Seeing the MasterMind Odyvia for the first time at our MotorMavens Mass Appeal Show in Irwindale, CA was a mind-blowing experience. Hearing the car start up for the first time left my ears ringing for hours. However, rather than just telling tell you why I fell in love with this car, I thought I should tell you how this car came to life instead. Please fasten your seat belts, this ride is about to get CRAZY.
You’re probably asking yourself, what is an Odyvia? In case you didn’t know, it’s when you combine Honda Odyssey headlights with a 1991 Nissan 240SX (S13 Silvia) body. Hence, the name ODYVIA…I find it rather fitting for the car – the name sounds like it was plucked from an epic poem like The Iliad.
The reason I felt so passionate about this particular car wasn’t the one-off Spirit Rei Japan widebody kit, custom fabrication, custom interior, nor the Z06 LS7 motor swap. It was because it took incredible persistence and attention to detail to accomplish – this project was riddled with issues that would make an average mechanic lose his mind. However, the guys at Mastermind overcame the odds and turned their vision into a reality. When I see this car, I envision all the other aspiring drifters, hobbyists, and car enthusiasts wishing they had a benchmark to attain. To me, this car sets that benchmark.
Builds this impressive are usually spread out over months and months, ensuring enough time to cover all the details. Rajeet Dalal, head of Mastermind Operations, tells me this car came together in roughly a month and a half. Surprising, isn’t it?
The Mastermind team consists of Rajeet, Tony Borriboonratana, and Takashi Ohira. Takashi handles Japanese relations and is responsible for bringing the kit you see on the car to U.S shores. On any given day you can be sure you’ll be able to talk to one of these guys either on the phone or at their shop in Santa Fe Springs, CA.
The crew at Mastermind didn’t just conjure this project up out of thin air; it was done with careful planning and precise measurements. A close friend of the team rendered a sketch for a preview of what the final project would look like. One of the benefits of having a sketch is that it is inexpensive to iron out the details. For example, imagine waiting until the car is painted only to later find out the color doesn’t pop like it should.
This badge sums up the beating heart of the Odyvia. It serves notice for the monstrous 2006 Corvette LS7 ZO6 crate engine that lurks within. That “505 HP” is all you need to know. Noticing the trending patterns, Mastermind wanted to stay ahead of the torque curve by gaining a little bit more power than what you could squeeze out of an SR20DET or an RB26DETT. So they went ahead and made the move over to the dark side of American Muscle.
Fans of small displacement and high boost pressure eat your hearts out. Do you think this would be a great contender for Formula Drift 2012? Well, all things being equal, you would be out of your mind to take a one-off-custom built car out on the track and hope to the heavens that nothing happens to it. The next photo explains it all.
Fitting a domestic engine and transmission into a foreign car is a bit harder than it seems. The engine bay may look immaculate but the guys at Mastermind spent over 200 man hours just fitting the engine and transmission and building a custom wiring harness in order to get all the vitals working properly.
While the engine and transmission were being sorted, Rajeet was running around trying to figure out how to get all that power to the rear wheels. The next best thing to get the power to the asphalt was to use what already exists. Mastermind was able to source a 3.90 LSD from an Infiniti Q45. A wise man once told me: to overcome a problem you must be resourceful and have a will to succeed.
With such a large engine in place, Mastermind’s next challenge was, simply stated: “Where do you put everything else?” (air intakes, the radiator, battery, etc.) Fortunately, the guys had already taken a crash course on how to approach such a problem if it were to arise. They went with a V-mounted S13 KOYO radiator and decided to put the dual air intakes under that beautifully sculpted Spirit Rei bumper.
This project was hit with one problem after another, yet the Mastermind guys overcame these feats and rose to the occasion. Another issue that occurred during the build arose when it came time to fit the headers onto the massive 7.0L Z06 motor in the tight Nissan S13 engine bay. The problem was, there wasn’t an application on the market that would clear the Nissan S-13 Silvia steering rack. So after scratching their heads, the guys at Mastermind custom fabricated a set of titanium headers. Pretty snazzy huh?
