Congratulations to SD Chapter’s Bobby Taylor’s 2003 Honda-Amuse-Widebody S2000 in a 4 page full feature in Super Street Magazine’s February 2011 issue, pgs 062-065. Only 7 days into the new year, our team has already landed another full feature in one of the most respected and at the moment, best selling domestic import tuner magazine. Remember, 2011 will be no different. In Team Hybrid, a super star is born everyday and thanks to SD Chapter’s Ryan Romaine for finding this gem.

Super Street Quote #1: “Bobby Taylor, the owner of this 2003 Silverstone Metallic AP1 sat speechless as Team Hybrid president James Lin snapped picture after picture with his digital camera.”

Super Street Quote #2: “He was either pumped because he was a huge Powerhouse Amuse fan, or that the newest member sitting next to me would help continue the storied legacy of Lin’s baby: Team Hybrid.”

Super Street Quote #3: “After a close look at Bobby’s S2000, it’s easy to understand why the Team Hybrid founder was so excited…it doesn’t have the tucked/saved bay and custom wiring like most of the more popular Honda builds these days-it just doesn’t need it. It’s completely Japanese-inspired, and while it may never be a Super GT race car, it does share one common characteristic with them-the most import characteristic: Function. This Honda was built to perform.”

Again and again, the level of respect and luv we have from our industry insiders in marketing and selling their products or magazines continues (16+ years)… Our team resume and current scoreboard continues to show why we are the finest, most well-rounded, 1st to many of the import accolades, most recognized and most innovative team in import history.

Magazine & online scoreboard as of 01/19/11: 1 feature article, 2 online feature and 1 event coverage. The new year just started and our team already has 1 full feature article in a major import magazine, 2 online feature and 1 event coverage in our pipeline. As promised last month and I promise you once again, there is still MORE to come. Bigger things are coming and in store for our team in 2011!

Congratulations to us, Team Hybrid for being one of the first three teams to be featured in the online website – MotionAutoShow.com. Please visit www.MotionAutoShow.com and for the exact link of the article which was just released, please visit:

http://www.motionautoshow.com/event/…tGalleryID=201

Title of Online Article is called: Motion Auto Show – Team Hybrid

Story: Being one of “The” oldest, “First” to many of the import competition accolades, most well-rounded, most recognized, well-accomplished, and innovative teams in the import industry.

Team Hybrid stands for a rich tradition increativity, originality, and quality.

“The idea is to create a team with a diversity of hardworking members and a special individuality to every car. By providing the Team with goals to strive for, each member spends countless hours of time, effort, and dedication to show “Hybrid luv and our purpose. It’s not just about winning a show or a race. It’s about getting there as a team”.

Team Hybrid launched January 7th, 1995 in Oxnard, CA when James Lin decided his ride would complement his peers who value and respect his work.

Everyone knows it’s easy to gather a group of friends, and just give it a title to start a Team, but in contrast, James, the co-leaders, members and hunnyz have built a team of legendary status and respect.

Props: BFGoodrich, Meguiar’s, Sony, and Nos Energy Drinks.

Website: www.teamhybrid.com and www.teamhybridforums.com

Congratulations to NorCal Chapter’s Joseph Bacigalupi’s 2005 Subaru-Voltex Wrx Wagon for being featured and written about in www.SuperStreetOnline.com. For the exact link of the article, please visit http://www.superstreetonline.com/fea…gon/index.html

2005 Subaru WRX Wagon – The Transporter
Team Hybrid’s Voltex-Armored…Doggy Wagon?!
February 11, 2011
By Joey Lee
Photography by Scott Dukes

Let it be a forewarning that the photos on the coming pages are terribly misleading. It’s not the photos themselves per se, because they’re nothing short of excellent, but I’m referring to the subject matter itself. At first glance it may look like a Subaru STI equipped with Voltex aero. A more in-depth look, specifically towards the rear, reveals that it in fact isn’t a STI sedan-an extra hump on the rear clearly indicates that it is of the wagon variety. If you were initially fooled, then you either weren’t paying very close attention, or the WRX sedan front fenders played a trick on your eyes. What may have also thrown you off your initial hunch was the complete Voltex body armor. A WRX wagon cloaked in Voltex gear just isn’t something anybody is used to seeing every day. The only person that’s accustomed to such a rare combination is the owner himself, Joseph Bacigalupi, and his partner in crime, the family dog. We’re sorry to tell you that this Voltex track-prepped 4-door STi is actually an aggressively-styled, WRX wagon that’s main purpose of existence is to act as transportation for a canine.

“I originally bought this car in 2005 just as a means of transportation for the family dog and for something I could use in the snow,” Joseph says. “I never intended to do any modifications but that’s usually how it starts. After throwing a set of rims on, I thought the car looked terrible. I decided to lower it to see if it would help and the rest is history.”

