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BigSmoke

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Posts: 844

Location: Indonesia
Occupation: Following Those Damn Trains
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V$: Broke
#155528   2019-04-27 17:43          
Land of the Free
(NOTE: Some pictures are taken from Phonexius's RP)












So, paycheck has come and finally I can free myself from my debts.
But that's not all that happened this week obviously......and it gets better as the days passes by.
I AM GOING TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! But of course I'm not going alone, there are lots of friends as well
So, let's see how I spent my first days in the land of muscle cars right below! :D















[Flashback, circa January-February 2019]
While I was living on my winter holiday at Tokyo with Muza(Niatross), AJ(RocketBunnyS13) and Marc(Macaron_moon), all of us was called and contacted by Ben(Phonexius) via various medias. Ben is one of the owners of Side to Side racing team and garage shop, based in Ardmore, Okahoma, USA. He's also the owner of the Art of Wheels shop that you can access here, where you can buy various kinds of wheels(obviously), stickers, car accessories(including recently ECU and steering wheels) and many more. Feel free to visit and buy something from the shop, as they accept worldwide shipping :D

Currently Ben runs both shops with his close friend and co-owner of Side to Side, Ziga(Lagano). Originally Side to Side was founded by four people, which were Ben, Ziga, Mikingo and 3StyleLTU (I don't know the real name of the latter two). Several people also joined Side to Side at one time, but eventually they also left the team in the end, leaving only Ben and Ziga to run the shop at the moment. Most are still in good terms and in contact with the duo, but some others left the team as well the scene with unknown fate.

Side to Side also has another garage at Los Angeles, CA where they store some of their cars, iirc mostly Ziga's cars. They also toured around the world to various places each year, including Japan and England in the past. Recently they have come back from another european tour to Ben's motherland, Bosnia and Herzegovina to help Ben's cousin establish his garage shop and building cars in between. At times they're also kind enough to source some cars from where they are at the moment to other petrolheads.......just ask AJ and Muza, who got EU-spec Nissan 200SXs from Ben. All in all, they're great and kind people who you'll want to hang and drive, or even live with ;)

Speaking about racing efforts, I don't really know if they race competitively/professionally that often, but all I know is they do attend club and open level events and they mainly focuses on drag racing and drifting discipline. At this point you should hit their RP thread to check their rides :)) Ziga usually take part in drag races with various rides including a Chevelle, Soarer and recently an ex-cartel owned Supra A80. He also owns a 3S-GE swapped AE86 that recently has been made streetlegal. Ben meanwhile owns a lot of track-focused cars, including an R33 and R34 which produces monumental level of power, but we'll get to that later. He also owns a mad drift machine in form of 13B-swapped Merc. Truly one hell of a collection don't you think? With this in mind, this is a chance I couldn't miss to see all of them in my own flesh.

After a deep thinking and consideration for many, many days and weeks, I gave the OK to Ben on visiting the states around early to mid February. Ben was also kind enough to lend me one of his cars, but we'll also get to that later. From that point on, in-between my working days I made some trips to US embassy to get a passport and visa for the visit, as well as arranging online flight ticket from Narita Airport to Dallas-Forth Worth Airport, which is the nearest airport to Ardmore. You already know how I spent the rest of the days.........


[22 Apr 2019]
Before going to the US of A, it is time to sort my debts first. As you've read at the previous update, I ran out of money and had to declare a debt to VS garage for my HR34 spoiler paint, with the consequence of my slips for the car held by them and seizure of the HR34 should I'm unable to pay the debt within a month. Thankfully, my current paycheck of V$940 is more than enough to pay the debt, which was V$250. So what I did this day was obvious.....I went back to the VS garage and reclaimed the slips for the HR34.

While I was inside and sorting my debts, as well as apologizing to them for declaring a debt, I told them about my plans to the USA. They seemed to be excited and curious on what am I going to do there, which will be answered later. And while I was inside their garage I also told my document translation customers that I'm going to USA so I can only accept softcopy translations in the meantime. Of course I also told my friends about it, mainly Rantaro and Ryuji. Both of them are looking forward to the pics of USA's car culture there. I can feel so much expectations for this trip, after all it's not everyday you can have a trip to USA! :))

With everything sorted, done and dusted, I went back to my crib to start my preparations for the trip. I can't wait to have my feet stepping on the land of the free and drive various cars there! And who knows if I can grab home something back to Japan? :D


[24 Apr 2019]
It's the D-day! After a shower, breakfast and some final preparstion, I went to Narita Airport by bus at 7am. It's practically near with Tsukuba, only taking around 1 hour to get to the airport. The plane to DFW airport departs at 10am, so theoritically I have to finish my check-in, luggage processing and departure procedures by 9.30am, thus my decision to take bus earlier. Ah yes, the flight itself is a non-stop 12 hour flight, so I'll arrive at DFW airport at 10pm in the middle of dark night.

