Wekfest SF 2012 Weekend Coverage…Part 1…
Man, what a weekend…
By now, I’ve become pretty accustomed to the way things work during the week of Wekfest San Francisco, but no matter what, it always manages to be quite the overwhelming experience. All I can really say to sum up the entire weekend was that it was just completely spectacular. The main difference with this year’s Wekfest event was that I was the most well-rested I have ever been. I’ve been going to these events long before it was even a Wek’Sos production and I’ve always been just drained going into the day of the show. This time around, I got everything done by the middle of the week and found some time to sleep. Even while we were all in Norcal during the weekend, I made it a point to not stay out too late. By that Sunday I’m usually walking around like a zombie with blood-shot eyes from lack of sleep and dry contact lenses. I’ll barely be able to make the drive back to the hotel and when I get back, I just crash out and don’t talk to anyone. It was almost the complete opposite this year though, as I changed my procrastinating ways and even showed up everywhere on time…if you know me, you know that I am notorious for being late. Hopefully entering my third decade of life, I can apply that to all aspects of my life so that I can be better rested and have more energy to do more things…
Another thing that I really wanted to change about previous years of being at Wekfest was managing my time hanging out with different groups of people. There are so many different friends from all over that come out for the show and I always regret not being able to spend time with everyone. It was virtually impossible because it didn’t seem like there were enough hours in the day to spend it with everyone in one single weekend. We have the usual Socal people that I love spending time with, and also the Norcal folks that I don’t ever get to see enough of. On top of that, we also had guys from the east coast/mid west making their way out and even the guys from Mayday Garage were going to be there. Luckily I was able to finish everything for the booth this year with time to spare so I didn’t have to spend too much time organizing it in the hotel room. This allowed me to have more free time to spend with others. I don’t know how it all came together, but we all managed to book rooms in the same hotel so I was able to see a lot of people by the time I got up for breakfast. There were some that I wish I could have hung out with more, but that’s just how it goes. It’s hard to really coordinate with so many others staying in different parts in the city but I think we all did a good job of hanging out. It seemed like everyone made a better effort this year. While we were in the city, it seemed like every time we stopped, more people were able to meet up and we had a big group of people from all over… In year’s past I’ve always had an amazing time in SF, but this time was definitely more diverse and I’m happy that I was able to see everyone and spend even a small moment to chat with them…
Now, as for the show itself…Wekfest San Francisco proved once again this year why it was the “mecca” of car shows in these last couple years. It was just bananas… I know a lot of people complained and many more couldn’t even get into the show because they were turned away, but that just shows you how big SF Wekfest has gotten. They outgrew the old parking structure and moved it to the Fort Mason/Herbst Pavilion, and easily outgrew that venue in just a year’s time. It’s tough guys, it really is. For everyone that complained about how crowded it was and how long the wait was, you have to understand that putting an event of this magnitude is an enormous amount of work and managing a crowd of that size is no easy feat. Just simply from being there in the morning to watching the entire roll-in process, organization improved by leaps and bounds. It was very well put together. I remember last year I was even a little annoyed by the roll-in process for vendors but I had zero issues this year. The main issue with using this venue is the people that run Fort Mason. They are incredibly strict and were not shy about making things inconvenient for everyone. There strict rules put a lot of pressure on everyone and they, along with the Fire Marshall, were the key reasons why the crowd was let into the show an hour late. You wanna know just how ridiculous certain things were? We were inside a large venue with hundreds of cars filled with gasoline (which isn’t an unusual thing for an indoor car show), and for whatever reason, I had to have a fucking smoke detector hanging from my canopy at my booth. It literally was tied and hanging to my canopy. If that wasn’t enough, I also had to have a fire extinguisher just to even have a fabric top on my canopy. I am not too familiar with how things work in San Francisco, but I have never set anything on fire selling stickers and t-shirts. If there was going to be a fire somewhere inside of the venue, believe me, my smoke detector wouldn’t have been much help in alerting me that there was a fire. In any case, the rules were ridiculous last year, and seemed to get more ridiculous this year. Whether or not they will use this venue again is unclear, but I don’t see it happening again, especially after how many people were told that they wouldn’t be able to get inside the show because it was at capacity. I heard people were turned away at 4pm because of the sheer number of people inside and they were upset. I too would be upset if I had waited in line for however many hours and then told I wouldn’t get in. That’s terrible, but I would also have tried to show up earlier, knowing how big Wekfest is every year…
It’s a shame that that many people couldn’t get in…it really is…Every year the organization is getting better and I am sure that the Wekfest staff is working hard on trying to alleviate the problems for the future. Over 10,000 people were at Wekfest, with the numbers maybe even reaching 14,000 maybe…you can’t please everybody. People have a right to be upset. But people also have to have a better understanding of how shows like this work. The Wekfest SF show has reached the levels of popularity that I haven’t seen since the old days of Hot Import Nights and Import Showoff. It took years for those shows to reach the point where they were a well-oiled machine and able to absorb that many people. Wekfest will get to that point, it just takes time. The hype around the event is just crazy right now. Hell, I don’t even understand how it got this big and I’ve been going to this show for how long now? Shit is just wild. If you didn’t get in this year, it sucks and I really hope you have a better time the next year if you plan on coming back. I wish I could sympathize with all of you but I have other things I need to worry about. I’ve been doing car show stuff for about ten years now and I would never wait in a line that long to get into a car show, and fuck, I LOVE car shows, haha…Best of luck to all of you who want to try again next year. It’s hard for me to gauge it and say that it’s worth waiting that long to get inside but my priorities are different. If you got the time and the patience, fuck, feel free…
I had a great time overall. I’m really happy that people were excited about the new shirts and the new merchandise. I didn’t go into it with any expectations but man, I was surprised by how much merchandise went out that day. I thank you for all of your continued support and it’s a great feeling knowing that you guys love The Chronicles. Stickers were going faster than ever and I ran out of a majority of shirts before the doors even opened that day. Thanks to Junior, Adam, and Ken for putting this event together and allowing me to be a part of it. These guys work their asses off and deserve all the success that is coming to them.
