Texas was quite an experience. I think from start to finish, it was just a great time. I have no complaints about my trip whatsoever and I had a great time with the Wekfest staff. It was a blast. I was happy to meet a lot of new people as well at the event and I can’t say enough about how generous and kind people were. One major thing that I like about traveling to the southern part of country is the “southern hospitality”. I got a glimpse of it last year at Import Alliance and this year did not fail to impress. It’s always a pleasure to chat with people from the south because they have a different outlook on things because of their upbringing. For the most part, everybody was just happy that the Wekfest event was there. The automotive community is thriving down there with a ton of really great builds so I was anxious to finally see some of these cars in person…

For those that don’t know, the Wekfest crew flew me out to Texas with them to judge the Honda Class at their show. It was a great opportunity because I not only had a chance to see some great cars, I was also able to do coverage here on The Chronicles. I missed out on WEKEAST and totally regretted it so I wasn’t about to miss out on Texas. They flew me out, gave me a room to stay, and drove me around everywhere to chill with them…what more could I ask for? I’ve known these guys for awhile now but never got a true sense of how things worked behind the scenes so I was very interested to see how Wekfest came together. I was surprised to see how smoothly the entire set-up process was and it shows their professionalism. Everything went off without a hitch and there was no point in time when there was any sort of stress. I would say that everyone was more excited than anything. They’ve got a couple of shows under their belts and Texas didn’t present any situation that they couldn’t handle….

I’d like to thank everyone in their staff for making me feel so welcome. We all got along and just had a good time before and after the event. I got nothing but good things to say about these guys and I wouldn’t take the experience back for anything. I got a chance to try out some of this southern BBQ and made some new friends in the process. I also have to thank any and everyone that stopped to pass along a kind word during the show. It was pretty busy throughout the day but I made sure to try to stop and chat with anyone that came by. At the end of the day, I didn’t think that I had taken enough photos from the show because I was busy doing the judging but I came home to realize that I did a decent job of capturing the entire event. I’ll let you guys judge for yourself but I’m pretty happy with the photos. It was my goal to try to capture my weekend from start to finish but honestly there were just times when I was just trying to be there in the moment and didn’t get a chance to pull out the camera…

Apparently there’s a mild bit of controversy in terms of how the Honda Class was judged and I’ll touch on that when I get to it. It’s pretty silly and I’d rather not mention it but I don’t want people that weren’t at the event to get the wrong impression of Wekfest Texas so I will talk about it later in the following parts of coverage. For now, I’m just gonna try to get this going in order of how my weekend went…

My weekend started off bright and early about 6:40am… Since everyone from Wekfest is from Norcal and I’m down here in L.A., they booked a solo flight for me to fly out to Texas where I would meet them at the airport… Oh, I should add that I woke DPK David up super early and he came and picked me up and drove me to the airport. Shout-out to him for being a good dude and helping out a friend…

A shot from the plane as we touched-down on Phoenix, Arizona where I had to hop on a connecting flight to Austin…

I got to Austin, Texas about 1:30pm in the afternoon. When I got there, I looked at the arriving flights and saw that the rest of the group didn’t get to Austin until 3pm so I put my stuff down and grabbed a bite to eat at the airport. I ordered what sounded like an amazing Pastrami sandwich from Thundercloud subs and when the lady gave it to me, shit looked like a roast beef sandwich. Luckily the food did not disappoint later that weekend…

After the Wekfest crew arrived, we rented two GMC Yukon SUVs to get around and set off to the Palmer Events Center to check out the venue. When we got there, there was actually a book fair going on. I hadn’t been to a book fair since I was like 7, but it was just as boring as I remembered. We got a walk-through of the entire venue and then headed to the hotel to check-in. I should mention that the staff from the Palmer Events Center were pretty amazing. They were incredibly accommodating and did a wonderful job of helping the set-up process…

One random thing that I should mention is that our hotel was actually right next door to a cemetery. I mean, it looked like some shit straight out of a horror movie but the hotel was really nice. Some lady was knocking on my window in the middle of the night and I was on the fourth floor but she couldn’t get in or anything so I went back to fapping…They even gave us fucking cookies when we checked-in. Shit was delicious…

We went to dinner later that night at this spot called Iron Works BBQ and then grabbed some drinks at the hotel bar before calling it a night early. We all had to be down at the lobby by 6am the next morning for the show so sleep was definitely important…

This is how the venue looked that morning. Crazy to think that in just a couple of hours, this place would be packed with cars and spectators…

We hung out, drank some coffee and ate some bagels before the vendors arrived to begin setting up their booths. I should mention now that a bulk of the coverage from Wekfest Texas is from the early morning roll-in. When the show itself was going on, I was busy judging and talking to fellow enthusiasts that it didn’t leave a whole lot of time to take pictures. That and it was busy as shit during the show and hard to capture the cars with so many people walking back and forth…

Cash is king…

One of the first cars that cruised in that morning was this 350Z on Luxury Abstract wheels…

Another early arrival was Thomas Pinai and his Mode Parfume GS400… Thomas’ GS was a major hit at the event last year and he was actually the guy that inspired me to make this trip out to Texas. I had never met him before personally but after speaking with him through emails, he was the one that brought up the idea of me asking to see if the Wekfest guys would fly me out to the show. I guess everything worked out in my favor, haha…

