Special Coverage | Coastin Society & RK Trend Meet

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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SoCal has many meets during the week, hosted by various sites or by an individual, opened to every make and model. Sometimes, it's difficult to choose which ones to go to because of an unexpected turnout and behavior of a crowd. I've been to ones that were totally riced out to a few that were relatively small, but it really doesn't matter to me as long as I have a few friends to talk to, which is how it went down yesterday. I was planning on going to the OC Food Truck meet at Westminister, CA because of its fame here in SoCal, but for a change, I headed out to a local meet hosted by a group called Coastin Society. The meet wasn't crazy like other meets I've been to previously, but people were acting mature and overall, it was just chill!
Cars were mostly stock and only a few caught my attention, but surprisingly, I took my camera so did a small coverage for you guys to enjoy. By the way, please do know I usually go to meets just to chill instead of doing coverage, so do not expect me to take photos. But if I do have my camera with me, I'll be doing my job as a site photographer ^-^v

Random Spotlight | Seeker DC2

Night-Import: Photography by Zee-Zayas | Words by William Lee

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There are a few tuning shops in Japan that many of us don't even know of. Only handfuls are recognized, while others are taking a never ending step to reach fame or to at least make their shop known to a few enthusiasts. This was my first time, and I'm speculating this will be your first as well, hearing about a car tuning shop dedicated to Hondas, called Seeker. We might think of this company as a growing tuning shop in the Japan tuning industry, but in reality, Seeker has been in the scene since 2006, testing and tracking their project cars every week. When I mean by project cars, I'm talking about the ones that are equipped with Seeker's own products, such as suspensions, exhausts, headers, etc.
We might have the opportunity to introduce their shop later on, but for today, our photographer Zee-Zayas and I want to introduce you guys to one of their cars, the Seeker DC2.

Event Announcement | AutoCon 2011

Night-Import

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Event Coverage | Motion Auto Show 2011 (Pt. III)

Night-Import: Photography by Nick Schultz and William Lee | Words by William Lee

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A combination of cars and entertainment...something that's a bit different from how ordinary car shows happen here in Southern California. We've seen plenty of coverage on typical car events, but an event like Motion Auto Show brings in more people to not only enjoy watching cars and models, but to entertain themselves with other activities/entertainment, hence making the event less boring or tiring. There were a few dance crews performing live on stage, such as Booniez Crew, iDK, The Organization, and much more. NOS Energy Drinks had their own separate gaming section for all the spectators to participate in their own Super Street Fighter IV tournament. You'll be seeing some behind-the-scenes photos toward the end, so read along and enjoy my final coverage. v(^-^)v

Event Coverage | Motion Auto Show 2011 (Pt. II)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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The lack of sleep during this past weekend is still affecting my week, but the excitement and fun I had at Motion Auto Show feels as if it never ended. You just get that feeling if an event was awesome and I rarely go through that phase after an event. I'm not trying to over-exaggerate myself just because of all the hype that's been going around. If you were present, you know what I'm talking about.
I've been in this scene for only a year now and going to events/meets every weekend made me understand more about how things go around in the automotive community. When it comes down to events, I've been to some that were really unorganized to a point where staffs were acting unprofessional, but it's events like Motion Auto Show that makes my hobby worthwhile. Big ups to Pro-Motion Distributing and all the staffs at the event, doing a great job from the start to end.
 

Event Coverage | Motion Auto Show 2011 (Pt. I)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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I'm trying to figure out on how to explain the awesomeness of Motion Auto Show (MAS) yesterday. If this is your first time hearing about this event, then you're not missing out on anything because this is technically a new event. Check out my coverage on Pro-Motion Distributing Grand Opening to read more about it.
First off, let me say this event was the best event I've ever been to. Usually, you'll be seeing me say 'one of the..' but for the first time, I have to admit, Motion Auto Show was totally off the hook.
Just to clarify something before some of you guys think I'm bull sh*ting, it's not because I won an award. I didn't show my car thinking I was going to win  because it wasn't done and even if it was, I show my car just to show a tC can be modified cleanly because facing the facts, many but not all Scion tCs are modified in an unfavorable way and immature drivers drive it. I've never showed my car at a major event and to be honest, I was a bit excited to see how things were going to be staged. I planned on taking my camera on Saturday when most of the Car Show participants were rolling in, but I was busy as hell trying to fit all the pieces and prepping my car on Friday night, I forgot (-_-;).
*Big thanks to Dino Images for giving me a ride back home. His own coverage will be up during this week so 'Like' their fanpage to be updated.

