HIN San Pedro

• October 1, 2015
• Story By
  Justin Pagtalunan

I wasn't planning on doing double duty at two car shows this day, but once JCCS was done I felt like a kid whose parents were taking him home too soon from an awesome birthday party with all my friends. I didn't want to go home yet, I wanted to see more cars! A friend of mine said he was going to Hot Import Nights (HIN) San Pedro, which was just a few miles away from where I was in Long Beach. After a few minutes of back and forth, we decided to go thinking, "What's the worst that could happen?" We arrived in San Pedro and I thought to myself, "Toto, we're not at JCCS anymore..." The sudden change of classics to cambergangs was like culture shock. But just like a nicotine patch helps a transition, my withdrawals subsided as I spotted this clean old school VW bug, my favorite of the whole event. The rest of the show was nothing like JCCS and that's not necessarily a bad thing, just different. Take the amount of aero mods for example. Instead of restoration projects, crews like Legacy displayed high-end imports customized with either wide body kits, fender flares or lip kits like this black beauty Toyota Supra on TE37s wrapped in Nitto Tires. You most likely won’t find classic racing liveries at HIN, instead there are sexy models printed on the hood. Don't pull a Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Vacation, keep you're eyes on the road if you see this Lexus rolling down the street next to you. The presence of the dark side was strong in San Pedro… Funny story, after we parked we were waiting to see if this guy sitting in his running car was going to leave so that our friends could park in that spot. Eventually the dude got out and we realized he wasn't leaving, as we started to walk away, my friend asked me if I thought he looked familiar, like a Formula Drift driver or someone. I did say, "He kind of reminds me Chris Forsberg." Sure enough at the Valvoline booth there he was! The same guy, giving out autographs, because he is Chris Forsberg. HIN is an interesting venue to say the least, definitely a different crowd than most events and especially a big contrast to JCCS.

See the gallery below for more from HIN San Pedro: