Man, it’s really hard to believe that it has been ten years since the first Spocom event took place down here in Southern California. I still have regrets from missing the first event in 2006 but I’ve been to pretty much every Spocom Socal event since then. Maybe I might have missed one other one during that span of 10 years but holy shit I am getting old. I still remember trying to figure out how to shoot under the dim convention center lights when I first borrowed my friend’s dSLR camera. The shows just seemed so much more epic back then but I think that has more to do with myself just being older now and having experienced so many of these type of shows. Now it all seems pretty routine to go before the show starts, shoot as much as I can, and then spend the rest of the day just hanging out while the hoard of spectators come flooding in when the gates open. I always have fond memories of the Spocom series because it is one of the few shows that I go to where I just kind of sit back to have fun with friends. The staff has always been welcoming, courteous, and more than willing to just let me roam around to do as I pleased. The cars have certainly changed over the years but I’m glad that many of my fellow enthusiasts have stuck around. Of course we are all getting older but events like these are good landmarks for us to get together to spend some quality time together. We all like to complain that events like these tend to go on way too long sometimes and we get home incredibly late but I honestly think that we still subconsciously enjoy being forced to stay in these environments. It gives us a reason to hang out and catch up with friends. Cars seem to be much more of a byproduct along with all the aspiring “import models” that seem to come and go…

For this year’s event, they moved the Spocom event to a different hall within the Anaheim Convention Center. I don’t think I’ve been inside this hall since the Import Revolution show back in like 2003 or something. Thinking about that now makes me feel even older. I think the biggest model at that time was Tila Nguyen and she’s a fucking nutcase now. Anyways, what I was trying to say was that this change of venue helped to add a completely new look to the Spocom show. The show felt much bigger and cars filled the venue from end to end. I actually had to leave at one point during the middle of the day to go help Tiffanie shoot a surprise engagement but managed to find enough time to come hang out at the end of the show. In hindsight paying for parking twice didn’t seem like the greatest of ideas but I didn’t want to have that whole “FOMO” (Fear of Missing Out) feeling so we went back to shoot photos and talk shit with friends. It’s always a good time at Spocom and I am deeply appreciative of their hospitality. I arrived early the day of the show and just cruised around the venue and snapped photos of whatever I saw. If you don’t see a photo of your car here, do not be alarmed, because I really almost never try to capture a photo of every car there. I just capture whatever catches my eye at that particular moment in time and what you see here is basically what I got. I like using a tripod for situations like this because it is typically pretty dim at these night events and I continue to have the shakes after all these years. All in all, I think I was pretty happy with what I shot and Tiffanie was running around shooting with me as well so I’ve included some of her photos in her too just to break up to the tripod-monotony. Enjoy and congratulations to the Spocom series for 10 great years. Cheers and a round of applause. Thanks for always giving us car guys a space to shoot the shit and have a good ol’ time…

SPOCOM ANAHEIM 2016

WORDS BY STICKYDILJOE

PHOTOS BY STICKYDILJOE & TIFFANIE MARIE

One of the first TRA Kyoto Pandem widebody BMW E30 coupes stateside bagged on aggressive BBS RS wheels…

TRA Kyoto Pandem E36 BMW M3 coupe…

Victor Wu’s F80 BMW M on custom BBS LM…

One of the more notable debuts at this year’s Spocom Anaheim event was this Lexus SC430 owned by James Oliver Taroc. The purple SC features a custom radiused all-metal widebody by Buddha Concept Designs with a retro-fitted Mode Parfume aero kit…

A closer look at the custom rear quarter panels resting on top of the WED’S Kranze Chrishna wheels…

Glen Villanueva’s M&M Honda Hyper Widebody AP2 S2000 sporting a swan-neck Voltex GT rear wing and custom WED’S Kranze LXZ…

Der doing some Vlogging while Robert opened up his present from Yasu who was visiting from Japan…

I know the widebody craze is at an all-time high right now and some are getting a little tired of all the bolt-on fender flares but the Pandem kit for the E36 actually looks pretty great on the linear bodylines of the M3 coupe….

Y34 M sedan wearing Mode Parfume aero and K-Break Hybreed Fivesta wheels that have just the right amount of stretch, allowing the fenders to rest ever so softly between the wheel lip and rubber…

Elroy from Autofashion USA’s J-Unit Mazda 6 bagged on Airrex suspension, seated on Leon Hardiritt Gemut wheels…

Rob Kothenbeutel’s artfully-built Varis Evolution from Seattle, WA. I had originally planned to shoot this Evo for Super Street during my recent trip to Washington but the scheduling just didn’t work out. I had seen photos of it via email but this thing is really detailed and well-executed in person. Seems like every inch of the car had seen some sort of customization at some point…

The engine bay in particular showed just how much you could do to this platform in terms of  customization under the hood. Just beautiful…

Pretty nifty classic Mini Cooper S truck parked next to a much larger, modern-day, R35 GTR…

Clean and simple Mitsubishi Evolution X on concave Volk Racing TE37 in Rays’ classic bronze finish and front/rear Endless big brake kit…

A rear angle of the Pandem E36 M3 built by LTMW….

