Spocom Hawaii 2022 Part 1
When tourists travel to the beautiful island of Oahu for vacation, they usually do the typical sight seeing, beach bumming, and shopping around Waikiki. I do that every now and then, but for the most part I mainly go down to kick it with the local homies, do business along with car stuff, and most importantly go on super ono food adventures! One of my all time favorite shows, Spocom Hawaii, finally returned after 3 years! Due to the pandemic, there has been many cancellations and postponed dates, but they finally made it happen since things are pretty much back to normal. Till this day, they remain to be the hottest local car show featuring some of the finest local & mainland models! This was my 7th time attending this specific show, and it keeps getting better! This year’s event was definitely another success with a whole lot of new builds and huge spectator attendance that involved a constant long line outside the door. Some said they waited over an hour just to get in! I mainly include the roll-in coverage for all the first parts of my event posts, and sadly I didn’t capture that much for this show since I had a lot of catching up to do with some old friends and meeting new ones. Although I still had a great time like always! This year’s trip was pretty meaningful since it marked 10 years of traveling down there, and it’s pretty crazy how many friends I’ve made & how much I evolved myself into the community. Realistically, a good amount of those friends turned out to become a big Ohana of mine.
Chris Calimlim came out hard with his all carbon MK4 Supra. There have been many variations of his build over the years, and after 7 tries of attending Spocom he was finally able to achieve the ‘Best of Show’ award! Very well deserved in my opinion.
JP Damo always comes through with his Spoon Sports Certified S2000, equipped with the full GT Kit, 3DGT wing, and custom powder coated Regamaster EVO II’s to resemble the OG Spoon SW388 wheels. He took home 2nd place ‘Best Honda’. I believe JP’s car is still overlooked at and underrated, especially since he’s one of the few that rocks this kit, but it will always be one of my all time favorite S2K’s.
Mike Matsumoto switched up to the Euro scene and debuted his Ferrari 360 Modena F1 sitting on ADV. 1 wheels. He has many plans for it, and I’m pretty stoked. Woooo!!!
The Varis F82 M4 built by Bulletproof Automotive looking good as usual.
Shayne Javier waiting to get staged in his aggressively stanced out STi.
Alan Wong rarely brings his car out, except for Spocom. His Rocket Bunny FD RX-7 really is a neck breaker powered by a three-rotor 20B motor and rolling on super wide Work Emotion CR2P wheels.
One of the insane builds that debuted at the show was this twin turbo LSX swapped 240SX owned by Jarin Ray, rocking a full Rocket Bunny V2 Aero and custom Work VS-XX wheels. He killed it and won 1st place ‘Best Nissan’. I messed up by not snapping a photo of his engine, but I guess that’ll have to wait until next year.
It’s always nice to see Dean Pang’s 1971 Nissan Skyline GT-R, especially since it’s a one-of-a-kind custom Hako that not too many people build.
Mark D’s M45 representing Empire VIP Family x Steep Streets.
Ryan Kumabe always makes a neck breaking entrance with his half bridgeport FD RX-7 rocking an RE Amemiya kit and Work VS-ZF wheels.
One car I was finally able to see in person was Keila Kinjo’s S14 Zenki. I love how everything flows well with the clean paint job, Navan front bumper, Work VS-KF’s, and heart shaped parts all around. Super Kawaii indeed! 💕
Madison Casey’s S13 coupe fitted with a BN Sports kit, Ganador mirrors, and Work VS-XX’s. I met him at Cafe Gangnam the previous night, and he’s a real chill guy. Didn’t realize how famous he is until he followed me on IG [I’m honored 🙌🏼].
Lance Harano never fails to show out & win with his TE27 Corolla Trueno Sprinter. This car super flawless in & out, powered by a chromed out 2TG engine with ITB’s.
Another flawless old school that made a debut was Del Sumailo’s 1971 TE27 Corolla.
I’ve always loved Devan Otaguro’s VIP inspired UCF20 LS400 put together with a custom one-off front bumper, Work Meister S1 3P’s, and a whole lot of Junction Produce goodies. He’s been representing Mansu Hawaii hard for many years and took home 3rd place ‘Best VIP’.
The Otaguro brothers really must love Work Meisters, but there’s nothing wrong with that since they’re great looking wheels. Aden pulled up with his 2JZ-GTE swapped GS300. It’s still a work in progress, but I love it!
Cambered out dark cherry GS300 on Weds Kranze LXZ wheels owned by aysondawg.
Nothing.illegal.here from Team After Party helped debut his brother’s GS300 built with a 2JZ-NAT, K.BREAK front bumper, and SSR Vienna Kreis wheels.
Tyler Cayateno from The Cruisin Company came out with his 240SX refreshed with a Type X kit, Ganadors, and chrome Work Emotion XT7’s. Turns out this was the same chassis that the homie Mark Real built quite a while ago.
A nice & clean S14 Kouki tucked with chrome Blitz 03’s. I dig the RSR exhaust peeking out the rear bumper.
The RevHI booth had an awesome setup displaying many goods they had to offer and even included a couple of Initial D arcades and a key master machine.
Noah from RevHI also displayed his NA1 NSX sitting low on custom BBS LM’s. He was so busy running his booth that he didn’t even know that he won an award for 2nd place ‘Best Acura’ 😅.
The homie Mike Mariani debuted his sick Accord Wagon at the RACESAUCE booth, equipped with a one-off custom wide body kit and fully custom Racing Hart C5 wheels. It’s crazy because I’ve known of Mike for a couple years, but never met him until Spocom. This guy flexed about 50+ citations on his dashboard during the show 🤣 Wanna know another flex? He has another souped up Accord Wagon that was originally built by Lance Akagi, and was featured on Super Street a decade ago.
The bro & JZ Guru himself, Martin Phan, was able to put his vision together and introduced his brand ‘JZfilth’ to the community. How many booths have you seen displaying a fully built 2JZ-GTE? None! For those that are curious, the motor is for sale. He had the perfect team helping out the booth including Gabe De Peralta, Lia Tengan, and even his dad!
It’s been many years since Martin attended a show with one of his cars, but it was fitting to debut his 2JZ swapped MK3 Supra along with his JZ platform. This is hands down one of the best A70 Supra’s out there! Another accomplishment was that Martin got his car featured in Super Street a few months ago. Proud of all of his success!
One of the main cars I was looking forward to checking out was Josh Harada’s IS300. This car is perfect & well executed, and the details would blow your mind. You’ll see more info about it on the next blog post 😉
I have a shitload of work to catch up on, but I’ll definitely release the rest of my coverage very soon. Thanks for reading & stay tuned!
