Exterior Fantasy: Lexus GS (Part 1)

It looks like the fans of individual car styling will never be satisfied with wide range of variations and rich diversity of modifications offered by official car dealers. Neither will such individuals be pleased with wide selections of interior decoration and stylish exterior solutions offered by representatives of such premium brands as Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Lexus.

Our today’s topic is exactly about such a car: the Lexus GS 350 depicted in the photos. The “earthly” life of this Lexus began on 11 April 2003, when it was given an identification number and came out of the gates of the native plant in Japan.
The car was almost immediately sent to an official dealer in Canada, where it had already been farsightedly reserved for a specific buyer. Initially, this exemplar was painted in a pearly white color with a factory code number 007. Later, after two years of operation, the owner decided to sell the car. For that purpose, he turned to “Reynolds & Reynolds”, the most popular dealer of used cars in Canada, which sold the car quite quickly.
In the spring of 2015, this Lexus was already in Armenia. When purchasing this car, the young man had already prepared himself for a deep re-styling of the exterior.
To be continued…

The Magic Altezza (Part 2)

The shaved body and super audio system, which is fully customized to take the previous owner’s fancy, are also among the tuning elements.
The appearance of such a car in Yerevan was like an explosion for the local fan club of Toyota Altezza. On this significant occasion, there was organized a gathering of owners of tuned Altezzas, and the coolest one was unanimously recognized this instance.

A few months later, this Toyota Altezza changed its owner. By that time, it was repainted in matt red color with addition of black, in order to create imitation of a panoramic roof. The new owner turned out to be a creative person, who decided to indulge his fantasies, by customizing the car once again. He turned to the guys from “Hot Road Garage Armenia” restoration workshop with the objective to change the body color and make some modifications to the suspension. At first, the guys put the car back on the original chassis and deprived it of the air suspension.

The interior was partially restored to the factory condition: the dashboard was changed, but, for the convenience of the driver, they did not touch the sport seats. The design of the front and rear bumpers was also changed. From the point of view of controllability, the car received more appropriate wheel rims. Eventually, the body was treated and repainted in dark blue metallic. The black elements remained untouched.

As a result, we have a very interesting car, which managed to retain its individuality, beauty and uniqueness. At the same time, we have a car with huge sporting potential.

The Magic Altezza (Part 1)

The Toyota Altezza is highly appreciated not only by amateur drifters, but also professional representatives of this extreme sport. In the United States and Europe this car is known as the Lexus IS of the first generation and only experts in JDM culture are aware that in Japan this car is sold under the brand name of Toyota. The brand name, however, is not the sole distinguishing feature of the cars and technically these two are quite different vehicles.

During the years of the sale, the Altezza was offered with a large selection of power units, but mainly with mechanical transmission. Distinguished for its sporty behavior, the most notable engine is the 3S-GE. In this article, I will introduce an Altezza exactly with this engine.
So, what’s the “magic” of the 3S-GE?
The truth of the matter is that the engineers of Toyota collaborated with specialists from Yamaha when developing this 2.0L 4-cylinder in-line engine. That’s why this engine turned to be so revving, powerful, and roars like a motorcycle. This car is equipped with a Yamaha engine paired with 6-speed manual transmission. It was released in June 1999 and came out from the plant in white color.

Unfortunately, we don’t know anything about the tuning chronology and how many owners has had this car. The fact is, at the sale in a Japanese auction in September 2015, this Altezza had already undergone serious tuning and the body had a two-tone golden purple color. The original lot executed in a gangster style was sold to a client from Armenia. In January 2016, the car was already in Yerevan. A detailed inspection showed that the car has a modified suspension with controlled pneumatic elements.
To be continued...

Emka : The GAZ M1 (Part 2)

By that time, the taxi fleet of Yerevan had  been so much updated, that the old “Emka” looked rather archaic on the background of the GAZ M20 and GAZ 21; and besides, its 4-cylinder 50 HP flat-head engine was no longer able to meet Vanik’s expectations. Over the next few years, the car was constantly breaking down, which led to its complete unfitness. As a result, it was dismantled and the remains of the body were consigned to oblivion.

Many years later, in 2003, the remains of the car were discovered by Araik Hunanyan, a famous master known for his restorations of soviet cars of the prewar period. Araik reached an agreement to purchase the car, and got down to restoration soon after.
Since there was nothing left from the original image of the car, at primary stage of the restoration, it was decided to assemble a custom-version, without strong external differences from the original version, but with powerful “stuffing”
The car of 1938 production was destitute of the body number. During the restoration process, the car lost the registration number either. It received an engine from the GAZ-21, which did not prevent the master from having the vehicle registered at the traffic police, after which the car received a new certificate of registration. After few years of hard work, the car was finally able to leave the territory of the garage. Araik proved that it’s quite real to assemble a masterpiece from a pile of rotten scrap metal.