I’ve got quite a bit to say about the Eibach 2012 event but since I have so much to do this week and still have a bulk of the photos to go through, I’ll try my best to keep the words to a minimum…

Was the event an enormous success? Sure, most definitely…

Did the event sell-out, preventing people and cars from coming into the event? Yes, but shutting the gates to spectators was not a decision of the Eibach Honda Meet staff. It was the Irwindale Police Department’s idea to do so…

Was the 2012 event better than in year’s past? Well, that is based merely on public opinion. Being that it was at a completely new venue, I don’t think you can really compare it to the events of year’s past. The Eibach Honda Meet has grown so much over the years that it was necessary to move to a bigger location, essentially changing the overall feel of the event…

Could things have been more organized? Of course. You have to consider that this Irwindale event served as a test bed for future events to come and mistakes were made. It is only expected that mistakes would be made. This was foreign territory to not only the people attending the meet, but also to the event organizers…

It is an unrealistic expectation for things to go 100% smoothly at any event. Things happen, unexpected things. For the short amount of time that Rodrez and Ryan from Eibach had to plan the event, I feel that they did a wonderful job considering the resources that were presented to them. There are a lot of things that even I would like to see improved upon and I think we all felt that way after the event. I don’t think many of you realized how close this event was to not happening at all. For these two guys who have regular jobs and have families to go home to everyday, holding a meet of this size is not easy. A lot of people who complain seem to only like to talk about the money that was involved and how much of it was made. That too, is very unrealistic. You have no idea. If they happened to go home with money in their pockets, congratulations to them because they deserved every dollar. If you think you can pull off an event of this magnitude and do it better, fuck it, feel free and do it. Go make some money. I guarantee you that you have no idea what is involved with getting an event of this proportion to go smoothly and to make everybody happy. Every year an event like this takes place, you look to improve it and make it better as an event organizer. Nobody goes into it saying, “oh fuck it, it’s going to be a success. Let’s do a shitty job”. There would be no point in throwing an event if the plan was to make it shitty and to fuck people over.

You want to complain? Well okay, I want to complain too. Why oh why, in this great age of social media, can people not tell one another to read the rules and to tell people to show up on time. This isn’t a new thing either. Every single year, the overflow of spectators in the morning has effected how the event went and slowed roll-in and set-up dramatically. How hard is it to just show up when the event opens? Are you really missing anything by showing up on time? You come early just to block traffic and to watch cars drive in. These cars aren’t driving AWAY from you, you know that right? They are driving INTO an event that you will be attending and you will have plenty of time to look at these cars. Seeing them drive to their parking spot is not anything amazing. Every year people show up 3-4 hours early and congest the streets as well as the set-up process. If you couldn’t get into the event last Sunday, don’t blame the event organizers, you need to blame your fellow enthusiasts that don’t follow instructions and ruined the event for you. People who showed up early to spectate also complained that they were told to park in an area where they might be towed because it wasn’t the paid parking lot they were supposed to park in. These same people are the people that showed up early and weren’t even supposed to be there in the first place! Because of these people that arrived early to get in everyone’s way, they congested the lot where cars were staged for roll-in. You know how we can fix this problem? FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS AND SHOW UP ON TIME…

Another problem that event staff faced all morning, was spectators and show attendees who brought spectators but didn’t bother to bring any fucking cash. Again, if you followed instructions, you should know that you have to pay to get into the event and you have to pay for parking. Why people don’t bring cash with them knowing this is beyond me. It’s either proof that education has declined over the years and people don’t know how to read, or these people just expected the Eibach staff to “do them a solid” and let them go in for free…. which is utterly fucking ridiculous. You show up early when you shouldn’t, block the parking lot as well as the public streets leading into Irwindale Speedway, and then you don’t even have money to pay for yourself to get into the event. Again, if you didn’t make it into the event, it is the fault of your fellow enthusiasts.

Things could have definitely been better, and it will get better next year, and the year after that if they plan to do another Eibach. People will complain all they want because people love to complain and talk shit these days. When it comes down to it, they will either come again, or the won’t, which will probably lead to a better event because we will have less people who just have this overwhelming sense of entitlement. The changes that will be made in the future will be monumental and will improve things ten fold. If you don’t want to come again in the future because you felt you had a bad experience this time around, *shrugs* oh fucking well….

Wayne, who is a fellow enthusiast such as yourself, had this to say in response to an overwhelming amount of complaints posted on the NWP4Life forums following the event. I probably couldn’t have said it better myself…

Yeah fuck the police, cool guy on the internet… big man you are.

