WekEast 2019 Day 1
Author: TJ Sanethong Photos: TJ sanethong / Noel Colon III
Timeless:
I vaguely remember the first time I heard about Wekfest. I want to say it was circa 2010-ish when tumblr was Instagram, colored skinny jeans were poppin and the hellaflush movement was at an all time high. At the time I was a broke college kid trying to find my way through life yet heavily distracted by what was happening in the west coast. I used to be obsessed with going through forums and saving pictures of every cool car i came across. My goal was to take bits and pieces of those builds to create my own version when i finally bought a car. Days and nights endlessly searching for the best builds lead me to this show. Where top tier builds come together to compete for a nifty trophy and bragging rights. Finding this event was a cheat code to see how the west coast was building their cars, let me tell you my mind was blown. Fast forward almost a decade later the event is still going strong and they made a stop to the east coast so it was a no brainer that we had to attend.
The Voyage:
So maybe we aren’t traveling through space or across the sea (voyage) , but it was quite the drive for us, just under 4 hours if you cared to know. We loaded up the emergency van driven by Noel, with our clothes for the weekend, tools, snacks and whatever else we may have needed the night before just so we could get up and go the next morning. 3am rolls around, we get up, got ready, proceeded to pretty much piss off the neighbors with cold starts then we were off on our merry way to Edison New Jersey.
Leaving that early worked in our favor. Not only did we avoid all the traffic, we were treated with a beautiful sunrise behind us as we trek’d down. I’m not sure what the route name is but im sure people from CT know the route im talking about when I describe it. It was basically a two lane “touge style” expressway if you will. At first we were pretty conservative so we wouldn’t lose the van, but that van proved to be no slouch. Temps were still cool so we proceeded to push a little and I must say the Type R is a great car from factory but a totally different animal with the correct wheel/tire combo and lowering springs.
After an hour and a half of driving Aaron had some worries as a check engine light came up. Turns out it was for evap. We didn’t know where to start the diagnoses We just guessed that it was from literally overfilling the tank. Being ignorant worked in our favor this time, the check engine light never came back on.
We may have gone a little overboard with the tape, but id rather be safe than sorry. Besides shelly just got the front end of the car resprayed. We didn’t want to damage the work Sara had done before the show.
We started getting closer to the concrete jungle by the minute. As you can see we reached the George Washington bridge pretty early.
I don’t care how good the car is, the back of a Type R still looks like a prius with a wing to me. Most of it has to do with the shape of the trunk.
When we finally got to our destination we found that we were way too early to check in and we were starving so we parked the cars, packed up in the van and ventured off towards New York. Many of you know it, some (like myself) have never heard of a food chain called Jollibee. To my understanding (Correct me if im wrong) its basically a Filipino fried chicken spot that also serves spaghetti. Aaron was obviously excited to come back to this place as you can see. For our first experience it wasn’t that bad, the Hawaiian burger was better than anticipated.
We attempted to explore New York city just to give up on finding parking and drive back to the hotel. I wanted to do a shoot with Shelly’s and Aarons car while we were down here. We tried to take advantage of the sunset but we may have started a little late.
Aaron’s Civic Type R may look innocent and stock on the outside but it packs a punch. The massive HKS intercooler peeking out of the front bumper gives away most of its secrets. Added to secret sauce is a set of TC105X’s, probably one of the few type r’s in the country with them on now, definitely the first Type R in the east coast to rock a set. Its very track orientated in this state and it definitely likes being driven hard.
Shelly’s car went through major changes in under a month. At first glance you’ll notice the gloss white Desmond Regamaster Evo II’S which is arguably the best look the cars had since she’s owned it. Some of the smaller details you wont pick up on right away are the carbon mirror covers and the whole front clip being resprayed. It may not have looked it in previous pictures but prior to this event the front end was completely ruined. She daily drives this car, so it was inevitable that the front end was going to get sandblasted by everything. Luckily for us our friend Sara Guinn was able to squeeze her in for a front clip respray and I must say it really changed the cars overall appearance. Also added to the mix that you may or may not have seen is a carbon 1600mm Varis Euro Wing, a Bride Zeta III bucket seat and a matching Takata 5 point harness. All the JDM goods just for Wekfest.
Both cars are looking their absolute best at this point even after the long drive. Unfortunately their wasn’t a 24 hour car wash nearby so we opted to do the waterless wash that we conveniently had on hand. It was getting dark so we packed up and headed back. What was waiting for us back in the parking lot was rather interesting….
If you guys don’t know these are the guys from Japanese Classics LLC made the long trek up from Virginia. These guys are known for bringing in rad cars in from the motherland for us idiots to buy. They clearly came to bring on a show tomorrow, but for now they shut down the parking lot.
I believe these guys are members of Team Emotion. I at least know the S15 is, 5 time best of show winning S15 should I add. We’ll get into details of that car in Day 2.
Needless to say Day 1 was very long. Most of us hit the sack early, others stayed up and partied a bit. I had to save my energy for tomorrow. You’ll see why soon, look out for Day 2 coverage! Until then Aloha!
