COVERAGE> MotorMavens at Nisei Showoff, v.2

Ever since I posted up the link to our forums, inviting people to post up their photos from Nisei Showoff, our readers have been posting up tons and tons of photos that they took at this past weekend’s show in Little Tokyo. The response has been AWESOME. Although I wish more people would actually take the time to write captions to the photos and whatnot, even just seeing the show through their eyes is really cool, and I appreciate everyone who posted up their pics!

Now it’s time for me to get back in the swing of things, and publish more of my own photos from Nisei. Since I was pretty busy helping some of our new crew members get started in doing event coverage at Nisei, I didn’t actually start walking around to take photos until later in the afternoon.

At the end of Nisei Showoff, Ken Miyoshi always asks me to emcee the awards ceremony. It’s always a good time giving out the trophies to the car owners, but sometimes I’m not sure which cars I’m giving awards to, because it’s not like people drive their cars up to get their trophies or anything. Either way, the big trophies go to the cars that the Showoff judges deem to be the best, but to be honest, I have a different scale of measuring how dope a car is. That being said, I suppose getting a photo-feature on MotorMavens is my way of pointing out my favorite cars at the show. Drumroll please… Let’s begin.

This black kouki S14 was reppin MotorMavens pretty hard. Turns out it’s a daily driven S14 owned by one of our readers/commenters, Om1kron! Dope! Thanks for the love, homie. Maybe if my old S14 was that clean, I wouldn’t have sold it. Oh well.

I’ve recently been thinking about how dope it would be to own a first gen (1995) Honda Odyssey. I’ve always liked Odysseys, and I also have owned Toyota Previas in the past. However, Odysseys just seem easier to build, and they look super dope when you do them correctly.

This particular Odyssey was rocking a big set of Racing Hart Type C wheels, which were sized appropriately for the car. I also like the front bumper/foglight combo, although I’m honestly not the biggest fan of the pop out grill thing. I know some people like their cars to look a bit more wild… I think I’m just into more of an OEM look, as far as grills are concerned. It’s all personal preference.

Probably the DOPEST thing about this Odyssey would have to be this incredibly dope engine swap. What we’re looking at over here is an H22A1 engine that has been mounted in reverse and fully built with Brian Crower internals, a whole bunch of AEM parts, and the piece de resistance – TWM individual throttle bodies. HOLY CRAP. Can you just imagine this?! A dope looking VIP van, and it’s FAST too?! Hell yeah, now that’s what I’m talking bout!

I think just about everyone at the show was jocking this 1969 RT52 Toyota Corona coupe, which was repping Infinit Wheels. It was incredibly clean and originally from the San Gabriel Valley… it actually used to live not too far from my house! Dammit! I could have scooped this thing up, and I didn’t even know about it!

I love the interior of this car! It’s funny… it looks kinda retro-American if you look at the dashboard. In fact, my mom owned a stupid 1996 Buick Century (don’t ask me why she bought that POS) that had a dashboard that looked similar to this. Get this though… this RT52 Corona came out in 1969. The piece of shite Buick came like that in 1996. Good job at your innovations there, Buick. Maybe that’s why your dealerships are still bustling and selling cars as busy as ever.

Anyway, it’s interesting to see old cars with those super rectangular speedometers, with an automatic transmission (shifter on the stalk, even!) and boxy dash fascia. Look at the steering wheel too. It just looks like it belongs in an old Chevy or something. Interesting…

Probably one of the coolest things about the Corona coupe (as opposed to the four door sedan) is the lack of a B pillar. This is cool, because if you roll down the front and rear windows, you have this humongous space going from the front to the back of the car. This would probably make the car pretty good for drive by shootings… although with an automatic transmission and an 18RC motor, a bicyclist could probably catch you without too much trouble. LOL

The Tweeks Racing Lotus Exige looks pretty cool with the carbon fiber front lip spoiler. We haven’t featured many of these types of cars on the site before… I wonder if we should start? Let me know your thoughts on this, people!

For those that don’t know, Tweeks Racing is a shop that opened up about a year ago in Chino Hills CA. They deal with all sorts of cars, from high end exotics to stuff more like…

THIS! This is the Tweeks Racing widebody N2 AE86, which features a 4AG turbo setup. This is bringing it back to the roots! Turbocharged 4AG engines are never a bad thing!

