Top to bottom, in terms of overall car quality, this might be the best San Jose Wekfest we’ve ever had. I know that sounds a bit outrageous but you have to consider the level of cars that are being built in 2021. Coming into the event, we already had about 10 cars that were definitely going to win an award in the higher-tiered categories. It was just a matter of where we were going to place each car. It’s pretty crazy. In the past, there were probably 1-3 that were going to be up for contention for “Car of the Festival”, which is our version of the best of show, but never was there this much competition. I don’t know if it had to do with timing, since SEMA had just happened a few weeks before or because everyone had so much time off to work on their cars due to the pandemic, but people have really stepped it up. I’m happy to see it. I think through out the last year or so, I had been looking forward to just getting back on the road and doing car shows again. There was hope that there would be some new car builds on the horizon, but I didn’t really know what to expect. It just felt nice to be outside doing car shit again. In the past few months, we did back-to-back shows with Seattle and Los Angeles but there was added pressure to make San Jose good because it was the ‘big’ one…

Wekfest originated from the Bay Area, so the San Jose stop has long been considered the ‘Super Bowl’. This was likely the biggest show yet, with over 470 exhibiting cars in attendance so the convention hall was filled from end-to-end with some of the West Coast’s best. We even had a special guest from Japan in attendance with the full carbon fiber-bodied Nissan Skyline GT-R from Garage Active. That wasn’t the only build that had also displayed at SEMA this year, however. We had two others that not only exhibited but also competed in their annual “Battle of the Builders” competition. I’m not going to lie, there are times when I miss the days back when the show was smaller, with a more homely-feel where you knew everyone that was there, but growth is absolutely necessary. I think Kenneth Li from Wekfest has done an incredible job of curating and building the brand in 2021. I’m always impressed by his vision and creativity. The merchandise is so bespoke now that you won’t find anything else like it in the car industry and the show is uniformly pleasing in its aesthetic execution. As a crew putting on one of the best import car shows in the country, I think things have never been better. We have good cohesion and everyone has their role. There is good chemistry there and I think it shows in the way the show is ran. Obviously this comes from a very insider’s perspective but I really just like where the show is right now. Things are good. It’s peace time now and all we have to do is focus on putting on the best show possible…

If there was a downside to all this success, it would be that we are so busy that I barely have enough time to even enjoy the show for myself. But that’s just a byproduct of being a part of this machine. I always wish I had more time to shoot, more time to mingle or just walk around without having to worry about what time the show ends and when we have to present the awards. Time flies right by it seems and though a five-hour long show might seem long to many, it feels like minutes to me. To throw a positive into that, I’m glad the Los Angeles and San Jose shows are two days long, with the first being an all-day set-up. Having that extra time allows me to shoot photos and do a bit of video. This year, I actually shot enough where I even ran out of memory card space. Here are some of the photos. The rest I’ll have up by the end of the week while I’m in Texas for the final Wekfest event of 2021. Enjoy…

Though the Garage Active full-carbon BNR32 Skyline was one of the first to enter the building that afternoon of set-up, it was actually a late addition to the show. I received a call just a week before Wekfest was set to take place asking if we could accommodate the car since it was already in the country for SEMA. Being that it was such a big hit in Las Vegas and Garage Active was a regular exhibitor at our Japan events, it made perfect sense for it to be prominently displayed at Wekfest…

The defending “Car of the Festival” winner, Adam Mao, was back in his hometown of  San Jose to share his JZX100 Chaser in hopes of winning top honors once again…

Taylor Uji has been everywhere this year so I wasn’t surprised to see that he made the drive up to Northern California for one of the biggest events of the year…

Civic hatchback running a Mugen side-stripe, MF10L wheels, and a set of Mugen MSZ seats…

Carlo Uribe’s turbocharged B-series Civic wearing a J’s Racing front lip, dual carbon bumper ducts, Denji projector headlights, Volk TE37 Sonics, custom candy red paint, and much much more…

Rico’s gold AE86 arrives on a trailer along with his new 240Z build…

Sheldon’s NA1 NSX wearing a set of rare Gruppe M overfenders, Wings West front lip, Wings West sides, and gold-faced BBS LM wheels…

Full Voltex aero and Spoon Sports S-Tai hood on this white S2000 lighting up the show floor with Jewel-eye retrofitted headlights…

Didn’t expect to see an original Spoon Sports DC5 Integra competition car at the show but there it was complete with original livery and all…

A couple of widebody FD RX-7s being unloaded outside during roll-in…

Porsche 997 GT3RS on BBS E88 wheels…

You can never really go wrong with the classic pairing of Rays Mag Blue on white…

While I was roaming around outside, I spotted Amir’s K-swapped NSX across the street where it was getting unloaded from its trailer…

