Import Alliance Spring 2014 Coverage

 

Photos by: Cory Mader & Joseph Dale

There were a few changes to Import Alliance spring this year.  The location stayed the same, but it was moved inside of the actual speedway instead of the outer parking lot.  I think it was a great decision.  It gave the staff more control of the traffic, and they were able to actually control who was in and who was outside of the venue.  Last year they had a problem with traffic flow on the main road and they were forced to let everyone in and park.  So they had to try and collect admission from everyone after they had already got inside.

 

This year the organization seemed to be much better also.  The team is slowly perfecting the art of crowd control and keeping things flowing.  There was a significant amount of people helping and parking cars this year.  I could tell that the staff had control of the traffic in and out the speedway.

Most of the parking was sectioned off which was nice, because it made the area seem smaller than it really was.  Instead of just having cars all over the place. The area pictured above was the vendor area, and was the main attraction.  Some of the nicer cars spilled onto this area from the vendors section.

Tony’s LS430 from Infamous Society

The forecast for that weekend called for some rain all weekend.  We experienced a few hard down pours every now and then but there was plenty of shelter to hide under for the few minutes it rained.

Cj’s Miata on a fresh set of CCW Classic 5

Michael Moore’s TSX on BBS RS

Justin Blacks 3 series coupe

The weather Saturday made for some interesting photos with the dark clouds.  Sunday turned out to be a perfect day, it was low 70s and there was not a single cloud in the sky..  So you may notice the obvious change in lighting in the photos in this post.

Super clean BMW 2002 that was fully restored, but I was only able to get this photo of it, because there was a constant mob around it.

Year after year people confuse Import Alliance for something that it is not.  It is not a car show, it is not a track event, it is and it will always be a giant meeting of enthusiast.  It is not reserved for cars that are heavily modified.  It is just an event made for people to come out and show off their cars for a few days, and see other cars.  There are no standards with this event, which may turn some people away.  But we need events like this to welcome the new breed in and to show off everything there is to offer within our scene.  

Alex Perrucci’s and Jason Naoto’s bringing out a rare site to IA

To us in Atlanta this event is like preseason practice.  In the months leading up to IA spring, people awake from their winter slumber, and start to prepare their cars to look a certain way by the IA deadline.  We really do not have many big events that cater to the Import community in  Atlanta, so this is the one that we get to come out and see what everyone has been up to all winter. 

The confusion comes from people expecting a car show like quality from every single car that is allowed in.  The event is open to the public so you may get a stock car parked next to a car like this BMW 335 coupe.  So it may throw off your senses for a bit.  I always tell people to embrace IA for what it is.

They had a Auto X competition going on Sunday.  The gentlemen in the MRS blew away the competition and ended up winning it all.  We could all tell that he was very familiar with the car and had been doing this for awhile.  The event was open to everyone so there were a few people that crawled through the event.  Either way it was good to have something like that open to everyone to get their feet wet into the sport of Auto X.

Really nice Integra coupe parked next to the Import Alliance booth

We always hear people complain about the amount of Hondas that show up at the event.  Truth be told, that the event started as an all Honda event many moons ago.  So in reality anything other than a Honda is actually invading their event…haha. But in all honesty if you have not gotten over the fact that Hondas dominate the import community by numbers you may not want to attend any other event.

Overall I will say the event was better than last year, simply on organization on the part of the staff.  The quality of the cars is strictly based on opinion of what you like.  We enjoy the event because it gets everyone back into the spirit.  The question everyone had for us all weekend was “why not Welcome To Atlanta event?”.   With the event being 2 days, we just had no time to squeeze in something the correct way.  Friday would have been bad for the locals because most of us still had to work that day.  Having something Saturday afternoon or night would have just been a overkill I think.  To leave one parking lot and head to another one would have been asking too much we think.  So we just let everyone concentrate their energy on Import Alliance.

Tanner Norwoods Miata

Te37s on a LS430 is a fresh look..

Gold plated Leone Hardritt’s on this LS430

M3 convertible on Avante Garde F210

Nissan 180SX on BRADA WHEELS BR1

Stepehen Stern’s G35

Justin Butera’s LS400 got a lot of attention at Import Alliance.  The car deserved, it had been under the knife since after our last event which was in August. It under took a complete color change, along with a custom front and rear bumper.  We ave plenty of photos of the car coming up soon.    All the work was done by Superstar Customs.

I know this car is from this region just not sure where or who owns it!  Very well built.

Pat’s M45 sporting a one off custom bumper which was also done by Superstar Customs. Can you guess what bumper that is?

Matt Mummert’s S4 on Work Equips

Like I mentioned earlier the dark clouds made for some crazy lighting, really like how this photo came out.

Russel Antonio’s NSX from Jadecrew

LS swapped Volvo wagon

A group trying to figure out whats wrong with Michael’s rear wheels… haha

Just like last year, I only see this car once a year at Import Alliance spring.  Anyone know the owner tell them to drop us a line!

Justin Rescina’s Rocket Bunny FRS

That sums up our coverage of Import Alliance Spring 2014.  We have plenty of more photos in our Flickr Gallery, if you want to see them check out HERE.  Thanks for looking!

 If you have not seen it already, check out our video

[vimeo height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://vimeo.com/91167527[/vimeo]