First and foremost, we’d like to thank everyone that was able to make it to the meet this past Sunday. JTuned was able to fill multiple bins full of canned goods for the less fortunate. We couldn’t have done it without your support.

On Sunday, November 23rd, JTuned held a meet and greet at Super Autobacs in Stanton, California to celebrate the second coming of the website. Early on, over 1000 cars arrived and overwhelmed not only the Super Autobacs lot, but the 4 city blocks surrounding the store. There has been talk within the industry that the community is fading away, but we definitely sent a message that it’s not only alive and well, but thriving.

One of the highlights of the meet was definitely when the Ruckus’ showed up and did a parade lap through the entrance of Autobacs. Everyone in attendance stopped mid conversation and had to do a double take when they cruised through. Thanks for making it out guys. That was dope.

Over at the Autofashion USA DJ booth, we held our raffle every hour. Thanks to our vendors and industry friends, we were able to give away products from DEFI (Courtesy of EDO Performance), Triumvir Clothing, Volk Racing, Skunk2, AEM and our grand prizes being a free set of Hankook Tires and APEXi N1 Dampers for the winners’ car of choice.

The cars that caught much of the attention of the day were RJ’s IS-F and R35 demo cars, David Huang’s VIP Infiniti built by Autofashion, and Greddy’s STi Demo car. Gary of DesignCraft Fabrication was kind enough to drop off the CWEST/Brian Crower Dry Carbon S2K fresh off a win at Super Lap Battle earlier last week as well. The S2K continues to advance in design every time we see it and is always a crowd favorite.

Over at the JTuned booth we were busy selling goods (web store will be up shortly!) and holding signing sessions from Formula D drivers Dai Yoshihara and Stephan Papadakis. More importantly, JTuned.com owner Lisa Fleming and Falken Tire Pimpstress Eri Moriyama were holding it down making sure everyone was having a good time and signing autographs. Katsuhiro Ueo was caught wondering around along with Jay of JDM Ego fame. We have to thank RJ de Vera for getting there so early and helping setup. The real stars of the event were everyone that came by to support the cause. Without you, this site wouldn’t be here.

We’re already working to setup our next meet with more surprises. This will be a pop-up meet with a special JTuned collaboration clothing line drop that will only be available at the event. So stay tuned to find out when, where and who we’re collaborating with…

Till Next Time.

JTuned.

P.S. For everyone in Socal, we’re holding an after party at Les Duex in Hollywood next Sunday, November 30th. Below is the link for the guest list. See you there! RSVP Here!
P.S.S. Check out our vendor’s sites to show them your support

www.autobacsusa.com
www.briancrower.com
www.apexi-usa.com
www.hankooktire.com
www.triumvir.com
www.edoperformance.com
www.greddy.com
www.mackinindustries.com
www.kw-suspension.com
www.cwestusa.com
www.skunk2.com
www.designcraftfab.com

VIEW THE GALLERY HERE

In 2005, Nobuteru Taniguchi dropped this Aristo and changed what tuned car meant to most of us. Almost for years later, in our humble opinion, you would be hard pressed to find any car tuned as well as Taniguchi-san’s. Since none of us can get sick of looking at this car, we decided to dig it up from the archives. So without further a due, we bring you Vintage JTuned Feature: NOB Aristo.

To see what NOB’s been up to lately, visit his site at http://www.NoOneBetter.co.jp

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We grabbed this clean SI from our vintage vaults for your viewing enjoyment. Those were the days when everyone you knew was rocking a car with an H under the hood. This Civic was a definite classic

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A few days ago, the guys at JTuned and I were talking about the “behind the scenes” of the industry that readers and consumers of traditional media don’t get to see. So we decided to bring the readers up to speed on what’s going on behind the cameras; What they don’t see when the car is on the track, who maintains the cars and keeps them running so well, the companies involved and the drivers that get to have fun while getting paid at the same time. Here’s a recap of the 2008 BC racing season, but we’ll get more in depth and specific from the drivers, car owners, mechanics and industry people that make it happen on the track:

