Latest Update 18/3/09: Car photographed by Fly. Expect an appearance in Max Power (UK) and ADDX (France) in the near future

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Thank you

It's always right in my opinion to begin with an image:

I am incredibly happy to say that SuperStreet got in contact with me to feature my personal s2000, the BosStylists show car, on the cover of the December issue of Super Street Magazine (USA).

Charles Trieu, a Super Street Magazine employee, contacted me around 5 months ago after spotting the build thread of my car on a forum, stating they might be interested in featuring my car in their magazine once it was completed. This eventually developed and once the car was close to completion I was contacted by Jonathan Wong, the editor, who stated they wanted to feature the car as a cover car.

This was obviously a great opportunity for me, as not only have I always wanted to have my car on the cover of a magazine but this is a US magazine, where the cars are much more competitive! On top of this obviously it is a great opportunity to advertise the company and the work I can do.

What might you say is BosStylists .. [Quoted from Super Street] ' So I’ve mentioned BosStylists a few times now but haven’t really explained it. Ralph is the director of his new company, BosStylists, and has a website that everyone should check out (BosStylists ). Bossino came up with the idea of BosStylists while building his S2K. “I have always wanted to get involved in the tuning industry in some form, and during the project I finally had an idea that I thought would be worth pursuing.” Bossino tells us. “The idea behind it is to build high end fully-modified cars and to offer car enthusiasts around the world the opportunity to win [them] .” So if while reading this you have thought to yourself “man I’d give anything to have a car like that” now is your chance.' [The next car available to be won is another widebody s2000 with an estimated 700whp - check the blog for details]

The best part of the company from my view is the public interaction in the build process of the car. The process begun back in September and for one month, allowed people to log on and  ‘create’ their favourite s2000, from a chosen selection of high end parts (something that has been described by many as being like a computer game), being able to see their selection in a virtual image at the end of the process. After the selection process a car featuring the most popular parts will be built, and members of the pubilc will be able buy tickets for $30 and play the game to win the final product.

After a number of emails and phone calls we decided on a date for the photoshoot to take place. That was eventually delayed as Jonathan had to send a photographer across the US to shoot the car, and he wanted to wait until his cover car photographer, Wes Allison, had a gap in his schedule to guarantee good results. Having seen the results am I glad we waited to have him shoot the car as the outcome is … well I will let you judge for yourself, some of the images are attached below.

Hopefully this is the beginning of something successful whereby there will be many more magazine features with a variety of different cars that I build in the future.

For now I would like to thank Jonathan Wong (editor of Super Street), Charles Trieu (Who spotted my car in the first place) and Wes Allison for some excellent photos and an overall great feature of the car. In all this we cannot forget Andres (RAW Racing) for making all this possible, Mike (Bulletproof Automotive) and the guys at SFC, as well as my family for putting up with this for over a year!

If you are interested in higher resoultion images of the car visit Ralph's Blog . If you are still not satisfied and want larger images (up to 5000 pixels) feel free to let me know which one you would like and I will email it to you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modifications Explained:

Exterior:

The exterior begins with a Tracy Sports wide body kit, 40mm wider per side at the front and 50mm wider at the rear. Tracy Sports is a small 'boutique' shop in Japan with a great racing pedigree, working together with C-West on their race cars. The car is then accentuated with a Top Secret hood, Mugen Hard Top and aggressive vinly graphics, but not too over the top so as to destroy the flow of the car. Since I ordered the kit I felt the rear was a bit tame and did not flow correctly with the rest of the car. I decided a Top Secret Carbon Fiber rear diffuser would be the last piece in the puzzle for the rear, but due to the extra width of the car I opted for an R34 Skyline rear diffuser and custom modified in to fit the s2000, completing the rear. The car was then splashed with Lamborghini Orange paint, being painted 4 times in 2 different shops to achieve the desired finish and results (nothing short of perfect). The hood, hard top and trunk together with the bottom lips of the kit were then painted black to give it the aggressive stance. I also have a Voltex carbon fiber centre mount spoiler waiting to be fitted on the car. So far it is the 1st Tracy Sports kit in Europe and hopefully the only one for a while to come.

