A few days after I returned home from my trip out east for Wekfest, I was contacted by my friend Edwin from Prime NYC about possibly attending a Honda event out there. The first-ever “Honda Collective” happened last year around this same time and I was interested in seeing it for myself. The Honda builds over there have vastly improved over time and a couple of them had definitely captured my attention. Out here in the West Coast, the Honda community has seemingly cooled down and most of the serious builds have gone back into hiding. The younger enthusiasts have their eyes on BMWs and other makes now while the older diehard Honda enthusiasts generally keep to themselves, building their cars away from the social media spotlight. There are still really fantastic Honda builds here at home but I’d be lying if I said we had any sort of ‘collective’ here. Times are just different now so seeing a committed grouping of Honda guys in a different part of the country was of interest to me. We chatted about possibly collaborating on an event together but the winter season came and went while I was busy working on things at home so nothing ever came to fruition. I always thought that it would be cool to have a Chronicles anniversary event out there but I’m having enough issues with trying to have something again out here so my focus was strictly home-based…

After attending Wekfest East this year, I really wanted to have more time with some of these cars. Judging and seeing them at a car show was fun, but I wanted to see these Hondas out in a more natural setting. I enjoy capturing custom car builds in their natural habitat because I think it tells a better story. You get to pull more emotion out of a photo and car build when you take them away from the confines of a convention hall, you know what I mean? Edwin messaged me and told me that he and some fellow enthusiasts were organizing a second Honda Collective. It would be similar to their popular “7s Day” event where they celebrate RX7s and other Japanese tuning cars on 7/7 but a much more relaxed, condensed version minus the chaos of having hundreds of cars gathered for a cruise through New York City. The set-up would be simple; meet at a park in New Jersey, wait for Hondas to gather, shoot the shit, and then head over the bridge to New York. There would be a couple stops where people could meet for photos and chatter on the New York-side. The first would be in Harlem, the next would be the cruise through Times Square, followed by one final stop over in the Meatpacking District on an empty street. Just seeing some of the photos from last year’s event made me want to go, so it didn’t take much convincing. It really depended on if I had time. Edwin gave me a date, got me in contact with Raff from N.A.R., who was also helping to host this event, and we were on our way. There was plenty going on at home so I didn’t stay very long. I literally caught a flight out to New York on Saturday evening, stayed all day for the event Sunday, and flew back home early Monday morning so I could have a full day of work back in Los Angeles. Like I mentioned before, it was like attending any other car event, it just happened to be on the other side of the country. I actually have to go shoot something right now so I’ll talk about this event some more in Part 2. There’s a Vlog up already of this event as well so make sure to watch that if you haven’t already…

Enjoy!!…

I didn’t take any photos at the first location since it was just a park but I did get a shot of Tito Valentin’s widebody S2000 as we made our way from New Jersey over to New York…

The one spot that I was anticipating for photo opportunities was the next portion of the event located in Harlem. A hoard of Hondas pulled-up and gathered under the trestlework of the Riverside Drive Overpass. These beams would make for a gritty backdrop to offset the collection of cleanly-built Hondas present…

Duke in his Mugen-themed FK8 Civic Type R LE waited at a nearby stoplight next to Carlos Gonzalez’s imported EK9 Civic Type R…

Though the FK8 was adorned in mostly Mugen accessories, Duke opted to go with Spoon Sports SW388 wheels to give it some contrast…

Michael Ian’s AP2 S2000 from ALPHA running a Spoon Sports S-Tai front, S-Tai hood, Spoon front fenders, Spoon mirrors, and bronze Volk Racing TE37…

Carlos Gonzalez got rid of his DC2 Integra Type R about a year ago so he could start messing with this EK9 Type R. It’s one of the cleaner examples you’ll see imported to the U.S. and he’s added some pretty nice parts to it so far. The front features a First Molding carbon front lip, brakes are upgraded Spoon Sports brakes up front, and wheels are refinished bronze Mugen MF10s…

I had just seen many of these Hondas just a month before while I was in town for Wekfst but it was nice to shoot them away from the usual New Jersey Convention Center. It was fun to shoot these cars in a more natural, urban environment with the bustling city as the backdrop…

Andres new set-up looks pretty great mixing a variety of quality products from different Japanese tuning companies like First Molding, Spoon Sports, and Rays. He even added a very subtle change in the form of bronze-tinted JDM EK4 “Valeo” headlights. Pre-facelift, or Zenki, EK4 Civics came with two different headlight options during that time; one was the more common Stanley units and the other were the Valeo pieces. Each headlight even had different stamping dependent on what brand they were. I don’t know how Andre feels about them but it was known back in the day that the Stanley lights were actually better quality overall. Which makes sense because Stanley continued to be the manufacturer for Honda for many more years to come while the Valeo name is hardly ever heard of when in our circles. I think Valeo is actually a European company and still produce lights for that market…

I don’t think many people who aren’t or weren’t EK4 owners at one point would even know about this obscure information. If anyone ever tries to sell you ‘JDM bronze EK9 headlights’, just know that they’re probably wrong because bronze headlights were never available for EK9 Type Rs. It was an Zenki EK4 variation only…

Kevin Beepat’s Mugen-themed Japanese Integra Type R, complete with the Mugen front, sides, and rear wing. The only thing missing is the Mugen hood which is practically impossible to find these days…

Many of the EK-chassis Civics gathered together in one spot for a nice group photo…

Zach’s got one of the most extensive Honda Access parts collections I’ve ever seen. He executes his Civic in a way to pay homage to that era of Honda tuning back when Honda Access components were easily, well…Accessible…

*Cue ’90s East Coast Hip-Hop*….

