K1 Speed Ontario Meet

True enough organized big to-do car shows are a great place to get your fill of all things automotive, but they have their shortcomings.  Each one only happens once a year, they're crowded like hell, and they cost you money. Meets on the other hand, happen all the time in just about every city of SoCal you can think of. Sunday I headed to K1 Speed in Ontario, CA with a buddy for the meet being held there, organized by K.R.O.P.S.


A month ago I started going to meets regularly and I have to say, they're kind of awesome. People just get together locally in a parking lot to chill and check out each other's cars. There's no overwhelming crowds, no wasting gas to make it out, and no spending money to get in. Some of the best things in life are FREE :D


I'll start things off with the metaphorical elephant in the room, in this case, the orange GT-R in the lot. I used to go nuts over seeing one in the wild, but I was more surprised about the color than freaked out over it being there.


My initial reaction to this color is usually a big fat "YUCK" followed by a fight with my gag reflex, but on the R35, it kind of works. Makes me want some mac and cheese.


Not far from the R35 I saw the nose end of this Hyundai Genesis, but I had no idea what I was looking at until I got closer. This is very unique, sort of like a fusion between the sculpting from a GT-R front end and the One-77. Bet you won't find another one like it. Very cool to me.


The Genesis didn't have the only modification out of the ordinary. Check out the exhaust tips on the back of this Cressida, they were about three feet long. Unfortunately there was no good angle to work from because of where the car was parked, but it's not hard to miss even in this picture.  Wow.


A few Evo X's made it out, but this one was my favorite (probably because it's blue, my fave color). I'm under the impression there's a serious love/hate thing with the last Evo, but this car is pretty mean if you give it the aftermarket treatment. Somebody's track ready!


To the right of the Evo, an M3 E36. I don't like Bimmers much as a brand, but I do like the M3, especially the older ones. It may be temperamental at times, but the M3 makes a great car, I've even seen one of these get sideways at Adams Motorsports Park on a drift night.


Don't get me wrong though, I dig Euros (after all, Aston Martin is my favorite automaker). Older ones make great dailies if you take care of them and are easy to customize. This MK1 Golf is a rather fine example.


The newer stuff's not half bad either. Although I don't see too many Audi's with JDM mods, they pull it off quite handsomely. I admired the simplicity of this A3 wagon, the Illest sticker was a nice touch for contrast over the front left wheel.


Fiat 500's are pretty stylin' already in my opinion, not much needs to be done to this feisty Italian compact car. The orange striping around on this one made for a clean look with a little flare.


The aftermarket exhaust, wheels, and few stickers didn't hurt either.


The more stickers, the better! Rumor has it, each one adds ten extra horsepower lol.


If that's the case, how many more would you bet the Civic has vs. the 300ZX?


I've got a soft spot for Infiniti G's, they're just sweet.  You'll notice this 35 is actually sitting on wheels from a 350z up front with the original G wheels in back. Whether you do a lot or a little, they seem to always look good.


One of my friends has a G37S, and even though it's completely stock right now, it still looks quite sexy.  Can't wait to see what he's got planned for this car, I know it'll be awesome. More on that later.


Miatas are respected as track cars, but not so much as daily drivers, which I think is unfortunate.  Looking at this one, I see no reason to hate on them.  To describe it in a single word: daaaaaaaamn.


First time I saw a Datsun 510 was last month at Slammed Society and I loved it instantly.  Lucky for me, this one  came out to K1.  I had actually seen it once before at the Inland Empire meet a few weeks back, but the photos were terrible due to the suckish nature of my camera at night.  I also didn't get a picture of the KA under the hood!


The 510 is undeniably cool, but it wasn't the only old Datsun there sunday that impressed me. Just as my camera was about die, this 1600 rolled up.  I managed to grab two more photos before it quit on me, and I'm glad I did.


From the back it sort of looked like an old British roadster, but around front, the appearance of the headlights and grill hint that it's Japanese (akin to the design of the same features on the old Z). I find it beautiful, and it really encourages me to do a little more research on imports from this era.

The final thing worth mentioning are these adorable R/C drift cars (I called them adorable, I'm such a girl haha). I was probably having a little too much fun watching them zip around the lot, but my inner child was absolutely taken with them. They're pretty detailed, and they slide around just like real drift cars!  I have to get one.

I know I've only just begun to really get on the scene in terms of meets, but I can say without a doubt that K1 has been the best so far. It's the epitome of what a meet should be in my book, and hopefully more meets will be like it in the future.

-Etoria ❤