NEW Wheels For The EK, Bride Seat For The GR86 & More!!…

NEW Wheels For The EK, Bride Seat For The GR86 & More!!…

With the fall season now here, it seems like we’re making great progress at the shop! Mosquitoes are still everywhere but it hasn’t stopped us from working on the cars. Der has been here on weekends working on his Civic and finally finished his 5-lug swap. That means we can finally get rid of those Watanabe wheels! He mocks-up the new set-up so everyone can get an idea of what’s coming. There was also a freshly-coated valve cover just sitting around for the longest time that he hadn’t bothered to install. While that was going on, Kristian came over with a couple of Bride XERO series seats to show us the differences between them before installing a XERO CS into the GR86! It’s nice to finally have a bucket seat inside the car to go with the roll bar and the car is starting to look pretty complete!

A Weekend In New York City With The Honda Collective…

A Weekend In New York City With The Honda Collective…

I was recently invited by some fellow enthusiasts out to New York City to attend the second-annual “Honda Collective” event hosted by Prime and the boys from NAR. After I got back from my trip to Wekfest East, they contacted me to see if I wanted to be a special guest at their event. It would consist of a meet-up in New Jersey, followed by a cruise over to New York where we’d make a stop in Harlem for photos before eventually cruising through Times Square. The whole thing sounded pretty elaborate with a lot of thought put behind it so it was an honor to be invited! The Honda community out East is as strong as it has ever been so it was important for me to show them som e support as many of them have also put their faith in The Chronicles over the years. This was a blast! Huge thanks to everyone there for being so great.

NEW Wheels For Our GR86 Are FINALLY Here!! Plus More Shop Updates!!…

NEW Wheels For Our GR86 Are FINALLY Here!! Plus More Shop Updates!!…

After a few much-needed weeks off, we are finally back with a new episode!! The Rays wheels that we ordered back in February before we even got our GR86 have finally arrived in the USA and it’s time to mount them on the car! The loaner TE37 wheels were a great look and we will definitely miss it a lot but we can’t wait to see if our actual wheels on the GR. We ordered them sight-unseen so who knows if it’ll even actually look good. Will it? You let us know in the comments! It’s been a minute but Der is finally back at work on his Civic as well so we throw in some quick updates on it!

Wekfest East 2022 Photos… Part 2…

Wekfest East 2022 Photos… Part 2…

I sit here and just think about all the photos that weren’t taken this year at Wekfest East. It’s been days and I’m still annoyed with myself, lol. But it is one of those things that I can’t really go back and change so I’ll just have to make adjustments going forward. People have offered to second-shoot for me and get coverage when I can’t but I just prefer to have my own photos on my site. I’ve had guest photographers in the past, albeit sparingly, but I feel like the site has such a consistent look over the years that I don’t want to change that. I also don’t feel like enthusiasts who have their cars captured would have that same feeling had it been shot by someone else. I don’t say that to sound cocky or anything, I just think people want their cars on this site shot by me and me alone. We are both of the understanding that this site represents my body of work and if they want to be a part of that body of work, it has to be captured authentically by me. I think the big issue now is that I’m so obsessed with getting video and capturing b-roll that it does eat up a lot of my time in the mornings. We also changed the format of how people roll-in this year too so it took some adjusting on my end to figure out where everyone was. I don’t want to keep going on about it so I’ll stop here, but I sincerely apologize for the lack of coverage. I know that people were excited to see what was out there after I was gone for so long and wanted to see a lot of photos. Trust me, I’m working on something that will help me cast a brighter spotlight on the East Coast car community. Just stick with me and understand that I’m doing my best over here…

Wekfest East 2022 Photos… Part 1…

Wekfest East 2022 Photos… Part 1…

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…

Does The East Bring The Heat For Wekfest?…

Does The East Bring The Heat For Wekfest?…

It just feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day lately with all these Wekfest events happening. First it was San Jose, followed quickly after by Los Angeles, and not even two weeks later, it was off to the east coast for our first event back in New Jersey. With all that has happened over the past two years, we were excited to be back finally with renewed energy and fervor for the East. I myself did not know what to expect with this stop on the tour. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it leaves a little more to be desired, you just never know. What myself and the Wekfest crew were greeted with this time around was a completely different experience. It seems the time away has drastically improved what this region had to offer. The only problem was…would I have enough time to capture it all??? Also, at the end, I take some time to address the very obvious ‘elephant in the room’….