2005 Subaru Wrx Wagon Headlight
What foreshadowed the later, more extensive modifications may have been the initial set of 18×10″ wheels that Joseph decided to install. A ten-wide wheel may almost be the standard nowadays for all the aggressive wheel fitment fanatics, but for a wagon that was designed to house 16×6.5″ wheels, it definitely posed a problem. To combat this issue, he replaced his OEM front fenders with a set of sedan fenders that were rolled flat and pulled by Image Autobody. For the rear, he had the inner and outer fenders cut and pulled along with the addition of a sedan STI rear flare, which was re-welded to the OEM quarter panel. The final result yielded just enough room for his current wheels; a custom-coated flat-black set of 18×9.5″ Work VS-XX rollers.

It didn’t end with just the metal reconstruction of the fenders. The Voltex kit also required some reshaping to fit correctly. “To my knowledge, this is the only WRX wagon rocking a full Voltex body kit,” Joseph claims. “The rear diffuser is custom fit. All the original hardware had to be modified to make the diffuser fit to the wagon rear bumper.” Sunny Wong from Franklin Autobody re-sprayed the wagon in Crystal Grey Metallic after assuring all modification work on the kit was fitted correctly.

With all this work just to fit a couple items that would easily fit a Subaru STI sedan, the questions remains; why all the extra effort? “Wagons are so much cooler than sedans! There’s just something sexy about a (modified) wagon. You just don’t see them all that often and when you do, you got to love it,” Joseph says excitedly (And I totally agree! – JW). Once he completed the makeover of the exterior, extensive work began under the hood. Even if this was merely a dog transport vehicle, that didn’t mean that the wagon itself couldn’t make some power. When it comes to taking a dog from one place to another, you can never be too fast. To do all that work to make everything fit, only for his peers to realize that the wagon made no power, would be an absolute embarrassment. He would have none of that and immediately got down on the EJ20T motor. The OEM turbine was swapped out in favor of a much larger Tomei ARMS unit. Perrin joins the party with their air intake, assorted turbo piping and front mount intercooler. Since the wagon was also being used regularly for various errands, Joseph went with the “stealth” variation of the Perrin intercooler, which is coated in flat black to make it less obvious to the naked eye. Even with the stealth treatment up front, a Trust full titanium exhaust amplifies the familiar tune of the boosted flat-four motor.

The appropriately named Stance GR+ Pro coilovers give this wagon a menacing “stance” as it sits flush on the Work wheels. A collaborative effort between Whiteline, Cusco, and Beatrush suspension components ensure that the family dog sits firmly in place as he ambushes the streets on way to the groomer. The interior has been overhauled with re-wrapped black suede/red-stitched panels and the OEM front seats have been replaced with Recaro front buckets originally from a Mitsubishi EVO 9. The limited edition Vertex 10th Anniversary steering wheel and shift knob act as finishing touches to Joseph’s interior.

This “hybrid” of a wagon, no matter what he uses it for, is most certainly a unique, one-of-a-kind build. Though it has been assembled with mostly race-bred parts, nobody can tell Joseph that his wagon isn’t functional. It functions as a transport vehicle and it looks really cool doing just that. “It’s funny to see people’s reaction when an 80-pound fur ball jumps out of the back of the wagon-it’s priceless.”

Tuning Menu
2005 Subaru WRX Wagon
Owner Joseph Bacigalupi
Hometown Pacifica, CA
Occupation Budweiser Truck Driver

Engine 2005 2.0L Subaru EJ20T; Perrin air intake, intercooler piping, stealth front mount intercooler, and Big MAF; Walbro 255lph fuel pump; Power Enterprises 800cc fuel injectors; GT Spec Version 1 exhaust manifold; Trust Ti-R PE full titanium exhaust; Tomei ARMS M7760 turbocharger; Helix high-flow downpipe and up-pipe; Baller Bolts titanium dress-up kit; Beatrush oil cap, alternator cover, and radiator shroud; STI radiator cap; TEIN hood dampers

Engine Management Cobb Accessport Version 1

Footwork & Chassis Stance GR+ Pro coilovers and camber plates; Whiteline 22mm front sway bar, roll center adjustment kit, and endlinks; Cusco 22mm adjustable rear sway bar; Beatrush front and rear strut bar; Ingalls front and rear camber bolts

Brakes Brembo ’07 STI front and rear brake calipers; DBA 4000 slotted front STI brake rotors, rear conversion rotors and conversion brackets; Hawk Performance HP Plus front and rear brake pads; Rotora front and rear steel braided brake lines

