Hey RC Readers! Despite it being endless Summer in SoCal, you better believe I’ve been in the Orewood brown Jordan 3s holding mugs with two hands the last few weeks. Fall in LA, outside of the pumpkin chai coming back to Starbucks (let me live), is all about good turbo weather, track season crunch time, and getting back to enjoying meets now that it isn’t in the high 90s anymore.
I’ve been missing my friends at Lexus, but getting back to school has meant more time back behind the camera shooting recently. There are a few meets included in this post where I finally felt like I had my camera settings dialed in and it let me catch some cool moments. I hope you enjoy the coverage of Racing Couture’s August and September— if you see your car or want any shots, please let me know! We love seeing the tags on Instagram.
Moving forward, there’s a super packed October to get excited for, with JCCS, Wekfest, 240Tuesdays, and plenty of other things in the works. Stay tuned for lots of cool content to come!
August started off with a meet I actually went to twice. Apparently tired of driving his unbelievably clean Aimgain Ultra Luxury Lexus LS430, @VIP__Will brought out his new Evo for the first Rank’d meet he was hosting. I was so excited for the chill Sunday morning hang hosted at Smoking Tiger that I chose to completely disregard the invite I was sent and showed up to Cerritos on Saturday morning.
Trial run out of the way to make sure I knew where I was supposed to be going, I came back at 8am on Sunday morning with some friends to check out the event. This widebody HKS Supra stood out as one of the most complete cars there, but alongside a Varis Evo and some very clean stance cars that I wasn’t able to get great shots of, it was certainly in good company.
Graciously, local Previa enthusiast @eggstyle.us brought out his spaceship and co-pilot for the mission.
For their first meet, the guys at Rank.d brought out a great crowd, and managed to pull it off again a few weeks later…
There’s something about The Source in OC, where Rank’d hosted their first public meet, that just brings grey, cloudy mornings. Every time I’ve made the trip down to Buena Park for parking lot shenanigans, it’s made for an unbelievably moody background.
Not that I was complaining. Grey and moody were on brand for @dons.95 wingless-Evo parked next to the Evasive booth, one of my favorite spots of the day. RegaMasters and Varis goodies complimented the car effortlessly— every once and a while I’ll get completely caught up in the details on a build out of genuine appreciation, and I don’t end up actually taking any photos of the whole car to give a sense of how it all works together. I’d suggest heading over to his or the the Rank’d Instagram if you’re looking for more!
That’s not to say, however, that everything was quite so dark. This Honda Beat on appropriately tiny Volks owned by @efcrxdelslow89 was another star of the show. Boasting HKS branding and an unknown to me lip kit, this Beat rejects the prerogative of many stateside owners to leave the cars stock. Bonus points to anybody who can tell me what the Japanese on the snail sticker says.
Rounding out the meet, I was finally reunited with @abstractgannon W212 E400. I’ve been a fan of this car for a long time, but I’ve only been able to see it out a few times in the past year. Either way, it was great to finally track down the owner (who has a great video of the pose I needed to get into to take the second photo in this gallery) and get some fresh shots.
Rank’d wasn’t my only meet at the Source over the past two months. Hosted by @brekkiecarclub, the five story parking lot provided more opportunities in September to run into some good friends and their low cars.
Another grey morning (I really wasn’t joking about that) made for one of my favorite photos I’ve taken this year. Posted up just behind @robthisbaus fabulous Q45, @kidcid_ LS430 sat hard on a deep reverse lip set of Work VS-KFs and Supreme box logo inspired calipers.
Not to be outdone by the Works I finally got installed on my wagon (shoutout to VJC Tires!), this trio of BBS-clad E63s wagons took their space at the back of the lot.
Lexus sedans on Work wheels was the theme of the day. @UCF31_ docked his boat, which I last shot at the Karuma event featured previously on the blog, opposite some solid two wheel representation.
On the other side of the lot, @whxsalan IS was aired out on a new wheel setup, with the bolts on his Meister S1’s matching a new set of gold calipers.
Rounding out the stance car section of this post, @_aintlow_ hosted one of the most fun, unexpected nights of the Summer. I don’t usually go to meets where I have no idea who’s going to be there— truthfully, I stay away from a lot of car stuff in LA. Usually it comes down to not feeling the crowd or trying to keep distance from something that I know is going to have V6 Mustangs flying by. You know the type. This is not to say that I was expecting that from an Orange County stance meet, but outside of @UCFKevo unreal LS400, I knew exactly nobody else and had no idea what to expect.
Pulling in under pink skies and watching the sunset reflect off of a set of Garson Ryugis, I felt better about my choice to make the drive down.
VIP is always going to have my heart, but in the more broad stance community, I always like seeing non-traditional chassis get some love, like the Camry pictured below.
You’ll notice that the hood is open. This was not because of some extreme, shaved, triple chrome clad bay, or a Beams 3SGE hiding in a commuter car chassis. Rather, we were about half way through swapping an AutoZone radiator in the parking lot with the hand tools I keep in the trunk.
Meeting so many people so obsessed with just getting lower was a great way to end a doubleheader Saturday, which started at Ancillary in Costa Mesa, a studio home to many a Koenigsegg or Hermès campaign.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Millenium Jade R34 GT-R V Spec ii Nur’s were pretty common. Of the 156 ever built, two were here at Ancillary, with another of the 718 total produced sat behind the line of green GT-Rs (including a RHD R35). I’ve also previously featured one on my website already.
I’m still not sure how it feels to see an R34 in the United States. For so long these cars have been unobtainium, and now I can walk into a parking lot across from a Nordstrom and see two of the most valuable examples outside of the meet. It’s almost like watching too many reviews of a new phone before you finally order one. By the time its on your desk ready to open, there’s no excitement left. You know how it feels in your pocket before its out of the plastic.
Cars and Coffee Classics in Anaheim almost feels like required reading with how much coverage I’ve seen of the event. It was both bigger and smaller than I expected— I was there for a weekend highlighting the first generation of the Z platform.
There was a lot more variety than I expected from the crowd, like an E63 on Zenki Gallardo wheels owned by @XB_Josh, and this mini truck painted in a shade of red over a color matched interior I couldn’t look away from.
Sound off, King!
Even though I met the team behind so many local track legends hailing from their shop two years ago now (!!), last weekend was my first time at the @positionadvanceusa garage. Fast E90s filled up most of the workshop space at the nondescript garage in Irvine, a view you can enjoy from their lounge full of precision built racing sim equipment.
Outside in the lot, “purpose built” was the general theme, like this S2000 with a permanently mounted gopro, JBL speaker, and… really not much else. In the place of any type of useful trunk was absolutely nothing, now an empty cavern that screams “going fast around Buttonwillow” without any type of track outline sticker needed.
No that there’s anything wrong with a good sticker tune. @Domcouver E90 M3 reps the SoCal trio of generally hauling ass, including the good people at Battlecraft, Narita Dogfight, and of course, PA. Go check out his instagram for new shots of the aero that just got installed at the shop!
The day, and subsequently, this edition of Test Fit, ended with the crew mobbing around together through the SGV. With a Vertex Edition Aristo newly added to @Dios_garage collection, it only felt appropriate to get together for an impromptu photoshoot to end the month.
It’s clearly been a jam packed eight weeks, with some events even cut from this article for length. It may be tougher to do that with so much to look forward to in October, and no doubt plenty of good times on the backroads in the days inbetween. That said, thank you so much for reading, and as always, keep doing cool shit in cars. I’ll see you all back out there soon! ///RC
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