Motion Auto Show 2012 Coverage…Part 2 of 2…
Rolling right along now with part 2 of the Motion Auto Show 2012 Coverage… I mentioned yesterday that it seemed as if the show was slower than last year with foot traffic seemingly down but the Motion Auto Show staff released the official numbers today for the event…
This just in: The final counts have been tallied!
Year……………………………2011———-2012
Attendees…………………….5500———-5677
Vendors………………………125————143
Car Show Competitors…….300————360
Media Registrations………..160————200
I guess I was wrong in my assessment, haha… I think maybe it just seemed that way because I wasn’t at the show as long and by the time I had got there, it was already halfway over with. Last year I was there all morning and saw the flood of people come in while this year, I just walked into it later in the day. Congrats to the Motion Auto staff though for putting on a great event and getting the numbers that they did. I got a bunch of stuff to knock out today for the site as well as for work so let’s just head right back into the rest of the photos. I didn’t take nearly as many photos this year so this second portion of the coverage is the final half. If I happened to have missed your car at the event, I either didn’t see it or just didn’t have time to get over to your section. Please don’t ask me if I have any photos of your car. What you see here is all that I got…thanks guys… enjoy…
Cyrus Raagas’ turbocharged S2000 with J’s Racing aero and ASM carbon doors… I was trying to get this thing shot so I could squeeze it into the upcoming Super Street Honda Issue but it was stuck in the bodyshop during that time and we just couldn’t knock it out. Very nice build though and a consistent winner at shows. Usually in the Honda category it comes down to either Big Mike or Cyrus and both are deserving…
Water-cooled turbo set-up… Not sure what types of numbers this produces but it is definitely an eye catcher. If there is one thing left that this S2000 needs it’s a nice tuck job. Rywire can probably do wonders with this thing and the bay will look even better….
Work Meister M1R wheels in a bronze finish…I did a shitty job of capturing it but Cyrus’ S2000 also has J’s Racing brakes…
Not really sure what the significance of South Park and Monster Energy have together or why it is a central theme on this Integra but it just looks like an assault on the brain with total randomness…Owner even sprinkled green glitter flakes around the car…Wouldn’t be a bad car without all the random shit around it but again, I think the theme here is “confusion”…
Y34 Infiniti M45 with what I believe to be an Autech aero kit. I remember I really wanted one of these a couple years ago before I bought my Y33 Q and to this day I still thinking about owning one. If I did it would probably end up sitting there for months on end like the one I have now, haha… This one is really well done though considering how limited parts are here in the U.S….
APR widebody G35 on carbon-faced HRE wheels…
Super aggressive widebody BMW M coupe from Renner Motorsport posted up in the Nitto Tires booth…
If high ranking members of the Illuminati were into cars, they would probably drive this custom Mercedes “SL666″…haha… fucking sick though. Only thing is I wonder how cool you look trying to climb out of the car with those long ass doors in the way…
Clean white Infiniti G37 on gunmetal Work VS-XX wheels…
Always been a fan of the livery on this Kouki S14 240SX on Work Varianza T1S wheels… Got a little bit of that Rosetta Stone and Pepto Bismo splatter feel to it, haha…no for real though, it’s a good looking car…
Milt Salamanca’s 350Z with custom re-barreled Work Rezax wheels… the rears are like 19×17 or some shit, haha…Shit is so deep my camera couldn’t even focus on the rears… The guy in the background is either sayin “Daaaaaamn” or playing the harmonica…
Lexus Sc400 from the Low ‘N Slow crew sitting on some WEDS Kranze Bazreias…
Another Z33, this one on extremely aggressive SSR Professor SP3 wheels… Half the rear wheel isn’t even touching the ground…
Some breezy apparently did some “modeling” on this Z and left her impression on the car with an oil ass print on the rear quarters…
Rywire Ryan jumped in there to do a little sniff test to see if it was fresh… he said it smelled like fresh clams from the Pacific with a hint of strawberry and avocado…
Bright metallic green Subaru WRX wagon from Team Hybrid… Rear flare is pretty aggressive and looks to make the rear door completely unusable… Two-toned bay as well… I try to stay away from taking photos of Subaru bays because the engine layout usually leaves for some pretty cluttered engine bays. There are a few very well executed, tucked bay, but this one isn’t one of them…
Joe Bacigalupi’s Voltex-equipped Subaru WRX wagon that I wrote a story on for Super Street over a year ago. Back then it was silver/grey still but has since been repainted to what you see currently…
S2000 wearing the new Voltex street aero kit… Love the lines of this kit as well as the Volk Racing RE30CS wheels…
BMW wagon representing B&G Suspensions on Work Rezax II wheels…
I didn’t get a whole lot of model coverage at the show but here is a shot of Melissa Riso modeling for Team Hybrid…
SL65 AMG Black Series from SPDV6…
Custom widebody Mitsubishi Evo X from High End/Auto Concept Elite…
The engine bay of the above Evo X…
Import Fashion was the spot if you were looking for models that you’ve never heard of… Nice photoshoot style set-up for the girls and for perverts with cameras…
Big Steve’s Unicorn LS400….
Black 2GS that Autofashion has dubbed “Chicken Little”…I have no idea why… Love WEDS Kranze Bazreias though…
Oscar aka Pancakes’ Y33 Q45 with his new Leon Hardiritt Bugel wheel set-up…
I stopped by to talk basketball for a bit with Neil Tjin from Tjin Edition-fame and his baby boy Colin…
Hakosuka Skyline lurking underneath the Autofashion tent…
Another shot of the Datsun Bluebird coupe from part 1…
Ela Pasion knocking out like 64 poses for every photographer that was in front of her in a matter of 20 seconds. All I got was the rear end shot…
Speaking of red rear-ends, here’s some more of Michael Mao’s NSX on custom gold Mugen MF10s….
Hate it or love it…
EP3 Civic with Mugen front end and Dunlop Formula Hart wheels…
Another EP3, this one with Enkei RPF1 and the dreaded Honda center caps…
EF hatchback with JDM SiR front end conversion and Enkei RPF1…
Amuse-style widebody S2000 on carbon hard top…
Black Integra rocking a “Mugen” stripe and Mugen MF8s…JDM front end conversion as well…
Evo IX with some Voltex gear and bronze Volk RE30s…
Impressive Wrap matte white wrapped widebody Evo looking good on Volk TE37SLs in red…
White VW MK6 GTI on air…
Always enjoy seeing this MK2 Golf at events…he is a consistent winner at shows as well and as I was snapping this photo I saw him walking back to the car with a trophy…
Really liked this Evolution IX with a complete Voltex aero kit and blue concave TE37s…Great looking car…
Tony Lee from It’s JDM Yo!! showing off the fap material that he collected throughout the day at the Motion Auto Show…
At this point, I was called on stage for their announcement for the Motion Auto “Motion Media Award”. As I said in part 1, I didn’t win but it was cool to be nominated and to be on stage for a little bit…
Got the chance to snap this photo on stage behind the trophies… Natalia Marie, Julie Mai, and the other NOS Energy Girls were on hand to give out the trophies to car show competitors…
Freddie from Autofashion was on stage to present the Ruckus Awards and Big Mike was called up to represent The Chronicles so I snapped this crappy photo of them while we waited…
I took a bunch of photos of the Ruckus’ in attendance at the show but I have the terrible shakes and they all came out blurry so I apologize for the lack of Ruckus photos…
After they announced the Motion Media Award, I did the walk of shame off the stage and went back to taking photos of whatever was left that I missed prior…
Stopped by the AEM booth to say what’s up to my buddy Holly Lee…
..and then I walked over to check out this Datsun 510 sedan from Team Hybrid… Love the orange tone on the bronze Volk TE37Vs…
Interior was mint…notice the Katana sword handle shift knob…
KA24DE swap and a tidy battleship grey engine bay…
Another angle so you guys can see the plumbing for the fuel lines and oil filter relocation… That ARC intake originally meant for a non-turbo SR20DE motor has to be one of the oddest intakes I’ve ever encountered…
Ken Suen’s FA5 Civic Si with JDM Mugen RR conversion… Love the offsetting Volk RE30s and CE28s front and back… You’ll be seeing this car soon as it is (in my opinion) one of the heavy favorites to win the upcoming Super Street FF Battle 4 competition…
Jackson Wong’s matte grey-wrapped Amuse-style S2000 on Enkei PF01 wheels…
I couldn’t end my day without stopping by the Falken booth to snap a photo of the Falken Tire S15 Silvia… I love S15s and I think they are one of the best looking cars that Nissan ever produced…
As I was snapping a photo of the S15 Silvia, Big Mike walked by with his Best Honda award so I stopped him to get a photo op with Brad Lim from Falken as well as Falken model Randyl Dawn… Congrats to Big Mike on the award. He placed second last year as the Best Honda award went to Cyrus with the S2000 but this year, he took top honors…
That pretty much wraps up the coverage of the event. I chatted with some other people for a minute before May and I took off to go have dinner with Rywire Ryan. Below is a list of the winners in each class. Congrats to them all for their hard work and dedication. Michael Mao with the NSX ended up taking second place Acura if you guys were wondering…Anyways, here’s the list…
Acura
3rd: Eric lam – RSX
2nd: Michael Mao – NSX (Red NSX on gold Mugen MF10)
1st: Brian Yoshino – TSX (Blue widebody TSX from Part 1)Honda
3rd: Sunny Suravarapu – Accord
2nd: Cyrus Raagas – S2000 (Purple J’s Racing S2000)
1st: Big Mike – Prelude (You already know who this is)Toyota
3rd: Ka Wong – Corolla (Orange AE86 with F20C swap from Part 1)
2nd: Kai Tsukihama – Supra
1st: Richard Carino – SupraScion
3rd: Manny – TC
2nd: Jeff Maldonado – TC
1st: Geisha Events – TCBoxed
3rd: Ellisome Punzalan – XB
2nd: Robert Green – XB
1st: Geneva Pruitt – XBNissan
3rd: Lohit Pattanaik – 370Z
2nd: Forrest Wang – 240sx (Green S13.4 from Part 1 with the 2JZ swap)
1st: Jesse Sabater – GTRInfiniti
3rd: Alfred Serrato – G35
2nd: Dallas Tung – G35
1st: Randy Riggs – G35Mitsubishi
3rd: JB – Evo
2nd: Kelvin Hsui – Evo
1st: Jovi La Victoria – EvoSubaru
3rd: Greg Villanueva- WRX (I believe this is the green one above)
2nd: Jeff Bacigalupi – WRX (WRX wagon on TE37SL pictured in the above photos)
1st: Thomas Milroy Jr.Mazda
3rd: Impressive Wraps- RX7
2nd: Ulysses Aguayo – RX7
1st: Ryan de Guzman – RX7 (Yellow FD3S that I somehow missed out on photographing but you’ve seen it plenty of times here on this site)Lexus
Alan: Hewitt – ISF
Carl: Zamulo – IS
Matt: Tom – CT250VIP:
3rd: Miguel Aguirre
2nd: Jonathon Carino – LS
1st: OJ Bayang – LSJapanese Old School
3rd: Peter Vong – Celica (Green 1st gen. Celica from Part 1 with the F20C swap)
2nd: Mallen Fajardo – 510
1st: Michael Castillo – SkylineJDM
3rd: Eric Lam – RSX
2nd: Jovi la Victoria – Evo
1st: Richard Carino – SupraBMW
3rd: James Lin – 330i
2nd: Gavin Goei – M3
1st: Mert Contapay – M5Mercedes
3rd: John Rhee – S Class
2nd: Sammy Stoicescu – SL
1st: John Rhee – CLSVW
3rd: Bernie Chacon – Golf
2nd: Michael Tao – Golf
1st: Mike Concepcion – GTIEuro Other
3rd: Joseph Liu – Smart Car
2nd: Jose Romo – A3
1st: Francis Fabiculanan – 911Camaro
3rd: Mike Betts – SS
2nd: Gary Shellum – Camaro
1st: Marco Ramirez – SSDomestic
3rd: Eric Degratte – Magnum
2nd: Ken Tickner – Charger
1st: Lance Doss – ChargerStance
3rd: Milton Salamanca – 350Z (White Z33 on Work Rezax above)
2nd: HenryMartinez – 350Z (Black Z33 with the ass print on it)
1st: Christopher Daniels – GS (Lexus 1GS with the unpainted front bumper)Best Display:
Team HybridBest Team
3rd: Hybrid
2nd: R-Rydes
1st: TWCBest Engineering:
Ka Wong – Corolla (AE86 with F20C swap)Best in Show:
Viet Nguyen – Infinity FX (The blue FX from Part 1. This was already a foregone conclusion because nobody can touch that car)
Thanks for looking!
