In true Custom Pinoy Rides fashion, contributor Jordan Reyes, a.k.a. The Jordan, has recently had some updates on his superb-looking, formerly-known-as Toyota Hilux, Lowlux.

From the last photoshoot we did of his ground-scraper, his ride now features mouth-watering 17×9.5 Rota RKR wheels.

Jordan decided to up the ante on the already aggressive -5 offset by adding a 5mm spacer to make it -10, and combining it with reshaped fenders to make it bad-ass! He achieved this by pulling the fenders 23mm by using a hammer and a steel pipe. Talk about DIY!

The overall look now is a low and squat looking truck with a stance that’s spot-on! The “power bulge” especially on the rear fenders give it a gnarly aggressive look that you just can’t get from any other Hilux making Jordan’s ride a unique one at that.

Cheers to Jordan for the awesome modifications. Representing the stance movement in the country has just gotten better than ever.

Related Stuff:
- See more coverage of the 2012 PornFest.
- See more cars from Stance Pilipinas.
- See more customized rides wearing Rota Wheels here.

The results are in! And with that, I’m proud to announce the Car Photography Club January 2012 Photo Contest winner, and henceforth, the January 2012 Car Photographer of the Month… Jay Cee, with his spectacular photo of this rock crawling Toyota FJ40 at Mt. Pinatubo.

Indeed a worthy shot for our January theme: Action Shots (or the Notion of Action where the viewer is compelled into thinking that the subject did an action prior to the photo being taken).

Join us in congratulating Jay Cee for this fantastic achievement. We look forward to seeing more awesome photos from you in the days to come.

Meanwhile, watch out for the February 2012 Car Photography Club Photo Contest to be announced soon. Stay tuned for this on the Car Photography Club group page.

Our good friend Justin Uy is here today to show us that customizing our cars by adding color to our brakes, as well as our lights (headlights, tail lights, fog lights, etc.), is not something that involves rocket science. It’s actually very simple, and can be done DIY-style by just about anyone capable of shaking a rattle and pressing the nozzle on a spray can. I’ll leave it to Justin to share his insights. Take it away bro…

When people upgrade and upsize their wheels, most of the time the brakes become more visible. For most cars, brake calipers, rotors and drums come from the factory unpainted and over time, gets coated with brake dust, grime and rust. Here at CustomPinoyRides, that is just unacceptable. Luckily there is a solution readily available here in the Philippines today.

Since brakes can get really hot, VHT (which stands for VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE) has developed a special spray paint for brake calipers that can withstand up to 900°F (482°C). The process is really simple and takes around an hour with the right equipment. The result is a really clean brake caliper that stands out even if the car is in motion.

Among other VHT products, VHT Niteshades is also a great way to customize headlights and tail lights for a more aggressive look. The smoked effect is done by spraying on a light coat of VHT Niteshades on the headlight assembly which results in a clean glass-like finish. Not to worry, your brake lights and signal lights will still illuminate in red and amber. No bubbles, melting due to heat, or chipping paint to worry about. We can’t wait to see more black cars in town sporting the “vader look”.

Mazda 6 with blacked-out headlights painted with VHT Niteshades.

Before and After:

Tail lights on a Honda Jazz. Before and after, painted with VHT Niteshades.

We’re really excited for other DIY projects we can do with VHT. Check out their website – www.vhtpaint.com – for a complete list of available specialty paints and available colors. For all of you DIY custom junkies out there, you can call the VHT Manila hotline: 643-3781, or text: 0916-270-5535.

Related Stuff:
- Read more of our How-To’s and DIY’s here.

Video by Struan Wallace / Wreckless Inc.

If you guys have been following Custom Pinoy Rides, I’m sure you guys have been checking out our coverage of the 2012 PornFest. Well then, here’s an awesome film edited by the PornFest Birthday Boy himself, Struan Wallace, showcasing the action and adventure during this spectacular event.

Here’s what Struan had to say:

I turned 30 this year and instead of throwing a big party, we at CarPorn Racing® decided, what better way to spend a birthday than to have car enthusiasts get together in one massive car festival.

