Wekfest Chicago 2018: Part 1

Well I’m finally back from Chicago! I had a bunch of pictures to go through – and the first batch that I wanted to go through was the Wekfest ones. I wanted to try and edit them as quick as I could before they turn into old news. The main reason we were in Chicago was to celebrate Diana’s sister’s graduation from Optometry School (yeah, we got a doctor in the family now!), the second reason was because her boyfriend was going to propose to her and we wanted to be there to witness it. The third reason – completely unbeknownst to me was that Wekfest was happening at the Navy Pier a day before we had to fly back home! So I put some time aside to go and visit it quick and meet some friends along the way.

This would be one of my first car shows that I’ve been to in quite a long time… Others have been small little meets and things that didn’t really bring the show cars out. This would also be my first Wekfest I’ve attended ever – there’s a lot of these across the States and I am just never in the right place or time until now. My expectations of Wekfest over the years have been artificially blown up to amazing things because the only real comparison I have to it is our own local shows. Over the years, you get to know the cars that will come out and you already know what to expect. For this particular show, I had no idea what I was going to see – I don’t know what the scene is like in Chicago and surrounding areas, I have no idea who the people are – nada. This makes it particularly exciting because it’s given me exposure to different styles and tastes that I wouldn’t see back home. Sure, there’s social media but seeing this scene in person is totally different – it’s inspiring and exciting.

I tried my best to photograph everything that I could for the blog and just to look back on. I will say that the quality of cars is a lot better than back home and that might be due to weather. A lot of our cars are driven all year round so they get the beating of the snow and rocks, while these cars don’t get the same abuse. To be honest, I’m not sure how ANY of these cars get around Chicago… In Calgary, if we see a pothole we think our roads are complete shit. In Chicago, it looks like Thor hammered down on every single road and nobody gives a shit. So kudos to everyone who drives the Chicago roads – I absolutely hated it lol. I know a lot of the readers of my blog are local and are probably in the same boat as me where they’ve never been to a car show outside of what we hold near and dear to us at home (Driven, Sunday School, etc). Hopefully my outsider perspective helps you create a comparison to our own scene here. With Driven coming up in a matter of days, it’s going to be interesting to see what comes out this year.

Anyway – lots of pics to go through and I’m only done about half so I’ll post what I have so far. Enjoy!

Started the show over at the NV US area and it begins with a yellow 8th gen Civic SI slammed down. Fairly modest but clean overall.

Another Civic Si also slammed down on tight fitting VS-XX’s with modest aero.

Super clean VIP-inspired Accord.

Awesome fitment in the rear.

Inside the interior has been reupholstered to a red diamond stitched leather. This is one of the things you don’t see often back home. This is a lot of work and money on it’s own and people sometimes don’t see the value or point in spending it on the interior of a fairly new car. An example of details that get overlooked…

An 8th gen SI sedan also slammed down with Mugen RR inspired aero. Notice the retrofitted headlights from Acura.

This is my all time favourite retrofit and I’ve been thinking of ways to make this work on the FRS, but it just won’t look good no matter how much I wish it would…

S2000 aired down on Work Kiwami’s and ASM bumper. Notice the trunk set up is a bit different as well.

The trunk was set up to lift vertically…

To display a spiderman-themed air tank se tup. Super clean. With illumaesthetic tails too.

Another S2000 in the NVUS line up on Work Meisters.

I loved this Miata – clean widebody aero, a nicely coloured wrap and an aggressive wing out back.

Dish for days on this Miata.

Clean STI

A full black WRX.

This one caught my eye as I entered the Pier – a green J’s racing themed Civic with JDM front end conversion. It just needs a J’s wing…

Veloster on Work TR7’s

A pretty clean Civic EK Hatch with carbon fenders and hood.

Chameleon wrapped RHD Civic

A battered and bruised Datsun 240 – still show worthy and still awesome as hell.

Love the bronze lip on the Work’s

Raw out back as well. Check that plate frame lol.

Inside matches the exterior nicely.

An extremely aggressive S2000 with a Spoon bumper on SUPER wide Forge Line wheels.

Closer look at the front fitment.

And the rear… Jesus.

A clean STI hawkeye with Top Secret TE’s and Voltex aero.

Voltex S2000 with cherry blossom livery.

Red S2000 also kitted with Voltex aero on bronze CE28’s

The cherry blossom S2000 had solid titanium burnt wing stands for the Voltex wing.

Genesis aired down.

I really liked the styling going on here – clean and simple. I could do without the yellow film and roof rack but everything else was executed nicely.

More super tight fitment.

The rears wrecked the paint a bit but still clean.

GTI aired down on BBS’s

An RSX also on air on WCI wheels.

An STI sedan on SSR’s in spectrum silver I believe and a fully built engine.

A closer look at the engine.

Out back. The rear has some aggressive fitment under the fender flares. You’ll notice a trend by now that almost every car is on air. It’s insane.

Rocket Bunny V2 FRS

With full dry carbon engine bay.

WRX on air…

This must have been the only car NOT on air lol. A BRZ with a Nur Spec wing out back and a fairly odd choice for wheels, but it looked good regardless.

Dumped S5.

A dumped M3 with VS-KF’s.

Another dumped M3 on Meisters.