Motion Auto Show 2012 Coverage…Part 1…
Welcome to the first part of The Chronicles’ Motion Auto Show 2012 Coverage… Before I begin, I’d like to mention first off that I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I did last year. The main reason behind that was because of the fact that I didn’t make it home to California until around 11:30am or so, after the show had already started. I had to take care of a couple of things back at home and I didn’t even get down to Long Beach for the show until around 2:30pm. When I got there I didn’t have a whole lot of time to take photos like I did last year so I apologize in advance if this coverage lacks the “depth” that my usual coverage entails. Add that with stopping to chat with people and seeing the usual friends, there just wasn’t nearly enough time to get everything I wanted. Last year, Motion gave me a booth space at their show so I was at the show from the moment they let competitors back into the building in the morning, until the hour after the show ended. That was more than enough time to get the cars, models, and whatever shenanigans was going on at the event…
As for my thoughts on the show itself, hmmm…I mean, I missed the first couple hours of the event but it seemed like foot traffic was way down from last year. It just didn’t seem as if they had as many spectators as they did in the past. There also weren’t as many cars as last year from what I saw. The main area by the stage last year was just packed with vehicles and major car crews like Auto Concept Elite had huge displays. This year the area was mostly empty with a few row of cars. Even Auto Concept didn’t have their usual display and just had a couple of cars on hand. The quality of the cars was still there but it just didn’t seem as “full” as it was in 2011. Overall the show was good though. From what I saw everybody seemed to have positive things to say about it and the only points they made were the same as I listed here. I want to say that it was slow because there are so many events coming up and people are saving up, but it wouldn’t be a fair assessment because Motion fell into the same block of time as in 2011, when they were just a week apart from the new Spocom show…
The models seem to be kind of lacking this year as well. Again, I didn’t get to the show until it was half way over, but it seemed like there weren’t as many “big names” as before. There was a lot more up and comers and some girls probably should just reconsider this whole modeling thing. That sounds like an asshole thing to say but after being a part of this import community for over a decade now, I’ve come to realize which girls have lasting power and which ones will quickly fade away. I applaud them for taking a chance and putting themselves out there though, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t see many of these girls a year from now. It takes a lot for these girls to put themselves out there wearing what they wear but it’s tough to really stand out in a crowd of so many would-be “import models”…
Another reason why I decided to come back early from DPK David’s bachelor party weekend in Vegas was so that I could make it back in time for Motion to see if I won the “Motion Media Award” that I was nominated for. It was an honor to be nominated and placed in a category where I was competing with Performance Auto Sound magazine and MotoIQ but in the end, I didn’t take the award home. MotoIQ ended up with the trophy but it was a good experience overall. It’s cool that I’m getting recognition for all the hard work I put into this site and the nomination means a ton. This is a one man show over here and I do everything from the writing, to the photos, to making and packing all the merchandise so I’ll gladly accept the nomination against a publication with a full staff as well as a website with multiple contributors. It was cool being on the stage for the awards too as I’ve never been able to look at the show from that point of view. One thing I was a little confused about was why they called Big Mike on stage and called him “Big Mike from The Chronicles”. Though Big Mike is a friend and a regular of the site, he is by no means a staff member or contributor to the site. I have no staff after all… I guess that’s my fault though for walking into the show at 2:30, haha…Makes more sense to have Big Mike go on stage since he had been there the whole day than me, who was nowhere to be found until the afternoon…
Alright, that’s all I really have to say about the event. It was a overall a good show and one of the shows to look forward to every year…
Kicking off the coverage with a shot of the car that everyone seemed to be talking about at the Motion Auto Show. Michael Mao’s NSX with his new custom re-barreled Mugen MF10 wheels by Wheelflip stunned many a showgoer when they spotted it. The bright gold finish was an instant eye-grabber and the first car that I went to go look at when I walked in…
The MF10s with the custom step-lipped set-up has also been a big topic on the internet as of late. Many like it and seem to be very fond of the look, while others completely despise it and are crying blasphemy at the idea of cutting the faces off a classic Mugen wheel. Either way, Mao’s NSX is getting quite a bit of attention, whether it be good or bad. I am a purist about certain things but I have come to embrace the idea of refinishing and re-barreling original Japanese wheels. I’ve done so myself actually with a set of classic Work Equips but a set-up like this was very surprising for me. I know the Wheelflip guys personally but hadn’t heard from them regarding this set-up. I think the craftsmanship itself came out great and the wheel itself looks good. I just don’t know how I feel about seeing a set of Mugen MF10s with a step-lip look. The finish sort of throws everything off because your eyes are already messing with you because you’re not used to seeing MF10s like this, and then the gold just presents sort of a “visual overload” feel. It’s cool that Mike was able to pull it off though because somebody was bound to do it eventually. His NSX is looking great these days with the new twin-turbo set-up but I think people were so busy looking at the wheels that they probably didn’t even notice…
I tried to get a good shot of the engine bay but I couldn’t reach over the rear hatch without me having the shakes and taking a horrible photo. I’m sure the car will be at Wekfest Long Beach in a couple weeks so I’ll be sure to get a shot of it there… For now, check out his custom dual exit exhaust set-up…You can spot one of the intercoolers behind the exhaust in this photo…
I love the look of the pie-cuts and the burned finish on the exhaust tip…
Parked in the same row as Mike’s NSX was Big Mike’s Prelude. He’s been doing a couple things here and there to freshen up his BB4 and the bay is looking wild as ever…
He’s always been recognized for having one of the cleanest engine bays in the Honda community but lately with the new additions, he’s geared his bay more for function than just simple visual appeal…
The first thing you probably noticed are the multiple wire harnesses protruding out from the Bisimoto header. These wires are attached to four individual O2 sensors…
…that run to this AEM 4-Channel Wideband UEGO Controller. By having this set-up, precise individual cylinder tuning can be achieved and Big Mike can get the most out of his F20B motor…
S2000 with Mugen (or Mugen-style) hard top, BBS RS wheels and matching red BBS caps…
Armand Pranadi’s MR-2…now 863 days without the rest of his rear wing…
Forrest Wang’s S13.4 drift car on Work VS-KFs representing M7Japan…
Very nicely executed engine bay rocking a 2JZ-GTE swap…
Garret Nikolich’s S13.4, a twin of Forrest Wang’s S13, also with a S14 front end conversion and Work VS-KFs…
Jose Romo’s Audi A3…
EP Civic on BBS RS wheels…
Peter Vong’s new 1st generation Toyota Celica project car… I didn’t even know this was him and Theresa’s new build until I talked to them as I was getting ready to leave the Motion show…
They plan to repaint the car and do plenty more to it next year but for now, the only thing Peter has really done is swap in this F20C Honda S2000 motor with individual throttle bodies…
Legit, right-hand drive Datsun Bluebird on bronze Watanbe wheels…
Next up is my favorite build from the Motion Auto Show… this LS430 from Vegas has a completely custom made aero kit that was created by the owner at his own house! He used plywood to create the structure of the kit and then used sculpting clay to make the rest of it. Not only that, he also painted the car himself and did the interior on his own as well… You have to see his build thread to believe it. If you’ve never been on VIPStylecar.com, click this link HERE to check it out… I fucking love this car, completely unique in its own way and fully built by the owner. You have to respect that…
Custom brick-red interior…sorry if the red is really bright in this shot, I couldn’t capture the detail of it without using an overhead flash…
This shot of the door panel will give you a better idea of what the red looks like…Love the stitching on the inserts…
Trunk set-up in the LS430 is nice and simple…
20-inch Leon Hardiritt Ordens….a wheel much like the Volk TE37 that looks good on just about any vehicle…
Dennis Kiyan’s Infiniti M45 with a complete Seraph (Huntington Cruise) aero kit and WEDs Kranze Magiss wheels…
FD3S RX-7 drift car on ING’s wheels sitting in the Falken Tire section…
Justin Pawlak’s RX-7 slammed on bronze, concave, Volk TE37 wheels…
Also in the Falken Tire area was the Bisimoto Porsche. Ryan from Rywire was talking to me about this build recently and he and Bisi have done a ton of work to it recently to get it up and running…
Twin turbo Porsche 997 motor in the 70s chassis…
5Axis-built Scion FR-S on display…
I spotted this S13 a couple months ago at a meet and was happy to finally be able to get a closer look at it at the Motion event. I love the OEM Nissan 180SX Type-X aero and I’m sure many of you know how much I love Work Equips by now…
No 180SX conversion would be complete without an SR-swap… Very clean build. Feature-worthy if it hasn’t been in a magazine already… hit me up if you’re interested!…
CR-Z on teal BBS LMs and hammered on Airrex air suspension system…
VIP F50 Q45 with WEDs Maverick wheels…
