I suppose there’s a lot I can say about this trip. There was one very obvious incident that happened AFTER that put a negative light on an otherwise incredibly positive day, so I’d rather focus on that. It had felt like forever since we had returned to the East Coast for Wekfest. When it came time for us to finally go back, admittedly, I felt a bit anxious about it. It’s such a contentious region for car shows. There’s so much pride that exists within the car community there, especially considering the people who are hosting an event there are from the ‘other’ side of the country. In the past, I’ve always felt like I had to prepare for a fight (not a literal one of course) every time I went back there. Like people are looking for reasons to tell you why their car is good and why you’re wrong about choosing someone else at a car show. It’s stressful because getting all the judging done in time before the show ends is always a task. Everybody wants their 5-10 minutes (often times longer) to talk to you. Sometimes they’ll go even longer. In a show that has say, 300 cars, and 60% of them are Hondas, time management becomes an issue. 180 of those cars are Hondas. If all 60% of those Honda-owners in there try to tell me about their builds and they have 5 minutes each, that adds up to about 15 hours of people trying to tell me about their builds—The show is only 5 hours long, mind you. That’s a lot of numbers and it gets confusing, but all you need to know is that I don’t have enough time. I love the enthusiasm but it’s a high-stress environment for me. Thankfully most of those enthusiasts there have learned over the years of us being there that I generally know what the fuck I am doing and what the fuck I am looking at. So they leave me be. But, it took some time for them to understand. If you were at the show that weekend and you saw me running around like a crazy person. That’s because I was running around like a fucking crazy person. Somewhere in-between there I managed to find time to eat a sandwich but that’s about it…

Because of the pandemic, we all had a good amount of time to take a break from one another. Maybe it was a little bit TOO long but we all knew eventually that we would find our way back to the East Coast. How we would be greeted was a mystery. We don’t know if enthusiasts out there even wanted us back. In that time gap where we couldn’t have events, perhaps they just learned to live without Wekfest. There are other shows out there, other enthusiasts hosting events and cruises through New York City and what not, who really needs to attend Wekfest, right? Perhaps they had moved on. The only way to find out what the vibe was like was to actually go back—so we did. In hindsight, I’d say 98% of it was fantastic. the 2% that fucking sucked was two people getting run over and a turtle dying but again, we aren’t talking about that today…

Everyone there at the show that weekend was so nice. People even clapped during the awards, lol. That sounds ridiculous to say but the first few years we were there, it was hard to squeeze applause out of people. We would announce an award and there would be crickets. Don’t act like I don’t remember that shit either, because that is how contentious it was! People wouldn’t even clap for other people who won an award! I’d like to think that we’ve all grown-up a bit. With maturity comes patience and wisdom. We have all benefited from the maturity of one another. Perhaps patience made the heart grow fonder. Those years of us being way helped the enthusiasts from that end of the country appreciate us, and vice versa. It felt so nice to be back and greeted by so many who were not shy in telling us that they were so happy to have us back. Reuniting felt good…

I’d say it was like reuniting with friends and acquaintances that you hadn’t seen in a long time. You just get to see how everyone has changed and what improvements they’ve made in their lives. I guess a worldwide pandemic will do that to people. It makes you re-evaluate what is important and the things you took for granted…

I will say however, that I still did not have enough time for literally anything other than judging. I didn’t even have time to shoot photos after the roll-in during the early morning hours. This was the only Wekfest event of the three we did in the past month where my camera battery didn’t die because I didn’t even have a chance to use it. I took three photos inside, put the camera down, and never saw it again for the rest of the afternoon. Judging was particular difficult this year because many of the enthusiasts who were a part of the show had stepped their proverbial game up. The cars were better overall as a whole where in the past, there were some very obvious stand-outs who you absolutely knew would dominate their class. Things have evened-out a little bit now. It’s a more competitive field of cars. I love to see it. As someone who is also there to generate content to share with the rest of the world, I felt incomplete because so much of my time was devoted to figuring out the judging. I felt unfulfilled. The task felt incomplete. It’s a shame because the photos I did get came out pretty good. Like I wonder what I would have been able to capture had I had the entire day to shoot. Maybe I was a little rusty being away for so long that my timing was off too. I guess we will never know…

