After spending an entire day in the scorching hot sun for the IDRC Finale, I felt sooo incredibly burnt out (literally) and didn’t feel like doing anything at all. However, I couldn’t exactly just relax at home, because I had plans to link up with some good friends for dinner and an after hours party. Needless to say, it was pretty hard to get out of bed early again (I had to be at IDRC by 7:30am on a weekend!) for the GReddy Festival this past weekend, so I just made a leisurely day out of it.
Since I had plans to hit up the GReddy meet with my friend Brian Urbano, we decided to cruise one of his Supras down to Orange County for the event. On this particular day, the vehicle of choice would be his black JZA80 Supra twin turbo.
While Brian’s Supra might not look all crazy on the exterior, I really love the styling of this car because he built it with a particular theme in mind. I’ll be the first to mention that I wish the Volk Racing Challenge wheels on his Supra were about an inch wider, but Brian is a man of exquisite taste and makes enough money to put whatever wheels he wants on his cars. He has a brand new set of wider wheels sitting brand new in the boxes in his garage, but he explained to me that the reason he likes to daily drive on these Volk Racing Challenge wheels is because his entire Supra was built with a 1999 period correct theme in mind – after all, that was a time in his life that he was completely enamored by the JZA80 Supra. All the parts that he has bolted onto his car were popular and available during that time frame. According to Brian, “Back then, when I was dreaming of owning a Supra, looking through catalogs and magazines… I had a vision in my head of what my dream Supra would look like. Volk Racing Challenge wheels were the shit back then, so I wanted to use those wheels on my car. I’ve had lots of different wheels, from the old school flat 5-spoke Work Equip wheels to SSR Professors and stuff, but I like the simplicity of the Volks. Maybe I’ll change them if I find some TRD wheels for the Supra somewhere, but those are rare as hell.”
Personally, I really like the look and the cleanliness of Brian’s hachimaru Supra. I especially love the OEM Japanese roof wing and the OEM fenders and hood. I hate when people ruin a high end Japanese sports car with too much fiberglass crap that doesn’t even fit well… and I also don’t prefer the usage of American-made custom modular wheels on a high end Japanese car. In my opinion, it’s much, much cooler to use rare Japanese wheels on a Japanese car, if you can.
Since we were heading down to the OC, we decided to make a brief detour at my favorite spot in Orange County… a small little Mexican food shack in Costa Mesa called Taqueria El Granjenal.
To be honest, the Mexican food here is just OK, but I’m a huge fan of their freshly squeezed orange juice. Seriously, the fresh OJ that they make daily at El Granjenal is my favorite drink in the world. Just ask anyone who really knows me. Chances are, if they’re a close friend, I’ve taken them there or at least told them about it. I’ve taken all sorts of friends here, from import models to D1 drivers like Nobushige Kumakubo, Kazuhiro Tanaka, and Toshiki Yoshioka; now those guys are hooked on it as well!
Here’s a quick snap of the al pastor tacos that Brian ordered for lunch. You can be damn sure that every time I’m in OC, I try to make lunch plans at El Granjenal with my friends Al (Pastor) and OJ. =)
One other item that they have at that spot is sopes. A sope is kind of like a tostada, but instead of having the meat, lettuce, sour cream and cheese on a thin crispy tortilla, it sits on a thick, cornmeal-type tortilla thing. Maybe I’m not explaining it correctly. Whatever. Google it.
Oh! I’m sidetracked so easily. Back to the cars, here’s a rear shot of Brian’s JZA80. It wears the TRD exhaust and a TRD Japan sticker, which was first introduced in the 1998 TRD Japan All Parts catalog. Also check out the rear license plate garnish, which is a really cool piece that I had never previously seen, except on Brian’s Supra. I think it’s a Japanese OEM dealer option or something like that. Either way, I dig it.
When we first pulled up near the Greddy HQ, Brian and I noticed that all the streets were blocked off, and we had to park a few blocks away. While looking for parking, I spotted this clean example of a UCF20 Lexus LS400. It’s kind of rare to see a dark green VIP car, but this particular UCF20 pulls it off very nicely. Super clean!
