Hey there fellow Speedhunters!  My name is Eric and I work at JDM Legends, a small Japanese restoration shop in Salt Lake City.  I was contacted by Mike Garrett to do a little write up for old school month about our shop, what we do here, and how I got into this crazy business in the first place.  I must say that it is quite intimidating to write a post for what I feel is probably THE best blog in our industry but I'll do my best.  And just a little warning, I am just a mechanic/bodyman/fabricator, but nowhere in my job description is photographer, or writer so you'll have to excuse the crudeness contained in the following content. 

I was raised around cars my entire life, which has been influenced heavily by my Dad's love for motorsports, especially Formula 1.  I was even lucky enough to attend the the Grand Prix of Phoenix not once, but twice!  I was only 10 years old but the ear shattering sound the the V12's and V10's of the day echoing off the buildings downtown has forever had an impact on my life.  When most kids were occupied by G.I. Joes, and Transformers, I was drawing pictures of Nigel Mansell's Williams and Ayrton Senna's Mclaren. 

Fast forward a few years and I finally had a driver's license.  I worked hard enough in school to be able to graduate early for the sole purpose of acquiring a full time job so I could finally scrape together the funds for my first car, a 92 Honda Prelude.  After toying with that car for a few years I had another game changing experience. I had purchased my first Option video on VHS and this is when my eyes were opened to the Japanese style of tuning.  I was hooked.  With my next car I decided to step it up a notch and built another Honda, this time a B18C5 Type R swapped EK hatchback with full JUN head package that allowed it to rev to 9100 RPM's.  Quite a riot that car was, but front wheel drive was no longer fueling my fire.  Through the build of this car I had become close with Modern Garage, one of the local shops in the valley at the time and I eventually got a job there.  This is where I learned, learned and learned some more. I will be forever indebted to them for taking a chance and starting me on the path to where I am now.

And the next car on my list that was my first foray into the realm of Japanese classics, a 4AGZE swapped AE86. I ended up taking this almost 500 miles to the closest drift event which was Drift Day 10 in Las Vegas.  I beat the hell out of it for hours on end with 160k on the odometer and drove it 500 miles back home without a hitch.

Fast forward a few years, and a few cars later a new shop came into town by the name of Cobb Tuning that some of you may have heard of.  I started up there in the hard parts department helping design and prototype exhaust systems, suspension upgrades, and other various performance oriented parts.  I was also involved in building the company's Time Attack and demo cars. This Sti is one of the first cars I helped build there, and still to this day one of the cars that I am the most proud of.

I also somehow convinced someone in the company that I could drive as well, and they let me compete in Street class based Mazdaspeed 3 which did pretty well in the course of it's history.  Here it is after winning the Street and Modified class at a Redline event at Miller Motorsports Park.  You can also see another one of the cars I built for SEMA next to it, the Infiniti G37.  That car eventually made it's way into the Volk wheel catalog, another personal highlight of my career.

All was good in life, but sometime as they say all good things must come to an end.  This was around the time when the economy took a dump and my boss Trey Cobb was faced with the difficult decision to downsize or die, and that meant my dream job had come to an end.  I was devastated but understood the difficult choices in life that sometime must be made.  A few months of unemployment and wondering what's next had passed and one day I received a text from Trey that had asked if I was interested in proposition that involved importing and restoring classic JDM cars.  Ummmm........   seriously?  Of course!!! 

In the years prior I had been gradually immersing myself deeper and deeper into classic J-tin with the help of Mike Garrett's coverage on his old Auto Otaku blog of the JCCA Tsukuba meet, New year meeting, and Idlers games to name a few.  The JCCS in California, and TORC Toyotafest had also been growing in popularity and I was captivated by unique and timeless style these cars conveyed. I wanted in.  And this brings me to the point of where I am now.  Here is the unassuming exterior of JDM Legends.

Most people may not know but Trey is not just a faceless business owner but a true automotive enthusiast.  The idea for JDM Legends came about because he had been in the old car game for a while picking up a decent collection of nostalgic cars along the way.  He had been frustrated with condition of a few of the cars he had purchased not exactly arriving in the condition he had hoped for and knew there had to be a better way.  This combined with the fact that cars 25 years and older were completely legal for import into the United States and there wasn't really a shop  that specialized in the importation and restoration of Japanese cars at the time meant that we had a decent shot at making this work.

This is where the dirty work takes place, from bodywork, to motor swaps we try to do a bit of everything here.  The last car I had actually worked on before coming here was the R35 GT-R so you can imagine there was a bit of a shock to the senses to start wrenching on the same car, just 40 years older.  I am actually lucky enough to still be able to be the R35 mechanic for the Cobb GT-R. And what a technologically amazing car it is....



But this is old school month, so back to the classics.  From the shop side there is a door that leads you over to the showroom side where the finished cars await their new owners.

We also have a customer waiting area, and a bookshelf full of  various nostalgic JDM magazines, books, and bibles that I frequently use for reference.