Wheels & Tires 18×9.5″ +25 Work VS-XX (Custom flat black faces and rivets); 255/35-18 BFGoodrich G-Force T/A KDW; Project KICS Neo Chrome lug nuts

Exterior Voltex front bumper, front undertray, sideskirts, and rear diffuser; JDM Subaru STI wagon mid-wing and roof rail deletes; Modified WRX sedan front fenders; Crystal Grey Metallic paint; JDM pink “I” badge and WRX rear badge; JDM Impreza rear badge

Interior Recaro (Mitsubishi) EVO 9 front seats; Wedge Engineering low-mount seat rails; Vertex 10th Anniversary 330mm deep corn steering wheel and shift knob; Works Bell Splash short hub and Rapfix II quick release; Interior rewrapped in black suede with red stitching; Autometer boost gauge; Alpine INA W900 touch screen, double-din head unit w/navigation; Focal 165 KR2 6.5″ front component set, 100 KRS 4″ rear component set, Solid 1, and Solid 4 amplifiers; JL Audio 10″ W6 subwoofer; Monster cable set; Custom fiberglass subwoofer enclosure and amp rack in spare tire compartment

Props James Lin of Team Hybrid and the Hybrid Hunnyz; BFGoodrich Tires; Meguiars; NOS Energy Drinks; Mach III and all of its employees; Sunny from Franklin Auto Body; Dave and Manny from Bay Car Stereo

WWW teamhybrid.com; bfgoodrichtires.com; meguiars.com; drinknos.com; machiii.net; bche.net __________________

Our second installment of the Best In Show series profiles the cars that made SEMA what it is – sport compacts. Yes, some of these cars push the boundaries of taste, but others are fairly creative and actually enhance the looks of the stock car.

The dominant cars this year seemed to be the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo and the Nissan GT-R. Honda products seem to have fallen from their once hegemonic dominance of the tuner crowd, while Scion and Hyundai have taken some crucial market share.

 

Congratulations to Omar Rivas’ S2000 for being featured in the online website – PASMAG.com. Please visit www.PASMAG.com and for the exact link of the article which was released 08/16/10, please visit http://pasmag.com/features/top-rides/1339-blue-blood#

Title of Article: Blue Blood
Written by: Dave Pankew & Photos By: RCH Designs

Alright, here’s the deal – we see a load of S2000s here at PAS. Almost too many, thanks to the prices of these high-revving roadsters dropping dramatically in recent years. Many of them are predictable with their CE28Ns and J’s Racing aero and a variety of knockoff carbon fiber hoods. Of course, we don’t mean to offend any S2K owners out there, but trends often dictate what people buy and we get bombarded with it here. But this time around we noticed a car with some out-of-the-box thinking and an interesting offer from the owner.

Rivas has been working on his S2000 since 2005 and started with what every tuner does: carbon fiber bolt-ons, lowering springs, rims, intake – amateur stuff.

Omar Rivas of Winnetka, CA has been building up this project for the better part of the last decade and when he came to us asking for a feature he got a bit of a shock. We explained to him that we see some pretty insane S2000s and that he would have to step it up. He replied by saying, “alright, I trust the editors of PAS, why don’t you build the rest of it?”

We agreed and finished up the balance of the project with the gear we wanted to see. It was pimp, just like having our own project without the headaches and monster VISA bills.

Rivas has been working on his S2000 since 2005 and started with what every tuner does: carbon fiber bolt-ons, lowering springs, rims, intake – amateur stuff. As he got into the scene, joined the forums, subscribed to tuner magazines and attended car shows, he realized there was so much more to his car. The end result was a 424whp supercharged S2000 which was unveiled at Willow Springs for a track day in late 2009. As it was the first shake-down session for this project, anything could happen – and it did. During a hot lap, his engine seized due to piston ring and he was devastated. All those years of tuning and money evaporated within fractions of a second.

After the track day, Rivas fell in to an unsatisfied state with his car hobby. He contemplated selling the car or maybe parting it out. However, his S2K family rallied behind him and within a week he had purchased a new engine and prepared for a build. He sent the block over to the builder of the most powerful N/A Hondo motors, BisiMoto. The head was ported and polished, then filled with a SuperTech valvetrain. For fueling a Walbro 255lph pump was added along with Injector Dynamics 725cc injectors. The intake system is an elaborate design by Bisimoto. Made by Kinsler, the custom injection system features individual throttle bodies which look and sound insane. On the exhaust side is a custom 4-2-1 long head with venture collector connected to a T1R ERM 70mm Exhaust.

After the mechanical was sorted out, the tuning dimension was delegated to BisiMoto was well. An AEM EMS Serial2 box was plugged and the NA motor was tuned to extremes. The driveline had already been beefed up since the last iteration with 425whp. An ACT Street Clutch and lightweight flywheel were installed. The reinforced 2-3-4 gears in the tranny spin up J’Racing 4.57 gears and DriveShaftShop axles.

