Have you ever found yourself caught up in your own dream, trying to control the outcome, but it never really comes to life? Try as you might, something disturbs your dream, a dog barking, your girl stealing the blanket from you or your car getting jacked right out from under you? Huh?! Hey, this is not your dream getting semi-squashed, but that of our friend Jay Friedman. Jay's been in the scene for a while and had a Honda Civic a few years back; nothing too fancy, but something decent that his boys could appreciate while cruising around. Well, the unspeakable happened, the car was stolen and Jay went out and got himself a new ride. In this case, it's the cool Accord that you see here. Sure, it started out with some nice rims, but then Jay went loco six months after he had bought his Accord.
Jay had his buddy Jason cut out the roof of the sedan and drop in a sky-swallowing ragtop. From there, work progressed to the engine with performance mods. In '99, Jay graduated from the University of Nevada and went west to California. After several incarnations, the Accord ripened to this "Orange Attraction" with the intent on being a bad on the boulevard Euro cruiser. Although the dream became a bit nightmarish for Jay, it seemed that turning a negative into a positive was just the twist that Jay had to do to get it done. The dream included a few key people. Jay says, "I would like to mention that without the support of my wife, Christina, my friends from Showtime Customs, and all of my sponsors who helped me out, there is no way my Accord would have ever made it up to the level."
Vitals:
Owner: Jay Friedman
Vehicle: '97 Honda Accord
City/State: Lakewood, California
Club: Showtime Customs
Performance:
Stock 4-cycle, 16-valve engine outfitted with a Hyame cam gear, AEM fuel rail and B&M fuel pressure regulator, polished Injen air intake, DC Sports 4-2-1 exhaust header and DC Sports catback exhaust system. Ignition upgrade includes MSD wires and an Optima battery. Jay dressed up the engine using a Show Boltz kit, Hose Techniques kit, Nokya dress-up kit and a Clutch Masters Stage II clutch.
Audio/Video:
Fred Calindas of FCC Technologies in Glendale, California, wired the system using Monster Cable, fuses and distributor blocks. The main components in Jay's audio arsenal are an Alpine head unit, MA Audio 6.5-inch midrange speakers up front, 6x9s in the rear, MA Audio four-channel amp (MA754HX), two-channel (MA4082HX), Base Driver, electronic EQ, two capacitors and three 12-inch subwoofers.
Paint and Body Mods:
Body Pros in Garden Grove, California, shaved the handles and body moldings, and installed an Alter Image license box, M3 (BMW)-style mirrors, 35x40-inch Street Beat sliding ragtop, Kaminari body kit and grille assembly. The superb paint job was handled by Derek Teklak who used PPG toner orange with a custom pearl mixture and House of Kolor gold to cover the car, which includes the jambs, trunk and engine bay. He also used crushed glass for that extra sparkle and plenty of clear for mucho depth. Even the light assembles, provided by Tenzo Racing Sports, were covered in candy orange to match the Accord. Custom decal work was done up by Robert and company over at Modern Image Signworks in Huntington Beach, California.
Interior:
Apollo Auto Trim Works in Alhambra, California, jazzed up the inside of Jay's cabin by using a combo of dark gray and light gray suede, gray perforated leather and bright orange vinyl. All three colors found their way on the Tenzo Type-R seats and along the major interior panels. Other particulars include a Sparco steering wheel, four-point Sparco (seat) harnesses, Tenzo shift knob and parking brake handle, OBX pedals and Tora Sport carbon fiber dash kit to spice things up.
Rims and Rubber:
Dazz Maido MD-1 19x8 wheels and Toyo Proxes T1S P225/35-ZR19 mounted and balanced by Savas Tires in Bell, California.
Suspension:
Jay had Master Image Customs (MIC) of Placentia, California, hook up an air ride system using 10 switches, two air compressors, 5-gallon reservoir and Parker air cylinders. Stopping power comes into play with cross-drilled and slotted Power Slot discs and Advanced Engine Management (AEM) brake pads.