It all just kind of seems like a dream…

When it was all said and done, it almost doesn’t seem real at all. Saturday was an interesting day. It was hot…not even just in the afternoon. It was hot the night before when I went to bed and I just sort of rolled around until it was time to get up. I had purposely got everything finished early for this event because I knew I had a lot to do when show time came. It was my master plan to get some rest but inevitably, I had about as much sleep as I did at any other event where I slaved away to put product together for the booth. Even though I hadn’t slept much because the room in my apartment was so hot, I got up refreshed… I was excited about what was going to play out that Saturday so it felt like I had slept for 10 hours… I was ready. Months of planning and dealing with so many different personalities and it was all coming together for one day only. Never again would I attempt to do this. It felt like one of those special moments that you wouldn’t be able to repeat, you know? May and I got up and got ready, even got breakfast and that is something we rarely do on the day of a show…

I don’t know what it was but I was just in a haze the whole day. Literally, it felt like I was dreaming. It had to have been a combination of many things…. adrenaline from the excitement of pulling off something this monumental, standing in the blazing Southern California summer heat, eating breakfast for the first time in months, seeing some cars I hadn’t seen in almost a decade,..hell, it could have been the individuals that day that fucking pissed me off that morning. There was a lot going on that Saturday and plenty going on in my mind… but… I…excuse me, WE did it. For one day only, we were able to get a collection of some of the best cross-generational Honda builds of all-time together in one venue, in one group, showing as one…

There’s a ton to be said. One thing I will address one-time only is the foot traffic and the turn-out for this event. It was slow… It has been slow for the last couple of years and I expected it. My goal was not to bring in 10,000 people to come to the show. I did my job and I put together an amazing collection of Hondas. If you missed it, then that is your loss. I honestly feel that way. If you decided for whatever reason to not come out and see these cars together, then you missed out. The Infamous show did very well from what I heard. I can’t say for sure because I wasn’t there but again, it was expected. It was never my intention of putting this group together to try to get the younger generation of enthusiasts/kids to stray away from the Infamous. If anything, I was happy that the Infamous occurred that same day because it helped to filter out the people that didn’t matter. Many of the younger crop of enthusiasts these days don’t care about Nisei Showoff, don’t know about Import Showoff, and probably don’t care about The Chronicles or the people that built these Hondas that I gathered together. Fuck it. As I told everyone that has asked me about the turn-out, I’ve told them the same thing; I really could not have cared less if not ONE person showed up that day at Nisei Showoff. I am not speaking on Ken’s behalf of course because I am sure he wanted a good turn-out. Every event organizer would have wanted it to be successful. My idea of success that day was different. I didn’t do it for personal gain, for wealth, for anything other than to get friends and fellow Honda heads together to hang out.Many of these people have things going on in their lives these days; many have families, important jobs, health issues, some have even passed on. I wanted to be able to get these people together so that we could all just spend a couple of hours talking to one another and enjoying each other’s builds. If you wanted to be a part of it, you were more than welcome to come out and see what we had to offer. But I would not fault you if you decided that you didn’t want to or that it was too hot for you to want to make the drive. I would have stood in this heat for almost anyone that participated in the GENERATIONS group. For them to come and take the time to be a part of this meant a lot to me and it shows their character…

Even sitting here now I can’t even believe that it happened. I hope my words help to convey my emotions because it’s hard to describe the feeling that I had that day. If you follow what I do and what I am about, then you know that I have a great amount of passion for what we do. If you think I’m sappy or lame for being that way, then fuck you. I don’t give a shit about a lot of things but this type of stuff is important to me. What you guys do is important and what your fellow enthusiasts have done in the past is important. They shaped the way we all look at our hobby today and it was time that we paid homage to some of them. In many ways, it could be said that Nisei Showoff 2012 was not successful but for me, it was a shining accomplishment. I thank the spectators that came out because I’ve heard nothing but good things from people that were at the show. Some were even happy that it was slow because it gave them the opportunity to study these builds and appreciate them without some random shit going on around them. Nisei is a true enthusiasts meet and it was cool to see enthusiasts out there who braved the terrible weather conditions to be a part of a moment in history. Thank you also to everyone that has been a part of the organizational process of GENERATIONS as well. I appreciate the feedback and those of you who opened the lines of communication to the people I did not know personally whom I wanted to be a part of the line-up…

The photos below are snippets of my day from Nisei Showoff 2012. I wasn’t able to get everything. Not even everything in my own group. I was busy to say the least and when I had a moment, I walked around to take pictures. At one point I was light-headed and felt that I was going to pass out from running around trying to park 77 Hondas at once. Many of you aren’t in Socal or anywhere nearby so you could not attend the event but I hope these photos tell a good story of what I saw that day. I love that so many of you are excited to see coverage from this event because it shows that my hard work has paid off. Even though I was running around everywhere all day, I did manage to get a lot of photos. Most of them are from the GENERATIONS group but that’s what you wanted to see anyways, right?…