The front does look menacing, even with the lights from a Honda Odyssey. Who would’ve thought that the words “menacing” and “Honda Odyssey” could ever coexist in the same sentence? Mastermind chose the complete Spirit Rei widebody kit to display on their S13 project car. The kit includes the front & rear bumper, side skirts, front fenders adding 55mm in width, rear quarter panels adding 85mm, and rounding home base – the Spirit Rei hood to complete the whole car. However, Mastermind did reiterate that this kit does require body work and, depending on how fancy you want to get, it could set you back a pretty penny.
With everything prepped, the engine and the widebody kit fitted, it was time for disassembly so the car could be shipped over to Auto Explosion in Gardena, CA for the final fitting of the kit and for that spectacular paint. The paint is unlike anything you’ve ever seen because the PPG color is from Aston Martin‘s super-exclusive, super-exotic ONE-77.
Carrying over the theme from the outside in, Mastermind decided to keep it plush so everything inside the car received an upgrade from that boring stock interior. From the Recaro SR3 seats to the headliner to the dash, the interior got covered in some premium custom suede upholstery. The Impul 913 special steering wheel with Momo hub rounds things off and tops off the interior symmetry.
Mastermind kept the interior functional yet form-fitting. The simple switch panel controls everything from the ignition kill switch to the battery and fuel cut off. It’s a good thing to have when you’re at the track or at a friend’s house and don’t want anyone to steal your prized possession.
Keeping things grounded, the stock suspension was tossed and replaced with Buddy Club D1 spec coilovers. Mastermind debated over the right wheel and tire combo for a while and in the end chose to go with Leonhardritt Ordens. In order to get the wheels to fit, the guys had to first convert the 4 lug bolt pattern to 5 lug. Paired with Project Mu brake pads to give the Odyvia a bit more bite during braking. Rounding off the fitment, to get it to sit right under the widebody, the fronts measure in at 18×10.5 and rears 18×12. The barrels were replaced for wider custom ones and matched with a gloss black face and solar rain lips paired with Toyo Proxes tires. Quite a package I must say…
Mastermind is just getting started so MotorMavens readers stay tuned as we have a whole lot more coming from the Mastermind compound. It’s always a pleasure to see there are still down to earth guys out there who are always willing to give a hand to fellow car enthusiasts. I think that has contributed to their already successful mantra: “Stay true to yourself, do honest work and, most of all, have passion – because without passion there is no drive.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! The Passion Principle, FTW! Stay classy and be sure to catch my next addition to the MotorMavens site.
Big thanks to Tony, Rajeet, Takashi, Irwin and the rest of the Mastermind crew for accommodating us & Christian Alcantara from Import Fashion for his extra hands during the shoot.
::Tamer Omran
Photos by Oliver Petalver
T__T i was going crazy over this until i realized that it had a LS6 in it…
whatever happened to the good, old, trustworthy SR20 swap? ;_;
Incredible car. Can we get some more daylight pictures to see the color and details better? Awesome!
Good story on the build. Absolutely LOVIN the 1st & last photos!
It’s not an entire Odyssey front end, its only the headlights. This is just about as cool as putting Celica headlights on an FD RX7. Stupid fucking show car builders.
The radiator is not “V-mounted” its just angled back to make clearance. A V-mount includes another heat exchanger, such as an intercooler or oil cooler, mounted in an actual V-shape, angled to the radiator so it reduces heatsoak from air passing through the coolers in front heating the air, and then going through the other coolers as hot air already. This car doesn’t have heatsoak issues driving off the trailer into its parking spot and revving on it at shows.
Unless you’re willing to pay over 1000 dollars for a pair of pre-fabbed stainless headers that may or may not fit perfectly, require some work by the installer, and have more bends in them than anyone would ever want; swapping an LS into an S-chassis almost always needs custom one off headers. One pair of runners has to wrap around the steering input shaft or it wont clear it without too many unnecessary bends. You either buy the headers that you have to remove the steering input shaft or you fabricate them. Apparently removing a steering column is too hard for this shop. Making them out of titamium was pointless as well. Except, of course, for the cool points when hard parking. Using an actual LS6 is just another pointless retarded modification. The car doesn’t need 505hp when it’ll never see the RPMs that it makes 505ho at, while in gear and rolling at least.