I really liked this Y33 Q45 because this is what mine would have looked like if my JDM Cima Touring model front bumper didn’t get burned down in the Midnight Garage fires a couple years back… The bumper is unique because it has that OEM add-on lip to it that was exclusive to the Touring models. I think it looks great on the body itself without a kit and had my bumper actually made it out of the fire unscathed, I would have taken my Wald kit off and just rocked this Cima bumper… oh well, sad face…I didn’t even get shit for losing my bumper in the fire either, sucks… Good to see someone actually found another one and did it though because they are pretty hard to come by with that lip…Love the bronze/black finish on the wheels as well…
Brandon Burke’s S13 that you’ve seen on this site numerous times. I shot this thing for Super Street magazine earlier this year and it is still looking as good as ever. Nice to see that he hasn’t changed it or attempted to sell the car after his feature came out…
This custom widebody TSX is a regular here in the Socal show car circuit…
Linda’s TRD supercharged, VIP style, Toyota Matrix at the VIP Modular booth…
I was surprised to see Alex Doan’s S2000 at the show, seeing as how he was in Vegas with us for DPK David’s bachelor party…
Ka Wong’s AE86…still one of my favorite builds of all-time…
GM LSx-swapped RX-7 on SSR Professor SP1 wheels…
I was surprised to see Viet Nguyen’s FX at the Motion show since it had been a good while since I’ve seen it at any event. I didn’t even know it was still around honestly so I was happy to see that it is still in immaculate condition…
Viet’s engine bay on his FX… just a beautiful build all-around and probably one of the best import show cars ever…yes, ever, even back when it was silver and appeared on the cover of Turbo magazine…
Widebody Nissan R35 GTR from Auto Concept Elite…
E65 7-series BMW on Luxury Abstract Mador wheels… Pretty crazy looking with the concavity of the rear wheel on the long wheel base of the E65…
Interesting face design on these Luxury Abstract wheels… “abstract” is appropriate…
Slammed UCF21 LS400 on SSR Vienna Dish, reppin’ Liberty VIP car club…
CubanGS aka Chris’s 1GS also from Liberty VIP. I asked him why he was rocking an unpainted front bumper and he said that he just went to the show for fun and didn’t get a chance to finish the bumper in time. I believe he ended up taking home the “Best Stance” award at the end of the day… Not into the whole “demon camber” thing but he is just down to roll around everywhere like that…
Closing it out for today with this 2GS from Liberty…note the custom rear quarter panel work…
That’s all for today… check back tomorrow for part 2 of the Motion Auto Show 2012 coverage…
“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 2011 Honors…The Best of the Rest…
I’m glad that everyone was happy with The Chronicles 2011 Top Ten Hondas list. I spent a lot of time deliberating when it came to who would officially be on the list, where they would go, and who would ultimately have the number one spot. If you missed it, feel free to scroll down to check it out or click on the attached links below. Today we will be taking a look at the rest of the pack. These guys were the ones that were also in contention for the Top Ten but just failed to make the cut. They were all great builds but the guys that ended up on the list just had what I was looking for top to bottom. I do an “Honors” list every year after the Top Ten is released because I feel that these guys should still have their time in the spotlight. Just because they didn’t make the ten, it doesn’t mean that they should be forgotten, you know? The list isn’t in any particular order, so don’t take the last guy as the bottom guy or whatever, and the first guy to be “number 11″ so to speak. I just felt that these Hondas made a big impact in 2011, whether their builds were extensive or just simple, and straight to the point…
If your car isn’t on this list, don’t take it as a bad thing…I try to keep a very thorough view on the entire Honda community, but there are times when I will miss a car or two. I mean, honestly, if I didn’t keep an eye on everyone’s builds, would you think that you would be sitting here and looking at 25 Hondas today? I could be taking a nice little break right now…
Anyways, here is the Top Ten f 2011 just in case you missed it…
Now that you’ve seen the Top Ten, here are the 25 other Hondas that just narrowly missed the list…
In no particular order…
Bisimoto Engineering’s 1004HP 2012 Honda Civic Si….
Why it made the list:
There were a lot of you that probably felt that Bisi’s Civic should have been on the list, and I can see why. The guy just produces stellar builds every single year. I couldn’t really include him this year though because he came in so late in the year. His wagon and CR-Z made the list the year before because the wagon had been around for a majority of 2010 and his CR-Z was just nothing anyone had ever seen before. The Civic, while equally as amazing, only came to being in late October of this year. There are still a couple things that I’m sure Bisi would like to change or fix on the Civic as well so everyone should keep an eye on it in 2012…
Taku Kusugami’s Honda Civic from Japan, representing Tactical Art…
Why it made the list:
Taku-san makes the 25 Honors list because his EK was one of the more recognizable builds of 2011 coming out of Japan. The photos of this EK were posted up everywhere after the Hellaflush Japan event and it became quite the popular internet forum topic. I loved how it resembled some of the best Honda builds here stateside and just has a great universal appeal to it. It’s this car that also helped bring my attention to the Tactical Art guys and why many of you recognize the Tactical Art name today…
Yasutaka Shimomukai’s EG6 from Tactical Art Japan…
Why it made the list:
Yasutaka’s EG is another one of the cool builds that come out of Tactical Art. It was the last of the three that I noticed but Yasutaka is also that guy that I communicate with the most from there. I’ve already stated before that I personally am not a fan of the XXR wheels but the Japanese love the USDM-inspired look. After he saw my post, he asked me about XXR and he even told me that he has a set of Rotiform wheels on order and that will be his new lookin 2012. As a whole package though, i love how his EG looks and above all else, it’s built for track-use. He attends road race events regularly and always takes photos and sends them to me, so expect to see a lot more content from Tactical Art in the future. He makes this list because like many of the guys on the Top Ten list this year, he built his car with style and function in mind. He doesn’t make the cut on the Top Ten because I didn’t really meet them until the later part of 2011…
Atuki Tubouti’s EG6 representing Tactical Art Japan…
Why it made the list:
You can’t talk about the guys from Tactical Art without mentioning Atuki’s EG…It is by far the most wild of their roster and Atuki also happens to be the owner of Tactical Art. His build is also built with function in mind but with style as well. This Civic just has a very menacing feel to it and just like our number one car, Gil Salazar’s ITR, it just has a certain presence about it that can’t be ignored. He narrowly misses the Top Ten list for the same reasons as the other two Tactical Art representatives… To read more about Tactical Art, here is a list of all posts tagged with Tactical Art…
Sportcar Motion’s “Little Red Riding Hood” EG Civic…
Why it made the list:
The Sportcar Motion Civic was probably one of the builds that just narrowly missed the Top Ten list, probably by like a hair…it was that close. The reason it didn’t make it, is because I felt that Loi Song and company just weren’t 100% finished with this build yet. It had a good year overall and made various events, I just think that it’s going to have an even better year in 2012 when it’s turbocharged. It’s rare to see Loi build a Honda that isn’t white, so it immediately stood out when it debuted, but there is so much more potential for this build this year….
Cooper Boudia’s Acura Integra from Olympia, WA…
Why it made the list:
Cooper’s Integra is another popular build that many thought would make the 2011 Top Ten list. Many even believed that it should have been number one. I didn’t necessarily agree but I do feel like it should have been included somewhere in that group. My reasoning behind it not being in the Top Ten, is because it was also another one of those builds that many didn’t see or know about until the later part of the year. Cooper’s Integra is definitely one of the better builds that came out 2011 and it’s also one of those builds that you have to see in person to appreciate. Luckily he drove all the way down from Washington to attend my anniversary meet and I was able to see it indepth. I am a huge fan of Cooper’s Integra and I hope to see more of it in 2012… He has one of the most epic build threads of 2011 as well, much like the next guy on the list… Check out his build thread here…
Eric Dabbert aka JDMcivbomb’s K-swapped, Spoon’d-out Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
Eric’s Civic is one of those builds that I just wish I got a chance to see much more of in 2011… I didn’t even know about the car itself until Wekfest Chicago and I had no idea he even had a build thread going on the NWP4Life forums. It’s probably one of the most extensive builds I have ever seen and just the way he restored the car from the ground-up puts him in high contention to make the Top Ten of 2011. I’m not a huge fan of Spoon Sports but I can totally appreciate a thorough, highly extensive build thread and that’s why I like his Civic so much. There is just an insane amount of work on this car and you have to really go through every single page of his build thread to really understand how much effort was involved in getting his EG to this point. He probably would have been in the top five very easily if I was able to see his car more at events and what not…great work nonetheless…Read all about it here…
Tuan Chau’s K-supercharged Integra…
Why it made the list:
Simply because Tuan had one of the best Integra builds of the year. What’s even better than that is that this is supposedly his daily driver. He’s built a Civic in the past as well and that car is also a very well-built car. Both the Civic and Integra were featured in Honda Tuning and both were very deserving. I had a chance to see this thing in person when I flew out to Nashville last year for Import Alliance and it looked every bit as good as it did in print. I love what he did with the valve cover and how he matched it with the blue Recaros and the CCW Classics. It’s a good looking car that’s driven often and you’ll see it at plenty of events out on the east coast. It’s very well done and I’m happy to have been able to see it for myself. It narrowly missed the Top Ten list because there were just so many great Integra builds in 2011…Check out Tuan’s features here… His DC2 and his ’93 Civic CX….
