meet – Gripshiftslide

Melb-S15 :: DFO Meet "n" Greet

Grant — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 05:59:06 +0000

Late on a friday afternoon i got the word there was going to be a gathering of some of Melbourne’s best s15’s at dfo essedon. Upon arriving i was impressed with the range of silvia’s and s14’s that where on display.

The turnout was a lot larger than i had ever expected, with 20 plus cars and plenty of them heavily modified, i knew i was in for a treat.

Fitment, was the first word that sprung to mind, sitting nice and flat with a good amount of camber this S14 had it all.

Mikey is a trend setter and rocking 3 spoke wheels is a true throwback to the 90’s and mad way to show true JDM pride.

Amongst the sea of S15s there is a few Nissan S14’s, black with a polished lip always a good choice.

Even know this car is a work in progress, its still damn impressive!

With a great fitment and pitch perfect poke, it really turns heads.

Alex’s S15 is running a carbon hood to shave some Kilos off whilst plenty of engine mods make this one car that demands respect.

Simple and clean, this is one s15 that will not attract the boys in blue.

X marks the spot! this is one way to hide battle scars.

Both with gold wheels on gunmetal grey! is a great colour combo that looks classy and never gets old.

Jono’s R32 GTR is looking better than ever and a little birdy tells me; there are some major upgrades in the works for this legendary machine.

Looks like the GT wing has been removed, not sure if its because of the poepoe or for more straight line speed?

So many nice Silva’s in Melbourne and the melbs15.com forum is the main home for all of these great looking cars.
Thanks for looking,
-Grant

Shockworks : BBQ

Grant — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:57:16 +0000

Recently local suspension experts Shockworks Australia put on a feast in the hills for customers and friends to have a friendly chat and show of their handy work, they also brought along a few demo cars to see how their products stack up against the competition.
When free food is on offer and a few rides are up for grabs its hard to resist! So the whole GSS crew trekked up to the hills to check out the view and fine cars on show.

Matt Russel went to huge efforts to bring his well know wreck ’em AE86 up to Olinda, fully caged and setup for drift, this car is a regular at many of Australia’s drift comps recently competing in Tasmania and Melbourne rounds of the ADGP series.

A crowd soon gathered to admire this drift weapons setup! at home in the engine bay is a Nissan SR20DET, just our kind of Frankenstein swap!

Only the bare essentials are needed inside, no 5 stack dvd player or gps units in sight!

From this angle you can see the similarities between the older Toyota’s…

The owner of this AE86 went to great lengths to make everything look factory finished under the hood.
With some mild tuning and supporting mods it has a nice healthy delivery of power hiding beneath all the factory intakes…
The grand prize here is the rare OEM Airbox setup!

Is this a specialist tofu delivery vehicle perched on top of a hill? looking right at home in Hatchiroku territory.

Chris’s Corona is one tough looking Toyota! It sits nice and flat to the ground on Shockworks coil overs of course!

The Star shark wheels look the goods too!

Chris knows all about fitment and finding those hard to find parts, since the BBQ Chris has fitted some electric JDM fender mirrors!!!

If your a fan of Initial D then you”ll know what this sticker is all about, this KE70 is totally at home in these hills.

A now rare wagon! it was great to see one in such good condition with a great set of wheels to match.

No paint on front bar… because race car! (This Chaser has attended a few of the recent DECA days)

Probably the best looking 4 door saloon going around, the Toyota chaser is big car with big power!

You may have seen Harley’s JZX100 Chaser on GSS before and this is for good reason… We love it!!

86’s were out in force thanks to www.ae86drivingclub.com.au for rallying the troops!

The SSR mesh wheels seem to be very popular, this because they look so god damn good on an older rig!

This car and its owner are said to be the god father of the Hachiroku in Victoria, just checkout the homemade fiberglass bonnet!

