As someone who grew up in Florida watching the import scene unfold from a distance, I viewed people like RJ de Vera as celebrities. I admired the cars he built in the late 90s and early 2000s from 3,000 miles away, along with the impact he had on the industry as a whole. So when I was put on assignment a few months after moving to California to shoot one of his project cars, this 2004 Nissan 350Z Roadster, I assumed RJ himself wouldn’t be the one attending the shoot. I was wrong.
I was admittedly a bit starstruck, while RJ spent the afternoon patiently driving me up and down PCH trying to find some decent spots to shoot the car. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with how the shoot came out, but there were enough usable shots for the feature, which ran in the November 2005 issue of Modified Magazine. The bigger story to me was how down to earth RJ was that day, and it was immediately obvious why he’s so well liked within the scene.
The car itself reflected the relationships RJ had built across the industry, starting with the full Veilside treatment outside. A Version 3 front bumper leads into Version 2 side skirts and a Version 2 rear bumper, with a Version 2 rear spoiler custom molded to the trunk and a carbon fiber hood rounding out the aero, all covered in House of Kolor Candy Blue. The roadster sits on staggered RO_JA Motorsports Concept 55s, 20×8.5 up front and 20×10 in the rear, wrapped in 245/35R20 and 285/30R20 Michelin Pilot Sport IIs. Behind the front wheels is a 15-inch Brembo big brake kit with 8-piston calipers, while the rear runs cross-drilled rotors with custom 2-piston calipers.
Under the hood, the VQ35 wears a Vortech supercharger kit with a front mount intercooler, breathing out through a MagnaFlow exhaust with Denso Iridium spark plugs and Valvoline SynPower oils and lubricants keeping it happy. The result is 300 whp at 6,500 rpm and 260 lb-ft at 4,300 rpm, with Eibach springs and an ARC titanium front strut bar handling the stance and chassis duties. Inside, the factory seats were recovered in black suede and black carbon leather, joined by a blue stitched shift boot, a suede covered gauge pod and speed panel, a carbon fiber center console, and a Veilside shift knob, while a Clarion DVD/TV flip-out head unit with navigation runs through Rockford Fosgate speakers, a subwoofer, and an amplifier.
Following that shoot, I soon discovered that RJ is always down to help anybody out. He’s the reason my Integra found its way onto the show floor of SEMA 2006, and he helped make Project Prius a reality by supplying Wraptivo product, the install at Daley Visual, and the connection with HKS for the coilovers and intake. When I started Motiv Concepts, he supported the brand by running our product on his SEMA Scion FR-S build, which eventually ended up in Forza games wearing our logo.
There’s no way 12-year-old me would believe that in my 20s, RJ de Vera, of all people, would be the one helping me make my project cars a reality. It was a bit surreal to meet him back in 2005, and it’s still a bit of a mystery why he’d go out of his way for my builds so many times since. But that is truly who RJ is, someone who will do anything to push this industry and scene forward. All these years later, it’s always great to run into him at a show or event to catch up, like at MPMC in 2019, when he was at Meguiar’s and sent me home with the spray wax that’s still in my rotation today. One thing I know for certain after all this time: RJ is one of the most passionate people in the scene, and he’ll keep doing everything he can to make it better.
GalleryPhotos by Jason Siu
