This post would be more appropriate if I titled it; “A Windy Fucking Day at Hontune” because it was cold, and the wind was STRONG that day. So strong, that I didn’t even bother to put up the canopy because I knew it would fly away and land on somebody’s car. You want to know just how windy it was? Well we had the garage area to set-up the cars and the booth so it was pretty much indoors with the exception of the garage doors being left open. We left the canopy out of my truck, but it was still folded and zipped up inside it’s container. It was so windy, that the wind actually knocked the canopy over and almost landed on Big Mike’s hood, which probably would have done some considerable damage. Luckily it narrowly missed it, and instead landed on a couple cups of coffee so now my tent is dirty…

You probably haven’t seen much coverage of this event because, well, to put it frankly, there weren’t too many people there. I don’t know what it is about track events and getting non-track guys to come out and chill, but like every event similar to this, it ends up working out where the “meet” portion of it has relatively low numbers. Doesn’t really make sense to me because the track or “race” side of the community has always been a foundation of the Honda “scene”. You can plan a meet at a fucking parking lot or something where businesses need the space to operate and a million fucking cars will show up, but when there’s a race event where they offer more than the allotted amount of space for an actual gathering, cars don’t show up. Makes no fucking sense. This Hontune thing wasn’t even posted up short notice or anything. It was posted up on many different forums and also promoted by one of the best promoters in our community (Big Mike) and still, the turn-out was not that great. It’s come to the point where I already expect a shitty turn-out and I was actually pleasantly surprised by how many cars did show. In any case, I hope this changes some time in the near future and we as enthusiasts can learn to support more facets of our community. Race guys can go to car shows and enjoy themselves, and car show guys can show up to race events and just chill and enjoy the event. I mean, seriously, you can fill up a parking-lot at Super Autobacs, which fuckin failed in the U.S., but not track events that are put together by actual enthusiasts who are your peers? Really? No matter what type of event it is, you should always try to show your support by making the effort to at least come out…

The annual Super Street FF Battle is coming up this summer and I certainly hope that attendance improves. It’s a great event and it’s put-together by one of the leading magazines in our industry. Like events similar to Hontune, it also needs your support. It’s just like a normal meet in some parking-lot but, cars that are doing fly-bys and going fast are allowed to, and not done by idiots who are trying to show up by smashing the opposite direction on the street…

Anyways, on with the coverage. The usuals came out and even though we expected the turn-out to be less than spectacular, we came out anyway to support Big Mike as well as just to chill and spend time with one another. Plus the Kogi truck was going to be there so there would be food for us. We got there early to set-up and then just kinda sat around. I had merchandise for sale and people actually bought some stuff to support the site, which was cool…

Just an example of how windy it was that day. I set up a banner but the wind was pushing it up so far that you could barely even see it…

The Rywire booth was right next to mine so we decided to tie both banners together, in an attempt to add some rigidity since it was so windy…

The weather has been so weird lately that the backdrop for the event looked like something completely outside of California. Look at all the snow on the mountains next to us. If you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t even believe me if I told you that this was in sunny Southern California…

While I was busy staring at the mountains, Bisi showed up with his trailer and 500hp CR-Z to set-up his booth…

Keith aka Keychain from ItsJDMYo decided to come hang out with us for the day…

A legit right-hand drive FD3S RX-7 on JIC wheels was making runs on the track throughout the day. I don’t have any actual pictures of it on the track so you will just have to take my word on it. I actually didn’t leave this area to go to the track because I had to watch my booth. It was extremely cold that day so it was best for the girls not to have to sit around the whole day to run the booth so they took off to go to the mall and grab food and what not. They needed a day to themselves anyways, being that we were just one week removed from the madness that was Wekfest…

An older gentleman enjoying some details of Big Mike’s Prelude…

Bisi in the paddock…

The guy with the camera is Sean (If I remember his name correctly) from The Narita Dog Fight blog. If you haven’t seen it before, you should probably check it out. It’s a cool site that he started and he shoots in Japan and captures all kinds of interesting stuff…

Danny actually came down from Norcal to set-up his booth to promote his new clothing line, Ignited Soul…

DPK David, Keith, and Ejay enjoying a laugh…

Really liked this S2000 that came back and forth from the track throughout the day…

I liked this photo I took of Ejay’s Integra so much, that I’ve even attached a larger version for you guys to click on…Larger Version (1200x800px)

Ejay and Ryan applying a Rywire decal to Ejay’s windshield…

You should all be well-acquainted with his H2B set-up by now…

Purchase this shirt HERE…

A couple of random shots of Big Mike’s bay because I was bored…and well, it’s not like there were that many other cars to look at….haha…

This EJ1 coupe was being tracked throughout the day and David and Ejay went to go check it out…

And then some people finally started to show up…

Big Mike kidnapped Ryan on his way over to the Kogi truck…

If you saw my recent Norm Reeves coverage than you probably remembering seeing this 4-door…it’s, ummm, getting there…

Another shot of Keychain’s Accord and his fitment…

I was trying to get a pic of this S2000 throughout the day but he kept moving so this was the only shitty pic I could get of it…

A couple of other random shots…

We were so close to the mountains that we occassionally ran into snowboarders that were just passing through…

Another S2K, this one adorned in ASM aero (or possibly ASM-like aero)…

Big Mike holding another one of his hourly seminars on the art of Prelude…

Meanwhile, DPK David was cold…

Norman from AS1 cruised out with the wife and kids to see what Hontune was all about…

Bisi on his way to take some laps around the track in the CR-Z…

The backdrop makes it look like we’re somewhere in Alaska…

Big Mike…

Some other Civics that came out…

Another one of Danny’s Laguna Seca Blue 4-door…

Not really sure where all the people came from but there was a pretty big line for the Kogi truck…

I saw a bunch of stickers on the Kogi truck so I decided to put one of The Chronicles stickers on it. Funny because a week or so later, when I was on the 101 freeway, I saw the same Kogi truck broken down on the shoulder at night and could still see my Chronicles sticker on there…

While Sid is busy putting his DA back together, he’s been occupying his time by doing some minor things to his Honda Fit…

Another shot of Norman’s Civic…

Spotted this hanging on David’s rearview mirror…

Ejay enjoying his beef short-rib burrito that he waited in line for hours for…

This ITR belongs to Jared Reyes who helped organize the whole Hontune event with Big Mike and Speedventures…

Busted out a different lens so that I could get some more pics from other angles…this one is another shot of Keychain’s Accord…

The front of Ejay’s Integra…

…and his bay…

I had no idea that there were going to be awards given out but there were. Half of them were based on votes that were submitted on ballots by people that attended the event, and the others were for cars that were being tracked throughout the day. They were cool little awards and we also did a raffle and gave out some prizes to the people that were there….

By that time the girls had come back so we had Jackie read out the raffle numbers while Big Mike MC’d and announced the awards…

Norman won for Best Family and most kids loaded into one Civic at a Hontune event…

I don’t know which order these guys won in but they both one for the People’s Choice category…the guy in the background of the last picture apparently disagreed with the choice…

After the awards, it was time to clean up and head home…

Ejay and David messing around with Phaze2 Arnel’s 4-door project. I posted up a picture of this in one of the NWP4Life threads and somebody posted up a comment like “I wonder how low it is without the people in it” or something like that…well, it’s pretty much the same, because it’s on air…

…here’s a better shot of it without the guys standing in front of it… and a Larger Version (1200x800px)

That’s a wrap on Hontune…thanks for looking…