On Saturday, after washing my car early in the morning, I left at around 10am and took me about an hour to arrive at Long Beach Convention Center. The shitty part was driving the whole way rubbing mad in the front passenger side causing the fender to be slightly burnt and paint chipping off, but o well! I was expecting that to happen because the fronts weren't dialed in properly.
Just for future reference, major events like MAS require you to leave your car 1 day before the event. When I heard about this rule back in the days, I honestly didn't get why that step had to be done, but going through this experience, I now understand why. You'll have to experience this personally and although it's not too comfortable, there is a purpose.
Upon arrival, I spotted the 1UP crew waiting for other members, so I was chilling there for a bit until roll-in. Long story short, everything was organized, stage was freakin huge, and gawd dam the cars were looking sexy! You'll be seeing all of them throughout my partly coverage so stay tuned.

Now! Sunday Sunday! The day you guys were waiting for! Camera was ready but I wasn't! Slept for about an hour or two and I was tired as f*ck!!!! I had no idea where I was walking and who I was talking to in the beginning, but a cup of Starbucks coffee woke me up. Big thanks to Allen Lee for the ride to Motion Auto Show.

Nightlight | Hybrid Z

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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There is no 'back in the days..' when it comes to a team's reputation. What's current is current and most of us in the scene today will know about Team Hybrid. First off, if you are not familiar with this team, Team Hybrid is very well known in the automotive industry, not only in Southern California, but almost everyone in the US will know or heard about this team at least once. Established in 1995 by James Lin, the team has been representing at major car shows, sweeping almost every award category. But today, instead of explaining the history of this infamous team, I want to take this time to feature one of the member's ride, a ride that's more than just authentic parts, but with an overall outstanding execution.

Event Coverage | Nisei Showoff Car Show 2011 (Pt. III)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Finally the last part of my Nisei Showoff Car Show coverage.  Please do understand that this partly coverage is to avoid lags and complaints. I like to keep every opinions/advice in mind, which is how it came down to posting certain amount of photos in one part and then to another. Also, I do want to let you guys know that Night-Import is not a formal-college-smart-elite writing automotive website. I'm bringing this up because of comments and e-mails I've been receiving throughout the past months. Most of the contents are written by me and for those who've been visiting my site since day one, I cuss, joke around, and write some random ass shit to make a coverage enjoyable to read rather than a boring and 'scroll down and only check the photos' status. It might change up a bit later on, but the contents are mostly written in first-person so you guys get an idea of what I personally went through at an event. I do not make shit up to give someone a bad reputation! What I write is what happened and I do have witnesses around me to prove it. Enough said.
Additionally, the photos I take of cars at an event or meet are decided by what I favor. Sometimes I might skip a car, either because I unintentionally skipped it or I didn't like the overall execution. There are a lot more things to say about this, but let's just keep it to that.
One last announcement I want to make before I start Part 3. I usually go to an event early but will not always stay till the end to see who won what category at an event. Why? Because I'm usually the only one from my site doing the coverage and get pretty dam tired walking for 4~5 hours taking photos. I'm not being cocky at all but those who see me know how much work I put into when it comes to photography. I'm still an amateur, but try to take photos as professional as possible.
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There was and still a controversy about my Part 1 coverage of Nisei Showoff Car Show because of stating my own opinion/thoughts, which only a small part of it was not positive toward the organization. However, what was written in that article was not a falsified story but true.
I actually want to take this time to write about who I am, how I started this site, and why I'm doing it, just because I dislike those who act or talk like they know me when they don't .
I've been in this scene for about only a year now but have been to more events and meets than you can even imagine. While some of you guys took some time modifying your rides during the weekends, I was out there shooting. When some of you guys were at an event, I managed my schedule to attend 2 or 3. My site was not created to make a profit. No offense to anyone, but I dislike making decals, sell shirts, or other stuffs to make money out of all of this.. So why am I continuing? It's because I love cars and love the people in this scene. Once I go to an event or meet, I try to take the best shots instead of walking around and taking photos like it ain't meant to be. Yes, there are plenty of people who go to events and shoot, but how many sites actually write up a thorough coverage?
If I don't get accepted for a Media pass, I pay my way through. I respect those who create an event and believe they should get paid for what they do.
Lastly, I never expect myself to be placed higher than anyone because I'm an enthusiast like everyone else.

