I wanted a slightly different approach this year covering the Seattle Wekfest event. The previous two shows had been pretty amazing content-wise but I always remember the roll-out being so much more memorable than the set-up phase of the show. Perhaps that has more to do with the stress of the early morning roll-in, being that we only had so many hours in the morning to get all the cars into the show. The end is usually that huge sigh of relief when the show is over and everyone is driving out of the venue with the setting sun as their backdrop. It’s quite beautiful I must say. Just the entire environment surrounding Wekfest Seattle is so incredibly scenic that there’s no possible way you couldn’t just stop to take it all in. This is one of my favorite venues, easily. I mean, it’s situated right in-between Centurylink Field where the Seattle Seahawks play, and right next door is T-Mobile Park, home of their Mariners baseball team. And it’s Seattle. Everything is just so green and the moisture that often flows through the city year-round helps to make everything a little rustic. You add some modified vehicles to the mix and you have a photograph waiting to happen…

But as mentioned, I wanted to approach it differently this year. The entrance-side of the building is cool and all, especially being that it is an overpass that brings cars into the city from the highway, but the space is a bit tight under it where the cars roll-in. You get some good shots but you’re not really taking advantage of your environment, you know what I mean? A couple years ago, I shot a car in this same area and really had a chance to explore what was around the venue. I noticed that the cars were entering from the ‘Left Field Gate’ side of T-Mobile Park and were often lining-up on the street, parallel with the baseball stadium. This area looks fantastic in the morning because the sun rises right by the overpass and casts this soft golden light onto the cars that are making their way into the venue. If I could catch the cars rolling in with this setting in place, it would look almost as good as the roll-out during sunset. I also noticed that nobody else was occupying this space, as other photographers were running around inside the building or waiting patiently by the front entrance…

I grabbed my gear, walked out to the intersection by T-Mobile Park, and waited there much of the morning as the cars made their way up the street. There was no one else on the street except for some random passerby’s who were doing their morning exercise routines. I had this area all to myself. I told Yasu and Ken to come out to shoot here as well but they were preoccupied with their own locations, shooting away. This area was damn near perfect. So good, that most of my Wekfest Seattle Coverage was taken from this area during the morning. Everybody else has the shots you’re probably used to seeing, whether they be by the entrance or the usual stuff shot during the show. I knew I’d be so busy during the show doing the judging and talking to people that it’d be difficult for me to find time to shoot. Boy do I not regret spending my morning here. I’ll get more into the show and its cars as we go through the photos in the next coming parts. For now, just sit back and enjoy the first set of photos…

One of the first builds that we saw early that morning was Greg Gott’s “Gottrod” which started life decades ago as a 1941 Chevy pick-up truck. Now it’s a custom rat rod project wearing some beefy Hoosier tires…

I walked out towards the intersection by T-Mobile Park’s ‘Left Field Gate’ entrance and immediately spotted a familiar build from Japan, the ATTKD Autech Tsukada BNR34 Skyline GT-R democar, which had since been sold via auction and relocated to British Columbia…

This V-Spec model Skyline once ran a 56.9-second lap time at the famed Tsukuba Circuit and features a HKS 2.8L-stroker motor. Everything has been overhauled and upgraded by ATTKD with their own suspension components, aero kit, and titanium engine pieces…

One of the great things about Seattle is that it is only a few hours away from Vancouver so many of the Canadians will often make their way down to compete or showcase their cars at this particular Wekfest stop…

“I swear your wing is like THIS big…”

Sometimes you just gotta take a step back and appreciate your surroundings…

Throughout the morning I saw many people waiting in line for staging and pushing their cars, because they feared they’d run out of gas by the time they got to the front, being that indoor shows often require a 1/4-tank gas rule. I suppose it only takes about $6 and a bottle of Mountain Dew to get a Honda Beat going so I’m sure these kids were just having some fun…

These guys followed suit and decided that they’d also try to preserve whatever gas they had in this Toyota 86…

Adding some variety to the show was this chopped Chevy Blazer sitting on some massive color-matched wheels…

Another reason why he was pushing the Beat was more than likely do to the fact that he might not actually fit inside of it…

Alec and her patina’d Datsun 510 sedan coming off the highway…

White Toyota 86 running a full Stancenation x Aimgain GT widebody kit…

Right behind it was a white R35 GTR rocking a Ver. 1 Liberty Walk widebody kit…

Not every day you run into a ZN6 wearing a C-West front bumper. The rest looks to be a mix of aero pieces from Blitz and Varis, along with some Battleaero stuff…