Walking around the show, this perfectly stanced Volkswagen Golf caught my eye. I went up to talk to the owner and his friends, saying, “hey, I’m from MotorMavens, and I think we should shoot your car…” and they laughed at me and said, “Dude, we KNOW. Tamer already talked to us about it.” LOL Awesome. Our resident EuroMaven Tamer Omran can find a sick European car in a heartbeat, even if it’s in the middle of a Japanese-themed car show in Little Tokyo at a Japanese cultural festival. Good job, Tamer! hahahaha

Oh, and just a little preview… super, super dope. Now that’s what I’m talkin bout.

I’ll admit. I normally don’t look at Jettas at all. At all. Not one bit. However, this particular Jetta wagon had me jocking. Why? Well, it’s all in the supreme amounts of DETAIL. Like I mentioned before, I think that the “dopeness of a car” is all measured in the details… and this Jetta wagon was super, super on point.

The owner actually brought this car from Germany! No wonder it has that super clean style – it reminds me of some of the dope VeeDubs and Audis (I refuse to call them VAG cars, cause that term makes me think of something non-automotive) that I saw in parking lots near Nurburgring. Outstanding. Stay tuned to MotorMavens for more on this Jetta wagon!

Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Daaaaaaaaaaayuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmm. I really gotta give props to the owner of this FC3S RX-7 Turbo II. Soooo fresh. Look, I’m not even a rotary guy, even though I’ve owned a white FC3S in the past. However, I just gotta give ridiculous props to the owner of this Infinit Wheels FC because it is sooooo damn fresh! The wheels, the aero, the paint, the motor… oh man. I never thought that I’d be this impressed with an FC3S stateside. I mean, I’ve ridden in RE Amemiya RX7s in Japan; tandem drifting super close like nobody’s business… but damn. For an FC3s streetcar? I think it would be pretty tough for someone to top this one, in my opinion. I just LOVE the style of this car.

Too bad RotorMaven Edward Uche wasn’t at the show to see how real rotary heads build FCs. (HAHAHA I know I’m gonna get an angry text message from Ed after he sees this! Awesome. hahahahahaha)

Ooh baby, I like it rawwww… Yes, that’s right. That’s your boy ODB from the WuTang clan on the hood of this classic Honda N600. Why on earth would someone put a Brooklyn Zoo resident on the hood of their classic Honda? I don’t know. However, I suppose it kinda fits with the theme of the car. If this N600 were to quote the immortal words of the Old Dirty Bastard himself, I think it would say, “Hey yo, I’m rough, rugged and raw/ I repeat/ when I die, my seed will be ill like me…”

The headers coming out from underneath the hood look pretty cool, and I like the fender mirrors and everything… but seeing this car leaves me wondering if the car will get restored, or just left as is. Hopefully the owner didn’t purposely sand off a perfectly good fender if it was clean. Either way, I think this N600 is pretty dope, and I’m really glad to see cars like this popping out from the woodwork!

Definitely one of my favorite JZA70/MA70 Supras at the show would be this gray Supra, owned by Nick Stonawski. This car is filled to with GReddy parts galore, and is a really great example of a sick 70 series Supra that can still be driven on the street! Street drivability and good looks? WIN.

Another top speed supercar that was driven to and from the show was Tony Khamly‘s Acura NSX. If you haven’t had a chance to look up close at Tony’s NSX, then I suggest you try real hard next time you’re at an event. His car is super clean, and ridiculously dope. From the high performance parts and fabrication and overall style… Tony’s NSX is just bad ass.

I was extremely happy to see this super clean EF2 Civic sedan with 15 inch Sprint Hart CPR wheels on it! I absolutely love these wheels, as they were my very first set of real “legit” wheels that I saved up for and bought for my old front wheel drive ST162 Celica back in the days. One of my good friends had one of these EF2 sedans in like 1993 (before I had my driver’s license), so I have great memories of cruising out to parties and stuff in an EF2 sedan when I was in high school. Props to the owner of this Civic for restoring it into such a clean car.

Last but definitely not least, I’ll leave you with this photo of the amazing red S2000 that we spotted over at the Eibach Honda Meet a few months back. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of red cars… especially red cars with white wheels. However, when you have big white TE37s and stance like this S2K, my automotive attraction level just goes through the roof! I love this car! If you want to see more on this car, let me know… but I think I’ll cut this installment of the coverage off right here, because I have to leave and get some things done!

I have A LOT more photos from Nisei, so look out for those on the website by tonight… but right now, I gotta make like a newborn and head out!

Stay tuned to MotorMavens for more photos from Nisei Showoff!

:: Antonio Alvendia

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