Here’s your weekend update y’all….Haha. Again, I’d like to welcome all of the new viewers from the right coast checking out the site for the first time. There are some weekends where I will save the updates for the following Monday but since we still have so much to get through, I thought I’d do another update so you guys have something to look at. One of the other reasons why I wanted to do an update today is because the Monday update will have photos from some of the parties after day one of IA 2011, and I know people have been itching to see what I have to say in regards to all the debauchery that ensued. I’m sure you guys have heard stories about it and it’s definitely something to touch on so stay tuned for that…

Now let’s talk about the other elephant in the room…the whole west coast/east coast debate. Now that I’ve been to both sides and seen both of the largest import automotive events in person, I think I have a pretty good understanding of what both coasts have to offer. In all honesty, comparing the two is comparing apples to oranges….it’s just two totally different things. The community out here has been around far longer and no matter what people have to say about it, many of the popular trends and mods that have become so popular today did in fact start out here in the left coast. The “scene” if you want to call it that, is much more developed because we’ve had the originators and people who were around there since the whole community sprung to life. We have seen great examples early on as to how great builds come about. Long before the “JDM” craze, way before two tone bays became popular, and back in the days, your wheels still sat inside the wheel wells and weren’t fighting for dear life to escape from your tires. With that though, the community out here is also much more competitive. EVERYTHING today has become a competition. Who did this first, who did what better, and how one car “shits” all over someone elses. In a sense, the competitiveness has turned off a lot of enthusiasts from even going to shows or attending events. Not to say that the community still isn’t great, but the demographic (as I touched on yesterday) is an older crowd. That’s why you always see me taking pictures of the people at events and showing other things that are going on at events besides just the cars. I want to give you guys a sense of the lifestyle and the people behind it all. The younger crop of guys out here tend to follow the trendy mods like shitty wheel fitment, tow hook charms, bike racks that aren’t used, etc. They have more of a general liking and it resembles many of the younger enthusiasts out there, so in that case, the two coasts are very similar. But there are guys who are straight heaters and just want to build high quality, well-rounded cars throughout the country…you just don’t hear from them as much out there because the scene is much larger over there and in a lot of cases, it has become watered down. While you’re at an event like Import Alliance, you have to sift through a hoard of cars before you really get to the good ones. I think that’s why Don and the crew have the paddock area to cater to vendors who bring out the great cars and why they place the best builds up front. Some people just aren’t interested in walking through the entire Nashville Super Speedway to find those gems in a crowd of whatever cars.

Like I said, the community out here in the west just seems to be more competitive with one another because we want to bring out the best of the best every single time. The meets are even like shows now where you see people wiping their cars down and shit. Out east/midwest, it’s far less competitive and people are just used to enjoying eachothers company. They party and hang out, and the cars sometimes reflect that because competition maybe isn’t exactly the most important thing to them. There are definitely the competitive ones, but they are few and far between. They deal with a much bigger community who are a little bit younger so what they like in a build is just different. That’s why I mentioned that I noticed how many cars are lacking in details out there; they either don’t know or just don’t care. That’s why I say that it’s hard to compare the two because the communities are so different from eachother. It’s cool to see that guys from out there make the trip out here annually though because they get a sense of what things are like over here, and vice versa. Going out there was a true learning experience for me and the rest of the guys. It’s almost silly to even try to compare the two. I almost don’t know how to put it into words…all I can tell you is that it’s just very different…

Great builds exist throughout the country. It doesn’t matter if it’s from the east, west, fucking mars, who gives a shit. Learn to appreciate a project because of the work that’s been put into it and not so much where it came from. Geographic location is so insignificant because we can all hang out, learn from eachother, and just enjoy cars as well as the company of other enthusiasts…

It’s probably all just senseless rambling above so let’s just move on with the coverage…

Okay, so at this point, I was still making my rounds throughout the show and trying to capture everything that I could. I would normally just take a couple shots of a certain car and be done with it but at IA, if I had a good shot or an open opportunity to take a photo without someone walking in front of it, I took it…

