iM Likes This
Hiromu Naruse (1944-2010) was the chief engineer and test driver throughout the years for many of Toyota’s iconic sports cars. He passed away on June 23, 2010 driving his masterpiece, a yellow Lexus LFA Nurburgring Edition prototype.
Here is his tribute video by Lexus:
Acura
Well, it looks like this may be the last one of this season, its supposed to get cold here by Monday with snow, so if the hardcores are up to it, we will hold them downstairs. If not, you won’t see any meet pictures until next season when it warms up again. Was busier this week than last because it was a bit nicer out, so the turnout was better.
Hopefully the winter meets still continue, and I can get more pics for you guys. If not, it was fun, thanks to everyone for coming out, and hope to see everyone again next season!
Brides
Here’s one of many shots taken of Corey’s Civic on an extremely productive day. When this shot was taken the team had 3 photoshoots going on at the same time including some random shots of various cars such as this one.
Look forward to the ‘Features’ & ‘Highlights’ of those 3 photoshoots mentioned above as they will be coming soon and you won’t want to miss them!
iM Crew Decals
I wanted to take some time to give a shout out to our homie Alex Su. Now I wouldn’t normally do this but I think Alex deserves a post of his own. Without Terences’ notifying me, I would probably never be aware of Alex and the reason for this post.
Some of you might have attended shop class while you were in Junior High, some of you might currently be in it right now like Alex is and you might remember that clock project we all had to do. We would pick a design, cut it out of wood, paint it and add minute and hour hands to it as a personal clock.
Most people will do shit like make a flower, a sun, moon, or some generic stuff like that. However, what Alex did was purchase a pack of iM crowns from the store, take em to his shop teacher to photocopy and enlarge. From there he has to cut it, paint it and finish it up. Even I wouldn’t have thought of using our logo to make a clock..
When Terence messaged me, he sounded excited because of the fact that someone who doesn’t even drive yet, is crazy about and supports illmotion to the end. We love that we can totally inspire and have some place for guys like Alex to come and share something with us that might otherwise be hard to do elsewhere.
Here’s a shot that he sent in of his unfinished project.
Hey props to you Alex, we look forward to the finished project. Hopefully this project will lead into something bigger and better when you get a car for yourself!
Celica
photos//prashant.topiwala & jason.hoang
words//jc.tenchavez
|OWNER: Romel Tenchavez
|VEHICLE: 1977 Toyota Celica GT
In this day and age, car modifying/tuning is very accessible to us in which parts can simply be bolted on and ready to go. With access to the internet, we can all obtain information which can make our cars look “Hella Flush”, “JDM”, and we can even achieve that “10 Second Car” that they talk about in movies.
Rewind to the past and you start to wonder just how they did it back in the day. Enter Romel Tenchavez’s 1977 Toyota Celica GT. After literally growing up with this vehicle I can tell you that this car definitely wasn’t put together overnight.
Every modification on this Celica was mostly custom fitted and fabricated to achieve the “Retro Look with Modern Technology” title that Romel aimed for.
Purchased in 1992 from a relative in San Francisco California, Romel sought after one of Toyota’s most infamous Sports Cars from the 70s, The Toyota Celica GT. Originally sporting a 20R carburated engine and original white paint, little did this Celica know what was going to become of it.
Forward to 18 years later, this car remains in pristine condition and comes out on occasion whether it be at the track, car shows or meets. After reaching a 1/4 mile best of 13.7s @ 109mph, who knows what Romel has in store for this one of a kind classic…
|ENGINE & DRIVETRAIN
-20R Fuel Injected Race Engine
(Developed & Tuned by Duncan Fraser & Ross Farmham of Race Tech)
-RC Engineering Racing Clutch
-Custom Air Intake Plenum w/Mercedes-Benz Throttle Body
-MSD 720 CC Injectors
-SDS Full Engine Management System
-Mahle Forged Pistons
-Crower Billet Connecting Rods
-Crower Race Cam
-Garret T04 Turbo with H-3 Compressor & O .69 Turbine Section
-Custom Race Header
-Custom Wastegate
-HKS Super Power Flow Air Filter
-HKS Super Sequential Blow-Off Valve
-HKS Turbo Timer
-SDS Mixture Meter & Electronic Boost Controller
-SW Boost & Oil Pressure Gauges
-Spearco Intercooler w/Custom Fabricated Tanks
-Megan Oil Catch Can
-Custom Battery Relocation
-1985 Corolla GTS Differential (Zenki)
-TRD LSD (4.10 Gears)
|SUSPENSION
-Tokico Adjustable Shocks
-Suspension Techniques Sport Springs
-Cusco Front Strut Tower Bar
-Custom Rear Sway Bar
|LIGHTING
-Euroline “JDM Yellow” bulbs
-PIAA 959 Projector Beam Fog Lights
-CATZ ZETA 00 Headlight System
-Custom Side Marker Lights
|INTERIOR
-Nardi Classic Steering Wheel
-Toyota Japan Shift Knob
-RAZO Pedals
-Sprint Seats w/Custom Rails
|EXTERIOR
-Toyota Blue Streak Mica Pearl Paint
-Custom Front Bumper Fascia
|WHEELS
-Kei Office 15×7 +15 Dori-Dori Wheels
-195/50R15 Kumho Ecsta 711 Tires
-Watanabe 13×7 -7 Type-A Wheels
-215/50R13 Sumitomo Tires
|ICE
-Alpine CDA-7982 3-Disc In Dash Head Unit
-Alpine MRV-F400S V12 Amp
-Alpine 12″ Type S Sub Woofers (2)
-Alpine 4 1/2″ Type S Midrange Speakers (2)
-Coustic 5 1/4″ Mid-Bass Speakers (2)
-Coustic 2″ Tweeters (2)
-MB Quart Passive Crossover
-Audio Conrol Electronic Crossover w/ Equalizer
Without a doubt the biggest challenge for Romel was converting the Celica’s carburated engine to it’s now electronically fuel injected turbocharged engine. With no given information on how to do the swap, the entire project was simply “trial and error” with friends and family putting in countless hours to get it how you see it today.