For one time only, a couple of guys and gals got together and made history… we called it “GENERATIONS”. Some day someone from your past is going to run into you and say “Damn, remember when they did GENERATIONS at Nisei Showoff? That was pretty cool how they got all those Hondas together.” Hopefully you were there to witness it and your  response is “Yeah man, I was there. It was fucking hot that day but it was totally worth it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a collection of Hondas like that since.” The rest of you can say that you remember seeing photos of it online from some website that you forgot the name of…maybe it was something like “The Chronicles”…

For what it’s worth, I think the photos came out pretty good. I know a lot of you enjoy looking at the site through your smart phones but it would be great if you went on a desktop to check out the new layout of the site as well as the images from the day of the show. Thanks…

There were a handful of builds from the past that I really wanted to be there for the 2012 version of GENERATIONS. To me, these builds were either going to make or break the group. After all, one of the main points of doing all this was to honor the people from the past. One car that was a long shot that I didn’t have very high hopes for making it out was Wilson Tam aka Willy’s yellow EG Civic and the other one, that did ultimately make it to Nisei Showoff, was Junko Le’s Top Fuel Integra build. I don’t think a lot of people realize how special this Integra is. Not only was it one of the first Top Fuel replicas of our time, this Integra also hadn’t run in about 8 years. It had been sitting in the garage of Hugh and Junko’s house and was in pieces. They had intentions on selling it but it had been so long since the car had even seen daylight that it was hard to get it back together to put it up for sale. When I found out that this Integra was still around, I made it a point to try to get this car out in 2012. With some help from William Law at DC Sports, he was able to convince them to bring it out for GENERATIONS. I hadn’t heard much from them other than that but I took their commitment in good faith. Maybe a week or so leading up to Nisei I started to see photos from Hugh and William of them working on the car. I got excited and maybe two days before the event, I saw a photo of it back in running condition with the complete Top Fuel aero and all… Back in the early 2000s when “JDM” was just starting to become a “thing” everybody wanted their cars to look like the Top Fuel Japan Hondas. It was for me a very special look for the Integra and it helped open my eyes to a lot of what Japan had to offer. The Top Fuel turbo EK Civic was the reason why I fell in love with the Advan RG wheel in ’99 and it was cool that Hugh built a spot-on replica of it a bit later. Junko has a Lexus IS these days and Hugh is driving an NSX but they will always be known for being important members of the Honda community a decade a go. It was a pleasure of mine to have them there and for me to finally meet Junko for the first time. This DC may not mean much to some of you but man, I get chills when I see this thing because of what it meant to me when I was younger… Here is the exact same Integra from over ten years ago!

I remember playing the Japanese Option2 video game on my bootleg Playstation back then and you could actually build your own Top Fuel Integra. I thought it was the shit and just loved the way it looked. Such a cool thing to be able to be in the presence of this Integra. These Top Fuel Edition Recaros are absolutely money and I’m sure some would still play a pretty hefty price for these…

Another build that I knew would absolutely make the line-up that day was the late JDM Jon Tanji’s Civic…Jon passed away unfortunately in 2005 but his friend, who we know as Skinhead Mike, has had his Civic ever since. He’s kept it exactly how Jon had it when he was still alive so it is always great to see the car in person. It’s retained the same look and condition so it is a build that is just frozen in time. I didn’t really tell anyone about the car coming out until maybe a week before the event. I didn’t want to jinx anything and it really helped to add an element of surprise going into the show. Big Mike really helped to set up the whole thing so thanks go out to him and Skinhead Mike for communicating. A lot of the guys that were at the show who knew Jon Tanji hadn’t seen the car in years so I think it was a special moment for them to be able to see it in person in the same fashion as how Jon had the car… For me it was special because I personally didn’t know Jon and I knew his friends would appreciate it being there to honor his memory… The younger guys won’t know the car and might think it was just your average EG build but the man and the car were very important to the Honda community in the first half of the decade…

It was good to see Mike G and “Tank” with the new custom Sprint Hart CP-Rs on finally… I don’t see Mike very often but we had lunch later on in the day and it was good times…

Jorge Hernandez’s Civic is absolutely timeless in every way so he was an automatic lock for the GENERATIONS line-up. He was also a part of the 2011 line-up of 25 cars… Last year it seemed like 25 was already a pretty big group but this year’s smashed it with over 75 Hondas….

