Barely Surviving 25 Hours In The Spoon Type R…

Barely Surviving 25 Hours In The Spoon Type R…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It’s been a hell of a month with all our friends from Japan visiting. It’s been a constant chase of giving them new experiences and exposing them to car culture here in America. For the final leg of the trip, we hit two very big events; the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas and the grueling endurance race that is the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. Spoon Sports returns after a 1-year hiatus with a new Type R, a slightly different crew, and the Drift King himself, Keiichi Tsuchiya!! With races like this, you never know what is going to happen, and things definitely did NOT go as planned. In fact, I think we barely made it out alive!!…
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The One Where Our Friends From Japan Experience California Car Culture…

The One Where Our Friends From Japan Experience California Car Culture…

Finally after 3 years, Yasu is finally back in America! It feels like it has been forever since he’s been back and he even brought our friend Ryuji from NO GOOD RACING with him. A lot has changed over the last few years so he definitely had a lot to catch-up on. With it being Ryuji’s first-time in America, we wanted to make sure he had the best experience here in California. Luckily, there seemed to be a plethora of automotive events happening every week here. That’s just one of the many perks of living out here I suppose. Whatever they wanted to see, we found it whether it be car shows, meets, lowriders, the American Honda Collection Hall, etc. We did it all. This episode consists of our many adventures during the past few weeks with bits and pieces of everything we experienced. I know it seems like Yasu is typically the one showing me around Japan but it was time to return the favor and catch him up on all the amazing things our car culture has to offer…
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Back To New York City For The Honda Collective!!…

Back To New York City For The Honda Collective!!…

I had such a good time at the Honda Collective event last year that I made sure to return once again in 2023. My schedule was jam-packed after being in Japan for three weeks but I managed to get home just in time to do laundry and hop back on a plane to New York City. If you’re a Honda enthusiasts, this is the one for you. New York City is such a vibe and seeing these Hondas cruise around town and pop-up in a busy Timesquare is a sight to behold!…
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KDAY!! Is One Of Japan’s Best-Kept Secrets…

KDAY!! Is One Of Japan’s Best-Kept Secrets…

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Takeshi Kobayashi for over a decade now but have never actually been to one of his Kday!! events. It’s an annual car show he does every year and though I’ve been to Japan many, many, times, I’ve just never made my way up to Miyagi Prefecture during Fall. After my trip to Australia, I decided to head to Japan for a few weeks and it just so happened that Kday!! was happening the same month. Yasu had planned to attend with his newly-finished USDM Civic coupe so everything just sort of fell into place. Not only would be be able to present the Civic in its near-final form, I’d finally have the opportunity to experience Takeshi’s labor of love in his hometown…
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The Return Of A Local Legend In Japan…

The Return Of A Local Legend In Japan…

You know, I’d never thought I’d see the day when this Civic coupe would re-emerge over in Japan. It wasn’t the best kept secret ever, but Yasu from Exceed Japan actually purchased this coupe about 5 years ago as a bare shell. DPK David had decided to move on from Hondas and Yasu leaped at the chance of owning it. The two-door was one of Yasu’s favorites from the West Coast and one of the builds that really got him fascinated with how enthusiasts build Hondas in America. He had planned to rebuild the car as an homage to its prime years here in Southern California but with some updated details to make it his own. As the business grew over the years, it became less of a priority to get this thing back together. This year marked the first time Yasu even had a chance to even touch the car and over the last few months, it has started to look like its old self again. After I left Australia, I flew straight to Japan to see it for myself…
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Aussie Fun With Spoon Sports & The RAREST JDM Collector Cars Outside Of Japan…

Aussie Fun With Spoon Sports & The RAREST JDM Collector Cars Outside Of Japan…

To be perfectly honest with you, when I first embarked on this journey to Australia, I had no idea I’d encounter a multi-million dollar Nismo Z-Tune, multiple Nismo 400Rs, THE HKS ZERO-R, or a Jackie Chan custom Mitsubishi Evo. What a wildly interesting day this turned-out to be. But before I get to that, I spent an extra day with Spoon Sports at JDMYard for a gathering they hosted. It’s always fun hanging out with those guys and making memories. Later on that week, I realized I had an extra day unplanned so I hit up some friends over in Melbourne. I’d never been on that side of Australia but knew they had a pretty great car community there. I met a few of them earlier this year while we were all in Japan and they seemed like good people. When I told them I wanted to spend a day there, they took time off, picked me up from the airport, and took me to see some of the rarest Japanese imports I’ve ever seen!…
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Exploring Down Under For World Time Attack Challenge…

