The Texas edition of Wekfest was a little different this year. Because of the hurricane and ensuing floods that occurred, the original event meant to happen in October was moved all the way to December. This puts the Houston event really close to the annual Florida Wekfest show so it felt like everything was really packed together. There were some changes this year, not only in time and date, but also venue. For the last few years, the Wekfest Houston event was hosted within the George R. Brown Convention Center. It was one of my favorite venues of the entire tour annually because the roll-in area with the freeway underpass just made for some epic photos paired with the early morning sunrise. This year, the event was moved over to NRG Park in another area of Houston. This venue sounded great on paper, but I’d be lying to you if I told you that I didn’t miss George R. Brown. Change is good though so it was interesting to see how the show would play-out at this new venue…

Having the show in December also made for some unpredictable weather. The morning started out so normal, with some clouds blocking-out the morning sun, providing a vanilla sky. It was a little colder than usual but Texas is Texas, so there was some warmth and humidity. I looked at the forecast and it said it would rain, but we had no idea how quickly it would come and just how hard it would come down. It was pretty wild. If anything, it was a hint of a reminder of just how badly Texas was hit just a few months before. From cruising around the city during our stay, you’d never think that there was any sort of devastation that occurred. The city has recovered quite well…

I doubt it was very obvious but it felt like the show itself was affected, whether it be due to the disaster that altered the lives of so many in that region and/or because of the date change. The show just seemed to be missing some familiar faces that I’ve come to recognize annually in Houston and with that, some great cars. I figure it is tough to make the trip down to Houston during the holiday season and for those affected by the floods, it just wouldn’t make sense to attend a car show during an important period of recovery. Overall, the show was still very good. I love this area and it is always good to be back. It was a pretty busy morning but I tried to shoot as much as I could before I had to go and attend to my judging duties. Today we’re going to take a gander at some of the great builds from the early morning of Wekfest Houston 2017. Enjoy…

I gotta say, it was pretty great to have the annual Wekfest Houston Pre-Meet back at the original location by Moontower Inn. It’s just so much crazier to see all the cars roll down that long street with all the people and everything around it. By the time we got there, it was incredibly crowded already and with so many people walking around, it was pretty difficult to get a still shot. I tried to do a little bit of Vlogging and shooting but the photos just weren’t so great with the long-exposure and cars/people coming in and out of the frame…

After staying for a little over an hour, we thought it was best to go grab some dinner and call it a night early. Roll-in started at 7 AM which means we have to be back at the venue by around 6. We didn’t have anything specific in mind as far as dinner goes but I decided to take the group to The Rice Box, which was a local Houston Chinese Food spot owned by one of the guys responsible for hosting the Pre-Meet, John Peterson from Mayday Garage. He was too busy to eat with us seeing as how he was managing the entire meet-up so we headed over to grab some dinner at his restaurant. What started out as a nice quiet dinner quickly changed by the time we were half-way through our meals, as some car guys decided they also wanted to come by to hang-out. Dinner ended-up being a car meet in itself with some pretty great cars under the bright neon signage at The Rice Box…

Your eyes do not deceive you… What you’re seeing is, in fact, a Lexus IS300 Sportcross sitting on a set of Mugen MF10 wheels, complete with the anodized blue caps. The wagon actually belongs to Chea, or better known to you social media folk as “Socold57”. He’s been carefully making this IS300 has clean as possible with a full re-spray and all. The choice of putting Mugen wheels on it is a little peculiar, but Chea himself is a little unique. The combo actually looks pretty good on there to be perfectly honest….

Pulling-up to The Rice Box soon after was Chris Montano’s supercharged NSX on Advan RG wheels…

Almost as peculiar of a sight as the Mugen wheels on Chea’s IS is the legit RHD Mitsubishi Pajero in the background. Texas definitely has some interesting cars…

Setting-up my favorite photo of the entire trip was this Rauh-Welt Begriff Porsche owned by Nate Vosburg. Unlike the RWB builds you’re used to seeing, this one is unique because the kit is actually molded to the body. Nakai apparently offers that service overseas but not here in the U.S. With that understanding, it should be noted that this RWB was imported already completed…

Love how the neon lights bounce off the cars. Food is not bad at all but the aesthetic makes it all the better…

Eventually, a ton more people showed-up to chill and we all just hung-out with random car people until it was time to get some sleep. Also noteworthy in this photo but hard to see is the “Honda Power of Dreams” license plate frame on Chea’s IS Sportcross. This completes the Honda conversion, making it the first and only Mugen IS300 Sportcross, lol….