We came out strong in 2008, supporting several high profile Formula Drift teams, running it’s own s2000 in the Redline Time Attack and Super Lap Battle, dominating what’s left of the Drag Series’ and even putting a rally car in the X Games…the one that did the major endo over the jump. Congratulations to Tyler McQuarrie, Gary at DesignCraft, Paul and Jason at Hankook, Daiji at CWest and all of the other companies for their support in taking home the Unlimited and Grand Overall championships in Redline Time Attack and setting a few track records along the way. This car hasn’t even seen it’s full potential yet…2009 should be interesting. Robbie Nishida busted his cherry at Evergreen Speedway in Seattle getting his first podium in Formula D and qualified in the top 10 and is ready to lay it down in the RedBull World Drift deal in Long Beach next month. Other BC cars that got into this prestigious event include Sam Hubinette and Darren McNamara as well as some of the international players. What can you say about Drag, although we supported several of the All Motor hitters like Norris Prayoonto and Jeremy Lookofsky, along with the Bergenholtz’s and the Injected Performance 350z, it didn’t play out like it was supposed to. Maybe BOTI can step it up and bring it back to the glory days.

Stay posted to JTuned as Sean Crawford at JE Pistons documents the step by step process of what’s actually done to design and manufacture custom pistons, Eddie Kim of Dynamic Autosport fame gives us a taste of the trials and tribulations behind owning and managing the successful Hankook 350Z and S14 Formula D drift cars, and what it really feels like to pilot one of these cars from the eyes of Robbie Nishida. Not to mention you’ll be hearing from Hankook Tires and many others to give you an idea what it really takes to get that seamless drift or Time Attack lap record in competition.

**Brain Crower is the owner and operator of BC Inc. Brian has been at the forefront of this industry for more years than we care to imagine from his launching of the Sport Compact Division at his family’s company Crower Rods to the launch of BC a few years back. If you’re looking for top quality hard parts for your next build, we’d recommend you take a look at their product line at www.runbc.com**

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Buttonwillow Raceway (otherwise known as the Stateside Tsukuba Circuit) hosted the 2008 Super Lap Battle yesterday. While everyone hasn’t even begun to recover from the SEMA show in Vegas last week, the time attack teams were out in full force to break some new records. Upwards of 120 teams showed up to compete making it one of the largest Lap Battles to date.

CWEST/BC brought out the S2000 with what looked like heavy aero-work done to rear of the car to help keep it squatted in turns. With the rumored 400hp under the hood, it was definitely needed. Tyler Macquarrie piloted the car to an unofficial (results haven’t been released yet) 1:46:8 lap time, crushing the old RWD record by 2 seconds. The biggest news of the day was Cusco debuting their Impreza which was a welcome sight. Word on the street at SEMA last week was the car had popped the engine they planned to use at the Lap Battle. The Cusco “overkill” Impreza was turning in times around 1:44:00 making it the fastest car to jump lost hill in Time Attack history. Some of the teams didn’t know what to make of it since it was essentially a GT300 JGTC touring car in a factory shell. In our opinion, Cusco just went ahead and raised the bar. We’ll have to wait till the next Lap Battle to see how the American Tuners will respond.

Stay Posted, as we’ll be publishing the official results as soon as they become available to JTuned.

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Yes, that’s right. We’re throwing the second official JTuned.com meet next Sunday, November 23rd. Super Autobacs was kind enough to let us borrow their facility in Stanton CA. We’re working around the clock to ensure this meet doesn’t dissapoint. We’ll be giving away thousands of dollars worth of product thanks to our industry friends. While I can’t annouce what we’ll be giving away till the day of…it will be worth your while to stop by. Check out the flyer and send it to your friends. Let’s tear the place apart!
(actually please don’t tear the place apart…we might need their parking lot again.) Don’t forget to bring canned food! We’ll be giving out free JTuned stickers to anyone that brings canned grub for the less fortunate.

And for everyone that’s waiting to see new features on the site, we’ll be bringing back some of the best that Vintage JTuned had to offer plus rides fresh of the SEMA show floor. Stay Posted!