After all the check-in and departure procedures are done, I waited at the perron and meet up with Muza and AJ who came up later.

E: "Yo Muza! AJ! C'mere man!"
M: "Yoooooo who's ready to go stateside?"
A: "Stateside car hunting session here we go!"
E: "Aaaah glad y'all so fired up as well. A bit gutted Marc can't jump in as well"
A: "He didn't said back then he would go to Italy though"
E: "Italy? Is he going to buy a Ferrari or something?"
M: "Hell if we know. We only found out some time ago, and looks like Marc is as busy as ever"
E: "Had I know this I'd like him to source me a Fiat Panda Sisley"
M: "Aaaaah yes someone has watched The Grand Tour it seems"
A: "We don't blame you though, it's tiny and simple yet also a great offroader"
E: "See, I know you'd like that thing as well"
A: "Anyways what are goin to drive there?"
E: "Well s**t I'm broke man! *massive laughter* nah I'm not that broke, but I'll borrow Ben's ride"
M: "Which one though? The R33?"
E: "Nonono that thing's too powerful, only he could and may ride it"
A: "Ziga also secured an Evo 6, you might be-"
E: "Yes I want to drive it but no, it's in a rather messy state. Let him restore it first"
*departure annuncement*
E: "Oh it looks like we're ready to go"

We continued talking as we went aboard the plane.
E: "Right uh, the flight is non-stop and takes 12 hours. How could we avoid a massive jet lag? Sleeping mid-air?"
A: "No I don't think that works that well. But then again what could we do mid-air?"
M: "Eh, eventually we'll sleep I guess"
A: "Well s**t just put your phone in airplane mode and set alarms if you're going to sleep"
E: "Good idea. And uh, whoever wakes up first is the one waking up the others. Sounds like a good deal to you?"
A: "Can do that"
M: "I don't mind"

10.15am, our plane took off from Narita and started our flight to DFW. Along the flight AJ and Muza have some chatter, while I simply try to calm myself by pumping some music from my phone. And Muza's call was correct as we felt asleep one hour after lunchtime.

Speaking of flight experience, it's quite nice and the service was fairly recommendable (as we don't know what happened for the rest 6-7 hours). I do really admire commercial pilots, stewards and stewardees in general who would serve various passengers for many hours non-stop on plane. Being a steward and stewardees might look like a simple job but trust me, their training is quite hard and they got to keep and polish their looks everytime as well. As for the pilots and copilots, well, play any flight simulators and tell me how hard is it.

We woke up around 9pm, an hour before the plane lands. We still feel exhausted and dizzy from the turbulence and jet lag even after we slept for a rather long time.......even we can't hear anything for a while. It looks like we're approaching the American soil as we can see lots and lots of night lights below us. It felt surreal but beautiful that after all this time we're going to step our feet on the soil of USA. We're going to live the American dream!

Finally, we landed at DFW at 10.20pm, and after all the arrival procedures completed and all luggages successfully claimed by us, we took a rest for a while at the terminal.....then we saw someone familiar.

"Marc? Marc is that you? Oi Marc is that you?!" I tried to call that person.
"Oh Edo! AJ! Muza! There you are!" He replied, confirming it was indeed Marc!

We have a long banter for a while as we rest, unexpecting him to actually come here by his own. So it turns out he was supposed to come back straight to Japan, but he remembered our plan to come here so he simply went here instead. He also said he'll simply ride shotgun with either AJ or Muza so he could cut cost during the trip. I think he's going to appreciate Ziga's Evo 6........

Aferwards Muza received a call from Ben. It turns out he waited for us at a parking lot tower nearby, so we went there while covering our ears from sonic booms emitted by planes coming and leaving the airport. Ben sent his coordinates to Muza's phone, but he parked at somewhere in the middle floor so it was a lengthy walk.

Finally, with the lengthy walk over, we saw Ben and Ziga chilling beside their cars. Ben was driving his signature, monstrous R33 and Ziga was driving the shop's parts truck, a Chevy Silverado CK 1500. And turns out there are two more of us: There are also Soju(well, Soju) and 11K(11000rpm) there! They come from South Korea, also invited by Ben.