The whole point about the Part 1 coverage was not to talk about my complaints such as not getting into Nisei early or not being highly respected as a Media applicant, but how the small fairness that could have been given was not. I'm willing to face the consequences that will be hitting me pretty hard from now on, but I want to say to all future bloggers out there, don't feel restricted to say what you want to say.

Now!!!! Let's go ahead with the coverage...

Event Coverage | Nisei Showoff Car Show 2011 (Pt. II)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Thinking about what I wrote on our fanpage, I made a minor mistake; our site has not been officially a year old yet. I did create this site back in June of 2010, but that's before I even had the title Night-Import in mind and was posting random contents. In a few months, I'll be announcing our 1 year anniversary and might do something pretty darn crazy, but that's just a thought so don't be expecting a surprise soon. The reason why I'm bringing this up though is because of so many cars I've seen throughout that one year period. Although Southern California is known for car events in the West coast, the cars you get to see at meets and events become repetitive, which isn't bad at all because you get to meet the car owners and build up relationships. I think that's how I made friends in this scene and now, those friends becoming a part of my life. Additionally, Nisei Showoff Car Show made me realize that it was not just the owners but the cars they owned played the same role. I've seen some rides so many times, but to be honest, I'm still impressed with all the work put into a machine that literally redefines the meaning of a car. It's not only meant to be driven, but to be a companion. Am I becoming Emo right now? Maybe because it's 7:15am and I'm tired as fuk, so back to the coverage before I say more random stuff.

Event Coverage | Nisei Showoff Car Show 2011 (Pt. I)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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I can't believe it's already been a year since my first time to Nisei last year. Probably that was one of the first events I've covered for Just Stance and I remember it to be hot as fu**, but filled with top notch cars from California and even a few from out of states. From what I've heard through friends who've been into the car scene for quite a long time, Nisei Showoff Car Show has a history of throwing the best car event in Los Angeles, CA.
If you didn't know, Nisei is a Japanese Festival happening in Little Tokyo of Los Angeles and this was their 7th annual event. Within this 1 week festival, the Car Show happens right across where all the festivities happen, so it's basically a win-win for both sides. If you are hungry, walk across and grab yourself some JDM food and to walk off those calories, walk back to the Car Show area and check out some cars.

I was expecting this years Nisei Car Show to be as big as last year and because I have a site that lets all of our staffs eligible to apply for Media (not being cocky at all), I sent an e-mail last week and we got approved. I called up 1013MM who covers a lot of events and feature contents for Canibeat to see what time he was planning to go. We arrived at around 10:30am, 30 minutes before the actual event started and was expecting an early access. Now before some of you guys start bashing on me because I said 'early access', you guys need to understand photographers who work for automotive sites actually 'work' at car shows rather than chilling the whole time, so we do need some extra time before an event, especially ones that are known world-wide like Nisei Showoff. That's why for all of those who don't live in the States get to see photos of the whole car rather than photos of only the front bumper and rest of it being covered by people.
1013mm and I asked the security guard if we could get in a bit early, but after he talked with the host or staff, our access got denied. We were a bit disappointed, but waited. In a few minutes, a crowd was building up in front of the entrance. Waiting would not have been a big deal if the staffs were more organized and kept everything on time, but what sort of pissed me off was seeing the host (I'm speculating it was him) or a staff letting all of their friends of friends get in. They were clearly aware of Media applicants waiting, but seems like it wasn't an issue to consider.
What do I think about this? Not good of course. I don't know the host nor staffs and some of you guys who are friends of the organization might dislike me for writing my own opinion, but I'm being straight up and telling the truth. To all future event hosts and staffs, be fair with what goes on inside and outside of an event.

