Glanced: Sidetracked on a Tour

 Tokyo is well known for is immense car culture. I has been said that if you go to Tokyo, you could spend three weeks there, and not see one modified car if you don't know where to look.

On most days I would agree with this, but in some cases there are gems of high class automotive prestige, or are indeed modified and get me a little exited.

Between the immense number of porches I saw on the particular day i did this shoot I also saw some other gems worth mentioning as I toured the imperial palace and some surrounding gardens on a private tour.

The first real gem was this Ferrari 599 GTO which I was really surprised to see and was indeed the first 599 that I saw in real life.

At the same intersection and only about two minuets later I saw this Ferrari 458 Italia.

Mazerati, not particularly well known for its high performance as much as its prestige but was well worth the note.

Another Porsche but indeed a special one. These 356's are a car I have always appreciated because they really are the car that separated Porsche from Volkswagen, and also performance from economy.

Now the one car that really stood out to me in this particular stint was this red Soarer. Between the vinyls, TE37's and the areo I have to say this guy probably wasn't headed to get groceries and goes to show that if you keep your eye peeled on the streets you'll find some great examples of how the Japanese automotive enthused operator in such a city at Tokyo.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Chipman & Taylor: Porsche 928s

Here's the first installment of the cars I found at the Chipman & Taylor car show. Although this 928 may not represent the majority of cars at the show, that is far from my goal in covering this show. The Porsche 928 is one of my all time favorites, not only is it, or was it, a revolutionary car for its time but moreover the revolutionary car of the time.

The 928 is one of those cars that, like the Karmann Ghia or the first gen BMW M3 has timeless styling. It looked good back in the eighties, it looks great now and it will still look good fifteen years from now.

As I was shooting this car at the show I heard someone compliment the owner on his nice "new" Porsche, and I quote (hence the finely placed quotation marks). In response the owner said something along the lines of heh yeah 1981 like new alabaster...

I'm not sure if he really said alabaster but is sure sounded like it. Anyways that goes to show how modern these cars are, and how ahead of their time they were. They were the the fastest production car in 1987, able to reach speeds of 184 miles per hour. Very fast for 1987, and today for that matter. Something that Jeremy Clarkson appreciated very much in one instance.

These cars are something more than just another Porsche, they are the new age of Porsche we are seeing right now, the Panemera is a front engined rear wheel drive, albeit four door Porsche, just like the 928, Porsche knew what it was doing with its cars before it knew what it was going to do with its cars in the future, and this car is one of the best examples I have seen to date.

 The owner made sure to point out the original miles on the odometer, which I found astounding, considering this is a gt car made for extensive long trips. Also he pointed out the comedy of how Porsche fitted a speedometer that read only 85 miles per hour considering the top speed is double that. I believe this is the same cluster that was used in the 924, a much slower and more fitting car for this speedometer.

It's as if Porsche was trying to build something that resembled the slow 924 for the insurance companies and concerned mothers, but then stuff a 300hp V8 and an LSD for when the owner needed a rush or had an emergency much like Jeremy Clarkson in the above link.

These cars, were made to be an escape for the white collar, something they could take out looking like they were driving something tame and boring but really be driving a monster in a sheepskin, these cars changed the way people looked at the Porsche. It was so civilized and refined it changed the way people looked at there cars in general, from modes of transportation to something with a soul.

I personally find the first generation cars to be pretty ugly but the facelift in the mid/late eighties makes all the difference for me, but if I hadn't seen the face lifted version of the car I would still like this car very much. Here is another commercial for you to enjoy, these are some of the commercials that sold me on the car initially.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Chipman & Taylor: Car Show and Stuff Blog.

The summer is a great time for the classic car. Sure spring and fall are good and all, but in the spring, people are still finishing up their last touches on their projects, and in the fall the classics are just finished with a good summers worth of use and are most likely not looking their best.

In the early to mid summer the best side of classic cars comes out and I have to say I love going out and visiting the local car shows and seeing what has been worked up over the winter. One of these such events that I anticipated this year was the Chimpan & Taylor car show in Pullman Washington, my hometown. This place is a college town in the middle of a farming community which in my opinion is on of the best combinations for the preservation and showcasing of the classic car.

There is a university to feed the pockets of bored professors, and fuel the restoration of barn finds, but also there is an older community of people that grew up in the muscle car era that love to come to these shows and relive the glory days when drag racing down Grand Avenue was the best thing to do on a Saturday Night. This car show in particular is in my opinion one of, if not the best on the Palouse, I overheard a number in the range of 125 cars on the complex for the car show, and have to admit I didn't have the time to take in the details I would have liked of all the cars there.

