I’m about to take off for my journey to Northern California for this year’s annual Wekfest event but here are the rest of the photos from USDM FREAX’s Flip Out show as promised. Not much more to say other than to give a huge thanks once again to Yasutaka Shimomukai and the Tactical Art/Team Madame family for covering their trip to Twin Ring Motegi. I love being able to see all the latest happenings in Japan and they’ve been able to provide some great insight for us all. Enjoy and thanks for looking. For those of you going to Wekfest San Jose, I guess I’ll see you in Norcal, haha…
If you missed Part 1, here is the link below…
Captures from USDM FREAX’s Flip Out 2013…Part 1…
And here is the second and concluding portion of their photo set from Flip Out….
When we last left off, the guys had decided to take a break for lunch. Twin Ring Motegi has a Gran Turismo cafe which offers a food menu of foods so it is unlike the shows here in the U.S. where we are relegated to eating only from the convention hall cafeteria or whatever food truck is available that day…
Back at the show, Norifumi Kobayashi’s Accord Euro Wagon was spotted and looking great as always on the Work Emotion CR Ultimate wheels…
A couple of Japanese kids cruising through the show in style in their USDM Cadillac Escalade EXT…
Nicely done Nissan Cube from Deep Tapers sitting on some brightly-colored Work Emotion XT7….
Keisuke Morita from HKS Japan found this turbocharged Fit interesting, probably because it might be using one of their turbo kits. Also note the Spoon clappers behind the front wheel…
Also making the trip out from Osaka was Car Craft Boon!/OsakaJDM…
The Civic Wagon they had at their booth had an interesting selection of mods within the engine bay…
EK from OsakaJDM with their Loop5 wheels…
Nice to see that the owner was representing The Chronicles in Japan as well…
Not so nice was the massive curb rash on the owner’s Loop5 wheel. This is pretty much the visual equivalent of nails on a chalkboard…ouch…
Yamamoto Mayumi’s EF…
Yayoi Torii’s EF9…
Being that this was a USDM-themed show, there were a couple booths present that sold strictly American goods that have been collected over time by Japanese enthusiasts…
A lot of the stuff is really dated but many Japanese enjoy collecting old Americana…
Old U.S. issues license plates were made available for purchase for the low price of 500 Yen (About $5 USD)…
And of course, it wouldn’t be a US-themed automotive event without some American tuner publications on hand….
Rauh Welt Porsche posted up at the Hoonigan booth…
Beeyan learning what the Hoonigan brand is all about…
This matte blue Ford Mustang at the Hoonigan booth stood out in a collection of Japanese domestic vehicles…
Over at the USDM FREAX booth, a DJ entertained the crowd with uhh, whatever music they are into…? I don’t think it would be J-Pop or anything Japanese considering it is a U.S. styled event. They were probably blasting Tupac or other forms of older hip hop…
Back issues of USDM FREAX magazine were available for purchase…
Work Wheels Japan displayed their newest wheels along with some old favorites…
One of their latest models is the Work Seeker DX wheel, which look a lot like Schmidt wheels or classic Ronal Turbos…
Work Meister poster showing off the Ben Sopra 380SX…
It was nearing the end of the afternoon so it was time for the awards ceremony. Awards were most likely given to the most well-thought out builds and also for the cars that most represent USDM-style tuning…
One of the things that I really enjoyed about being in Japan during my stay there in January was how nice everyone was and how they actually had good manners. They would bow to you and hand things to you with both hands, as shown in the photo above…
Keisuke Morita and his Scion FR-S won an award…
…as did Toshiyuki Yanagi and his Integra Type R…
The big winner that day was Sasaki, who ended the day by taking home the USDM FREAX “GRAND AWARD” which is their Best of Show. While the Civic Ferio is fairly simple on the outside, the fact that it is completely gutted with a custom cage, custom paint, and the fact that they did a conversion to 99-00 spec really impressed the judges…
Masashi’s EF9 as they were getting set to take off from the show…
Winner winner chicken dinner for Morita and his FR-S on gold CCW wheels…
Perfect photo opportunity for Yasutaka’s IS250…
One more of the “Best of Show” and his Ferio…
Beeyan was all smiles even though he didn’t bring his Toyota Wish out for the show…
Group meeting before the 7+ hour journey back to Osaka…
A shot of Shimomukai exiting the picturesque Twin Ring Motegi…
His IS is proof that a simple drop and wheels can do wonders for a car… It just looks really good in combination with a color that you don’t see too often…
The rest of the group followed…
Some cruising shots to kill the time…
Morita-san’s Scion…Thanks once again to him for reppin’ The Chronicles in Japan along with the rest of the guys…
The greenery really helped to provide some great contrast against his white coupe…
Eventually Yasutaka got tired of driving and his friend took over for him while he hopped into one of the support vans that cruised with them…
Pulling up to a rest stop…
Kameoka pulled up and captured the attention of some older gentlemen…
Posted next to some Japanese tour buses…
Snack time to get some food in the stomach before the journey continued…
Chibi-chan and family…
One of the more random sightings at their rest stop breaks was this supercharged Chevy Camaro drag car. Definitely not something you see everyday in Japan….
They also happened to come across a group of motorcycle enthusiasts…
They all seemed to have an affinity for older late 60’s-mid 70’s Kawasaki motorcycles…
Pretty cool to be able to come across a completely different group of enthusiasts and see how they interact…
A little burn-out action for the cameras…
Nightfall came soon after as the group continued their trek home…
They spotted this Toyota Aristo that had some tire trouble, most likely from the excessive camber all the way around and the stretched rubber…
Yasutaka’s foglights lit up the night as they tried to stay awake by gathering for photos….
The total of four awards that the group took home that day from the Flip Out event…
…and closing out this series with a couple of late night captures of Morita and Shimomukai’s cars. Thanks for looking guys and I hope you enjoyed the shots. Wekfest San Jose coverage starts tomorrow!!
What are those wheels above the Seeker DX’s!? I cant find any info on them ANYWHERE.
The bikers in this post are called bosozoku. Check out the history Joe its a big part of Japanese history and culture!!