Damn, it has been a while since I put together one of these posts. For years and years, the long-form event coverage posts were a bit of a staple here on the site. People that enjoyed reading and seeing large batches of photos would come here to see coverage of events I attended. I’d usually get them up about a day or two after the event too so it gave people the sense of actually being there or some semblance of that. It has long been one of my favorite things to do. Writing that is. It comes so naturally to me that it’s never really been a ‘chore’ do put posts together like this…

So why did I stop?…

Well, I wouldn’t say I chose to stop. A big part of me still yearns to do this often and I still regularly shoot photos like I have since I first started. My camera has never been put away. I still take it with me and use it whenever possible. I think the biggest thing that has changed and caused such a shift is mainly how the world receives this type of content. Obviously there are still so many enthusiasts out there that enjoy long-form content but the exposure to social media and ‘fast content’ has really changed the world of media and its presentation. Everyone wants everything right away. They want to receive as much as possible because we are so used to the miasma of photos and videos bursting into our brains every time we unlock our phone screens. It’s just too much. What gets lost is the long-form content that people should be enjoying. Content where you can sit down and just read through without feeling pressured to scroll faster or peruse before an advertisement eventually comes and distracts you further…

I’ve still tried to maintain my enjoyment of longform content and presenting it to the world in my way. I don’t think my captions on any social platform have been brief. If you see a post from me on Instagram, chances are you’re going to be in for some reading. I enjoy writing still but I’ve been presented with limitations of not only mental focus from my audience, but also a thing called ‘character limits’. I can’t even write as much as I want to, lol. They tell me to stop. This site is my only outlet to really write all I want to write. But yet still, the content is not as bulky or timely as it once was…

The other reason responsible for that, to be perfectly honest, are my priorities. My brand is everything I do. I live what I’ve created. So it should be apparent now that The Chronicles isn’t simply this website. This is just a major piece to a multi-layered creation which I curate every second of every day. I feel like I just have so much more going on now than I did before. Wekfest Los Angeles is a prime example of what goes on in my life now. Which is many many things. For this particular show alone, I…

• Brought an entire display to put together of multiple vehicles, two of which are actually my own cars, figure out how to lay the cars out and make sure everyone in our display was situated.
• I designed a display specifically for the debut of the Voltex GR86 with many moving pieces that had to be assembled.
• Had to help judge a collective of over 400 vehicles in the entire show while also being one of the MC’s.
• Create video content for the vlog series which actually generates revenue, while also trying to take photos throughout the day.

Add eating and breathing, talking to people, and other minor things like cleaning the cars—that’s a day that just soars by. I wish I had more time in a day to do much more. Because honestly I still feel like I should be doing more. There’s always something that needs attention or time. Things can always be better. But I have to align my priorities in a way where I can still focus and give the important things, the important people, my time. As such, little sacrifices have to be made everywhere and some stuff doesn’t feel exactly the same as it did when I was in my late 20’s/early 30’s with little care for what was going on in the world outside of just simply shooting photos and writing about cars. Everything is just exponentially BIGGER. But I still like to think I’m doing longform content justice and presenting an alternative to the automotive world that simply is unmatched…

With that said, here is a small set of photos which I was able to capture, edit, and present weeks and weeks after the event happened. Sorry, It’s been busy, lol…

Loading the GR86 on to the Futura trailer was one of the more stressful occurrences of the weekend. The car is just significantly wider than before so making sure the wheels don’t rub on either side required some assistance from friends…

Being that I’m a part of the staff at Wekfest USA, we were the first ones there in the morning. It just made things easier to have the cars there as well so we could get them inside before the crowd of exhibitors came…

I absolutely love how the bronze Volk CE28N wheels look on the GR. It’s almost a shame that this isn’t the final set-up since the wheels contrast so well against the Grand Prix White paint…

The next time you guys see this car in public it should be on the actual wheels we are going to run. It’ll be something similar of course, just newer and uhhhh, contractually-obligated to be on the car lol…

I didn’t get any photos during the set-up phase of Wekfest Los Angeles. There were some on my phone but it was just building the booth and setting-up the platform for the GR86. I did some filming too which you can see on our YouTube channel. Here’s a photo I took of my Civic Type R once a majority of the cars had entered and staged toward the front of the show…

The FL5 currently has on a set of 18×9.5-inch Mugen MF10 wheels in bronze, an Exceed front lip with a paint-matched FRP top piece/carbon fiber lower section, Exceed carbon sideskirts, and an A’PEXi N1-X exhaust…

We had a special guest join us all the way from Seattle, Washington. Terry, a recent Wekfest “Car of the Festival” winner, decided to take his car on a road trip down to Los Angeles to display his Integra GS-R. The plan was to have the car on display at Wekfest and then head straight to BOWLS LA to be displayed inside their shop, where eventually I’ll host a little anniversary event. It’s been so busy that the car has already been sitting inside BOWLS for a month but we’ve yet to do anything, but I promise it is coming very soon…

I’ve seen Marc’s R34 Skyline GT-R M-Spec on multiple occasions now but I never get a chance to get a really good photo of it. There are either people hoarding around the car trying to study it or it’s staged in an area with not-so-great lighting. For this occasion though, it had a nice wide-open space so I made sure to get at least one good photo of it with the new deep-pocket BBS E88 wheels on…

Right next to him was a R34 Skyline GT-R V-Spec recently acquired by Ron from AR Motorwerkz. The Bayside Blue looked great draped over the Z-Tune aero pieces and the BBS LM has been somewhat of a signature wheel for AR…

Over at the GroupB Unlimited display was Muoi Tran’s Civic hatchback, which she recently refreshed and rebuilt. The former dedicated weekend track car looks almost unrecognizable sitting clean and proper inside a major car show…