Then it was time for Rivas to introduce a new look for the car to get it noticed. His wi234_thfe recommended Carl Canta of AA Autoworks because he did an outstanding job with her Acura RSX-S and her brother’s Honda S2000 and Subaru WRX-STi. Carl Canta and Frank Klepadlo did a remarkable job erasing the track scars and giving it fresh a fresh new look with House of Kolor Electron Blue Paint. The S2K features J’s Racing front bumper as well as fenders and canards. In the rear are ASM wide fenders and a sppon rear diffusers with a Voltex Type IV wing. The look was capped off with APR side mirrors, a C-West carbon fiber hood and an OEM Honda hardtop. As an added bonus for the body work, the bodyshop introduced him to James Lin of Team Hybrid. Rivas recognized the team from past show cars and magazine covers, so he felt honored to be invited to join.

Rivas moved his attention to the rollers which would have to make an equally big statement. He selected Prodrive GC-010G wheels in 18×10.5-inch with a +22 offset all around. The Prodrives are wrapped in BFGoodrich T/A KDWs with 265/35R18 on all four corners. Lurking behind the spokes are Wilwood’s 6-piston big brakes using Endless pads and Motul RBF600 racing fluid. The suspension was amped up with TEIN SRC Racing coilovers using 16kg springs. Several J’s Racing suspension arms were added along with Garner adjustable sway bars and Spoon strut bars. After a careful alignment and corner balance, the S2000 was again ready to tackle any road course.

Inside the cabin is pretty self-explanatory with a blend of business and pleasure. The Bride racing seats are complimented by Takata harnesses and a Nardi wheel. A Sony Double DIN 7-inch LCD unit mounted into the dash since the real estate in an S2000 is scarce. The lows head to a pair of Sony GTR Series Mono amps concealed in the trunk pushing a pair of 12-inch Xplod 12-inch SVC woofers. The mids and highs are dealt to a Sony ZR-Series 4/3/2 amp and a quartet of Sony Xplod GTR-Series 6.5-inch speakers in both front doors and behind the seats. The install was completed with a custom amp rack and a pair of SONY LCD monitors in a custom fiberglass box.

For now Rivas, says the PASMAG cover is a huge achievement for him. In an age when many builds are becoming more modest or are put on hold altogether, this S2000 is a breath of fresh air. Rivas give lots of credit to his family and Team Hybrid for going 15 years strong. He says without the support he would have given up and sold the car long ago.

SHOUTOUTS

God, My family, Dr. Rivas Dental, El Presidente/Founder of Team Hybrid & Hybrid Hunnyz – James Lin, Team Hybrid Family, Frank and Carl from AA Autoworks, Bisi, Hedi and staff from Bisimoto Engineering, Scott and Greg from Kinsler Fuel Injection, Sony, BFGoodrich Tires, Meguiar’s, Upgrade Motoring, Fred aka Gunshow and Tak of S2kI/VIS/S3 Designs, Moddiction/International Short Shifters; the love of my life Gretchen Rivas, Jirro Fernandez, Jeremy Pyka, Jason Rivas, the boys from SFV GripWerks, Topdown, FilthIEst and all who helped made this project happen. R.I.P. Paul Flores aka smirfs2k05, you will live in our hearts forever. May 15+ years of Team Hybrid’s Tradition-Philosophy-Innovation-Management-Quality continue making import history…

Congratulations. James Lin’s 2011 Scion tC is the December 2010 Featured Ride for Mishimoto’s online Calendar.

http://www.mishimoto.com/news-decemb…-calendar.html

http://www.mishimoto.com/team-hybrid-2011-scion-tc.html

http://www.mishimoto.com/december-ca…-download.html

This is the second time for a Team Hybrid car to be featured on Mishimoto’s site and in 2011, please keep an eye out for all the big things the custom gold-carbon fiber-widebody tC will be doing.

Congratulations to Team Hybrid’s Founder/President, James Lin’s 2011 Gold-Widebody-Carbon Fiber Scion tC for being featured and written about in www.Wraptivo.com blog.

For the exact link of the blog, please visit http://www.wraptivo.com/blog/james-l…ced-car-audio/

James Lin’s Scion tC Features Wraptivo Enhanced Car Audio
Posted on November 29, 2010 by Wraptivo Team

…The founder of Team Hybrid, James Lin incorporated Wraptivo’s carbon fiber vinyl wrap into the theme of his build as well. The great part is that James went a bit out of the box with his use of Wraptivo. Just how did he work the wrap into his car audio presentation? Watch the video by MotorworldHype.com below to find out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnw_mQVy21o