REsuper7のブログ一覧

After nearly 16 years, i finally got another set of Volk Racing TE37's. The only other time in my life where i've owned a set of Volk Racing wheels was in 1998 when i had a set of white 17inch TE37's on my 1995 Honda Civic Si hatchback. When i had my first RX-7, i only had Advan wheels, but i always dreamed of owning Volk Racing TE37 wheels again, but under one condition, they had to have the concave face. Unfortunately, at the time, it was impossible to achieve the concave TE37 look on an FD without a widebody kit, and i had no plans to do a widebody kit back then. Now that i've fully committed to doing the full RE-Amemiya AD-GT kit, i knew it was time i owned another set of TE37's.

My initial plan was to get the TE37SL Black Edition wheels with the fluorescent yellow stickers, but then i saw the TE37SL 2012 Limited edition wheels where the Volk Racing logo was engraved onto the spoke, instead of the usual sticker, and i knew that if i was going to own a set of TE37's, it had to have the logo engraved onto the wheel. Unfortunately, the 2012 Limited wheels were never sold outside of Japan, and they were already discontinued, so i was pretty much out of luck. The only other variations of the TE37 that contained the engraved logo were the TE37RT and the TE37 Ultra, but given the fact that the Ultra's only came in size 20's, really the only option was the TE37RT. The only caveat, however, was that the RTs only came in red, and unluckily for me, my car was red. At first i thought there's no way i could put red wheels on a red car, but at the same time, i couldn't bring myself to buy the TE37SL's that didn't have the engraved logo because i would i always wish i had it, so in the end, i bit the bullet and ordered the RT's, thinking that i always had the option to paint the wheels a different color, whereas with the SL's, there would be no way to get the engraved logo. On the upside, i managed to get the RT's for cheaper than the SL's by ordering directly from Japan rather than going through a local distributor which would've cost me $1000 more. After i ordered the wheel, i actually started thinking that i'm glad i ordered red wheels because it's so different from what most people would do, so it would actually make the car stand out more. So i did some searching for other red cars with red wheels, and i stumbled upon this car on Facebook and i actually think that red wheels look awesome on a red car...i just hope my car manages to look as good as this guy's car:



Here's a picture of the specs from the boxes


After doing some research on Minkara and checking out the wheel specs of a lot of guys who track/race their FD's, I decided to go with a square setup, so i ordered the same size for all 4 wheels. I also ordered a set of Bridgestone RE760's 265/35 18 that i'm still waiting to receive. I'm kind of partial to Bridgestone since i run their tires on my bikes and they're also the sole supplier for MotoGP which i'm a big fan of.

I also did a quick test to see what the wheels would look like on the car...not bad...definitely unique


After seeing ER34Sky's FD with the TE37SL 2012 Limited wheels and how he got a custom SL-style sticker for his wheels, i decided i was going to do the same for my RT's. Unfortunately, there weren't too many options when it came to getting stickers here in the states, especially custom ones. A lot of the websites are based over in Asia and they charge quite a lot for even just the regular SL-style stickers. Since i have plans to add a bunch of stickers to my FD after i finish the body kit, i decided it would be worth it to buy my own vinyl cutter and just start making some of my own stickers instead of trying to source stickers online. After doing some research, i ended up with a Silhouette Cameo which is quite popular among the craft-making crowds.



As you can see, the cutter itself is not much bigger than a regular printer, but because of that, the cutter can't cut anything wider than 12 inches, which should be ok for my needs. My first order of business for the new cutter was to make some SL-style decals for my new wheels.



The biggest difference for my custom decals is that it's meant to be fitted on the left side, as opposed to the right side for the regular SL decal. Here's a picture of my first test fit on the wheel




I also wanted to add a smaller TE37RT decal, but i'm still trying to decide where to put it. My two options are

1. Underneath the valve stem, similar to the way the standard TE37SL wheel has it


or

2. I could be it on the spoke opposite of where my other decal is. The only issue with this particular spot is the engraved logo is on that same spoke so it can look a little crowded, but i kind of like it in this spot.


I still need to experiment a little bit more with the decals, so nothing is final yet. I'm also considering some other colors, such as 青い or 黄色い. I'm still waiting for those vinyls to come in, but i'll post another update once they do.

Well, unfortunately, the body kit isn't coming for a while, so i still have a lot of time to continue experimenting with various designs and colors before i make a final decision.

Update:

I got some more vinyl colors, so i decided to try out some different colors. I also got my new lug nuts in. They're McGard Spline drive chrome nuts with a blue cap. I was going back and forth between getting chrome or black lug nuts, but i ended up with these blue ones and i actually think it looks quite good.

Blue:




Black Chrome:




And here's a picture of all three colors so far. One last color that i still want to see is Yellow. But so far, i'm leaning towards Silver.



On a side note, i still can't believe how much snow we're getting this year. We just had another major snowstorm yesterday that dropped over a foot of snow on top of the 1-2 feet of snow (ice) we already had. Here are two pictures i took from yesterday's snow storm

Here is my Toyota Camry complete buried in snow


And here's Naomi-chan showing us how much snow we got

This has been the longest winter in many years. It's only 二月 but we've already had multiple back-to-back snowstorms with another big storm expected to hit this 木曜日. Luckily, with the 4-wheel drive C300, the snow didn't stop us from taking a much needed mini-vacation last weekend. Since my wife's illness last year prevented us from going away on vacation, we were itching to take a vacation. We decided on a one night stay at a local resort only 1 hour from our house called Crystal Springs. The actual hotel we stayed in was call Grand Cascades Lodge. Here is a picture of the hotel:



The day we were scheduled to arrive, a big snow storm was supposed to hit us, and it did, right in the morning when we were planning to leave. I ended up having to plow 4 inches of snow just to get out of our driveway. None of the roads were even plowed yet on the way to the resort, which made it a little dangerous, but luckily, the C300 handled the slippery conditions excellently. Here is a picture of the front of the hotel when we first arrived:



And here's a picture of the front lobby:



Luckily for us, they had a nice heated garage for me to park the car in, otherwise i would've had to clear another 4-6 inches of snow off the car the next day to go home.