I wanted to thank our sponsors for making this happen (Liqui Moly, Victoria Court, Sohotel, INTUNED online, Dri Tech waterless car wash, Rockstar, Speedlab, TOPTUL, Autoindustriya.com, V-Kool, autopartsmanila.com, and kotse.com).

An extra special thank you goes out to my fellow organizers. Ian King, Kim Garcia, Ben Ong, and Marc Ong. They really pulled out all the stops to make this the most memorable birthday ever.

Thank you too to everyone that came and celebrated with us. You guys rock! The good news is, since the event was so successful, we’ve decided to make it a regular event.

My only regret is I was hardly able to do any filming. Most of the footage is from Joseph and Jordan Distrito. I pretty much just edited everything.

Music is by Bliss N Eso ‘Flying Through the City’

Check out the video below now…

Related Stuff:
- See more coverage of the 2012 PornFest.
- Watch more awesome videos here at Custom Pinoy Rides.

About a year ago, while back in Manila I had a chance to hangout with some of the Subaru Society members and one of those was Carlo the owner of this sick Sti.

At the time of this photo Carlo had the following mods:
Custom front lip
Advan wheels
S203 wing
Damd steering wheel- I love this steering wheel.
invidia exhaust…
KW coilovers
Goodridge brakelines
Rear diffuser
Rear exhaust trim
Sti shift knob
Sti flexible strut bar
Pipercross drop in filter
STI pedals
Greddy turbo timer
Perrin shorty antenna

I cannot wait to see what else Carlo has added to this car when I go back in April. To see more photos of this car visit www.blog.michaelkalbo.com

Cheers
Michael KALBO

It’s time to cast your votes for who will win the Car Photography Club January 2012 Photo Contest!

easypollmaker.com – get your free poll

Poll will close on the 7th of February, 2012 at 11:59pm (Manila Time).

* UPDATE (02-Feb-2012): I sincerely apologies about this guys but there is a bug with the poll/vote collecting facility and none of the votes are getting saved. A new poll will be release in a bit. Please bear with us. Thank you for your support!

** UPDATE (03-Feb-2012): Poll is now active and reset to 0. You may cast your votes now!

Cast your votes now! Here are the entries:

The Theme: Action Shots (or the Notion of Action where the viewer is compelled into thinking that the subject did an action prior to the photo being taken).

2. Jundio Salvador: Monster truck at the RFC Pampanga 2011

3. Rean Angelo Reyes Velasco: Rockstar Impreza

4. Michael Kalbo Simon: Tandem Drift

5. Trish Rodrigo: Lonely Lancer

6. John Neri Natividad: Atoy Drifting the Skyline Sedan

7. Randolph B. de Leon: Russ Swift Stunt Show 2010 (2-Wheeling Impreza)

8. Jefferson V. Livara: Sports Utility Car (AE92 Corolla Rolling Shot)

9. Iori Suzuki: RHD Civic Race Car

10. Roberto Minosa: Rolling Shot at Night

11. Mark Abergas: Rain Rain Go Away (EVO parked at BRC)

12. Carlos Benitez: 2011 American Le Mans (BMW M3 Race Car Panning Shot)

13. Andy Rodriguez: Houston, we have lift off! (3-wheeling S15 Silvia)

14. Kevin Carlos: Rocket Bunny (Motul Drift Car with Tire Smoke)

15. Jet Rabe: Honda S2000 Rolling Shot

16. Jing Gines: Mountain Climbing More Fun in the Philippines (Subysoc and FRF Fun Run to Sierra Madre)

17. Calvin Marwood: Shooting Brent Co (?) Shooting a Tandem Drift Battle at Clark

18. Dexter Lim: Drag Race at Buendia (Impreza vs 370Z vs EVO)

19. Jay Cee: The Rock Crawler. Lens flare are real. (Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser at Pinatubo)

20. The Astig Custompinoyrides: Perfect Cover Shot? (Atoy Llave doing a Tire Burnout on the Rockstar Drift Car)

21. Patrick Lauder: Porsche Cayman Rolling Shot

To join future contests of the Car Photography Club <– Click here!