In case you weren’t sure, the sticker on the back window lets people know that this LS400 is from Orange County’s Goodfeeling crew, which includes quite a few cars with aggressive wheel sizing. I like the updated red/clear taillights too. Very classy!
This car makes me miss my UCF10 LS400.
I must not be doing my wheel homework enough these days, because I don’t know the exact name of these wheels. They must be from Work Wheels though, since the car is wearing a Work Wheels license plate frame. Excuse my ignorance, please.
This SXE10 Toyota IS300 looked good with the Japanese Altezza grill (and front bumper too, right?). I also like the low down stance and the super concave rear wheels, but wait… those aren’t MB Weapons or whatever are they? If so, it would break my heart, because everything else about this car is so dope.
Wow, I don’t think I’m used to seeing S14s this clean anymore! I think if my S14 was this clean, I wouldn’t have sold it. The gray interior looked extremely well maintained, and the clean body lines and fresh new coat of paint outside certainly make the exterior look good.
This Lexus SC300 (or SC400?) looked pretty nice. From here, it looks like it has a kouki bumper conversion and a daily drivable street slam on some Work Meister S1 wheels.
Very nice! This white GS400 looked fresh with the full Junction Produce treatment! I’ve always loved the way a white Lexus looks, and this JZS161 is no exception. This thing looks dope!
Straight up hard, rolling on Junction Produce Scara wheels. Hell yeah.
This Z33 350Z looked pretty tough on the street, with the front chin spoiler, canards, and matching red/black Volk Racing TE37 Time Attack wheels.
Seeing this SW20 MR2 turbo on the street reminded me that I hardly ever see MR2s driving around anymore. It’s a pity… I love the way SW20 MR2s look!
Here’s Nick Stonawski‘s JZA70 Supra, rocking just about everything GReddy has to offer in the engine bay. This car won some sort of GReddy enthusiast award last year, because the car had more GReddy parts on it than anyone else’s car did.
The Bomex front lip on Nick’s Supra is literally the only part in the entire Bomex catalog that I like. So sorry, Bomex. Just being honest.
There were actually TONS of Supras at the GReddy event. There were also tons of RX7s and RX8s, as well as tons of 350Zs and even R35 GTRs! There were just lots of really fast cars parked on the streets surrounding the GReddy Festival!
Once Brian and I finally made our way to the front of the GReddy HQ, we were greeted by their R35 GTR and their model for the day, Corissa Furr.
This was certainly a pleasant surprise – I also bumped into Alexia Cortez, who I haven’t seen since the Redline Time Attack at Buttonwillow Raceway. Alexia told me that she just got back from Hawaii, and had a great time chillin there. I’m glad to have girls like Alexia down with MotorMavens!
I spotted this RA20 Toyota Celica just outside the GReddy building. It looks to be a 1973 model? The external oil cooler certainly is an interesting choice…
Check out the wheels of choice… 14×9 and 14×10 RS Watanabe wheels! Nice!
Just in case you wanted a larger resolution photo of Corissa, here you go. Personally, I like women with nice legs and nice skin tone. Don’t you agree?
I think we’ll end our story with this large photo of Alexia holding up… a GReddy bicycle?! Damn, this bike looks FRESH!!! I wanna ride this down the bike path at Newport Beach! Look at the blue anodized wheel hub and handlebar stem. I love it! Now that is one stylish looking bike… no word on how much it costs though.
I’ll have to investigate and report back… that’s it for now! If you have photos of your own from the GReddy Festival, make sure to post them up on our forum, and I’ll link them to our coverage and promote them on the MotorMavens Tumblr blog and Twitter!
:: Antonio Alvendia
You guys are on a roll! I was just talking to JohnP about how it’s a shame that nobody ever has good coverage on the GReddy events, and low and behold, Antonio comes through! Great coverage as always, and we’ll see you guys next month at Final Round!