With that said, let’s get on with the coverage. If you are here to just see photos of cars, then you obviously are not a regular here on The Chronicles. I like to cover any and everything that is going on to give people an idea of what our experience is like overall. You can see photos of the cars at SF Wekfest EVERYWHERE. Everyone these days has a camera and is covering events like this. The way I am going to present it to you is more personal and like no other. This site has grown because of the idea of presenting the “lifestyle” to viewers throughout the world. Remember, it’s not about how many people are doing it…it’s how it is done that matters. Execution is everything. You want to see cars, scroll past everything else and look at just the cars or go to any other website to see car photos. You’ll see everything that goes on here, from the show, to behind-the-scenes, etc. Don’t like it? You’re welcome to leave, but buy a sticker first, haha…
Here we go…
The Wekfest SF weekend kicked off for many of us on Friday morning. If you saw last year’s coverage, we had a pretty large group of people to caravan with. This year was a little different… Some couldn’t make it this year, some were still putting their cars together, and some had babies so they couldn’t just up and leave right away. For the 2012 SF Wekfest road trip, May and I had just a couple of people to cruise with; Salem and Murdock in the J’s Racing Phaze2 TSX, Keith aka Keychain from It’s JDM Yo!!, Ms. Holly Lee, and a couple new friends in Jay Mayuga and his girlfriend, who apparently didn’t say a word all weekend, haha…
After meeting up for breakfast at Denny’s in the morning by Magic Mountain, we headed over to the Chevron across the freeway to gas up. I had to pick up an energy drink as well and buy tissues since I had a cold coming…why I needed a energy drink at 11am in the morning is a mystery but I probably purchased it by habit since I was usually going to bed around this time on a normal week day…
Jay Mayuga’s TSX with Modulo Voltage front bumper and Volk CE28s….Jay is also the only person who was down to blue tape his front end. Salem is Mr. Race Car guy now so his bumper is beat up anyways, and Keith apparently just didn’t give a shit… May and I rolled out in her Yaris. We didn’t blue tape shit because her car is so high that it usually does the job of kicking the rocks at everyone else…
Random thought but, it’s nice to know that even year’s after I sold my Accord, I can’t get away from them and they are still following me everywhere, haha…
Keith scratching his head and wondering how his freshly-painted lip kit is going to survive the streets of downtown San Francisco…
We got on the road and were overjoyed that there were no indications of rain…Last year, we drove through a storm and ended up taking the 101 north-bound all the way to San Francisco, which ended up taking us almost 9 hours…
We stopped at Kettleman City for a pee break and a stretch, then got back on the road immediately…
I didn’t take too many photos after that because there wasn’t anything very exciting about the drive. We got to our hotel around 5:30 or so in the evening and just relaxed for a bit before going out to dinner. There wasn’t any crazy pre-Wekfest private dinner party this year so we just rounded up whoever was in the city already and went out to grab drinks and eat. Those photos are actually on May’s camera so I’ll just toss-up those photos in part 2 tomorrow…
The next morning, we all got up early to eat breakfast downstairs in the hotel. One of the main reasons we stay at this particular hotel was because of the free breakfast. Most other places just offer simple fruits and maybe some travel-size cereal but this joint had everything…eggs, sausages, biscuits and gravy, bagels, etc…and all you can eat. It’s the best free meal of every day, haha…
Some of the homies from the other coast were up bright and early… Here’s S2kJay chillin with Widdy after breakfast in the patio area of the hotel…
Sloppy, Sam, and his girl Linh enjoying some free food…
Ryan, OldmanJames, Ray from ATS Garage, and DPK Darryl grubbing…Ray lives in Norcal and didn’t even stay at the hotel, but probably stops by the hotel to eat everyday because the people at the hotel don’t even pay attention…Actually, Darryl didn’t stay there either, haha…
After breakfast we all decided to meet up again and take the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) aka a train down to the city to hang out. There were so many of us that it wasn’t even worth driving all the way down to the city and trying to find everyone so we all agreed to take the train and stay together…A couple of us had cars to show that weekend too and parking them in the streets of San Francisco is not something that anyone was down to do…
I hadn’t taken the BART in a couple of years so I forgot how to buy tickets and what not, but we figured it out with just a couple of minutes before the train arrived…
Ryan Der from ATS showing off his faux-camera iPhone case…
May doing her favorite activity, iPhone apps and Instagram…
Salem, who I am wishing the best for, since he was set to have surgery on his eye today, just a day after he returned home from Frisco…
Murdock doing what he does best…
Ryan “Rywire” Basseri was probably happy to have a moment to relax and is not trapped at the shop building engine harnesses…
Phil from ATS Garage hopped on the train a couple stops later and then we all got off the train on Powell St… it was pretty busy being that it was President’s Day weekend so happy shoppers were everywhere…
A couple of the guys wanted to check out the Ferrari store so we waited outside while Salem played around with the Ferrari FXX motorized toy outside…
May was just happy not to be doing car-related shit for a change… I know how much she likes to take the BART down to the city so it was good that we had the opportunity to take it again…
Outside of one of the stores, I spotted this guy across the street who was so fucked up off of muscle relaxers that he was falling asleep in the middle of the street…At one point he almost fell off of the sidewalk and into the street with cars approaching. I don’t know what this guy was doing but he was messed-up. Eventually he got halfway onto the street and then had to turn around to get his bags but before he could pick them up, he started dozing off and was just all over the place. We all stopped to see what was going to happen next but he eventually stumbled off so we moved onto Chinatown…
Ryan stopped for a photo op with the lions that stood guard at the gates of Chinatown San Francisco…
They had these cool bronze statues throughout Chinatown…this looked like a nice family gathering…
…nice until you see one of the statues playing a game of grab-ass…
Good to know that some Chinese guy decided to create this jade statue to honor the ancient Chinese sport of American football. I’m sure you guys know who Jeremy Lin is by now and how he’s been doing great things on the basketball court…well, here is his great great grandfather, Terrell “Sweet & Sour Fingers” Lin, who was the Michael Jordan of Chinese football. He lead the league in touchdown receptions and his team, the Beijing Fighting Communists, went undefeated for three straight seasons because nobody in China plays football and they were the only team. Lin was also the quarterback on his team and threw the ball to himself because nobody else was on his team. He retired after he realized that nobody in China plays football, EVER….
