Event Coverage | Hot Import Nights 2012

Night Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Ah yes! It felt great going to a car show again after 2 months of being MIA. Well, actually, I've been going through blogs, sites, etc. to keep myself updated with what was going around in the car scene today. I really didn't notice a new 'trend' thing, so it seemed like nothing has changed that much for this year. One thing for sure though, were new rides popping up here and there and of course, aftermarket companies and just car enthusiasts buying the all new Subaru BRZ or/and Scion FR-S. I was looking forward to see some modded BRZs and FR-Ss at the next car show I planned on attending, which was Hot Import Nights that happened last Saturday.

I'm sure many of you guys know about HIN (Hot Import Nights). As I've mentioned in my previous coverages on HIN, HIN was the first show I've ever attended and this was back in middle school. My friend's sister was actually modeling so a few friends and I got in for free. I think during this time period was when Tila Tequila was trying to be an import model or something. All I remember, were shit load of lights from every angle, bunch of cars with lambo doors, and neon lights and other things in and out of cars. I mean...I thought those things were cool back then because seeing any car that was other than its stock form was awesome to those who just got into the car scene. Anyways, things have changed tremendously throughout the years and as of today, comparing the attended show cars for this year to back then in middle school, it's absolutely shocking.

Event Coverage | Motion Auto Show 2012 (Pt. I)

Night Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Wow. It felt amazing last week to FINALLY attend a major car show here in SoCal. The last show I went to was the one in Puente Hills hosted by Prestige Marketing and that was like..2~3 months ago. If you are active in the car scene as a blogger, then you know exactly how it feels to rest for that long. Because of time conflicts and being so tired during my resting period, the only way to be updated with cars was to check out blogs and sites that update very frequently, such as Speedhunters, MotorMavens, StanceWorks, etc. I was particularly interested in SoCal car news because I live in SoCal and want to be updated with cars that have never came out or the ones I've seen before but with new setups for this year. Knowing how seeing cars in person and online have a difference and the fact that MAS was on a Sunday when I didn't work, I was really excited. Wait, let me exaggerate a bit more... I was extremely fu*king excited!

On Saturday when I usually stay up all night chilling with my homies, I actually came home early (around 3am...*cough*) to rest up, woke up at around 8am, got ready, and right when I was about to leave, I felt as if I needed to check my tires, so I started from the back checking the treads. Rears were fine considering it's on -8 camber and I was rolling on them for 7 months now, but the front passenger side tire was almost gone! I was like.. fu*k it..and just drove the tC slowly to Long Beach Convention Center. I arrived at around 11am, got my Media pass, and the coverage started from then on. I was debating on which photo to start with, and decided to give Michael Mao's NSX the spotlight. I'll get back to his car later on throughout the coverage. You guys ready? Because I am! LEGO!!!!

Event Coverage | Import Showcase by Import Fashion

Night Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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I felt as if I haven't gone to a car show for years! Actually..it's been only 2 months after attending AutoCon last year, but for some reason, that 2 months was a wait. I did go to car meets and stuff, but the atmosphere of a car show was something I truly missed. Luckily, my boy Alvin, owner of Import Fashion, worked his ass off to lock down a venue and create his own show for the enthusiasts. There were some complications last year when he tried to have his 1 yr. anniversary meet, but gladly things worked out well this year and the planned meet turned into an event.
Alvin is a close friend of mine in and outside of the car scene and our friendship started even before my blog was created. We actually launched our sites around the same time period, which is why I've been going to car shows and meets with him pretty often in the past. When I heard he was finally having his own show, I couldn't be any happier. His work throughout the months was appreciated by many because of covering both models and cars. I would say his blog's content was more toward models. According to Alvin, he will be featuring more cars this year, so stay tuned! I could go on and on about how awesome Alvin is, but instead of writing down my thoughts like I always do with coverages, I'll jump into the coverage on Import Showcase by Import Fashion.

Event Coverage | So You Think You Can STANCE? by It's JDM yO!

Night Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Gawd dam it's been a long ass time since I updated my blog. I did attend a few meets, but didn't cover them because for this year, it's mostly going to be a chillaxing time with the homies rather than making myself busy with my camera like I did last year. Fyi, it has nothing to do with me being cocky because some of you guys think my blog gained popularity in some way and I'm using that as a backup source to slack off, but seriously, I missed out on all the good times just because of being busy covering events, going to companies, doing interviews, etc. last year. Don't get me wrong, I met a lot of people and the friendship is still there, but this year will be a time period to get to know them even more and have fun! One downside of being active last year though, is not being able to resist covering an event because I love shooting! So I was pretty dam excited to attend yesterday's It's JDM yO!'s competition event to meet some friends and hoping to see some cars that didn't come out last year. I did plan on going early but because of partying till like 3~4am almost every other day, I woke up at 12pm, got my ass ready in about 10 minutes, and rushed to the event with my messed up tC. The cover photo is when the competition was about to begin and the first runner-up was Milt's Z from Low N Slow. The story will continue so read along~