Over the years I have learned many aspects in building cars, but one that is a necessity in what we do is the ability to provide custom fabrication.  It is something that I learn at everyday, I'm getting better as I go but I will always be a student of the trade.



I TIG welded these bumpers out of stainless steel for my little daily shop get around car. It is truly amazing what is possible when you step out of the realm of bolt-ons to custom fabrication where anything you can envision is possible.



Speaking of which, here's the Starlet, or KP61 as it is more widely known in all it's 1,700 lb. glory. If you've never experienced a lightweight rear wheel drive car you definitely should.

Now on to a bit more of makes us who we are and probably the reason you're looking at this blog in the first place, the cars!  I'll provide you of a little rundown of a few that have made their way through our shop.  The first one that we have restored here  has found it's way to sunny California.  Go ahead and guess the motor...

If you said 18R-G you would be correct!  Complete with twin 40mm Mikuni carbs that make a sound that must be heard behind the wheel to be fully appreciated.   It's funny because I've grown up being raised on fuel injected cars my entire life always hearing old men grumbling about these complicated newfangled contraptions that you need a computer to work on only to find myself now relearning how to properly tune a carburetor.   I will say there is a satisfying feeling making adjustments with a screwdriver instead of a keyboard.  These motors were usually only found in later model JDM and UK Celicas  but this one made it's way into the earlier model 1973 (RA21) Celica.



Here's another motor, a little more modern you Speedhunters may be familiar with but it's not in an S-chassis. That  SR20 is fed by a GT3037 which allows this little Datsun 510 to  develop over 400 WHP. 

I have driven 600 HP GT-R's and I will say that 400 hp in a  510 is a much more life altering experience. There is nothing between you and the car but your right foot, it's so much more of a  raw, hands on overloading of the senses that requires every bit of your full attention.



Two tone paint and SSS coupe taillights round out the package nicely for a more resto-mod feel.



Here's one that predates the SR20 by a few years.



That would be a nicely modified FJ20DET that made it's way into the the earlier DR30 Skyline.  There's no denying this car was built in the 80's with all it's angular awesomeness.



We'll step it back a few years to 1973 with this Skyline.

Often referred to as the Ken & Mary Skyline, or Kenmeri due to the ad campaigns of the time involving a youthful couple taking their C110 Skyline out to the beach, or maybe a romantic picnic.  They probably would have enjoyed the drive a bit more with an RB26DETT under the hood don't you think?


 
This was also the beginning of the iconic quad round taillights that remain on the R35 GT-R to this day.



This next one here is a car we recently imported and is awaiting a bit of restoration.  It's a JDM model 1973 Toyota Celica GTV that came factory equipped with the 1.6 liter DOHC 2T-G motor.

This is one of the few that we have actually sold locally to a super cool dude that a helped me with a few of these pictures.  It's a 4 door 71 Skyline 2000GT that he has recently made a couple of choice mods to including the Rubber Soul chin spoiler and gold Panasports.

These are often referred to as Hakosukas, or “box skyline” hinting to the box like shape of the top of the car.  Here's another shot accompanied by a 2 door version that I am just putting the finishing touches on before it is fit to be sold.

The Hakosukas are, in my opinion,  without a doubt one of the most beautiful cars to ever come out of Japan and by far one of the most sought after of all the Japanese classics.

One of the most ambitious projects we have taken on here at JDM Legends and it is still a work in progress to this day. It's a USDM model 1977 Toyota Celica or RA29.  This one is a full ground up restoration as you can see.  The goal with this one is to keep the classic styling and Toyota DNA with a little more updated drivetrain, steering, and suspension.

The motor you see here is a the 3SGE Beams motor that came factory equipped in the JDM Toyota Altezza which is a 2.0 Liter capable of 210 naturally aspirated power.  As you can see by the Greddy turbo we are shooting for around 300 WHP which should be more than enough fun in this car while not overpowering the chassis.

This car has also had a full rack and pinion conversion, completely rebuilt AE86 rear end with disc brakes as well as AE86 donors up front.  This one should be a pretty nice rounded package when it's done.



At the end of the day it comes to having pride in your work and a passion for what you do, whatever it may be.  And if you have that, people will take notice and anything is possible.  If you're not entirely sure how to do something, just try it, and if you screw it up start over and try again.  The only way we make progress is by learning from our mistakes and moving forward.  No one will just hand you anything, if you have the desire to do something, you have to be able to prove that you can do it yourself.   That means building something with your own hands and hoping the right people take notice.  I have been for the most part self taught, and have tried to soak up as much knowledge from all the great people I have met in this business along the way.  I feel very grateful everyday to be able to provide people across the nation with these legends from the other side of the world.

Thanks for letting me share my story.

If you would like addition information on our shop, please visit our website.

http://jdmlegends.com/

And additional information on the buildup and restoration of these cars you can also check out our blog:

http://www.jdmlegends.com/blog/

- Eric Bizek