I want to drive a Scion FR-S for a week from Scion Hawaii!

Rick Nakama
@RickNakama on Twitter & Instagram
SCCA Member #445638 



I would like the opportunity to drive Scion Hawaii's FR-S for a week and these are some benefits that I could offer if selected:

• Valid Hawaii Driver's License since 1990.
• Automobile Insurance Policy covering 3 vehicles with comprehensive coverage.
• Kalani High School's Automotive Shop Class Representative in AAA/Plymouth Trouble Shooting Contest.
• 1991 State Finalist in AAA/Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest.
• 1993 Graduate of Honolulu Community College with Associate in Science Degree in Automotive Mechanics Technology (GPA of 3.7).
• A.S.E. (Automotive Service Excellence) Certified 1994-1999 in: Engine Repair, Suspension & Steering, Brakes, Electrical & Electronic Systems, and Engine Performance.
• Worked as a technician at Speedtek Racing (1994-1996) specializing in import vehicle performance tuning and fabrication of custom engine swaps and turbocharger systems.
• 1998-2000 managed AJ's Performance Motorsports, an automotive performance retail and tuning shop in Wailuku, Maui. Buyer for inventory, sales (retail & wholesale), installation of performance automotive parts, custom engine conversions, turbocharger installations, DynoJet dynamometer tuning service, aftermarket electronic engine control systems sales/installations/tuning, etc.
• Original dealer for Blitz USA products in Hawaii. Also specialized in importing of special "JDM" automotive products for JDM scene clientele. 
• Specialized in importing difficult to obtain JDM parts & accessories for Japanese automobiles sold in the USA.
• Some JDM Scene clientele's vehicles have won the JDM Class in multiple car shows and have also been featured in Super Street Magazine with my name mentioned in the spread:  http://www.superstreetonline.com/featuredvehicles/sstp_1107_1992_honda_civic_si/viewall.html.
• AJ's Performance Motosports shop owner/car/driver qualifies & wins $500 prize in 2001 Toyota IDRC Aloha Nationals competing against Kazu Yamaguchi:  http://www.turbomagazine.com/events/turp_0201_toyota_irdc_nationals_hawaii/.
• Rick Nakama (car) mentions in: D Sport Magazine, Super Street Magazine, VWVortex, Star Bulletin, Star Bulletin, Star Bulletin.
• Took 2nd in Toyota IDRC Aloha Nationals BF Goodrich Street Tires Class in my daily driven 1993 Nissan 240sx (says 1994, but it is a 1993 I owned it since 1994). 
• First to install imported Japanese S13 SR20DET motor in a 240sx in Hawaii (1998). Tuned to 382 RWHP on pump gas. I have used this car as a daily driver and won street car shoot out drag races at Hawaii Raceway Park, held records for fastest 240sx in the state for years, maintained rankings in SCCA autocross events, Hawaii Raceway Park lap sessions, Drift Sessions and most importantly set a trend in Hawaii revolving around the 240sx/Sylvia/S13 platform. (The 240sx is probably one of the most recognized rival cars of the classic Hachi Roku/AE86/Corolla GTS).  
• I am currently ranked 1st Place for this season at SCCA Solo in STF class in my stock 2005 Scion xA.
• I race with the number 186 at SCCA events.
• I am recognized in the top 15 Social Media Personalities by Technology News Bytes in the 2011 Social Media Summit:  http://www.tnblive.com/article/oct/2011/social-media-award-winners-announced. Active on Twitter as @RickNakama, Instagram as @RickNakama, Facebook and many other places on social media. My 15 week old puppy, Lola Red Bourbon, has a Klout Score of 41.
• I am a Realtor with East Oahu Realty and I have a Facebook Page for that. I also network with dozens of Realtors and industry professionals each month. My network is very diverse and does not only consist of car enthusiasts.
• I have posted a few Scion FR-S photos in my Instagram Feed that have had tremendous engagement.

