Mello's Garage • VIP Style Cars • Lexus LS400

VegasVIPGarage Server Maintenance

QS — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:17:51 +0000

Aug 1 2009: The VegasVIPGarage.com server is undergoing some maintenance and upgrades.

Please enjoy VIP Style Car posts from our archive and check back soon!

VegasVIPGarage

MELLOS VIP GARAGE IS MOVING!

QS — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:37:21 +0000

Hello VIP enthusiasts!

Mello’s VIP Garage Blog is moving servers and changing names…

Our new address: http://VegasVIPGarage.com

Our new name: Vegas VIP Garage

The new server is awesome, no more limitations from wordpress.com! Stop by the new page and leave us a comment!

UCF20 Kouki – LED Tail Lights

QS — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:53:57 +0000

I’m on a mission to acquire a set of quality LED/Clear tail lights for my LS400/ucf20 Kouki (98-00 model). You would not believe how RARE these lights are! After a year of searching, I think I’ve finally found what I’m looking for. Of course they are only available in Japan, and of course none of the retailers I’ve found want to ship overseas… However, I have a plan. And these lights WILL be on my car soon……

The elusive Ucf20 LS400 LED Clear Tail Lights!!

Elly Shee – Sexy Asian Girl Photos – Part 2

QS — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:42:53 +0000

Okay Elly Shee is bangin hot, and interestly enough my original post with the Elly Shee pictures is one of the all time most-read posts on this blog! …This VIP blog… about VIP cars… and VIP Style… The most read post is the one with pictures of some hot asian model?!…

Alright, well here’s another Elly Shee photo post since you obviously can’t get enough of this girl! Enjoy!

Photos are courtesy of Pixacom.com via the Escoben blog

Carmake Rasty – Toyota Crown Drift

QS — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:34:58 +0000

Toyota Crowns are a staple of the VIP community. The body lines, headlights and grill look very similar to the LS400, so there’s lots of aero, suspension and VIP goodies available. Also, they are powered by the famous 1JZ engine, which leaves the door open to some interesting possibilities… I recently stumbled across a posting on the Noriyaro blog recently about this Toyota Crown drift car from Carmake Rasty. Take a look at this monster!

Decent looking Crown, right?

Prepare for total VIP/Drift crossover in 5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Crown drift 2

1JZ Turbo motor

Rasty Crown Drift 1

Crown drift 4

I love it. The last picture is especially gangster — nothing like 3 wheeling at full lock in a VIP/drift car!

If you’re into drifting and japanese car life you’ll probably really enjoy the Noriyaro blog, stop by and check it out!

New toy for my LS400 ucf20: Air Zenith OB2 air compressor

QS — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:41:05 +0000

Air Zenith OB2 air compressor

My Airrunner/ACC compressor (which is really made by Firestone for the load-levelling air spring kits) started going out the other day. I noticed it was slowly leaking air, from the tank, through the feed hose, and out from the compressor ‘inlet’ port. I assume the internal check valve bit the dust.. Vegas heat, vibration, age and a suboptimal air system probably all helped lead to it’s demise.

After doing some research, I decided to replace my ailing compressor with a new unit from Air-Zenith, their OB2 model. Lucky for me, Air-Zenith is actually based out of Las Vegas. Their main office is about 20 minutes from Mellos VIP garage! I stopped by and chatted with Manager Paul Chen and picked up this black-flaked-painted whopper of a compressor. The specs on the unit? 200PSI @ 100% duty cycle. About a foot long and 6 inches tall, must weigh a good 20 pounds at least! The wiring is very beefy, all the ends are terminated properly and the wires themselves are surrounded by thick protective shielding and heat-shrink at the terminals. The unit has a built in fan to help keep the unit cool (ever grabbed your compressor mid-tank fill? Bet you never do that again!!). The internal pump piston is completely rebuildable, and the unit features a remote mountable inlet filter. The product packaging was excellent as well! If first impressions mean anything, I have very high expectations for this unit.

I did a basic install in my LS400 to get the car back on the road, although I’m planning to completely revise the setup in the near future (Can you say, ELECTRIC VALVES?). In a few days I’ll put up a more detailed post with lots of photos for you to check out!

Fabulous announces Lexus LS430 LED tail lights

QS — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:23:07 +0000

Fabulous finally got around to releasing a “red and clear” LED tail light kit today for the early model Celsior 30 (aka 2001-2004 Lexus LS430). All I know is that the lights cost about $400 from Fabulous japan webstore. The only real pic I could find was of the lights themselves, nothing actually on the car:

Fabulous UCF30 LED tail lights

Great news for UCF30 owners, but where’s the UCF20 Kouki LED tails?!

Speedhunters coverage of TAS 2009

QS — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:56:22 +0000

Better late than never, right? Here’s the Speedhunters gallery of VIP Cars @ Tokyo Auto Salon 2009. My bad, this was an older post that was never published, hehe… Enjoy

Sessions Platinum VIP Car Show

QS — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:12:42 +0000

Repost from the Aimgain Blog of a recent VIP car show. Tons of UCF30 first gens!

(Non-VIP) self teaching Katakana part 1

QS — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:14:54 +0000

Quick update..

I love learning new, useful things. The other day I decided I would teach myself Katakana, so I can make sense of at least a few of the details in my VIP Car, VIP Style and Drift Tengoku magazines… Not to mention the countless Japanese VIP websites and blogs I visit. The Katakana characters themselves are fairly easy to learn, but putting them together and deciphering/translating the words can be time consuming. I made some flash cards (wow been quite a while since I did THAT!) and started tearing into my old magazines and VIP websites with a new passion… Mumbling to myself while reading.. “guh.. guh-aｈ… guhan-ku… guhanku-shi.. guhankushi-yon… JUNCTION! … Pu..pu-ro… puro-de..purode-you…purodeyousu.. JUNCTION PRODUCE!”

Hopefully I can pick up enough new vocabulary to update the other “japanese terms” post I have… Here’s a few random words that I was able to decipher, and also type/write! (use the IME support in vista to type in Katakana!)

オイル : “OH-EE-RU” -> “OI-RU” = “OIL”

タイヤ : ” TA-EE-YA” -> “TAI-YA” = “TIRE”

ホイール : “HO-EE-EE-RU” -> “HUI-RU” = “WHEEL”

サスペンシヨン : “SA-SU-PE-N-SHI-YO-N” = “SUSPENSION”

ジアンクシヨンプロデユース: Junction Produce!

If anyone has any nice web resources I should know about that discuss learning Katakana, please leave a comment. I use/love the Rikaichan plugin for Firefox to do most of my translation online, but I don’t want to always rely on it (browsing at work, reading magazines, etc)