Wekfest Los Angeles 2022 in Photos… Part 3…

Wekfest Los Angeles 2022 in Photos… Part 3…

By the time you guys read this I’ll probably be walking around in New York City already, taking in the hot ass, incredibly humid, weather before we are set to host the East Coast Wekfest stop in Edison, New Jersey. These last couple days have been interesting. The photos and words from Wekfest Los Angeles have generated some pretty good discussions. I’m glad we can have a constructive conversation about our automotive tuning community. I’ve probably written much more than I have in quite some time and I’m glad my words are being absorbed by people. Any time you have such a competitive environment like Los Angeles and San Jose, it is going to spark some banter. Everyone who competes and has been competing over the years wants to win. They want to feel validated for their hard work. I get it. The rest of the crew at Wekfest gets it too. We’d just prefer that you understand our process. That’s why in the last few Vlogs I’ve given you guys a glimpse into the war room where we talk about the show and its competitors. I think moving forward I’ll continue to do so. Sometimes I do it for comedic relief and show that I’m watching cat videos on Instagram or something but we do spend a bulk of the time at any event we host deliberating. It’s not always easy either. We’ll sometimes discuss who goes where and who wins what up until the very end of the show. Though many of us aren’t exactly in that mindset where we ourselves want to compete in that way with our cars, we fully appreciate the ones that still have the competitive fire…

Wekfest Los Angeles 2022 in Photos… Part 2…

Wekfest Los Angeles 2022 in Photos… Part 2…

I’m glad everyone shared Part 1 and were so understanding of my words in Part 1 of the Wekfest LA photos. It was honestly a bit surprising how much it was shared but I suppose people have had a lot of similar thoughts on the subject. As our automotive community has evolved, it’s important to recognize that some of the old ways need to change or see a similar type of evolution. If you prefer the traditional points-based system of judging at car shows, that’s perfectly okay. I am in no way trying to sway anyone into not attending other events that use this method. What I’m doing is merely trying to get people to understand that what we do may not be necessarily ‘conventional’. It just works better for us. Being openly objective allows for enthusiasts to present their cars to us without having to be confined to, in our opinion, a rigid structure. Our requirements at Wekfest are based on numbers or categories. We are much more free-flowing, looking at overall execution, understanding of flow and style, quality parts selection, with more emphasis on themes…

Wekfest Los Angeles 2022 in Photos… Part 1…

Wekfest Los Angeles 2022 in Photos… Part 1…

Let me ask you a question…

How do you quantify style?

I think it is a very important question to ask when it comes to judging a car show. It’s the main reason why myself and others within the Wekfest group thought long ago that the old point-based system of deciding on the best car builds was obsolete. It’s a rudimentary system that doesn’t work in today’s age of automotive tuning. How do you assign points to style, to flow, execution? You simply cannot. That’s based on objectivity. It should be determined by those with the adequate experience and knowledge. Building an award-winning car should not be calculated on a numerical system. Numbers are formulaic, predictable. You can’t calculate good taste. That requires soul…

Wekfest Los Angeles, New Wheels, A RARE JUN B18C, & More!!…

Wekfest Los Angeles, New Wheels, A RARE JUN B18C, & More!!…

It’s been non-stop lately with all these Wekfest events happening every other week. Feels like we just came back from San Jose and it’s already time for the Los Angeles show. Before that though, we stopped by Cafe 86 on 8/6 Day to hang out with our friend Kam and I finally found time to put my new wheels on the IS300. I’ve had these wheels sitting in Japan for over a year now and they’re finally here in the States! A day after the install, it was time for Wekfest Los Angeles. This stop is always filled with interesting cars of all types but the special focus at this event for me was Alex Alfaro’s Integra Type R. He always collects the rarest of parts for his ITR and this year, he pulled-up with a newly-built JUN Auto B18C engine with TODA ITBs and some wheels you absolutely must see!…