First off I was at the event at 6:30am I got there and in to help direct parking all day. A fuckload of people showed up at 5am and parked where they shouldn’t have (irwindale was not only dedicated to the honda meet, they had their nascar driving school which uses the grandstand side of the tracks parking the hondatards shouldn’t of been in)

You knew you had to pay cash to get in, I’m sure someone mentioned it. TONS OF PEOPLE SHOWED UP WITH NO CASH.

There were also ton’s of people who registered and were parked with no problem and showed up on time during their respective roll in’s like they should have and we got them all organized without a hitch. Once the flood gates opened to the public who had the bright idea of flooding the streets of irwindale mind you it’s a 2 lane road in front of irwindale speedway. We blocked traffic, and blocked people from getting into the irwindale event on the other side of the track with the amount of people that showed up.

The police showed up to help direct traffic to clear up the street, they weren’t handing out tickets, reffing people (one asshole got a ticket and he probably deserved it from where I was standing) TONS OF CARS WITHOUT HOODS ON, NO TICKETS GIVEN.

They were super cool and could’ve been dicks and shut things down from the get go, the facility was at CAPACITY.

Then all of these cool guys started showing up, paid to park in spectating, then decided they didn’t like where they parked and started driving into the traffic we’re directing to park which held up the fucking line for other cars to get in.

So to make a long ass story short you can blame all of your fucking selves for being pussy hurt assholes who feel entitled to shit because you drove a honda with your groups of friends to look at cars for 10 minutes, say this sucks you can’t park where you want (in the show area) then disrupt traffic.

We could only do so much and the best you can come up with is I hope Eibach feels good for making 24k or some shit off of the people who did get in?

classy guys. I don’t know why Ryan or Matt go through the trouble of putting this shit on for you guys still.

You new generation fucks don’t appreciate shit and feel you’re owed something and it’s the reason I fucking hate your scene.

It’s a shame that there were people that came from out of town that couldn’t make it into the event…I know I would be mad as well if I traveled from far only to find out that I couldn’t even get near the venue because it was at capacity. I know of some personal friends of mine that couldn’t even get in. It sucks, but that’s just the reality of the situation. The event got so big that the police felt that they had to do something to maintain control of the streets as well as the highways leading to and from Irwindale, CA.

With all that negative shit put aside, I think the event was great. In terms of cars, there were a bunch that I didn’t care to see, but there were a ton that I hadn’t encountered before or only saw online so I was very surprised to see them at the event. I got as many photos as I could with the time presented to me. I was helping the rest of the friends and staff on hand to get everyone situated during roll-in, up to the point when the meet itself had already started. I didn’t even get a chance to set-up my booth because we were working our hardest to get everyone off of the streets and parked inside. Everybody else worked their asses off the make things go as smoothly as possible and I congratulate and thank them for pulling it off. They worked their fucking asses off and should be commended for their time and effort. They don’t deserve to just hear complaint after complaint. We all wanted to enjoy the event as best we could too…

Even though I only had a block of say, three hours to walk through the event and take photos, I was able to get a ton of good stuff. Like the Wekfest LA coverage, you will be looking at photos from Eibach 20121 all week. Please don’t ask me if I took a photo of your car. That’s just lame and shows how much of an attention whore you are. If you see your car on here, that means I noticed your car. If you don’t see it in this bulk of coverage, either I missed your car because I was busy as fuck running around all day, or maybe your car just didn’t interest me. Blunt, yes, but necessary. Otherwise I’m going to get all kinds of questions about if I got this or that. I got what I got. Just wait and see… The lamest thing I saw on the Eibach Meet Facebook page was people repeatedly asking if someone took a photo of their car and what people thought of their builds. How unbelievably desperate does that sound? Seriously though…If you have to ask then maybe you are building your car for the wrong reasons…

Let’s get to the coverage now…After looking through multiple pages of people complaining and arguing about the event, I am just about over talking about it… If you don’t like it, it’s simple, don’t come again. It’s not mandatory for you to show up….

Photos now…

May and I arrived early in the morning around 7am to Irwindale Speedway. Jared and his S2000 were already there as well as a couple of others who were there to help that morning…

Though things look serene in these photos, the lot across was already filling up with cars who were staging for roll-in, along with a bunch of other random fucks that shouldn’t have been there because they just stood there and got in the way…

DPK David arrived shortly after us and we chatted for a few seconds while we watched OldManJames (pictured) direct traffic into the staging area…this was before the madness began….

