WEKFEST SEATTLE 2019
Words: Vinnie Nguyen Images: Sergio Mendoza
A bit late, but better late than never right?
Since our inception in 2010, we’ve seen our community’s momentum go up and down. There was a high point where everyone was building their cars and attending all of the major shows held not only by us, but others as well. The passion for their cars were there, allowing the older and younger generation to share ideas and learn from one another. But the generational change between various car builders became apparent when many (not all) younger car builders started building their cars for the sake of gaining recognition from others. Having people recognize your work is not a bad thing, but it seems like that is the only goal these days. Taking advice from older generation car builders is seen as doing it old school and not yielding enough popularity. Short cuts are taken and quick turnaround times are expected. The need to take time to build a car properly doesn’t seem to register with many people. Everyone is out to build a car that is visually appealing, but once you take a closer look, you see what the car lacks. The answer is time, which is a blessing and a curse.
The Pacific Northwest is notorious for its gloomy weather and while places like Southern California have the luxury of being able to enjoy their cars year round, we do not. Most of us tend to store our prized cars most of the year, and bring them out during the summer. As time goes by, the motivation to pull such cars out tends to fade. Priority’s change resulting in a lot of these iconic cars to sit under covers collecting dust. The older generation of car builder grows up or loses interest, which leaves the community to the younger generation. We weren’t saying that it’s a bad thing, but with the trend of building cars for the recognition of others, everything gets affected. We admit that though we don’t do as many shows as we used to, we’ve noticed a change in the show/meet landscape. The competitiveness of competing in shows has become lost among those who seek to win solely because they feel entitled. There is no sense of pride of executing a car properly anymore. Meets get ruined by those who think doing burn outs and excessively revving will garner them popularity points. In our opinion, our community became segmented and many became burnt out.
In comes Wekfest.
We’ve known about Wekfest for quite a while. Some of us first attended their show back in 2012 at Fort Mason in The Bay. And when they first came to Seattle in 2017, we were ecstatic. We felt a change in our community. Flames that we thought were burnt out were rekindled and many of the older generation car builders were in their garages wrenching on their cars. Many were showing their cars again, iconic cars were no longer collecting dust. There was excitement and passion back in the Pacific Northwest. It really feels like the community is getting back to its old self, or possibly a better version of itself.
The past few years of Wekfest Seattle did not disappoint and last month, Wekfest Seattle 2019 was no exception. We were hearing and seeing rumbles of new builds set to debut at the show which caused us to be more excited. We had decided to not have a booth at the show this year and a few of us decided to partake in on the fun and show our cars as well. It’s definitely a less stressful experience than hosting an event. We were able to sit back, relax, and catch up with familiar faces as we walked around the event center.
One of our favorite builds at the show was Ron’s Acura Integra Type R with the unmistakable Crowhouse front end. He brought out the car to HondafestNW back in April and it’s always a delight to see him and his car. The amount of detail in his build is insane. From the exterior of his car with its Mugen wing, J’s Racing fenders and Volk CE28Ns to the K-swapped engine bay with custom titanium piping, ARC pieces and much more, there is no denying that Ron has one of the best Type R’s in the Pacific Northwest.
A build that we were excited to see belonged to Joe Rawket from Team Menace. He definitely surprised everyone with his Veilside Fortune Mazda RX-7. In this day and age of technology, we were surprised that Joe was able to keep this build under wraps. For the conceptualization and design, Joe worked with our friends from Namsayin. For the actual build itself, well known SoCal shop, LTMW took on the project. Both teams definitely killed the execution. Congrats Joe!
It’s also worth mentioning that Joe’s team, Team Menace was celebrating their 20th anniversary. Established in 1999, Team Menace made their mark in the Pacific Northwest automotive community. Their builds are of the highest caliber and what sets them a part from other teams is their openness to educate others and their support of our local community. To get an idea of what Team Menace is all about, check out our article. They are a passionate group of individuals that we’re fortunate enough to call friends.
Al-Michael Franco with his 1996 Acura Integra. He’s had this car since high school! How many of you can say that?
Walter Franco with his supercharged 2013 Liberty Walk BRZ. Along with Al-Michael, David Kang and others, they are the minds behind Namsayin.
One of our favorite things about a show like Wekfest is that not only is it open to all makes and models, but open to different styles of cars as well. In one aisle, you saw Mark Wang’s gorgeous ATTKD Autech Tsukada kitted Nissan R34 and in another aisle, you saw a whole line up of lowlows making their presence known in the hall. It’s great to see car builders from different backgrounds with different tastes coming together to share their passions for cars with everyone. A show of this magnitude attracts all types of car enthusiasts.
Another car that we wanted to see, which also happens to be a Mazda RX-7 belonged to Austin Pennington of Never Content. Austin is a friend of ours and he had been hinting at an unveiling weeks leading up to Wekfest. Initially, we thought that he was going to be redoing his other Mazda RX-7, but to see him debut a completely different RX-7 blew everyone’s minds. This RX-7 was imported from Japan and fitted with the full Fujita Engineering FEED aero. The choice of pairing the car with Desmond Marquis Promadas complemented the car well.
As the day went on, we caught up with a lot of friends and met new faces. Learning about their builds is always great, but really getting to know the people behind the builds is what makes it even better. Creating relationships and connections within this community should be the main focus. As we were saying earlier, a lot of car builders are caught up with getting “clout” and creating superficial relationships therefore not being able to really benefit from what our community can offer. The Pacific Northwest is truly different from other areas in the US. Hearing people from California talk about how a lot of the car builders down there are somewhat elitist and because their builds have that “fame” about them, their noses are in the air. It’s the complete opposite up here. Everyone is willing to help one another.
Take Anish Kumar’s 1999 Mazda Miata build for example. The car you saw at the show was the culmination of the hard work that him and his friends put in. He was telling us that they were up all night and finished the car hours leading up to the show. To be frank, they looked pretty tired, but that smile on Anish’s face said it all. On the car, you see the fruits of their labor. His Miata was sporting many pieces from Garage Vary, like their front lip, canards, and eye lids on the front of the car and moving to the back, you’ll see Garage Vary tail light housings with Porter Cab lenses. You’ll also notice the JDM Mazdaspeed adjustable spoiler as well.
Oddly enough, the portion of the show that we really looked forward to was the roll out. Because the show ended around 6pm, the sunlight was perfect for photos. Hearing all of the cars come back to life and make their way out of the hall was really a sight to see.
One of the lowlows hitting that three wheel motion as they were rolling out. It’s crazy to think about the amount of work that goes into reinforcing the frame and chassis of these lowriders.
Huy Hoang and his 2003 Acura RSX Type-S or “Red Rum” rolling out into the evening sun. If you don’t know anything about Huy’s car, just know that the details and amount of work that went into the car will blow your minds.
Adrian Gonzalez and his 1999 Honda Civic SI. He also brought the car out to HondafestNW and is definitely one of our favorites.
Wekfest Seattle is an event that we’ll always look forward to. Though we hold our own events here in Washington, we always welcome new comers into the area. It’s their chance to really see what the Pacific Northwest has to offer. There’s passion here. There’s camaraderie here. We see it at our own events and without all of you contributing to this community, it wouldn’t be as special and eye opening to those who visit.
To the crew who put on Wekfest Seattle, we thank you for coming up and helping reignite the flame that many of us lost. We look forward to seeing you guys come back next year!