Raul Ramirez’s authentic JDM 1994 Honda Civic VTi…
Why it made the list:
Raul Ramirez’s Civic VTi was probably close enough to making the list where it would have been #10 1/2…Seriously, Great build, authentic Japanese Civic VTi, K-swapped, and built with every intention to be road-raced. He participated in Super Street magazine’s FF Battle 3 in 2011 and did very well, finishing in the Top 5. The reason why it didn’t make the list is because the guys that did were just a little more active than he was and they made it out to more events. When it comes to build quality, it’s right up there with the others. Raul knows his stuff…this is like, his 12th Honda or something, haha…Check out his Honda Tuning feature here…
Harvey Flores’ 4-door Acura Integra from Tronics…
Why it made the list:
Harvey’s 4-door Integra is deserving of a nod on this list because it’s a beautiful car. I’ve been keeping an eye on his build for the last couple years and I loved the way his car looked in 2011 with the Mugen front bumper. The guy has a good sense of style and his DB8 reflects that. It’s not over the top and he’s paid close attention to building himself a well-rounded Honda. The engine bay is clean, as is the interior, and the exterior has always looked good. He doesn’t make the cut because it took me like, a fucking hour to just find one good photo of it that I could use, which probably means that I didn’t see him enough at events. I probably snapped like two photos of it in total the entire year. Compared to the other 4-door DBs on the list, he just wasn’t as active. Really love how this thing looks though…
Will Salazar’s 1993 Honda Civic CX…
Why it made the list:
Will’s Civic is one of my favorite Hondas from back in the mid-2000s. It’s crazy to think now that he still has it and he’s continued to evolve the car in 2011. Gil, who not only happens to hold the number one spot in 2011 but is also Will’s brother, kept me up to date with the rebuild from the moment they stripped it down to the first photos of it after it got out of the bodyshop. I’ll always be a fan of this car but a part of me will always prefer how it looked back when it was red. Don’t get me wrong, I love the evolution of this car and how it currently sits but I somehow feel like there is something missing with this car. I don’t know what it is, to be perfectly honest. Despite that, it would have made the Top Ten list if he was a little more active in 2011. He was supposed to be a part of my “GENERATIONS” display at Nisei Showoff this past year too but he just flaked on me…haha, I guess it wasn’t that important to him. Anyways, the Salazar brothers can build the shit out of a Honda and I always look forward to what they have up their sleeves. I also like how down they are to just take their cars out on the track and beat on them…From what I’ve seen, Will is a pretty good driver too… If you want to read more about Will’s Civic, click here….
Chivas Sotelo’s Honda Civic Si….
Why it made the list:
Chivas deserves a mention because he’s been to any and everywhere in 2011. The guy lives in Vegas but you wouldn’t think so because of all the events he’s been to this past year. His car isn’t bad either…It’s wild to think how much he drives this thing considering how low to the ground it is. All those trips from Vegas to Cali and back, you would think his car would look all fucked up but it’s remained in great condition. It’s another build that I’ve been able to see the gradual progression of and it’s a very eye-catching coupe. It doesn’t make the Top Ten of 2011 because the other cars that did make it I just felt were more thorough builds. There are still a couple things I would like to see done on his EM1, but it’s fine the way it is…2012 is looking to be a good year for him, he’s featured in the January 2012 issue of Honda Tuning which is on newstands right now….if you would like to read more about Chivas’ car, go fucking buy a copy of the magazine!…
Gerald “Lowballer” Reyes’ Acura Integra…
Why it made the list:
You can’t really mention Chivas without including Gerald Reyes…these guys are practically attached at the hip. If you saw Chivas Sotelo in 2011, chances are, Gerald’s Integra was parked right next to him. They both hail from Las Vegas, so they usually roll to events together. I am not entirely sure if there is anything done to the bay so that’s why it didn’t make the Top Ten list. It’s a good looking car overall, I just don’t know if it had enough to compete with the other Hondas in 2011. I’m sure it wasn’t his intentions to be competitive in 2011 anyways, because Gerald and his friends just build good looking street cars. There are a lot of people that seem to get his car confused with the other brown DC2 on Work Equips out here in Cali…they aren’t the same car! Anyways, Gerald and Chivas go everywhere together so they might as well be right next to each other on the 2011 Honors list…
RC Chacon’s K-turbo Honda Civic sedan…
Why it made the list:
RC’s Civic makes the 2011 Honors list because it’s really rare to see 4-door Civics done to this caliber these days, and it’s refreshing to see one with a turbocharged K-series. I love how the engine bay looks with all the custom fabricated turbo parts, but I felt like it was a little lacking aeshetically. That’s why it didn’t make the Top Ten in 2011. While it was one of the more anticipated builds in 2011, I just don’t feel like it was ever at a completed state. He did enough events in 2011, I felt, but I wasn’t sure if the car was ever “finished”. Every time I spoke to RC, he would tell me that there was more that he had to do to it…
Michael Mao’s Acura NSX…
Why it made the list:
Michael Mao’s NSX was probably the most “seen” NSX in 2011. He was everywhere…He missed the Top Ten list because it’s another one of those new builds in 2011 that I just wasn’t sure was in a finished state yet. It’s got the aero, wheels, and suspension down, but I think there could be more coming for this NSX. Sure, it’s an NSX, which isn’t as common as Civics and Integras, but in terms of the level of builds that are being produced these days, I have to hold NSXs to the same standards as the rest of the “popular” Hondas…
Bon Senesombath aka BonB’s Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
BonB’s Civic deserves mention on the 2011 Honors list because his build was probably one of the most anticipated of the year. It took a bit of time for the car to get finished but when it appeared in the hotel parking lot during the summer Import Alliance event, people went absolutely nuts over it. Bon is one of those guys that is one of the more recognized enthusiasts down south. His EG was a hit back when it was still blue and thanks to his many trips out to the west coast, he’s become a household name out in these parts. When people caught wind of his Civic re-build, they had their eyes peeled in anticipation for it’s re-emergence. His car is another one that I’ve had a chance to see in person, both when it was still blue and had a B-series as well as it’s current K-swapped, green stage. It would have been a good choice to be on the Top Ten list but he didn’t make enough appearances in 2011 and there were still some loose ends that needed to be tied-up before I think it’s up there with the others who have the more completed Hondas of ’11…
Abe Cruz’s EK9-inspired Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
Abe, better known simply as “EK9abe”, was all over the place in 2011. He hit every event possible in the Socal area last year and did a great job of being seen. His Civic is as close to a legit Japanese CTR as it gets here in the U.S. but with his own personal touches. I didn’t really know enough about the build itself to really consider it for the Top Ten, but I will give him credit for good execution. I just feel that his car is just too simple overall…maybe that’s a good thing, but when it comes to a list with such intricate builds, it needs more to stand out from the rest of the pack…
Mike Trevino’s EG9 Civic sedan…
Why it made the list:
Mike’s 4-door makes the honorable mentions list for a second year in a row. He did a consistent job of making appearances at events alongside his crew-mate, Jeremy Duarte, but there weren’t really any changes on the Civic from the previous year. I’m a big fan of this build and I feel that the best is yet to come for this car. Mike has it taken apart right now and it’s going through a re-build, so we should all keep an eye out for it in 2012. Maybe this year, it’ll finally make it over that wall and end up in the Top Ten Hondas of 2012 list…
Sunny Wong’s 2010 Honda Insight EX…
Why it made the list:
Sunny shocked everyone this year when his Insight re-emerged at SEMA 2011. It was nothing anyone had expected from him nor from a Honda Insight. The only time you really see an Insight with an extensive amount of work done to it is over in Japan, so when Sunny debuted his new look, it had Honda and non-Honda enthusiasts stopping to stare at it on the SEMA show floors. The flared body and aggressive sizing of the TE37s just give this Insight an entirely different look and made for a drastic change over his more VIP-themed look from before. I know an Insight will never be built to a level of say, a build like Gil Salazar’s, but it’s about as invested as an Insight build can get. I was almost on the verge of putting it on the list but it just didn’t re-appear until later on in the year. It’s just a wild-looking car…it’s hard to categorize it with the other builds on the list but it’s well thought out enough for people to accept it. This is an instance where taking a chance and thinking outside of the box really pays off…
Ly Say’s Acura TSX…
Why it made the list:
Ly Say’s TSX is in no way shape or form nearly as “built” as the other Hondas on the list, but I think it would be good to consider it just because of how much attention it brings to the TSX crowd. It just has a Euro-R conversion, suspension, and wheels, but damn, it looks good just the way it is! Anytime I came across someone who was staring at his car at all the events he attended, all they could do was compliment him on his taste in mods. While the chances of him hitting the Top Ten list were slim in 2011, I give him credit for having a great looking car and being so active throughout the year…
Bryant Nguyen’s Acura TSX…
Why it made the list:
Much like Ly Say’s TSX, Bryant is right up there in terms of activity and overall style. He also has a very good-looking TSX and he has a bit more done to his car than Ly does. This year was the debut of his new SSR Professor SP3 wheels as well as a new air-ride set-up. Still not as intensive as the other builds on this list, but I commend him on his efforts for bringing a bright, positive spotlight onto the TSX community….
Moe Drennon’s K-swapped EG Civic…
Why it made the list:
PGK Moe had a great 2011…He was featured in Honda Tuning magazine in July and then around that same time, he brought his Civic out to Import Alliance with a brand new K20-swap. The bay looked good as did the rest of the car, but I just can’t figure out why he never got himself another windshield molding. Little stuff like that bothers me, because the details are what it really comes down to, but I’m sure he has his reasons. He and his brother are always busy tinkering with cars so maybe he was just too busy to really finish up the car. It would have been a really good choice to be in the Top Ten list, but again, it just seems sort of incomplete… I guess you can say it was a molding short of making it…haha…Here’s PGK Moe’s HT feature…
Chris Drnek’s EF Civic hatchback…
Why it made the list:
Chris’ EF is one of those really clean Hondas that instantly caught my eye when I was out at Import Alliance. I was just hanging out in the hotel parking lot when I spotted it. I walked up to take a closer look and I immediately became a fan of it. It’s one of those Hondas that has a very timeless-appeal to it. I was correct in my liking of his EF because a couple months later, he also received a feature in Honda Tuning magazine. It just narrowly misses the mark and doesn’t make the Top Ten because both Jay Powers’ and Jordan McCord’s EFs were more comprehensive builds. That’s no knock on Drnek’s EF though because the chassis was practically perfect as it was when it arrived in his possession. There was no reason to repaint or restore the car because he just didn’t have to….If you want to see Drnek’s Honda Tuning Feature, click here…
Jay Borcena’s VIP-styled Acura TL…
Why it made the list:
In a world full of Civics and Integras built to be “track-inspired”, it’s very hard for a VIP-themed Honda to make the list. Unless it has major engine modifications or a customized bay, it’s not going to be built anywhere near the level of the Hondas that comprised of the Top Ten. While it would be great to see something truly different on the list, it’s very difficult to take one of the Top Ten off of the list to make room for a luxury-based build. I have enjoyed the continued progression of Jay’s TL over time though, and I like the fact that he made a presence in 2011 with all the events he attended. It’s one of those Hondas where even non-VIP fans can appreciate it. I’m also very happy to a see a car with aggressive fitment that doesn’t have chewed-up fenders in 2011. It seems like a simple enough concept but people are all about fucking their fenders up these days….