Event Coverage | AF Imp Super Carnival

Night-Import: Photography by Kaoru Shoji | Words by William Lee

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This past weekend at Osaka, Japan, our photographer Kaoru san attended an event called Super Carnival hosted by one of the biggest magazines in Japan, AF Imp (Auto Fashion Import). AF Imp has been publishing their own line of magazines for years and is known for introducing newest to modified European cars. This event by AF Imp is held annually and always overcrowded with spectators with the sickest cars in Japan.

Event Coverage | SpoCom 2011 Models

Night-Import: Photography by Nick Schultz | Words by William Lee

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If you read through my coverage on SpoCom, I've mentioned how this event was more than a car show. Along with detailed and modified show cars being displayed inside of Anaheim Convention Center, there were also plenty of entertainments going on and from the many, the most popular area out of all was the Models booth. I'm not talking about only 5~10 models walking around, posing in front of cars, but an actual separate area where more than 20 models were stationed protected by the infamous Kuya Protection. I'll have to show you guys the stunning photos taken by our photographer Nick Schultz instead of describing, so starting it off, we got our supporting model Raichelle Viado in front of DSPORT's booth doing an interview.

Random Nightlight | Real Life, Ryosuke Takahashi's RX-7 FC3S

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Majority of tuners in the car world base their modification style through an inspiration; a car you saw through a famous car blog/website or seeing one in person by going to a car show or meet. However, you will rarely see someone modifying a car based off of a famous car Manga series, the most popular and well-known, Initial D. Shuichi Shigeno, the mastermind behind Initial D, gathered  information from young minds into illegal street racing and created a Manga that is still in the top of almost every automotive Manga series today. But instead of talking about the history and storyline of Initial D, for those who know this Manga will know the characters and cars and I'm sure by looking at the first photo made you think of one car in the series, the leader and fastest member, Ryosuke Takahashi's Mazda Savanna Infini III RX-7 FC3S.

Event Coverage | SpoCom 2011 (Pt. III)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Glad that some of you guys are liking my coverage but this is just the beginning! Well this is going to be my last, but we got more awesome stuffs to share from Andy and Jay, and I'm sure you don't want to miss Nick's own coverage on the Models. He's probably working on the photos as we speak, so be patient and wait for the sexiness to be posted up.
Continuing on from where I left off, this will be my last coverage on SpoCom and I got some funny shit to share with you guys near the end. At the top are my boys from 1UP crew. The name was based off of Mario and the term just popped up randomly by one of the members. The team collaborated with the well known automotive/model site It's JDM yO! and their first collabo appearance happened at SpoCom. Photos of their rides will be shared throughout this coverage.

Event Coverage | SpoCom 2011 (Pt. II)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Back with the coverage on SpoCom! I know you guys were waiting for it! (if not...nvm). There are so many photos to share and like always, I don't want to dump them in a photo album for you guys to just click and check out, so you'll be seeing separate parts of my own coverage and also a few others done by our photographers as well.
I made a few mistakes in Part 1 and those are now fixed! Things got a bit hectic at the last minute and I had to leave without reading what I even wrote. Promise I'll be a bit more careful before I get threatened. (-_-)v
I'm starting Part 2 with a photo of MotorMavens and Wheel Flip's booth. Thanks again to Antonio from MotorMavens for helping us out. More photos will be shared later on.

Event Coverage | SpoCom 2011 (Pt. I)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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One of the car shows I missed out on last year was SpoCom. This is during the time period when I just got into cars and didn't know jack about any car shows or even cars in general. All I heard about before or after NISEI was the talk about SpoCom. Everywhere I went, it was SpoCom SpoCom SpoCom. Seriously, all the hype made me curious on what this event was all about until I looked through some coverage done by other blogs/websites and I understood why a lot of people were going crazy over this event.
SpoCom is not an ordinary car show where some mildly modified cars participate nor just DJs and a few vendors trying to make it 'look' like an event, but a mix of models, cars, vendors, music, entertainment, and various other things that define a true car show. Cars that were built to only show participate in these kind of events and missing one is like seeing a Ferrari Enzo passing next to you and not having a camera to take a snap (a bit exaggerating).
This year's SpoCom was a bit different from the past ones. From what I've heard, the original hosts of this show, Pro-Motion Distribution, are no longer a part of this event and being hosted by a separate group. Last year's event had a bigger venue overall, but because this year is technically a new event, it started off at a smaller location. Either way, the event was banging!!