Initially, Romel swapped the 20R carb motor to a “modern” fuel injected/turbocharged 22R engine. Upgrade the suspension, wheels, audio and Blue Streak Mica Pearl Paint from Toyota’s last generation Celica, now you have something that is totally offset from the rest.
After countless runs at the Race City 1/4 mile track and reaching a personal best of 14.2 @ 101mph with the 22R motor, Romel decided it was time to move on; not how you think, however. After being in contact with Duncan Fraser & Ross Farmham of Race Tech Engineering, Romel was able to obtain a fully tuned 20R Turbocharged Race Engine, which is now the heart of this beastly Celica.
The thing I love most about this car is how it keeps up to today’s technologies and even today’s “trends”. With sick fitment on either his Dori-Dori wheels or the current Watanabe Type-A set-up there’s no denying that proper fitment has always been around and inevitably, will never die.
With cars like this, we definitely gotta show love and appreciation for the old school. Without guys like Romel in our scene, we would have no real foundation on why we all do what we do to our cars.
Cancer
Thank-you for every ones support for the month of October. Because of your continued support through the purchase of our decals we managed to raise just over $300(50% of all sales) which now goes to support a great cause, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation!
Our ‘Cancer Pink’ edition decals were a hot seller and we hope to bring something new and exciting to the scene next October when we do the same thing again!
If you missed out on the ‘Cancer Pink’ decals you’ll have to wait for another special edition decal which may be released shortly in our STORE. So be sure to keep your eyes on the store and the fan pages for updates.
If you wish to make a donation to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation make your way over to their site HERE
Thanks again for your support!
Acura
Even though it was freezing out, I went out to the weekly 403 Honda/Beyond Meet at Chinook Centre. For those that don’t know, these meets are held every Wednesday night at the top level of the Chinook Centre rear parkade. I encourage everyone to try to come out and support your local meets, since they help keep our car community alive and motivated.
I tried my best to get some decent pictures with the crappy lighting (or lack of), and my frozen fingers in the 0 degree Celsius night.
I’ll be out again with the camera this week, so come out if you can. It’s forecasted to be 10+ degrees that day, so it should be a bit warmer than the last one. Who knows, maybe we’re looking for our next features while we’re out there! 😉
Honda
Lately, we’ve had this crazy stream of people posting their pics of their rides reppin’ illmotion – which is awesome. We love seeing those posts on our facebook wall – so if you got a pic, post it up! And we’ll do our best to get it out! We think all rides deserve some sort of shout out. Thanks again for the support guys! We hit 1,000 fans on facebook thanks to all of you!
Adam Billing’s crown on his Civic
Dominic Jablonski’s VDUB
Julian Marrero’s Civic rocking the breast cancer edition decal 😀
Chris Ceglanski’s RSX-S
iM Event Coverage
This past Saturday, I had a chance to drop in on the University of Calgary Car Club (UCCC) Halloween Cars & Coffee meet. It was a bit chilly out, but was fun to just hang out nonetheless. Got a few snaps of the cars and of people just hanging out.
Thanks goes to Terence for his work in putting this together. Please check out their webpage which also has links to their forums, and their Facebook page (click in their logo): 
CR-Z
Saw pics of the new C-West CRZ aero a while back but just happened to stumble on this video, must resist urge to buy a CRZ haha.
All the big JDM companies are pumping out CRZ parts like crazy (more coming soon on that). Should be interesting to see how this whole ‘sport-hybrid’ thing works out, the Japanese seem to be running with it!