Big Mike arriving in his Prelude…

I didn’t get to take too many photos during the roll-in portion of the event. We were all busy helping out so I just snapped a photo whenever I could and let the camera in the car the rest of the time. Spotted this red hatchback on Mugen NR10Rs and thought it was pretty clean. As you can see from the photo above, most of those people weren’t exhibiting their cars and weren’t registered to be a part of the event. They were just spectators who showed up too early and caused traffic. Some guys even showed up early to try to buy a spot, knowing that they were told to show up after 10:30 if they wanted to have a chance to get in. They too, parked, and took up space…

The two rows of cars getting prepped to go inside to their designated spots…

Recently re-released Enkei 92s were a popular choice for many that day at Eibach…

I was happy to see a lot of diversity at the event. There were some nice Preludes and Accords, as well as other less commonly modded Hondas at Eibach this year…

Tony from It’s JDM Yo!! and I spent most of the morning at the front gate of Irwindale Speedway guiding cars in and making sure that they weren’t blocking the streets. Above is the left turn lane that we stared at all morning. There were random assholes who would try to turn into the venue from the other lane as well as people just outright running the red light to get ahead of people. Again, what was the rush? Is it really worth cutting your fellow Honda enthusiast just so you could get in a minute or two earlier than them?…

Tony and I also spent much of the morning preventing ourselves from getting run over by kids who felt that they had to angle their cars into a driveway that was completely flat… It’s cool, we get that you’re low, but it is awfully unnecessary. There was one guy who had to tell his two friends to get out of the car before he could get in though. If you are scraping on a completely flat surface, you win the award for trying waaayyy too hard… That last statement has nothing to do with the Civic above on SSR mesh though…Just saying, it’s getting ridiculous these days how overly hard kids are trying to be cool…The guy that I was describing to you was doing all he could to be low, but he couldn’t even prevent his corner light from staying on. His friend had to hold his corner light for him while he drove in…

Lee runs his own blog and took a moment to snap some photos while he was waiting in line….

There were some very tastefully modified Hondas that day, and also some very random ones…

My coverage of the morning stops here with a shot of Salem’s TSX in an empty lot… Things were getting really hectic so I didn’t pick up the camera until the afternoon after I had set up my booth…

Let’s fast forward to around 12:15 or so….I had no idea how packed it was already until I had a chance to walk inside. We had all been out by the front gate all morning so to see the event packed with cars was a crazy sight… As with the usual coverage that you’ve been seeing lately, I have attached links to larger version so certain photos. Please feel free to click on the links below the photos to see higher resolution photos…

Though Ryan Der had returned home to Norcal after Wekfest, his Civic was still down here at Rywire. He didn’t intend on his Civic being at Eibach but Mackin Industries needed a booth car and Ryan’s was a great choice…

Quick shot of the All-In Fab EP3 Civic as I walked to the car to put some stuff away after booth set-up…

The only models of the entire Eibach Honda Meet that day; Megan Belet and Xena Kai (otherwise known to regular Chronicles readers as the wonderful Titla McBoob, haha…)

Leon has been recovering recently from an accident he suffered while riding his Ruckus, but it didn’t stop him from bringing out his CR-X. He helps every year at Eibach and even though he was limping around in a cane this time around, he still came through…

Ryan from Rywire wasn’t able to help out in the morning since he had a guest from out of town staying with him, but he did bring out his NSX and he was also one of the first guys to tell us how bad traffic was coming off the freeway, seeing as how he was stuck in it for over 30 minutes…

DPK Jared swapped out his four NSX-spec rear Mugen M7s and put on his bronze MF10s for Eibach 2012… Larger Version (1400×933)

Jared’s S2K bay with baller Mugen intake…I like that the blue fittings match the blue caps on his Mugen MF10s…. Larger Version (1400×933)

OldManJames’ brought not only his S2000, but also Lee’s Sandwiches for everyone in the morning… Larger Version (1400×933)

Andrew’s turbo EK from TNT Auto…

There were a ton more vendors this year than in year’s past because there was more space to accommodate them. This is just one of 3-4 rows of vendors that Sunday…

Katman’s K20-swapped Civic from FF Squad…

Donut’s track-prepped DC2 Integra on 949Racing wheels… Larger Version (1400×933)

Tom Attak’s K-EF that’s been recently wrapped in white… Now it’s looking a lot like the Banzai Attack K-EF on Barramundi wheels from Japan… Larger Version (1400×933)

Nothing glamorous about Tom Attak’s engine bay, just all business…

Happy to see a set of legit GAB Sport wheels at Eibach… I wonder how many people were walking around telling their friends that this guy had knock-off Rota GT3 on his car…

