Wekfest Chicago Premeet

To kick off Wekfest Chicago, we collaborated with Wekfest for yet another pre-meet. Our relationship with Wekfest began eight years ago, with the inaugural Chicagoland event. I always look forward to help organizing a pre-meet as it’s more casual and even gives the wekfest staff an opportunity to kick back and relax before the stress of their big show. Out-of-towners are always looking for something to do, and of course the locals need to go somewhere to burn fuel. Here are a handful of shots I took on Saturday. Look out for more coverage of the actual show later on this week. I’ll share these on instagram (JDMCHICAGO and Super Street), so please tag the owners if you recognize the car.

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JDMC/ Season Opener- Saturday May 12

We are looking forward to our 9th annual season opener. This year, we are teaming up with Team IC. Click here to access our facebook event page.

Custom Show Emirates

In the previous post, I took you guys on a small shop tour at Carbon Signal in Dubai. One of the main reasons for my trip was to check out the Custom Show Emirates and to see what all the hype was all about.

This event is a bit like SEMA with various manufacturers showcasing their products and automotive/bike builds. It also had elements of a proper car show you would see stateside. The show took place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center for about 3 days. If anyone has been to SEMA before, you know you need a minimum of 3 days to cover all the halls. For this show, I was able to cover everything in about 1/2 day. That doesn’t necessarily mean the show was small, it just put into prospective the massive scale of SEMA.

Once again I have to give special thanks to Carbon Signal and Elite Autosports for sponsoring the trip. Elite had a very nice booth at the show with ample seating to lounge, as well as showcasing some of their current builds (photos below).

GTR’s- The fine folks of the UAE love their GTR’s…. and I mean LOVE them. As you can see in my pics, the sheer amount of skyline/GTR’s took me by surprise. I dont think I’ve ever seen this many in one place. Right hand drive (RHD) isn’t technically allowed in the UAE (unless you go through an exception process), so you’ll notice many of these cars have been converted to left hand drive. Just goes to show the passion for JDM cars. As you would expect, there were tons of exotic cars abundant throughout the UAE. It was a nice surprise to see many niche Japanese cars throughout my trip.

This is a massive image dump, give this a minute to load up. Click on each photo for a higher res version.

A Visit to Carbon Signal

Last month I had an opportunity to visit Dubai. Huge thanks to Elite Autosports and Carbon Signal for sponsoring the trip. Carbon Signal Co-Owners Aamir and Lutfi moved into a new shop, and of course I jumped on the opportunity to check out their new digs. A complete coincidence, but I also ran into friends from Japan- Terry Nagata, Masahiro Sudo, Saiki Mori, and Noriaki Miyamoto. With only my 85mm lens in hand, I took some teaser pics you guys can enjoy below. Note that I did not want to reveal too much on the Carbon Signal cars, as I’m currently editing a set for Super Street Magazine… more to come!

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Aamir doing a bit of detailing on a cusomer’s 4 door Hakosuka. I believe this one went to a customer in Saudi Arabia.

A nice set of Glowstar wheels on the Carbon Signal “Hakobird.” This car essentially started out as a base Nissan Bluebird, but some Hakosuka elements transformed it to what you see today.

Moonbeam Gnose s30.

TE37v’s in 16″ fit perfectly on the hakosuka.

Nissan competition style seats made in house by Carbon Signal. Really nice Nappa leather with suede details. I believe this was the “wider” version.

Saiki Mori and Sudo San….

Jerry’s 1981 Toyota Corolla (E70)- Super Street Feature!

At last year’s Wekfest I spotted this really cool Corolla liftback. As a freelance photographer for Super Street Magazine, I feel I have a solid idea what they typically will feature. Although I don’t make the final decision, this car checked all of my boxes. I was confident when I pitched the car to the editor. These days it’s difficult to find a really well rounded build, but the ones the individuals who spend the time and effort definitely stand out. Congrats to Jerry Cerda on his feature in the annual “Toyota Issue” of Super Street. Click here to read the actual article. It seems as if the photo quality is degraded a tad in the link, so here are the high res images. Click on each photo for the full size.