Lexus IS300 - Altizzle On The Rizzle

"The only reason a person buys a Lexus is for the name, and if you take off all the Lexus badges and replace them with those from Altezza, then I don't see why you wanted the car in the first place," said Tang's dad when he saw Tang had swapped over the essential Japanese domestic market accessories. The front grill, back emblem, side window wind deflectors, gauge cluster, taillight covers and steering wheel were among the parts to find a new home in and around Tang's cabin, with the complete JDM Special Edition suspension-springs, shocks, and all-connecting to the upgraded wheels and tires underneath. Tang's father was mad about the emblems, but didn't seem to care about much else-not even the carbon fiber.

What carbon fiber? Up to this point, I haven't mentioned anything about carbon fiber on Tang's car except for the fact that it would have been virtually impossible for Tang to find someone to fabricate all the numerous intricate pieces that he wanted. Tang knew this so he did what any other cabinet maker (his current job in his father's business) would do, he made the pieces himself. After drawing up the plans for his carbon-fiber beast, he got to work fabricating the pieces himself. After wasting enough carbon fiber to build his own space shuttle, Tang finally perfected his engine cover. From there, his carbon madness snowballed to include ancillary pieces like the cover for his Sony Playstation and the door pillar covers to exterior add-ons like the bumper canards and front and rear air splitters. Wanting more show with his go, Tang then set his sights on upgrading the sound system.

Starting with carbon-fiber remnants, Tang reconstructed his back seats to hold twin NOS bottles and to complete the back side of the subwoofer enclosure/amplifier rack in the trunk. There, twin Audiobahn 12-in subwoofers and a 1200-watt Audiobahn Flame amplifier nest comfortably amidst Tang's carbon-fiber handiwork. The trunk lid houses a pair of 5-in ICON screens that get their signal from the Playstation 2 mounted in the glove compartment; that means a choice of games or DVDs for Tang's tailgate parties. The Audiobahn monitors in the sun visors, in addition to the Alpine CVA-1003 head unit, get their video signals from an analog television tuner; the audio portion is controlled entirely by the Alpine unit.

As you can see, Tang quite literally built his dream car from the ground up without the help of his parents. Through his hard work, ingenious craftsmanship and dedication to details, Tang turned his father's wishes for a "reasonable" car into the reality that is his 100-percent, do-it-yourself, JDM-styled dream. That said, if you see a certain teenager driving down the street in a fully decked-out luxury sports sedan, don't be so quick to pass him (or her) off as just another spoiled child; that person might be keeping it more "real" than you ever could have imagined.