I didnt have the benefit of going to a high school where the untapped potential of import cars was valued by its population of students. The hot cars at my school were the Ford Mustang and Chevy IROC Z or Z28. Being the type to cheer for the underdog, I never really liked either car. It was too easy. Running high 14 second (low 15 second) quarter miles out of the box, there was no challenge to making it faster. Install a pully kit or a set of Dynomax mufflers and you’d probably pick up 5/10ths in the quarter mile. Besides, the Mustang and IROC were never really great looking cars.. they just had the traditional muscle car stance and look to them.

So my friend (Ed) and I would read about all the Japanese imports that we could (remember, there was no internet at this time, yeah, I’m that old). I’d buy Car and Driver, Road and Track, and if I could find it, Turbo & Hi-Tech Performance magazine. The latter two provided us with an idea of where to start. For me, that starting point was the FC3S Mazda RX-7 Turbo II. For Ed, it was the Mitsubishi Starion. But that’s where Car and Driver and Road and Track ceased to be useful. Aside from their published “bone stock” quarter miles and 0-60s, they didn’t offer the evolutionary step into the world of import performance. There were no import “speed shops” like there were muscle car speed shops. There were not even that many owners of modified import cars, much less owners in general. Turbo & Hi-Tech Performance magazine offered a glimpse into the technology behind modifying cars with (relatively) advanced fuel injection systems and turbochargers.

Back then, Turbo & Hi-Tech Magazine was quarterly. It was published by Kipp Kington in Huntington Beach, California. I could never find it at any store except for the Crown Books store in the Laguna Hills Mall. I’d anxiously await the day when it would show up on the store shelf. I recall it would cost $4.95 (and this was at a time when Car and Driver was $2.95). It was a steep price to pay, but it was well worth it.

I credit the magazine for many things.. such as introducing me to HKS Performance Products and an article about high-flow air filters that I quoted from for many many years after that (a clean K&N outflowed paper and foam elements.. and if I recall correctly, a dirty K&N still outflowed foam, but not a new paper element.. however, the shocker was a cleaned K&N, one cleaned using their cleaning kit, would never flow as well as a new K&N filter). It introduced me to the fear of pulling up next to a Buick Grand National/GNX at a stop light. And it also opened my eyes to just how fast a nitrous fed Ford Mustang 5.0 liter was. It ultimately inspired me to work on my own car and to seek out the infamous street races in Hacienda Heights, Compton, and Gardena.

In the past few years, Turbo & Hi-Tech Performance became a news stand pamphlet. The last time I picked one up, it was probably about 50 pages (in its prime, it was about 150 pages). The covers were always uninspiring and they never gave me the same sense of excitement that I used to feel when I bought them in high school. Nevertheless, its sad to see it go.

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If you need a backup copy, leave me a comment with your email address and I’ll get back to you.

We’ve had our 2003 Honda Pilot since it was new. We bought it December or 2002 from Gardena Honda (which sucks, by the way). I really wanted an Acura MDX, but since they were essentially overpriced Honda Pilots, I couldnt bring myself to part with the money. Instead, we opted for a fully-loaded Honda Pilot. It was our first experience with GPS navigation.

I find that I love to use it. Even if I don’t need it, I have to hit the ‘OK’ button and when I get a chance, I often find myself watching the little red arrow navigate around the line drawings of the map. I’m always looking for opportunities to use it. Call me a geek, but for $2500 or whatever it costs, I’m going to use it as much as possible.

Anyhow, through the years, our maps on the navi DVD have gotten old. If you live in an older, more developed part of the country, its probably fine and you could probably continue using the same map from 5 years ago. However, since I live in Orange County, CA (closer to the southern end), new roads and housing developments were popping up every year. Its actually pretty frustrating to look for a non-existent address, knowing you paid $2500 for a GPS based navigation system that you can’t use.

I had often looked into purchasing the DVD from Alpine/Acura/Honda, but couldn’t bring myself to part with the cash. Each time I’d convince myself that I didn’t really need it. In more recent times, I convinced myself that it would be OK to even use my portable GPS in the car in those times when I knew we would be heading to “uncharted” territory.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend bought the new navi DVD for his Nissan Armada. I didnt think it was worth it since his navi DVD was only 2 years old. But to my surprise, it had maps for many areas that always bothered me about my 5 year old navigation DVD maps. Not only that, but the points-of-interests (POIs) were all updated too. Now you could actually find stores, restaurants, etc that were built in the past few years. So I finally broke down and did it. I bought the Acura/Honda Navigation DVD v2.50 (my original DVD was v2.05b). This is the infamous BLACK DVD. Honda thought it would be cool to color code their DVDs.. so there’s Orange, Blue, and White. Unfortunately for me, the black navigation DVD was only used over a span of about 4 years, starting in 2002 in some Acuras and ending in 2005 in the Honda Pilot (I think the Odyssey even got the Blue DVD in 2005).

If you’re looking for a comprehensive review or to find out if the street you live on in Kansas is in this update, I’m sorry for making you read this far before telling you that it ain’t gonna happen. What I will tell you, however, is that the maps are much more detailed. At the normal zoom level (2nd from the closest zoom), there are more street names that appear on the screen. I think at that zoom level, you also see more street level detail. I also noticed you see much more “green”. Large roads are more detailed in that it shows the left side and right side of the street (shown as 2 parallel lines). The navigation unit also responds much faster. Let me say that again THE NAVIGATION UNIT RESPONDS MUCH FASTER. If you don’t need the maps, thats great, but everyone needs the damn firmware update. Too bad Alpine/Acura/Honda makes you spend $180+shipping to get it.

All in all, I find it to be a worthwhile upgrade. In fact, after using it this evening, I couldnt help but to wonder why I didnt buy it sooner. If Acura/Honda were better about explaining the differences, I probably would have.

You “computer types” will also be happy to know that upon receiving my new Acura/Honda Navigation DVD v2.50, the first thing I did was to make a backup. I have my original stored in a safe place and the back-up DVD is working fine in my navigation unit. If you need help backing-up your Acura/Honda Navigation DVD, drop me a comment here with your email (email addresses aren’t shown to the public) and I’ll get back to you. If you have specific questions related to the Acura/Honda Navigation DVD v2.50 (Black), then drop me a comment and I’ll try to test it out for you.

I’m doing this because I couldnt find the damn info myself and I know how much that sucks.

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I just happened to see this in my Google search results and figured it would be good to know if you’re a drifting fan.. but Speed will start broadcasting the 2008 Formula Drift season beginning October 26, 2008. Here’s the complete schedule:

Oct. 26, Streets of Long Beach, Long Beach, Calif., 4 p.m.
Nov. 2, Feel the Heat Braselton, Ga. 4 p.m.
Nov. 9, The Gauntlet, Englishtown, N.J., 4 p.m.
Nov. 16, High Stakes, Las Vegas, Nev., 4 p.m.
Nov. 23, Breaking Point, Monroe, Wash., 4 p.m.
Dec. 7, Locked and Loaded, Sonoma, Calif., 4 p.m.
Dec. 14, Final Fight, Irwindale, Calif., 4 p.m.
Dec. 21 World Drifting Championships, Long Beach, Calif., 4 p.m.

I’m pretty sure I should be clearly visible in the December 14th broadcast, at which time I will be famous.

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