Photos by Scott Nishi & TJ Young-Osborne | Function Visual Media

Hawaii’s sport compact aftermarket has always held a close connection with Japanese style. Due to their proximity to the Land of the Rising Sun, many trends have found their way to the islands before making their way across the world. When the Wekfest car show makes their annual stop in the Aloha State, the island’s nicest builds assemble in Honolulu to show the world how they modify cars in paradise; this year Front Street Media was there to record the spectacle.

Over 300 pre-screened European, Japanese, and domestic aftermarket builds occupied the Neal Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. Registered show cars and vendors arrived hours before the doors opened for parking instruction and a final cleaning.

Freshly cleaned, yet ready for drift action, this 240SX wears a two-tone paint scheme with beige paint on an URAS Aggressive style kit; it’s adorned with glittering black paint on the hood and roof.

Koguchi Power widened rear over-fenders house the wide VIP Work Wheels, giving a wider stance and better grip when this car is out sliding sideways around corners at the track.

This Wekfest event was abundant with clean classic cars like this MX72 Cressida wagon; the show area combined numerous styles and genres of car modification under one roof.

This Toyota Corona is a tribute to traditional Japanese racecars. It carries a multi-tonal livery throughout the body, contains vintage Work wheels with white-lettered tires mounted to the hubs, and an externally mounted oil cooler.

It oozes even more Japanese style with the subway/train handles ­– called Tsurikawa – hanging throughout the interior. These handles were adopted by the Bosozoku style, which originated in Japan and describes cars with extravagant body panels, outlandish exhaust setups, and generally overzealous behavior.

The addition of a full Chargespeed lip kit elongates this deep purple Subaru STI’s body, while an air suspension setup hovers the body directly over a concave set of polished Work Emotion Kiwami wheels.

Lively red paint on this JZA80-chassis Supra highlights the extra curves of its figure courtesy of the Shine Ridox replica kit. Conversely, it’s the dark Volk Racing TE37SL wheels that match the carbon fiber on the exterior of the 90s tuner legend.

Its open hood displayed the 3.0-liter 2JZ-GTE engine, which has been converted to a large single turbocharger setup over the factory twin-turbo forced induction.

AirREX brought this burgundy Z33-chassis 350Z clad in the new Rocket Bunny widebody kit and equipped with their air suspension to lower the bumpers to the ground.

Another of the 25-plus AirREX-equipped cars present at the show included this vibrant red R35 GT-R with wide gold wheels and a neatly executed Liberty Walk widebody kit.

Stepped-lip three-piece VIP Modular VX610 wheels and air suspension create the inch-perfect fitment of this factory-bodied Subaru BRZ. It’s also been outfitted with a subtle accent lip kit.

This Toyota Starlet continued the classic Japanese compact turnout at the occasion. With fresh Dunlop TE wheels mounted to the hubs, this properly clean hatchback showed that age is just a number at Wekfest.

Notice the vintage Honda Mini Trail motorcycle confined behind the driver’s seat.

Among the older Toyota cars at this Hawaii stop was this beautifully restored AE86 Corolla with a Levin front end conversion. Coated in a traditional two-tone paint scheme, the blue hue covered majority of the body panels, while a lighter grey tone kept the 80s styling alive on the bottom of the bumpers. A new set of grey Volk TE37V wheels matched the secondary color choice of the lightweight coupe.

Sporting a modest brown paint scheme, this uncommon Corolla FX16 GT-S looked period-correct on a set of Enkei’s revamped classic Apache II wheels.

Midori Green – the factory hue on this Honda Civic – was only produced in limited quantities in 1996 after nearly all of the production vehicles were left on dealership lots – the color didn’t return for 1997. In the time since, the green Civics have gained notoriety as a desired original color for the hatchbacks. This particular Midori machine displayed purpose-built modifications to outfit it for the track, including an RCrew front splitter, PCI side skirts, carbon fiber canards, and wide Volk Racing TE37SL wheels.

Dressed in glossy white paint and varying aero components including Circuit Garage over-fenders and a Voltex front bumper, this S2000 exhibited an aggressive fitment thanks to its SSR MS3 wheels wrapped in Toyo rubber.

Although the Jaguar F-Type convertible is not a common entry into the Wekfest foray, this particular example with BBS RS-II wheels and AirREX air suspension caused quite the stir amongst the attendees and show-goers.

With a body covered in a muted grey tone, altered with a full Liberty Walk widebody kit, and rolling on contrasting black BBS Motorsport GT3 wheels, this 997.2 Porsche 911 Turbo was a star of the show in the JSpirit booth.

Drag race cars normally find their home on straight-line racetracks a quarter-mile in length, but when they’re as meticulously modified as this all-motor H22 engine-swapped Civic, they can also hold their own in a car show environment.

When carbon fiber and black paint combine, it creates a distinctly ominous finish illustrated by this JZA80 Supra from Section D; it’s been spiced up with a GReddy front lip, Bomex wing and flat black SSR Professor SP1 wheels.

Also from Section D, this Levin front end-converted AE86 Corolla’s dark interior matched its black exterior with the addition of Bride racing seats and a roll cage.

The Nissan 240SX has had its share of exterior modifications in recent years, but the most extensive is the Spirit Rei Odyvia widebody kit. This kit combines custom bumpers and widened fenders with the headlights from a Honda Odyssey Absolute minivan. This particular version used the widened body to house fully-polished three-piece CCW LM20 wheels.

The interior hosted numerous Sparco racing accessories including racing seats, harnesses, and steering wheel.

Showcasing a combination of aero pieces from Shine Auto and Downforce, this NA1 NSX stood out with its three-piece SSR Professor SP1 wheels.

Concluding our Wekfest Hawaii coverage for 2016 is this custom gold Lexus SC430 equipped with air suspension to slam the ride height down over its Super Star Leon Hardiritt Bügel wheels.

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