JTuned.

JTuned is going to make a comeback and we mean it this time. If you’ve noticed in the recent weeks that a few weird things have been happening on the site, you’ve noticed correctly. There has been official change of landlords as of two weeks ago.

While you will start to see many changes to the site in the upcoming weeks, we plan to bring back what we all loved and kept us revisiting to the point of us almost losing our day jobs. The cleanest rides around with the highest degree of photographic snobiety on the internet. We also have a few more tricks up our sleeve.

We’ll be opening up the Industry section like never before. We won’t be covering the companies and the filtered information you could get anywhere but rather the people and ideas that make the companies tick and progress the industry. They’ll be speaking directly to you without bias and from their own experience. But don’t be mad if we occasionally cover companies and the same filtered information you could get anywhere.

We plan to make JTuned.com the new hub on or offline where manufacturers, creators, tastemakers and the consumer public at large can meet face to face (figuratively speaking of course). It will be good and you will like it. It’s our money back guarantee.

Mark your Calendars

JTuned will be throwing the second official JTuned meet in late November. Complete details will be launched November 1st. It will be big so start washing your cars and flossing your rims and stay posted.

Be Easy.

JTuned

This message has not been endorsed by John McCain. But we wouldn’t mind if Sarah did.

After all the misinformation on the message boards we’ve read regarding Greddy and their parent company Trust Co. LTD’s current financial situation, JTuned decided to go to the source and get the truth. Rather than rewrite their own words, we decided to publish their official statement in its entirety. Please read responsibly.

Greddy USA Official Release
IRVINE, CA
OCTOBER 10, 2008

To insure the long term survival of the GReddy brand in the USA, GReddy Performance
Products, Inc. has opted to file for Chapter 11, Reorganization, on October 10, 2008.
GReddy sales, customer service, R&D and operation will continue to conduct business as usual, through this process. The flow of inventory and new products will continue and will not be affected. Normal GReddy operating hours will remain as before.

This reorganization change is result of last month’s Minji-Saisei-Hou filing of GReddy’s
parent company TRUST Co. LTD. in Japan. Although TRUST has now returned to
production, and GReddy Performance Products has maintained normal business practices, the recent extreme downturn in the world’s banking market has made this option the best prospect for continued operation and expansion of the GReddy brand.
It is also in the best interest of GReddy’s future to join some of GReddy’s competitors in the industry, in not exhibiting in this years SEMA Show. The withdraw is regretful, but necessary. This does not however mean development and construction of new products
and demo vehicles which were planned to debut at SEMA will stop. Instead, GReddy plans on releasing news of these items through other media outlets very soon.
GReddy Performance Products, Inc. and it’s staff would like to thank all the kind wellwishers, customers and industry associates for their support in these challenging times.GReddy looks forward to continuing to provide quality high performance parts for years to come.

For anyone concerned with what may have been said out there, while this is a serious issue, it’s being taken care of. Many companies are going through this due to the credit crunch caused by AIG, Freddie Mac and the like. Once the world credit markets free up in the next few weeks, everything will be fine. If anything is taken from this, let it be the following: Greddy and Trust products have been at the forefront of the industry for decades and will be through the foreseeable future. Don’t let the misinformation out there affect your next purchase.

For all the Z33 owners out there that were salivating over the GT over-fender kit Greddy debuted as a prototype at last year’s SEMA Show, it’s now available. For more info go to www.greddy.com

JTuned

Our friends over at Stack have dropped some new products from across the pond. These are by far the cleanliest and user friendly tachometers on the market. And they’re made by the same people that brought us what we consider the holy grail of tuning swag, the ST8100 Dash Displays.

STACK ST200 Clubman Tachometer

One of the latest introductions to their tachometer lineup is the Stack ST200 Clubman. The 80mm sized Clubman features the stepper-motor movement, with Digital Quartz accuracy that have made their products a must have in motorsports for decades. Configurable for most engine types utilizing standard and magneto style ignitions, STACK Clubman tachometers come standard with Peak RPM ‘Tell-Tale’ memory, and a built in shift-light activation circuit (STACK panel and dash mount shift lights available separately). LED backlighting reduces current draw, provides excellent nighttime visibility, and is exceptionally vibration resistant. One of the real technical highlights of the ST200 is the push button programming which makes installation a snap.

