October 3rd, 2007 | Al Lagura |

Well not that old but 5 years (2002) ago there wasn’t a night that we weren’t out driving/drifting up in the hills. By the time it was time to head home, the sun would be up already. I miss those days, those were the fun days.

I was looking through Daniel’s flickr account I found some old fotos of us when were up in Mt. Hamilton, I was about 19 here. This was one of my first Corolla, well after crashing my blue one, then my red one, then my silver one, and I got this. Which was Silver I think and I painted it with a rattle can color creme`.

Here we are park on the side of the road looking at the beautiful valley.

Daniel’s old car. He crashed it a few times (2006?), and I think the last one was on the freeway and lost interest of the car. Then he hit us up if we wanted it but I ended up giving it to Yoshie (2007). She’ll put it to good use.

I forgot his name but he has an Eclipse that he drifts also, I’m not talking about street drifting etc… the dude used to go to all the drift days back in the days. All the Speedtrial USA Group C, all the Club4ag Drift Days.

Max Misawa! This was when Max don’t cup cake and goes out with us. I remember max saying that he can do donuts without LSD on the corolla, we watch and he failed. We laugh and he cried.

Back then, I didn’t give a F* and I still don’t. I drive my car as hard as I can, I would hit the side of the mtn. left and right. This was freshly hit when we were going up. Stock bumpers = durability. FUCK JDM!

Me and my junkyard bumper HAHAH, seriously! I found this shit at the Junkyard. Yeah, when do you get to find a JDM bumper at the US yard back in 2002? (OHHH the Irony)

Real SSR XR4 not Longchamps (I think I’m getting that right, I’m not too update on my jdmish.) And check out the HOME DEPOT SPL BABY!

Us fixing my exhaust since it broke after I hit another wall. HAHHA

‘Photography’ you can see more at Dwan’s flickr account here.

Yes, I used to run Advan Neovas and probably one of the best tires, I should try to get another set. I bought it from a friend that came back from Japan. Oh don’t mind me, I’m a goofy motherfucker.

I miss this car, this car became TRUENCOUPE I, my first Orange Corolla.

After someone wreck my white hatch with a 20V. I decided to go full race with my COUPE.

This is how it looked after I painted the car. This was my first hosting an event back in 2002 at Buttonwillow. Rocking the OLDSCHOOL Longchamps XR3 with CBY Front bumper that cost me $600 bucks from Japan. And guess what, I wreck the front bumper that day HAHAHA.

Then bought a real J-Blood, knock it off, made copies and sold the real one to Brandon(Jtuned / Bowls LA). Don’t even go about me knocking shit off, I used it for myself since I wreck tons of bumper. I’m a broke drifter so I did whatever I can to make it cheaper on the pocket and still drive at events. DEDICATION.

I used to go twice a month event in Buttonwillow and Socal, every event I would use at least 12-16 tires per event. That would round up to $700 bucks per event just for tires, then gas for towing is about $400 bucks, and hotel, and other crap. YES THIS CAME ALL FROM MY POCKET. I fucking hate those people talking about I got sponsored and I never paid my dues. Motherfucker, I paid my motherfucking dues.

I wanted to attend Formula Drift in 2003 at Infineon Raceway and I needed to install a cage. Hit up a few friends and bamn! Got the shittiest and heaviest cage in the world. I LOVE IT.

I won’t deny it, I had fun with T3, they helped me but I think I’ve helped them more than they help me. I honestly think I built their reputation in the drifting industry but that’s all in the past, I wish them luck with everything.

Here’s when they took my coupe and rebuilt it. Enjoi, its a long read.

Click Here. 

ps. This post was just going to be about Mt. Hamilton 2002 but I got a little typing happy. I just miss the old days.