It’s been a while since my last post, but I promise I’ll catch up on what I’ve been doing in the next month… maybe. Until then, I’m going to start up a new photo series called “The Ricer Series”. This will be more of a personal project featuring friends, cars, places, or things to be considered ‘rice’. Why ‘rice’? Because it’s either fucking ridiculous or cool (both in a good way). Is this the same as a car feature? Probably. The first post of this series is Pec… aka @pecx, aka JDM Pec, aka JDMWhat.com, AE86 parts hoarder, and much more…
The Ricer Series – Pec’s N2 AE86
I actually shot Pec’s Levin back in February and planned to have it published in a magazine or featured somewhere on the web but got little side tracked with freelance jobs. This year has been blowing by pretty quick…. too quick thanks to random assistant jobs and shoots. So…. I put the unedited photos in a queue folder of “Freelance Work” to be edited… freelance work in this day and age means you won’t be paid for until the publication or content is published which can take 6-8 months… I left them there until 3 days ago and finally finished the set. Sorry Pec!
The perfect backdrop for the new series…
Who is this Pec exactly? If you’re in Houston and into older Toyota Corolla’s or AE86’s, you would know Pec has an insane collection of JDM parts and cars… I won’t go into much detail of what he has, but just check out his Instagram, and you’ll see what I mean. Mayday Garage actually has a feature on his car from back in 2014(?) by Khiem Pham aka @booja. Check it out here in the archives.
The legendary @Pecx… this pose looks familiar…
I see he’s done this pose before…
I’m not exactly sure when I had met Pec, probably online in 2013, but he tried helping me build an AE86 coupe at one point in time. That didn’t go according to plan and I quickly saw why. You either buy a nice running AE86 or you’re going to end up either throwing some time and/or money into it. Annnnd it’s not cheap… You’re better off buying a finished running project than starting from scratch. It might be cheaper to build it yourself, but if you value your time, I’d choose the more expensive option of finding a running one. That’s what I learned from Pec and from all of his past and current cars.
The location of the shoot was in a hidden lot behind a silo and some art/photo studios near Washington St. area…
A little info on the shoot… we scheduled for a shoot at 7AM on a cloudy day so shooting conditions weren’t too bad. Colors aren’t too dynamic when it’s and overcast type of day because everything is flat and neutral. I prefer to shoot in sunset, sunrise, or backlit conditions…. so I edited this set a little more dramatic than usual with a little bit of green tint in the lights then added some warm gradients…
Classic SSR Mesh wheels… face is supposed to be white but I told Pec he didn’t need to wash the car lol…
Not an aggressive stance but good for the street and track attack….
A closer portrait view of the CWest GT Wing, TRD spoiler, and Kakiomoto muffler…
A low frontal view of Pec’s N2 AE86 Levin…
The interior is far from clean but most of the panels are still still there even with Cusco Safety 21 roll cage…
For more chassis stiffness in the rear hatch, Pec added a Next Miracle cross bar, FET Strut Sport bar, Jubiride rear seat and center bars…
Another view from behind with the hatch open…
Thanks for holding Pec… lol.
Pec supporting a few local friends and JDM shops…
Now we take a look at the engine bay…
Powered by a smallport 4A-GE 16v with SK Sanyo / OER Sports Injections Kit ITBs…
Fancy TRD spark plug wires…
The 4AGE engine is managed by a Toda Racing ECU…
Toda Power cam gears / cam shafts… although Pec doesn’t know what is in the engine internally, it must be “a high compression of at least 11 or 12:1 since it can run on race gas….”
Suspension of choice for the car was Tokico HTS struts and TRD springs.
If you see Pec around at car meets, he’s probably the most friendliest guy you’ll meet… except he won’t sell you his AE86 parts 😀
I’m probably missing a bunch of more details, but if you want to see the car for yourself, you might get lucky to see it randomly at the Coffee and Rice meets at Catalina Coffee…
Success Rice? Yes, yes he is.
Thanks again Pec for waking up early and letting me photograph you and your N2 AE86 Levin. That’s pretty much it for the first post of ‘The Ricer Series’… this may or may not be the last post of the series lmao. I hope I don’t get lazy and quit like some of the other projects I’ve started… but thanks for skimming, reading, or scrolling through the post. Until next time!
Gallery of photos here: https://www.danhphan.com/Cars/Pecs-N2-AE86-/
Bonus** Wonder what it’s like to ride in this car? MrJiroChan gets a ride with Pec to Coffee and Rice at Catalina Coffee.
Danh Phan
http://www.dtphan.com
http://www.instagram.com/dtphan