Long story short, I am a true fan of the vehicle! I will be able to spread the love of the 2013 Scion FR-S around the island if given a week with the beautiful car! I definitely understand the heritage and have advanced expertise in the culture that made it's predecessor such an iconic vehicle. I would love to be offered a chance to drive the Scion FR-S for a week.

Thank you!

This is what I came up with in one morning. If I had a week's worth of experience with the car, I am sure I could do a lot more!

Drive Scion FR-S Contest

PS- If you think you should have a chance at this week with the FR-S, enter today! The entries are cut off at 11pm HST tonight! Information here: https://www.facebook.com/notes/scion-hawaii/scion-social-media-superstar-search/10150965411921784.

Like Scion Hawaii on Facebook: http://facebook.com/ScionHi.
Follow Scion Hawaii on Twitter: @ScionHI.

Went for a ride in a Tesla!

A couple days ago, @S4xton drove me around the block in a Tesla that he had.  This was my first experience in a fully electric street vehicle and it just so happened to be a Tesla.  How will I ever be satisfied when I finally decide to get a Nissan Leaf?  Hehehe.

Anyway, the torque was nice.  I was a little weird-ed out by the silent acceleration that this vehicle is capable of. While I may be used to feeling the type of power and acceleration that this car offer (it's been a while since I've been planted back in my seat while someone drove me around the block) it was sort of scary not hearing the roar of 400 horsepower blowing out of an 80mm exhaust pipe.  I guess I was concerned the other cars wouldn't hear us coming.

It was a great ride and I enjoyed it.  Even considering the majority of the time we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in the hot sun.

Here is a little video that I took.  It's not much, but it's what I got.






A few other friends also got to ride in the Tesla.

Here is a video that @RickyLi99 put together and posted.  http://www.vimeo.com/27481184

Here is a blog post about @TokiDote's experience in the green machine!  http://briandote.com/2011/08/09/bolt-of-lightning

Here is a youtube video of @Melissa808 screaming during her ride with @S4xton.

The First few weeks with my Google Nexus One

I anxiously waited the longly anticipated and rumored sales release date of the HTC Google Nexus One Android 2.1 phone. I first began reading about rumors of this phone coming out in late October and early November. It was torture waiting up to the rumored release date of January 5th to find out if it was really going to happen or not. I monitored the live blogs of people that were attending the special Google Android Press Release and within minutes of one blogger announcing the Google.com/phone link becoming active I placed my order! It was so exhilarating that it reminded me of the days I used to day trade over an unstable dial-up modem while watching CNN at 430AM! The plain cardboard box arrived overnight by the next afternoon. Just a little over 30 hours after I ordered it. Thank goodness it didn't come by 2 day air. The wait would have been intolerable! In a short description, I am really enjoying this phone. It works great overall. If you haven't already guessed, I returned the TomTom GPS as well as the Garmin unit. The Google Navigation on this phone out performs both of them with much better accuracy. I have had a few bugs that were resolved by powering off the phone and turning it back on. 1 strange issue is when I tried to make a call I could not hear anything and the person I was calling also could not hear anything. That was resolved by restarting the phone. I'm not sure what caused that. There are a few other strange things that others have reported and hopefully they resolve them with the firmware update. The phone does have a 5.0 Megapixel camera with led flash. This is one feature that is not up to par with my Nokia N82. The photos are as good. I'll post some up later or look at some of my recent Twitpics to see how they are. It's decent, but just not quite as good. Maybe this can be corrected with software update also. I don't think so. I still love this phone. PS- these photos were taken with my Nokia N82.