Nice colour choice! and great rims to match

The test ride vehicle may sit high, this is for good reason. The Shockworks coilovers are set at the most optimum setting for smoothest ride and handling. Hella flush isn’t everything it often leads to hella smash and hella no-functional!
But rest assured… they go low, very low!

Check out these ultra rare wheels on the Mikey’s S15 of Team Tuffcore fame. Mikey is a real ‘wheel slut’ with lower standards than most… he likes the wheels that others reject, only kidding Mikey we love you and all your tri-spoke wheels you are hiding a way for the day they’re popular again…

Is it a truck or ute?? We see a smoke stack with a hat!
Word on the street is that it is rb20 powered!

The entire GSS team enjoyed the BBQ amongst some fine cars and great people!
After a ride in one of the demo cars we were very impressed to say the least, the stock standard S13 (with no other handling mods) performed brilliantly even on the softest settings, it was put to the test with some quick flicks of the steering wheel.
On soft it was still super responsive and on the hardest setting it managed to navigate a dirt road with ease! No bolts rattled loose anywhere!!
Check out the website and see why they’re fast becoming a household name among local drivers/drifters and racers.
http://www.shockworks.com.au/
Thanks for reading,
Team GSS.

Hardtuned.net :: Show "n" Tell

Grant — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 08:16:52 +0000

Hype soon built with the large number of people expected at the meet, and the hardtuned.net Facebook page soon lit up.

I arrived a little late and didn’t expect to find a park, though myself and the lucky few behind me quickly snapped up the last ones.

Just coincidence, or was I seeing double? The R34 seems to be regaining popularity and for good reason.

The wide variety of cars showed that no matter what type of car you have, the overall reason for coming together is the same.

Though not quite as big as Sydney, Melbourne is really starting to show its force in numbers with each meet seeming to get bigger and bigger.

Some nice guard work going on here!

Without a doubt the most powerful car at the meet. With head sized turbos and enough noise to deafen people 3km away, this car was a true monster.

Burnouts between cars in a stupid crazy drag car! No worries, except for all the cars that got sprayed with stones!

Two Mitsubishis that deserve more respect. Both very underrated cars.

This forth gen Civic with complimenting wheels really looks clean and unmolested.

Some pretty funky aero going on here! Looks like this may not be just a hard parker.

Strange, I didn’t realise that there was a whole other mini carpark at the back of the place. I guess when you need to find a park you find a park.

More and more cars continued to flow in!

Two door R31… Amazing!

Aggressive fitment! There is a hard line between having flush fitment and a daily driver without smashing the shit out of your guards.

Love the superlites and the tight tuck that’s going on here, the Escort is one car you definitely do not see on the roads anymore and that’s a real shame.

R35 perfection.

The P-platers are really sticking it to the oldies and showing them how to modify. Great selection of wheels and ride height.

Check out the attention to detail on the valve caps and white tyre highlights! These small things really made this car stand out.

The camber on this Silvia really helped to make this car look lower and phatter than it really is.

Hey look the suns out! Okay, it didn’t last long, only enough for me to take a photo of the huge crowd.

An old favorite of ours, MREVO returns to show the evo crowd how it’s done!

Don’t you hate it when you have to drive directly into the sun?

Yet another fine example of the R34.

This photo racked up 200+ likes on our FB, and it’s easy to see why. This car truly is a masterpiece and it seems that you guys think so too.

Some nice classics, it’s good to see that these great cars haven’t been forgotten.

Back in the day I used to see quite a few great looking Jazzs hanging around, but these days not so much… So where are they all?

If only we could add another level to this carpark! There seems to be plenty of height to build up…

Not just a Honda thing, sticker bombing is a trend that is here to stay.

A Super straight KE! So clean and well looked after.

The price on these has skyrocketed in the last few years and it’s easy to see why. What a shape and what a legend! It was great to see one in person.

Complete with its original engine, which looks like it has been lovingly rebuilt.