Last time I checked, Toyo makes the Proxes tire, which is the tire this car is pictured on, not Bridgestone like the article says. Name-droppin to pay the bills are we? Just another proof that these car blogs are doing nothing but acting as hype machines for this “scene” of modifying cars and paying the bills for the blogger.
Expensive paint, expensive interior, expensive driveline, expensive paint, body work, wheels…but cheap suspension and brakes? If that’s not any indication as to this cars true purpose, I don’t know what is. Kill it with fire.
oh thats right, it’s all about the look and the sound. I know of ten cars that look better, sound better and actually get driven too.
I can’t wait for all these superficial cool-kids to move onto the next trend. Hopefully it’s motorcycles so they all end up road-pizza from their stupid decisions.
Very cool car! Looks like they paid attention to detail and judging by the pictures, it is clean!
One cant knock on the people in the car show scene. When it comes to tuning cars, you’re gonna have people interested in different scenes. There are people in the show scene. That gets further subdivided into the whole “JDM” and “DUB” scene. There are people in the race scene. People in the stance scene. No matter what scene you choose, people are gonna H8 no matter what. Dat is the beauty when it comes to modifying cars. If we all tuned cars the same way like everyone else, there is no uniqueness. We all modify cars as a reflection of our personality. My EVO IX isn’t built by the rulebook. Do I have to go show only? Race only? Do I have to get a specific brand only? That’s the beauty in customizing. Yet, there will still be H8RS. No matter what. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND PROPS TO MASTERMIND.
Hey Weasel:
Dude all I gotta say is THANK YOU for your comments. I just READ this post right now for the first time, and I gotta say, thanks for keeping our crew (myself included) on point. You’re absolutely right. The tires shown were Toyo Proxes, and even though the specs that were provided to our writer mentioned Bridgestone, we let that really STUPID mistake slide through. That’s our mistake (and a stupid one), thanks for pointing it out to us.
Obviously, I know that not everyone will agree on ALL the cars featured on the site. We sometimes disagree internally too. Sometimes a writer will want to feature a car that I think is wack, or vice versa. In this case, the Mastermind Odyvia is an example of a shop build that shows something DIFFERENT, which is why we featured it. We know this car is not exactly new “news” since it came out at our carshow last year, and it has already been featured on other blogs… but at the same time, we thought it still would be cool to show the car from another angle.
One thing that I should clarify is that MotorMavens doesn’t “sell out” by posting up cars to pay bills. We have never received any advertising money from Mastermind or any of the car’s sponsors. We only post cars that WE think are interesting.
Once again, I totally respect the valid points you’ve made here. You’re obviously not new to the scene, and while the Mastermind car isn’t necessarily YOUR thing, a lot of our readers dig Mastermind and the things they’ve built!
Hopefully you dig something from our next set of features!
Antonio, thanks for being diplomatic about it, I can be a bit harsh sometimes. I’m just glad it isn’t being met with distaste (at least enough distaste to not make you angry LOL).
I’m not gunna lie, showcars have their place and that’s totally fine. I understand the Wow-factor and being flashy, all that. Lookin good looks good y’know?
Its just about how crazy hyped these kinds of cars are. I now understand you guys only work with what you can get and that this most likely isn’t making you rich, so submissions probably dominate your plate. With that, I also understand that the people associated with showcars want to show their cars more (what a novel idea) and most likely outnumber the people submitting functional cars to show here (besides, race car secrets are more easily figured out with photo evidence for other teams to examine LOL). And moving targets are much harder to shoot, haha.
With that, I feel some community voiced scrutiny is needed on free-to-use sites, especially these days with knock-off parts and false backyard technique rumors creating dangerous cars. I say what I do in hopes that some people start to realize that these are just show cars. That they do not function and to attempt to make your car look like them… you should retire it to a trailer queen.
