When people in Los Angeles are willing and able to show up to a car meet well beyond its call time, causing mass pandemonium and traffic jams as a result, there’s something to be said for the meet’s appeal to automotive enthusiasts. But this shouldn’t be surprising—after all, this is Los Angeles, and we are dealing with Super Street here. What originally started off as a precursor to the Formula Drift season opener has transformed somewhat over the past few years, and now it’s nowhere near being what the name implies: Tech Day, which was FD’s tech inspection made public with a car meet at Super Street’s Orange County-based office. It’s simply a good time to check out some really great cars; that is, if you’re willing to wake up at the break of dawn and sit through the aforementioned gridlock. It’s a cars and coffee of a different vibe, if you will, plus it has a slightly new name to go by: The Super Street Cruise-In & Tech Day Meet presented by Turn 14 Distribution.
The event, now held at the world famous Petersen Museum located in the heart of midtown Los Angeles – a stone’s throw away from Hollywood, Santa Monica and downtown – is the perfect venue for a car gathering like this, and actually plays host to several cars and coffee-type meets frequently throughout the year. Simply attending or showing your car at the meet gives you prime access to the museum, which has seen an amazing remodel recently (its doors originally opened back in 1994), and it’s the perfect opportunity to look at true works of art pulled from the Petersen vault or shared from private collections for a nominal fee. Fun fact: Super Street’s original office was at the Petersen Publishing building about a half mile west of the museum’s location.
With four levels of parking, the Petersen Museum should be able to accommodate a decent sized crowd of cars. But when SS makes a shout to its millions of followers, well, you need to be prepared. A big street closure right outside the museum didn’t help any, cutting off local access and backing traffic up through side streets that are usually clear. This made early arrivals challenging, and the garage was closed off shortly after 8am because it’d already reached max capacity! Luckily, I was able to sneak in and up to the action, something I was afraid wouldn’t be happening after being stuck in my EF Civic for almost an hour.
The main (third) level was well under full swing by the time I parked, with an eclectic mix of newer and older Japanese vehicles, the Rocket Bunny/Liberty Walk tribe, one of the movie cars from “2 Fast 2 Furious,” a handful of modified exhausts and a surprisingly large number of JDM Skylines of nearly every generation spread throughout the surface.
Some of the early arrivals were placed on the top level that actually serves as a nice view to look down upon the meet itself, and if you didn’t make the effort to head up there, you missed out on some more streetable builds of the Honda variety. A couple of clean S2Ks, a small group of DA Integras with that unmistakable old school SoCal flavor (Gales, Racing Hart Type Cs and Mugen CF-48s) and Luis Jaimes’ Mugen-equipped EG hatchback were big standouts for me.
Our good friends at Titan 7 finally made their soft debut and we’re happy to say it was worth the wait. Made using high-end forging technology, Titan 7 offers great looking, track and show-ready wheels at a more affordable price point than some of its competitors—that means you don’t have to sacrifice quality—or spend a lot of coin—to have a forged wheel that can handle the rigors of racing. See more info on Titan 7 by visiting www.titan-7.com.
GoTuning, better known in some cases as Spoon Sports USA, brought out this funky S2000 to the party, also sporting the new Titan 7 T-RI0 wheels. What’s up with that roof? That’s unlike the typical Spoon hard top you’re accustomed to and is actually known as the Open Air Concept. Developed by Spoon’s Mooncraft Racing team, the two-piece aluminum structure does more than make people say “WTF?” and change the S2000’s look completely; it’s meant to improve aerodynamics and provide an open road feeling without having to remove a hardtop or put a soft-top down. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it certainly is an interesting modification.
Did we mention Skylines? You bet your ass we did, and no Japanese car meet—correction, no Super Street Cruise-In & Tech Day presented by Turn 14 Distribution (wink, wink; nudge, nudge)—would be complete without not one, not two, but as many generations as possible that could find a way inside. Modern day R35s, a sprinkling of 32s, 33s and the coveted 34 were there, as were their older brethren, our favorites being the Hakosuka and C110 generations. Older Zs were also there in decent numbers, representing the Datsun side of the Nissan family.
Can’t forget our hosts—the infamous Super Street crew. My alma mater did me proud pissing off the neighbors, causing LAPD to send a ghetto bird by and allowing people to park on Fairfax once the lot was full (good thing it’s closed for construction at Wilshire) and keeping their booth jammed all morning. It could’ve been for Allen Legue’s pristine AE86 or the merch and Tuner Crate on sale, but hats off to Sam Du, Jofel Tolosa and everyone else for a crazy Sunday.
See more outtakes from the Super Street Cruise-In & Tech Day presented by Turn 14 Distribution in the gallery below!
Gallery