Teddy Timoteo also brought his EK to Wekfest LA, running a silver set of double-staggered Volk TE37 wheels, with the tire-size and ride height finally dialed-in to compliment the larger radiused wheel arches of the Mode Parfume front fenders…

If I remember correctly, this set of TEs once belonged to Sean from Narita Dogfight, back when he was building an EM1 coupe. The wheels changed owners a couple times and now belong to Teddy. Hence the reasoning behind the NDF decal on one of the wheel spokes…

It seems as though Joe has finally had all the parts he’s been collecting over the past year installed on his S2000CR. Mastercraft took on the task of assembling the S2000 with his collection of Mugen and ASM components before the entire car was resprayed in the factory Apex Blue. The silver MF10 wheels are a nice touch paired with the Endless brakes and behind those brakes are a money set of ASM Sachs dampers…

It’s been nice to see the gradual progression of this Civic. Feels like I only see it at Wekfest Los Angeles every year to be honest. Recent additions to the K-swapped Civic are a set of AP Racing brakes, Desmond Regamaster EVOs, a built-in roll cage, and paint-matched Mozcraft FRP front lip…

Over at the Battlecraft/Chronicles/Exceed display, we had a solid grouping of cars to greet spectators as they entered the front doors. One of them is our good friend Takuya Akiyama’s Milano Red Civic hatchback. His car doesn’t get out much and typically just resides inside A’PEXi but we needed a display car to show-off the new Exceed Japan V2 front lip and since we work so closely with A’PEXi, it seemed like the perfect choice. The lip literally arrived the week of the show and thankfully, TK’s painter was able to get the lip color-matched and painted in-time for the event…

Right next to TK was Dave Chik’s EK, which we always use to show-off any new Exceed products we have because Dave’s one of the best to ever do it. We first debuted the Exceed Japan V2 front lip on his Civic for the San Jose Wekfest event and invited him out once again for the Los Angeles show. For this event, he re-installed his Racebred front splitter to give the car an even more aggressive appeal…

Edwin’s FK8 Civic Type R was one of the more elaborate FK8 builds of the show. Typically you’d see a lot of fully Mugen-themed Type Rs at these events but he decided to switch things up a bit by running aero pieces from J’s Racing to mix and match with his Mugen stuff. The biggest difference that sets his FK8 apart from the rest of the pact is that he’s done quite a bit of engine work too and his K20C pumps out around 600HP…

It was cool to finally see this Sorcery NSX from Canada. I had only seen photos of it before on social media platforms so I was a bit surprised when I saw it in California. The owner is one of the people behind Import Expo and USDM Super Meet, which I guess you can say is a competitor to Wekfest, but hey, we welcome everyone to join us at these events…

Doing a G’ZOX JGTC/Super GT-inspired livery is actually a pretty cool idea, and the owner pulls it off faithfully, though I guess it’s slightly off-putting that the car is on air suspension. But I do understand the reasoning behind it. It is a show display vehicle after all and Canadians gotta worry about shit like snow so it makes sense to be reasonable. This thing is supercharged too and seems very detailed throughout…

One of my personal favorite photos that I took was this shot of the Voltex GR86 after we had finally finished setting-up. I was so stoked about how this all came together and I hope we did this Street Version II kit justice and made it presentable in a way where even Nakajima from Voltex would be happy with it…

One of the coolest GR86 builds in Southern California is this particular white one running full Artisan Spirits Black Label aero with 18×10 BBS RI-A wheels. I love the little detail touches like the Evasive Mirrors, the subtle graphics, and even the Kazama front air duct which some people don’t like. I don’t mind it at all. It even has a Kakimoto Racing exhaust on it which people never run here in North America…

There is an injustice in the world when you see Brandon Merlot’s E-AT Wonder Civic at an event and you don’t take a photo of it. This thing is just incredible. So incredibly clean throughout, a near perfectly-executed engine bay, and a full (incredibly rare) Mugen aero kit. I suppose the only way to make this kit look better is by adding a Purple Speed front lip to it to bring the front-end down even more. It just works. As do the Mugen NR10R wheels on this two-toned Civic. If you see it, take a photo of it. Those are the rules!…

This set wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t just bombard you with more photos of our Voltex Street Version II GR86 build. No I’m not contractually obligated to say the full name every single time but it just sounds cooler that way, okay? This kit is so amazing in a way where if I don’t tell you what it is, you’d just assume the car came like this. Which was the intended goal of course, because Akihiro Nakajima from Voltex Racing loved the bodylines of the factory GR86 so much, he refused to deviate from the original body lines. What you see is an enhancement of the original shape, with more aggressive additions but still giving it a subtle appeal. And you know how you pull of this type of widebody without making the car look obnoxious or in-your-face? No exposed hardware! Everything is mounted and bonded from the inside…

I honestly can’t wait to drive this thing again on the street but I’m so incredibly fearful of breaking any part of it because this kit was so damn expensive (but totally worth it). Once we get the thing PPF’d I’ll feel more secure about cruising around in it. Until then it’s literally just been sitting inside the shop…

This floor platform display worked-out so well. We were able to pay respects to all involved with the project without having to blast a bunch of logos all over the car. The key here was to keep this car very much a street car but with fine pinpoint execution utilizing brands that we support and not compromising on things we’d otherwise never use on our builds for the sake of simply having more products on the car…

Man it has been a while since I did a post like this with more thorough captions. It takes so much time! I don’t know how I used to do so much event coverage before with so much writing. I suppose I just had more time before. Now my plate is pretty full. But I digress. More posts like this in 2025, I swear!…

Thanks for looking!…