Only $10.99 for these apple bottom jeans featuring your favorite celebrities from the early 2000s…Nothing says “wear these jeans” then having Carmen Electra on your back pocket…
Chinatown still bearing decorations from Chinese New Year a week or two ago…
Deejay Murdock doing work…
The trolley system rolling through…
Our buddy Nick Caster arrived from Roseville in the afternoon with his CR-X and then took a cab down to Chinatown to meet up with us…
A piece from famed street graffiti artist Banksy on some random wall in Chinatown SF…He was down there not too long ago for the debut of his documentary and took to the streets early to knock out this piece. They even have a plastic cover over it to protect it…that’s when you know you’re doing big things…when you tag on a wall and steps are taken to preserve it…
One of the more interesting things beside the Banksy piece that we saw down in Chinatown were these crazy dragon knives/blades/swords…While I’ve never actually seen anyone try to rock these in a fight, I’m confident in saying that I’d run like I was on fire if someone chased after me with giant blades with dragon handles on them…
Elderly Chinese street musicians playing for by a busy intersection…
Sam and his girlfriend met up with us also and we decided to stop by a local Thai food spot to eat lunch…everything looked absolutely delicious and everything was also only 5 bucks a plate…
After eating, it was starting to get dark so we made the trek back to the BART station to head back to the hotel…
The train was pretty crowded by the evening but we managed to all get seats…
Sloppy dropped Sam and his girl off earlier in the day so he didn’t get to take the BART with us until our trip back to the hotel… Turns out that it was his first time ever being on it and he seemed pretty excited to experience it…
Speaking of Sam, it was his birthday on the day of Wekfest so his girl Linh had this cool birthday cake made for him…It’s a cake made to look like his Civic driving through the Golden Gate Bridge in SF…
We parted ways for the most part after we got back to the hotel. Salem and Murdock headed out to meet up with Junior from Wekfest at a local car meet, while the others bought alcohol and pre-gamed for the night. ATS Phil met up with them later that night to go party at a lounge in the city. May and I hung out in the room for a little bit before meeting up with Rodrez and his Fiancee’ for dinner. Not much excitement after that since we had to wake up early in the morning for the Wekfest show…
The morning of Wekfest, we got up early and got ready to head to the Fort Mason venue for vendor set-up. Rodrez didn’t have a booth this year but he wanted to roll to the event with us so he could cover the show before spectators got there. Breakfast was ready right around the time we got down to the lobby so we stopped to eat really quick. We weren’t in too much of a rush since I got back to the hotel early the night before and had the car loaded-up and ready to go…
On the drive to SF that Friday, Salem and I had joked around about putting the free hotel food in our pockets to bring to the show, so I thought it would be funny to put a couple sausage links into a styrofoam cup to give to him when he got there. The last sausage turtling-up out of the cup wasn’t planned but added to the randomness of having a cup of sausages, haha…
When I got to Fort Mason, I checked-in and drove right into the venue. There was no wait this year because they were much more organized….This 510 was one of the first cars I saw that morning rolling into the show…
I thought it was a little crazy to see people already waiting in line to get in, but I later found out that these guys had been camped out there since 1am in the morning….fucking crazy…That’s when you realize how big Wekfest has gotten, when people are camping out like they were waiting for a new shoe release or something…
Some of my favorite photos that I took last year at Wekfest were during the roll-in process so I was happy to have plenty of time to get more this year in-between setting up The Chronicles booth with May and Tony from It’s JDM Yo!!…
A wingless Subaru STI sitting on some red Volk TE37SL…
Adam from Wek’Sos giving some instructions to one of his staff members…
Junior directing the 510 to his parking space inside the show…
A boosted CR-X drag car making his way in…
DSR Loreto posted-up by his “Shark-teal” EK on new Volk TE37Vs…
R33 Skyline GT-R on Prodrive wheels…
Evos were represented very well at Wekfest SF 2012…
2GS on SSR Vienna Kreis wheels…
Subaru with Work Schwert SC4s…
I had no idea Mark with the white 4-door DB would be making the trip to Wekfest so it was a cool to see him pull-up….He made some more additions to his Integra like a front splitter…
…and a retro-fitted Mugen wing…
ATS Anh’s ITR with a brand new look….say goodbye to the BYS front bumper…
Here is Anh mounting a camera to his windshield… He had this nifty idea of doing a time lapse video during the event so it’ll be cool to see later what came of it…
I wanted to see what was going on in the other building so I walked over and saw Mark Arcenal’s Rauh Welt Porsche…
No new additions to the car itself…It looked about the same as it did during SEMA last year…
Not even sure if Mark was even there at the show but there were guys moving the car around while others set-up the Fatlace booth…
PG+K Moe and Bon made the trip out to Norcal…Here they are chatting it up with Rodrez in their brand new Chronicles Ver. IV tees…
I walked outside to see if anyone new popped-up and spotted DPK Slappy and Jay Powers in his CR-X…
Absolutely loved this Evo…Never really imagined how teal and brown would work together but for whatever reason, it does on this car…
Traveling all the way from Japan was Tetsuya Yamaguchi of USDM Jam-fame… Here he is chatting with Big Mike…
Lisa from ATS Garage and her always-clean Integra on Almight Grey Regas…
Her husband Jay and his timeless CR-X on SW388s…
Nick Caster debuted his new J’s Racing set-up on his CR-X…more on this later…
ATS AJ and his C-West Integra on mag blue Volk SE37K…
Closing it out for today with a quick snap of Rywire’s NSX…under-exposed but I thought it made for a cool shot…
That’s all for today folks, come back with WAY more. I shot about 650 photos at the show and am still in the process of going through all of it… Thanks for looking…
“So You Think You Can STANCE?” Coverage…Part 2 of 2…
Back now with the second half of It’s JDM Yo!!’s “So You Think You Can STANCE” event coverage, brought to you by The Chronicles. When we last left off, the competition had just started and people were gathered along the street and driveway to check out all the “action”. By “action”, I mean cars going up driveways slowly…haha. I know an event like this usually has it’s fair share of supporters, and also it’s share of people that just think that it is out right stupid. To be fair, it’s totally okay to think that it’s completely retarded because there is a growing number of enthusiasts within our vast community that is starting to dislike this whole “stance” movement. Any time you mention anything about low offset wheels and aggressive fitment, you will have a number of people that will detest the idea and show their disappointment with where the scene has shifted. The whole stance/hellaflush/fitment scene has become it’s own subculture now within the community and it doesn’t look to be going anywhere any time soon. It just goes with different people liking different things. There’s no definitive right or wrong because people don’t always like the same thing or share the same ideas as others. Being in the magazine industry opens my eyes to a lot of different styles of tuning and I’ve learned to appreciate them. I don’t necessarily have to agree or like what some enthusiasts are doing nowadays, but I also don’t have to always be vocal about it. If you don’t like the “stance” movement, just take a gander at the photos, read some of my stupid comments, and move on. This site isn’t solely devoted to wheel fitment and if you’ve been around for a lengthy-amount of time on The Chronicles, you know that I like to bring you a variety of things. Now let’s just move on with the photos and knock out part 2 of the “So You Think You Can STANCE?” coverage…if you want to read my thoughts on the event as a whole, I invite you to take a look back at part 1…
Now when we last left off, Milt had just kicked off the competition and did his run through the driveway…
He didn’t look like he had very many issues getting up the driveway…
…but coming down proved to be a little more interesting…
As I said in part 1, I don’t know the criteria for judging or what they were looking for, but on that particular run…Milt Salamanca garnered a score of 27 out of a possible 40…I didn’t even bother catching score after this because I really didn’t know what was going on. We all basically stood there to watch people potentially fuck their shit up…
A TSX narrowly missing the pavement as he was barely angling out…You can see Holly Lee and Tony from It’s JDM Yo!! standing in the middle of the driveway because they were basically the markers used to cut the driveway in half….Guy in the photo with the 49ers gear on is either whistling his favorite tune or over exaggerating his shock…
A strawberry-faced S14 240SX on Leon Hardiritt Ordens getting set to make his run….I thought the competition was a little unfair in that guys with aero or front lips already in need of repair competed against guys whose cars were in better condition…I mean, in terms of willingness to take a chance of breaking something to win, wouldn’t you have less to lose if your shit was already messed up already?…Then again, I don’t know how it was judged or scored so I can’t really say anything, just raising an interesting point….