Harvey Flores’ Honda Tuning magazine-featured DB Integra… Love this car and how it has its own sense of style. There isn’t another DB around that is anything like it… Larger Version (1400×933)

Harvey’s Mugen-themed engine bay…  Larger Version (1400×933)

Representing Tronics car crew from Norcal…

A shot of the rear and his retro-fitted Mugen Gen. II Integra wing… Larger Version (1400×933)

Civic coupe also from Tronics, rocking a Mugen EK Ferio kit and mag blue SSR Competitions… Larger Version (1400×933)

A shot of the engine bay with matching valve cover… Clean, mild tuck as well… Larger Version (1400×933)

Really liked this ’96-spec ITR with INGS+1 front bumper, Mugen sides, and FEEL’s rear wing… My only complaint would be that it’s a little high but with that big front bumper, I can understand why he doesn’t want to damage it… Larger Version (1400×933)

Love the JUN valve cover and GruppeM intake… Larger Version (1400×933)

A look at the front end with the INGS+1 bumper and JDM ITR conversion… Larger Version (1400×933)

Bright green lettering on the Sprint Hart CP-Rs to match the color theme in the bay…

Even has the “R” in green to match… In this shot you get a better look at the FEEL’s wing… Larger Version (1400×933)

This turbocharged Civic wasn’t too bad.. Kinda random to have a blue bay and everything else is red but hey, it’s not my car…

Another B-turbo Civic, this one with a purple bay on DAMD Lover Soul wheels…

Thought this coupe was pretty nice, rocking custom bronze Regamaster Evos and a Mugen rear view mirror cover… Larger Version (1400×933)

BB6 Prelude with gold Volk CE28s and a rare Wisesquare front bumper…

Cooper Boudia made the trek all the way from Washington for his first ever Eibach Meet… Larger Version (1400×933)

Cooper’s Spoon-themed engine bay…  Larger Version (1400×933)

Another Spoon-themed bay next to Cooper’s…unfortunately there was a big crowd around this car and I didn’t get a chance to go back and get a whole shot of the car… Larger Version (1400×933)

Haven’t seen a clean set WEDSport SA90s in a while… Larger Version (1400×933)

Spotless Integra Type R on white GAB Sport wheels… I never thought I’d be able to go to an event again where I got to see two sets of GAB wheels… Larger Version (1400×933)

Black EG with old school Work Ewing Fins…

DB Integra with JDM ITR conversion and staggered Work Ewing Mesh wheels…

When I spotted this Civic in the morning, I immediately ran to go get DPK David so he could see for himself… If you didn’t know, David has long been the only one in the U.S. with an authentic Buddy Club front lip for the EG/EJ chassis…well apparently not anymore…haha. He talked to the owner of this car and he told us that he bought it from HMO (Honda Motors Online)…They periodically bring other random stuff in their containers when they bring motors over and they stumbled upon this lip… Larger Version (1400×933)

Integra Type R on bronze Volk TE37s and Mugen Gen. II wing…

My old buddy Jed’s BB6 Prelude from San Diego on custom black chrome Work Rezax wheels and GReddy front lip…

Ricardo aka Primesniper’s CB7 with JDM Zenki CB front end complete with OEM chrome trim and custom step-lipped Mugen M7 wheels… Larger Version (1400×933)

A better look at the M7s…

This red EG wasn’t looking too bad. Just missing some BBS caps for his wheels. It would also look much better without the fake Bride seats…

Pretty clean tuck…

Turbo LS Integra from Team Insidious with JDM ITR swap, BYS front bumper, Mugen Gen. 1 wing, and black Volk TEs… Larger Version (1400×933)

Nice job on the bay and keeping it simple, even with the turbo kit and piping… Larger Version (1400×933)

Jorge Sandoval’s Civic from Insidious… K20A swap, Mugen front lip, Spoon brakes, and custom yellow TE37s… Larger Version (1400×933)

Nice contrast with the yellow TE37s…

Shaved engine bay and custom brake lines along with the K-swap as well.. Nice job. I actually wrote a story on this car for Import Tuner not too long ago so be on the look-out for that… Larger Version (1400×933)

FA5 Civic SI on Work Emotion CR Kai…

Stopping here for today with the CB Accord coupe with H22-swap and Xenon front lip… Also has gold Work VS-XXs and a 5-lug swap…

Much more to come tomorrow. I haven’t even gone through all the photos yet so I can’t even tell you how many parts it’s going to be…Just stay tuned for more….