Wekfest Seattle 2024 Part 2
This year’s event kind of had a different, but good vibe to it. There was a very big and consistent crowd during the whole show. Maybe more & more people are now realizing that Wekfest is one of the best auto gatherings in the nation. The only thing sucked is that it went by like a breeze. Wished we had more time, but it’s just another thing we look forward to next year. It’s always good to see old friends and meet new ones. Cars really do bring people together in such a great way. But yeah, enjoy the rest of my coverage.
For those that aren’t familiar, Wekfest uses this glass covered area aka “The Fishbowl” right at the spectator entrance to feature some of the heavy hitters of the show. Amedeo Funaro’s UK imported DC2 Integra Type-R was perfect for the space.
The car went through a full restoration including a rotisserie paint job, and received almost every Spoon Sports part you can get from their catalog. This R is so fire! You won’t find a single flaw… He received the “Restomod of the Festival” award, and it was definitely well deserved 🙌🏼 It’s funny because a week after the show, Amadeo and I were in Hawaii at the same time, so we ended up hanging out for a bit with a couple of the local homies, and we simply had a great time.
The carbon kevlar bucket seats were nice additions to the interior.
Of course he has a signed Spoon steering wheel as well. All he’s missing is the highly sought after gauge cluster…
Even the original B18C6 got a nice refresh with a lot of Toda & Spoon replacements with the help from Garage Five Performance Tuning. The Toda Individual Throttle Bodies paired with the GruppeM air intake were the perfect touch.
Dru swapped in this 1JZ during the winter, and utilized quite a few RK Titanium parts. So dope!
Another angle of Jarryd Dang’s clean 997.
Jacob Romero’s JDM Evo 3 on formula silver TE37’s. I dig the blue accents all around the car.
I’m still amazed that the King Motorsports EP3 is now up here in the PNW, thanks to Huy Hoang. Funny because I found out a little over a week prior to the show that he purchased the car. Shoutout to the Hawaii homie & former EP3 owner, Alex Yang, for the intel 😂 But yeah, it’s crazy to see this in person since I remember seeing this in magazines when I was a kid. Almost as crazy as the Mugen jumpsuit he’s wearing 🤣 Congrats though on the latest pick up and winning the “Judges Choice” award, Huy!
Mugen coil cover, intake box, and quite a few bolts dressed around the bay.
Very clean set of S1 seats with classic Takata harnesses.
Double Unicorn Media brought out Kendan Anderson’s Deep Marine Blue R33 GT-R. Simple exterior with Ganador mirrors and Nismo LMGT4 wheels. They took home 1st Place “Skyline of the Festival” award.
Very nice RB26 setup that U.P. Garage helped build equipped with their own Step 3 head, HKS Step 2 Stroker, V-Cam, and many more. Love their own carbon airbox fitted with the HKS 5R turbo, and of course the ARC filter.
Now that I think about it, Loc Nguyen’s DC2 kind of reminds me of how Ron Khamphouvong’s Type-R looked a decade ago except for the different generation Mugen wing, Regas instead of TE’s, and a few other things lol. Nonetheless, they’re both great looking cars.
Loc slapped in a K-swap with a J’s Racing valve cover, C’s Customizing raw billet plug cover, MPC Motorsport fuel rail, SBS RBC manifold, and titanium intake.
I recall Vu Nguyen pulling up to my “Cars with Sole” meet last summer with just a simple drop and Mugen MF10’s on his EK9 Civic Type-R. For the show, he switched over to some nicely spec’d bronze CE28’s, First Molding lip, and J’s Racing wing.
It’s pretty safe to say Tony Dau is a perfectionist when it comes to presentation. I never bothered nitpicking his GT3 since he already posted the tiniest flaws a while back, unless he fixed those already. Although I do remember Jacob calling him out for not cleaning up his windshield, but that’s it lol. I wondered why he propped open the frunk with a microfiber. I guess it’s a Porsche thing when disconnecting the batteries…
Lazar Matic’s JDM FD RX-7 on 57DR’s.
Rich Alejandro brought down his F80 and X5 with the help of Tommy Nguyen. He removed the San Marino Blue wrap off the M3 for a more sleek look to match the SUV he bagged and also got a set of TE’s for as well. Pretty cool family car to me!
Lester de Gracia’s FK8 suited with a full Varis widebody kit and mag blue TE37SL’s that took 2nd Place “Honda of the Festival”. Congrats pare!
Thomas Strom’s ‘97 ITR will always be a crowd pleaser. From all the rare Mugen and Optional parts he has, it’s just perfect. He switched over the CE28’s on the driver side to some custom grey MF10’s.
