Toyota

First off, I do apologize for the delay between Toyotafest coverage articles. As the dean of our business school put it, the third biggest event of my life happened earlier this week and thus concluded my academic career as I know it. Graduation demonstrated that life moves pretty fast and the world of automotive media is no exception (pun intended). However, Toyotafest is always one of my favorite events of the year, so I’m making an exception to deliver the extensive coverage that I got at the event.

If you remember from my first post, by the time I had finished, I had just started making my way onto the grassy section of Toyotafest, home to your AE86s, 4AGs, RA22s, ST185s, SW20s, and 2JZs. This is where the real fun begins.

You’ll hear a lot of words when it comes to describing Toyota and their respective sub-divisions Lexus and Scion. Reliable. Comfortable. Beige. Durable. Fuel-efficient. Quiet. Dull. Beige. Rarely do you hear words like awesome, powerful, exciting, or even fast. However, the people who spout the former are either haters or uninformed. As one of the premier automotive powers in the world, Toyota is the equivalent of one Dr. Bruce Banner. Calm and unassuming until it [Toyota] feels the need for speed, Toyota has demonstrated time and time again that when it wants to, it can and will, make machines that’ll tear your face off. The annual Toyotafest held in Long Beach, organized and held by the Toyota Owner’s and Restorer’s Club (or T.O.R.C.), is a celebration of those machines and then some.

As a longtime fan of the brand, I owe a lot to Toyota from where I am today. It was a Toyota that chauffeured my family and I around for the majority of my childhood and teenage years. It was a blazing orange Toyota that got me into the car scene into the first place. And today, by my hard-earned choice, it is a Toyota that zips me through and around the mean streets of SoCal, one traffic jam at a time. Needless to say, I was pumped for this year’s Toyotafest and wouldn’t attend it like the clueless spanner I was last year (forgetting to charge my camera). Commence the coverage.

Many professional racing drivers and drifters, prior to hitting the bigtime, have had to hold down “normal” Monday through Friday jobs. Typically these 9-to-5 vocations are at least tangentially automotive-related (e.g. mechanic or taxi driver), but not always. Some work in food services, some work in retail, and still others work in education. NASCAR star Carl Edwards used to be a substitute teacher, 1983 Indianapolis 500 winner Tom Sneva is a former school principal, and pro drifter Daigo Saito has worked for a nursery school.

Never heard of Daigo Saito? Not too many Americans have, though it must be said even fewer had prior to this past weekend. You see, Saito – the 2008 D1 Grand Prix and 2011 Formula Drift Asia champion – didn’t just participate in his first American drifting competition in the Formula Drift season opener on the Streets of Long Beach; no, he finished on the podium, finishing ahead of many of the U.S. drift scene’s biggest names. Makes you want to know more about this guy, doesn’t it? Your wish is our command.

Not too long ago, I popped Need for Speed: Underground, one of my very first racing games, into my Gamecube just for kicks. Having considered myself to be a car enthusiast for a number of years now, I was curious to see how far the tuning scene had come. I really wish I had some screenshots to show you just how much my own interpretation of “cool” has changed. My entire stable of Underground cars rocked wild metallic paint jobs, tear/stripe vinyls, neon, and planet-sized chrome wheels.

My lasting impression of Hot Import Nights was that the cars that turned up were all somewhat like my virtual Underground garage – most show, little go. I fully expected to see some Lambo doors on cars that weren’t Lamborghini’s and maybe even hear the distinctive plume of nitrous purging. How things have changed. HIN has matured and grown up in time with our scene and even with the closure of Irwindale Speedway, the show had to go on.