Recap: Big Mike and the worlds most famous Prelude

Big Mike and AutoLife TV have experienced one another grow in many ways. AutoLife TV first shined light on "Big Mike" over a year ago when we interviewed him at the Annual Eibach Meet. At the time his Prelude was that awesome wine color...

In the video "Big Mike" warned us that he would be bringing the car out hard for the following year and he did just that. With a fresh engine bay, color change, nutty interior along with numerous customizations that are now standards for coming builds...don't front like you had already done that tucked radiator set-up, or thought to do the custom bandana interior in your own personal "edition". Big Mike pushed and changed the "game" and that can not be questioned. Well you can, but it probably wouldn't be worth your time.

During my long commute Big Mike and I had one of our typical long conversations, sometime during the convo we realized how many awesome things the car and Big Mike did after the unveiling of the new version of the Prelude...

- Best Honda, 1st Place; WEKFEST

- Best Daily Driver, 3rd Place; RPM Show

- Best Honda, 1st Place; Nisei Showoff

- Best Honda/Acura, 1st Place; Redline Time Attack and Showcase

- Cleanest Engine Bay; Mass Appeal car show & Ken Block Gymkhana Grid event

- Best Honda, 1st Place; Battle Of The Imports 20th Anniversary

- Finest Driven Honda, 1st Place; AutoCon charity car show

- Best Prelude; Norm Reeves Honda Cerritos Car Show and Toy Drive

- Best Of Show; Norm Reeves Honda Cerritos Car Show and Toy drive

Coverage on TONS of blogs a few of those being:

- www.stickydiljoe.com

-www.maydaygarage.com

-www.skunk2.com

-www.autofashionusa.com/blog/

- www.speedhunters.com

- www.motormavens.com

- www.urbanracer.com

- www.autoimportcraze.com

You get the picture...

And finally, one of the greatest honors one could have asked for, was to be a display car at the 2010 SEMA convention.

He has appeared in a ton of my videos, for what reason? I don't really know, and frankly I'm kinda sick of hearing his voice in my videos, on my phone, and seeing his AIM messages pop up on my screen asking me where I want to meet for lunch, HAHA! Kidding, well only some of it. Props friend! No Homo.

I can't wait to see what 2011 brings for Big Mike and his passion for cars!

Oh, as for AutoLife TV and 2010... well there are a bunch of people that are "video makers" and "covering" things with video, lame. We have great relationships with some great people within the industry, we bought a banner, it got dirty, we're getting T-shirts made, hoping to get our store up soon, we're looking into new cameras and we will be aiming our sites on some new projects for the enthusiasts rather than doing what everybody else is. Don't get me wrong, 2010 has been an awesome year, with WekFest being on of the most EPIC trips of the year. Cheers!

K1 Speed with the "hood'z"

Remember that Black "Buru" I posted that belongs to my boy "Naughty Nat-Nat"? Well we all got together for his birthday and hit up K1. It's been a while since I've been able to do a track day in the hatch, so the idea of having a chance to "do work" with the homies was exciting, peep the pics.

Ricers....

"Dem Hood'z"

I went home and slept with nothing but my 1st place metal on. Fastest lap time and average lap times also... dizzaaammm!

Kody aka "Monster Kody"

Went to visit the parents... found this dude in my place. Meet Kody aka "Monster Kody". He might look cute but he is already a bully. He's only a few months old and he is already trying to put his weight on people, nudging folks with his head, and standing on peoples feet... If you know your "Bully" breeds, you'll know what those behaviors are all about... I had to check him. Of course my parents would name him after an gangster.

Found a little something in the garage

For a few seconds I thought about documenting the "Little Red Wagon" build, for some reason I thought it would be possible to boost both the cars, then I realized I had kinda lost my mind. Then the old lady and I contemplated getting our hands on a CR-X and slapping it together for her to zip around in, that idea would leave us with 3 "project cars" and none of them being near finished... so now I'm just hoarding go fast parts... bad idea? Who knows? Boosted SOHC's are super fun for the street and "merging" onto the freeway... quick and dirty! Heck, maybe I'll just sell it...

Fun Month

With the new wave of "video makers"(and I use that term VERY loosely), most if not all of which have no formal training or real experience, yet they have a Canon T2i, 5d, or 7d an editing program, and they are at all the events "covering" them... I'm now in the process of some redirection. When video production is what you have gone to school for, earned a degree, gained REAL TELEVISION experience in, earned award recognition, it makes no since to have to work for free (ALL THE TIME), kinda like that friend you have that works at a auto-body and paint shop being asked to come over to your garage to rework your panels for free after he has worked a full day for a respectable pay rate, after the 5th, 6th and 7th "homie" wants your "best work" and then frowns when you ask if he can at least make a small donation (gas, food, tapes, few bucks to put to a new camera) one may realize its time for change... I guess that makes this post more of a tantrum/rant as is has NOTHING to do with new videos, or cool productions, this one is just about LIFE.