It’s 8:24am and I am so down for tacos right now.
haha. that’s that mexican spot we hit up after cars and coffee/donut derelicts a few years back…
WOW… food, cars, and a Delectable Corissa Furr. I’m all about waist to hip ratio (say that 3 times fast) And amazing legs, full on! I’m so jealous of you Antonio, but I am also glad you posted such a good article with delicious photos to boot.
Wasn’t GReddy supposed to go out of business or something?
Is300 has a TRD replica front lip. The bumper is USDM. Yes those are Mb Battles on it. Probably 17×9.5 +15.
so……………..u saw like 4 cars at greddyfest? and tacos? and one corissa? how is this great coverage?
Quite some Toyota love going on at this event. I like that last pic with everything Greddy themed: The background, car, model, and bike.
@petite pounder:
I’m pretty sure if you do the math, you’ll see more than 4 cars. If you read the first paragraph, it mentioned that we had an event the day before, so we arrived at GReddy pretty late. We just wanted to roll through to show support for our friends at GReddy and snap pics of the cars that caught our eyes.
There actually WERE a ton of cars there still, but when I got up to the GReddy building to say hello, we couldn’t leave to take more pics because we got caught up talking to our friends that we hadn’t seen in a long time. Real friends come first.
If you (or someone you know) have more photos of the event, we invite you to share your pics by posting them on the forum.
@Law:
Yup! There were quite a few Toyotas at the event, which was a pleasant contrast from most other events, which only have Nissans mainly! There were plenty of Nissans and Mitsubishis there too, but most of them have already appeared on our website, so I thought I’d show you some new cars!
@Mr. Moons: No, no… GReddy wasn’t going out of business. They just did all that stuff to protect their assets in a time of economic uncertainty. Pretty smart if you ask me.
If people bought more GReddy exhausts and coilovers instead of the cheap Chinese crap, then they probably wouldn’t have to do this! It just goes to show where the market is heading. With all these stance-only websites popping up nowadays, car owners don’t mind spending $3000 on a set of wheels, but they won’t spend more than $800 their suspension. Pretty sad. I wish people would just save more and buy quality parts, but I suppose it’s that “gotta have it NOW” attitude that’s prevailing nowadays…
EAT SLEEP EAT. haha Great coverage, Antonio. Those VIPs are bangin’. The girls are pretty nice too. 😉
damn i missed out…looked fun and looked like good food
Sick coverage Antonio!!
Fuck the haters (petite pounder)
You guys do a great job and I love reading all your work!
Keep rocking..
Hi, I just stopped by to hate on motormavens. lol keep doing what you’re doing Toni Touch otherwise I will have to go hate at speedhunters. lol
HAHA WORD! Thanks for the support, guys!
It’s all good, I’m not mad at any haters. I want them to keep coming to our site cause hey, traffic is traffic, right? Truuuuuuuuuuue.
You guys just need to take pictures of the models and that’s great coverage to me.
hey alexia cortez stayed at my hotel during the spocom weekend. she’s a hotty.
“Chinese crap.” That’s funny. The Phillipines’ exports what again? That’s right, they manufacture those oh so great ROTAS, who copies every design imaginable.
If your education has exceeded the seventh grade level (“my boy,” “hella clean,”) you would know that China is one of the major global powers today, and manufactures parts for reputable and established high performance aftermarket companies, such as Skunk2, as stated in his blog:
“So, are Skunk2 parts also made in Taiwan (among other places)? Well, what do you think? (But FYI, we also have parts made in EU, South America, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Canada, and the good ol’ USA.)”
dwon you’re fucking retarded.
@Antonio Alvendia Your right about where the market is going but I think its not right to blame “all these stance-only websites popping up nowadays” because even before that ppl were buying cheap parts.
also if i remember a few years back the whole craze was to have 5000$ race parts and the car was a show queen.and wherent ppl talking shit about that? i have 1000$ coilovers why should i have to spend 2000$ to just drop my car?
and lastly greddy isnt doing bad because ppl are buying “cheap Chinese crap” instead. its because thier parts are expensive and other companys make or a better product or a product that makes more power im sorry but some of these jap companys charge alot for thier shit and they think they can control the market like that well times are changing they better start too!
just giving my 2cent
dwon1904…spot on! good stuff mideng….now more pics of celica…
Kyusha Kai: I love you too, sweet cheeks.