You might already know Soju for being the king of Supra builds here, with all that carbon fiber diet and aggresive track styling. But not only that, Soju is also the current RP king with 891 posts in his RP thread as I write this.....only 109 posts away from 1000 posts! (and nobody has ever reached 1000 posts in VS RP!!). Together with 11K and some other friends, they formed the Seoul Tuners crew and basically owns the crown and throne of SK car tuning scene. 11K recently has also gone competitive too by entering open and club gymkhana events (the Japanese traditional gymkhana, not that obnoxious Ken Block-ish gymkhana) with his SR20-swapped E36. Once or twice a year they also come to Japan to attend events like Ebisu Matsuri or Nikko Drift Matsuri.

As this is the first time we meet each other in flesh, we took some time to introduce ourselves and have some chatter. In the meantime, let's see the cars that has come to pick us up.

This is Ben's R33, with an RB26 inside and kitted with the famous, sleek Nismo 400R bodykit. Ben has hand-tuned this R33 for years, and it does show it results as the RB26 inside it now produces 1300+ BHP.....and despite all THAT power it's still streetlegal! That shows how legendary and masterful Ben is in terms of car tuning. Similar to me over my Silver Queen, Ben uses the R33 as a trackday toy and daily ride.
(NOTE: Phonexius's R33 is a VIP mod, and yes, I've tried to replicate it for this update with absolutely no avail. Don't worry though, you'll see the correct one later courtesy of him)


And here is the shop's Silverado. Bought by Ben two years ago, this is the 1992 RWD model, housing a 5.7 liter V8 engine producing 210 BHP......or at least back then. It was rebuilt many years back and the crew did some maintenance on the engine, but Ben admitted he rarely drive this thing. Despite that, he still had time to refine and do some detailling on the paint and trims, as well as fitting Work Crag T-Grabic offroader wheels in 17 inch size amd fitting a massive tool box in the bed. It looks so handsome and proper for the job.

With the introduction over, we headed to the Side to Side HQ at Ardmore. I decided to jump with Ziga in the Silverado. As I've once said, the pickup truck is one of the most American thing in USA. Normally it works as a commercial and logistics vehicle like my Sprinter van does. The biggest difference would be you can comfortably and confidently daily a pickup truck or even carry people with it, whereas you might be already losing your mind if you try to daily a blind van/box van, well at least if you don't convert it into a campervan first. The Silverado glides and cruises on the highway with smooth and nice ride, it's like riding on a king-size bed :D

Far ahead I can hear the massive, loud baritone and treble sound echoed by Ben's R33. When a car has THAT much power under insdie the engine bay, obviously it's hard not to notice it. And how Ben could keep it streetlegal is yet another witchcraft that I should probably learn from. Along with Ziga's AE86 becoming streetlegal as well, Ben and Ziga really lives the petrolhead dream life here in the USA.

It didn't took long for me to ignite my curiousity over what it feels like to live with a pickup truck everyday, combined with the fact that I stil haven't got anything to drive around at this point. I want to live the American live as well! Thus I asked to Ziga if I could grab the keys of the Silverado during the trip.

"Hey tell me Ziga, since Ben allows us to borrow one of his rides, can I take this?"
"Personally, I would allow you, but since it's Ben's ride you better ask him"
"Ah, okay, thanks for the initial OK sign"
"No probs, my man"
"Should I tell you approved as well?"
"Well if you want to, go ahead"

After a long, long day of trip, we finally reached our destination and took another sleep for the rest of the day. But before Ben goes away to his own crib, I asked if I could borrow his Silverado.

"Uh, Ben, back then you offered me to borrow you rides for the trip"
"Yes I did. So which one you want to have?"
"Can I have the Silverado?"
"Of course you can my boi. We rarely drive that thig so you can give it some workout"
"That's so nice of you, thanks my man"

And so, day 1 of our US trip passed with me securing the keys to the Silverado. Time to live the American life :D


[25 Apr 2019]
Day 2 of the US trip starts with a lively breakfast and another trip together to pick up Soju and 11K's respective rides. Yup, turns out they also brought their own signature rides here! God I could swear this would be a trip of a lifetime! First I've seen Ben's R33 by my own eyes, now Soju's Supra? I feel like I've basejumped into petrolhead heaven head first :D

We arrived at the pick-up point around 9.40am. Mood was truly upbeat since finally all of us can see yet another amazing cars by our own eyes. I, Ziga and 11K were inside the Silverado