The next morning started pretty early at around 6 AM. We grabbed some Starbucks and headed over to the venue to set-up for the roll-in portion of the show…

The first two cars that caught my eye that morning were a pair of FD RX-7s. One is a popular local build from Houston and the other a visitor all the way from the East Coast…

This FD is Khiem Pham’s and you might actually remember it being red in its previous stage of development. It is a mix of RE Amemiya and TCP Magic aero with a Toyota 2JZ-GTE engine swap under the hood…

I guess he had the car resprayed in this Lexus silver tone last year and has been piecing everything back together since then….

This was actually my second time seeing this FD build this year, as it was also a participant in the New Jersey Wekfest event during the summer. I guess Andy decided to make the trek down to Houston to showcase his RX-7 with the rest of the guys from Final Form USA…

Andy’s FD is dubbed the “RESuper7” because it is fully decked-out in classic RE Amemiya aero. Worth noting also is that this FD was once red and Andy actually sprayed the car himself in his garage…

I thought it was a nice accent touch to have the bright neon yellow contrast bits on the white and carbon exterior…

Japanese “Attack” event decal on the front RE bumper on Andy’s FD….

Volk TE37 Saga wheels with TE37SL decals applied…

An NSX on SSR wheels rolling into the venue with all types of assorted aero thrown onto it that the owner doesn’t even know about because the car was originally imported to the U.S. this way…

Traditional white/black AE86 Trueno-look on this Corolla…

Pandem widebody R32 Skyline on black BBS wheels…

Khiem’s 2JZ FD cruising into the venue while Andy’s white FD had to go make the rounds on the freeway to burn some gas, as he had too much in the tank to meet the 1/4-tank rule…

AP1 S2000 running a J’s Racing front half-bumper, front fenders, and rear wing…

Jason Lee’s NSX from Team Apokalypse widened and bagged sitting on RSV Forged wheels…

Bruce’s radiused and flared 1979 Datsun 280ZX from Apokalypse on 3-piece AG wheels…

Tricky Ricky’s EF hatchback is finally all together and running now, probably the best it has ever looked. I didn’t get a chance to see the engine bay until the show started but I’m glad the car has finally come close to completion…

A build that I was happy to see again was Mike’s Mugen complete RHD Civic hatchback, now sitting on the new 16×8 Mugen MF10 wheels…

K20 R engine inside the completely smoothed-out and shaven engine bay of Mike’s EK4 Civic…

The interior of the Civic complete with Mugen seats, Mugen cluster, and Mugen FG360 steering wheel…

Clinched widebody Lexus IS on Work Emotion CR2P wheels…

Rocket Bunny mash-up with V1 and V2 pieces mixed together on this Scion FR-S…

One of the cleanest builds of Wekfest Houston was the white Civic hatchback running a C-West front bumper, J’s Type T hood, J’s vented front fenders, and Volk CE28 wheels. Under the hood is a K-swap and inside is a Safety21 cage…

Lexus 2GS wearing a Wald lip kit and bagged on Leon Hardiritt wheels…

Another of Mike and his Mugen EK Civic…

Buick Regal G-body from Team Apokalypse with a nice meaty rear tire

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Widened Subaru WRX Uber…

This stock-body NA1 NSX on Work Meister wheels was actually turbocharged and sounded pretty wild compared to its generally simple exterior…

If you look through the windshield you can see a large duct running through the top of the rear glass that runs to the engine for the individual throttle bodies…

A menacing duo of black coupes from yesteryear…

Aggressively seated Civic coupe on Work Meister S1 wheels…

One more of the Mugen EK next to some of its Mugen brethren…

Wekfest staffer Toan chatting with the owner of this static del Sol as the owner was having a hell of a time trying to burn enough gas to get inside the venue…

Capping off Part 1 of the Wekfest Houston coverage with a shot of this Vertex Ridge widebody Lexus SC300…

Still another section of coverage to come next. Stay tuned!…