Are you capable of intelligently refuting what I’ve stated?
Cool, you want me to argue intelligently.
What you are trying to say is that companies like Rota and Chinese POS companies that peddle their wares on Ebay are not hurting our industry by stealing designs (which may be copyrighted, by the way), and undercutting the costs of those that do ACTUAL R&D (which stands for RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT if you don’t know).
OBVIOUSLY, reputable companies turn to countries that are willing to mass produce products for pennies. However, the difference between a reputable company (GReddy, HKS, etc.) and say… GodSpeed, is that a reputable company will spend the bucks to make sure the part actually works. Have you ever seen a flow chart between an RB25 GReddy intake manifold and an Ebay GReddy look alike? The amount of work needed for the copy to even be DECENT pushes the price point nearly to the GReddy. Ever seen proof of the drag coefficient of an Evo 9 Voltex bumper produced by a Chinese company? Neither have I.
Oh, and if you’ve been into cars for longer than the roof racks and stickering everything movement, you would know about how much fakes suck. Hey look… Your precious Skunk2 even made a blog posting (on their official blog) warning consumers of FAKE Skunk2 intake manifolds.
http://cms.skunk2.com/id/467/Pro-Series-Intake-Manifold-Clone-Alert/
You want me to find you the posts on the flow test charts of how badly the fake Skunk2 manifolds compare to the real Skunk2’s?
damn i’m drunk. i should be at JCCS right now.
oh yeah, how’s this for a blog throwdown. dwon builds his engine using fake parts available on ebay and i build mine using real parts. post dyno sheets in a couple months. nothing but pride on the line (and money if you really want to throw down).
ps. my motor is 40 years old, SOHC and carb’ed. that’s how much i believe in tomei and kameari engine works parts.
Kyushai Kai: Your argument isn’t in the least bit intelligent at all; you’re completely going off tangent with your argument that authentic products are superior to fakes; which was never my stance to begin with.
Your reading comprehension and analytical skills are subpar.
Where in my statement do I remotely state that products that are copied without any R&D (yes, I do know that is. Thank you) that are made in China, are superior in quality and/or performance than their genuine counterpart? And where else do I state that the knockoffs and piece of shit parts do not hurt the import industry?
Provide evidence to backup your claim.
P.S. I’ve been into import drag racing since 1994; so, I’ve seen the different cycles this industry have been through, which is well before the roof rack, stickers, aggressive offset on a FWD, trendy shit that is apparent today.
I dont like fake products but i also dont say anything about the ppl that run them. Im sure the ppl running fake parts dont have the money to run the real deal. I think most run fake parts because thats all they can afford, but im also sure there are ppl who just want to save money.If they had the money they would buy Greddy and all the others big names who wouldnt. I dont like to see the industry hurting but if they are hurting its cause we are hurting.I cant say anything to the fake consumers cause we are nobody to say anything to them. If thats what they like(fake) thats on them. If they buy and only run real and brand names parts good for them. If they cant afford the real and buy they fake we need to understand that. I dont think we should point the finger but just respect who ppl are and their situation, we are all car lovers!!!
So what you’re telling me is that China is a superpower in the world today that will make anything imaginable for cheap? Thanks for that tip! If you didn’t tell me, I would have never known. Because China is never on the evening news or in the daily paper or anything. My world has been blown into a billion bits. I had no idea that companies that charge an arm and a leg for their product would have it made in a Chinese sweatshop.
I always thought my Nikes were made in the Keebler Elf treehouse using the finest of unicorn hides in it’s construction. The going rate of unicorn hide has skyrocketed and the Elf Union has been demanding for some insane raises in pay and benefits, which is why I figured the prices are so high.
Nah I’m just messing with you. In previous MM blog posts, the authors also denounce Rotas so stop getting so butthurt.
