Broke East Meet 2018?
Author/Photos By: Tj Sanethong
May 1st, 2019
Its Wednesday, in exactly 4 days vehicles from all over the the state, some even outside of the state to attend what is called The Broke East Meet. Now because we’re in present time I cant cover what will happen this Sunday but what I can do is dig up some coverage from last year’s event. I never got around to posting it due to the lack of time and I wasn’t happy with the platform I was using to share my stories. Fast forward a year later and here we are with better tools and a motivation to share as much as possible with as many as possible. My memory is a little hazy (probably need some fish oil or something) so bare with me as I try to recall what happened that day. Lets jump back into time and see what caught my eye last year shall we.
May 6th, 2018
Waking up on a warm Sunday with lit up skies and birds chirping always feels good. Add in the intent of meeting with other enthusiasts alike on this early morning makes it even better. Unfortunately it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows this time around. It was cold, gloomy, with light rain. Just enough rain to make you stay home but we all took the chance and hiked up to Connecticut anyway since it was only a 45 min drive. Lucky for us the rain didn’t stick around for long. The overcast gave photographers a softer light to capture some amazing cars that turned up.
This B5 S4 for example, one of the cleaner Imola yellow S4’s ive seen. The RS4 bumper really compliments the car well giving it a lit bit of aggression but toned down enough to be classy.
The Lot:
Rolling into the show was just as normal as another other event. All the best cars ( In this case the VIP cars) had their own section upfront, while the filler cars parked on track. The turnout was decent despite the fact that it was less than perfect weather. The thing I always appreciated about Broke is the variety of cars they attract. It almost feels like the Nor-East version of Wekfest to some extent.
I can’t recall how many Broke events I’ve been to, but I do know that each time I go its never fallen short of quality. They may not fill the whole lot with quality builds but there is a larger majority of them. Now I didn’t take too many pictures of the car show section because I didn’t a lot of time there. Nothing really stood out to me that really Wow’d me so naturally I put the camera down and just observed.
Black Out Motorsports bringing down their flagship cars to give people a taste of Godzilla and a rally legend.
Drift Tengoku - Northeast Edition:
As I’m walking around the track i hear a familiar noise followed by a familiar smell all coming from the skid pad area. I was here thinking the entire time that this was merely just a car show, nothing more nothing less. As I get closer to the skid pad the smell and the noise gets louder and louder. It appears the boys at Lock City Drift set up a Japanese style drift demo.
What do I mean when I say Japanese style? Well if you’re not a nerd like myself then you’re probably not aware of Option Video or Drift Tengoku the grassroots of all grassroots for Japanese automotive tuning content. They’ve been filming this stuff since the 90’s, boy do i appreciate them. Anyways there was a particular clip taken from one of these platforms and uploaded onto YouTube which I happen to stumble upon when I was in high school. This vintage clip had street bikes, motocross and of course drifting but it wasn’t a competition. It was merely to entertain the crowd by showing off their car/bike control skills. It was literally the coolest thing i’ve ever seen, S chassis’s running tandem trains, motocross riders jumping them etc.
I paint this picture in hopes you understand how excited I was to see the true spirit of Japanese drifting culture unfolding before my eyes. The style was there, the driving was there, the format, the skid pad was laid out perfectly to accommodate both audience and driver. I stood there for every session not once picking up my camera to take a photo. I was living in that moment and truly enjoying what I didn’t think I would ever see in person.
The demo was phenomenal, I enjoyed that bit more than I had enjoyed the limbo contest on the other side of the track, the show cars, even the food then again the food was just mediocre. At the end of the show they all lined up and you think oh well time to go home theres nothing more for us here. Wrong, they took it a step further and let the fans watching into the pits to take a closer look at the cars. That’s where I took advantage of the situation and captured as much as I could.
Shane Lach doing his deed in inspiring the youth.
Smooth Sailing:
As you may have guessed I spent a lot of time around those cars, looking at their setups and searching for details often overlooked by the regular person. I was not disappointed one bit in fact it proved that beyond the regular car show goers, there exists a community that truly understands the art and spirit that japan has built and preserved for so many years. I’m happy its so close to home, it inspired me to do my part and keep that same energy in the type of cars I help put together as well as my own vehicle.
The rest of the day was relaxing as i digested all the inspiration I gathered. Fast forward to present time you can assume how excited I am to relive this once again this Sunday. If you don’t know about the show or any direction click the hyper link Broke East Meet for more information. I hope to see you all there, like always leave comments, subscribe to us on all social media platforms for updates and exclusive content. Aloha and have a wonderful day!
