There’s been some talk going around about me building another car. About a race car to represent the brand and showcase another outlook in the industry, well, it’s true and as much as I love creating photos and being a spectator at every event I attend, it still kills me inside to not be behind the wheel like most of you, doing what I also love and have been for so long. But to kick off this series with what I have planned, it’s very important for me and the staff to show you what I have in mind, and what better way to give back to our fans by involving you all along the way.

It’s been almost 5 years since I’ve actually been behind a car of my own and chasing times around the track. Back in 2010 before I started Motolyric I was an active Driver with my Honda S2000 and I attended many Speed Ventures events because I wanted to stay off the streets. It seemed fitting and much more rewarding for me, since coming from a street racing background, and I’ve had my share of illegal street racing on known spots like Roxford Sylmar, Saticoy and Ontario to name a few. Definitely one of the most addicting habits I’ve ever known to live and almost die by, it was an addiction of speed so difficult to stay off of especially on the streets. This all happened in the late 90’s and eventually I racked up too many tickets, fines, and worst of all losing a friend in a Street Race Crash. Back then I had several cars from a Honda Civic, a 84 Fox Body Ford Mustang coupe, to a 88 Toyota Celica All-Trac Turbo which was my favorite street car. I was also currently building a 80 Toyota Pickup with a Boosted Ford 302. But it was the Celica that was my long lasting weapon of choice, a sheep in wolf’s clothing I would say, this car was unknown in the scene, and hardly anyone knew the difference between a Regular 88 Celica FWD and a 88 Celica AWD Turbo. You may be scratching your head and saying what Celica, so to not lose track here and go deeper into another historical story behind these cars, Toyota Team Europe Dominated the Rally Arena with about 50 Plus 1st place podiums and with 3 generations of the Celica AWD Turbo aka GT-FOUR or by the Chassis ST165, ST185, and ST205. Now back to my street racing days I was also fond of this car as it was owned by a Co-owner of Toysport. A High Performance Speed Shop of nothing but Toyota’s and specializing in the performance market of it all. Now, since they made only a handful of these Sheep and even till this day finding one will most likely take some time. This car moved, drop the clutch at the right boost and flip, boom it took off. The jump you can make from the dig on this car was crazy, but AWD rides have a reputation of having no top end, so you better hope whoever you were racing couldn’t react fast enough or didn’t have the top end enough to catch you.

Fast forward to 2000 after selling the Celica All-Trac and going through several cars, including a Porsche 930 Turbo that was built to IMSA Specs I ran out of money and sold the Porsche’s along with my 76 Blazer to buy a modern sports car. I was leaning towards the German side and the BMW M Coupe was really attractive, and the Porsche Boxster S. Seeing that the price range for used ones were comparable and within my price range I test drove and searched for months. Somewhat satisfied with the torque feel of the M Coupe and the neutral driving nature of the Boxster S I was set on getting the M Coupe. It was different, and the driver ergonomics suited my height, but when curiosity kicked in one afternoon when I was browsing the Recycler Classifieds (A Los Angeles Based Classifieds only newspaper) I came across a few Honda S2000’s. Now keep in mind, I was never a convertible person and this was one of the reasons why I considered the M-Coupe over the Boxster S, the S2000 was of course a convertible with no Hardtop Options yet at the time. I somehow convinced myself it was the only thing I could dislike about it compared to everything else I like about the Honda S2000.
Well, I had nothing to do so, it didn’t hurt to call the guy up for a test drive and see what this little Honda could do. If you have ever driven a Honda S2000 stock you’ll understand what I mean, and it doesn’t disappoint. Now this was almost 15 years ago and driving this car for the first time was like “Wow”, shift after shift felt as if they took there Formula 1 Transmission and threw it in here. The comfort level was a tight, rigid very close quarter feel and the rise of the middle console over the transmission tunnel was like a Dodge Viper, another simple feature I admire in most sports-cars. Already smiling and totally not expecting such an effect this car had on me, I was driving it faster than the speed limit to really get a feel and it was downright the Best Driver to Car feeling to date I have ever experienced. I decided without hesitation that this Black Honda S2000 would be the choice.
To be conintued….. -Rommel Estrada