After Soju, 11K, Ziga and Ben sorted all the shipping papers, it is time to unveil the curtai-I mean, the cargo and get the cars outside. And the first one to get of the cargo is Soju's very own Supra A80, complete with it's bare carbon diet contrasted with shiny white paint, sitting on Volk TE37SLs (here it is TE37TTA. Don't worry, accurate version also later). It is the JDM Kouki model, tuned to the max for highway and track racing applications, including that JGTC-style headlight and ram air intae combination, which back then used for JGTC Supras in endurance rounds or when rain pours the track. Ridox bodykit with front bumper made from carbon fiber, custom CF front fenders and carbon Top Secret bonnet completes the aggressive track stance. Absolutely a thing to behold and admire :-X


Next up is 11K's SR20-swapped BMW E36. Possibly one of the best 3-series generation in terms of power and chassis balance as well as availability, it is also equipped with half-rollcage and carbon fiber LTW wing and boot as well as GT front lip from the M3 model. It sits on 17 inch Buddy Club P1 wheels. It's also a track toy and daily car, just like my Silver Queen and Ben's R33. Fun fact: This E36 is one of the reason on why I attached stickers to my Silver Queen :)) as I've said previously, 11K recently went competitive with this E36, entering gymkhana events in South Korea.

With all rides reclaimed, we went to a body shop where Ziga and Ben used to paint their cars to held a welcoming BBQ party for us.......which turns out doubles as Muza's birthday party :D But mid-party Ben told Muza to grab his R33 keys and go for a spin with Ziga......what a lucky man! Ben also told me to drive him to the HQ with the Silverado and come back without him. He said he has a secret plan, so I don't really know what's going on at that point. Ben only said he'll come back soon.


So with utter confusion I went back to the party, but nonetheless enjoyed 2-3 plates of tasty BBQ and fries. Around 20 minutes later, an unfamiliar BMW E92 rolls into the place. I was thinking I was fully having an illuminati experience for the rest of the day despite not being drunk, but then I was relieved to see Ziga and Ben is the one inside the BMW. But then again, who's BMW it actually is? My curiosity and confusion was cleared when Ziga and Ben get off the car and shouted "HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIATROSS!" in joy. Yup, it's Muza's birthday gift!

We spent the time partying until the sun sets, and of course we can't party forever, so at the end of the day Ben and Ziga made plans for the next day, which you'll see after this one. Meanwhile, here's the full crew pic from the party, featuring correct versions of Ben's R33 and Soju's Supra as I promised! ;) As for the R33 and BMW E92 impression, obviously I'll leave that to Muza.




[26 Apr 2019]
Day 3 of the US trip and work has started! Well, at least for me and Muza. I've been told to bring the Silverado with Muza to the HQ, and Ben said today is the time for some of his biggest operations ever. But what would these be? I wonder.......ah but before all of that, let's see what cars are present in the HQ today!

Ziga stores a lot of cars here, but he usually would put his widebody Miata NA in the main shop room rather than the storage room. This is one of his daily rides, the others are a Nissan 300ZX Z32 and a Mark II X90 which he imported straight from Japan. Both of these cars are stored in Los Angeles rather than Ardmore at the moment, and the Evo 6 needs some treatment as well, so he had to stick with this one. It's not a bad thing though, since it looks as sweet and practical as a college girl with that paint scheme. It also screams proper JDM vibes as well, sitting on RS Watanabe wheels and despite being widened, it's still compact and small enough to slick around downtown Ardmore.

Meanwhile, Ben came to the HQ with his shiny, brand new GT-R R35. Recently he installed airbags on it, courtesy from his Volvo 850 which he recently sold. Yyou might be thinking "Why the hell someone bagged a GT-R?", but trust me, the answer to that question might leave you astonished. Performance-wise it's still fully stock, but eh, a stock GT-R is still awesome as it's pretty fast even in stock form and might be able to literally dislocate or even break your neck, neural system and/or brain if you use the sport mode and launch control many, many, many times.......that's why personally this is one of people's favourite ride despite it's reputation as an, um, PlayStation on wheels. Fun fact: The LCD interface is designed by Polyphony Digital. Yup, the guys behind Gran Turismo! This explains it's similarity with GT4 and GT5 in-game interface.

And then of course there's the Silverado. And it turns out the Silverado is the first one to receive the treatment today. And trust me, I didn't see this coming as Ben told me to pick up the engine hoist as he and Muza pick up a crate...........even Muza said to me, "Holey moley boi you're in for a big surprise!"

