Words by and photos by Vinnie Nguyen and Joe Glockner | This is part 2 of WekFest LA 2012 coverage. See part 1 here.
Growing up in Washington, we’ve been used to enjoying car lifestyle during roughly two months of sunshine and the other ten with the rain in effect or always looming! With great weather and fresh cars that we’re used to only seeing in mags, a SoCal import show has been on our to-do list for quite some time.
With some time off from the cloud filled Pacific Northwest weather, June 2nd became the perfect excuse for us to come down for a show; WekFest at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. After attending Wekfest San Francisco, all we can say is that Wekfest LA was all it was expected to be! Back in San Fran, it felt in a way crazy because you were pushing and shoving your way through the crowd masses. Here in LA, the vibe was laid back and chill. Being in LA was such a welcome change, not only for the weather, but more importantly for the sheer volume of quality rides to check out. You could literally spend the whole day shooting down here, car after car. Even though we love the PNW automotive scene, we must give it to the So-Cal scene because they can clean up well.
Luckily, we also had friends living in Southern California that were willing to show us around the city and join us for the show. We arrived with a fairly long line to get into the show, but it moved quick and we were in shortly after, ready to find some material to drool over. Stance was definitely the name of this game, with a slew of VIP cars as soon as you entered.
The first section had a nice variety, with Z cars, Scions, GTRs, super-clean Hondas, and one to stand back in awe of: a legit Top-Sceret Mark IV Supra. We loved pouring over the details and quality of this purpose-built monster.
Several vendors were there to represent and try and snag some business so you can see the newest wares in person, including fresh new wheels! Super Street’s Jonathan Wong made an appearance with some nice ladies, including his beautiful Osaka-Kanjo-Performance EF Civic hatch and Project G’s custom-bodied Miata.
Moving out of the parking lot, we found the main event, the huge grassy lawn of Queen Mary Park: completely covered with dope rides! Walking on along the path, you came to what was a flawless, cream-toned 1st gen Cressida sitting on white BBSs faced head-to-head with a slammed 1st gen LS400 on massive Work rims, all with the Queen Mary in the background! Perfect fitment on both and with the appropriate positioning of two of Toyota’s flagships from different generations it really made for an incredible shot.
Turning to check out the rest of the lawn, brought us to rows upon rows of VIP cars, the 20+ strong Royal Flush crew, the impressive Miatas of Project G and so much more. The back stretch brought you to the pristine civics of the Bandits crew along other some top-notch Hondas – these Hondas were some of the cleanest in the show.
Heading away from the water, we noticed a crowd jeering and waving at the stop light just outside the fence. Classic: every car that rolled up was greeted with burnout demands from the small crowd! What’s a car show without a little trouble, right? After a watching a few drivers give in, we moved on to something that brought a smile to our faces: a long row of S-chassis cars! The largest group coming from FX Auto Design, a well-represented crew with several really clean cars.
With our hunger for fresh cars satisfied but a different hunger brewing for food, we decided to call it a day and head our for some grub. In all, the event was everything we expected. We love the NW, but we’ll be back to Cali soon for another round! Many thanks to Weksos Industries for allowing us to attend the event.