The home S2kjay…next to mexican Zac Efron’s booth…

Jay from JDMEGO will enjoy this shitty bootleg version of his t-shirt… By the way, wearing a t-shirt that says “JDM as FUCK” doesn’t make you “JDM”, whatever that means. You can’t be “JDM”.. So next time you put on that t-shirt, remember that you’re wearing a shirt that says “Japanese Domestic Market” as FUCK…so you are a country’s personal market of goods…as FUCK. Wakaba badges are lame “as FUCK” too. Might as well just buy that shirt to the left with a spray painted turbo that the owner didn’t allow to dry and is now dripping wet paint into someone’s rib cage…as FUCK…haha

I enjoyed this DC2…

This EK reminds me of another EK that used to belong to Josh (1Type) who works at Sportcar Motion ages ago…

Integra with a full Azect kit…

Civic with a Mugen front lip and mag blue-like Stark IIs…

CTR on red GAB wheels…GAB says thank you Rota for always making people take a second look at real GABs now to see if they are real…

THIS PHOTO IS NOT RELATED TO THE ABOVE CTR IN ANY WAY….holy fucking rat nest! Good lord, somebody either needs to call Rywire or learn how to make an engine harness. It’s just crazy to see the customer breather with the -AN lines and all that shit but the fucking harness is all over the place, especially near where the fuel filter and fuel lines go…good lord. This shit is dangerous…as FUCK. I didn’t want to take a photo of the entire car because I feel like it would be a lost cause since the car is highly likely to catch on fire and burn down…Fucking Spiderman would get tangled up in that shit, for real…

I took a shot of this bay because…1. I think the valve cover is a pretty neato idea…and 2. this Civic was fast as fuck. The exterior aesthetics are generally unattractive and it has like some bronze Rota wheels on it but things thing hauls ass. How do I know? I saw it racing and smoking a street bike on the freeway next to the La Quinta when everyone was watching people race on the highway. When I say everyone, I mean that I was standing next to a Nashville Police officer and he was talking shit about the bike while hanging out with everyone….

I really liked the simplicity of this Civic. I don’t know if the airbox is really all that effective but the car looks good. Reminds me of one of Loi’s old Civics but before he powdered coated his old Weds like a milky brown rusty color that he claimed was “copper”…

NSX on silver TE37s…

Got a chance to meet Jordan McCord and his immaculate CR-X build when he pulled up to park in Rywire’s booth… Here we are attempting and failing to put a Rywire banner on his windshield…

Here are some better shots of it after I put the camera down and put the banner on myself…

Here’s Jordan rocking a Hurt Feelings t-shirt next to DPK David who was sleeping standing up…

PG+K Moe…

EG Mike and Jay from PG+K…

EG Mike once again…

Absolutely loved this S14…

Nice color on this S2000 that was rocking some pretty aggressive Work Emotion CR Kai’s…

Only one set of CCWs in this particular post…the ones on this 8th gen. are “Canibeat Edition CCWs”…

Liked this grey Civic but the blue 949 wheels killed it for me….interesting take on the camo for the valve cover though…cool idea…

Really liked this shot with the flag flowing and the swagged out kid on the left…

Morgan and Ryan chatting it up at the booth while DPK David has moved his napping to the chair…

Nick Weir x Seen It! x Black Guy x Half shirt x Blue underwear…collabo.

Still not really sure what “It” was but I’m sure I Seent it while I was there at IA…

After the sun went to hide behind the clouds, Big Mike, DPK David, and I decided to walk over to the next lot to check out some of the other cars. This side had some interesting cars to look at… This silver coupe was cool, not really sure how I feel about the green manifold though…

Identity crisis…the owner of this car couldn’t decide if he wanted a USDM 240SX or a Silvia so he decided to go with both…

White EK with shaved moldings on purple Meisters…

This is a good look…S2000 on SSR Professor SP3…

IS300 on Weds Kranze Bazreia…

Widebody FD3S that I think I also saw racing at the La Quinta…

Civic with an H22-swap…

Gonna close it out for the weekend with Matt Lines’ H22-powered Civic Wagon. I did a story on this car for Honda Tuning not too long ago so it was cool to finally see it in person…

That’s all for today folks, have a good weekend…