Random Nightlight | Change

Night Import: Photography by me and other sites | Words by William Lee

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After realizing it's been little over a year now since joining the 'scene', I took some time to look at my past, seeing what I've done so far and the changes that occurred around me since the beginning till now. This random thought and idea came up after talking with one of my inspirations, Ben Schaffer from Bulletproof Automotive. We were talking about various things related to the automotive community and one topic we discussed about was how I became involved with you guys. For those who don't know me too well or about this blog, I didn't start off by knowing car owners or even companies. Matter of fact, I didn't know anyone except a few people on forums. It was a network friendship/relationship and like many of us, it's not easy to approach those who we talk with online when it comes to an in-person situation, so most of my time going to meets or events was just... me and my camera! I had no intentions in the beginning to promote who I was or what I did because the reason why I started was nothing more than the passion and love I had toward cars. But constantly going out to meets or events was sort of a way to approach people. If I didn't know who they were, they knew me because of seeing me at least once a week. It's now to the point where people say "why isn't William covering this event," or "where the hell is he?" I'm not trying to put myself in the spotlight, but that's really what I've been noticing. I personally and honestly think I'm not a major part of this community nor created a positive image to Medias and Bloggers, but a natural behavior became a habit, and that's what brought me and my blog to where it is today.

I get plenty of questions from many of my friends and fans, and one question I come across pretty often is their curiosity on how I managed to go to events and meets constantly while not getting tired of it. I think this is what makes people who start blogs decide to quit within a few months because of repetition. You go out there and see the same cars, same people, same vendors, etc. But really, isn't that the enjoyment? This is why I decided to write this post, to show you guys some cars I've seen when I first started and how much it progressed throughout the year.




I still remember as if it was yesterday when I first saw Minh Nguyen's IS. I'm pretty sure almost everyone in this community knows Minh's ride because of its outstanding fitment on Enkei RPF1s powdercoated by Simple Wheel Werks. Wherever this car went, it was breaking necks 24/7. Not too long ago, he decided to get another IS and do something different. As you can see in the second photo, Minh decided to go VIP style and although I didn't get to look at his car in depth, I can already tell he did an outstanding job.

Event Coverage | SevenStock 14 - "Long Live the Rotary"

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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SevenStock is probably the most anticipated event of the year in Southern California for Rotary fans and owners. I clearly remember as if it was yesterday attending SevenStock last year, running and walking around every single aisle like a little kid, trying to take a photo of every single car that attended. It was during the time period when I didn't know jack about cars, especially rotaries, except knowing the fact that Rx-7s were the shit! Well...that's what I heard, so ever since then, my interest in Rx-7 FDs was growing and as of now, it's my favorite car. Yea~ I know I know~ Rotaries are difficult to manage and not really cost efficient when a problem occurs, but I really don't care! It's like falling in love with someone and willing to do anything it takes to keep her v(^-^)v If I do get one in the near future, I'll definitely make a separate savings account just for the car :D
Anyways, back to SevenStock, the event location for this year was different than last year. Last year's event was at Mazda HQ in Irvine, CA where Cars and Coffee is held every Saturday. I'm not sure if this was the first time, but for this year, it was held at Fairplex, Pomona, CA. Now a few things changed, such as admission fees for people who wanted to show their ride and general + parking fees for spectators. Considering all these 'economic' changes, I was a bit worried with the amount of showcase cars and spectators because last year's free event was totally off the hook. Arriving with our editor Edgar Lozoya at the event around 12pm and taking a quick glimpse of the area, the showcase lot was smaller, amount of cars participating was smaller, and the quality of cars went downhill big time compared to SevenStock 13. I was sort of disappointed, but seeing one well-done FD was good enough, such as the one shown above owned by Ryan from R-Ryde. Let's get to the coverage, so that you guys can enjoy some rotaries!

Special Coverage | 1013mm's Burfday Car Meet

Night-Import: Photography and Words by William Lee

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Yesterday was a day to remember. Not only because it was a birthday party + car meet for a good friend of mine, John Zhang aka 1013mm, but also because it was one of the biggest meets I've ever been to with so many quality cars in attendance.
Well to talk about how this meet started, John wasn't even planning on doing a meet yesterday, which was his birthday. He did plan on doing a meet, but was unsure of when until I brought up the subject of doing it on the day of his birthday. Why not? Right? It's a win win situation; enjoy a day with cars and friends. Now we were thinking about two places; Guppy House Plaza where John hosted his first meet or Seasons Plaza where AutoCon held their event last year. We did want good lighting because of coverage purposes and that Tokyo Drift style meet, so Seasons Plaza underground parking structure was a go. From then on, John worked things out really quickly and made things possible. It was hot as hell and the car meet made it even hotter because of all the support and cars that came to congratulate John.

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.