People gradually started to get more into the event as more cars made their runs…Even Holly Lee was using the camera and trying to get some action shots…Tony for whatever reason, was showing off his hella hyphy THIZZ face circa 2006…
A clean white S2000 on CCW wheels stood next in line to make his attempt…
Antonio from Motormavens.com didn’t seem too impressed….Big Mike on the far left was taking a standing nap…
While I was happy to see that this S2K owner’s fenders weren’t fucked-up, his front lip has probably seen better days after this event…
Next up was the RHD CR-X from Infinit Wheels…
The CR-X’s run was one of the more interesting ones because they chose to drive the car straight up the driveway without angling at all and when it came down, it struggled to get traction and created some tire smoke…
Thanks to drifting, enthusiasts these days are conditioned to cheer and go ape shits anytime there is tire smoke so Infinit Wheels got some dap for creating the smoke show…
Armand with the TRD widebody MR-2 decided to participate/fuck his shit up…If anyone had anything to lose in this competition, it was him. His car is in pretty good condition and I don’t think damaging that kit would really be a good idea but he went for it anyway. During a test run, he mysteriously broke the wing off that he had just recently not replaced EVER, so this will be day 837 of wingless widebody SW20…
It didn’t look too bad as he was making his way down…
…but the more angles he had to make to get out, the more stress it was on his front end…if you look closely, you can see his fender cracking where it meets the sideskirt….
Next up was this S2000 with a CR lip and what looks like F-Zero Blue Volk CE28s…
If you ever wanted to know what a CR front lip would look like if it was driven into the ground with the weight of the car on it, here you go…
If that wasn’t enough scraping for you, here is a BB6 Prelude that also participated…Good to know that he had that plastic lip under his bumper to give the driveway more contact patch…haha…
This EF was one of the more ridiculous competitors of the day…not only was he making sparks under his car as he was exciting the driveway, he also was sparking when the car was driving normally on flat pavement. The guy decided to lower his car so extreme to the point where his car would flip over if he ran into a dime. The owner was also very serious about this competition and constantly asked later if he made it into the later rounds. Being low and fucking up the bottom of the car is serious business…
Last time I checked, IS350s weren’t cheap and neither are the parts made for them…Tell that to this guy’s front lip…
After most of the cars had finished their runs, out of nowhere, people decided to start acting like dipshits and revving their cars or driving really fast as they were leaving the venue to show off and/or mow people down who were spectating. Tony and many of us started to get kind of iffy about keeping the competition on an open street, so Tony and crew told everyone to get back inside where the parking lot was. The highlight of douchebaggery was when a 15 year old kid smoking a cigarette driving an STI his parents bought for him pulled in front of a crowd and started revving. Instead of just waiting for people to disperse, he felt it was a better idea to rev his shitty car at people and ask them to move. He was also accompanied by his other douchebag 15 year old friends who think that mounting two 25mm spacers on each wheel qualifies as “aggressive fitment”. The runner-up for master of douchebaggery was some jackass who was sitting on the passenger side window, hanging out of his car while his friend peeled out and hauled ass down the street. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Apparently these kids thought that they were participating in an event called “So You Think Your Parents Will Want to Visit You In The Hospital When You Are A Brain Dead VEGETABLE?”…
People acting like complete idiots sort of put a damper on the event, even though a majority of it went very well and without any real issues. There was a break during the competition to tally up the scores and see who would advance to the later rounds, but I was pretty set on going home. I had just driven back earlier that morning from my trip to Las Vegas so I wanted to get home to get some much needed rest. Before that though, I made the rounds and finished up the rest of my coverage of cars that were at the event…
Michael Mao’s Acura NSX…
G35 on DPE wheels…
A couple more shots of the Amuse-inspired S2000 from DTM Autobody…
…as well as the KE70 Corolla wagon parked behind it…
JonJon’s supercharged IS350 from Vanguard Collective/It’s JDM Yo!!….
Y34 M45 on air…
Oh this was cool…It’s virtually impossible to see a modified Lexus ES300/Toyota Windom EVER so it was refreshing to see one at the event with a kit and old school Work Equip mesh wheels…These cars are terribly unpopular to modify, because they are basically fancy versions of Camrys, but I’ll always have a soft spot for this car because my parents owned one when I was growing up…The last time I saw one of these ES300s modded was back around the early 2000s when I would spot the same one always cruising through LA. It had a HKS turbo kit and everything, shit was crazy and way ahead of it’s time…
Ryan Delosreyes’ Scion xB on old school Work VS wheels…
The Kouki S14 from part 1 with the crooked intercooler…As a whole, this car wouldn’t look bad if it was all one color…
FC3S RX-7 from the most un-intimidating car crew name ever, Nuisance…
Acura TSX from Low’N Slow on gold-faced CCW Classics…
3rd generation Toyota Celica from Low’N Slow…
Armand’s MR-2, post cracked fender…Aspiring breezies in the background doing hoodrat stuff…so hood that the guy photographing them is standing on the train tracks…
The BB6 Prelude on white-faced Work Equips that competed earlier…front lip scuffed up, but still intact…
The most aggressive S2000 ever to park in front of a dumpster…
Real clean EK with a iridescent hood shield…
Hubert Barnum male modeling on the Ruckus he and his brother built…
One more shot of the 350Z from part one on the SSR Gartmaier wheels…
The Barnum brothers’ Ruckus…draped in orange jizzum…
The IS350 that competed earlier on SSR MS1 wheels…
The S14 that also competed earlier…
DPK David’s EJ1 coupe just before he left…
Keith aka Keychain’s Accord sedan on polished MB Battles…
That’s about it…after that I left so I didn’t really get a chance to see who won the whole thing. I believed after things calmed down for a bit, they went back and finished the competition on the driveway where it started. Overall, a pretty successful event I would have to say…It wasn’t really meant to be anything taken too serious and I think that’s what people left with. At the end of the day, it’s just a couple guys showing off how they get out of driveways in their lowered cars. The meet portion of the event was cool. The diversity was good and wasn’t only limited to just beat-up cars on aggressively-fitted wheels. Congrats to Tony and staff for putting together a good event….
