We pick up about 30 minutes before the general admission gates were opened, and the flood of people in line started to pour into the grounds. As Yuta and I left the […]
Tag: VIP
Event: Autocon LA 2013 v.1
This weekend I took part in a car show that, over the past years, has been growing tremendously. Not just in size, but in organization as well. Putting on an event of this size isn’t […]
Event: Wekfest LA 2013 – Long Beach v.1
I can honestly say the last few weeks, for me, have been the busiest I’ve experienced in a long time. Losing a week in Charlotte for work, playing catch up back at the office, and […]
One Shot: Tokyo Auto Salon 2013 – K-BREAK Aristo
As you’re all aware of now Tokyo Auto Salon 2013 has come and gone this pass weekend and, as usual, there were a few gems that stood out amongst the halls of Makuhari Messe. My […]
Preview: Cross Country – Wekfest New Jersey 2012
. So, yeah, I’m on the East Coast right now, finally relaxing in my hotel room after an incredibly long day. It’s a one man show here at NDF (well, in the States anyway), so […]
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.
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.
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.
Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.4
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It’s almost been a week since Wekfest LA, and I’ve just about wrapped up all my coverage. I’m going to try and squeeze everything I’ve got into this final post – so it’s going to be massive. I went ballistic on this one so, by far, you’ll see the most diversity in cars throughout this post. I’ve also included another slideshow gallery at the bottom for the masses. Hope you see your car! Also, if you want some special VIP only coverage of the show, check out our friends down under at Street-Cover. I supplied them with a few shots to help spread the Wek love over in Australia. You should probably check the site out anyway because it’s pretty rad. Again, special thanks goes out to all those at Weksos Industries involved in organizing such a massive tour, as well as the city of Long Beach for being cooperative. Let’s just jump right into the coverage. You know the drill – click the break for more.
Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.3
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I’m running out of ways to start these posts, as usual, so I’ll just start off by saying…here is part 3 of NDF’s Wekfest LB (A) coverage. I even had trouble coming up with that. I think from now on, literally this second, for the rest of the show coverage, I will highlight a handful of shots and then post a slide gallery of some cookie cutter coverage of the show towards the bottom of the post. There are really way too many cars to try and put them into this format. This will allow you guys to see the show in a more timely manner as well. As a side benefit, it will also allow me to concentrate my commentary on just a few memorable shots. After previewing the new layout, I think you’ll like it as it allows you to briefly preview a lower sized picture, as opposed to loading an entire page worth of pictures. Once you click a thumbnail, a slide feature will pop up allowing you to view each shot in the gallery in succession. Typically, towards the end of posts my comments turn from semi-informational to just blatant observations (e.g. here is a civic on Volks). You’re probably reading that type of stuff and saying, “Well, no shit”. I think I left off around early afternoon, just before the gates opened and the flood of show goers rushed the grounds. I think it was right about this time I decided to break off from the guys I was hanging out with and start taking photos again. Click past the break for continued coverage.
Event: Wekfest LA 2012 – Long Beach, California V.1
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This past weekend the Queen Mary park in Long Beach played host to the second stop in the 2012 Wekfest Tour; Wekfest LA. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since the show stormed the grounds in 2011; and as I was expecting, the show was unreal. Honestly, if I could choose one show to attend for the entire year, there is no doubt it would be Wekfest – LA specifically. There really is no better venue than the Queen Mary; great weather, beautiful ocean and downtown views, off-shore breezes, shaded grassy areas to relax, and plenty of room for the 300+ cars and the thousands of attendees. The Wek get better at organizing these shows with each event’s passing and for like minded people, their efforts don’t go unnoticed. I’d like to give a big thanks to Kenneth Li, Adam Luong, Geoffrey Nguyen and all the other behind the scenes people at Weksos that make this tour what it is. I had a blast checking out the builds, catching up with familiar faces, and meeting a handful of new people. With that said, I need to work on getting more sleep before these shows. I’ve slipped into the unconscious habit of getting a maximum of 2-3 hours of sleep before any particular Wekfest show I’ve attended. Somehow I managed to arrive a good two hours before media was allowed in; two hours I spent sleeping in the parking lot. With about 30 minutes to 11am, I walked towards the entrance where I saw my buddy Jon. As we were talking Geoffrey came up to say hi. We talked for a few minutes, got my stamp a little early, and I slipped into the fray of glossy metal that is Wekfest. Check out the first part of coverage past the break – hope you enjoy!
Event: Slammed Society x Fatlace Car Show – Long Beach v.1
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Like I had said in my previous post, I hadn’t planned on going to Formula D, and I really didn’t plan on inquiring about a media pass (although from the looks of it I probably should have!). So, to say I was lucky I got in would be an understatement. I didn’t get many great shots of the actual tandem runs because the track was pretty well fenced off and the parts that you could have possibly shot through had huge banners covering it. That, and my zoom lens is a piece of shit. Seriously, worst lens ever. I don’t even know why I bother lugging it around. It’s OK though because I have another new prime on the way – a must for the Super GT & Taikyu races I’ll be shooting soon. Anyway, there was some serious down-time in between rounds so I had some good opportunities to snap the show that was going on in the parking lot. Every year Slammed Society and Fatlace put on a car show concurrent with the Formula D event. I never really bothered with it all the other times I went to Formula D here, but since there was nothing else to do I decided to check it out. There was the usual mix of awesome and not so awesome cars. I did get a chance to meet up with a few people, and make friends with some new faces which was great. Take a closer look at the show past the break.