And indeed it was a big surprise. Turns out inside that crate resides an LS7 engine! Well I'm quite used to an LS swap, but putting an LS7 inside a Silverado is probably the last thing you'd expect when hearing the word "LS swap". But then again Ben has swapped a 13B engine inside a Merc, so he should be able to get around this one as well. You would usually find an LS7 engine inside the Corvette C6 Z06, though these days you can order them as a crate engine. In Ben's case though, I'm not really sure where did he got his one. You can also find an LS7 inside the 2014-2015 Camaro Z/28, or if you live in Australia you can find it as well inside the HSV W427. You can find one as well powering the Vertical Hummingbird 300LS helicopter! I took my position at the engine hoist as Ben went under the car to do and refine the mounting later. He opted to do the mounting as he's still suffering a bit from his crash involving his Merc.

The LS7 engine has a capacity of 7 liters, and in stock form as Ben used is capable of extracting 505 BHP. That's a hell lot to be thrown inside a pickup truck! But then again, talking about fast truck with big engine, Ford back then used to have the F150 SVT Lightning and Dodge has the RAM SRT10 which uses the Dodge Viper engine. GM used to have one as well, in form of GMC Syclone, and that truck used a V6 instead of V8! These things are rare unicorns since their birth though, so at this point it'll make sense why Ben would like to have a homemade, self-tuned one. And yes, that red engine cover is retained for added shock and awe factor ;)

With the Silverado's change of heart done, it is time to move onto the next one. This time, Ben's GT-R is the subject. And thankfully the operation is much more simple. So turns out at the day we come to USA, at daytime Ben received a set of Liberty Walk V1 bodykit straight from Japan. So its not only us that came from Japan :)) Muza and I delivered the kit to him, which contains the front and rear quarterpanel set as well as the swan neck wing. And yes, this is why Ben bagged his GT-R. As you might realize by now, most of Liberty Walk kitted GT-Rs are riding on bags rather than coilovers. See, Ben is a genius ;) My task for now is simply keeping track of the tools being used, including all the 10mm socket used in the process. I had to get under the car several times, smashing my head twice to the floor in the process :))

With the job done, Ben went off to test the kit, particularly to see if he and Muza set up the spacers correctly, as well as if he did set up the airbags correctly for rolling on the road as well when it's parked. But before he went out, I asked if I could take the Silverado for a ride. Thankfully he allows me to do it, as long as I'm being careful with it. This seems like a mundane response but he actually has a point: Not only this is his ride, the Silverado still runs on stock brakes, which combined with the LS7 would turn into a chocolate biscuit. If I step on the brakes too late or not hard enough I would turn the Silverado into a battering ram, and next thing we know Ben would absolutely murder me for that kind of mishap. Speaking of the GT-R, you can check the result by checking out Ben's RP thread.....go go go! :D

As I hit the streets of Ardmore and blend with downtown traffic, overall impressions are nice but indeed braking is a pain in the back. You have to press the brake much, much earlier to come into a stop, which as you would know happens quite often in city driving conditions. I could swear the stopping process took almost forever. But at least I could still feel it stopping. It felt like a battleship on wheels.

The good news is the ride quality and suspension didn't seem to take effect from the engine swap. What I mean is it's still ride comfortably and actually still dailyable despite all the LS7 soundtrack creeping a bit inside the truck. I could still chill inside, like sitting on a big sofa while driving and I could drive along while blasting and singing along to 'Free Bird' on the radio. It's just as comfortable as I first know it.

As for the engine, it's much more responsive and eager to move the car, as you might have expected. Previously, the car felt a bit laggy and tired due to the engine literally sirviving the ages and rarely driven before coming here. But now? I feel like I can take it to a track and do either a time attack or drag racing with it (but obviously it needs a better brake first). The V8 soundtrack is motivating as well, up to the point I forgot that this thing now has 505 BHP so when the light turns green, there's always a bit of a tire squirm as I hit the throttle :)) But don't worry, it didn't happen when I use it in normal, sensible condition.

At the end of the day I returned the Silverado to Ben and reported on all of what I experienced that day. In turn, Ben told me that the next move is to repair his Merc and do something on one of Ziga's cars. Hmmmmm, I wonder which car and what it would be?














Weeee boiiii finally I'm in the US of A! :D
Let's see how my wallet has survived so far:














That's all my updates for now, thank you for stopping by
and see you soon here or one of the boys's updates!
Still following the damn train since 1992

Visit my RP HERE!