I couldn’t get enough of this Honda Legend! I still remember when it had the standard wheels and bags. I have to congratulate Oxer on his fine choice of wheels and incredible stance.

So tough! Mugen M7’s re barreled here in Victoria to offer some ridiculously low offset!

Ready for war! With a fat tyre profile and decent offset, this KE70 looks like it wants to rip your arm off and beat you to death with the wet end.

The crowd assembled on the road to witness the drivers giving their cars hell all while attempting not to crash them.

Checkout the weight shift! With the extra weight in the back and the foot to the floor this chaser’s ass nearly touched the ground!

No smoke, no steam, only astonishing speed. When this R35 flogged it, it disappeared within a couple of seconds!

By this time it was getting pretty dark and the majority of people decided to call it quits…

… Except for this large group of S2000 owners!

What a view! Right on the water, it was the perfect place to take shots of one of Honda’s most loved cars.

I didn’t waste any time quickly sneaking in and taking a few photos. Where else do you see this many S2000s together?

With so many nice cars and quite a few people displaying some decent driving skills, the Hardtuned Meet was a huge success. This spot has seen some of the biggest car meets in Victoria this year, and if the scene continues to grow we’ll have to mark out measured parking to fit in as many cars as possible!
Thanks for looking,
– Grant

Jap Parts :: Coburg Cruze

Grant — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:09:34 +0000

The Jap car meet up and cruise expected a turnout in excess of 200+ cars and it was all organised via facebook!! This event had all the makings of a large JDM meet, but as soon as people arrived, they were gone just as quickly!

Everyone quickly grabbed a parking spot and soon the place was filled.
Bet you didn’t you know that wagon’s are back in? Itss true! There were Legnums, a Caldina, Subaru’s and even a VW Passat wagon.

Some of the first people to arrive were the RX7 boys.

There was a decent rotary following going on and it was good to see the classic RX7 is by no means gone and certainly not forgotten.

In my opinion, pop up lights are the most futuristic thing invented for cars! It is a pity they outlawed them on newer cars due to the damage they would cause to pedestrians.

These three were the only cars in this area, then suddenly the whole thing was full!

Primed and ready for a touge battle! It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I do like the race inspired taped headlight.

Its ok, it’s only a flesh wound! And we hear chicks dig scars like these!

Simple and clean, this EK was looking like magic! What I find strange is that it hadn’t been murdered with stickers! I guess that’s why this car looked so nice.

Didn’t see many chasers on the night, but managed to grab a quick snap of one hidden up the back.

With oil cooler hoses this low, I would be scared to drive over anything!

Its not all about jdm , I spotted this mini truck away from the crowd.

This one had such a unique front lip! I can honestly say this is the first time I have seen one like it.

One of the finest examples of a well modified ke70! This is ‘faptastic’! The owner should be very proud of what he has achieved with this car.

Another kesev and nearly all of them had welded or locked diffs, also check out the fitment!

When someone yelled out “Lets cruise, follow me!” it was a race to get out of the carpark!! This caused a bit of a traffic jam. The cops had done their normal rounds, watched, talked to a few and considered blocking people in, but the place had too many exits! Three or so squad cars did a drive through and the place really cleared out.

This may look like a SAU meet! its not, its only the skyline section moving out.

Later I heard that the cruise was heading up around the King Lake and Diamond Creek area. Many who turned up late did not want to battle traffic to catch up though.

The worst part about this meet/cruise was, there were a fair amount of people who turned up after
everybody had left! Some who had driven all the way from Geelong and were only late because of crashes on the ring road.
A group of Subaru’s were late, they had stopped to help a Subaru owner lower his wrx and also got caught in other freeway delays. This has got to be one of the fastest moving meets I have ever seen!
Thanks for looking,
– Grant

Invite Only :: Honda Meet

Grant — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:29:48 +0000

Two weeks ago I was invited to a Honda only meet, what was going to be a lazy Sunday evening at home turned into a busy night of moving cars and taking a few hundred photos as the sun set over Melbourne’s docks.
Organized by a few friends and an attendance list of only 20+ cars, it was quite the surprise with over 60 cars in total!

