Mini-Truck Monday: Jesse’s S10

I am pretty firm in my beliefs that most of the tuner car enthusiasts can respect and appreciate a classic bagged mini-truck project. The mini-truck scene contains the pioneers of “being low daily” and the use of airbag suspensions are becoming more and more popular in the tuner scene to achieve such a low ride height.

That brings us to Jesse’s ‘89 S10; all black, completely dumped, and totally badass.

This S10 started its life out as a farm truck, which the previous owner had installed a lift kit on it. The bed was missing and the truck was miscolored. Jesse got the truck handed to him and quickly got to work. He found a bed to fit, sprayed the truck flat black and immediatly lowered it 5/7. After cruising around for a while, he decided he just needed to go lower. With some help from his dad, a full front airbag setup was installed. Not long after, the truck was hit while parked in the street and with the collected insurance money, Jesse fixed the front end from the collision and installed the full rear airbag setup.

Who doesn’t love big smokey burnouts?! We do.

-All Words & Photos by Justin Mondschein.

Big Things in 2010!

For most enthusiasts, winter is the time to tie up loose ends, fix damage from the previous seasons, or even start fresh with brand new setups. Like most of you, we have lots of big things in store for the new year. We will be covering and attending the TX2k10 Supra Nationals in Houston, Texas in March, as well as documenting the build of Mark’s 850+whp big single MKIV Supra. We’ll be attending Club Loose drift events this season and then of course bringing you new features with new faces. Also, keep your eyes peeled for newly designed merchandise, t-shirts, and decals in the upcoming months. February marks the 1st-year anniversary of this site and I couldn’t be happier with the success achieved by something I started as a school project.

With that being said, I was recently given the chance to attend a cover feature shoot of a friend’s car for Modified magazine. I won’t give too much away but I will say that the feature will be very, very awesome. I snuck a few “behind-the-scene” shots in before the end of the evening.

As some of you may remember; Pat’s FC RX7 was our first feature back in February of last year and I think now is an appropriate time to bring you some new shots of this monster. Take notice to the new V-Mount intercooler setup and the white TE37s’!

Stay tuned for new features and content!

-All Words and Photos by Justin Mondschein

Shirts! Shirts! Shirts!

Pick up a twentypsi.com t-shirt before they’re sold out! Shoot an email to justin.mondschein@gmail.com if you’re interested in ordering one!

Chris’ 2006 EVO IX

With the last six years being considered the “age of the four-door turbocharged terrors”, it almost seems like a no-brainer that someone like Chris Ginev would choose the Mitsu platform known as the Lancer Evolution to build into such a street/track monster. I mean lets face it…comfortable and practical, yet fast and aggressive all at the same time? Seems like the EVO has it all for this shop owner and full-time father. Just don’t think Chris would just build your normal bolted, run-of-the-mill Evolution, because this murdered out IX will destroy pretty much any competition thrown at it.

The story begins in November of 2007. Chris finds this beautiful Tarmac Black IX at a dealership and decides to take the plunge. Within a few short months, the EVO was staged at it’s first big turbo setup with an HTA 35R, GSC S2 cams, a custom JMF intercooler setup and exhaust manifold and a few other odds and ends, placing the stock-block motor setup in the 500whp range (on pump gas). The car catapulted down the 1320 in the very low 11 second range consistently, even with the 1.7-1.8 60′ times. All was good for quite a while until a bad noise, thought to be a spun bearing, lead Chris to crank open the motor. To his surprise, an improperly tensioned timing belt led to 15 bent valves; ultimatly leading to the current motor setup which we see under the hood today.

For the rebuild, Chris decided to ditch the idea of building up the 2.0L and decided on the 2.3L stroker. To achieve the larger displacement, Crower rods, Wiesco HD stroker pistons, and the Eagle crank were selected for their ungodly strength. The top end wasn’t under looked, as Chris went with a GSC CNC’d head, GSC S2 cams and springs, Supertech 1mm oversized valves, and Supertech bronze valve guides to butter up the internals. This time around, a BorgWarner S362 turbocharger was fitted to the JMF tubular exhaust manifold to produce the large horsepower goals that Chris had in mind. JMF supplied a custom FMIC setup, including 2.5″ charge piping, and a 4″ intake setup to bring in the coldest of air. Chris’ own shop, GV Autosport, produced some custom-fit pieces for the car, including the downpipe and testpipe leading to the HKS carbon catback exhaust out the rear end. The Shep race transmission puts the power to the ground through a Quarter Master twin disc clutch setup and a 4.11 final drive.