With the help of MotorMavens, a few staffs and I covered this event like no other. We had a videographer, photographer for models, and the others to take care of the car show area. I was pretty stoked when a few people recognized us by our staff shirts and complimenting on our site. I would say that's the enjoyment and thrill I like to feel, which keeps myself motivated to bring you guys better content every week.

Instead of blabbering about what went on, showing you guys' photos will do the job. The show began at 4pm, but Media had the privilege to an early access, so I tried my best to cover the cars in a short amount of time before it got overcrowded.

Event Coverage | Sideway Sundays #3 (Pt. II)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Most of you drifters who participated at Sideway Sundays are still talking about the issues regarding lack of time, professionalism of drifters, etc. on the facebook event page or through forums, and I was a bit hesitant about writing Part 2 today. Why? Because stating my own opinions might create an even longer ongoing conversation, but I was a participant, yet a staff, and heard from the organization on what happened, so I do have rights in every way to say what I got to say..right?
First of all, let me share my thoughts on the most asked and debated problem posted on the event page and forums.

1. Gate opening
-I arrived at Irwindale Speedway around 7:50am and according to the schedule I received, the gate was supposed to open at 8am. I believe gates were opened 10~20 minutes later after the staffs finished organizing the stage.
Although Adams Motorsports is the head of the drifting session, Irwindale Speedway has control on what goes around inside and outside of the track area and if anything does not satisfy their needs of a 'safe drifting' event, more time will be spent to organize. Do know both organizations want Sideway Sundays to be the best and safe event for all drifters, car show participants, and even for the spectators, so please understand some overtime.

2. Lack of time for drifting and price to drift being too expensive
-I heard a few different stories from a lot of participants and will not mention who said what, but before the event started, I was informed there were two separate groups; amateur drifters (including those who never drifted) & drifters (had some experience in drifting).
There were about 80 drifters in total and was separated into two groups. Let me compare to how many drifters participated in Sideways Sundays #1 and #2; about 15~20 for the first event and ~40 for the second. I barely read and heard any complaints about those two events because each drifter had enough time to drift more than 3 times.
Let's get to Sideway Sundays #3. Because of the positive feedbacks that were written on forums and facebook regarding the first and second event, the amount of drifting participants doubled. I saw the first group starting at around 10am and a lot of participants were spinning out, hitting cones, etc. and it definitely took much more time for each drifter to complete the track layout compared to those who participated in the first and second event. I'm not saying this is bad at all because Sideway Sundays is opened to everyone, amateurs and professionals. When considering this happening to the first group, the amount of attempts to drift definitely reduced. I also want to mention that this whole event was at Irwindale Speedway. I'm not trying to make a huge deal out of this, but Irwindale Speedway is where the final rounds of Formula D occur and rarely do they even open the bank for drifters to drift. Only drifting event I know of at Irwindale would be House of Drift outside of the track. It took a lot of time and effort for Adams Motorsports to organize this whole event so please keep that in mind rather than saying it was about the money.

Now to group 2, there were a lot of experienced drifters and most of them I saw were participants from the first and second event. There were also about 40 participants in this group including Formula D stars Mike Essa, Jeff Jones, and a few XDC leveled participants. Although a few amateurs were included in this group, it seemed as if everything went pretty smooth until one drifter crashed into the wall and took literally 40 minutes for the towing truck to get the car off the track layout. This incident greatly reduced the amount of time for the second group to attempt more drifting rounds.

I've read some other feedbacks, but I'll just leave it to here because I'm sure Troy from Adams will explain each situation thoroughly. Part 2 will mostly cover the drifting session and some of the Car Show parts I missed. There are actually other photos I didn't share in Part 1 so that will be posted on this parts coverage as well.

