The Chronicles - Car Culture Website and Video Blog Series.

05/31/2026

DoriDore in Japan is totally worth whatever happened to me…

Cars so good my eye literally exploded......

DORIDORE is a style-based drifting and car show event with no shortage of amazing vehicles. These guys build these incredible cars and just thrash on them whether it's blazing hot in the torrential downpour, it doesn't matter. These guys are just always down.

05/20/2026

Now that my Japan trip is coming to a close and I won’t be seeing the EG for a while, I figured it would be a time to get a “machine check” going with all the mods currently on the car…

For reference, I had planned this EG6 build for years now. It was just a Honda that I always wanted to have, even long before the EK9 happened. It just took time to get started because we were trying to find a good, clean, base chassis. I think we went through 2 or 3 but they either had rust or some sort of damage. The EK9 actually has a more interesting back story because of the accident and how we found the chassis after to build it. Nothing really crazy happened with this one.

Here is the current set-up:

1994 Honda Civic (EG6)

Exterior:

* OEM BMW 337 Dakar Yellow II paint
* Exceed Japan Ver. 2 front lip (Toray CF ver.)
* Exceed Japan rear wing (Toray CF ver.)
* Exceed FRP double-vented hood (Prototype)
* Mugen side skirts
* MRacing mirrors (Not installed)
* Studio55 carbon fiber cowl
* Side moldings deleted
* Custom rear bumper cut-outs
* New OEM moldings and trim

Engine:

* B16B Type R assembled by Tatsumi Engine CHARGE
* TODA Racing 50mm Sports Injection Kit
* TODA Racing 4-2-1 Exhaust Manifold Ver. 2
* TODA Racing Single Clutch Kit
* TODA Racing Timing Belt
* TODA Racing Cam Pulleys
* Technica Sports Vision-R N1 muffler
* Hasport engine mounts
* Koyorad radiator
* Billion cooling hoses
* SARD fuel pressure regulator
* TOMEI fuel pressure gauge
* Earl’s -AN fuel fittings and braided hoses
* 5-0 Ignite PRO Crank & Cam Trigger Kit
* OEM Honda K-series coil packs
* Rywire Mil-spec harness
* Rywire coil-on-plug adapter plate
* LINK Engine Management
* Mugen oil cap
* Custom painted OEM valve cover
* Stripped/fully stitch-welded engine bay

Interior:

* Full stitch-welded chassis
* Saito 8-Point Roll Cage
* Custom suede dashboard, door panels
* Levo Mooncraft steering wheel
* Bride Zeta IV TODA Racing Edition seats
* Battlecraft Hyper Tear Drop shift k**b, Hyper RQR
* Willans safety harnesses
* Hybrid shifter assembly

Suspension/Wheels/Brakes

* 16x8 +42 Mugen MF10
* Yokohama ADVAN AD09 215/45R16
* Exceed Big Brake Kit, SSD coilovers
* Mugen steel lug nuts

05/20/2026

Finally got to visit HCM Sports Garage and go inside for the first time! The few times I’ve passed by when in Suzuka it was always too late and they were closed.

The Mugen RC20GT was just sitting outside and inside was the original Mugen NSX Concept which was the car I wanted to see up-close. So cool to see it still in original condition unchanged. The shop isn’t too big but they had some cool stuff in there like a Suzuka Circuit-shaped table and a schematic of the Mugen Castrol JTCC Accord!

05/19/2026

It has been a while since I’ve seen EG6. I had the pleasure of watching this thing come together at Exceed back when it was literally just a raw shell. A good amount of time went into this particular chassis as it needed a ton of welding, fabrication work, a carbon roof replacement and cutting significant areas for weight reduction. After it was completed, I rarely saw the car again as it’s stored away in another area not near Exceed and it’s not a car you can drive on the street. I mean, you could drive it, but it’s not registered, and it is what it was originally planned all along to be, a dedicated race car…

Yuuma has evolved the car a bit more over the past year. The exterior remains pretty much the same as it did when it left Exceed but there are some tweaks. A majority of his efforts went into the interior. It’s still a very raw, gutted, Honda but he put a lot of time into getting more electrical functionality out of it. He crafted a custom switch/fuse panel where the radio and climate control once stood, trimming the original interior to fit all the necessities. The factory cluster is gone, replaced now by a series of classic STACK gauges and a 10K RPM Omori tach. The rest is a collection of toggle switches throughout mounted to a fitted half dashboard.