Terry Suvonnarith’s Integra was not a car I originally had in consideration for the line-up, but when I found out he was making the trip down for Washington, I knew he had to be a part of this. You probably know him more by his online user “Spriggan” and know recognize his Integra more when he had Racing Harts on it. He and a couple of other guys from the Northwest made the 20 hour drive down to Socal and it was cool to finally meet them all…

His Integra has always been a favorite of mine and Nisei was the first time I got to see it in person. I love the FEEL’s front lip and how the engine bay is set-up. From what he tells me, he bought this Integra brand new in 2001 and has been working on it ever since. You could technically consider him a part of the “past” group in the line-up but his Integra is still very current…

His bay is very representative of what a great Honda engine bay looked like back in the mid 2000s here on the west coast. The only thing that would be different about it would be the AEM COP set-up and Rywire mil-spec engine harness…

Love the fuel set-up and individual throttle bodies…

Also a nice touch that his Volk CE28s match his battleship grey engine bay even though it wasn’t intentional…. Big Stoptech brakes on this thing too…

I made sure to group the DA Integras together because these four Integras are probably four of the best DAs ever built…

“DAve” aka Dave Chik’s Integra is just a timeless, stunning work of Honda art…So simple in nature but that’s what is great about it. You don’t have to do much to make DAs look good and his is a prime example of how to build one… SSR EX-C Neos with paint-matched inserts, Mugen sideskirts, and JDP front lip make for a great look. The interior is also immaculate and I have a photo of it I’ll post up in the coming parts…

Jason Haradon’s DA, equally as timeless and sharing the JDP lip and Mugen sideskirt combo… Loving the Mugen rear wing also…

Parnell Navarro’s Integra from the famed original Kosoku car crew on silver Mugen MF8s… He basically drives this thing once a year during Nisei Showoff and it was cool to see how much fun he was having just driving the car around in the parking lot of the venue. It isn’t registered for street use anymore and spends most of its days stored in the garage now…

Ejay from Kosoku is the youngest of the four DA owners but he’s had a lot of help and inspiration from Parnell over the years… Didn’t expect him to have Mugen M7s on his DA but its a great look…

Making it’s first official public debut was Michael Estebar aka “ATS Mike Jones'” EF Civic project. ATS Garage always produces some of the best Honda builds and Mike Jones’ EF is no different….

Good execution of the bay. I love how simple it is and the touch of teal on the khaki-colored chassis. One of the memorable moments for me at Nisei was seeing him talking to Jason Haradon and getting advice from him. The whole point of doing this group was so we could all have a chance to talk to one another and these two probably wouldn’t have ever spoken to each other had it not been for GENERATIONS…

Nice touch with the “ATS Magic” logo engraved on the wire cover…

Anybody that has ever worked on a Honda has probably heard of the famed FFsquad. I didn’t expect Lee to show because he really isn’t much of a car show guy anymore but I guess he liked the concept of GENERATIOSN enough to bring his ITR out. It was cool to have him there because the guy has built some great Hondas in his time and definitely deserves to be recognized…

Leon is another guy who you might consider an “OG” in the Honda community. His pair of CR-Xs have been a staple in our community over the years and so it was easy to make him a part of this epic grouping….

Jimmy from DPK’s del Sol hasn’t been seen at an event in a couple of years and it almost didn’t make it out to Nisei. I was a little skeptical when I heard he had purchased orange Volk TE37s but it actually looked good in person. On paper the orange and gold don’t really mix but it just does for whatever reason. I was just happy to see his car again since he’s been busy with life and other things outside of cars lately…

Even though Ryan Der has moved down to Socal and I see his EK all the time, it is still one of my favorite Honda builds ever…

Since Rywire Ryan didn’t have his ITR ready for Nisei, I didn’t have a whole lot for the “future” section of the group. Instead I guess you can consider Keith, Gerald, and Chivas from Royal Origin to be the ones to “carry the torch” so to speak for the new generation… They are good people and I think they will continue to expand their automotive horizons in the next couple of years…

While the guys from Royal Origin are on the “future” side of the spectrum, one guy on the other end is Charles Trieu, head editor of Import Tuner. He’s built a couple of different cars in his time but one of his latest project is one of his coolest builds to date. This 1st gen. Acura Legend isn’t a popular chassis by any means but he’s done an awesome job of building it in a perfectly period-correct manner….He bought this thing not too long ago from its original owner with only 70K on the odometer too…

Charles’ refinished, re-barreled, Volk Artisan Fins with aero covers…

He hit up Mackin Industries and they were even able to help him locate the original stickers for these rare wheels…

The interior is as “period-correct” as it gets with the portable Sony Discman an Alpine mobile phone…I couldn’t help but laugh when I looked inside because I haven’t seen these things since my childhood… Also note the cassette radio with equalizer and OE climate control. So awesome, haha…

