To say that Pete has had a lot of cars would be an understatement. In the 10ish years I have known him he has owned: 2 90s Miata’s, 93 Del Sol, 95 Civic, 8+ S13s, 1 S14, 90 Integra, 91 MR2, 04 Civic SI, 3 Mustangs, 92 325i, 97 M3, 4 Z33s, 2 IS300s, and even an S2000… not including other daily drivers and non-tuner cars…
The most impressive thing about all of these is that he has modified just about all of them as well. Pete is no slouch when it comes to doing modifications to his cars. He usually dives in head first making sure he is getting quality parts and not doing anything half-assed. This is what makes it all the more frustrating when he parts with the cars. I’m always asking why? Why do you put so much time and money into it if you are just going to get rid of it? He will usually laugh it off and just say that he’s over it, or he just wants to move on to another type of chassis. The latest of his cars that he parted with was his 350z that we featured some months ago. you can read all about what modifications he did to it and see all the pictures here >>>
https://functiontheory.com/2017/10/z-bois/
I didn’t even know that Pete had sold his Z I had heard about it through some friends, and I was like NO WAYYY! My heart was broke as I truly loved the Z. I thought it was a great mix between functionality and drive ability. He had kept A/C, full interior, stock exhaust, and it wasn’t too low either. (which most of us were not happy about anyways.) But it was gone and all he had was a regular stock 4runner and it had looked like this was the end of Pete’s modifying days. Much time goes by and pretty much none of my friends are doing anything with their cars, our group chat is no longer filled with banter about cars, but rather lame ass MEMEs and stupid pictures of them not doing car stuff. The group chat had pretty much turned into cesspool of crap. Out of nowhere one day Pete sends me this picture of some Work Emotion T7R wheels. Those are “sick” I said, but I ask what are they for? He then lets me in on his new purchase of a S13! Just like that Pete’s back in it, but I still have my doubts… Seems like everyone is that chat isn’t doing car stuff, so I’m excited but not holding my breath. I’m thinking Pete will most likely just sell it and go back to only having a 4runner. As the months go by we are enticed by random pictures on the group chat of Pete’s S13, but whenever its asked about it’s always brushed aside like it no big deal, and you can’t really get much info from him. Just about all I knew was he had no glass in the car and he was going Silvia front, it was a coupe, and he had Work T7R wheels. Over the last two months I have been really trying to go full throttle with my blog, which means, for my friends is constant bombardment of questions like… “whose doing car stuff today?” “does anyone know anyone that wasn’t to do a shoot?” “when are you guys going to work on your car, so I can take pictures and do a write up?” “DoEs AnYoNe WaNt To WoRk On CaRs?” in the last few week I’ve been hounding Pete specifically because I know he’s got something going on, and I know it will make for great content.
So Pete keeps giving me excuses about how it’s not registered, it’s not ready, Blah, Blah, Blah. Finally I tell him that we can just go to this warehouse near him and his car doesn’t need to be registered because it’s right down the road from his house. Well finally he agrees! But the only day that we can agree on ( because of our different work schedules) Is a day that I don’t get off till 5:30 at night. Since getting him to actually agree to doing a shoot was like pulling teeth, I just said “screw it” we’ll do it then. This meant that I would be doing night shots which are still a challenge for me, and since his car wasn’t registered we weren’t able to go to the most desirable location for pictures.
That night came and I met Pete at his house. I didn’t even know what to expect of his car. I pulled up some of our other friends were already there too. They were going to come hang out while we took pictures, their cars were blocking my view of Pete’s car. I wanted to see what his build had ended up looking like. I just told him to follow me to the location, I heard the iconic sound of a straight piped SR20det start up and I knew at that moment That this wasn’t some basic build to excite the hot bois. We drove to my first location, we stopped and I jumped out. I told him “there isn’t good enough lighting here, so let’s try over there.” that was the moment I was able to get my first look at his car. I was stoked! He had put together a tastefully modified purpose built car. He drove off in front of me to the other location just around the corner. As I watched his car drive away I knew that this was going to be a good night.
We Pulled Into the warehouse lot, and I immediately get to shooting. Right away I’m challenged to make these pictures look good, Pete’s car is 15 different colors, its dirt and looks like it’s been rained on, and the only location nearest his house wasn’t the most flattering for pictures. I ended up calling Ever, my Sensei of photos. He’s taught me all I know. If anyone can make this location work, its him. I continue to shoot and try to make our location work, while impatiently waiting for the arrival of Ever. Once he arrives we are able to start making progress on pictures, things are starting to come together. As we are shooting Pete’s car I’m constantly noticing more and more modifications that he has done. Ever and I are quietly talking amongst ourselves… “did you see that ?” “whoa he has that ?” “dang he’s even got that !” There are things I didn’t even notice he had done to the car till I was editing the photos! I was like, Shit, he even has his battery mounted behind the passenger seat! The point of all my long winded sentences are that Pete has built an awesome car. He has done everything correctly to make sure all modifications work with each other, and that he can get the most out of his car. Sure it’s not that pretty, and it’s even a bit reserved in some aspects. It’s not slammed, but its low for Pete. It’s not super-fast, but it’s good enough for drifting. It’s not all one color, but isn’t that what Functiontheory is all about? Building a car for a purpose, and using it for said purpose. There isn’t anything wrong with having a clean car, but if you’re more worried about it being clean than actually using it for what it was built for then you’re actually doing it all wrong. You should be building model cars and collecting Supreme paraphernalia while being on the Keto diet and buying bottle service if you’re worried about impressing people.
Don’t worry though, when it comes to driving Pete is more than capable. He has enough skill when it comes to drifting to make most people feel intimidated. If you line up against Pete on a tandem run he’s going to go ham, red mist will blur up his vision. He will make you question why you have spent money on a 2jz or V8 when you should have been spending money on driving skill.
Big props to you Pete. Your build is amazing and I can’t wait to see you out at the next Vegas Drift event. I wish you hadn’t kept the build a secret for the last 4 months, but in a way I’m glad you did. It added to the luster of the car. Below is a full parts list of his build.