Too many kids these days see these cars and think its OK to roll around so slammed that the car drags and the roll-centers are so far fucked that the car actually handles worse, rolling on non-cornerweighted coilovers, rattling around worn or even missing bushings, slotting subframes without collars or cams or anything to fill the void… I’ve seen it all, and I’ve seen it driving on public roads too (don’t even get me started on some of the angle-mods I’ve seen drift kids down here doing recently, dangerous shit). I feel the hype is what is making it harder for a few things. One is finding nice driving roads that aren’t openly patrolled by multiple police jurisdictions…. in the middle of nowhere. Another is not being able to drive in packs of cars without also being hassled. Being labelled and stereotyped for having modified cars is also annoying as fuck. None of this was a problem before the cool thing to do was buy a Civic, massage your fenders with a bucket of bondo, paint the whole thing yellow and steal a parkbench to mount on your trunk and drive around like a fucking twat.
I didn’t mean for this to become a soapbox, but oh well. For what it’s worth; I read almost all the posts here and my scrutinizing comments don’t appear here as much per story as they do in most other places. Barring the update frequency and just focusing on the content and community interaction, you can tell this isn’t a large corporate operation. As for that name-drop comment: I apologize and know better, sometimes my accusations can be a bit off-the-hip to try and make a bigger point. My diplomacy is much less finely-tuned than yours.
Looking forward to those next features.
Hey thanks for your points Weasel, pretty interesting comments, Hope you and the others like the article.
at weasel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAeDcAS70z4
idiot.
@storm, is that “drifting”? I actually like those white wheels in the video better. haha
I think its cool the work involved in building a car to look like this. Crazy once a style becomes mature what it takes to be different. It didn’t take long for people to start getting bored of swapped sbc’s into rwd import cars. Too bad its not legal to swap whatever engine you want into any chassis. Not sure how people get these kinda cars registered and legal. They probably don’t and that’s just not an option. Too bad Chevy and Ford dont’ make anything cool enough (aka light enough, good handling enough and good lookign enough) to put their torque monter small block V8’s into.
I love the new Mustang 5.0 looks and handling, but its just such a big heavy car.
Looking forward to the FR-S/BRZ soley for its combo of light weight, rwd, responsive naturally aspirated 4 cyl.
Keep the interesting posts coming!!!
jesus mary and joseph, what a car.
and weasel (aptly named) – calm down, umadbro?
After reading the comments. I’d like to see some weasel note worthy cars. Just as comparison
A big thank you Tamer, Antonio, and the entire Motor Mavens crew. Wonderful article and fantastic pics guys, we definitely appreciate the support.
In order to understand this build, people really need to grasp the story behind the car. Last year at SEMA we debuted both our Odyvia and Spirit Rei’s version from Japan. Although both platforms were the same, it was our goal to show the duality of JDM vs. USDM in the build concepts, hence our decision to install the LS6.
This car was never meant to hit the streets, due to the fact that California’s rules and regulations would never permit such a thing. Had “street legal” been the case, this motor would never have been and option. But essentially, this is what SEMA and building cars is all about, show casing what could be or what has never been, so that people gain a new perspective. Hate it or love, we accomplished that.
We agree on various points with Weasel and sorry this car didn’t fit into your build quota, but like I said there was a story and purpose behind this build that goes much deeper than just the surface precepts of form and function. It now serves as homage to our beloved Toshiki Fujii who is now in the heavens. And inspiration to those who desire to step out of the box.
Thank you to all our supporters, associates, friends, and family. You’ll be seeing a lot more of Mastermind in 2012. =)
Sick car. Id love to drive it!