LS-swapped FD on 3-piece Work Meister S1s…

Brand new Volk Racing 21C wheels on this Varis widebody Subaru WRX…

Rocket Bunny widebody FD RX-7 with matching Rocket Bunny wheels…

Good parts selection on this Subaru build featuring components from Varis, Project Mu, Voltex, Ganador, and Volk Racing…

Custom painted FD RX-7 with RE Amemiya front and what looks to be Kazama Auto widebody panels…

Nice to see people already modifying the new Ford Bronco. This one looked great on Rays Gram Lights wheels…

HHwHH Collectibles’ FK8 Civic Type R with some new Mugen components installed…

Riko’s pair of gold SEMA-featured builds making an appearance at the Illest display booth…

The Kaido House Datsun 510 Wagon came via a massive mobile transport rig carrying some other notable builds from Southern California and GReddy…

The Spoon Sports Integra Type R unloaded and ready to roll-in. Crazy to see an Opak Racing decal on a car in 2021…

Muoi and Amir chillin’ on the street with the NSX while they waited to roll-in…

This pristine yellow Volkswagen Rabbit cruised-up on classic Epsilon wheels…

A wide variety of different builds awaiting entrance into the show…

Spoon Sports catalog-themed Civic build chillin’ in line on the streets of San Jose…

I don’t believe this LS400 was a part of the line-up for this year’s Wekfest event but I thought it looked good just sitting on the street across from the convention center…

The line outside stretched around the building and I discovered more cars waiting down the stairway from the back roll-in area. This provided some more dynamic photos being able to shoot from above…

Dan Lee’s Rauh Welt Begriff Porsche 993 4S…

HKS Premium widebody Supra paired with Work Meister L1 wheels…

White DB8 Integra sedan on a set of Work RSZ-R wheels with aa good amount of lip on them…

Looks like someone retrofitted some overfenders from a different make/model onto their A80 Supra…

You can see how the front overfender on this 86 mirrors the one on the Supra above…

Threaded the needle through one of the entrance doors to catch this Volkswagen driving by…

Another photo of Dan Lee’s RWB 993…

This Ford Mustang Fastback looked like a toy…

Nick Higgins pulled-up in his Super Street-featured K-powered Civic build…

Darkside Racing Chevy Impala pulled-up…

..and sat on its ass while we made room for the car up front by the Wekfest booth…

This Datsun 510 looked incredibly aggressive with the fat rear tire wrapped around Volk CEs…

When in the presence of a Garage Active Skyline build, you must take more photos…

Not only was it equipped with a full carbon fiber body, it also featured Garage Active big brakes and their own RC-VI wheels…

The Kaido House 510 also looks way too good to pass-up photos of…

Sung Kang’s RB26DET-powered “FUGUZ”…

Kenji Sumino’s immaculately restored first-generation Honda CR-X build on a mint set of Mugen CF-48 wheels…

Kenji had to let people know that the ZC swap ran Mikuni 44PHH carburetors….

Amir Bentatou’s NSX now wearing an NA2 face since he picked-up a Spoon Sports sponsorship which provided him with Spoon front and rear bumpers…

Jon Fob’s Top Secret GT300 widebody Supra with an SP Engineering-built 2JZ-GTE…

Rallybacker widebody Toyota 86 bagged, sitting on Work Meister S1 3-piece wheels…

Custom widebody E92 BMW M3 coupe on Rotiform wheels which I first spotted at the Los Angeles Wekfest event…

Always love shooting Riko’s AE86 from this particular angle to capture the valve cover of his BEAMS 3S-GE swap…

The Higgins-built EF Civic all cleaned-up, staged, and hood put away to showcase the bay…

Built K24-block with K20A2-head in the cleanly-shaven engine bay utilizing a Rywire engine harness…

When I last saw Terry Suvonnarith in Seattle for the Wekfest event up there, he had mentioned that he wanted to try to bring his Integra down to San Jose for the show. He asked if we had space for him and being that he had one of the best Integra builds in the country, of course we would make room for him. So much had happened leading up to the show that I almost forgot he was coming a few weeks later until he sent me a text.

It was great to see the car back on the FEEL’S front lip, especially paired with the Mugen MF10 wheels…

One of the reasons why I really wanted the car to be at the Wekfest San Jose event was to showcase his engine bay to enthusiasts down here. It has a very distinct style to it that is unique to the Pacific Northwest. California builds great Hondas, it always has, but there are very specific things that make PNW builds special. Terry’s Integra is a car that has to be seen in-person to be truly appreciated I think…

That’s all for Part 1. I still have some more photos that I’ll try to get up on the site this week while I’m busy working on the Spoon Sports 25 Hours of Thunder Hill stuff. Stay tuned! Thanks for looking!!…