Event Coverage | Sideway Sundays #3 (Pt. I)

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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It's been almost a week now since the third Sideway Sundays event happened at Irwindale Speedway. If you have no clue on what this event is about, I suggest you to visit Sideway Sundays fanpage for detailed information.
First of all, my bad on the lag with the coverage. There are still a few event coverage and features I'll need to post up, but because I didn't want all you Sideway Sundays participants to think we bailed out, I caught up with other minor things and finally decided to write up this coverage today, but there are more reasons on the wait, which will be explained later on.

All in honesty, unlike the past two Sideway Sundays event held on March 20th and May 1st, the feedback from this past weeks Sideway Sundays was not so pleasing to read, which is why I wanted to wait a bit so that everyone had an opportunity to voice their opinions about the event, but this issue will be explained more in Part 2.
I was responsible in promoting this event on various forums and on facebook, so if you saw 'night87' on your forum, that was me. Old to new information were listed on the forums and I only update new information after receiving it from the organization/staffs, so please read through the original post. Because the Car Show section did not have any complaints, today's Part 1 coverage will only cover the Car Show area and Part 2 will be about the most debated issue as of still today, drifting. Well let's get on with how everything went on in the morning.

Special Coverage | Lexus of Westminister Meet

Night-Import: Photography by Nick Schultz | Words by William Lee

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While I was busy at Sideway Sundays, our photographer Nick made it out to an annual Lexus meet at a Lexus dealership located in Westminister, CA. I've actually came across this event post on the Lexus forums and was planned to attend, but because I had to support an event our site was a part of, I missed out! Looking through the photo coverage, seems like this meet was off the hook.

Special Coverage | Raceline & Super Street Meet

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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It's been a busy week going to work and managing the site almost every day, but when the weekend comes by, you guys know I'll be out there covering an automotive related event. I was pretty hesitant about going to one of the biggest Euro car shows here in SoCal called Big SoCal Euro Gathering held at San Diego, CA, but because of some issues I had with the car, I decided to head up to Raceline/Super Street's car meet at Fontana, CA, the same day when NASA had their own event.

I'm not familiar with any of the staffs from Super Street, except Joey from The Chronicles because I went up to him during It's JDM yO!'s One Year Anniversary Meet to compliment his site. He probably forgot who I was, but I did see him doing his own coverage for his site, so make sure to visit The Chronicles.
Enough with my loneliness and let's talk about this meet hosted by Raceline and Super Street.

Random Spotlight | ASM S2000

Night-Import: Photography by Kaoru Shoji | Words by William Lee

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A few S2000s are well known when it comes to Time Attack in Japan, but there was one that struck the world with amazement, leaving some of us speechless with its extraordinary power and overall outstanding build; Autobacs ASM's S2000.
Our new family member, Kaoru san from Japan, gave us these exclusive photos taken during a time attack session at Tsukuba.

Event Coverage | NASA Racing

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Let me start off by saying, "if you want to race, do it legally!"
There were so many meets I've been to during this past year and I'm also including the ones that were hours away from my pad. From just a specific brand/model to general meets, I've spent so much money on gas my credit card statement was building up every month. But if you love cars, you gotta do what you gotta do right? What really sucks though about these meets is the continuation not lasting so long because of immature behaviors by drivers. Burnouts and revving are the most common behaviors seen, but also illegal street racing.
Yes, it's fun if you race against someone who has the same specs as yours, but is it safe and worth getting a ticket? Hell no.

There are only a limited amount of locations where racing is actually legal in the states and I found out about one organization that was created with a purpose of racing legally, called NASA.
NASA (National Auto Sport Association) is an organization created since 1991 opening the tracks for amateur to pro drivers to drive at 'a safe and controlled environment'. Most of their events in California are held at AutoClub Speedway, Fontana and I was luckily present on the day of the event when my plan was to attend Super Street/Raceline's meet, which was on the same day and location right outside of the Speedway entrance. I wasn't informed about this event nor knew about NASA, but it was definitely worth my time walking around the pit area checking out some fully built high performance cars.