5ZIGEN Civic Evolution

The famous performance automotive web magazine, JTuned.com features 5ZIGEN Civic Type-R.
http://www.jtuned.com/
The title says "Vintage JTuned", even the pictures were taken November, after the Super Lap Battle of 2007. Even this car was here little over 1 year ago, but it feels we haven't seen this car for long time. As JTuned say, they might be vintage photos already because the many things come and go so fast and we feel the time has past so fast nowadays....

The JTuned article gave me a chance to remember the car.
This FD2 Civic Type-R stayed in the USA only for short period, but it was very very busy one month.
The car arrived at 5ZIGEN USA late of October.
I noticed the vehicle height was very high when we unloaded from the container.
The car came with stock shocks, because the FD2 was so new at the time, the special made Ohlins coil-overs were not ready. So, what should I do for SEMA? I called Japan and got an answer from Mr. Hirai. The cheif engineer said "Just cut the springs!"

As you see this picture, the vehicle height was slightly higher... And you might also noticed that the bumpers were Honda OE in SEMA.
It's authentic JDM Type-R body kits. Looks not so bad.
But, but, but, the body kits were sponsored by INGS!!
Mr. Yamano, the president of INGS gave us their very first kit for FD2, however, there was still no time to paint before shipping the car out from Japan.

The INGS parts were painted in 5ZIGEN color, red front bumper, white side skirts and black rear bumper, during the car was in Las Vegas convention center.
As soon as I towed the FD2 back to LA, mechanics installed the INGS and the Ohlins hand carried by our CEO Mr. Kinoshita. This final modification and tune was done one day before leaving to the Buttonwillow Raceway....
As you've already know, all of our hustle brought us good result. The Civic got fastest FF N/A, 2nd in Unlimited FF class with Ryo Michigami.

We squeezed the several photoshoots in a few days after the Buttonwillow event because the car had to be shipped back to Japan and displayed at Tokyo Auto Salon, early January.

This is the car look right now. The wheels have been changed to Hot Version Black w/Red Line. And, did you notice? 5ZIGEN Japan staff even re-painted in such short time before the Auto Salon. Compare the side of the car between picture from Buttonwillow and this one. There is more graphic on it. 5ZIGEN Civic Type-R is still in evolution!!

By the way, Happy Valentine's Day!! I've almost forgotten this...