The leave this introduction reiterating that I’ve never been more positive about the East Coast. I’m glad that they have great curators out there like Prime and SNTRL to help push their community forward. I’m overjoyed that everyone was so welcoming in our first trip back since the pandemic. Hopefully it isn’t the last and we can keep these good vibes going…

Here’s some of what I captured on the morning of Wekfest East 2022. Enjoy…

Brian Howley’s turbocharged EP3 Civic has been a mainstay at the Wekfest East events over the past few years. After the 2-year long lay-off, it was nice to see a familiar build once again. Not much has changed with the car, as it’s highly-developed already, but Howley always brings the car out to display at the Showstoppers booth…

As stated, Brian’s Civic is one of the more thorough Honda builds out in the East. The motor is built and makes about 520whp with the exterior wearing OEM EP3 Type R bumpers, sideskirts, an Air Walker Japan front lip, custom front fenders complete with bumper extensions, and even the rear quarter panels have been widened to house a wider wheel/tire….

Pretty cool to see an authentic Liberty Walk LB-Silhouette WORKS GT kit on a Nissan R35 GTR in America. This one was aired-up at the time I captured this photo but the car looks way more aggressive when its fully pancaked…

Jay Follett from Regiment Zero pulled-up to chat with Kenny from SNTRL in his Nissan Stagea Autech 260RS on Nismo LMGT4 wheels…

Rufino Chaparro’s NSX on double-staggered Desmond Regamaster EVO wheels paired with bright red StopTech big brakes front and back…

One thing I will say about the East Coast, they always have a good variety of true ’90s Japanese muscle present at every event…

I always enjoy shooting in the parking lot of the New Jersey Convention Center because it offers such a huge space so I can get shots like this from a distance with my 70-200mm lense. This is Joe Tobias’s MSports Subaru WRX STI and Josue Santiago’s full Voltex Racing widebody WRX STI, both representing Crown SpeedLab…

Both wore different aero packages but matched in their choice of Voltex GT wings…

This R35 GTR had an interesting front profile with Varis Ultimate fenders, Stillen front lip, and carbon fiber Zele side skirts…

More of Chaparro’s NA1 NSX with his paint-matched front lip, Downforce Stacy sides and carbon NSX-R wing…

Joel Graciani Integra Type R with a Mugen Gen. II rear spoiler, Spoon Sports front lip and 16-inch Regamaster EVO wheels…

Jonathan Ortiz from Team EMOTION’s turbocharged DC5 RSX with the iconic grin of the Mugen front bumper filled-in nicely by a big front-mount intercooler…

Ray Delgado’s S2000 is another Honda I’ve come used to seeing quite often whenever I make my way out to the East. I wasn’t even sure if he was participating in the show this year or not but his S2000 still looks great with the Spoon Sports S-Tai front and gray Work Meister S1 2-piece wheels. The wing looks like an OEM CR wing with additional wing stands added to it. Nice touch, especially with the wing blade paint-matched…

This orange FD2-converted Civic looked pretty good as it drove by running a catalog of J’s Racing aero components…

A couple of Hondas from Team EMOTION finding their way into the entrance of the New Jersey Convention Center…

Jorge Perez brought two cars out for the return of Wekfest East; a red Civic hatchback with 15-inch Mugen MF10 wheels and Mugen front lip along with a white NSX wearing a rare Mugen front lip also on bronze Mugen MF10s…

Everyone is probably used to seeing Kevin’s Integra Type R with a traditional Spoon Sports theme but he switched it up for Wekfest bringing out his DC2R with full Mugen aero minus the hood…

Super rare forged 20-inch Honda Modulo MR-R02 wheels on this full Mugen FK8 Civic Type R LE. These wheels actually have an OEM Honda part number (08W20-TEA-000) and are probably more rare because of their outrageous price tag of $2095 USD PER WHEEL…