@hechtspeed
weasel said the car doesnt go above 3k rpms or some shit. thats why i posted that
Storm, no need to get offensive. That video wasn’t anything spectacular. Doing donuts outside your shop is hardly driving a car to its potential. Unless doing donuts is the extent of this cars potential, then that’s just sad. I can do donuts like that in my grandmas 1983 Caprice wagon. If I unbolt the exhaust pipes from the headers it almost sounds the same too! Videos like that are made so that people like you can ride the nuts of whatever it is that’s in the video. You just proved that theory all on your own in three words and a URL! He held out one slide and it was at the very end of the spectacle and it wasn’t that great. Big whooptie-doo! That video is the equivalent of Fatlace Arcenal lapping his RWB car without a transponder, just to attempt to “shut the haters up” by trying to show that he actually does drive it. I bet you 100 dollars that’s the last time the Fatlace RWB car sees a racetrack. Same goes for this Mastermind car too. Just another hype-machine over a car that is hardly worth it.
Feature noteworthy cars are few and far in between, that’s my point here. If you’re going to run a site about modified cars then showcasing cars with just a giant motor and flashy body work is hardly anything worth writing about. If I want to see cars that look good and don’t get driven properly, I’ll just go to one of the random parking lot meets at any large city of your choice. I seek out car websites to see passed all that garbage I see everyday.
And Austin I am calm. umirin bro?
Rajeet has a point. We all know that one car cannot please everyone. I appreciate the vision that Mastermind had in mind. Please show more of your builds!
Feature a Lamborghini, I guarantee someone will still talk shit. No matter what is featured, people will still talk shit. I can’t believe some of the hate going on. Yes, people are entitled to their own opinion but just to sit there and talk shit is beyond me.
@Weasel: At first, I was just like, “Hey. He just has his opinion on this build.” But after comparing this to your Grandma’s 1983 Caprice wagon with headers off AND just talking shit about the RWB Porsche just shows that you are just straight HATIN’. Makes me wonder if you even appreciate ANY type of build? I’m just curious what cars fit your taste? Please name at least three cars (even though you said you can name at least 10).
The reason Storm posted a link to that video was bc you mentioned that the car never sees the RPMs.
Weasel, I can almost see your underlying points but you have so many other unnecessary comments that make you come off as a person with a worthless opinion.
The truth of the matter is that few people care about beat up fully functional track cars that get driven fast by good drivers. You say that you can see these “show cars” in a random parking lot around your city, but we can also see shitty fucked up (but really fast) cars at our local autocross or track event. Most of those cars aren’t interesting to look at.
Mastermind has a complete build here which has addressed and improved every aspect of the car. IMO, nothing is over the top about it. The car is well executed for what it is.
PS: I’m not a fan of the Fatlace RWB because I think the wheels on it are hideous, but honestly do you carry a transponder in your car when you drive spiritedly on a canyon road? There is nowhere else he can enjoy a car like that, and transponder or not, I am sure that he had a blast.
Quit being a child, you seem awfully sour about something.
Didn’t know this comment tab , turned into a whole forum discussion… Thanks for all the comments.. Whether you love it or Hate it.. i appreciate “all” comments.. lets keep things friendly.
I think for a show car, its pretty damn good. SEMA is about building DREAM cars, not building functional race cars. Weasel seems to think the Japanese scene is still in the F & F era! Demo cars are just that…DEMO CARS. Made to show what a shop can do with their own vision, not for a customer. Not to be driven hard at the track, but as a showcase.
As for hating on the Fatlace RWB. Are you sending the same freaking hate to ALL of Nakai’s customers in Japan for taking their barely-tuned RWB’s to Tsukuba? So why the hate on Arcenal for taking his to Buttonwillow? Answer me this hater, if YOU had one of only 2 cars in America (THAT HAD JUST BEEN BUILT AND UNTESTED), would you rush out to the nearest track to push it 100% If you are stupid, yes you would. I seem to remember a 500-1000 mile break-in period on new engines. Either way, I can def say you really just must be jealous that hes driving that work of art and you….are in your grandma’s 83 Caprice wagon wihout headers, doing donuts in a warehouse parking lot?
