It’s not often that an auto show
series comes around to the Northeast region as big and respected as Wekfest.
Its usual venues are up and down the West
Coast, but as of last year, they’ve been touring the United States something
many enthusiasts had been anticipating since the first Wekfest was birthed a
couple of years back in California. Wekfest has a history of top-notch street
and show cars, bringing in thousands of spectators, and providing an all-around
well-organized car show environment to its attendees. This stop at Edison, N J,
was no different.
Mitsubishi
Evo X
Showtime
The sun is rising, and it’s almost 4
o’clock in the morning as cars exit the New Jersey turnpike and begin to roll
in. Many, if not most, have been getting their cars ready in preparation for
this end of the summer show since its announcement in the spring. The news
traveled far and wide; car enthusiasts from Illinois, Massachusetts, the
Tristate region, and as far as Florida and Ontario, Canada, have come to the
event center to show their cars, their teams, and reconnect with friends.
As the cars finished rolling in around
noon, the line of antsy and excited spectators grew rapidly. Hundreds of people
stood outside the venue waiting to pass through the metal detectors in single
file (odd to say the least).
Toyota
MR2
Those who have been active in the show
series circuit on the East Coast over the past decade and a half (HIN, NOPI,
XDC/Remix) could surely recognize a good amount of faces and their cars. Some
moved on to new cars and some got new paintjobs or wheels, while some went
all-out with bigger turbochargers, shaved/ filled bays, wire-tucks, wide-body
kits, motor swaps, and more. Regardless, the mixture of cars from different
regions of the eastern half of America and Canada was refreshing to see.
JDM Chicago, Auto Concept Elite - East, and
Team Emotion definitely brought their A-game. JDM Chicago had a heavy fleet of
tastefully modified cars, including a full Varis wide-body kitted blue
Mitsubishi Evo X and a Root Beer second-gen Toyota MR2 amongst other builds.
Auto Concept Elite - East brought some variety with a VIP- themed Lexus IS,
track-ready Evo VIII and Honda S2000, Veilside Nissan 350Z, and others.
However, the team who really had the crowds in awe, without a doubt, was Team
Emotion. They featured a wide variety of builds from two jaw-dropping Subarus
(Joy Abdalla - Best Subaru; Alex Witkin - Best of Show), a stunning Evo X on
purple TE37’s, to a completely insane race-inspired Acura NSX.
Lexus
SC430
Surprisingly enough, there were also plenty
of JDM/righthand-drive cars in attendance including a Midnight Purple Nissan Skyline
R34, a few more Skylines, and two white Nissan Silvia S14s. Liberty VIP's
beautiful gold Lexus SC430 on Weds Kranze Bazreias drew in crowds the whole day
and rightfully so. Other honorable mentions include TMW/Najeeb’s White Evo
VIII, Team Emotion’s Pearl White fender-flared Lexus IS, and AMS Autowerks’
Gray Evo VIII.
Keep on the lookout for the next WekFest
event near you by visiting www.wekfest.com. It surely lives up to the hype!