I love seeing little details like this because it shows intention. It shows he cares and he doesn’t his research. He’s an avid enthusiast of the Japanese racing era of yesteryear and loves studying the nuances of classic race cars. Sometimes people just do s**t to cars for the sake of doing s**t. It’s very important to be intentional, in all aspects of life really. Just to go into something wholeheartedly and care about what you’re doing. It will show in the work. I went to Central Circuit a couple days ago and got to see him rip this thing around and thought I’d show you his Civic in its purest form. It’s rough, gritty but in many ways particularly refined.

05/15/2026

I’m not quite back yet from beautiful Japan but I have been working on photos while sitting in the Osaka office in the sweltering heat. The new office is not AC-equipped currently so ventilation and cooling has come via a small window cracked open behind me. The other day brought in a fan but it was more of a blower than anything which kinda just pushed s**t around the office rather than provide any cooling effects. Nonetheless we power through until the sun sets daily and the hope no mosquitoes find their way in. Yasu is coming back to Cali with me so he’s been busy trying to get a bunch of customer cars finish before we leave…

Anyways before I jump too far into a tangent, here are the rest of the photos from the / meet from a few weeks back. I woke up early for a change and made my way to Rancho Cucamonga to check this out. I’ve been on this thing lately where I feel like I need to go back out to things more like I use to. I’m gonna try to make it out to more car events this year since I feel like I can always be doing more and shooting more stuff. More so because i genuinely enjoy it more than feeling FOMO. I don’t know I just want to do more…

This morning gathering hosted some pretty nice cars, mostly of the Honda variety but there was a good mixture of other stuff as well. I even saw a really nice lightly modded 1985 Chevy Nova which was just an odd rebadged Toyota Corolla in the 80s. Really cool to see though because back during that time you could literally buy a Chevy with a 4A-GE in it new from the dealership. Chevy came up with the idea to rebadge Japanese cars because they were getting destroyed publicly due to their consistent lack of quality. They basically teamed up with Toyota and others so they could make use of this plant in California which was like the worst in the country when it came to workmanship. The Japanese came in and taught them how to build Japanese cars in America basically and the result was what later came to be know as GEO. That’s a whole nother story for maybe never. Why do I know this? I grew up reading magazines and researching random car s**t. We didn’t have s**t to do back then, ok?…

05/13/2026

I rarely ever come upon a situation where I question if I’m still built for this but the beginning of the trip to Japan this time around was a rough one. It’s always a mad rush before the flight whether it be getting bills paid or making sure I have everything I need when I’m gone in another country. Naturally I try not to procrastinate but there are also tv shows I need to watch before I go. This time around it was even busier because I decided to go to multiple car events and even drove out to Chuckwalla the day before my flight. 11 hours later, I got off the plane and ate dinner, showered, and immediately hopped in a tow truck to drive another 7+ hours to go to the other side of Japan…

Now, one would ask why I didn’t just fly into the city I needed to be in but this decision was based solely on solidarity. had been putting together the new Exceed S13 build (yes you read that right) because it was needed for the event we were heading to and we also needed a second tow rig to bring my EG6. Both cars were needed there for different reasons and I didn’t feel right not going among on the journey with Yasu so it made the most sense. The event was a special one too as it was the first time streetwear brand was teaming up with both Honda and to do a car show event to promote their new collaborative apparel release. I wasn’t gonna pass that up but we had to make it there first. The S13 had barely been finished an hour before we had to go and even Yasu was running on fumes by the time we left. Did I mention we were also going to be 3 hours late to the event? Good thing our friend .2 came along to help drive…

Once we got there, I was reminded of why Motegi was such a beautiful track. That and having my EG at the Honda Collection Hall was pretty incredible. That and Exceed having an S13 project were two things I didn’t have on my Bingo card for 2026. Actually, make that 3 things that weren’t in my Bingo card because I also got to see the Mugen Castrol NSX JGTC Champion car fire-up along with the Weider HSV-010. That was worth the trip alone and I had only been there for a few hours. Here are some photos. Vlog is up too!..

05/12/2026

Time to head back to Japan!...