Now that being stated, I am a person that can’t have showpieces. I scrape for every penny I make and what I can afford to buy nice, I use as it’s intended. I personally would like to see these kinds of cars used in anger. But I do have plenty of respect for people that make something so nice and dear to them that they do not want to risk destroying because some internet troll is biting their ankles like a chihuahua.
Do you also hate the Looking FD? It’s never seen a track?
look i gotta say this is some pretty damn good work and with the time frame that it was said to be done in welll holly CRAP THATS AMAZING. but moving on… o and weasel i understand your point completely but open your mind a little bit to see the bigger picture, think about all the cars that had come before and make you love the cars you do today. This car may not be at formula D going OMT! or lapping the Nurburg ring in world record pace, Yet nor is the BMW art cars! back to my point this car just shows the talent time and pure creativity these guys have and you can only commend them for such. They are only helping by broadening the horizons and showing to many out there that what you can do anything you dream of with hard work and perseverance. So with that i hope this guys all the luck and hope the keep great cars as such coming along to show people what is possible with a little thinking outside the box.
The song nissan honda chevy was written about this car
If the motor is actually from the car that the Z06 badge came from, then it’s an LS7 and not an LS6 and would be a 7.0 litre V8, not a 5.7.
If it is from the earlier C5 Z06 and is a 5.7, it produces 405hp and that badge is a liiiie. ha.
Beautiful, refreshing take on an overdone platform though. You have to respect the creativity! Why 200 hrs to swap an LS motor when there are several kits available to do it quickly and properly?
@slim You’re actually correct, the Spec sheet had a typo.. Good eye.. Thanks
wow talk about heated comments…
I do have to say beautiful display of work on the Odyvia! Craftsmanship at its best! I remember checking out the car multiple times at Mass Appeal and WekFest LA…so sick..the thing sounds freakin insane.
weasel, stfu. just enjoy it. stop being such a complainer. great build.
I like it – because I imagine driving it.
We got too many big headed folks in this world, not to mention the web (millions!). When the $hit talkers can “actually” build awesome creations, then you have the right to speak. If you don’t STFU and go suck on some flat chested nipples! Fifteen years and I’ve seen the evolution of car mods and tuning and the hundreds of good and bad examples ever built or driven on the street. The real passionate car guys, don’t go online everyday and bash peoples creations. They give credit where its due and I, give credit to this Odyvia. It’s been out for a long time, but still deserves recognition. The way cars were built in the 90’s were all trial and error. And some created nice builds and some just whatevers. We’ve seen it all. Remember those Hot Import Night Days? Where big bodykits were the all? Some of that still gets carry over to today and in another decade, we may see similar come out the woodwork, but more refined. This Odyvia is a great example of yesteryear builds and todays standards such as the V8 swaps. I give 2 thumbs up. And shit talkers, 2 thumbs down for you guys. I’m sick and tired of all of you so called car guys with no passion. Only the passion for shit talking.
There is no rule book to how to enjoy. I don’t see the point in getting all shitty about cars that are featured. Some people enjoy just building cars, others enjoy looking, others enjoy driving/ thrashing.
looks amazing.. never seen one of these on UK shores. this one is on its way to being one of the best ‘all-rounders’ i’ve seen for a long while, it ticks all the box’s!!
sweet.. an s13 thats costs twice the amount of a z06 and no sane person would ever want to beat on it.Save the trailer queens for exotics not an innocent S-chassis BUILD IT and DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT.
Is there a step by step build for this? I have the money and car, just need a lil help. I have buddies helping me already, we want to completely steal this cars design lol. I Dont want them or anyone else to build the car for me so dont suggest a shop please. I do work on my own cars.
MIKEY MIKE, check out Sikky.com, Hinsonsupercars.com and there’s about 3 other companies that make LS swap kits for the S chassis, I used the Sikky Kit fits fine, for a basic build $6k to $8k should be enough if you pick up a 5.3, or score a good price on a LS1, I’ve got about 19K but it put down 497rwhp off nitrous best run is 9.92 on a 100 shot, my car is nowhere near as clean as this car, props to who ever built it, but the swap is quite easy and worth the work.
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