Yellow Factory EG6 Civic…
Why it made the list:
In a time when most Honda enthusiasts are all about race cars and the “Because Racecar” phenomenon, the Yellow Factory Civic arrived at just the right time. When photos surfaced of it early in 2010, people were all over the wild front end of this Civic where in the past, most would have probably laughed at it and complained about how ridiculous it looked. More dedicated road race guys would have appreciated it though, even before time attack and road racing became the “cool” thing to do. If it were in ’09 or 2010, people would be aiming pitchforks at the front bumper because it’s a “ricey bodykit”. Now that people are more concerned with “function”, everyone is a fan of the Yellow Factory EG. In reality, the Yellow Factory-built Honda is a very capable car on the circuit. It ran the Tsukuba Circuit in 1:01.38 and it’s time puts it right up there with the likes of a Z-Tuned R34 Skyline. If you go and pick up the current issue of Import Tuner, you can read all about it. It is worthy of a mention on this list because it fits the era that we are in currently in. Enthusiasts love track cars and the “track-look” so many are looking to this Civic for inspiration. Hondas with aggressive aero like this that can run great times make it cool again for people to rock parts that might have otherwise been reasons to humiliate someone online a couple years before….
Ryan O’Hara’s EP3 Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
Ryan is not only the only Canadian representative on the Honors list, he also has the only EP3 to make it. I’ll be honest, it’s incredibly difficult to keep track of what is going on in Canada, because there just aren’t enough online media outlets for most of us to see what’s going on up there. Canada has always produced some very good Honda builds and it would be great to see more of them. They have a couple S2000s out there that are just amazing but no one has heard of them before. Ryan’s EP3 makes the list because it’s one of the best EP3 builds I have seen, ever. It was featured in HT a couple years ago and Ryan has continued to work on his Civic. This current look with the Air Walker front bumper and orange SE37Ks is probably his best look yet. There are just a couple photos of it floating around online but being that it’s a rare chassis to build, Ryan’s EP3 is instantly recognizable. There are a couple of other EP3s out that are worthy of a mention, i.e. Cristian Loza’s from Canibeat, but I have to say, this one is my favorite in 2011…
Hmmm….you know what? Fuck it…after some careful consideration at 4:53am, I think I made a mistake by not including his EP3 on the list…
Cristian Canibeat Loza’s EP3 Honda Civic…
Why it made the list:
After some thinking, Cristian’s EP3 is one of those cars that I almost failed to mention. He was very active in 2011 and he is also a part of one of the more popular online automotive websites right now; Canibeat. I wasn’t very fond of the site at first but it’s great to see that it’s developed into it’s own brand over time and isn’t piggybacking off of the ideas of other websites like Fatlace/Hellaflush. It’s also been good to see the continued progress of Cristian Loza’s EP3. I developed a much deeper appreciation of this car after I had the opportunity to check it out for myself while I was in Nashville. I like the fact that it’s “stanced-out” but doesn’t have stupid spaceship camber, and his engine is actually really nice for an EP3 chassis. He’s got a couple Mugen goodies in the bay and another really nifty accessory, a K20Z1 swap… It’s a nice, well-rounded Honda, and I almost feel like an asshole for not mentioning it…
Well, that’s the 25…errr 27 noteworthy Honda builds of 2011 that were in contention for the The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas list. Again, all are great in their own way, it’s just really hard to come up with a final ten without excluding some really nice Hondas. I was honestly surprised by how receptive everyone was of the Top Ten and didn’t complain about how they didn’t see so and so’s car, or some other guy who I have never heard of. That’s always a good thing….This year was probably my favorite Top Ten list because not everyone was a lock to be on and it took more time and consideration to finalize it. If it was really that easy, I wouldn’t have almost another 30 Hondas to mention. At the end of the day, I couldn’t be happier with how it all came together. Thank you for your support and I hope you guys come back to see what The Chronicles has to offer in 2012…
Norm Reeves Honda 2011 Car Show/Toy Drive Coverage…Part 2 of 2…
Happy Thursday all…the holidays are fast approaching so I hope you can read this generic comment I have about Christmas and shopping and what not. Anyways, back now with part 2 of the annual Norm Reeves Honda Car Show/Toy Drive coverage. Just two parts to this series of coverage because there weren’t that many cars there and I think I covered most of the ones that caught my eye. One of you guys commented and asked where the del Sol coverage was and I apologize. Apparently I missed out on the del Sols so maybe I’ll catch you guys at the next event. The only del Sol that caught my eye was the one with the crazy Lambo doors and I try not to take too many photos of high-end exotics because they don’t fit my demographic so I didn’t photograph it. With that said, let’s get going with the second and final portion of the Norm Reeves coverage…
Let’s kick it off with some photos of the Bisimoto Engineering 2012 Honda Civic Si coupe…I hope you guys enjoy this build because you’ll be seeing a lot more of it on the cover of the upcoming issue of Super Street magazine…
Many of you won’t notice, a few of you will, but I’ve seen some comments on various forums where they raised the issue with the angle of how the turbocharger was mounted on the K24z7. Yes, Bisi was aware of the issue after the manifold was fabricated but with SEMA going on, he didn’t get a chance to assess the situation. Since SEMA, adjustments have been made with the manifold and now the angle of the turbo has been corrected…
Rywire Ryan’s NSX weekend toy on freshly powdercoated Regamaster EVOs…
After going through my photos from that day, I realized that I had not taken any photos of the exterior of ATS Anh’s Integra Type R….This is the only shot I have of anything related to the exterior aesthetics but trust me, it looks just about the same as it has the majority of the year. He did sell his Mugen Gen. II wing recently though so he’s been rocking the wingless ITR look. The car has been down at ASC Speed Metal for the last couple months getting some new additions to the bay and I’ll show you some pics of it right now…
An overview of the bay from both angles… you’ll notice right away that the teal-coated ITB horns are gone and there are a couple new additions. The front strut/shock tower bar has been re-done as well…
Custom engine breather unit made by ASC, color-matched to the same teal that exists in the bay…
Custom oil catch can also made by ASC…
ASC emblem on the strut bar…
Polished ITB horns…
…and a shot of Anh’s wheel and brake set-up…
A couple shots of DPK David’s EJ1 coupe…
After I finished walking around inside, I took a glance out the door and noticed that it had started to rain… People still stuck around though and didn’t let the downpour affect them…
I don’t really know what the deal with the blue tape on the corner of the bumpers was, but I really liked how this Honda Fit looked…The color and aero set-up just flowed really well with the wheels…
Volk TE37s have always been a popular choice among our crowd, but it’s not that often that you run into a set of TE37 Cup wheels…
Another shot of the JDM EF2 conversion on this white Civic 4-door…
Both CR-Zs stuck around even though it continued to rain…
Man, this is a blast from the past…Haven’t heard the name “Cyber Racing” in quite some time. If you don’t know, Cyber Racing is probably one of the original Honda car crews from back in the early 90s. I think it was around 1988 when it all started. Tony Fuchs and a couple others started that group and were drag racing before there were any corporate sponsors, internet forums, anything “online” in essence…Pretty wild to see that they are still being represented…They were known back in the day as one of the first “11-second” car clubs in our community…oh how times have changed…
I don’t know why, maybe because of the rain, but I decided to head back inside to take some more detail shots of Bisi’s 2012 Civic…
AEM’s high output ignition coils being represented on the Golden Eagle intake manifold of Bisi’s Civic…
Bisi’s Turbonetics 72mm mid-frame turbocharger….
I walked back outside and snapped another photo of the Bisimoto Honda Civic Wagon…
The crowd was by no means large, but there was definitely a steady group of enthusiasts walking around…
Michael Mao’s Taitec JGTC 2000-type front bumper…
His brother, Bay Mao’s Honda S2000 on custom Mugen M7…
A couple more of the Basis CR-Z on Spoon Sports CR93 wheels…
Umm… Jagged S2000 fender – 1, Nitto NT01 tire – 0….
Jerry-Built turbocharged FG2 Civic coupe…
Accord coupe with a massive Volk wheel and tire combo…
Acura RSX from Royal Origin…
Acura TSX with some Enkei RPF1s…
Saw this dude wiping his car down after the rain stopped and he mentioned that he drove all the way down from San Luis Obispo for the Norm Reeves meet…some real dedication right there…
Spotted this beauty parked across the street during the meet…owner was probably there to visit some of his friends from Japanese Nostalgic Car magazine, which had a booth at the show…
Oh I couldn’t end the coverage without displaying some of the more interesting Hondas at the meet….these guys took the saying “racks on racks on racks” to a whole new level…One dude had a motorcycle, the other a Gyno-chair, madness I tell you, madness….
