August 7, 2016
Back in 2014, when i first finished my car, the first car show i ever drove my car to was Wekfest at the Edison Convention Center, not as a participant, but rather as a spectator. Back then, i never thought my car was quite up to par with the rest of the show cars i witnessed there that day. Although, on the way to that show, a few people outside the showed yelled to me that i parked in the wrong place and i should’ve been parked inside. On a side note, Wekfest 2014 was also the first time i met Ted. Fast forward 2 years later, Ted shot me a message a few months prior asking me to register for Wekfest…according to him, this would be my gift to him as the show usually falls on or around his birthday. Of course i didn’t have much choice since he put it that way, so i registered for the show. By now, i knew (but still don’t really understand) that people liked my car, so i never really doubted that i would get into the show, but when i got the acceptance email, i was still grateful and excited that people haven’t seen past the veil yet.
Roll-in shot by Chris O'Neal Photography
Roll in for Wekfest was around 8am on Sunday. I was hoping to be able to drop my car off, go to church, then come back for the show, but now i know better that there just isn’t that much downtime. You would think you have a lot of free time at car shows, but turns out it’s quite the opposite. I met up with Ted at Dunkin Donuts in Piscataway, then we drove down together to the Edison Convention Center. This being my first indoor show and me being the noob that i am, i arrived with a little over a half tank of gas! Anyone who’s done an indoor show before would know that due to fire safety regulations, show cars aren’t supposed to have more than a quarter tank of gas. Being scared that they wouldn’t let me into the show, i drove back out onto 287 and revved the crap out of my car, which is highly uncharacteristic of me as i normally baby my car big time when driving on the street. I managed to get it down to just slightly over the quarter full mark by the time i got back to the convention center. Luckily our crew, team Regiment Zero, was still sitting outside in the parking lot waiting to be called into the building.
Team Regiment Zero chilling outside in the parking lot waiting to be called in
Team Regiment Zero making sure RX-7s had adequate representation at Wekfest. Photo by Jeffrey of JLiu Photography.
After taking a few group photos and chatting with some of the teammates, we finally got called in. On another side note, freakin’ Ted decided last minute not to enter his car in the show because he was embarrassed by the paint of his new front bumper. Everyone on the team tried to make him bring the car in. I even threatened to leave if he didn’t, but alas, he wouldn’t budge. He said he did it as a sign of respect for the event coordinators because he didn’t want to bring down the level of quality at the show. I guess i can respect that mentality as i feel the same way about my car.
A shot of Ted's mismatched front bumper by FrankiFohdoh of AllThingsProper. Really doesn't look bad at all.
I never thought i'd see the day when i actually got to park next to 2 GT-Rs from different generations. Dreams do come true!
The gracious crew at Wekfest gave Regiment Zero a huge corner of the building and we got all the cars lined up in a U-shape. Ted even had them place me right at the front next to the team’s omori flag. *blush*
Photo by Jeff Liu of Jliu Photography
Photo by Jeff Liu of Jliu Photography
Once we got all the cars set up i got a chance to look around at some of the cars in attendance. To be honest, that’s probably my favorite part of going to car shows; being able to look at all the cars before the large crowds come in and make it hard to get a good look.
Photo by Jeff Liu of Jliu Photography
Photo by Jeff Liu of Jliu Photography
Photo by Jeff Liu of Jliu Photography
Photo by Jeff Liu of Jliu Photography
As i’ve already seen a majority of the cars in attendance, there really wasn’t anything that jumped out at me. Ironically enough, the one car that i was really excited to see was a stock car. Well, technically, it’s not really stock, but it is OEM as that’s how they come from the factory. And that car would be the NISMO R35 GTR. Turns out there were actually two in attendance, but the one i preferred was the stock one. Lucky for me, the car was part of Regiment Zero so i had plenty of time to look it over and take pictures.
Ok, i take it back, while i've already seen Phil's car many times at various events, every time i see it in a new setting/lighting, i still get just as excited as the first time i saw his car. His build is perfect on so many levels...exterior, engine bay, interior...he's ticked off all the right boxes for a proper RE-Amemiya style build. I dare say his paint is even better than some of the RE-Amemiya built cars! (blasphemy i know!)
Photo by FrankiFohdoh of AllThingsProper
Photo by FrankiFohdoh of AllThingsProper
There was just something about the way the indoor lighting hit his paint and changed the tone of the car, but the color just popped out right at your face. It was hard to miss that's for sure. Seeing his car in that atmosphere and lighting, it's not hard to see why he won 1st place Mazda at Wekfest.
When the time came for the awards ceremony, i headed over to see which cars won. Normally i’m not too concerned about awards because i don’t go to shows to win trophies, but recently i’ve been feeling like it’s disrespectful to the event organizers not to attend the ceremony, so out of respect for the people who work so hard to put the show together, i walked over to observe the award winners. The ceremony took quite long as there were many categories and they awarded two winners per category, a 1st and a 2nd place trophy. The most surprising winner of all came when they called my name for 2nd place Mazda. I’ve never really won a trophy before so i was pretty shy walking up to collect it. But i admit, it was nice to have friends congratulate me as i walked back with my trophy. I’m grateful for having my car recognized at such a high profile show like Wekfest.
With Wekfest coming to an end, everyone was now looking forward to the next big event, First Class Fitment. This was an especially exciting event for me as well as the rest of the east coast rotary community because the 7th annual First Class Fitment was soon to be tagged as the #rotaryrivalry of 2016. Stay tuned for more.
Some shots of my car that i liked. This interior shot was nice because i rarely see any shots of the inside since there's really not much to look at. Shot by Kyle of FrontStreetMedia.
I liked this rear shot of my car showing off the new rear cut outs that others have complimented me on, but i'm still not 100% sure about them. I do like them more than a couple of months ago but it's still not perfect. Shot by Kyle of FrontStreetMedia.
And here's my favorite shot from the show, if not my favorite shot of all time by Christopher James. It's hard to believe this was actually taken at the show and not in some studio. I've seen other similar shots from similar angles, but none compare to the dynamic lighting that Chris did on this shot in post processing. Incredible.
Wekfest #TheChosenFew 