Now in all reality I feel like this was an overcrowded, almost unprofessionally put on show but none the less I was there for the cars, not to speculate on how the cars could have been shown better. One thing for sure is that this was a family event, there were free hotdogs, a truck bed full of trophies for different categories of cars and live music. The magical combo for any small town large car show.

So as I post more on the Pumps I wanted to showcase from, keep in mind I wanted to show projects that were something unique, that I haven't covered on Pumps and that also had a high level of finish so until the wait for the first post is over, watch a video on how to Drift, something I enjoy watching very much and have been though at least three times.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Porsche 924: Dogwood Show and Shine

The Porsche 924 was the first car with a Porsche badge to have a front water cooled engine. While this may not have been the prettiest or best way to start off the front engine Porsche. It began the trend which produced some of the world’s fastest and most expensive pumps at the time.

This Porsche 924 was a little gem I found at the Dogwood Show and Shine in the Lewiston Clarkson valley in north Idaho. This car was in the process of a restoration but for the exterior at least, it looked like it had already been done. I talked to the owner and he said he’s been in the restoration process for a while and started to list some of the mods he had done on it, including how he stashed the tire grease rag under the rear tire, very tasteful in my opinion, I mean if your going to use a tire grease rag you might as well show it off too. This one looked really clean and I think speaks of the cleanliness of the tire before it was greased, all I can say is Wow.

He first pointed out the closely matched new paint job the Porsche was sporting. With only a slight color variation between the engine bay being the original color and the fender being the respray color. He also mentioned that he did a five lug swap to fit the bigger phone dial wheels which I think are a great contrast to the hard edges found throughout the car.

 Additionally he did a rear disk break swap to provide a bit more consistent stopping power and finally mentioned the duck-tail spoiler he added from the Carrera variant of the car.

After talking to him a bit I popped open the door and peaked inside, disappointingly it wasn’t much to look at. Once I saw it though, he was quick to spell out how he planned to get the seats reupholstered in the same pattern with some fresh leather as he would also do with the worn and cracked dash. Black leather with pea green thread to match the paint sounds like the perfect combo to me!

Knowing that this little 924 was in the middle of a restoration,  I found it refreshing at a classic car show full of American muscle. I see the draw to these cars and have dreamed about owning one myself, and after watching this old top gear episode, I feel even better about the first water cooled Porsche. Whether the engine really did come out of a Volkswagen van or not.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo

Meguri-Ai: The Washington Bred RWB Porsche

While I was at Formula Drift Seattle I had my first real life encounter with a Genuine Rough-Welt Porsche. Meguri-Ai is one of the few Porsche 911s that has been given the Rough-Welt Begriff treatment. Porsche purists hate them and just about everyone else loves them, but no matter who you are they grab your attention, and I have a hunch that was part of the goal when they were modified.

 The thing that struck me most about this Porsche and many of its siblings was the massive #AIRSLICER on the decklid, not only do they add so much to the statement the car makes but also seem to be functional...

 An observant eye can catch the air scoops that the spoiler also performs as forcing more Air into the engine bay and therefore allowing for more Pumping of Air! These scoops speak to the presence that Nakai san (the kat behind these monster cars) wants his cars to have, not only to have them catch your attention but also perform well to match the daunting looks.

 This better shows the massive down force producing wing that slices through the air..the same medium the Pump breathes. This also shows the gorgeously incorporated wide body treatment given to the once stock 993.  

 Meguri-Ai was sitting pretty on a set of 18 inch iForged Fusion, Performance Alloy wheels. Hugged by a set of Pirelli Pzeros with a stenciled idlers on the sidewall. Before I knew much about these cars I didn't really like them, but knowing now that they are raced at events like idlers, thus makng the form and function of them come out, I have to say my feelings have changed.

The first time I saw one of these RWB Porsches online I wasn't sure if i liked them or not, they seemed to loud for what I was into. But After researching them and leaning that Nakai san does indeed race them at the Idlers 12hr and other Competitions in japan I have to say I have grown to like them.

When I went to Fourmula Drift Seattle I knew I would enjoy everything about it, but I had no idea that I would see an RWB Porsche. Meguri-Ai.. the name meaning "chance encounter" fit so well with how I came across the fine Air Pump it had to be of some supernatural occurrence.

Joshua Sewell

Instagram: josh_sewell_photo