By the time you’re reading this, I should be getting ready to board, or already on my flight to Atlanta, GA for the massive GRID LIFE event. I’ve never been to Atlanta before so I’m interested to see what is out there and what that area has to offer in terms of cars and other things I enjoy, like food, and what not. While I’m busy flying high in the sky, you guys can check out the second half of my early morning Wekfest East 2016 coverage. This section picks up right where Part 1 left off outside of the New Jersey Exposition Center. As I stated in the previous Wekfest East post, I really prefer to shoot the cars outside before they roll-in because it feels like the coverage is much more dynamic that way. The cars are all pretty and cleaned-up once they are inside but I think it is really interesting to see the cars in more of their pure form when they have just been driven from wherever the owners are from. I tried to get a good mix of photo and video stuff in hopes that I can capture the overall vibe of the event. Sometimes I wish I could talk to the owners more when they approach me but it always seems a little awkward to turn the camera on when they are talking and then trying to get them to act normal like they aren’t being recorded. I like to think that it adds to the coverage when I can talk to the owners and I think I’m going to try to get more video footage like that in the near future. The awkwardness is really obvious on camera, but let’s be honest, who isn’t a little awkward or a little different when they know a camera is recording them, right?..

There were some great cars at Wekfest East this year. I always show up in hopes that there will be some new builds that I haven’t seen before and I was pleasantly surprised this year. The last two years it seemed like everything had stayed pretty much the same and you could seriously overlap the two shows together and it would be hard to tell them apart. This year however, there was some growth. Some new builds showed-up which really helped to breathe new life into this event and some of the usuals that had come in years’ past are probably now in their rebuild or retirement stages. There are of course some cars that I wish I could see every year that have been my favorites in the past but it is necessary to make room for some new guys who have cars that are equally as qualified to compete as the great ones of the past. It is interesting because people in this area are so incredible competitive that I often find myself immersed in all the details of every build when judging the cars because the owners just want to tell you about everything that they’ve done. There’s no other show on the tour that is like that except for Wekfest East. I dig the competitive nature of the car owners in this area and love that they are proud of their hard work. The competitiveness of the owners also leads some to be sore losers when they don’t win what they feel that they should be that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think it just helps people work harder or think differently about their cars…

I still have a lot of photos to show you guys so bear with me. As you know, I’m on the road quite a bit so I’m trying to push this stuff out to you as soon as I can without sacrificing the quality of the posts. Thanks for the continued support and if you guys are going out to Gridlife, I’ll see you there…

Enjoy…

Wekfest East 2016

Photos & Words By StickyDilJoe

Champ White AP2 S2000 running a Spoon Sports Front Aero Bumper, half-cut rear bumper, OEM CR rear wing, and OEM Hardtop on custom gray Desmond Regamaster EVO…

The East Coast is definitely where I see the most modded RX-7s. Out in Cali, we have a few but nothing compared to the sheer number of FDs that show up at one event…

Two FDs, both yellow but very different in aesthetics. One is more of a stock-bodied street car while the other is a full RE Amemiya-equipped FD build…

I love seeing RE Amemiya stuff because their parts just look so cool. Most of it was designed in the late 90s and early 2000s but still look so great today…

This white FD had the RE front fenders and rear over fendres but still maintained a relatively stock outside appearance with the late-model FD bumpers…

Here’s a shot from the opposite side with the RE FD up front and Albert Saavedra Jr.’s FD in the distance…

Some guys forgot about the 1/4-tank fuel rule at this indoor shows so they were forced to find ways to take gasoline out of their vehicles…

This white Civic sedan was really clean inside and out with a weekend track car-motif. I like the white Enkei  NT03 wheels as well…

Nicely-executed engine bay on this RHD DC5 RSX owned by Steven Crespo running a BackYard Special front bumper and Anointed Aero front fenders/rear over fenders…

One of my favorites from the early morning was this K-swapped Civic coupe on black Regamaster EVOs…

The engine bay is nicely executed with just the bare essentials remaining. I like how the owner decided to polish the valve cover while making the intake manifold a wrinkle black finish. Nice contrast details…

The mirror-like valve cover is perfectly accented with a Mugen carbon fiber wire cover….