Yes, we’ve featured this before. Yes, it’s had its publicity both here and abroad. Yes, it’s still one of the cleanest and dopest stanced Civics on this side of the planet. That’s why we’re showing it to you again. Looking awesome by being neat, clean, and simple is something we’ll never tire of. So cheers to Omar’s Neatcrew Honda Civic Orthia Facelift.

Related Stuff:
- See more coverage of the cars from the 2012 PornFest.
- See more custom cars from Stance Pilipinas.
- See more customized and tuned Honda Civics here.

And then we enter Intex Osaka. On the main hall was a whole-day concert on stage with different shows. It was surprising to see how crowded the venue was, considering its huge proportions.

Entering Hall 2 (Hall 1 was the foodcourt), we were greeted by an Alpina B3 GT3 right at the entrance.

3-liter straight six, twin turbo, 408hp. The monster 6-pot calipers hide behind the familiar set of Alpina Classic forged alloy wheels.

The thing gives Porsches a run for their money.

Akrapovic, of motorcycle exhaust fame, made the titanium exhaust system for the Alpina B3 GT3.

Alpina is making only 99 of these 3-series-on-crack, and I’m pretty sure that they’ll all be sold out in a jiffy.

Afterwards, we moved to the Subaru exhibit right across from the BMW section. Moving through the hordes of auto-otaku, we saw a Subaru concept car, the Advanced Tourer concept, which appears to be the next Legacy.

I doubt that the semi-gullwing doors will make it into production.

The Subaru section also featured the GT300 Legacy, which won 2 class wins in the Super GT series.

Sure, there was a Super GT race car on display. But the most crowded Subaru display was this:

The highly anticipated offspring from Toyota and Subaru: The BRZ. Nearly identical to its Toyota 86 twin, it grabs just as much attention.

The BRZ and 86 are about to revive the low-cost, high-performance auto segment; which saw a long drought of cheaper performance cars with the death of names like the Nissan Silvia, Honda S2000, Toyota MR-S, and so on.

Loads more automotive goodness on Part 3!

In case you missed Part 1 <– see it here!

The AE92 Toyota Corolla marked the Corolla’s departure from the rear-wheel-drive layout, and the introduction of the front-wheel-drive Corolla. Now I don’t want to start a debate around here as to which platform is better – FWD or RWD, as each layout has both their advantages and disadvantages. But either way, the AE92 Corolla has still managed to make its mark in our local car tuning culture.

Take a look at this stanced AE92 Toyota Corolla. I just love the way it has been set up. Takata green mesh wheels with polished lip wrapped with low profile rubber tucked under the fenders of the clean white paint looks awesome. It’s very rare to find a good combination of green wheels on a white car, unless it’s dressed in racing livery. But here, it’s such a stunning combination.

The bumpers have been replaced with JDM versions, and the black chin, fog lights, wagon face, roof/bike rack, and tintless windows all combine to give it a Euro-inspired look. Plus the hood scoop teases you to think that there’s probably some forced induction sitting in the engine bay. I love the complete package. Is it Euro? Is it JDM? Probably neither. This is PhDM! And I’d have to say, this is probably the best, if not one of the best looking AE92′s around. Do you agree?

Related Stuff:
- See more coverage of cars from the 2012 PornFest.
- See more Stance Pilipinas cars here.
- See more customized Toyota Corollas here.

Roberto Minosa reporting live from Intex Osaka. Brought to you by Custom Pinoy Rides and Team A Motorsports.

The moment we stepped off the tram, we knew we were going some place epic. It was practically a car show along the road. It felt like every car nut in Osaka was going to the Motor Show.

A bone-stock NSX was in line for the parking area of Intex Osaka.

An S2000 was also in line. All-stock performance cars like these are becoming a rarity even here in Japan.

Here’s something we don’t see everyday: a pristine Alfa Romeo Giulia.

American cars are a bit of a novelty for the Japanese.

Just two cool cars moving along.

We also saw this cool Type-R themed Odyssey. It’s got the stance, the looks, and seats seven.

And here’s the venue: a behemoth of a structure, with five halls each the size of an aircraft hangar.

You can see how the Japanese take their cars seriously. This is the queue to the ticket booth.

Let’s go inside Intex on Part Two! (Coming Soon!)