A quick glance at this Integra and the first items you’ll probably notice are the Mugen rear wing, Mugen front half spoiler, and Mugen sides. One would then wonder why the owner hasn’t paired the aero with Mugen wheels, instead opting for these gray and yellow wheels which actually look out of sorts. Take a closer look and you’ll realize that those wheels are actually quite rare. They’re actually 16-inch Bridgestone DHS (Downhill Special) AE034 wheels made by Creative Studio B.I.M. They’re not rare in the sense that they’re incredibly sought-after, they’re just more on the obscure side as there was never much noise made about them and they weren’t heavily-distributed. Cool to actually see a set in-person I should also mention…

Mel trying to look incognito while driving his bright ass yellow EG6 Civic. I wonder how many looks he got that day cruising through the city…

The one thing I did notice during my travels to the East Coast is that enthusiasts on that side of the coast have a deeper appreciation for the Zenki pre-facelight front, particularly of the EK4 SiR variety. I guess that has more to do with them having more imported Japanese EK4s than we do out here in the West where you don’t see as many right-hand drive vehicles by comparison…

Willy relocated to Texas a while back for work but realized that the Lone Star State was just not for him so he made the journey back home just in time for the Honda Collective event. His EK build has all the right parts and has a bit of roughness to it because he drives this thing everywhere…

Even with all that driving, the K-series engine inside Willy’s EK4 is still running strong…

We didn’t see him over on the Jersey side of the event but Tony Salcedo from Team EMOTION pulled-up in his VSM EK9 CTR to park with his EK brethren…

Andres’ EK4 showcasing a First Molding carbon good, First Molding Flugel Plate, OsakaJDM mirrors, Seeker rear wing, and bronze Volk TEs…

Tony Salcedo’s Civic Type R is one of the most refined Honda builds I’ve seen out on the East Coast. I have more detailed photos of it in Part 2 so I’ll spare you the modification list until then…

The iconic Harlem imagery would have made for an ideal location for a photo it that red poll not been there and the cars were allotted better spacing. But we did what we could to make it work…

Mel moving his EG6 around for some better photo angles…

Nicholas Cruz’s green vinyl-wrapped K24-powered Integra on bronze Volk CEs…

JDM ITR face swap with a Special Projects P1 front lip and splitter combo…

The alley way under the Riverside Drive Overpass  was used this year to house a collection of Honda S2000 builds. Last year, this section was used for parking all the Integras which made for great photos…

Komal Poonai has a vast collection of products from the Mugen catalog on his FK8 Civic Type R. The front lip, front bumper garnish, grill garnish, mirror covers, side skirts, rear wing, visors, are all from Mugen’s latest offerings. It looks like the only thing he might be missing is the Mugen hood, which he switched-up and decided to run a paint-matched Varis hood instead…

Marvin Ma’s AP2 is one of the top S2000 builds out East, running ASM aero mixed with Amuse Legalo Face fenders and a J’s Racing GT wing…

After Marvin had his photo-op, Tim Grace pulled-up to the middle of the street in his Civic with Mode Parfume front bumper, sides, side mirrors, and Volk TE37 with concave faces…

If you’re wondering if the street was closed-off for this event, it definitely was NOT. In fact, we had someone help guide traffic through but it didn’t stop the locals from being absurdly pissed-off at us while they waited for photographers to get their shots in…

Tito’s Formula Red AP2 was up next and we tried our best to get the cars in different positions so all the photos didn’t look the same. This is such an iconic spot to shoot at so everyone wanted to get a shot of their car in before we left to the next location…

The J*Blood front-end and 50mm wide fiberglass fenders give Willy’s EK4 a lot of presence up front, especially with the addition of a front splitter and 17×9 Rays Volk CEs…

Sammy pulled-up in his coupe flexing a rare Mugen EK4 front bumper which he converted to 99-00 spec…

Looks like Willy is happy to be back home doing car things with his friends…

Brian Cardoza’s Spoon Sports-themed EK4 Civic SiR with paint-matched mirrors and 15-inch Spoon wheels…

Seeker V2 rear wing on Andres’ Civic, complete with a Seeker banner on the rear glass…

One of my favorite shots from this location, capturing Tito and his S2000 leaving the alley as we got prepared to head to Times Square…

The two Kouki EK9 Type Rs of the Honda Collective gathering…

Getting one more shot of Brian’s EK at the underpass…

A lot of people think that Mel has a White Crow front bumper but I believe it’s actually a Sportcar Motion front, being that it’s all one-piece to blend-in a BYS-style front lip. An actual Crow bumper doesn’t have a lip and is meant to be a replacement bumper where you can run different front lips…

This rear-end shot of Duke’s FK8 was the last photo I captured at this location. After this, we packed-up and set off to Times Square, which turned-out to be a completely different adventure we did not anticipate. I’ll save those photos for Part 2 however, and leave you guys here for now. Still more to come so stay tuned and return for more! Thanks for glancing!!…