He didn’t show out last year, but he came back and reminded everyone that he’s still the best by taking home 2 awards: 1st Place Type-R and Engine Bay 👏🏼
Alex Bliss’ super clean & bagged ‘63 Lincoln Continental.
Michael Sabonchi’s AE86 Corolla coupe on Work Equip 01’s posted next to the Stateside Garage booth. I didn’t get the chance to meet him at the show, but I do follow him on IG and have to mention that he’s an awesome photographer and car builder.
Pretty cool Datsun 510 Wagon from BC.
Alex’s super clean 911 on BBS LM’s refinished in brushed champagne.
I’ll always appreciate 96-98 EK sedans, mainly because that was my first car, and Stephen Jo’s Civic was something I liked a lot. Simple exterior involving a First Molding lip, TE37SL’s, and Domani rear end.
Not many people do H22 swaps anymore, but Stephen managed to do it with ease and enjoys the streets of Vancouver, WA. He takes advantage of the free carbon fiber he gets from a secret source, and makes some custom parts including an intake box, cooling plate, and even a rear seat delete. It’s stuff like this that makes this car more unique.
Khit Lim’s milano red EG hatch with a Spoon lip & duckbill, EG6 headlights, and mag blue CE28’s.
I give Khit props because days prior to the show, I seen on his stories that he was putting in the B-swap on a rainy night on the sidewalk… Talk about crunch time and doing whatever it takes lol.
Yevgeniy Gatala’s SiR inspired EG hatch on bronze CE’s and Spoon calipers. I feel like almost every EG has a Spoon lip either on their car, or at home lol.
Another clean B-swap…
AJ Rodriguez stays true to the “OEM Plus” look on his EM1. A true 00’s look with the Mugen SS lip, J’s First Molding hood, Magical Racing RR Type 1 carbon mirrors, and EK9 headlights & clear side markers. I’m used to seeing his car with 16’s, but I’m feeling the OG bronze 15x6.5 +39 TE’s he scored on a raffle from Fred de Leon. For some 25 year old wheels, the condition is still strong!
Simple bay including a Spoon Sports carbon kevlar plug cover & strut bar, GFAB titanium intake pipe, and of course matching blue C’s Customizing reservoir covers.
Mike Leckie got a lot going on with his sedan. The assorted carbon kevlar accents go well with the gold RG1’s. Pretty damn good if you ask me.
From Spoon, to Mugen, to C’s, he got it all.
Rob Smith Jr.’s RHD EG hatch looking well on white CE’s and Spoon brakes.
He decided to swap in a CTR B16B motor some time ago since not many people are running them. Mikee Andrada, aka M-FAB, was able to whip up a titanium intake just before summer.
Ekk Sengchantha’s super sick E30 on BBS Super RS wheels. He did the Millenium Jade wrap himself prior to the event. Perfect choice and great work overall.
Ekk slapped in this K24 turbo swap utilizing quite a few TF-Works parts, Radium Engineering fuel rail, and KPower Industries manifold. Definitely one of the best E30’s up here in the Northwest!
I kinda messed up and forgot to snap a photo of Ken Sugawara’s new engine setup, but…
I did capture the moment of him showing off the bay to The Chronicles himself, Joey Lee.
Daniel Glavan purchased this ‘99 Spec R S15 Silvia some time ago, but stored it in Canada until it became legal this year. Very clean color and proper ride height sitting on 18” TE’s. This car is perfect as is.
Intec Racing brought up the Active x Greddy Performance R32 GT-R to celebrate 20 years as an authorized dealer for Greddy. The full dry carbon body is definitely something you need to check out for yourself. They debuted the car last SEMA, which marked No. 8 that Kenji Sumino played a huge part in. I remember witnessing Kazushige Sakamoto’s No. 1 & 2 Carbon-R in person at Tokyo Auto Salon 2018, and my jaw just dropped. So to see this, especially in my hometown, is definitely a locked in memory.
The Greddy long block paired with a GR76 single turbo punches in a whole lot of power for this sweet R.
Love the mix of sporty and luxurious interior.
Renegade Motorsports/Enjin Haus continues to 1-Up themselves with their booth. For this year’s show, they added in 3 driving simulators [of course they’re all S2000s] and even a spacious lounge. Pretty damn neat. I finally got to meet the man who runs the whole operation, Hiep, and he’s a real cool guy. Apparently he was already familiar with who I was many thanks to our good mutual friend & fellow Honda enthusiast, Wayne Denman.
Brandon Johnson from Renegade brought up his S2K equipped with a J’s Racing front half spoiler with twin canards, JDM AP1 headlights, and Spoon mirrors. Love the staggered wheel setup he got going on with Prodrive GC07C’s up front and Regamaster Marquis Promadas for the rear in a matching colorway. Peep the Renegade x APG big brake kit he got too… BALLER!
