Happy Labor Day everyone and welcome back to our ongoing WEKEAST 2013 coverage. We are now in Part 3 and still haven’t gotten to the actual show photos yet, haha. Hey, what can I say? I like to be detailed and capture whatever I can. Today we’re going to continue with the photos from the early morning roll-in. The sun was rising and provided a great back drop to the morning and I just walked around freely and snapped whatever caught my eye. As I said in part 2, the early morning set-up process usually produces the best photos because it is such an organic process compared to the actual show when all the cars are set-up already. With these shots, you get to not only see cars outside in their natural environment, but also get a glimpse at the people that put the cars together…

The weeks leading up to WEKEAST, everyone kept asking me if I was excited to go to New Jersey for the show. If you know me personally, then you know that I’m never the type that really gets overly excited about anything. I’m pretty reserved and am more of the type to just live in the moment more than being excited in anticipation of it. As we pulled up to the New Jersey Convention Center that day, I think I was just happy to finally be able to see some of these cars in person. After only being able to see photos of them time and time again, I appreciated the fact that Wekfest decided to have me there so that I could experience it for myself. I hadn’t been out on that coast in a couple of years so basically all the cars were foreign to me other than glimpsing at photos of them online prior. It’s always interesting to see if the cars actually live up to the billing and the hype that you see online. Some exceed expectations and some, as expected, fall short. That’s just how things are. Some cars photograph better and there are often times when a simple digital photograph just doesn’t do the build justice. I love the fact that I can sometimes rely on people to capture these events that I cannot attend but there is just no comparison to physically being there to document the event myself. There are very subtle nuances and details that people just aren’t able to capture all the time…

On another note, there are a lot of cars that I have seen in the past on the web that I didn’t get the opportunity to see while I was at WEKEAST. I don’t know what happened to them. Maybe they didn’t make the final cut to be in the show or maybe they were just busy redoing their cars but I guess I’ll just have to make another trip out so that I can have the opportunity to see them…

Today is the last of the roll-in coverage. In Part 4, we will actually start covering the show itself. I’ll give you guys my thoughts on the actual show itself too along with some of my experiences meeting the enthusiasts who were a part of the show…

With the long weekend, I think everyone should be caught up by now with Parts 1 and 2, if not, then you have no excuse to not click on the links below to catch up before you move on with Part 3…

WEKEAST 2013 Coverage…Part 1: Eastbound and Down…

WEKEAST 2013 Coverage…Part 2: The Morning…

Now when we last left-off, we caught a glimpse of Mike Yushinsky’s ZF1 J’s-themed CR-Z…

One more of Yushinsky’s ZF1. I’m a big fan of the J’s aero for this chassis and it is always good to see modded CR-Zs done in a manner that holds true to how they are being styled across the pond…

J-swapped Civic hatchback from Dark City Racing on 16-inch VIP Modular wheels…

Owner of the R34 Skyline GT-R making some final adjustments to the car before rolling into the venue…

Simple Lancer on Volk Racing TE37…

This RHD Toyota Aristo was actually quite bizarre-looking but in a way that really holds true to pure Japanese tuning style. In Japan, you’d very likely see an Aristo set-up like this for drifting. Very cool car and honestly one of the most intriguing builds at WEKEAST. I really wish I had more time to get a closer look at this thing during the show…

Lester Bracero from Team EMOTION’s Acura TSX. His CL7 looks like a more streetable version of Salem’s TSX on this side of the coast being that they both share the J’s Racing front bumper and canards. His is different in that it sits more aggressively on SSR Professor SP3s and is on adjustable air ride suspension…

Roy Jang from Canibeat’s S55 AMG airred-up and about to enter the NJ Convention Center…

Evo X styled by J.Sutai on Rotiform TMBs…

This Miata on BBS wheels was so hammered to the ground that it was literally dragging its front lip around everywhere it went. I don’t know if this guy drives his car like this all the time but if he does, he probably has a ton of extra front lips laying around because there is no way you can drive this thing in a sensible fashion without destroying the car…

This Voltex-equipped Evo is known as “Hi STI” around those parts and a Subaru STI (The one you saw in Part 1 in Times Square) is known as “Hi Evo”…

Matte Blue-wrapped S2000 with a CR front lip on CCW wheels parked in the staging area while the owner checked-in and grabbed his paperwork…

