I’ve been on a mission lately trying to dig up as many photos as I can from old car shows of the past. It’s been tough since technology wasn’t nearly as good as it is now and also because the older image hosting sites like we.todd.did and imagestation are no longer around. Luckily I’ve had some help lately and have been able to dig up some photos in their original formats straight from whatever camera they were shot on. If you know someone that worked in the industry in the past that still has their original photos from shows, please let me know because I would love to have them. Today we are going to be taking a look at another, no pun intended, “classic” car show from the mid-2000s. Showoff Classic has always been a staple in our industry and as I stated last week when I posted up coverage from the ’03 event, I wish it were still around. Hopefully Nisei Showoff will do really well this year and it will motivate Ken Myoshi to try to do another Classic event. It’s a long shot but hey, you never know…
Showoff Classic was a memorable event for me because it marked my first Classic event that I attended with my Accord. I had just wrapped up the car earlier that year and I also did Nisei Showoff a couple months before. I didn’t even know anyone at the time so I rolled up to Nisei on my own. For Classic, I got a couple of my other friends together and we had a pretty decent group at the show. It’s crazy to look back now because I had no idea who owned these cars then but know a majority of them now. I didn’t know all of these guys personally but I am still friends with some of them today and I knew of them because they were the more recognized Hondas of that period. This event is just one of those shows where you wished that you could go back in time to see because many of these cars aren’t around anymore and they served as inspiration to a majority of the great Honda builds today. Also to be able to get these group of guys together again would be almost impossible. I’m doing the best I can to try to bring everyone together for Nisei this year but it would be amazing if some of these cars were still available for the current generation to see…
Apologies if you guys are used to seeing high quality car show photos these days. Cameras weren’t as good in ’05 as they are now and the quality of the photos from your cell phone would probably be better. Back in that time a 4 megapixel camera was the standard and even a good dSLR body was just around 6-8 megapixel. Think of the lack of quality and graininess of the photos as a “nostalgic” element for today’s coverage. The photos included are a mix of photos from both Gene Tjin of Tjin Edition and Annie, who is the long-time better half of Street Image’s Kane Chan. In the end, it’s not the quality of the photos in these throwback posts, it’s the content within. Enjoy… I’ll try to name everyone I can in the photos but I just don’t remember everyone’s names and there are some that I just don’t know….
Wilson/Willy’s yellow EG is still one of my top favorite Honda builds of all-time. When I got a chance to look at it up close at Classic it just blew me away. There were a lot of things about it that you didn’t really see on other Hondas and it was one of those cars that you just had to see in person to truly appreciate…
Love the Mugen NR10Rs on his ride as well. It was just the perfect look for that car…
Another one of my favorite Honda builds of all-time is Rodrez’s EG. Again, a lot of really unique elements about it that you just had to see in person. Rodrez has always been the man behind the camera so you didn’t see his Civic build as often as you did compared to the other popular Hondas of that time… His car remained in this state exactly how you see it in this photo but with a different set of wheels up until a couple years ago when he sold it….
Noel Hina aka DelSolSIR’s turbo, Mugen-kitted del Sol… Great build with a great selection of products…
Leon Casino’s Mugen CRX Pro.2… This CR-X looks pretty much spot on today as it did in this photo back in 2005…
Arvie Gimeno’s DA Integra on Mugen MR-5s and Buddy Club front lip… He later built another DA which was white and featured in Super Street after he joined DPK…
FF-Sean’s Civic on Dunlop Formula Harts…
Ryan Ordinario’s turbo EF Civic back in the AM7 days…
Matt Campos’ EM2 Civic with Volk GT-Us…
Aries Dionisio’s Mugen BB4 Prelude from AM7…
Big Mike’s Civic back before he even contemplated starting a Prelude build…
Deron aka Soulpwr’s CR-X before he joined Freshdrive…
FD RX-7 from BRS…
Jay of JDMEGO fame back when he had his Subaru wagon…
DC2 with ITR front end and Top Fuel ITR front bumper…
DB Integra from Team Kallusive, back before it became Team Ar’Kan…
Johnson Thai’s yellow EG Civic on Mugen M7s. I don’t know him personally but I heard he later went on to paint this car red before selling it and moving onto Ruckus’…
ITR from Team Hybrid on some huge Volk LE37s…
My CB Accord when I had my Sprint Hart CP-Rs…
I’m sure you guys know of Billy Shea and his HKS-themed IS300 build. It’s been a consistent award winner at events the last couple years but back in 2005, this RHD-converted Integra was his daily driver…
Another shot of Willy’s EG…
Neema’s K-swapped EK Civic…
Ernie Rico’s Powerhouse Amuse S2000… This S2K was featured in Honda Tuning back when it had an INGS+1 kit and later in Import Tuner after he did all this…
Wild widebody BMW 5-series sedan on HREs…
SW20 MR-2 on Gram Lights…
Widebody NSX themed after the Takata Super GT NSX…
Red S2000 from Auto Concept/High End Performance…
S2000 decked out in all J’s Racing gear…pretty crazy by ’05 standards…
Brian Filoteo’s Evo from Auto Concept. From what he tells me, he had just purchased this Evo earlier that year and had all this stuff done to it by the end of ’05 because it was a SEMA display vehicle…
Turbo DC2 Integra from Illmatic with full C-West kit and Blitz Technospeed Z1s…
David Ngo’s Civic from Illmatic that matched and didn’t really match all at the same time, haha…
Toyota MR-S from Auto Concept on SSR Professor SP1…
This Z33 went through the most transformations of any car that I could remember during that period. It started out black and then transititioned to this Power Enterprise livery and later went on to be neon yellow or red or some shit. Fucking crazy amounts of money dumped into this build…
The Tjin Edition R34 Skyline when they first debuted the car back in 2005… This was my favorite look for this Skyline and if you look closely at the bay, you can tell that it wasn’t even complete yet and wasn’t even running then…
Widebody Subaru Impreza from Endless Projects… I actually still have the HCI issue with this car in it…cool build for its time because nobody was really touching these cars, especially the sedans…
SW20 MR-2 on gold faced Work Meister 2-pc wheels… This MR-2 has actually remained unchanged throughout the years and I just saw it earlier this year at Wekfest SF looking exactly like this… Just one of those timeless builds that has all the right combination of parts that doesn’t need to be changed…
That’s a wrap for this edition of Throwback Thursday, thanks for looking…