.

But if I had to pick one, I picked the R33 GTR.

And what's the oddball car?

Since we both had an oddball, what would your oddball car,

what's the one car that nobody would expect you to want?

How about that?

Neon SR-T4.

No, nobody would expect anybody to want that car.

I don't care, that thing's a lot of fun.

My bad if you have one out there, but.

The four people just came off the video, congratulations.

I don't know if anybody would find this to be a curve ball

because I think people could probably see it.

But I really do, like on my bucket list

of a whole bunch of cars that I want to own,

I really like C6 Z06s.

I think that they're great cars, they're a lot of fun.

I think that they really have a level of bulletproof

and stoutness that's just not had by many.

And I think the car is really good on a racetrack.

I mean, it is the best Corvette and I will say that

and they can come at me in the comments,

but the Z6 Z06 in my opinion is by far the better.

I mean, I get that the new ones are faster and all that,

but there's something about the rear,

front engine rear configuration

and that was the pinnacle for them in my opinion.

And here's the thing, like that car

and I think the R33 GTR at one point in my life,

I probably will have both those cars as well,

but those to me are still at that top peak of obtainable,

like I mean, the C6 I can get,

but I mean, I talked about like the R33 GTR,

like I do believe at some point I'll cower

and I'll end up getting one of those cars somehow.

But I don't know if we'll be in any good condition,

but I'm gonna get one.

But you know, I mean, like obviously

if there was like a money no option type thing,

I mean, I really, really like, you know, GT3 RSs,

but that's like, we're in a whole other,

it's not even a whole different world at that point.

I won't, I don't think I'll ever own a GT3 RS,

like, because they just don't stop going up in price.

No.

You know?

See, but me, I'd rather have one of the older Porsches

to be honest, like the new ones are all cool,

like a 936.

Okay.

I mean, you're saying money's no object,

I mean, at that point.

Yeah, I mean, I got it.

I mean, listen, and here's the thing,

like I like the 997s, like I'm a big 997 fan,

but so is everybody else.

I don't know, I mean, but it's not,

I don't know that if you ask me like the cars

that I can't live without, that's not one of them.

No, not at all.

It's not one of them.

But yeah, I mean, just give me old Japanese stuff

that barely starts with the first turn of the key.

That's kind of where I'm at.

I don't know.

So anyhow, it was cool rapping about cars, you guys.

Fun to talk about things that we can't afford.

And I don't know.

So that's it.

Thanks for hanging out with us.

Thanks for watching.

If you are kind of watching on YouTube,

don't forget we do this whole thing

on a podcast platforms too.

So you can go ahead and get subscribed

on iTunes, iHeartMedia, Spotify.

I don't even know if Stitcher's a thing anymore,

but if it's there between that and Google Play,

just go ahead and just start clicking around.

We're probably there.

It's for the SRT4 owners, that's exclusive.

Right, the Konig behind the wheel podcast.

Don't forget to check us out.

So you can listen to us while you drive

and argue with us on your radio.

There you go.

Anyhow, all right, catch you on the next one.

Peace.

See you guys.

All right.

Build your car for YOU, not for anyone else

Nissan Z32

Acura Integra

Honda S2000

BMW F20

Ford F150

Nissan R33

Nissan Gtr

Toyota Supra

Neon Srt4

Chevrolet C6

About this episode

Original notes