Chris has never been one to blend into the crowd; just take a look at the valve cover for example. An incredible piece of snow-camo powdercoated perfection steals all the attention of on-lookers. On the other hand, step inside the cockpit of this monster and enter the comfort zone. The factory leather/suade Recaro’s give the EVO a very classy feel and the steering column mounted Autometer boost gauge is directly in view for the pilot. The car sits aggressively on KW Variant 3 coilovers with Tein pillow-ball mounts. The blacked out 5Zigen FN01R-C’s in 17×9′ finish off the EVO’s murdered out theme and the Brembo brakes, stuffed with Hawk pads and Stoptech rotors, help stop the car on a dime.

After a year and a half of hard work, custom fabrication, tons of time, and loads of money, Chris’s project finally came to an end. His EVO IX was recently tuned to a whopping 609whp and 525 ft/lbs of torque on a failing wastegate spring (35psi peak @5500 rpm falling to 25psi by redline) on C16 race gas. At the track, expect the car to break 9’s with race gas and a good driver. Looking back on the project that took so much of his time and dedication, Chris states “I believe I have accomplished everything I set out to do. The 2.3L Crower/Wiseco HD engine has 9.0:1 compression and makes over 600whp yet has great manners. What more could I ask for?”

Now let me ask you…what more could you ask for?

-All words and photos by Justin Mondschein.

Steve’s EVO VIII

Here are some shots of Steve’s new purchase; a gorgeous 2005 Evo VIII. The electric blue looks fantastic in person, the pictures just don’t do the car justice.

-All Photos by Justin Mondschein.

Miguel’s 350Z

Here’s some teaser shots of Miguel’s Z….

Aaron’s Boosted EK Hatch

I could kick this off by saying how hard it is to come across a bright white EK hatch flying around the streets of Montgomery County, but I’m not going to. Why? Because that would be a blatant lie. There are dozens of white civic hatchbacks in the area, but I can assure you that none of them have the pure guts that lie in Aaron’s ‘96 EK hatchback.

Aaron’s love for Honda was ultimately passed down from his father, a head Honda mechanic by day. Aaron started his hand in the Honda scene with a black civic coupe. With a supercharger-equipped D16Y8, the coupe put down a mild 146whp on R/T Tuning’s Dynojet. Unhappy and unimpressed with the powerband at hand, Aaron ditched the supercharger for a turbo kit, which led to an upped 217whp on the internally stock single cam motor. With the 200hp barrier broken, the car became much more fun but Aaron was hungry for more power. He picked up the D16Z6 motor that you see here and began his build. After finishing the motor, a quick swap went underway and before long, Aaron was ripping around in his fully built boosted Civic. That was until an attention-strewed motorist blew a stop sign and ran directly into Aaron’s black coupe. Unfortunately, Aaron had only enjoyed his new build for two whole weeks before tragedy struck and deemed his pride and joy totaled. Still determined, Aaron stepped back into the game; only this time lighter and faster.

Aaron is proud to be a part of the single cam minority. After finding a ‘96 EK Hatch in perfect running condition for an astonishing $300 dollars, Aaron just couldn’t pass it up. Wasting no time, he swapped over the built D16Z6 and got to work. The motor is powered by a Garrett T3T04e 57 trim .63 AR turbocharger mated to a CCFab ramhorn manifold, allowing Aaron to run a modest 18psi for daily street driving. The Tial 38mm wastegate screams through an external dump when in boost and the full 3″ turboback exhaust with a Magniflow race muffler makes this hatch anything but quiet. On the outside, the PWR intercooler certainly isn’t in hiding. The Synapse blow-off valve can be heard relieving boost pressure from the charge pipes between shifts. Internally speaking, Aaron decided on a 75mm Vitara piston and Eagle rod combination for the added strength. Entering the head, Zex valve springs and a single Bisimoto 1.24 custom camshaft fill the void where the lowly factory cam used to reside. Aaron tuned this monster himself via Hondata S300, putting down a cool 325whp/245wtq on the Dynojet.