Engine:

For the engine I decided to go for a turbo setup, to give the car the power to back up the looks. I originally went for a Lovefab kit, however we threw away most of the pipework, keeping only the manifold, with Andres and Richie over at RAW Racing doing all the custom piping. We polished all the piping, including the turbo housing and relocated the battery to the rear, giving the engine bay a much cleaner look. The valve cover was also powdercoated black and orange to flow with the rest of the car. I wanted to have a small turbo to minimise lag so I went with the GT3071. It turned to be perfect, hitting full boost at 4,000 rpm and pulling all the way to 8,500 rmp. The numbers are also pretty impressive, hitting 414whp  (around 490hp @ 15% loss) and 324 ft-lbs at 15 lbs of boost. We could have gone more aggressive with the tune however I was looking for a reliable daily driver so this was the way to go. I wanted to remain with a dual exhaust so the Tracy Sports Titanium 70mm Dual was the way to go. A 70mm straight through exhaust with burned blue tips which weighs in at 14lbs .. perfect.

Wheels & Suspension:

The suspension is a special part of this car as not only does it sit on Top Secret Aragosta coilovers with Swift springs, tuned by Smokey himself, but it also features a Roberuta Cup Kit. Most people out there have not heard of this as it is an incredibly rare, and expensive, part normally found in Ferraris and Lamborghinis. The Roberuta kit is a system that sits on top of the coilover, allowing you to raise and lower the car at the touch of a button whilst being able to get the performace of a coilover system as opposed to an airbag or hydraulic system.

For the wheels I chose to be different and go with some Racing Hart RS-722s. The director of Racing Hart USA actually had to call the Japanese office to verify that the sizes I was looking for could actually fit a Honda s2000 (19x9" Front and 19x10" rears). Once he got the go ahead from Japan he went on making the wheels in a custom offset to fit the s2000.

Ride high and low:

 

 

 

Relocated Battery and Roberuta Gas Cylinders:

 

 

The project:

The aim of the project was to take an already special car, the Honda s2000, and improve it to what was in my eyes the perfect s2000. From my point of view I have achieved this by choosing parts of the highest quality all the way from Japan and having the work done by the best professionals. Not only are the parts some of the best in their fields but I also think they complement each other really well, working incredibly well together, which is obviously the most important factor to account for with a project of this magnitude.

I hope you enjoyed looking through the pics and reading this. For more information feel free to visit my blog or our website. Thank you!

 

Mod List:

Exterior:

 

    *  Tracy Sports Wide Body Kit

*  Tracy Sports 70mm dual titanium with burnt blue tips

    *  Mugen Hard top

    *  Custom Lamborghini Orange paint

    *  Custom graphics

    *  Air Walker Eyelines

    *   Craftsquare CF Mirrors

    *  CF Hood Dampers

    *  Top Secret Hood

    *  Top Secret R34 Skyline CF Rear Diffuser

    *  Vortex Generators

    *  Voltex Type 1 CF wing

   

Wheels

*  Custom Racing Hart RS-722

  (19x9" +22 front & 19x10" +20 rear)

*  Falken FK 452 245/35/19 & 275/35/19

*  Mugen 7 sided lug nuts

            Interior

* ASM Recaro RS-G

 

* Defi Gauges

 

* Custom Painted Panels

 

* CF Shift Knob

 

* Roberuta Gas Cylinder Trunk Build

 

Engine

 

*  Lovefab Manifold

 

         *  RAW Racing Custom GT30 turbo kit  (414rwhp / 324 ft-lbs @ 15psi)

 

*  AEM EMS

 

*  3mm Cometic Head Gasket

 

*  1000cc Precision Injectors

 

*  Walbro 255lph Fuel Pump

 

*  Custom Fuel Rail

 

*  TiAL 50mm BOV

 

*  TiAL 44mm Wastegate

 

*  4” Intake & Intercooler Piping

 

*  3” Downpipe

 

*  Koyo Radiator

 

*  Flex-A-Lite Fans

 

*  Mugen Thermostat

 

*  Mugen Fan Switch

    

* Custom Powdercoated Black & Orange Valve Cover

 

*  ACT 6 Puck Clutch & Flywheel

 

*  Polished piping & turbo housing

 

Suspension

 

* Top Secret Coilovers (Custom  tuned by Smokey himself)

*   Roberuta Cup Kit

All comments more than welcome and if you like what you see please rate the car ... thank you!