Hi Alex, Glad to have your car or also known as Suki as our first ever JDMChat.com featured ride. Just a quick Q&A and a little insight as we try to get to know you and your car a little.

So Alex, what is your Daily Grind and a typical day for you living in Southern California? My daily habits usually start out with going to work at Status Auto Design in Hermosa Beach California. I tend to go home after work and unwind by working on one of my 2 cars or clean them. I’m currently working on a new project… a 1985 Toyota Corolla GT-S coupe. I would go out to car meets here and there but not so much anymore. That's about all I do on the week. The weekend is usually time off of the car and work. I spend it with my lovely girlfriend going out to a trance club or maybe going to Museums or something like that.

Where do you get your inspiration to build a JDM ride, and what has driven you towards this style? Let’s just say that I wasn’t necessarily aiming for “The JDM” look. I’m one that believes that the parts on a car should usually match the region of the car. Where else should you shop for a car to get the best for it? Probably where the car comes from is my best bet (at least for the most part). I don’t waste my time on putting the parts on my car that people will approve of or know how much money I have…. I’d rather aim for a theme and Follow the theme strictly. My Civic is my vision of a car that is a perfect street/track car. I kept in mind that the Civic in Japan is more popular as a track/cup series/canyon type car. It’s front wheel drive with a short wheel base good for sharp cornering. By installing an Integra type R motor into it…. I throw the main problems out the door right there… Under steer is cured By the LSD in the transmission and the Power is increased by 10 folds. I still retained the stereo system and added my own touch to it to enjoy daily driving. The seats aren’t bucket but the 4 point Harness is there. I always say… “Don’t worry about your car being JDM or what’s going to make you popular… build a nice car”. In the end… you drive it… you look at it… its yours… Enjoy what your doing… don’t be restricted to what others tell you. Last of all ….. And more important!!!! “HAVE FUN”. A lot of people forget what it’s all about.

Alex, most enthusiast usually have a favorite part or parts, any playing favorites on your car and why? HAHAH… I love the whole car really. Each part I picked out is my favorite piece for that car. The “classic” Spoon Sports Duckbill, Spoon Front lip, Spoon Mirrors, etc. It gives the car great styling. All my parts are sort of “bling” compared to what’s offered on the market. I’ve never spared a dollar on any of my parts but I don’t buy things that I see as useless wastes of money. I make the car how I want it. Remember… if you buy something less expensive now and your not happy with it … chances are that later on you will go out a buy the better one later. Why waste the money? Just save your pennies and eat some cup of noodles like I did if you have to and get what you want. However I would have to say I really love the SiR-S decal on my car. Its unique and uncommon to see. It’s a bold sticker but yet looks OEM (which it is). The Wheels are another one of my favorites on this car. The fitment was experimental and turned out to look great. Its an old school Japanese track trick to reduce under steer further on this car. You run a wider wheel in the front … its as simple as that. The wheels did the trick and looked great in the process as well. I picked out the most Unique Color that would match my car which is called “Burning black”. It gives you’re the appearance of a black chrome and a polished wheel all in one.

Glad to see your diet consists of plenty of cheap noodles with no nutritional value! But back to Suki, anything on her that is a tad rare or a little hard to obtain? The rarest parts on Suki… hmmm … I would say that the SiR-S decal is rare and the wheels in their color and fitment is a one of a kind. Can't forget the Greddy Full Titanium strut bar is the only one in the USA right now. I had it brought from Japan from one of my friends that was visiting.

You are right not to many of those wheels around. So, now that bringing to my next question, looking at Suki, you have a great and high end arrangement of parts, do you prefer specific manufacturers or brands over others in your build up and why? I always have a brand of choice for each aspect of my car. Exterior would definitely be Spoon Sports. Spoon has designed some great and simple exterior and interior accessories. Its light weight and functional. It’s just a classic look for the EG. Engine wise would be Jun Auto. Jun has always been known to provide real proven performance parts for all cars. Their parts are reliable and the quality shows. The dyno #’s are NEVER a disappointment. Brakes and suspension is Endless and Zeal which are sister companies. Endless brake pads have convinced me that a big brake kit for this car is completely unnecessary. The car stops on a dime. The coilovers are the Zeal function B6 which is a durable and well designed coilovers meant strictly for balance.  Wheels will always be Work. It’s the ultimate light weight/ strong wheel. Its also the closest you can get to a Custom Built wheel. I got to choose the size, offset, and back pad sizing. Can’t beat it!

Since this is JDMChat, what are your thoughts on JDM in general, likes and dislikes and where is JDM headed in your eyes? To me JDM is to loosely used. The word has become part of our vocabulary. It’s actually a 4 lettered word to me. Its become a fad. I think the way we use this word in our vocabulary is what made it turn into a way of life. Some people like me who have owned multiple muscle cars and euro cars have respect for all cars. Some may say that American cars are Junk and worthless. For the most part, those people are uneducated. I remember in 97 when me and my buddies where just starting to play around with putting Japanese front ends on Integras and working on old Corollas it was very exciting. It was something new that not one knew much about. That’s when it was fun to me. Now a days everyone is so rapped up in “being” JDM that they forget that we are all out here just to have fun. The word brings to mind all the little kids with side markers that try to race everyone on the street all day long. This is the reason I will rarely use the term Jdm… instead I will say Japanese.

You call your Civic "Suki", any reason why? HAHAH…. I’ve named all my cars. Each car has a certain personality to me. I came up with this name because it’s a Japanese name that means “the adored one”. I do love this car and I have dumped so much money into her that I must adore her. LOL!

I am sure we all adore here as well, any hassles you encountered with Suki? Gees man … ha-ha Money mostly! Parts are easy to find and mostly available. Finding reliable people to work on the motor is the hardest one for me. Its hard to trust people now in days, especially with such a high volume of high dollar parts.

Any more plans with Suki or is she a done deal? Nope … She’s not done yet, run down of what may come...

-Engine: Jun Auto Header, Jun Auto Stage 3 Head package, AEM EMS, AEM Wide band 02, CTR pistons, N1 CTR crank Pulley ARP head studs, Toda racing High-power Timing belt, Engine Balancing, Match port

-Transmission: Jun Auto Fly wheel, Quaife LSD

-Exterior: A new paint job… Same color, Square craft mirrors (maybe)

-Interior: Red carpet, Red suede Headliner, Red Suede door panels. S2000 Gauge cluster, Flush mounted Box for subwoofer

-Suspension and Brakes: Spoon Calipers, Energy suspension Master kit, the rest of the “Miracle X bar” add on bars, Corner ballancing

So looks like we may have a Suki feature revisted one day, but you did mention some plans on another future build up, right? Sure … why not… I’m actually putting the civic aside for a few months to work on the AE86 I just bought J.

Well looks like we will have to see what comes next with J. as well. I Thank you Alex for your time and glad to have had Suki as our first featured ride. Now to the pics and specs!

Alex gives a very special thanks to:
Kety Chu… Supportive Girlfriend
Kevin, Wes, Steve-o, and all the rest of the Canyon Errows...
Super Tuning Exhaust – 9 years if excellent services on all my cars…
Jasper From Options Auto Salon – 4 years of excellent services on all my cars
Status Auto Design… For my paychecks LOL… The work place and the parts place for my cars
Gilbert... my suspension expert…
Team Superstars… Great name and Strong Show Team
JDMKids… a great Group of friends and sub-team

and of course JDMChat.com!