Tag: Los Angeles

Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Nisei Showoff 2012 V.2

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Since there’s not too much left, I’ll go ahead and finish the rest of the pictures in this post.  Like I mentioned before, the day just didn’t really unfold like a typical car show day for me, so I got very limited shots.  I think most of these are going to be from around 6-7 pm in the evening, just as the sun was setting behind the hi-rises of downtown LA.  This was also when a lot of the show cars were leaving, which made it nice to get some solitary shots of each.  I’m always a little urked by how close together they park some of the cars; making it almost impossible to get a decent picture of them.  Especially when you have a lot of open lot space, you can give each car another foot of room or so and it would be much better.  I’ve never organized a car show before though so what the hell do I know?  I’m sure there’s reasons for it.  In a way I’m kind of glad I didn’t take many pictures, but rather enjoyed walking around and taking a close look at the cars – which is something I don’t often do.  The lineup of Honda builds, organized by Joey Lee from The Chronicles, was pretty amazing.  So in that sense, I’m glad I got a better look at them, instead of just taking pictures.  I’m sure he’ll have massive coverage, so be sure to check it out.  Click past the break for more.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Nisei Showoff 2012 V.1

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Nisei Week in Downtown Los Angeles; a time to celebrate the Japanese-American culture in the best way; good food, great location, lots of celebration, people dressing up in Japanese attire and of course the Nisei Showoff.  I wasn’t actually planning on attending this year for a few reasons, but because I sort of volunteered my car to help Yuta out, I ended up attending later in the day.  I had work in the morning all the way in Orange County, so I didn’t actually end up getting to Little Tokyo until a little after 3.  I had been driving Allan’s Fit because he had to drive my car to LA that morning to set up at the Wheel Flip booth.  Actually a really good thing because his Fit has great air conditioning, and it was basically the hottest day of the year.  So due to my time constraints, I didn’t get as much coverage as I usually do – which I don’t really mind as I wasn’t planning on going anyway.  The cars I did really want to get shots of, the Loi-Spec Integras, all left a bit early so I never got the chance to photograph them.  Not too big of a deal though as I’m sure I’ll see them at a Raceline event in the near future.  It probably didn’t help that the first thing we did when we go into the show was…leave the show.  I couldn’t help it though; I was starving and in Little Tokyo – I needed ramen and a beer.  If I were to be completely honest, it seems like the turn out wasn’t anything like the previous years; the lot was not as full, and the crowds just weren’t there.  This could be for a few reasons; one being that the Infamous Hellaflush meet was being held on the same day in Long Beach, and the other being that this event seems to always be ‘up in the air’ as to whether or not there will be a next year.  Why the Hellaflush meet was planned for the same day is beyond me.  It seems almost suicide for the ‘scene’ to plan two huge events on the same day, 20 miles apart from one another and tear people between which to attend.  Anyway, most of my shots were from later in the day as people were getting ready to leave, so I apologize if it seems strange.  Click past the break for the first part of the coverage.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: AutoCon 2012 – Los Angeles V.3

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I’m going to try and roll everything else I have left into a third and final, massive leftovers post of AutoCon 2012.  I can only imagine how cool it will be – especially since I’m kicking it off with this fantastic coupe on Panasport G7s.  As far as the timeline goes, it’s still pretty early in the day, and definitely still in the morning.  The show opened to the public at about 12 o’clock, and that’s just around the time I said that I’ve had enough.  I was fortunate to have a good jump on the show without too much foot traffic, so I really got a good look at the lot in it’s entirety before the gates opened.  The lot was so big though, that I think even if I hadn’t I’d still be able to get some good shots.  Recapping the show, I must say the entire roll-in process and media handling was a gigantic improvement over last year.  Thanks to the AutoCon staff for another good show and I look forward to seeing this event gain in popularity over the next few years.  Take a look past the break for a grip of pics that wrap up my coverage.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: AutoCon 2012 – Los Angeles V.2