Nearly every Honda was out in force, 5 Jazz’s in total with two very modified examples.

I have always had a soft spot for these guys, They make for a great daily around town and can look great with a new set of wheels.

A black EP3R is a rare sight here in Melbourne, in a sea of white and occasionally red EP’s this was the first time I have seen one in the flesh!

As the meet went on we arranged a few cars together for some group shots, Not only did this make for some interesting photos but nearly everyone at the meet had a D-SLR and was snapping away like crazy!
I’ve never seen so many cameras at a meet before.

One of the best looking cars in yellow!
It’s good to see as S2000’s drop in price they haven’t dropped in quality.

Missing blue otherwise it would have been a full set!

I surprise attendee was this first generation Honda Civic, this ladies and gentleman is why we have Type R’s and Nsx’s.
This little guy put Honda on the map worldwide!

While this one remained fairly standard it did have a race inspired interior, with fixed bucket seats and a racing wheel.

Such great lines, I miss seeing classics like this on the road.

The latest generation Civic is light years away in terms of technology and manufacturing advancements, next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Honda Civic and is definitely something to celebrate!

The ‘other’ K swapped FD1 civic in Melbourne, this one was converted by Seeker Motorsport here in Melbourne.

Only two FN2R Civics came to the meet, still very new on the scene they will gain popularity as their prices come down and more parts become available.

With a bit of maneuvering we managed to get the FD Civic’s out from the crowd and do some more group shots.

Honda definitely got the rear end right on this model!

Very aggressive lines from factory, add a lip kit and some aero goodies and you have a monster!

One of the only ‘VIP’ styled cars was this superb Accord Euro.

Heads turned when this came in to park.

It really goes to show if you spend your time and choose everything carefully you can make any car stand out, right down to the placement of sticker it was spot on!

Now onto “WHEELS OF THE MEET”…
I’m going to be snapping some pics of my favorite wheels from each event and hopefully compile something at the end of the year.

Enkie RPF1

Volk CE28

OG Sans (BBS E50 replica)

Work Equip 03

Sportmax XXR 002

What was expect to be around 20 cars turned into 60+, all just by invitation and word of mouth.
No forum posts at all!

5 lug EG Civic.

Aside from my own car, this was the only CRX at the meet.
The SiR models are extremely rare in red, in fact they’re extremely rare in anything other then black!

During the meet two of the friendliest police officers in Melbourne showed up to see what was going on, just the night before at the at the same location during the JDMST meet a Daihatsu Charade was defected by Highway patrol!

The Airwalker front lip looks great on this Ep3R

A long time later we arranged the second biggest group for some shots.

7 Epr3 Civic’s together is a pretty unique sight any where in the world!

After a few hundred photos we moved the Civic’s on to make way for the elevntybillion Integra’s…

This took around 30 mins to find the owners and move all the cars to right places, big thanks to Chris for taking the lead and directing everyone.

The effort was worth it, how good do these DC2 Integra’s look together.

After seeing a lot of Dc2’s have JDM front end conversions done I’m really starting to enjoy the original front end.

There was also quite a few DC5’s as well.

Looking down the line from the rear you could really see some similarities between the DC2 an newer DC5 chassis.

This was a great meet with good people and great attitudes, some beautiful Hondas and no silly ‘Vtec-ing’ up and down the street.
Big thanks to Chris for organizing and the invite, hopefully we see some more meets like this in the future.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

Imports Only :: Saturday Night Cruise

Grant — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:03:14 +0000

Two weeks into the year and things are already back on track for Melbourne’s modified car community, with several meets and events coming up in 2012 it is going to be one hell of year!
Over the Christmas/New Years break it was nice to relax but I couldn’t get rid of the itch that something was missing. So whilst enjoying a meal at a friends place Saturday night, I got a message that a cruise was happening and the turn out was likely to be pretty decent.