The interior is also really well-done with a K-Tuned shifter box surrounded by the OEM center console, KEY!S Racing steering wheel, and yellow Recaro seats…

Milano Red EM1 Civic SI coupe with a BYS front bumper and 16-inch Volk Racing CE28N…

K-swapped Civic with custom front splitter under the SI front lip and PCI sideskirts…

Joe Cheung from Liberty VIP’s UCF30/31 on Garson Deep Racing Ryuji wheels…

This S2000 from Quebec, Canada, utilized a set of Circuit Garage over fenders with a mix of J’s Racing aero and Voltex rear wing…

Every time I leave California I seem to see these guys together. I guess it is only appropriate that they always show-up at events together being twin Phoenix Yellow Mugen Integra Type Rs….

Chen Huang’s ITR is a bit more on the aggressive, non-conventional, side with its fender flares over J’s Racing front fenders combination and the use of a individually-throttled K24 engine…

Shyam Sookram’s ITR is your more traditional ITR with the full Mugen aero kit, full interioer, and non-staggered Mugen wheels. Nice touch with the Ganador Super Mirrors…

Kevin Beepat’s Milano Red DC2 Integra on bronze Volk Racing CE28N…

Another favorite of mine from the Wekfest East event was this white RE Amemiya FD which looks like it could have leaped right out of an old Japanese Option DVD. Love how the owner tied the visuals together throughout the car with the spoke decals and fender decals matching…

Willy’s legit Japanese RHD Honda Integra Type R rocking a Buddy Club front bumper and red Volk TEs…

One build that I was interested in seeing in person was Anthony Rivera’s bright green EG6 Civic SiR. I’ve seen photos of it floating around online the past year or so and was interested to see how it looked in person. Turns out that not only is his Civic incredible clean, he also drives it everywhere…

Adam’s Phoenix Yellow EK9 Civic Type R looking just about perfect on 15×8 Volk Racing TE37 wheels…

4-door ER32 Skyline GT wearing traditional ZEXEL graphics…

While some cars were really clean, some were a bit more on the aggressive-side with deep-dish wheels and air suspension set-ups….

Here you can see the rear diffuser set-up on the white AP2 earlier wearing the Spoon front bumper. Also make note of the Spoon Sports side mirrors and Car Shop GLOW taillights…

Red R32 Skyline on Burning Black Work VS-KF wheels…

One more shot of Ant’s EG6 as he was heading into the venue…

Meanwhile, another fleet of cars were arriving for their scheduled roll-in times…

Love the bronze finish on Rays wheels, especially when sunlight hits it and you can really see the luster…

Chen’s Mugen R, if you want to read more on it, you can pick-up the latest issue of Super Street magazine where it is featured. Ginash from JDMChicago had the honor of shooting the car while I wrote the story for it…

Three Rs rolling into the New Jersey Exposition Center…

This custom widebody Ford Focus isn’t something you’ll see everyday, that’s for sure…

Another look at the EM1 from earlier, this time sans hood…

One of the cleanest cars in the building was this EF9-converted Civic hatchback on Mugen RnR wheels. Everything about it was JDM OEM EF9 SiR except for the left-hand drive…

A couple more looks at Crespo’s turbocharged DC5. Nice meaty Toyo R888 tire set-up mounted on Work Emotion CR2P wheels…

Never really been too big of a fan of vinyl wraps but I have always liked chameleon/iridescent colorways. This S2000 looked really cool wide and low to the ground on CCW wheels with the Circuit Garage flares and all…

I guess one advantage of having a vinyl-wrapped body is that you can switch bumpers at anytime and not have to worry about shit not matching…

Always good to see fellow enthusiasts enjoying one another’s builds…

And with this parting shot of this Subaru WRX Wagon on Rotiform SIX wheels, we conclude our early morning roll-in coverage of the 2016 Wekfest East event. When we resume next time, I will show you guys some photos from inside the show with shots from both Tiffanie Marie and I. Until then, thanks for looking!…