2018 is finally…*ahem*…FINALLY coming to a close with just a few days left until we start counting down to the new year. I think many of us are taking a collective sigh of relief and looking forward to what 2019 brings. Before we ring in ’19, just a few weeks ago, the final Wekfest show concluded the car show season down in West Palm Beach, Florida…

The Florida Wekfest shows are always a little interesting because you just never know what to expect…and I’m talking both in weather and with the car show competitors. The landscape of the Florida car community seems like it is still in a state of change. I’ve spoken about it plenty of times before but there is still a lot of room for improvement. A once really strong community has changed quite a bit over the years. Many grew up and got out of “the game”, strong waves of theft caused a huge ripple effect on the car community, and perhaps even a generational gap occurred, with many younger enthusiasts now dictating how the scene develops down there without many of the enthusiasts from the previous years to help guide the way…

It’s been a number of years now since we started bringing the show down to Florida and there has definitely been some growth. We’d all like to think that we can just make major changes over night but things just don’t really work that way. What I do enjoy about Florida is the diversity of vehicles that show-up. There isn’t particularly one make or model that dominates the scene out there. You get some nice imported vehicles from Japan that help to represent your traditional style of Japanese tuning, some interesting builds with unique engine swaps you’d never expect to see, a strong showing of incredible clean Hondas, and builds very specific to North America who have even represented the state of Florida at the annual SEMA Show. Mix that in with some Florida heat in the middle of winter and you have yourself a pretty good event…

I spent much of the weekend down in Florida just eating with the guys from Wekfest and trying to relax. My schedule was still really off after just coming back from Paris, France a week before that so going from 40-degree weather and constant downpour to mid-80s tropical weather in Florida was a little wild. Add to that the time difference and going from Paris to LA to West Palm Beach in a matter of three weeks. I woke up at times wondering what part of the world I was in, lol. Rest assured though that I got a good amount of content. I did video and played around with the new GoPro Hero7 so you should notice an improvement in video if you’ve seen the latest Vlog. The new stabilization feature on the camera is fucking great, but I have noticed some issues with the feature in lowlight settings so I’ll mess around with that for a bit more at the next few events to see how we can get it to look better. I think there is a firmware update in there somewhere which helps it but I haven’t had the chance to really look into it. When I wasn’t doing video stuff, I was either drinking coffee or taking photos, the first half of the set you will see below. There were some interesting builds this year, and like a I mentioned earlier, a diverse grouping of cars. Check it out below and see what I saw at Wekfest Florida this year… Enjoy…

One of the first cars to come into the building early that morning was this FK8 Civic Type R sitting on brand new Advan Racing TC4 wheels that was set to be on display at the Rays Engineering booth…

Legit Japan-imported RHD Z32 Fairlady Z with a front-mount intercooler peeking out through the front face…

Classic SSR Professor SP1 wheels on the 90s-era Z…

Toyota 86 on Advan Racing TCIII wearing a rarely-seen C-West aero kit and rear wing…

Z34 370Z bagged sitting on Work Emitz wheels running a Nismo front bumper…

RPS13 180SX representing Bad Quality USA with a rare GT1 front bumper…

Rear angle showing the widened rear quarters, like Origin Labo pieces along with the front wide fenders, tucking WEDS Kranze Cerberus II…

It almost seems to be a rare sight these days seeing non cut-up, stock body, Scion FR-S builds at events. I spotted this one cruising by nice and low on SSR Professor SP1…

Wekfest staffers DPK David and Toan Le taking a brief moment to chat during the hectic morning roll-in process…

I’ve seen John Perez and his Civic sedan every year since Wekfest started coming to Florida a few years back and he’s honestly one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He’s always doing something new to his car, despite collecting virtually every rare accessory available for the chassis, and always has the most positive and kind demeanor…

Custom rebuilt Mugen MR5 wheels along with a catalog of rare EF/ED chassis accessories from all different parts of the world…

Considering his collection, this badge would almost seem like an understatement…

Just so you get a clearer idea of how low this 180SX is, considering Toan is squatting down and his head is almost meeting the roof-line of the Nissan…

From a distance, I saw this Subaru unloaded off of its trailer and sitting alone in the lot. The exterior looked relatively simple, with some fender flares in place tucking the WEDS Kranze Bazreia wheels tightly. It didn’t have a hood on and the powerplant inside looked a bit unusual…