Never thought my EG6 would be displayed at the Honda Collection Hall in Japan...

https://stickydiljoe.com/2026/05/12/time-to-head-back-to-japan/

05/11/2026

It’s been a while since I’ve run into .ksr and his turbocharged Civic. Though we have a lot of mutuals, we aren’t often in the same place and Ken rarely brings his car out to events. I was genuinely surprised to see him recently at the meet at . If you have followed my work for any number of years now you may remember I dedicated a good amount of time documenting his build. He’s had this car forever and I’ve had the pleasure of seeing its continued evolution. There’s no part of this chassis that hasn’t been modified or altered in some way. Perhaps the reason why nobody really sees this car out much is because he’s always doing something new to it, tinkering in his garage while honing his craft, remaking something new he made the previous day cuz he woke up and didn’t like it anymore…

This is truly one of those “garage-built” project cars all done by the owner himself. Ken is a completely self-taught fabricator, welder, and MoTec tuner. I suppose his ideas and concepts just come from everywhere, his brain working at its own speed. He’s a bit of a polarizing figure, I’m sure he would admit himself, but you can’t deny that the guy knows his s**t and if he doesn’t, he’s willing to learn it. He seems rather nonchalant when you talk to him but he has a level of dedication most don’t notice until you see it executed on his car…

Again it has been a while since I’ve seen the car but I tried to get some more detailed shots of it, even waiting until the end of the day to catch it outside so I can show you the interior. One could probably stare at this car for hours and constantly find a little something that hadn’t seen. It always looks in a state of almost completion while also looking like it could be torn apart again at any time. It’s an incredibly ambitious (and also ridiculous) never-ending project but in all the right ways…

If you’re wondering why there is a PDM in his engine bay, or why there is a fuel breather coming out of his trunk, just take a look at the exorbitant amount of time he probably spent on his modified Mugen cup holder in his custom center console and you’ll understand it’s not a question of “why”—it’s why not?….

05/08/2026

The EG6 hasn’t gotten much love since the pop-up with so many other things going on. But, now that I’m back in Japan for a few weeks, I can show you some of the little updates. I had been struggling trying to find a really clean set of OEM corner lights since parts are so hard to come by now even in Japan. I didn’t like the full orange ones we used for Tokyo Car Week cuz it just threw-off the flow of the car, especially since I had clear sidemarkers already. We didn’t have much time before we debuted the car so we just used a new set of aftermarket orange ones. Every time I looked at the car it just bothered me. While we were moving cars around when Yasu was clearing out one of his units, we found a clean pair of OEM clears on a donor EG. The taillights were a little cleaner too so I’m hoping he saved those too. With the OEM clears the car just looks so much better especially since the Dakar Yellow is so faint and muted…

This Civic actually got safety harnesses before my EK9 even did back at home! We ordered a pair of Willans belts to go with the theme of the build since the main contest color is blue. These harnesses are classic pieces so you can’t really miss with these. It also pairs nicely with the TODA Racing Edition Bride seats in the EG. The dashboard still needs to be finished and I’d like to add some more to the interior since the car is staying in Japan for a while. I may give it the same treatment as the EK9 with a full custom interior but I’ll see how it ends up while it’s in Osaka since we do need the car for events. Also we still need to get the car up and running too. It’s has fluids and everything just hasn’t been fired-up since it will be in a Link management system that needs a proper tuner to maximize the potential of the TODA Sports Injection and B16B swap. recently was able to find another Technica Vision-R exhaust too which is pretty rare to come across these days in YAJ. We love the sound of the exhaust on my EK9 and since it’s the same engine we are hoping it’ll match in tone. It’s like not obnoxiously loud like a straight pipe but has a good throaty rumble to it while getting decently loud when you open it up…

05/03/2026

The day before I hopped on a flight back to Japan, we stopped by Chuckwalla Valley Raceway for a private track day hosted by and . Max and Maaya were in California visiting so it was the perfect opportunity to pull the Exceed Mintia EK out to stretch its legs. It hadn’t been driven since the last time we went to CVR but we had a vibration we had to figure out and there’s no better way to do that than to possibly break the whole car on the track lol. takes “run it til the wheels fall off” very seriously but luckily the car didn’t explode and he figured it was probably the inner part of the CV that’s going…

Despite that, the car made it through the hot day and we were even able to get both the EK and the A’PEXi GR86 out for some rollers as the day came to an end. I was trying to go for a ‘dogfight’ kinda vibe but it had been a long day so I didn’t want to make them stuff their heads back into their sweaty helmets. What it became was just some ‘cruisers’ which is now what we will call this where you go on the track and drive very casually with sunglasses on while your friends lead you in a Volvo SUV. The only fighting was me trying not to fall out of the car while getting these photos…

We almost didn’t take these at all since and Kristian already loaded the EK up on the trailer but it was a rare opportunity to get photos on the track with Maaya so we couldn’t pass it up. She was a good sport about it too after a long day and she also had a flight to catch the following day. Huge thanks to who was also shooting these photos with me simultaneously and to the whole A’PEXi team for putting on a great fun day with friends. Now the Mintia EK goes back into hiding, still with a busted axle 😀…