Had the pleasure of meeting Mario Chan, the founder & designer of Golden Wrench. I was always familiar with his brand from all the Bimmer homies, especially Alex Tran and Omar Sa. Mario debuted this GR Corolla last SEMA, and it’s hella dope in person. I like how the Sayber Design 3 piece carbon lip kit flows well with the EpsilonAero wing and Midnight Green Metallic wrap from Impressive Wrap. The BBS LM-R wheels were the right set for this specific build.
Of course Mario is gonna dress up the bay with his own line of parts: BLACKLINE ⬛️⚫️
Omar Sa transported up his Clean M3 from the Bay Area like he did back in 2021 for WF as well, but this time he didn’t bring in someone else’s car… It was actually him driving it LOL! Always good to see an old homie enjoy the good life in the industry all around the world, but also show out and appreciate their roots.
Omar went hoodless to flex the ESS Tuning supercharger and all the Golden Wrench BLACKLINE goodies.
I believe Umer Khokhar finally managed to dial in his fitment properly with the aggressive TE’s he’s rocking. Other than that, no major changes except for a clean set of Recaro RS-GS bucket seats. Still looks great!
I lied… Looks like he added a carbon spark plug cover.
Always good to see kuya Galileo Galang and his awesome EG hatch. Not sure if he did anything major to it ever since last summer, except for it being more reliable lol. He recently picked up a DE5 Integra Type-S, so I’m sure he’s gonna be more focused on that car. I finally met his lovely wife, Hannah, and I’m looking forward to hanging with them more whenever I come up to visit.
I believe this was the first time Gal made it down and back in one peace. He had a slight hiccup right after last year’s show, but it was a blessing in disguise since we were able to kick it at Mikey’s house where I got to meet a lot of the other Vancouver homies.
Jason Leung’s Corolla will forever be a top 5 AE86 for me. Everything is just perfect. He opted for Work Equip 03’s this time, which he called “Hotboy wheels”… I think they’re a true classic for this chassis.
I’m hoping to catch him on the track eventually so I can hear this Toda 4AG with ITB’s scream.
It’s been about 3 years since Backyard Boogie last showed, so best believe Sven went all out for the display. The backdrops were a huge eye pleaser, and the tiles were very necessary to go along with it.
I just now realized Johnny didn’t slap on his MF10L’s, which would’ve been perfect for this lineup. Oh well… The diamond black TE’s went with his theme.
Johnny Hor went through a solid refresh this past winter involving an engine bay respray and K-swap.
Christian Umagat picked up this EG hatch from his bro-in-law, and went straight to tearing it down at the shop once he got the keys. He went with a Toyota Celestite Blue off a Corolla, and it goes with the Mugen M7’s.
Christian actually bought Johnny’s built GSR motor from him, so the timing was perfect. He snapped the timing belt after a few pulls, but it was cake. No valves were bent. Talk about a solid debut and proper break in lol.
Sven Malla, aka Ben, still has one of the best EF sedans out there. He tends to get a little taste of everything with all the wheels he has/went through. He managed to score these 20th Anniversary Mugen MR-5 from the homie. An interesting color combo that some will underestimate, but it’s fire!
Ben unfortunately blew his B16, but he came up on this built B18C1 and it’s freakin’ quick! He reused the Hush Performance catch can and M-FAB titanium intake. He also got one of his valve covers refinished in the traditional Mugen B-series color, and added on Felty Fabrication titanium coil pack covers. Proper presentation at it’s finest.
Holly Phan switched up the Gram Lights and is now rocking these mag blue TE’s. She even added Spoon calipers and a BRIDE x VERTEX bucket seat.
Ryan Desiderio didn’t really do much to his Aztec Green EG the past few years. I think maybe because he picked up an AP2 from his uncle, so I’m sure he wants to focus on that.
Blessed to be part of a cool squad 😎
And here it is… The 2024 Best of Show winner. Terry Suvonnarith got 2nd place last year, but this time there was only 1 and he dominated it. Terry did a lot of work on the car this past winter/spring including a new subframe, JRZ suspension, and a lot of little stuff you can’t see. I didn’t get any pics of it, mainly since I wanted to just enjoy & appreciate the details. But here’s a decent one of him chopping it up with a few other Trik Speed members and OG Honda builders. Congrats again to the hometown hero!
Check out these 2 First place winners… Aaron Chau hit Best NSX, while Chinh Do achieved Best Acura. Bravo gentlemen 🤜🏼🤛🏼
Another shot of Ekk’s E30 rolling out…
Thanks for reading! I got some things cooking up for the summer, so stay tuned on IG!