Thanks for looking… Back tomorrow with other stuff…
Oh before I go, I had to post this up. It was on Facebook late last night but I figured I’d post it up here since a lot of you don’t have Facebook accounts…
Haha, the expression on this guy’s face just made it too easy…
“So You Think You Can STANCE?” Coverage…Part 1…
Well this was different…haha. I mean, in terms of just being “different”, this event takes the cake so far. When Tony first came up with the idea to do this whole “Stance” competition, I was really up in the air about it. The whole name is something that we’ve been throwing around as a joke for the last year or so now, but when he decided to dub his event “So You Think You Can Stance?”, trust me, it was met with a collective “what the fuck are you thinking”. Tony is a pretty smart guy though with some pretty innovative ideas…he’s a massive pervert, but still, he is a smart pervert. If you don’t know which Tony I am referring to, I am talking about Tony from It’s JDM Yo!!. He’s always been a great friend and a huge supporter of mine so whenever he comes up with an idea, no matter how out of the box or random it is, I will support him….
Michael Mao’s Acura NSX on Volk CE28 Genesis…
The whole idea behind this “So You Think You Can Stance” event was very basic in principal…almost too basic. We were to have a pretty aggressively sloped driveway, in which people would sign-up and attempt to show everyone how they could go in and out of the driveway with their slammed/lowered/stanced-out vehicles. The original driveway that was chosen for the competition was over by the Rywire facility. It’s got a pretty big slant to it, but it wasn’t impossible to get up and down. DPK David takes his Civic coupe to work on occasion and has little issues getting in and out and even my Q45 aired down to about 40-50psi with a big kit and get out pretty easily. There are a number of cars that come through the shop and I’ve never really seen anyone have any problems. Being that the venue was also good enough to host a small meet though, Tony decided to use it for the event. What he would do would cone off a large chunk of the driveway, and as the competition progressed, the driveway would become smaller and smaller…
Linda’s Toyota Matrix on VIP Modular wheels from Team Praxis…
How it would be judged would also prove to be pretty interesting…There would be a panel of three guys who would determine the winner…Keith aka Keychain from It’s JDM Yo!!, Noel Barnum from Canibeat, and Yogi from Fatlace. These guys know about all things low so they would be good judges. Yogi I don’t think has ever really had a car that low..his Accord never moved and now he drives a Nissan pick-up, but still, he works for Fatlace/Illest so he encounters his fair share of lowered vehicles. I don’t know what was a point of emphasis for judging, nor do I know what they were looking at…I really didn’t want to know because then I would wonder if they were judging it correctly and with this being a first-time competition, there are a lot of unknowns. Even after the event has come and gone, I still have no real idea of how they judged this. There were so many different types of cars and they all went about going up and down the driveway different…it’s one of those things that can have real open interpretation. In the end, I believe a 1st generation Lexus GS300 won so congrats to the owner. I believe Falken Tires was a co-sponsor of the event and the winner got a set of tires. The other co-sponsor was VIP Modular wheels, which offered a significant discount (20-30% I believe) on a new set of VIP Modular wheels…
350Z on SSR Gartmaier wheels fro Royal Origin…
On the days leading up to the event, Tony realized that there was a chance that the event would be bigger than originally anticipated. I guess he had more than enough responses on social media outlets where he believed the event might be larger than the Rywire parking lot could hold, so he changed the venue entirely. Instead of having it at Rywire, he moved the event over to the city of Santa Fe Springs, inside an industrial section of the city that was quiet and had plenty of space on a Sunday. Overall, I think the event worked out great. The whole idea of it on paper just sounds kind of silly, but man, people fucking love all things “stance”. You can literally throw the word “stance” into any event name or website and there’s a high possibility of it being successful. As much as people love to talk shit about stanced-out cars, it’s become a genre in our community that has become quite popular. I’m a fan of everything as long as it’s done right in my eyes or in moderation. There are some absolutely ridiculous looking cars that showed-up… as with every stance-related event, there are often times when people just try way too fucking hard to be cool and somehow totally fuck up their cars in the process…
VIP Modular booth on display…
If you want my honest opinion of this event, I would kind of relate it to like pro-wrestling and figure skating, but without the excitement of wrestling and without the grace of figure skating…haha, if that makes any sense… I didn’t think that many people would be into the competition side of the event but damn, people were on edge after the first couple cars did their driveway sessions. I think many of us were skeptical but eventually we were also into it and wanted to know who was going to win. I knew that the meet portion of this event would be good because Tony’s events always have good turn-outs. He can bring a good crowd in just by blasting the event on Facebook. The competition was cool, but like I said early on, there’s a lot that needs to go into judging criteria if Tony and crew decide to put another event like this on again in the future…
Lowered cars going up driveways is something that every enthusiast has to go through practically everyday…turning it into a competition just sounds totally absurd…but you know what? It just works…haha. Congrats to Tony and the It’s JDM Yo!! crew for putting on another successful event…
Standard Functions brought out a couple of really nicely-built Ruckus’ for display at the Fatlace booth…
I spotted my favorite car early on in the day…DPK David and I were walking around while I did coverage and stumbled upon an AE86 on HRE wheels…
HREs are not a typical wheel that you see on an AE86…this one might be the first one ever actually…You don’t see these wheels on Corollas of any kind because they are often times worth more than the cars themselves. It’s a high end wheel that belongs on more appropriately high-end automobiles. Anytime you see something like this though, it’s definitely a cool sight…
Turns out that this beautiful creation is actually owned by Mickey Andrade who works at HRE. David and I were a little shocked at first to see a perfectly fit set of HREs on a Corolla but after speaking to him, it all made sense. The car itself was built by John Russakoff from JSPFab in Vista, CA…
John Russakoff’s claim to fame, besides being a talented drifter in Formula D, is performing S2000 F20C swaps on older Toyotas like the AE86. He has a whole kit that is made just for the swap and even has this custom made F20C spark plug wire covers with the Toyota 1600 insignia on them…pretty cool stuff…
I’ve seen this EK with purple Work Meister S1s various times before online…I believe it’s from Northern Cali…
The It’s JDM Yo!! booth with an assortment of the latest It’s JDM Yo!! gear…
The Z33 from above on SSR Gartmaier wheels…
Jay Borcena’s Acura TL on VIP Modular wheels and Accuair suspension…
The guys having a moment…(From left to right: Jay Borcena, Big Mike, Noel Barnum, DPK David, and Noel’s girl Emily…)
Ms. Sheila working the NOS Energy booth…
3GS on Auto Couture wheels…
A good-looking wingless Mitsubishi Evo X on concave Volk TE37s…
JonJon Usaha’s Job Design Lexus IS300 representing It’s JDM Yo/Vanguard Collective…
S2000 from Infinit Wheels sitting on CCWs…
2GS on Work Eurolines, also representing Infinit Wheels…
WRX rolling through with some aggressive blue Work Meister S1s…
Powerhouse Amuse-inspired Honda S2000 on Enkei PF01 from DTM Autobody…
Clean Boso-style Corolla wagon on really clean old school Super Advan Racing wheels…I dig the red interior on this thing…
Keychain cruising up to the event fashionably late…
Noel Barnum taking a seat on his Ruckus to check out the event…
I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason why the intercooler on this S14 is cock-eyed…probably insert a “Because Drift Car” or something stupid here…
Antonio from Motormavens was in charge of MCing the event but also had his camera and massive lens on hand to do some coverage for his site…
This G35 on white-faced Work Meister S1 wheels was just stunning…Shows that you can have a clean set-up on aggressive wheels without making your shit look absurd with haggered fenders…
Yogi from Fatlace/Illest standing the in the middle of the street with a giant “Illest” flag…
A couple hours into the event, it was time to begin the competition and people got together by the driveway in anticipation…
Evo X on green Volk CE28s posted-up on the side of the street…
Here’s an incorrect way to be “stanced-out”….fake TEs, chewed up tires inside and out rocking two gigantic wheel spacers just to be “flush”…What is that shit, like 50mms wider now??…
Jimmy from Team Praxis rolling through before the competition started in his FJ Cruiser…
RHD CR-X from Infinit Wheels lined-up and ready to compete…
Milt from Low N Slow was the first car on hand to try his way up the driveway…he and his crew took the competition seriously and had their team flags and shit all up in Milt’s Z…
Milt’s license plate was a popular topic of mention at the event…
The judges and Antonio huddling-up and discussing the rules…
Milt and his Garson Deep Racing wheels ready to go…
…Judges ready…
…and….