That pretty much wraps it up for the coverage… after the raffle and awards for the show were announced, we gathered up our belongings and took off to go grab some lunch…
I don’t know if you guys are at all interested, but I included a desktop image for you guys….the shot was pretty random but I liked how it came out so I turned it into a 1080P-sized wallpaper…
Thanks for looking…
Norm Reeves Honda 2011 Car Show/Toy Drive Coverage…Part 1…
Norm Reeves Honda does one of these car show/toy drives annually and we have made it a point to head out there for the last couple years now to support them. I even went to the event a couple years back during the California wildfires and there were literally ashes falling from the sky. It’s not a big event by any means, but it’s for a good cause. That and it’s not often that a car dealership shows support to the aftermarket Honda/Acura community. Norm Reeves Honda has always been active in our community so it’s only right that we show them equal love…
There isn’t really much to say about the 2011 event that hasn’t been said before in the previous years. Nothing crazy happened, which is actually a good thing, because things have been so hectic lately that it was good to go to an event that was just laid back. The show featured a similar set-up from years past; show up, park, donate a toy or canned good, and enjoy the car show. There’s also a car show competition that goes with the event and they’ve been generous every year with some pretty big trophies. The only really notable thing about this event compared to the previous years is that this year, the car show was held in a different lot. It’s usually done in the Norm Reeves Honda dealership lot, but this year, it was a couple miles down at their used car lot. I don’t know how I feel about the area surrounding the used car lot, but I think I actually preferred this location. It seemed like there was more room and the entire lot was devoted to just the show itself. Over at the original Norm Reeves Honda lot, there are usually new cars parked next to the event and there are usually a bunch of car salesmen walking around or standing around and gawking. This lot, I think, just works out better for the show. They didn’t have to worry about disturbing walk-in customers who just wanted to look at new cars, and there didn’t seem as if there was a real rush to end it so that Norm Reeves Honda could resume normal business. In any case, that’s not anything we really need to be concerned about so I’ll just move on to the photos…
It was mostly overcast throughout the morning and it even started raining an hour or so into the show, so the photos almost look as if it were two different events but trust me, it was all taken within a couple hours time…
Stanced-out EF from a new crew with the latest and greatest crew name: “LOW LIFE CROOKS”…I fucking swear, you can’t even make that shit up. You know how to attract more attention towards your modified vehicle? Put a 3-foot banner on your windshield that states that you may possibly be a LOW LIFE CROOK…come on….kids these days… Maybe I should start driving my Q45 around with a banner that says “UNSUSPECTING DRUG DEALER”….haha…
Olive green-toned DC2 on some refinished, cream white old school Volk mesh wheels…
Acura RSX from Royal Origin on some Enkei RPF1…
BB6 Prelude on gold Volk SF-Challenges…
Red EG Civic on some gray SSR Type-X wheels…
EM1 on white Mugen NR…
Michael Mao, who owns the red NSX you’ve all been seeing lately, has a brother who messes around with Hondas too and this is his S2000…
Eddie Diaz’s Acura TSX…
Teddy Timoteo’s Civic on Volk Racing SE37K with a Mugen front lip and ARC rear wing…
DC2 Integra with a R conversion and Work Equip 03s…
Yellow S2000 on some 5Zigen FN-01R wheels…never really been much of a fan of those wheels but they seem to remain pretty popular…bay has the kevlar Password: JDM intake on it…
S200o on BBS LM…
White on white S2000 on Volk TE37s…
Honda CR-Z from Basis sitting on the brand new Spoon Sports CR93 wheel…I’ll be honest, I can’t say I really cared for these wheels, especially considering how iconic the Sw388 is in our community but in person, they don’t look that bad at all. Maybe it’s because the only examples I saw of it previously online were from Spoon and they were either dark blue or that retched yellow they love to use…. Still don’t know if they are worth the money though considering they are just cast aluminum…
Honda CR-Z with a JDP Engineering front lip and carbon grille piece on Volk Racing GT-Ns…
Jerry-built turbo Civic drag car…
Tan Nguyen’s ASM-equipped S2000 with Technocraft bucket seats…Technocraft is a branch of Password: JDM that develops products for more high-end vehicles like Lamborghinis and what not…
He probably doesn’t care too much for whoever his passenger is because his seat is padded and the passenger side is basically just carbon fiber…
Michael Mao’s Acura NSX…
…sitting on some aggressive Volk Racing TE37s…
Bisimoto Engineering’s turbocharged Shuttle…
S2000 with a J’s Racing (or “J’s Racing-style”) front bumper…
4-door Civic on old school Volk Group AVs….
EG 4-door Civic on Work Carving Stark IIs…
Really clean right-hand drive Honda CR-X with Mugen RnRs…
EP3 Civic with a Buddy Club kit on what looks to be MB Battle wheels…
Another clean 4-door Civic, but the owner of this one is faking the funk with some Rota C10 wheels and Mugen MF10L stickers…*tsk* *tsk*….
This Civic also has Mugen MF10Ls, except these are actually legitimate Mugen wheels,..Bay looks decent, would probably look much better if he had a different fuel set-up…this build deserves a thumbs-up because he has a Chronicles sticker on, haha…
EF Civic sedan with a JDM EF2 front end conversion and SSR mesh wheels…really clean 4-door overall, I’m a fan…
Oh man, this Civic looks like something straight out of the early 2000s…That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, especially if you were around back then and saw this style in it’s prime…Stillen front half bumper, shaved door handles and moldings, custom paint, and 17-inch Racing Hart Type-Cs…even has the Racing Hart windshield banner. This is early 2000s-period correct, haha…I wouldn’t be surprised if this is one of those builds that was completed back then and was just left in storage…
Oh I should mention that there was a portion of the Norm Reeves Honda show that was indoors. It’s a car dealership lot so there was a showroom that they made full use of for the event. It helped to have space for everyone when it started to rain outside…
Jimbo’s BB6 Prelude on gold Volk CE28…
A couple shots of DPK JP’s Civic because I’m not sure how much longer he plans to keep this car around…I heard that he was thinking about parting the car out or selling it…It’s been in this state for a couple years now and I don’t think he has much time to re-do the car or even bother to mess with it anymore. It almost makes sense to get rid of it…maybe then he’ll be motivated to try and start another build or something…
The guy that owns this yellow EG Civic is actually one of the car coordinators for the Fast and the Furious movie series…This Civic was actually in the funeral scene after Michelle Rodriguez dies or doesn’t die, or whatever the fuck they plan to do to her character because she’s apparently back in the next movie. I stopped to chat with the dude for a minute and he seems like a nice guy. He told me that they were filming both the 6th and 7th movie at the same time. I wanted to ask him why there weren’t any imports in the movies anymore but I almost feel that it’s better that there aren’t any, haha….keep the heat off of the import crowd, you know? That and a Civic can’t pull a bank safe all over Brazil and survive hundreds of explosions… His Civic is pretty clean though…it has some stuff that I personally wouldn’t do to that car but fuck it, it ain’t my car…The white lettering on the tires is also obnoxiously large. Would have been cleaner if he just highlighted the original logos on the tire…
Jay Borcena’s Acura TL on VIP Modular wheels…This guy has been everywhere lately, haha…popping up in every single event coverage that I do…
Anyways, that’s all for today…back with more tomorrow. There’s just two parts to the coverage so don’t worry about your computer being overloaded with photos…
Thanks for looking…
Autocon 2011 Coverage…Part 4…The Conclusion…
Time to close out the Autocon 2011 coverage with a bang…Today we will be taking a look at the remaining cars of the event. I felt that Autocon was a great success and with a more knowledgeable and more organized staff, it’ll be even better in 2012. With that said, let’s get to the photos…
In case you missed the previous parts, here are the links that will take you them…
If Ly Say with the red TSX owned a Subaru STI, I imagine it would look exactly like this one from Royal Origin because they both share a similar color and wheel set-up…it’s definitely a good look…
Mazda 3 from Royal Origin on Rotiform TMBs…
Another Mazda 3 from Royal Origin, this one with Work Emitz wheels and fender flares…
Gerald Reyes’ Acura Integra on Work Equip 03…
Chivas’ sunburst orange EM1 on Sprint Hart CP-R…
White 2nd gen. IS on Junction Produce Scaras…
Keychain aka Keith from It’s JDM Yo!!! recently got his lip kit on his Accord sedan repainted and the car is looking fresh…
FG2 Civic coupe on Work Equips…
Instant Gentleman S14 coupe with MMR wheels…
Yellow 1st gen. Lexus IS on Rotiform NUE…
Black 2GS with way too much fitment…fenders just look absolutely haggered…fucking terrible looking…Just.Awful…
This LS430 on the other hand, looks exceptionally good…
S13 convertible on some AME Tracers with a gold roll bar and pink steering wheel…
Liked the cement grey tone on this BMW…
Liberty Walk Lamborghini Murcielago from Japan…
Brandon Burke’s slammed and static S13 coupe on SSR Professor SP1…
A pair of Subaru Legacy wagons…
Lloyd Morales’ Vertex-kitted Kouki S14 coupe…
Loved the color combo and the red overall on this Hyundai Genesis…They’re just great looking cars in general just slammed on some wheels…
White on black two-tone Chevy Camaro on Rotiform wheels…
Tjin Edition Ford Explorer….
Tjin Edition Chevy Camaro…
Tjin Edition Chevy Cruz…
Clean BB6 Prelude with gold Volk Racing CE28Ns…
Ranz Motorsports Mazda RX-4 with 2JZ-GE swap and retro-fitted Lexus IS300 dashboard… To read more on this wild RX-4, click here…. or here….
Ranz Motorsports 1st gen. Toyota Celica aka “The Dark Knight” featuring a Honda S2000 F20C powerplant…To read more about this build, click here….
Ernie’s timeless 1st gen. Acura Integra on classic SSR EX-C Neo…
Porsche Panamera representing Heavy Hitters on DPE wheels…
G-Power twin-supercharged yellow BMW M5 on HRE wheels aka “Sabine”…Many non-BMW guys like me don’t know much about this car but there’s actually quite a bit of extensive work done to this thing. Even the rear quarters have been widened but the lines are so subtle, it’s hard to notice…check out the build-thread here, trust me, it’s pretty sick…
Custom widebody BMW M5 by Ranz Motorsports aka “Gunther”….This Lamborghini-white M5 features a catalog of Radenergie parts and wheels and rocks 355-series tires in the rear…nuts…if you want more info on “Gunther”, peep it here…
Chevy Camaro with a Extreme Dimensions kit, Vortech-supercharged on USW forged wheels…didn’t even have to Google shit to figure that out like the Beemers above…haha…
Ryan Deguzman’s FD3S RX-7….
