1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX

In every industry-from action sports to music to fashion-there is a sub-movement that lurks just beneath the surface of everything seen: East vs. West. In action sports, like skateboarding, there's definitely a coast-specific style determined by the available terrain; urban and densely populated in the East, suburban and evenly spread out in the West. In music, the difference between coasts is most noticeable in rap; East Coast underground, West Coast gangster. In fashion, it's as easy as New York versus Los Angeles. The same holds true for automotive styling and performance. Cars on the left coast seem to have a distinct aura, while cars on the right coast seem to give off their own vibe. While I don't dare mention what those differences are (for fear of massive amounts of hate mail from all fronts) I will say that the first time I saw the pictures of Dan Demling's '99 Eclipse GSX, it screamed out one thing: "Eastsida Rider."

Of course this only made sense, I found out later, since two of Dan's main influences for building his Diamond Star were his friends Chris Monge and John Kargili, whose cars were both featured in our previous "East Coast Playerz" features. Together the boys from Jersey (and I'm not talking about Bon Jovi) bumped noggins and came up with the piece of work that you see in front of you.

Dan started buying parts a year before he even found a car to buy, so that meant his house was filled with performance goodies in every nook and cranny. He probably stashed the HKS Super Dragger underneath the bed, next to the Injen intake, the Centerforce dual friction clutch, and some, ahem, old magazines (let's just say they were back issues of 2NR). If you looked in his clothes hamper, you might have come across a host of CNC-machined custom parts like a spark plug wire cover, valve cover, and radiator cap, nestled among other less desirable items. If you lifted up the toilet tank cover in the bathroom you may have seen the little blue 2000 flushes thing hanging next to the Momo shift knob, leather shift boot, and a set of seat harnesses. A quick peek behind the mildewy shower curtain might have revealed the hiding place for the NEX racing seats and the Italvolanti steering wheel.

Since he probably ran out of places to hide all of his stuff, he went ahead and bought a car in which to install all the parts. In this imaginary scenario, Dan felt like he needed more, so that's exactly what he went out and did-he bought more parts. HRC intercooler pipes were chosen to mate the GReddy front-mount intercooler to the stock turbo. Intrax springs keep the car off the ground while the Antera 309s (18 x 8 variety) keep it rolling forward on the Toyo FZ4s. When he's done cruisin', the Powerstop cross-drilled rotors take over and stop the car on a dime, a nickel, a penny, or a Sacajawea dollar, if you're down for the "bling-bling."

I'm not even going to attempt to describe the paint and graphics scheme-you'll just have to look at it for yourself. I will say this: Whatever name you choose to give them, the PPG and vinyl layers were done by the paint sniffers at Air Grafix and Manchester Collision, both in New Jersey. Speaking of paint sniffing and things to do when you're bored, Dan decided that he wanted to reupholster the interior himself so he got busy with his own blend of Krylon and leather madness and ended up with the black and yellow cockpit that you see here. Now, if that's not a prime example of the East Coast mentality of "keeping it real," I don't know what is.

The 12-volt goodies in the car cover the entire range of parts from sound enhancement to engine management. AutoMeter gauges run their course on the standard pillar pod and dash locations. An HKS turbo timer finds its home in a little cubbyhole underneath an A'PEX AFC, strategically located in-line with the gargantuan AutoMeter tach. All of these glowing goodies, along with the newly refaced factory gauge cluster, add more zing to the cockpit's nighttime "bling." In addition, they keep Dan informed of the underhood happenings while he's out looking for Mustangs to beat up, an easy task thanks to the HKS EVC boost controller.

When the race is over and it's time to get down to the serious business of the night-cruising-Dan simply leans back and reaches for the Alpine Bass Engine and cranks it up. A Power Acoustik amplifier shows who has the juice and pumps it out to a fleet of Kicker separates before finally sending the sonic boom to the custom-enclosed Kicker Solobarics in the fiberglass trunk. As nice as this system may look, Dan wants to upgrade the system to 24-karat platinum to implement neon lights, strobe lights, and tons of other lights that bling-I mean blink-in the nighttime sky.

After winning the gold medal with his previous car, a show-stopping 300ZX, Dan finally managed to make the upgrade to the platinum series with his Eclipse-a show-stopper that's set to become a road stomper with future upgrades. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how much more he can make this car outshine the rest of the cars- on either coast.