…back tomorrow with part two of the “So You Think You Can Stance?” coverage!…
Stay tuned and thanks for looking!
The Chronicles’ Choice…Favorite Non-Honda Builds of 2011…
Well this is a first…During the last couple months when I was busy trying to figure out how the order of the Top Ten Hondas of 2011 would go, I came up with an idea to spotlight some of my favorite non-Honda builds of the year. I am after all, an avid automotive enthusiast and I love cars of all types. I don’t even own a Honda anymore personally, and I’ve at one time had a Toyota, Honda, and now a Nissan (Infiniti). I always have my eye out on everything because I can appreciate a great build without brand bias. Another reason why I’m always looking for great builds in general is because I work in the magazine industry. It’s sort of my job to go and seek out new cars to feature so I have to always be aware of new builds that are coming out every year. This list isn’t in any particular order, much like the 2011 Honors list, because I feel all these cars are great in their own right. All are very different builds and from varying parts of the world. Some I have seen in person, some I hope to someday see…either way, it’s my personal list of favorite non-Honda builds from 2011. The Top Ten Hondas list will always trump any other list I make here on The Chronicles but to show my deepest appreciation for their hard work, here are some builds that stood out to me the most and really captured my attention….
Joy Abdalla’s Subaru STI…
This car absolutely took my breath away when I first spotted it at the 2011 SEMA Convention…It’s just a great looking car. I love how aggressive the widebody is on it and how it still flows with the original lines of the STI. Where this build really shines though is under the hood…the bay is very well-done and one of the cleanest Subaru engine bays I have ever seen. Everything just comes together nearly perfectly…the custom paint, aero, engine bay, interior…man, just top-notch… I believe this is going to be in an issue of Import Tuner in the future so make sure to grab a copy of that. I had a chance to meet the owner at one of the industry parties’ during the SEMA weekend in Vegas last year as well and when David Do from MayDay Garage introduced us, I can honestly say that I was very surprised to see that it was a female owner. I’m not saying that I’m surprised that a woman can build a great car, because I’ve seen it plenty of times before…I’m just saying, a lot of STI owners are usually like bro’d-out white dudes or larger gentlemen that seem like they enjoy a good competitive game of Warcraft…haha, okay that’s not totally true but thumbs-up to Joy Abdalla for building herself a wonderful car. A favorite of mine for sure…
Nick Weir’s K20-powered Volkswagen Caddy…
Nick’s Caddy is probably one of the coolest builds of 2011. He wasn’t the first to do a K-swap in a VW Caddy but his is definitely the most well-rounded. When I first heard about this thing, I was really interested in seeing it in person. Luckily for me, I had a chance to fly out to Nashville, TN for the annual summer Import Alliance meet and I did indeed get the opportunity to see it for myself. There are little things here and there that obviously don’t make it “perfect” by any means, but Nick never intended it to be. It’s a little rough around the edges and that adds to the appeal of the truck. For what it is, the quality of work is very good. How often are you going to see a VW caddy with a K-swap and a battleship-greyish bay? It’s a one of a kind build with some unique personal touches to it that leave no question that it’s the work of Nick Weir. He was bummed that he didn’t get the Rotiform wheels that he wanted for it but the Work CR-01s look pretty good on there. This Caddy was one of the highlights for me in 2011 and I’m happy that I got to see it in person to appreciate it. Nick is a bit of a weirdo so his personality reflects his cars..haha. This thing is most certainly an odd-ball build but odd in a very cool way…
Machan’s A60 Toyota Carina wagon…
Speaking of oddball builds, this Toyota Carina wagon is about as outside of the box as it gets. I first spotted this thing at the Hellaflush Japan event and I’ve been looking for more information and photos of this wagon ever since. It has a Japanese Firetruck theme on the outside and apparently, it’s actually used at one of the firestations. I love how it’s a mix of genres and also a mix of old school styling and new technology. The bay is tuck and shaved with the cage running through the firewalls to the shock towers, and the heart of this Carina is a Toyota BEAM’s 3S-GE from the Japanese market Toyota Altezza. It also has individual throttle bodies, a custom header, and a custom semi-trailing arm suspension. If that’s not enough, this Carina also features a Tilton brake system and 14×8.5/9 RS Watanabe wheels…Man, this thing is so sick. I know that the “stance” and “hellaflush” style is just getting completely out of hand but when it comes to a build like this, it works…. Everything is over the top and not meant to be anything taken too seriously… I don’t know about you guys, but I thoroughly enjoy old school Toyotas, Nissans, etc. and it’s cool when you see something like this that has a mix of everything…
Jin Ueno’s Aimgain VIP Lexus LS400…
Jin’s LS from Kyoei USA has to be my favorite VIP build of 2011. I say that because I’ve always preferred the more traditional VIP “look” and Jin has executed it well. When I say “traditional”, I mean, it’s not just all about wheel fitment and modifying fenders. He has taken the time to create a well-round VIP project…he’s paid attention to the interior, which is essential when building a VIP project, and he’s added some one-off touches that make it stand-out in a sea of black and white VIP cars. I love the simplicity of the Aimgain kit and the contrast of the red pinstriping and red exhaust tips. It’s another car that flows every well because the owner has paid great attention to minor details. The red also transfers over to the front fogs, something you never really see, and the black/red them is also found throughout the re-wrapped and custom stitched interior….VIP-style isn’t all about cramming stupid wide wheels into your luxury/non-luxury vehicle and this is a great example of how to build a VIP-style car…
Wilson Tam’s Carlsson 2010 Mercedes Benz E350…
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not all that familar with European vehicles. It’s just not something that I’ve taken an active interest in throughout the years. I just love Japanese cars and Japanese automotive culture, so my attention has been devoted to that. When I ran into Wilson Tam’s E350 at SEMA 2011, it made me want to learn more about a car that I would otherwise overlook normally. It was sitting in the outside display area and it just looked so good sitting on the ground on some custom bronze BBS LMs. I walked up to it and noticed that it also had a full Carlsson aero kit. Everyday that I went to the SEMA show that week, I found myself stopping by to take another look at it. If you have seen my coverage from SEMA and Autocon in 2011, then you most likely have already heard me rambling on about how much I like this build…I’m not that big of a fan of Mercedes Benzs but I love this one…
Ka Wong’s F20C-powered AE86 Toyota Corolla…
I’m a big fan of Ka Wong because he not only built himself an amazing AE86 Corolla, he also happens to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. This car has been around for about two years now but I like the fact that he continues to add new stuff to it. This year, he showed-off his custom audio set-up in his trunk and it just makes his Corolla that much more untouchable at car shows. The guy has been a consistent winner and he’s very much deserving of all the accolades that he receives. It’s just one of those cars that you can’t help but notice, you know? Not only because of the bright orange color but because of the S2000 engine swap and the myriad of other things he’s put into this build. There are very few AE86 Corollas that are built this level of quality and I’m happy that I’ve had plenty of chances to see this Corolla in person.