The “DB240Z” owned and built by Bill Brinkworth with the trumpets for his carbs exiting through the hood and so much more going on. Looks kinda like a real life Hot Wheel and I’m pretty sure that was his intention…

Vinnie Nguyen’s Acura NSX clean and simple on concave-face Volk TE37 in white…

Interesting to see a Civic coupe rolling around static on WEDS Kranze Bazreia wheels…

Subaru rocking a tribute to the famed HKS livery…

Toyota Starlet running some pretty wide bolt-on flares to hug a set of aggressive Enkei Apache wheels, complete with caps…

Nice contrast with the not-so-refined Datsun 510 with the modern, highly-refined T-Mobile Park as its backdrop…

Many a car guy’s dream car on many a car guy’s dream wheels…

Yasu told me a while back that one of his goals for this year was to attend every U.S. Wekfest stop because he really wanted to experience and see just how different car culture is throughout the country. For this stop, he literally flew into Seattle for a few days and then flew home to Japan right after the show ended…

Austin from Never Content’s FD3S sitting real low on Rays Gram Lights 57DR, barely clearing the M-Sports front…

Rocket Bunny R35 GTR representing Intec Racing. Kinda nice to see a GTR like this without all kinds of crazy graphics…

Imported sixth generation Accord SiR Wagon which probably made its way down to Seattle by way of British Columbia. Cool to see these things on U.S. soil because we just never got to experience their coolness here…

Subaru WRX STI with what looks like custom molded flares and orange SSR Professor SP1…

Japanese RHD Mazda RX-7 running classic RE Amemiya aero and Rays Volk TEs…

This particular S2000 featured cameras as side mirrors which is a novel idea except it makes the car look like it has little nubs on its doors. Just imagine like a human face with really, really, small ears, lol. Novel idea however, props for the innovation…

Mike Brown’s Spoon Sports-themed S2000 with normal-sized mirrors, running the PNW’s favorite wheel, the Volk CE28N in bronze…

Mike must be in some sort of S2000 group chat or something because after he pulled-up, all of the Pacific Northwest’s S2000s came up right behind him…

Nice set-up on this AP1 S2000 wearing a J’s Racing half bumper and cream white Desmond wheels. Cool contrast touch with the green windshield banner as well…

Chris Rafanan might have one of my favorite PNW S2000 builds, featuring an Amuse front bumper and bronze CEs. The S2000 is also supercharged and my favorite thing about it is how it sits. Just look at the fucking thing. Man, ride height is so important…

Side profile shot of Mike’s Spoon S2000….

This black S2000 CR on bronze Mugen MF10 looked pretty fucking great….

Again, ride height—so important. This thing is $$$…

The Northwest sure loves it’s convertibles even though there’s never any sunlight. I guess that’s why they all have hard tops…

Seems like you can’t do a car show these days without someone trying to fit an insanely aggressive set of Work Emitz wheels onto their car. Is it a good or bad thing? Well, that would be subjective…

JC pulled-up in his red NSX with a set of Desmond Regamaster EVO wheels on one side and classic white TEs on the other…

After chatting with him for a bit at the show, I found out that he’s actually moving to Europe for a few years so this was probably his last Wekfest Seattle event for the foreseeable future. Good luck to him on his new adventure…

Check-out that rear hatch and the GruppeM Rear Aero Valance…

One of the best DC2 Integra Type Rs in North America, Thomas Strom’s incredibly clean and well-built K-powered R. If you remember him from a few years back, he brought his Integra out to Wekfest and we had a jaws-dropped hearing some of the parts he had in his collection, only some which have actually been installed. He even has a brand new OEM dashboard in this thing and you don’t really understand how cool that is until you actually see a brand new OEM dashboard for an ITR. It’s crazy…

For the 2019 Wekfest, he brought out his ITR with a Mugen front lip, which was new in-box when he acquired the car, Mugen sideskirts, Mugen Gen. II rear wing, and rare Honda Access chrome headlight shrouds. His bronze Mugen MF10s also have custom titanium center caps…

Josh from Liberty VIP’s Lexus LS460 running a rarely-seen INGS LX Sport lip kit and Luxury Abstract wheels…

Owen Felty’s M&M Honda Hyper Widebody Civic hatchback powered by a turbocharged B-series set-up…

Felty’s Civic also has a full custom weld-in cage and from what I remember reading on his spec sheet, he did pretty much everything himself. Nice set-up here and glad to finally see it in-person…

There is so much more to come still, please check back in for more great builds from the Pacific Northwest. Thanks for looking and feel free to share if you enjoy what you see!!…