Happy New Year! Yes, I do realise it’s January 9th right now but, as I type this from a Starbucks in Makuhari, Tokyo having been awake for the past 24 hours and desperately trying to keep my mind occupied to avoid succumbing to jetlag, I thought I’d better kick off the new year with some news here on the blog.
In previous years I have written end-of-year posts that reflect on the twelve months gone by while also looking ahead to the future but, in all honesty, I couldn’t have imagined how hectic things would have been at STL! HQ as we approached Chistmas and New Years.
From a huge air shipment of parts arriving just in time for Christmas, followed by a sea freight shipment that arrived by truck at 8am on Christmas Eve, further compounded by another massive air freight delivery arriving on the first day back in the office after New Years Day, scenes at HQ have been hectic to say the least.
While it can take a while for some parts to be manufactured and subsequently arrive with us, I always do my best to ensure that everything is then forwarded to customers the very same day. I’ve probably taken a few years off my lifespan as a result of this determination but hey, I’d rather you got your parts sooner rather than later. Speaking of which, here are a few of the coolest items that landed with us during the Christmas/New Years period:
Stunning 326POWER Yabaking Spoke 16×9.0J wheels destined for an MX5 build here in the UK.
Another set of 326POWER Yabaking wheels, this time being the 1-Piece variant in 18×8.5J+20 with a custom 5x100PCD as they were destined for a GT86 build.
These T-DEMAND tension rods for a customer’s Lexus UCF20 build were nothing short of stunning. They come with a hefty price tag to boot but, once you have them in your hands, you quickly realise the difference between these and the type of adjustable arms that most of us are used to here in the UK. Hopefully we can supply some more of these for other high-end VIP builds soon.
Detailed instructions! It’s crazy that these should be considered a luxury but they are a rare sight with many parts supplied in the UK nowadays.
We now have all three variants of the 326POWER D-REY headlight lenses for Nissan S15 Silvia models in stock.
I’ve seen a few grumblings regarding the price of these from a few S15 owners and yes, if you are comparing them to some of the other clear headlight “lenses” on the market that resemble little more than some loosely formed lexan then yes, the price is quite a bit higher. However, as I hope you can see from some of these photos I took, the quality is on par with the OEM items and all of the original fittings can be used to ensure a proper, leak-free fitment. It’s certainly cheaper than buying new headlights.
326POWER springs continue to be one of our most popular items; here is a pair of 80K Charabane items ready to rattle some teeth.
I have to finish by saying a massive thank you to all of STL!’s customers for their continued support throughout these last few years that have consisted of some massive changes and growth. As with any business, there are some dizzying highs and some serious lows but, when the courier driver turns up and utters “are you having a f*cking laugh?” when he sees how many boxes for customers there are to be loaded onto his van, it makes it all worthwhile.
Stay tuned for some big developments from STL! this year. I’ve got a lot of plans that I am very excited to put into place and I can’t wait to share them with you all. Here’s to 2019!