R-Rydes’ custom widebody G35 with Kenstyle aero, Vortech-supercharged, and 21-inch Modsport S1 3-piece forged wheels…
Varis-kitted EVO on AME Tracers…I think this might be the first time I’ve ever been to an event where there was more than one set of AME Tracers…One of the most slept on wheels EVER…
No idea who this is but I was more concerned with what the dude behind her was up to…just mildly creepy looking, that’s all…
FC3S RX-7 from the crew “Nuisance”…they were parked to some other crew that called themselves “Aminorannoyance”…
I really wanted to get a closer look at this EVO since it looked like it had a nice collection of parts on it, but I couldn’t get close enough since all the cars in this section were invading eachother’s personal space…
After Jamarri Whiteside from Auto Concept Elite defeated the Chrysler 300Camaro at “Ye Old Hot Import Nights in LA Conventionshire”, a new challenger appeared for the next duel, in the mystical purple form of a Chevy Malibu with a Cadillac CTS-V front end…The epic battle was Swift and Elite….in the end, I have no idea who won because it was cold as shit and I left early…
JonJon’s supercharged VIP IS350 on WED’s Kranze Vishunu…
One more shot of Michael Mao’s Acura NSX on TE37s…
…as well as another shot of Wilson’s Carlsson E-Class Benz on BBS wheels…
A couple more of Big Mike’s Prelude and its new look…
Andrew Lim’s beautifully-built Toyota Supra on DPE wheels…
Gonna close out the Autocon 2011 coverage with a shot of Alisa Ali Marie posing next to Andrew’s gold Supra…
Well, that’s about it…4 parts, over 200 photos,…it doesn’t get any more in-depth than that…Hope you guys enjoyed it… Thanks for looking. Make sure to check out the previous three parts if you missed them…
Autocon 2011 Coverage…Part 1….
Damn…I took a lot of photos at this event. I’d hope to be done going through all of them by now but there’s still a gigantic chunk of it in my memory card that I have yet to touch. I know many of you have come on here the last couple days since the event to see coverage so let’s just go ahead and kick it off today. I’m going into this not really knowing how many parts there will be, but it’ll definitely be more than just 2-3 parts. How I ended up taking that many photos I don’t know, but I think I did a pretty good job of covering the event. Obviously there is some stuff I missed but seeing as how I had a booth at this show, I think you will get a pretty good idea of how this show was…
Now my thoughts on the event…Hmm…I know many of you have already heard about the lack of organization and how the roll-in process was anything less than “hassle-free”. It probably was, I don’t really know because I got there early and set-up right away. A lot of people came by to the booth and brought it up to me, probably in hopes that I would mention it when I posted up the coverage. For all intents and purposes, shit, I have to say right now that it was a great event. I didn’t go last year because I made other plans, but I don’t think missing out on the 2010 Autocon show had any effect on how I felt about this year’s. Foot traffic was great, there was a diverse crowd of cars,…I don’t know, it looked to me as if it went well. If this was an event that I was putting on I’d be pretty happy with it. Okay, roll-in was probably a pain and I did notice how it was kind of unorganized, but you almost have to expect it with guys that are fairly new to putting on events like these. It was definitely under-staffed, but that can be alleviated pretty easily by just hiring more people. Organization just comes with better planning, and as time progresses, I think Justin Fong and staff will get better at it with time. It’s okay to bitch about it as long as you understand that it’s not something that can’t be fixed. I had a good time and it seemed as if everyone else did too.
There were some pretty beat ass looking cars that I don’t think should have been there but I don’t believe there was a screening process so it’s not like you can prevent people from PAYING YOU to show up, you know what I mean? Autocon is off to a good start….will it continue to get better? I would certainly hope so. Will they ever be as big as Wekfest and the other top tier shows of this current generation? Ehh, I don’t know if I want that to happen. I’m cool with the success and all but isn’t this show designed to be for a good cause? Justin originally put on this event as a simultaneously running toy drive. People bring in toys and gifts for children that are less fortunate during the holiday season. If this does turn into a major event, do they just continue to do toy drives at every location they go to, even if it’s not during the holidays? And if they don’t do they just move on as a major car show, leaving behind the original intent of the show itself? It’s kind of a grey area… I mean, if they abandon the whole Toys for Tots things, it would seem as if they used it as a stepping stone to move on and expand the Autocon name, and that doesn’t seem right at all…I don’t know….For now, I think we should all just be happy that this event was a success and everyone there enjoyed it. I also liked the idea of having all the food trucks outside the whole day. That I know for sure took some careful planning and it helped that people didn’t have to be there all day without food or eating some crappy, dry, convention center food…
Anyways, let’s move onto the coverage. Today we will be taking a look at the roll-in early that Saturday. I wouldn’t know about how painful roll-in was because I got there early and went in with It’s JDM Yo!!! Tony. If anything, if it was pain-free for me because I didn’t have to wait long and I took the spare time I had and shot photos…There are a lot of random photos mixed in with the cars because I had a booth and I tried not to leave it after it was set-up. Everything that you are seeing in the first couple parts are just things that happened around me and stuff I could capture from a distance….Enjoy… If you don’t like it, go log onto some other blog where they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about and have no comprehension of sentence structure…
We rolled out early in the morning and got there around 7:30am. I had no idea where It’s JDM Yo!! Tony was so I just pulled my camera out and started shooting until he came and got us…This yellow BMW M5 on HREs was one of the first cars I spotted…
First generation Toyota Celica waiting in line to roll-in…
You can see here how the R35 GT-R dwarfs the original Mini Cooper….
Evo X on CCW Classics…
I’m a big fan of the Powerhouse Amuse kit on the 370Zs…I liked how this owner added the black on the sideskirts to add some contrast and also to match the black lines of the front…
BMW E46 M3 on CCW Classics…I’m not gonna lie, Autocon 2011 was probably the only show other than Import Alliance this year where I saw this many sets of CCWs…Most of them were found on BMWs too, which was really interesting because I never thought CCWs were that popular in the BMW community….
Big Mike used Autocon 2011 as a platform to officially debut his new look…You haven’t seen his car at various meets/shows lately because he’s been busy getting his Chargespeed lip molded to his front bumper, color-matching his mirrors, and getting his wheels powdercoated a high gloss black…
I eventually found Tony…he was busy going over the floorplan with one of the Autocon staffers with Freddie from Autofashion and we rolled into the venue soon-after…
Once we got inside, we waited to see where they wanted our booths to be set-up so I continued shooting…
Ryan Deguzman’s FD3s RX-7 cruising in…
DPK David posted up next to my crappy 4Runner…
The guns and DTA theme I get…what I don’t understand is why you would put crappy Varrstoen wheels on a Porsche…and I don’t really give a shit about the sponsorship argument either…
Buddy Club Honda Fit show/sometimes track car…
Andrew Lim’s DPE S20 wheels on his gold Toyota Supra…
Matte red BMW 5-series wagon from VIP Modular wheels…
S2000 on teal BBS LMs…
TSX on mag blue Volk Racing RE30s…
Another shot of the BMW wagon next to Team Praxis Jimmy’s FJ Cruiser…
Nimbus Grey BMW on custom bronze BBS LM…
We checked the weather forecast early that morning before we left and it showed that it was going to be a pretty cold day… May was all dressed in her winter gear but then we arrived to the venue and the sun started to beat down and it was actually getting pretty warm…
VIP Y34 Infiniti M45…
Another shot of the M3 on Classics…the one parked directly next to it looked almost identical to this one…
Stanced-out DB Integra on some black steel wheels…
Ly Say’s Acura TSX on Work S1R…
Jamarri Whiteside’s award-winning Subaru STI from Auto Concept Elite… This build just won “Best of Show” at Hot Import Nights just a week prior to Autocon 2011…
Auto Concept Elite’s ENEOS-themed widebody R35 GT-R…
Big Mike’s Scion xB…haha…just playing, but they share a similar tone…
Justin and Autocon had advertised that there were free hot-air balloon rides that day and sure enough, there was…
Man, I fucking loved this Toyota Tundra on Volk TE37s…That truck couldn’t look any better…
Scion xB on air and BBS wheels…
Big Mike prepping his Prelude…
Slammed Lexus SC300 from Royal Origin (I think…)….