The Thunderbirds Air Show at Hickam AFB Honolulu

There's not much to say about it... it's one of those "you had to have been there..." things. Even photos or videos would not bring nearly the level of excitement one would receive standing there (in the the baking hot sun). I've been to quite a few air shows in my lifetime, but they were all shows that were in Hawaii. I last watched the Thunderbirds perform for the Waikiki area in 2007 and I've watched the Blue Angels perform several times. No matter how hot, dehydrating, humid, crowded, dusty and secured the events may be I still manage to go and enjoy the display. When anything is held on an air strip or air force base, you need to expect that there will be a lack of shade. <--Here is Solomish standing "solo" in the middle of baking hot pavement. Check out Solomish's photo blog here. Here I am -->trying to keep cool under the shelter of a helicopter. This is what a whole bunch of other people need to do if they want to find some shade. v*Below*v This is 1 day that I'm glad I need to bring my own things to eat with me (due to my diet). It was worth lugging around this hand carry bag full of water, a banana & some Fritos. I had it in my backpack, but hesitated bringing the backpack in because a "large backpack" would not be allowed into the show area. I didn't know what a large backpack's size actually was so I abandoned my backpack in my car and lugged this lovely bag around the whole afternoon. This man & his family obviously knew what size of a backpack would be acceptable... What ever the type of bag you were carrying your refreshments in, it was worth it to avoid the crowds at the refreshment tents. Check out some of my video clips below. This is a slideshow of some of the photos I took. Since I only take photos & video with my Nokia N82 mobile phone, I doubt they will be as good as any of these guys' photos (below), but at least I can slip my camera back in my pocket, send some emails, check out Facebook, Tweet or even make a phone call.

Awesome Cash for Clunkers value at Saturn of Honolulu...

Ok... we all heard about the "Cash for Clunkers" program that the U.S. Government is promoting. If not, read about it here http://cars.gov. Anyway, in the recent days there have been many news reports of the cash for clunkers program not being offered any longer due to the difficulties the dealerships are having getting reimbursed for the $3500 or $4500 promotion. This is definitely true. My parents' truck... <--- see that on the left??!!?? Ok, it wasn't always smashed up in the front like that. It did have the fender damage and also other damage on the back that isn't even significant enough to photograph compared to this. It's had the other damage for years, but the front end damage just occured a couple weeks ago amidst the cash for clunkers mayhem. Let me add, this 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Track has been a "Clunker for Cash" since 2001!!!!!!! My dad bought it and it was a brand new truck from Ford. There were all sorts of problems that I told him to see the dealer about to have repaired under the warranty. So many issues that I won't even bother listing them. After all, Ford has enough of a questionable reliability reputation as it is. (Sorry if you are a Ford fanatic.) I took my parents to visit a Nissan dealership on the afternoon of that front end damage because we were immediately looking to take advantage of this cash for clunkers program. After all, would you buy this Ford for $4500?? =P The Nissan dealership here had nothing appealing to my parents. We went home and they drove that Ford home at night with the smashed up headlights (they looked like original carriage/buggy headlamps with candles in them... hahaha). They didn't do anything about getting rid of the Ford for the past couple weeks so I visited them yesterday and we ended up heading to the dealerships again. We first stopped at the Subaru dealership to check out a Subaru Forrester, but the Subaru dealership made an executive decision to stop participating in the cash for clunkers program on Wednesday (the day before)! So we moved along to Saturn. I had suggested to my parents that we get that clunker over to Saturn because they were advertising a promotion of cash for clunkers where they will match another $3500 or $4500 to the government amount. Essentially doubling the cash for clunkers amount. I had calculated on the http://cars.gov website that if the 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Track was turned in for the purchase of the 2009 Saturn Vue 2.4L XE or XR they would receive a $4500 cash for clunker amount and Saturn of Honolulu would double that. That meant a whopping $9000 off the sticker price of a low-mid $20,000 vehicle. That's an awesome ratio!!! Well they took a few hours making our salesman, Mike Gomes, work very hard trying to sort out all the features in the inventory. Mike Gomes is great, he sold my dad my first car back in 1991. It was a 1991 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 5.8L. Mike had to stay beyond closing just to finish the transaction so that my parents could drive home in a new Saturn Vue with headlights because the Ford would have been driving home in the dark if we left w/out a new vehicle. His poor wife had to wait around at a shopping mall for Mike to pick her up. (sorry!) Here it is, the 2009 Saturn Vue. The sticker price is $24,650 plus the taxes and licensing fees. The end price is a few dollars over $17,000. Not bad... don't you think?? Anyway, Saturn of Honolulu says they are ending their cash for clunkers participation as of Monday August 24th because that's when the government advises them to end it. I don't think you should wait beyond today if you are thinking of going to Saturn. Who knows, they boss might decide to end it as of last night or tonight. Good luck!