Kyusha Kai: “PROVIDE EVIDENCE TO BACKUP YOUR CLAIM.”
That’s what I thought…
You’ve apparently put your foot in your mouth with your complete and utter failed attempt, at trying to interpret my statement, and are trying to save face.
Your sarcasm is quite moronic and not in the least bit funny.
Remember, the comment wasn’t directed at you but, you came barking up the wrong tree.
Little more info on the bike…
http://www.lockedcog.com/bikes/volume-x-greddy/
Ouch. We live in a global economy, simple as that. I think the main point raised was the irritation of folks buying cheap knockoffs where some guy basically took a set of calipers to a product and replicated it, not spending the time and research like the original company. Regardless of how you swing it, interlectual property theft s a pretty heated topic. COnsumers wants cheap and now, companys neat good product at a great profit margin. The sweat shops provide the cheap products for the short term gratification for a quick buck at the expense of the long term business model of the original company, which in the long run stifles evolution and further product refinements. There is no doubt that the Chinese(and Phillipeans for that matter) make some top notch stuff. Shoot, many of our Fortune 500 companys make high end products in China. Rather, the conflict at hand is the intelectual property theft which is irritatin the author and the poster at hand.
Well, thats the problem with being in a trendy industry, such as fashion. Most consumers are in it for the image, and often a cheap knockoff will suffice to give them the image they desire untill the consumer decides to step up their game. Look at the Handbag industry for example.
Meh, all part of competing in a global marketplace. Old business models no longer work when you have other compeditors willing to work twice the hours for a tenth of the pay and live with a fraction of the profit as they have no other overhead.
Anyhow, we are all enthusiasts and it’s different strokes for different folks. We all need to step back off our keyboards sometimes and get some fresh air.
OK now I’m completely confused. You dog on my comprehension which I will admit, I missed your point entirely. I went off on MY tangent talking about how badly fake parts suck. I even included a link to the Skunk2 blog supporting MY argument (albeit, totally different from what you were trying to get at).
And you tell me support MY claim (which I did).
So I come back sober and lo and behold, I understand what you were originally getting at. You want us to stop talking about China like they only make subpar products and believing that they’re the only country that steals intellectual property. The sarcasm was over the top, but I was bored.
And yet, you’re still telling me that I’m missing your point and to show evidence for my claims. I really don’t think you would find it amusing if I show you proof that Keebler Elves make cookies and not shoes. I feel like I’ve touched on a soft spot for you so I will keep this serious without the finger pointing.
Since I’m missing your point so badly, what exactly is your point?
I believe those are Work Schwert SC4 on that UFC10
About the RA20 Toyota Celica’s “external” oil cooler, I have seen that on a lot of 70’s era cars over in Japan. I have no idea what the practical purpose would be, but it seems like a style thing.
Lol does the sticker on the back of the MR2 say “Be Patient, Car Is Lowered”? Nice.
Also, what I’m going to say should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway. The biggest reason that people buy cheap knockoff products is because they can’t afford the higher quality, original stuff. I am building a project car right now, and I’m thousands of dollars over budget. I am an average person, trying to build my dream, and the only money I have for the project, is what’s left over from my modest paycheck. So, how could I possibly build my project if I’m paying outrageous prices for all the pretty, shiny, brand name stuff? I want my project done now, while I still have a burning desire and enjoyment for it, not in 10 years when I have a wife and kids that will force me to sell my lump of iron for dirt. If we all had unlimited budgets, do you really think we would be buying cheap chiz? I think not.
All of these “clean” cars are dirt anyway, if you’re talking about high end automotive. You could almost say that someone souping up a skyline is just a poor man wishing for a Lambo. We all know it. We buy what we can. I had a BMW 7 series, and I thought I was bad. I won’t lie though, what I really wanted, was a Rolls. Life is good. Enjoy what you have. Greddy or Godspeed. Don’t be ashamed of what you can or can’t afford.
The name of the wheels on the Lexus are Club Linea sports. manufactured by ssr but designed in italy. very VIP