The 9th Annual Old School Import Car Show hosted by Bridgeport, CT’s own car club Old School Toyota Car Club of Bridgeport went on only a week after a hurricane came through the area. The cars were amazingly clean for vehicles that are older than 80% of our readers. Our buddy Ramon from Shift Gear Clothing had his AE86 finished at the last minute and his painter dropped the car off at the show for him, now that’s service. This car is not a Tofu runner but more a Mofongo hauler. The cars were typically any import Pre-85 and with this criteria it still amazes me how they keep these gems in great condition and find parts for them. I know lots of them each season take them apart and do other things to them like SR20 DET swaps or the blasemy as some in the Toyota community put it , install the F20C Honda Motor in your Corolla. The Old School community is a real tight knit group that have known each other for many years and 9/10 times buy and sell cars within each other so it stays in the right hands. There a few clubs that always make it to all the old school shows thats Team Toyminator, NY Rollaz, and New York Toyoteros. To hear the stories of past events is like being at a family reunion except you are amongst a bunch of car guys.
The great things about these old school imports is the great engine swaps and builds that were installed. During the time when most of these cars were built we were at a gas shortage so power and speed was definitely not the main focus of the engineers. You will look at the dash and most say 85 max speed, now that’s what they do in 2nd gear on some of these builds.
These gatherings are not about winning car show trophies, but more of a chance to drive their classics and reminisce with their friends over the past 20 years. You can huddle with each crew and everyone had a story of things that has happened over the past 10 years and no one is showing jealously of other’s cars or making any comments but they are enjoying the work that has been done to the cars from original paint, wheels, best interior and best motor. The OSTC crew had great prizes for the raffle which included a Haltech ECU, Signed Yankee Baseballs and Yankee tickets. The irony of the tickets is that a Red Sox fan won a set. Eventhough the trophy ceremony is not an important part of the afternoon, the trophy for best of show was such a great piece of art, it makes me mad I didn’t have a car for the event to compete. La Fiebre Toyota Club out of Newark, NJ took home that Best of Show trophy. The next stop for the Old School crew will be at Fall Nationals in E-Town and stay tuned for NY Rollaz annual show to close out the year.
Honda Day 2011 Englishtown another great event put together by the OGS Camp. What is usually a one weekend event, mother nature had other plans and turned it into a a two weekend event. There is no strictly Honda event like this anywhere and each year it becomes more bigger with more and more attendees from all over the eastern sea board. You arrive at E-town at 7 am for the event, gates open at 8am and you’re still late, people camp out for this epic event. I must admit the Honda crowd is a very dedicated group of tuners rain or shine they are ready to show their vtec pride and rep that H on their chest. Honda Day is not just a show but it’s full of win with entertainment and bracket racing for those who are more go than show. On hand is practically every variety of Honda you can think of from the S2000 to a RHD Crx from Exclusive Motorsports. Every year the tuners get more creative with their builds, last year the “in thing” to do was to have CCWs on your car, and this year’s cool thing is powdercoated valve covers and the creativitiy of these valve covers were nice and sometimes it was comical.
Everyone’s favorite show closer Mc Slick joined the Honda Day game this year and debuted his civic built by Certified Racing and others. The Slick Civic has a nice B18 with a green with gold flakes powdercoated valve cover and spikes. McSlick is always thinking out the box and adding spikes to his valve covers and suspension slots is real unique and gangsta.
Every year at Honda Day they raffle off a car for the show goers to show their continued gratitude for the support. This year’s winner was extra nice since it went to a real guy with a disabled sibling and they were seen all day checking out all the cars and enjoying the whole show. The community is sure this car will be well taken care of and not sold off for parts or anything.
Like the past few weeks the weather has been unstable and it was no different than this day, which cut our day short. The Honda Day crowd kept the party going rain or shine. Props to the Honda Day crew , you can check out any upcoming Honda Day events at www.hondaday.com
Nissan created a pair of amazing vehicles with the S15 Silvia and it’s very amazing lines and the infamous R34 Skyline GTR. Mike from Team NSU has got his hands on this beautiful Silvia Spec R ,and has been in love ever since. He is not a stranger to awesome Nissan sports cars being the owner of an S13 240sx convertible that he converted to right hand drive and equipped it with a full S13 Silvia conversion as seen in the May issue of Garagespec Magazine, and also a Nissan 350z. His Spec R is quite a jump from the S13 with a 6spd transmission and a more stout S15 SR20DET motor pushing out 250hp stock from it’s ball bearing turbo compared to a journal bearing turbo found in the other S chassis motors outside of Japan. The main thing you notice from driving the S13 to S15 is the torque, the car is so responsive and fun to drive to where you don’t need more power, compared to the S13 you want to do upgrades to squeeze out that extra power. The S15 Silvia from the front looks like it is mad at you and is about to eat you up with it’s angled headlights. The Silvia doesn’t have the craze and following as the Skyline but is definitely not a step-child either.
The Silvia is no match for the it’s 6cyl twin turbo awd big cousin but is most definitely nice to look at like your high school crush. Mike doesn’t plan to do too much to the S15 as his heart is in building the most amazing vert in the states , so it’s just his cruiser. I wish we were all so lucky to have an S15 Silvia as a back up car.