An FRS RS 1.0 also on air dumped on VS-KF’s with mad lip. I like that this is still stock body and he’s fit pretty aggressive wheels under it. Nice and clean too.

This G37 was pretty crowded over every time I went to go and take a pic of it. It was wrapped in a chameleon/iridescent finish and had a lot of the same colour/styling cues all around.

The engine bay was stocked with a bunch of titanium parts including a bunch of Top Secret and ARC items.

Up close of the Top Secret titanium badge.

The SSR’s lip were also in finish I’ve never seen before. Looks like a spectrum silver finish on the lip? It was so subtle that you had to look closely and catch the light right to see it. I dig.

A bagged R with fender flares. All black stealth mode.

This Forrester was absolutely sick. Super clean all the way around. Nice and low on Meisters with Brembo BBK behind and holographic decals. A nice slate blue theme throughout. It’s rare to see one of these in such good condition and done up so nicely.

Fitment out back. So good.

Evo kitted with Voltex aero and V-mount wing.

Pretty clean Celica.

This Genesis was pretty simple but my God, I have never seen wheels that shiny and MINT in my life.

Just look at these god damn suckers. That high polish is insane – I had to take a few minutes to take a close look at them. Either he just got them refinished or he has some secret that nobody else knows on how to clean chrome wheels – kudos to you, my dude.

LOOK AT THAT. There was not a single scratch or hair mark on these wheels. I totally respect the condition that these are kept.

Another RB BRZ.

A very clean and mint 240z. I love red

Modest S2000 from Vaded Mob

Clean S4 with a slate wrap and an interesting choice of colour for the wheels. Works surprisingly well!

One of few vans at the show. This Odyssey had sick fitment and I don’t know if he’s actually on air or not cause I couldn’t find the tank… But if he’s riding static – that is too gangster.

Up close of the rear fitment on the Odyssey

Interesting Mini Cooper here with anime livery along the side on blue Rotiforms.

The rear had a pretty wild wing set up. A little too much for me but whatever floats your boat.

A bagged all-road on Rotiforms. I always loved the look of these – they belong on the ground 🙂

Black S14.5 on Works

Integra on CCW’s with a very clean K20 swap under the hood

A closer look.

An orange Ruckus all decked out.

Saw this cool Radio Flyer all modified to be slammed and shit with a boy who looked like he didn’t want to be there but was forced to be there for the scene points LOL

A little different – RHD and front crash bar but still cool nonetheless.

This Mugen CRX on MF10’s looked great. A different variation on the MF10’s that I’ve not seen before. People don’t usually deviate from the classic Mugen Bronze.

Nice clean K20 bay to go with it.

This old school Mugen CRX was awesome. Had a bunch of little Mugen goodies on it as well. Reminded me a a build that’s local here that looks a little something like this.

Super mint Mugen MR5’s with center caps and all.

Interior with some nice refreshed Recaros

I really loved this VIP build. Everything was executed so perfectly – from wheel choice to stance. I wish we had more clean and detailed VIP builds around here. They’re kind of boring to drive, but they just look so bad ass.

Up close of the wheel fitment.

NSX in red and fixed headlights in white.

Up close of the headlights.

Over at the Rays/Mackin booth an Advan RG-D2

Project Mu Brake set up on display

A wild Silvia build from TF-Works with a splitter that could take off your ankle if you walked by it the wrong way.

On bronze ZE40’s – always a good choice.

Closer look at the splitter set up.

Right beside it was a RB 240SX also from TF-Works in the same colour scheme as the Silvia and also on Bronze ZE40’s.

This was LS-powered. Monster.

A very clean NSX with Mugen MF-10’s. This was pristine and just looked right at home with all the brand new cars today. This just proves that proper styling can go a long way.

Close up of the MF10’s

I think this is my first time seeing a Nissan Y32 in person. AKA Nissan Cedric. This was not set up in your usual aggressive VIP stance outfit. This was much more modest but still extremely clean.

In the back, he had of course the VIP tables with sake bottles and chip sticks. He also had the oldschool lace-type drapery over the seats and armrests. This really goes back to the super old school Yakuza styling and VIP theme.

Up front – another VIP table and everything else is very simple. You can almost imagine a big Japanese mob boss riding around in this today.

A nice 240 outfitted in silver and RG’s in a chrome finish.

Altezza/IS300 on Rotiforms

Simple white R32 on Weds

I really liked this Altezza/IS300. From the colour to the very clean body work and flares – this was executed perfectly. So good.

This matte white S2000 must have had the craziest stance of the whole show. If you’ve paid attention, you’ve probably noticed that most of the cars are stanced very aggressively and are sitting really low – most of the time on air. I’m not sure if this guy is on air or not but his wheels were just wide and cambered the hell out. Takes a lot of balls to drive like this.

That rear fitment of the Weds Kranze. He likely already flipped his tires based on the outer tread you see here.

Ah man – this was a super clean Integra – probably the cleanest of the show. Midnight purple with yellow accents all around. This was immaculate.

Everything from the brakes to the lugs to the wheels – colour coordinated properly. Just so clean!

On the inside – he had a pair of purple Recaros with yellow “Recaro” stitching as well. I’m not sure if these are the Franker Air Pump Recaros but they look pretty damn close. Such a great combo.