With keys and camera in hand, I made my way down to the Monash Uni carpark where I was greeted by a handful of Skylines, a few Evo’s and even a couple VW’s.
This Civic was one of the first Honda’s at the meeting point, it had all the extras like a carbon hood, bonnet mask and even a cup holder!

Yep an external cup holder, what will they think of next?!

What started off at around 15 cars soon got to 50+ as word about the cruise had spread like wildfire among the Skyline community, with nearly 20 Skylines attending in total.

After the Skylines, the meetup was dominated by the AWD Mitsubishi’s and Subaru’s. From the clean and simple like this…

To the slightly more wild Evo’s.

And finally the very, very menacing looking Evo X.

Not many Toyota’s were out in force at the cruise, this Chaser was one of only three Toyota’s there!

It did however have spot on wheel choice, Work SP1’s work on nearly any car!

This interesting looking Evo had gone for a friendlier look than most and it did look very clean.

The wingless look while not for everyone, can work really well. I really liked this one, but I have seen some bad examples too!

Now to some euro goodness, this Golf had a wicked colour scheme with the factory red pin-striping continuing onto the bonnet around the carbon fiber.

One of the stars of the meet up was this little Mk1 Golf, sporting an engine swap and a host of other goodies.

Keep your eyes peeled as you might be seeing some more of this little guy.

Lighting conditions in the car park were pretty horrid for photos, some had pretty fancy setups using strobe flashes.

While others including my self, opted for some lower shutter speeds and a tripod.

One car that has been getting around is this GS Lexus, the ride height on it was perfect!

An old relic form the old car show days?

Not to everyone’s taste, this show RX-7 has had some serious coin spent on it and definitely has the engine work to back up the paint!

The show stopping moment for the evening was this KE70 Corolla arriving.

Making quite a noise thanks to an SR swap. Along with the engine, this car has had quite the handling upgrade thanks to some components from an S15 including new brakes!

This was the cars first outing as the owner has been very busy building it for the upcoming Drift Matsuri in Feb.

Announcing the little KE’s arrival were these awesome ‘drift’ pipes.

As the lighting didn’t help the photos, everyone moved into an adjacent multi-level car park.

It wasn’t great but anything was an improvement. Here you can see a few of the Skylines together and there really were quite a few!

It took a little bit of maneuvering to get everyone in the right spots.

How’s this for rare, a genuine Tommy Kaira R34!
Improving on what the Gt-R had as standard with tune up of the engine and suspension system…

…And some very serious aero modifications. It was very imposing sitting next to a regular GT-R!
I overheard the owner mention this was build number 79 from the Tommy Kaira workshop.

A few of the Subaru kids parked off by themselves.

This green machine had an interesting body kit along with a carbon bonnet.

This R34 has had extensive engine work and is setup for the drag strip, I believe the owner is selling it at the moment.

Hate it or love it, the quality of the airbrushing on this Mazda is superb, the graphics also bring back the nostalgia of playing Tekken on the old Playstation. And that’s never a bad thing!

In just over an hour the cars had moved on for a cruise through the mountains, I had to get back home as dessert was still waiting!
What was a originally a relativity small meet, ended up with a great turn out! There was a great range of cars and some seriously rare ones too and I hope that’s a sign that things in 2012 are going to be bigger and better.
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

Hardtuned Cruise :: Not Hard On The Eyes

Grant — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 09:34:41 +0000

Today the boys and girls from Hardtuned.net held a charity cruise from the Docklands to Lysterfield Lake, I managed to wake up early enough to attend the meeting point.
The weather was less then perfect and for a while on the freeway heading in I thought about turning around and heading home!
Luckily I didn’t, as the turn out was huge with around 50+ of Melbourne’s finest JDM rides rocking up for the event.

