Photography by Taylor Vollrath
Paving the way as someone at the forefront of a new wave can be a daunting task, but Justin Nishimura considers himself to be up for a challenge. When the Hyundai Genesis came out, Nishimura immediately fell for the car鈥檚 unique body lines and engine platform. It wasn鈥檛 long before he was purchasing one of his own in a deep blue paint job 鈥� just one of three in that color sold on the island of Hawaii.
Nishimura had a little bit of build experience before the Genesis to help him throughout the process. Having built a Chevy Cobalt SS with a crazy entertainment system, as well as a Volkswagen Jetta built for performance, he decided to use his expertise in both areas to create a well-rounded and complete build for the Genesis, even though his original intentions were to keep the car stock. The result is the show-stopper build you see here.
Naturally, no build is completed without its fair share of challenges. In addition to having some trouble finding reliable, quality aftermarket parts when the car first came out, getting them to Hawaii could cost more than the part itself when they were tracked down. In addition, being one of the first people to take the Genesis to this level, specifically on the island, Nishimura was taking the road less travelled with no one else鈥檚 work to learn from.
鈥淚 overcame these challenges mostly by not giving up on the build,鈥� he tells us. 鈥淭here were many times I wanted to give up on building the genesis, but realized that if I completed the projects or installed the parts that would bring me one step closer to having the best Hyundai in Hawaii.鈥�
The trunk of Nishimura鈥檚 build is the focal point for him. 鈥淢y favorite aspect of the build has to be my trunk setup. I originally had a hand drawn picture which showed four hanging air tanks accompanied by symmetrical hard-lines, and a three-layer display,鈥� he writes.
鈥淲ith the help of DMC Suspensions (Richie), he made my drawing come to life. Not to forget the custom fiberglass trunk lid with a 3D etched genesis logo cover done by Extreme Audio Systems Hawaii (Chad). When you look into the trunk there is not a single section of the trunk that hasn鈥檛 been touched.鈥�
鈥淚 set out to prove to the car scene that KDM cars can be just as good as JDM cars. There are many people that dislike or discredit cars that are not JDM or Domestic cars,鈥� he says. 鈥淲inning the Pasmag competition just proves that a Hyundai can be a show-winning car.鈥� Nishimura extends a heartfelt thank-you to his wife, Ashlyn, for his support during his build time.
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