McMaui Turkey Burgers (Pineapple, grilled onions, spinach, turkey burger patty)

Shagday brought some of the best red velvet cupcakes I have EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!!! Thanks bruh!

Christmas party lunch, the homie Schneider iPhone'ing, he looks like a skinhead... but he's not...

Rained for a week straight, made my 160 mile commute HELL! This dude almost made me late to work...

The 20 year-old "Little Red Wagon" project made the trek and kept me safe. Hondas... proven.

At the end of the day this is a profession for me/some, my bills need to get paid, I have to eat and I have cars that I'd like to finish sooner than later. AutoLife is life, respect ones profession as you wish yours to be respected. Sometimes supporting the arts means the artist needs to be "covered" for their talents... recognize the HACKS!

I'll come back with a positive post later, lol!

Nat-Nat's Stanced 2005 Impreza STI

Peep game on my boy Nat-Nat's whip. This thing sits NICE!

She's also for sale HERE

Featured Elite: Karl Basa's Track Built Civic EG

As promised, here is Karl Basa's "Featured Elite" video feature. Take a moment to steal the embed code from the Skunk2 or the AutoLife TV vimeo page and post it up on some of your favorite blogs or forums. Also don't be afraid to leave comments.

For the full article click HERE

Featured Elite: Karl Basa's Track Built Civic EG from Brandon Mc. on Vimeo.

Karl's Civic Hatchback is such an awesome and functional build it was hard to stop shooting it. I just wanted to shoot it from every angle possible. Hopefully this coming season we will all get a chance to see it go down the track, word on the street is the car is going to be receiving a new heart! We'll just have to wait and see.

Interesting.

A few days ago I was trolling facebook, I usually scroll through my feed pretty rapidly, but this seemed to catch my eye. I was a bit pissed at first, but as I learned more about where the flyer came from I wasn't as upset... I'm still not sure what to think. Beware, if you come across something that does not look AutoLife TV spec, but says "AutoLife" it might not be us... I can see this being a problem...

I'm a little worried...

This is from a forum that I frequent. It comes from a thread created by an enthusiasts that was trying to figure out of his Rota Slipstreams were fake or not. I never knew people shopped for "Genuine Rotas"... I've owned PLENTY of Rotas during my college days when I had to daily my hatch and leave it in all kinds of sketchy neighborhoods, however I never forgot they were replicas. This thread however, kinda tripped me out. Are the younger enthusiasts not being guided the right direction? Will people be trying to verify if they have genuine ebay bucket seats next?! Threads like this make me wonder how much longer the Honda/Acura portion of the industry will be able to last or what the future holds. Blah...

NomiS - On Behalf of the Silenced (Official Video)

I've said it before... this is not a music blog, but when you live the "AutoLife" you have no choice but to love music, it's just one of the elements. If my good friends NomiS sounds familiar it's because we've featured his music in a LOT of our videos. This music video was done by my other long time friend J. Encabo (he also did the AutoLife TV website, shout out to Encaboblends! Rad music video guys! I'm getting on the next one, there has to be room for the loud, pushy producer, HAHA! All jokes aside listen to the lyrics and be prepared for NomiS to make you think. Feel free to share or embed the video, my boys work from their hearts.

NomiS - On Behalf of the Silenced (Official Video) from Jason Encabo on Vimeo.

Kraftwerks Sneak Peek!

There is no need to beat around the bush. There are a LOT of people demanding this supercharger kit. Oscar Jackson Sr., the original mastermind behind the innovative Jackson Racing, is proving that he has not lost his touch. I don't really know how any of the 06+ Civic crowd could doubt him, hell, the guy has been racing Hondas since the 70's (NO THAT'S NOT A TYPO, THE FREAK'N 70's), many enthusiasts were not even born yet. The new crop of "enthusiasts" are probably googling "Jackson Racing", lol. Anyway, let's talk about the supercharger.

Kraftwerks and the Jackson's use a Rotrex unit in the kits, they stand by them and HATE when I use the word "turbo". The 06 Civic pictured in the post was the second Kraftwerks powered car I have been in, the first was an S2000. The set up on the 06 Si made over 300 hp, on an otherwise stock car. The test car had a stock exhaust, stock header, and stock motor and internals. Jackson Sr. took me around the block and ripped it a few times, it was NUTS, 1st and 2nd... wheel spin, 3rd barely grabbed and it kept pulling harder and harder until he'd shift. It wanted to just keep building power, INSANE. Basically felt like an all-motor car on steroids. When his foot wasn't mashed to the floor, the car felt like my mom could drive it all around town like a stock, quiet, mellow civic. Props the the Kraftwerks family, the kit will be worth the wait, start saving your pennies folks.