These images were shot in August of 2016. Since then, Eddie's GT-R is now a whole new mermaid with a new custom wrap from Colorbomb, hopefully updated shots will be available soon!

Becoming an automotive photographer is interesting as you get to meet a lot of new, cool people. One of these people I have met is Eddie. Funny enough, it started with him liking a lot of my photos on Instagram until I finally met him and his Mermaid (Nissan GT-R) at a meet. He loves my work and wanted to shoot with me, and I obliged. He also asked if another fellow petrolhead, Nicole, could come along with her BMW X5. I said of course, the more the merrier!

Eddie has been in Arizona for a long time, 27 years, but it wasn't until he bought a BMW Z4M that he got truly into cars. This was traded for an M6, which eventually was replaced with a CTS-V Coupe, which is where he says the passion for serious modding develped. His former CTS-V Coupe had D3 parts pushing over 800HP and had all of the carbon fiber exterior fixings. But, one day he took a peek at the GT-R, which led to a test drive, which led to him coming home with it, causing the V to be sold to focus solely on the GT-R.

Eddie is in the scene today for the people, like those in the OneAuto group and sharing a bond with his son. He loves to see the younger generation of petrolheads get inspired and create goals and dreams of their own for their future cars.

As of when these photos were taken, the mods to Eddie's GT-R were the following:

Joe Bach GTRR 700 Package
E85 Conversion
Speed Density Conversion
Upgraded injectors
Intake
Hard Piping
Cobb Tune
Full Variable Exhaust with upgraded down pipe and mid pipes
Head lights by Fly Ryde (demon eyes, angel eyes)
Tail by Turn Conversion by Fly Ryde
Ride Controller Auto Start and Under Lighting
Air Lift Suspension with 3H/3P
Rohana Rims with MPSS
Carbon Fiber front spoiler
Duck Bill Carbon Fiber Trunk
Carbon Fiber Side Skirts

Unfortunately I could not find the bio information for Nicole, and since a long time has passed and I'm trying to push out my old content, I decided to not seek it out again and bother her more. However, there will be more shoots and more opportunities in the future.

This semester has been interesting for me because I switched from mechanical engineering at the Tempe ASU campus to Automotive Systems Engineering at the Polytechnic ASU campus. While the Polytech campus is far out there (a 30 minute drive from Tempe, with not too much around it), the benefit of the surrounding area being smaller is that there are many empty roads. Empty roads that make perfect photo locations. Since my morning class the next day was cancelled, I decided to test out these spots, and my friend Elijah came along with his brand new E36. I have more photos, however, these were taken before we decided to throw on the other two of his OEM BBS wheels in the rear (the tires were showing chords so he was riding on the ones that came with the car).

Elijah told me that the E36 is one of his dream cars, and now that he has it, he plans on keeping it until it dies. For a car bought off of Craigslist for $1000, the car is in amazing condition, with functioning everything and a body in good condition. Although, for some reason, in all my photos, the green paintjob came out as blue; I've tried to correct for it in the pictures, but it didn't work for all of them. Regardless, the cloudy headlights are from him wet sanding the headlight covers to clear them up; he tells me that they are clear now. So, with new tires on the way, clear headlights, and other mods in the works, look forward to seeing more of Elijah's E36.