More often that I'd like to admit, I fall victim to judging a book by its cover. This is something I'm sure a lot of us are guilty of but I'm making a conscience effort as I hope all of you are to not judge people. I came across the owner before the car and when I came across the car, I didn't put the two together right away. Once I did put it together and was able to converse with Alton about his TC; well the after effect altered my perception. 
My first memory of Alton happens to be at Gridlife. I was running the booth and walking down vendor village here comes a Panda. I was like WTF?!? GRIDLIFE?!? Gridlife is wild and my first thought about a dude walking around in a panda head was he might a be a little weird but I want to party with the panda.
It wasn't till an MXPI open house meet where I finally put the two together, the car and the owner. I admired the car and briefly talked with Alton. It was later through messaging that I expressed my interest to shoot his car.
With a date and time set, I was still a little nervous heading to our location. Outlandish and absurd thoughts and scenarios ran through my mind. Like, this guy wears panda heads for fun, what am I getting myself into. Is this little weirdo going to chop me up and make me a panda head? Stupid stupid thoughts like that.
Our prior encounters were brief and all I could think of was the panda head. I worked myself up for no reason because Alton is actually a really cool dude. These feature shoots tend to be more personal and we hit it off from the start. Alton was super easy to talk to and so I started asking about his car.
The first thing we are hit with is the aero. Specifically that BIG WANG, it's hard not to miss. The chassis mounted wing is a Street Faction unit. A big wang isn't for the faint of heart. You need big nuts to rock a big wang... like the same big nuts you need to rock a panda outfit. The after effect on my perception is already starting to materialize.
Carbon pieces from Seibon adorn the exterior like their side skirts and hood. The hood is probably my favorite piece. It's been wrapped to color match the car but only the vents were left untouched, exposing the raw carbon fiber.
A Five Axis front lip and rear bumper add a subtle aggressive touch. The headlights and taillights are Spec D units. These caught my eye, I really love the look of the running lights. The rear lights look amazing during the day and will blow your mind when you step on the brakes at night.
While rolling the streets of schaumpton, Alton's TC handles the bumps in the road with a set of BC Coilovers. The wheels are from Cosmis Racing. I've been seeing this brand pop up a lot lately. Alton choose to go with their MRII and wrapped them in Toyo R888r's 225/45/18. 
Moving into the cabin, a set of Corbeau Evolution racing seats immediately grab your eye. These seats keep Alton secure when he feels like putting the Bc coilovers and Toyo tires to the test. A "wearelikewise" Daytona shift knob finishes off the interior.
So what's going on with the performance? Alton has upgraded a few areas with some TRD goodies. The air intake has been replaced with a TRD cold air unit. The stock exhaust was ditched in favor of a TRD axle-back mated to a custom midpipe. Nothing to crazy but enough for Alton to enjoy his drives to work.
I geniunely enjoyed our photo shoot and took more pictures than I thought I would. The conversation and the good vibes altered my perception of the man behind the panda and the effect ultimately lead to a new friend.