Rear angle of Glen’s Hyper Widebody S2000 proudly repping Toyo Tires…

Gary Shellum’s widened Acura NSX marketing for Glico USA and their popular “Pocky” line of sweets…

RA1 Odyssey looking great planted to the ground rocking a full Wald lip kit and SSR Executor wheels…

SSR Executor CV03…

Libert Walk Dodge Challenger on RSV Forged wheels…

BMW M3 on BBS LM from Strasse Sport…

Wide fenders any and everywhere…

TRA Kyoto Pandem BMW M3 Cabriolet from Texas-based car club “PROSPEKTS” pm RSV Forged wheels…

Another of Elroy’s J-Unit Mazda…

One of the cars I was surprised to see finally was Brandon Burke’s Millenium Jade R32 Skyline GT-R. I originally shot his S13 coupe for Super Street years ago and after he sold that car, he went and found himself this R32. The progress had been really slow on it but after about two years, he finally decided to bring it out for the world to see. I always look forward to Brandon’s builds because he has a very unique sense of style, all the while still managing to keep things very minimal. I wish I could get a closer, more detailed, look at it but he’s still finishing up things here and there so we will have to wait and see how it all ends up…

Garage Mak Z33 from R-Rydes better known to other Z-chassis owners as the “RUINED Z”…

Danh Vo from SSR/Tanabe USA’s GM LS-powered FD3S RX-7 wearing a rare Knight Sports front bumper…

Tiffanie caught Yuta and Yasu carrying in a huge box of goodies from Volsage/Mode Parfume for Autofashion USA…

Randy Riggs’ Kenstyle G35 coupe with its always beautifully-executed Vortech-supercharged VQ set-up

Jose Romo’s Audi A3 2.oT on SSR Professor SP3 wheels…

One more of Victor’s F80 M3…

Ojay Bayang’s K-Break UCF30/31 Lexus LS on Work Wheels…

K-Break Lexus LS460 from STYLESIXTYTHREE…

Felix’s Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II on Volk Racing TE37. Crazy to see one here in California especially with the government not too keen on having any of these around anymore….

The Autofashion USA booth played host to many great cars, one of them being the Rocket Bunny NSX assembled by Autofashion and Six Sigma Autodesign…

Sometimes I do miss the brashness of the blue chrome vinyl finish but I definitely love this car so much more in its white finish, especially on TEs…

Mode Parfume Prius-R on SSR MKIII Neo wheels built in Hawaii and making the rounds out here in California…

Simply-done silver NSX on polished SSR Professor SP1…

One of my favorite stateside VIP builds has long been this Aimgain 2GS on Fabulous Profound wheels from Royal Flush…

Turbocharged widebody S2000 from NVUS with a really well-executed engine bay…

AP1 S2000 wearing J’s front fenders and rear flares on new Volk TE37Vs…

It was nice to finally look at this Civic in detail after only getting a glimpse of it under the hellish sun during the NEMOS-GARAGE Grand Opening Meet a few weeks back…Lex

Lexus RC F-Sport running Varis Magnum Opus carbon aero pieces and SSR Professor TF1 wheels…

Jaguar XJ6 from STYLESIXTYTHREE bagged on Superstar Leon Hardiritt Ordens…

Always good to see the Rywire E-AT Civic out and about at shows. Ryan rarely has time to take any of his cars out nowadays but you’ll be happy to know that he finally ironed-out all the kinks with this build and it runs perfectly now with the drive-by-wire throttle system…

Yogi Kruthanooch’s custom widebody Vertex GS at the WED’S Wheels/Superstar booth. I actually just wrote a story on Yogi and his GS for Drivingline Magazine. CLICK HERE to read more about this build…

HKS GT-Supercharged S2000 running a variety of aero components from Voltex, Spoon Sports, and J’s Racing…

Wheelers’ M&M Honda Hyper Widebody DC5 RSX with Mugen front bumper and chassis-mounted Voltex rear wing…

Sterling Auto Con’s Porsche 991 Turbo converted to full GT3 Cup Car trim…

Peter and Theresa Vong’s Honda F22C-powered Toyota Celica coupe looking great with its custom-painted Nissan “Midnight Purple” finish. Many of you may remember this build gracing the cover of Super Street Magazine a couple months back…

Under the hood is a visual fuckery of colors thanks to all the custom-plated Neochrome engine pieces. All the colors almost distract from the fact that the engine is completely foreign to this chassis….

Mikey Cristi’s Porsche 997 with its wild “Spoon”-inspired livery now bagged on Airlift suspension….

Closing out Part 1 here with a quick shot of Kelvin Hsiu’s Do-Luck widebody Mitsubishi Evolution IX mixed with a Voltex Cyber Edition front bumper parked at the Mastermind NA booth…

Still much more to come so stay tuned!!…