The room we stayed in was surprisingly nice. It was a suite with a full kitchen and fireplace.



The fireplace really kept the room nice and toasty, especially since it was heating both the bedroom and the living room at the same time.



And here is the view we had from our balcony



But the best part of the resort was the swimming pool, especially for the kids. The pool was called a biosphere because it was essentially a green house with tropical plants, 3 different pools, a water slide, two or three waterfalls and two sauna's. It really felt like we were in a tropical resort while we were swimming. The best part was there was a heated pool that was outdoors, so we were swimming while it was snowing! Unfortunately, i don't have too many pictures of the pool because i didn't have my phone with me, but my wife did take this picture of the pool when we went swimming at night



My wife ended up not swimming at all, but at least she got 2 spa treatments to make up for it. Overall, i think it was a great getaway and just what our family needed in the middle of this brutal winter. My kids definitely enjoyed the pool the most. I think my favorite part was the heated garage!

As for an update to my RE雨宮 FD プロジェクト, i finally started receiving some of the parts i ordered last month for Phase 3.

Here are new lens covers for my RE雨宮 sleek light kit and 2 radiator caps, one for my water pump, and one for my AST.



Here is a new oil filler cap that i got as well



I originally ordered URAS ウインカー with the black outline around the lens, but RHDJapan sent me the incorrect ones and claim that URAS no longer sells the old ones anymore



And lastly, i got my new wheels today!!! ☆*･゜ﾟ･*\(^O^)/*･゜ﾟ･*☆ I literally got them right as i was about to head out of the house for work, so i didn't even get a chance to open them yet. I'll probably open them tonight and take some more pictures.

So i finally decided on a set of wheels and purchased them...Volk Racing TE37RT! I know i know...why am i getting red wheels when my car is already red? To be honest, what i always thought i would get were the TE37SL, but then i saw the TE37SL 2012 Limited, which has the engraved Volk Racing logo instead of the usual sticker. Unfortunately, Japan only TE37SL 2012 limited wheels are no longer being sold, even in Japan, so i had to decide between the TE37SL, TE37SL Black Edition, or the TE37RT. Of the 3, only the RT comes with the engraved logo, and since i was able to find the RT's for the same price as the SL's, i decided to just jump on it. My original plan was to paint the RT's black, to make them look like the SL limited, but after thinking about it, i decided to just keep the wheels red for now and add an SL-type sticker in either silver or white as an accent. I haven't even seen the wheel yet, so right now what i imagine it to look like is all speculation, but time will tell when i finally get the body kit installed and the wheels put on.

As for the size, i ended up with 18x10.5J +18 for both the front and rear. Since i was planning to run a square set up, 265/35's on both the front and rear, why not just get the same wheels all the way around so i could at least rotate the wheels if i really wanted to. I was originally planning to go with a staggered setup, but after doing some research, i found out that a square set up is a better set up for the FD because of the oversteer attributes verses the understeer attributed to a staggered set up.

I'll post up some pictures of the wheels when i get them.

Dear Minkara friends, i am in need of some help. Since i ordered my RE雨宮 AD-GTII kit, i've been looking to purchase wheels to go with my kit. I'm primarily interested in the Volk Racing TE37SL wheels. I saw that R-Magic is having a special for their custom sized TE37SL wheels https://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/154459/blog/32196678/, but i was wondering if someone could help me understand why they chose to go with a custom offset for the front wheels, F: 18x10.5 +35. I noticed on their demo car, they use this same wheel, but then they add a 10mm spacer. https://minkara.carview.co.jp/en/userid/154459/car/1402829/profile.aspx Wouldn't they have been better off just using a 18x10.5 +22 wheel which is essentially the same thing except they don't need to run a spacer.

Also, in their thread, they keep referring to "逆ゾリディスク", and according to google translate, this means "Reverse Sledding Disk" which doesn't really make any sense. What is so special about "逆ゾリディスク" that R-Magic needed to request a custom offset from Rays Engineering just for their FD's?

Is there an optimal TE37SL fitment for an FD with the RE雨宮 AD-GTII kit? Please help!!

有り難う御座います.

Today i took the first step in building my dream car, a RE雨宮 広い-body FD3S! ヽ( ★ω★)ノ

I placed the largest order of car parts that i will ever make today, consisting of the following:

D0-02203C-192 RE-Amemiya, FD3S, REAR SUPER CANARD CF For AD-GT KIT
D0-022030-178 RE-Amemiya, FD3S, Facer N-1 (02 Model)
22080221CGT03 RE-Amemiya, FD3S REAR SPOILER-GT3 (CF) HIGH
D0-022530-123 RE-Amemiya, FD3S, CANARD-PRO for UNDER SWEEP (Carbon)
D0-022030-200 RE-Amemiya, FD3S, GT-AD KIT-II
D0-022030-159 RE-Amemiya, FD3S, UNDER SWEEP Carbon

I ordered the parts through Bulletproof Automotive who is an authorized USA distributor for RE雨宮. I was told it could take close to 3 months to receive all the parts, so it's going to be a super long wait. (╯︵╰,)

Well, as the saying goes, all good things come to those who wait, and in this particular case, it's especially true!

While we wait, i'll share two pictures i took over the weekend. I met up with a friend of mine who also has an FD and we went out for a short drive to my favorite local spot, Round Valley. His engine was just completely overhauled by a local shop and he's breaking in the engine before he goes to get the car dyno-tuned.