They say that time flies while you’re having fun, and while this Summer has gone by faster than any year in the past, it was certainly the most eventful and inspiring one as well. I think this same sentiment goes for the rest of the team.
After months of enjoying everyone else’s cool cars and seeing what other teams have built, we have been itching for a chance to do it ourselves. That’s why when Keith let us know about this beautiful, brown MX73 Cressida that had popped up, we knew that we had to jump on the opportunity.
It didn’t run at first, it leaked, it was (is) stinky, and it hadn’t been driven in almost 20 years. However, we knew it was an absolute diamond in the rough and just needed a little bit of love. Replacing the starter was all we needed to get the car running, and refilling the transmission fluid got the car driving as well. The transmission was leaking due to a bad seal but, with the help of our friend Milo, we changed it out and the car runs like a dream (if you dream of driving a Japanese couch from the 80’s).
The potential for where we will take our first team car is boundless, which is extremely exciting and slightly intimidating. With all of the inspiration we’ve gathered, especially in the past year, I’m really looking forward to creating something cool. The creative direction for the car is still being envisioned, but in the meantime, I’ll be using this as my daily driver and taking care of our Sweet Georgia Brown. Even from the day we picked the car up two weeks ago, just giving it a bath and cleaning it up a bit has done wonders. There are still a few little things to work out, which is expected for an almost 40-year-old vehicle, but I don’t think we could have hoped for a better, or browner, car.
Changing gears a bit; last year at the Pop-Up shop we gave Mikhail a set of mesh wheels so he could say goodbye to running the massive, replica wheels that his seventeen-year-old self cursed his current-day self with by ordering. His plans for the car have evolved a bit since then and he decided to stay with four lug but has not yet finalized what exactly he wants to get for the car (our vote is for wide, silver, 15″ Watanabes).
We wanted to include our humble discord moderator’s car (join the discord here: / discord ) in the main lot at the Pop-Up shop this year, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to do it until we got him some new wheels.
Thankfully, our man Stefan generously offered to lend Mikhail a pair of Work Equip 01 for the front and a pair of SSR Mark 3 for the rear. We took the S13 out to Stefan’s place, dumped the coilovers and fitted up the new wheels. We made sure to get a few pictures afterwards as well, and now, it’s Pop-Up Shop III ready!
If you’re around the Vancouver, BC area, or willing to make a trip, we recently announced that we will be hosting our Pop-Up Shop III on August 26 this year!
For more information visit the event page here: e/fuxGEHcO4
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Visit our website: checkpointjapan.com/
Shop now: bit.ly/3D7k8cd
Join us on Discord: / discord
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Enjoy!
(Professional drivers on a closed course, do not attempt.)