Japanese Classics of VA goes to Winterfest 2015

"MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig" (MR2_FTW)
03/10/2015 at 15:15 • Filed to: events, winterfest, jcva, classic

A while back my friend Mitchell got this idea to start a group for our favorite type of car: old Japanese cars. We've had a few events so far, a parking lot meet as well as a couple cruises through the mountains, but this was the first big "show" we've been to as a coherent unit.

We met up at Sheetz, bright and early at 7:30am. It wasn't a huge showing, but it was a pretty cool collection of cars. At 8:00 we left Richmond to head down towards Langley Speedway in Hampton. Along the way we made a couple brief stops to meet up with more people. By the time we got to Langley, the line to get in was out to the main road and backed up for around a quarter mile. Once we were in though, we found our spot on the infield, set up our tent and super spiffy new banner, and looked all official!

Two 1985 Celica GT hatchbacks held the left flank.

This gorgeous white S12 was right at home with the other white painted 80's metal around it.

A pair of white AE86 imports were probably the biggest draw to our booth. Right hand drive!

Moving down the line we had a sweet AE86 coupe, my 1986 Cressida wagon, and a 86.5 Supra.

Holding up our other end was this wicked Z32. The engine bay is clean enough to eat off of!

After we got settled in we took a walk around the track to have a look at the other cars.

The first thing that caught my eye was this completely original MA70 Supra Turbo complete with targa top. The paint may have been a little worn, but the car was so original it just oozed personality.

Right next to the Supra was this spotless 88 AW11 MR2. I wish mine had a real paint job and looked half as good as this one!

I've always liked S13 convertibles but this one was packing a little surprise punch in the form of a single turbo RB26!

Fun fact: a first generation RX-7 was almost my first car! I have a big soft spot for these. This one was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on "ThatDudeInBlue" and was even rocking one of our JCVA stickers!

This Porsche 928 was the only representative from Stuttgart I saw at this show, and what a clean example this was.

These things were the fastest production car in the world for a while back in the day!

This NA Miata was bringing back some memories. One of my friends had one that looked very similar to this a few years back.

This VW conversion bus....truck.... was rocking it out with it's fold-down sides.

Old school VW's were rocking it!

I have no words. This car was so fantastic I just about had a heart attack.

Even the headlight bezels were checkered!

This Z31 rat rod would look right at home on a rally course track. Beat to hell and still tearing it up.

Stop trying to make Fetch happen. It's not going to happen. I may have laughed way too hard at this.

Sexy widebody NSX is sexy. And wide. And also is an NSX.

And now for something completely different.....

This old Caddy was about a mile long. Can we bring back b-pillar-less cars? Please? And tailfins too while we're at it.

'Murica!

This was the only FC at the show, unfortunately. It was pretty darn clean though!

This A70 Supra brought the total number up to three! It was also rocking a 1JZ-GTE swap.

I was loving this lowered Nissan hardbody pickup

And this cool 22R-powered offroader was representing the other end of the truck spectrum.

This thing grabbed my eye right away. I can't tell you how badly I want to put an engine from one of these into a Cressida.

I'm not sure why the V70 R isn't more popular with the enthusiast crowd, because fast wagons are pretty much the coolest.

This four door Hakosuka was the first one I've ever seen in person.

This is definitely one of my all-time favorite cars. Though personally I'd prefer a two door GTR, this is pretty close!

I was grateful that this car did't have "fake" GTR badges like many imported hakos' seem to have. Unless there's an S20 under the hood, it's not a GTR.