This beautiful R34 GTR Vspec belongs to Nasir of Pride Performance, and is pretty much every tuner’s dream car. Nasir is no stranger to the GTR, he has owned a few R32’s, R33’s and now who I like to call Casper his R34. The obvious differences between the R34 GTR and the S15 Silvia is the size. The GTR being AWD and with a 280hp but closer to 330hp twin turbo 6cyl is not fair competition for the Silvia that squeezes out 250hp from it’s RWD platform. This amazing GTR is not a garage queen, you will see it on the roads almost every day, stopping traffic and posing for pics from anyone who sees it parked or at a light. I will never forget the most epic time while cruising around Downtown Brooklyn, stopped at a stop sign a crackhead comes up to the car and says” Yo this car is the shit, I use it on my Forza all the time” We could do nothing but laugh, but this happens all the time cruising around with Casper. You can have a neon green Porsche will yellow wheels but the GTR will always be the crowd pleaser. This Skyline is not stock with a little ECU upgrade that gives it a nice bump in horsepower that makes this car even more fun to drive and being AWD it’s real stable when you get on it for those quick burst down the highway.
Pride Performance is known for having the sickest JDM cars around from Skylines,Supra, and RX-7s every gamer’s pick when they are ready to race on that video game. The crew will be racing next season with their R33 GTR ,so stay tuned for more on that build in the off season. The GTR is not just a beast of a machine but practical. You don’t have many cars especially a Nissan that comes with an adjustable wing stock for the lucky owner to use for whatever situation lies ahead for his machine.
The R34 GTR has not lost it’s value even with the new generation R35 GTR and it’s amazing numbers ,depending on what model R34 GTR you have, it may cost more than a R35 GTR. What makes the R34 GTR one of the best cars ever built? Is it the unsurpassable Nissan AWD system? Is it the roar of the RB26DETT, you decide? Nearly 10 years since it was last produced and leaving a void in the hearts of the tuner world, I think we can thank the neon lights of Paul Walker’s R34 in Fast and Furious for the demise :), the R34 still makes everyone drool. Thanks to Nas from Pride Performance and Mike of Team NSU for showing our readers their White Girls.
This was the inaugural event for the Windy City and was the 2nd stop for the 2011 Wekfest tour. There was a great response by the local area clubs and businesses within the import community. There were plenty of venders to supply the crowd with t-shirts and stickers as well as other Jdm related goodies. With all the regulars in attendance Canibeat, Eat Sleep Race, Seen it, Zero lift accompanied by the local shops Jdm Chicago and Touge Factory as well as Top speed. The shows main supporter NOS ENERGY made their presence known with a huge lounge constructed on the east side of the venue with a live DJ and a V.I.P. Deck for the contests participants. Handing out free sunglasses and pouring free shots of Nos Energy all day long. The Nos Energy girls were also on hand to supply the eye candy.The shows floor was filled with customized cars ranging in practicality. Everything was well represented from the high dollar trailer queens to the purpose built track cars and every trend in between. Stealing the show in my opinion taking up about a fourth of the shows floor space with some of the best modded cars was risky devil / junk house.
I had the chance to talk to one of the group’s main members Joshua Maghirang who said they showed up in full force for their friends putting on the show. He went on to say that he kind of felt out of place in a car show he would rather be on the track beating on his 180sx. But he was looking forward to the looks on people’s faces when the thought crosses their minds as to what are these beat up looking cars are doing here. That’s when I said to guys like me these cars are everything what they should be. Also in attendance were a rather small group of grip racers Mostly swapped Hondas with tons of chassis bracing and suspension work. Among the group was a real JDM gem an authentic Spoon Sports DC2 track car
I had the chance to talk to the car’s owner Wai Chiang. I learned that the car is pretty much intact maintaining its full tune from Spoon Sports. other than the original Spoon engine has been blown and has been temporarily been replaced with a b20 vtec setup.It’s good to see such an iconic car being used for what it was built for road racing in the NASA circuit. Wai’s best finish in the car was in 07 first runners up NASA season championship. The Japanese race car has no United States title so a life of trailers and track days is assured to continue and that’s a good feeling.
Among a crowd of G35s and 350z’s all badged Project X, was a 2005 G35 setting on Advans that grabbed my attention. It belongs to Stuart Satter when he popped the hood my jaw about hit the floor under the hood of his G35 set a fully built VQ35 topped with a Cosworth intake manifold with carbon fiber manifold caps. The name Cosworth was sent ringing though my mind as to where I had heard it before and I remembered that cosworth has roots in Indy car racing. The Vortec supercharged VQ35 pushing 14psi puts it down though a fully built Speed force automatic transmission and manages to pump out 550 HP and 470 pounds of torque those are very respectable numbers ! Stuart was ecstatic to have my attention believe me its well derived his Infiniti is a classy powerful import that you do not want to run into on the interstate if you do expect to be pulled on . Over all the entire event was a huge success a great turn out. I was glad I went to the windy city for a really well put together show great cars great people to meet had fun meeting so many fellow enthuasts and all the lovely show girls like the official model of Wekfest miss Elissa Alva. Beautiful cars and beautiful women make for an enjoyable day in a guys eyes.