Ryan Deguzman’s FD3S and FC3S RX-7s…
Ryan Deguzman happens to have a pair of two of the finest RX-7s in the west coast. I don’t know how or why he has both these sick ass builds so I’ll just sit back and enjoy the view. His FD RX-7 stands out much more because of the yellow tone but his white FC is not a car that you should just overlook. It’s in mint condition and I believe his FC is also his daily driver. I’ve included links below to take you to some online features of both cars so that you can read more about them if you choose. I’ve never had a chance to meet this guy or speak to him but he has great taste in parts and has a very good sense of style. I really like both of his RX-7s and they are definitely two highlight builds of mine in 2011…
Click here to read more about Ryan Deguzman’s FD3s RX-7…
Must be nice, right? Haha…round of a applause to this guy for having a pair of well-built Mazdas…
Brandon Burke’s S13 Nissan 240SX coupe…
I didn’t get a chance to see Brandon Burke’s S13 until December of 2011 but it immediately became a favorite of mine in 2011. I just love how simple it is and how it can still look really aggressive without having any wild aero. What I like the most about it is that it’s completely garage-built and everything but the paint itself was put together inside his crappy garage. It’s a little rough around the edges here and there but it’s almost a throwback to how cars were put together back in the day. Brandon is completely self-taught and put this whole car together himself without having the help of any shop or anything. I can’t say much more about it because his Super Street feature drops in about a month so just pick up that issue if you want to hear me write more about how great it is…
Mark Arcenal’s Hakosuka Skyline 2000GT…
2011 will probably be remembered as the year that Rauh Welt cemented it’s status in America and that’s largely due to the efforts of Mark Arcenal from Fatlace/Illest. His Rauh Welt Porsche was the talk of the second half of 2011 but my favorite Mark Arcenal automotive build will always be his Nissan Skyline 2000GT. I just feel that the Rauh Welt look is a look that Akira Nakai created and it will always be Nakai’s style. Mark’s Porsche was built to represent Rauh Welt so the car is very much Nakai’s creation and not truly his. His Skyline on the other hand, is more of Mark’s handy work and has more elements to it that are more representative of Arcenal himself. It’s not built off another car that’s already been done before and I love the overall look of it. It’s style in it’s purest form. I also enjoyed how Mark himself described the car in a video that I’ve attached below. Check it out and you’ll understand why I like this build so much more than “Pandora One”. You can tell how big of an enthusiast he is just by listening to him talk about his car…really neat stuff…
If the video link doesn’t work for you, click here to go to the page…
Well, that’s it for today. I promise this is the last of the “Top”-whatever lists. Haha…Time to move on to stuff that’s going on in 2012…Thanks for looking….
SEMA Show 2011 Coverage…Part 2…
I apologize for the lack of updates the last couple days. I was fully prepared to start up part 2 of the SEMA coverage on Thursday but I ended up spending most of the day trying to finish up some magazine work as well as test fitting my new wheels on my Q45. The story took a little longer than I thought it would and then I ended up not even getting any sleep Thursday night. Come Friday, I had an early shoot that took most of the afternoon and whatever time I had I used it to nap. I guess the lack of sleep in combination with trying to do so many other things at once caused me to get sick and my Saturday was spent in bed just feeling completely shitty the whole day. In any case, we are finally getting to part 2 of the SEMA coverage now and we will for sure move on to part 3 on Monday…
Today we will be covering more of what was inside the central hall of the SEMA show, which consisted of the major manufacturers as well as stuff that was in the wheel and tire hall…
At this point of the show, we had spent a majority of the time exploring everything in the central hall before arriving at the Honda of America section where the 2012 Civic SEMA builds were parked…
The first car inside the Honda area that caught my attention right away was Bisimoto’s 2012 Civic. It was good to finally see this thing in it’s state of completion and sitting on the SEMA show floor. I had been at the Bisimoto facilities the last couple nights it was there watching it all come together in the last hours of the night so I honestly felt a sense of accomplishment seeing it at the show…
Engine bay of the Bisimoto Civic…
I loved the way this build came out and I’m happy that we were able to figure out a way to get those Eins Gramm wheels on there, especially considering how closely it came to not happening because of clearance issues with the suspension, body, and tire sizing…
Interior shot of the Bisimoto Civic with the Racepak display lit up…
Dyno sheet displaying the final horsepower output of the Bisimoto 2012 Civic… Unless you haven’t heard by now, yes, the turbo K24Z7 engine made 1003.6 horsepower….
Bisi Ezerioha and DPK David chatting it up and David giving his impressions of the build after finally seeing it in person for the first time…
The Tjin Edition 2012 Civic Si 4-door on Rotiform wheels… This year, Neil and Gene Tjin went with a more casual look. Nothing too over the top or crazy because they wanted to show that the ’12 Civic could be stylish in even it’s simplest form….
