Uprise KA-T Kouki S14

Ings +1 is a hugely slept on kouki kit. For a while I was considering trying to match the skirts and rear with a front for my zenki to capture some of that magic

Then I wanted a little more. Usdm Kouki is a vibe at times but I really wanted a full kit. As most people probably do, I went through thousands of s14 photos until I decided on one. I wanted something that I felt looked cool but was also not commonly seen. When I saw this specific photo I knew I had to order an Ings +1 kit.

Mocked up the kit along with a Uras grill I got for 20 bucks off yaj. Also tried some honda cbr mirrors which were cool but maybe didn’t really suit the kit too well in hindsight. Made a fiberglass baseplate for them which was fun and sort of introduced me into the custom part making stuff that’s really enjoyable.

Eventually was able to save up enough to get the car sent off to paint. Super big moment because the Uprise guys had been trying to coordinate and get everyone on board to doing a team color for a while, and this time it was my turn to join in. BMW code X10 Tanzanite Blue Metallic. An incredible color in person that’s kinda difficult to capture on camera but if you’ve seen it on an M3 its pretty sick.

Then I picked up my first exterior mod for the car. This was insane because I had seen a magazine scan of an S14 with this hood and I think I even sent it in the Uprise chat a few weeks before saying how bad I wanted this specific hood on the car. Also had never really seen it for sale anywhere or even knew what it was called or who made it.

Anyways, it popped up for sale from the local importer Wolfreign, and I instantly scooped it up as quick as I could.  Still don’t have 100% confirmation on if its made by Auto Produce Boss, but that’s the only thing I’ve been able to find from a magazine translation. Would love to have seen what car this specific hood came off of in Japan because it had some wild rainbow flake on it.

Found a couple more pics of when I mocked up my first set of wheels. After this I really got that itch to do more mods. I remember always seeing forums posts of people’s powder coated rear subframe setups and thinking it was so cool. So when it came time that I needed adjustable arms to be able to get a proper alignment, I decided to get going on a subframe. I saved up to get basically the full rear catalog from Voodoo13 (also really good stuff, haven’t had a single issue) and sent off the subframe to get powder coated metallic silver. 

At this point I was having a lot of fun drifting but was also battling inconsistency since I kept changing tire and alignment settings. My fronts were 8j so I could only really be low if I ran a 205/35  and that caused a lot of understeering. So I would try to run a bigger tire on it but then would rub like crazy at events and need to raise it at the track.

I've been waiting for this thread

👏

You can't just say there's a PS2 in there without showing us.

I still think about the FedEx guys clowning us by also taking photos of their matching delivery trucks across the lot 😭

super sick car, always nice to see more KA-T's. stoked to see the journey of the car.