Chivas rolled out from Vegas with his orange EM1…I just recently finished a story on this coupe for a future Honda Tuning feature so keep an eye out for that…
Gerald’s DC2 Integra on Work Equip 03s….also from Las Vegas…
DPK David all set-up and ready for the show…
JonJon was still busy prepping his IS300…
Step-lipped multi-piece Mugen M7s…
Jamarri Whiteside cleaning the door jams on his STI…check out the door panels on this thing…
Gonna close it out today with a couple shots of Michael Mao’s Acura NSX on aggressive Volk TE37s…
Back with much more tomorrow!! Gotta run for now…
Thanks for looking…
Hot Import Nights 2011 Coverage…Part 1…
I’m sure all of you have heard that Hot Import Nights is making a return to our beloved import automotive community. Some were very skeptical about it’s comeback because the last couple years that it was around, it just wasn’t the same anymore. Many of the new generation won’t understand, but HIN was once the top tier car show to attend in the early half of the 2000s. Back then, you looked forward to two events every year, Import Showoff and Hot Import Nights. HIN was so huge back then and were making so much money, that they even tried to buy the Showoff series at one point, but Ken Myoshi turned them down because he wanted to keep the show grassroots. It turned out to be a good decision because inevitably, HIN was sold itself and the whole show just changed and shifted another direction. The new owners didn’t want to do the shows indoors anymore in an attempt to save some money and it somehow hooked up with the NOPI series which was the worst fucking idea EVER. Now, apparently, the original owners of the HIN brand have brought it back and are hoping to bring the show back to it’s top tier status…
This past weekend’s HIN event was held in the venue that helped make the show huge back in the day; the Los Angeles Convention Center. Maybe by bringing the show back here, it’ll conjure up the same excitement that enthusiasts once had for the event. What they didn’t mention to people was that the show wouldn’t be held in the larger hall where the once epic Hot Import Nights show called home…it was in the adjacent smaller building next to it. I was honestly a little surprised to hear that it was back at the Convention Center myself, because renting out a venue of that magnitude is not cheap at all, by any means. Plus they get a chunk of your gate, insurance, etc., etc… When I arrived the night of roll-in and Tony told me that it wasn’t in the larger hall, it made more sense to me. They dubbed this show “The Return”….as in Hot Import Nights “return” to prominence… Unfortunately, in my opinion, it was more of a “return” like if you were returning a DVD at the videostore. It’s loud, crowded, and you just want to get out of there as soon as you can. I’ve been in the car show scene since the late ’90s so I am very familiar with Hot Import Nights. I was there at the peak of it’s popularity when it was so crowded inside the Convention Center that you could barely walk or breathe. Nevermind trying to take photos because there was constantly people walking in front of you and it was so dark in there that you couldn’t even see the cars. It was a massive….they had concerts with major recording artists and it was the talk of our industry. “The Return” served as a nice reminder of how HIN once was….that is, until you walked through the doors into the actual event. It’s just not the same anymore. It’s called Hot “Import” Nights but line-up of cars were everything but imports and a chunk of the cars were DUB-style, luxury vehicles or high-end exotics. I understand you want to bring these type of cars into the events because they have money and lots of it, but if you want to bring the show back to it’s roots, you have to bring back the cars that people came to see….IMPORTS. I didn’t really expect there to be a big turn-out of Japanese cars because I’ve also seen what has happened to Extreme Autofest over time, and that went from an all import show that turned into a DUB show. There were cars in there that definitely made me scratch my head…I have no idea where these cars came from but I definitely did not need to see them again after HIN…
The Hot Import Nights show has just turned into every possible cliche’ you can think of, of a mainstream COMMERCIAL automotive lifestyle event. Which basically means that it was pretty much a ridiculous music video that you really wanted to end, but you couldn’t find your remote anywhere so you just had to sit there and watch it happen. There were go-go dancers on the stage, DJs at every corner playing music that was way too fucking loud, it was dark as shit, there were rappers “performing”, and there were exotics as well as every car you could think of that could somehow manage to cram 24-inch wheels into their wheel wells. It was fucking hectic in there. I don’t know what the purpose of blasting six different songs at max volume simultaneously was, but it was so loud in there that you couldn’t even have a conversation with the person standing inches away from you without screaming at them. I didn’t even plan on going at all, but I managed to get a free pass from It’s JDM Yo!! Tony so I decided to go do some coverage of the show. From my previous experience, it’s always been incredibly difficult to take photos at HIN while the show was going on because, like I stated earlier, it’s incredibly dark in there and crowded. I knew that I had to get there as early as I could and get as many shots as possible before the show started. The coverage you’re going to see from HIN is basically everything that went on during roll-in the night before, and the day of, but before the gates opened to the public. They won’t look like the typical HIN photos because no one was there yet and the lights were all on. I apologize if you wanted to see the photos with the “HIN ambiance” included but I wanted to make my life easier and not have to fight people to get a good shot. I did take some pics during the show itself, but it wasn’t really car-related, haha. I just wanted to capture what was going on while I was there. At the end of the day, I think the HIN staff did a good job of executing “Hot Import Nights” but it just isn’t the same as it once was, and I highly doubt that it will ever be how it was when it was one of the top shows in the industry. The cars that are there just don’t fit the enthusiasts that once made the show as big as it was and it almost seems as if they want to cater to a different audience now. The younger generation might enjoy the event, but it’s hard to spend $12 on parking and another $35(?) at the gate. It’s more of a DUB show now and the cars there represent that. You won’t see those cars here though because I took the time to weed out the cars that I liked and the ones that aren’t very favorable to your eyes are cars that I captured merely for comedic relief. With that said, thanks to HIN for the hospitality and I hope that you guys enjoy the photos…
If somebody were to ask me to describe my HIN 2011 experience in one long-drawn-out sentence, I would say:
“I went to Hot Import Nights and saw a Chrysler 300C with a new Camaro front end on it and across from it was a Scion tC with 26′s or some shit and a truck that looked like it was in mid-explosion.”
It’s kinda like the new Chrysler commercials where they say that their cars are “imported” from Detroit. You’re not really fooling anyone but it was a nice attempt. I guess if you dim the lights and turn up the music, nobody will notice, but somebody is eventually going to trip over an RX-7 in the dark and ask their friend what it’s doing there…
We’ll kick it off today with the widebody R35 GT-R from Auto Concept Elite. You probably recognize this GT-R from SEMA 2011 sitting inside the ENEOS Sustina booth… This was taken around 6:30pm the Friday night of roll-in when the Auto Concept/High End guys were still setting up their massive display…
Loved this Lincoln that was posted up near the area where Tony was setting up his booth… This is actually one of the few none imports that I was happy to see….
Despite the obnoxious rear arch work on this S14, it was actually pretty well done. I don’t really understand why the rear arch was done like that but it throws off the whole car. The craftmanship itself is not bad at all and it has all the right parts on it. It even has Racing Hart CPF Tune-R wheels on it that you don’t really see utilized that often.. I just wish the owner bought wheels that fit better under all that bodywork…
Carl’s EM2 Civic at the Fatlace showcase area on some CCW wheels…
VIP-themed S14 with an Instant Gentleman kit and MMR wheels…I posted up a photo of this car awhile back and asked you guys to help me find out who the owner was and he actually emailed me, I just barely remembered right now and I need to return his email….
Cody Chan’s widebody Miata that I shot awhile back for Super Street magazine. If you guys follow this site religiously like I hope you would, then you probably caught the unpublished photos from the shoot that I posted up just last week….
Here’s that truck that I’ve been talking about that looks like it’s in mid-explosion, haha…Excuse me for being ignorant towards this style of modification but what exactly is the point of having your hood look like that?…
Widebody G35 that’s been a consistent force in the import show scene…
MaDara’s S2000 with ASM I.S. Designs aero…
Love this race-inspired BMW M3 with Voltex components and HRE wheels…
Wild widebody Cadillac CTS-V from D3 that was also at SEMA 2011 in the Toyo Tires booth…
I found it a little odd that this whole set-up was finished by the time I got to roll-in but when I returned the next day, it was completely different booth with different cars…
Crazy dually that was sitting on the floor…
Matte red-painted 5-Series BMW wagon from VIP Modular wheels…
Really liked the classic-styling of this FC3S RX-7…The two-toned bay was kinda odd and I took a photo of it the following day when the hood was popped, but I’ll save that for later…
Another R35 GT-R…I think this was the second of maybe 4 or 5 that were at HIN…
Top Secret widebody S2000 from Bulletproof Automotive…
This particular section of the show hosted some of the better cars at HIN in my opinion, including this Miata on SSR MK2s…
This Miata was also nice and I had a chance to talk to the owner the following day at the show and he tells me that there’s a motor swap in it from a newer Miata…
This one was a little more wild in contrast to the previous two I posted. It had a polished hood and a two-toned black/silver theme…
This S13 coupe was one of my favorites from the HIN event…I saw this thing posted outside on the dock during roll-in and it instantly caught my attention, even though it’s very basic aesthetically. Crazy how hammered to the floor it is and apparently from watching him drive in, this is his static ride height… I chatted with the owner for a bit and this S13 also has a RB25 swap…More pics of this thing tomorrow…
Tony and friends setting up the “It’s JDM Yo!!!” booth…
Yuta’s S30 240Z from Heart Breaker…
I think a lot of people at HIN slept on this Supra because it was dark as shit in there and you probably couldn’t see it…
…however, you couldn’t miss this thing from miles and miles away….Batman helps to illustrate my shock here when I saw this Chrysler 300C with a Camaro front-end….
This orange Civic hatchback was pretty clean… Me thinks those are Rotas though…
Engine bay is clean and well-done with a K-swap and JRSC…
Lexus SC430 from BP VIP on some Work Schwert SC4s…
2nd Gen. Lexus IS on SSR Professor SP1…
Infiniti Q45 on WED’s Kranze LXZs…
Junction Produce Toyota Previa…
Does anyone remember Greg Leone from the MTV show “True Life: I’m a Street Racer”? Well this is his short bus…
What’s cool about it is that it’s like some make-shift auto-transport for his S13 “drift car”…. The car is whatever and has VIP Modular wheels on it that cost more than the car itself, but what’s interesting is that he probably has more money invested in the school bus than he does on the car…
You see that little platform above the bus? Well during the show, he and his band of buddies were pulling random girls up to the roof and posing for all kinds of ridiculously douchey photos. They had their sunglasses on and some guy had a zebra-printed blazer, it was quite a spectacle…He should call this thing “The Douche Bus”…
A pair of Ruckus’ in the Fatlace display area…
Tony almost finished with his display…
EVO X on gold SSR Type-F….
Not really sure what’s going on with this 350Z… It has WED’s Kranze wheels on it, which are luxury VIP wheels, but then it has this really wide, aggressive body work done to it with a front bumper that looks like it’s too long for the Z33 chassis…I don’t know, I’m confused…
Michael Mao applying some finishing touches to his NSX…
S14 celebrating the spirit of the holidays…
Ferrari 360 Modena on HREs…
Another shot of the BMW as I walked past it…correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that bottom front splitter might be a new addition…
At this point, I walked over to the DUB area where I unearthed these gems…
OH MAN. Words just can’t describe everything that is going on with this 240SX…rainbow zipties….Kouki S14 front end conversion…a hood that may or may not fit the front end..Advan SA3Rs that look like they are trying to hide…
The back is even better…pink zebra taillight garnish…paint-splattered rear hatch…crazy arrow-looking spray-painted sharpie designs on the rear-quarter….AHHHH!!!…
Directly next to it was another S13, this one I’m hoping is some sort of display vehicle for House of Kolor…Fucking thing looks like a rolling acid trip…
I had to do a double take just to figure out what kind of car this was…I believe this is an Eclipse with a Vertex-style Toyota Soarer front bumper and spray-painted wheels…I was walking with Tony and he said that this car looked like it was “Transforming but got stuck half-way”….haha…
I’m not even gonna lie, this MR-2 with ROJA wheels wouldn’t even be that bad if it didn’t all of a sudden grow Nissan S15 Silvia headlights in it’s front bumper…now it just looks odd…
Once I returned to reality, I spotted this Honda Fit rolling into the show…
…and also saw VIPStylecars member “Blitz’s” Y33 Q45 with WED’s Kranze LXZs and a K-Break aero kit…
After that I packed up my gear and headed home. Tomorrow I will bring you guys the photos from the actual day of the show and I swear, they are much better than these. I even brought my tripod out and everything…. Since I went back to the show so early the next day, I had all the time in the world to do coverage because nobody was even there…Anyways, back tomorrow with more…thanks for looking….