On the exterior, the car has been resprayed Championship White. A ‘99/00 front end conversion was installed as well as a Seibon carbon fiber hood. A fan of Spoon, Aaron decided on a set of mirrors and the rear carbon fiber duckbill spoiler from the popular brand. A Mugen carbon fiber front lip and Type-R rear lip finishes off the exterior. The car is sitting low on 16″ Royal red Rota GT3’s for the street setup, while Aaron has a set of 13″ Gold Lenso’s with 24.5×13x8 MT Slicks for the track. For the stance, the car is on Koni Yellow struts with Ground Control coilover sleeves. MFactory lower control arms and an ETD traction bar were installed to keep the car planted. On the inside, a full custom chromoly 6-point cage has been welded in for chassis rigidity. The driver’s side of the car is complimented with a Buddy Club Spec III carbon fiber seat, while the passenger’s side enjoys a F1spec fiberglass Type-IV seat. A custom dash was fabricated to hold the NLR AMS-500 boost controller, Neptune Tunerview II, and a PLX M300 wideband.

In the future, you can expect Aaron’s hatch to be in the 450whp range. He plans on breaking down the 10-second boundary’s with his little white hatchback and states “a ****load of blood, sweat, tears, and man hours went into putting this thing together and I can honestly look at it and say “nah, it’s still not done.”‘ If anyone is capable of building a super clean, fast, and reliable Honda, Aaron is the man for the job.

After 3 years and countless hours of hard work, planning, fabrication, and committment, Aaron’s EK hatch is almost complete. With just a little more tweaking and tuning, he’ll have all his goals hit and can live happily ever after. After all is said and done, it’s these things that set Aaron’s hatch apart from all the others.

-All words and photos by Justin Mondschein.

Tony’s Boosted ‘05 RSX

The RSX has been one of the most popular sport compact coupes released in the last ten years. Replacing the Acura Integra, This sleek coupe had two engine varients, the non Type-S K20A3 which was rated at a standard 155hp and the Type-S K20Z1 rated at a whopping 201hp at 7800rpms. Coming from a history of Hondas, Tony decided on the RSX as his weapon of choice and built his first RSX, a black ‘03 Type-S with a Turbonetics turbo kit. The car did great power and was certainly a head turner. Tragedy struck on the way home on the turnpike one evening when an oil line caught the car on fire. Tony and his two passengers were very lucky to come out of the car uninjured although, the sight of his pride burning to the ground is something one would never forget. With the fire behind him, Tony set out to build another Type-S…this time bigger, better, and faster.

This time around, Tony decided on a Vivid Blue Pearl color which stands out over your standard paint colors. He had the factory wheels redone in Championship White, giving the exterior scheme of the car a nice pop. The Acura is sitting pretty on Tein SSP’s which help the plant the power to the Falken rubber on the factory wheels. Tony made sure not to overlook the brake system, as he decided on the Rotora Big Brake kit for excellent stopping power. A custom front lip adds a new form of aggression to the front end and the debadged rear keeps the car looking clean.

Under the hood, the K20 was fitted with Cyber Stage 1 turbo kit. This little power added boosted the power from it’s factory 201hp rating to a whopping 361whp/250wtq at 10psi. The KPRO ECU was tuned at Evans to acchieve these impressive numbers. Tony went with RC 750cc injectors, an Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator, and a Walbro 255 pump to keep the fuel system flowing. The TurboXS RFL blow off valve was added to relieve pressure in the charge pipes after boost and the big FMIC was installed to keep the air intake temperatures down. The exhaust is custom, 3″ straight leading to a Magnaflow muffler before exiting the rear of the car. A Competition stage 4 clutch was installed to handle the newfound power.

Checking out the interior, An Autometer electronic boost gauge sits atop the steering column. The Pioneer AVIC D3 headunit can play DVD’s as well as music for the passengers to listen to and the shift knob that sits on the Buddy Club short shifter is an OEM S2000 CR piece. The leather seating arrangement provided by Acura keeps the comfort level to a maximum. Tony keeps the interior of his RSX spotless, thats for sure.

So here we have a turbocharged RSX boasting incredible power gains and still retaining the smooth OEM look and comfort that you would expect to find in a highline Acura. Tony most certainly did things right when it came to building his Honda; His combination of looks, comfort, and power make a very aggressive combination that sends enthusiasts swooning.

-All words and photos by Justin Mondschein.

Will’s S13 240sx

What is it that makes the 240sx such a sought-after car? This question can really be answered in a multitude of different ways; sharp lines, cheap speed, old school style….drift car on a budget? Definitely. The S13 is one of the few cars that will never lose it’s unmistakable style and identity. As a previous owner of many various imports including a Mazdaspeed Protege, a B-series swapped EF hatch, and a full Type-R swapped Del Sol, Will finally landed himself in a car that performs just as well as it looks.

