RACE INSPIRED VIP
Bippu style is typically applied to earlier generation Japanese luxury
cars. Race Inspired hooks up the latest GS from Lexus.
Owner/Builder: Binh Tran
Car: 2006 Lexus GS300
These days, import-related performance shops are sprinkled throughout just about
every state, supplying enthusiasts with everything from off-the-shelf bolt-ons,
to custom fabrication and fully-built race cars. Binh Tran of Rosemead, California,
sensed that enthusiasts in his neck of the woods weren’t finding exactly
what they needed, and decided to step up to the plate, offering an alternative
to the masses. Once established, his next order of business involved putting together
a project car that would turn heads and raise eyebrows, showing what his shop
is capable of. Read along as Binh opens up about his shop, and his sleek black
new-body VIP ride.
Binh, tell us a little about yourself and the daily grind.
Well, I’m Binh Tran, 26 years old, out of Rosemead, CA, and I handle the
sales and marketing at Race Inspired. We’ve been around for about four years
now; we carry high end brands like APEXi, Invidia, HKS, Tanabe, Greddy, as well
as many others.
What was your motivation for opening the shop, and what do you specialize
in?
Well, a few years ago, we were looking around and didn’t see very many places
selling true performance parts. It seemed like everybody was offering appearance
parts like corner lights, accessories, some JDM parts here and there, and of course
the knockoffs. Looking at the market at that time, we thought we could do a much
better job, and offer the average sport compact fan a focused selection of performance
parts that we actually have in stock, and can deliver. So that’s how we
got started. It’s like we always say, all performance, all the time!
On an average day, what type of client typically walks through your shop’s
door?
Most of our customers know quite a bit about cars. They aren’t the “all
show–no go” type. Maybe they’ll pick up some wheels, or some
carbon fiber parts for aesthetics, but the majority are more into actually boosting
power and improving performance first, with showing off the looks second. Some
of our clients are very serious about performance, and they don’t hesitate
putting down a few thousand dollars for a turbo upgrade, or a quality coilover
kit.
Would you consider this a dream job, or just something that pays the bills?
Personally I see it as being a dream job. It’s nice to be able to wake up
every morning knowing that I’m going to be working around what I love, and
keeping up with something I have a passion for; it’s a great feeling.
I’m going to assume this isn’t your first project.
As a shop project car, this Lexus is officially our first. But individually, we’ve
worked on our own cars quite a bit. Mainly older cars like the EF9 Civic and ’92
Integra GSRs. Also, we’ve spent some time working on sportbikes as well,
like the Yamaha R6 and Suzuki GSXR 750, which we produce all-carbon-fiber body
panels for.
With Hondas and sportbikes in your past, what made you jump over to Lexus?
We loved the body style, also the fact that it’s a brand new model from
Lexus—not many have seen these modified. We figure it’s something
new and different from the many WRXs, Evos, and RSXs out there. Nothing against
those cars, because we actually own and cater to some of them, but we wanted something
brand new as our project car and
VIP is something we wanted to touch on.
For the average onlooker, the car is just wheels and a drop, but to those
in the know, there’s quite a bit added to the exterior. Go ahead and rip
it apart for us.
We really liked the Junction Produce products that were offered for this body
style, and we started with their front lip, added a hood spoiler and rear roof
spoiler, and their 3-piece wing. We also went to Junction Produce for the wheels,
which are 19x8 in front and 19x9 in the rear, wrapped in Falken Tires. We smoked
the rear taillights, and added a front bumper camera from Audiovox. That’s
pretty much it: clean, simple, and everything fits like it should, almost like
factory parts, but nicer.
One thing you can’t help but notice about this car, it gets low, real low!
Haha, yeah, we added the AirRunner suspension system so the car could be raised
and lowered from the cabin, and it offers a very smooth ride, like stock. Convenience
and comfort—you can’t beat it.
With the exterior and suspension finished up, and your stake in the performance
game, I can only imagine the changes that will happen under the hood.
Oh yeah! Being known for performance, we can’t just settle on looking good.
So far, we’ve added the Blitz cat-back exhaust system, and I just put in
the Fujita intake, but soon we’ll be getting serious under the hood. It’s
a little tough to find parts for this brand new model, but that’s what makes
it fun. When we’re the first to hunt down those hard to-find parts and make
things happen, it’ll be that much sweeter. We might even do a custom turbo
kit.
That’s what we like to hear, more power never hurts. Now let’s
get into the interior; tell us what you were trying to accomplish with the dress-up
and audio/visual.
With the interior, we tried to keep it very simple and clean to compliment the
outside, keeping with the VIP theme. In the rear headrests, we added two Audiovox
monitors to work with the DVD set up. In between those, on the roof, we have an
8-inch folddown screen from Audiovox, as well as a rear view monitor with built-in
compass and temperature reading. Out back, in the trunk, there’s five LCM700
Audiovox 7-inch monitors sitting above the two DVC Audiovox 10-inch subwoofers.
Powering everything is a 1,000-watt JPA 1000D two-channel amp, and a four-channel
JPA460 amp.
Now you’re talkin’ my language; I’ve got a Kraco pull-out
cassette player with auto-reverse and a set of 12-inch tweeters in my Neon; the
ladies don’t know what hit ’em.
That’s sad.
But enough about me! We know your roommate Kelvin Tohar also owns a VIP-inspired
Lexus; how competitive are you guys now that you both have these projects underway?
I hate to disappoint, but we don’t really compete with each other at all.
His car is a different generation of Lexus so I’d like to think of it more
as a combo. Between his and this one, we’ve got the VIP Lexus market covered!
Thanks Binh for sharing your project Lexus with us, we like where it’s
headed. Now you get to mention some friends’ names so they don’t put
you in a headlock for not giving them props.
Oh yeah, I’ve gotta give a shout out to: Henry at MP Motorsports in Las
Vegas, Rob at Rush Design for the custom trunk work, also in Vegas. All our staff
members at Race Inspired. Kelvin at Falken Tires, Shin at Air Runner, Jason at
Blitz, Randy and Tin at Ranz Motorsports for the great paint job and body work,
RT at Fujita Air, Jeremy and
all the staff members at Audiovox.
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