Graphics for your Porche 911???

Oh my! Porcshe 911 Carrera.....
by Moris's alohastyle blog

Check out this crazy blog post of a 911 Porche my friend in Tokyo saw...

WestZero (Car Racing Project Update)

The above are the photos taken and posted by Endless Garage. These are a few photos that I took. The amount of work being done on my car is intense. I think my car has broken the priceless barrier making now even more impractical for me to ever sell it. It's going to be mine forever.

Got my new phone... Finally! Nokia N82.

After over a year of researching and holding out on spending money on another "powerful mobile phone", I finally broke down and ordered it a few weeks ago. I purchased my Nokia N82 in Black from Dell.com for an amazing price of $461 shipped to Honolulu. The phone is occasionally available locally in stores that carry unlocked phones, but the prices are outrageous! They advertise the prices from about $580-$650 and they do not come with any warranties! My Samsung SGH x820 has been a good phone for the past 2 years, but the "0" button finally went nuts. It wouldn't register when I pushed the "0". Anyway, my friend's classic Motorola Razor also "broke" a few weeks ago and he's been asking about phones. I recommended the Nokia N82 because I've done so much research on phones and this phone in particular that I knew it was the one I would buy. He shopped around and discovered it available at Dell.com for the great price. We ordered 2 at the same time. I couldn't resist. Now the price is $500! :) I'm pleased with the phone. The features and reviews are all over the web ->here<- so I won't do a full detailed review. I will occasionally post something neat or maybe something I don't like if I find something... Mostly will be the great photos this PHONE can capture. This is a photo I took without flash, auto setting, in medium resolution in the darkness of the night. Looks pretty good to me.

Briax soaps from New Zealand...

Briax Soaps... I met a nice and interesting couple from New Zealand at the Outrigger Reef Hotel the other night. They gave me a couple of bars of this Briax soap. 1 bar is labeled with the green sticker as a "work soap" and the 2nd is wrapped in the black labeled "bath soap". They both smell very good and contain special natural items that condition your skin as well as help cleanse it. The Work Soap is pumice based and also has honey, goat's milk and sunflower. It worked really well when I used it to clean up the thin-set from my hands after I worked on my kitchen floor tiles. The Seaweed Bathsoap is a "secret recipe" of seaweed and other natural ingredients. You can see and feel the small particles of seaweed in the bar. Of course, it smells great and it says it also promotes blood circulation and improves skin texture. Briax Industries can be found on the web here <-click. He also races classic cars which is why we got even more involved in conversation. His car racing website is here <-click.

Blue Angels Air Show in Hawaii

The Blue Angels Kaneohe Air Show Saturday was the 1st day for the Blue Angels Air Show. We started the morning off really early with a breakfast at Boots & Kimo in Kailua. We got to Kaneohe Marine Base about 945am. There were lots of other cars driving in at that time. It took about 30 minutes to get to the area where we were to park. That photo up top is probably the most dramatic photo I was able to capture, considering all I use is my cell phone. They simulated an air extraction followed by a bombing of the area. That was quite a blast!! As you can see, the explosion was huge and the heat wave was felt about 5 seconds after the blast. Amazing! I took many photos and video clips. I thought I would have had some good video clips, but I failed to check my settings!! My phone was set to video without sound!! Those videos look ok, but without sound they are not very exciting! Anyway, since they don't have sound, I didn't bother rushing to host them up on the web. Click here to see all my pictures. I'll post a video up shortly... Oh by the way, it took us 2 hours to get out of the parking lot from the area we parked!! That was crazy!