SOUTHRNFRESH 4 Coverage: Part 1
Well we survived another year, and thanks to you all we are constantly growing. This was our second year at this venue. The idea with this location was to use the midway area until we knew we would use the whole park. This year we hit that limit and will be forced to expand to the entire park for SOUTHRNFRESH 5 next year. We had a lot more help this time with parking and we were able to pull off the impossible and pack in over 600 cars and 20 vendors in the provided space, while keeping a open fire lane for emergency vehicles. So I have to personally thank everyone that pre-registered, sent their email, brought their paperwork to the gate, and arrived on time. You all made it easy for us to squeeze every bit of space we had out of the midway.
As expected there were a good bit of people who had not followed through with the whole pre-registration process and therefore were clueless on when to arrive. We made sure we stuck to the schedule and by noon we had a parking lot full of pre-registered cars to let in and get parked before 3pm when the general public was to be let in. We anticipated to have a full house early and by 2pm we were getting pretty tight. So around 3pm we started to let everyone in. At that time we also had people that had not followed instructions and had not gotten their emails about arrival times for pre-registration show up. That started to become a problem finding places to park their cars inside because we had a lot of people pay to park inside the day of. Around that time, the Cobb County sheriffs were starting to worry about man power for the event, so they requested more officers to come and help, bringing the total to 5 officers. We eventually got it all settled and everyone parked in as best as possible. When I am attending other events, I try to learn and take ideas on how they do things and see what works for them. Part of the complication is from people arriving way earlier then they are supposed to, but on the other hand we love to see people eager to come out and get inside as early as possible.
At around 4:00, the officers were starting to get concerned about letting any more cars in as the space was getting tight. So we had to stop letting in vehicles completely even if they had pre-registered. We had a few people that had registered show up at this time, and we simply could not let them in because we just did not have the space. So by the time the big crowd came we were only letting in spectators for the most part. The weather was actually good temperature wise. We were expecting rain to come sometime in the day and it held off until about 5 when we got a solid rainfall. Once the rain started to come down, and people realized it was a real rain, the crowd started to thin out. But surprisingly we still had people coming inside as rain was coming down.
This first set of photos are from throughout the day from KHRIS H. I spent most of the day up front at the gate and running around trying to find parking for cars, so a lot of these cars I never really got to check out. This event is aimed to be just a gathering/celebration for us surviving another year. So we allowed anyone to register their car in advance and park inside. We always like to have a lot full of great looking cars, but we did not want to spend time arranging cars for this event. We just wanted to provide everyone with an equal opportunity to be seen. That being said, the quality was really good from what I have seen in the photos.
Jim R. Miller park is setup really nice for events like this. The whole park is gated, and it has a large parking lot right outside the gates. And there are ticket booths that we use to check in everyone. We had a pretty simple process for pre-registration, with a total of over 500 cars. It forced us to shut down pre-registration 2 days early. We actually caught someone trying to reuse their friends confirmation email to get in as a pre-registered car.
Everyone knows this car all too well, but this was important for me to have Phill Sohn be able to drive from Birmingham, Alabama and attend the event. Anyone that knows me knows that I am a Mazda fanboy at heart, and Phil is the OG in the Mazda community. His FD is forever evolving, and he just cant seem to decide on what color he wants to leave it. The FD is currently coated in a few coats of plastidip, that has given it the wild color. We recently featured Phil’s car, check it out here
No matter what event we have I can almost guarantee that Alex and his Protege will be in attendance. I think Alex is always either the first or second person to register for the 2nd time in a row.
Cliff Ridinger’s STI showing off his show low.
Justin Rescina’s Rocket Bunny FRS from ECSTATIC arriving at the event.
Jose Lopez-Curz’s S2000 from ECSTATIC, really love the Voltex front bumper on the car, and the fender flares in the rear. Very well executed.
Joel Lopez’s 350Z from ECSTATIC, I have always wanted to get together with these guys, but time has not been our friend as of late. Hopefully we will be able to get some insight on the crew in the near future.
Kevin Lam’s 370Z from Aristocracy
Justin Thompson’s FRS from Aristocracy arriving.
Big thanks to Atlanta TLs fro coming out and spending the day with us. And most importantly thanks for coming on time.
Charles and his Midnight Purple bagged Civic Si on CCW LM5T. We recently featured his car back in April check it out here
Chris Melde’s 240Z rolled in with KORUWORKS.
Bora’s BMW 2002 was also parked with KORUWORKS
One of my favorite cars in Atlanta is Tyler Clayton’s S13. Tyler Clayton is one of our hometown heroes in the automotive community. One of the guys responsible for Atlanta even having a drifting scene. Tyler Clayton is a piece of the puzzle to KORUWORKS. I am grateful for them to come out and spend the day with us.
Justin Butera’s LS400 in front of the Superstar Customs booth.