The ST200 is available in Competition Black with white needles or Competition White with orange needles. 8k, 10.5k dual-scale and a 15k dual-scale (if you dropped an RR engine in a CVCC) RPM scale options are available as well.

STACK ST700 Dash Display

When the ST700 dropped months ago in England, I remember this being one of the brightest innovations for enthusiasts that bridged the gap between quality instrumentation without the loss of cleanliness associated with running gauges across your dash. The ST700 allowed you to monitor water temp and oil pressure with warning parameters inside a compact 80mm tachometer. Essentially all you would need in NA applications with all the quality and good looks you’d expect from STACK including the same quartz stepper motors found in their other products.

Once we dug a little more into the features and available upgrades, we realized you could throw out any other factory cluster or gauges you may have. The list of standard features in daunting and include Peak ‘Tell-Tale’ memory for all monitored engine parameters , Integrated Voltmeter, user programmable 4-way configurable LED sequential shift light, Intelligent Alarm warning system and integrated light with user programmable warning points for all monitored engine parameters, and 2 user configurable analog sensor input channels for use with optional sensors and harness (sold separately) to monitor any two of the following parameters: fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temperature, water temperature, differential temperature, boost pressure, or air temperature to name a few.

Other options include Speedometer, Trip, Wheel Speed Indicators and more. It can even read as a gear indicator if you’ve installed or plan to install a sequential transmission. In any case, if you’re looking for a monitoring solution, I would take a moment to check one of these out.

For more information, check out STACK’s website at http://www.stackinc.com/st700.html

And for the more serious guys out there, we have a peek at the newest in the 8100 lineup-the STACK ST8130. No need for us to give details cause you already know what they’re all about. Check it at http://www.stackinc.com/st8100.html

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The first to score a perfect 100 in the D1GP, the winner of the 2007 Formula DRIFT, and host of the upcoming American Top Gear…We all knew Tanner Foust was going to win, we just didn’t know how. On October 11th, 2008, the “House of Drift” in Irwindale, Ca became home to Tanner Foust’s second consecutive Championship in the Formula DRIFT series.

It seem as though all the practice and qualifying rounds that day served only one purpose, and it was to keep the track warm for the epic battles that followed. With the sun down and lights on, Justin Pawlak and his blue Mazda RX7 bravely fought with Tanner and the iconic Rockstar sponsored Nissan 350z. After the first set ended in a draw the big on track TV showed “One More Time” and this was when the lucky fans really got their money worth. With the nighttime visibility hindered further by Tanner’s tire smoke Justin Pawlak had no choice but to follow Tanner’s exact lines. Once the smoke cleared the 350z and RX7 appeared with their rear bumpers dangling helplessly until the pit crews promptly removed them through some strategic stomping. The victory went to Tanner with Justin Pawlak placing in third with just enough points to qualify him for the Red Bull Drifting Championships that’ll take place in Long Beach, Ca.

The next challenger was Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his Falken Tire Ford Mustang. Like before, the first set ended in a draw and it was necessary to repeat until one of the two could achieve a two point lead. Tanner led the decisive run where he again graced the wall, but Vaughn Gittin Jr. was locked onto Tanner. Finally, the green and blue Falken Tire Ford Mustang emerges out of the tire smoke with its rear bumper hanging for dear life, making Tanner quite the trend setter. The judges awarded the victory to Vaughn Gittin Jr. making this his first Formula DRIFT victory.

Tanner’s leading point advantage from the previous six rounds and second place at Irwindale clinched the 2008 Championship in the formula DRIFT series. Congrats goes out to Tanner, Steph, everyone at AEM and the rest of their sponsors. Let’s see what these guys and the rest of the FD teams will bring to the table next year.

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