Personal Stuff
I just found out the coolest thing (1/5/98). A guy that E-mailed me told me that "Tage" my first name, means "fast" in the Punjabi language. I don't know if that's true or not. He says it is so I will believe him unless I hear differently. Cool eh? I knew racing was in my blood!
I started a little page on my Accord back in September of 1996. Over the past 6 years I have been adding little stuff here and there to give you what you see today. Unfortunately due to the size of this site, my work schedule and family there's not a lot of time that I can dedicate to updating it as often as I would like.
Since this page is all about me I'll start from the beginning... I was born in Korea and was adopted by my current parents when I was 3 months old. So I consider my current parents my REAL parents even though they are Norwegein (no I don't have any desire to find my biological ones). I grew up in Northern California in a small town called Red Bluff (between Lake Shasta and Chico). There wasn't a lot to do in a small town but since it was on the river and mountains I spent a lot of time with my friends camping, boating, jetskiing, offroading/ATV, shooting guns, played with pipe bombs, etc. :-) I think my parents did a good job raising me since I was a pretty good kid and did well in school overall.
I was around 12 when I used to thumb through car magazines for hours looking at stats of sports cars and imagine myself driving a twin turbo Porsche 911. Ha! Well shortly after I turned 16, my sister and I had an 84 Honda Civic HB that we shared. I think it was a DX. It was far from being any sort of Porsche but I remember thinking it was SOOOO fast. I think only a short 3 months later I totalled the car when an old guy ran a stop sign and into me. At the time the mini-truckin' scene was getting pretty strong in Northern California. My sister got an 86 Accord Hatchback to replace the Civic and as luck would have it I got my dad's old 85 Nissan pickup. My dad loaned me some money and I bought wheels, tires and lowered it. It had 2" spindles, 3" blocks and some 15x8" deep dish 5 star wheels wrapped with 205/50-15 Falcon ZR tires. The little truck went from a "Dad's truck to very cool mini. I didn't change the appearance or performance of the truck, but I did put in all sorts of different stereo equipment into it. I think I made about 10 different boxes for all different configurations in that thing. I loved my truck but there was something about the old Civic and my sister's Accord that I secretly loved as well. The first time I drove my sister's Accord, I fell in love with it. It was an absolute rocket compared to the 84 Civic and my truck and it handled better than any car I had ever driven. I couldn't believe it! So naturally I wanted my next car to be a Honda.
After graduating high school in June 1992 and taking a long summer break I moved to Phoenix, Arizona in October to attend school at DeVry. I had to sell my truck to help pay for the move to Phoenix. For a year I didn't have a car at all (which really sucked BTW).
Since I was paying for most of school myself and doing well my parents bought me an 89 Honda Civic 4 Door LX as a college present! It was an automatic so power was not it's strong point. However it had a lot of personality and I loved that car from the first time I drove it. It wasn't long before I had the windows limo tinted, alarm installed, and a booming stereo system. I really didn't care too much how the car looked as long as the bass was intense, and it was. I completed in several show offs and IASCA events and usually took home a 1st-3rd place trophy each time. By this time I got my first credit card and I broke it well by purchasing a set of chrome 15x7 Momo Quasar (look alikes). They were "the shit" but I remember being somewhat disapointed that they didn't stick out past the fenders. Ha! Either way the car wasn't looking too good stock height so lowered it myself about 2 weeks later. The the funny thing was I barely knew how to change the oil and here I was pulling apart my suspension. I'm surprised I didn't break my face the first time I removed the spring perch and the coil went flying out! It took about 5 tries and about 10 different cuts to the stock coils before I got the car to sit level but I was happy and the car sat LOW. So low in fact I burned through tires every 3-6 months! I sold that car to buy a 92 Honda Accord 4 Door LX to start a new project. The Accord was a pretty sweet ride, but unfortunately on, on August 17, 1997 the Accord was stolen. Three weeks later the Police found it stripped and vandalized. It took a very long time fighting with insurance but I ended up getting $11,700, $2100 more than their first offer. With that money I bought a 95 Integra GSR and put money down to buy a new house.
On January 29, 1998 my fiance and I moved into our new house. It was our first house and we loved it. It was such a relief to actually OWN instead of RENT an apartment. Plus the peace of mind having a garage with our cars parked inside was such a relief.
The experiences from my Nissan truck, 89 Civic, 92 Accord, 95 GSR and 97 Civic HX (wife's car) I have learned a TON. I've asked thousands of questions over the years, read manuals, books and gone online to get where I am today. I do my own allignments, maintenance, make my own custom coil over suspension, engine swaps, metal fabrication, body modifications, and I just started painting and doing body repair as well. My goal one day is to build a large shop in the backyard. It will have a lift, press, welder, and paint booth. Then I can REALLY start hot rodding!
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