About a couple hours ago, I made the decision to go ahead and go through the photos from this year’s VIP Festival and get those up first before we get to the SEMA coverage. One of the main reasons behind that decision is because there are just so many photos from SEMA. I’m going to have to divide those up and it’ll take multiple parts before we can get through all of it. The Autofashion VIP Festival provided a lot of good photos so I figured it would be better to get those out to you first. SEMA photos are floating around already but the VIP Festival just happened on Sunday, so you probably haven’t seen anything up about that yet. There’s only around 70 photos or so from the event as well so we can knock that out in the next two days. The SEMA coverage will take up a bulk of the next two weeks so be prepared for that….

Anyways, let’s get going with part one of the Autofashion VIP Festival…

I try to make it a point to come out to any event that Freddie from Autofashion puts together. We’ve known eachother for quite some time now and we have always made it a point to support eachother. He’s taken time out of his schedule the last two years to come help me out at my anniversary meets so it’s only right that I make the trek down to San Diego to be a part of his annual VIP Festival events. I’ve been in love with the VIP-style of tuning since the early 2000s and I’m happy to see how big the scene has grown throughout the years. One of the main reasons behind it’s growth is due in part to Freddie and Autofashion. They laid the groundwork for the VIP scene years ago and Autofashion has developed quite the following since then. The annual VIP Festival happens the Sunday after SEMA every year because it’s easier to get everyone out to San Diego since they are already in the same general area. A lot of VIP enthusiasts are out in Vegas for the SEMA show already so it makes sense to make the drive down to check out the event…

I’ll be honest, I was pretty worn out from the entire week in Vegas but I wasn’t about to just lay in bed all day and miss out on the VIP Festival. We all made the trip out there last year and it was a great time so it was definitely something I was looking forward to. The last couple days in Vegas, it had already begun to rain so on Sunday morning, I woke up to check the weather reports and it showed no indication of rain until the evening. I called up DPK David to see if he was ready to roll and he didn’t believe me when I told him it wasn’t raining in San Diego. I don’t blame him because we were just about an hour and a half away from the event and it was pouring where we were at. I grabbed some breakfast with May and left with a sense of optimism because I really didn’t want it to rain. I was worried the event would be dead because of it so I looked online and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was not only busy, but it also wasn’t raining. I picked up DPK David as well as Rywire Ryan and the four of us headed down to San Diego. The whole drive down was pretty intense because of the rain in our area but we were looking forward to arriving to a nice, dry, VIP Festival. I kept telling everyone in the car that it wasn’t going to rain but a couple miles away from the freeway exit, the rain was still coming down pretty consistently…. Turns out that we were basically racing the storm the entire time and it beat us to the meet. When we arrived at Autofashion, it started to come down pretty hard but luckily for us, the guys at Falken Tire were there with a booth that provided us coverage from the rain….

All the cars were soaked by the time we got there but at least it made for some interesting photos…

It was pretty gloomy and gray which was a stark contrast to the Facebook photos we saw posted from the event earlier on in the day…

One thing that was really surprising was the sheer number of cars that were there and remained there even through the storm…

…it was a great example of how devoted people are to Freddie and the Autofashion family. Many of these cars would never even touch the rain on a regular day, let alone sit out in torrential downpour…

One of the cars that I was excited to see was the debut of this Aurora Flare Blue Pearl Y33 Q45, which belongs to VIPstylecars forum member Tony aka “Blitz”…I met him while I was standing under a random canopy hiding from the rain and he was a pretty nice guy…I was really hoping the rain would stop for just a quick moment so I could go take a closer look at his car but in the mean time, all I could do was look at it from a distance…

SL65 AMG pulling into the VIP Festival…Only way to out-floss all the nice Japanese VIP builds is to pull up in a 12-cylinder European beast…

…while this dog wasn’t particularly happy to be drenched…

5&A Dime and the Dudeblvd crew were on hand to show support…

Enrique Rosario and Natalie attempting to stick it out…

Tetsuya Yamaguchi from USDM Jam/Yamaz Store flew out from Japan for the 2011 SEMA show and decided to stop by the VIP Festival…

The first couple shots are pretty random because I spent a chunk of time under the Falken Tire tent just getting whatever I could with the 70-200mm lens…I wasn’t afraid of getting drenched or anything, I just wasn’t really down with getting my camera wet but eventually I sucked it up and started walking around when the rain let up a bit…

I walked out and ran into my old high school buddy Dennis Kiyan and snapped this photo of Jay Borcena’s Acura TL while I was chatting with him…

Really love this TRD widebody SW20 MR-2 but I really wish he would just fix that wing already…

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Y34 Infiniti M chassis…I was trying to find one actually when I was looking for a car to build a couple years back until I landed on the Y33 Q45 I have now…

This Aimgain-equipped LS from Arizona was one of my favorite cars at SEMA so it was great to see it at the Festival…

Blitz’s Y33…I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan of Weds Kranze LX-Zs but they look amazing on his Q…The Aurora Flare Blue Pearl paint is a color from a 2012 Nissan GT-R that’s supposed to have a really cool effect when the sun hits it. I would not see that cool effect that day because of the obvious…

Even though Leon Casino has never personally built a VIP ride, it didn’t stop him from making the trip down to SD to show his support…

The Lexus 2GS chassis was definitely one of the most popular at the VIP Festival…

This magenta/fuscia/hot pink-toned G35 was definitely interesting, especially with the gold Leon Hardiritt Ordens…

Really liked this 2GS on Weds Kranze Bazreias…

Meanwhile back at the Falken Tire tent, Ryan was bragging about how he found a pair of dry socks in his snowboarding jacket…

Dennis Kiyan’s M45…

Absolutely loved everything about this LS….the attention to detail is awesome and something that many VIP guys overlook…More on this car in the SEMA 2011 coverage later…

I personally would never build a pink car on gold wheels but I have to say, I like this G35 a lot…the kit is not too over the top and the wheels aren’t poking out all ridiculously…

Silver 2GS on Eurolines from the crew “Royal Flush”…

Hakosuka Skyline GT-R that’s popped-up at numerous events this year…

JonJon’s supercharged IS350…

Oscar aka “Pancakes” Y33 Q45…

Big fan of this VIP Acura TL…love the custom kit and fender work…

Great wheel fitment on this 2GS…Interesting how he incorporated the JDM sidemarker lights into his vented front fender instead of shaving the hole like many would…Makes for a cool look since people just expect you to shave everything and delete things these days…

Q45 belonging to VIPstylecars forum member “Brokey33″…

…his Weds Kranze Cerberus wheels with custom Z32 300ZX brake calipers “bedazzled” with Swarovski crystals…

Q45 also repping VIPDOUT…I actually went and checked out their website and it’s got some pretty cool shit on it… check it out here if you’re into VIP stuff….

Gonna cut it off here for now…Definitely coming back with the second and final portion of the 2011 VIP Festival Coverage…thanks for looking…