This Lexus LS430 from Futura Designs was a build that I had followed for a while now through the VIPStylecars.com forums…

It’s one of my favorite stateside VIP builds and it was great to finally see it in person. I love the teal accents on the black paint as well as the OZ Futura wheels…just an amazing VIP build with a ton of attention to detail…

Great fitment without going overboard with excessive body work and camber…

Futura Designs big brake kit for VIP enthusiasts…

Love the classic look of the OZ Futura wheels…

If there’s one thing I learned about the Texas import scene, it’s that Texans love their 350Zs and they love them hammered to the floor. I was kind of worried about the driveway ramp leading into the venue because of how narrow it was but apparently people didn’t care and just decided to drive straight into the ground to get into the show…

I should also mention that when I got to Texas, it was raining pretty hard so I’m sure everyone had to re-wash their cars that weekend. Luckily the storm passed through and didn’t have any effect on the show that Sunday…

After I threw down a cream cheese bagel and drank some coffee, I walked into the venue to get some more detailed shots of Thomas Pinai’s GS. This thing is a perfect representation of how true Japanese VIP build would look if it were built there and brought to the states. It is on point… Custom body work, big brakes, Mode Parfume aero, custom audio, attention to the engine bay, just everything you can think of in how a great VIP build should be done. It’s no wonder that it won the “Best of Show” award last year and why it once again won top honors this year…

Behind the white SSR GT3 wheels were Futura Design big brakes, similar to the LS430 because they were there to represent the brand…

Thomas’ custom audio set-up…the whole system was designed so that it could have removable panels. If at any point, he wants to use his trunk, he can just cover up the plexiglass panels for a more stealth-look. Since his GS is daily-driven, the trunk is probably covered-up a bulk of the time…

Loved the exposed amps and lighting through the glass…

Rarely do you ever see VIP builds with performance upgrades and work in the engine bay… Thomas’ GS is supercharged with a ton of custom carbon paneling and polished pieces…

Crazy how this guy can roll static like this at this ride height…

I walked outside to see what was going on with the roll-in and spotted Antoine Hobbs and Brandon McCray from AutolifeTV… You don’t see very many 9-second full-built Hondas at shows these days and Hobbs’ coupe is one of the best around. Cool of him to take a break from racing and come out to a car show…

Brandon flew out from Cali to do some video coverage of Wekfest TX and also to help push Hobbs’ Civic off the trailer…I was gonna help but I was too busy not doing anything…

One of my favorites from that day had to be this BMW E30 M3 on old school HRE wheels from Team 16Niss…

NSX on Advan RS-D, also from Team 16Niss…

Another E30 Bimmer from 16Niss, this one not an M3…

The only Subaru BRZ of Wekfest TX was this white BRZ on Volk TE37SLs…

Ahobbs finally got his coupe off the trailer and rolled into the show…

The Euro crowd was well-presented in Texas…

Audi S5 slammed on Vossen wheels…

Cream MK4 Golf…

Accord Crosstour from DWS on Vossen wheels…

Really enjoyed this Lexus SC430 on Work Rezax II wheels from Team Nemesis…

Rando-kitted Integra on TE37s from Team Sunworks…

This VIP-themed Accord on Auto Couture wheels was pretty clean…hopefully he knew he was rolling on a flat tire in the rear…

Z33 from Bottom Out crew on Gram Lights…

G35 coupe with Kuruma Z front bumper and DPE Engineering wheels…

Thought this SC coupe looked pretty good on old school SSR Longchamp XR-4Zs…

I don’t remember if I got a shot of the bay later on that day but I believe it has a 1JZ-GTE swap under the hood…

Mark Rolston’s RB26-swapped Datsun 240Z was an early favorite to take home an award the moment it rolled onto the staging area. Really well-rounded build with some sick custom fabrication. I’ll have more shots of it later on in the coverage…

Hypnotic Teal Mica S2000 on really aggressive Work VS-XX wheels from Hard Hitters…

Nice color combo…

I thought Texas would have a lot more Integra owners but there were probably only a handful of DC-chassis Integras at the event. The entire Acura class was pretty small in general. This one was one of the better examples at Wekfest Texas…

Another of many slammed 350Zs that weekend…

Adam and Ken from Wekfest/Wek’Sos taking a moment to check-out the cars in the staging area…

I walked over to where they were standing and hung out with them for a little bit. Here’s a turbo Integra on TE37V-replicas waiting to go up that ramp into the Palmer Events Center…

Murdered-out Z33 sitting on DPE wheels…

Turbo Z33 with so rarely-seen SSR Viennas. Can’t remember the last time I saw a set of these…

Closing it out for today with the RWB-styled Z33 with a color scheme very similar to the “Pandora One” Porsche…Pretty interesting look but very obvious that it was going for that Rauh Welt look. The green looks to be a wrap because you can see it lifting around the sideskirt area. Very cool nonetheless…

Check back tomorrow for much more. I haven’t even finished going through the photos yet so we are just barely getting started. Thanks for looking…