It’s not often you see real JDM DB8 Integra Type R sedans out and about so it was nice to see Rian Marcos’ Spoon-themed 4-door…

Josue Santiago’s classy Voltex Racing widebody WRX STI on bronze Volk CEs…

During the time that Wekfest has been away, Chris Panchoo picked-up a new project in the form of a CL9 TSX. He’s just getting started but it is looking good so far with a J’s Racing front and Volk TE37SL…

Dalton’s freshly-painted Mugen CF-48 wheels on his white Civic hatchback…

Los’ turbocharged Integra is looking fantastic these days with the addition of the custom widened front fenders on his DC2. You can definitely see the inspiration aesthetically from the old Rywire Integra build here. Los is just a further developed ‘street-trim’ version of that car and it’s great to see. This Integra just flows so well with the JDM front, Exceed lip, front splitter, and Mugen Gen. II wing. I absolutely abhor PCI side skirts and they honestly don’t look that bad here. That’s how you know this car is amazing, lol…

Tim Grace arrived with a brand new look, running a Mode Parfume front and Mode Parfume carbon fiber side skirts paired with Chargespeed wide front fenders…

He added a carbon fiber front splitter too to match the sides and also has a custom carbon fiber rear lip as well. It’s hard to see in photos but his EG6 also has a set of rare Honda Access headlight covers…

I haven’t seen Andres’ EK4 since he popped-up in Chicago earlier this year but he switched it up for the New Jersey event by adding an authentic First Molding front lip and carbon hood. The bronze TEs also give the car a different look than the Spoon SW388s he typically has on his Civic SiR…

I remember always seeing Brian Cardoza with his red Civic coupe every time I came to the East Coast so it was surprising when he pulled-up in a silver EK4 Civic SiR this year. After talking to him later in the day, I found out he sold the coupe, picked-up another Civic hatchback, and somehow ended-up building this Spoon-themed hatch as a side-project…

In a sea of Hondas brought by the guys from SSB, somehow there was an imported Toyota Cresta wearing BN Sports aero parked with them. Perhaps they were friends or he actually stumbled into the group, no matter the case, it was refreshing to see…

Once upon a time I met a guy who followed me on Instagram who built some pretty nifty model cars. He showed-up one year with one of those model cars and had me sign it, if I remember correctly. Fast-forward to 2022, the same guy, who I know as “G”, shows-up in a real car! As it turns out, the orange J’s Racing Civic that cruised by earlier actually belonged to him…

I didn’t have too much time to speak with him but I found-out that he actually started doing metal fabrication and had become pretty good at it the last few years. He now runs an operation known as “GFAB” and does quite a bit of titanium fabrication. And he’s really good at it from the stuff I saw at Wekfest this year. While he has been working on building his company, he also put this Civic sedan together…

The Type R-converted Civic features a J’s Racing front bumper, grille, vented front fenders, GT wing, custom-cut rear bumper, a custom exhaust that I can only assume was made by him, and a set of front-staggered Desmond Regamaster EVO wheels…

Marvin Ma’s AP2 has been one of my favorite S2000 builds from out East for a while now so it was definitely nice to see it again after the long lay-off with some new updates. These new parts include Powerhouse Amuse Legalo Face front fenders, an ASM vented hood, and J’s Racing side skirts. You can’t see it here but under the brand-new painted ASM hood is a new HKS GT Supercharger set-up as well. All the piping for the supercharger set-up is made of custom titanium and fabricated by GFAB, the same guy who built that orange Civic right above these photos…

The rear of the S2000 has remained unchanged from what I remember, sporting ASM rear over fenders to match the front bumper, Car Shop Glow taillights, a J’s Racing Version 1 GT wing, Tamon rear trunk spoiler, and Spoon Sports rear diffuser. Overall just a spectacular S2000 build with a deep list of quality, authentic, parts…

I’m gonna go ahead and stop right here for now. There’s still another set coming so be on the look-out for that when it drops in a few days. Thanks all for looking!…