If there’s one person to keep an eye on in the import scene in Hawaii, it’s Lance Harano. I’m sure many of you have seen his orange TE27 Toyota Sprinter over the past few years lurking all over the internet and in numerous magazines including exclusive features for Super Street and USDM FREAX. Well he’s done it again with a brand new project that was built from ground up, no part left untouched. If you’ve seen how meticulous his Sprinter build is, you’ll be even more satisfied to know he spent just as much time making sure he built up his Hachi exactly how he wanted it. The entire shell was gutted and refinished, stripped of the unnecessary components and rebuilt with high quality parts. Even down to the rear chromed hatch latch gusset plate, I was amazed how beautiful this car turned out.

Lance turned to his close friend Daniel “Monk” Shin who runs Hiroshi Performance, formally known as “Monk’s Autobody”, for bodywork and painting the shell inside-out and underneath. Monk is also responsible for how well Lance’s Sprinter came out, he’s definitely skilled in autobody work and painting. I’ve known Monk for many years and I’ve always been impressed walking into his shops to see him working on all kinds of builds and working each car the right way; pounding out fenders, smoothing out steel by hand and working the body lines until they’re perfect. None of this cookie cutter, fender roller bullshit… Lance decided to go with Lexus Glacier Frost Mica paint on his Hachi, which definitely sets off the body in the sunlight.

What really sets off Lance’s Hachi is his aggressive offset SSR Longchamps. The face and barrels are high polished with a perfect mirror finish. I haven’t seen a set like these in a very long time. His suspension is also setup perfectly with all the necessary aftermarket components to get an aggressive alignment with sufficient suspension travel.

I really meant what I said by “nothing was left untouched”, the entire rear end was sprayed candy-pink. Everything under the car is as fresh as everything else on the car.

The engine bay is just as astounding as the rest of the car. The entire motor was built up, full internals and chrome parts. Like his Sprinter, he’s also running throttle bodies which makes the car sound so good when it’s opened up on the street. Everything is spotless; even the Levin front end is brand new, the headlights look like they literally just came out of the factory packaging.

It was definitely a treat to shoot this car, quality builds like these are very hard to comeby since Hawaii Raceway Park shutdown years ago. It was a bit unfortunate the weather wasn’t cooperating the days Lance was able to shoot his car; we weren’t able to go very far before it started pouring rain. But I’m sure you’ll see a lot more of Lance’s car in future issues of mainstream magazines and websites. Please enjoy the shots, aloha.