Before Will got himself into the stylish S13 that graces the pictures on this page, he was a die-hard Honda fan. His pride and joy, a ‘95 Del Sol with a full Integra Type-R motor swap was nothing less than impressive. Taking much influence from his friends at R/T Tuning, the drift bug bit and Will began his search for a 240sx. After a bit of searching, Will hooked up a deal with the prevoius owner of this S13 for a direct title trade; his Nissan for Will’s Honda. The titles were swapped and before he knew it, he was budgeting out for modifications for his new S13.

The previous owner of this S13 had the correct visions for the car; he had a JDM blacktop SR20DET installed, as well as a Greddy front mounted intercooler, ACT heavy duty pressure plate, and 6-puck clutch at R/T Tuning prior to Will purchasing the car. The mighty SR exits it’s gases through a Tanabe 70mm downpipe into an ApexI N1 dual catback exhaust slightly angled out the rear of the car. A Greddy Type-RS BOV whistles between shifts and the factory turbocharger is accessorized with a Megan Racing turbo elbow, the same brand supplying the test pipe section in the exhaust. The car is sitting low on full Megan coilovers with rear upper control arms, and caster-adjustable front tension rods. The 15″x8″, 0-offset gold Sportmax 002’s look slick and do a good job of planting the power to the pavement. For the interior seating arrangement, Will decided on a Buddy Club racing bucket seat to keep his ass in check while his passengers can enjoy the factory seating on the other side.

Since the trade, Will’s addiction to drift has become more and more apparent as he is a frequent competitor in the Clubloose drift events in Englishtown, NJ. His S13 gets ample track time and soon enough, he’ll be competiting in the B-class with some of the better amature drivers. A full cage is in store for the car in the near future and he plans to drift the hell out of it until then.

With enough power and style to keep the car lookin’ good sliding sideways down the track, this S13 has the potential to become a viscious competitor. Will made the trip from the land of FWD Hondas to Nissan’s RWD darkside and hasn’t looked back since. After all…life is better sideways, isn’t it?

-All words and photos by Justin Mondschein.

James’ LS/VTEC Integra

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the DC2 Acura Integra is the 6th most stolen car in the nation. Now thats a scary bit of information for some; having your car stolen is the worst nightmare for the car enthusiast. With the recent theft of more than a few of my friend’s Hondas, James’ LS/VTEC Integra has stood the test of time and has been in the clear away from the thiefs and villains (knock on wood!). The Integra you’re about to see, is my personal favorite DC2. Lets just start off by saying, James has good taste…

Deemed the “Frankenstein” of the Honda motor swaps, the LS/VTEC is essentially a non-vtec B18 block mated with a VTEC enabled head. The general consensus is, the LS block supplies the torque and the VTEC head supplies the horsepower to make a powerful all-motor monster. James decided on a JDM type-R head to complete this swap, along with type-R regrind cams and Megan adjustable cam gears to make tuning easy. An Injen 3″ CAI supplies the needed air and the Hytech 4-1 tri-y catless race header flows into the custom T1R titanium exhaust out the rear of the car.

Are you a fan of carbon fiber? James certainly is. The exterior of the car is decorated in carbon fiber goodies; a Seibon carbon fiber hood covers the engine bay and the rear hatch is also fabricated of carbon fiber. James layed out his own weave with his hand built carbon fiber roof; now there’s something you don’t see everyday. The car sits slammed on 8000 spring rate coilovers, with custom 17×8 JLINE 6RL2 wheels in chrome blingin’ in your face. James loves his custom work as the 8000k HID headlight setup is retrofitted from an Acura TSX.

Jump inside this crystal clean DC2, and you’ll feel the Memoryfab carbon fiber bucket seats grabbing you tight. An NRG quick-release steering wheel setup allows the wheel to be removed quick and easy and the dual gauge pod displays oil pressure and air/fuel thanks to Glowshift down the a-pillar. The short shifter is provided by TWM and sitting on top is the old school weighted Grex shift knob.

So lets go back over our ingredients; Frankenstein motor swap, lots of carbon fiber, slammed stance, and baller wheels…that makes for one very tastefully modded Integra.

-All words and photos by Justin Mondschein.