Take an average father, add one 17-year-old son with a penchant for high-performance vehicles and loads of cash from working in the family business; what you end up with is a recipe for disaster. Kai Tang of Boynton Beach, Fla., found himself in that situation a little over a year ago when he decided it was time to buy the car of his dreams-a Lexus IS300. Having seen the HKS Carbon-Fiber Altezza, he was ready to live out his dreams to their fullest. There were two problems, though: His father was against him owning such an expensive car, and, even if Tang did manage to convince him otherwise, there was still the matter of finding a fabricator for the carbon-fiber components.
To solve the first problem, Tang submitted to his father's desire and settled for a car that received the seal of approval, a 2001 Acura Integra Type R. At the last minute, however, paternal instinct took over and Tang's father drove him to the Lexus dealer where he knew his son would be happier with an IS300 purchase. There was a single caveat: no aftermarket modifications whatsoever. With Tang's dreams in carbon-fiber'd Technicolor, this didn't seem like too tall of an order. After all, there was the huge problem of finding someone crazy enough to do all the carbon work in the first place. So it seemed as if Tang would follow his father's orders.
At seventeen, however, following your father's orders is more like "bending your father's orders to your slightly different definition." With that in mind, Tang felt like he was still within boundaries when he went out and purchased an Injen intake, Greddy exhaust, and a basic stereo system based on Audiobahn components. Tang's father didn't seem to mind too much and Tang himself was semi-content driving around his Black Onyx dream car.
Then, while out driving around, Tang was rear-ended. The damage done was minimal (if there is such a thing as minimal damage to a $30K car) but it served as the catalyst for Tang to "get crazy up in herrre." He started with a set of 18 x 8 and 18 x 8.5 Enkei Zeus rims and an imported Vizage bodykit. Tang's father was disconcerted, but he knew that with those things in place, there was no stopping his son. Taking that as a virtual "thumbs-up" from his dad, Tang continued with more engine work consisting of a Toyomoto header, A'PEXi's Super AFC for fine tuning the Venom ECU add-on chip, and a NOS wet-spray system. Other bolt-on performance goodies include an HKS adjustable cam gear for additional fine-tuning of the 2JZGE engine, a pair of TRD swaybars for superior handling quality and upgraded Brembo rotors for increased stopping power. Tang enjoyed his father's silence while he added more and more parts to his dream ride, but that silence was broken once Tang was bitten by the JDM bug.