The most noticeable changes to Justin’s LS are the new wheels, Justin has swapped out the SSRs for a set of era correct Koenig Monster wheels. You can also see the pinstripe work on the side of the vehicle. We will have more photos of Justin’s car on the other parts of the coverage. We recently featured Justin’s LS, see it here.
This event was the first time Larry Young’s Q45 had been out. The car has been at Superstar Customs for months, being crafted with Larry’s ideas and Superstar Custom’s hands. Larry is president of Infamous Society, and the relationship between Superstar Customs and Infamous Society has helped our scene out tremendously. They have made it their job to break the normal build , and take their cars to the next level. We have plenty of angles of the in later parts of the coverage.
Pat has taken the forgotten Y34 chassis and made it a head turner. Every time i look at the front end I applaud his idea to use a CTS-V front bumper on the M45 to create something unique. The rear is also a custom creation, all put together by Superstar Customs.
Again the owner of this LS name, I can not remember at the time. I just call him dude with the gold Leon Hardiritts on the LS for now. but I do know he made the trip down from Tennessee.
Tony’s LS from Infamous Society. He has a trip to Superstar customs planned in the near future. So we can expect the LS to have a whole new look soon.
Andre is an Infamous Society prospect working his way up into the group. I first met Andre at a local event, back when he owned a Lancer. A while after I first met him he totaled out the Lancer and ended up in the Audi.
Donny’s Q45 sporting the rarely seen STILLEN front lip.
When we host events, we encourage local shops to come out and hang out with us and get to know the individuals that you want as customers. For some reason we rarely get as many shops as we should to come out. You can not expect people just to flock to your shop on hype and word of mouth. People want to see you in person, shake your hand, and talk to you. I personally deal with shops and people that I know, and rarely go outside of my circle of people who I can trust to do the job right. But sometimes we want to give a shot to the new shop and see what they are all about. Atlanta Powerhouse Performance was one one of the first shops to come on board as a sponsor for the event. If you are looking for a tuner or engine builder be sure to check them out. One of their cars is the yellow Type-R pictured above.
Another car in the APP booth was this K swapped EG.
Richard McNair’s Integra on AG wheels parked in the APP booth.
Matt Herring’s G37 on Work Meisters. Matt is another guy that makes it a habit to come to all of our events, and we can count on him to being one of the first to get registered.
Another shop that came out to support was EBTEC. Two of the most known technicians in our scene managed to come together and start their own shop James Emino and Jesse Brantley. They used to both work at Mainstream Performance, but it comes a time for everyone to take a step out on your own and become your own boss. They have built a good name for themselves over the years. From fabricating, to engine building, to tuning, they can handle it all.
Dexter Vines Mugen masterpiece parked with EBTEC. One of the many features we have yet to post up.
One of Bobby Fore’s street weapons parked in the EBTEC booth.
Buckhead Imports came out and brought some of the grown man toys out. One of the cars that they are known for is this supercharged M5. We did some photos of it a few years ago. Check it out here
Buckhead Imports E63 AMG
Buckhead Imports is one of the main distributors of Vossen Wheels in the area. They gave me a really good deal on the set of the VSF2 for my Mazda 6. They pretty much run Vossen wheels on all their vehicles as you can see.
Flawless Energy Drink had their Global Time Attack vehicle on display.
Flawless Energy had a group of BMWs in their area.
Lineup of E36s next to the Flawless Energy booth.
Jenny Casey’s E36
Happy to have a strong presence of Euros at the event. The goal with SF has always been to unite everyone under one roof and grow the community.
E36 convertible on Gottis
I have been getting more and more fond of the E46 M3. It is on my “will own one day ” list.
The W124 coupe is also a favorite of mine, the pillar less window is one of the things that I love about these cars.
Brandon Price’s GTI made the trip down from Tennessee.
Luke Elgin’s 240D aka Elvis
Miss VeeDub’s Beetle, owner of YogaPantsandStance.com.
5 series on Varrstoen wheels
E46 convertible on CCWs
Edlee’s S4 , check out the latest feature we did on the S4 here
Matt Mummerts Audi on Work Equips
Dan’s Porsche 911 on Strasse Forged SM8s
Manny’s spotless 300D. We featured Manny’s car a year ago, see it here
Mason’s BMW on CCW LM5t
Cameron Lees rabbit.
Morgan’s aircooled scraper..
Another shot of Edlees S4
Lamborghini that showed up parked in front of the Atlanta Custom Coaters booth.
That is all for the first portion of our coverage. Majority of this part had a lot of the vendors and euros in it, so if you did not see your car trust me we got it. Once again thanks to everyone for coming out and supporting us and celebrating another year. Be sure to visit the sponsors of the event on the left hand side. Without them and you all these events would never happen. Thanks for looking, and keep on the lookout for part 2.
