You've probably noticed this for yourself already. Import events are up this year so far up from last year that we, the staff, are at an event every week. I go to events more often than I go to the mall. Scary.
Actually, malls and import events are pretty similar. Just substitute girls for cars. Think about it. The formula works quite well. I mean, instead of having uncountable fine females in tube tops, you have hot rides. And once in a while, one sticks out and you follow her around and back to her, er, never mind. Anyway, Michael Sato's '95 Integra had that affect on me.
It's not like Michael's new to the scene, or just barely hopping onto the show scene bandwagon. Just a few years back he started an aftermarket retail outlet in the Bay Area called Jet Motorsports, catering to a then-fresh import scene. With the collaboration of a few friends, Jet Motorsports evolved into Jetspeed, a car club which has taken top honors in both race and show events. Michael's Integra has been an ongoing project for quite some time now, and he has made many changes within the past couple of years.
Originally colored in shades of silver, this A-car has been resprayed with an orange hue, topped off with a blue pearl coating. The bodywork was redone entirely by Michael himself, including the body kit, which was named, aptly, Satosport. The front hood features a custom air scoop and an Aerogear rear wing from JKL Racer Design was mounted on the rear trunk lid. Michael was also responsible for custom-fitting the Supra taillights, as well as shaving the rain gutters, side moldings, door handles, and molding the body kit onto the factory body.
The sterile white interior should not be entered. That is, unless you're wearing a pair of gloves and your shoes are immaculately clean. Every inch has either been restitched with healthy doses of white vinyl or has been sprayed with a pearl white coating. The seats, door panels, dashboard, and the center console, which houses the Auto Meter oil and water temperature gauges, now share the same color. Michael also chose a Signature steering wheel and a MOMO shift knob, both wrapped in white to match the rest of the interior. The gauges are a one-off set from Mecca Graphics: blue and orange faces. For safety at the strip and on the streets, an Autopower roll bar, powdercoated white and chrome, was bolted into place.
To liven up the sounds, a Kenwood double DIN head unit was placed in favor of the stock tape deck. The system is able to dish out 400-watts of power through an Alpine V-12 amp, two 15-inch Rockford Fosgate subs, and a set of Pioneer mids and tweets.
During the early stages of this car's buildup, a turbocharger helped to net a best timeslip of 12.6@112 mph. These days, after seeing its fair share of track duty, the B18C1 powerplant has been massaged to a normally aspirated setup thanks to BRE Racing. The bottom end was rebuilt with a set of Arias domed pistons, shot-pinged factory connecting rods, and Total Seal piston rings. The cylinder head was port and polished, as well as milled, also by BRE, to bring the total compression up to 13:1. An Inazuma intake feeds incoming fresh air to a JG Engine Dynamics throttle body, and is then expelled through a Racer Design after-cat exhaust system. Both a DC Sports ceramic-coated header and a True Flow high-flowing catalytic converter were added to free up the exhaust even further for overall improved top end performance.
A pair of adjustable cam gears from Weapon-R were added to dial the motor in precisely for maximum power. To ignite engine spark, a set of NGK spark plugs teamed up with higher conducting Magnecor 8mm wires that were slapped on. A smaller-sized radiator core from a Civic is still bolted in place of the Integra unit, most likely because of the previously mentioned turbocharger, but nonetheless, just barely efficient enough to handle cooling capabilities. Gilbert at Pure Polish of Stockton, California, gets the credit for polishing the intake manifold, valve cover, oil pump, water pump, timing sprockets, and the transmission housing.
Michael also performed the suspension modifications for his car. Choosing Skunkworks, a company known for developing track-proven suspension components, as his top choice, he spared no expense and went for the gusto. A complete coilover kit with Tokico gas shocks allows Michael to set the suspension properly during a drag race or, at the twist of a thread, dump his car for the ultimate car show stance. OBX antisway bars keep body roll to a minimum, and straight down the 1,320, or tight on the turns. Axis supplied the 18x7 Touring Cup wheels shod with Nitto 205/35ZR18 rubber.
Now you kinda sorta get an idea of why cars like this pop up in our mag. They've got the style and the right engine mods needed to turn heads. So what are you waiting for? Get your creative minds working and mesmerize us.