Close-up of the old school mobile phone…

Not really sure what inspired me to take this shot but this is DPK Jared’s Skunk2 Mega Power header…which from what people tell me, is one of the few aftermarket headers that actually makes power on the S2000s…

Another build that made its official debut at Nisei was Danny Hernandez’s K20 Civic sedan from Bandits. You probably remember this Civic when it was Laguna Seca blue….I was weary of how this rebuild would turn out after I found out what color he was painting it but it came out way better than I expected…I thought it was going to come out more of like a metallic mustard color if that makes sense. Sunny from 515 Autobody did a great job on the custom fenders and body work…

Mike Trevino’s Civic from Bandits…

Jonathan Wong from Super Street finally decided to put his Osaka JDM caps on his Work/Osaka JDM Loop5s…

Andy Hope is by no means a show car guy so I was pretty surprised when he told me that he was down to be a part of GENERATIONS 2012. Not only did he bring out his sick Honda Challenge CR-X race car, he also brought out his daily EF hatchback on CST Precedeo wheels…

Really liked this shot of Andy Hope’s Toyo/Volk combo…

Tom “Tom Attack” Liang also isn’t a car show type of guy but he’s a huge supporter of The Chronicles and decided to participate in the GENERATIONS group. You saw his EF wrapped in white vinyl at the Super Street FF Battle 4 event but he’s since finished it with the JHPUSA livery…

Though the event was far from crowded, The Chronicles was very well-represented and I am grateful for that…

RC Chacon’s K-turbo EG9 Civic made the trip out once again from Arizona… He lost a windshield molding on the drive out to Cali and went to pick up a brand new one from a Honda dealership the morning of the show…

Teddy Timoteo’s Civic from FX Auto Design…really digging the color-matched lip…

Mark Sutakajana’s DB8 Integra that was recently featured in Honda Tuning magazine. He’s always changing things up here and there and arrived at Nisei on Desmond Evo Brites…

When I was compiling the list for GENERATIONS, I really wanted some Hondas from Norcal that weren’t from ATS Garage. The first guy that I thought of was Harvey Flores from Team Tronics. I hit him up on Facebook and he agreed to roll-out without any hesitation…

Harvey’s Mugen-themed engine bay…

Another guy from Tronics that I wanted to come down was Joey Abundiz and his Honda del Sol…I’m still going through the photos now so I haven’t gotten to a shot of the exterior yet but I do have these engine bay shots…

He also did a similar paint-splatter theme on his old EM1 Civic build…

Modulo front lip for his del Sol…

One of 2012’s most recognizable Honda builds is Mike Mao’s NSX so it was an easy choice to have it in the line-up…

Ken Myoshi, Tony from It’s JDM Yo!!, had met up a couple times to exchange ideas for Nisei and one of the elements that we wanted to include from the past was having a Miss Showoff. We tossed around a couple of ideas and I suggested we offer it to Marissa Hiroko, whom I had met a couple months back at the Spocom Pre-Meet. Nilo and Denny from DAYUUM!! discovered her and I thought she was a good fit for Miss Showoff. She seemed very nice, respectful, and she was also half-Japanese, which really fits into the whole Japanese Nisei theme… Ken and Tony agreed and she gladly accepted…

Nice touch of her’s to wear red and white to match the Nisei Showoff colors…

JDM Wong from Super Street with the photo bomb…

She was a good sport even though temperatures hit 113 degrees by mid-afternoon…

At around 2pm or so, May, Mike G, my buddy Mauricio, and I took a break and went to lunch. We ended up at some Japanese spot (of course) and spotted Ejay and Parnell on the way back to the venue…

I had never met Angelo Arayata previously but when he found out about the GENERATIONS concept, he asked to be a part of it. I recognized his EF and how timeless it was so it was a perfect fit for the line-up….

Simplicity is key when putting together a beautiful bay on an EF. Angelo’s is a prime example…

I didn’t even know Geoffrey from Freshdrive was still around until I recently saw it in person at FF Battle 4. The last time I had seen his S2000 before that was at the 2006 Nisei Showoff. It still looked exactly the same with the exception of some updates in the engine bay so it was another car I just had to have for the line-up. He tracks this thing too so it’s crazy to see how clean it still is… Love the 3-piece Mugen rear wing…

Never understood why or how the designers at Mugen decided to put a Mugen centercap in their SS front bumper but it is just one of those quirky things about Japanese parts that make them interesting…

Cool to see that he was a fan of the Hurt Feelings collabo that we did with Jay from JDMEGO….

Closing it out for today with a shot of Geoffrey’s S2000 engine bay… Man, I got so much more stuff to show you guys. Just imagine this was only a small portion of what we had on display that day. Thanks for looking guys, and stay tuned for much more!!!…