TRA Kyoto Rocket Bunny Scion FR-S on white Work Emotion CR…

Bright orange BNR33 Skyline GT-R on 19-inch bronze Volk TE37s…

I really liked the overall wheel fitment and ride height on this R34 Skyline GT-R. It just sits really aggressively without going incredibly stupid overboard like a lot of cars these days. Proof that you can pull off an aggressive stance without ruining body panels…

One of the more highly-anticipated builds for me personally that I wanted to see was Tyrone Pertab’s Lexus GS400 from Liberty VIP. Having always been a fan of traditional Japanese VIP tuning, I wanted to see one of the East’s best. Overall a great-looking build with a lot of attention to detail paid to it. It’s a shame he put it up for sale because it would have been great to possibly see this GS and Thomas Pinai’s go head-to-head at a Wekfest show…

S2000 on some rarely-seen Spoon Sports CR93 wheels…

White EK9 Civic Type R on gray Volk CE28…

Another of Pertab’s Mode Parfume 2GS on 19-inch Junction Produce wheels…

Shyam Sookram’s Spoon-everything Integra Type R from Unique Auto Squad…

VIP Jaguar XJ8L from Liberty VIP…

Nice, clean, AP2 S2000 with OEM hard top and Volk CEs…

Interesting to see Ty’s GS roll at this ride height…

A couple more of Sookram’s ITR, including his Volk TE and Spoon brake set-up…

Silver EK from Unique Auto Squad with a carbon Spoon Sports front lip and canards…

Here’s some more shots of the wild 1st gen. Toyota Aristo from earlier. The rear spoiler set-up is pretty fucking intense, haha…

Every time I see a set of Blitz Technospeed Z1, it always takes me back to the early 2000s when these wheels were immensely popular but only the top tier builds rocked them because they were so expensive and hard to come by. This set of gold Z1s look pretty amazing on this E46 BMW M3…

I’m honestly not a fan at all of the way this Miata is put together but hey, to each their own. I really liked how this photo came out though with the owner and all and it ended-up being one of my favorite shots from the entire weekend…

Nissan S15 Silvia that you saw earlier in Part 1 of this set when it was cruising through Times Square…

Another angle of the NA1 Miata from above. Here you can see the custom flared fenders and rear quarters…

Matte Yellow S2000 with a single Recaro seat and Spoon Sports (or Spoon-style, no offense, you just never know these days) S-Tai front bumper…

Front quarter shot, here you can see that it is flared in the rear too. One of the rare times, in my opinion anyway, that Desmond Regamaster Marquis Promadas look good courtesy of its aggressive sizing. Just never been a fan of the non-EVO Regas because of the center bore…

Red Civic SiR hatchback on polished Sprint Hart CP-R…

This red VW MK4 Jetta was looking pretty good on CCW “Smoothies”…

Yellow CR-X with cut-out rear bumper on white BBS wheels…

It was nice to see a silver EK9 Civic Type R for a change. All you ever see these days are white ones or other Civics built to replicate white CTRs. Silver is not a bad color either folks, haha…

Lime Green Metallic NSX with NA2 front and rear conversion on white Volk TE37s…

Good to finally be able to see Jorge Ramos’ Civic Wagon in person. Been a huge fan of this build since he got these Barramundi Design Eleven wheels. Everything just flows really well together, including the leather interior…

Custom VIP-styled Acura TL bagged on D2 air suspension and rocking a set of silver SSR Professor MS3s. I dig the red accent stripe on the bottom doors and how it coincides with the customer red interior…

Right behind Ramos’ Wagon was another Civic Wagon, this one white on polished Sprint Hart CP-Rs…

A few more of the yellow CR-X from earlier with EF8 SiR front end and B16B CTR swap…

Jorge’s Wagon on its way into the show…

These last two shots of Part 3 feature a Mitsubishi Evo X with Msport front end, JDP side skirts extension, Chargespeed wide over fenders, Origin GT wing. Wheels are bronze SSR Professor SP3s wrapped in Falken Azenis rubber…

Well that’s a wrap for today as we conclude the coverage of the early morning roll-in. Tomorrow in Part 4, we finally dive into the actual show set-up inside and the cars after they were set-up. Thanks for looking and make sure to come back for more!!