All of these cars made the long journey to Australia in a container just like the ones in the background, so it seemed very fitting to be taking photos next to them.

This location makes for a great backdrop and I love getting shots of a car with its owner.

This very cool RX-7 has been doing the rounds at the latest Vic Drift Members Day.

Loved the wheel choice on this four door R33 Skyline.

If the owner of this Nissan Stagea trekked down to Melbourne for this meet, then I am truly impressed!

One angry looking S15 Silvia.

By 11am the amount of cars was getting a bit out of hand for the small empty lot.

The caliber of attending cars was impressive, all had great wheel combos and nearly everyone had perfect fitment.

A very USDM LS Integra, I like this dedication to a certain style and respect anybody who follows something like this and pulls it off.

Loving this “Big Mac” S13! This was tearing up Winton on the last Vic Drift Members Day for 2011.

Separated by a generation these Skylines look more alike than any other model.

Bringing sexy back in black…

This is one car that took a while to grow on me, the rear quarter windows are the real winner for me in the end though.

One of the best cars there was this amazing 180sx sporting ‘ACT’ plates and it was killing it with these aggressive wheels.

So much rubber…

Here’s that awesome four door R33 Skyline again. This is the first four door Skyline that I have really appreciated.

A touch of class and a whole lot of baller, this Lexus sits perfectly on it’s gold BBS rims!

Polished Meisters? Yes please!!

Some pretty nice rides from all the Japanese stables here, except for Toyota. Not a single Toyota was at the meeting point.

A V-Spec GT-R looking pretty mean.

The parking arrangement made for some pretty nice shots, loved the ‘Illest’ sticker on the lip.

Such distinctive styling, this is still my favorite Skyline shape.

Great colour on this series 2 S14!

Such a bright colour amongst a sea of greys and whites, this 200SX had some pretty interesting sticker bombing on it’s rear bar.

Melbourne has been hiding all these lovely imports somewhere, look at them all!

My favorite shot of the day, the dark sky above almost makes it look like the sun is setting.

‘Frush’ is really popping up everywhere, it’s great to see the local car community supporting one another.

Tough on wheels.

Not many cars work well in two tone, this Silvia was an exception.

The twin tone horns make this WRX look very menacing.

S14 away from the pack, lucky for me though so I could get this awesome shot.

That killer 180SX again, loving the rear.

Great subtle colour on this drift RX-7.

Half way through the meet, a bunch of promo cars from Red Bull Mobile pulled up.

A crowd gathered pretty quick to score some free cans.

Then a generator was cranked over and a DJ started playing some tracks…

While this dance crew started break dancing, it really was very bizarre.

No one really had a clue what was going on, most enjoyed the show though.

Some of the moves where pretty impressive and just as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone!
After all the excitement everyone jumped in the cars and made their way for the cruise destination, I decided to call it a day and head home.

This was by far the best turn out I’ve seen in a very long time, Melbourne pride!
Thanks for reading,
– Gwyn.

Random Snaps :: Small Honda Meet

Grant — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:42:43 +0000

It went from a large meet to being a small group due to the poor weather and unforeseen construction zone. This was going to be a big sixty plus OzHonda meet, plans fell through but a backup meet was quickly organized..

A Honda Accord sitting on a nice set of shoes, this car is a true commitment to stance and riding low.

These old Integra’s still look nice even after twenty years.

This Intergra’s b18b was rockin’ a different colour scheme, but it works!

Sporting tough rear camber, this mad little Civic looked and sounded great!

This Civic didn’t just have the looks, it also had a mean b18c that made this car the complete package.

This 4 door EG was fat! I really like the USDM/poke stance style that this car was reppin’.

Backyard style GT-wing patch up!
So even though the meet was small, the presence was big!
I hope that the real OzHonda meet eventually takes shape and gets the numbers it deserves.
– Grant