Encounter: Car Sense built Camber Demon Crown Police Interceptor!
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Want to see something crazy? Here you go. Something crazy. Car Sense brought it out like K-Break did in 2011 with this nuts Toyota Crown Police Interceptor Camber Mega Demon. If you’re not familiar with some iconic Car Sense builds, click this link to check out their famous Aristo build; or better yet, enter the NDF Option contest to win a magazine that could possibly have pictures of it. If you’re in a lazy mood though, I suppose you could just click past the break for more pics. Be sure to check out JDM Clips for video footage of Tokyo Auto Salon 2012. Enjoy!
Event: AutoCon 2011 v.2
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A little late, but it’s time for round 2 of AutoCon coverage. Let’s kick it off with this shot of Big Mike’s Prelude. The front fascia is now equipped with a molded Chargespeed lip. It looks a bit more aggressive than his previous setup, especially without the bumper lights; I really like it. The newly coated black Volks add to the upgraded look. Click past the break to see more of the show!
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.
Event: Wekfest LA 2011 v.2
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Let’s get on with some more Wekfest LA coverage from Long Beach, CA. I ended up writing this entire post before I even wrote the introduction. I never know how to start off the second part of event coverage. This second part has a huge variety of cars, which is pretty cool, but it made it look kind of sloppy. The grass section was gigantic and hard to cover methodically, so my pictures are a bit scattered. At this point I was also running purely on Red Bull and Skittles, so it’s likely that I got a little sidetracked. Oh well, enjoy.
Event: Wekfest LA 2011 v.1
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Up until Friday I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to attend Wekfest LA. Requesting days off isn’t as easy as it used to be with my new position. Somehow, last minute, I managed to get my shift covered; so what did I do? That’s right – I went to Las Vegas. Good idea right? I hopped on a flight out of LAX Saturday afternoon, chilled on the Strip for 10 hours, and made my way back to Long Beach in time to shoot Wekfest. Well, it turns out it wasn’t such a good idea. I ended up losing way more than I intended, got no sleep, and smelled like cigarettes all day. I gotta say though, Wekfest more than made up for it. On top of that, it was probably the most beautiful day in Long Beach this year. Unbelievable cars, good food, music, friends and great weather; can’t ask for much more. I’ll do my best to try and walk you through the show a little before I go ballistic with the pics. Click past the break for more.
Event: It’s JDM Yo! 1st Anniversary Meet v.3
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The stragglers. Leftover pictures that didn’t make it into an event post. This is what you’ll get with the final It’s JDM Yo! event post. Seriously, these events are getting so big that it’s near impossible to methodically post every car that was in attendance. It’s too bad too because some really good builds go unnoticed sometimes. Anyway, I’ve been working mad 12 hour shifts at work and haven’t had anytime to dedicate to the site in awhile. I wanted to finish up with the final pictures before I go out of town once again. With that said, on with the pics.
Event: It’s JDM Yo! 1st Anniversary Meet v.2
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Welcome back to the second part of the It’s JDM Yo! meet coverage. The sites traffic has been way up recently, I’d like to thank everyone who checks the site regularly. I’ll be getting some merchandise together soon too, so everyone that’s been interested in it, hold on just a little longer! Anyway, after we checked out what was in the outside lot, we ventured into the main warehouse building. They put up a DJ in almost every room in the warehouse, playing different music. I thought that was pretty sweet. Check out the pics past the break.
Event: It’s JDM Yo! 1st Anniversary Meet v.1
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Alright, let me just start out by saying that this meet turned out to be way bigger than I had expected. I had originally planned to stop by real quick, say hello to a few people, snap some shots and jam to Aliso Viejo to the Tamiya RC track. Despite my attempts to hurry, we ended up staying for about 2 hours. The layout of the meet was really cool, with multiple doors leading to new warehouses; all packed full of self-built cars. Some were track inspired, many were heavily VIP influenced, all were cool in their own right. I didn’t have my 28mm with me, so the majority of these were taken with my 50mm – forgive the lack of full car shots, but at a meet like this, and the lenses I had, it was all but impossible to snatch a frame without anyone getting in the way. Click past the break to see the first of the coverage.
Encounter: Tokyo Estima
. Here is something you won’t see too often in the states; a modified van. They’re pretty common in Japan though, and the エスティマ (Estima) is one of the more popular platforms. I think I […]
Encounter: VIP Nissan Cima
. I caught this Y33 (Third gen. Cima) rolling down the same road as the Porsche I posted earlier; this is a pretty old picture though. Lacking in ridiculous camber and aero, this is a […]
Encounter: VIP Toyota Crown
. Near Yokohama Station there is a cool little plaza where kid’s hang out at night. It’s in front of a department store called Vivre, and across the street from Bic Camera. Usually, parked in […]