I received a call a couple of weeks ago from Brad over at Falken Tire about a special project that they were working on. The marketing team over at Falken wanted to put together a special ad campaign for the 2013 season featuring an all-Honda line-up and well, I’m pretty familiar with the Hondas out here so I guess I was the right guy to call. The idea was to a get a grouping of about 40-50 Hondas, with variety in mind, that included every Honda chassis possible. There wasn’t a whole lot of time to put the group together, so a decision was made to just find local Hondas from Socal and adjacent cities. There are a ton of really nice Honda builds out here but being able to find around 50 Hondas was quite a task, especially considering how we had to find various models that were already modified. I wasn’t the only guy that contacted of course and many were also called upon to help, one of them being Rodrez from Honda Tuning magazine. The ad was kind of a big deal because it will be on the back cover of Honda Tuning throughout the year so it was important to find a solid group of cars. Our time in assembling this group was very limited because, as you know, magazines go to print months in advance so if it were to make its presence in 2013, the time to do it was definitely now. That and you have to take into consideration that a large space had to be rented to be able to house all these vehicles in one place and accommodations would also be necessary to make it worthwhile for car owners to show up. A shoot of this caliber would likely take most of the afternoon if not the entire day with most of the time organizing the cars and setting everything up. It’s sort of a one shot deal in this case because it’d be tough to try to get the exact same group back later on if something had to be re-shot. Below are some photos from that day. I wasn’t the one hired on to shoot the ad of course, but I was invited to come out to see how it all unfolded and also to capture some behind-the-scenes coverage for the site. The guys over at Falken Tire have always taken care of me so I was definitely going to be there, whether if it was to my benefit or not. I was happy to make the trek out because this kind of stuff is what I like about being in “the scene”…

Thanks to Falken Tire for the invite and for the hospitality. In the end I can’t really take much credit for helping to get these cars together. They had multiple resources available to them to help them out and everyone really came through in the clutch. For something that came together in such a short amount of time, I think it worked out very well. The renowned Steve Demmitt took on the task of capturing the photos for the ad shoot and it is almost a guarantee that it will come out amazing. We all got a glimpse to see the final lay out that day but it’ll be interesting to see what Demmitt does with it. For now all we can do is wait. Enjoy the behind-the-scenes coverage below. I’ve attached links to larger versions of some of the images for the shots I personally liked the most….

Some of you will also notice that some of the Hondas in the shoot were not on Falken tires. Originally the idea was to find 40-50 Hondas that were on Falkens but it just wasn’t realistic to expect everyone to have Falkens on by the day of the shoot so they were asked to still show up and were placed towards the back of the final shot for the ad…

Oh there are quite a bit of images so please be patient and allow them all to load, thanks…

Many of the officially sponsored Falken vehicles were told to show up around 10 am, so we woke up early to head out to the Autoclub Speedway where the shoot was set to take place. We hung out for a bit and chatted while we waited for some of the others to arrive. Soon after, DPK Darryl pulled up in his recently completed K-swapped Mugen-everything EM1 coupe… I absolutely love how the final product came out and how timeless it looks with the bronze Mugen MF10s on it… | Larger Version 1400×933

Big Mike, who is sponsored by Falken Tire, brought out his Prelude to represent the BB4 chassis…

RC made the trip out from Arizona to help fill an important spot in the ad shoot…

The only engine bay shot you’ll see in this entire set today because there was no need to display engine bays in the advertorial shoot. You’re only seeing RC’s bay because he doesn’t happen to own a hood and never had one to begin with. Even when he drives the car he drives it hoodless…

DPK David’s EJ1 coupe, another Honda that is sponsored by Falken…

Bisimoto’s turbo Civic Wagon…

Rodrez and Big Mike having a morning chat…

William Law from DC Sports’ yellow NSX on Volk GT-Fs…

Another shot of Darryl’s immaculate EM1… | Larger Version (1400×933)

Front-end shot of DPK David’s EJ1 and his rare Buddy Club front lip…

DPK members Jimmy and David, as well as Rywire Ryan’s NSX…

Joseph “Sloppy” Wingco came down from Las Vegas to fill the need for a Fit chassis in the ad…

Mark Sutakajana’s DB8 4-door Integra was looking great that day… Probably the last shot of his DB8 before he broke his front splitter off of his car at Buttonwillow on Sunday… | Larger Version (1400×933)

DPK Jimmy’s Mugen del Sol on orange Volk TE37s…

Sam Ip’s FD2-converted Civic Si…

Mark moving to another staging area during the set-up process…

Some of the Hondas that you will see in the 2013 Falken Honda ad…

There was no better selection to represent the DA chassis than DAve aka Dave Chik’s period-perfect Integra…

SSR EX-C Neo with O.E. NSX brakes…

Really liked this shot of Eulises Torres’ Honda S2000… | Larger Version (1400×933)

I think we were all surprised to see Ryan Ordinario and his EF hatchback arrive on the scene since we hadn’t seen his car in quite some time…

Good to see that it hadn’t changed much over the years…

The shoot went well overall that day but as you can see, the storm clouds were looming and the threat of rain made a lot of people nervous…In the photo is an Amuse or “Amuse-styled” widebody S2000 sponsored by Berk Technology…

This Accord coupe on customized Tiffany blue Work wheels arrived to represent for the Accord chassis…

Rodrez and his daily Civic Si sedan with FD2 conversion and BackYard Special front lip and grille…