Exploring Down Under For World Time Attack Challenge…

I was gonna say “Spooning Down Under” but people might get the wrong idea, lol. So right after New York, I flew home for a few short hours to repack because I had to hop on another flight to Australia. Yasu and I had always talked about going but just never got down to actually planning it. When he told me he was going, I gave him my word that I would meet up with him in Sydney but kind of got carried away with time–per usual, I didn’t book my flight until late. Like two weeks late. After I saw the prices of the flights, I was kind of hesitant on going but then I found out that Spoon Sports would be attending WTAC as well. Spoon, both Japan and USA, were heading down under for exhibition runs with the legendary Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada behind the wheel. I wasn’t going to miss that so I bit the bullet and booked my trip. It was so expensive that I managed to find another flight that would take me to Japan after for just an extra $100. So why not just make a big adventure out of it all, right? Let’s kick things off by exploring the two-day event that was the World Time Attack Challenge. If you’re looking for racing action, there is none of that here, lol. I spent my time walking around the event and studying car builds as I always do…
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The Beasts Of WEKFEST EAST…

The Beasts Of WEKFEST EAST…

I’d say that it’s been a minute but that would be an understatement. Working on that ADVAN collaboration has consumed more of my life than I’d like to admit but when I’m not at home working, I’m literally on the road trying to absorb as much car culture as I can! This marks a big few months for me as I venture off into different parts of the world. My journey starts in the Tri-State area as I fly out to New York to attend the annual Wekfest East event. It’s always interesting going out East to see old friends and meet new ones at the show. Immediately after that, I booked an early flight home because I had to repack my bags before taking a 1:20AM flight to fly across the world to attend the World Time Attack Challenge. Before we get into that though, I take you around the early morning hours of Wekfest in Edison, New Jersey…
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So What’s Car Culture In Canada Like??…

So What’s Car Culture In Canada Like??…

On the list of “places I didn’t plan on visting in 2023”, Canada was pretty high on the list when my year started. Nothing against the Canadians, I just didn’t have any plans to go. I’ve visited a few times before but it was never really for automotive stuff. I usually get a pretty decent sample size whenever I go to Seattle for Wekfest. A good group of cars come down from Canada for the show and I’m always pretty impressed. I’d like to think that the car community up there is kinda like how it is back at home, just slightly different, like an alternate dimension version. Recently, Reggie Mah from Nightrunner threw the idea out there that I should go and visit Vancouver. He was having his first public event at his new shop location and I had mentioned before in the past that I wanted to check-out the cars at his shop. I don’t know if he just threw the idea out there as a joke, not expecting me to actually go, but I just so happened to have a free weekend on those exact dates. I’m always down to see something new and experience car culture in an unfamiliar place so this was the perfect opportunity! I booked a trip for the weekend and spent every moment of it doing car stuff with some fellow automotive enthusiasts from Canada. It was definitely an eye-opening experience….
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Doridore Japan 2023 Coverage…

Doridore Japan 2023 Coverage…

This was one of those events that I totally did not anticipate attending while I was in Japan a few months ago. I usually try to keep my trips pretty spontaneous so on certain days, we’ll randomly go to a car event that we just heard about the day before. Sometimes they’re a couple hours away so it probably isn’t ideal to plan so late but that’s just how things go. I heard about the DoriDore event last year while I was in Japan because our friend Yayo was hired on to be one of their official event models. I didn’t know too much about it before since it was still relatively new, but the concept of it sounded really cool. DoriDore is essentially a drift and dress-up event for enthusiasts who love the “Shakotan” style of Japanese car builds. Shakotan, for those unfamiliar, basically means an extremely-lowered car aka a car that is ‘slammed’. This event is catered to those who enjoy the Shakotan-style specifically and want to take their cars drifting while hovering ever so slightly above the tarmac. Most of the time, the cars competing aren’t dedicated drift cars. A bulk of them are show cars and that’s kinda what makes this event so fun. For once, the cars drifting actually look good, lol. Style is the number 1 driving force. It allows for these show cars to go out there and slide around without prejudice. There’s no pro driver on their ass trying to get them to go faster and these guys just get to move around at their own pace…
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