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Man, I’ve been traveling a lot lately.  I think I’ve flown about 3,000 miles in the past 3 days.  Not normal, but I’ve been really busy at work recently.  That’s probably the main reason that my coverage is so slow to come out – which I apologize for.  I think just about all the other blogs have all but finished posting pics, but I’m lagging.  I suppose that’s one of the side effects of doing this all on my own; I don’t have as much time as most people (running an airline is quite time consuming -_-;).  With that said, let me quit wasting your time and let’s power through the rest of these photos.  I’ll be making one more post after this and I’ll try to get the all edited and ready for upload in the morning.  After 3 back to back 4am mornings, I have a feeling I’m going to be sleeping in tomorrow.  I’ll start off round 2 with a few shots of this familiar Kouki S14 on Mag Blue Nismo LMGT-4’s – super clean build.  Click past the break for more AutoCon 2012.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: AutoCon 2012 – Los Angeles V.1

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I’m sure by now between the roll in post, and other blogs, you’ve all gotten a taste of what AutoCon 2012 has to offer – so let’s just jump right into this.  I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of car shows in general, but the thing I like the most about these annual shows is the chance to see various cars transform from the previous year, as well as getting the opportunity to see totally new and fresh builds for the first time.  It’s also a great opportunity to meet people within the industry.  I always make it a point to introduce myself to a few new people during each show.  Not only to make new friends, but to get insight into new feature cars and stories; I can thank a lot of good material just from random introductions.  I can honestly say that it is easy to see the growth of NDF simply by the reaction of others when I drop the blog’s name.  I went from virtually no one knowing what Narita Dog Fight was and getting blank stares, to a good percentage of people who support it – and that’s cool to me.  Alright, enough reminiscing – click past the break to see part 1 of Auto Connection 2012 coverage.  It’s worth noting that I’ve been out of town all day, and will continue to be for the remainder of the week.  So if the coverage is slow to post, I apologize.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: AutoCon 2012 Los Angeles – Roll In

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When I started the drive out to Arcadia for AutoCon yesterday morning, I had been under the strange impression that media will-call was at 9am; where I got that impression and why I thought it was perfectly normal I’m still not sure.  When I got to the site and saw about 400 cars waiting to be rolled in I kind of figured I had some misinformation.  Well, there was nothing else to do really so I thought I’d make the most of it though and start snapping away.  The route into the Santa Anita grounds is through an underground route under an overpass to the Westfield mall that’s across from the park.  So I just posted up under the shade of the bridge, and did my best to avoid the already intense inland heat.  I talked to Justin from AutoCon when I saw him pass through and he had no problems with me starting early.  I’m typically late to car shows, so this was kind of cool for me.  The roll-in process was much smoother than last year, and it seems they were much better staffed this year.  Grab a cup of coffee and click past the break for the first of many Auto Connection 2012 posts.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Nisei Showoff 2011 v.2

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On my way back from LA tonight my friend Adolfo hit me up and told me to cruise by his house; he was installing his Tomei camshafts and wanted some company.  We’re driving down to San Diego tomorrow (errr, today, it’s 3:31AM) to get it tuned, and wanted everything ready before the morning.  I know that’s  a random introduction to the second part of my Nisei coverage, but it’s also my excuse for it being late.  If this post gets pretty boring halfway though, let me apologize ahead of time.  It’s late, I should be in bed already, and have a lot of pictures to post.  I’ll start off with this gorgeous S2000 that was part of The Chronicles GENERATIONS line-up.  Joe has some great coverage of it up already so be sure to check out his site.  Click past the break for more.

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Automotive by Narita Dogfight

Event: Nisei Showoff 2011 v.1

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C-h-e-c-k.  Check.  OK, my keyboard still works.  Holy shit I’m tired.  Two nights before Nisei I was stuck at work for 23 hours straight.  Yeah that’s right, 23.  I never fully recovered, so on the morning of the show I was hating my life.  I remember a fairly large line when gates opened last year, so this year I showed up pretty early and to my surprise come 11 o’clock, there was only about 15 people behind me.  I guess it must have picked up throughout the day though because people were saying the turnout was good.  I had stuff to do in Westwood a little past 1 o’clock so I figured I had around 2 hours to take care of business; Wakayama Ramen lunch included.  Click past the break for part one of however many Nisei posts I feel like making out of the 400 pictures I took.

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