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this Mugen RSX prior to the Falken shoot but it looked really good on bronze Mugen GP wheels…One of the rare times when I can actually say that I like these wheels. The owner is an older gentleman who has quite an affection for the Mugen brand and has a fleet of all Mugen-themed Hondas… | Larger Version (1400×933)

Ejay had to finish a school final but still managed to make it out in time with his right-hand drive DA on SSR EX-C Neos…

Enrique Rosario’s cream Civic hatchback made it out from San Diego for the shoot on Mugen M7s…

…as did Alex Colon and his Civic, looking great with the Earth tones via the bronze TE37s and the Amazon Green tone from the Honda Ridgeline…

Side profile shot of DPK David’s coupe…

Mark’s DB8 sandwiched inbetween an NSX and a white EK…

Here you can see how the new 2013 Accord coupe dwarfs the much smaller Mugen CR-X owned by Leon Casino…

A better shot of Ejay Adriano’s DA on Neos… | Larger Version (1400×933)

Rodrez’s Civic Si…

Steve Demmitt shooting a smaller group of Hondas on a motorized crane…

One more of DPK David’s coupe… | Larger Version (1400×933)

Personally, I feel like this is the best Alex’s hatch has ever looked…

Another of the Mugen RSX, which would serve as the front of the massive Honda line-up…

Ryan O’s turbo EF on SSR EX-C Mesh…

Karl’s S2000…

Can’t say I’ve seen this coupe before but I liked the dark shade of blue on the Mugen MF10L…

Leon’s Mugen CR-X with the Bisimoto 2012 turbo Civic Si coupe in the distance…

Ejay’s DA after it was positioned in its final spot for the shoot…

Civic trio…

Dual FD2-converted Civic Si sedans, both themed very differently…

The rear of RC’s Mugen-themed EG9…

Mauricio’s pristine JDM EF9 hatchback seated beautifully on classic SSR Super Mesh wheels… | Larger Version (1400×933)

One of the cars that showed up that shocked everyone was Mickey Andrade’s recently restored JDM Honda Civic SiR-S hatchback with highlighter yellow Hayashi Racing wheels and Mugen aero…also notice the J’s Racing FRP rear wing…  This thing was just beautiful! | Larger Version (1400×933)

One more of the widebody S2000…The Amuse kit looks a little odd without the rear wing…

I like how this shot of DPK Jimmy’s del Sol came out… | Larger Version (1400×933)

Here’s another shot of Karl’s S2000… I’m sure all of you notice that the blue is off on some of the aero pieces. From what I heard, it’ll be fixed soon and everything should match…

Two of the finest DA builds ever… Parnell’s Mugen DA… | Larger Version (1400×933)

…and one of the guy’s pictured behind Parnell’s DA above, DAve’s Integra with JDP front lip and Mugen sideskirts… | Larger Version (1400×933)

Another of the SiR-S. I could have sworn I had a front shot of it but I couldn’t find it on my memory card…

Liked how this track-spec FG2 Civic coupe looked with the Voltex wing and Advan RGII…

Integra Type R that you probably remember from our Race Day 2 coverage, featuring a Mugen Gen. 1 spoiler and BYS front bumper…

Karl and Sloppy hanging out in Sam’s Civic…

Bisimoto turbo Civic Si coupe…

MF10L twins…

My favorite look for Jimmy’s del Sol is when its on Mugen NR10Rs but the orange TEs are slowly growing on my…

For those who are bound to ask, Alex Colon’s Civic front bumper is an SCM bumper available from Sportcar Motion…

Sam Ip’s CT supercharged Civic looking really aggressive on red Volk TE37SL… | Larger Version (1400×933)

Colin’s BB6 Prelude was a fine example for the Prelude chassis rocking a very rare Behrman/Wise Sports front bumper…

The line-up coming together…in the background you can see John Zhang aka 1013MM assisting with the parking arrangement…

I know it’s a lot of shots of DAve’s Integra but we all don’t get to see it that much so I took the liberty of snapping more photos of it…

The shot of Colon’s Civic that I first posted-up on The Chronicles Facebook page… | Larger Version (1400×933)

One more of Mark’s 4-door Integra…Not sure if he plans to replace the P1 splitter since he broke it but I guess we will see when it re-emerges in 2013…

Here’s a sample of what the final ad shot will look like, it’ll just be from a much higher angle since it was on a crane and I couldn’t get that high…

I switched over to the 17-40mm lens to try to get some more shots but Robert Chew from Falken offered to give DPK David and I a tour of the Falken facility. I couldn’t pass up that opportunity so I left for about 45 minutes and when I got back they had already wrapped up the shoot…

When we got back, it was pretty dark already and some of the cars had left so we wrapped things up and headed to dinner. Falken invited everyone out to dinner afterwards so we headed a couple miles down the way to Logan’s Roadhouse for some good ol’ American BBQ…

Not everyone could make it but we showed up to the restaurant with a group of about 30 people…

It was one of the rare times when the people eating brought the sausagefest to the BBQ restaurant, haha, with only two women there. One of them was Karl’s lady and pictured here was Mickey’s girl and former Falken spokesmodel Courtney Day…

Overall it was a fun day. It was freezing cold throughout and it sprinkled rain down on us occasionally but it wasn’t bad enough to halt the shoot. Falken really took care of everyone that was there the entire day by offering us drinks, snacks, and Pizza for lunch and then treating us all to dinner that evening. It was a blast and I’m looking forward to seeing how the final photos come out when it’s all finished. Thanks for looking.