Upon closer inspection, I realized that the Boxer-4 was long gone and in its place was a fully-operational Toyota 2JZ-GTE engine swap sitting inside an engine bay that has been tube-framed…

What a wild and interesting sight this was to see a turbo 2JZ inside a WRX STI…

The custom dashboard inside the 2J-powered Subaru, with an AEM Infinity ECU mounted to the passenger-side. Here you can also see the full cage and a mount for what looks to be a digital display that had yet to be installed…

It’s always cool to see 2JZ and RB-swaps in different vehicles and this Subaru was certainly one of the more interesting builds to show-up to the Wekfest Florida event…

Pandem widebody-equippred Scion FR-S sitting on some incredibly aggressive wheels tucked with a ton of camber with so much lip that you can barely see the hydro-dipped faces…

Two very differently styled 86s, though both running bolt-on over fenders…

Brandyn Simpson’s custom widebody Z33 build on VIP Modular wheels representing the guys from FortuneMinds…

Sheldon Tran’s Spoon Sports-themed AP2 S2000 with most of the Spoon S-Tai aero sans the Mooncraft top…

Voltex rear wing paired with Spoon Sports rear over fenders and their rear diffuser…

Right next to Tran’s S2000 was another AP2, this one wearing an ASM front, J’s front fenders, J’s sideskirts, Voltex rear flares, and a J’s spoiler…

Nax Whitmore’s imported Y32 Nissan Cima from FortuneMinds….

…running the latest Junction Produce Scara wheel, now-produced by Luxury Abstract wheels…

Jason Le’s S2000 build on Airlift suspension featuring a Spoon-style front bumper, custom cut and modified OEM front fenders, and custom widened rear quarters…

Random shot of Le’s S2000 front face that I thought came out pretty cool…

The aggressive front face of the Pandem aero kit on this Scion FR-S…

It’s always nice to see clean S15 Silvias stateside. This was sat nicely on Rays wheels and a carbon lip that looked like it could be an ABFlug piece…

One of my favorites from last year’s Wekfest Florida event made a return for this year, which was this BNR32 Skyline GTR equipped with some rare Abbey Road Company components and a set of Enkei RS05RR wheels…

The front end with a ARC front-mount behind the front bumper which has a carbon trim piece surrounding the opening paired with two N1 ducts…

The RB26 engine under the hood which has been upgraded to a larger single turbo, along with a Hypertune intake manifold and some more ARC goodies including a rare titanium strut bar…

Interesting to see that the owner chose to mount the tower bar upside down…

ARC Induction Box for the RB26DET engine…

A70 Supra with some styling from a previous era, with the shaved moldings, custom vented front fender and Volk Racing GT-C wheels…

AP1 S2000 with Amuse front bumper, Mugen hard top, and Voltex rear wing…

Can’t forget the pairing of Endless big brakes and bronze Mugen MF10 wheels…

Black NA2 NSX rocking some white Enkei RS05RR wheels along with some Downforce aero additions…

CL9 TSX with a Phase/Spoon front bumper with custom integrated LED lights and mix-matched SSR wheels…

This AP2 from EMOTION crew featured an ASM front and front fenders as well as bronze Mugen MF10…

RJ’s blue NA2 NSX from EMOTION wearing rare Spoon Sports aero paired with custom re-sized and black chrome Mugen MF10…

He also utilized Mugen MS-Z seats inside to pair with the Mugen wheels for a unique Spoon/Mugen mash-up…

Another of Sheldon Tran’s Spoon Sports S2000…

And another of Travis’ ASM-face S2000…

It’s nice to see people in North America running the RS05RR wheel. It’s honestly a great-looking wheel that comes in pretty good sizing…

Mag Blue Volk CE28N, Spoon Sports rear over fender, Spoon rear diffuser, Mugen hard top and Voltex rear wing…

Such a subtle look overall but with some good parts on it. Love how understated it is. Even has a Blitz front-mount intercooler tucked behind the Japanese license plate up front…

This EG6 Civic SiR was damn near perfect. I had a chance to chat with the owner later on during the show and the entire car has been resprayed with the original silver thin side moldings intact. The only addition really was a authentic carbon fiber Spoon Sports front lip…

Tucked tightly behind the spokes of the 15-inch Volk Racing TE37 wheel are AP Racing brakes…

That’s all for Part 1. Make sure you come back for Part 2 of 2, thanks for checking in!…