Fox Marketing’s widebody 2012 Honda Civic Si coupe with Full Race turbo kit and Vossen wheels…
With so much custom body work and time devoted to the exterior of the Civic, the engine bay definitely left a little bit more to be desired…
HPD 2011 Honda CR-Z “Hybrid R Concept” with aero and wheels by 5Axis Design…
2012 Civic SI coupe with HFP (Honda Factory Performance) full lip kit…
HPD ’12 Civic race car on Volk Racing TE37SL…
HPD-prepped 2012 Civic chassis which I guess is available for purchase in raw form like this…They had parts listings and part numbers for everything on this chassis because it can be purchased separately…
A trio of new Hyundai Veloster builds over at the Hyundai booth…I still don’t know how I feel about this car…The original concept car looked really cool but the production model obviously doesn’t look as good. It’s kind of like the girl at the club that isn’t really all that hot, but after a couple drinks, in that special moment in time, under the right light, she actually looks very decent…yeah that’s the correct way to describe the Veloster: “Very Decent”… The Veloster name is also a combination of the words “velocity” and “roadster”, which if you think about it, isn’t all that creative either. So since the Veloster is “very decent”, they should have just named the car the Hyundai Vecent…haha… I’d build the living shit out of one for SEMA though, that’s for sure. Send one our way and we can make this thing fucking amazing… We will call it the Hyundai “Fumazing” after that…throw a cheesy one-eyed wink after you read that last line too…
Z33 drift car at the K-Sport booth…We went back to this booth the next day and spotted the spokesmodel they had and she was fucking shredded…oh man, she was in such good shape that Jared went to go take a picture with her and her abs almost ripped Jared’s tiny little sweater off his body, haha…
I knew Sunny from Franklin Autobody was doing some stuff to his Insight for SEMA but when DPK David called me over to check it out, I was pretty shocked to see it’s transformation…He went from this VIP-themed luxury hybrid look to this race-inspired, very aggressive look…. It’s a very drastic change…
I believe this is a J’s Racing wing from an EK Civic…actually, I think this is Ryan Der’s old J’s wing off his white EK….
17×9.5 -/+0 offset Volk TE37s and Brembo brakes…
Sunny’s Insight got a lot of attention throughout the day. The moments I was there hanging out, I saw all kinds of people stop by to snap a photo and many of them I could tell weren’t even Honda/import guys…
You can tell how much the rear has been modified by seeing the edge where the quarter panel and rear door meet…Definitely a lot of time and work put into this Insight…
Enjuku Racing supercharged LS1-swapped Hyundai Genesis coupe in the BC Racing booth…
Nissan 370Z also from the BC Racing booth…
Widebody Nissan R35 GT-R from High End/Auto Concept Elite representing Eneos Sustina…
Stopped by the Vibrant Performance booth to chat with our friend Donavan Griffith. We only get to see Donovan once a year and it’s at the annual SEMA show. He and Vibrant Performance have always taken very good care of us so we just had to get a photo with him…
Passed by the HKS booth and saw this S2000 rocking one of their supercharger kits… Cool thing about stumbling upon the HKS booth was that one of the guys working that day for them ended up being the translator that was with the Tactical Art Japan guys when we met up with them in the evening. That was a long sentence…
Ken Suen’s Civic w/Mugen RR kit reppin’ Ultra Racing…
2nd generation Honda Fit with a Buddy Club livery…
1 of 2 Rauh Welt Begriff (RWB) USA Porsches on display at SEMA, this one from Hoonigan Inc. on fifteen52 3GS Tarmac Split wheels…People were going absolutely apeshits in anticipation of seeing these RWB Porsches at SEMA so it’s only fitting that they decided to put a fucking stool, podium, giant computer screen, and spokesmodel in front of it…
Here’s a shot of the wing because this was the only area where there wasn’t something obstructing view of the car…
After trying to get a good look at the Porsche for a couple minutes, we decided to head over to the wheel and tire hall. It was getting late and May wanted to get some freebies before days end and the tire hall usually had the best stuff…
Bentley GT at the Nexen tire booth…I don’t know anyone with a Bentley GT nor do I know any one with Nexen tires so this is unfamiliar territory for me… I also don’t know what aero kit is on the Bentley. I imagine it would be somewhere along the lines of “can’t buy it with stickydiljoe.com money”….
Widebody Cadillac CTS-V coupe in the Toyo Tires area…
I gotta give this model props for doing her job to the best of her ability. I actually waited for her to walk away so that I could get a full shot of this car. When I went to snap the photo as she was walking away, she fucking ran back all quick and got into position for this photo, even though I wasn’t really trying to get her in the shot…haha. I was honestly just trying to figure out what kind of car this was because the design of it was so unique. Turns out that this car is actually a “Fisker Karma”, which is an electric luxury vehicle that makes 401HP and 981lb-ft TQ…. It’s a good looking car for sure and way more impressive because it electric and eco-friendly…
Time attack S2000 from AFI turbo sitting in the Hankook booth…First time seeing this car with this particular front end…
BMW 5-series in the Forgestar/Iforged booth with an End CC front lip and diffuser… Wheels are Forgestar F15….
Lamborghini LP700-4 Aventador on Giovanna wheels…
Mansory Ferrari 458 Italia…
…with carbon fiber rear louvers…
Audi S5 in the Falken Tire section on red Rotiform wheels…
Lexus LF-A…
RWB Porsche 964 belonging to Mark Arcenal from Fatlace, dubbed “Pandora One”…
Sitting on aggressive Rotiform “RWB” wheels…
Rear quarter shot of Pandora One…
This was definitely one of the most talked-about builds leading up to SEMA and it’s debut definitely didn’t disappoint….
It was day one of SEMA so there were many photo-ops with Nakai-san from RWB…here he is posing for a photo with a RWB Thailand rep to his right and Mark Arcenal from Fatlace/Illest to his left…
DPK Jared is an S2000-owner but he also owns a Porsche and is a big fan of RWB and Porsches in general, so he leaped at the opportunity to get a photo with Nakai-san…As you can see from the photo, Nakai was also overjoyed to get a photo with Jared, haha…seriously though, dude just never smiles. I don’t recall a photo ever taken of him where he’s actually worn any sort of emotion on his face. Guess it goes with the whole RWB image and that’s just his style…
After taking a few moments to check out Mark Arcenal’s Porsche, we decided that it was time to start heading out since the show was coming to a close for the day…
Upon leaving the wheel/tire hall, we came upon some cars that we will never own in our lifetimes because we all decided one day to not sell drugs… The car above is a matte black Mansory Rolls Royce Phantom…if you thought a Rolls Royce Phantom was expensive, imagine one with a Mansory kit…
I loved the way this Premier4509 Bentley Continental GT looked…the wheels and aero are executed perfectly on this CGT. It’s a car I would definitely consider selling drugs for…the only thing stopping me is the fact that I already don’t have enough time in the day to do everything I want to do. If I were selling drugs on top of that, I would definitely have to start doing some yay to stay awake and I’m just way too good looking to fuck with drugs…my good friend Notorious B.I.G. already stated very clearly once that I should never get high on my own supply and I’m just one of those guys that likes to listen to their friend’s advice. Plus, my shitty apartment wouldn’t even give me another parking pass to park this Bentley inside my complex, so fuck that…I don’t want dirty fucking street cats jumping all over this car any way…
Alright, that’s all for today. I really should be getting some rest since I still feel like shit…back with more tomorrow…the next post is pretty funny, I mean, I haven’t written it out or anything yet but I have an active imagination and trust me, my brain tells me that it’s very funny…
Thanks for looking….
